I got it for about 30 bucks on Amazon. So it’s more expensive than your standard pocket bible but it’s not bad as far as study bibles go. Considering the use I’ve gotten out of it and how much it’s helped me with both my studies and my faith, I would’ve gladly paid twice that. As a brother in Christ (sorry mods, I know that kind of language is kinda frowned upon here), I’d encourage you to splurge on it.
That doesn’t sound like a bad price for the ESV student bible if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for, but I wouldn’t consider that and the New Oxford as alternatives to each other. They’re really trying to accomplish two different things. If you already have a decent grasp on fundamental Christian theology, I don’t think you’ll gain a lot from the ESV student bible, unless you just want to keep it around to compare certain passages, which I do still use it for occasionally.
Link on amazon: The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version https://www.amazon.com/dp/019027607X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_nqH6CbC9THYR6
They’re completely different things. The NRSV, or more recently the NRSVue, is just a translation. It’s just a Bible. That’s it. It has footnotes and some extras, but it’s not really a study Bible.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible is what is called a “study” bible. It has lots of essays and introductions by well established scholars in the field. It has colorful maps and charts and timelines and indexes.
The “study” bibles are more like an encyclopedia than just a translation. Does that make sense? The only unfortunate thing is that I don’t think any of the study bibles have released an updated edition to reflect the new NRSVue updates, but that’s not a huge deal, since most of the translation remained the same anyway.
If you want a better understanding of the origins of the Bible, get an academic study Bible like this one and read the intros and footnotes. Be prepared for the answers to not be quite the ones you were looking for.
The King James isn't an ideal starting point, I think. Apart from changes in language since the 1600s meaning some lines may not mean what you think, the translation itself had some imperfections (like translating wild oxen as "unicorns"). The translation favored for academic study of the Bible is the New Revised Standard Version, which came out in 1989 or so and is receiving an update next year that accounts for more recent Biblical scholarship (unearthing new texts in the Middle East, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, can be very helpful to the field). The New Oxford Annotated Bible (currently in its fifth edition) uses the NRSV translation but also provides footnotes, essays, etc. that provide historical context and the like that help modern readers understand meanings, references, literary devices, etc. - the reason I consider the NOAB best for this is because it's very impartial and scholarly, not trying to push a specifically Christian interpretation upon the text - more so trying to explain the actual authorial intent in a dispassionate and detached manner. https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
Just tell them that you want to stop studying. Don't just ask them, tell them, you have already decided to stop. If they don't respect this, just block them.
Magic doesn't exist. It is possible they just want you to not listen to the neighbours if the neighbours speak bad about JW. If your neighbours actually do magic, you still don't need to be afraid, because magic doesn't work.
If JW come to you, you can give them back the books you have got from them. You don't need to, but it is a possibility. Every month JW file a report to the elders (JW version of "pastor") about how many hours they have been evangelizing and how many books they have given away. If you give them back the books then they may feel they can't put it on their report and they may feel less willing to come back.
If you want to study the Bible, the best way is to read it yourself. A good study Bible in English is the Oxford Bible. I don't know about your language. If you read the Bible yourself you can draw your own conclusions.
New Revised Standard Version is often recommended by academics. An often recommended study Bible using NRSV is The New Oxford Annotated Bible.
Robert Alter's The Hebrew Bible, The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (which uses NJPS) and David Bentley Hart's The New Testament are also good.
You won't find any better than the New Oxford Annotated Bible. For just the Hebrew Bible you also won't go wrong with the Jewish Publication Society's translation of the Tanakh or Robert Alter's translation with commentary.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version
5th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0190276072, ISBN-10: 019027607X
https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
https://friendshippress.org/nrsv-updated-edition/
https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-Revised-Standard-Version-Updated-Edition-NRSVue-Bible/
The NRSVue is informed by the results of discovery and study of hundreds of ancient manuscripts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the more than thirty years since the first publication of the NRSV.
With new textual evidence, historical insights, and philological understandings, the NRSVue brings greater precision in interpreting Scripture today. With modern scholarship applied to ancient texts, the NRSV Updated Edition is designed to help readers explore the meanings of ancient texts in light of the cultures that produced them with unprecedented readability, accessibility, and inclusivity.
We are pleased to present you with what we can in full confidence call “the world’s most meticulously researched, rigorously reviewed, and faithfully accurate” English-language Bible translation.
I highly recommend The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version
5th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0190276072, ISBN-10: 019027607X
https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
CONTENTS
Maps, Charts, and Diagrams.
The Editors' Preface
To the Reader
Alphabetical Listing of the Books of the Bible Including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books.
