Holman KJV Ultrathin Reference Bible


Holman Bible Publishers, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4336-0547-5 Indexed
978-1-4336-0546-8 Non-Indexed

We received this Bible in August of 2014. Its compact size combined with a reasonably-sized font make it a good Bible for carrying to church services or Bible studies.

The cover is brown genuine cowhide. Our copy is thumb-indexed. For this particular Bible, we recommend the non-indexed edition for reasons which will be seen below.

For those who prefer a KJV with the older spellings associated with the 1769 edition, this Bible is very close. In the spot-checking that I did, I noticed that the British spellings are retained ("colours" instead of "colors," "vapour" instead of "vapor," etc.). "Saviour" is retained over "Savior." "Alway," where it was used instead of "always," has been retained. "Throughly" was left in every place I spot-checked except Genesis 11:3, where it was changed to "thoroughly." We have "shewbread" on the table, and the temple that Solomon built is "exceeding magnifical" (1 Chron. 22:5) and "wonderful great" (2 Chron. 2:9). In the places where I spot-checked, Sion, where used, has not been changed to Zion, and where the spellings of proper names differed in the New Testament (i.e., Noe for Noah, Esaias for Isaiah, Elias for Elijah, etc.), they have not been changed.



Click on the images at the left to see the full-sized photos


Here is the front of the box. The back of the box is blank.

This is a no-nonsense Bible without a lot of features, but it does have a few other features that are not listed on the box.


A view of the Bible closed.



Here is a view of the closed Bible from another angle.


The index tabs are black for the Old Testament and red for the New Testament.


If a publisher is going to do red lettering, this - in my opinion - is the way to do it. Notice how the lettering is distinct, but is tinted in such a way that it is not glaring. It's more of a brownish-red, and it is consistent throughout, rather than being lighter in some places and darker in others.

This photo also demonstrates that the type, as stated on the box, is indeed "Easy-to-Read."


The red lettering even looks good on pages that are ALL red letter text.


The center-column references are arranged such that those for the left column of the text are grouped at the top of the page, and those for the right column of text are grouped at the bottom.

This Bible does not have the variant readings or literal renderings found in some editions of the KJV.


Not up on your King James English? No problem! This Bible has a glossary to help you! It's also got a concordance, a simplified Harmony of the Gospels, tables of Jesus' parables, miracles and predictions, and prophecies of the Old Testament and of Jesus' second coming.


In the early days of bookbinding, bands along the spine were an artifact of the bookbinding process, caused by cords passing underneath the leather. Now, they are purely decorative. Some Bibles, such as the Thompson Chain Reference Bible on the bottom, add embossments. The NKJV Wide Margin Bible (in the middle) has raised the leather to form the bands, but if you push down on the bands, the leather will flatten. The bands on the KJV Ultrathin Reference Bible are much more substantial, and are solid. They don't flatten out when you push down on them.


This photo shows how easily this Bible fits in an average-sized hand for carrying.


Here's another photo showing the size of the Bible, when closed, relative to my hand.


This Bible even fits nicely in one hand when open.


Here's another photo showing the size of my hand in relation to this Bible.


Here's how the KJV Ultrathin "stacks up" to some other Bibles I have carried. From the top down, we have a Zondervan Compact Reference Bible, a Thompson Chain Reference Bible (Handy Size), the KJV Ultrathin, and a Scofield Reference Bible (1967 Edition).


Here's a side-by-side comparison of the KJV Ultrathin with the Zondervan Compact. Though both are quite readable, I found the Holman Ultrathin a little easier to read.


Here's a side-by-side comparison of the KJV Ultrathin with the Thompson Handy Size. The Ultrathin doesn't have as many features as the Thompson, but that allows space for a larger and more readable font.


This Bible is printed in China.


The following photos show that, in some places, the text is so crammed together that there is very little space between words. The examples below show 2 Samuel 15:15, 15:36, 17:25, 2 Kings 16:3 and 2 Corinthians 11:9. This was a little distracting to me at first, but I soon grew accustomed to it and don't really notice it anymore.




The only defect we found in our copy concerned the thumb cut for the concordance. It actually cut into the text of the last few pages of Revelation, and in one case shaved off one of the superscripts for a cross-reference (see the third photo below).

In addition, you can see in some of the photos above that this Bible has narrow margins on the sides, so that the indexing cuts very close to the text in some places. For this reason, and to avoid the possibility of the defect we have in our copy, we recommend getting a non-indexed copy if you don't really need the indexing.

This Bible DOES have a LIFETIME WARRANTY against defects.




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