Reviews | Knowable Word

A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible

April 29, 2019 By Ryan Higginbottom

When the newest Visual Theology book arrived in the mail, my daughters had the same initial reaction: Whoa, this is cool! It’s easy to see why they were excited.

A mixture of text and eye-grabbing graphics, this book is a great introduction to the Bible. It is a manual and reference book that will serve the church for many years, and I’m glad that Tim Challies and Josh Byers have created it.

Part 1: Trusting the Bible

Making no assumptions that readers of this book were raised in church, A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible begins with an introduction to the Bible. The first part of the book then explains why we can trust the Bible.

The questions that are addressed in part 1 are some of the most common and most important of our time: How was the Bible written? What makes the Bible unique? Can we trust the Bible? I found the section on the formation of the New Testament canon (pages 40–49) fascinating.

The infographics, charts, and illustrations throughout the book are visually stunning and stuffed with helpful information. The bold colors and striking shapes complement a creative use of pictures and graphs. In part 1, the timeline for the authorship of Old Testament books (pages 38–39) is a highlight.

Part 2: Studying the Bible

The second part of the book concerns studying the Bible, and chapter six provides seven reasons to do just that.

Know God
Know God’s will
Become godly
Bear fruit
Defend yourself
Fuel your prayers
Fuel your joy

After explaining each of these reasons briefly, chapter seven addresses the important matter of how to study the Bible. Readers of this blog will find themselves in familiar territory (with familiar terminology) here, as the book offers an excellent primer on the Observe-Interpret-Apply Bible study method. There are some nice pointers about Bible memorization in this chapter as well.

Part 3: Seeing the Bible

The third and longest part of this book offers an overview of different sections of the Bible. In chapter 8, the authors lay out the main thrust of God’s Word.

We, too, miss the main point of the Bible if we fail to see and discover Jesus in all the Scriptures. Yes, the Bible is a book about God. But even more specifically, the Bible is a story about God’s plan of salvation for us in Jesus Christ. As we read God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, we discover the Son of God, who came to save us from our sins. (A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible, page 105)

It’s hard to miss the focus on Jesus in this portion of the book. Every chapter title connects a section of the Bible to an aspect of God’s plan to send Jesus. I appreciate the way these chapters set the information and narratives of these groups of biblical books within the larger context of redemptive history.

It’s hard to pick one favorite infographic from part 3. Here are three at the top of my list.

The timeline of the kings and prophets of Israel and Judah (page 143) is excellent. I have trouble remembering these historical sequences, so I’m sure I’ll use this as a reference.
On page 148, the Psalms are grouped and categorized by book, author, type (lament, thanksgiving, etc.), whether the psalm is an acrostic, and whether the psalm is messianic. I’ve never seen a chart quite like this.
A breakdown of the last week of Jesus’s life is on page 177. The events of this week are organized chronologically (by day) and by location (Bethany, Mount of Olives, etc.), with relevant locations in each Gospel listed.

A Great Resource

As I paged through this book, I couldn’t help but think about how timely it is. Biblical literacy is low, so the church needs an accessible introduction to our holy book. And the combination of succinct, punchy text and beautiful graphics meets modern readers where they are.

This book is part a larger visual theology project by Challies and Byers, about which you can learn more here. This endeavor seems to have a sound vision driving it. Challies and Byers use words where description and explanation are needed, and they use pictures and illustrations to highlight space, proportion, sequence, similarity, or time.

I highly recommend this book. It will appeal to children (starting, I’d guess, at age 8 or 9). But it is a great reference for Bible readers and students of all ages.

You can purchase this book at Amazon and the Westminster Bookstore, among other retailers. (At the time of this writing, the prices at Amazon and WTS were virtually identical.)

Disclaimer: The links to Amazon and Westminster Bookstore in this post are affiliate links.

ESV Journaling New Testament, Inductive Edition

February 4, 2019 By Ryan Higginbottom

First we got the single-column Bible. Then came generous side margins. The latest advance in journaling Bibles seems to be interlinear space, and it’s wonderful.

