Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
You may never find a deal like this, and it’s only while limited supplies last. Westminster Bookstore has the ESV Reader’s Bible, Six-Volume Set at an unbelievable price of $40. If you haven’t yet indulged in this masterpiece of Bible typography, now is your chance. But hurry, as I can’t guarantee how long it will be available at that price.
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The last 7 years have seen a praiseworthy trend in Bible publishing, and Crossway’s ESV has been at the cutting edge of it. That trend is the publication of editions of the Bible intentionally designed to encourage Bible reading. Reading not of the verse-of-the-day kind, but of the lose-track-of-the-time-on-a-lazy-afternoon kind.
That trend’s cutting edge, on which Crossway regularly seems to take up residence, has now cast its shadow into the realm of children’s Bibles. I like what I’ve seen so far, and I hope there’s no going back.
In particular, Unfolding Grace For Kids introduces children aged 8-12 to the concept of a reader’s Bible through 40 guided readings. This is not a complete Bible, but more of a devotional work. And the sort of devotional work where more than 95% of the words were inspired by the Holy Spirit himself.
Each reading consists of a thematic graphic, a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, and a sturdy portion of Scripture (around 20-40 verses long). The graphics are both attractive and thoughtful, but the truly beautiful thing is that the introductions are introductory. The purpose all throughout is to tell the entire story of Scripture, so each introduction tends to summarize where we are in the grand narrative and set the scene for the Scripture about to be read.
The Scripture passages are thereby given the greatest focus. They take up the most space. They are presented with a marvelous cleanness, without footnotes, section headings, or chapter and verse numbers, and with sizable margins. The font used for the Scripture is even more lovely and readable than the font used for the introductions, offering a visible reinforcement of what this Bible wants the reader to care about the most.
Physically, this volume is a delight to read. Unless I’m mistaken, the paper appears even thicker than that used in the six-volume reader’s ESV. The cover and binding show remarkable sturdiness. The dust jacket is not overstuffed with fluff text. And for some reason, I failed to notice the ribbon bookmark until I was partway in. Advertising blurbs for this book focus on the “journey through 40 guided readings,” making it sound primarily like a personal devotional. Upon accessing the ribbon bookmark, I finally realized that what I was actually in possession of (thanks to Crossway for the review copy) was really a junior-grade reader’s Bible.
I will not hide the fact that I love Unfolding Grace For Kids, but it still leaves room for improvement. Though the introductions are brief, they still seem wordy and unclear at times. Sometimes the graphic is misleading (for example, a graphic of a rope hanging from a window when the following Joshua text says nothing about Rahab; or a graphic of Stephen being stoned associated with a selection from Acts 5 where Ananias is struck dead and the apostles are put in jail).
And the selection of particular Scripture readings is often puzzling. For example, when helping young people to discover “how Jesus is the promised Savior who came to restore his people and renew the world,” would you direct their attention to Abraham and Isaac calling their wives their sisters (Gen 12, 26)? Or would you highlight the kidnapping of dancing girls at Shiloh just to get the narrative declaration that Israel had no king (Judges 21)? Or would you include Ananias and Sapphira, Paul’s first full sermon in the book of Acts, and Jesus’ communiques through John to the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna—while excluding the near-sacrifice of Isaac, Joseph’s rescue of the world from famine, Gideon’s conquest of Midian, Daniel’s deliverance from lions, Elijah’s showdown on Mount Carmel, and the entire body of the Bible’s wisdom literature, including the Psalms?
Many of the Scripture selections make sense. But others are not quite what I would have chosen to give kids the clearest sense of the Bible’s larger view of Jesus’ salvation and restoration of the world.
With that said, I am simply delighted to hand this thing over to my children, now that I’m finished with my copy of it. This is the sort of book that will remind them that reading the Bible is supposed to be fun, without having to be juvenile. This is the sort of book that, by curating 40 of the most important and most connected passages of Scripture, sets them up to read God’s word as it was meant to be read and with great joy. I eagerly commend it to you and your kids.
Find it at Crossway and Amazon.
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If you have read the entire Bible within a 90-day period since November 2019, today is your last chance to enter the drawing for a new reader’s Bible. Winners will be selected tomorrow.
Thanks to the 24 who have entered so far!
Here is a friendly reminder that we’re in the midst of our annual Bible reading challenge. (See the link for rules.) You have until March 31 to read the entire Bible.
If you complete the challenge, just let me know by completing the form below, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for an ESV Reader’s Bible, Six Volume Set, With Chapter and Verse Numbers or a one-volume reader’s Bible of your choice.
Just make sure you complete the form after you finish. Entries are time stamped, and those with a finish date after the date of submission will be deleted.
We’re giving away a copy of the ESV Reader’s Bible, Six-Volume Set: With Chapter and Verse Numbers and a one-volume reader’s Bible. To win one of these prizes, you simply have to prove you’d know what to do with it.
