The Study Bible and Gijs van den Brink: 40 years on the road together

From the very beginning, Gijs van den Brink has been involved with the Study Bible. Just graduated as a theologian at the University of Utrecht, he was asked in 1981 to work on the commentary on Matthew. Together with the classicist Henk Courtz and project leader Hans Bette, he thought up the concept for the Study Bible commentaries. Five years later, the first volume was presented in 1986.

With what thoughts in mind did you go into this project at the time?
"I found it tremendously fascinating to be able to make a difference in that. I had just graduated as a theologian majoring in New Testament. I found it extremely interesting that Herman ter Welle was working on the Greek text and an interlinear translation. Precisely because now people would be able to read what was written in Greek. I was so interested that I worked on the project as a volunteer for quite a while without getting paid for it."

The idea for the Study Bible can be traced to Norwegian Bible teacher Thoralf Gilbrant who had written a five-volume series to accompany the Bible. The initial goal was to translate this series. How did you look at that?
"The quality had to be better; Gilbrant's commentary was too simple, too straightforward. We couldn't just translate that. When you showed the Greek text, a thorough, in-depth explanation had to follow that as well. Gilbrant had a penchant for manuscripts and church fathers, while we wanted above all to make the Greek text speak for the ordinary Bible reader. Our goal was to bring the text close to the people. Because we were looking at the Greek text, we also had to look at the differences in the text. There are thousands of manuscripts of parts of the NT, which then ended up in different text editions. We figured out how we wanted to represent the Greek text and the manuscripts so that it made sense to the users. We visited Prof. Van Bruggen for this purpose and asked his advice. We followed his advice for the most part. And so we set to work. We thought further about the reference system and the column model. Next to the Greek text is a column of text editions and manuscripts, next to it are the selected Bible translations where the differences are made visible. This is followed by the commentary and articles. We studied extensively on how we wanted to discuss each Greek word in the word studies. It was a constant consideration of what to discuss in the commentary and what to discuss in the word studies so that there would be no overlap. All in all, that preliminary work took five years and at the same time Henk Courtz and I worked on the commentary and the interlinear translation with word studies on Matthew. Then the team of authors expanded and we started the series on the New Testament."

What made the Study Bible unique in the Netherlands?
Two things. There was no Bible commentary in Dutch that spoke the language of evangelical Christians and could be easily read by them. In addition, an edition of the Greek text with a "word-for-word" translation underneath, a comparison of multiple Bible translations and word studies of each Greek word was unique to the Netherlands, Van den Brink explained.

Your role was initially to write the commentary. Did you continue to do that or did that change over time?
"Starting in 1985, we had five, six authors who started writing. My father-in-law, H. van de Giessen from Barneveld, who had just retired, compared 11 Dutch, English, German and French Bible translations and noted every difference for the column Bible translations. Over the years, as many as 25 different authors wrote commentaries and articles. Here was born a long-standing collaboration with Hans Bette, who is still involved in the project today. Together with Hans, we discussed with each author for each chapter the written explanations, , so that there was a unity between the commentaries. We wanted to keep them on track, so that the method of historical exegesis was maintained. It was a challenge, however, to get the various authors to hold their noses in the same direction. As a litmus test, we asked them beforehand what they thought about the kingdom of God. Particularly important to us for the gospels was the "already and not yet" view of the kingdom. Of that, Prof. Herman Ridderbos had deeply convinced me. Coming back to the writing: initially I did the final editing together with Hans Bette, later Arie Zwiep was added. Henk Courtz and later Jan Willem van der Jagt (as classics) and Marco Rotman were final editors for the translation of the Greek and the text of the word studies. That has been my job over the years: to read along and give feedback as final editor. I also wrote many background articles and the commentary to many chapters of the book of Revelation," Van den Brink said.

How did fellow professionals view the release of the first volumes?
"We were not writing for science. The target audience was the interested Bible reader. We wrote and wrote in understandable language. The Study Bible was not used at all by university teachers, but it was used by students. That we had this target group in mind and that we succeeded in reaching them was confirmed by the professionals. Incidentally, because of the input of Old Testament scholars such as Mart-Jan Paul and Cees C. Stavleu, we took a different approach to the Old Testament commentaries. There we did discuss different views side by side, as well as include footnotes and a bibliography. Then the series became a little more accepted in the scholarly world. But I never regretted that we started that way in the New Testament. Prof. Herman Ridderbos, who was present several times at the presentation of a new volume, said his work had never really been accepted in the scholarly world. But his books have been translated into many languages and are still read by a large audience today. Scientific commentaries, on the other hand, have a much smaller reach. Ridderbos greatly appreciated our work."

