The Zondervan Premier Collection NRSV Personal Size Large Print Bible with Apocrypha

Zondervan has been flooring me with their designs lately. They’ve been taking chances and I love it! I’m cheering them on and I hope they keep going because the Bible I’m reviewing today will visually blow you away. Zondervan pulled out all the stops with this design and it totally works! This Premier Collection NRSV Personal Size Large Print Bible with Apocrypha isn’t just a Bible, it’s a statement piece!

This comes in a two piece box that has the signature silver with grey Premier Collection colors. I love how Zondervan switches up the designs on the Premier Collection boxes at times yet it still has the uniform feel because of the color scheme. It’s a nice touch that isn’t going unnoticed.

The Bible itself is purple goatskin! YES! Purple!!! How I love that they are doing some bold colors and getting outside the comfort of black and brown. Way to go Zondervan! The purple is beautiful. It’s nice a bright in the light, but can look dark in lower lighting conditions. It also feels really nice. I feel like the quality of Zondervan’s goatskin has been improving over the life of the Premier Collection. There’s a nice grain and it has a more quality feel to it then some Bibles of the past. There’s also a great semi yapp on this Bible! I’d love to see Zondervan do a full yapp!

There are five raised spine hubs and printed in gold are the words “HOLY BIBLE”, “NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION”, and “ZONDERVAN”. This Bible has white head and tail bands, which is another bold choice, but it looks great paired with the three double-sided satin ribbon markers. These ribbons are nice and long featuring purple, white, and gold colors. The bold design of this Bible just works!

Speaking of bold design, the page edges on this Bible are the show stopper! The page edges are an orangish yellow with speckled paint spots all over them. The speckles are white, purple, yellow, and even a light blue where they mix. Allan has been doing special editions like this for some time, but it’s awesome to see Zondervan try their hand at it. It looks brilliant!

Inside is a purple calfskin liner, gold perimeter gilt line, and black vinyl end sheets. Tying it together nicely is the presentation page that features the same paint speckles. This Bible also features premium 36 gsm European Bible Paper. It’s really nice and there’s virtually no ghosting. This is a double column layout with textual notes appearing on the bottom inside corner of each page. The paper is nice and white and the text is really black. The words really jump off the page!

The font is the NRSV Comfort Print exclusive to Zondervan. It’s a great looking font and looks even better at the 10-point print size. This Bible also features the Apocrypha. Obviously, I don’t consider the Apocrypha part of the canon of Scripture, but it can be a useful tool and it may be nice to have one or two Bibles that include it.

That being said, with the nice type size as well as the Apocrypha included, this is a thick Bible. Zondervan markets this Bible as portable, but the thing I notice is that it’s heavy for a Bible of its size. That has to be because of the extra weight of the Apocrypha. The width and length really are a nice carry size, however. Also included in this Bible are a few lined sheets for notes in the back.

Zondervan has created a stunner with this edition! I love their design choices. This is truly a work of art. I hope to see Zondervan do more of these in the future in other translations with other colors!

For now, you can pick up your copy of this Premier Collection NRSV on Amazon (affiliate).

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this Bible from Zondervan in exchange for a fair and honest review.