The Clarion has become a design classic for Cambridge. It is an edition of paragraphs that think of reading and with a comfortable font size, focus on the text without giving up the references. It is in a single-column format with links in the outer margin. This hand-sized Bible is available now from the NIV.
resources
- 2011 NIV-Text
- Goatskin cover
- embroidery
- golden edges
- 2 cardinal red ribbons
- ISBN: 9781107595149
- Model: N1486:XE
- calf gap cover
- glue down
- golden gold
- 2 black straps
- ISBN: 9781316601341
- Modell: NI484:X
- black writing Font 8.75
- single column paragraph
- References to side columns
- approval
- 16 map pages
- card index
- 2186 pages
- Red and black head/tail straps
- Unique size
- 61 x 5,61 x 1,62
Causing obligation
The Clarion is available in calfskin and goatskin. In this review I will take a look at both editions. For more translations, see my other Clarion reviews:KJV,NKJV,ESV.
goatskin
This edition is made of black kidskin with synthetic lining and circular seams. This cloak is as supple as any goatskin I've seen in Cambridge. For me, the goatskin can get heavy, but the Clarion isn't so big that it's too difficult to handle. I find calfskin and calfskin leather editions easier to work with than goatskin, but goatskin is much more elegant and I'm sure it will last longer due to the construction design.
The grain is natural and much narrower than the calf split. The finish is close to satin. It is flexible and soft to the touch. It looks smoother than the calf split.
The cover has nothing printed on the front. The Holy Bible, New International Version and Cambridge are printed in gold on the spine. It has evidence of dorsal ribs engraved on its back, but they are not pronounced. It gives you better visual appeal than no engraving at all.
It's flexible but not too heavy to hold in one hand. I think I put it on my arm sometimes while reading. I didn't feel the need to hold it with both hands. This cover is the most elegant of the three. The sidelines tab is trying to close in Genesis 1 but I can tell it's breaking and towards the end of Genesis I can't even tell it's there. The flexibility of the lid is more obvious than the flap.
This edition has two cardinal red bands and gold margins.
calf split
The veal division edition has the Holy Bible printed in gold on the front and the spine has the Holy Bible, the new international version and Cambridge. Has markings to indicate back ribs punched along the back. This helps give it an aesthetic texture.
The finish resembles satin. It has a tight grain that looks like cowhide. It is actually more distinctive than goatskin. It has a glued vinyl lining. For reading, I actually find this edition easier to handle. The cover doesn't feel soft like goatskin or calfskin, but it's a lot less flexible and the extra stiffness allows it to lie flat in the hand. The rougher texture of the leather keeps it from slipping out of my hand when I bend it towards me.
This edition has two black bands and gold margins.
Papier
The paper in NIV Clarion has a weight of 28 g/m². This is a different roll than the 27gsm in the other Clarions I've reviewed. It's more opaque and the thickness feels the same to my fingers at 27gsm. It's whiter than the other editions and has a smooth feel, while the others are rough. Even in direct light there is no glare. The extra opacity makes it a lot easier to read than other editions. The difference in thickness is minimal. This Bible is thicker, mainly because it has more pages.
No page curl- This article does not have the page curl problems like the other editions. I took the NIV and ESV outside in blowing winds to compare how they reacted to the wind. I managed to get the ESV to ripple and immediately opened the NIV. The NIV did not roll. I went back to the ESV and there was side curl immediately. I put it down and opened the NIV and the page was not curled. I tested this for many days and never got the page to curl when the other editions had.
TO UPDATE- Now that we are in the cooler months (October) here in East TN, I have seen a slight curling of the page at the corners. The other editions (ESV, KJV, NKJV) are so long that I don't want to use them anymore while the NIV remains usable.
I know a lot of people have highlighted previous editions of Clarion. Personally, I have not tried it and do not recommend emphasizing in Bibles that were not intended to do so. If you excel in yours, please share your experiences in the comments.
Typography
The text is presented in a single-column format with poems in stanzas. Cross-references are placed in the margin next to the verses they correspond to, and footnotes are placed in the footer. The header shows the page number on the inside edge and the book and chapter name on the outside edge. They're close enough to the outside edge that you can easily flip through them and find the book you're looking for.
The font is Standard Clarion 8.75/10.5 Lexicon #1A. 8.75 refers to the font itself, while 10.5 is line spacing (the size of the font plus the size of the space between lines). I think this is one of the most legible fonts of any Bible I've read. It's medium/dark and consistent throughout.
