Customer Reviews

The Ignatius Bible

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am an ardent lover of the RSV bible. It has been my bible of choice for nearly 30 years. With the second Catholic edition, archaic language has been removed, and thus the RSV SCE is an excellent alternative for Catholics to the NAB and NRSV. I give the RSV SCE 5 stars.

I very much like that the designation, "Only Son," has been replaced by "Only Begotten Son" in John's gospel. This conforms more closely to our Nicene Heritage. I don't like the translation, "Only Son," as most modern versions have, even though that translation has merit.

The RSV SCE offers some welcome concessions to the Catholic understanding of the text. I mention two: 1) The Angel's greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28 is rendered as "hail, full of grace,the Lord is with you" rather than "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" as in the original RSV. 2) Isaiah 7:14 uses the word "Virgin" rather than "young women" as in the original RSV. This change is legitimate, even though the Hebrew simply has "young woman." The Bible of the ancient Christian community was the Greek Septuagint, which was considered inspired in its own right. The Septuagint uses the word "virgin (parthenos)" in Isaiah 7:14.

One might hope that eventually, the RSV SCE will replace the New American Bible in all Enlish language Catholic liturgies, both here and abroad. Some Churches are already taking advantage of the RSV SCE. The new RSV SCE Lectionary has been approved for use in the Roman Rite by the Antilles Bishops Conference. The new Ukrainian Catholic Divine Liturgy Service provides New Testament quotes from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. The RSV SCE is literal, literary, and reliable.

For me, as a Byzantine Catholic, the best bibles to use are:

-The RSV SCE
-The Douay Rheims version
-The Confraternity New Testament
-The Orthodox New Testament (by Holy Apostles Convent)
-The New Testament by Ronald Knox
-The Third Millennium Bible (a recent update of the KJV, which only updates the most obscure language, and includes the Deutero-Canon/Apocrypha, and is based on the Byzantine Text)
-The Orthodox Study Bible (which uses the NKJV; wish they would have used the original KJV or the RSV) by Conciliar Press

All of these versions with the exception of the Confraternity Bible should be available on line. The Confraternity Version is available from Scepter Press.

The fact that the original RSV has spawned three major revisions - the NRSV, the RSV SCE, and the ESV- is a testimony to this great bible. Originally scorned by some conservative Christians (very unjustly, in my mind), it has aged well, and ironically has come into favor with many traditional Catholics and conservative Protestants. And now this new edition of the RSV SCE will help ensure the legacy of the RSV.

I recommend the RSV SCE heartily to all.

I have been using the old edition of the Ignatius RSV for two years. I love the text, but the format was horrible. When I heard this one was coming out, I was hoping for a good improvement over the last one. And it didn't disappoint me!

--Better-quality paper

--The asterisk notes are on the bottom of the page, not at the end of the Old/New Testament

--The margins are wider and perfect

--The font is more appealing

--Section headings

--Nicer cover design and better cover material

--Ribbon to mark page

--Each book starts on a new page

--Color maps at end of Bible

They also changed "thou" to "you," but the rest of the text is exactly the same as the beautiful RSV first Catholic edition. Definitely worth the money!

I was very excited when the RSV-CE second edition was published a few years back. It seemed like it would be the perfect Bible for Catholics, however I must say that I found myself not completely satisfied.

The Good Points:
1) The translation has been updated and altered slightly, in particular the removal of the "thees" and "thous". They also made good alterations to such passages in Matthew 16 and Isaiah 7.

2) The cover is beautiful.

3) The inclusion of maps at the back is much needed.

4) They added chapter headings.

The Bad Points:
1) Depending on the lighting of the room, I find the paper and page lay-out to be difficult to read. (BTW, I am not old nor do I wear glasses)

2) There is no information provided to tell the reader which changes were made to the text.

3) I am surprised that there are not any editional study helps, like a concise concordance or Mass Readings or Dei Verbum.

Ultimately, is this edition better than the older editions of the RSV-CE? Yes! But it is certainly not ideal in my mind, and could have used some additional study helps and a list of the Mass readings.

