I love being a Bible Gateway Blogger. Recently I have been given the opportunity to receive a few bibles from Bible Gateway to evaluate them and write a blog post on them. This last bible, “The Jesus Bible”, I gave my daughter in law the opportunity to evaluate and blog on it. I’m excited and privileged to share with you Jennifer Gould’s thoughts…
The Jesus Bible is a gorgeous NIV Bible by Zondervan you wouldn’t mind leaving out on the coffee table. I love the watercolor style cover and the gold edged pages. It also comes with two ribbons, which I appreciate. I am often doing more than one study at a time, so I find that feature helpful. This Bible has some weight to it, and seems quite a bit larger than the Bibles I am used to, but there is a reason for that.
The focus of this Bible is for its readers to see the whole of the Bible as one storyline. In the introduction we are taken back to English class and reintroduced to the concepts of the beginning of a story, the characters, the problem, the hero, the effect and the resolution. Every few pages throughout this Bible are inserts that connect the text to this overarching storyline, with Jesus as the hero, and our salvation and waiting eternity as the resolution. I love how these inserts connect the Old Testament to Jesus, and the shear number of inserts are part of what contributes to this Bible’s heft.
This Bible is not in double-column format, but instead single column, so it reads more like a book. It has a 9.5 point font, however the insert pages are in a larger font. It certainly takes a minimalist approach, even with the inserts and text. There are no maps, and the footnotes aren’t as overly obvious as I’ve seen in some Bibles. There is generous space in the margins on most pages for doodles or notes, and because of the single column format, you should have plenty of room to take notes on a passage. I can easily imagine spending time with this Bible and a set of Bible highlighters to mark passages. There is a dictionary, and a table of weights and measures, but no topical index or reading plans. However, a custom Bible app through You Version with a reading plan (see link below) is available for this Bible, which would be nice to use along with it.
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/3308-the-jesus-bible-reading-plan
I’m not sure I would haul this Bible around with me, but to have at home for study it’s lovely and I would recommend it, especially for those who desire to see how the Old Testament connects us to the New Testament. I can see how reading through the Bible would be easier with this Bible to guide you through the storyline. It’s also nice for those, like myself who love to doodle and make comments in the margins.
I hope that you decide to purchase one of these beautiful bibles that are available at many locations. See link to Amazon below.
Thank you to Jennifer Gould for taking the time to sift through and dig in to The Jesus Bible.
Rhonda Gould Coaching & Consulting 