AMG Publisher’s NASB Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible Review – Rating: 9.6

I  have heard a lot of good things about the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, so I contacted the publisher (AMG Publishers) to see if I would be able to get a review copy of the Bible.  I had fairly high expectations going into this particular review project based on what I have heard some others saying about this Study Bible.  I can honestly say that this Bible actually exceeded my expectations in both content and quality.  This Study Bible is really geared toward anyone that really wants to dive into the Word of God and study it for themselves rather than relying on study notes that others have done.  I really wish I had this Study Bible when I taught the class at our church on how to do your own Inductive Bible Study a few years ago.
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In full disclosure, I was not required or requested by AMG Publishers to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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QUICK SUMMARY:

**See all sections below for full detailed review**
I had fairly high expectations going into this particular review project based on what I have heard some others saying about the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible from AMG Publishers.  I can honestly say that this Bible actually exceeded my already fairly high expectations in both content and quality.  This is not the normal Study Bible where you read someone’s interpretation of most of the Scripture verses at the bottom of the page.  This Study Bible is really geared toward anyone that really wants to dive into the Word of God and study it for themselves utilizing the original Biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek rather than relying on study notes that others have done.  It takes most of the key and important words and gives you a reference for either the Strong’s information or in many cases, the Strong’s as well as AMG Dictionary definitions.  I really wish I had this Study Bible when I taught the class on how to do your own Inductive Bible Study a few years ago as I would have strongly recommended it to my students.  The tools used in this Study Bible may take just a small adjustment time for someone to get used to, but if you have done anything that uses Strong’s-type numbers, you will feel right at home.  Quality is great, print is overall very good and nicely laid out, I would highly recommend this Study Bible.  You can get this Bible in the following translations: NASB-77, KJV, NKJV, ESV, NIV and RVR (Spanish) and many different formats for each a majority of the translations. I received a copy of this Bible in exchange for this review from AMG Publishers and all opinions are my own.

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DESCRIPTION OF THIS BIBLE:

Type of Bible:  Study Bible / Original Language Studies
Publisher: AMG Publishers @AMGPublishers
Publish Date: Jun 1, 2008
ISBN-13 of Bible Reviewed: 978-0899577548
Bible Version: NASB-77 (New American Standard Bible 1977 revision)
Price:  At the time of writing this review, the cheapest place to get this book is at Christianbook.com.  They have it for $61.99 – suggested retail from the publisher is $89.99. Please note that these prices do not include any potential shipping charges.

If you would like to purchase this book, please support my blog and purchase by clicking any of the links to Christianbook.com on this page like the one below. If you want it in a different translation and/or format, Click Here for those links listed below in this review.

Key Word Study Bible NASB (2008 new edition), Genuine Burgundy Leather By AMG PublishersThe Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible combines essential tools for Hebrew and Greek with translations that accurately and clear. An easy-to-use style plus the benefits of the Strong’s Dictionary numbering system makes this study Bible one for every student of God’s Word, no matter what age.The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible is a complete English Bible text for cross-reference study to the original languages from which the Bible was translated.Features Bible text of the 1977 NASB Wider margins than previous editions Introduction to each book of the Bible Words of Christ in Red Table of Weights and Measures AMG’s Concordance of the Bible AMG’s Annotated Strong’s Dictionaries Combining Strong’s dictionaries with additional material taken from AMG’s Complete Word Study Dictionaries Footnotes on the original languages, Bible history, Bible doctrines, and difficult passages Strong’s numbers on key words in the text of the Bible Grammatical codes on key words in the text of the New Testament Used with the Grammatical Notations, these codes identify the forms of Greek grammar behind the English translation System of Study Key Words in the English Text Identified by James Strong’s Numbering System Codes in the New Testament Text Identify Grammatical Structure of Key Greek Words Notations Explain the Significance of the Grammatical Codes Hebrew and Greek Word Studies Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries Center-column Reference System Concordance

Physical Characteristics:

• Genuine Leather in burgundy color
• Gold gilded pages
• Smyth sewn
• One burgundy ribbon marker in this version
• Double Column format
• Fairly wide margins
• Words of Chris in red text through entire New Testament (not just the Gospels)
• Center column cross references
• Most websites say it is 2,156 pages, however my count is 2,342 not including the thicker end papers and Presentation Page.
• Type size: It is a very readable 9 point or so
• Dimensions: 7 x 2.8 x 9 inches
• Approximate weight: 3.6 lbs

