Customer Reviews

ESV Classic Reference Bible, Genuine Leather, Black, Red Letter Text, Thumb Indexed

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After months of waiting I bought the premium leather (calfskin) black ESV. I will use this space to physically describe this Bible, as there are a plethera of reviews about the ESV translation here, and you can read more.

I uploaded two pictures: One with the Bible closed, and one with it open so you could see the quality as well as the relative size and typeface

This Bible is the perfect size to carry, hold and the leather is soft and supple. It is smyth sewn, and bound beautifully. The typeset is very readable...a 9.5 font I believe.

The reason I did not give it 5 stars is that there is a little bleed through or ghosting on the pages. I would prefer to see a thicker paper.

That said, it is beautifully done Bible with center column cross reference, short book introductions, a good concordance and color maps.

I love the size and feel of this Bible! It also has two ribbon markers.

The English Standard Version is the best Bible available today to the English-speaking church.

As an "essentially literal" translation, the ESV seeks to capture the precise wording of the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original words of scripture. In contrast to the ESV, many modern Bible versions have followed a thought-for-thought translation philosophy called "dynamic equivalence" rather than the "essentially literal" meaning of the original. The New Living Translation (NLT), The Message, and other paraphrased Bibles are "dynamic equivalent" versions. A thought-for-thought translation is of necessity more inclined to reflect the interpretive opinions of the translator and the influences of contemporary culture. The NIV, the Bible I have used for most of the past 25 years, is a trade-off between the essentially literal and dynamic equivalence approaches to translation. I have found the ESV a significantly superior translation.

The ESV also stands in the classic mainstream of the English Bible that began with William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 and the King James Version of 1611. That stream continued in the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV) and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV). When Crossway Books recently bought the rights to the RSV, they assembled a team of 100 respected biblical scholars who started with the RSV text and carefully weighed each word and phrase against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity. The translators are all outstanding scholars who are deeply committed to the authority and inerrancy of scripture.

The ESV retains the beauty and dignity of the Tyndale-King James legacy, while providing the English reader with an accurate rendering of the original Biblical text. The arrival of the ESV gives us a readable, modern English translation that is as faithful as possible to the original words of scripture.

After careful consideration, I have adopted the English Standard Version for my own Bible study and preaching, and I enthusiastically recommend it to you, believing that the ESV is literally the best Bible available today to the English-speaking church.

I just did an indepth study of the book of John. One of the commentaries used was the NICNT by D.A. Carson, which comments on the NIV. In every case where Dr. Carson disagreed with the NIV, and proposed a different, literal translation, the ESV translated the phrase in exactly that way. In fact, I began to think the Dr. Carson served on the translation committee (he didn't, I checked).

Bottom line: I like this translation better than the other "literal" translation, the NASB, because it reads better, and it's much more accurate than the "thought by thought" translation of the NIV. I use it for my personal study and teaching, but not exclusively. It's always good to review several tranlations, especially if you don't read Greek.

The ESV is essentially a re-working of the Revised Standard Version, updating the language in spots (NOT gender-neutralizing it or making it PC as in some unfortunate modern translations) and fixing some translational errors in the Old Testament that appeared in earlier printings of the RSV. I have long been a fan and user of the RSV because of the intelligence and intelligibility of the translation, and the ESV does not disappoint in this regard either. It is a far more suitable translation for modern English speakers than the NLT or NIV (which my friends in the Bible translation business say are fraught with poor translation choices) or the NASB, which is good but kind of clunky when read aloud. Plus the publishers even throw in a CD-ROM with a searchable ESV text and some electronic reference sources to boot. Also, the entire text of the ESV is now online, so you can also try before you buy. (I forget the web site but you can just do a Google search for English Standard Version and it will come up.)

I bought the hardbound ESV Classic to see if I liked the ESV. I have a number of versions of the bible as well as bibles by different publishers. I personally don't know what the problem people seem to have with the font, layout etc. It's more than acceptable. I like the font (it's better than some of the small bold fonts used in other Classic Versions. The layout is as acceptable as layouts in other classic centre-cross reference versions.

The bible itself is an excellent balance of accuracy of text and readibility. I am a middle-aged housewife, but I have spent hours reading and researching the Bible Versions Contraversy. I have checked dictionaries and lexicons etc , read several books for and against, read articles from both "camps" to look at this whole issue. And the bottom line for me is: I want and needa bible that is accurate and readible. Why? So I know what God said, and I can understand it. I want to use a versions that makes the Word of God alive to me as a person. The more dogmatic a person is on this whole issue about it, the more intolerable , and rude they are to other people opinions and feelings. I often said that I wished someone who come out with a bible that is both accurate and readible. the ESV has done that for me. When we get to heaven, God isn't going to ask us what version of the bible we used. He's going to want to know how we lived for Him. I want the bible to be alive for me, and the ESV makes bible reading a joy. I like the fact that each book starts on a new page. I like the font. I like the subheadings. I appreciate the cross-reference system. My only concern is that it's a bit smaller size print that what I'm used to. But Crossway is going to be publishing larger print bibles next year, and I plan to get one. I advice to anyone thinking of having a look at the ESV is to do like I did and get a [less expensive] one first. If it's the bible for you, than get a more expensive one later on.

