The ESV Pulpit Bible was designed for public reading, such as preaching, teaching, reading from the lectern, family reading, and more. Its large type and thick paper make reading and preaching easy. Its construction quality means it will last for many years of pulpit use. It’s an enlarged version of the Heirloom Thinline and Pew Bibles, so it’s easy to have a smaller Bible to match. This is ISBN: 9781433563522, made in China.
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.
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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
Video Review
Binding
The binding is a top grain cowhide leather-over-board. It’s black and has a pebbly grain. The font includes ESV, HOLY BIBLE, and English Standard Version printed in gold, and a tooled decorative line around the outside. The board is 1/4″ thick. The board is also heavy and feels substantial. The edges of the board taper to a point. The spine has 4 raised hubs and the text and logo printed in gold.
The liner is reinforced paste-down vinyl. It’s Smyth sewn and stays fully open to every page perfectly. The spine doesn’t rise much, but the inner margin is wide enough that it doesn’t matter. It has black and gold head/tail bands and 4 ribbon markers. They’re single-sided satin and 1/2″ wide. The overall size is 9 3/4 x 13 1/8 x 3″ and it weighs 9 lbs, 11.6 oz. The pages are large, so there’s noticeably more motion to turn them.
Paper
The paper is 80 GSM. It’s ivory in color and it’s extremely opaque. The thickness and texture make the pages extra easy to separate and turn. It’s the same paper used in the ESV 6-Volume Reader’s set. This paper makes for an excellent reading experience. The page edges are gold gilted.
Typography
The text is presented in a double-column paragraph layout with poetry in stanzas. The header includes the page number in the center and the book name, chapter, and verse number in the outer margin. The footer includes the translation footnotes in a single column. Section headings are in italics.
The typeface is 12-point Lexicon black-letter. It’s dark but not too bold to read for a long period of time. It’s extremely consistent throughout. It has around 9 words per line. It has plenty of space between the lines to make it comfortable to read from the pulpit. Prose looks great at this word-count. Poetry is easy to follow, but it does have lots of lines with a single word, so they’re not all broken in the best places.
It doesn’t have line-matching, but show-through is only noticeable in the poetic settings and even then it isn’t distracting. I had to hold the pages to the light to know for sure that it didn’t have line-matching. Many pages have lines that do match, but I don’t think that’s on purpose because the section headings offset the text.
Verse numbers are superscript and slightly bolder than the text. The inner and outer margins are 1 1/8″. This extra spacing brings to text out of the bend of the inner margin so the text is always on the flat part of the page. This is especially important for preaching. The top and bottom margins are 1/2″. Books start on a new page. Footnotes are keyed to the text with numbers. I didn’t look for footnotes when preaching, but I had no issues finding verses when preaching from it. This Bible is a joy to read and preach from.
Tools
In the back are the Table of Weights and Measures and a list of verses called Responsive Readings.
Table of Weights and Measures and Monetary Units – This is a simple table with 22 entries that show the biblical unit, American and metric equivalents, and biblical equivalent. They’re not divided according to type, but there aren’t that many to search through. Most are also explained in the footnotes.
Responsive Readings – This is a set of readings designed to encourage a responsive congregational reading. It includes 65 sections that cover the major themes of the Bible, each with a topic and a list of Scriptures for the leader and congregation to take turns reading. The Scriptures include large chapters or small passages. The leader’s portion is placed in regular type and the congregation’s portion is placed in bold type. These are great for planning sermons and teachings. They also work for small groups and families.
Comparisons
Here’s how the ESV Pulpit Bible compares with the ESV Heirloom Thinline and the ESV Preaching Bible.
ESV Heirloom Thinline
The ESV Heirloom Thinline (along with the ESV Pew Bible and a few thinline editions) matches the pagination of the ESV Pulpit Bible. This provides an advantage that allows Church members to bring their matching thinlines and visitors to use the matching pew Bibles so everyone can literally be on the same page. It’s a smart move to have matching editions. Not all thinline match, though, and there isn’t a matching large print thinline.
ESV Preaching Bible
The ESV Preaching Bible is also a paragraph edition, but it’s single-column, has a wide outer margin, and includes larger verse numbers when compared to the text to help verses stand out. Translation footnotes are also placed in the footer. This is an excellent choice if you need to carry the Bible with you or don’t have enough space on your pulpit for the larger pulpit Bible. The Preaching Bible is over an inch closer to the camera, so it looks slightly larger in comparison than it actually is. I love this edition, but I’d also like to see a preaching edition with the same pagination as the ESV Pulpit Bible. I want both- single and a double-column preaching Bibles rather than just one.
Conclusion
The ESV Pulpit Bible is a joy to read and preach from. It is a large Bible, so it might not fit well on small pulpits and it does feel a little awkward if you’re not used to a Bible of this size. Everything about this Bible looks and feels elegant. The materials and construction are high-quality. I couldn’t ask for better paper and print quality. The font size and clean text are perfect for pulpit use.
Matching the ESV Heirloom Thinline and ESV Pew Bible makes for a great combo, allowing the congregation to easily use the same Bible if they don’t need a larger print. I’d love to see this in a large print just for this purpose. I recommend the ESV Pulpit Bible for use in the pulpit. I can even see the preacher reading from this behind the pulpit and carrying the thinline as they move around the room to preach, carry to visitations, and preaching or teaching outside the pulpit. The ESV Pulpit Bible is ideal for preaching, teaching, libraries, groups, and even home use or anywhere the Word of God is read in public.
_________________________________________________________
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.