ESV Chronological BIBLE Review

This is a review of the ESV Chronological BIBLE from the moderator of the J.C. Ryle Facebook and Twitter page. I was graciously provided a copy from Crossway to do a review. This Bible received a rating of 4.6 on Amazon. 

The idea behind the ESV Chronological Bible is pretty simple. You can read through scripture in historical order. This Bible breaks up the scriptures into 8 different eras:

-Primeval History 

-Patriarchal History

-The Last Judge and the United Monarchy

-The Divided Monarchy

-Exile and Restoration

-The Kingdom Comes

-The Early Church 

At the beginning of each "era" is an introduction. A neat future of this Bible is it also has a "One Year Bible Reading Plan."

As you can see from the example above, chapters from 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles overlap each other, to maintain the proper historical order. This is a very intriguing and frankly refreshing way to read the scriptures. Over at the website Knowable Word, who also did a review on this same Bible which you can read HERE the author did a great job explaining the nuances with this Bible. The author says...

"A single chapter of, say, a gospel could have 5 to 8 scenes in it, each of which is paralleled in different ways in other gospels. It’s difficult to get the truly chronological feel of the larger story when the parallel accounts are not actually parallel. For example, Matthew 8 portrays Jesus:

• healing a leper
• healing a paralytic
• healing Peter’s mother-in-law
• turning down would-be disciples
• calming a storm
• casting demons from men into a herd of pigs

In Mark’s ordering of these events, those events occur in the following chapters:

• chapter 1
• chapter 2
• chapter 1 (even before the leper)
• not present
• chapter 4
• chapter 5

So if you’re only reading full chapters at a time, it is not possible to sync up these events in a useful way."

DETAILS: 

The quality of this Bible, like all ESV Bibles from Crossway is very good. The Bible I received from Crossway, TruTone Brown, is about 6x9 inches. It weighs about 2.5 pounds and is about 1,800 pages. The text size is very good at 9.15 and has single column paragraphs to make things easier to read. 

The Bible is organized into 365 daily sections. 

There are a total of 15 maps and there is a large fold out timeline documenting the entire history of the Bible. Cool feature. 

OVERALL IMPRESSION 

There are plenty of chronological reading plans on various Bible apps. But I've never taken to the time to sit down and read though one and I'm glad I didn't. Why? Well, a Bible app cannot give you the TRUE VALUE of what a chronological reading plan truly entails. Flipping through this Bible, I immediately realized the VALUE of it. Something I could not do on an app. Picture this. You are reading the prophets of the Old Testament. These prophetic books are rearranged in such a way so you can BETTER grasp their prophetic messages (and the context) and the reasons behind their rebukes! This same scenario presents itself in the Epistles and Gospels! 

This Bible is simply a fresh new way to read the scriptures. I think this Bible could be a good tool to incorporate into your Family Devotional schedule and would be beneficial to ANY Christian no matter how long they've been serving the Lord. The only "weakness" of this Bible is it can be a little "jumbled" and repetitive at time, especially reading though all the similar accounts in the Gospel. YET, at the same time, you really get to "fill in all the gaps" by reading the different gospel accounts together. 

You can purchase this Bible here: 

Christianbooks 

Amazon

Crossway 

ESV Men's Study Bible Review

This is a review of the ESV Men's Study Bible from the moderator of the J.C. Ryle Facebook and Twitter page. I was graciously provided a copy from Crossway to do a review. This Bible received a rating of 4.8 on Amazon. 

First things first, the Bible is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The copy I received was genuine leather. Every Bible I've ever touched from Crossway, especially the genuine leather ones, have been made with seemingly good quality and binding and this Bible appears to be such. 

As you can see from the photos, one of the cons of this study Bible is the print is a little too small. From my research it's 8 font and 6 font for the commentary notes. Now, for most people this isn't much of an issue. This is to be expected with almost all Bible commentaries. 