For people who like to mark up their Bibles, studying God’s word with pen or highlighter in hand, there never seems to be enough space. We want more room for notes, questions, symbols, and arrows. This is especially true for Bible students who underline, circle, or box words in the text—in a standard Bible, these marks could easily obscure the text in the subsequent or preceding line.

Enter the ESV Journaling New Testament, Inductive Edition, published by Crossway. This book provides 3/8 inch of space between lines of text, opening up lots of options for engaged students of the Bible.

Excellent Design

I love the philosophy of this Bible. This is from the introduction.

It is in light of this conviction that Crossway offers to the church the ESV Journaling New Testament, Inductive Edition. The text is spaced out line by line, designed to facilitate active engagement with the Bible with a pencil or pen in hand. Repeated words can be circled, key transitions can be noted, striking phraseology can be reflected on. With space to jot notes and insights, this edition will be a versatile tool in a Christian disciple’s engagement with Scripture.

Crossway kindly sent me the black hardback version of this Bible for review. This Bible lays open flat, and the elastic band will remind journal lovers of the famous Moleskine. The wide outer margins and interline space provide plenty of room. This is not a Bible to sit down and read for hours; this is designed as a workbench and laboratory. It has great potential as a markup Bible.

There are so many positives for this product that I hate to mention any negatives. I have only two cautions. The first is about the name—this does not seem like a journaling Bible to me. There is ample space to interact with the text, but there is not as much space to do what is typically considered journaling. (I don’t personally use a Bible for journaling, but those who do might be disappointed.) My second caution is that the thickness of the paper in this Bible is closer to thin, Bible paper than it is standard journal paper. Consequently, pencils, highlighters, and ballpoint pens are better choices than gel, roller ball, or fountain pens if you are concerned about writing bleeding through to the back of pages.

How About the OT?

The retail price for this Bible is $39.99, but it is available for far less than that at both Amazon and Westminster Bookstore. (At the time of this writing, the price at Westminster Bookstore was almost $3 less than at Amazon.)

I recommend this Bible for anyone who wants to dig into the Bible text and get their hands dirty. I hope that Crossway considers publishing a two-volume edition of the Old Testament to mirror this Bible. (They have just released the Old Testament version of the ESV Scripture Journals, so there’s hope!)

Disclosure: the links to Amazon and Westminster Bookstore are affiliate links.

The images used in this post were provided by Crossway.

What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About

December 14, 2018 By Peter Krol

A few weeks ago, I reviewed What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About. This companion volume completes the set. Does it deliver on the bold promise implicit in its title?

Strengths

This volume takes the same format as its partner, giving minimal attention to historical background and focusing its efforts on the theological messages of each New Testament book. It roughly groups the books by author (thus putting Acts together with Luke, and discussing John’s epistles and Revelation along with his gospel) so as to emphasize, as you’d expect, what the authors cared about in writing these books.

The writing is comprehensible. The visuals are attractive and relevant. The biblical text is ever-present. This overview would be a useful text for a Bible overview course for adults or teenagers.

Weaknesses

While there is much to commend this book, I believe it takes the minor weakness of the Old Testament volume and magnifies it.

That is, the contributors often don’t “show their work” very well. While this was the case for only a few of the OT entries, I felt it was the case for a majority of the NT entries. It was more difficult for me to find chapters where I believed the author not only stated his conclusions, but proved them from a literary analysis of the text. The best examples are Huffman on Luke, Kelly on Acts, Guthrie on Hebrews, and Cate on 1 &2 Peter.

I would not say the remaining chapters are in any way bad. They might be great. It just wasn’t clear in many of them whether the key points represented what the NT author really cared about, or whether they more represented what the contributing scholar really cared about.

I don’t find any chapters to be communicating things that are not in the text at all. Instead, they simply present a select number of themes without showing why those themes are any more important than a number of other themes that could be mentioned.

