The Holman KJV Pastor’s Bible is similar to their CSB Pastor’s Bible from a few years ago. This one stays true to the traditional verse-by-verse layout but sets the KJV text in a single column. It also includes a wide outer margin and a few pastors’ helps. I love this Bible, but there are a few things that I’d like to see changed and a couple of things added. It’s available in several covers. I’m reviewing the black genuine leather, ISBN: 9781087722153, printed in China.
Holman 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 at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Table of Contents
- Video Review
- Binding
- Paper
- Typography and Layout
- Pastor’s Helps
- Concordance
- Bible Atlas
- Comparisons
- Conclusion
Video Review
Binding
The cover is black genuine leather. It’s softer than most genuine leather I’ve seen. It has a pebbly grain. The grain isn’t heavily pronounced, but it isn’t smooth either. It has perimeter stitching with nothing printed on the front. The spine includes three spine indications dry-stamped into the leather. The text is stamped in gold. The spine is rounded, which is my personal preference.
The liner is paste-down vinyl. The block is sewn and has no trouble staying open in Genesis.
It has two double-sided 1/4″ ribbons: one black for the Old Testament and one red for the New Testament. They’re long enough to pull to the corner to open the Bible easily. 6 3/4 x 9 3/4 x 1 3/8″ and weighs 2 lbs, 8.9 oz. This size is excellent for preaching.
Paper
The paper is 30gsm. It’s white in color and it’s highly opaque. It’s great for reading and highlighting. I preached from it several times and had no issues turning the pages.
There are 10 pages of Bible paper in the back for notes.
Typography and Layout
This is a text-only edition, so there are no cross-references or footnotes. The text is presented in a verse-by-verse single-column layout. It does not include section headings, so the text is clean and easy to read. The header shows the book name and chapters that appear on that page in the outer margin. Page numbers are placed in the center. Page summaries appear in the inner margin.
The font is 10.5-point in red letter. Both the black and the red are dark and consistent. I love this print. It’s printed with line matching, meaning that the lines of print are located in the same place on both sides of the page. This greatly improves readability. Pilcrows are used to mark paragraphs. The text includes italics for supplied words.
It has around 14 words per line. This would normally be too many words for me, but the text has a lot of inner margin space, which brings the text out to the flat part of the page. It also has enough space between the lines that I don’t get lost. The number of words per line does cause a problem, though. Since this is a verse-by-verse layout, many (if not most) of the verses have a lot of space left over. Many lines have just a few words. This could be used for notes, but it’s almost wasted space. I’d prefer to see fewer words, which would make the outer margin wider. I think the room it would take is almost the same. As it is, the outer margin is only 1 inch. This isn’t enough space for references and notes.
Another oddity is the 2 lines of space above each chapter. This creates an unnatural break between the chapters, but it’s an excellent area to place chapter summaries or other small notes. The problem is that chapters that start at the top of the page don’t have this space. So, you can use the space for most chapters, but not all.
Margin Space
It has a 1-inch outer margin that technically makes this a wide margin Bible. This isn’t a lot of space for notes, but you can get a few references in there and maybe a definition, section heading, topic name, or symbol. If a wide margin Bible is your goal, this might not be the Bible you need. It’s a great choice if you just want a little bit of margin space. Of course, you don’t even have to use the margins. In this case, the margins are not large enough to get in the way.
Pastor’s Helps
What makes this specifically a pastor’s Bible is the resources. These include guidelines for weddings and funerals. They’re printed between Psalms and Proverbs. I’d prefer them to be in the back or between the Old and New Testaments. It would be easier to skip over them when preaching or teaching.
Unfortunately, it’s missing the articles found in the CSB Pastor’s Bible that provide insights into the pastor’s role and duties, tips on preaching, leading others, etc. Without articles on marriage counseling and grief counseling, guidance for weddings and funerals aren’t enough help to use this Bible alone. Pastors have to use other resources. This greatly reduces the value of this Bible for pastors. This makes the CSB version a better choice if the translation isn’t the goal.
Concordance
The concordance is 88 pages with 3 columns per page. It includes names of people and places and character studies. The entries are printed in black and include the part of speech. It’s not as large as a study Bible, but it does have enough for study. The character studies make it an excellent concordance for study and sermon prep. Here are a few example entries with their number of references to help you compare:
- Christ – 12
- Christian – 3
- Faith – 53
- Faithful – 35
- Faithless – 2
- God – 85
- Godhead – 3
- Godliness – 6
- Godly – 5
- Gods – 7
- Praise – 13
- Pray – 18
- Prayer – 13
Bible Atlas
It includes 8 full-color maps on thick non-glossy paper. These are the recent maps from Holman and that have the darker colors that I like. The maps are clean and easy to read. They have large areas without text and are annotated well. This helps make them easy to use. It doesn’t include an index to maps. The maps include distance, topography, mountain peaks, routes, cities, major roads, Scripture references, location on the globe, kingdoms, locations of events, dates, etc. It even has a possible Red Sea crossing.
Maps include:
- The Migration of Abraham
- The Route of the Exodus
- The Tribal Allotments of Israel
- The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
- Israel in the Time of Jesus
- The Ministry of Jesus Around the Sea of Galilee
- The Passion Week in Jerusalem
- Paul’s Missionary Journeys
Comparisons
CSB Pastor’s Bible
The CSB Pastor’s Bible is a better version of the Pastor’s Bible. It has the same tools but adds a lot more articles that help the pastor. It’s a single-column paragraph edition that makes better use of the single-column space. The font isn’t as dark, but it’s dark enough.
Thomas Nelson Minister’s Bible
Thomas Nelson’s Minister’s Bible is a lot smaller and has a lot smaller print, but it has far more tools for ministers. It includes the complete Minister’s Manual that covers a lot more events such as baptisms, dedications, counseling, and more. If the goal is to have the minister’s helps, then this is a better option.
KJV Store Notetaker’s
For a single-column wide margin comparison, here’s the KJV Store Notetaker’s. This is the same Bible as the LCBP/CBP Notetaker’s, but it has a red-letter text. In my opinion, this design makes better use of the margin space. It has a 2.5″ outer margin and around 10 words per line. It still has many lines with empty space, though, so maybe 12 words would be ideal. This is a thicker Bible. The paper is slightly thicker and the print is not as dark as the Holman. The paper is smooth, making it more difficult to turn than the Holman. It has maps, but no concordance. I think the perfect Bible would be half way between the two.
Conclusion
The Holman KJV Pastor’s Bible is an excellent Bible for preaching. If you need a good amount of pastor’s helps, you’d do better to get the CSB of the Thomas Nelson Minister’s Bible. If you just want a few helps for just weddings and funerals, this is probably enough as long as you don’t need any of the counseling helps that would go with them. If wide margins are the goal, these might not be large enough. However, if you want a Bible with a little bit of space and a few pastors’ help, this is a great choice. I love this Bible for preaching and making small notes. For me, that’s where it excels.
_________________________________________________________
This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
_________________________________________________________
Holman 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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