The

Self-Study Bible

Series

Download our 6x9 Sample-Pack here

Introduction:

The Self-Study Bible comes in three editions, in two sizes, and in two formats.  The Basic, Standard and Advanced editions are described below, and we offer a free sample-pack download, for you to print out and see exactly how each one looks.  We offer the SSB in two sizes for a reason.  The 6x9 size is the standard for portability, if you intend to use your SSB in church. On the other hand, if you prefer, you can get the 8.5x11 size (aptly named The Desktop Edition) for your office or home-study needs.

Why would a person invest in the SSB when there are numerous other study-bibles available?  There are several reasons!  Here are just a few we would like to share with you:

        1) Other study-bibles give us tons of information on a topic or verse that, frankly, we will  likely not ever need or use, while shedding no light at all upon a verse about which we would love to have some kind of an explanation, or at the least, some emphasis placed upon it.  Now, with the SSB, we can place our own notes, commentary references and other lexical information where we need them, not where someone else decides to drop them.

        2) The center-column references placed within many Bibles often leave us hanging.  So many times when studying, we have remembered reading something similar elsewhere, and we have depended on those references to get us where we were trying to go, but all the leads turned out to not be what we were looking for. (And this is terrible when we are trying to study with a person to convert them!)

        3) The "Wide-Margin" and "Note-Taker" styled Bibles have one flaw in common --- thin paper!  Sure, we can write in there, or highlight a verse, but either the pages end up ripping, or the ink bleeds through, ruining the text and notes on the adjacent pages!  Not anymore!  The SSB comes with standard paperback/hardcover paper, making the task of note-taking immensely more efficient and less damaging to our Bible at the same time!

        4) Often times during a sermon, we have reached for a piece of scrap paper to jot down a little note --- maybe a verse reference or some comment the preacher made, yet by the time we got home, it had been lost.  Again, the SSB saves the day!  We can now enter every comment, verse reference, explanation, question and definition that we would like, and they will always be there!

        5) Some people are blessed with an impeccable memory.  They can remember what quotation they read, in which book they read it, and by which author it was written. Wouldn't it be nice if we were all that way!  Well, for the rest of us, the SSB offers a great benefit---  Let's say that somewhere out there, a serious bible student is reading a book on church history (a 900 page book!), and comes to a part concerning the church at Laodicea...our student pauses, grabs his SSB, and places a little note at Colossians 2:1, 4:13-16 and Revelation 1:11 that simply says "See 'Church History' by Dr. Scholar, pg 497"  Now, every reference book that we use hand-in-hand with our Bible can be permanently tied to our Bible. No more endless searches for much-needed information!

        6) The SSB gives a whole new definition to "Daddy's Bible".  Can you imagine the sentimental value and spiritual benefit of having your parents' or grand-parents' Bible, with which they had done all of their learning and growing?

        7) Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, many of today's English Bible versions are "watered-down".  In order to obtain a copyright, the words in each version have to be a certain percentage different than other versions on the market.  How long can this go on before the Bible's meaning is entirely different?  Even more serious is the fact that a lot of versions are not even translations, they have just been re-worded (in the name of "modernizing" or "updating").  Worst of all are the paraphrases --- they aren't even translations!  Someone has merely read a paragraph in another version (or, perhaps even in the Hebrew/Greek), and has simply jotted down the "gist of it".  This kind of thoughtlessness and carelessness is spiritually dangerous---any earnest Bible student knows that!

No more losing notes, no more forgetting references, no more searching other books, and no more chasing those erratic center-column references!

        Now, meet the SSB---

This edition is exactly like the Basic Edition, only it has the Strong’s numbers printed within the text, so that each word can be researched at will. This version lacks a Table of Contents, with the hope that it is the user's desire to be more “inside” of their Bible...depending less upon structure, and more upon the text itself.