ESV Reader's Bible | Knowable Word

ESV 6-Volume Reader’s Bible, Part 1: First Impressions

October 14, 2016 By Peter Krol

²³Most of us are blind^w to how typographical conventions^x affect the way we read something. And we’re reading things, ²⁴all the time!^y But we train ourselves to ignore^z the clutter and skim^aa the words on the page or screen, ²⁵and who knows how much we

miss^bb in the process^cc? Jots like foot—notes^dd, cross-references, and ²⁶verse numbers aren’t present in most things we read. But we’ve learned to treat the Bible^ee different than any other book. ²⁷And this is not always to our advantage^{ff gg hh}.

I’m going to drop the annoying clutter now. Why? Because it gets in your way and decreases your motivation to keep reading.

Thanks, in part, to these typographical conventions, modern Bible readers have been well-trained not to read the Bible. We sample the Bible. We dabble in its teachings. We memorize verses. We support our theological convictions with proof texts.

But if we want to read something, we pick up a newspaper or fantasy novel. We’ll spend hours and hours reading all kinds of things, but how many of us handle the Scriptures only in 10-minute spurts?

For a few years now, I’ve encouraged readers to throw their caution to the scorching east wind and indulge themselves in the sumptuous delight of extended Bible reading. The challenge was always finding an edition of the Bible actually conducive to extended reading.

Two years ago, Crossway took a major risk and released the ESV Reader’s Bible (cloth and TruTone). Finally, we had a Bible meant to be read. With no verse numbers, section headings, footnotes, or cross-references, we had ascended the peak of Pisgah and could see ‘cross the river into a good land, a rich land.

But… As I wrote in my review, while the ESV Reader’s Bible was a great cause for celebration, it was still only “almost” how the Bible was meant to be read. I had a few minor beefs with it, some of which I believed to be outside of Crossway’s control:

Impossibly thin paper
Chapter numbers
Song of Solomon stage cues

Dealing with beefs 2 and 3 would certainly lead us to glory. But beef #1 was admittedly impossible. As I wrote, “I’m not sure how else they could have fit 1825 pages into a single volume. This page formatting holds fewer words per page than typical Bible typesetting, and something has to give to manage the physical thickness.” If they could do the impossible, they just might take us into the third heaven.

And They’ve Done It

Crossway did something I never would have expected two years ago. What was impossible for one volume, they did by publishing the Bible in six volumes, “that the Word of God might be treasured for a lifetime.”

The paper is thick and solid, just like any other book. The page layout has plain text in paragraphs or stanzas, just like any other book. It has page numbers at the bottom and brief headings at the top, just like any other book. This wonderful edition of the Bible is pleasing to the eye, sturdy in cover and binding, and comfortable to hold for long periods of reading. Just like any other book.

Fancy that. An edition of the Bible that entices you to sit and read. For a time, you might lose track of time. You might forget your to-do list. You just might set aside some of those cares you perpetually carry around. And this Bible promises abundant delight within its pages. You won’t carry this thing around in a backpack; it’s not meant to be portable. It will sit on a shelf or on your desk, and you won’t be able to keep your hands off it. This edition isn’t cheap, either, because it embodies Crossway’s vision “that the Word of God might be treasured for a lifetime.”

So far, in the copy Crossway gave me (in exchange for an honest review), I’ve read only a few books of the Bible. But I must say this has been the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had reading God’s word. I couldn’t recommend this edition any more highly.

You can pick up this marvelous cloth-over-board set at either Westminster Books or Amazon. For the most serious collectors, Crossway’s website also allows you to order the cowhide-over-board edition. Both are limited editions, and they won’t be available forever.

Odds and Ends

I’m calling this review “Part 1” because it has my impressions after only a few days of use. I plan to use these 6 volumes for my annual read-through beginning on January 1. Expect part 2 of the review to come early in the Spring after I’ve read the entire set.

Also, you can expect another Bible reading contest on the blog this year. You won’t have to finish the Bible before me; you’ll just have to read the entire Bible between January 1 and March 31. If you do, you can enter our drawing to win a free copy of this six-volume Reader’s Bible!

Disclaimer #1: Links to Westminster Books and Amazon are affiliate links, so if you click them you’ll grant this blog a small commission and thus feed our addiction to extended Bible reading.

