One of the most exciting things about modern Bible design is the way we are rediscovering the solutions of the past.

The Society of Bible Craftsmanship has issued an official press release, whetting my appetite for the August 27 event!

In an earlier piece, I argued that the defining characteristic of a true Reader’s Bible is the omission of verse numbers in the text. Given that absence, can you rely on a Reader’s Bible as your only one, or is it doomed to be a specialty edition?

If you haven’t read my three-part series on Bible design genres, start there. In this piece, I take one of the newly emerging genres, the Reader’s Bible, and ask what it is, exactly, that sets it apart from other editions.

This is the third part of a series of reflections on the various “genres” of Bible design. After conceding that a lot of the progress in recent Bible publishing has come through a reinvigoration of the old formats rather than a revolution, I turn my attention to the exciting, unpredictable world of emerging new genres.

This is the second part of a series of reflections on the various “genres” of Bible design. In this installment, we consider whether the current flourishing of Bible publishing is more indebted to the spirit of reformation or revolution.

This is the first part of a series of reflections on the various “genres” of Bible design. In this installment, we'll look at the classics, the formats that were developed, perfected, imitated, and eventually handed down to us in the late twentieth century, when I started thinking about the Bible as a design challenge.

This post has a two-fold purpose: one of my goals is perennial, and one is time sensitive. The first task, the timeless one, is to introduce a new organization, a society whose launch heralds an exciting new chapter in the recent history of Bible publishing. It’s called the Society of Bible Craftsmanship (SoBC), and the best way to introduce it is to share the official description, which I had a hand in writing:

The December 2021 issue of Bible Study magazine was devoted to “A Revolution in Bible Design.” The feature by Mark Ward included insights from a variety of players in the modern revival of Bible publishing, including me. It was an honor to participate — and an even greater honor to be featured on the magazine’s cover.