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Old 03-10-2008, 10:02 AM
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Brother Tim Brother Tim is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Gainesville, FL
Posts: 864
Default The dangers with "Study" Bibles

The greatest danger with any "study" Bible is that it is not.

To put it more plainly: When one uses a "study" Bible to study, he no longer relies on the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to help, but instead gives attention to the notes written. You might argue that you are above that temptation. Very good for you. Judge yourself whether or not your eyes don't jump to the notes as soon as you see the footnote marker.

Secondly, notes in Bibles tend to have a greater value placed on them than separate works. The following is a true story:

My father was for about 10 years the Professor of Old Testament at the old Luther Rice Seminary in Jacksonville, FL. One day in class he was discussing a particularly difficult passage of Scripture, and was pointing out some of the challenges faced in the interpretation. At one point, a student stood to make a comment. He said, (paraphrased) "Dr. Keyes, the answer seems plain to me. It's right here in my Bible." My father said, as he often did when someone wanted to debate Scripture, "Read what it says." The student began reading the notes, almost as if they were Scripture. Everyone looked around at him, because they knew what was coming next. My father explained that if this student wanted to learn for himself, that he needed to get a plain-text Bible and put away his "study" Bible.

P.S. We left Luther Rice when they added the phrase "in the original manuscripts" to the statement of faith article on the inerrancy of the Bible.

Study Bibles have done more harm to the deeper knowledge of God's Word than much of the liberalism that is present in our churches today. Many of us have just become parrots of someone else's research and study.