Psalm 119:105 (NIV)
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
MY PERSONAL REVIEW
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
It has been an honor and privilege to be able to review this NIV Life Application Study Bible~Third Edition as part of the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid (BG2) program. Thank you to Zondervan and Tyndale House Publishers, Inc for this complimentary review copy in exchange for my honest assessment of this work.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
- Trusted & Treasured by Millions of Readers for over 30 Years, the Tyndale Life Application Study Bible Is Today’s #1–Selling Study Bible
- Now thoroughly updated and expanded, offering even more relevant insights and spiritual guidance for applying God’s Word to everyday life in today’s world. With a fresh, new interior page design and comprehensively updated study notes and features, this Bible will help you better understand God’s Word and provide you with practical ways to apply it to your life every day. The Life Application Study Bible—It’s how to do life!
Features Include:
- Enhanced, updated, and with new content added throughout
- Now more than 10,000 Life Application® notes and features
- Over 100 Life Application® Bible character profiles
- Introductions and overviews for each book of the Bible
- More than 500 maps & charts
- Dictionary/concordance
- Side-column cross-references
- Index to notes, charts, maps, and profiles
- Refreshed design with a second color for visual clarity
- 16 pages of full-color maps
- Durable Smyth-sewn binding, lays flat when open
- Presentation page
- Single-column format
- Christian Worker's Resource- a special supplement to enhance the reader's ministry
- Full text of the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV)
- Black Letter
- Text Size: 8.5 Point
- Note Size: 7 Point
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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| Beautiful two tone brown with stitching, this Bible looks great on a table or even better....in your hands! |
The NIV Life Application Study Bible~Third Edition, for the remainder of this review referred to as the "NIV LASB~3rd", is an incredible update to your previous edition study Bible, or will make a wonderful first study Bible for anyone who has not had the opportunity to own a "study bible" up to this point. With a claim of "over 75% of the Bible's features being application oriented", relating scripture to your life has just taken on a whole new meaning!
Diving right in, I want to mention just a few things right off the top about the NIV LASB~3rd. First, I want to clarify that this is a study Bible with emphasis on application in your life and as such, when you put it side by side with non-study Bibles, you will immediately see a huge difference in organization of content, as well as, a greatly increased volume of notes, maps, outlines and other tools to assist your comprehension of the history and context of the designated passages. Secondly, if you are comparing this Bible to other study Bibles that are not assigned the "life application" title, you will also see stark differences in the notes, as the non-application Bibles will not generally address the final question of "how does this passage relate to me?" The NIV LASB~3rd will answer that question and so many more!
I want to examine the NIV LASB~3rd from two perspectives. The first one being that of comparison to a general non-study NIV Bible. The second angle is to differentiate the NIV LASB~3rd to it's previous editions, begging to answer the question, "do I really need to update my older NIV LASB edition?" Spoiler alert...the answer is...yes.
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| Here are a few of our Zondervan NIV Bibles. So much goodness! |
Let's start by exploring the features of the NIV LASB~3rd to reveal the immense difference in this Bible versus a non-study Bible. The NIV LASB~3rd has such incredible fluidity and includes all of the following categories in a beautiful color scheme that sets the Bible passages apart from the commentary making it easier to access the information. Each book is set up in the exact same way, so before long your muscle memory is taking over and your eyes are looking right to the section you want without having to hunt all over and flip back and forth from page to page. It has an unending supply of resources to assist you with your search for truth. It's a beautiful thing to behold! Obviously a non-study Bible is also filled with truth, it's just more challenging to sift, sort, comprehend, and apply.
The NIV Life Application Study Bible~3rd Edition Features include:
- Notes
- Book Introductions: divided into a timeline, vital statistics, overview, blueprint, megathemes, and maps.
- Outline
- A Harmony Of the Books of Kings & Chronicles (3rd Edition only)
- A Harmony of the Gospels
- Personality Profiles
- Maps
- Charts & Diagrams
- Cross-References
- Textual Notes and Section Headings
- A Christian Worker's Resource (3rd Edition only)
- Master Index
- Dictionary/Concordance
There's the question again, do you need to update your older edition (1988 and forward) NIV LASB with the new 3rd Edition? For that answer, this interview (click here to read) with the general editor of the NIV LASB~3rd, Ron Beers, on the Bible Gateway Blog may give you some clarity. He likens this new Bible edition to the Smart Phone updates that keep us current with the times. I enjoyed this analogy and I would agree with him, a new updated edition will only serve to enhance your experience with this Bible.
