We recently received a copy of the Spiral Bible. It is a KJV Bible in 5 volumes with spiral bindings made specifically for notetakers with thick paper and wide margins.
Spiral Bible provided these Bibles 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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These Bibles are available at SpiralBible.com (affiliate link)
You can get a 20% discount by using the coupon code: BibleBuyingGuide.
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Table of Contents
Video Review
Editions
To have a complete KJV Bible you need all five volumes which include:
- The Books of the Law – Genesis through Deuteronomy, 307 pages, green cover
- The Books of History – Joshua through Ester, 405 pages, blue cover
- The Books of Poetry – Job through Song of Solomon, 208 pages, yellow cover
- The Prophets – Isaiah through Malachi, 326 pages, red cover
- The New Testament -Matthew through Revelation, 397 pages, black cover
The KJV New Testament is also available with a pink cover or a multi-colored bold floral print cover.
Other Spiral Bibles include:
- a KJV Large Print Gospels edition with Matthew through John in a 16-point font and an aqua cover
- an ASV New Testament with 10-point font and either a pastel flowers or hearts print cover
- and 2 volumes of a Spiral Bible for Children – Genesis or Exodus – BBE translation (Bible in Basic English) with multicolor covers, a 15-point font, and line drawings to color as well as notetaking space
I haven’t seen them in person but from what pictures and videos I have seen my children and I would have loved to have these children’s editions when we were younger. I really hope they sell well enough for SpiralBible to keep adding new books to the collection.
Construction and Materials
These Bibles are very similar to typical spiral notebooks but are made with noticeably higher-quality materials. They have very flexible clear plastic spiral bindings. The front covers are made of slightly glossy cardstock and the back covers are made of thick cardboard. Both are thicker and better quality than any spiral notebook I had in school. They are 11″ by between 8 7/8″ and 9 1/2″ depending on the size of the spiral. They are between a half inch and an inch thick and weigh between 1 pound, 4 ounces, and 2 pounds, 4.5 ounces. The entire 5 book set weighs around 9.5 pounds.
The paper itself measures 11″ x 8.5″. It is white, around 80 gsm, and opaque. It is neither typical notebook paper nor typical Bible paper. The pages are easy to get ahold of and turn easily without catching on the spirals.
Typography and Layout
The KJV Spiral Bible volumes have a 10-point font. They are all black-letter. The white space between the lines is almost as large as the text.
They are laid out in verse-by-verse single-column format. The column of text is just over 4 inches wide. The lines in the notetaking column are 2. 5 inches long. Both columns have about a quarter of an inch of extra space on either side of them.
The name of the book is in the top outer corner of each page. The index verses are also given at the top inner corner of the light box around the text. Page numbers are centered under the note column. Chapter numbers are bold and 3 lines of text high. Both verse numbers in the text and page numbers have brackets around them.
No special headers indicate the start of a new book, but books always begin at the top of a right-hand page. This frequently gives you extra notetaking space at the end of books.
There are no footnotes or references.
Each volume has the same one-page introduction about how taking notes helps you get more out of your Bible study.
Marking Mediums in the Spiral Bible
Each volume has a single blank on both sides page in the back. I’ve used these to test a few pens pencils and markers. I intend to try a few more and add to this post.
There was no show-through or bleed-through for any kind of dry mediums but you will want to test any wetter mediums and be careful how you apply them.
I used the following products (affiliate links):
Writing Pens
- Fine point black Sharpie marker – The black line at the top – the only complete failure of the bunch. I didn’t think it would be a good choice and I was right. It shows almost as well on the back of the page as on the front
- Tombow calligraphy pen, hard tip– 1st line of Scripture – light show-through, no bleed-through
- Pigma Micron pens – Black 005 point, 2nd line of Scripture almost no show-through, would definitely recommend using / Black 08 point, Scripture reference – light show-through, no bleed-through
- Black Papermate Ink Joy pen – 3rd line of Scripture almost no show-through I would recommend, 2nd best of the writing pens I used
Highlighters
- Pink GTL Zebrite Bible Highlighter – highlight on “salvation” and pink marks at end of the line, had almost no show-through but one small line of bleed-through, since it’s a Bible marker I expected it to work well and experimented to see what happened. It bleeds if you hold it too long (more than a second in the same spot) but works beautifully if you can keep it moving
- Green Papermate Intro Highlighter – highlight on “none other name”, worked better than expected, almost no show through except at ends of the mark where I held it still while still touching the paper
- Blue GTL Bible Dry Highlighter – highlight on “heaven”, no show-through, I highly recommend
- Purple GTL Bible-Brites ACCu-Dry Highlighter, highlight on “we must be saved”, no show-through, doesn’t cover quite as smoothly as the Bible Dry Highlighter, 2nd best Highlighter
Coloring Mediums
- LePlume II Markers – green vine, noticeable show-through, lighter colors would probably be better but I still don’t think I’d recommend them or probably any markers unless you are light-handed and test them well first
- Inktense Pencils – blue flower, they work very well if you only use them as pencils, if you want to wet them to get the more vibrant colors you’ll need to be light-handed with both the pencil and the water to minimize any show-through or bleed-through
- Zenacolor Watercolor Pencils – yellow butterfly, work fine as pencils, the pigment didn’t move around as well as it does on watercolor paper so there doesn’t seem to be any point in using water with them
- Prismacolor Colored Pencils – pink flower, work beautifully with no show-through, my absolute favorite medium for adding color to any Bible, any colored pencils work well but soft cored pencils, like Prismacolor work best
Final Thoughts on the Spiral Bible
The various editions of The Spiral Bible are great for making notes while you read your Bible. Their notebook style is a good reminder for you to be a student of God’s Word. The large writing space is very useful for various types of Bible study, personal devotionals, or drawing pictures and charts. And the upgraded notebook materials will make them longer-lasting and more pleasant to use than a standard notebook. The only real drawback of these as a study Bible/notebook combination is since they’re multi-volume and fairly large they won’t be the best for carrying with you.
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These Bibles are available at SpiralBible.com (affiliate link)
You can get a 20% discount by using the coupon code: BibleBuyingGuide.
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Photography by Lucinda Brown
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