Just minutes ago I opened a package from Crossway. Opening it up was an even better experience than opening up an Apple product.

And the product itself blew me away. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t expect it to be that good. It made me audibly gasp, “Wow!” several times.

Here it is:

ESV Reader’s Bible. 6 vols. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016.  

I regularly encourage people to read books of the Bible in one sitting and without any chapter and verse references (see here, here, and here). Since I’ve known for a few years that this 6-volume ESV Reader’s Bible would strip out the chapter and verse numbers, I have been recommending it on that basis alone without seeing the final product.

But what blew me away is its quality. Every aspect of the product is first-class:

• the box
• the just-right size
• the cloth
• the binding
• the paper
• the font
• the layout

It’s all beautiful. Staggeringly beautiful.

I don’t think I’ve ever thought that about a printed Bible before. Wow! Take up and read!

Check out its website, and don’t miss this 7:45-minute documentary that gives you a glimpse into how Crossway produced it:

Update on 10/13/2016: Crossway interviews four key figures on their Bible Production team.