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The Lutheran Study Bible


JamesN

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Have there been any further contacts with Concordia Publishing House about obtaining the rights to offer The Lutheran Study Bible? I've been using the Amazon electronic version with the Kindle Reader on my iPad and it's just a big pain. I want to be able to eventually use it on my Mac and my iPad in an Accordance version.

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I doubt that Accordance will be offering any titles from Concordia in the foreseen future. When the CPH and Accordance people met they were unable to arrive at a suitable business model.

 

I initially was very eager to have TLSB on Accordance. But, after researching it a little more, I'm not as convinced. Professor Brug gave this evaluation of TLSB in the last edition of Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly:

 

 

 

 

"Overall, this is a good study Bible that can be recommended to Lutheran laypeople as their best choice for a study Bible.

 

There are, however, some problems and weaknesses in a number of areas. In a composite project like this with many authors, it is to be expected that there will be some unevenness in the various parts. One sometimes feels that simple comments are being offered on points that need no explanation, while some more perplexing issues are passed by.

 

The quality of the archaeological sections does not seem to be up to the quality of the devotional sections. For example, in the discussion of Christ's tomb at the end of Matthew (p. 1651) the tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb are treated as equally credible sites. There is little in the archaeological and historical record to support such a conclusion.

 

In the comments on Judges (p. 403) it is said that the Phoenicians originated on the island of Crete and adopted Baal when they arrived in Canaan by ship. Cretan origin is widely (though probably incorrectly or over simplistically) attributed to the Philistines, but the Phoenicians are simply the surviving Canaanites as they became known to the Greeks. The myths of Baal are best known to us from Ugarit at the far northern fringe of the Canaanite/Phoenician territory from the 2nd millennium BC.

 

The comments on the death of Samson (p. 412) say that pillared temples like the kind described in the text have not been found in Canaan, but the well-known temples at Tel Qasile include this type....

 

Other exegetical comments are dubious. In the comments on 1 Corinthians 11:24 it states that the breaking of bread parallels the "breaking" of Christ's body. Paul does not draw this Parallel. It was generally the Reformed who emphasized a symbolism in the breaking...

 

One of the most serious problems is with 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. Much of the blame here rests with the ESV, which is seriously deficient at this point, in that it seeks to limit the application to husband and wife (the NIV is better in this case). The discussion of this passage in the notes is confusing in that in two different places of the discussion it says both that the topic is husband and wife and that it is man and woman....

 

Overall, in spite of some issues, TLSB is the best choice as a study Bible for Lutherans, especially laypeople. It should not be confused with Lutheran Study Bible, an ELCA study Bible based on the NRSV. The NIV/Concordia Study Bible based on the NIV is still more useful for some points. It sometimes has more on archaeological, historical, and apologetic issues. The Zondervan Archaeological Study Bible, based on the NIV, is useful for providing more archaeological background, although quite a bit of what it calls "archaeology" might more accurately be called literary, historical, and geographical background. Not recommended are the Reformation Study Bible, a Calvinist study Bible based on the ESV, and the Apologetics Study Bible, an Evangelical study Bible based on the Holman Christian Standard Bible."

 

 

 

Sorry for the long quote. But, I think it covers the bases. TLSB has some good devotional resources. But there are some archeological and exegetical points which are dubious---or at least debatable.

 

As for the ESV itself, in the Fall 2006 edition of Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, they reviewed the ESV. I'm attaching it as a zipped file, in case you'd like to peruse that too. ESV_Evaluation.zip

 

If there's any bible I'd like to see offered to us Accordance users from CPH, it's not TLSB. I'd much rather see the Today's Light bible available. It's a great devotional bible.

 

As far as Accordance stuff goes, I'm waiting for the Archeological Study Bible which will be coming out before the close of the year.

Edited by Outis
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  • 13 years later...

Reviving this thread to see interest.

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+1 for TLSB, as well as all Concordia resources.

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