The NIV Gospel of John with Devotional Notes from Zondervan is not a book. It is an 83 page pocket booklet containing one book of the Bible, and it exists to be given away.
An earlier version of this review treated it as a resource for men to study and discuss, and tied it to a content pillar on this site. That missed the point of the product entirely.
What it is for
Zondervan sells these in packs of 10 and packs of 25. Churches buy them for outreach, for door to door work, for handing to someone at the end of a conversation that went somewhere real. That is the design brief and the price reflects it.
The NIV text is the whole of John’s Gospel. In the margin there is a simple lettering system that points to passages on the theme of salvation, so a person reading it alone can follow that thread without knowing where to look. That is the one genuine feature, and it is well done for what it is.
It fits in a shirt pocket.
The practical warning
The listing on this page is the Kindle edition. Buying a digital copy of a giveaway tract defeats the purpose. You cannot hand it to anyone, and if you want John on your phone you already have it free in any Bible app.
If this is what you actually want, buy the physical multipacks. The 25 pack carries ISBN 0310081068 and the 10 pack is 0310436044.
Is John a good choice for this?
Yes, and it has been the standard choice for over a century for good reason. John states his purpose inside the book: that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. It assumes no prior knowledge, it is narrative rather than argument, and it moves.
If you are going to put one book of the Bible in a stranger’s hand, this is the one.
Worth your time?
As something to read yourself, no. You almost certainly own a Bible. Read John in the one you have.
As something to keep a box of in your truck, yes. It costs almost nothing and it removes the excuse of not having anything to give someone.
The 25 pack on Amazon · The 10 pack · Kindle edition