ESV: Glow In The Dark Edition

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Friday, February 25, 2005
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The folks at Crossway have launched a new website and unveiled a few of upcoming editions of the English Standard Version of the Bible. Coming in March (if you believe the announced time -- Crossway has a history of late deliveries) is the new ESV TruGrip Bible, pictured here. It comes in Orange or Lime. The textured rubber binding offers a no slip surface for super-fast Bible reading. The TruGrip comes on the heels of the BattleZone Bible, modeled on the metal-cased Bibles pioneered by Tyndale House, publishers of the New Living Translation. Earlier, Crossway unveiled a whole series of faux leather Bibles with crosses, Celtic knotwork and other designs on the covers.

I have mixed feelings about all this. I'm glad to see the ESV available in so many editions, but the cheese factor is going through the roof. In contrast to the design ethic of The Message -- the current incarnation of "style," a paraphrase I would never use but love to look at just for the beauty of its manufacture -- the me-too editions of the ESV fall short. Perhaps the TruGrip, which, while odd, has the virtue of being different will turn out all right. For a long time, I've wanted to see a thick, clear rubber binding of the Bible, but I was thinking of something upscale rather than a youth Bible. With help from Luke, I was able to pass on the BattleZone ESV. Maybe I'll buy the TruGrip. If nothing else, it will keep me from being run over at night when I go walking with my Bible.

Fortunately, Crossway has made up for a lot of my earlier frustrations with their manufacturing standards with the debut of the premium leather Thinline in Cordovan. I'm going to review this one at length later, along with some notes on the best ESV on the market today, R. L. Allan's goatskin edition.

Update: April 27, 2004. My tongue-in-cheeck prognostication has turned out to be true: there will be a TruGlo ESV coming out this fall! See this post for my stunned acknowledgment.