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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with A
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The Access Bible, New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha (Paperback 9872A) |
Author:
Published: 1999-08-05 |
List price: $39.99
Our price: $26.39
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As of: January 06th, 2009 04:05:46 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Just Right--Not too "academic", not too "evangelical"
I have struggled for years with trying to find a study bible that didn't either drown me in seminary-level details or hit me over the head with fundamentalist commentary. The Access Bible fills the bill.
When I study the Bible, I want the latitude to decide for myself what a passage means "to me." The commentary in the Access Bible gives me enough room to think for myself. It does an excellent job at the beginning of each book in "setting the stage" and the commentary is block by block, not all at the end or buried in a ton of footnotes. Its only (minor) shortcoming is I would have liked to seen subheadings at the introduction of the major stories of the Bible, much like it does at the beginning of the commentary.
Excellent resource for basic courses in religion!
As an agnostic forced to take a religion course by his school, I have been extremely pleased with this version's commentary and treatment of biblical issues. It presents an in-depth, non-biased analysis of events from both a historical and a spiritual point of view. My college's RE101 courses all focus on different aspects of Christian doctrine. Some focus on Christian ethics; others on Christian history and characters; others on controversial biblical issues (racism, violence, semitism, etc); yet others are prevalently surveys of history and archaeology of the Bible as a piece of writing.
The Access Bible has something for everyone. The commentary is detailed, thorough, well-researched, and presents opposing views. As translation issues are also discussed in the extensive footnotes, the book is also a decent basic companion to courses in Greek.
Overall, a recommended buy for beginning and slightly advanced students of biblical history and tradition. The price is good, and for exceeding 2000 pages the book's paperback edition is surprisingly lightweight, which is a definite plus for students. :)
The Access Bible
The Access Bible is a scholarly version of the Holy Bible written in the New Revised Standard Version translation . It includes the Apocrypha, books that were not included in the original church canon, which broadens the depth of the familiar text. The Access Bible clarifies the language and purpose of each passage. I am involved in a Bible study at my church and the minister who is leading the study suggested the Access Bible as one of the best study Bibles available. I have certainly found this to be true.
 Great Study Bible
My preferred study bible has always been the RSV Oxford Annotated Bible (OAB). Its handy size, moderate scholarship, and helpful yet brief notes made it for me the best study bible available. However, even though the RSV OAB has now been superseded by the NRSV OAB, I've found the Access Bible worthier to succeed the RSV OAB than the updated NRSV OAB. Like the RSV OAB, the size and layout of the Access Bible are more convenient than the NRSV OAB and the notations are briefer and more mainstream in tone. I will go further and say that even though I prefer the RSV text of the bible, for an amateur student like me, the notations, essays, and introductions in the Access Bible are superior to those of the RSV OAB.
The Access Bible is billed as "an ecumenical learning resource for people of faith". This might lead one to think that it's a devotional, rather than scholarly, work. However, it is in fact primarily scholarly in the sense that rather than fostering devotion or teaching doctrine, the contributors aim to explicate the text along the lines of moderate to liberal mainstream scholarship. This means that the contributors, e.g. the notes for Hosea, are much more likely to sermonize about the dangers of patriarchy than the dangers of sin. The "people of faith" for whom this work is intended are primarily mainline Christians who are beginning bible students. If if that is you, or you can live with that, this is a very helpful work.
After having owned both the soft and hardcover editions of this bible, I find the hardcover so much more usable that I strongly encourage all to purchase it. A soft cover volume of this size simply isn't suited for the sort of use a bible sees. At this size, even a good quality softcover binding is too weak to be durable. Furthermore, with a volume of this size, a soft cover binding can't hold up the text block (i.e. the leaves of the book, rather than the cover/binding) on its own, forcing the reader's hands and arms to do the work that the binding should. This is why it's easier to hold a heavy-ish hard cover book for an extended period than a relatively light soft cover edition of the same work.
Wonderful study Bible
The Access Bible is the best study Bible I have found. The notes are basic enough that you don't feel like the notes should have notes, but they are scholarly enough that you feel like you have a good sense of the passage you just read. The focus is on things that are central and relevant, not esoteric and only interesting to specialists.
I particularly like the way the notes and text alternate, rather than using footnotes. I find it very difficult to read back and forth between text and footnotes, so have the Bible broken down into a portion of Biblical text and then a portion of notes works very well for me.
While the frankness with which current scholarship is presented might offend some very conservative readers (the Bible, for example, makes no attempt to pretend that Genesis 1-2 presents a literal account of creation and instead points out the differences between the two creation accounts), I think that there is something in here for most Christians of any denomination or theological persuasion, as well as for non-Christians seeking to understand what mainline Christian biblical scholarship and interpretation looks like.
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