ESV Bible Blog

We’re hard at work on some new ESV tools.

Could you hop over to the Crossway Blog and let us know what you use?

Via Justin Taylor…

A group of 75 adults and students at Village Bible Church in Sugar Grove, Illinois spent Wednesday evening putting together 5,000 Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags (check out how they did it here). The bags include an ESV New Testament Christmas Edition, a Christmas tract by Max Lucado, and an invitation to celebrate Christ’s birth with the family at Village Bible Church throughout the month of December. Church members will be meeting at the church at 9 a.m. this Saturday and will be given a map and a box of gift bags to deliver to the homes on their maps.

But Tim Badal, Teaching Pastor at the church, got an early start, spending this morning delivering Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags to 100 of his neighbors. “My wife and son came with me and we prayed for our neighbors as we walked through the neighborhood,” said Pastor Badal. “Our church has always been known for our missions emphasis, which is usually focused on the ‘uttermost part of the earth.’ But the last couple of years we’ve been looking for more ways to become witnesses to the gospel in our own community. We believe this effort is going to get our church members thinking about their neighbors in a whole new way, as they prayerfully deliver the Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags.

“We hope that even if those who receive these Bibles don’t read them immediately, that the Bibles will sit around on an end-table where someone will pick them up and begin reading at some point—perhaps for the first time,” said Keith Duff, Shepherding Pastor at Village Bible Church. “What if only 1% of these Bibles are actually read by someone who hasn’t read God’s Word before? That would be 50 new people reading God’s Word! 5% would be 250 people!”

If you’ve been using the audio features of the ESV Online Study Bible over the past year, you may have noticed some strange blips and beeps in the recording, or verses that cut off before they were finished. We’re pleased to announce that our engineers have deployed a new back-end to the ESV audio which corrects these problems, bringing you a pure, uncorrupted listening experience. You don’t need to change anything to make this work, just keep using the “Listen” links at the top of each passage.

Learn more.

A few weeks ago, the Crossway Blog ran a series on the ESV Study Bible, one year after its publication. The intent was to honor God and give thanks for how this resource is being used by the church around the world. Here’s a roundup of those posts:

1. Behind the ESV and ESV Study Bible
2. Preaching the Gospel in the Philippines
   
3. Africa for Jesus
4. Biblical Leadership Training in Sierra Leone
5. ESV Study Bibles in Eger, Hungary

This series ended with “A Word from J.I. Packer“, in which Dr. Packer encapsulates why we’re so excited about this resource:

[The ESV Study Bible] is a study Bible which not only explains the texts and expounds them accurately, but it has in it a whole series of articles for the making and shaping of discipleship to Jesus Christ on the basis of the Bible. It can be, in a very significant sense, a single-volume resource for pastoral ministry, and indeed for personal life, because it’s doing the job which professional catechists have been doing ever since Christianity started—teaching people the truths that Christians live by and teaching them how to live by those truths.

Read the rest of Dr. Packer’s comments on his role in and his enthusiasm for the ESV Study Bible.

Trevin Wax recently interviewed Justin Taylor, Project Director and Managing Editor of the ESV Study Bible, one year after its publication.

He answers the following questions:

1. Has word of mouth helped the sales of the Study Bible since its release?
2. Are most readers of the Study Bible in the United States? What are some international readers saying about it?
3. What has been the most popular feature of the Study Bible for readers? What has been the most frequent suggestion from readers about the next update?
4. Are there any features that it seems like people have neglected in the ESVSB? Any hidden treasures?
5. How does Crossway plan on expanding the readership of the Study Bible in the future?

Read Justin’s answers.

Over at the Crossway Blog, the ESV Study Bible is currently featured in a special extended Trackback Thursday in celebration of the ESV Study Bible’s 1 Year Anniversary.

By way of reminder, if you’re looking for quick access to the ESV Bible on your mobile device, check out esv.org/mobile. Formatted for your phone, you have free access to the entire ESV text along with several Bible reading plan options.

The ESV Hear the Word Audio Bible is now available on Audible and iTunes for your listening convenience. Containing more than 75 hours of Bible reading, this is ideal for commuters, the visually impaired, or anyone who wants to download and listen to the Bible on their computer, Mp3 player, or mobile device.

You can also listen to the ESV audio for free, as long as you’re online.