Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament

Product Information

In addition, topical essays and word studies include interpretations from the Fathers of the Church, the Catholic Magisterium, and faithful Catholic scholars.

For one thing, there are fewer translations with the full canon, so one does not need to spend nearly as much time sifting through the numerous and various options out there. It also includes a biblical reading guide, theme summary, chronology, maps, glossary, and topical index. It is a literal, word-for-word translation that uses “King James English” (“thee” and “thou”) when addressing God, but is otherwise translated into today’s English. The NABRE text is presented in single-column format with expanded outer margins, well segregated from the two-column NABRE footnotes below, which reclaim the extra margin space. The NJB comes with its own set of notes, and these reflect a mix of traditional and critical approaches.Both feature the top-notch RSV translation and their notes are generally faithful to Church tradition. The Ignatius Study Bible is a triumph of both piety and scholarship, in the best Catholic tradition: simply the most useful succinct commentary that any Christian or other interested person could hope for. While these differences result in nothing like the range of options found in Protestantism, they can be important nonetheless. The pages are thin in the paperback edition - but that is understandable given the total number of pages! It also includes a doctrinal index, concordance, cross-reference system, and various maps and charts.

Twelve Timeline charts provide a visual overview of the Bible, including: important characters, key events, geography, major covenants, world rulers, and contemporary events in secular history. The typeface is slightly smaller and finer than the classic RSV edition, and the bolding used to navigate the annotations is comparatively muted, but the paper is a modestly cool white, so visual contrast is good, and the text remains readable.Donald Senior, CP, is President Emeritus, Chancellor, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. These are written by many prominent biblical scholars, featuring the same kind of modern-higher-critical opinions that the NABRE notes do. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, which promotes biblical literacy among Catholic laity and biblical fluency among Catholic clergy. For context, I already use the Didache Bible and the Catholic Book Publishing Company’s New Catholic Bible translation, both of which seem to have really good study notes. I really like the format, and the notes are SUCH a breath of fresh air compared with the notes in the New American Bible, which seem to go out of their way to disprove the Bible.

So whether it is a simple pew Bible, a youth Bible, or a full-sized family Bible, readers get the same notes. This is because there are fewer translations that contain the full canon of Scripture (including the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament), and the number of such bibles that include study tools is smaller. Suitable options include both study editions of Catholic Bibles, and editions of “ecumenical” Study Bibles containing the full canon of 73 books.

It's a complete NAB edition with maps, clarifications, historical data, everything you would need to know. NOTE: I am not a biblical scholar so my observations on the translations will be more theological than linguistic. When the Old Testament was revised, it was officially replaced by the New American Bible Revised Edition. The title and study notes were inspired by the Midwest Theological Forum’s Didache series of religious education textbooks, and are very often based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.