ESV Reader’s Bible: a review
English Standard Version Reader’s Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2018.
Reviewed by Don Johnson
Just about a year ago I spotted Crossway’s ESV Reader’s Bible on sale at about 33% of its list price. Who can pass up a sale? Besides, since Crossway published the ESV in this format, I’ve been curious. What would it be like to read a Bible with no chapter divisions and no verse numbers? Would it aid my understanding? Would it be a help or a hindrance to Bible study?
After the six-volume set arrived on Oct 25, 2017, I managed to complete the whole thing by September 25, 2018, so just under a year. I should have finished it sooner; there were many “down days,” especially in certain sections, but more about that later.
I should mention before getting into the review itself that I am not touting the English Standard Version as such. There are things I like and things I dislike about the ESV, but the point of this exercise is the format, not the particular version. (And the sale price!) I believe there are some other Reader’s formats in other versions, but this happened to fit my frugal criteria at the time.
The idea of a Reader’s edition of the Bible is that chapters and verses are an artificial construct that get in the way of understanding and certainly make Bible reading different from the way Bible readers approached the Scriptures before Robert Estienne invented the chapters and verses we use in the New Testament. Proponents of the verse-less Bible say things like, “the Bible … should … [be] read in the most seamless way possible,” and, “designed for those desiring a cleaner, simpler Bible-reading experience.”1 From Lectio, the Bible Design Blog:
Traditionally Bibles have been designed more like reference works than books meant for reading, and this has subtly influenced the way we use them. A Bible for readers ought to look like the books you read start-to-finish. Some people use “looking like a novel” as a shorthand, but single-column paragraphed text is standard both for fiction and non-fiction. When you open such a book, the design is transparent. It simply works, without calling attention to itself. The text, not the layout, is what shines.2
Our friend, Mark Ward, says on his blog:
The ESV Reader’s Bible is not an attack on verse numbers. This reviewer works for a Bible software company (Faithlife, makers of Logos Bible Software), and without those numbers our work would fall apart. Commentaries, confessions, reference works, sermons, and countless other Christian resources rely on the verse reference system. It is helpful for many, many things—but not, ironically, for reading. Now that we all have Bible apps which can find any verse, why do we need verse divisions in our printed Bibles?3
These are the voices of enthusiasts! When I heard of the idea, I was somewhat skeptical. Could this format really make that much difference? Certainly at the list price, I wasn’t willing to find out. When I found it on sale, well, that led me to try.
After completely reading it, I have varied reactions to the Reader’s Bible. On the one hand, my age and experience with the Bible affect some of my reactions, while on the other hand there are ways I think this format can be useful. I think I should note my criticisms first.
A minor criticism is section headings. While the ESV Reader’s Bible has no chapters or verses, it still has section headings at points. If you are going for the pure reader experience, why have section headings at all? They are a distraction; they are somewhat arbitrary, and interpretive. I have to mark them down for the section headings.
Another criticism may be less a criticism than simply a reflection of my age. I’ve been a Christian for over fifty years, I’ve read the Bible through numerous times (more than I can remember), and I study the Bible in detail almost every day and have done for years. It is like the chapters and verses are part of me. I found myself noticing at certain points the mental note, “Oh, this is chapter 6,” or what have you. I can’t escape the “distraction” of chapters and verses even when I don’t have them. Perhaps this is just me, but I suspect most readers of this Bible will find themselves doing the same thing. The chapters and verses are so valuable a tool that it is hard to think of the passages without them. Another thought along these lines is that the chapters and verses are such a valuable tool that one should not casually dismiss them. While there is merit to “just reading” the Bible, our minds think of other passages and we want to link them up (cross-reference them) as we are reading. This is pretty well impossible to do in a Reader’s Bible. I found myself thinking about a passage, then going to my computer software, looking it up, and checking cross references. The Scriptures are meant to interpret Scripture, the chapters and verses are vital to helping us have deeper understanding of what we read. My point here is that the “Reader’s” format is not all it is touted to be.
My other major criticism has to do with genre. The Reader’s Bible format is best in narrative sections. The Epistles also are easily read in this format. But the Prophets! Wow! I found the Prophets very slow going. My most “skipped days” occurred during the Prophets. My average daily reading rate for them was 5.5 pages per day.4 Jeremiah, in particular, was difficult to follow, since Jeremiah is a collection of prophecies that aren’t placed in chronological order. Chapters and chapter headings are vital to keeping Jeremiah straight in your head (or at least, attempting to keep it straight!). Count the Reader’s Bible a “mixed blessing” when it comes to genre. By the way, the Psalms read without verse numbers are absolutely lovely. Really helpful format for them.
Now, having criticized, how can this format be useful? First, if you are reading devotionally, and actually just reading a few pages a day (my goal daily was fifteen), the Reader’s Format is very good for the “Selah” factor. One of my professors claimed, “Selah” meant, “Think that over.” I am not convinced he was right on that, but if you are reading the Bible devotionally, you ought to just read it devotionally, in manageable bits, and think that over. I think the Reader’s Bible format lends itself to profitable reading that way. When I was rushing along in the Psalms, usually the first Psalm each day made the most impact. By the time I got to my tenth, eleventh, twelfth pages, I was just performing a task.
Another way this format can be very useful for preachers is if you make some attempt to follow the G. Campbell Morgan method for exposition. Mark Minnick taught this method way back in Pulpit Speech class. Morgan apparently would read the book he was studying in one sitting fifty times before he began detailed analysis. The Reader’s Bible format really lends itself to that use. Obviously the shorter books would be easier! I especially noticed this in the New Testament. I think I’ll do some work with this myself for ongoing preaching preparation. The more you master your material, the more it will master you.
Overall, I don’t think the Reader’s Bible format will be my go-to Bible, even for devotional reading. I prefer to follow a chronological Bible reading schedule. The chapters and verses are essential for that approach. However, if you can get an inexpensive set, you will find this helpful as an occasional devotional tool or as a method for intensive “book study” in preparation for teaching. The key is price. Our link above at Amazon has it available for a fairly good price. You might want to consider it.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
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- Quotes from the Crossway site, not the least expensive source! [↩]
- https://www.bibledesignblog.com/blog/2014/01/first-look-crossways-esv-readers-bible.html [↩]
- https://byfaithweunderstand.com/2016/12/28/esv-readers-bible-six-volume-set-a-new-old-bible/ [↩]
- Overall, a total of 3170 pages in 335 days for an overall average of 9.4. Note: there are some “blank” pages between books that push your average up a bit! [↩]