NIV - The Woman's Study Bible

This hardback, full-color version Bible has many special features. The Bible itself is in one easy-to-read font, and all footnotes and commentary are in another smaller font, making them easy to distinguish. Each of the 66 books is prefaced by an introduction explaining the title, naming the author, and discussing date, background, themes and outlines. Commentaries and charts are liberally placed throughout, with short biographies of women indicated by a blue header and descriptions of topics headed by a maroon stripe. Unique charts, such as “The Breastplate of the High Priest” in Genesis, “Musical Instruments of the Old Testament” in Psalms, “Women and Jesus” in John, and “My Identity in Christ” in Colossians, and “The Significance of Numbers in Scripture” and “Beatitudes in the Book of Revelation”, provide helpful, new perspectives. The viewpoint espoused in this edition is conservative and traditional. My careful reading of the commentary on 1 Timothy 2 drew me to conclude the commentators for this edition do not support females in the role of pastor, and the footnotes in Romans 1 and commentary at Leviticus 18 describe homosexuality as “deviant behavior,” “sinful lifestyle,” and “aberrant behavior”. The one jarring note I found throughout this edition is the inclusion of quotations in boxes by various women in the biblical text, the style of which in most books is used to highlight a particularly important point from that page. It was distasteful to me, and I think they should have either been omitted or placed in a separate section. This edition is attractive, informative and well constructed. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.