he long-awaited MacArthur Study Bible ESV edition is at the bindery right now. The completed books will be available from retail outlets within a couple of weeks.
Our friends at Crossway were kind enough to send me an unbound preview copy, fresh off the press. It came as a block of bound signatures, printed, folded, stitched together—with the pages untrimmed (as you see in the picture to the right). We have an industrial-strength paper cutter at Grace to You, so I trimmed the pages myself in order to have a feel for what the finished Bible will be like.
It's beautiful. Crossway printed two-color pages—black text and blue highlights. The maps, the layout, the paper, and the Smyth-sewn binding are all first class, making this the most durable and best-looking MacArthur Study Bible yet. The typefaces are especially easy on the eyes. I'm very pleased with it. I've been using the ESV for a couple of years, and I'm thrilled finally to have a copy with the MSB notes built in.
If you are already on the Grace to You mailing list, you'll be getting a letter in the mail shortly offering a free copy of the MSB-ESV hardcover edition. (If you're not on the GTY mailing list, you should be. Grace to You offers free resources every month. It's too late to get in on the free Study-Bible offer; those letters have been printed and will be mailed this week. But you can still take advantage of future offers.)
Here's a short video about the MacArthur Study Bible and how it came to be. Enjoy: 
09 August 2010
MSB ESV
by Phil Johnson
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23 comments:
Thanks so much for this. I have the MSB in both other translations and I have the ESV pre-ordered. I use this resource every time I study. Dr. John MacArthur through his audio messages, commentaries, books, and Study Bible has been the single greatest help to me in my growth as a Christian.
And I got to watch you cut it!
I've greatly enjoyed my MacArthur NKJV so I'm happy to read about an ESV version to check out. Thanks for the update.
When will this be available from GTY.org's store?
I think this smiley basically covers my emotions: 8^D
I hope this Bible goes on sale like the other ones at Christmas; we send all of our graduating seniors off with a new study Bible and the past two years it has been the cheapest Bible you can imagine...embarrassingly cheap. If need be I'll spring for the extra for this Bible, we need to show our high schoolers we take this Book seriously.
I love the ESV and certainly John MacArthur. I cannot wait to be able to have one of these bibles.
".. offering a free copy of the MSB-ESV hardcover edition."
Wow. That's really cool.
I have given Pastor MacArthur's study Bible for gifts to my employees.
I always encourage the reading of the Scriptures first, and even ponder what your mind is taking in, and then read John MacArthur's comments.
People have such an urge to simply read the comments.
But we need to have God speak directly to us first, I think. Then we can surely glean from such a pastor-teacher as John.
Thanks so much -- looking forward to this. I have a basic ESV Bible for reading, and the larger MacArthur Bible Commentary. This will be nice too, a portable all-in-one Bible with study notes.
Cheah! Yet another solid resource for those of us who prefer the easier "readability" of the ESV.
Thank you, Phil. (c:
Christmas comes early this year! I'm so geeked out right now, you have no idea!
I saw in the second video that the MSB was being translated into Chinese. I assume you meant Mandarin(?)
What is the status of the Chinese translation? Is it available?
Hello happy, happiness!
What grand news for a Monday!
~Annemarie
Phil - Is John still preaching from the NASB? Just curious.
Brian:
A few years ago he had to get a new Bible, and switched from the old school NASB to the NASU.
Pastor MacArthur makes a very big deal out of the Greek word for slave(doulos) in our English translations, even writing a book on the subject.
Has he addressed the question of why the translators of the ESV have intentionally mistranslation the Greek word for virgin(parthenos) in 1Cor 7?
I am left with a strange feeling that the translators were trying to make their doctrine of "no divorce for any reason" mesh with their interpretation of the "divorce clause" in the gospel of Mathew.
Could you direct me to something he has said on this subject?
Free hardcover MSB ESV + going back to college next week=Explosion of happiness. :-)
Phil, thank you so much for sharing this with us. I've gone through two NAS MacArthur Bibles and am fairly itching to get the new ESV.
By the way, I don’t think I received my GTY mailing for July. Would you (or anyone) know if that was the one where John offered "Forgiveness: The Freedom of Letting Go" as a two-part CD series? (That's the last one I remember getting.)
Anyway. Can’t wait to strut like a bandy rooster into church in a few weeks and watch every single one of my eight pastors salivate with envy. :-)
David Alves:
July's offer was a CD titled "Thinking Biblically about the Economy, Government, and Your Money."
Thanks, Phil! (Just remembered I got that one.) Yay! Soon my John MacArthur book library, filled out by several free GTY offers, will be complete...
Will the soft cover (imitation leather) be available right away too? I don't much care for the hardcover versions, too awkward to handle in a group setting.
I second the question that Impacted Wisdom Truth addressed. I've been waiting a long time for the Chinese version of the MSB (I'm very eager to hand them out to my Chinese-speaking family and friends) and would like to know when this will be available to us.
I've emailed Grace to Asia a while back about this and they replied that it would be out by July of 2010.
Of course, July has gone and past, so I was wondering if the Chinese translation has maybe been delayed or postponed...
Phil, I'm looking forward to this greatly. Is it the 2007 ESV text, or a 2010 update (hope so)? The Promo video by John MacArthur was edited just after he said it was the "best translation ..." What did John actually say there, a qualifier? This has been asked a few places with Crossway blogs, etc, and the question isn't answered. So you now see many websites reporting that John said it was the best translation. It's great, I love reading the ESV, but it isn't right to have that quoted if it isn't accurate. I'm sure the Lockman Foundation would agree.
When exactly did the GTY's letters go out offering the new ESV Study Bible? I'm still looking for it in the mail.
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