The leather feels great in the hands and has great commentary throughout. Not too voluminous in size to be carried to weekly services. I'm starting to prefer the commentary in this bible over the ESV Study Bible (going through both simultaneously). The dual ribbon bookmarks is a nice touch- ESV Study Bible needs to up it's game in this regard.

GENERAL: The ESV Reformation Study Bible - Student Edition is essentially the same bible as the ESV Reformation Study Bible - Condensed Edition, but with over 300 short questions and answers highlighted in green color blocks throughout the Bible and significant verses of Scripture given a full page setting at the beginning of each book of the bible. This extra material and, what appears to me, to be a higher gsm paper makes the Student Edition about 2 inches thick. The Condensed Edition paper appears to be thinner allowing significant ghosting or bleed-through. And, the Student Edition paper has a much better black to white contrast, making the study notes easier to read. Both the biblical text and the study notes measure about a 7.5 font; fairly small for low light conditions. A beefy concordance and 8 full color maps are included at the back of the bible. In addition, an index of the Question and Answer topics is included at the front of the bible. And the text block is sewn, rather than glued, for durability.

TRANSLATION: The ESV translation is one of the most literal and yet, it is relatively easy to read. The ESV Old Testament can be somewhat difficult to understand in some places unfortunately. Overall, it is accurate, reliable and consistently one of the best selling translations.

STUDY NOTES: As the name suggests, the study notes and many of the question and answer call-outs reflect a conservative Reformed / Calvinist theological viewpoint. The notes are condensed from the full sized ESV Reformation Study Bible, which is a pretty hefty volume.

CONCLUSION: Overall this is a tremendous little study bible. The ESV translation is exceptional, the study notes are thorough and the overall quality of this Bible is very good (even though it is printed in China). Two quirks which seem somewhat odd for a premium leather bible are the lack of gilding on the text block page edges and a mosaic-white, synthetic paste down liner inside the leather cover. Normally a premium leather cover is accompanied by silver or gold page gilding and the bible cover liner color is coordinated with the color of the leather cover. Nonetheless, the important stuff is all here in a compact package which should provide years of use.

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