which one?

[TipX4]

MacArthur or Dakes, which study bible would you chose & why?

 

[FreezBee]

MacArthur or Dakes, which study bible would you chose & why?

Hi TipX4 and welcome to the CF


If I were you, I would go straight for the real thing, a real Bible, not a study bible


- FreezBee

 

[justified]

Hi,

If you want a study bible, go with the NIV Study Bible. Macarthur if you MUST have one of the two you mentioned. I have Dake's, and the guy is insanely wrong.

 

[WAB]

Hi TipX4... have not been here all that long myself, but would like to extend another welcome.

Re the question... The advice given by FreezeBee and justified is good advice, and Dake's especially is horribly corrupt.

Rather than a study Bible, which after all will be filled with at least one man's ideas as to the meanings of Scripture, and most likely will support at least one doctrinal position that other true believers oppose, get a good reference Bible and trust the Lord to lead you into all truth.

 

[Selznak]

Hi,

If you want a study bible, go with the NIV Study Bible. Macarthur if you MUST have one of the two you mentioned. I have Dake's, and the guy is insanely wrong.

Good advice. Along with the NIV Study Bible, I would also recommend that you invest in a good systematic theology. Wayne Grudem's is excellent. Millard Erickson's Christian Theology is also quite good.

 

[daveleau]

I have the older Dake Bible that was printed in the late 70's. It has serious racist statements in its commentary that greatly surprised me when they were pointed out. These were edited out of later versions after Dake went to be with the Lord. The Dake is a heavily Pentecostal Holiness study Bible. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, just pointing it out if you are not Pentecostal. I grew up in a Pentecostal church, hence why I was given this.

Dake uses a ton of lists. As I have grown more mature theologically, I have found that a LOT of these lists are contrived. He is a Pre-Adamite man/ Gap Theory Creationist and uses some very poor exegetical study in his support of this idea. This is not a good study Bible to use as a primary Bible, IMO.

I have not used the MacArthur, although I have used his other writings, of which I found very good. Based on the suggestion above, if those are your only choices, I'd definitely say the MacArthur is the way to go.

Other good study Bibles in order of recommendation:
Thompson Chain Reference Bible
Nelson Study Bible
NIV Study Bible (my favorite, but many have issues with the NIV translation, so I'll leave that up to you.)
Life Application Study Bible (Superb)

As for Systematic Theology, that might be a bit heavy for the average reader, but if you decide to buy a Systematic Theology book there are few better than Erickson's Christian Theology that is mentioned above. It was my textbook in my ST course. Much better than others I read in my study.

 

[Jesusong]

I have Dake's on a CD Rom, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. And I wouldn't pick MacArthur's due to his anti pentecostal position. Like what was stated previously I would go for the NIVSB. Being a pentecostal, my first preference is the Life In The Spirit Study Bible.

 

[Blank123]

I've never heard of Dake actually, but just judging by what has been said in this thread I would have to say - if these are the only choices- I would go with Macarthur. I actually haven't heard a whole lot from him that I disagree with.

But I would actually prefer to read the Bible for myself.

 

[AngCath]

Neither.
Go with NIV Study Bible, Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV), Oxford Study Bible (REB), Catholic Study Bible (NAB). I have all of these and I would recommend any of these over the two you mentioned.

 

[PrincetonGuy]

I have in my home library more than 20 study Bibles, including a copy of Dake's Annotated Reference Bible autographed by Dake. I do not own a copy of the MacArthur Study Bible, nor any books by John MacArthur. MacArthur’s theology is very shallow and aberrational; Dake’s theology, while a bit odd at times, is much more Biblically sound. Do I recommend Dake's Annotated Reference Bible? Absolutely not! If you really want a study Bible, I would suggest the NASB Study Bible published by Zondervan.

 

[dcyates]

MacArthur or Dakes, which study bible would you chose & why?

I don't know if you (or anybody else) are still referring to this thread, but nevertheless, I'll throw in my two cents, as well.

Neither. Bible study is a long and labourious process that is always refining itself, like all other disciplines of study. One must always be open--but equally discerning--to other alternatives. The late, great philosopher-theologian Bernard Lonergan argued that, although objective truth certainly exists to be discovered, all our knowledge of it is inevitably subjective. We perceive truth objectively via our senses (such as, reading the actual words printed on a page), but it then must be interpreted by our minds (such as, then determining what is the intention of the author of those words). We thus must collect and array all the evidence available to us, arrive at a tentative conclusion based on the evidence, and then go about doing our best to further verify our conclusions. But as we go along we will in all likelihood discover new evidence we were not previously aware of that may either further substantiate our conclusions, require they be altered, or more drastically, abandoned all together in favour of new ideas.

All that being said, I honestly don't mean to seem like a Bible-snob, but while I have study Bibles, I very rarely use their respective tools or notes. I've never even heard of Dake, but whereas John MacArthur, Jr. is a good expositor of Scripture--and his 'commentaries' bear this out--he is not an exegete of Scripture--and his 'commentaries' bear this out.