Study Bibles for Beginners: Finding the Perfect One

Study Bibles are arguably one of the most important Bible study resources out there. A good study Bible can provide the necessary information for in-depth study without necessarily purchasing other Bible study resources.

But not all Study Bibles are created equal. So, let’s compare 7 different study Bibles and see which one is best for you.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read full privacy policy here.

	ESV Study Bible	NASB Study Bible	NIV Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible	NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible	CSB Spurgeon Study Bible	CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible	NIV Study Bible
Unique Features	Extensive notes and articles	Harmony of the Gospels, Timeline	Teacher’s Topical Index, Additional sidebars	Preaching outlines, Catalyst notes	Quotes and illustrations from Spurgeon	Biographies, Creeds, Twisted Truths	Icons in study notes
Font Size*	7.1(5.7)	8.5 (7.1)	8.5 (5.7)	8.5 (5.7)	10 (7)	8.8 (7.1)	8.5 (6.7)
Study Notes	Academic 8/10	Balanced 8/10	Pastoral 6/10	Pastoral 5/10	Devotional 5/10	Devotional 5.5/10	Balanced 7/10
Articles	8/10	4/10	6/10	0/10	1/10	4/10	7/10
Book Introductions	9/10	8/10	5.5/10	4/10	6/10	6/10	8/10
Handling and Portability	4/10	6/10	5/10	7/10	6/10	7/10	5/10

*Font size of study notes in parenthesis.

Key Takeaways: As a general rule, generic translation based Study Bibles are usually going to be better quality in terms of study notes and background information. Study Bibles connected to a pastor or teacher will be more geared to practical faith and application.

Best Overall: The best overall study Bible is the ESV Study Bible. Its extensive notes and articles makes it an invaluable resource for serious students of God’s Word. However, it can be overwhelming for beginners. That said, it’s one of the best study Bibles available today.

Check ESV Study Bible Price on Christianbook.com

Check ESV Study Bible Price on Amazon

Best For Beginners: The best study Bible for beginners is the NIV Study Bible. It offers a balanced and in-depth approach to the information it provides in the commentary and articles for those new to Bible study. As such, it makes a great first study Bible.

Check NIV Study Bible Price on Christianbook.com

Check NIV Study Bible Price on Amazon

Features Overview

Overall, most study Bibles will include similar features such as study notes, concordance, maps, and book introductions. The book introductions will include basic information on the author, date of writing, theme, and an outline. The study notes will further explain, answer questions, or offer insight on particular verses.

So what differentiates study Bibles then is their unique features.

The ESV Study Bible is unique and known for its extensive study notes and articles. While the study notes themselves are not a unique feature, the depth they go to is. This study Bible is like an encyclopedia of Bible knowledge. No other Study Bible will have notes this in-depth.

The NASB Study Bible offers a colored timeline in the front that helps readers to see the big picture story of the Bible and the world around it. It also includes a harmony of the gospels that helps readers follow the life and teachings of Jesus in a chronological manner.

The NIV Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible is unique in that it includes a teacher topical index. This index along with other sidebar information makes this study Bible a great resource for Sunday School teachers or pastors.

The NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible is similar to the Jeremiah Study Bible in that it is more pastoral. However, I found its preaching outlines disappointing and really unhelpful.

The CSB Spurgeon Study Bible is beautiful. It offers sermon outlines, quotes, and illustrations from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon. So, it can make a great resource for pastors. Given its nature, it does offer less historical and cultural background than generic translation based study Bibles.

The CSB Ancient Fatih Study Bible is similar to the CSB Spurgeon Study Bible. However, it focuses on ancient Christians. It includes biographies of early church fathers and saints as well as study notes from their sermons. This makes it unique and a great resource if you love church history.

Lastly, the NIV study Bible is more similar to the ESV or NASB Study Bibles. This is because it is a generic translation based Study Bible. As such, it provides broad historical, cultural, and linguistic background to the Bible. Overall, its notes and articles are easier to read than the ESV Study Bible.

Product Details

Let’s take a moment and look more in-depth at the product details of these Study Bibles.

