"ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions" (book review)

I’ve had an awesome opportunity to review the new .  I think this was a marvelous idea to put this resource into print in one location.  I fount it beneficial!

Cover: My copy arrived encased in a fairly sturdy sleeve-style box cover.  The Bible itself is covered with a beautiful bound leather and is outfitted in your choice of black or brown. Attached to the spine are two ribbon markers.

Type/Font: Now that I’m getting a little older, I require reading glasses for just about everything.  I found this Bible’s 10-point Lexicon in 2-column format to be easy to read.  Of course I had readers on, but the print is not so small so as to make it more difficult.

Intro: The introductory pages provide a preface to the Bible, an explanation of the ESV translation philosophy, etc.  While I suspect these pages are often passed over by many readers, I find them to be helpful because they help me learn just a little bit more about what literary scholars do for the Church.

There is also an “Explanation of Features” article which includes how to use a cross-referencing and footnoted Bible.  This is something that can be taken for granted.  As a community group leader, I know there are new/young/unaware Christians who don’t know how to use a study and/or cross-refence Bible.  I often will incorporate bite-size snippets in our studies to help explain all the features little-by-little…and they’ve proven helpful.  So this article is truly a nice feature.

Content: So is this one a “Study Bible” per se? No. It is a cross-referenced Bible that will help you study, but it is not one that contains myriad explanations and/or interpretations.  The reader would need other study helps for those.  So if you’re looking for a study Bible, this is not what you’ll want. Instead, its main highlighted feature is the complete creeds and confessions following the final Biblical book of Revelation (more to follow on that shortly).

The Concordance is a decent 60 pages long.  Obviously, that doesn’t cover every possible word-search, but it gets the reader headed in the right direction. Following the creeds and confessions, a typical appendix map section can be found that is common to just about every Bible on the shelf these days.

Creeds & Confessions: Finally, to the main thrust of this Bible.  Before the individual creeds and confessions begin, there is a quality article explaining the value and purpose behind the C&C’s.  I like one suggestion in the introduction that “confessions used in corporate worship are good for informing and encouraging our prayer and study of the Bible.”  I have found this to be true of C&C’s, as well as other passages within God’s word, namely many of the Psalms.  Many church attenders are unaware of Christian history (there are myriad reasons why), and learning…or at least being exposed to…the C&C’s will help form the understanding of good theology, as well as an understanding of our history.

Each specific Creed or Confession is preceded by a short history of why that particular document was written.  These introductions were written by Rev. Dr.Chad Van Dixhoorn, and copyrighted in 2019.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received the ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions free of charge from Crossway publishers in exchange for my unbiased opinion of it.  All opinions are mine and are freely given.  I was  not required to provide a positive review of it.