The ESV Journaling Study Bible combines the popular journaling Bible with a study Bible. Is this the right Bible for you? Let’s look closer and find out!
Crossway was kind enough to send me this Bible to review. I was happy to be able to get my hands on it, because it is exactly what I’ve been looking for! While there could be a few improvements, this is an excellent Bible!
Journaling Study Bible Features
I was sent the Natural Brown Leather cover with the wrap around flap. The pictures looked much darker than the leather I was sent. The picture on the website has a dark brown, but in real life, this is more of a natural tan/camel type brown. It also comes in a couple TruTone covers, a floral cloth hardback, and a black hardcover. You can see, it comes in this nice box for gifting.
It only has one ribbon bookmark, which we all know I find woefully insufficient. It also has a nice little pen loop inside the flap of the cover, which is a fun feature on all the Crossway wraparound covers.
The Journaling Study Bible is very square shaped. The Journaling Bibles do tend to be more square shaped, but this one seemed a little more square.
This Bible combines the large, lined side margins of a Journaling Bible with some of the study notes of a Study Bible. These Study Notes looked to me to be to be most similar to the ESV Student Study Bible notes. It didn’t contain the colored maps and things like the regular ESV Study Bible. (It does have full color glossy maps in the back, just not in the notes section.)
The text is in two columns with notes at the bottom. You can see the lined margins go the whole length of the page, even into the not section. The back has a glossary, concordance, reading plan, and glossy colored maps.
Comparing With Other ESV Bibles
The top Bible is the ESV Single Column Journaling Bible. You can see, it isn’t as wide as this Bible.
On top here, we have the ESV Personal Size Study Bible (which is what I currently use for my personal Bible study) compared to the ESV Journaling Study Bible on the bottom. You can see the difference in the notes here with the Personal Size Study Bible having a map here at the end of Daniel and the Journaling Study Bible does not.
This is the ESV Single Column Legacy Bible compared with the ESV Journaling Study Bible. The Legacy Bible clearly has much larger font, but you can see the notes aren’t present.
Here, we have the ESV Heirloom Bible, Heritage Edition, on the top (in a larger size than the personal size) and the ESV Journaling Bible on the bottom. The width was similar on these, but the Journaling Bible is significantly shorter. You can also see the notes are different between these two Bibles.
I was surprised to find the size between the ESV Interleaved Journaling Bible and the ESV Journaling Study Bible to be so similar. The Interleaved version is slightly larger. But this ESV Journaling Study Bible is one of the largest Bibles in our house!
The ESV Student Study Bible was the closest comparison I could find to the study notes, fonts, and format of the Journaling Study Bible. They are not identical, but they are pretty close to the same.
Is This the Bible for Me?
I have always struggled to find a Bible that checks all the boxes for me. I’ve been writing notes in the measly margins of my Personal Size ESV Study Bible, sometimes even taping in post-it notes to hold all my notes! This Bible solves that problem for me. Plenty of room for notes. But not completely plain.
If you are looking for a Bible to really STUDY– this would be a perfect Bible for you! There is room to write all your notes, plus there are study notes and helps as you go. (So you don’t have to look up the basic things elsewhere.)
I do prefer the notes in the ESV Study Bible. Not that these are bad, they’re just more aesthetic and less all the maps and all the things. However, I still think this is an excellent study Bible!
If you’re looking for more of an art journaling Bible, I think the interleaved or standard Journaling Bible is the way to go.
Other Notes from the Parsonage Posts You Might Enjoy:
- ESV Interleaved Journaling Bible Review
- ESV Student Study Bible Review
- ESV Personal Study Bible Review
- Heirloom Bible, Heritage Edition Review
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