Bible Yoga in the San Francisco Chronicle, Circa 1917
It's no secret I didn't invent Bible yoga, the trick of bending leather covers (never the spine!) to demonstrate flexibility. I've already documented Cambridge's use of a similar practice back in the 1980s. Thanks to reader Tim Stewart we can move the date back considerably. He came across the advertisement above in a December 1917 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle. A century ago you could have purchased "the best Bible ever made" from that august publication, for the princely sum of $1.78. Personally, I'm skeptical that the diacritical marks of this self-pronouncing edition made difficult words "so simple a child can pronounce them." Those must have been some interesting children.
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.
