So excited! The ESV Reader’s Bible is coming out in a Bibliotheca-like edition! As one of the top fifteen redheaded Bible typography enthusiasts in the nation (see my Bible Typography Manifesto and assorted other resources here), I can only go on record as saying, “Yes, yes, yes!” Take note, especially, of the fact that chapter numbers will not be included—those numbers were a flaw in the otherwise excellent ESV Reader’s Bible.
No word on price. The typeface, however, is Trinité, which is a creation of Bram de Does, the designer of Lexicon (which was used in the ESV Study Bible and the ESV Reader’s Bible). Super classy.
Buying a new Bible never proves to help my Bible reading for very long. But, empirically speaking, reader’s editions of Scripture have helped me get through the whole Bible better than any other kind of edition. The thick paper and attention to detail that I’m sure will be present here will be very welcome.
HT: Andy Naselli
This looks great! I enjoyed the Reader’s Edition at your recommendation, but agree with you about the chapter numbers.
Now we just need the Original Languages Edition!
Just had to express my excitement to someone about the ESV multi-volume readers’ bible you posted about. Not too many folk around me get pumped up about such things. My whole point in backing Bibliotheca was to help convince Crossway–with good ol’ USDs–to publish an ESV version, and, by golly, it worked! Thanks for keeping all your readers up-to-date on this niche news.
One thing here that is helpful to me is the page count. By no means is it an excuse for me when I fail to read through the Bible in a year or two or whatever particular plan I’m trying in any given year, but it does help me to understand why that is so hard when I see that when set in single-column, paragraph format and 12 point type, the whole Bible clocks in at 2,532 pages.
The classic style of the two-column reference editions with tiny type on Bible paper makes the task look deceptively achievable. Other books of a similar size in my hand might only total 500 or 600 pages. Reading through Grudem’s Systematic (or whatever) is not a comparable task to reading the Bible.
I probably won’t get this set myself (I didn’t back Bibliotheca, and now I’m glad for that choice)—but this is a really interesting product, and I hope it’s helpful to others.
YES I am so happy to hear that Crossway is putting this out. I have both the Reader’s Bible and the Reader’s Gospels and the advantages of the latter is so clear when reading. I could forgo the slipcases and other luxuries but the formatting of the text makes it so easy to read the Bible in large chunks.
Mark (or anybody who knows),
The copy says “free of […] most section headings”. Which headings are removed? Which are retained?
I don’t believe anyone outside the company would have reason to know. They haven’t released any page proofs.
Seems as if Crossway has removed this from their “2016 ESV BIble Preview” page. Hopefully there have not been any delays, as I am looking forward to this set.
And, while I’m here, let me just say thanks to you, Mark, for your talk on “Why Bible Typography Matters” which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Thanks, Mark. I appreciate the encouraging word.
I am very excited for this. I called Crossway to ask for the price. Now here is my question. What are your thoughts on it being 250 dollars? Being the Gospels is twenty dollars.
Youch. That’s the first I’ve heard this. That is a bit disappointing, but I believe it means they’re doing their absolute best to produce beautiful volumes. I trust Crossway, frankly. And the more popular something like this is, the more the price will fall. Leastways I think so.
Anybody know if there is to be a leather-over-board version of this (a la Reader’s Gospels)? I really love my Reader’s Gospels–like, a lot–and am willing to spend a pretty penny to get the full canon in the same form.
Crossway now has the set at $175, bibliotheca also looks great at $109 and you get the apocrypha too. I’m super excited about all these nice readers editions. Maybe Biblica will release the books of the Bible in a nice binding someday soon. Is it wrong to convet thy neighbors bible? in the meantime I am loving the ESV 1 volume readers edition, and for less than $30 hardbound.
I’m going to buy this. Crossway is smart for understanding what the people want. I’m most excited for a nice bible without see-through paper. I currently read the ESV Reader’s edition on a Kindle Paperwhite that I purchased just for the reason of not having to see the page behind it.
Amazon has it on preorder for 111!
Sure enough! Here it is!