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The Orthodox Study Bible
The first ever full-length Orthodox Study Bible in English presents the Bible of the early church and the church of the early Bible. It is the fruit of over twenty years of labor by many of the best Orthodox Christian theologians of our time. This long-awaited single volume brings together an original translation of the Old Testament from the Septuagint with the classic Orthodox Study New Testament and Psalms. Here, by the grace of God, you will find the living water of His Word with comprehensive study guides and teachings that bring to our modern world the mind of the ancient Christian Church.
Orthodox Christianity is the face of ancient Christianity to the modern world and embraces the second largest body of Christians in the world. In this first-of-its-kind study Bible, the Bible is presented with commentary from the ancient Christian perspective that speaks to those Christians who seek a deeper experience of the roots of their faith.
But this Bible is not just for Orthodox Christians. Countless others will find the Orthodox Study Bible an invaluable roadmap for their spiritual journey. Those exploring Christianity for the first time and those Christians waiting to discover their own spiritual roots will see this Bible as a source of inspiration and challenge.
Features
Insightful commentary drawn from the Christian writers and teachers of the first ten centuries after ChristIntroductions and outlines to each book of the BibleHelpful notes relating Scripture to seasons of Christian feasting and fastingAn exhaustive subject index to the study notes to facilitate Bible studyLectionary to guide your Bible reading through the Church yearMorning and Evening PrayersSupplemental Bible study articlesBeautiful, full-color icons and full-color mapsOld Testament from the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint, including the DeuterocanonNew Testament from the New King James Version Additionally, the current edition (released 2008) contains improvements over the 1993
The Psalms have been re-translated from the SeptuagintNotes for the Psalms greatly expandedNew Testament notes revised slightlyLiturgical notes at the top of the New Testament pages have been expanded and placed into their own section at the foot of the pageIndex to the notes at the back, as well as the glossary, have been expandedNew study articles have been added to the back of the Bible
Orthodox Christianity is the face of ancient Christianity to the modern world and embraces the second largest body of Christians in the world. In this first-of-its-kind study Bible, the Bible is presented with commentary from the ancient Christian perspective that speaks to those Christians who seek a deeper experience of the roots of their faith.
But this Bible is not just for Orthodox Christians. Countless others will find the Orthodox Study Bible an invaluable roadmap for their spiritual journey. Those exploring Christianity for the first time and those Christians waiting to discover their own spiritual roots will see this Bible as a source of inspiration and challenge.
Features
Insightful commentary drawn from the Christian writers and teachers of the first ten centuries after ChristIntroductions and outlines to each book of the BibleHelpful notes relating Scripture to seasons of Christian feasting and fastingAn exhaustive subject index to the study notes to facilitate Bible studyLectionary to guide your Bible reading through the Church yearMorning and Evening PrayersSupplemental Bible study articlesBeautiful, full-color icons and full-color mapsOld Testament from the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint, including the DeuterocanonNew Testament from the New King James Version Additionally, the current edition (released 2008) contains improvements over the 1993
The Psalms have been re-translated from the SeptuagintNotes for the Psalms greatly expandedNew Testament notes revised slightlyLiturgical notes at the top of the New Testament pages have been expanded and placed into their own section at the foot of the pageIndex to the notes at the back, as well as the glossary, have been expandedNew study articles have been added to the back of the Bible
13306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 2, 2022
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August 20, 2026I've had to move these notes here for they don't fit in my main review of the Bible, includes notes from Numbers onwards.
Please be advised - I am an agnostic at best, therefore "dissecting the Bible" is not really an euphemism, I have Too Many Questions and will probably share questions or observations in this space for y'alls perusal and pleasure - no offence intended to anyone's belief and faith, it is best to skip this space if one is sensitive to unfiltered Q&A regarding Bible&Faith.
For Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, please refer here.
***
NUMBERS
The name refers to the 2 censuses of the male population that is to be god's army - weird because it really highlights the militant nature of this ancient Israelite tribe, however the Patriarchs teach that this warfare is supposedly spiritual and evangelical in nature.
The first census numbered 603,550 (that's 1.5-2.5 million with women and children - a number that scholars agree has been widely exaggerated). Daddy gets tired of hearing his children asking for food and water and puts his foot down: he kills 24,000 in a first wave of plague, 14,7000 in another plague, 250 rebels who wanted to return to Egypt are executed by the ground swallowing them up [NUM 16:33, great imagery], and 1 man is stoned to death for working on Sabbath.
All this takes place in 39 years of wandering the desert, as god decides the generation that left Egypt would not go into the promised land on account of fornicating with a tribe god didn't approve, so they are condemned to die. Their children would live in the promised land alongside only 2 members of the previous generation who were faithful to god's war plans (NUM 26.64).
