I found this Bible to be very difficult to rate. On the one hand, the Byzantine lectionary is highly useful and some of the references to patristic interpretations of selected texts are useful. However, the rest of the Bible is basically junk and shows that the editors' are beginners in the Orthodox Faith who are still fundamentally "evangelical protestant" in their outlook and who have not yet really begun to understand the essence of Orthodox Christianity. The essay on the Orthodox Church is unnecessarily polemical and hostile to Roman Catholic Christians. The book introductions do not take into account any critical scholarship and are utterly useless. Previous reviewers have already pointed out a number of places where the notes do not accurately reflect good Orthdox exegesis. The morning and evening prayers in the back are a nice addition, but it is puzzling that those devotions omit prayers to the Mother of God and the the saints, thus downplaying the intercession of the Saints. It is also puzzling that the editors used the New King James Version when the Revised Standard Version is the official English translation for both the Orthdox and the Byzantine Catholic Churches. This reviewer recommends that Orthodox and Eastern Catholics use the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, as their primary study Bible, since it includes the complete canon of Scripture, has more useful, scholarly notes and is the official English edition of the Orthdox and Eastern Catholic Churches.

This book does a good job in providing commentary notes on Bibilcal passages with an Easern Orthodox viewpoint. The right amount of information is given. It assumes the reader has no or very little knowledge so as not to confuse potential readers, including new converts, curiosity seekers, or cradle Orthodox who have never really studied their faith.

It is filled with iconograpgy throughout and the end of the book has special sections in regards to Orthodox views, prayers, and doctrines. It is done in an easy fomat to spark one for further study and research.

This study Bible should be in any serious Bible students libarary regardless of religion. The views of the East have been often neglected by the West and the East has a rich tradition the West can learn and enjoy.

Up until this century it was taboo to put commentary into a Bible for fear that folk would take the notes and interpretations as if they were part of the Bible itself. Well, they were right! However, now everyone and his brother puts footnotes and explanations in their texts of the Scriptures, so now the Orthodox do as well. This is not THE Orthodox Study Bible (as reviewer Matt asserts above - and, yes Matt, you are nit-picking!), nor does it pretend to be. The articles and notes are intended to help elucidate the Scriptures and provide some introductory articles on Orthodox topics, but this is not a full-blown Bible commentary, nor a course in New Testament theology. The complaints of the critics tend to be essentially that it isn't enough. Well, then they need to write a multi-volume commentary to suit their needs. However, for the average layperson who's lucky to crack open the Bible occasionally, this fits the bill just fine. Remember, there is no "official" Orthodox translation of the Bible except for the original Greek. Thus, the NKJV is one of the better texts and the footnotes are there to make occasional comments as to translation problems and errors. No, they don't cover all the issues, but as I said before, to do that you would need a multi-volume Orthodox commentary that takes up half your bookshelf. Hopefully, at some future date, such a work will be undertaken. For now, this is a modest and well-needed starting point. +Fr. William Christ