Amazon.com: Customer reviews: NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, eBook: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture

Top positive review

An excellent addition to your Bible study collection

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2016

At 65, I have been a student and teacher of the Bible for almost 50 years. I wish I had had this for all those years! The issue and complaints of lighter print on the page notes almost kept me from buying it. But much to my surprise, with my older eyes, I can read it just fine. Do not let that keep you from buying this gem. One aspect the author brings out is the comparison between man's mythical beliefs of the day and God's work. Lately there have been many books bringing out Hebrew culture in Jesus' day and giving further understanding to the New Testament. It is said best on the back cover "see the cultural background behind each story". This version does the same for the Old Testament as well as New. I have recommended this to all my friends

162 people found this helpful

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Jan Michael Nace

Potpourri of Information requiring strong Christian Faith to Navigate

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2017

This study Bible is an academic powerhouse of information from conservative contributors (both contributors are conservative--Moody and Assemblies of God histories) with latest scholarship that may not sit well with some. The NIV text falls short in many ways but the notes and information work well as reference if you keep your Christianity intact while reading some entries. This study Bible would be well-fit for graduate school levels and discussions but only with grounded Biblical truth to balance off the information which is a potpourri of non-Biblical information to help the reader see what the people of God were surrounded by when they were in the Holy Land. Well-made product material-wise. Print is somewhat pale for bottom of page notes. Some articles are more about non-Christian/non-Jewish religious practices and beliefs than the reader may want. This study aid stays true to it's name and that it is a resource for historical/cultural conditions. Not a doctrinal aid like other study Bibles but does give direction spiritually at times.

57 people found this helpful

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V. Kehoe

An excellent addition to your Bible study collection

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2016

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162 people found this helpful

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Joy Walker

Text is very readable, not sure what other reviews are talling about

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2017

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I've been so excited to get this bible which is pretty cool because it's been a while since I've been excited about reading the bible. Lots of reviews had me wary about hard-to-read text so I almost didn't buy this, but it just arrived and either the other reviews have poor eyesight or they changed the print due to the complaints. I flipped thru and took a few photos and don't see an issue. Text looks legible to me!

108 people found this helpful

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Jan Michael Nace

Potpourri of Information requiring strong Christian Faith to Navigate

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2017

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57 people found this helpful

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H.E. Pennypacker

Content superb, print layout — what were they thinking?

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2016

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5 stars for content
2.5 stars for print quality

I eagerly awaited the publication date for this study bible. I own both John Walton’s and Craig Keener's Bible Background Commentaries and found them both very helpful. A study bible with this kind of info tickled my fancy.

I have grown to become particular on the print Bibles I purchase. As a graphic and web designer, I know how much print quality effects the ease of reading. So I did my research and found a sampler PDF by Zondervan of the print Bible. Everything seemed good (notes were dark enough because of being viewed on a monitor) but you never know how the final product will look. Factors like paper quality, ink quality etc. really determine the final outcome.

On receiving the bible I have to admit I am very disappointed. Many things were okay but when I looked at the note sections of the bible I was not a happy camper. Zondervan used a thin-weight sans-serif font, very small (5 or 6pt ?) that is very difficult to read. Because of the thin weight of the font, the print color looks like a medium gray. In bright light the glare off the paper competes with it but without some sort of direct light it is very difficult to read. Also, the paper is thin enough that the occasional colored illustrations on the reverse side of the page bleed (ghost) through and make legibility even more difficult.

The content of the notes and articles are top notch. No complaints there. But if you can’t read the notes without squinting, what’s the point? My hope is this study bible can be redone at some point to increase the legibility.

Other things of note, I also wish the size of the NIV text was a tad larger. Bumping it up to 9.5 or 10pt font size would be ideal. Yes, I know that would increase the size of the book but as is, this study bible is on the large and heavy size already. You’ll probably not be toting this around to church or the office.

I could do without the red lettering myself. I know many people like it so I’ll back off on that. Red lettering is often hard to read in large doses (try John 14-17) and sometimes turns to a dark pink.

So what to do? For the note section, having the Kindle version may be better. Amazon often does a thing called MatchBook where if you buy the print version of a book you can get the Kindle version greatly reduced. No such luck here so many buyers will need to choose between the Kindle version or the hard-to-read print bible.

I looked at the sample Kindle version and can say I am not impressed. Kindle bibles have notoriously ugly text. The main culprit is the superscript verse numbers which are often not formatted correctly and thus increase the line spacing (leading) of the lines they are on. The text then becomes choppy and irregular with the mishmash of different line spacing. You’ll get that here.