Conclusion

I am grateful to Kregel Academic for sending me a complimentary copy of this volume in exchange for an honest review. I am glad to add it to my library, and I will likely make good use of it with teenagers and adults in my home and church. But I am more enthusiastic about the rich big-picture thought and literary analysis presented in the OT volume than that which I find in this one.

You can check it out at Amazon.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, you will support this blog at no extra cost to yourself. Thank you for enabling us to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible.

Logos 8: The Speed We Need

November 23, 2018 By Peter Krol

I use Logos Bible software every day. I am impressed by the sheer power of what it can do. It does for my Bible study what an automobile does for my personal transportation: It gets me where I want to go, when I need to go, by whatever route makes most sense at the time.

With Logos installed on my laptop, my iPad, and my smart phone, the only time I use a physical Bible any more is when I want to sit and read at length. Now I could also do that with Logos, but why would I when there are so many fantastic reader’s Bibles these days?

The good people at Faithlife gave me a complimentary upgrade to Logos 8 in exchange for an honest review. So this review will focus on the new features in this version of the software. If you’d like to see what I think of Logos in general, see my reviews of earlier versions:

Speed

The biggest and best improvement is the speed of the software. This has always been my biggest complaint, and I’m far from the only one to have lodged it. Logos has typically been slow and ponderous, like an obese Moabite king oppressing the people of Benjamin.

They claim Logos 8 is 10 times faster than Logos 7. This doesn’t make it quite as zippy as Jehu, the maniacal charioteer. But it does make it such that I no longer have to find something else to do between the time when I click to open Logos and the time when I can get down to business.

There’s not much more for me to say, but this is quite a big deal.

Markup

A new feature called “Canvas” enables you to take a text and mark it up however you see fit. You can color-code repeated words. You can move clauses around to visualize sentence structure. You can underline, circle, draw arrows or insert graphics.

I’m not the most visually-oriented guy, but this feature shows much promise for those who want to mark up their text

Workflows

The feature that has my greatest interest is “workflows.” Workflows are templates for common tasks—such as studying a passage, preparing a sermon, etc.—that simplify your process. I used to look things up myself, find the right Scripture and supplemental resources, record my notes haphazardly, and move toward a finished product on my own.

But now, I can set up a workflow to capture all the steps I always try to follow. Logos then takes me through the template, step by step, each time I come to a new passage.

Logos 8 comes with quite a few built-in workflows, including basic Bible study, character study, word study, topic study, passage exegesis, and expository sermon preparation. I find these built-in templates to show off the power of what Logos 8 and its workflows can do. But I also find these built-in templates rather unhelpful for the proposed tasks. The biggest issue is that the built-in workflows are doing a great job showing off all Logos 8 can do! In the process, they take you far and away from the text and into the bowels of research and commentary about the text.

But have no fear, Logos 8 enables me to create a custom workflow that does what I want it to do. The “Inductive Bible Study” workflow in Logos 8 is way too quick to bring in commentaries and cross-references—without offering enough help to first wrestle through the text and its train of thought.

So I created my own custom workflow called “OIA Bible Study (Focus on the Text).” This workflow walks straight through the Bible study principles in Knowable Word, presenting a series of questions that require you to toil over the text.

If you decide to use Logos 8, you can find my workflow here to try out for yourself. And if you don’t like it, Logos 8 lets you create your own.

Conclusion

If I knew 20 years ago what I know today, I would have acquired Logos Bible software at the start of my career as a missionary and preacher. This exceptional tool has proven to be a faithful companion and a valued guide. Perhaps it can serve this role for you as well.

Here is a link if you would like more information.

ESV Large Print Wide Margin Bible

October 15, 2018 By Ryan Higginbottom

A quick confession: I’ve had a bias against large print Bibles. They seemed to me to be designed only for older saints with poor vision. I didn’t see any use for these Bibles aside from the back row or the resource table at church.

I was wrong.

The Benefits of Large Print

When I received the ESV Large Print Wide Margin Bible from Crossway, I quickly saw how valuable a Bible like this can be. This will serve those who need larger print, but it will benefit many others as well.