	ESV Study Bible	NASB Study Bible	NIV Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible	NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible	CSB Spurgeon Study Bible	CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible	NIV Study Bible
Font Size:	7.1 (5.7)	8.5 (7.1)	8.5 (5.7)	8.5 (5.7)	10 (7)	8.8 (7.1))	8.5 (5.7)
Weight:	2.9 lbs	3.1 lbs	3.4 lbs.	3.7 lbs	3.6 lbs	3.1 lbs	4.2 lbs.
Size:	5.4 x 8.0	6.9 x 9.7	7.2 x 9.6	6.7 x 9.5	6.8 x 9.2	7 x 9.8	6.5 x 9.5
Page Layout:	Single-column	Two-column	Two-column	Two-column	Two-column	Two-column	Two-column

This chart clearly shows that the ESV Study Bible is smaller and as such, weighs less. This is because the ESV Study Bible I own is personal size. The rest are regular size. Thus, they have similar fonts and weights.

That said, I have found that the larger font size is worth the heavier weight and size. The font size on my ESV Study Bible is hard to read. So, I often find myself reading from a different Bible, then looking at the study notes in the Study Bible.

Study Notes

As a general rule, study notes in a study Bible will further explain, answer questions, or provide theological insight to a particular verse or passage. The study notes are typically found on the bottom of the page where the verse they correlate to is found.

In the Bibles that we are looking at there is going to be one of three different types of study notes.

Bible Background Study Notes: These notes emphasize additional historical, cultural, or linguistic information that helps make a passage or verse clearer. These types of notes are found in the generic translation Study Bibles (The ESV, NASB, and NIV Study Bibles).

Pastoral Study Notes: These notes focus on providing more pastoral commentary on particular passages. They are typically more practical and application focused. (Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible and Wiersbe Study Bible).
Devotional Study Notes: These are notes that come from sermons of specific people. As such, they tend to be more devotional in nature. (Spurgeon Study Bible and Ancient Faith Study Bible).

So, if you would be more interested in having a good study Bible for a quiet time or devotional, then you may want to consider the CSB Spurgeon Study Bible or the CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible.

And if you are a Bible teacher then one of the Study Bible with more pastoral study notes may prove useful.

Regardless of your background, a Study Bible with Bible Background study notes will deepen your understanding of the Bible. That said, the Bibles in this category can range in their depth of content. For example, the ESV Study notes carry a more scholarly tone than the NIV or NASB Study Bible.

One more point regarding the study notes. Both the ESV and the NASB are what is considered “word-for-word” translations. This means that they hold closer to the original grammatical structure of the text. As a result, they are often a higher grade level of reading.

So after reading the ESV study notes and how academic sounding they are, I was a little scared to see about the NASB study notes. I was pleasantly surprised. The NASB Study notes are easier to read and understand. This is because the NASB Study Bible is adapted from the NIV Study Bible.

So, if you are looking for a more literal translation with study notes that are still easy to read, then the NASB Study Bible is probably your best bet.

Articles

The inclusion of articles can be a nice feature of study Bibles. So, let’s look at the number of articles in each of the Study Bibles.

	ESV Study Bible	NASB Study Bible	NIV Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible	NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible	CSB Spurgeon Study Bible	CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible	NIV Study Bible
Number of Articles	50+	7	60	0	1	27*	125+
Article Types	Academic analysis of the doctrine, ethics, canon, and use of the Bible	Articles on different sections of Scripture	Essentials of the Faith Articles	N/A	Biography of Charles Spurgeon	Historical, Theological Views of key Doctrines	Topical articles that answer questions and provide cultural information

*These articles do not include Biographies. The CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible also has 24 biographies.

The NIV Study Bible clearly has the most number of articles at 125+. Though, most of these are a quarter to half a page in length. The articles in the ESV Study Bible, however, are multiple pages long and feel more like essays.

Personally, out of all the articles, I found the ones in the Ancient Faith Study Bible most interesting. These articles focus on key theological doctrines. They are taken from the writings of early Church fathers who were in the midst of working out a proper understanding of the Bible.

I do want to make a quick note on the NKJV Wiersbe study Bible. His study Bible includes what is called “Catalyst Notes” that provide more in-depth comments on themes and issues. As such, they could be classified as articles. If that is the case, then there are 100+ of them.

