ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition

Jan 25

A closer look the latest Preaching Bible from Crossway.

It’s release week for the long-awaited verse-by-verse edition of Crossway’s popular ESV Preaching Bible, and I’ve got two different posts this week that will give you all the info you need to determine if this Bible is right for you.

In this first post, I’m going to do a complete review of the ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition. And in a couple of days, I will release a second post with a side-by-side comparison of this new Bible with the original ESV Preaching Bible (there’s a few unique differences that you should know about). Each of these posts will be accompanied by a full video walkthrough, so make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can see these reviews as soon as they go live.

ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition – Overview

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box and discovered that the goatskin cover of the ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition is soft and supple with a tight, pebbled grain pattern. There has been a lot of dialogue about Crossway’s premium Bible production in the past year, and I’ll say more about this in a moment, but just know that this Bible looks and feels very nice from the outside. All of the aesthetic touches are done well (raised spine hubs, perimeter stitching, subtle art gilding, and an incredibly soft leather liner), and the edge-lined construction with Smyth-sewn binding makes this a Bible that should last a lifetime.

The text block of this edition is 6.25” wide and 9.125” tall. It measures 1.875” thick, including the cover. The typesetting presents the main text in a single column, with each verse indented on a new line. Since every verse looks like its own paragraph, there is a pilcrow ( ¶ ) whenever a new paragraph is actually found in the text. I’ll go over this more in my side-by-side comparison with the original ESV Preaching Bible, but it’s worth mentioning here that passages of poetry use the same verse-by-verse formatting as the rest of this Bible, as opposed to having a poetic setting with more line breaks.

The 9.75pt Lexicon typeface is line-matched on 36 GSM paper that has a creamy white color and is quite opaque. This edition also includes two 1/4” black ribbons and wide margins on the outside of the page that are 1.25” thick. At the back of the Bible, you’ll find an ESV concordance and a set of full-color maps on glossy cardstock.

The ESV Preaching Bible also has a few unique features. Verse numbers are enlarged, bolded, and given extra to be easily located on the page. Textual notes appear at the bottom of each page, and while there are no cross-references in the Old Testament, you get two different kinds in the New Testament: (1) direct quotations from the Old Testament (indirect quotations and allusions are not included), and (2) parallel passages in the four Gospels.

FEATURES
• 9.75pt type size
• 6.25” x 9.125” trim size
• 1.875” thick
• 36 GSM paper
• Line matching
• Edge-lined goatskin cover
• Smyth-sewn binding
• Two 1/4” ribbon markers
• Raised spine hubs
• Single Column, Verse-by-Verse layout
• 1.25” Wide Margins
• Enlarged and bolded verse numbers surrounded by extra space to easily locate verses on the page
• Two unique sets of cross-references
• Concordance
• Full Color maps

Ch-Ch-Changes

Last year, Crossway moved production of their premium Bibles from Royal Jongbloed in the Netherlands to RR Donnelly in China. The first few premium editions that came out of this new production chain were highly scrutinized by Bible lovers, and one of the more common sentiments was that the quality of the goatskin covers and paper had decreased in comparison to Crossway’s previous editions produced in the Netherlands. I noted these differences in a couple of my reviews last year, and as I stated above, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box of the ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition and found what was, in my opinion, an improved cover. I flipped it open, and sure enough, the paper looks and feels better as well.

I reached out to Crossway to ask about this and was told that the production team says the cover and paper are the same as the rest of the Heirlooms that have been printed in China. That’s a little perplexing to me, simply because I’ve got this new Bible sitting on my desk right next to last year’s ESV Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible, and they are noticeably different. Watch my video review below to see a side-by-side comparison of the two (I got the reply from Crossway after this was filmed).

Alas, all of this seems to be a mute point, because Crossway is moving production of their Heirloom Bibles back to the Netherlands.

Yep… you read that right.

I actually discovered this by accident when I was on Crossway’s website the other day to verify some information for this review, and I noticed that they had posted product pages for six new Heirloom Bibles scheduled for release this fall, all of which tout that they will be “printed and bound with superior craftsmanship by Royal Jongbloed in the Netherlands.” Those six Bibles include Heirloom editions of the Legacy, Omega, and Heritage that will arrive in September, each with the choice of black goatskin or brown Horween cowhide. Click here to see for yourself.

I asked Crossway just to make sure this wasn’t a typo, and they confirmed that Heirlooms are moving back to the Netherlands.

*The goatskin cover of the ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition has very nice look and feel to it.*

Stay Tuned

As I mentioned above, later this week I’ll have a side-by-side comparison of this new Verse-by-Verse Edition of the ESV Preaching Bible with the original ESV Preaching Bible, and there are a couple of differences that I think you’ll want to know about.

Bottom Line:
The new ESV Preaching Bible, Verse-by-Verse Edition is a lovely Bible from Crossway that lives up to the hype. Fans of verse-by-verse Bibles have a lot to like here, and the overall final product is impressive.