study guides

I have given a lot of Bibles to my friends. Unfortunately, most will fall asleep after reading the first page. This handbook served as an excellent icebreaker. It has interesting historical backgrounds and informative general articles. The colorful pictures helped to keep the interest burning. Currently, I have a handful of friends who were successful in reading the Bible from cover to cover.

This is an excellent introduction to the Scriptures. Contrary to the other reviewer, I did not find this book to be liberal at all. If anything, it makes a determined effort to take a more "catholic" (universal) approach that avoids sectarian views. I heartily recommend it to anyone wanting an overview of the Bible.

I haved owned a number of Bible handbooks over the years, but this is by far the best of the lot. Certainly the new pictorial layout is the best feature of this new revision. The pictures are simply stunning. But a lot of other useful information is contained in the book.

Although there appears to be a liberal slant to whatever theology is presented in this work, I personally do not use a bible handbook to study theology, but only for a very general overview of the Bible. And in this respect, I believe that Zondervan's Bible Handbook is the best out there!