Thompson Chain-Reference Bible King James Version/Large Print/Plain/Deluxe Bonded Burgundy Leather Paperback – Large Print, 1 April 1997

Good quality. Paper is fine as expected in a bible.Some diagrams in the study material and I like the chain-linking. Solid Bible to have in the library. I wouldn't carry it around as it's a bit large and heavy for me but it fits in my small backpack. Seems to have a good reputation among those who study the Bible.

English Bibles should contain as near to the exact translation as possible...This one does you can't beat The KJV Translation and this one is complete and has the added bonus of the Reference. Print is easy to read, larger than ordinary print but not huge. Oh and the leather is real and soft and the pages silky smooth, all in all a brilliant study Bible.

I have tried for a long time to get a Kirkbride Thompson chain with decent print. At last i have found it. Yes the bible is large, but unlike the other Kirkbride Thompson chains i have viewed and bought ( & returned), this one has reasonable size print and good paper. The notes are simply amazing.

Its very very good.. Its great since along with the whole KJV version, it has so much additional information. If you are planning to get a new bible only, I would actually recommend this one instead.

A Good Bible to have, but this one as far as I could see described as a large print was inaccurate. The Bible was much bigger than a normal size but when you looked inside it was simply more plain white border around the text giving a much bigger Bible, now I’m not saying there was no enlargement of the text but it was very little.

This Bible is the best for casual and serious studiers alike as the references and subject sections are incredibly helpful... Every Christian should have one of these if they want to know more about the Bible!

Purely as a book, this is a pretty good Bible; the gilding is a bit uneven and the pages are pretty thin (I creased some of mine on the second day of ownership, even with me being careful), but it feels solid and is about as small as it could be for something that packs in so much . The description refers to it a a large print Bible, but it’s really not. I have a large print Bible and the main text in this must be a good couple of point sizes smaller. Again, that couldn’t be helped if the Bible was to be kept to a relatively manageable size.But it’s the content that someone would buy this for, and as a Bible it is absolutely stuffed to the gunwales with study aids, reference sections and other handy things that should give someone studying the Word - with appropriate commitment - some really good assistance.The heart of the Thompson chain-reference Bible is its ‘Condensed Cyclopedia of Topics and Texts’ at the back, a 400+ page list of subjects listed in alphabetical order, each with what Thompson called a ‘pilot number’ next to it. Many verses in this Bible have these pilot numbers next to them in the margins, and by looking up that pilot number, a reader can then go on to other verses in the Bible that either contain the same single word or that reference the same subject. Also in the margins are links to subsequent verses that do the same job.Together it’s an interesting study aid, and one that forces careful and considered study of particular topics rather than picking a verse or passage at random and going from there; this fact is actually mentioned in a ‘study methods’ section of this Bible. At the same time, all the pilot numbers, chain-references and forward links in the margins can also be quite daunting, especially at first, and not helped by the lack of a ‘help’ section that I think could do with a modern update. In my opinion, this is not really a Bible for someone who studies only casually.Behind the cyclopedia is a pretty packed concordance, plus a very handy glossary of words translated from the King James Version language into more modern language. There’s also a maps section at the very back, plus some quite nice photos interspersed in the cyclopedia that really help to make it stand out.So, as a study-aid Bible, this really is something different to the norm, and something I think would be of great value to a committed reader. I can’t fault the content of this Bible, or the chain-reference system, but I do have four caveats , all of which I realise are purely subjective and will depend on the reader:First, I think that the order of sections needs very slight looking at; having the ‘study methods’ section right at the front would help a lot.Second, the help section that tells you how to use the chain-reference system and the cyclopedia was written some time ago and didn’t help me very much when I first got this Bible; thankfully, there are helpful YouTube videos that give explanations and I used these quite a bit at first.Third, in using this Bible you have to flick constantly between the Word and the cyclopedia at the back. As the heart of this Bible, it would make things much easier if the cyclopedia was it own, separate book or pull-out. I realise that this would make it no longer self-contained, which is one of the beauties of this Bible, but it would make study more accessible.Fourth, having so many separate sections in one book really does necessitate some kind of thumb index, which is missing from this version. I resorted to putting sticky note markers on the various sections, which does the trick but doesn’t exactly look great.As I said, I really can’t fault the content of this Bible, or the chain-reference system, all of which combine to form a really useful set of study-aids. But, would I have this as my only Bible? No, as I think it’s a bit too unwieldy for some situations and the print size is slightly too small for my eyes. Would I have it as my only study Bible? No, as I do occasionally favour casual study and this Bible isn’t really for that. Would I have this as a second study Bible? Absolutely! They say you get out what you put in and if you have the time and the commitment then this is a fantastic addition to any Christian’s library.

I bought this bible as a gift for my dad, who is in his 80's. The print is large, which is exactly what he needed. It looks to be of very good quality, and hopefully will last for many years.