Here’s a thought for Christmas gift-giving: put a new Bible under the tree. This guide should give you some ideas. First Things asked me to give readers some ideas for giving the Bible as a gift this Christmas, updating the list I made for them in 2012. This time I focused on two themes: (a) reader’s editions and (b) interesting design. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can check out my thoughts on the First Things blog: CHRISTMAS GUIDE TO BUYING A BIBLE: 2019 EDITION Or click the image below: You can read the original 2012 list here. I also wrote a 2015 supplement that is worth checkin ..read more

In a market packed with Bibles designed for recording both the thoughts and the artistic expressions inspired by your reading, is there still a place for traditional wide margin editions? Now that the Schuyler Canterbury KJV is being offered in this old school format, it’s time to ask whether there is a case for these classic note-taking Bibles. But first things first: should we be writing in our Bibles in the first place? Believe it or not, one of my earliest Bible-related rants was not, as you might expect, about the need for more readable editions. Instead, it was a love letter to wide marg ..read more

The latest Schulyer Quentel NKJV continues a trend seen in each successive printing of the popular double-column reference, trimming some bulk by using a thinner paper stock. The question is whether or not the change will sit well with those who crave the old edition’s opacity. Let me begin by making excuses. Twelve months have passed since my last post. While I gave up a long time ago on the dream of regular updates, embracing a quality-over-quantity philosophy, a year is simply ridiculous. The thing is, prior to my ordination I used to complain about not having enough time. Now I glance back ..read more

The release of the recent ‘thinline’ Schuyler Quentel NASB bookends an experiment in paper that began several years ago with the release of the original Quentel reference edition. The question asked by that first edition was whether thicker paper might deliver enough vintage-style opacity to compensate for the added bulk.  Personally, I wanted the answer to be yes. Nothing has frustrated me more in recent history than our inability source thin paper with opacity comparable to the India paper of old. Every time I begin to think today’s translucent stock is not so bad, I crack open a fifty ..read more

Designed by 2K/Denmark, printed and bound in the Netherlands by Royal Jongbloed, the Schuyler Quentel sets a high standard for the modern reference edition. The layout pushes readability about as far as possible while holding onto familiar conventions like the double-column text setting, chapter and verse numbers, cross references, and red-letter presentation of the words of Christ. The print impression is crisp and dark. The leather-lined goatskin binding feels limp and luxurious in your hands.  In addition to offering the Quentel in a variety of translations, Schuyler has also expanded ..read more

One of the most elegant interpretations of the single column text setting during the recent revival of reader-friendly Bibles has to be Crossway’s Legacy ESV. The first generation was printed by LEGO in Italy, and the second — the Heirloom Legacy — by Jongbloed in the Netherlands. Now a new Heirloom Legacy has arrived, improving on the original in two significant ways: it opens flat, and it comes in a wider variety of colors.  At a certain point last month during my visit to Evangelical Bible outside Richmond, VA, I was left alone in the warehouse with instructions to “take whatever you w ..read more

This summer I decided to take the Cambridge Pitt Minion on the road. Does it still have the old magic, or has the new generation of reader-friendly editions turned this little Bible into a relic of the past?  Blame the Schuyler Personal Size Quentel. The compact size of that edition got me thinking about how nice it would be, come summer, to travel with a smaller, slimmer Bible. I teach from the ESV, though, and the Personal Size Quentel ESV has not yet been scheduled for release. There was another problem, too: I was not sure whether I could stand returning to a double-column text settin ..read more

The Waterproof Bible stands up to full immersion and deep freezes, but when you're not on an adventure, it may look a bit out of place. Now you can dress up this rugged edition with heirloom quality covers, including this skirting leather option made by Gfeller Casemakers. When I wrote about the Waterproof Bible earlier this year, I imagined what it would be like if the imitation leather cover could be replaced by a beautiful skirting leather one like the Gfeller Casemakers cover on my beloved Seven Seas Journal from Nanami Paper. Not long after, Bobby Bardin got in touch to let me know that m ..read more

When 2014’s Kickstarter sensation Bibliotheca finally delivered at the end of last year, I called its creator, Adam Lewis Greene. It was the first time we’d ever spoken apart from some e-mail exchanges during the campaign. Now it was time to tell Adam what I really thought. The longer you have to wait, the more your expectations build. And the higher your expectations, the greater the risk of disappointment. The unexpected popularity of the Bibliotheca project on Kickstarter brought a whole genre of Bibles — the multi-volume, reader-friendly kind — out of the archive of past ideas. Before, the ..read more

The Personal Size Quentel NASB from Schuyler shrinks the original down to a handy form factor. The question is whether the Quentel layout, renowned for its large-print legibility, survives the transformation intact.  Over the past ten years, a revival of interest in quality editions of Scripture has altered this corner of the publishing landscape. Major publishers have re-introduced high spec editions of their better designs, while smaller concerns like R. L. Allan and Schuyler have flourished by focusing on fresh layout, good printing, and old school leather bindings. There has even been ..read more