Scofield Study Bible III KJV - Thumb-Indexed King James Version Bible for In-Depth Scripture Study (2003 Edition) | Perfect for Personal Devotion, Bible Study Groups & Theological Research

Very sturdy Bible. Smythe sewn, instead of glued - it will NOT come apart. Very opaque paper - you can only read one page at a time - as opposed to most Bibles where the page behind the one you are reading is highly/irritatingly visible.This Study Bible has a good bit of verse-by-verse commentary BUT not nearly so much as in (for example) The Nelson Study Bible & The NIV Study Bible. However -- as a Bible teacher -- I find this Study Bible is my favorite for use in teaching. Reason - it has a lot of summary tables, wherein major Bible doctrines & topics are analyzed in great depth, with plenty of cogent Bible references in support of each such analysis.Ergo, as I prepare each lesson (I teach by the "expository method" -- book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse) I make extensive use of the Bible's Appendix which lists the location of all the numerous analyses found throughout the Bible. I make written notes to reference these analyses directly into the ample margins of the Bible section that I am covering that day. It works gang-busters as a superb teaching tool.I rate the color maps at the back of the Bible at 8 on a scale of 10. Good but not great. There are black & white maps at applicable locations throughout the Bible -- these I rate at 9 as to helpfulness for a Bible reader. As a teacher, however, I use a separate Bible Geography book when locales are a significant factor in explaining a particular Bible passage.The included Concordance will help you zero in on most *key* verses. Also, a separate Strongs exhaustive concordance & lexicon works very well. Strongs is keyed to old KJV. However, this NKJV is close enough to the KJV that there is no problem in finding NKJV verses by doing a "Strongs look-up".By the way, another reason I like teaching from NKJV: some attendees have "other" translations. This presents no problem when I use NKJV because NKJV is very honest in that it carefully & fully cross-references to variants so that, with any given verse, I am always aware of significant differences between NKJV & other translations. No other translation is equally as useful in this respect.Finally, I like this Bible because it is printed verse-by-verse instead of paragraph style. As a teacher I GREATLY prefer verse-by-verse printing because: (1) It's waay easier to quickly spot a desired verse. (2) There is a lot more white space.White space leaves a bit of space for making notes. White space makes a given page look "friendlier" -- less imposing -- easier to read. I enjoy giving away Bibles. When doing so, I will only give a Bible which is printed verse-by-verse. In my experience I have found that such Bibles have a much greater possibility of actually being read-for-pleasure/enlightenment by new-to-the-Bible folks. On the other hand, I have noted that the paragraphed Bibles, which I used to give, often ended up gathering dust.In sum: Great translation Solidly constructed Bible. PLENTY of white space. Great but unobtrusive study notes. My favorite. I think you might like it, too.