The Logos International Study Bible is a study Bible published in 1972 by Logos International, and edited by Bible scholar Harold E. Monser.
Contents
The Logos Bible is based on the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV) translation of the Bible, which has been called "The Rock of Biblical Honesty" by Bible scholars. This study Bible is unusual in many regards:
The editors displayed an unusual amount of care to avoid any bias or appearance of bias in their choice of readings, explicitly including the commentaries of recognized experts from streams of Biblical scholarship with which the editors personally disagreed.
Although the Logos Bible has consistently been highly regarded among Bible students and scholars, no further editions were published. The company itself failed not many years after publication.
In-text features
The following example is part of the first column of page 1756, which includes parts of Matthew 2:23 and 3:1:
Margin notes
The letter a that appears after the word "city" in the first line corresponds to the "a" in the left margin, where there is an entry containing "Gen. 4:17". In the text of Genesis chapter 4, verse 17, the word "city" also appears, where it has the symbol "‡" next to it. At the bottom of that page, there is an article entitled CITY, next to the symbol "‡", which has nearly all of the references in the Bible to the word or idea of "city". In the fourth line, there is a superscript "1" next to the word "that". The corresponding margin entry has the letter "Q", followed by a reference to Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 1. This indicates that the passage that follows the letter, in the text, is a quotation from the Old Testament. Similarly, parallel passages are indicated with a P, as used under footnote "e" for chapter 3 verse 1 in the left margin.
Footnote articles
At the bottom of the page are two more examples of in-text articles. The article for Nazareth is referenced from verse 23 with the symbol "*", and the article for John the Baptist, with the symbol "†". The latter article continues for two more columns in the text.
Pronunciation
In the first and fifth lines, the words Nazarene and Nazareth are rendered Nǎz’ǎrẽth and Nǎz-ǎ-rẽne’, respectively. These are indications of the pronunciation, and are given for most words translated or adapted from Biblical languages, particularly including place and personal names.
Variorum readings
Translation always involves a certain amount of subjective judgment. The Logos Bible endeavors to make all such judgments explicit and available to the reader. These are given immediately under the text, in the section labeled "Var. rend.". A comprehensive list of sources at the beginning of the Logos Bible identifies the scholarly sources from which these are drawn, and are indicated in the text.
Other features
Following a comprehensive index, which lists all of the in-text articles and references, the Logos Bible includes The Layman's Commentary on the Holy Spirit edited by John Rea. The Layman's Commentary includes in-depth treatment of most New Testament passages that deal with the Holy Spirit, beginning with Matthew 3:11-17 (the baptism of Jesus). The commentary comprises over 100 pages, and draws from a number of English translations, Bible commentaries and dictionaries. The Layman's Commentary was also published separately by Logos International, also in 1972, as ISBN 0-912106-22-0 and ISBN 0-912106-38-7.
Finally, the Logos Bible also includes a concordance, coordinated with the index, and a number of maps.