Home > Crossway Blog

Single Column Legacy Bible Interview with Bible Design Blog

Bible Design Blog recently posted an interview with Crossway’s Bible production department on the Single Column Legacy Bible. This is an informative post for those interested in how the Single Column Legacy Bible was produced. Here’s an excerpt:

Q. What is the story behind the Single Column Legacy ESV? How did the idea originate?

The original project was conceived under the working title of “Reader’s Thinline Bible.” The goal was to create a single-column, text-only, reader’s edition that focused on an inviting readable page and beautiful design.

Our Bible typesetter relied heavily on Canadian typesetter Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style as he developed the page design. Essentially, we tried to follow the “Renaissance Ideal” or “perfect page” layout. This layout refers to a set of principles called the “canons of page construction” that all focus around a 2:3 ration of page geometry. Jan Tschichold reintroduced this typographic ideal in the twentieth century, calling it a method “upon which it is impossible to improve” and which produces “the perfect book.” We stuck closely to this design philosophy, although we did have to make a few adjustments for the sake of overall page count.

Read the whole post here.

Mark Bertrand runs Bible Design Blog, a site “dedicated to the physical form of the Good Book.” In his blog Bertrand reviews high-end, quality Bible editions and processes and has much to say about how Bible design and production impact a reader’s experience. If in the past you’ve wondered about the differences in Bible materials (i.e. bonded leather versus genuine leather), check out his guide for beginners. If you’re a skeptic of high-end Bibles, his FAQ page will probably address many of your questions and objections.

January 27, 2012 | Posted in: ESV,Interviews | Author: Andrew Tebbe @ 8:00 am | (2) Comments »

Praying in Response to God’s Word

by Nigel Benyon and Andrew Sach from Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God’s Word

Sometimes people say that prayer is a two-way conversation, where God speaks to us and we speak to God. But the Bible never uses the word “prayer” in this way. Prayer is simply when we talk to God.

Others think of reading the Bible as a conversation, in which God speaks to us, and we bring our own meanings to the text so that in some sense we find a voice, too. That’s not right, either.
We have a conversation when we hear God speak to us in the Bible and then we speak to him in prayer.

There’s a vivid description of that dynamic in Nehemiah 8–9. For seven days Ezra the scribe read the words of the Law of God (part of the Old Testament) to the people. As they heard God speaking to them, the people were deeply moved to sadness and to joy; there were tears as well as rejoicing and great feasting. And in response to what they heard, they poured out their hearts in prayer to God.

In our churches, though, the things that we share “for prayer” at the end of an evening’s Bible study are often completely unrelated to the passage we’ve been studying. While it’s true that nothing is too small to bring before our heavenly Father, it’s a shame when the tiny things—the health of someone’s neighbor’s dog, for instance—take over, and we forget the amazing truths that God has been speaking to us minutes before.

Get into the habit of praying these kinds of prayers:

  • “Sorry for X, which your Word has shown to be wrong in my life.”
  • “Thank you for Y, which you have shown us this evening.”
  • “Please, by your Spirit, give me power to change Z in response to what you have been saying.”

Learn more about Dig Deeper.

January 26, 2012 | Posted in: Prayer,Spiritual Growth,The Bible | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments »

So You Think You Can Understand God’s Word…

These past couple weeks we’ve been focusing on the importance, the motivation, and strategies for reading and meditating on God’s Word. While it is good to have motivation and strategies in place, they cannot be what we ultimately rely on. Nigel Benyon and Andrew Sach give some helpful insight from their book Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God’s Word.

We Can Understand the Word of God Only by the Spirit of God. Consider the following:

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him—” these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (1 Cor. 2:9–12).

We need to continually express our dependence on God for a right understanding of him and his ways. He is the one who grants insight (2 Tim. 2:7; Phil. 3:15). And so we must pray. Pray before you open the Bible. Pray when you get stuck and don’t understand. Pray again when you do understand it—say thank you! Pray, pray, pray!

