Zondervan NASB Wide Margin Bible

Zondervan’s 1995 NASB Wide-Margin Bible shares the layout with their 1995 NASB Thompson Chain reference Bible but with one difference- the pages start on the right side, making the layout one page off. It removes all of the TCR material to create a wide-margin Bible that doesn’t feel too large yet provides a large text that’s great for reading and study. The 95 NASB Wide-Margin is available in several cover options. I’m reviewing the brown Leathersoft, ISBN 9780310461081, printed in South Korea.

Zondervan provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.

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This Bible is available from

Amazon

Christianbook

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Table of Contents

1. 1. Video Review
   2. Cover
   3. Paper
   4. Typography
   5. Concordance
   6. Comparisons
   7. Conclusion

Video Review

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Cover

The cover is brown Leathersoft (imitation leather). The color and grain look like real leather. A line where the Leathersoft overlaps the inside shows through to the front. Mine has warped a little. This is probably to do with the weather here in East TN. It has perimeter stitching. On the front is a gold cross. The spine includes a different style of gold cross and text with lines.

The liner is gold paper and doubles as the presentation page. The text block is sewn and includes overcast stitching for the first signature. It has two 1/4″ ribbons in brown and gold. The overall size is 6.8 x 9.6 x 1.5″ and it weighs 2 lbs, 9.7 oz.

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Paper

The paper is the same 36GSM premium European Bible. It’s white in color and highly opaque. It has a smooth texture that’s just rough enough to turn easily. This is excellent paper for notes. There are a few pages with crinkles. The page edges are gold. It looks and feels slightly different from the paper in the Premier Collection, but it’s just as premium. It’s good to see this quality of paper in a Leathersoft edition.

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Typography

The 95NASB text is presented in a double-column, verse-by-verse layout with poetry in stanzas and OT quotes in all caps. The header shows the book name, chapter, and verse numbers in red in the outer margin, page numbers in black in the center, and a page summary in red in the inner margin. Section headings are in red in all caps. It includes the reduced set of translator’s footnotes in the footer in a smaller font. The layout matches the NASB Thompson Chain Reference Bible with one exception. Genesis starts on the right side while the TCR starts on the left. This changes the page numbering and swaps the heading text from left to right. This page swap is consistent all the way through. It still works as a good combo, but the pages being off makes it less useful than it could have been.

The typeface is the NASB typeface designed by 2K/Denmark for HarperCollins NASBs. The size is 9.5, and it’s a red-letter text. It has around 6-7 words per line on average with extra space between the lines and the text. The text is dark and easy to read. It was printed with line-matching, so the text is printed in the same location on both sides of the page to reduce show-through and make it easier to read and use. Supplied words are in italics. Due to the low word count, poetry has a lot of lines with a single word.

Wide Margins

The NASB Wide-Margin Bible has 1.5 inches of note space for the inner and outer margins. This is essentially the TCR without the chain references, which does provide lots of writing space. The top and bottom margins are too small for notes, but since this is a match of the TCR, that makes sense. I’ve written a note with a 01 Pigma Micron in purple.

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Concordance

It has a 98-page NASB dictionary/concordance/thesaurus from the Lockman Foundation that’s used in many NASBs. This is the same concordance used in many Zondervan NASBs including the TCR. It includes names, alternate words to look up, and parts of speech. It’s large enough for study and sermon prep. Here are some example entries with their number of references to help you compare:

• Christ (Messiah) – 17
• Christian follower of Christ – 3
• Faith believe, trust – 36
• Faithful loyal, trustworthy – 15
• Faithfulness loyalty – 7
• Faithless unbelieving – 4
• God Deity, Eternal One – 37
• God false deity, idols – 8
• Goddess female diety – 3
• Godless pagan, without God – 5
• Godliness holiness – 5
• Godly holy – 6
• Praise (n) acclamation, honor – 10
• Praise (v) extol, glorify – 12
• Pray ask, worship – 19
• Prayer – 15

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Comparisons

Here’s how the NASB Wide-Margin Bible compares to the NASB Thompson Chain reference Bible. The pagination is the same, but the TCR starts on the left, and the wide-margin Bible starts on the right. Everything else about the text is the same. Both share the same concordance, but no other TCR tools are present. The paper in the wide-margin is whiter and seems to be more opaque.

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Conclusion on the NASB Wide-Margin Bible

Zondervan’s NASB Wide-Margin Bible makes great use of the Thompson Chain Reference layout to create a wide-margin Bible that’s easy to handle. It’s made well and the 36gsm paper seems to be more opaque than the paper in the Premier Collection. I’d like to see maps added, but I like everything it does have. If you’re interested in a wide-margin NASB, Zondervan’s NASB Wide-Margin Bible is a good choice.

If you’re interested in learning more about marking in your Bible, take a look at my book, Easy Bible Marking Guide.

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_________________________________________________________

This Bible is available from

Amazon

Christianbook

_________________________________________________________

Zondervan provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.