We live in a country where most of us are blessed to have easy access to Bibles, and we may have many more of them than Christians living elsewhere. I love being able to look at a new Bible and see what different features it may have. I was offered the chance to review this new CSB Study Bible for Women right after my teen Big Helper asked for a study Bible, and so I jumped at the chance to check this one out – and I am very glad I did.
I thought it particularly appropo that the cover and main color of the Bible is a beautiful aqua. Not that the color affects what you can learn from the Bible, but as it’s her favorite color, I appreciated that attribute more than I might otherwise. Besides, just because something is useful doesn’t mean that it can’t also be pretty, and this Bible definitely is.
My Big Helper was immediately excited about many of the special features in this Bible, and something else that I can’t wait to share with you. She’s been using it for her daily study time since it arrived, and we appreciate the sturdy hardback cover that allows her to carry it around her room and to church each Sunday.
The Christian Standard Translation is rather new to me. To find out more about how it compares to other translations, check out this YouTube video.
Now, on to the special features …
The ‘Word Study’ section is found on many pages of this Bible. It takes a word from that page and breaks down the meaning – from which language it comes, what it means with connotations in that language, where else it’s found in the Bible, and any stories or associations that might be made so that it can be better understood in context. Since many foreign words don’t translate well directly into English, this is a great feature to help the reader understand the meaning of a particular passage as well as possible.
The salmon-colored sections are called “Biblical Womanhood.” They may include word studies but explain further how a particular verse or passage relate to women. The information shared may include cultural or historical information, how the scripture is used by different cultures or people groups, or information about the original writing.
The yellow box above is for Doctrine, and these are found throughout the Bible. They often pull out a particular theme and share more information about it and reference other scripture.
There are many other charts, graphs, and pictures scattered throughout the Bible. One that My Big Helper is particularly appreciating right now is a sketch of the original Temple. She’s been trying to draw it to scale for her architecture class, and she’s finding that very helpful.
The first page of each book of the Bible are full of great information. There are special sections for the five Ws – who (by and for), what, where, why, and when – as well as an outline of the book. There’s also a timeline at the bottom of the page to help you put its origin into it’s proper place in history and to understand what else was happening at that time.
I have never been an expert in Middle Eastern geography, and the borders of each country have changed numerous times over the millennia. Add to that that each people group, city, and country have also changed names over the years, and it can get really confusing! I really appreciate great maps in Bibles for that reason, and the CSB Women’s Study Bible has really colorful ones. Several maps are included, for major journeys taken, land given to each Israeli tribe, etc. Topographical information is included as well as basic Biblical information, and information is clearly marked.
My Big Helper was very impressed with the index at the back of the Bible. She reads in many ways and is trying to determine her favorite way to structure her study time, but one of her favorite things to do at the moment is to choose a word or theme and then read everything that the Bible says about it. A good index makes that much easier, and she’s enjoying this one.
All of these things make the CSB Study Bible for Women a great choice. The pages are a great balance of scripture and additional helpful information, the colorful boxes make the pages visually appealing and easy to find each type of feature, and there’s white space available for notes. That’s not all, though …
My Big Helper was so impressed with this Bible and all of it’s features that she was reading all of the special pages at the front and the back – you know, the ones that tell you about how the book was written, published, etc. I’ve never actually taken the time to do more than glance at them and see that it takes a lot of people, work, and time to complete a translation; enough for me to think, “Good. That means that smart people are working together so that we, the readers, aren’t getting a single person’s potentially skewed perspective.”
As it turns out, however, we can personally attest to the amazingly wise and well-educated people who made this translation, and I am so very excited about this! It makes me even happier that this wonderful Bible made it’s way into My Big Helper’s hands.
My Big Helper discovered a friend’s name in one of those pages – in several places. It turns out that my friend, someone I’ve known for about eleven years now, has written the commentary for many of the books in this Bible! She’s the child of missionaries, grew up in the Holy Land, and graduated from seminary. She’s a pastor’s wife, mother, and, while she’s an American, she has the unique cultural perspective of having lived in the Middle Eastern culture and understands it in way that most of us never could. She speaks Hebrew and ‘smart’ doesn’t begin to cover it – she is wise beyond her years in ways that cannot be attained through basic education.
Knowing that she shared that wisdom in the pages of this Bible through the commentary is exciting to me. This Bible is more special to us, and the commentary even more rich and trustworthy, because we know the perspective from which it came.
All of that makes the CSB Study Bible for Women the perfect woman’s Bible!
And, I must say, isn’t it amazing the way that He works – to send us the perfect Bible for my woman-t0-be, just as soon as she asked for one?
To purchase your own, or to enter a giveaway to win one, visit here.
I received a free copy of this Bible from FrontGate Media. All opinions are my own.