The 11-point font size is generous, and that size has a noticeable effect on the page layout. The larger font size results in fewer words per page. And since the leading (the vertical space between lines) is usually proportional to the font size, there is ample space within paragraphs in this Bible. When this line spacing is combined with one-inch side margins, the result is a lot of room for writing, circling, drawing, and highlighting in your Bible.

Details of this Bible

This Bible does away with most distractions. Cross-references and commentary are absent. We see the word of God displayed simply, with chapter and verse numbers as well as a few footnotes from the translators. I love the way this Bible focuses on the text.

The Scripture is printed in the common two-column format. This is familiar to Bible readers, but I’m starting to dislike it. There are so many quality reader’s Bibles now available, I have grown to prefer the one-column layout they use.

The outside page margins are each one inch, and that is a helpful addition. I prefer margins that are wider, but I suspect many readers will find the space in this Bible more than adequate.

The ESV Large Print Wide Margin Bible would make a great gift or purchase for personal use. It is sturdy and well-made; it will last for many years. It is also attractive; the edition I received has a two-tone brown imitation leather cover which feels nice and offers a subtle, sophisticated appearance.

You can buy this Bible at most online book retailers, including Amazon and Westminster Books. At the time of this writing, the price at Westminster Books was $3 cheaper than at Amazon.

Disclosure #1: Crossway provided me a free copy of this Bible in exchange for an honest review.
Disclosure #2: The links to Amazon and Westminster Books in this blog post are affiliate links.

What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About

October 12, 2018 By Peter Krol

I’m intrigued when a book’s title has the chutzpah to make a grandiose promise. I’m suspicious unless that text hooks me quickly. And I’m flabbergasted when the aforementioned guarantee is delivered, so to speak, on time and under budget.

And this “Survey of Jesus’ Bible” edited by Jason S. DeRouchie did all three.

What Makes This Work Unique

I’m speaking of What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About (Kregel Academic, 2013). With the wealth of quality Bible scholarship available to us, especially in the form of accessible Old Testament surveys, why would a publisher dare to present us with what the OT authors really cared about? What does this text have to offer that other OT surveys haven’t already provided?

In short, this OT survey focuses its discussion of each OT book more on the book’s theological message than its historical background. Of course, the historical background matters. But how easy is it to spend so much time researching and discussing who wrote a book, when, and to whom—while the book’s essential message goes unexamined and thus unheeded? As Peter Adam once recounted, “I well remember a series at school on the missionary journeys of St Paul, which told us a great deal about the geography of the Mediterranean, but nothing about Paul’s theology” (Speaking God’s Words, 110).

So DeRouchie and his team cover the historical background—in a single page for each book. Then they spend the bulk of their survey on the text’s content and message, summarized in 3 to 6 bullet points. For example, contributor Kenneth J. Turner writes that “The author of Exodus:

Portrayed the continuing fulfillment of Yahweh’s promises and mission.
Stressed Yahweh’s passion to be known by all in the world.
Celebrated Yahweh’s power to redeem his people from slavery.
Disclosed Yahweh’s gracious provision of his covenant with Israel.
Called Israel to respond to Yahweh’s disclosure of himself and his will.”

Another unique trait of this book is the way DeRouchie chose to work through the Old Testament. Instead of following the typical OT order of 39 books found in English Bibles, DeRouchie and his team examine the Old Testament the way it would have been known to Jesus: 24 books arranged in 3 divisions: Law, Prophets, and Writings.

With an intro to each of the three divisions, and a separate overview of the flow of the Hebrew ordering, DeRouchie masterfully explains the majesty and beauty of the entire collection. For example:

In the Law, the Old Covenant is established.
In the Prophets, the Old Covenant is enforced.
In the Writings, the Old Covenant is enjoyed.

