More Bibles from Saint Benedict Press

The Bible editions are coming fast and furious from the fine folks at Saint Benedict Press. They are now offering, via pre-order, two new editions of the NAB. They are both NAB gift Bibles to celebrate First Communion and Confirmation.

As of now, they both come in hardbound editions and include a nice selection of Bible "extras".

Here is the description of the First Communion edition followed by the Confirmation one:

"This hardbound, gold-embossed New American Bible contains pages of colorful images, child-friendly stories on the lives of young Saints, daily Catholic prayers, including how to pray the Rosary, and explanations of the Seven Sacraments. This elegant edition also contains an explanation of the Mass and the complete Calendar of Sunday and Weekday Readings. The treasures discovered in this keepsake box will multiply the Graces received in the Sacrament of Holy Communion."

"This hardbound, gold-embossed New American Bible features stories on the lives of young Saints, explanations of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and well-known prayers written in English and Latin. This elegant edition also contains answers to teens’ top questions about Catholic moral teaching and the complete Calendar of Sunday and Weekday Readings. The treasures discovered in this keepsake box will multiply the Graces received in the Sacrament of Confirmation."

All I can say is "keep them coming!"

Catholic Bible Hopes for 2010

Having already begun a new liturgical year with the first week of Advent, we will soon be entering into the calendar year 2010. I don't know about you, but boy does time fly! The upcoming new year got me thinking about what I would, realistically, like to see happen in the world of Catholic Bibles. So, I decided to list a few of them below. While there are a ton of things I could list, keep in mind that I tried to be as realistic as possible, recognizing the realities of the issues we have discussed on this blog concerning Catholic Bibles.

So here we go:

1) Continued Release of Quality Catholic Bible Study Tools
Over the past few years, the amount of quality Bible study material for Catholics has dramatically increased. Just looking back this past year, we have seen the release of Hahn's Catholic Bible Dictionary, Emmaus Road's The Catholic Bible Concordance, as well as additional Catholic Bible commentaries including the Navarre New Testament, The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture's "Ephesians" and "2 Corinthians", and the final volumes of the Ignatius Study Bible New Testament. There are others which I could mention, like the Faith Database, but I think you get the idea.

What can we look to in 2010? Well, Ignatius Press will be releasing the one-volume Ignatius Study Bible New Testament. It is scheduled to be released in early Spring, with the first editions of the Old Testament coming soon after. I would hope that the Old Testament volumes would come out at a much quicker pace than the New Testament ones. (It would be nice, if this blog still exists in 2019, that one of my hopes for 2020 would not be the "upcoming release" of the complete 1 volume Ignatius Study Bible.) There will also be additional volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture released as well. I am also interested in checking out the 4th Edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, which will be released in February 2010.

2) The Publication of the Revised/Re-Revised NAB
This has only taken almost twenty years to complete. The Revised NAB NT was completed in 1986, with the dreadful revised Psalms in 1991. Since then, we have been stuck with a rather inconsistently translated American Catholic Bible for almost two full decades. Yet, there is some hope, with the NAB OT revised and approved and a re-revised Psalms in the works. If the revised OT and Psalms match the NT, I think it will be a decent translation overall. This would bring the entire NAB into the more formal category, slightly behind the RSV and NRSV. Also, it wouldn't be a bad thing either if they could incorporate some of the differences between the NAB we hear read at Mass into the one we read at home or in Bible study. Being able to read "Rejoice/Hail full of grace" in Luke 1:28 would be delightful!

A couple other thoughts that come to mind concerning the NAB. Whenever the revision is completed, it would be nice to see the USCCB/CBA shell out some minor funds to set up a respectable website that could promote the NAB. (Ignatius Press should do the same for their RSV-2CE as well!) The USCCB site just doesn't cut it for me, and there are plenty of other Bible translations that have fantastic sites in which to compare. (The NRSV site is not one of them!) Also, would it be too much for the NAB to come in different page layouts and formats? If you have seen one NAB, you have seen them all. Perhaps allowing a major publishing house to produce the NAB would be a good idea. Maybe the NAB could be made in a genuine leather cover too! Oooo......

3) Publication of Quality/Premium Editions of Catholic Bibles
This may well be a pipe dream, particularly with the state of the economy. However, the recent release of the Saint Benedict Press Douay-Rheims and RSV-CE does provide some hope. These new editions were not only published in multiple cover options, but also in attractive page layouts with accompanying study/prayer helps. In addition, the Little Rock Scripture Study's The Four Gospels, utilizing the NAB, also was encouraging in it's use of a single column format and informative in-text boxes which supplemented the NAB footnotes. And of course there is HarperCollins/Catholic/One who continues to publish the NRSV in different, often attractive editions. Although there always seems to be something lacking in their NRSV editions, like cross-references, I appreciate the effort. So there is some hope I think, although I am not going to wait around for the "perfect" edition to be made. (More on that in the coming weeks!)

