Choosing a Bible for 2023

There are several types of articles I post every year as an ongoing series. These will generally be copy/paste affairs with updated information appended as appropriate. Choosing One Single Bible for the Year is such a series.

Happy New Year to you.

I was watching a YouTube video in which a Pastor discussed his “One Bible for the year” tradition. Each year he selects one physical bible that he will use use exclusively for all his personal reading (allowances made for institutional or officiant reading). I like this idea.

Many people only ever own a single bible. However, I am not only a devoted bible reader, I am also a “book nerd”. I have a love for handsomely bound volumes with good paper. I end up collecting what I might euphemistically describe as “a few too many” bibles.

While it would be a challenge to select a single bible to use for the entire year, my only real reservation is that I am currently in the middle of a reading plan from the ESV study Bible. However, the bible I would like to use for my “2023 one Bible challenge” is a NASB 2020 reference edition. I don’t know if I’m willing to abandon my current plan.

The entire purpose of this “challenge” is to spend the year in a single physical Bible. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to use a reading plan included with one bible to read a second Bible (which probably includes a one year reading plan of its own).

But I am willing to commit to a single PHYSICAL Bible. I’ll continue my current reading plan and any liturgical readings with digital versions of the ESV, while relying on a NASB 2020 as my only printed and bound paper Bible.