List of Abbreviations
The Hebrew Bible
THE PENTATEUCH
*Genesis
*Exodus
*Leviticus
*Numbers
*Deuteronomy
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS
*Joshua
*Judges
*Ruth
*1 Samuel (1 Kingdoms in Greek)
*2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms in Greek)
*1 Kings (3 Kingdoms in Greek)
*2 Kings (4 Kingdoms in Greek)
*1 Chronicles (1 Paralipomenon in Greek)
*2 Chronicles (2 Paralipomenon in Greek)
*Ezra (2 Esdras in Greek)
*Nehemiah (2 Esdras in Greek)
*Esther
THE POETICAL AND WISDOM BOOKS
*Job
*Psalms
*Proverbs
*Ecclesiastes
*Song of Solomon
THE PROPHETIC BOOKS
*Isaiah
*Jeremiah
*Lamentations
*Ezekiel
*Daniel
*Hosea
*Joel
*Amos
*Obadiah
*Jonah
*Micah
*Nahum
*Habakkuk
*Zephaniah
*Haggai
*Zechariah
*Malachi
The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books
The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books are listed here in four groupings, as follows:
(A) BOOKS AND ADDITIONS TO ESTHER AND DANIEL THAT ARE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC, GREEK, AND SLAVONIC BIBLES
*Tobit
*Judith
*The Additions to the Book of Esther (with a translation of the entire Greek text of Esther).
*Wisdom of Solomon
*Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach
*Baruch
*The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch ch 6)
The Additions to the Greek Book of Daniel
*The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews
*Susanna
*Bel and the Dragon
*1 Maccabees
*2 Maccabees
(B) BOOKS IN THE GREEK AND SLAVONIC BIBLES; NOT IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CANON
*1 Esdras (2 Esdras in Slavonic, 3 Esdras in Appendix to Vulgate)
*Prayer of Manasseh (in Appendix to Vulgate)
*Psalm 151 (following Psalm 150 in the Greek Bible)
*3 Maccabees
(C) IN THE SLAVONIC BIBLE AND IN THE LATIN VULGATE APPENDIX
*2 Esdras (3 Esdras in Slavonic, 4 Esdras in Vulgate Appendix)
(Note: In the Latin Vulgate, Ezra-Nehemiah are 1 and 2 Esdras.)
(D) IN AN APPENDIX TO THE GREEK BIBLE
*4 Maccabees
The New Testament
THE GOSPELS
*Matthew...
*Mark
*Luke
*John
*The Acts of the Apostles
LETTERS/EPISTLES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
*Romans
*1 Corinthians
*2 Corinthians
*Galatians
*Ephesians..
*Philippians
*Colossians
*1 Thessalonians
*2 Thessalonians
Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles.
*1 Timothy
*2 Timothy
*Titus
*Philemon
*Hebrews
*James
*1 Peter
*2 Peter
*1 John
*2 John
*3 John
*Jude
*Revelation
General Essays, Tables:
THE CANONS OF THE BIBLE
The Hebrew Bible
The Greek Bible
Textual Criticism
Languages of the Bible
Translation of the Bible into English
INTERPRETATION
The Hebrew Bible's Interpretation of Itself
The New Testament Interprets the Jewish Scriptures
Jewish Interpretation in the Premodern Era
Christian Interpretation in the Premodern Era
The Interpretation of the Bible: From the Nineteenth to the Mid-twentieth Centuries
Contemporary Methods in Biblical Study
The Geography of the Bible
CULTURAL CONTEXTS
The Ancient Near East
The Persian and Hellenistic Periods
The Roman Period
TABLES
Timeline
Chronological Table of Rulers
Weights and Measures.
Time (including Calendar).
Parallel Texts
Chapter/Verse Differences
TRANSLATIONS OF ANCIENT TEXTS
GLOSSARY
INDEX TO THE STUDY MATERIALS.
COLOR MAPS FOLLOW THE LAST PAGE OF TEXT
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version
https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
Don't miss out on the apocrypha and scholarly notes!
This is the one you want:
https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version 5th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0190276072, ISBN-10: 019027607X
For over 50 years students, professors, clergy, and general readers have relied on The New Oxford Annotated Bible as an unparalleled authority in Study Bibles. This fifth edition of the Annotated remains the best way to study and understand the Bible at home or in the classroom. This thoroughly revised and substantially updated edition contains the best scholarship informed by recent discoveries and anchored in the solid Study Bible tradition.
· Introductions and extensive annotations for each book by acknowledged experts in the field provide context and guidance. · Introductory essays on major groups of biblical writings - Pentateuch, Prophets, Gospels, and other sections - give readers an overview that guides more intensive study. · General essays on history, translation matters, different canons in use today, and issues of daily life in biblical times inform the reader of important aspects of biblical study. · Maps and diagrams within the text contextualize where events took place and how to understand them. · Color maps give readers the geographical orientation they need for understanding historical accounts throughout the Bible. · Timelines, parallel texts, weights and measures, calendars, and other helpful tables help navigate the biblical world. · An extensive glossary of technical terms demystifies the language of biblical scholarship. · An index to the study materials eases the way to the quick location of information.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, with twenty new essays and introductions and others--as well as annotations--fully revised, offers the reader flexibility for any learning style. Beginning with a specific passage or a significant concept, finding information for meditation, sermon preparation, or academic study is straightforward and intuitive.
A volume that users will want to keep for continued reference, The New Oxford Annotated Bible continues the Oxford University Press tradition of providing excellence in scholarship for the general reader. Generations of users attest to its status as the best one-volume Bible reference tool for any home, library, or classroom.
https://friendshippress.org/nrsv-updated-edition/
The NRSV Updated Edition offers a readable and accurate version of the Holy Bible to the global English-speaking community for public worship and personal study, for scholarship and study in classrooms, and for informing faith and action in response to God.
