Let's Raise $50k Now

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Friday, May 20, 2005
|
Permalink

 
"All good things come to those who agitate." Not familiar with that version of the saying? Well, agitation is better than waiting, at least in some instances. Over at the ESV Blog there is an informative piece about the economics of publishing a new setting of the translation. There are currently four settings -- the Classic Reference, the Classic Thinline, the One Year Bible and Large Print -- and near the end of the article the arrival of a fifth is promised: the long-awaited single-column setting. If you've read Mixed Message, you know that single-column text is so important to me that it got it's own sub-point (3a). So the news that Crossway intends to make my wish their command is certainly welcome.

But there's no deadline set for the release of the single-column setting, which means it won't happen this year. It occupies the hazy nether region where my other longed-for edition, the wide margin, resides. But there is this from the article: "....creating a new setting of the ESV text costs about $50,000 to typeset and proofread." Normal people read that and think, wow, I guess new settings will be few and far between. Crazed enthusiasts like myself think, What? That's all we have to raise to get what we want? Where's my checkbook? Ah, if only I could write that check! Unfortunately, Laurie and I believe in the Kuyperian concept of "sphere sovereignty," and she is sovereign over the finances at Chez Bertrand (which is why there is not a fat man cruising through our neighborhood on a Vespa.) But wouldn't it be great if all the Internet wags who complain about this and that little detail could collectively raise the funds, work out our must-haves in a summit of some sort (perhaps in Colorado Springs, for purposes of irony), and then cut a check to Crossway to "make it so"?

My dream setting: single-column; wide margins (and generous inner margins so no text curves into the gutter), references on the inner edge (or maybe the outer); verse numbers in gray, thin text instead of bold, black; black-letter. The picture here illustrates a crude mock-up of the idea. (Click for a larger version here.) I took a page from the excellent little Gospel of John booklet, added references (from the book of Psalms, I'm afraid) and moved the header over the wide margin so that the page could be found easily while flipping through the Bible. So that's what my "dream ESV" would look like. How about yours?