Online Archives

By Bruce C. Birch

More than five years ago I was invited to address the Publications Committee of the National Council of Churches at its annual meeting. I challenged the publishers group to do more to help make the Bible available and accessible to laypeople in the life of the church.

I pointed out to them that it was the evangelical publishers that had done the most to make editions of the Bible available for general church use that helped ordinary Christians to bridge from the biblical text to their own lives of discipleship in the world.

A few weeks later Davis Perkins, the head of Westminster/John Knox Press, invited me to Louisville to discuss the possibility of bringing out a study Bible aimed at ordinary Christians to help them understand the way in which the Bible informs all the arenas of our lives. That led to the recruitment of an outstanding team of editors to join me in producing such a study Bible.

Almost five years have passed in completing the work on this project, and I am very pleased that "The Discipleship Study Bible" is now available for pastors and laypeople. It can be ordered from Cokesbury or Amazon.com and is available from many booksellers.

But why do we need another study Bible?

When we scan the shelves of bookstores that carry a wide selection of Bibles, many find the array of translations, study editions, and annotated Bibles aimed at particular groups of readers to be bewildering and overwhelming.

There is a very positive aspect to this situation. People are hungry to read and study the Bible, seeking to find there the resources that can ground their own journeys of life and faith. It is a positive development that various editions of the Bible should seek to make connections with the needs and identities of those who seek biblical wisdom.

Study Bibles fall into two main groupings. On one hand, there are Bibles that give us additional help in understanding these ancient texts in their own terms. After all, the Bible comes out of a world vastly different from our own. The customs, history, geography and expressions of that world are often unfamiliar to us. Although aimed at general church readership, these study Bibles are more academic in character.

More recently, a new group of study Bibles have tried to provide the Bible reader with help in bridging from the meaning of the text to the ways in which the text might address and prove applicable to the lives of contemporary people of faith. The notes in such study Bibles place a stress on making connections with contemporary issues of faith in ways that help make connections between ancient witness and modern practice.

The Westminster Discipleship Study Bible (WDSB) developed as an effort to address two concerns. First, it did not seem necessary to choose between annotations that assist the reader in the fuller understanding of the text and annotations that assist the reader in connecting biblical witness to the living of contemporary lives of faith.

Why could not one study Bible bring together these two ways of commenting upon the biblical text and its role as Scripture in the lives of people of faith? Why could there not be a study Bible that illumined both our understanding and our discipleship?

The WDSB also sought to address the concern that the Bible challenges us to move beyond

individual piety to connection with a community of God's people called to discipleship in the world. The Bible's witness addresses our personal faith and devotional practices, but also our social

commitment, responsibility and action. It challenges us as persons, as churches and as members of local and global communities. The Bible can give new depth to our faith, but sometimes confronts that faith with issues that discomfort and challenge our assumptions and practices.

The WDSB is intended to fill a need for a study Bible addressed to the entire range of Christian discipleship in its need to be both grounded and challenged by the

biblical witness. Its features include:

• Comment by an outstanding team of internationally known biblical scholars;
• Basic information that helps make the ancient witness understandable to modern readers;
• Notes that attempt to make connection with the entire range of the Christian life. The WDSB will help readers recognize that Christian faith makes claims upon every aspect of our lives, both as persons and communities of faith. The WDSB invites the reader to genuine encounter with the implications of the text for the whole life of Christian discipleship.
• The use of the New Revised Standard Version translation of the biblical text. The NRSV is one of the most widely used translations of the biblical text and is known for its clarity and readability, as well as its use of inclusive expressions.

God's word is comprehensive, challenging, transforming and renewing. My hope is that the WDSB will assist and encourage you on this path of biblical discipleship.

The Rev. Bruce C. Birch is a dean at Wesley Theological Seminary, where he also teaches Old Testament studies.