The notes, however, are in different sections and layout perfectly fine. So you will be able to bump the text size to whatever is readable for you. Plop that besides you while reading your bible and you’ll be good to go.

In conclusion, I wish Bible publishers hired better print and layout designers for their bibles. This trend of small font sizes, thin bible paper and compact bible sizes doesn’t make for very readable bibles these days.

Update: sent back the print version study bible before my allotment time is up. On pages where there are predominantly notes, not the biblical text, I just plain can't read the mass of medium gray text without a magnifying glass.

Didn't think to check Olive Tree Bible Software. Their digital bibles are superior to comparable Kindle versions and their software (for free) is also much better which, unlike Kindle, allows for a lot of customization. They currently have this on sale which personally, I think is a no brainer if you are interested in buying something usable. No doubt the sale won't last long but even if so, they do quality stuff and I'd buy this over a Kindle version any day. (I am not an Olive Tree employee BTW.)

164 people found this helpful

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David Frodin

Content is great, Kindle navigation is awful. Get a paper version

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2017

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I get lost in this book so easily because the cultural background info is so good. It took me an hour to get through Genesis 1. You really need a cultural background to read the Bible, and this book has more than I have ever learned in 20 years of church and Bible studies. My biggest issue with this book is the Kindle version is ridiculously hard to navigate. I want to click every note, but then it's impossible to go back to where you were. You have to remember you're in Genesis 4:5 (or Location 2768) and then go to the table of contents and navigate back. It's horribly unusable. I've ordered the hardcover for this reason.

59 people found this helpful

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LuvToShopAmazon

Inaccurate description in features section

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

I know this is a great Bible but I specifically bought this one because I wanted an NRSV translation with the words of Jesus in red. In the features section, it states Jesus's words are in red and in the Bible I received, they are not. If this is something that you are looking for, His words are not in red in this Bible.

15 people found this helpful

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Tom Holeman

Ink color ruins the whole book

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

I am an older reader and the print is just too light to be comfortably read. Content may be excellent, but why or why did you ruin it with the light print? I had planned on purchasing several copies, but after looking at the ink, there will be no extra purchases. I have told my friends about the light print and they all agree that they will avoid the purchase. Sorry, but it ruined the whole thing for me...and my friends.

119 people found this helpful

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Paul F. Stevenson

Best new NRSV study Bible in a long time!

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2019

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Physically this Bible has a sewn binding and a durable synthetic cover. The comfort print is a big plus (though it reads a little small for 10.4 and feels like a 9.75/10.0). Wish they did this in cowhide or better (which Nelson/Zondervan do in other study Bibles).

This is a wonderful resource on a pretty academic level. Yes a quality Bible dictionary has the same information. But placing it in relevant positions to the appropriate text is so h!elpful. Particularly for the layperson. This study Bible will go next to my New Oxford Annotated Bible. They complement each other.

They two editor's backgrounds reflects the positions of the notes and introductions. They both have a degree from a conservative Evangelical school and a Ph.D from a school in the critical biblical academic world.

8 people found this helpful

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Peter Avakian

Excellent resource to have - but the font size is too small and ink density is too light

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2016

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Prof. Craig Keener is one of my favorite writers, I really enjoy his thorough writings and well researched books. And this one is no exception, his and Dr. Walton's hard labor packed with voluminous and meticulous resource materials. I live overseas and took me around 15 days to get it. To my disappointment, the book is printed using extremely fainted ink and very small fonts. This made it extremely difficult to read. I really hope next print editions will this into account.

30 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Fantastic Study Bible for those thirsty for the culture and history of the OT and NT

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

God spoke...In our Bible we have the Word of God, but the words we read today are in a different setting than what our modern culture exists in now. This is an unique study Bible for it will take you book by book into the cultural settings that God spoke his Word into. A survey introduction of backgrounds of beliefs, of history and of cultures and how the Biblical World lived and believed in their day. This is a great introduction to the setting the world of the Bible was. Keener and Walton make this Bible more of a journey through the ancient and classical world and if you have ever been yearning for a culture and history enrichment of the Biblical World, start here. As I own both hardcover and Kindle, I have no problem with either. Yes the print isn't great with hardcover notes but my fifty year old Bi focal eyes have no problem reading and no complaints on my Kindle Fire HD tablet. Highly recommended

16 people found this helpful

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