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Study features fully revised and updated
Over 20,000 in-text study notes
A library of study resources at your fingertips
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That’s because its celebrated study notes have been thoroughly revised.
Turn to any page and discover the difference: over 20,000 of the Zondervan NIV Study Bible’s Gold Medallion Award-winning study notes—now meticulously updated and expanded to reflect the most current conservative Bible scholarship. Unmatched in any other study Bible, these notes place at your fingertips a treasury of instant commentary from today’s top evangelical scholars. Icons highlight notes of special interest in the areas of character study, archaeology, and personal application. Simply put, you won’t find study notes as complete, up-to-date, helpful, and easy to use anywhere else.
And the benefits build from there. Like no other Bible, The Zondervan NIV Study Bible places an entire resource library for Bible study in your hands. Over 6 million people have made it their study Bible of choice. Make it yours as well. It’s one choice you’ll always be glad you made.
SPECIAL FEATURES
NIV text remains unchanged, the most read, most trusted English-language translation.
Over 20,000 study notes. NIV translators thoroughly revised and expanded the award-winning study notes, and added over 800 new notes.
Icons make important information easy to spot.
900 Character Profile icons
425 Archaeology icons
Almost 3,000 Personal Application icons
Introductions and outlines provide valuable background information for each book of the Bible.
In-text maps, charts, diagrams, and illustrations right where you want them—five of which are completely new.
16 pages of full-color maps plus timelines and presentation page.
Words of Christ in red letter.
NIV concordance plus subject and study notes indexes.
Clearer.
Stonger.
Better.
Referred to daily by millions of pastors, students, church leaders and other Bible readers around the world, the renowned Zondervan NIV Study Bible notes are the crown jewel of the world’s best-selling study Bible. These over-20,000 notes are the handiwork of the same translation team that produced this Bible’s text, the New International Version. The same exacting, conservative scholarship that brought you today’s most read, most trusted Bible translation went into creating the most celebrated, widely used Bible study notes in existence.
Why improve on what’s already outstanding? Because now it can be made even better. In the years since the 1985 publication of the first Zondervan NIV Study Bible edition, ongoing discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, biblical history, and other disciplines have suggested the need to revise the notes. Drawing on the most current scholarship, the world-class team who first created the study notes now present comprehensive revisions and additions that bring the notes thoroughly up to date. With all the changes to the study notes, however, one thing has remained unchanged—the time-tested, trusted text of the NIV itself.
You’ll be pleased with the results. If you found the original notes indispensable in clarifying obscure Bible passages and shedding light on the meaning and significance of Scripture, you’ll love how these revised and expanded notes add even greater depth to your study of God’s Word.
The New International Version (NIV) is today’s most read and most trusted English Bible translation. Since its release in 1973, the NIV has sold over 150 million copies. The goal of the NIV translation team was to produce an accurate translation and one that would have clarity and literary quality and so prove suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing and liturgical use. Today the NIV is accepted by more denominations than any other translation and is supported by a library of reference resources that is unmatched by any other translation.
Over the last five years, the editors of the NIV study Bible have painstakingly reviewed, revised, and rewritten the notes of the classic, bestselling NIV Study Bible. Over 80 percent of the notes have been revised and adapted in some way from the 1996 update, and some 30% of the notes in the text have been added, completely rewritten, replaced or deleted. Over 800 of the more than 20,000 notes in this edition are completely new. This update reflects the most recent scholarship from a conservative academic perspective, and reflects changes to the text suggested and requested over the last 15 years by students and academics who have studied, used, and loved the NIV Study Bible.
A certain amount of the "Evangelical defensiveness" I found bothersome in the 1995 edition has been burnt off in the nicely-conceived, thoughtful re-expression of book introductions found here. Compare, for instance, these statements from the Introduction to Job:
[1995 ed.] "Two dates are involved: (1) the date of the man Job and his historical setting, and (2) the date of the inspired writer who composed the book."
[2002 ed.] "Two dates are involved: (1) that of Job himself, and (2) the composition of the book."
While the editors have not gone overboard trying to turn the NIVSB into a "pc/inclusive language" text, they have restated a few things here and there that, to my sensibilities, seemed worth fixing. For instance:
[1995 ed., from Wisdom Literature Introduction] "The Jews sometimes speak of the OT as the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings."
[2002 ed., page 725] "An ancient tradition among the Jews divided the collection of their holy books into three major divisions: the Law (Pentateuch), the Prophets (Former and Latter) and the Writings."
These are small but welcome changes. [For those who may be following the controversy about the "Today's New International Version" translation, an adaptation of the NIV which endeavors to use gender-inclusive language when both men and women are clearly being discussed or addressed, the NIVSB uses the "unaltered" NIV. This is a good choice for a Study Bible, since serious Bible students need to confront the patriarchy of the ancient world at some time or another. The notes, rather than the translation of the text, seems the best place to accomplish this.]
Although I see nothing in the introductions and notes that should be alarming to the book's primary audience (Evangelical Christians), the NIVSB now seems worthy to be used by Christians from other Protestant traditions, as well as by the general reader who may be curious about the Bible as one of the most important texts of Western civilization.
The NIVSB continues to use three "icons" with its introductions, charts, and notes: a "seedling" to suggest an item that will help the reader apply something to her/his personal life; a "trowel" to identify items based on archaeological discoveries; and "a human head" to call attention to items relating to key characters. One could read the notes carefully and dispute the way these icons have been assigned throughout the text, but the editors should be applauded for their judicious restraint. To tag more notes with icons (or to introduce more types of icons) would have created visual clutter. The publisher should also be applauded for making the icons gray instead of solid black as in the previous editon; it's easy to read around them. (I only pay close attention to the "trowel" icons, because I am personally curious about what in the Bible can and cannot be confirmed by external evidence; although I usually skip the "seedlings"--because I don't like to be told how to apply Scripture to my life--these notes often discuss key theological concepts and are equally worth reading.)
The typography is improved in the 2002 edition, most notably in the center column reference system. However, I still find it difficult to know where to look when I see a superscript marker in the Scripture text (To the center column or at the foot of the Scripture text?). At some points in the text, there are two superscript markers! For example, the name "Immanuel" in Matthew 1:23 is followed by a roman superscript "d" and an italic superscript "w." Oddly, both identify Isaiah 7:14 as the related text. Although, I suppose, there's nothing technically wrong with stating something more than once, I think it unnecessary in a book so tightly packed with information. The unintended effect on the reader might be to erode his/her willingness to pay attention to the notes or to bother to look things up. That would be unfortunate, indeed, because there's a lot in the revised NIV Study Bible that is worth checking out.
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