Best Study Bible Available: Tournament! 

lets do systematic theologies next

I made the ESV interleaved journaling Bible my every day reader about 9 months ago and I love it. Wish I had done it 10 years ago. Was inspired by your videos on Jonathan Edwards and your note-taking system. Thanks for putting out content like this, it has been a huge encouragement to me.

I've been loving these videos! I hope there's some way for you to continue them. I have a lot of these, and wrote down the ones I don't have to hopefully purchase at some point. I had a Hebrew Greek Key Word Study Bible for 25 years and I just loved it. I received a single column wide margin for Father's Day and that's my new EDC just for the fact of writing my own notes. Fantastic videos!

I’d say atleast the ESV is 2nd place. I read the reformation first, was blown away by the ESV.

Loving these tournament style videos!

Love this series! Hoping for a systematic theology and hopefully a commentary bracket. God Bless brother, thank you for all of your edifying content.

This couldn't come at a more perfect time. I've been looking for a good study bible. I was looking to pick one up this week and this helped immensely in making a decision.

Am looking forward to reading your Jonathan Edwards Study Bible!😊

That was fun😊. Before watching, I really thought you'd pick the ESV Study Bible as #1. It was interesting to hear your reasoning on each. My main bible is the Crossway ESV Wide Margin, where I store lots of info from other trusted resources. And my main Study Bible is the Reformation Study Bible. I do wish they'd put out the smaller double column one again.

Enjoyed the video! The ESVSB is my first choice, followed by the Biblical Theology SB, then the Reformation SB

Thank you, great to know I share similar preference with some small differences. I really enjoyed both tournaments. Keep them coming, how about commentaries and study tools? I’ll love to see that.

Man, the NET Full Notes had no chance against the ESV SD. NET FN would go further if not facing the ESV SD in the first round. Having both of those is a must in any library!

I bought a wide-margin largely because of your channel and I have loved it and benefitted so much from it! Very glad that it won it all-I would have been disappointed if it beat the ESV and somehow lost to another lol.

I think the new ESV Journaling Study Bible would be the champ if you had included that. I mean, amazing study notes + wide margins for writing!!! Can’t get much better than that!

Thanks alot Pastor, this was very helpful.

Ooo...I do agree wholeheartedly about the wide margin Bibles. I have many different types of Bibles...study, chronological, reference....but I've never felt closer to the Word as when I use my wide margin. It's just the Word with extra space for notes, and you know what? I highlight, take more notes, and write my own references so much that I actually memorized the Scripture! I think you're 100 percent correct, pastor.

I love the outcome Pastor Matthew. The reason is solid!!

Currently using the ESV wide margin, had one of the early inductive used the method though it. Then got another and used it for personal deep study . But I’m hooked on the plain simple wide margin .

For me you nailed it. Watching this has prompted me to order the NET Full Notes Bible, alongwith The Thompson Chain Reference Bible (which I have already). Backed up by the KJV, I will execute my Bible study using those editions with the NKJV Cambridge Wide Margin Bible as my go to notes Bible. Hope that makes sense...

I’ve used MacArthur, Wiersbe and Charles Stanley Life Principal… my favourite of these three was Charles Stanley’s😊

I have read Spurgeon’s and I agree with you…it’s light on Spurgeon..was hoping there would be more of his notes in it

What this shows to me is how blessed we are to have so many good translations of The Bible and notes/thoughts of past Godly theologians. I have no excuse to not read and know God's Word.

Now I need to figure out what "reformed" & all that other stuff means.

My favourite study bible is the NKJV Study Bible, but I also love the Scofield and the Ryrie. Greetings from a German brother.

My top 3 would be: Thompson chain; Dutch Statenvertaling 1637 (with sidenotes); KJV Reformation Heritage. The book overview section in the Thompson is very good. Especially for the major prophets.

Thank you Matthew, i looked into the Wide Margin Bibles, and almost got one but chose the ESV Journaling Study Bible, it appears to give more room for notes, plus some notes and maps and stuff!! It would be hard for me to choose between Sproul and Beeke!!

