NIV Chronological Study Bible
I usually love chronological Bibles as it is very interesting to read the Bible through in the supposed chronological order, and I was quite excited to get this one. This Bible has full color
throughout, and the headers that note the changing of epochs are so vivid they almost look 3d. But sadly, some of the pictures were
inappropriate/indecent and it's not very nice to have such things in one's Bible, let alone have them be so visually crystal clear.
The NIV Chronological Study Bible seeks to present the Scriptures in their probable chronological order, with historical notes, chronologies, maps and pictures throughout.
The NIV Chronological Study Bible seeks to present the Scriptures in their probable chronological order, with historical notes, chronologies, maps and pictures throughout.
I thought it was
interesting that they note that, "The Bible
is not a theology book arranged according to topics: God, man, sin, salvation,
etc. Nor is it simply a chronicle of
events from creation to the final consummation.
Historical events are often the Bible's subject matter, but these events
are always reported from a particular perspective. That perspective is theological history. It is in the arena of history that he has
chosen to make himself known. " But I must add that though it is not arranged
according to topics, it is still a, or rather, the theology book.
I'm not positive as to why
it is called a 'study Bible', as the notes seem more historically and
culturally informative than exegetical.
Sometimes they do delve into concepts a little more, but I found myself
disagreeing with them. I'll give three
instances: First, they seem to not
believe in a literal six day creation.
And second, in 1 Corinthians 7, they come to the conclusion that Paul
allows divorced Christians to remarry.
Third, they are feministic in
their explanation of the role of a wife in a marriage, they make it seem like
male headship was a cultural thing, not a Biblical institution. For instance, "If female authority was allowed in the church,
opposition may have increased against the small Christian community."
and, "The model for how to best win over
these husbands to Christianity involves adopting the societal norms of a wife's
submissiveness…." And in
another place they sound like they are apologizing for the Apostle's
statement: "Paul's command 'Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands' (Eph 5:22)
is at least partly related to concern for Christian witness within the
surrounding culture, and is quite mild in comparison to the rest of his
culture." They are
apparently disregarding 1 Timothy 2:11-15 which
makes the differing roles of males and females to be of God, not from
the culture.
Also, I didn't like
some of the chronological arrangement.
For instance, they have prophecies from Isaiah being read after the fall
of Jerusalem. Part of their reasoning is
that, "Other prophetic passages speak of
times later than the traditional date of composition for the passage
itself. For example, parts of the Book
of Isaiah refer to events that took place centuries after the prophet Isaiah
lived. Though Isaiah prophesied in
Jerusalem during the 8th century B. C., the passage of Isa 44:28; 45:1 refers
by name to Cyrus, a Persian king who lived in the 6th century . For this reason , some chapters form the Book
of Isaiah appear in the time of Cyrus…"
Umm… didn't God have the prophets prophecy LOTS of things that
hadn't happened yet? It would hardly be
unthinkable for God to have the prophets give out a particular name of someone
in the future. Besides, right before God
starts prophetically addressing Cyrus He states,
"I am the Lord, the maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens,
who spreads out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and
makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words
of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers."
All in all, there
are too many negatives for me to highly recommend this Chronological
Bible.
I am grateful to
have received a free review copy of this book from the Book Look Blogger
program(My review did not have to be favorable)
This book may be purchased from Amazon and from Thomas Nelson
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