To be clear: the failure of the first generation was not due to lack of preparation because god foresaw everything. They failed because of the sin of unfaithfulness, the Patriarchs teach this story not to showcase how two different generations respond to god, but that Daddy remained loyal to his children despite the human fuck-ups. This is a common theme running through the Torah.
The Levites - the special amongst the special people, whom god selected to act as Kohanim, a high religious authority responsible with the sacred offerings, keepers and protectors of the Tabernacle where god presumably lives. They receive no land inheritance, supported by tithes from the other tribes. They act as ransom in the eyes of god, payment for the firstborn that he killed in Egypt, a total of 22,000. However, the census showed 22,273 firstborns amongst the 12 tribes, therefore a ransom payment was owed to god for the excess 273 of Israel's firstborn males. These males were required to ransom themselves by paying the Levites a redemption tax which totalled 1365 shekels. [NUM 3:11, NUM 3:40]
Annotations as follow:
DEUTERONOMY
DEU 31:9
"So Moses wrote the words of this law in the book and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the lord's covenant."
This chapter is completely unnecessary: a rewrite of the previous chapters, sometimes through the point of view of Moses actually addressing the congregation, unceremoniously switching to a 3d person narrator, then again switching to Moses until he dies at the ripe old age of 120.
A couple of instances where Moses speaks: "so I spoke to you at the time", "so we turned and journeyed", "then the lord commanded me". This is unceremoniously interrupted in DEU 4:41 with "Then Moses set apart three cities" - nobody understands who is speaking at any given time, although traditionally the belief is that Torah was indeed written by Moses.
The nomadic lifestyle seems to come to an end, as the peoples are instructed they have dwelt in the mountains long enough and it is time to settle in the conquered areas. They seem to become more of a society, as judges are appointed and Moses reiterates the previous 211 pages.
Annotations as follow:
***
Observations:
There is no point or logic in any of this :)
These were the 5 books of Moses, I've practically finished the Torah.
A horribly messy read, I do not recommend to anyone: everything repeats itself to the point of nausea, there is no love here, no kindness no empathy, just a warmongering god created in the minds of a peoples who couldn't deal with themselves either as slaves in Egypt or as free people in the desert. The writing is dangerous - but only because it is so stupid. The answer to everything is the death penalty, gets pretty boring after 100 pages of the same blabla threats as if this were a cheap read about an abusive/coercive relationship. Even Twilight was better.
Moses - great actor, theatre maker, and warmonger, more deserving of the death penalty than the man who worked on Sabbath to feed himself, or the rest of the thousands of poor souls he dragged into the desert that died on the way to Canaan. The ancient Israelites were not a militant peoples until he made them like that. Based on how this reads, it was all because he really wanted them to stop fucking. So he got them killing instead, under the pretence of Holiness.
None of this matters to me as we agree this wasn't written with Women in mind, therefore much of it does not apply to me, therefore I can mostly do whatever the fck I want whenever the fck I want and that includes murder :)
Boys, mind thyselves or death penalty. I don't make the rules - god does.
God's motivation as a character continues to confuse me.
(10-14th July)
JOSHUA
At this point, it all speaks for itself: JOS 1:14 in particular "Your wives and cattle shall dwell in the land god has given you, but you shall cross over well-armed, everyone who is strong, and you shall fight by your brethren until they have taken possession of the land which the lord has given them."
Which they did. FOURTY-EIGHT cities conquered, again waters receding, again we circumcised everyone before the main battle (weird), we burn everything to the ground, kill all the kings, kill all the men, kill burn kill burn - Ancient Fathers teach all this genocide only happened because nobody asked for mercy or desired to be saved.
Joshua 6 - shocking distractions, scare tactics, and psychological warfare against the city of Jericho: they surround the city and walk in a circle blowing trumpets for 6 days, until some saboteur manages to enter the city and open the gates.
JOS 6:23
"and the city with everyone in it was set on fire, but the silver, gold, bronze, and iron they brought into the Treasury of the lord."
LOL god HAS A TREASURY?! FCK OFF.
JOS 9:27
"The King of Ai was hanged on a forked tree and then they took the body down and they heaped a pile of stone over him that remains to this day."
Another weird flex, I guess nobody anticipated the invention of planes and hopping onto one to see that indeed, it did not remain to this day.
JUDGES
A compendium of all the warlords that followed, a bunch of xenophobic bitches - I only say this nonchalantly because it supremely tiring to keep reading this nonsense, it is too repetitive for words, yet another saviour, yet another barren woman giving birth - I presume this is rape.
Judges 7 - a retelling of King Leonidas' 300.
Judges 12 - shibboleth, a password to identify fleeing Ephraimites who could not pronounce the "sh" sound, a grand total of 42,000 men died because of this word, a civil war between the tribe of Gilead against the tribe of Ephraim. We don't spend more than a paragraph detailing this.