The text is aligned on both sides of the page to reduce show-through. The paper is opaque enough that I don't notice the lines on the back of the page, except in poetic settings.
References and footnotes are coded with letters to the text. Footnotes are in normal letters and references are in italics. While I need to remember what's what, it keeps me from confusing a verse number with a footnote.
Verse numbers and footnotes/reference keys are small and easily ignored when reading. Some Bibles highlight them, which makes viewing easier but also hinders reading time. It's easy for me to ignore them in Clarion, and I won't stop reading aloud when I come across a letter or number. I don't get distracted by every footnote while reading.
The columns are 3.5 inches wide and about 64 characters long, allowing for 12-14 words per line. The word spacing looks natural. No words are too close together and there are no extra spaces between them. The inner margin is wide enough so that the text does not protrude too far into the binding. I still end up flattening the page to make it more readable.
The NIV edition has my favorite layout of the Clarions I've reviewed. My favorite layout so far has been NKJV. The text has more white space than the other editions. Thus the NIV mentally arranges the Psalms with stanzas between them, and the dialogue is laid out in single lines. Because of this, NIV has more sides than other Clarions.
My perfect Bible would remove the footnote and reference keys from the text. That would make it difficult to use, but I read the text more than I look for footnotes or references. I didn't think it would be so difficult to use. The footnotes of the sources already show the corresponding verse number. Footnotes need the word they match. Clarion needs this less than other Bibles.
references
NIV cross-references are placed in the margin as close as possible to the corresponding verses. They are identified with bold chapter and verse numbers. This gives you the added benefit of being able to scan the margin to find the verse number and then search through the verses to easily find any verse. It uses the Zondervan 1984 cross-referencing system.
Here is an example of references to help you compare:
- Genesis 1:1 - John 1:1-2; Job 38:4; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 42:5; 44:24; 45:12, 18; Acts 17:24; Hebrews 11:3; Acts 4:11
- Deuteronomy 6:4 – Mark 12:29; 1 Corinthians 8:4
- Matthew 17:20 – Matthew 21:21; 13:31; Mark 11:23; Luke 17:6; 1 Cor 13:2
- Mark 11:23 – Matthew 21:21
- Markus 12:29 - x
- Johannes 1:1 – Off 19:13; Johannes 17:5; 1 Johannes 1:2; PHP 2:6
- 1 John 1:1 – John 1:2, 14; 2 Peter 1:16; John 20:27
footnotes
NIV footnotes appear in the footer and are encoded in the text with regular letters. The footer shows the letter and verse number that the notes correspond to. The footnotes are standard NIV footnotes and contain information about the original language, alternative versions, weights and measures, alternative names, information such as diseases, flora, fauna, musical instruments, clothing, etc. Text and can help to understand the culture.
approval
The concordance comprises 102 pages in two-column format. It contains an up-to-date index of persons. Most are a paragraph or two, but there are enough to aid in study and sermon preparation. It puts similar words in brackets to give you ideas on how to broaden your search. It uses the 2011 Zondervan concordance.
Here are some examples of reference count entries to help you compare:
- Christ (from Christ, Christ, Messiah) – 69
- Of Christ (Christ) – 3
- Christ (Christus) – 1
- Faith (faithful, faithful, faithful, unfaithful) – 65
- Faithful (faith) – 31
- Loyalty (Faith) – 3
- Loyalty (faith) – 15
- Without Faith (Faith) – 3
- God (God's, piety, pious, gods) - 5 columns
- Inspired by God (breathed) – 1
- Of God (God) – 28
- Piety (God) – 4
- Divine (God) – 4
- Gods (God) – 2
- Jesus - 5 main themes with several sub-themes and many passages of Scripture and references in each
- Life
- Wunder
- secondary school
- parables
- Younger
- praise (praised, praised, praised) – 32
- Praised (Praise) – 5th
- praise (praise) – 4
- praise (praise) – 2
- Pray (pray, pray, pray, pray) – 17
- Prayed (to pray) – 3
- Prayer (pray) – 13
- Prayers (pray) – 4
- Pray (pray) – 4
cards
There is an 8 page color coded map index so you can quickly find anything on the maps. It is printed on the same paper as the cards. The index is color-coded to highlight:
- liquidations
- Politically
- Terra
- water
- Drive with
- Jerusalem
There are 16 pages of 15 color charts on non-glossy paper. This paper isn't the heaviest card stock in other Bibles, but it's not flimsy either. They are more colorful than most cards. This includes Notes, Routes, Boundaries, Water, Topography, Dates, Distances, Cities, Vegetation, Battle Locations and much more.