Paul’s point is clear: we need God’s Spirit to understand God’s Word. Given that it was the Spirit who inspired it in the first place, that comes as no surprise. There’s another implication, though: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). Someone who isn’t a Christian (i.e. the “natural person”) won’t be able fully to understand the Bible, no matter how many qualifications or degrees in theology he or she may have.

So while we may employ strategies to do our part (meditating, praying, using Bible study tools, etc), God is the one enabling us to actually understand. Learn more about Dig Deeper. It’s an excellent resource for Bible study principles.

Related posts:

January 25, 2012 | Posted in: Prayer,Spiritual Growth,The Bible,The Holy Spirit | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments »

The Book That Is Essential for Knowing God

Modified from Andy Naselli’s chapter in Don’t Call it a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day

The Bible is necessary for us to know, trust, and obey God.
You must somehow hear the Bible’s message—whether by reading it yourself or hearing someone else read or explain it—in order to become a Christian. “The sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17, NIV).

You must keep hearing the Bible’s message to grow as a Christian.
This means hearing it read and preached, reading it, studying it, memorizing it, meditating on it, and applying it. A Christian needs the Bible like a human needs food and water. The need never goes away. That’s why Peter writes, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). That “pure spiritual milk” is “the living and abiding word of God,” “the good news” (1 Pet. 1:23–25). Can you say with Job, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12)?

The Bible is necessary for more than survival. It’s our only infallible guide to navigate life wisely because it reveals God’s will. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” the psalmist asked.

By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:9–11)

How Should We Then Read?
Of course, our high view of Scripture won’t matter much if we don’t actually read the Bible. But, you may ask, how should we read this holy book? In one sense we should read the Bible like any other book. It consists of different styles of literature that express truth according to the intention of its authors. But we shouldn’t read the Bible merely like any other book because it is unique. There’s no other book like it.

Because the Bible stands over us, it requires reverence, submission, and obedience. Because it is completely truthful, it requires trust. Because its nature contrasts sharply with our finiteness and sinfulness, it requires humble reading that is always open to correction. And because it reveals God and his ways, it requires careful, prayerful reading that situates passages within its grand story of God’s creation, our fall, Christ’s redemption, and the universe’s consummation.

Rejoice with John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, that the Bible is a priceless book—a book like no other:

Precious Bible! What a treasure Does the Word of God afford! All I want for life or pleasure, Food and med’cine, shield and sword:
Let the world account me poor, Having this I need no more.

Related Posts:

January 24, 2012 | Posted in: Sanctification/Growth,Spiritual Growth,The Bible | Author: Lindsay Tully @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments »

Book Giveaway: The Case for Life

In our earlier post, Scott Klusendorf explains how we can defend the pro-life view in 5 minutes. If you haven’t read it yet, we highly encourage you to take a few minutes to check it out. Additionally, we’d like to give away 5 copies of Scott’s book, The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture. Here’s how you can participate:

  • Tweet using this hash tag: #case4life.
  • Point to this link http://cway.to/AALkko, tell us why you’d like to win a copy, and/or tweet one of the quotes provided below.
  • Winners will be picked at random and notified on Wednesday 1/25. (US and Canada only).

Tweetable Quotes:

  • The real fight is about the foundation for human value. Are we valuable for what we are or for what we can do?
  • Humans have value simply because they are human.
  • If self-awareness=value, and newborns lack that property, then neither the fetus nor the newborn are valuable.
  • We don’t need Scripture to expressly say that elective abortion is wrong before we can know that it’s wrong.
  • All humans have value because they bear God’s image. From the earliest stages of development, the unborn are unquestionably human.
  • The best explanation for the NT’s silence on abortion is not that its authors condoned it,  but that the discussion was unnecessary.
  • If you’ve participated in an abortion-related decision, the solution to your guilt is not denial—it’s forgiveness.

Related posts:

Giveaway closed 1/25/12.

January 23, 2012 | Posted in: Abortion,Ethics | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 1:24 pm | (6) Comments »