If you’ve been with us for the last few years, you’ve probably been expecting this post. Here I come, like the sun rising, going down, and once again hastening to its place to rise again. Like the wind blowing round and round, north, then south, and back again. Like streams running to the sea, and yet the sea is still not full. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
If you’re new to the blog, you’ll be delighted to know we do a reading challenge here annually. And we try to get the best prizes we can think of to reward your toil at which you toil under the sun.
In our former days, most excellent Theophilus, we issued a 90-day Bible-reading challenge that had to begin on January 1 and end by March 31. But many folks have told us they would like to be able to get started over the holidays. While many are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, or chasing a spirit of stupor, we hear that you—the readers of this blog, the champions of the covenant, the heroes who shine like stars in the midst of a present evil age—would prefer to redeem the time when you already find yourself away from your usual responsibilities.
And though there were some kinks to work out with this new format last year, we’re happy to grant what you wish—only up to half our kingdom, mind you—for the second year in a row. This year’s Bible reading challenge may commence immediately. In fact, perhaps it already commenced for you, and you’re just now realizing it.
Here are the rules:
We will occasionally post links to the submission form on the blog between now and March 31. But you might also want to bookmark this page for easy access when you’re ready to submit your entry.
If you’d like a checklist to help you stay on pace, here are three. I won’t bother to update the dates, as I don’t know which day you plan to start. But the checkboxes can provide signals to make sure you’re on track to finish on time.
Or here is an iOS app that can help you track your plan.
We are grateful for the generosity of Crossway in providing the grand prize for this year’s giveaway. You may now begin any time, and may this be the ride of your life.
If you haven’t yet caught on to the reader’s Bible fad, the ESV Gospels, Reader’s Set set might be the perfect gateway. And if you already own and love a reader’s Bible, there might still be a place on your shelf for this new edition of the gospels from Crossway.
A reader’s Bible is an edition published to encourage and assist lengthy reading. Many of the latest reader’s editions remove all footnotes, cross-references, section headings, verse numbers, and (more often than not) chapter numbers. You’re left with the plain text of Scripture, elegantly typeset, so you can sit and read for hours on end.
This new edition from Crossway presents only the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—each with its own undersized hardbound volume, in a sturdy slip case. This is something you’ll enjoy having on your shelf. And you’ll enjoy even more having it in your hands while you get lost in the narrative glory.
The page layout of these reader’s gospels is very similar to the layout of the ESV Reader’s Bible, 6 Volume Set, which I loved enough to write reviews both before and after reading it. The fonts, margin proportions, and clean text block are the same. It uses the same number of unobtrusive headings for each book’s major divisions.
The biggest difference is that the Gospels set is about half the size. Each volume is just larger than a compact disc and fits in your hand, or in your pocket. This small size makes the pages fly past as you read.
And this is marvelous, because this edition does what reader’s Bibles do best, and it does it even better than previous editions: It gives you permission to keep reading and reading and reading. The smaller size makes me feel like I should just keep reading, and I’ll finish the book before I know it.
In addition, these four volumes do not come with ribbon bookmarks. At first, I was not pleased with this aberration. But now that I’ve spent more time with these four volumes, I have found the lack of bookmark to provide further permission and encouragement to keep reading. It really is not hard to read a complete gospel in one sitting with this edition! And that is something to be commended.
My biggest complaint is that the covers of the four volumes are all the same rust color, with no distinguishing visuals or artwork, besides the name on the spine (which is not terribly easy to read). But since these volumes are meant for extended reading, and not for frequent reference, this visual plainness is easy to forgive.
In addition, I would prefer for the ESV Reader’s Bibles to be more like the NIV Sola Scriptura Bible Project and break up the text according to its natural structural divisions. As it is, the text presents in one lengthy block, with no breaks, for pages on end. But this complaint goes for both this set and the Six-Volume Set.
I am thrilled to have received a complimentary copy of this set from Crossway in exchange for an honest review. I expect to use it often. Right now, it’s perfect for a repeated re-reading of Luke’s gospel as I prepare to teach that book.
If you haven’t yet tried a multi-volume reader’s edition of the Bible, the ESV Gospels, Reader’s Set would be an excellent and inexpensive start. And if you’re already a fan of reader’s Bibles, this will add another useful tool to your workbench.
Find it at Amazon or Westminster.
Disclaimer: Amazon and Westminster links are affiliate links. Clicking them and buying stuff will enable us to continue reviewing Bibles for you, at no extra cost to yourself.
Until Thursday, Oct 18, Westminster Bookstore has the ESV Readers Bible, 6 Volume Set at 50% off. This is the lowest price I’ve seen either of these sets, which are well worth your investment. See my review #1 and review #2.