Here's why I think it's a great investment. There are enough intriguing updates to make it worth your money to purchase this latest version. One of the newest features is
"A Harmony Of The Books Of Kings & Chronicles." This new section provides a timeline of the books of Kings and Chronicles. It does an excellent job to assist the reader in understanding the interaction between the timing, location, and accomplishments (albeit good or bad) of each king's reign. It even identifies which prophets were prophesying during the leader's rule. It is a fantastic systematic summary of the northern and southern kingship reigns with plenty of reference scripture to lead you on an in-depth search, if you so desire.
There is also a new feature titled: "A Christian Worker's Resource". It's located towards the back of the NIV LASB~3rd directly before the 365 Day Reading Plan and Master Index. It has been created to equip and empower the Christ follower for witnessing, mentoring, and even leading a small group. One of the sub-sections within this titled, "So You Have Been Asked To Speak", provides ideas for leading a small group or Bible study. The direction found within these two pages claims that "you'll be able to put together a talk that is both informative and challenging-to any audience at anytime." While I haven't had the opportunity to utilize the plan yet, I love the ideas and structure and now have a great place to quickly access when the need arises.
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| Side by side comparison of NIV LASB~1st with the NIV LASB~3rd Edition. |
Besides the addition of several new features, I also recognized the consistent subtle content differences between the Personality Profiles under the headings: strengths-accomplishments and weaknesses-mistakes within the 3rd edition as compared to the 1st edition. This is a feature that the old edition has, however, the new edition is using a bit different language, some extra characterizations, and a few noted omissions from the older version.
Let's compare one of the profiles so you can see what I mean. We'll look at the "Eve Profile".
The first edition states that Eve "displayed certain characteristics of God", whereas the NIV LASB 3rd omits these words. The first edition states "The female shares in the image of God", compared to the 3rd which states, "Women share equally in the image of God". Finally, the "occupation assigned" for Eve in the older edition defines her as a "wife, helper, companion, co-manager of Eden". The new edition only states that she is, "The Co-Manager of Eden". These are intriguing differences. There are enough distinctions that I want to ponder them further.
The content of the NIV LASB~3rd has a plethora of historical information, commentary, cross references, notes, maps, charts, diagrams, and leadership tools. Clearly the expansive team of contributors are a group of individual professionals who are dedicated to the Word of God. It even includes an abbreviated 365 Day Reading Plan that is a perfect "tour of God's Word", as it leads the reader from Genesis to Revelation in a "streamlined look at the entire Bible".
The design, physical appearance and functionality of this specific Bible is gorgeous. The "lay flat" design provides a completely horizontal page by page viewing when the book is open. The distracting arching and flopping of pages during reading is a thing of the past with this quality work. The pages with their two tone color, as described in the product description, truly does help to clarify what is part of the outline and feature content as opposed to the scripture presentation.
There are really only two items about this Bible that are a slight issue, but one has a solution and the other one will actually develop your gift of patience. The first challenge is the font is crazy small at 8.5 for the scripture and 7 for the notes. Now, having said that, if you have "young eyes" and some bright light, this won't bother you at all. However, if you have "older eyes", say over half a century like mine, then you might want to consider getting the large print option, although you will have to wait a bit longer because it doesn't release until 4/2019. The second difficulty is that the pages are incredibly thin. I'm sure that was necessary to try to keep the book more compact, but the result is that the pages stick together while you're trying to turn them. This isn't a deal breaker though, because again, you will develop perseverance and self control while you carefully peel apart each page. Once you have gotten through every page of the Bible, they no longer do that....so problem solved...read the whole Bible!! :)
In conclusion, I am not a theologian, nor am I currently attending seminary. I am, however, a lover of Christ and continually desirous of growing closer to Him. I have found incredible insight through studying the Bible and immeasurable peace by "hiding His Word in my heart" through scripture memorization. If you want to deepen your relationship with the Lord, spending time in His Word will certainly help you attain your goal! The Bible literally tells us that the Word of God is God! If you're looking for a great Study Bible for yourself, or perhaps someone on your Christmas list, you should look no farther; the NIV Life Application Study Bible~Third Edition will not disappoint you! It is an excellent Bible and after many hours of study and comparison, I would highly recommend it!!
Also, keep in mind that not only will your money be going towards something that could potentially enrich your love of God and open your eyes to how Christ is moving in your life today, but in addition, every NIV Bible you purchase helps www.biblica.com translate and give Bibles to people in need around the world.
It has been an honor and privilege to be able to review this NIV Life Application Study Bible~Third Edition as part of the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid (BG2) program. Thank you to Zondervan and Tyndale House Publishers, Inc for this complimentary review copy in exchange for my honest assessment of this work.
