God’s Word – combined single/double column format

I received a review copy from Baker Publishing of the newest layout of the God’s Word translation. Well done!

While there are still some changes I would like to see in the translation itself, I have been very pleased with what Baker has done from a publishing perspective. This latest change maintains a primary layout feature of GW, namely the single column format. But at the same time, narrative sections could be harder to read due to long lines, font size, line spacing, etc. This GW Thinline Edition solves this problem by combining the best of both worlds.

“Books that are primarily prose are presented in two columns to create shorter easier-to-read lines, while books that are primarily poetry are single-column to preserve parallelism, a key element of Hebrew poetry.”

This edition fails in two areas (I use “fail” in the sense of the stated purpose): 1. A primarily prose book contains some poetry, then the poetic line is shortened, and GW has the same problem as most two column Bibles (Exodus 15:1-7). 2. A quote of poetry within a prose book (Romans 3:10-18).

Aside from this minor area, I really like the format. The best of both worlds for reading — and understanding.

Thanks, and well done.