NASB Giant Print Reference Bible Review
This review features a Bible that has been on the market for a while but is still a great seller and worth a review, the NASB Giant Print Reference Bible. (Note: This Bible was a gift during Christmas 2018. The Lockman Foundation was not involved in this review choice. The opinions offered here are my own.) I am reviewing the black imitation leather thumb indexed edition. It is also available in hardcover, burgundy genuine leather and black genuine leather.
Features
- NASB 1995 Updated Text
- 14-point font size
- Double Column-Verse by Verse layout
- 13,000 End of Verse/End of paragraph cross-references
- Thumb indexing
- Bible book introductions (located after Biblical Text)
- Full NASB Dictionary-Concordance-Thesaurus
- Translator’s Footnotes with translation variants
- Sewn binding
Cover and Binding
The edition I am reviewing is the Black Imitation Leather. Lockman calls this Leatherflex; much like the TruTone from Crossway, it is a polymer based imitation leather designed to give you durability without the added cost. This particular Bible is soft and smooth but the imitation on the leather is not as convincing as on other Bibles. There is a paste down liner to provide a little extra stiffness in your hand to ensure that it remains steady during one handed use.
Lockman provides a sewn Binding for this edition making it clear that even in the budget model, they intend for you to have a lifetime of use. (A sewn Binding can easily last 100 years or more where a glued binding will maybe last 25 years and that’s with a very premium adhesive.)
Overall, I am satisfied with the imitation leather. I have been using it more than anticipated and will eventually have it rebound in a more premium cover.
NASB 1995 Updated Text
Long considered the most literal translation available, NASB95 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors the ASV and the 1977 NASB and gives us a fastidiously literal translation.
The NAS95 text is considered to be more readable than the 1977 edition but I must confess that I prefer the way the 1977 edition handles the 2nd person in English. I have had a seminary professor, with 50 years of teaching Greek tell me that the NASB is so literal in translating the Nestle-Aland Greek Text that one could probably use the NAS to cheat in Greek Class (not recommended). All in all, when you choose to study in NASB, you are getting one of the two most reliable and fastidiously literal translations on the market, the other being NKJV). While I use many translations for many reasons, NASB has for the last 22 years, been one of my top two choices. I cannot say enough good things about how the NAS handles the text. If there were one drawback, it would be that the text feels very academic as opposed to feeling liturgical like the ESV. That being said, for the serious expositor, NASB must be on your shelf.
Paper and Font
The paper was a surprise and a very pleasant one at that. There is almost no see through, also called ghosting. It is a crisp white, generously opaque but not overly thick. Pages turn easily and give you that beautiful sound that I love to hear when standing in the pulpit and inviting the congregation to “turn with us” to the text for the week,
At 14-point, the text block is the easiest that I have ever preached. You can easily lay it on a standard height pulpit and have no issues reading the text. I happen to walk a bit while preaching and this particular font works really well for someone who likes to walk and teach.
This is a red letter edition which is really done quite well. Several publishers have issues with their red fonts where the font fades, turns pink, etc. Lockman did this red letter edition incredibly well. It is a deep rich cranberry color and there are absolutely zero issues with the red ink in the pulpit. Even in the unforgiving Arizona sun, I had no issues reading this text in the outdoors.
As a Preaching Bible
I still have other features to comment on, but I felt this would be the best place to address this. The NASB is available in the monstrous NASB Preacher’s Bible from Steadfast Bibles and it is great for preaching but lacks the utility and portability that the NASB Giant Print Reference Bible offers. The Giant Print Reference Bible is large enough to use in virtually any teaching environment but at 1/3 of the weight of its juggernaut cousin, the Giant Print Reference Bible is, in my opinion, the ideal NASB Preaching Bible.
Text Layout and Helps
I realize that there are many who disagree with me, but I have found that a verse by verse format is the best for preaching. In the Giant Print Reference Bible, we are presented a two-column layout in verse by verse format, each verse beginning on a new line.
In total, the NAS Family offers 95,000 cross references. In this Bible, however, only the most commonly used references are provided, bringing our total down to 13,000 references. The references are placed at the end of the verse or end of the paragraph so as not to disrupt the flow of the text
The dictionary-concordance-thesaurus is a brilliant combination of 3 tools. Each word is defined, referenced in the Bible text and alternate translations are offered.
The thumb-indexing is really done quite well. Even though I have long had the 66 books and their order memorized, I sometimes want rapid access to the particular book that I need and not having to page through the Bible is very useful.
The book introductions are 1-2 paragraphs for each book providing a solid overview of the book.
Final Thoughts and Should You Buy It
Overall, I am very pleased with this text edition. It is very well put together and, clearly, has in mind a reader who does not want a lot of distractions in the Bible they are using.
Lockman makes Bibles so well that it is hard for me to imagine a scenario where I would not recommend their Bibles and this is no exception. This Bible is well suited to anyone who uses it, but especially to those who teach. Should you buy it? Yes, and most especially if you teach the Bible with any regularity.