So what are you hoping for in 2010?

Pontifical Biblical Institute at 100

The Bible according to the Sistine Chapel

Twittering at the CBA Meetings

The Catholic Biblical Association is holding their 72nd International Meeting this week (Aug. 1-4). Brant Pitre and Michael Barber, of the Singing in the Reign blog, are in attendance and will be Twittering about their experiences. For updates, you can follow them on Twitter. Information about the conference, itself, can be found here.

CTS New Catholic Bible

Well, here is something that recently was published in England. It is the CTS New Catholic Bible. For those of you in the English speaking Catholic world, outside the USA, this may be the Bible for you. It contains the original edition of the Jerusalem Bible, with the Grail Psalms inserted in place of the JB ones. Also, this new edition alters the divine name, YHWH, and has replaced it with the standard English use of LORD, in conjunction with Pope Benedict's recommendations. I commend the Catholic Truth Society for publishing this edition; it would be nice to see what the USCCB does in the future, since it adopted the Grail Psalms for the liturgy. Why not have a Bible that Catholics in American could use at Mass on Sunday and for private study and devotions? Seems like a no-brainer! It also comes in four different editions.

Below are some of the other features of the CTS New Catholic Bible:

-New specially commissioned introductions, one for each book, giving the biblical and historical context

-New specially commissioned liturgical introductions placing each book of the Bible in the Church’s liturgical year

-New footnotes following the latest scholarship

-New marginal references helping you get the most out of each passage.

-New layout – using clear and modern fonts in easy-to-read single-column format

-New text alterations, replacing the word ‘Yahweh’ with ‘the LORD’ as requested by Benedict XVI for all new Bibles

-New directories of references for readings used in the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, including the fuller two-year cycle for the Breviary.

Christians must help world understand Bible, says Orthodox patriarch

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY (CNS)

-- Sitting below Michelangelo's massive fresco of "The Last Judgment," the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople said divided Christians must be changed by God's word and must work harder to bring the joy of the Resurrection to all creation."We must experience radical 'metanoia' -- a conversion of attitudes, habits and practices -- for ways that we have misused or abused God's word, God's gifts and God's creation," Patriarch Bartholomew told the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible.After the celebration of evening prayer Oct. 18 in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Benedict XVI invited the patriarch, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, to address the synod.

When Patriarch Bartholomew, the first ecumenical patriarch to address a session of the world Synod of Bishops, had finished his 25-minute speech, the pope noted that the church fathers quoted by the patriarch are recognized as great theologians in both the East and the West."If we have fathers in common, how can we not be brothers?" Pope Benedict said. "This was a joyful experience of unity -- perhaps not full, but true and deep."

Patriarch Bartholomew spoke to the synod about hearing and speaking the word of God through the Scriptures, seeing God's word in nature and in icons, and touching and sharing God's word in the sacraments and the communion of saints.The word of God, he said, is addressed to all people at all times of history and, therefore, it must be proclaimed in a way that people can understand, and in a way that touches their lives, meets their needs and challenges them to change.

Obviously, the patriarch said, the Christian proclamation of the word would have been "greatly enhanced and strengthened if all Christians were in a position to perform it with one voice and as a fully united church."Pollution, poverty, injustice, war, racism and sexism are all signs that Christians have not done enough to help the word of God spread throughout the world, penetrate and change it, he said."

When the world does not share the joy of Christ's resurrection," the patriarch said, "this is an indictment of our own integrity and commitment to the living word of God."When God spoke and created the world, God proclaimed it "very good," Patriarch Bartholomew said. "All people and all things are created and called to be good and beautiful."But the destruction of the environment has shown that "we have behaved arrogantly and dismissively toward the natural creation," he said."

We have refused to behold God's word in the oceans of our planet, in the trees of our continents, and in the animals of our earth," the patriarch said. "We have denied our very own nature, which calls us to stoop low enough to hear God's word in creation."The patriarch, who has been a leader in promoting a Christian theology of environmental protection, told the synod that Christ, the Word of God, "receives his full embodiment in creation, above all in the sacrament of the holy Eucharist.""It is there that the Word becomes flesh and allows us not simply to hear or see him, but to touch him with our own hands," he said.And within the body of Christ, which is the church, the divine Word also is reflected in the lives and actions of the saints, he said.Called to be one with the communion of saints, all Christians have an obligation "to touch the world with the mystical force of God's word so that -- as the extended body of Christ -- the world, too, might say: 'Someone touched me,'" he said."

