ESV Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible Review

I’ve been on a search to find the best Bible. As a pastor, a preacher, and somebody who uses the Bible as a tool for my personal study, work, and ministry, I want a Bible that reflects the immense value that it has in my life. 

So my friends at Crossway who make incredible Bibles have sent me the ESV Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible. 

This Bible is impressive. I’m a big fan. Crossway makes such great Bibles, but this is one of the better ones. 

So today, I’ll compare it to some of the other Bibles I have: the ESV Preaching Bible, the ESV Pastor’s Bible, and the ESV Thinline Bible.

Single Column

One of the first things that I love about the ESV Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible is that it is a single column layout. There’s only a single column of text on each page. So the page isn’t cluttered. 

Comparing it to my other Bibles, the Preaching Bible is also a single column Bible, and the Pastor’s and Thinline Bibles are double columns. 

While I like the double-column because you can see a lot more on the page, sometimes it gets distracting. I find myself skipping through reading a lot faster because there is more on each page. I’ve noticed that the single column has helped me narrow my focus to just the verses that I’m reading. 

Text Aligned

One of my favorite things about the ESV Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible is that it is text aligned. That means that the text on one side of the page is printed on the same line as the text on the other side of the page.

You don’t see the ink from the other side of the page bleeding through as much because it’s behind the words on the page you’re reading. 

Bibles like the Pastor’s and Thinline Bible are not text aligned, and you can see a big difference when you compare them. The ink from the other side of the page shows through in the blank spaces, making it a bit harder to read. If you’re reading your Bible for a long time, it starts to get tiresome because the page looks sort of blurry and much busier. 

A text aligned Bible is simply cleaner and easier to read. It’s a high-quality feature that I love. 

9pt Font

Another plus for the Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible it has a 9pt font, which is on the larger size for Bible fonts. It’s not a large print, but it’s large enough.

The Preaching Bible has a 10pt font, the Pastor’s Bible is also a 9pt font, and the Thinline is an 8pt font. So the Legacy Bible is right in the middle of the spectrum.

Goatskin Leather Cover

One of my favorite things about the Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible is the cover. It is made of premium goatskin leather that you have to feel to understand how nice it is. It’s very flexible and soft to the touch.

It is the same cover as the Preaching Bible, which I have always raved about. It feels soft, durable, and high-end. 

Now, one of the most important things for me as a pastor is that when I am preaching and teaching, I need a Bible that will lay flat and stay flat. So when I’m using it in the pulpit, set it on a table, or holding it in my hand, it needs to stay open to the page I’m teaching. 

With the goatskin cover, the Legacy Bible lays flat easily. On the first page or Genesis or the last page of Revelation, this Bible will not have any problem staying open. 

The Preaching Bible is the same way because of the goatskin cover, but the Pastor’s Bible and the Thinline Bible have a more rigid, genuine leather cover that works, but will give you a little more trouble. The pages will creep up a bit.

Fairly Wide Margins

The Legacy Bible has a reasonably wide margin on the outside of the pages. They’re not as big as something like the preaching Bible. However, I would still consider it a wide margin Bible. 

One thing that makes this Bible unique is that they put the headings of the text in the margins. So the headings feel secondary to the original text. There are no headings in the original manuscripts of the Bible. They were added later to help us navigate the Bible easier. So by putting the headings off to the side in the margins, this Bible is closer to how the early church would have read it.

It took me a while to get used to it, honestly, because I’ve always had a Bible with headings in the text. I would usually scan through the headings in the main column of text to find my spot. But with the Legacy Bible, I had to retrain my brain to scan the margins for headings instead of the main column of text. But now I’m finding that it’s easier to find headings because they stand out even more in the margins. I’ve started to like it. 

Extra Ribbons

The Legacy Bible has no shortage of ribbons. You get four of them. Some people like extra ribbons in their Bible; Some don’t. 

When I first saw the four ribbons dangling out, it seemed like too many to me. I like simplicity and not a lot of flare hanging out of my Bible. 

But I have to admit, the more I’ve been using it every day, the more I’ve found that the four ribbons are more helpful than I thought.

I mark one spot where I’m in my daily Bible reading plan. Then, I mark another where I’m preparing to preach a message. I’ve also been doing daily video devotionals with my church, so I’ll use a third ribbon to hold the devotional reading. 

So having extra ribbons has been helpful for me. 

The Preaching Bible has two ribbons, and I liked that, but they’re too long. I’ve considered trimming them. The Legacy Bible’s ribbons are a much better length. 

If you are just reading through the Bible, then having a single ribbon is plenty—like in the Thinline Bible. But if you’re using your Bible for personal study, preaching, and teaching, you’ll find the extra ribbons helpful.

I didn’t think I was going to say that, but the ribbons have won me over, Crossway.

Some Extra Features

The Single Column Legacy Bible also has a concordance in the back, which is handy for topical study. 

It also has a few maps in the back. The maps are nice to have. They’re a good visual aid. However, I never end up using them much. If I want to look at maps, I’ll pull them up online or in my Logos Bible Software library. 

It does not have cross-references in the inside the text. I’ve grown to appreciate the cross-references in my Pastor’s Bible that I was using as my daily go-to Bible. Cross-references are handy when you’re studying a passage and want another perspective on the subject. Flip to the cross-reference and you’ll find a similar passage. This allows the Bible to help interpret the Bible, which is always the best way to interpret Scripture when possible. 

Large

One thing that shocked me when I first pulled the Legacy Bible our of the box was how big it is. I imagined that it would be thinner. I knew that the single-column format would make it thicker than a double-column Bible, but I didn’t think it would be comparable to the size of the Preaching Bible. 

If you’d like big Bibles, it’s a good size for you. But if you want something more compact and portable, you’ll want a thinner Bible. 

It’s a little over 1.5 inches thick. The Thinline Bible is known for only being one inch thick. The Pastor’s Bible is just a hair over an inch thick. And the Preaching Bible is a beast at just under two inches. 

So the Legacy Bible is closer to the thickness of the Preaching Bible than the thinner Bibles.

Thickness aside, I like the page dimension of the Legacy Bible. It has a 6×9 inch page, the same as the Pastor’s Bible. The only reason the Legacy Bible looks bigger is because of the generous overhang of the cover.

The Preaching Bible is 6.25×9.125 inches, making it thicker, longer, wider, and heavier than the others. 

Weighty

The Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible, is a fairly heavy Bible too, weighing in at 53.2 ounces. Holding the Legacy Bible in one hand and the Preaching Bible in the other, you can barely feel the difference. The Preaching Bible is just a few ounces heavier (57.93 ounces). 

So as far as portability goes, the Legacy Bible is heavier than something that most people would want to carry around with them. But for a pastor like me who’s keeping it on my desk a lot of time and carrying it with me into the worship center, or to an on-campus Bible study, it’s not so bad. 

However, it’s not something I would want to carry in a backpack or bag while traveling. That’s where a smaller Bible like the Thinline shines. I

Final Verdict

All things considered, I love this Bible. The ESV Heirloom Single Column Legacy Bible is a fantastic, high-end Bible. 

It is going to be replacing my Pastors Bible as my day-to-day Bible in the church office, for meetings and Bible studies around the church campus, and even for preaching. 

I like the size and feel of it. It is beautiful to look at. And it’s still al little smaller than the Preaching Bible for when I’m carrying it around on a Sunday morning. 

Overall, it’s a high-quality, high-end, very well-made Bible that I’m hoping one day I can leave as a legacy to pass on to my kids.