Unboxing the CSB Thinline Bible

As an update to my post about the CSB Single-Column Wide-Margin Bible, here’s a short presentation of another version of the Christian Standard Bible that I referenced there: the CSB Thinline Bible.

CSB Thinline is one of many different formats this Bible is currently available in. Think of it as the very opposite of the Wide-Margin Bible: it’s lightweight, smaller, and easy to carry around.

Here are the main specs:

• 9-point font
• 5.375” x 8.25” page size
• Smyth-sewn, lay-flat binding
• gilded page edges
• 2KDENMARK typeset
• double-column layout
• one ribbon marker (red)
• a set of eight full-colour maps, plus a table of weights and measurements

It comes with a durable protective slipcase.

Some of these features are similar to the wide-margin CSB I’ve reviewed earlier, but here are the main differences:

• no concordance – thinlines typically don’t contain it, to retain a smaller total number of pages
• genuine black leather covers (the wide-margin one has the so-called “leathertouch” faux leather)
• a little bit of ghosting, as expected in a thinline, but not at all obstructive to reading
• thumb-indexed (one of my favourite features; not all CSB Thinlines are thumb-indexed, this is a separate edition)

After about a month of daily use, I have to say I’m very satisfied with it. I bought it as a Bible for everyday reading and study; a sturdy, high-quality copy to be marked up through highlighting, annotating, adding notes on lexical study, etc. You would think that a wide-margin Bible would be more suitable for that specific purpose, but I’ve actually found this smaller format to be ideal, as it makes me focus on the key things, without going into unnecessary digressions and random scribbles – there’s just no space for any of that.

There’s nothing not to love about this edition – except this: the in-text superscripts are just too small and almost impossible to read. While the footnotes are in a smaller, but still legible font type (not sure what it is exactly, but it might be 7-point), the footnote markers themselves are microscopic and very difficult to make out. Whenever there’s a footnote marker, it takes me a while to match it to the appropriate footnote, which can be a bit frustrating and definitely straining on the eyes! However, if you have excellent vision or don’t have much need for the footnotes, you won’t even register this as a problem.

To sum up, this is an excellent Bible, designed in a classic and elegant way, with good binding and durable leather covers that are made to last. If you want to take a closer look at it, visit the links I’ve included at the bottom of the post.

---

BONUS: A NOTE ON MY MARKING SYSTEM

If you’re curious to know about my Bible mark-up system, I’ve tried to simplify it as much as I could. Any notes are written using a mechanical pencil (0.7mm HB – neat and easy to erase, if necessary). I do highlights using yellow and green crayons: yellow for memorable passages concerning doctrine or anything else that catches my eye; green for practical everyday life concerns, health and wellbeing, ethics et sim.

Why crayons and not pens or various types of highlighters? Because there’s no risk of ink bleeding through. It’s kind of a big deal with thinline editions as the paper is extra thin and any ink is most likely to seep through and ruin everything. Besides, pencils and crayons are more discrete visually: I don’t want my highlights to leave in the shade the non-highlighted parts of the Word, just to help me locate things more quickly.

If there’s a full sentence or a longer passage that I’m highlighting, I’ll box it rather than underline all the verses. Here are two samples, showing portions of 1 Thessalonians 4 and James 1, where you can also see the typeset:

I hope you’ve liked this review! Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or ask any questions.

---

RECOMMENDED LINKS

CSB Thinline Bible Genuine Leather Review – a useful YouTube review by Nate Ginsterblum

Choose Your CSB – publisher’s website featuring this and many other versions of the CSB

---

NOTES