NIV Lectio Bible: A simple, ancient way to read the library of Scripture, Cloth over Board: The Practicing the Way edition with an introduction by John Mark Comer Hardcover – January 14, 2025

Years ago, someone gifted me the Bibliotheca Bible collection and it was beautiful. The intention of it, to allow English readers to be able to read the texts without chapters and verses really stuck out to me as a beautiful practice. However, what was missing for me was brought into the Lectio Bible.Even though, I prefer the beautiful, thick pages of the Bibliotheca Collection, navigating the Lectio Bible has been a superior experience for the reasons listed below:1. Every page tells you which book of the Bible you are in.2. The chapters/verses covered appear in the bottom left and right of the pages.3. There are still footnotes, they're just placed at the back of each book if you care to dive deeper.4. Single column/reader style. (I have never been a fan of the double columns in most traditional Bibles. Just not for me).5. The Psalms are still numbered, which makes daily praying/reading through them easy to keep up with. (Maybe the original Hebrew is numbered, I have no idea. But either way, I'm glad they're numbered in this).6. Two book marks! I know this one is not unique to the Lectio, but come on! Whoever made this decision deserves all of the awards that are given out to Bible publishers/translators. And if there are no awards for such people, they should be invented, and the first one given to the man, woman, or angel that created the lovely addition of two ribbon bookmarks.7. Affordable.Though, I would love to have this sort of book with real paper as opposed to thin, receipt-like paper you get in most Bibles, this has thoroughly enhanced my reading of scripture. This is a fantastic approach to scripture, and would love to see more pop up like this in other translations.

Amazing to read with out any distractions. Beautiful and well put together edition!

I love this bible so much! It's so beautiful, clean, and calming. I love how it's inspiring me to read scripture more and engage with the word in a new way. I can't wait to gift this to my friends and family!

LOVE this format - no paragraph headings, no verse numbers, so it is easy to just read the story! There are page numbers and the book of the bible at the top page corner, and verse number ranges at the bottom. So upper right corner says 1 Chronicles | 579 and bottom right corner says 25:6-25:24. I love it.

I have LOVED reading Scripture this way every morning!I did The Bible Recap last year (a Bible reading plan to read the entire Bible in one year). It was an awesome and helpful experience, but I wanted to slow down and really meditate on what I was reading this year. Let the Spirit illuminate the Word in my heart and mind, see Jesus on the pages, be still and know Him.I’ve loved reading until I’m “full” … reading out loud at times, reading a passage twice. John Mark’s recommendations at the front of the Bible were helpful.I am also getting ready to do the Scripture practice in community with my “life group.”I’ve just had some amazing moments with God so far in reading this way. My heart has really burned inside me!!It took me a month and a half to read the gospel of John - reading every morning, I set aside about 30 minutes - because of just slowing down and listening.I’m reading Matthew now, but then plan to head back to the Old Testament.

Love this Bible, really helps me focus on the scriptures and enjoy reading Gods word. My wife bought one too she likes it so much.

This is a Bible unlike any others in some ways. The outside matches the current minimalist style of cloth Bibles - it’s cool. Even the name Lectio is cool. The real difference is on the inside. All the verses and chapters have been removed allowing you just read until you’re ready to stop instead of reading to the end of a verse or chapter. It serves its purpose well. It does give book and chapter guidance at the top of the page so you are not completely oblivious to where you are and can quickly found the references if you need them. I do love the single column block and the font is a comfortable size. The margins are small and so is the line spacing - this will not be one for notes and that’s not what they were going for in the design either.

Several years ago I was in a Bible rut. I had read the complete Bible several times,I knew the stories pretty well, I had five versions of the Bible, and Bible readingwas part of my daily spiritual practices. But I had burned out on reading the Bible.This version would have provided a welcome change of pace.The introduction encourages readers to use two methods to read The Lectio Bible:the spiritual practice of lectio divina, which the introduction describes, andreading large sections in one sitting. For me, both approaches were effective.The main difference in this Bible is that each book in it has no chapters orsubheads. That makes for smooth narratives, but it also creates problems. Forexample, if you wanted to read the story of David and Bathsheba or the Sermonon the Mount, you would have no subheads to guide you. An internet searchcould refer you to specific biblical passages, and you could then get some helpfrom the small chapter-and-verse notations at the bottom of each page. (See photo.) But abigger help, I think, would have been an index with page references. I assume thatthe publisher was trying to keep this Bible at a manageable size, but even 30 more pages would have added an insignificant amount of thickness and heft to it.Also, I spent several decades working in publishing, where a rule of thumb wasthat the maximum width for a standard column of type was 20 picas; beyond that, readabilitysuffered. The standard width of a column of type in this Bible is 23 picas. (See photo.) Here, too, I suspectthat the publisher was trying to keep the size of the book manageable by usingslightly wider than optimal lines of type.All in all, I would recommend this Bible not as someone’s only Bible but as acomplement to other Bibles.