The main issue that the ESV SB has wrong with it is that they need to update the maps to have more contrasting colors. The various shades of pale green are really hard to see in some of them. Holman kills it with maps in their study bibles. I love the ESV though.

YES to your choice of the champion. Great Bible for the serious student of Scripture!

Love the tournament videos. Not that’s it too surprising bc I know where your preferences lie, but felt like NIV got excluded hard here. Both the NIV Study Bible and NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible are both absolute top tier general purpose Study Bibles imho. Other than that, Filament Bibles are cool/unique, pretty good study content but all digital so your Bible itself stays low profile. And lastly I’d mention the Open Bible, which I think is a great “light” Study Bible with helpful targeted content for newer believers. As far as specific topical references go, was sad to see Archaeological Study Bible get smacked down so quickly. Another good one in that vein is the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Finally, I admit I love my Scofield, but more as a piece of history than anything else. :)

I love the T shirts…just wished they shipped to Canada!

A great study bible that is checking up and getting is the "NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible" (previously known as the NIV Zondervan Study Bible). The general editor is D.A. Carson, with many renown scholars like T.D. Alexander, Douglas Moo, Jay Sklar, Iain Duguid, participating in as contributors and also articles from Tim Keller, Kevin DeYoung. Most of my favourite reformed leaning study bible like reformation SB and reformation heritage SB (or broadly calvinistic one like ESV SB) is a little more "systematic" in approach in the study note. This one is more "biblical theology" in approach, tracing the biblical theme as you unfold the redemptive history of the Bible. It has a little calvinistic, complementarian leaning (though not as strong in reformation SB, or even ESV SB) since the focus is not so much on systematic theology but nonetheless it is still useful. That said, my top 4 probably comes in this order (man, this is tough! I like them all and do possess them in my personal library): (1) Reformation SB (2) ESV SB (3) Reformation Heritage KJV (I'm more of ESV than KJV fan) (4) NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (just introduced above). I put reformation first before ESV SB simply because I'm a reformed presbyterian and on certain places (like sabbatarian view, covenant theology), it takes a more decidedly confessional reformed standard then ESV SB (which allows for a more calvinistic evangelical position but not decidedly confessional and reformed), but still love how ESV SB allowing and explaining a range of theological positions on certain issues, and when it comes to illustrations, it certainly has a leg up against Reformation SB. I love the "private/family worship" section at the end of each chapter in reformation heritage, and how its articles are adapted from traditional reformed sources like the Institute by John Calvin, but nonetheless I'm a more ESV guy. The Biblical theology, while being a little more "vanilla" conservative evangelical position, nonetheless offers something unique that most calvinistic leaning study bible don't offer and I also highly recommend it (you can't go wrong with D.A. Carson!).

Hi Mathew I'm a new subscriber, I think your channel is so helpful that we need on these days. Do you have a study bible video of or a comment on Genesis chapter 6, very controversial chapter for many but I want to learn more about it. Keep the great work you doing.

These videos are great.

You should do this for hymnals and prayer books. Also I'm surprised the Geneva didn't show up.

Can you do this for each genre of Christian books (Theology, Christian Living, Apologetics, Devotional, etc.)? Thank you Pastor.

Entertaining and informative. Some comments: (1) A couple of omissions that I like: CSB Study Bible, NIV Grace & Truth Study Bible. (2) Many people have a preferred bible translation, and it would be helpful to have separate brackets, each focused on one particular translation. With a separate category for "specialty" study bibles, such as chronological study bibles, archaeological study bibles, chain reference study bibles, etc. (3) A drawback to making notes on wide-margin bibles -- the reader must commit to using the same bible over many years, thereby passing up opportunities to upgrade to new improved editions of the same study bible or to other newer study bibles that come on the market. As an alternative to making handwritten notes in the margin of one bible, put the notes in a word processing file sorted by bible book, chapter, and verse. This will allow: more room for notes, notes from reading different bibles, and electronic searches of your notes. Thanks for all that you do Matthew, I have learned a lot from you channel.

