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73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent bible!, February 25, 2007
As a big fan of the superior RSV translation, I have been waiting for an RSV Bible of this quality for a long time. I own the blue, hardback "Ingatius Bible" and have never been very happy with it's workmanship. The type in that Bible is hard to read, the text is not divided into clean, easily-read paragraphs, and the margins are too narrow, causing the text to practically run into the spine of the book. Also, I prefer leather to a hard-back. Scepter press makes a RSV leather Bible but it apparently suffers from the same deficiencies as the blue Ignatius Bible. Ignatius Press came out with a new RSV "Second Ed." Bible that is a higher quality product. However, after reading the Amazon.com reviews, I was deterred from buying it. Amazon.com reviewers say that while the new, second edition leather Bible is of high material quality, the minor changes that constitute the "second edition" are not an improvement upon the original and there are some sloppy typographical errors. Further, some reviewers who seem to have a lot more knowledge about Bible translation than me claim that there are some problems with accuracy of some of the English word choices (evidently the translators were priests but not scholars, per se, at least according to one reviewer). I held off on buying the Ignatius RSV "second ed." I was thus thrilled when Oxford University Press and Ignatius press teamed up to publish this beautiful "RSV Catholic Bible: Reader's Ed." in Dec 06. It features very high quality leather, gilded pages, indexing, readable type, easily read paragraphs and sections, and there are no margin problems or typos. Further, the list price on the Bible itself that arrived in the mail said $89.00. I paid $34 on Amazon.com and got free shipping to boot. It's rare these days when the quality of a retail product is higher than the price tag, but this Bible on Amazon is a steal. It's a magnificent product and I am tremendously pleased with it.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty of simplicity, January 25, 2007
This is a lovely bible. The genuine leather cover is a pleasure to see and to touch. The size is just right, neither too large nor too small. The font size, however, seems a little smaller than necessary (but is crisp and dark). Thumb indexed, making it easier to go to the passage you want.
Because it is the Revised Standard Version, this bible is comfortable for us moderns to read, without strange unfamiliar words, yet it still maintains much of the dignified rhythm of the King James Bible. This, of course, is a Catholic Edition of the RSV, with the deuterocanonical texts blended into the Old Testament. Many Catholics, especially conservatives, favor the Revised Standard Version. The translation of the New American Bible is too awkward for them, while the New Jerusalem Bible never really caught on in America (the NJB is the Catholic Bible of choice in most English speaking countries outside the USA). Ironically, the RSV was considered too liberal by conservative Protestants back in the 1950s when it burst on the scene. Now, the lack of gender neutral language apparently makes it less than liberal. For that, people should seek out a New Revised Standard Version, but to my knowledge none of the Catholic editions of the NRSV are available in a leather cover.
Includes a presentation page in the front, plus baptism record, confirmation, first communion, marriage and family section for anyone who likes those things in their Bible. The layout of the bible text is excellent, with no annotations and no cross references. It does, however, have discreet little dividing lines to let you know where each section begins and ends. It does not tell you what that section is about nor provide any sort of commentary, just a short dividing line to indicate that a new topic is beginning. A nice touch I think. Just simple text with a bit of help. Remember, this is not a study bible. It is simply a nice, excellently translated, well made Catholic Bible.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exactly what I was looking for, May 12, 2007
Anyone who has spent time shopping for both Catholic and Protestant versions of the Bible knows that the variety of quality Catholic Bibles pales in comparison to that available in Protestant versions. For some time I have wanted to purchase a nice edition of the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, that was bound in Genuine Leather and had easily readable type. Finally, I found this edition. It is published by Oxford University Press, in partnership with Ignatius Press, so all of the features of the Ignatius Bible are included, specifically the notes, but the type is much more readable and the binding is far superior.
This Bible also includes a collection of Catholic prayers and devotions, which is very handy to have included in a Bible one reads from regularly.
The only fault I find with this edition is that it is thumb-indexed, which I have never liked in a Bible. But, that is a minor fault in a very nice version of the Scriptures.
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