Judges 15 - Samson vs Philistines, a mystery tale as I do not comprehend its meaning, only that the bride and her family were killed with fire.
Judges 20&21 - 40.000 Israelites vs 23.000 from the tribe of Benjamin and make no mistake, god takes sides, nearly wipes out the latter as they are down to 600 men. The Israelites discover that the town of Jabesh-gilead refused to participate in the war. As punishment they are decimated but 400 virgins are kept and given to the tribe of Benjamin alongside another 200 stolen from the annual festival in Shiloh.
20 July
1 KINGDOMS
(1 Samuel)
1KING 19:9
"But an evil spirit* from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre."
* Ra'ah - sent from god, refers to a distressing, tormenting influence and a judicial punishment and a withdrawal from his grace because Saul repeatedly disobeyed direct commands.
Seems weird that god would even have access to "evil spirits".
2 KINGDOMS
(2 Samuel)
2KING 16:21 - the best symbol of conquest is for Absalom to sleep with all his father's wives and concubines.
2KING 17:23 - a rare suicide in the Bible (seven in total), Ahithophel counsellor to King David who betrayed him to support Absalom's rebellion.
20 August
Please be advised - I am an agnostic at best, therefore "dissecting the Bible" is not really an euphemism, I have Too Many Questions and will probably share questions or observations in this space for y'alls perusal and pleasure - no offence intended to anyone's belief and faith, it is best to skip this space if one is sensitive to unfiltered Q&A regarding Bible&Faith.
For Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, please refer here.
***
NUMBERS
The name refers to the 2 censuses of the male population that is to be god's army - weird because it really highlights the militant nature of this ancient Israelite tribe, however the Patriarchs teach that this warfare is supposedly spiritual and evangelical in nature.
The first census numbered 603,550 (that's 1.5-2.5 million with women and children - a number that scholars agree has been widely exaggerated). Daddy gets tired of hearing his children asking for food and water and puts his foot down: he kills 24,000 in a first wave of plague, 14,7000 in another plague, 250 rebels who wanted to return to Egypt are executed by the ground swallowing them up [NUM 16:33, great imagery], and 1 man is stoned to death for working on Sabbath.
All this takes place in 39 years of wandering the desert, as god decides the generation that left Egypt would not go into the promised land on account of fornicating with a tribe god didn't approve, so they are condemned to die. Their children would live in the promised land alongside only 2 members of the previous generation who were faithful to god's war plans (NUM 26.64).
To be clear: the failure of the first generation was not due to lack of preparation because god foresaw everything. They failed because of the sin of unfaithfulness, the Patriarchs teach this story not to showcase how two different generations respond to god, but that Daddy remained loyal to his children despite the human fuck-ups. This is a common theme running through the Torah.
The Levites - the special amongst the special people, whom god selected to act as Kohanim, a high religious authority responsible with the sacred offerings, keepers and protectors of the Tabernacle where god presumably lives. They receive no land inheritance, supported by tithes from the other tribes. They act as ransom in the eyes of god, payment for the firstborn that he killed in Egypt, a total of 22,000. However, the census showed 22,273 firstborns amongst the 12 tribes, therefore a ransom payment was owed to god for the excess 273 of Israel's firstborn males. These males were required to ransom themselves by paying the Levites a redemption tax which totalled 1365 shekels. [NUM 3:11, NUM 3:40]
Annotations as follow:
DEUTERONOMY
DEU 31:9
"So Moses wrote the words of this law in the book and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the lord's covenant."
This chapter is completely unnecessary: a rewrite of the previous chapters, sometimes through the point of view of Moses actually addressing the congregation, unceremoniously switching to a 3d person narrator, then again switching to Moses until he dies at the ripe old age of 120.
A couple of instances where Moses speaks: "so I spoke to you at the time", "so we turned and journeyed", "then the lord commanded me". This is unceremoniously interrupted in DEU 4:41 with "Then Moses set apart three cities" - nobody understands who is speaking at any given time, although traditionally the belief is that Torah was indeed written by Moses.
The nomadic lifestyle seems to come to an end, as the peoples are instructed they have dwelt in the mountains long enough and it is time to settle in the conquered areas. They seem to become more of a society, as judges are appointed and Moses reiterates the previous 211 pages.
Annotations as follow:
***
Observations:
There is no point or logic in any of this :)
These were the 5 books of Moses, I've practically finished the Torah.
A horribly messy read, I do not recommend to anyone: everything repeats itself to the point of nausea, there is no love here, no kindness no empathy, just a warmongering god created in the minds of a peoples who couldn't deal with themselves either as slaves in Egypt or as free people in the desert. The writing is dangerous - but only because it is so stupid. The answer to everything is the death penalty, gets pretty boring after 100 pages of the same blabla threats as if this were a cheap read about an abusive/coercive relationship. Even Twilight was better.
