Filling In with Vibrant Color: A Review of the CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible

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Nov 18

For many in the church, reading the Bible today is like looking at a blank coloring book. Not only are readers separated by thousands of years, they are also separated by thousands of geographic miles from the ancient world that the Scripture describes. This causes a lot of Christians to focus on the sharp lines of theology and doctrine that fundamentally shape the Bible while, at the same time, failing to see the vibrant colors of its historical context.

The CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible does an excellent job of filling in those vibrant colors! Let’s talk about some of the cool features included in this new Bible!

Book Introductions

Each book of the Bible begins with an introduction that gives the reader the circumstances of the book, the contribution it provides to the overall Bible, and the theme and genre of the book. In some places, the introduction will talk about the evidence supporting the authorship of certain books. For example, in the introduction for the Gospel of Luke it says, “Considerable evidence points to Luke as its author. Much of that proof is found in the book of Acts, which identifies itself as a sequel to Luke (Ac 1:1-3). A major line of evidence has to do with the so-called ‘we’ sections of the book (Ac 16:10-17; 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-37; 28:1-16).” In this sense, the CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible can be used for apologetics study -- which is right up our alley!

Images, Maps, and Illustrations

There are over 1,200 images, maps, and illustrations of the people, places, and artifacts of the Bible to fill in those vibrant colors when reading the text. This really drives home the point that the Bible isn’t just some book, it is the real history of God interacting with His creation!

“Digging Deeper” Feature

This is a very cool feature that, again, can be used for apologetics study! More than 40 call-outs are situated throughout this Bible in order to help explain a variety of places and artifacts and why they are so important to the text. Here is an excerpt from a “Digging Deeper” on the pool of Siloam: “The pool of Siloam (Jn 9:1-12) was discovered by accident in 2004 as workers in Jerusalem dug to repair a sewer pipe that was located only a few feet above the buried ruins… Ancient coinage and pottery found at the site date from the time of Christ, placing the pool well within the context of the story of Jesus healing a blind man here.”

In-Depth Articles

More than 275 full-length articles provide great insight and understanding to the ancient world and culture that the Bible describes. Here’s an excerpt from an article entitled “The Egypt that Joseph Knew”: “According to early chronology Jacob entered Egypt about 1876 BC… Statues and other likenesses of other these pharaohs have survived, providing a remarkable glimpse into the very faces of people Joseph knew.”

Note about the CSB Translation

This is technically not the most literal translation. NASB and ESV are the closest to literal on the scale between formal (or literal) and dynamic (or paraphrase). For the Bible reader that wants to stay close to the word-for-word translation, the CSB is not the best translation compared to others. Having said that, it’s closer to a literal translation than the NIV. So I think this particular Bible is acceptable for readers to enjoy!

Highly Recommended!

I highly recommend this Bible for the articles, images, and more. Also, it looks aesthetically pleasing, the pages feel good between the fingers, and quotations to Old Testament passages are in contrasted bold lettering. This is just an all-around good-looking Bible!