ESV Personal Reference from Sojourner Rebinds
A great rebind of one of my favorite Bibles.
I launched Bible Review Blog by going on a quest to find the perfect premium ESV small Bible, and to be honest, the edition that I had in the back of my mind the whole time was Crossway’s Personal Reference Bible. It’s been around for over a decade in various formats, and a couple of those have been high quality, but right now it is out of print in anything other than hardcover or imitation leather editions. So while I was reviewing Bibles by Schuyler and Cambridge, I was also scouring the Internet for a gently used premium copy of the Personal Reference Edition in a premium binding.
Enter Sojourner Rebinds.
I stumbled across this Bible one day while looking for guitar pedals on eBay. I sent the seller a message, and ended up having a nice conversation with John Kight, a guy from Michigan who rebinds Bibles in his spare time. I had a good feeling about John, so I ordered his Marbled Brown Goatskin copy of the ESV Personal Reference Edition and anxiously awaited its arrival.
ESV Personal Reference + Sojourner Rebinds – Overview
The Sojourner Rebinds edition of the ESV Personal Reference Bible begins with a text block from Crossway’s latest printing, which features a line-matched single column format, cross-references on the inside of each page, and a full concordance. You get all of this in a 5” x 7.375” trim size with 8pt font. I’m a big fan of this layout because the cross-references are there when you need them, but pretty much out of the way when you don’t.
John removes the cover from the Bible and rebinds it in a thick yet supple goatskin leather that is edge-lined with the same goatskin leather as the cover and has a leather-reinforced spine for added durability (more on that later). He also gives the Bible five raised hubs on the spine, three premium ribbons, red-under-gold art gilding pages, and a generous yapp (the amount that the leather cover overlaps the text block). I’ve started calling this my “chocolate Bible,” because its cover reminds me of a Hershey bar.
FEATURES
• Edge-lined goatskin
• Art gilding
• Three ribbon markers
• Single-column, paragraph format
• Black letter text
• Cross-references
• Concordance
• 5” x 7.375” trim size
• 1.5” thick
• 8pt type size
Subtle and Clean
For those of you who aren’t familiar with rebinds, it’s pretty simple: a Bible rebinder is someone who removes the cover from a Bible and rebinds it. You can do this to give new life to a beloved Bible that has seen better days, or you can simply take a new Bible like this one and give it a premium makeover (I’m seriously considering a YouTube show called Extreme Makeover: Bible Edition). There is a whole world of Bible rebinders out there, and some of them will customize a Bible with all sorts of aesthetic bells and whistles. For me personally, I don’t want my Bible to attract too much attention. I want it to be nice, but I also want it to be subtle.
Subtle seems to be a key word for John Kight. He told me that when he started rebinding about five years ago, his goal was to create something that was high quality, but simple, and that’s exactly how I would describe this Bible that I received from him. I can feel the quality and the craftsmanship, but it’s not showy at all.
Despite the simple and clean look of his Bibles, John told me that he takes a lot of pride in his work to ensure that the craftsmanship is honorable. A great example of that is the spine of this Bible, which is really sturdy (in a good way). When I asked John about it, he said, “I’m glad you noticed! When I first started rebinding Bibles for people, a lot of the spines were on the verge of failure, if not already failed. So I started to reinforce the spines with leather as part of my rebinding process. My goal is to create a lifetime bible, and the spine needs to last as long, if not longer, than everything else.”
A Beautiful Rebind
I am very impressed with my new ESV Personal Reference Bible from John Kight at Sojourner Rebinds. From the little time I’ve chatted with him via email, I can tell that he is a great guy who loves providing people with quality craftsmanship at an affordable price. I, for one, am already thinking about what my next one will be.
If you’d like to see his current inventory of available rebinds, click here to visit his eBay store. And if you have a Bible that you love that needs some new life, or you want to chat with him about a custom rebind, you can contact John by visiting is website.
Keep scrolling to watch a video review of this Bible.
