The Crossway Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible

Nov 24

Nov 24 The Crossway Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible

I won’t lie. I’m a fan of most everything Crossway does. They’ve gotten some pushback after moving their premium production to China, but by-in-large, I’ve still been a fan. One Bible that I’ve seen taking a lot of shots is the Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible. I think a lot of the hate going Crossway’s way has been undue so I wanted to form an opinion for myself on this Bible. Thanks to my partner, Westminster Books, I’m bringing you this review today.

The packaging of this Heirloom is everything you’ve come to expect from a Crossway Heirloom except smaller. The box is smaller. The velvet inside is smaller. That’s because this Bible is smaller! It’s a personal size, which I really like. It’s really portable. It fits in the same category as a Cambridge Clarion and Schuyler PSQ. This Bible is meant to be carried.

I’m reviewing the blue Goatskin edition of this Bible (it’s also offered in black). The goatskin feels really nice. The thing that struck me about this particular edition is that the blue is a very dark blue. In low light, it’s black. In a well lit room, it’s a very dark navy. This is definitely a darker blue than the Heirloom Legacy I received.

The spine has four raised ribs. The words "HOLY BIBLE", the ESV logo, "ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION", and the Crossway logo are all stamped in gold. It has a blue under gold art gilt on the page edges. The head and tail bands are a navy blue and there are two navy blue single-sided satin ribbons. The Bible is Smyth-sewn.

Inside, the cover is edge-lined with a dark blue calfskin liner and gold perimeter gilt line. When it comes to examining this Bible, I have to say so far, so good. It looks great and the construction is flawless.

The Bible opens with a presentation page and some family records pages. There’s a Preface and then the text begins. One thing that jumped out to me is that this Bible doesn’t lay flat in Genesis. It might with some breaking in, but I’m not sure. By the time I hit Numbers, I can finally get the Bible to stay open by itself.

The paper is the main complaint I’ve heard about this Bible. To be sure, there is some ghosting. The paper is a true white and the text is line-matched. Because of the line-matching, I actually don’t think the ghosting is as bad as some have made it out to be. I mostly find it distracting in the blank space between paragraphs. I’ll be forthright with you though. Ghosting typically doesn’t bother me too much. It takes a lot for it to really get to me. In fact, there’s only one Bible I can think of where the ghosting was so bad i couldn’t take it. I can see how this does bother some people though and paper thinness is a fair critique for an Heirloom Bible.

The page layout itself is a single column, which I love in a portable Bible. It’s hard to find many portable, single column options (which is always why the paper is thin in this Bible) because a single column adds some thickness, which makes it less portable. The font size in this is a generous nine point. This is another nice feature. I believe what we see here is that Crossway may have sacrificed a thicker paper in favor of a larger font and single-column format. All in all, it comes down to what value. Would you rather have a larger font and single column or a smaller font, single column, and thicker paper? A sacrifice has to be made somewhere in order to keep the edition portable. As someone who doesn’t mind ghosting as much, but prefers a larger font, I like this Bible.

In wrapping up, there is no concordance (another sacrifice), but there are maps. Frequent readers know that I could have done without the maps as well (especially in a portable edition), but to each their own. There’s no perfect Bible, but we are blessed with so many editions and translations to choose from as English speakers that it’s really hard to complain.

All in all, I find this to be a great offering from Crossway. If this is going to be your main, go-to Bible then you may want something with less ghosting. If not, this is a really nicely bound, portable ESV with a great font size to carry with you on the go. I highly recommend you get this Bible and other awesome ESV’s from Westminster Books who graciously sponsored this Bible review! Be sure to see below for some comparison photos.

You can pick up your copy of the ESV Heirloom Single Column Personal Size Bible from Westminster Books.

Disclaimer: I was sent a complimentary copy of this Bible from Westminster Books in exchange for a fair and honest review.