PLAINSONG PRESS
A reader’s edition of the Berean Standard Bible. One column. No notes, no headings, no cross-references—only the text, set to be read the way you read any other book. Verse numbers stand in the margin, out of the line of reading.
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The New TestamentMajority Standard BibleTranslated from the Byzantine Majority Text
The Majority Standard Bible New Testament in a clean single-column hardcover. Words of Christ in red, cross references in the margin, and footnotes on every page showing where the Critical Text and Textus Receptus differ. Made for unhurried reading and thoughtful study.
The New TestamentMajority Standard Bible
- Hardcover, 6 × 9 in., with a navy-and-gold dust jacket
- Single-column paragraph layout
- Words of Christ in red
- About 3,100 footnotes on the page where each verse appears
- Cross references in the outer margin, level with each verse
- 628 pages
Built to be read, and built for study
Most of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament agree closely with one another. The Majority Standard Bible translates that broad, common stream of witnesses, the Byzantine Majority Text edited by Maurice Robinson and William Pierpont, into clear, dignified English.
This New Testament is built to be read. The text runs in a single column in paragraphs, under the section headings of the MSB, with parallel passages listed beneath each heading. Poetry and Old Testament quotations are set as verse, and the words of Jesus appear in red.
It is also built for study. A column of cross references in the outer margin stands level with each verse. Footnotes sit at the foot of the page where the verse appears, recording alternate and literal renderings, Old Testament sources, and the readings of the Critical Text editions and the Textus Receptus wherever the difference shows in English. Running heads give the verse range on every page, and a tab on the outer edge carries the book name.
Bound in hardcover with a navy dust jacket, it is made for unhurried reading, thoughtful study, and a lifetime of use.
| TRIM SIZE | 6 × 9 in. (152 × 229 mm) |
|---|---|
| PAGES | 628 |
| BINDING | Hardcover with dust jacket |
| TYPEFACE | TeX Gyre Pagella |
| LANGUAGE | English |
| TEXT | Majority Standard Bible (public domain) |
| PUBLISHER | Plainsong Press, Lillington, North Carolina |
| PRINTING | Print on demand |
Something is taking shape
For months I have been at work on something quiet: a Bible with nothing on the page but the text. Its name is The Quire.
One column. No footnotes, no headings, no cross references. The Berean Standard Bible, word for word, set to be read from Genesis to Revelation the way you would read any other book.
And this is only the beginning.
A few things I can tell you now
Genuine leather in black, navy, brown and burgundy. Thin Bible paper, with the lines matched front and back. Smyth-sewn, with art-gilt edges and a slipcase. The rest in the new year.
Where things stand
A new proof was finished on 10 October. Its New Testament is out in a small print-on-demand trial so it can be read and tested on real paper. Quotes are in from established Bible printers. Sample copies in each leather option are being made now, on the chosen paper with the endpapers and slipcase, and should ship in early November. Once I’ve had them in hand, I’ll choose the printer, by 1 December.
What comes next
The Quire opens on Kickstarter in early 2027. Use the Get launch updates button at the top of this page and you’ll hear from me the day it opens.
One small favor
If you know someone who reads the Bible cover to cover, send them this page. And if the first pages strike you one way or another, write to me at info@plainsongpress.net. I read every message.
Grace and peace,
Mark Garland
Plainsong Press
Now in proof.
The Quire is typeset and being proofread. The first printing is planned through Kickstarter.
Something is taking shape
The first Plainsong newsletter: leather, paper and binding for The Quire, sample copies on the way, and the printer to be chosen by 1 December. Read it here.
The MSB New Testament is available
The New Testament of the Majority Standard Bible, translated from the Byzantine Majority Text, is ready to order: a 6 × 9 hardcover with the words of Christ in red, cross references in the margin, and footnotes showing where the Critical Text and Textus Receptus differ. Order the New Testament.
A new proof, front to back
The 10 October build adds the front of the book—title page, copyright, the BSB preface and a full contents—with a heading at every chapter, running heads in the outer corners, and the Hebrew letters in Psalm 119 and Lamentations. The whole Bible now runs 1,983 pages.
All sixty-six books in proof
The whole Bible has been typeset and is being checked page by page against the source text.
The website is live
Plainsong Press now has a home online. News of The Quire will be posted here as the work goes on.
Kickstarter
The first printing will be funded through Kickstarter. Use the button above to hear the day it opens.
What is a quire?
Before a book is bound, it is folded. Sheets are folded in half and nested one inside another, then sewn together through the fold. That gathering is a quire.
The word comes from the Latin quaterni, “sets of four,” by way of Old French, because medieval scribes most often built their gatherings from four folded sheets: eight leaves, sixteen pages. A book was a stack of quires sewn one to the next, and a well-bound book is still made the same way. The Quire is Smyth-sewn: gathered in signatures and stitched through the fold, so it opens flat and lasts.
The word has a second life. In the Book of Common Prayer, “quire” is also how choir is spelled: “In Quires and Places where they sing.” For a press named for plainsong, the double meaning is a gift.
The book at its plainest
A quire is the smallest whole unit of a book: leaves, folded and sewn, before anything else is added. The name says what this edition sets out to be.
Most Bibles are built for study. Section headings, footnotes and cross-references stand between the reader and the text, and they cut it into pieces meant to be looked up rather than read. The Quire takes them away. What is left is the Berean Standard Bible, set verbatim in a single column, on a page made for reading at length—a chapter at a sitting, or a whole book.
It keeps only what you need to find your place: a running head in the outer corner, a verse number in the margin, a heading, a short summary and a capital at each chapter’s opening. Everything the editors added prints in navy, so the words of scripture are always the black on the page.
The Quire is the first edition from Plainsong Press.
The text is the melody.
Plainsong is the cantus firmus—the given melody every other voice is composed against.
Scripture has one. From the promise in the garden to the Lamb on the throne, the story of Christ and the salvation He brings runs beneath every book—the one melody the whole canon sings.
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.”
LUKE 24:27
That is how this press makes Bibles. The text carries the melody, so it is fixed and set verbatim; whatever an edition adds is counterpoint over it, and never louder.
The whole text
All sixty-six books of the Berean Standard Bible, from the current text: the July 2026 edition. Set verbatim and checked against the source word by word.
Numbers in the margin
Verse numbers hang in the outer margin, so you can find your place without the line being broken to show it.
Poetry as poetry
Psalms and prophets keep the translators’ own line breaks. In Psalm 119 and Lamentations, each acrostic stanza carries its Hebrew letter and name.
Two inks
Black for the scripture. Navy for everything the editors added—heads, numbers, capitals, and the ornament that closes each book.