Reddit mentions of ESV Study Bible, Personal Size

If all you do is read the Bible consistently and participate in the life of your church, you'll be far better off than even many seminarians, in terms of knowing Bible and theology. I mean that sincerely.

If you really want to go above and beyond, you might consider purchasing a "study Bible." These are Bibles that have explanatory footnotes to help you understand the text better. I read the ESV Study Bible as a new convert several years ago and found it helpful. I think the NIV Zondervan Study Bible is perhaps even better.

> Asking r/Reformed if you should be Reformed

Seriously though, I will echo what others have said here.

Your first priority should be finding a solid church that teaches the Bible, preaches the gospel, and loves people well. Being a Christian in this world is hard, and you can't do it by yourself. Denomination wise, in my experience, PCA is good, Acts 29 is good, and SBC churches are sometimes good and sometimes bad (I haven't been to a whole lot of churches. There are people here that could give you a lot more suggestions on this end). If you feel comfortable giving your general location, I'm sure someone here could give a good recommendation.

Study the Bible. You should only be Reformed if you believe it is biblical. I would start with the book of John.

A good practice I learned is that as you are reading a passage in the Bible pay attention to and write down:

-what it says about God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: their character, their attributes, and their actions in the world and their actions between each other.

-the audience, the time period: context, context, context is crucial when studying the Bible. The ESV Study Bible really helps in this as it gives all the historical and contextual information about each book in a couple of pages before each book

-direct commands that are given and just as importantly, to whom they are given.

There are many great commentaries that are online that you can reference to help you. John Calvin has a commentary. Matthew Henry's commentary is really good. Charles Spurgeon has a sermon on every passage in the Bible. John Piper's website Desiring God probably has a sermon on every passage in the Bible. There is an endless supply of solid material that can help you in this, but I would caution you to keep the focus on the Bible itself.

Joining a solid, local church, however, would help you the most in learning about the Bible.

Edit: Also, begin to pray regularly. Pray about these things and any thing that worries you or anything that you are thankful for. Praying can be hard, I still struggle with it myself even after being a Christian for ten years, but reading the Bible and getting involved in a church will help you in this as you learn more about who God is.

The Crossway ESV Study Bible is lovely.

Very happy to hear this, my friend!

As a few others have already stated, reading the Bible with an inquisitive mind is a good start. You may need some advice on translation and what books to check out first, so I've provided my opinion below:

• Regarding translation, there are two types: "word for word" and "thought for thought." The former is more accurate to the original Hebrew/Greek, while the latter is meant to be more comprehensible to a modern audience. If you want "word for word," then I and many others -- including Bible scholars -- enjoy the ESV (English Standard Version). It's a modern translation that's both precise and clear. The NKJV (New King James Version) is also a good "word for word" translation, and it comes on free YouTube audiobook. If instead you want "thought for thought," I'd suggest the NLT (New Living Translation). It's the only "thought for thought" translation I'm familiar with that doesn't seem to regularly distort the text on the finer points. You can access nearly every translation for free on the website Biblegateway.
  
  
• Next, once you have your translation, you need a reading plan. I strongly recommend starting with the Gospels. There are three "synoptic Gospels" (the word synoptic comes from the Greek synoptikos, meaning "able to be seen together"). These three are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The synoptic Gospels each tell the story of Jesus from a relatively similar perspective, but differ in various details (like writing style, emphasis of themes, the recording of Jesus' parables, etc.). Then there is the fourth Gospel, John, which takes a totally different and unique perspective from the synoptics. Therefore, you should start by reading one of the synoptics (Mark is a good choice) and then read John, to familiarize yourself with the heart and soul of Christianity: the story of Jesus Christ.
  
  
• After this, I suggest you read some of the "Epistles," found in the NT after the Gospels. These are letters -- sometimes addressed to a specific person, other times addressed to an entire church or community -- that Jesus' Apostles wrote after His death. They give greater depth, detail, and clarity into the teachings of Christ and Christianity. Most of them are quick reads, but at the same time, packed full of meaning. In no particular order, I suggest you check out, especially, the following Epistles: 1 John (pronounced "First John", different from the Gospel of John but same author); Romans; Ephesians; 2 Corinthians ("Second Corinthians"); 1 Peter ("First Peter"); and James.
  
  
• You can also choose to read Acts, which is the historical account of what the Apostles did after Jesus' death and resurrection (and offers insight into how Christianity went from a tiny community of Jews living in first century Judea, to more than 2 billion believers worldwide).
  
  
• At any time during this process, you can "take a break" from the NT and go to the OT. The OT is further removed from modern-day and thus, naturally, will sometimes be more difficult to decipher -- but it gets easier the more you go at it! In the OT, I would suggest first checking out the Psalms (absolutely beautiful Divine poetry), Genesis (the account of creation, Eden, the fall, the flood, Abraham, etc.), and Proverbs (a collection of short statements of powerful wisdom).
  
