Due out later this year, the CEB Study Bible will come in a number of different cover options including hardcover, deco-tone, and leather. It will be available with and without the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals).
Having looked at a few of the sample pages, the single-column page format looks great and should assist with the overall readability of the volume. You can view a sample of the CEB Study Bible here, which includes the entire Gospel of Mark.
The CEB Study Bible combines the reliability and readability one expects of the Common English Bible translation with notes and other resources to help readers grow in their understanding of and engagement with the Bible. Each biblical book has an introduction that provides an overview of the book and other details like authorship and theme. Extensive study notes throughout the Bible provide information for the reader to understand the text within the larger historical and literary framework of the Bible and give important parallel and background verses. Unique to The CEB Study Bible are 210 sidebar articles for topics that require more discussion than the format of a study note allows. Concordance; 21 full-color maps from National Geographic; five articles from contributing scholars; and other additional in-text maps, charts, and pictures are included. Full color throughout.
The CEB Study Bible is due out in October
6 comments:
The first page of chapter 1 of this study bible is laid out just like 'The Little Rock Catholic Study Bible'. It also uses a single column verse structure, the references are in the same place, though I like how they are shaded in the Little Rock version.
The CEB contains informational inserts on the subjects of:
God's Kingdom, the disciples in Mark, secrecy, faith/trust,and the human One in Mark.
The Little Rock Bible has informational inserts covering:
John the Baptist, the Messianic secret, Levi the tax collector, vestiges of Aramaic and Hebrew occuring in the NT, the multiplication of the loaves comparison graph, the Decapolis, the Syrophoenician Woman, Discipleship, exorcisim, Jesus the world's reconciled with God, the generous Widow, Jews and Romans reckoned time..., The desolating abomination, An Unnamed Follower, Pontius Pilate, Archaeologists and the Holy Sepulcher, Faithful Woman Followers, An interactive ending?
As you can see the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible covered a lot more study material in information inserts located in text.
The CEB had two beautiful color photographs in Mark,
The Little Rock Bible had 9 smaller black and white photos plus 6 small in verse maps, 5 prayer starter inserts, and 1 Liturgical informational insert.
Overall I like 'The Little Rock Catholic Study Bible' and the information that it presents in the Gospel of Mark.
The "Human One?" Really? Why not translate it accurately for connotation as "Son of Adam?" Because that's what Jesus is saying after all, with all the rich stuff that phrase brings.
I am ambivalent about buying any more "ecumenical" type study bibles even if publisher states a Cahtolic or two were contributors. The theological differences in areas like original sin and it effect on human nature, justification in Paul, etc. can be so broad and wide and so I am never sure how really helpful the notes and articles will be.
That is an excellent example of where 'dynamic equivalent' just doesn't work...the fact is that no one really knows what Christ'a title of Son of Man' really means...leaving it in the literal form keeps the mystery intact, translating it as anything else creates an interpretation, which is just one translator's opinion.
A small correction: the only CEB Study Bible edition with the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals is the hardcover edition.
The bonded leather and DecoTone editions both contain the Protestant canon only.
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The funniest part of the advertisement-sampler is the comment on page 4 that this book is designed for "collectors of study Bibles." Well, I suppose so.
Based on the text in this sampler, I do not think that this work will threaten the academic territory staked out by the big NRSV study Bibles such as the New Oxford Annotated Bible or the HarperCollins Study Bible. Like the CEB translation itself, the CEB Study Bible just does not seem to aim very high -- and does not seem appropriate for college students. I think it may be aimed for those with lower levels of education achievement (sort of a Mainline alternative to the NLT Study Bible.)
Unfortunately, dumbing down the language in Bible translations has been going on for years. Even the NRSV is written at a significantly lower reading level than the RSV, and if/when a revision of the NRSV is approved, it will no doubt be written in a lower reading level still.
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