Crossway Bibles

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

How do I feel about the newly published ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions?! I absolutely love, love, love, love, love, crazy love and adore this one. [ETA: I do wish the pages were less glaring or shiny when read under bright light. I have had to choose *where* to read this one so it is read in dimmer light.]

I read the TruTone edition of the ESV Creeds Bible. It was without a doubt the best FEELING Tru-Tone I've ever held in my hands. It is LOVELY. I typically make covers for my Bibles--this one won't be getting one. I love the feel of it too much.

It is the text of the ESV translation. I do love the ESV. It is in my top three definitely. I love, love, love the ESV, the NASB, and the KJV. Those are my top three--have been for the past decade--and they take turns being the top. A little friendly competition between translations, I suppose! [ETA: I have found myself liking other translations more these days. The NKJV has moved up and the ESV has moved down one notch.]

Font size vs. Weight. I thought this was PERFECTLY BALANCED. The weight of the overall bible is just about perfect. The font size is 10.5. That is so much larger than the average Bible being printed nowadays. (The ESV Prayer Bible is 9.25; the ESV Study Bible is 9 point; ESV Student Study Bible is 8 point; The ESV Reformation Study Bible is 9 point.) It's light enough that you can hold the Bible and read--as opposed to a Bible you HAVE to read at a table because it's too heavy for the lap to sustain. Because it's light weight, the font size was very manageable even though my vision is poor.

Double column. The ESV Creeds Bible is double column. The bleed-through was on the minimal side. I didn't need to use black construction paper. I think the text was blocked in such a way that it helped prevent bleed-through.

Black letter. The ESV Creeds Bible is a black letter Bible. The words of Christ are not printed in red. I am thankful for this!

The Creeds and Confessions were found in the back of the Bible. They include the Apostles Creed (ca. 200-400), the Nicene Creed (325), the Athanasian Creed (381), the Chalcedonian Definition (451), the Augsburg Confession (1530), the Belgic Confession (1561), the Articles of Religion (1563), the Canons of Dort (1618-19), the Westminster Confession (1646), the London Baptist Confession (1689), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Westminster Larger Catechism (1647), and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647).

I loved the variety of what they included. Some were familiar to me; others were new-to-me. They didn't include every single creed, confession, or catechism. One they did leave out was the Scots Confession (1560). Another was the Second Helvetic Confession (1566).

It does include more creeds than the ESV Reformation Study Bible which only includes the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, the Westminster Confession, the Westminster Larger Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the 1689 London Baptist Confession.

It also has more creeds than the KJV Reformation Heritage Bible which only includes the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dort, Westminster Confession, Westminster Shorter Confession, Westminster Larger Catechism.

I think the ESV Creeds Bible would make a great Bible to carry to church. It would be a great only Bible as well.

I think ESV should publish a Bible perhaps with families in mind and include the full text of the NEW CITY CATECHISM.

ETA: I read the ESV Creeds Bible the second time (I believe) in February and March of 2024. Start date was February 14, 2024 and end date was March 27, 2024.… (mere)

First sentence: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

I used my revised "Power 60" Bible reading plan. Well, perhaps I didn't follow it exactly. I started May 26, 2023 and finished July 5, 2023. Clearly less than sixty days. But I'm like that.

I read mostly from the Large Print edition. Give or take a few days subtraction/distraction. The truth is I couldn't settle down. I read two or three days in the ESV Creeds Bible. I read two or three days in the ESV Reformation Bible. But for the most part, like I said, I read from the Large Print edition. My copy--purchased used--is the 2011 edition of the ESV text. There has been another update.

This particular edition of the Bible is double column, black letter, decent font size.

I love the English Standard Version. It probably isn't my all-time favorite, favorite number one translation. But it's definitely in my top three. I've read it several times this year already. (Though to be fair, both, I believe were projects started in November or December of 2022. They just happened to finish in 2023.)

I do recommend this translation.… (mere)