We were recently sent The Jesus Bible Artist Edition NIV. This study Bible that helps you meet Jesus throughout Scripture was recently released with special cover art designed by Joshua Noom.
ISBN: 9780310460138 Printed in China
Zondervan 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 at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
_________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
- Construction and Materials
- Typography and Layout
- Book Introductions
- Articles
- Dictionary-Concordance
- Final Thoughts
Construction and Materials
The edition of the Jesus Bible I was sent has a gray leathersoft cover with artwork on the front cover and spine done by Joshua Noom. It is primarily pink, white, and green with lots of Biblical symbols (like sheep, grapes, and a broken chain) in a style that reminds me of Art Deco. The page edges have silver-gilt and rounded cut corners, It has two attached ribbon markers, one pink and one light gray.
The paper is off-white and feels like upper 30s GSM. The Bible has a sewn binding and paper liner. It weighs about 3 pounds and 3.5 ounces and measures approximately 9″ x 7″ x 2″.
This Bible is also available in gray or pink cloth over board editions and brown, light blue, or multi-color painted look leathersoft editions.
Typography and Layout
The text is laid out in single-column, paragraph format. Poetry is set in stanzas, lists look like lists, and large quotes are offset. The outer margin is 2 inches wide which gives you lots of room for your own notes on any page that doesn’t have a sidebar article.
The header contains the page number in the outside corners, with a guide verse just inside that. Chapter numbers are two lines of text high. The section headings and chapter numbers are in bold. Verse numbers are small and light which makes for a pleasant reading experience but does occasionally make a verse hard to find. There is some show-through but I never found it distracting.
The text in the Jesus Bible Artist Edition is 9.5-point NIV Comfort Print typeface. Six lines of text fit in the height of a penny. It is all black-letter.
Translation footnotes at the bottom of the page are separated from the text with a thin line. Superscript letters within the text indicate the presence of a footnote.
Book Introductions
In keeping with the Jesus theme of this Bible, each book’s title page has “JESUS:” and a statement of the main way Jesus is presented in that book. The name of the book is smaller near the bottom of the page.
I personally love this form of titling or labeling each book with what you can expect to learn about Jesus within it.
Each book has a two-page introduction. It starts with a 3-event timeline of either key events in the book or Biblical history that relates to the writing of the book. That is followed by a brief summary that includes themes, writing styles, and purpose for writing the book as well as some of the events. The introduction ends with a key verse from that book.
These summaries seem to give a good overview that helps you understand what you will be reading and I always love it when key verses are pointed out.
Articles
There is a 4-page Welcome at the front of the Bible written by Louie Giglio. It describes the purpose of The Jesus Bible and gives tips for Bible study. It states “The Bible is best understood when it’s viewed as one story in six acts: Beginnings, Revolt, People, Savior, Church, Forever.” It includes a brief overview of each “Act”.
Essays
This Bible contains seven essays; one for each “Act” of the main story of the Bible, and one for the “intermission” in the story, the 400-year period between the writing of the Old and New Testaments. These range in length from 2 pages to 9 pages, with 5 pages being the most common.
The page behind these is tinted gray to make them stand out from the text and a timeline of all of the essays that includes Scripture range and page number is included at the end of each one.
These articles walk you through the story of God’s relationship with mankind. Even if you would put the dividing point between sections in slightly different places they are very useful for understanding the core story of the Bible and giving context to some events.
Full-Page Articles
There are over 300 full-page articles that help reveal Jesus throughout all of Scripture.
These longer articles focus on stories with more than one important point
I particularly like the articles that help explain and define terms and how they are used in the Bible. This is very useful for really understanding what Scripture is saying and if we all have an agreed-upon definition it will cut down misunderstanding of one another as well.
Side-Bar Articles
There are also over 700 smaller sidebar articles that generally focus on a single point within a passage. These do not have the pale gray background but do have the headings and a different font to help separate them from the Biblical text.
I love the idea of a Jesus-centered Bible. What I’ve read of this one seems well done. I like how all the articles tie their points to Jesus and his teachings. This is easy in the New Testament where Jesus is obvious to everyone. It is done in the Old Testament by pointing out prophecies, parallels to New Testament passages, and Old Testament names and phrases that refer to Jesus.
All study Bibles contain at least slight biases or doctrinal slants and should be read prayerfully taking Scripture over anything found in the notes.
Dictionary-Concordance
There is a 26-page combination dictionary-concordance. It includes definitions that vary in length from a few words to a couple of sentences and includes references for many of the entries. Sample numbers of entries are:
-
-
- Christ – 5
- Christian – 2
- Faith – 12
- Faithful (Faithfulness) – 7
- God – 11
- Godly – 2
- Praise – 3
- Pray – 4
-
If I were doing an in-depth study I would probably want a more complete concordance (which many people have either in print or on their phones).
This dictionary/concordance is complete enough to be a good starting point. It will be especially helpful to those less familiar with Biblical terminology.
Final Thoughts on The Jesus Bible Artist Edition
The Jesus Bible is a well-designed study Bible with an important theme – Jesus. Numerous articles, room for your own notes, and a usable concordance will make this Bible useful for studying the name above every name and everything that name represents throughout all sixty-six books of the Bible. The Jesus Bible Artist Edition adds a unique cover variation to this line of Bibles that is sure to be a favorite with some.
_________________________________________________________
This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
_________________________________________________________
Photography by Lucinda Brown
Zondervan 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.
Recent Comments