I was very pleased to see that Zondervan has released the 2nd edition of their A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible. In a previous review, I had several complaints against the print quality of the 1st edition. Many of those complaints have been resolved with this 2nd edition. The new edition has an attractive cloth binding that feels durable and lays flat very well. Gone is the stark white onion paper; in its place, Zondervan has adopted a cream alternative. Unfortunately, this new paper is still thin and see-through, creating eyestrain with layers of text in the background. However, the cream is a major improvement over the white of the previous edition. The fonts for both testaments are attractive, but the Greek is not as nice as that of the Tyndale Greek New Testament. The Hebrew section differentiates poetry from prose, starting a new line after the atnach with poetry. Both sections use a full width, single-column format for the footnotes. This is not as easy to use as the double format column used by the BHS, UBS, and Tyndale readers.
In the first edition, I observed several instances where the footnote was misplaced or missing or where the gloss was wrong. I cannot tell from the introductions whether the mistakes in the 1st edition were fixed.
Overall, for reading aesthetics and durability, the 2nd Edition of A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible is a significant improvement. There remains room for improvement, especially with paper opacity, but it is great to see the continued effort towards improving this unique resource.