AMG Publishers did two really nice videos on the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible.  First is the shorter video overview and a quick summary of how to use it.  Check it out here:

Second, if you would like to see a little more detail in a longer video, check out this video from AMG Publishers:

SPECIAL CONTENT OF THIS BIBLE:

Pre-Scripture Text Pages

• 1 Presentation Page
  • The typical presentation page that contains the Presented To, From, Occasion and Date for you to write in.
• 1 page of A Personal Word from the Executive Editor (Spiros Zodhiates)
• 2 pages of the Translator’s Letter
  • This is the typical letter from the translators for the NASB-77.  As I have said in many of my Bible reviews, I really can’t emphasize enough the importance of reading these articles in all Bibles – it helps you to understand more of the background of the translation and the drive behind the particular translation.
• 2 pages of how to use the features of the Hebrew-Greek Key Word portion of this Study Bible
• 1 page of Special Features in the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible
• 1 page of special features for the New American Standard Bible
• 1 page of the books of the Bible
• 1 page of Preface to the New American Standard Bible
  • This article gives some historical background about when and why the NASB translation was created.
• 1 page of Abbreviations used in this Study Bible
• 1 page of table of Contents

Scripture Text Pages

Individual Book Introductions
The Book Introductions are typically about a quarter to a half of a page in length.  It is fairly typical to what you see in most Study Bibles, but this one does nicely go into a little more depth than most when it comes to customs and/or history of whoever the book is written to or about.

Study Notes

These study notes are not the typical notes that you find in most Study Bibles.  They are another key and extremely helpful feature that this Study Bible has.  These notes are not a commentary like most Study Bibles, but rather they discuss theological, exegetical, historical and geographical points that help you to understand the text.  Keep in mind that the theological portion of these notes will be biased toward the author’s beliefs.  As I brought out many times in our Inductive Bible Study Class at our church, my opinion is that you should do your own study and not rely on another person’s work to start your studies.  It’s perfectly fine for a sense check after you have done your own work.

You can see the graphic key right before the first word in 13:1. This indicates you should look at the bottom of the page for a key with the study notes for 13:1

The key study note for 13:1 tells you to go look at the study notes for 1 Peter 2:17.

Cross References

Cross References are done in between the columns of Scripture text.  Fairly standard cross references.  The type is not too bad of a size for cross references as you can see in the photo.

• These have the typical usage where an italicized letter preceding a word in the Scripture text denotes a cross-reference.
• If the letters preceding the Scripture text are not in italic type, then they are grammatical notations.
• The format of these cross references in the center column is done so if you see it in italics, then that is a parallel passage.

Translation Footnotes

These are the standard NASB translation footnotes that you would find in most NASB Bibles.

Old Testament References in the New Testament

Small caps are used in any New Testament text to indicate Old Testament quotations or any obvious allusion to any Old Testament text.  This works fairly well, but I have to admit, my favorite way that I have seen this done is with the HCSB and CSB Bibles where they bold the font of the actual text.  Still, the small caps approach is a pretty clear and common method used in many Bibles.

Italics for Implied Words

Italics are used in the Scripture text to indicate words that are implied by the original languages, but are not necessarily found directly in it.

Asterisks and Past/Present Tense

Asterisks are used for any examples where something in the original languages was in present tense due to culture of the language at the time, but has been translated into past tense to conform to modern usage.  Here you can see the asterisk prior to “said” in Mark 2:5.

Strong’s Numbers in Scripture Text

There are Strong’s numbers keyed directly in the Scripture text and these directly relate to the Strong’s words found in the back of this Bible in either the Annotated Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary for the Old Testament text, or the Annotated Strong’s Greek Dictionary for the New Testament text.   One thing to call out is that while each of these numbers represent a Strong’s dictionary word, AMG has gone a step further and annotated many of these Strong’s words with their own AMG Compete Word Study  of either the Old Testament or New Testament.  Normal Strong’s only words are denoted by a normal number directly following the word in the text.  Words that AMG has annotated in addition to the Strong’s words are denoted by a bold number following the word in the text.  All you have to do is locate that number, then turn to the back of the Bible to the dictionary (Old or New Testament as applicable) and locate the dictionary listing which are sorted numerically in the sections in the back.  In the example picture, you can see in James 4:16 how the word “boast” has a non-bold number of 212, where “evil” has a bold number of 4190.  You would just turn to the Annotated Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament and look for the entries for 212 (page 2089) and 4190 (page 2258).

