I disagree with anyone saying, as one reviewer did, that this new study Bible offers nothing new. Yes it does! It is every bit as detailed as the major academic study bibles (maybe less so than HarperCollins Study Bible and ESV) but without the detectable biases. The ESV Study Bible, for example, is remarkable for its depth and detail, but comes strictly from a conservative evangelical position, informing readers of how they should think about stem cell research and abortion. You will find none of that here. In fact, the annotations are clearly intended for intelligent church-going people on all levels of education. A teenager could easily read it. Yet there is no sacrifice of information in an effort to "talk down" to a general audience. The annotations are not so much about authorship and documentary sources as about the historical context and meaning of the text. Visually the study Bible is up to par with National Geographic maps and lots of graphs and charts. If you can only afford one study Bible, buy this one. Oh, and the translation is excellent, probably just as accurate as NRSV, but easier to read because of the updated English.