The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas Nelson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Category: Book
List Price: $69.99
Buy New: $44.06
You Save: $25.93 (37%)
New (15) from $44.06
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 30006
Media: Leather Bound
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1984
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.1 x 1.8
ISBN: 0718019083
Dewey Decimal Number: 220
EAN: 9780718019082
ASIN: 0718019083
Publication Date: June 17, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: SHIPS from 5 locations based on your Zip Code and availability! (PA TN IN OR SC) *-* Gift Quality *-* Orders Processed Immediately! - We get your book to you Very Quickly! -L2353.52322
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The FIRST EVER Orthodox Study Bible presents the Bible of the early church and the church of the early Bible. Orthodox Christianity is the face of ancient Christianity to the modern world and embraces the second largest body of Christians in the world. In this first-of-its-kind study Bible, the Bible is presented with commentary from the ancient Christian perspective that speaks to those Christians who seek a deeper experience of the roots of their faith. Features Include:
- Old Testament newly translated from the Greek text of the Septuagint, including the Deuterocanon
- New Testament from the New King James Version
- Commentary drawn from the early Church Christians
- Easy-to-Locate liturgical readings
- Book Introductions and Outlines
- Subject Index
- Full-color Icons
- Full-color Maps
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 ortho-celt July 6, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
greetings, best translation ive seen. all the extra info really lets you see the story through diffrent eyes. im a new convert to orthodoxy and have really cherished the rich tradition that acompanies this holy book. i would recomend it to any christian who wants to learn more about how our faith developed.
sam
 An interesting study Bible June 21, 2008
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
I have found this Study Bible to be an interesting introduction to Eastern Orthodox Church theology and interpretation of Scriptures. It is easy to read and seems to be more of an introduction of Orthodoxy for Protestants than an in-depth study of doctrine. There are not as many notes as most other study Bibles I have used, but I found it to still be an interesting read.
A good starting place. June 20, 2008
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
I waited with great anticipation for the release of this new Orthodox Study Bible. I had previously aquired the New Testament Orthodox Study Bible from the same people, so it was interesting to see how they approached this new release. To be honest, I was a bit dissapointed, that is why I have rated this Bible with 3 stars. My main dissappointments came with the notes in the Old Testament. Where were they? Sure, there are some good notes there, but not half as much as I thought there would be. And even then when there are notes, there is not as much teachings from the Father's as I thought there would be. The same can be said of the New Testament. If you look at the number of pages compared to the previously released New Testament, they have cut a lot away. This was probably done with keeping the Bible page count down to a minimum due to costs. I understand this, but I was expecting a lot more really.
Also, you can tell sometimes that the translators and editors are converts mainly from the protestant tradition. This is evident in some of their notes.
However, after all is said and done, I think that the bible is a must have for all Orthodox Christians, in fact all christians. They have brought an English translation of the LXX - Septuagint - to the English speaking world. After all, the LXX was the most often quoted text by the Apostles and our Lord Jesus Christ. It was also used in the early church and thus kept in use by the Orthodox Church. It is a wonder why the rest of Christendom does not use this translation? If anything, it is a good starting place. It should be read in conjunction with commentary from the Father's. I recently bought what I thought was a better attempt to make accessible Orthodox Christian teaching on the scriptures, namely, the New Testament. It was from the Holy Apostles Convent in America. They have translated the official New Testament Patriarchal Text of the Greek Orthodox Church and bequeathed a wealth of foot notes from the Father's.
 Too little for too much. June 19, 2008
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
I don't own a copy, and probably never will. However, upon examining it several times I just have to voice my utter disappointment with the work as a whole. For one, the long-awaited Old Testament addition to the OSB is inadequate. It corrects "major" divergences from the Masoretic text, but you still get none of the subtleties that an actual translation from the Septuagint (the Church's canonical OT text) would render; and its many of these subtleties that the Fathers use to dive into the spiritual meat of the Scriptures.
The OSB had such a long period between its NT release and the complete release, and during that time the Orthodox community offered many many corrections, accessible online by merely googling "Orthodox Study Bible." None of these helpful critiques were heeded. To me, this is enough to create a presumption of willful, wanton, reckless indifference to the wishes of the Orthodox community.
Technical stuff is disappointing, too. Sure, we get little snippets of exegesis that are attributed to various Orthodox fathers and teachers-- Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian-- but there are no citations to the actual work being referenced!
