Holman (1)

The CSB Reader's Bible is designed to make it easy to sit down and just read each individual book. It is more along the lines of how it would have been read by the early Christians whose Bibles (or sections of the Bible/individual letters) were not divided into chapters and verses until many, many years after the Apostles had died. The text of this "Reader's Bible" is in a single column, like a regular book, instead being placed in two columns. It has no chapter numbers and no verse numbers. show more

This edition is a nice looking grey cloth over board volume, and includes an attached ribbon marker. The font is a nice size and seems about the size of a regular book's font and is a very readable edition. I do want to note that the pages are very thin and quite flimsy, much like, or exactly like, a regular Bible's pages. I think that the edition would be nicer if the pages were the same thickness as a regular book's. But perhaps they would have to divide it into several volumes if they did that, and it might be heavier as well. This one still works very well.

The only real problem I have with this Reader's edition is that, though they do remove the chapter numbers, they leave the chapter breaks and make the first letter of each 'chapter' large (and colored blue). To me that rather defeats the point of removing the chapter numbers. I don't necessarily mind chapter breaks in the narrative portions, and other portions that require it to make reading easier, though I do wish they would leave them out altogether in the Epistles/letters. I do wish that they had taken advantage of the reader oriented design and completely revamp the chapter breaks to make the text flow more smoothly than a regular Bible's which have (at least to my mind) some unnatural chapter breaks that disrupt the flow of thought. For example, here is how a portion of Malachi reads:

"I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

CHAPTER BREAK

For look, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble."
Or as another example, in Acts, where Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin: "And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face on an Angel.

CHAPTER BREAK

'Are these things true?' the high priest asked. 'Brothers and fathers,' he replied, 'listen…."

They could have omitted the chapter breaks, kept the text together and these texts would read much better without interruption.

But all in all, this is a very nice Reader's Bible. I really like the idea of going closer to how the text was originally laid out. It is nice having other Bible editions around without the extra numbering and unnecessary dividing of the text. Again, I am not against chapters and verses, but editions like this truly do make the Bible more 'readable', as it were, and helps one to remember that "context is king". Rather than viewing the Bible as little chunks of numbered statements that can be divorced from their context, it lends more to one seeing the text as an inspired whole.

Many thanks to the folks at B&H/Lifeway for sending me a free review copy of this book. (My review did not have to be favorable) show less

First sentence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible features articles (dare I say hundreds?) previously published by the "Sunday School Lesson Illustrator" and "Biblical Illustrator." These are articles--heavily illustrated articles--that provide background and context to biblical times, biblical cultures. Every book of the Bible--even super short books--feature at least one or more articles. Some books have more articles than verses!

The show more Bible features the Christian Standard Bible translation. It is double column. The columns are wider than some. It is black letter. The Words of Christ do not appear in red. There are book introductions. The articles are the 'main attraction.' Though I will say that I do not mean that the articles replace the text of the holy inspired word of God. I am not assigning that intention to those who created this incredible layout. I simply mean that if a person was seeking to choose A CSB bible to purchase, the articles might be the selling point.

There are pros and cons to the CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible. The fantastic COLORFUL illustrations and visual-heavy layout create several opportunities. The PAPER is fantastic. There is NOT any ghosting. Or very, very, very minimal ghosting. But the volume of articles AND the thickness of the paper do make for an extremely bulky, literally heavy Bible. As a reference Bible, I think the Bible definitely something to consider. If you are one who reads the Bible primarily at a desk or at a table, I do think the heaviness will not be a distraction. If you are someone who primarily reads the Bible in a comfy chair, then this isn't the best lap Bible. I think if one were to read short sections--perhaps two to four chapters per day, it could be manageable. If you are a Bible glutton--like me--then this may not be the best fit for say the Bible in 90 days challenge.

I can appreciate the quality of the paper. It is truly rare to find a Bible with little to no ghosting. Visually, this one is fantastic. Without reading a single word, you are swept away. It does stand out or stand apart from most other Bibles.