  
• When you feel comfortable, consider finding a church nearby to attend, so as to surround yourself with a community who can help you on your path. Also -- again, when comfortable -- consider praying. Prayer need not be complicated; it can be as simple as talking to God about how you're feeling.
  
  This should be enough to keep you occupied for a little while. :)
  
  There is also an excellent YouTube series called "Read Scripture" by the channel The Bible Project. It's a collection of 8-12 minute illustrated summaries of each book of the Bible. I find them incredibly well-done, easy to watch, and insightful. I'd recommend using this as a tool. Here is a link to their NT playlist and here is a link to their OT playlist. (You can also consider purchasing a Study Bible, which has footnotes from Bible scholars helping to clarify the text -- I personally own and enjoy the ESV Study Bible from Crossway.)
  
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  TLDR:
  
  Translation: ESV or NKJV for precision, NLT for clarity.
  
  Reading List: (1) Pick one of Matthew, Mark, or Luke. (2) John. (3) Epistles [I recommend 1 John, Romans, Ephesians, 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, James, in any order]. (4) Acts. (5) At any time, take a break from the NT and check out the OT book of Psalms, Genesis, and/or Proverbs.
  
  Helpful Study Tools: The Bible Project on YouTube, the ESV Study Bible, and Biblegateway.com
  
  Next Steps: When comfortable, consider finding a church community to become a member of. Also when comfortable, consider simple prayer.
  
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  The Bible is the best-selling book (technically, library of books) in the history of the world, and for good reason. If you subscribe to the Christian religion, as I do, then it represents nothing less than the all-powerful God of the universe's personal revelation to mankind. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16). God loves you without limit, in your best of times and worst of times, and desires deeply to have a relationship with you through Christ. "[Jesus said,] 'Abide in Me, and I in you. . . . As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love.'" (John 15:4,9). This relationship of love can utterly transform your life, as it has my own.
  
  And frankly, even if you're not a Christian, the Bible is still packed with wisdom, value, comfort, and even entertainment (I would love the stories regardless of whether I was a Christian).
  
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  That's all I can think to say for now. Please feel free to reach out to me by PM if you ever have any questions (even if you need to 'save' this comment for future reference just in case)!
  
  "[Jesus said,] 'Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.'" (Matthew 7:7)
  
  Thanks for reading and God bless you.

> I also don't have any kind of formal theological background to more deeply understand the text

A study version will help. They can be pricey, but tend to be a lot more dense and have extensive notes that lend context to the verses.

Crossway's ESV Study Bible is pretty reasonably priced and most chapters have an introductory footnote giving a high level discussion on their content, as well as more detailed introductions to each book.

I'm sure your Church should be able to help point you to other study bibles they can recommend or loan.

ESV Study Bible is really great commentary wise:

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Bible-Personal-Size-Bibles/dp/143353083X

I think the only 2 things that there may be some contention over is women in ministry and homosexuality (of which they only really present one side of the argument.)

This is an excellent idea! find a church community you like and join a bible study. This will provide both a loving, encouraging christian community and a place to ask questions, search, and seek answers.

But as that doesn't strictly answer your question, online there is biblestudytools, which provides many many commentaries. On paper, the ESV study bible provides some of the more thorough discussion of passages I think. If you want a bit more advanced there is the The IVP Introduction to the Bible.

Seems like a pretty cool, from what it looks like in the passage you have shown us, it seems to be a more Hebrew and Picturesque interpretation of the bible! My personal favorite version is ESV, mainly because of the fact it is the translation for one of the best and widely known Study Bibles out there.

Could you possibly share another excerpt from it showing more differences?

Thanks in advance and thanks for sharing! Also hello everyone, my name is RennuR(if you couldnt tell), and I'm new to this community! I look forward to being a good contributive member, and make it my goal to spread The Great Commission and learn and teach about the Bible!

I cannot imagine that a publisher would intentionally omit chapters 1-13 of Isaiah just because…pocket size Bibles have been around for a long time, and they’ve been complete.

Based on the product description from Amazon, it reads like all the notes are present. To get the size of the book down, I’d expect smaller print and thinner pages.

Awesome. There are several different study bibles out there (one of the first ESV ones, for example, was the Reformation Study Bible); the one I have in mind is just their study bible, no theme. https://www.amazon.com/ESV-Study-Bible-Personal-Size/dp/143353083X

Edit: I'd say start with the Study Bible, and if you decide to camp in a book for a month or two, then go for a commentary. But first you'll want to read more of the Bible. I get as much if not more out of just a slow, slow walk through a book of the Bible (like, a verse a day sometimes) carefully connecting it to other parts of Scripture I'm aware of.