Here are the main highlights of the Bible from my vantage point: 

-There are 15 articles from different authors focusing on the following subjects: 

1.God’s Plan of Salvation

2. The Message of the Bible

3. A Man’s Identity

4. Communion with God

5. The Gospel and Daily Life

6. A Man’s Inner Life

7. Life in the Local Church

8. Calling

9. A Man’s Work

10. Singleness

11. Marriage

12. Fathering

13 Leadership

14. Pornography

15. Doubt

-There are HUNDREDS of devotionals on the "List of Reflections" all throughout the Bible that was very beneficial to the reader. 

-There are 15 different maps in the back of the Bible, which is a really neat feature for people who like to study such. 

These are the maps: The Middle East Today, The World of the Patriarchs, The Exodus from Egypt, The Tribal Allotments of Israel, Israel Under Saul, David, and Solomon, The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, The Persian and Greek Empires, Israel Under the Maccabees, Jerusalem, Palestine Under Roman Rule, The Apostle’s Early Ministry, Paul’s First and Second Missionary Journeys, Paul’s Third Missionary Journey and His Voyage to Rome, The Spread of Christianity in the First Two Centuries

Here's additional info about the Bible you can read from the back cover. 

Overall, I think this is a wonderful Bible for any Christian man and I would even recommend getting this for an unbeliever. The commentary is not as "robust" of the ESV Study Bible, but the notes are adequate. Mixing the commentary notes with the devotional thoughts makes this Bible a very unique hybrid of sorts. 

You can purchase this Bible here: 

Christianbooks 

Amazon

Crossway

Church History Study Bible Review!

This is a review of the Crossway ESV Church History Study Bible from the moderator of the J.C. Ryle Facebook and Twitter page.  I was graciously provided a copy from Crossway to do a review. I reached out to Crossway about doing a review when I came across this Bible. This is the first Bible in years that I wanted to get my hands on and I will explain why in this review.

First of all, here is a photo of how the Bible arrived, with a covering case. This Bible is trutone, brown/walnut color, which I really like. You can also get this Bible in black leather and hardcover (blue). At the end of this review, I have numerous links where you can purchase a copy. 

This is what the Bible looks like without the covering case. I really like the "feel" of the Bible in my hands. And by all accounts, it seems to be made of high quality materials. 

Why do I like this Bible so much? Here are the main reasons: 

1. There's literally over 20,000 study notes from hundreds of historical figures in church history from the past 2,000 years! Some of these men include: John Knox (1514-1572), Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), Martin Luther (1483-1546), DL Moody (1937-1899), Francis Schaffer (1912-1984), Augustine (354-430), Athanasius (296-373), Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) and of course J.C. Ryle (1816-1900). 

Here's a sample of the study notes. 

2. The back cover of the Bible case explains why I like this Bible so much. As a Reformed Baptist, I appreciate the focus on Reformed voices from the past that this Bible highlights.  

Some minor issues I have the Bible include: 

1. The font is a little too small for my liking. The type size is 9 point for the scriptures and a little smaller for the commentary. 

2. I'm not sure I would classify this as a "Study Bible" but rather a "Devotional Bible". When I think of systematic study Bibles, I think of the ESV Study Bible, the MacArthur Study Bible, etc...Those study Bibles are more through to give you to history of the text, the context, and flow better etc...This Bible reminds me more of the Matthew Henry Study Bible which came out in the past decade of so. 

OVERALL, I highly recommend  Crossway ESV Church History Study Bible. I've been wanting something like this for YEARS and am thankful that Crossway published it. This would be the perfect gift for those Christians in your life who love the "old dead guys" and their writings. I also believe this Bible and the commentary notes, can greatly edify and encourage you in your daily Christian walk, which is the most important element to me. 

Here are the different locations you can purchase this Bible. 

• ESV Church History Study Bible, Black Leather- Amazon
• ESV Church History Study Bible, From Crossway the Publisher 
• ESV Church History Study Bible, Black Leather- ChristianBook
• ESV Church History Study Bible, Hardcover- Amazon
• ESV Church History Study Bible, Hardcover- ChristianBook
• ESV Church History Study Bible, TruTone- Amazon
• ESV Church History Study Bible, TruTone-ChristianBook