Unboxing and Review: ESV1

As I mentioned in my previous post, here is my review and a bunch of pictures.  I’ll let them speak for themselves for the most part.  The Bible I ordered is an ESV1 from R.L. Allan.  The main US distributer is Evangelical Bible.  They gave great service and fast, free shipping.

The ESV1 is basically a re-binding of Crossway’s Classic Reference edition.  The text block is exactly the same, save for a few changes I’ll note later.

It came in a nice box.  That’s always a good sign.

What’s perhaps most immediately recognizable is how supple the skin is.  Its incredibly silky, but still retains a very fine grain.  The grains are not stamped into patterns in any way, so its exactly the way it was on the goat.  In fact, there are small oddities and nicks in the pattern (not in the leather itself), making it very genuine.

The best part is it feels good in your hands and makes you really want to read it.

The inside is actually goatskin as well.  On many Bibles the inside is paper, regardless of the outer material.  That’s fine of course, but this does have a feeling of a professional finish.

Well, I heard the leather was soft, but I wanted to see what the pages were like.  I flipped open to Genesis 1, and let the Bible rest by itself.  This is what happened (I am not touching it for this picture):

Notice anything odd?  That’s right, it doesn’t snap shut.  It lies flat on every single page.  The pages flip up around the preface and table of contents (who uses those?) but they do not flip down.

The binding is semi-yapp, which means that the leather overhangs the paper by about a centimeter.  This helps protect the edges, and it keeps you from storing it on a shelf, which would ruin this type of binding.

The Bible has not one or two but three thick blue ribbons for tracking regular reading of the Old Testament, Psalms/Proverbs, and the New Testament.

R.L. Allan publishes their Bibles in Glasgow, Scotland, hence, they used the Anglicized version of the ESV.  I think this is so cool.  There’s something really special when you’re reading along and “honor” is spelled “honour.”

The Bible spills open like a waterfall.  Its unbelievably soft.  Here you can get a great view of the art-gilt edges.  They dye the edges red before they gild them.  This creates an attractive outside that has a hologram feel–red when viewed from one angle and gold from another.  Apparently the red also helps hold the gold on so it will last longer.  I have to admit much of the decoration on my other Bibles has worn off.

So its time for a quick size comparison.  You can see my other ESVs (not including my Ryken Literary Study Bible and RC Sproul Reformation Study Bible which are boxed away at school). From top: Compact Thinline from Crossway, ESV1 from Allan, Journaling Bible from Crossway, and ESV Study Bible from Crossway.

I tried opening my compact thinline to Genesis without it falling shut.  No such luck.  This is where a sewn versus glued binding shows off.

You can see the relative sizes here.  The ESV study Bible isn’t THAT much bigger when shut, but when you open it up it is quite wide and cumbersome.

My verdict: this Bible is everything it was advertised to be.  Allan sets the gold standard other binders are judged against.  The Classic Reference text block is very readable at about 9.5pt and has some excellent maps as well as thousands of cross references and concordence entries.  Allan thought of the little things: semi yapp covering, art-gilding, and extra thick bookmarks all in a gorgeous package.

Downsides.  I’m not sure how I feel about the red.  Its attractive, but it reminds me of really old KJV Bibles.  $150 is a lot to spend on a Bible (its more like $160 now with the exchange rate).  In fact, its the most money any just about any personal Bible costs unless you’re talking about antiques or large KJV family Bibles.  I’ll leave you to your own opinion.  Don’t say I could have used the money for something else.  How much do you spend on a single Xbox game?  How much do you spend on a single dress or new pair of shoes?  Games get old and clothes go out of style.  This won’t go out of style.

I also wish there were more space for note-taking.  I hear there’s a new version in the works that will have larger margins, which should be out by Christmas.  There is also a Personal Size Reference in the works, which sounds like an excellent idea.