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116 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Buy, But Not Exactly a "Study Bible", October 3, 2002
Comp-biblThis "Comparative Study Bible" is a useful tool, handy, and cost-effective for any bible scholar who doesn't have most of the translations in hand already (King James, Amplified, New American Standard, and New International). Its chief virtue is that the two middle translations are somewhat difficult to find and very expensive to buy: the Amplified Version and the NASB. The Amplified is just that: if more than one word is necessary to get the nuance of meaning(s) of the original text(s) across, this version will indicate so, even at the risk of a "stuttering" effect: For example, the New International Version Chapter 1, Verse 2 reads: "Meaningless, Meaningless! Says the Teacher, Utterly Meaningless! Everything is Meaningless." The Amplified Version has it: "Vapor of vapor and futility of futilities, says the Preacher. Vapor of vapor and futility of futilities. All is vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory)." (note the repetition of the "vapor" phrase; also, this edition contains a cross-reference to Romans) The New American Standard Bible (NASB), on the other hand, does not try to synthesize text with synonyms but with a challenging, "strictly literal" or word-for-word methodology so difficult to read that most bible scholars rate at about grade 11. (At this point I should mention that the "reading levels" of the past were skewed much higher in, say, 1960 than they are today: today's college textbooks are written at level 10, editorials in prestigious newspapers at about 8, and news content about 6. The price we pay for the strict literalness of NASB makes it unsuitable for general pew use (most of the time, anyway), the virtue is that it reveals shades of meaning through its complexity that are not available to the general reader of the New Revised Standard, King James, NIV and so on. For example, the New Revised Standard (NRSV) translates Genesis 1:11 as: "Then God said, 'Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." The NASB has it "Let the earth sprout vegetation; plants bearing seed and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them." A subtle but key difference, no?
In terms of the market value of its translations, our "Comparative Study Bible" has the advantage over its near-twin, the very similar "Today's Parallel Bible," which contains KJV, NIV, NASB, and a paraphrase, Today's living version (TLV). The TLV is a widely-circulated and admired paraphrase and is quite easy and cheap to come by. Instead, our version includes the more expensive Amplified version. Like "Today's Parallel," our "Comparative Bible" here discussed is manufactured in the USA but the physical product is not, I fear, a sterling example of American workmanship. For the book's weight, the spine stitching is too slight. (I recommend the owner carry it around in a backpack or tote of some kind.) More problematic is the fact that the "Comparative Study Bible" doesn't really qualify as a "study Bible," even within the slippery bounds of bible lingo (what constitutes a "concordance," what is "annotated," etc). Cross-references frequently are contained in braces after the relevant verse but don't come in the kind of flowing abundance we'd expect in a center-column bible, for example. Comment and annotated footnotes are rare. There are exceptions (see Amos 3:7) but they are exceptions. This lack of study-worthiness from lack of full cross-references and annotation makes me downrate this otherwise useful and thrifty four-format Bible from a 5 to a 4. But considered not as a "study bible" but just as a cheap and convenient way to acquire new bible versions (especially NASB and Amplified), it's a bargain and highly recommended.
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by Stephen Kendrick
by Trent C. Butler
by James Strong
