I can only tell you about the Bible's I have used, so I'll tell you the story of how I came to use the Bible I have now. When I announced my call to preach, the Beauty Ridge Missionary Baptist Church
bought me a Nelson’s Open Bible. I loved the study tools, especially the subject
index, which was such a useful tool for someone who was, as Spurgeon said, a
man of "slender apparatus". The only thing I didn’t like about it were the
illustrations. I found them distracting and pointless. When my pages were
starting to fall out and the bonded leather was coming unglued and I needed to
upgrade, I decided to find a Bible without the illustrations in the middle of
the text.
I bought a Scofield Study Bible. Why? Because a preacher
I admired preached from one, and if it was good enough for him, it was good
enough for me. I didn’t find the notes particularly helpful, especially on
creation and the Sermon on the Mount, but I loved the type set and the paper. I
bought the wide margin version and as I taught Sunday School, I wrote all my
notes and outlines in the margins. I had gone through a couple books, Job,
Acts, and Galatians and had filled the margins with notes, references,
definitions. I loved it. I would make my own study Bible. One Sunday, I
preached for a church without a pastor. They told me they had a morning
service, ate, then had an afternoon service. I went and preached, we ate, and
then I waited for the next service to start. One of the men asked me if I could
leave so they could start their business meeting. They had a service, but with no
preaching, so while I waited for the service to start, they were waiting for me
to leave. I was a little aggravated because at the time, my oldest was about 3
years old and we had an infant, and they were a handful after lunch, especially
after sitting in church all morning, followed by a fellowship meal. I could
have left 45 minutes sooner, if they had told me. We had a few hours to drive
to get back and I just wanted to get back. The boys were screaming and crying,
not wanting to get in the car seat, I set my Bible on top of the car while I
buckled them in the car. I was supposed to preach that evening at my home
church. We arrived safe and sound, about 30 minutes before the evening service.
Getting everyone out of car seats and ready to go in the building, I can't’
find my Bible. I remembered setting the Bible on top of the car, but not
putting it back in the car. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. After emptying
the vehicle of its contents and no Bible was discovered, it confirmed my fear –
I left it on top of the car and drove off. That was the last I ever saw of that
Bible.
My mom bought me a replacement, another Scofield. It
wasn’t a wide-margin, those were now out of print, but honestly, the thought of
putting my notes in another Bible broke the Newell heart, to be sure. This
Bible was also bonded leather. I sent it off to Mississippi to be rebound and
had blank pages inserted in between each page. It is heavy and think, but still
very nice. My problem? I couldn’t see it from the pulpit. I wasn’t sure why,
since it had the same size font. I had my eyes checked out, and received a good
report. During this time, I started working for Oxford University Press, who
published the Scofield Bible. I discovered the wide-margin I lost was made with
India paper, which is thicker and has less ghosting because of the superior
quality. The wide margin I lost was one of the last runs of this higher quality
Oxford Bible. The newer Scofield Bibles are manufactured in Korea with a much
thinner, cheaper paper, which explains why when you underline, you can see the
ink on the other side. Cheaper Bibles, cheaper quality paper. At first, I thought
it was the print size, so I got a large print when I worked for OUP, and I had the
same problem. I learned a lot about the Bible business, publishing, and the
nuts and bolts of mass producing Bibles while I worked with the Bible
department.
Having learned more about paper quality, bindings, and
fount from OUP, I tried the Cambridge
Wide-Margin with the higher quality, thicker paper and bolder font. My wife
bought me the Cambridge as a gift right before I went and preached a revival
meeting. One of the first times I preached from the Bible, I said, “Turn to Revelation 21” and I tried to
do the same, but my Bible ended with Revelation 19, which I felt was a little
disappointing and set the tone for the experience I had with it. Their
customer service was a delight. The quickly replaced the Bible, but the
replacemnt had ink smeared on several pages. So they upgraded me to goatskin
leather version, which was great. Quite a big jump from bonded leather, or even
genuine leather. The ink was faded in some places on this Bible. I could read
it, but it looked like a printed page when your printer is running out of ink.
I gave up and kept the Bible.
I still had a hard time reading from the pulpit, and now
just reading. Plus, the Bible is large, and most pulpits were not designed for
Bibles and notes. That’s when I found the R.L. Allan & Son Publishers, King
James Bible. They sale high quality Bibles. Up front, they are rather expensive
but they are very nice and I think they are worth the money. Mine is printed on
India paper and bound in highland goatskin leather, which is very soft and
makes for easy turning and comfortable reading. The font is 8/9, but the paper
is high quality and thick so there is very little bleed through. They also use
bold font, which I have discovered is the second component to easy reading in a
Bible. It is better to have thicker paper and bolder font than to have bigger
font on thinner paper. I love it and highly recommend getting one, especially if
you are having eye problems. That’s what I have now, and wouldn't think about
using any other now. I like everything about it.
Get a good Bible and read it. Buy one, read that one
Bible and get familiar with that Bible.
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