Saturday, September 29, 2007

Apologetics Study Bible

The Apologetics Study Bible is now out. I contributed essays on The Baha'i Faith and Postmodernism, as well as the bibliography. I only had a few days to adapt the latter from a bibliography posted at Denver Seminary, so it isn't all I'd like it to be; but it should point people toward some rich resources.

The Bible features commentary and short essays. For example, Craig Blomberg provides the commentary on The Gospel of John. Essayists include Gary Habermas, J.P. Moreland, Paul Copan, Ravi Zacharias, and others. The essays cover a very wide range of apologetic issues. I have not worked my way through much of the material as yet.

Sadly, the translation used (The Christian Standard Bible) is self-consciously not gender-inclusive. The essay explaining the translation makes it seem like anyone who favors a gender-inclusive translation (of which the TNIV is one) is part of a secular feminist attempt to destory biblical teaching on gender. This is not true. For example, Craig Blomberg is not an egalitarian, but still supports the TNIV. Moreover, many solid evangelicals who are egalitarians, such as Gordon Fee, support the TNIV as well. For a short essay on Bible translations and gender inclusivity, see this treatment by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis.

Nevertheless, we have needed a study Bible of this sort for a long time. May God use it to glorify himself and equip the church to have a reason for the hope within (1 Peter 3:15).

4 comments:

Ed Trefzger said...

Gender-neutrality where it is intended in the original texts is an appropriate goal. However, sometimes it results in either diluted prose or ungrammatical sentences, such as the plural "they" used to reference an antecedent "brother or sister." If English had a neutral singular pronoun, it would be a piece of cake. Using "they" in that situation makes me cringe.

Jeff S. said...

I've seen ads for this for awhile... looks intriguing. Is it an actual bible as well, or are they just using that term loosely?

Shawn White said...

I had pre-ordered mine back on May 5th from Amazon and I received it yesterday. I bought a black-bonded leather bound edition. I had a chance to read through a handful of articles last night as well as reading the preface. So far, so good. I've enjoyed some of the insights shared as well as the 'twisted scripture' bits.

Thanks for contributing to it. This is going to be a good resource to keep close at hand.

Shawn

o1mnikent said...

Have you seen the digitized version of the Apologetics Study Bible from Logos Bible Software? You can read the study notes and articles along with any translation (or the original languages), including the TNIV. It's part of a collection of Bible reference books from Broadman & Holman. I thought you might be interested!

The Apologetics Study Bible