Why write a study Bible? The answer to that question comes in a conversation between Philip and an Ethiopian recorded in Acts 8:30, 31:
So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
As Philip did with the eunuch, I want to sit with you and explain the Scripture. This Study Bible allows me that intimate opportunity.
Although I personally bear full responsibility for all the notes in The MacArthur Study Bible because they all have come from me and through me, a work of this magnitude with the responsibility to be so accurate could only have been done with a team of supportive co-workers who committed themselves to assist me by arduous labor with loving devotion and commitment to excellence. Many friends have participated in the team—all of whom deserve to be commended and thanked.
My highest gratitude belongs to my friend and ministry partner, Dr. Richard Mayhue, Senior Vice President and Dean of The Master’s Seminary. He has worked next to me through the whole project, laboring beyond anyone while serving as project manager, OT and NT researcher, editor, and counselor. His exceptional gift for management, along with his vast knowledge of Scripture and doctrine, coupled with our one-mindedness theologically, plus his writing skill, have made for a most effective partnership.
Gratitude in abundance must be given to the faculty of The Master’s Seminary for their assistance in original research and carefully prepared first draft material for the study notes on the Old Testament. Using the foundation of that original research and material, I worked and re-worked the study notes into their final form.
Thank you to Dr. Irv Busenitz, Dr. Trevor Craigen, Prof. Dave Deuel, Prof. Keith Essex, Dr. Richard Mayhue, Dr. Larry Pettegrew, Dr. Jim Rosscup, Prof. Jim Stitzinger, Dr. Bob Thomas, and Dr. George Zemek.
Because over the last 28 years I have studied and expositionally preached through nearly all the New Testament, my own original research was available to be summarized into the NT study notes. A team composed of The Master’s Seminary faculty and editors at Grace to You, who work regularly editing my books, accepted the task of spending long hours culling the salient features from my research into study note form. Likewise, from that first draft, I worked to bring the material to its final form.
Thank you to Dr. Bill Barrick, Dave Douglass, Dave Enos, Dr. David Farnell, Phil Johnson, Garry Knussman, Dr. Richard Mayhue, Tom Pennington, Dr. Larry Pettegrew, and Mike Taylor.
It was also essential to have readers who carefully scrutinized all the material for accuracy and checked all Scripture references. My gratitude goes to them for their faithful effort at a tedious task. My thanks to Dennis Swanson and Bob White at The Master’s Seminary; to Dave Enos and Allacin Morimizu at Grace to You; and to June Gunden and her team of readers at Peachtree Editorial and Proofreading Service.
The nearly 2,400 pages of single-spaced notes had to be entered into computers and repeatedly edited and corrected after each of the six occasions when everything was reworked. A team of loyal and diligent secretaries from The Master’s Seminary, Grace Community Church, and Grace to You worked on that formidable task inside a confining schedule to meet endless deadlines in the process. Since I write in longhand, most of the material was a combination of print and longhand that called for difficult deciphering of my marginally legible writing. Along with their other duties, they graciously took on this task, as did all the rest of the team.
My thanks to Dr. Mayhue’s secretary, Cindy Gehman (OT Coordinator) and my personal secretary, Pat Rotisky (NT Coordinator) who labored with Amy Brandenstein, Rhonda Connor, Louise Essex, Marilyn Foster, Marcia Griffiths, Carol Smith, Diane Haschak, Pam Leopold, Willa Loveless, Dareth Luna, Wilma Miller, Joyce Modert, Susan Rogers, Patti Schott, and Teri White.
All the above mentioned friends made this effort a joyous marathon for me to run. I pray God’s blessing on them all in response to their devotion to the Word of God.
Finally, I offer great appreciation to David Moberg, my publisher at Word Publishing, who exhibited vision, confidence, patience, and expertise through the relentless complexities of the project. He proved to be both a friend and guide.
Never have I been so challenged and blessed at the same time as during the two intense years of this work. Studying alone in my private place, perusing every word of Scripture, plus being challenged to understand each phrase and verse has yielded richness to my life and ministry like nothing I have undertaken before.
I have always been committed to the Scripture as inspired, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and eternal. I have always preached the Bible expositionally, verse by verse, book by book. After this enterprise, I feel even more strongly about the necessity of preaching every pure word of Scripture (Ps. 12:6). I have been profoundly enriched in my own life, as never before, because of the sheer force of so much divine truth pouring through me daily. For many months I spent eight or more hours every day working in the Word, not so much because I had to, but because I could not leave the text—its riches held me captive.
Most especially, my thanks to you, the reader, for loving Scripture enough to be a serious student. This work is an additional way of fulfilling my calling as a pastor-teacher mandated “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).
With gratitude most of all to our glorious God who gave us His precious Word, do I pray that He will be honored by this effort to explain what His Word means by what it says.
John MacArthur