A Review of the Legacy Standard Bible, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, in Brown Shamar Goatskin.

I preordered this Bible when I found out it was going to be published. Three Sixteen Publishing/Steadfast Bibles sells it on their site. Master’s Seminary in California, connected with John MacArthur, got permission from the Lockman Foundation to tighten up the translation a bit. I think this was an admirable goal, as I believe the 2020 NASB to be heavily influenced by Zondervan. Zondervan is a major licenser of the NASB from Lockman. I think the 2020 is not as good as the 1995. After looking the LSB over, I can say, I still have some questions about certain translation choices. The LSB does use Yah, and Yahweh, in place of the small uppercase LORD that has been adopted as a convention. Of course in the New Testament where kurious was used, it remained Lord, obviously. I’m sure that will make some cult members mad. I’m not a Hebrew Roots guy, nor am I an Assemblies of Yahweh cult member. I do like the more accurate translation. Doulos has been translated as slave, just like they said it was. My problems with certain choices in translation are few, and not very significant. I just find the translation choices in certain parts to be curious. I would have liked to ask why they did certain things. I was wondering why they didn’t translate Christos as anointed. There was also a spot (I can’t remember where it was now) that inserted the word Jesus into the text, even though in Greek, Insous wasn’t there, but to make the sentence make sense, considering English sentence structure, and context, Jesus was added. It was obvious from the information that was there that the verse was something that Jesus was saying. I guess I was hoping for less italicized words, and an even more strict translation. That being said, it is still a very good translation. So far, I would put it up there with the 1977, and 1995 NASB translations.

The Bible I purchased was printed and bound by Jongbloed in the Netherlands. It is every bit as good as a Schuyler, or Crossway premium that Jonglboed produces.

It arrived undamaged, and in a shipping box. Inside that box was a 2 piece box that is pretty well constructed. It should keep your Bible safe for many years.

As you can see, it was also shrink wrapped in plastic, and double banded with black paper. I unwrapped it before I thought to take pictures. I wasn’t planning on doing a review. Since I was excited to get it, and unwrapped it, I had to kind of put it back in the plastic, and paper bands to take some pictures.

Here are some of the vital statistics from the publisher’s page;

• Black letter editions only
• Two-column verse-by-verse format
• 8.5 pt. font size
• Line-matched Scripture text
• French-milled, 32 gsm paper (same as our Preacher’s Bible Handy Size)
• Sewn binding
• Gold gilding on page edges
• Durable foil-stamped cover with perimeter stitching
• 2 sided satin ribbon marker, matching the exterior binding color
• 4.5 x 6.2 inches
• 640 pages

Like I said earlier, if you have had a Schuyler, or a premium Crossway, you can expect the same high quality. The cover is goatskin leather. I chose the deep brown. It is very supple. There isn’t much there as far as texture goes. It is not deeply pebbled. It is pretty smooth, and soft. The edge lined binding makes this Bible a joy to hold in the hand, and yes you can hold this Bible in one hand, and comfortably read it. The line matching, and 8.5pt. font add greatly to this.

The cover is perimeter stitched, and there is a gold perimeter line around the interior cover.

The spine is hot stamped with, “Legacy Standard Bible New Testament Psalms & Proverbs” It has the logo on the head, and, “Steadfast Bibles” on the tail. The page edges are art gilt. Not simply gilded. The less expensive editions are probably the ones that are simply gilded.

It is a black letter edition, with a double column layout, in verse format. There are no cross references, footnotes, or any other helps/features in this edition. (No maps or concordance) The idea for a N.T. edition like this is portability, and readability. An elder on the go will be well served by this design.

You can check out the rest of my pictures of this edition on my flikr album here.

If you’d like to purchase your own copy, you can do so here, 316 Publishing.