 

Words of Christ in Red

Here’s the good and the bad on this one.  The good is that I really like it when Bibles actually do the red lettering all the way through the book of Revelation rather than stopping at just the Gospels.  It is a big plus in my book that AMG did just that with the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible.   However, the bad part is that the print is not very consistent.  Look at these pics below to see the difference in how dark the red is in John 14 (page 1422) vs. in Revelation 2 (page 1673).  The Red lettering in Revelation is much easier for my older eyes to read compared to reading in John 14. I’m not completely sure which one is the intended one by the publisher, but if I had my choice, that darker one like in Revelation is MUCH easier to read and would have preferred them all to be that way.  This may very well be a production issue and may not show this way in all copies, but it is hard to say for sure.

You can see here the lighter font compared to the darker font that shows in Revelation.

Darker font in Revelation in my opinion is much easier to read.

Margins on Scripture Pages

There is a decent amount of room in the outside margins to write some notes and seems to have a little more room than most other Study Bibles that I have seen.
– Top Margin (outside of Scripture reference on outside header) =3/4″
– Outside margin =7/8″
– Bottom (foot) margin =1/2″ (below study notes area)

Post Scripture Pages

• Grammatical Codes to the Grammatical Notations
  1 page that covers the codes used in the Scripture text of the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible.  These codes are found as small codes preceding certain words (upper left of the word) in the text and they provide constructions found in the Greek New Testament to help provide the grammatical usage of the word you are looking at.  This is really a very handy tool to have to help you understand the original languages better.  In this page, the applicable Grammatical Categories are shown by their number at the end of the description.  This number corresponds to the definitions in the following section on the next page and really tie hand in hand with each other.

You can see the “ppt” grammatical code right before the word “put”.

 

• Grammatical Notations: Grammatical Definitions of the Grammatical Categories
  4 pages that provide a very clear understanding of the 44 different grammatical categories so you can better understand how this word was used more clearly.  In many cases, they provide an example to make the definition more clear to the reader.  Previously, we looked at the text on page 1365 with Luke 10:25 for the word “put”.  Here you can see what “ppt” actually means (the Present Participle) so you can have a better understanding of how the word is used.  This section really ties in with the previous one and are intended to be used together.  As a bonus, they include a very nice bookmark that has the grammatical codes on it in alphabetical order with the Grammatical Notation numbers to help you so start to understand the grammatical usage of the words used in Scripture.

Here you can see the definition for the grammatical codes – this is “ppt” from the previous code within the text that we looked at.

• NASB-77 Concordance
  78 page concordance for the NASB-77 translation.  From others that I have seen, this one looks to be a bit better many of the other Study Bibles I have seen.  Nicely done.

• AMG’s Annotated Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary of the Old Testament
  This is one of the many powerhouse tools of this Study Bible.  This section is a total of a 287 pages starting with a single cover page, then a page that covers the Transliteration (how to pronounce) of Hebrew Consonants, then a page of Transliteration of Hebrew Vowels and Special Symbols that are used  in the dictionary.

• Table of Weights and Measures
  1 page of the fairly typical chart that you see in many Bibles.  This felt a little out-of-place for me personally as it was stuck right between the Old Testament Dictionary pages and the New Testament Dictionary pages.  I personally would not have placed it there as it feels just “thrown in” between these two tools.  Not a biggie though as I personally don’t reference these types of charts as much.

• AMG’s Annotated Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament
  This is a continuation one of the powerhouse tool we looked at a little bit ago as we continue from the Old to the New Testament.  This section is a total of a 246 pages starting with a single cover page, then two pages that cover the Transliteration (how to pronounce) of Greek Alphabet, Consonant Combinations, Diphthongs (double vowels), Breathing Mark and Special Symbols that are used  in the dictionary.  Earlier in this review, we covered how the Strong’s numbers are shown in the Scripture text by looking at James 4:16. You would just turn to the Annotated Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament and look for the entries for “boast” #212 (page 2089) and “evil” #4190 (page 2258).

