Bible Post #3 The Ryrie Study Bible KJV

I bought my first Ryrie Study Bible in August of 1997. I had liked how it answered a theological question I had been dealing with. It soon became my favorite study bible; I would take it everywhere and used it so much that by the time I replaced it, the bonded leather was peeling off. I especially liked the nice large typeface on it. Even when I didn't need to reference the notes I liked reading it for that reason alone.  It also has a nice set of cross references, a topical index, and much more.

In 2005 I replaced My burgundy bonded leather Ryrie with a black genuine leather one. I used that one regularly until I moved back to Pennsylvania from Louisiana and the moved again and it got lost in the moving. I still believe I have it somewhere so instead of spending the big bucks for another genuine leather edition, I bought another bonded leather one.  I figured by the time the leather started pealing off, I would of found my genuine leather one.  Well, I've had the bonded leather one for close to a year and still haven't found the real leather one.

I almost forgot to mention that the bible includes a DVD with the Ryrie study notes and several other works by the good doctor including Basic Theology. It also includes the NIV and NASB (1977 and 1995 editions) on a trial basis along with several of John MacArthur's commentaries. The software is Bible Explorer which is scaled down version of Wordsearch. There are also several free (mostly public domain) titles that you can download from their web site, in addition to the ones included on the disc. I wouldn't make the disc a major factor in buying this bible but it's a nice bonus.

As you can probably guess I do recommend The Ryrie. My main complaint is that while they publish it in the KJV, NASB, and NIV; they no longer publish an edition in the NKJV which has become My bible translation of choice. That being said, if you like one of the translations mentioned above and lean towards a dispensationalist point of view; then I would wholeheartedly recommend The Ryrie Study Bible.

PS The first page shows what happens when you have a nose bleed and are reading your bible!

My Bibles 1 The Classic Note Bible

I have over the past 15 years, become somewhat of a collector of bibles. I only have 3 or 4 (depending on how you count) in my collection right now but that's because I've sold, given away, or lost a good many of them.  I know I usually talk about political things on this blog but decided for a change of pace to talk about this hobby of mine. For the next few posts, I'm going to review some bibles I own.  I'm going to start with the oldest one that I regularly use. The Classic Note Bible.

I bought this bible in 2004 while I was attending Hyles-Anderson College.  It was the same type of bible that Jack Hyles used to preach from, though it had been redesigned to be smaller and easier to carry around then the one he used.  It is a plain black text KJV with one big difference;  It has a blank page beside every bible page with the exception of Genesis 1.  It is only made in Genuine Leather. The leather is kind of stiff which I am not a big fan of but it had held up well in the 5 years since I bought it.  It has two bookmarks which comes in handy if you are reading from the Old and New Testament at the same time.  Although Dr. Hyles was the co publisher of The Bible, except for his name on the front, and an introduction that talks about how this bible came about, it doesn't have any notes or commentary from him.  There is a bit of separation going on in Genesis 20 and Revelation 13.  Of course, the main reason that someone would buy this is for the blank pages, so they can write notes and sermon outlines.  I won't argue that it is good for notes, but I have found in my personal experience, that trying to preach a sermon from a two sided page isn't as good as just taking your sermon notes up to the pulpit with you.  I know Dr. Hyles wrote his outlines in his bible but maybe it was easier when the bible was bigger and thus, you had more room on the page to write on. (Though those editions are so thick, it would probably pull your back out to carry one very far.)

Do I recommend this bible? If you are someone that finds that his or her wide margin bible is still not enough to record their notes on, or you want to be able to write notes from sermons you hear then yes;  If you want to use it to preach from, then I would say no, unless you can find one of the thicker first editions on eBay.