ESV Panorama New Testament: Practical?

When I decide to review a product, it’s normally because I’ve already decided the product will be useful for Bible study. The ESV Panorama New Testament is a little different, however. While I was fascinated by the idea of this new product, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work practically. But I wanted to see for myself.

What is it?

The ESV Panorama New Testament is an oversized printing of the full New Testament, appearing almost like a coffee table book. The font is the same size as a standard book, so a lot of text fits on each page. All of the standard extras are here (chapter and verse numbers, section headings, page numbers, and beginning and ending verse references in the top corners), but no additional study helps are present (cross references, footnotes, study notes, etc.). The idea is to get more of the Bible on each page spread so you can read or study large portions at a time without the distraction of page turns.

The promo video promises that this format “gives a wider perspective on the context of each passage.”

My Skepticism

Of course, I am all in favor of making it easier for people to keep context in mind as they read and study the Bible. But can a giant-sized book do that? I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t sit and read my coffee-table books for hours on end. They’re typically helpful for browsing or showing something off. But not for lengthy reading or careful literary analysis.

And yet I am deeply grateful to Crossway for their constant creativity in finding new and unexpected ways of delighting in God’s word. They have taken many risks, publishing things we just haven’t seen before, without assurance of dramatic sales. They rocked my world with their first reader’s Bible. And then the six-volume set? They took us to the third heaven, an experience that compelled not one but two reviews from me.

Since then, Crossway delighted us with many other glorious experiments. Scripture journals. Journaling Bibles. Reader’s gospels. But what about this coffee table monstrosity? I can imagine showing it off to people who visit my home, but not sitting and reading. Not attempting deep OIA study. Perhaps I’ll witness Crossway’s hull finally running aground on a deliciously ambitious but failed experiment.

What’s Good

I’ll begin with the good news, which is that it works. It really works. The video makes the book seem larger than it really is. And because of its thinness, it weighs very little and is not hard to hold on a lap. It lies quite flat on a desk or tabletop, and I had no trouble using it for extended reading.

There is something pretty remarkable about seeing the entire book of Colossians, to give one example, on a single page spread. The layout gives the reader permission to read and keep reading. I imagine that with repeated reading, repeated words and ideas would pop off the page, and this volume is well designed for marking up such things.

There is plenty of space in the margins, between columns, and at the bottom of the page for extensive annotations. And I am very grateful for the exclusion of study helps. This edition of the New Testament focuses you almost exclusively on the text itself. A lot of text at once. And the psychological effect of seeing so much text at once is truly remarkable.

What Could be Better

Ten of the New Testament books are too long for a single page spread. I appreciate that the typesetting for those books doesn’t simply run to the end of the margin and continue on the next page. Instead, they set up only complete chapters, such that whenever you turn a page, you’re always at the beginning of a new chapter on the left-hand side.

I applaud the self-consciousness here to avoid having a page end mid-thought or mid-sentence. And in some cases, it still works. For example, it is glorious to see the entire Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) on a single page spread. Perhaps this will help people read it as a single sermon. In addition, having each page break line up with a particular chapter break has another welcome effect, that of causing a variety in the amount of blank space at the bottom of each spread. All pages have plenty of space down there; because of the page break, some have even more than “plenty,” making this Bible even more likely to be useful as a markup Bible.

However, I’m disappointed that the primary factor in breaking each page is the chapter division. This intriguing volume could be even more successful at what it sets out to do if it simply discarded chapter and verse numbers (like a true reader’s Bible), and instead worked to put page breaks at more natural literary divisions (which are quite often not at our Bibles’ chapter breaks!).

The argument in favor of retaining chapter and verse numbers likely rests with the need to be able to find or reference specific passages. That need could be mitigated if the chapter and verse numbers were in the margins, outside the text block (like line numbers in a Shakespeare play), and if the paragraphing and page breaks were not so dependent on them.

Finally, if this Bible truly sets out to give a wider perspective on the context of each passage, I think it would do that better without section headings on each paragraph or group of paragraphs. Perhaps just a heading on each larger division, like those found in the Six-Volume Set, would be sufficient. But the sheer amount of text on each page spread makes this criticism far less urgent than in most other editions of the Bible.

Conclusion

I am pleasantly surprised by this edition. At this point, I can envision making great use of the ESV Panorama New Testament as a markup Bible for careful study. I plan to use it for this purpose for some time to come. At least, until they come out with a reader’s version (no chapter or verse numbers). Or if they make a whole-Bible version (including the Old Testament as well).

I really like what Crossway has done here, and I think the risk pays off handsomely. Do consider giving it a try. Available at Amazon.

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Crossway sent me a complimentary review copy in exchange for an honest review. They didn’t even ask whether I expected to like it or not. Amazon links are affiliate links; if you take the risk of clicking them, this blog will receive a small commission, though not a handsome one.