The Subject Bible

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The Subject Bible is an edition of the King James Bible which combines a traditional Bible text with a topical Bible in a single volume.

This Bible was prepared by Dr. Everette Gaddy. Gaddy is "a Tennessee bible salesman" ^[1] He published The Subject Bible through Assurance Publishers. ^[2] Gaddy's first name is alternately spelled "Everett". He is featured on a program called Bible Discovery on the Daystar Network.^[3] He is said to be a "world renowned theologian"^[4] but nowhere is a curriculum vitae which explains any specifics of Gaddy's contributions to theology.

The Subject Bible is perhaps best known because of a thirty-minute informercial which was produced to sell the Bible to a wide audience. The infomercial features Dr. Gaddy and the host, Dr. Jerry Goff,^[5] the creation and features of the Bible, in a candid and often unscripted informal conversation, interspersed with segments encouraging viewers to order a copy of The Subject Bible. (Goff is billed in the infomercial as a Bible scholar, but his biography^[6] lists him as a Gospel musician. But he is "a professor of church history and New Testament documents at Christian Life College".^[7])

In addition to the infomercial, The Subject Bible can be purchased from different sources online.^[8] The main Bible text augments the Bible verses with notes about the subjects the verses discuss. The notes reference the back of The Subject Bible, which has a topical list of subjects along with the text of verses which pertain to that subject.

The list of verses by subjects appears to be taken from work by Dr. Roswell Dwight Hitchcock,^[9] whose name is visible on the title page. Hitchcock is well-known for preparing Hitchcock's New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible.^[10]

The King James text is augmented by definitions of rare, obsolete, and archaic words. Example: In the verse 1 Corinthians 16:22, both the words anathema and maranatha which appear in the KJV text are underlined, and definitions are supplied at the end of the verse. The Subject Bible appears to have about the same number of definitions as Thomas Nelson's Read-Along-Translations in editions of the KJV from that publisher which do not contain their more extensive center-column note system.

Similarly, in the Old Testament, the passage in Isaiah 3:22 is used as an example. This verse is part of a long list of clothing and personal effects in 16th century English that is so obsolete that it defeated the King James Bible Commentary to the point that no commentary is even offered, and instead the NASB translation is quoted without further elaboration. The Subject Bible tranlsates the words wimple and crisping pins into modern English.

Other than its subject notes and word definitions, The Subject Bible has no other study notes of any sort, which means it is non-denominational and non-sectarian.

Note: The Subject Bible must be available in more than one edition. In the infomercial, the text of Genesis 1:1 is clearly visible; the word "God" is underlined, and the explanation in parentheses at the end of the verse is "Elohim". However, the KJV Store has a "look inside" feature that shows the first page of Genesis, and on it the explanation in parenthesis is "YHVH". (The correct word is Elohim, Strong's Hebrew #430.)