Zondervan The Jesus Bible NIV Bible Review – Rating: 8.7

I was curious to check out The Jesus Bible from Zondervan as it has many articles written by  Louie Giglio, Max Lucado, John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, Randy Alcorn and many other well-respected leaders in the Christian community.  It is written very well and easy to use as it shows throughout Scripture how Jesus can be seen in the big story of the redemption of man back to God.  it is very well made and feels good to hold.  Readability is pretty good, however for those that don’t have the best eyes, the Scripture text is a tad on the small side at 7 point.  My review is of the hardcover and cloth-bound version, but you can get it in different formats as well.
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In full disclosure, I was not required or requested by Zondervan to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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QUICK SUMMARY:

**See all sections below for full detailed review**
The Jesus Bible is a unique Bible.  It is not what I would call a typical Study Bible that has notes based on a majority of the verses throughout the Bible.  Instead, The Jesus Bible fills a unique category that shows how the Bible points to Jesus throughout Scripture.  This Bible is set up to look at the Bible as a single story that is done in six different “acts” if you will.  These acts include Beginnings, Revolt, People, Savior, Church and Forever.  Each of these “acts” have a written introduction by renowned authors such as Louie Giglio, Ravi Zacharias, John Piper, Max Lucado and Randy Alcorn.   Each book of the Bible has a nicely written introduction and over 300 articles and almost 700 sidebars throughout this Bible show how Jesus is seen throughout Scripture.  The Scripture text is only a 7 point font, so that’s a little smaller than what some people will be comfortable with.  If you like the NIV version and aren’t looking for a full commentary study Bible but want to see how you can see Jesus throughout Scripture, then this Study Bible will be an amazing resource for you.  If you are a new believer, then this could be a good resource for you to learn about how the Bible ties together as one story across multiple books and how they all point in one way or another to Jesus as the Son of God and our Savior.  I received a copy of this Bible from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

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DESCRIPTION OF THIS BIBLE:

Type of Bible:  Bible
Publisher: Zondervan
Publish Date: January 3, 2017
ISBN-13 of Bible Reviewed: 978-0310444671
Bible Version: New International Version
Price:  At the time of writing this review, the cheapest place to get this book is at Christianbook.com.  They have it for $22.49– suggested retail from the publisher is $44.99. Please note that these prices do not include any potential shipping charges.

If you would like to purchase this book, please support my blog and purchase by clicking any of the links to Christianbook.com on this page like the one below. If you want it in a different format, Click Here for those links.

NIV, The Jesus Bible, Hardcover By Passion & Louie Giglio / ZondervanSixty-Six Books. One Story. All About One Name.Encounter the living Jesus in all of Scripture. From the Passion Movement, The Jesus Bible, NIV Edition, with exclusive articles from Louie Giglio, Max Lucado, John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, and Randy Alcorn, lifts Jesus up as the lead story of the Bible.Profound yet accessible study features help you meet Jesus throughout Scripture. See him in every book so that you may know him more intimately, love him more passionately, and walk with him more faithfully.Features Introduction by Louie Giglio 66 book introductions highlight the story of Jesus in every book 7 compelling essays on the grand narrative of Scripture by Louie Giglio, Max Lucado, John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, and Randy Alcorn guiding you to treasure Jesus and encourage you to faithfully follow him as you participate in his story Over 300 full-page articles and nearly 700 sidebar articles reveal Jesus throughout all of Scripture Single-column text of the most read, most trusted modern-English Bible—the New International Version (NIV) Wide-margin room for notes and journaling throughout NIV dictionary-concordance Ribbon marker 7-point text size 8.25" x 6.50" x 2.00"

Physical Characteristics:

• Hardcover (cloth hardcover)
• Smyth sewn
• 1 black ribbon marker in this hardcover version
• Single Column format
• Words of Christ are NOT in red text – black text only
• No cross references.
• 2,048 pages
• Type size: looks like about a 7 point for Scripture text and approximately 9 point for the font size of the different notes
• There are some good 2 inch margins (outside margins) on many of the pages, so for notetakers, they will like this design.  The nearly 700 sidebars do take away from the outside margin area, but those are not on every page for sure.
• Dimensions: 6.6 x 2.1 x 8.4 inches
• Approximate weight: 3.4 lbs

SPECIAL CONTENT OF THIS BIBLE:

Pre-Scripture Text Pages

• 3 pages of Preface which is the typical letter from the translators for the New International Version
• 1 page of Contributors
• 4 pages of “Welcome to the Story of God” by Louie Giglio explaining why The Jesus Bible was created.

Inter-Testament Pages

• 2 pages of Intertestamental Period
  • This is probably one of the shortest “intertestamental period” articles/sections that I have seen in across the many Bibles that I have reviewed or own.  It is only 2 pages, but it does give a pretty decent overview of the approximate 400 years between the Old and New Testaments.

