In the Margins

A documentary series in three parts

In the Margins

The untold story of J. Mark Bertrand

Begin with Episode One All episodes · 30 min

Blessed is he that readeth.

Revelation 1:3

The Episodesthree films, about ten minutes each

  1. 10:02

    Episode One

    The Reader

    Splintery pews, a single Scofield Bible and a brother nearly lost at the Mexican border. A literature student becomes a crime novelist with a typographer's eye, and asks why the Bible is printed like a telephone directory.

    Watch · 10 min
  2. 9:33

    Episode Two

    The Revolution

    In September 2007, Bible Design Blog goes live. The readers come, then the publishers: single-column text, sewn bindings, reader's editions without chapter or verse. It ends with a magazine cover, a new society at the Museum of the Bible, and a call to the pulpit.

    Watch · 10 min
  3. 10:16

    Episode Three

    The Call

    The critic becomes a pastor. He is ordained in 2017, preaches through First Corinthians at Grace Presbyterian Church, teaches church history, and brings Worldview Wednesdays home to Sioux Falls. Everything comes back to reading the text aloud.

    Watch · 10 min

About the series

For much of the last century, Bibles were made to be looked things up in, not read. Double columns, tissue-thin paper, glued spines, and every verse set apart by a number.

In 2007 a novelist and typographer named J. Mark Bertrand started writing about how Bibles are made. Bible Design Blog found readers all over the world, publishers started paying attention, and the reader's Bible went from a fringe idea to a shelf of its own.

Then, just as that golden age arrived, he answered a different call. Today he is a pastor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where on Sunday mornings he does what all those pages were made for. He reads the Bible aloud.

Narration
A synthetic British voice
Music
Original score
Type
EB Garamond
Produced by
Stephen Bertrand