This way of examining the OT brings out significant observations and ideas often missed in the English ordering:

The Prophets begin with God calling Joshua to be careful to do all that “Moses my servant” commanded (Josh 1:7-8). And they end with Yahweh’s call in Malachi to “remember the law of my servant Moses” (Mal 4:4).
The Prophets (Josh 1:8) and Writings (Ps 1:2) both open with commands to “meditate day and night” on God’s law.
The Prophets (second division) have two sub-divisions: narrative (Josh, Judg, Samuel, Kings) and commentary (Jer, Ezek, Is, The Twelve). Altogether, they paint a bleak picture of rebellious Israel’s condition.
The Writings (third division) also have two sub-divisions, the reverse of the Prophets: commentary (Ruth, Ps, Job, Prov, Eccl, Song, Lam) and narrative (Dan, Esther, Ez-Neh, and Chronicles). Altogether, the Writings paint a positive picture of faithful Israel’s life and hope.

That last point strikes me as being remarkably significant. One of my struggles in reading the Old Testament annually is ending with the gloomy assessment of the Prophets. But if I read the books in this Hebrew order, the Writings actually provide much more hope and encouragement for life as part of the believing remnant.

Finally, moving beyond the bounds of even the Old Testament, DeRouchie’s introductory essay makes a compelling argument for the following summary of the entire Bible’s message: God’s kingdom through covenant for God’s glory in Christ. He subdivides “covenant” into the tripartite structure of the OT: covenant established, enforced, and enjoyed. He then proposes a corresponding tripartite identity for Jesus Christ in the NT: Christ the savior, sovereign, and satisfier.

This is big-picture, main-point thinking at its finest.

Where It Could Be Better

The analyses of some OT books are better than others. The biggest weakness of this survey is that it doesn’t spend enough time on literary structural analysis to derive the bullet points for each book’s message. I can see how some contributors derived their assigned book’s message from its literary structure and argument (for example, Dempster on Genesis, DeRouchie on Deuteronomy, Miller on Judges, Smith on Isaiah, and Curtis on Job). But for some other contributors, I can’t tell as easily whether the proposed outline of the book’s message is truly what the OT author really cared about.

But this weakness is not debilitating, as every contributor clearly traces his proposed message through the detailed peaks and valleys of the text itself.

How to Use this Book

What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About would make a fine addition to any personal library. I plan to use it any time I’m preparing a book overview for an OT book.

This book would also make a marvelous text for an OT survey class. It’s probably too much for a Sunday School, but it would be great for a high school or college Bible class.

I recommend it highly. It’s available at Amazon.

If you’re wondering how academic this book is, or whether the language might be above you or your class, check out this video of DeRouchie explaining the Old Testament’s message in 10 minutes. If you like the video, you’ll love the book.

https://vimeo.com/85894785

Disclaimer: Amazon and Westminster links are affiliate links. If you click them (Westminster) or click them and buy stuff (Amazon), you’ll support our efforts to continue reviewing great resources at no extra cost to yourself. The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

ESV Journaling Bible: Great for Journalers

September 17, 2018 By Ryan Higginbottom

Christian publishers are providing a wealth of choices for Bible readers these days. If you’re in the market for a new Bible, you can find just about anything you could describe.

The recent trend of journaling Bibles began some years ago, and the ESV Journaling Bible was early on the scene. Crossway publishes different versions of this Bible, with various covers and page layouts. The volume I received is handsome and hardy, well-suited for those who write as they read God’s word. (Thanks to Crossway for providing me with this Bible in exchange for an honest review.)

Description

This review concerns the ESV Journaling Bible with the bonded leather cover (mocha threshold design) and the text displayed in two columns per page. You can find a sample page from this Bible here.

From the outside, this looks like a fine journal indeed. The Bible is pleasant to hold, and it stays open easily. A ribbon marker is available for securing the page, and the ESV text is attractively printed on cream-colored paper. The Bible text resembles what you would find in a pew Bible or a thinline Bible.

The text is printed with generous, two-inch margins for journaling. There are faint, dotted lines printed in the margins which can be used or ignored at the reader’s preference. With these wide margins on every page, I could see this getting heavy use as a daily journal. It’s the perfect size for recording prayers, thoughts, questions, and applications that flow from devotional Bible reading.