The cards include:
- The Ancient Orient in the Late Bronze Age
- Palestine regions and environs
- Sinai and Canaan at the time of the Exodus
- Israel in Canaan
- The United Monarchy of David and Solomon
- Israel and Judah: The Divided Monarchy
- the Assyrian Empire
- The Babylonian Empire
- the Persian Empire
- The Hellenistic World after Alexander
- Jerusalem in Old Testament times
- Jerusalem in New Testament times
- Palestine in New Testament times
- The Roman Empire
- The Eastern Mediterranean in the First Century AD
Using NIV Clarion
Charge
It looks a little thick due to its thickness, but it really isn't that difficult to carry around. I carried both editions with me and used them in the car. Their size makes them great options for carrying Bibles. It's not as easy to carry around as a thinner edition like a Pitt Minion, but it doesn't feel like a large Bible.
reading
The opacity of the paper makes the line adjustment almost invisible where the lines are printed. Text remains dark and clear. Chapter numbers and reference/footnote keys are easy to ignore. I had no trouble reading this for an extended period of time. The thickness of the paper eliminates side curl, making the NIV Clarion much easier to use in the car than other editions.
I prefer to hold the Bible in my hand while I read. The form factor is not as easy to handle as a Concord. I would consider the Concord closer to perfect size. Clarion is shorter but much thicker. This causes the pages to fall out if you tilt the Bible too far toward you to read. It also makes it a little harder to hold, but I never wanted to stop reading, so it never got too difficult to manage.
Both editions are easy to use, but I found the calfskin better to hold and read than the goatskin. The goatskin lets the sides of the pages fall away from you, causing the text to fold, while the calf split keeps the pages flat and the lines straight. The column width can make it difficult to find the beginning of the next row if the row isn't straight.
I found that I changed the weight of the Bible so the page I'm reading is flat. This is easy to do with any cover, but the calf split was a little easier to manage. This is not a problem if you read while holding the Bible in both hands or laying it on a table.
To study
NIV Clarion uses Zondervan cross-referencing and concordance. Together with the NIV footnotes, they make the Clarion a good choice for undergraduate studies. I find the paragraph layout conducive to study because it helps keep the verses in context.
Current information about the people in the concordance is a great help for the study. For example, I wanted to read about the miracles of Jesus. The Concordance has a list in the entry for Jesus called miracles. This lists 34 miracles performed by Jesus with references to all of the Gospels in which they are found.
The Apostle related lists are much less detailed, but there's enough here to get you started. Each apostle is listed separately and the list is a basic overview of events. Most people in the Concordance have a few paragraphs in their list. Jesus has multiple paragraphs and is the most detailed.
sermon
I love the paragraph format for reading, but I was never a fan of using them for preaching until Clarion came along.
Preaching NIV Clarion is easy. I'm not used to preaching from a paragraph edit, but I can find the verses more easily by looking up the verse number in the references in the margin. Then I look through the text and find the verse I want.
The font size looks a lot bigger than it is and I had no trouble finding the next line. Sometimes I used my finger to help me hold my place even though the text was crumpled in the waistband. Wide line spacing (the space between lines) helps a lot.
There are several advantages of using the Clarion as a preaching Bible:
- Decent font size. Unless you need giant print, I don't think the font size will be too small for preaching.
- When you see verses in paragraphs, you can see the full context.
- Clarion's overall footprint is perfect for small canopies.
- It is a reference edition with many learning aids.
- Distractions in the text are minimized.
This makes Clarion the perfect choice for preaching trips. I recommend using Clarion for nailing.
comparisons
Here you can see how NIV Clarion compares to calf leatherESV,NKJV, zKJVprocessed. I might even put one inunityIt is aPitt Minionor two.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The NIV is my favorite edition of the Cambridge Clarion. It has a better layout and much better paper than my previous editions. It's a little thicker, but that can't be remedied with the current height and width, and it's worth the extra thickness to have the white space in the poetic settings. The text is easy to read and the tools are good for studying, making Clarion a good all-around Bible. Both skins I reviewed have their pros and cons, and I like them both for different reasons.
In my opinion the Cambridge Clarion NIV Edition is the best NIV available. If you just want it a little chunkier, I recommend the veal split edition. If you want elegance, goatskin is the best choice. Both are great choices. I recommend the NIV Clarion to every NIV fan.
Cambridge made these Bibles available for review free of charge. I was under no obligation to leave a positive review - just an honest review. my opinion is mine