Book Review: NIV Essentials Study Bible

The New International Version (NIV) has been one of the best selling translations of the Bible for over 30 years. Many pastors, scholars, and lay people embraced it as their main translation for preaching, teaching, reading, and memorization. There has also been a great number of study Bibles that has been produced containing the NIV such as the NIV Study Bible, The Archaeological Study Bible, and the Quest Study Bible. In addition to study Bibles, there has been a number of special interest Bibles such as the Student Bible, which was my first NIV.

Zondervan has produced a study Bible that is unique known as the NIV Essentials Study Bible. Why is this study Bible unique? The reason being is that it contains 6 NIV resources. Those resources are:

The NIV Study Bible, which contains study notes and book introductions

The Archaeological Study Bible, which is looking at the history and archaeology of the Bible

The Quest Study Bible, which is a Q&A Bible suitable for new believers

The Student Bible, which is a Bible for students with book introductions and little devotionals

The Great Rescue Bible, a narrative Bible that looks at the central story of the Bible as God's rescue plan for mankind

The Essential Bible Comparison, a reference resource used to point out the context of the books of the Bible and understand the significance of the Bible's story

Since this contains the NIV Study Bible, it does contains the book introductions and study notes from it. However, it does contain elements from all the other resources which can a distraction for those new to the Bible. It seems at times, those elements seem to drive you away from the text. Don't get me wrong, a study Bible is important, but not one that will distract you from the text. Also, not everyone who is a new Christian is not a student so I question why the Student Bible was thrown in this mix. I am sure no adult who comes to faith in Christ would want to have something meant for teens in a study Bible like this one.

Yes, there are a lot of resources for Christians to study the Bible. I thought it was a good idea to put 6 resources into one study Bible, yet I felt there was to much going on. If I was making a study Bible like this one, I would not have put the Student Bible in the mix. This was a good idea, I just don't think it was executed very well.

Thanks BookLook Bloggers for letting me review this Bible.