I enjoy the Henry Morris study bible , I think you would enjoy it.

My professor, ARP minister Dr. William B. Evans at Erskine College, was a contributor to the Reformation Study Bible.

I purchased a Reformation Study Bible when it first became available. As a high Calvinist Baptist my only criticism is that I wish the study text was three times more extensive and that the concordance was also much more extensive. As a person who likes commentaries, I think an ideal study bible's notes would include more extensive notes than are typically found in a study bible. For a Christian well-schooled in sound doctrine I would also recommend the Dake's Annotated Reference Bible. Theologically it has a lot of serious problems, but I think it is good for reformed Christians to understand what other Christians believe and this bible does a great job presenting what Arminian dispensationalist Christians traditionally believed. It does also occasionally include some interesting incites that are worth pondering even if the reader subsequently rejects them.

Is your ESV wide margin a reference edition? And what is the isb #?

I have to say, the Nelson NKJV with double-column, wide-margin, and center-column references is, in my view the best. The NKJV is the "bridge" between the two textual lines from which we get the New Testament. But having said that, I also own at lest twelve other mainstream translations, including those in this video.

How can a Bible win as a Study Bible Champion that is not technically a Study Bible? I understand why you included it --but any Bible we use is then a Study Bible. In what most of us use as a definition of Study Bible--a wide margin without Study Notes technically does not meet that definition. My Champion of those you allowed in this tournament would have been the ESV Study Bible, Thompson Chain as the true third and the Life Application being the runner up. You probably could have a whole tournament of wide margin and Journaling Bibles and pick a winner...but I think you've already played your hand and the Aquila would win there too. LOL

Between the reformation and ESV what do you recommend for someone reading through the Bible for the very first time? I am reformed and use the reformation SB but we have started a little study at work with all different backgrounds of people and a couple who are going through the Bible for the first time and I was wanting to give them a study Bible to help them through. I am very biased to reformed theology and was going to get the the reformation SB but I don’t want to shove my bias on them so was thinking the ESV?

Pastor Everhard might like the amillenial notes in the Defending The Faith study Bible by Apologetics Press.

I would go with you but for parkinson's writing free hand what a miss I'd make, I have a NKJV wide margin, and cann't us it. Have lots of bibles in logos but us notes more in it. Thanks for all you the share! But the Reformation Study Bible would take it hands down, with me.

In attempting to deepen my roots while narrowing resources BOT Westminster Standards have taken 1st place thanks to outside imput. Time for a tournament?

My top three are Reformation Study Bible, Reformation Heritage Study Bible and the Geneva Bible

There is nothing wrong with your final four. My experience was different, however. I'm 63 and never even heard of a wide margin bible until I was in my late 40s. I messed up a double of good bible by underlining and writings notes in the small margin, so I quit doing so in my mid 30s. However, I did use the KJV Thompson Chain beginning when I was 25. Now, I use the very new NKJV Thompson Chain with Comfort Print. So, I'd set up the tree so that my final four are the: 1) NKJV Thompson Chain 2) KJV Reformation Heritage Study Bible. 3) ESV Study Bible 4) Reformation Study Bible Why, pray tell, would I put the Reformation Heritage Study Bible ahead of the Reformation Study Bible when R C Sproul was the one who got me looking at Reformed doctrine in the first place? Well, it always bothered that the Reformation Study Bible didn't have the scripture references for the Confessions and Catechisms. They are even more important to me with Scripture references than theological notes. Add that with the Family Scripture Study notes, and I have my desert island Bible. That Westminster Large Catechism with Scripture references never gets old. I prefer using notebooks for my personal notes on scripture than a wide margin. So, your list may be better than mine. However, my list works perfectly for me. Lastly, in my teens and twenties I read quite a bit of Science Fiction, as well as Tolkien, and including C. S. Lewis. It seems like the future has become very Dystopian. So, its excellent that you are promoting those particular novels like 1984 and Animal Farm and etc.

