Caught wind of this in a press release today from our friends at Crossway Books…

NEWS RELEASE
CROSSWAY BOOKS
CONTACT: ANGIE CHEATHAM
www.crossway.org

February 25, 2009

Wheaton, IL—Crossway Books & Bibles is pleased to provide free access to the ESV Bible (English Standard Version) for all Kindle and Kindle 2 users.  The ESV can be found and downloaded easily through the Kindle Store.

This announcement coincides with yesterday’s release of Amazon’s Kindle 2.

“The Kindle is the best e-book reader in the market, and the Kindle 2 should be even better,” says Geoff Dennis, Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “With more than 250 books available for the Kindle, Crossway is excited to make the ESV Bible available for free. Access to the ESV Study Bible for the Kindle will also be available for purchase soon.”

Answer:  It’s very lonely.  The ESV Bible remembers when it used to get out at least once or twice a week to church, and ocassionaly to the coffee shop or a friend’s house for Bible study.  Now it just sits on the shelf waiting for somebody to pick it up.  Has the wider evangelical world given up on reading their Bibles?  Certainly not.  As fate might have it, the ESV Bible has been replaced by it’s more mature bigger brother, the ESV Study Bible.

I attend Bethlehem Baptist Church in Moundsview, MN and the ESV Study Bible has taken us by storm.  I’d be willing to bet as many as 6 out of 10 adults have a shiny new ESV Study Bible.  This does beg the question of what we should do with our recently retired ESV Bibles.  The past two Sudays we’ve had a focus of evangelism for our worship services.  Outside the sanctuary, there have been tables filled with tracts, evangelism booklets, and pocket-sized ESV gospels of John.  These resources were made available free to all for use in personal evangelism.  In addition to these resources, our recently retired ESV Bibles would be a good addition to our personal evangelism arsenal.  Go ahead and do your old ESV Bible a favor.  Help end its lonliness by sharing it with someobody who needs the word of God.

I’ve been enjoying the ESV Study Bible for well over a month now.  Thanks again to Michele Bennett at Crossway Books for providing me with a review copy.  There have been a large number of reviews out in the biblio-blogosphere.  Some of them have been short, others have been quite long.  Normally I tend towards very succinct reviews and am not a fan of multi-part reviews, but I’ve decided to try something new this time and review the ESV Study Bible in several parts.

One Great Study Bible, So Many Flavors

The ESV STudy Bible is available in 8 different bindings.  Depending on your preference and your budget, you can choose from hardcover, TruTone® (Brown or Black), Bonded Leather (Black or Burgundy), Genuine Leather (Black or Burgundy), & Premium Calfskin (Black).  Everybody who purchases the ESV Study Bible will also receive access to the ESV Online Study Bible.  You can test drive it for yourself at www.esvstudybible.org.  Crossway also recently announced that they will be making the ESV STudy Bible available on a number of new electronic platforms.  The press release indicated it will be available for Accordance, Biblesoft, Laridian, Olive Tree, and WORDsearch.  I was a little surprised to see that LOGOS Bible Software wasn’t in the list, but hopefully it will be available on that platform as well in the near future.

To Be Continued……

We’ve all seen youtube videos of people unboxing the latest in electronics, so why not the long-awaited ESV Study Bible.  Tony Reinke documents the unboxing of the TruTone Classic Black ESV Study Bible in pictures.  Check it out here:  LINK.  Mike Anderson from Mars Hill Church in Seattle didn’t make a video of the unboxing of his ESV Study Bible, but he did put together a short video preview of 1 Peter.  See below.

Brand Spanking New ESV Study Bible from Mike Anderson on Vimeo.

As reports were coming in last Thursday of various biblio-bloggers receiving their review copy of the ESV Study Bible, I expected to see one waiting on my doorstep Friday afternoon.  After Friday came and went, I thought maybe it’d show up on Saturday afternoon.  At one point I began to wonder if I’d been “left behind”. After some thought, I realized this book was coming from Crossway and not Tyndale, so that just couldn’t be the case.  (pun intended) Low and behold, it showed up on Monday and was found hiding behind the scarecrow and pumpkins that currently decorate my front steps.  This situation may truly prove that I’m not nearly as awesome as Nick Norelli, who received his copy on Thursday. However, I tend to disagree with that and feel it shows that they just saved the best for last.  All humor aside, I want to offer my sincerest thanks to Michele Bennett of Crossway Books for providing me with this review copy.  I’ve been looking forward to this study bible for a long time and am excited about getting into it.  I still have to chuckle at one of the first quotes I gave concerning the ESV Study Bible that ended up on the ESV Study Bible Endorsements page.  I’ve included it below for your reading pleasure.

Although I love my current ESV, I may be tempted to upgrade. Well, in as much as you can be tempted to buy a Bible.

I’ll be posting my review very soon.  Stay tuned.