A lot of Bibles have been produced over the past ten years with an eye toward journaling and taking notes. Publishers create wide margins, blank space below the text, or even inspiring art to spark reflection and creativity.
The trend toward producing a Bible for journaling may have reached its climax in the ESV Scripture Journal project.
Description
In the spring of 2018, Crossway introduced the ESV New Testament Scripture Journals. Available either individually or as a 19-volume set, these books are unique.
These soft-cover journals have a simple layout. The Bible text is printed on the left page, and some lightly-printed lines grace the right page. The font is large and readable (11.75 point size), the paper is thick and sturdy, and each volume has an inviting feel. The New Testament set comes in an attractive slipcase.
In exchange for an honest review, Crossway generously provided me with a set of these Scripture journals. I have been using the Luke journal for a few months now, and my daughters have used the Ephesians and Matthew volumes.
Excellent Journals
I’ve really enjoyed using my Scripture journal. I love that the paper is thick enough to prevent ink bleeding through to the other side. This is normally a concern about journals for anyone who, like me, uses a gel pen. But there is no such problem with these books.
The journals also lay flat on the first use. This is exactly what one wants in a journal.
There is plenty of room to take notes on the journaling side of the page. But the Bible text is also printed with roomy margins and interline space, so I have plenty of room to circle, underline, and write notes and questions on the Bible side of the page.
The lines on the right are printed just dark enough to guide you when writing but light enough to make room for drawing or other free-form methods of journaling.
My only small complaint is about the binding. After opening the Luke volume and doing a good bit of Bible study in chapters 9 and 10, the journal has lost a bit of its shape (see below) when I close it. The cover isn’t straight and the journal doesn’t close quickly. However, this might be my fault. I suspect these journals weren’t intended to be opened to the middle before the beginning, so my use could be to blame for this (admittedly minor) concern. I think I’d prefer hard covers.
Possible Uses
If you’re looking for a good way to combine Scripture reading or study with writing, I highly recommend these journals. I can see a number of good ways they might be used.
Use them for personal study. Each of these journals would make a great dedicated volume for an in-depth study of a book of the Bible. You have plenty of space and no distractions. These are wonderful markup Bibles!
Use them in your small group. These would be a fantastic way to get all members of your small group interacting with God’s word. Everyone would have the same translation, no one would be tempted to quote their study Bible notes, and the volumes are relatively cheap to buy (each of the 19 volumes retail for $5.99, but they can be found cheaper than that online). If every group member had the relevant Scripture journal, I think it would be easy to encourage everyone to do some OIA preparation too.
Make your own study Bible. If you’re studying a book of the Bible in a class or through your church’s current sermon series, these journals make a great place to take notes—right next to the Bible text! These are perfect for archiving and future reference—I’d be much more likely to keep a journal like this and come back to it after a few years (perhaps when studying that book again) than I would be to track down notes scattered throughout the pages of a nondescript notebook.
Highly Recommended
These Scripture journals will serve a great purpose for many people. They can help us interact with the Bible in an undistracted way. Crossway has done a great job with this set—I hope they’re working on the Old Testament!
If you’d like to buy the entire set, check Amazon or the Westminster Bookstore. You can also find any member of the New Testament set for sale separately—here are the links for Luke, as an example: Amazon, Westminster. (As of this writing, the Westminster Bookstore had significantly lower prices on both individual volumes and the whole set.)
Disclosure: the product links in this blog post are affiliate links.
Wow! I may have to change over to ESV. Now if they only had Greek and Hebrew journals. One can wish….
They did produce a Greek version.
https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Scripture-Journal-New-Testament/dp/1433570815