So, based on both tournaments, the KJV wide margin is the way to go! Difficult to disagree. I would add, the NLT Illustrated Study Bible is a wonderful, wonderful Study Bible, minus the wide margin.

No cultural Backgrounds SB?

I know this might be unpopular to those of you here but my favorite study bible so far is the MacArthur Study Bible, 2nd Edition. I have it in NASB translation and also in Brown Premium Goatskin. The design of the Bible is really really beautiful (the best one I've had so far) and the notes/commentaries inside are so thorough and rich in theology. However, I do agree with Pastor Matt here that I am not on par with Dr. MacArthur's theological viewpoints on dispensational premillennialism. I am also slightly more charismatic (consider myself a careful continuationalist like John Piper) than most of the reformed people so his cessationalist view don't line up well with mine either but regardless of these two minor theological differences, I have benefited a lot from Dr. MacArthur's study notes so far and I love how he had notes on almost all the verses in the New Testament which is what I primary focus on during my personal bible study. EDIT/UPDATE 8.4.23: I just got the Reformation Study Bible (w/ Seville Cowhide cover) and the contents are so rich and awesome! Definitely worth it! The only downside is that the layout and design are not as well done as the MacArthur Study Bible (premium version) but other than that, I am loving it!

Love ya brother, but MacArthur study Bible should have at least made it to the finals 😊

I like these tournaments things. Please keep doing them, they're very enjoyable. That said, I think the whole Wide-margin Bible inclusion was kind of a cop out. You could have prefaced what you were going to say about it without having it corrupt the results of the whole thing. I was very interested to see the Reformation Study Bible go up against the ESV Study Bible, but alas, this did not happen due to you including the Wide-margin option. Still was great fun to watch, but the wide-margin inclusion kind of ruined it for me, to be perfectly honest.

So I watch your tournament on translations and I was surprised that you went with kjv and not your workhorse the esv. I agree with your choice by having the kjv as the winner, with that being said, your logic on the study bible winner escapes me. My own personal study bible winners our: 1. Reformation study bible 2. J.M study B. 3. Esv study bible 4. Reformation study B. 5. Thompson Chain-Reference 6. Henry morris (surprised that wasn't in your bracket) 7. John wesley study bible Holy living nkjv. All in Good fun. Peace unto you and Godspeed.

Good morning Matthew. My two study Bibles are a Nelson KJV and a MacArthur NASV. Both are pretty good, and I use both finding one thing lacking...I want more maps! Can you suggest a good study Bible with more, or even the most maps?

There are times you did not really compare similar study bibles head to head? eg I think you would have been better served to put the NET up against something different?

Would you give the CSB a closer look , I think you have missed it a bit on that one

Was this was a SB tournament, or a wide-margin Bible competition? Not having the ESV SB in top two is almost worthy of being Matthew 18'd. 😅

This was fun. However, I guess your criterion for choosing, in a ranking of study bibles, a non study bible (ESV Wide Margin) over the ESV Study Bible (for many the best study bible today), could not be useful for someone who is looking for a 'study bible.'

Have to say i think that the Reformation Heritage is by far the best, although I also use Reformation Study Bible NKJV a lot as well. I think RH cant be beaten for its combination of pastoral care and rigorous theology.

I would like you to help me...... there's a study bible that am looking for and I think you can help me to find one......am in Africa Zambia

Before watching my prediction is that the ESV SB will win over the Reformation SB from Ligonier. Let see if I'm right.

I enjoyed it like most of your stuff however I think it would have been better to do a Reformed version then Non-Reformed and then Neutral/New Christian. I say this because of the many study bibles that where excluded such as the Grace and Truth (leans Ref) Wesley (duh) He/She reads truth (kinda middle) and Apologetics study bible. Plus most translations have a publishers translation study bible ex NASB KJV NKJV NIV CSB.

It's not the Jonthan Edward's study bible!?! Haha I am joking stoked for it to come out though!

