21. CSB Baker Illustrated Study Bible. God. 2019. 11, 411 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars] First sentence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Start date: August 27, 2024
End date for Old Testament: September 23, 2024
End date for New Testament: October 12, 2024
This was the FIRST time I've ever checked out a Bible from the library in order to read and review it. To be fair, it was more with reviewing in mind than reading. I checked out the digital e-book from the library.
Things you should absolutely know about the CSB Baker Illustrated Study Bible:
It was first published in 2019. It is now out of print. Since a popular Bible reviewer on YouTube made a video about it in December 2023, it went from a fairly unknown, slightly difficult to find study Bible to incredibly impossible to find unless you want to over-pay by several hundred dollars. Copies are being listed for about $350 to $450. The digital e-book is of course still available to buy...for under $20.
There will definitely be differences in layout between the digital and print. This is impossible to avoid. I reviewed the digital copy, of course.
It is single column. It is red letter. It does feature study notes and book introductions.
It uses the Christian Standard Bible.
Observations and thoughts (my own):
Long story short: do I personally think it is worth hundreds of dollars????? NO, NO, NO, NO. I think it would have been worth the original selling price.
I do think it is PACKED with information, with "bells and whistles." At least in the digital edition, it seemed the study notes had study notes. Links to definitions from a dictionary and links to longer articles. The study note section of the digital book was packed with "illustrative" "goodies." Illustrations, charts, photographs, tables, etc. Was every illustration helpful or necessary? No. Some were extremely very helpful. Others were pure clutter. (Unless you are into that kind of thing.)
It had longer articles. It starts out strong with "The Grand Story of the Bible," and "How To Read, Interpret, and Apply the Bible." It has introductions to the Old Testament and New Testament. It had introductions before each new section/genre. (Pentateuch, Historical, Poetic, Prophetic, Gospel and Acts, Letters and Revelation. Of course, each book of the bible has its own introduction.
It had shorter articles. These "mini" "many" articles are several paragraphs in length apiece and address themes, subjects, topics, issues from within books of the Bible. These are the ones I mentioned being study notes to the study notes. I'd be curious how these are arranged and laid out in the print edition. (Are they in the back of the Bible???? Are they in the text of the Bible???? Who knows.)
It had definitions, oh so many definitions. These help clarify--at least--how the men (and perhaps women) who worked on the Bible feel about certain subjects, topics, etc.
Each chapter has study notes. What I will say--for better or worse--is that each book seems to have its own way about it. That's a horrible description. What I mean is that the tone, the style, differs greatly book by book. For example, you might have book of the Bible "X" have study notes that are extremely intellectual, scholarly, filled with LONG multi-syllable words, convey complex ideas, a bit intimidating. You might have book of the Bible "Y" be super laidback, casual, all summarizing, strong doses of speculation, no true insights or information to learn.
What bothered me was the strong SPECULATION in places. I found this mostly to be true in Genesis through 2 Kings. It was like there was an enormous shift between the first half and second half of the Old Testament in terms of how the study notes were done. One place of speculation was that David never specified Solomon was to be heir to the throne and that Bathsheba was manipulating behind the scenes to get the job done. Bathsheba wanted HER son on the throne and David was weak and dying so she was able to wink, wink, wink hey remember when you promised Solomon the throne. The note writer claims that if David had such thoughts on who should be the royal heir, it would have been mentioned in 2 Samuel directly. That is just one example.
Speculating happens. Granted. It's just you don't need outside help with that. Every reader can read the biblical text and ask speculative questions because they are curious. It doesn't mean they should brainstorm an answer up out of thin air and include it in a study Bible.
As I mentioned the study notes seem to stop summarizing and speculating after the history books. It then went to a more scholarly, information-filled approach.
Now ALL study notes have a varying degree of theological-denominational bias. And sometimes the study notes from one book of the Bible seems to be at odds with the study notes from another book of the Bible. The study notes seem to offer a bit of contradiction--in places where there is no contradiction in Scripture. (And by bias, I mean taking "a" position about something.)
The Ephesians notes reveal, for example, that the writer of those study notes (at the very least) are NOT in any way shape or form REFORMED. (Though other places that talk about predestination and election and foreknowledge seem to have varying degrees of interpretation/meaning. So perhaps not every one who worked on the Bible feels exactly the same on this subject.)
The speculation weirded me out in several places. The un-Reformed position left me wanting--personally. Of course, there will be a large population that will rejoice in its un-reformed-ness.
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