The Scofield® Study Bible III, NKJV (Indexed)

Great study Bible. Commentary and notes to help understand the scriptures.

First, just let me say that this Bible is of excellent quality. I find the binding looks good and feels good to touch. The type is comfortable to read and the thumb index is very helpful. Not all Bibles have that thumb-index and if you are as out of practice reading your Bible as I was, these will be very helpful! Especially in Sunday School class if you have a teacher who is very familiar with the scripture and likes to jump around a lot. I completely agree with Scofield on every point and every note. The doctrine he espouses goes hand in hand with the actual words of our Lord. Scofield excudes common sense when dealing with such things as the Creation (a very sticky point and a stumbling block for me in the past, but no more). Some might be offended by his Creation explanation, because he does not adhere to the 6 24-hour day fundamentalist view. This was one of the things that actually SOLD me on this Bible. Fundamentalists may not like this Bible for that reason, but it has been the answer for me. The New American Standard translation is easy to read in comparison to the King James Version. It is less contemporary than the NIV, but I find that the NIV goes too far sometimes in its contemporary language and robs some of the strength of the text. Not so with the NASB ... it's taken out all of the Thees and Thous and Verilys, but the urgency of the text is still felt on every page. This is not a Bible that has watered down Jesus' message. It does not take a "namby pamby" approach to your salvation. It clearly and emphatically tells you what is required of you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven ... one way and only one way. The Notes and insets are quite informative and helpful. There are some nice maps in the back. I highly recommend this Bible for those of you who had your religion educated out of you in one of our liberal institutes of higher learning. God bless you.

very sturdy

This genuine leather edition is truly beautiful. I have seen a great demonstration on youtube of the difference between bonded leather and genuine leather. Bonded leather may look similar when you buy it, but don't expect it to last. The newer imitation leathers don't yet have a track record, but I won't be surprised if they turn into a crusty rubbery mess after about 20 years. Still, I actually was going to buy imitation leather, the one with the zipper, in a local store. At the check-out I examined it closely after removing from shrink wrap and discovered the zipper was already damaged before any use. So, I decided to forego the zipper and go with something built to last. Regarding my choice of Scofield, I also considered Ryrie and the NIV Study Bible and others. I wanted NIV, so that limited my choices. I did not consider the Life Application Study Bible, because I believe it is important to understand the Bible and let the Spirit guide you in applying it to your life rather than relying on somebody else to tell you how to apply what you read. There are many other study Bibles geared to specific demographic groups or geared to new Christians which were not a good fit for me. Scofield promotes dispensationalism, which may be a plus or a turn-off depending upon your viewpoint. However, I do not consider myself a dispensationalist. I just want notes that hold to a very high view of Scripture. Ryrie and the NIV Study Bible are both very hefty books. I found that some notes in Ryrie were just stating the obvious (like a note in Genesis that explains what "livestock" means). These books seem to be engaging in the publishing equivalent of an arms race, but they are stockpiling notes instead of weapons. I feel like maybe when you have most pages with more notes than text, the notes may just become more of a distraction than a true study aid. Scofield follows a "less is more" philosophy and doesn't overwhelm the reader with useless information or become a crutch where the reader will want to consult the notes for every verse on the page. Besides the notes, the Scofield Bible has other features that are missing from some study Bibles, including a topical chain-reference system and a pretty good concordance. These are designed to promote the study of the Bible as a unified whole. Before buying this I was using a NKJV bible, but nobody else in my Sunday school class had that version. Most people had NIV, and I think without a doubt NIV is the most popular translation today. Scofield's original study Bibles used the KJV mainly because it was the most popular in his day. I won't even get into all the alphabet soup of various translations available today or the KJV-only debate. NIV is a very readable translation, but doesn't sound "dumbed down". I understand NIV is at about a 7th grade reading level, which is about the same as popular novels. It takes advantage of the latest scholarship, but it does not make alterations for the sake of political correctness. Of course, Oxford Bibles are of the highest quality. In this 2004 update of the Scofield Bible, you get some enhancements and reformatting which bring it up to the latest standards of Bible publishing. This includes over 60 in-text maps.

This review is of first impressions only(visually inspecting it & flipping through some books and chapters to read from.) Firstly & sometimes most importantly, who ships the Bible I got & who is the seller: Amazon for both. (Please look at that, if you don’t know that yet. Scammers get on here & sell knock offs or horrible quality items.) My Dad has a Scofield Study Bible in the NIV. So, I knew kind of what I was expecting but not the finer details of this Bible version since it’s a different than dads in that manner(I got the NKJV) the 3rd edition with the thumb index on the side of pages. Which I do like the index. It makes it so much easier to thumb through to find books quicker. It’s black/burgundy leather bonded, basket weave pattern on binding end of book… See Pictures attached. The red lettering is a must for me as far as Bibles go(I like to visually see when Jesus is speaking.) It’s smells like leather when you open the box or get close to this beautiful Word of God(which the box case is a nice feature to have to store Bible in but I suggest highly, that you don’t store it in the box case but leave it out for easy access, to get into the Word everyday of your life, that God has blessed you with! Weirdly, even the inside pages have a nice smell too. Not Chinese quality, for sure. Made in Korea. The bonded leather is nice & the basketweave “pattern” is really nice as well. The maps are colored which surprising detail & info(in my photo if the map1 that doesn’t show the color but the fine details of the region in different periods. Cons: •Not a lot of space to write in margins. Not a deal breaker but I wish there was a little bit more room to write. Personal preference. •The font size is small for us older individuals. Still need reading glasses in darker areas. (You can’t have everything perfect but for me this as good as it gets for what I need.) Conclusion: All-in-all, it’s a great Bible. Very satisfied on first impressions & thumbing through it. Im looking forward to digging into & changing over to this study Bible from the evidence Bible. If anything changes(as always) I will update this posting. But for now, highly recommend for the references, outlines, maps & ALL the useful information from those time periods, as-well-as the augmented sections that comes with the study Bible 3.

Excellent Study Bible (NKJV). Everything in one place.

My older one was smaller and easier to hold.

This is an amazing purchase. The print is comfortable to read and the material is durable. I sent the link to my sister and told her to purchase same.