Nemo me impune lacessit
I honeymooned in Edinburgh. My literary agent wears a kilt. My favorite sermon was by Sinclair Ferguson. Ian Rankin is one of my favorite crime novelists. I'm a Presbyterian, for goodness sake. So I can't come out and say the best thing about Scotland is R. L. Allan & Sons. But they're right up there, my friends, next to John Knox and the bagpipes.
Everyone has been receiving their new ESV1s, and mine finally arrived this morning. Needless to say, I'll be reviewing shortly, but consider the above (yet another) a sneak peek. If you like the ESV, this is turning into quite a month. What is it, fourteen new editions out?
The ESV Study Bible is on my desk as well, so look for some SB-related goodness soon. In addition to this, I have the NLT SB and the Cambridge goatskin-bound NIV SB to discuss. Lots of fun on the horizon.
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.