Know the Word Study Bible from Thomas Nelson was developed with beginners in mind, offering them three ways to study God’s Word and seeks to make the task as easy as possible. Rather than including charts, maps, lists, articles in the back, and the other tools found in the typical study Bible, Know the Word presents short articles throughout the text and commentary on the bottom of the page. In this review I look at the brown leathersoft edition, ISBN: 9780718091620, printed in China.

Thomas Nelson provided this Bible free for review. I was not required to give a positive review. My opinions are my own.

Cover and Binding

The cover is brown leathersoft. I don’t think it would be mistaken for real leather, but it has an elegant look and feel for an imitation leather. It has a nice texture with a touch of grain and the colors have variation from dark brown to a darker brown. This is one of my favorite imitation leathers. The perimeter is sewn with tan threads. The title and logo is stamped in gold. The liner is brown paper.

The text block is sewn. It will lie open but it might need to be broken in first. The overall size is 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 x 1 3/4″ (or, 8.87 x 5.62 x 1.75″). It’s a little on the thick side for its footprint, but the overall footprint is manageable. It has one brown ribbon.

Paper

I’m guessing about the paper’s thickness, but it feels around 32gsm to my fingers. It’s off-white in color and has a matte finish. It’s highly opaque. The slight rough texture helps in turning the pages. It doesn’t glare under direct light. This would be good paper for marking or highlighting. The edges are shiny gold gilt.

Typography

The King James text is presented in double column verse by verse format with bold section headings within the text. The header displays the page number in the outer margin and book name, chapter, and verse number next to the page number. Book names, some of the introduction elements, and some of the study notes are highlighted in red with gray backgrounds.

The font is 8 point red letter. It has about a medium/light shade of red. The black letter is dark enough for me but I prefer a darker red. It’s still consistent and readable though. The text is clean. Is has italics for supplied words but no other markings in the text. It’s a highly readable text.

The text is printed with around 40 characters per line, giving room for around 7-8 words per line. The words have more than enough room between them. The text never feels crowded or scrunched. It isn’t line-matched but many pages do line up and those that don’t are still highly readable.

Verse numbers are regular size and verses are indented. Paragraph markers are not found but the section headings help break up and identify the paragraphs.

Book Introductions

Book introductions are around a page and a half and provide a short summary of the book, a larger section on how to study the book information about the the background, author, audience, purpose, message, etc. A sidebar with study highlights includes references. It discusses things that are unique to the book, the style of writing, how scholars have understood the book, how it fits into the canon of Scripture, certain things to look for when reading, etc. I found the introductions to be informative and interesting.

Study Notes

The purpose of this study Bible is to provide tools to help the reader gain knowledge of the Bible whether they’re beginners or have been Bible readers many many years. No contributors are listed for the notes. Thomas Nelson explained that they were Baptist pastors, teachers, ministers, and writers with seminary degrees working anonymously so this study Bible isn’t personality driven.

It includes three ways to study the Bible:

  1. book-by-book – book introductions and in-text sidebars lead you through the main points of each book of the Bible. They cover the main themes and teachings.
  2. verse-by-verse – commentary for many of the passages help you to dig deeper on a verse level. This is the standard type of commentary that most study Bibles have. Cross references are provided within this section.
  3. topic-by-topic –  short articles that appear throughout the Bible on various theological topics. There are 21 topics in all. Each one provides the reference for the next note on that topic. An index in the front shows the topic-by-topic articles.

The study material is streamlined. You won’t find charts, images, maps, etc. Instead, they’re focused on providing basic theological, cultural, and historical information.

Many of the notes are theological, so you’ll want to use them for reference and study other points of view. Some of the comments contain eisegesis due to how short the notes are.

A two-page article between the testaments, called What Happened Between the Old and New Testaments, provides a historical outline with dates and bullet points. This is an excellent article for understanding the history going into the New Testament.

Tables of Weights and Measures

The tables of weights and measures include money, weights, length, dry measure, and liquid measures. They provide the unit, measure, equivalents, and translations. It also provides a history of money, explaining where they were from and when they were made, how some of them were valued, got their names, etc. The tables also use red and gray highlights. They’re simple but helpful for study.

Concordance

The concordance is 79 pages and has 3 columns per page. It has a good amount of entries and is helpful for study and sermon prep. Here are a few example entries and the number of references for each to help you compare:

  • Christ – 18
  • Christian – 3
  • Faith – 96
  • Faithful – 41
  • Faithfully – 1
  • Faithfulness – 6
  • Faithless –3
  • God – 56
  • Godhead – 3
  • Godliness – 11
  • Godly – 11
  • Praise (n.) – 32
  • Praise (v.) – 15
  • Pray – 38
  • Prayer –36

Maps

It has 8 pages of colorful maps printed on thick glossy paper. There are 7 maps in total. There isn’t an index but they are annotated well. I had no trouble finding what I was looking for. They include topography, distance, journey’s, elevation, battles, routes, cities, kingdoms, events, Scripture references, major roadways, dates, etc.

Maps include:

  1. World of the Patriarchs
  2. Exodus and the Conquest of Canaan
  3. Land of the Twelve Tribes
  4. Kingdom of David and Solomon
  5. Jesus’ Ministry
  6. Paul’s Missionary Journeys
  7. Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus

Conclusion

Know the Word Study Bible is a neat little Bible. While I prefer tools to do my own study, this one does have a lot of short articles to help you study. As with any Bible with theological notes I recommend you use them for reference along with your study. The overall footprint is about half way between a regular and a personal size study Bible. The text is the size of a regular size study Bible. For study Bibles, this one is easier to carry than most without having to sacrifice font size. Anyone looking for a simple study Bible with articles geared toward beginners will like Thomas Nelson’s Know the Word Study Bible.

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Photography by hannah C brown

Thomas Nelson provided this Bible free for review. I was not required to give a positive review. My opinions are my own.