Assemblies of God minister here! Out of all of those Bibles, I own a Thompson Chain, Life Application, ESV SB, Key Word, and NET Full Notes. I would rank them in that order. Thompson is near to my heart bc I had an old NIV TCR that never left my side for 6 years until it had to be taped together and the cover fell off and I gave it to my daughter. I like the Life Application as a change of pace from all the deeper theological study I do, I love Greek so the KW and NET are good for that and I differ in some places from the opinions in the ESVSB and I’m more of a NKJV guy now but it’s still a breathtaking SB! MacArthur and scofield are a hard no for me lol. Great video!

Part company with you re: ESV. I would place it first (in this video's treatment) with no reservation. Reformation second and Aquila not in sight. I have a notebook, and a wide magin ESV that are helpful, I dont understand how a wide margin Aquila is ranked. Is there a personal reason you esteem it so highly? I think it might be best to think about study bibles in differing categories, such as general / comprehensive (ESV, Reformation), early Chruch / Church history (Ancient faith, etc), cultural / archeological (cultural backgrounds, archeological, etc), theological point of view (MacArthur, etc), translational (net full notes) because in reality no study bible can do everything and still be in a single volume, yet to really immerse into the Bible, we may need both the basics and key inputs in various domains. Maybe I'm saying there isn't a best study bible but there may be preferred ones amoung various categories.

Great series. My first study Bible was a Ryrie NKJV given to me on my 13th birthday. However [prepared to be stoned as a heretic] for the last 15+ years I have been entirely digital using Pocket Bible from Laridian. This takes the concept of the wide margin study Bible and elevates it to the stratosphere…as my notes on a singular verse often now reach multiple pages of printed text! God bless!

The Ancient Faith Study Bible (CSB) is awesome.

I say go Dakes or go home. Seriously, though, I'm not a fan of Study Bibles for daily use as I was gifted a New Geneva Study Bible (I'm old) in seminary and found myself immediately going to the notes rather than meditating upon the text. That being said, the Wide Margin Aquilla sounds intriguing. I like the ESV Study Bible and usually see what its notes say in sermon preparation, but it's not what I read or preach from,

The CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible is my favourite Study Bible that didn't make this list. It has loads of scripture commentary from the church fathers and has plenty of articles and biographies from and about the fathers, as well as twisted truth sections, that exposes ancient heresies that developed in the early church and it has the Apostles and Nicene creed in the back. Anybody who's interested in church history needs to get this one. I would put it above the ESV Church History Study Bible personally. Another favourite that wasn't on here that I think is quite overlooked and underrated is the Apologetics Study Bible (available in both the KJV and CSB), that approaches the scriptures from an apologetic standpoint and it has tonnes of articles throughout, showing evidence for the Christian faith and addressing common objections to the Bible and belief in God and it has biographies on various Apologists and has twisted scripture sections, which address how certain scriptures have been abused over the centuries. It's a great one. My favourite study Bible on here has got to be the ESV Study Bible. With the huge amount of theological study notes, the book introductions and the lengthy amount of notes in the back makes this quite possibly the best study bible for theology-nerds, like myself.

So the video that pops up right after this “Still the best: The ESV Study Bible is the Greatest One Volume Library”. Thought that was kinda funny. 😅

When you say "Bible believing" do you mean that part where men believed, then were baptized, then received the Holy Spirit, leading people like Paul to logically ask question liked, "have you received the Holy Spirit SINCE you believed."

My favorites are: 1. Reformation Heritage 2. The Reformation Study Bible 3. Nelson NKJV Study Bible

💯❗ agreed! 🤟

Great tournament but amazed that the winner of the Study Bible Tournament is not a Study Bible. I despise writing in books, especially my bibles and that wouldn't have gotten off the first round. That's just me tho.

No NKJV 3 study Bible? I did not expect this to be skewed and biased. Schofield and MacArthur out in the first round yet we throw one in that doesn’t even exist?