The reason I did not classify them as articles is twofold. One, they are explicitly called notes. Two, they are connected to specific verses of the Bible. Therefore, I view them more as extended study notes or commentary and not as an article.

Regarding the NASB Study Bible articles. Honestly, by and large they aren’t worth it. The topics are like: Wisdom Literature, Pastoral Letters, General Letters, Ethics of War, etc. They are interesting articles, but either they should have included more or chosen more helpful topics.

The Essentials of Faith articles in the NIV Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible are practical, helpful, and insightful. They provide a great introduction to the essentials of Christian faith and are perfect for beginners.

Overall, the most thorough articles can be found in the ESV Study Bible. But the most helpful are in the NIV Study Bible or Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible.

Book Introductions

As a general rule book introductions will provide a basic overview of a book of the Bible and how it fits into the larger story of God’s Word as a whole. Book introductions will typically include information on the author, date of writing, background, literary features, themes, and outlines.

Because they all include the same basic information they will often have the same foundational material. But they are presented in various depths and emphasis depending on the study Bible.

For example, the ESV Study Bible, NASB Study Bible, and NIV Study Bible all have multiple page book introductions. Even among these some are more in depth than others. I bet you can’t guess the most in depth?

If you said the ESV Study Bible, you’re right!

I do want to point out that the book introductions for the CSB Study Bible and the CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible are practically identical. This is simply because they are the same translation. So, if you are debating between study bibles of the same translation, look at the study notes, not book introductions.

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t a fan of the book introductions for either the Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible or the Wiersbe Study Bible. While they contained good information, they were structured weird.

For example, in Dr. Jeremiah’s Study Bible the book introductions are broken into three subheadings: what it says, what it means, and what it means for you. It made it harder to find the basic historical information like who wrote the book, the date of writing, etc.

Handling and Portability

Handling and portability are essential when it comes to getting a Study Bible. After all, you want to be able to use it and know that it stands up to average wear and tear. So, let’s take a closer look at how each translation does just that.

But first, let’s talk about our criteria. To determine how well the Study Bible handled I held a finger on one spot for 5 minutes to simulate regular use when reading and studying. Then looked at how bad it wrinkled.

To measure portability for this chart, I simply asked myself, “Would I throw it in a bag and take it to church?”

	ESV Study Bible	NASB Study Bible	NIV Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible	NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible	CSB Spurgeon Study Bible	CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible	NIV Study Bible
Handling	Moderately Wrinkle	Slight Wrinkle	Highly Wrinkle	No Wrinkle	Slight Wrinkle	No Wrinkle	Slight Wrinkle
Portability	No	Maybe	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Maybe	Yes

Let’s start with the “no,” shall we? The ESV Study Bible that I have is a personal edition. As such, it is smaller and meant to be portable. However, with the thin pages and TruTone cover I would be hesitant to throw it in a bag for fear it may get damaged.

The NASB Study Bible is bigger, but still has a leather or TruTone cover. That said, it still stands up to wear and tear. I’m not afraid to turn pages quickly in it and it’s surprisingly durable. I could see myself taking it to church, but probably not all the time and not for a regular service.

The CSB Study Bibles have a similar problem as the NASB Study Bible. They are just big and heavy. Yes, you can throw them in a bag and take them to church. But your shoulder might get tired.

The Dr. Jeremiah Study Bible and Wiersbe Study Bible are both hardback. Thus, I feel more comfortable throwing them in a bag to take to church. But they are bigger than the average Bible you would take to church. That said, I still would feel comfortable taking them if I felt the need to for some reason.

It looks like I am more willing to throw a hardback Study Bible into a bag and take it to church, then I would one with a leather or TruTone cover. Even if it is slightly bigger or heavier. The exception, though, is with the NIV Study Bible.

The NIV Hardback Study Bible is simply not good. There are many negative reviews online about the poor quality of the binding on the NIV Hardback Study Bible. For this reason, I would feel more comfortable taking a TruTone or Leather NIV Study Bible somewhere.

Complete Reviews of Each Translation

If you want to know more how these translations hold up and whether or not they are right for you, then you will want to read the complete reviews. Below are links to complete reviews of each of the Study Bibles compared in this article.