You worked with many authors. These people could have different beliefs on themes. Were there times when it became theologically tense when writing the commentary?
"With each author, the written chapter was discussed with the editor. Then that person went back to work to incorporate all the comments and that has actually always gone well. Because we limit ourselves to historical exegesis, what does this text say to the first hearers. Difficult though was the book of Revelation, especially around the theme of Antichrist and Nero. Was the message of the book of Revelation intended for the first century or is it future-oriented? Revelation was a delivery though and we did face each other at times, but we came out of it. The outcome was "and ... and. I particularly appreciated that process and am therefore not dissatisfied with the result. Arie Zwiep wrote a number of chapters and Pieter Lalleman and I took care of a number of them," Van den Brink said.

Have you ever thought of quitting? Has there ever been a bump that was tremendously difficult?
"No, I never had a moment where I wanted to quit. The previous publisher fell into bankruptcy in 1997 and I continued working without pay at that time. I strongly believed that this project would continue and be taken over. The trustee tried to place it with other publishers. Hans Bette and I then went with it, but it didn't work out in the end. The curator saw our enthusiasm and I remember him saying then, "If I turn it over to you, I'm sure it will continue." And so it did. Hans Bette, Arie Zwiep and I as editors then set up a foundation, which became the Center for Bible Research. The people who had pre-subscribed and paid for the last volumes lost their money because of the bankruptcy. We had to ask them to pay again for the last volumes, because otherwise we could not produce those volumes. All but a few of the three and a half thousand subscribers did so. As a result, we were able to continue," van den Brink looks back.

How do you look back on bankruptcy now? Would you have liked to skip it or was it a blessing?
"All in all, it did bring us more freedom. When we came out on our own, we could go our own way. We became publishers in addition to editors. Then we could put different views side by side in the Old Testament commentary and add bibliographies. Before, that was not considered important by the publisher and now we could do that as the Center for Bible Research under the leadership of Mart-Jan Paul as OT editor-in-chief. It was also my strong preference and in the New Testament we started doing that later. Right now, in the revision of the New Testament, we are doing it completely thoroughly. Of course, the end result remains the same, but the substantiation gives the series a more scholarly feel. Certainly, we continue to write for the interested Bible reader, but everything is scholarly. I am proud that we have been able to do it this way," Van den Brink replied.

Then the Study Bible also embarked on a digital adventure. Can you tell a little more about that?
"I did drive that to start this very early. I saw that a lot of people were using the Online Bible. All kinds of commentaries from long ago were appearing on it. We wrote a recent commentary with a good and modern explanation that took into account recent developments in Bible science. I thought it was a great shame that that was not widely accessible digitally. In 2004 we started an edition on CD-Rom. In 2009 it was replaced by the online version. Then we started a Spanish translation. From our supporters came many people who helped us with this, both technically and through sponsorship. The number of users of the Study Bible increased as a result. This became much more so after the app for mobile was launched in 2018."

Why was the choice made to translate the Study Bible into Spanish?
"We wanted to take the Study Bible out into the world and thought about where there was the most need. Pretty quickly we found out that Latin America has very little Bible material and there is a rapidly growing young church there. So is Iran and China, but the amount of people who speak Spanish is so large that we quickly agreed to make the Study Bible available in Spanish. It became a huge project and we are still working on this," Van den Brink said.

Looking back, would you also have wanted to do things differently with the knowledge of today?
"There are few things I say we should have done differently. For one thing that is true, and that is the Strong numbers. We copied the original Swedish numbers for all Greek words, even though even then the Strong number was an international standard. Why not transfer everything to these Strongnumbers in the beginning? That may have been laziness, because the Swedish numbers were already there and transferring them would take extra effort and time. This caused constant confusion over time. Looking back now, we should have done it differently. Other things we thought long and hard about and the agreements we made 40 years ago we are still living up to today," Van den Brink concludes.

How do you see the future of the Study Bible?
"I see that rosy, because Bible commentaries last for years, if not centuries. Matthew Henry is still being published and read today. Then we are talking about a commentary from 300 years ago. I am hopeful that our commentary will still be used 100, 200 years from now. Furthermore, I see all kinds of possibilities in other languages. When you see people being nourished and blessed by this, you want to do more. I love the fact that we are working in Spanish and expanding that further. I see that as a mission. It was not for nothing that I chose missiology as a minor in college. Mission has my heart. So I see this whole project as a link in the expansion of the kingdom of God. When people read the Bible, they start bearing fruit, they start living differently and passing on what they read to others.

How long will you continue after retirement?
I hope to continue for a few more years. As long as I stay healthy, I like to stay involved. It is my joy and my life.

By Haije Bergstra

You might also like to know a little more about the other staff and editors at the BoE. Each month we will introduce one of them to you. Last time:

• Hermien Henning – Content import employee 
• Mart-Jan Paul – Editor-in-Chief
• Raymond R. Hausoul – Editor and writer
• Marianne Marchal- Administrative assistant/support workerr
• Hans Bette – Editor-in-chief and board member