Then there's the hype. We hear "finally we can know the authoritative interpretation of the Scriptures from the Orthodox Church!" This should not have been decked out with trappings of Orthodox Officialdom-- no local Church or synod has approved its publication or use.
But what are the alternatives for English-speaking Orthodox Christians? Several alternatives. First, if you want real patristic commentary, get a good set of the Orthodox commentaries on the Gospels by the Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria-- available from [...]. Several other works along this line are also available, and you get the in-depth patristic treatment instead of snippets. Second, if you want good translations from actual Orthodox texts, look no further than: the KJV itself (great for liturgical reading and based for the most part on the Byzantine canonical text), the EOB (Eastern Orthodox Bible) is available for free online which uses both the Septuagint and the canonical NT from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. For the psalter, I personally love the one from Holy Transfiguration Monastery because it's still in liturgical English, and is divided into the Kathismata. Also, it has the prayers for the dead in the back, for Orthodox who still care enough about tradition to read the psalter over their departed loved ones before burial.
My point with all this: you simply get too little for way too much money. Maybe next time we could have actual Orthodox theologians, monastics, etc., work on the translations and commentary, instead of the Orthodox version of Campus Crusade.
A good start June 19, 2008
6 out of 31 found this review helpful
The New Full Orthodox Study Bible is out. I first got my hardback copy in March. The quality of the paper isn't as good as the New Testament version that came out 15 years ago, but it's decent enough. I'm just happy that it finally came out.
This version of the OSB has a fresh English translation of the Septuaginet text.
They used a variety of texts as references. Such as, the Alfred Rahlfs edition of the greek text as the basis for the english translation. They also used Brentons british translation of the greek text as a reference. And they used the official Byzantine text as a reference as well. The Old Testament Masoretic text of the NKJV was used as a template. Meaning Thomas Nelson publishers allowed them to use their english wording of the Old Testament whereever the LXX and Masoretic text were in agreement.
It has 49 books in the Old Testament(about 3 more than Rome's) and 27 books in the New Testament. Because the Old Testament is the LXX the placing of the books are gonna be where they were in the greek LXX. Psalms has an extra chapter in the LXX and the book of Daniel is slightly longer as well. 2nd Chronicles(2nd Paraleipomenon) is longer due to the prayer of Manasseh.
4th Maccabees was on the table, but it didn't make the cut this time. In some versions it is in the appendix while in others it is included. Either way it is in both the Slavic, and Byzantine compilations. Hopefully next time 4th Maccabees will make the cut.
The New Testament is the NKJV and is mostly the same as the previous study Bible except for the addition of more patristic quotes, a brushing up of some of the commentary notes and an added liturgical reference marks.
The notes and commentary of the OSB emphasizes the major themes of the Christian Faith.
Primary attention was given to:
1.) The HOLY TRINITY
2.) The Incarnation
3.) The Centrality of the Church
4.) And the call to live a virtuous life
The Biblical interpretations of the Church Fathers of the first 1,000 years of the church was used as well as the 7 Ecumenical Councils. Also added was the liturgical and prayer cycle of the Church Calender. Certain scriptures are read during certain times of the Church year, and these are marked in the notes.
The preface shows a chart of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant old Testaments and it shows where they differ on certain points. The preface also shows the Patristic Fathers(They used about 49 different church fathers)
and councils they quoted, as well as their abbreviations. They also give a brief run down of the Old Testament of the Early Church and of each book in the Bible(Both old and new) after that it ends with a short description of Church History. Starting with the New Testament era and ending with modern times and the Orthodox Church today.
Over all I'm just happy that it finally came out. Hopefully the leather back edition will have better quality paper, binding.....ect.
The combination of the LXX and textus receptus makes it easier to trace some of the New Testament quotes. I know in my study of Romans
(as well as other parts of the New Testament...well except for the Gospel of Mathew, that Gospel was written in Aramiac first before it was translated in Greek, but most of the other ones should match one of the families of the LXX)
I noticed Paul quoting the lxx alot. Now I have a fresh english tranlation of the lxx to go to when trying to trace Old Testament quotes found in the New Testament.
Some of the criticism was valid, but to assume that all the criticism on the internet about the 1993 New Testament and Psalm version was valid is far from the truth.
Patristic commentary was added in this one because that was one of the criticisms.
JNORM888
|
|
|