No Ryerie? Cmon man! Lol

animal farm and 1984 sadly but what can we do but imitate the trouts pastor Matt

Haydock study bible ❤

The way you seeded these Bibles would greatly distort my actual feelings about a number of these study Bibles, but I'll still see how it would play out. Based on my own experience with them, it would go like this. Play-In Round: Chron. vs. Scofield = Chronological Lit. vs. [Bible that doesn't exist yet] = Literary Chron. vs. Lit. = Chronological The uniqueness of the Chronological Study Bible might help it to stay in the race for a while. The Literary Study Bible is a huge disappointment. There is so much that it could be discussing about the form and genre of these texts, but it says hardly anything. Where's Robert Alter when you need him? Round 1: Reform. vs. Chron. = Chronological Church vs. MacArthur = Church History Ref. Her. vs. Arch. = Archaeological Thomp. vs. Gosp. = Gospel Transformation Ind. vs. Life App = Life Application NET vs. ESV = NET Full Notes Key Word vs. Wide Marg. = Key Word NOAB vs. Spurgeon = NOAB It's heartbreaking to take out the ESV Study Bible in the first round, but the NET Bible notes are too unique. The ESV is an especially good example of a standard study Bible, but it's still a standard study Bible, so it's easily replaceable with a one-volume commentary. (So too with he Reformation Study Bible.) Specialty study Bibles have an edge for that reason; the one exception is when it's basically just a more expensive reference or wide margin Bible (looking at you, Thompson and Inductive). Round 2: Chron. vs. Church = Chronological Arch. vs. Gosp. = Archaeological Life App vs. NET = NET Full Notes Key Word vs. NOAB = NOAB The Church History Study Bible is well-intended but lacking (and rather skewed). I can't stand the Life Application notes: they feel like they're talking down to the reader. Round 3: Chron. vs. Arch. = Chronological NET vs. NOAB = NOAB True Third: NET Full Notes Final Round: Chron. vs. NOAB = NOAB This outcome was inevitable: the NOAB is the best study Bible on the market, whether we're talking about the older RSV edition or the more recent NRSV editions. The Chronological Study Bible's gimmick is neat, but its notes are too sparse. Setting aside the brackets, my top 3 on the list are the NOAB, the NET Bible Full Notes Edition, and the ESV Study Bible. If it were included, the CSB Study Bible would be a strong contender for fourth place.

Personally feel like the church history study Bible isn’t comprehensive enough to have that name. It’s not very comprehensive in who they represent. It does a great job representing the historic reformed tradition but a fairly poor job of representing Baptists and Wesleyans and to a lesser degree prereformation thinkers. I feel like if you call a study Bible the church history Bible it shouldn’t be so biased.

"Obedience is better than sacrifice" or knowledge which only puffs up. 63 years planting churches in Japan gives me this impression. Get on with obeying whatever version God shows you. Obedience is far more important than knowledge. ("Knowledge puffs up".) My Mother, a 33 year old widow obeyed 1st Timothy 5:14 and thereby bore 7 more children all of whom becme missionaries or supporters thereof. My 6 siblings' story is in "Good God:the Goodalls" Castle Publishing New Zealand Richard Goodall

Where is Dake's Annotated Reference Bible? Just kidding! 🙂

What no Dake Study Bible!? (sarcasm)

No.

I need to pause the video right away to express one thing. I can accept that this is a biased opinion but the MacArthur Study Bible has such a wide demographic being in several languages and shipped all over the world that I think you should've considered that before holding it back because you disagree with the Eschatology. Just my 2 cents. My predictions are 1) Wide Margin 2) Reformation Study Bible 3) ESV Study Bible.

With all the tools available to us today and hyper accurate translations such as the LSB, you come to the conclusion that the heavily flawed, old English KJV beats them all? Wow! Thumbs down.

The Scofield Reference Bible, the notes particularly, is a heretical version! That's my view. I am not a dispensationalist.

'promo sm'

Ridiculous

@TimWildsmith