It’s worth noting a few other details. The paper of this Bible is thin but not too thin. A gel pen will bleed through to the back of the page, but a ballpoint pen or a pencil will work nicely for journaling. Finally, paragraph-length introductions to each book of the Bible along with a yearly Bible reading plan occupy the final twenty pages of this volume.

Not a Great Markup Bible

Regular readers of this blog may remember that I’m always on the lookout for a good markup Bible. This Bible doesn’t exactly fit that description, but that is no mark against it! Crossway has produced a great journaling Bible.

The two-column text and small font size are barriers to using this Bible as a markup Bible. While you can highlight, underline, and mark up the text, the layout prevents you from writing notes next to the words or phrases in question. Recording questions or interpretations in the margins provided means that one must either draw lines connecting the writing to the text or live with the ambiguity of having one’s notes near several verses. In short, there is a lot of space in the margins, but not a lot of space elsewhere, and that’s something I look for in a markup Bible.

Dwell: a Deeply Satisfying Audio Bible App

August 31, 2018 By Peter Krol

I have been a fan of audio Bibles for some time. First thing in the morning, while I’m dressing and brushing my teeth, I listen to the ESV: Through the Bible in a Year daily podcast. Then while exercising, I have often listened to a daily lectionary. And as I read and re-read books of the Bible to develop biblical thinking, I often alternate between reading and listening. In addition, we’re training our children for a lifestyle of devotional Bible “reading” through daily time with their own audio Bibles (a practice which has continued in our home long past the preschool years).

So I have tested many options for optimizing the audio Bible experience over the years. Some work out spectacularly. Others far less so.

And now that the Dwell audio Bible app is available, I’m happy to report it sits solidly in the spectacular category.

What is Dwell?

Dwell is not a CD set but a smartphone app. It’s currently available only for iOS, but an Android version is set to release in the next few months.

Dwell was designed from the ground up to be, not a Bible app, but a Bible listening app. You won’t find the text of Scripture anywhere in the app. All you will find is streaming audio of the Scripture being read.

Dwell uses the ESV translation (though they plan to add more over time), recorded by 4 voices with distinct accents and styles. You can set a default voice (my favorite is Felix, the East African), or have a random voice each time. Dwell offers 4 “album” options for contemplative background music, along with the option to turn the music off. You can set the volume for voice and for music independently to get the mix you most prefer.

The app allows you to listen straight through books of the Bible. It also has a library of “playlists,” which collect many verses around topics such as loneliness, creeds, the trinity, or God’s greatness. The app also has a library of “passages,” which are longer sections, but not entire books. So you can quickly choose selections such as Joseph’s story, the Sermon on the Mount, the fruit of the Spirit, or the friendship of David & Jonathan. Of these listening options, I most prefer entire books or passages; I find the playlists, with a few exceptions, to be somewhat arbitrary and unfortunately decontextualized.

Dwell also has many (currently 34) listening plans, such as Esther in 10 days, Psalms in 30 days, or Jesus’ miracles in 7 days. If you’re into daily routine, these plans are incredibly easy to use.

Dwell’s Limitations

You’ll want to know four things up front about Dwell before diving in:

Dwell is still very much a work in progress. The user interface is highly polished and easy as can be, but the content is not yet complete. As of this writing, only the New Testament, Genesis, Exodus, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Esther, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Hosea, Joel, and Jonah are available. But I have been surprised at how quickly new OT books have been added since the app’s release. As they receive more funding, they are quickly recording, editing, and releasing new content.
Which brings me to the topic of funding. If you think of Dwell as only a smartphone app, you may be disappointed to hear that it costs money. (Note: There is a free version, which gives you access to only one voice, regularly interrupted by advertisements to buy the premium version. I found the ads to be frustratingly disruptive to the experience, such that I’d recommend only going unlimited unless you’d like to try before you buy.) But if you think of it as a deluxe audio Bible, the pricing fits about what you might expect. I eagerly supported Dwell when it was on Kickstarter, and I’m making copious use of my lifetime unlimited subscription. Dwell is delivering all that was promised and more.
Dwell works only as a streaming service. You cannot download the audio files for offline playing. Since it consists of four entire audio Bibles (the four voices), the producers believed it to be too costly space-wise to store locally on people’s devices. So it functions only with an active internet connection. This might cause minor delays between tracks/chapters as your phone loads the new file, depending on the speed and quality of your internet connection.
At this point, you cannot customize playlists or listening plans. The app is under vigorous development, however, so I wouldn’t be surprised if these features eventually show up.