I grew up on the RSV. It was the Bible we used in church and
Sunday School. When I went to college and theological school
the RSV was the primary study text for every class I took in
English Bible and theology. The RSV is a great translation, one of the wonderful treasures of the last century. It is still very useful
and I use it all the time. I'll never discard my Holman Study
Bible, New Oxford Annotated or the Harper Study Bibles I have owned for close to 20
years. As wonderful as the RSV is it needs some updating. The
NRSV was a noble attempt to do this, but as good as it is the NRSV adopted some of the principles of dynamic equivalent translation theory. In an effort to be "clear" or to adopt
inclusive language, the NRSV became a less literal translation
than the RSV. Now we have the ESV, a marvelous updating of the
RSV. The ESV makes the RSV tradition a little less archaic,
clarifies a few passages,and continues the literary sound of the
Tyndale/KJV/RSV tradition. The ESV is also a very good Bible for study, it follows the form of the Hebrew and Greek texts
very closely. I do wish the binding of my burgundy leather
Bible was as good as the Bibles I own that are published by
Cambridge University. My RSV Holman Study Bible, published
by A. J. Holman Publishing many years ago is also a better
leather edition than my ESV. But I am thankful for this editon
of the ESV and encourage pastors and interested students to add
this translation to their study desk.

The ESV is a very good literal translation of the Holy Scriptures. As I was basically brought up on the RSV, it hasn't been much of a switch to move into the ESV, as there is only a 7% difference between the 1971 RSV and the ESV. I think it to be more readable than the NASBU. This may very well become the "standard" English Bible for these days. However, the physical Bible is a mess. The quality of Bibles coming out of Crossway is much less than desirable. The font is WAY too small and narrow. The excellent centre-column references are tiny. The leather binding is perfect(glue)bound and inferior. I also have the British(anglicised)genuine leather edition from Harper-Collins. Their Classic Reference Bible is minus the book intros. Their cover is extremely tacky, with large gold lettering of "Holy Bible" on the cover, and below it a round, gold "ESV" seal. The Anglicized edition has a sewn binding. But, the ESV is worth having. I anxiously await the Study Bible, which will, please God, originate from another bindery.

The language of this Bible reads very smoothly, even though it is an essentially literal translation. In my opinion this is a unique combination. Most Bibles that are easy to read do a fair amount of paraphrasing. Not this one. The Cross references are also very helpful. As the Bible comes with a CD, this makes it very handy for those who do a lot of their Bible work on the computer. I decided to shift to the ESV as my primary Bible for study and preaching about a month ago and I do not regret this decision.

I love the translation, font, and the format.

My "genuine leather" Bible looks like cheap bonded leather to me. My first ESV was the first edition of the genuine leather, which was a really thick good quality leather. The binding was defective, and the paper was starting to come undone. Crossway replaced it under warranty, and sent me their new version of genuine leather. I suggest either getting hardback and putting it in a Bible cover, or shell out the extra money for the calfskin leather heirloom edition. If you get their genuine leather Bible, you won't be able to tell if it is really bonded leather. The leather is that bad.

This particular edition of the Sacred Scriptures combines the excellence of the ESV translation with a good, solid binding. While some of the earlier ESVs from Crossway Publishers were poorly bound, this edition is a welcomed step forward in quality. As the pastor of a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod parish, I am very pleased that our Synod's new hymnal, lectionary and instructional materials make almost exclusive use of the ESV. It is a far better translation than either the politically correct, gender-inclusive NRSV, or the liturgically tone-deaf NIV. Indeed, to those of us who grew up with the RSV, the ESV "sounds like" the Bible in a way that other recent translations do not. My only caveat with regard to the Classic Reference Bible is that the print used for the center-column references seems a bit too small for my almost 50-year-old eyes, even with the assistance of bifocals. I should note, however, that my younger parishioners, who use this version for our Adult Bible Study, experience no such difficulty. (Someone who would like an ESV Bible with slightly larger print should check the Deluxe Reference Edition, also sold by Amazon.) If you're looking for a good contemporary translation published in a quality binding, this ESV would be a fine choice.