Scripture Text Pages

Introduction to “acts” within the Biblical Story
No, I’m not talking about the book of Acts, but rather, the design of this book breaks the entire Biblical Story into 6 different subsections or “acts” if you will.  Each of these acts has a nicely written article  that covers what the particular act is about These are very well written and The book type introductions cover the following book types:

• 5 pages Beginnings: Jesus as the Supreme Display of the Glory of God – by John Piper
• 5 pages Revolt – by Louie Giglio
• 6 pages People – by Louie Giglio
• 5 pages Savior: The Uniqueness of Jesus – by Ravi Zacharias
• 4 pages Church: Jesus on Display to the World – by Max Lucado
• 8 pages Forever: Made for a Different Place – by Randy Alcorn

Article of on of the 6 acts/sections of The Jesus Bible – Savior: The Uniqueness of Jesus – by Ravi Zacharias

Individual Book Introductions

The Book Introductions are somewhat shorter than what I have seen in other Study Bibles, however, they are written well and very readable.

Book introduction for Proverbs

Articles

There are over 300 well written articles that cover many different topics that help put Scripture into context and point to Jesus to see Him throughout the entire Bible story.

Article on Crucifixion

Sidebar Articles

• There are almost 700 sidebar articles in the margins of this Bible.  These are very short articles that point you to see Jesus in the Scriptures and tie Him to the Old Testament and other areas in the New Testament.

Example sidebar article

Translation Footnotes

• This Bible has the typical NIV footnotes from the translators that you would find in other NIV Bibles.

Example of the NIV Translators’ Footnotes

Post Scripture Pages

• Table of Weights and Measures
  1 page which is a fairly standard table in most Study Bibles.
• NIV Concordance
  27 pages of the NIV Concordance.  Nothing overly impressive and certainly one of the shorter concordances I have seen.  It would be good for a very basic concordance to use.

Typeface and Print:

• Smyth Sewn which really helps to have a more durable Study Bible.

Showing the Smyth sewn stitching which helps durability of the book

• Scriptures appear to be about 7 point font, which is one the smaller side of text used in most Bibles.  This may make it a little small for those with a harder time reading small fonts.
• The font used in the Articles are approximately an 9 point font pretty easy to read.
• I have seen some reviews that have said that this Bible does not have much room for margins, but I’m not sure what they are referencing.  It is true that not all pages have margins to write in (like pages that have the full articles or have the sidebar articles – see the sidebar article picture above for example), however, there are a lot of pages that have over a 2 inch margin to write in.  That’s more than some of the journaling or note-taker Bibles that I have seen.

Showing typical margin of over 2 inches. If a page has an article or sidebar article, then it only has about 5/8″ margin.

• The line-matching (printed lines on the front of the page vs. the back side of the page) aren’t lined up very good.  However, with that said, the paper is fairly opaque, so it’s tolerable and unless you really are sensitive to line matching and show-through, you won’t be bothered by it too much.  You can see in most of the pictures in this post that there is show-through that does happen.  For a Bible of this price range, this is pretty typical of what you will see since the cheaper and thinner (less opaque) paper is how publishers can keep the costs lower.

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MY CHRISTIAN REVIEWER RATINGS:

Below, we have the overall ratings that I would give to this particular bible with a 1 to 10 range.  Keep in mind that when I am doing these ratings, it is based on the physical makeup, format, extra-biblical content and value of the bible, not rating the Word of God itself as that would be off the chart  🙂

Quality:  8.4– I never rate a hardcover book higher than a nicely sewn and bound leather book simply due to long-term durability.  Basically, this means without proper care, any hardcover bible type will not last as long as the leather-bound sewn version of that same Bible.  With that said, for a hardcover book, the quality is fine and pretty durable as it is Smyth sewn.
Appearance: 9.1 – The appearance of this Bible is clean – design and layout is done very nicely making it a very pleasant experience reading it.  The cloth hardcover feels very nice in the hand and is a nice size.  The Scripture text is a smaller font that what I personally prefer though, but that is subject to the reader of course.
Value: 8.9 – Basing this rating as a hardcover bible – the value of this Study Bible is pretty good – especially considering the reasonable price for what you get.  I’m not sure I would say it’s worth the full retail price of $44.99, however you can get it for near half that price at Christianbook.com.
Innovation: 8.5 – I do like the idea of how they show Jesus throughout The Jesus Bible so you can see in context how He is represented throughout the entire Bible story.  This is nicely done.  The articles are good and do support this design approach very well.
Other/Wildcard: n/a – No real wildcards to speak of to adjust the rating points for this Bible.

Overall Rating: 8.7 out of 10

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Bible Formats and Options:

Here are some of the different formats that this Bible comes in per the publisher as well as links to the purchase each of them:

ISBN: 978-0310444671 (Cloth Hardcover – This review)
ISBN: 978-0310444688 (Imitation Leather Brown)
ISBN: 978-0310444695 (Imitation Leather Blue)
ISBN: 978-0310444701 (eBook)

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Company Summary:

Zondervan, part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, is a world leading Bible publisher and provider of Christian communications. For more than 80 years, Zondervan has delivered transformational Christian experiences through its bestselling Bibles, books, curriculum, academic resources and digital products. The company’s products are sold in multiple formats, worldwide in more than 60 countries, translated into nearly 200 languages. Zondervan is the North American publisher and licensee of the NIV Bible translation.  Zondervan offices are located in Grand Rapids, MI.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. is a world leading Christian content provider. Our parent company, HarperCollins Publishers, is the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world and is a subsidiary of News Corp. Though the Company formed in 2012, its heritage dates back to the late eighteenth century. Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, two highly sought-after Christian inspirational brands, are the keystone publishing programs.
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– Michael
https://thechristianreviewer.wordpress.com