Shows example of Strong’s words that are not annotated (non bold in Scripture text) with AMG’s dictionary entries.

Shows example of Strong’s words that are annotated (non bold in Scripture text) with AMG’s dictionary entries.

• Notes
  2 blank pages with a header of “NOTES” for you to use as you wish.  This kind of feels like one those “this page left intentionally blank” kind of things and was probably just how the printed signatures came out most likely.  Either case, you can write down things here if you desire.

 

• Full Color Maps
  8 pages of the standard full color notes that everyone is putting at the end of most Bibles.  The color is dull rather than in your face vibrant, making it pleasing to use them.  The font size and color on the maps makes it very pleasant to use.

Typeface, Print and Binding:

• OK, if you have followed my blog for any duration of time, you know that I am a HUGE fan of real leather Bibles.  And I’m not talking that bonded leather stuff either.  This Bible has really nice feeling leather – granted it isn’t goatskin or anything like that – just has a nice feel and texture to it.  And the smell….. i love the smell of a good leather Bible.  and there is only one other Bible that i have that smells better than this one.  But this one is a VERY close 2nd place.  I really like it very much and feels very solid in the hand.  Does not feel flimsy at all like some of those cheaper imitation leather Bibles do sometimes.  They did not do perimeter stitching on the leather cover, but still it feels very sturdy.

• The gold gilding on the edge of the Bible does have some discoloration that you can see a little in the pic below in the face of the pages.  It is only noticeable if you look at an upward or downward (like the pic below) angle and is not very noticeable if you look at it straight on.  To me, this is a very, very minor issue as the gilding is strictly cosmetic anyway.

• This Bible lays nice and flat.  The leather cover is not flimsy, but yet flexible..

• Smyth Sewn which really helps to have a more durable Study Bible.
• Scriptures are a very readable 9 point font, and the print is actually very nice
• The Red Letter Words of Christ are good, but there seemed to be an inconsistency (albeit, not a major issue) in how dark the font was in some spots vs others (examples shown in a previous section of this review).  But I do love how they did red lettering all the way through Revelation.  You don’t see that too often in Bibles, but I wish it was more common practice.
• The line-matching (printed lines on the front of the page vs. the back side of the page) is actually pretty nice.  Granted I didn’t check every single line on every page to see if consistently lined up.  I spot checked through random pages and most of them were pretty close to right on.  The few that I noticed were off, weren’t off by any more than 1/4 of a line or so.  Line matching is always a challenging thing to get 100% right on every single copy of a book, but in this case, they did a fine job.

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MY CHRISTIAN REVIEWER RATINGS:

Below, we have the overall ratings that I would give to this particular bible with a 1 to 10 range.  Keep in mind that when I am doing these ratings, it is based on the physical makeup, format, extra-biblical content and value of the bible, not rating the Word of God itself as that would be off the chart  🙂

Quality:  9.8– This particular Bible that I received is genuine leather and burgundy and feels pretty sturdy in my hands, so I think it will stand up pretty well – especially since it is Smyth sewn.  Plus, this leather really smells good.  I know that may not be a big deal for most people, but I have always loved the smell of real leather Bibles.  You can get this in the genuine leather like the one in this review, or you can get it in other formats as well (see the list below for links to the available formats).
Appearance: 9.5 – The appearance of this Bible is very clean – design and layout is done very nicely making it a very pleasant experience reading it.  If you have never done any work with word studies and Strong’s numbering system, this may take a very small adjustment to get used to using it.  The print of this Bible is very good other than the lighter red text on part of it.  Overall, it just looks really nice – nothing flashy, but just clean and nicely done.
Value: 9.6 – The value of this Bible is actually quite good – especially considering the reasonable price for what you get.  It is high quality genuine leather plus with the features that are in this Bible, I would rate this very high value.  It is well worth the investment of purchasing a copy for yourself.
Innovation: 9.5 – I’m really not sure if I can classify this as an innovation, but the Hebrew-Greek word study tools are so good, that I felt I had to give it a boost here.  With that said, I wouldn’t let your study and understanding of original Bible language studies remain, just with this resource.  However, this Study Bible is an amazing tool that you can do many of your word studies all within one single book.
Other/Wildcard: n/a – No real wildcards to speak of to adjust the rating points for this Bible.

