Thursday, 26 March 2020

A New Study Bible: NIV Bible Speaks Today

Within the past week, a new study Bible has been released into the wild: NIV Bible Speaks Today.


You may already be familiar with the Bible Speaks Today series, which largely contains expositions or quasi-commentaries on each of the biblical books. The NIV Bible Speaks Today volume takes selected highlights of each individual volume in the series and edits them into a conventional study Bible package, as well as including questions for group or personal reflection. It’s a very good idea and the Bible itself is well produced. My faux-leather edition looks and feels lovely. I’ve always wanted a large ‘bendy’ Bible!

Why am I plugging this? Well, I was one of the four content editors working on the Old Testament under the leadership of Debra Reid (Spurgeon’s College). Our task was to read through the Bible Speaks Today books assigned to us to find the aforementioned selected highlights, edit them into ‘panels’, and then devise the also-aforementioned study questions. It was quite challenging at times, especially writing questions that would be helpful, but I enjoyed working on it and am pleased to see it published. In case you’re wondering, I worked on Leviticus, Ezra, Job, Psalms (jointly with Debra), Proverbs, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi—quite a few, really.

So if you’re on the lookout for a new Bible or a new study Bible in particular, or if you are a preacher or a small group leader in a church, I can recommend NIV Bible Speaks Today, and I do so wholeheartedly. (Apologies if the above and below photos are not especially clear, but at least you now know what Derek Tidball thinks about mould in Leviticus.)


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