The NRSVue is informed by the results of discovery and study of hundreds of ancient manuscripts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the more than thirty years since the first publication of the NRSV.
With new textual evidence, historical insights, and philological understandings, the NRSVue brings greater precision in interpreting Scripture today. With modern scholarship applied to ancient texts, the NRSV Updated Edition is designed to help readers explore the meanings of ancient texts in light of the cultures that produced them with unprecedented readability, accessibility, and inclusivity.
We are pleased to present you with what we can in full confidence call “the world’s most meticulously researched, rigorously reviewed, and faithfully accurate” English-language Bible translation.
Elegantly rendered, the NRSV Updated Edition is intended to be as literal as possible to make the meaning of scripture as clear to the most dedicated biblical scholar as it is to the lay reader.
This new NRSV edition is the most extensively updated English-language Bible translation available on the worldwide market to date.
The National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC) commissioned the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) to review and update the NRSV.
The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) can claim a well-known line from the 1611 preface to the King James Version: “We never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation … but to make a good one better.”
Together with religious leaders from diverse communities of faith, the NCC and Friendship Press join in the conviction that the Scriptures offer good news of God’s love—wisdom to guide, hope to sustain, truth to empower, forgiveness to change, and peace to bless all of creation.
https://friendshippress.org/nrsv-updated-edition-endorsements/
The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition reflects discoveries of ancient texts and new insights made in the 30 years since the NRSV was last revised. The newly updated translation offers clearer, more direct, and inclusive language, and increased cultural sensitivity absent of the unintended biases of prior versions.
The NRSV Updated Edition is the result of rigorous biblical scholarship to give readers access to the most inclusive, informed, and reliable text available. As new manuscripts came to light following the 1989 introduction of the NRSV, an improvement was undertaken to ensure the accuracy, clarity, and modernity of the updated translation.
The NRSV Updated Edition sets out to be the most literal translation of the Bible available to date with its clear use of unambiguous and unbiased language. The new version gives English Bible readers access to the most meticulously researched, rigorously reviewed, and faithfully accurate translation on the market. It is also the most ecumenical Bible with acceptance by Christian churches of Protestant, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, African American, and Evangelical traditions.
The National Council of Churches (NCC), copyright holder of the NRSV Bible, commissioned the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), a diverse and learned group of biblical scholars, to direct the revision. Additionally, the NCC appointed two members of its Bible Translation and Utilization (BTU) Advisory Committee to liaise between organizations. Together, the scholars embarked on a four-year journey to deliver their collective recommendations for approval and adoption by the NCC.
As the most widely authorized Bible for use as an ecumenical and interfaith resource, The NRSV Updated Edition is considered the most clear and accurate version because it utilizes the most literal forms of translation. Some Bible translators use a word-for-word approach, others rely heavily on the context to convey the meaning of scripture. Following the tradition of Bruce M. Metzger, reviewers and editors for the NRSV Updated Edition were guided by the maxim “as literal as possible, as free as necessary” to present the most accurate as possible renderings of the biblical text. Therefore, it is important for the reader to understand the provenance of his or her preferred Bible version, its translation methodology, use of ancient text discoveries, translation methods and language conventions when selecting a preferred version.
This is the study bible referred to.
The 1979 BCP is the one currently in use by the Episcopal Church. You can find it in a variety of colors on https://www.churchpublishing.org/. The economy edition (which you can probably find slightly cheaper elsewhere) runs around $20. You can also read it for free on https://www.bcponline.org/. The Episcopal Church website probably also has a PDF somewhere.
I don't know of any specifically Anglican study Bibles personally, but you can't go wrong with the New Oxford Annotated Bible. https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
Alternatively, someone else here may have some other suggestions, but I'm personally pretty satisfied with the NOAB.
I highly recommend The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version
5th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0190276072, ISBN-10: 019027607X
https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X
And also the The Orthodox Study Bible, Hardcover: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World
Item | Current | Lowest | Reviews |
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You can't get any better than the New Oxford Annotated Bible. For the Hebrew Bible in particular the Jewish Publication Society's English translation of the Tanakh and Robert Alter's translation with commentary are the best of the best.
In addition, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is universally considered the most accurate English translation of the Bible among biblical scholars/experts.
(Note that the term "the Old Testament" is an explicitly Christian name of the Tanakh, as the name implies that it has been superseded by "the New Testament". I as a non-religious person promotes the idea that non-religious people, as well as Christians that want to be less biased, should refer to it as "the Tanakh" rather than "the Old Testament". After all, it is a Jewish collection of Jewish texts, so it makes sense to use the Jewish name for it as the neutral name for it. Additionally, the name "Tanakh" is not biased against Christianity like the name "Old Testament" is biased against Judaism.)
Two English study editions I particularly like are these:
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha (NRSV)
The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (NJPS)
Both of these are reputable study Bibles, using reputable translations, accepted and used in Academia. The first is a Christian translation, the second a Jewish translation. I like having both and comparing them.