Don't Just Tell Me, Show Me

Sometimes it take a non-scholar to show scholars how to effectively put together a translation of a book written thousands of years ago so that it will have maximum impact on a modern audience.

This is what Robert Strassler has accomplished. He doesn't have any scholarly credentials to really speak of. He doesn't have tenure at a university and doesn't even read Greek or Latin. Yet he has produced the English editions to own of first Thucydides (The Landmark Thucydides, 1996) and now Herodotus (The Landmark Herodotus, 2007). Additional volumes on Arrian (2010), Polybius (2009), and Xenophon (2012) are forthcoming in the next few years.

What makes these editions special is the extra helps for the reader that he included. To draw a comparison with another series that aims to aid the reader, the Arden Shakespeare provides an extensive introduction and copious notes to the text of each play. However, while a few photos are included, they are typically photos of the various famous actors who have played the parts in question. In other words, true visual aids are few and far between, and most of what is included doesn't really help you understand what's happening in the play.

Well, what the Arden Shakespeare series is to serious Shakespeare readers, the Landmark series is to readers of Greek historiography (which I hope he expands to include Latin historiographers), only more so. This is not only because the Arden series has its competitors in the Oxford and Cambridge editions when it comes to Shakespeare, while the Landmark series stands alone with respect to Greek historiography, but also because the Landmark series contains wonderful, highly-detailed maps along with other visual aids (charts, timelines, useful illustrations and photos) to help the reader. In addition, he has organized a highly detailed system that enables a reader to quickly ascertain where and when any part of the narrative takes place, as well as very useful paragraph summaries in the margin, along with many other useful features (like incredibly detailed useful indexes, numerous appendixes on background, a glossary, and numerous detailed notes).

The Landmark Thucydides contains over 100 maps (most are a full page) embedded directly into the text (approximately one map every 5.5 pages). You literally almost never have to flip more than 3 or 4 pages either way to get to a map that details exactly what you need to know to make sense of the narrative. For the Landmark Herodotus, Strassler upped it to 127 maps embedded in the text (approximately one map every 5.7 pages). These maps and other visual aids make reading these books much more fruitful, since the myriad of names, dates, and places can be quite confusing. If you are at all interested in these Greek historians, you need to get your hands on these editions.


Which brings me to the real subject of this post. Too often in the past, the producers of study bibles have taken the Arden Shakespeare approach: that is, aids that are dominated by text (i.e., detailed introductions plus copious notes). It looks like things are beginning to change. The people behind the ESV Study Bible (coming in October) have apparently gone to the trouble of embedding over 200 full color maps within the biblical text, along with numerous diagrams, illustrations, and over 200 charts. I'd say it's about time. Study bibles dominated by text are simply boring. A study bible chock full of visual helps is the next logical step. The potential in such a study bible is enormous if done correctly.

If you'd like to see a sneak preview of the ESV Study Bible, Mark Bertrand has photos of a mock-up made by the ESV people who displayed it at a recent conference. It's only the gospel of John bound over and over again to approximate the size of the actual study bible, but it gives you the basic idea. Most of the specs on the binding and format line up with what I like in a bible (i.e., single column, paragraph format, black letter, sewn binding, a wide variety of covers to choose from, etc.).

There's only a couple of things I worry about, based on the photos of the mock-up: (1) the text appears to sink into the gutter far too much (I suspect this is just a problem with the mock-up -- I wonder if the mock-up has a glued binding; but it would be a deal-breaker for me if the mock-up is a true indication of what the inner margins will look like); (2) there appears to be more bleed through than I would have hoped for.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this study bible, because, despite the fact that I'll almost certainly not like a lot of what's in the footnotes (it appears to be heavily slanted in the Reformed/Baptist vein to tell from the buzz in the blogosphere), this appears to represent a quantum leap in the evolution of study bibles, which should be encouraged and supported.

I only hope that the HarperCollins people take note of what the ESV Study Bible has (likely) accomplished and incorporate some of the same insights the next time they publish a revision of their Study Bible.

One final note: I echo Mark Bertrand's enthusiasm and appreciation for the work that went into the website displaying the ESV Study Bible and the openness with which they've shared the details of the binding and format of the editions being released. I wish more bible publishers would be as diligent in putting out information about their bibles.

(Addendum: I should have known that Iyov would beat me to the punch on the Landmark series; see his post here).