Crossway’s ESV Heirloom Bible Heritage Edition has been released with the 2025 ESV and renamed Veritas (Latin for the truth). The ESV Heirloom Bible, Veritas: Single Column Edition, is available in two different colors of calfskin and in black goatskin. I’m reviewing the Grenada (brown), printed in the Netherlands by Jongbloed.
Crossway provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review.
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This book is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Table of Contents
Cover and Binding
The cover is a brown full-grain aniline-dyed Grenada calfskin. It’s pebbly, flexible, and soft to the touch. It includes perimeter stitching. The only printing is the gold text on the spine, which includes four raised hubs. Although it’s floppy, I found it easy enough to hold open in one hand.
The liner is edge-lined in brown leather and includes a gold gilt line. The edge-lined tab is not stiff, allowing the Bible to stay open on the first page of Genesis. It has 3 dark brown ribbons. The overall size is 5.5 x 8.5 x 1.6″. It weighs 2 lbs, 5.4 oz. I find this size to be excellent for carrying and holding to read.
Paper
The paper is 28 gsm Indopaque milled in France. It’s a Jongbloed exclusive, and is some of the highest quality thin Bible paper available. It has a slightly cream color and is highly opaque for its thickness. It’s smooth, but the texture is just rough enough to be easy to grab and turn. In the back are 8 pages for notes. These are the standard Bible paper and are left blank. The page edges are art-gilt with red over gold.
Typography
The 2025 ESV text is presented in a single-column paragraph layout with poetry in stanzas. The header includes the book name, chapter, and verse numbers in the outer margin, and the page number in the inner margin, all printed in a dark red. Chapter numbers are also in dark red. Translation footnotes are placed in the footer. Section headings are in bold italics.
The font is 9.25-point, black letter Lexicon with a dark and consistent print. It has line-matching to reduce show-through. Poetry is the main place where show-through is noticeable, but it isn’t bad for paper this thin. It has around 12 words per line with plenty of white space between the lines and words. This word count is perfect for poetry. The text is easy to read and use. Footnote keys are a small number in italics, keeping them from standing out. Verse numbers are larger and slightly darker, making them a touch easier to find.
Footnotes
Footnotes include references to parallel passages. References are placed after the footnotes, making them easily accessible. I like having these references included in the translation footnotes. The footnotes include Hebrew and Greek explanations, manuscript variations (without identifying the specific manuscript), information about objects, places, names, currency, and references where a quotation is cited from.
Extras
In the front is a presentation page with family pages printed on thick paper. They include marriages, births/adoptions, and deaths.
In the back is the table of weights and measures that includes the biblical unit, approximate American and metric equivalents, and biblical equivalents. This information is also covered in the footnotes.
Maps
In the back are 8 maps printed on thick semi-glossy paper, printed with earth-tone colors. They include distance, topography, borders, routes, rivers, kingdoms, etc. It doesn’t have an index, but they are labeled well, making them easier to use.
Maps include:
- The World of the Patriarchs
- The Exodus from Egypt
- The Twelve Tribes of Israel
- Israel Under Saul, David, and Solomon
- Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus
- Palestine in the Time of Jesus
- Paul’s First and Second Missionary Journeys
- Paul’s Third Missionary Journey and His Voyage to Rome
Video Review
Conclusion
Crossway’s ESV Heirloom Bible, Veritas: Single Column Edition is an excellent update to the ESV Heirloom Bible Heritage Edition. The overall size and build quality are great for everyday use, and the layout with the extra whitespace make it an excellent Bible for reading. This is still my favorite ESV.
_________________________________________________________
This book is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
_________________________________________________________
Crossway 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.