Disclaimer #2: It is a fallen world, and no one but the Lord Jesus is perfect. My proof of this? The 6-volume set fixes my beefs #1 and #2. But, alas, beef #3 remains. I guess you can’t have everything.

A Short History of Bible Clutter

July 20, 2016 By Peter Krol

How did we get our Bibles? Not just the books of the Bible, but all the apparatus that comes along with it? Chapter and verse numbers, section headings, and cross-references. Two-column format, study notes, and call-out boxes with key ideas. Why do our Bible look so different from any other book (or collection of books) we read?

Desiring God recently posted an important episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, where Tony Reinke interviews Glenn Paauw, the Executive Director of the Biblica Institute for Bible Reading, a think tank dedicated to studying trends in Bible reading and design. Listening to this interview may be some of the best-spent 30 minutes of your week. Paauw explains how the appearance of the page drastically affects how we read this book—and how we lose the ability to read this book as a book.

I particularly appreciate Paauw’s question: Which of the following is the Bible most like?

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
The Reader’s Digest Guide to Home Repairs
The Collected Papers of the American Antislavery Society

Of course, most of us would pass this test with flying colors. We know the Bible is a collection of writings. But without realizing it, we’ve been trained all our lives not to read the Bible this way. Either we memorize individual verses scattered all throughout the Bible (as we’d handle Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations), or we go to the Bible to learn everything it has to say on a particular topic such as marriage or money (as we’d handle The Reader’s Digest Guide to Home Repairs). And the published presentation of the Bible now serves these market expectations, leading us farther and farther away from reading it like a collection of works.

For this reason, recent uncluttered editions such as the ESV Reader’s Bible have become so important. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. I assure you, it will transform your Bible reading experience.

And listen to DG’s podcast to learn more about how the published presentation is changing the way we approach the Bible. It’s well worth your time.

Check it out!

Giveaway: Celebrating Knowable Word’s 500th Post

May 1, 2015 By Peter Krol

Knowable Word just had its 500th post, and I’m feeling a bit like the Egyptians giving all their stuff away to the fleeing Hebrew slaves. Except I don’t want you to leave. And I promise not to make you find your own straw. And I’m not hardening my heart against God’s promises to his people. And… Well, okay, it’s not a great analogy. I was just trying to come up with a biblical example of exuberant generosity.

Eric Angelo (2007), Creative Commons

The point is this: To celebrate the 500th post, I would like to give away a free Bible to someone who can use it. You can have your choice of an ESV Reader’s Bible or any one of the markup Bibles Ryan recommended.

In addition, four runners-up will each receive a free e-book of Knowable Word.

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is show us you’ll know how to use your new Bible. To that end, you’ll have to make observations of the text of Job chapter 14. I’m counting on the fact that you’ve never been in a Bible study on Job 14 and that you’ll come to the text without too much familiarity. Perhaps I’m just a sucker, though, and I presume too much, like the Jedi in that prequel episode everyone loves to hate.

Giveaway Rules

Use the form below (or click this link) to enter your observations.
You’ll get one entry in the drawing each time you submit the form, so please limit yourself to one observation per form. You may submit as many entries as you like.
The observations you submit must be on Job chapter 14, but you may use any English translation.
We reserve the right to reject any entry that doesn’t contain a legitimate observation of the passage.
Entries must be submitted by 12 noon (eastern daylight time) on Thursday, May 7, 2015.
Winners will be selected at random from eligible entries. One grand prize winner will choose either an ESV Reader’s Bible or one of our recommended markup Bibles. Four more winners will receive a free Knowable Word e-book (choice of kindle, epub, or pdf format).
To win the grand prize, you must have an eligible mailing address.
If the grand prize winner lives outside the United States, I’ll do my best to get you either the requested Bible or an Amazon gift card to buy your own Bible. If it’s not possible or reasonable to do either, I’ll give you a Knowable Word e-book instead and select another grand prize winner.
The winner agrees to make good use of the new Bible. If I catch you choking one of your debtors, I just might take it back (Matt 18:28).

