New ESV Cambridge Wide-Margin Bibles

In 1997, when my wife and I got married, I bought us matching Cambridge Wide-Margin KJV Bibles. Dr. Mark Minnick had recommended these Bibles for note-taking during messages and personal times of Bible study. We had our Bible-marking pens, colored pencils, and were ready to go. I spent many years in fruitful study each morning, diligently recording what I learned in the margins of my Bible. It was great.

However, in 2001, Crossway introduced the English Standard Version and I started reading the ESV during my devotions, just to see what it was like. After much evaluation, I moved to using the ESV as my primary Bible at home for reading, studying, and family devotions. The Classic Reference version I used didn’t provide much room for note-taking and I longed for the time when Cambridge would publish an ESV version of their top-of-the-line, wide-margin Bible.

Well, that long awaited time has finally come. So now, in the 12th year of our marriage, we received brand new, his and her, ESV Cambridge wide-margin Bibles with black goatskin leather. They are very nice.

I thought I would document the arrival and opening of our new Bibles. But to begin with, let’s see where we came from.


My old KJV Cambridge Wide-Margin Bible.


I spent most of my early study in the Book of Isaiah. You can see how I used colors to coordinate the text and the associated note.


I then moved to an ESV Classic Reference Bible. As you can see, it has seen its better days. This was the Bible we used to read all the way through in family devotions.


Finally, our new Bibles have arrived!


Opening the box.


His and Her ESV Cambridge Wide-Margin Bibles.


My new ESV Bible as it sits closed on my desk.


My new ESV Bible opened to Isaiah. You can see the generous margins available for note-taking.


This Bible is a Red-letter edition – not my favorite but for some reason it was significantly less expensive than the Black-letter edition on Amazon.



My new ESV with my Micron 005 Bible-marking pen ready to go.