Conclusion

I am thrilled with Dwell, and with the way it does everything possible to streamline the Bible listening experience. I can’t wait until the OT is finished, and they launch some through-the-Bible-in-a-year listening plans. This will no doubt replace my daily ESV podcast.

Dwell can’t compete with the quality of dramatization in NIV Live, but it doesn’t try to. For now, Dwell can hold a co-regency with NIV Live in my voracious Bible listening lifestyle. I highly recommend it to you.

ESV Scripture Journals: A Note Taker’s Dream

July 23, 2018 By Ryan Higginbottom

A lot of Bibles have been produced over the past ten years with an eye toward journaling and taking notes. Publishers create wide margins, blank space below the text, or even inspiring art to spark reflection and creativity.

The trend toward producing a Bible for journaling may have reached its climax in the ESV Scripture Journal project.

Description

In the spring of 2018, Crossway introduced the ESV New Testament Scripture Journals. Available either individually or as a 19-volume set, these books are unique.

These soft-cover journals have a simple layout. The Bible text is printed on the left page, and some lightly-printed lines grace the right page. The font is large and readable (11.75 point size), the paper is thick and sturdy, and each volume has an inviting feel. The New Testament set comes in an attractive slipcase.

In exchange for an honest review, Crossway generously provided me with a set of these Scripture journals. I have been using the Luke journal for a few months now, and my daughters have used the Ephesians and Matthew volumes.

Excellent Journals

I’ve really enjoyed using my Scripture journal. I love that the paper is thick enough to prevent ink bleeding through to the other side. This is normally a concern about journals for anyone who, like me, uses a gel pen. But there is no such problem with these books.

The journals also lay flat on the first use. This is exactly what one wants in a journal.

There is plenty of room to take notes on the journaling side of the page. But the Bible text is also printed with roomy margins and interline space, so I have plenty of room to circle, underline, and write notes and questions on the Bible side of the page.

The lines on the right are printed just dark enough to guide you when writing but light enough to make room for drawing or other free-form methods of journaling.

My only small complaint is about the binding. After opening the Luke volume and doing a good bit of Bible study in chapters 9 and 10, the journal has lost a bit of its shape (see below) when I close it. The cover isn’t straight and the journal doesn’t close quickly. However, this might be my fault. I suspect these journals weren’t intended to be opened to the middle before the beginning, so my use could be to blame for this (admittedly minor) concern. I think I’d prefer hard covers.

Possible Uses

If you’re looking for a good way to combine Scripture reading or study with writing, I highly recommend these journals. I can see a number of good ways they might be used.

Use them for personal study. Each of these journals would make a great dedicated volume for an in-depth study of a book of the Bible. You have plenty of space and no distractions. These are wonderful markup Bibles!

Use them in your small group. These would be a fantastic way to get all members of your small group interacting with God’s word. Everyone would have the same translation, no one would be tempted to quote their study Bible notes, and the volumes are relatively cheap to buy (each of the 19 volumes retail for $5.99, but they can be found cheaper than that online). If every group member had the relevant Scripture journal, I think it would be easy to encourage everyone to do some OIA preparation too.

Make your own study Bible. If you’re studying a book of the Bible in a class or through your church’s current sermon series, these journals make a great place to take notes—right next to the Bible text! These are perfect for archiving and future reference—I’d be much more likely to keep a journal like this and come back to it after a few years (perhaps when studying that book again) than I would be to track down notes scattered throughout the pages of a nondescript notebook.