Disclaimer: Westminster Bookstore links are affiliate links. If you click them, you will support this blog at no extra cost to yourself.
In the first review, O God-lover, I have dealt with all that Crossway began to conceive and risk, until the day they presented the world an utterly uncluttered, heretofore unseen, edition of God’s word. They showed us a living and active book, appearing to the populace just like any other book, yet speaking about the kingdom of God. And just as this edition’s first eyewitnesses delivered many opinions to us, it seemed good to me also, having now read every page of the 6-volume set, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning whether this literary wonder should grace your shelves.
For the facts about the physical books, page layout, and specifications, please see my first review. For reflections on the reading experience itself, read on.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard it before: The Bible tells a unified story, beginning to end, of God’s glorious rescue, through Christ, of his fallen creation. But, though you’re familiar with the idea, do you read the Bible like a story? That is, do you read the Bible the way you would read a story? Beginning to end. Pages at a time. Devouring the drama. Anxiously awaiting the next plot twist.
Most people read the Bible like an encyclopedia. Or like a menu. Or like a codebook. And most Bible typesetting encourages us to read the Bible in these ways.
But the clean look of the ESV Reader’s Bible, 6 Volume Set expects you to read the Bible as you’d read any other book. It encourages you to keep reading and reading. There are no big black numbers coercing you to a screeching halt every few verses. There are no verses. You can’t snack on this thing. All you can do is binge.
And if you get into a theological debate with someone, and this edition is all that’s handy, your only recourse to objection is to read (or tell) a story. Sort of like what Jesus did when he faced opposition…
I’ve often struggled with the Bible’s poetry. It often just doesn’t connect with me the way I hear it does for other people. But that has always surprised me, because I have no problem enjoying other poetry. I’ve read Shakespeare, Longfellow, and others to great profit. And I’ve grown to love Proverbs and Job, but Psalms and the Prophets are hard, hard going.
And I now wonder how much my struggle has to do with the typesetting more than the content.
In reading the 6-volume set, I could not put the Psalms down. The Prophets were still challenging, but they felt more…personal. It’s amazing what happens when you get the verse numbers, excessive footnotes, and narrow columns out of the way. Volumes 3 (Poetry) and 4 (Prophets) look and feel like other poetry collections. They sit nicely in hand, invite a nightcap, and call for extended reflection. I know I could read the Psalms meditatively in any version of the Bible, but the reader’s set basically begged me to do so.
As a child and pre-teen, I loved to read. And I learned young that, if I wanted to read the Bible, my best option was to take up a story Bible. The Bible itself was for study, preaching, or classes. Lengthier consumption—you know, the kind done after hours under the covers with a flashlight—was reserved for the “interesting,” the “engaging” re-tellings of biblical tales in children’s Bibles or youth story books.
But discovering God’s word, as presented in the ESV’s 6 Volume Set, rekindled a joy in reading God’s word like I have never experienced. Perhaps this set might do the same for you.
You can tell this review is not so much about this specific edition of the ESV, as it is more about the philosophy that birthed said edition. This philosophy ought to be shouted from the mountaintops. I hope this experiment of Crossway’s provokes a revolution among Bible publishers. I hope we see a similar reader’s edition for every translation. Since the ESV set, one has been published for the KJV. I’m aware of both single-volume and multi-volume reader’s Bibles coming this spring for the NIV. Perhaps more are on the way.
I doubt we’ll ever lose our unreasonably cluttered editions of the Bible altogether. They are useful, after all, for study, preaching, and classes. But I hope new generations of Christians can be brought up learning to simply read the Bible. It is, after all, a book. Or 6.
ESV Reader’s Bible, Six-Volume Set. Get it at Amazon or Westminster.
Disclaimer: Amazon and Westminster links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, we’ll get a small commission, thus enabling our ongoing Bible reading binge.
If you’ve been working on reading the whole Bible since January 1, you have only two days remaining to finish and email me to enter the drawing. Reminder: We’ve got two copies of the ESV Reader’s Bible, 6-Volume Set to give away. I will select and email the two winners this weekend. So far, I’ve received 21 entries. Though only two can win, I believe those are better odds than most online giveaways!
Please see the official contest rules for how to enter. I have responded directly to everyone who has entered so far. So if you tried to contact me and didn’t hear back, please try again.
I believe in reading the entire Bible quickly, and I think the ESV Reader’s Bible 6-Volume Set is out of this world. So today I’m opening a contest to encourage the former with promises of the latter.
Due to the generosity of Crossway, I have 2 copies of the 6-volume set to give away. And I can assure you: This is not a contest with impossible odds of winning. If you enter, you will not be up against hundreds or even thousands of entries.
Rules:
I look forward to hearing from you. I hope you have as much fun with this sprint as I do, and may the Lord draw us all nearer to him through it!