Overall Rating: 9.6 out of 10

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Bible Formats and Options:

Here are some of the many different formats and Bible translations that this Bible comes in per the publisher.  You can click on the ISBN number below for your preferred version to buy it from Christianbook.com:
ISBN: 978-0899577548 (NASB – Genuine Leather – Burgundy – This review)
ISBN: 978-1617159886 (NASB – genuine leather, burgundy-indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159879 (NASB – genuine leather, black-indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159855 (NASB – bonded leather, black-indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159862 (NASB – bonded leather, burgundy-indexed)
ISBN: 978-0899577500 (NASB – 2008 New Edition, hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1617159831 (KJV – genuine leather, black-indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159848 (KJV – genuine leather, burgundy-indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159824 (KJV – bonded leather, burgundy-indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159817 (KJV – bonded leather, black-indexed)
ISBN: 978-0899577456 (KJV – 2008 New Edition, hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0899577487 (KJV – 2008 New Edition, genuine black leather)
ISBN: 978-0899579146 (ESV – bonded leather, black)
ISBN: 978-0899579153 (ESV – bonded leather, burgundy)
ISBN: 978-1617155079 (ESV – bonded leather, burgundy-index)
ISBN: 978-1617155062 (ESV – bonded leather, black-index)
ISBN: 978-1617159985 (ESV – Genuine Leather, Black, Thumb-Indexed)
ISBN: 978-0899579139 (ESV – Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0899579160 (ESV – Genuine Leather, Black)
ISBN: 978-0899579184 (ESV – soft leather-look, black)
ISBN: 978-1617159978 (ESV – Imitation Leather, Black, Thumb-Indexed)
ISBN: 978-1617159992 (ESV – Genuine Leather, Burgundy, Thumb-Indexed)
ISBN: 978-0899579177 (ESV – Genuine Leather, Burgundy)
ISBN: 978-0899578675 (NKJV – Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1617159893 (NKJV – Genuine Leather Black with thumb index)
ISBN: 978-0899578699 (NKJV – Genuine Leather Burgundy)
ISBN: 978-0899578682 (NKJV – Genuine Leather Black)
ISBN: 978-1617159909 (NKJV – Genuine Leather Burgundy with thumb index)
ISBN: 978-0899577562 (NIV – Bonded Leather Black 1984)
ISBN: 978-0899579191 (RVR – Spanish Bible – Black Bonded Leather)
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Publisher Summary:

From the publisher’s website: In 1980, AMG Publishers, Inc. was launched by AMG International, Inc. to minister through the written Word. Since its inception, AMG Publishers has become a leader in the Christian publishing with the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, award-winning youth fiction, exhaustive reference, multiple Bible studies and Patriotic literature. AMG Publishers publishes under the imprints AMG PublishersTM, Living Ink BooksTM and God and Country PressTM. Our products can be found in many languages all over the world.

AMG Publishers is a wholly owned subsidiary of AMG International. Profits from AMG Publishers are invested in the ministries of AMG International.

AMG International is an evangelical Christian missionary agency ministering to needy people in some 40 countries of the world. AMG has provided hope through the Good News of Jesus Christ since 1942.

Many are brought to a personal belief and trust in Jesus Christ through evangelism carried on by AMG missionaries, national workers, church planters, schools, radio programs, and newspaper evangelism. Thousands of hungry children are fed and cared for in AMG childcare centers, and broken bodies are given medical help in hospitals, clinics, and leprosy centers.

AMG’s goals are to provide every person on earth at least one opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel, to express the compassion of Christ as God allows, and to serve the pastor and his local church through informing, challenging , and encouraging them to fulfill their worldwide responsibilities.

When you pray for or financially support AMG, you can feel satisfied knowing you have made a positive difference for many hurting people. We are God’s children meeting the needs of others in the name of Jesus Christ. Please pray for our ministry.

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Please leave a comment or question and I will try to respond a.s.a.p.

– Michael
https://thechristianreviewer.wordpress.com