The quality of the articles isn't something I am super prepared to judge. Some were more interesting/fascinating than others for sure. Not all were equally engaging. A few were interviews. There were definitely a handful of articles that I truly did find engaging and informative. A few that I wanted to share what I had learned with someone else [before I forgot what I just learned.] Having read through it once, it will be a nice enough reference bible, but it isn't practical enough for every day use because it is so physically heavy. show less

The Spurgeon Study Bible is a very neat idea. As most people somewhat acquainted with Mr. Spurgeon know, he was not a verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible kind of preacher. He usually would choose a verse (or portion of verses) for one Sunday and would preach on that and then preach on another (non-related, often from a whole different book)verse the next week. And also, some may also notice that his preaching was not always very exegetical.

That being said, this commentary is a great show more compilation! It sort of gives a glimpse of how it would have been if Spurgeon went by a more verse by verse preaching style, and it focuses on snippets from his sermons that are more exegetical.

The version that I have is the brown and tan cloth over board Bible. It is very nicely bound and seems quite durable. The spine has some fancy looking ridges on it and the front has Spurgeon's signature printed on the bottom left.

There is a lot of good commentary in this work. But there are also, of course, places where the commentary is not so great. To give an example, in one place he says, "I hate that plan of reading the Scriptures in which we are told, when we lay hold of a gracious promise, 'Oh, that is for the Jews.' Then I also am a Jew, for it is given to me! Every promise of God's Word belongs to all those who have the faith to grasp it…." That is a ridiculous, irreverent and, to speak very plainly, quite a selfish statement. Why does everything have to be about us individually? And it absolutely cannot be applied in a general way. What if there was a married, childless, ninety year old woman who greatly desires to have children and so she reads Genesis and Matthew, and grasps hold of the promises given to Sarah and Elizabeth, that they would bear children in their old age, and applies them to herself in faith? Is that a reverent interpretation of God's Word?

Anyway, I still think that this is a worthwhile Bible to get. There is a lot of good commentary in here, and of course, it is filled with pithy statements like, "Let us never think that we have learned a doctrine until we have seen its fruit in our lives." and "Anything is a blessing that makes us pray"

And I was particularly pleased at Spurgeon's conclusions in some places that are more or less controversial today. For instance, in speaking of the flood's being a universal flood some of the commentary says, "If Moses had meant to describe a partial deluge on only a small part of the earth, he used misleading language. But if he meant to teach that the deluge was universal, he used the words we might have expected that he would use. I should think that no person, merely by reading this chapter, would arrive at the conclusion that has been reached by some of our learned men - too learned to hold the simple truth of God. " Wow! That's really stating it plainly.

And then, speaking of 1 Corinthians 9-10 ("What no eye has seen, no ear has heard….") he expresses incredulity at "How frequently verses of Scripture are misquoted! How frequently do we hear believers describing heaven as a place of which we cannot conceive. They quote verse 9, and there they stop, not seeing that the marrow of the whole passage lies in verse 10. The apostle was not talking about heaven at all. He was only saying that the wisdom of this world is not able to discover the things of God, that the merely carnal mind is not able to know the deep spiritual things of our most holy faith…" Rather, these things "must be revealed by the Spirit of God, as they are to all believers." I was delighted that he had come to that conclusion as I know that my dad (a pastor) has been frustrated by the same thing.

As one would expect with just about anything written by Spurgeon, there is a lot of quotable stuff in the commentary. Overall, it's exactly what one would expect in a Spurgeon study Bible.

Many thanks to the folks at B&H Publishers for the free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)! show less

This Bible is very appealing! It has a soft cover that provides the ease of laying it flat; the font is easy to read, and there are illustrations on almost every page. Wide margins allow ample space for making notes and the illustrations and line art offer coloring enjoyment.

This CSB Illustrator's Notetaking Bible has several useful tools that make Bible study easier, including a table of contents, concordance, colored maps, and a one-year reading plan. My one objection is that the words of show more Jesus aren't featured in Red print!

This beautiful Bible is a treasure to keep but it would also be a perfect gift.

Disclosure: Many thanks to Lifeway Christian Resources for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.

#IllustratorsNotetakingMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork @christianstandardbible and @bhpub #illustratorsnotetaking #csb #holmanbibles show less