NKV APPLY THE WORD Study Bible
I am disappointed
with many of the 'study' Bibles of our day but the Apply the Word Study Bible
is quite refreshing in its commitment to
prompting one think to about the text one is studying. he Bible has many "application
notes" and also includes maps,
charts and little character profile boxes throughout. It really is more of an application type of
study Bible, not a linguistic study Bible but the application used seems to be
mostly exegetically based.
I think that the
application notes are quite good, none of them really seem forced onto any text
they're commenting on, even the ones found throughout the books of the law, and
prophets, are quite good and don't seem as though someone was grasping at straws
(as some study Bibles seem to do) to find an application of those seemingly
tedious parts of Scripture and so they come up with some eisegetical way to get some personal-meaning
out of them.
For example, toward
middle of Ezekiel one of the application notes reads:
"…when the show was over, so was the people's
interest. They heard Ezekiel's words but
did nothing to put them into action.
They enjoyed the presentation but ignored the message…Their curiosity
about Ezekiel's sermons did not change their lives. When faith becomes more about entertainment
than genuine commitment, we become spectators rather than players, concerned
more with What is the
latest word from God? Than What am I going to do with what God has said? …Self-deception is the worst thing about a faith that
exalts entertainment. True conversion
and true obedience involve not just expanded knowledge about spiritual things
or good feelings toward God, but changed purposes, commitments, and
actions."
Some of the
application notes are quite strikingly insightful, In Luke 18, where the blind
man begs Christ to have mercy on him there is a note entitles "Holy
Interruptions", part of which reads:
"Jesus didn't treat these interruptions like intrusions, He let needy
people elbow into His life, even when His closest ffriends tried to block their
way. In fact, one could argue that Jesus
did much of His work during moments of interruption. We often grown annoyed at disruptions,
feeling as if life has been put on hold.
When are we missing out on some of life's holiest moments?" Though
I have heard of similar concepts/teachings about 'holy interruptions', I had never noticed their significance in
Christ's life before and His handling of them.
There were some
problems that I had with it though, for instance, some references that were
made to specific times when Christians "enter into the presence of
God" which concept really seems to discount His omnipresence and His
promise never to leave us or forsake us.
I also don't like that some of the notes call the land of Israel
'Palestine', I thought that the land did not become 'Palestine' until Hadrian's
day, not to mention that in our day it’s basic area is the state of
Israel. I didn't understand why they
didn't call that present day land area 'Israel'.
And then there were
some things that seemed laughably odd to me (though they didn't mean them to
be), three samples of which I'll give
here. First: in the intro to each book
of the Bible there are lists of key people in that book and key
events..etc. Among the key people of 1st
Chronicles is "Sheerah, an Ephraimite woman who built three
cities". Umm…that just seems odd to
me as, though she is mentioned, she hardly seems "key" to the account
of book of 1st Chronicles. Second: In a chart comparing Joshua and Paul
entitled "Profiles of Leadership" the two men are compared to each
other, and in the section "Early indications of leadership potential"
one of Paul's early leadership displays was
that he "Aggressively tried to stamp out Christianity"? That just seemed too odd of an example in my opinion. And the last that I'll mention is the notes
on Matthew 13 where Christ tells some parables, here is a tiny excerpt from the
notes, "Jesus captivated listeners by
putting spiritual truths into everyday terms they could understand.…His images
and language brought His message to life for ordinary people." But if the author of those notes would have
just read vs. 10-17 of that very chapter they would realize that they are
contradicting what Jesus said, when the disciples asked Him why He spoke in
parables He said that He spoke in parables so that the people WOULD NOT
UNDERSTAND!! Even the disciples did not
understand until Christ explained the parables to them.
But, excepting all of the above and some other
things, I was pleasantly surprised at the format and study content of this
study Bible. I have read too many
Christian books and even, if I remember correctly, study Bible notes that seem
too, for lack of a better term, "lovey-dovey", too "God is in
love with YOU!", too uncomfortably and almost irreverentially
romantic. This study Bible is
refreshingly un-overly-sentimental…if that makes any sense.
I received a free review copy of this book from the BookLook Blogger program (My review did not have to be favorable)
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