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(Almost) How the Bible was Meant to be Read

February 13, 2015 By Peter Krol

I’m a reader, and I love the Bible. So I was thrilled when I saw Crossway’s announcement for the new ESV Reader’s Bible last summer. I knew I had to get one in time for my annual Bible read-through to begin on January 1. I’m glad I did, because the Reader’s Bible lived up to my expectations.

Some folks don’t realize how much stuff on the pages of their Bibles isn’t part of the inspired text. Of course, there are obvious mechanisms like page numbers and reference headings that aid navigation. But there are also section headings, footnotes, cross-references, chapter numbers, and verse numbers. Sometimes, there’s also commentary at the bottom of the page.

In addition, we don’t realize how typography (the page layout of the text) impacts the way we read the text. Does each page have one column of text or two? Is the text broken into paragraphs, or does each verse start a new line? How large is the font? Is poetry divided into stanzas, or does it run on and on without a break? Is the poetry set apart with indented lines, or is it printed in a block of text just like prose?

The ESV Reader’s Bible cuts out most of the extraneous conventions and gets most of the typography just right. The result is a Bible that—though it looks just like any other book we read in this generation—doesn’t look very Bible-like to most Bible readers, and thus represents a significant risk on the publisher’s part. Will people buy a Bible that doesn’t look like the Bible they grew up with? Will sales be enough to cover the investment? We should celebrate Crossway’s courage for pushing this venture as far as they did.

After reading the entire book in about 5 weeks’ time, here are my impressions.

Reading the Bible was more fun than usual. I usually enjoy the Scripture. I always enjoy my annual saturation in it. But honestly, some of the sheer fun wears off by the end, and I push forward more because I believe in the vision for a quick read than because I’m having fun in the process. But this time, I simply couldn’t put it down because it didn’t feel like reading “the Bible”; it felt like reading a good book. And I love reading good books.
I read the entire Bible more quickly than usual—partly because I combined actual reading with listening to an audio version, but also partly because the page layout gave me permission to keep going. In fact the page teased me. It taunted me, suggesting that more plot tension, climax, and resolution lay just around the corner. Without all those huge chapter numbers, verse numbers, and section headings interrupting me and giving me a feeling of arrival, I felt like I could keep reading another section; no—another section; no—another section.
The context stood out much more than some of the content. I would pass over some of my favorite verses like an angel of death at midnight, almost forgetting they were there, because I had gotten swept into the bigger picture of the author’s rhetoric. For example, 1 Corinthians 13 came and went before I realized what had happened. I wasn’t so focused on hitting “the love chapter”; I was far more conscious of the clarion call to unity within the church, which is more the point, I think.
Using this Bible in discussion groups is a little funky. When I want to observe something, the best help I can give others is, “Look at the sentence in the third paragraph, somewhere around verse 16.” Honestly, though, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. How great would it be if we all stopped thinking of the Bible as a collection of 31,102 separate sayings (verses), and instead thought of it as a collection of 66 short books?

This edition, of course, is not perfect.

The paper is way too thin, so the back-side ink shows through and the pages are difficult to turn. However, I’m not sure how else they could have fit 1825 pages into a single volume. This page formatting holds fewer words per page than typical Bible typesetting, and something has to give to manage the physical thickness.
For some reason, Crossway decided to keep chapter numbers in the margins. It’s nice that they moved them away from the text block, and that they altered the color. But, as Mark Ward said in his review, “It feels like Crossway made it about five minutes from the summit of Mt. Everest and then decided that was good enough.” I imagine they thought it would be not just difficult but impossible to navigate through the tome without them, but the reference headings at the top of the page would have been just fine.
For another strange reason, they decided to keep the suggestive “He,” “She,” and “Others” headings in the Song of Solomon. I wish they had trusted us with the plain text and allowed us to wrestle through exactly who was speaking when.

I commend this Bible to you. I’m a proud owner of the imitation leather, TrueTone edition. But as soon as I finish composing this review, I plan to order a copy of the cloth over board (hardback) edition to serve as my new markup Bible. I’m eager to begin a new season of study with a fresh text, independent of the usual conventions that ~~clog~~ assist study.

Cloth over board: Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books.

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Disclaimer: The Amazon and Westminster links are affiliate links, so if you click them and buy stuff you’ll help to pay for my new markup copy of the ESV Reader’s Bible.

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