Highly Recommended

These Scripture journals will serve a great purpose for many people. They can help us interact with the Bible in an undistracted way. Crossway has done a great job with this set—I hope they’re working on the Old Testament!

If you’d like to buy the entire set, check Amazon or the Westminster Bookstore. You can also find any member of the New Testament set for sale separately—here are the links for Luke, as an example: Amazon, Westminster. (As of this writing, the Westminster Bookstore had significantly lower prices on both individual volumes and the whole set.)

Disclosure: the product links in this blog post are affiliate links.

NIV Live: A Bible Experience

June 15, 2018 By Peter Krol

in the last few years, I have developed great joy in listening to the Bible. I listen to portions of it every day. Sometimes I like to listen to it while I follow along with the words. And sometimes I enjoy hearing it on its own. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I actually spend more time listening to it than actually reading it.

This enjoyment has grown out of the fact that my smart phone makes it easier than ever before to have an audio Bible with me at all times. I subscribe to a podcast that follows a daily lectionary of readings. I have two complete audio Bibles (different translations) in my music app. And I eagerly backed Dwell, a Bible app designed from the ground up, just for listening.

With that background in mind, I’d like to tell you about something that has knocked my socks off: NIV Live: A Bible Experience. Calling NIV Live an audio Bible would be a little like calling the Superbowl a football game; while technically accurate, the label doesn’t quite capture the spectacle of the thing. Which is why, I think, the creators don’t call NIV Live an audio Bible; they call it A Bible Experience.

NIV Live presents an audio recording of the complete text of the NIV Bible. And everything about it attempts to draw you in to the experience.

After stating a book’s title, the audio has no unwanted intrusions. No mentions of chapter numbers to distract you from the experience. Just the text.
Dozens and dozens of readers. And many of the readers are professional voice actors. While I’m sure other such things exist, I had never heard an audio Bible treated with full, professional voice acting before I came across NIV Live.
- Each reader has a role, as though the Bible were a very long play. The same actor plays Moses, every time Moses speaks. Another actor plays Yahweh. Another plays Jesus. And so on, down to the most minor characters. It’s fascinating to listen to different gospels, and have the same actor playing Peter every time he speaks.
- Actors who read the role of an apostle also read that apostle’s letters. For example, the reader who plays Paul does both Paul’s dialogue in Acts and all of Paul’s epistles.
- There is one narrator who reads all Old Testament narratives. New Testament narratives are read in the “voice” of the author (Matthew, Mark, Luke (who also reads Acts), and John). The different literal voices of the gospels give each gospel a remarkably different feel.
- Not every reader is a professional. NIV Live employed many pastors to fill minor roles, and these are some of the most distracting parts. It feels mismatched to have someone act a role, while another person in the same scene is merely reading a text. But I can imagine hiring this many professional voice actors would have over-exceeded the available budget.
Tasteful music. My first impression (Genesis 1 and 2) was that the music was distractingly repetitive and annoying. But once I got used to it, I came to love it. I found it very well placed to highlight the mood, a climax, or a transition in just the right way.
Sound effects. Listening to the Bible was like listening to a movie. When we were in a city, I could hear (and therefore picture) the bustle of the busy marketplace. Battles were chaotic. Encounters with creation were framed accordingly.

I listened to the entire Bible in just over a month earlier this year. I couldn’t believe how fun it was to have the Bible not only read but also dramatized, without abridgment or interpretive summarization. If you think it would be too distracting to have the Bible dramatized in such a way, NIV Live might not be for you. But if you’re willing to try something a little different from what you’re used to, NIV Live provides an experience unlike any other.

One technical note: I prefer listening to my Bibles (or any spoken-word audio) at faster-than-normal speed. While NIV Live has a beautiful and fancy app, I can find no way to change the playback speed within the app. It is possible, but annoying to download the complete audio after purchasing it, because you have to download 66 files, one book at a time. But once you do, you can sync it with an audiobook app, which should enable you to change the playback speed.

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