Evil is only eradicated by holiness, not by harshness," Patriarch Bartholomew told the synod.He said holiness is a seed that when planted in a society will bloom, touching and healing others.Even if small, he said, "it is like the tectonic plates of the earth's crust: the deepest layers need only shift a few millimeters to shatter the world's surface."

All Christians are called to holiness, the patriarch said. Striving for holiness is the only sincere response to hearing the word of God and receiving the Word of God made flesh in the Eucharist.The surest sign that a spiritual change has occurred is a willingness to share all things with all people, he said."Sadly, we have ignored the vocation and obligation to share. Social injustice and inequality, global poverty and war, ecological pollution and degradation result from our inability or unwillingness to share," he said.

Before offering the synod members his blessing, Patriarch Bartholomew said all Christians, especially Christian leaders, are called to discern, highlight and strengthen the traces of God's word in a world often marked by evil."As we struggle -- in ourselves and in our world -- to recognize the power of the cross, we begin to appreciate how every act of justice, every spark of beauty, every word of truth can gradually wear away the crust of evil," he said.

ESV with Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)

Over at Bible Design Blog, J. Mark Bertrand discovered that the new ESV with Apocrypha has a full listing at the OUP website. I am certainly happy that the ESV is coming out with an edition that could be utilized by both Catholics and Orthodox, but I am still unsure if I am going to give it a look. Why add another Bible translation to the mix when I am already trying to narrow down the ones I already have to use as a daily Bible? Perhaps I could use some convincing! :)

Here are the details, thus far:

The English Standard Version Bible captures as far as possible the precise wording of the original biblical text and the personal style of each Bible writer, while taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. The ESV thus provides an accurate rendering of the original texts that is in readable, high quality English prose and poetry. This Bible has been growing in popularity among students in biblical studies, mainline Christian scholars and clergy, and Evangelical Christians of all denominations.

Along with that growth comes the need for the books of the Apocrypha to be included in ESV Bibles, both for denominations that use those books in liturgical readings and for students who need them for historical purposes. More Evangelicals are also beginning to be interested in the Apocrypha, even though they don't consider it God's Word. The English Standard Version Bible with the Apocrypha , for which the Apocrypha has been commissioned by Oxford University Press, employs the same methods and guidelines used by the original translators of the ESV, to produce for the first time an ESV Apocrypha. This will be the only ESV with Apocrypha available anywhere, and it includes all of the books and parts of books in the Protestant Apocrypha, the Catholic Old Testament, and the Old Testament as used in Orthodox Christian churches. It will have a lovely pre-printed case binding, and will include a full-color map section, a table of weights and measures used in the Bible, and many other attractive features.

The English Standard Version Bible with Apocrypha is certain to become the preferred Bible in more conservative divinity schools and seminaries, where the Apocrypha is studied from an academic perspective. And it answers the need of conservative Christians in general for a more literal version of these books.

New Navarre New Testament

I have known many people who have been blessed by the wonderful Navarre commentaries that have been produced over the past decade or so. For many years, they have been releasing these editions individually, occasionally combining them to produce a compact New Testament or Letters of St. Paul editions. Now, with the entire collection complete, they are about to release a more comprehensive one-volume The Navarre Bible New Testament. Included on the Scepter site is a .pdf file that contains some sample pages. The layout looks similar to the earlier editions, although they certainly adjusted the format a bit to better utilize the Nova Vulgata along with the RSV-CE. They also seem to be using a two color scheme of red and black, which is interesting.

Overall, this new edition looks well made and will probably be a lot more comprehensive than the compact edition that I own. However, two things that will cause me to rethink purchasing this new edition: 1) Price: $79.95 and 2) Size: 7 X 10.

New Update on The Green Bible

New update on the upcoming NRSV Green Bible:

The Green Bible will equip and encourage you to see God's vision for creation and help you engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. This first Bible of its kind includes inspirational essays from key leaders such as N. T. Wright, Barbara Brown Taylor, Brian McLaren, Matthew Sleeth, Pope John Paul II, and Wendell Berry. As you read the scriptures anew, The Green Bible will help you see that caring for the earth is not only a calling, but a lifestyle.

The date for publication is October 7. If you go to the Green Bible site at Harper Collins, the page includes a thorough "browse inside" feature that allows you to see quite a few pages of this new Bible. I do, however, have one question: Why aren't they including an edition with the Deuterocanonicals? It seems wierd to have a Bible with an essay from John Paul II and prayers from St. Francis, yet not have it with all the Catholic Old Testament books.