The ESV Creeds and Confessions Bible Review in Black Goatskin
Crossway’s new Creeds and Confessions Bible in goatskin has been controversial among the premium Bible community. Crossway has recently made the shift to printing it’s premium Bibles in China and there has been several providing negative feedback. In my review today, I hope to provide a fair and balanced opinion with this conclusion—this Bible is much better than the feedback and criticism it is receiving from many online, but it is also not as good as Crossway’s previous premiums printed in the Netherlands. With that said, let’s talk about the Bible.
Packaging
This Bible has a very attractive box. Crossway gave this box more design. There are red and gold colors instead of just the standard black with silver or gold. I think packaging and presentation is important and this box has a very attractive design. In fact, it’s what first caught my attention when I initially saw it showing up online. When you open the box, you’re met with velvet cloth wrapping. Crossway has done this in the past, but I was surprised to see it done for this Bible. It truly is a nice touch and communicates that this is a premium Bible.
The Outside
When I pulled out the Bible, the first thing I noticed was the goatskin. It has a different feel to it than previous goatskin Bibles from Crossway. It’s grainy and looks nice, but the feel is more abrasive and less smooth. Previous Bibles felt more smooth or had more of a gloss. It is hard to describe, but even the Preaching Bible from Crossway, which was also printed in China has a smoother feel. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing—it is just different and I immediately noticed it when I felt it.
One thing that was bad upon initially receiving the Bible is that there was a spot of dried glue on the back cover. This really shouldn’t happen when someone is paying for a premium Bible. I was able to remove it by a continuous scratching with my fingernail so all in all, it did not damage the Bible at all, but it just isn’t what you expect when you drop over one hundred dollars for a Bible.
Aside from that, this is an attractive Bible on the outside. At least with this Bible, Crossway has made a couple of changes that I really like, which I will talk about shortly. The spine has five raised ribs and the words “Holy Bible”, “with creeds and confessions”, the ESV logo, “English Standard Version”, and the Crossway logo adorn the spine. The page edges are a red under gold art gilt. It also has black and yellow head and tail bands.
Two changes I really like have to do with the yapp and the bookmarks. This Bible has more yapp than I’ve seen in the past with Crossway premium Bibles. It’s definitely not a full yapp, but it could be described as semi. For the little I’ve handled it so far, it is already starting to wrap around the page edges. I really like the aesthetic of it. The Bible has two black bookmarks, but they definitely look like an improvement from even the bookmarks you see in the Heirloom Legacy and 80th Omega. These bookmarks have a longer length (which I prefer) and a more satin feel to them. The one downside is that one of my bookmarks also had glue on it that made it stick together. Again, this was able to be scratched off, but it is still not the type of thing you want to see.
The Inside
The inner cover has what feels like a leather liner. It has a gold gilt line. One thing I’ve seen several complaints about is that on the inside corners of the front and back cover where the text block is connected and reinforced there is some white showing. It doesn’t look clean and complete. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me, but it has really seemed to bother some. It’s also hard to describe so definitely refer to the pictures for what I’m talking about.
The text block is Smyth sewn. Inside, you’ll find presentation and family history pages, a preface, and a description of the features found in this Bible. This Bible includes historic creeds and confessions, which is what makes it so attractive to many. I will speak more to those a little later.
I’m not sure about the paper thickness in this Bible, but it is a bright white and there is minimal ghosting. The text is line matched and set in a double column format. Many are saying that this seems to be almost identical to the 80th Omega layout, which when comparing the two seems to be the case. The references are set at the bottom right of the page, which shortens the length of the second column of text. The text itself is a 10-point Lexicon type. It’s black letter and the printing is a nice, bold, and consistent black throughout. This is a very attractive and easy to read layout. There is a reason the Omega layout is one of Crossway’s most popular. In the back of the Bible you’ll find a concordance and eight color maps.
Creeds and Confessions
You’ll also find 13 historic creeds and confessions. This is the reason many people are interested in this Bible. You may be asking, “Why would I want this in a Bible? Why should I care about these creeds and confessions?” Essentially, these historic confessions help us see the truth of the Word thoughtfully and carefully summarized. They teach the truth of Scripture succinctly and in one place. Catechisms help us learn solid answers to questions about God and the Bible. These creeds and confessions are valuable pieces of Christian history that can still aid and help us today. If you haven’t ever explored them before, they are certainly worth your time to check out. Having them in one convenient location behind the Word of God makes this Bible very attractive for many. These are the 13 creeds and confessions included:
Apostle's Creed (ca. 200 - 400)
Nicene Creed (325)
Athanasian Creed (381)
Chalcedonian Definition (451)
Augsburg Confession (1530)
Belgic Confession (1561)
Articles of Religion (1563)
Canons of Dort (1618 - 19)
Westminster Confession (1646)
London Baptist Confession (1689)
Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
Westminster Larger Catechism (1647)
Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)
Conclusion
If you’ve never had a premium Bible before, trust me when I say that you’ll be blown away by the Creeds and Confessions Bible in goatskin. If you’ve handled other premiums from the Netherlands then you will notice that this one is not quite up to that level. However, I still think this a really nice Bible getting a lot of undeserved criticism. Having Scripture as well as these 13 historic creeds and confessions nicely bound in one volume makes this a valuable resource. You can also find this volume in Crossway’s TruTone black cover and TruTone brown over board cover.
You can pick up your copy of The Creeds and Confessions Bible in Goatskin at WTSbooks.com (best price at the time of this writing) or Christianbook.com (still a better price than Amazon).
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this Bible from Crossway in exchange for a fair and honest review.
