ESV Study Bible coming in October 2008

I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss my growing excitement about the upcoming release of the ESV Study Bible. I attend Bethlehem Baptist Church (Moundsview Campus) in Minnesota and we have a large pre-order campaign underway. I picked up one of the brochures last Sunday and paged through it. The brochure had example pages from the gospel of John and 1 Kings. At first glance, the following caught my eye:

• Very useful charts, diagrams, and maps
• Section summaries provide an overview of each section, corresponding to the outline of the book
  
• Beautiful illustrations (the brochure showed the illustration of Solomon's Temple

The list of contributors and editors are some of the best. (Wayne Grudem, J. I. Packer, Mark Futato, Walter Maier III, John Piper, Kent Hughes, and many others) One additional feature I'd like to note is that all who purchase the ESV Study Bible will have free access to the ESV Online Study Bible.

Again, I'm very much looking forward to the release of the ESV Study Bible. The ESV tends to be my translation of choice for personal Bible reading & study. However, my ESV is a hardcover, ESV Classic reference Bible. This edition has minimal notes, so I find myself going to some of my other study Bibles (NIV Study Bible, Archaeological Study Bible) for additional notes and articles. I anticipate that these other study Bibles will get more "shelf time" after I get a copy of the ESV Study Bible. To see it for yourself, be sure to check out the Introduction to the Book of Revelation. and www.esvstudybible.org.