Moses - great actor, theatre maker, and warmonger, more deserving of the death penalty than the man who worked on Sabbath to feed himself, or the rest of the thousands of poor souls he dragged into the desert that died on the way to Canaan. The ancient Israelites were not a militant peoples until he made them like that. Based on how this reads, it was all because he really wanted them to stop fucking. So he got them killing instead, under the pretence of Holiness.
None of this matters to me as we agree this wasn't written with Women in mind, therefore much of it does not apply to me, therefore I can mostly do whatever the fck I want whenever the fck I want and that includes murder :)
Boys, mind thyselves or death penalty. I don't make the rules - god does.
God's motivation as a character continues to confuse me.
(10-14th July)
JOSHUA
At this point, it all speaks for itself: JOS 1:14 in particular "Your wives and cattle shall dwell in the land god has given you, but you shall cross over well-armed, everyone who is strong, and you shall fight by your brethren until they have taken possession of the land which the lord has given them."
Which they did. FOURTY-EIGHT cities conquered, again waters receding, again we circumcised everyone before the main battle (weird), we burn everything to the ground, kill all the kings, kill all the men, kill burn kill burn - Ancient Fathers teach all this genocide only happened because nobody asked for mercy or desired to be saved.
Joshua 6 - shocking distractions, scare tactics, and psychological warfare against the city of Jericho: they surround the city and walk in a circle blowing trumpets for 6 days, until some saboteur manages to enter the city and open the gates.
JOS 6:23
"and the city with everyone in it was set on fire, but the silver, gold, bronze, and iron they brought into the Treasury of the lord."
LOL god HAS A TREASURY?! FCK OFF.
JOS 9:27
"The King of Ai was hanged on a forked tree and then they took the body down and they heaped a pile of stone over him that remains to this day."
Another weird flex, I guess nobody anticipated the invention of planes and hopping onto one to see that indeed, it did not remain to this day.
JUDGES
A compendium of all the warlords that followed, a bunch of xenophobic bitches - I only say this nonchalantly because it supremely tiring to keep reading this nonsense, it is too repetitive for words, yet another saviour, yet another barren woman giving birth - I presume this is rape.
Judges 7 - a retelling of King Leonidas' 300.
Judges 12 - shibboleth, a password to identify fleeing Ephraimites who could not pronounce the "sh" sound, a grand total of 42,000 men died because of this word, a civil war between the tribe of Gilead against the tribe of Ephraim. We don't spend more than a paragraph detailing this.
Judges 15 - Samson vs Philistines, a mystery tale as I do not comprehend its meaning, only that the bride and her family were killed with fire.
Judges 20&21 - 40.000 Israelites vs 23.000 from the tribe of Benjamin and make no mistake, god takes sides, nearly wipes out the latter as they are down to 600 men. The Israelites discover that the town of Jabesh-gilead refused to participate in the war. As punishment they are decimated but 400 virgins are kept and given to the tribe of Benjamin alongside another 200 stolen from the annual festival in Shiloh.
20 July
1 KINGDOMS
(1 Samuel)
1KING 19:9
"But an evil spirit* from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre."
* Ra'ah - sent from god, refers to a distressing, tormenting influence and a judicial punishment and a withdrawal from his grace because Saul repeatedly disobeyed direct commands.
Seems weird that god would even have access to "evil spirits".
2 KINGDOMS
(2 Samuel)
2KING 16:21 - the best symbol of conquest is for Absalom to sleep with all his father's wives and concubines.
2KING 17:23 - a rare suicide in the Bible (seven in total), Ahithophel counsellor to King David who betrayed him to support Absalom's rebellion.
20 August
April 1, 2026
Yeah, I’ve read cover to cover, but will I ever stop having this book marked as “currently reading” ??
September 13, 2023
worth the read!
This is an excellent, readable translation of the Bible. The articles bring out the essence of Orthodoxy, and give the reader an Orthodox perspective on the Holy Scriptures.
This is an excellent, readable translation of the Bible. The articles bring out the essence of Orthodoxy, and give the reader an Orthodox perspective on the Holy Scriptures.
February 9, 2024
major formatting problems affects readability.
The text and note formatting for Psalms and other books make it almost unreadable. This should have been caught before releasing the kindle version.
The text and note formatting for Psalms and other books make it almost unreadable. This should have been caught before releasing the kindle version.
September 10, 2025
A beautiful Bible that tells the story of the Christian Church, featuring amazing prayers for a traditional Christian. Explains a lot to a beginner Christian or Orthodox Christian, including the LXX version of the Old Testament and books that are not typically found in an average Protestant Bible.
November 11, 2024
It has the best translation, good explanation, lots of additional information and beautiful depictions.
I think it’s the most suitable Bible for new believers.
I think it’s the most suitable Bible for new believers.
September 14, 2025
The greatest book the world has ever seen
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews