The Holy Bible : Scofield Reference Bible

by Anonymous, C.I. Scofield

The Scofield Reference Bible is a widely circulated study Bible edited and annotated by the American Bible student Cyrus I. Scofield, that popularized dispensationalism at the beginning of the 20th century.

Genres: Reference

3046 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1941

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Debra Fenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reference Bible

I enjoyed my journey through the Bible this year, using Daily Chronological Bible as a side guide to read along, by Holman Bible Publishers. Great reads together!

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me 4yrs. to read, but worth it!

[Rosa Couey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Perfect Book

Because this Book is the Holy, Eternal, Inspired Living Word of God.
Our world would be a much better world if every individual would read and live a life based on it's teaching.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I followed a chronological plan to get through. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Deeper study next year!

[Lalit Jindal · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main theme of Old Testament is the ‘covenant’ between Israel and Yahweh. The god of the Old Testament is obsessed with three things the most and the book repeats again and again these obsessions; First, They only love and fear him and not any other gods; Second, the high place of the priestly class and how they have divine right to leech on the rest of the Israelites; and Third, the laws and rituals for Israelites, which are arbitrary, misogynistic, racist and homophobic and for most of them, ‘god order it’ is the only justification, no reason, no philosophical concept explained as to why people should obey them.

Whole book is so much full of senseless killing and gore that it will make Quentin Tarantino blush! It’s full of contradictions, which seem to justify needs of the time rather than divine laws; Like God is driving everything and there is freewill, Intermarriage is mostly abhorred and sometimes not, Monarchism and anti-monarchism, There is only one god and he is the best god of all the gods in the world etc.

But most egregious thing about the book is that it seems to be self-fulfilling prophesy. The book provides justification for all that Jews went through, all the crimes they might have committed to win the Promised Land and all the crimes they are committing to get it back now including a guide on how to do ethnic cleansing. It also justifies the crimes committed against Jews.

The OT is filled with fantasies about destruction of Jews’ Enemies and their own rise to power. The writers (Levites, the priestly class most probably) wrote a perfect scenario to gain power. They describe an awesome god, who showed his power in distant past to the people. But he ‘hid his face’ from them because of their transgressions so now they can’t ask the Levites to produce any proof that god does indeed exist and has given them special authority. They can repent though by filling the pockets of the priest and giving them the ultimate authority. Most of the prophesies seem like dreams of vengeance or retrospective justification with so many repetitions and contradictions that it gets boring pretty quickly.

Only okay part is Book of Job, where Job laments about his senseless suffering, even though he was ‘righteous in the eyes of god’. It has similarity of theme with Oedipus myth. Ecclesiastes is also okay with a sort of nihilistic theme and theme of vanity. But everything is filled with so many contradictions and insane claims that it’s hard to take them seriously except as allegory.

I was told that New Testament is much better, it isn’t! Even ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is not as ‘humanitarian’ as people say it is! Jesus was bit of a racist as well (comparing gentiles to dogs). Although forgiveness and pacifism are major themes but it still arguably represents even worst form of sadomasochism than OT! Now you might have to live in ‘hell fire’ just for calling someone fool… Now not only crime is punishable but even thought-crime is punishable… Poverty is virtue in itself…

Paul, in his letter to Romans, calls nonbelievers “unforgiving” and “unmerciful”; calls for their execution in the very next sentence; and chides them for being ‘judgmental’ in the next one. Apparently they had no idea what irony means. And of course the Antichrist is here and the second coming is just around the corner, since the time of the epistles.

John specially is silly. It totally contradicts the other gospels (so much for the “word of God”) and it’s mostly Jesus repeating how awesome he is and how it’s fault of the people that they can’t see his divinity because they are devil’s children not God’s.

Ezekiel and Revelation are the most ridiculous. The prophets’ visions in great (and ridiculous) detail show how the end times will come, supplemented with visions of weird creatures (like Cherubim, dragons, the scarlet beast) and Jesus with a two edged sword coming out of his mouth(I don’t know how he managed to speak, I guess “miracle”). Apparently the more incredible the claims are the more likely religious people will believe them. They not only convince believers into keep living in delusions for the promise of eternal life and destruction on their enemies, but also hate other sects with ‘wrong’ interpretations. In Revelations, Jesus himself talks about his hatred of a particular interpretation/sect.

It’s not just bad fiction but it’s also dangerous fiction, much more effective than secular dogmas like Fascism and Communism could ever hope to be because it promises you happiness for eternity not just this life. And who doesn’t want that? And it also provides with a dictator, who can decide what we should do. If you don’t do what he says, including genocide, he’ll punish you. And people love it when they are not made to think for themselves but follow a guideline.


I suspect that people, who think that bible is perfect wisdom, have never actually read it or haven’t read anything else. That is not to say that there is no wisdom in it at all! OT sets high priority on fair treatment of the poor, the orphans, the laborers and the foreign visitors, at least ‘fair’ enough for the contemporary society. NT talks about love and forgiveness a lot.


Overall, it was a complete waste of time. I would have been much better off reading a trashy romance novel. The Scofield version is especially bad. The commentary is unreadable (and I didn’t after first few chapters) and delusional. I’ve made up my mind to never read any sort of ‘word of god’ ever again!

[Bill Kuykendall]

I still read it after 42 years, despite the fact that I have reclassified it from "Word of God" to "Largely Fictitious Religious Manual," or "Word of Constantine."

[Sheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever the best read!!!!!!!

[Jonathan Morrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the hardest book I've ever read. It's super long, and it takes a whole lot of background information just to understand the basics of what the authors are trying to say. I took 3 or 4 online courses to help me read this one book. Many parts of it are a slog, but even those often link up in interesting ways with other books in the Bible, or with other literature or cultural movements outside the Bible. It's so important to Western culture, philosophy, and even politics that I thought it was worth it to read the whole thing for myself. You can hear about it second-hand of course, but a lot of stuff people say is in the Bible really isn't in there. I was also surprised by some of the things people always seem to leave out. The biggest example for me was a pervasive theme of human sacrifice, particularly the sacrifice of one's firstborn child as a way of currying favor with God. This was clearly a deeply ingrained cultural practice for the people in that region of the world, and it led to some big theological struggles for them. It really seemed like the central theme of the book, so it's weird to me that people don't tend to talk about that when discussing the Bible. Anyway, I recommend reading it for yourself. Even though it's an old book, you might discover something new.

[Fallon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written by a con artist who was arrested for forgery. Used to promote zionist aims in christian culture. He abandoned his wife and two daughters for his mistress then left her to marry another woman. His family was left destitute and he conned them out of $1300 when he left them. Anything this man interprets from the bible is a base lie.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a complete comparison of the Hebrew Scriptures, New Testament

I searched for a long time to find a parallel bible containing the NAB and NJB. The NSRV and REB were an added plus. The parallel design is to make a comparison of the more literal translation to the one that best follows the meaning. This is almost necessary as even the literal and meaning comparisons are still interpretations. Look at how they handle Psalms 88:19. For variations in verse numbering.

In the front, there is a nice description of how the different versions came about.
The introduction has:
· The Translations and their Background
· The Arraignment of the Translations
· The Order of the Biblical Material
· Variations in the Text of the Different Translations
· Explanations of the Translators' Footnotes
· Variations in Verse Numbering
· Use of the Parallel Text