Today I’m looking at the ESV Portals of Prayer Bible from Concordia Publishing House. This Bible includes several devotions from their quarterly Portals of Prayer devotionals.
ISBN: 9780758662446 Manufactured in China
Concordia Publishing House 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 for order at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Construction & Materials
This Bible is a navy cloth over board hardcover with a beautiful silver dove and cross design embossed both front and back and has a sewn binding. It weighs 2 lbs, 14 ounces, and measures 9 1/4″ x 6 ” x 1 7/8″. It comes with a matching navy slipcase with Portals of Prayer written in silver on both sides and the spine. The only other format this Bible is currently available in is eBook. It is the ESV translation with translators preface included.
The paper is a muted white color. We’re guessing it to be upper 30s GSM. It turns very easily and Psalms (and other large sections of poetry) is the only place any show-through was really noticeable to me while using it.
It doesn’t have thumb indexing but I like this endpaper with all the books of the Bible and the little colored markers at the edge of the page that serve the same function. This system was really easy to use and didn’t use up as much of the margin as standard thumb indexing would. I wish the colored tabs lined up slightly better, especially in the longer books (instead of kind of zig-zagging up and down).
Typography & Layout
The Portals of Prayer Bible has a 10.5-point font for the Biblical text laid out in a two-column paragraph format. A slightly smaller 9.25-point font is used for the devotionals, and they are laid out in a single-column format. Poetry is set in stanzas. The header has the page number in the center and a guide verse on the outside corner.
It doesn’t show up as well as I’d like in these pictures (I’m still getting used to my new phone’s camera) but this Bible has several colors of ink not just two or three. The Biblical text, page numbers, and verse numbers are all in black. The words of Christ are in red. Then there are six other colors (navy, brown, purple, green, burgundy, and dark teal) that you can see in the list of books picture above. Each book has a third color that is used for the book tab, chapter numbers, guide verses, and devotionals that match the color in that list. The colors are all muted and dark so it’s not distracting or even extremely noticeable in some cases but it is a nice design element in my opinion.
The only footnotes are translators notes and are found at the bottom of the right-hand column of Biblical text for each page (but above the devotionals when present.
Devotionals
The devotionals are the key feature of this Bible. 700 devotionals are included. Enough to last you almost two years if done 1 a day. They have been carefully selected from the many that have printed in the quarterly Portals of Prayer devotionals many people are familiar with. These devotionals are mainly focused on the promises of God and how the Bible applies to daily living.
The devotionals are always found in the bottom 1/3 to 1/2 of the page. Each starts with a scripture and ends with a short prayer prompt. They would take the average person about 5 minutes to read but you could easily extend your devotion time by reading the full passage (instead of just a verse) and of course prayer and meditating on the Word.
Two Indexes for the devotionals are included. One listing all the verses in order and the title of the corresponding devotional.
The second is divided up by author. It lists all the devotional names with the key scripture and page number under each author’s name.
Most of these devotionals are not on doctrinal topics but a Lutheran doctrinal slant does appear occasionally. That should be expected since Portals of Prayer is a devotional printed by the Lutheran based publishing company, Concordia Publishing House.
Final Thoughts on the ESV Portals of Prayer Devotional Bible
The ESV Portals of Prayer Devotional Bible is a nice choice if you don’t want to have to keep track of a devotional book and Bible separately. The short devotionals that promote meditating on God’s Word and page edge marked books make it easy to use, especially for those who can’t always find the time for lengthier study.
Concordia Publishing House 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.
_________________________________________________________
This Bible is available for order at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
_________________________________________________________
Photography by Lucinda Brown
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