The Revised Standard Version - Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE) is an updated version of the 1966 RSV-Catholic edition. Important changes from the original Catholic edition have been highlighted by some of the reviewers, but they generally fall into either of 2 principles: (i) removing archaisms, such as "morrow", "thees" and "thous", from the much of the text (except the Pater noster), or (ii) adjustments in favour of the Nova Vulgata as requested by Liturgiam authenticam.

The revision had great promise, but unfortunately the second principle was not followed consistently in my opinion. While they changed "cup" to "chalice" in the Last Supper narrative found in the three synoptic Gospels and in St. Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians (11:23-26), it retained "cup" in the other places where the word refers to the cup/chalice of the Eucharist (10:16 and 11:27-28), leaving the reader puzzled as to the difference in terms in these cases. Similarly, while it is laudable that the RSV-2CE made some changes to Sirach to follow the Nova Vulgata, such as the inclusion of 1:5, 1:7 in the main biblical text rather than in the footnotes, it left out many (if not most) of the other unique verses found in the Nova Vulgata that were not translated in the original RSV-CE. It appears that the RSV-2CE is faithful to the second principle only for texts that are used somewhere in the Lectionary; perhaps the editors of the work simply took changes made by Rome to their edition of the RSV Lectionary and pasted them wholesale into the biblical text. The excellence of the text is therefore uneven: better than the RSV-CE no doubt, but likely to leave readers who want a Bible translation that presents the fullness of the Latin biblical tradition unsatisfied and disappointed.

A more promising development may lie in the production of a new English Lectionary by an international committee chaired by Bishop Mark Coleridge (Australia) and Fr Henry Wansbrough (editor of New Jerusalem Bible) by revising the New Revised Standard Version so that it is faithful to Liturgiam authenticam. They intend to publish a complete edition of the Bible so corrected in the near future, and this might provide a version of the Bible that is accurate and reflective of the Latin biblical tradition.

This leatherette edition has crisp and clear printing that makes the Bible a pleasure to read and meditate, though the paper is a tad too glossy. The iconic cover of the Bible is an excellent welcome from the boring and uninspiring alternatives commonly used for Bibles, Catholic or Protestant. Overall I would still recommend this Bible for serious readers while awaiting a better version to come along. But if you have some version of the original RSV-CE, you won't gain much by this new edition.

Thank God for the hardcover version - the Kindle version, though eminently portable, is distractingly formatted - different lines with different sized fonts (in the Psalms, at least... didn't get the chance to read the whole thing before I returned it :) Anyhow, it was a supreme disappointment. Please fix! I will repurchase if you A) ensure readability in all books on Kindle, and B) dramatically improve Table Of Contents navigation to book/chapter. Amazon was prompt and helpful with refund.

The hard cover is strong and durable. The cover with the icons is a beautiful artwork. The pages are thicker than the typical wafer-thin Bible pages, and this is excellent for highlighting, underlining, and writing in the margins. The notes are all on the same page as the words they apply to, so there is no flipping back and forth. There are no commentaries by Bible scholars, which is fine because I'm buying it for the Bible, not for the commentaries. This Bible is slightly bigger than a lot of Bibles, which is OK. I recommend this Bible. I like that Psalm 23 has me going through the "Valley of the Shadow of Death" instead of a "dark valley", and has me living in the House of the Lord "forever" instead of "for years to come" or "all the days of my life" (I expect to live there after I die, too).

This is the most beautiful Bible that I own!
This version is not the "New" Revised Standard Version, but neither is it the "Old" Revised Standard Version, but rather a new version of the RSV that is in conformity with Liturgiam Authenticum (a Vatican document on accurate translations for use in the Mass), I notice another commentor has an issue with this. One of the principle qualities of this new Bible is that the "thee's and thou's" are gone from the translation of the Psalms. I bought the beautiful leather cover version on Amazon at a steal for $25.00 (half the retail price). When I received it and handled it in my hands, I couldn't believe that was all I paid for it. Besides the beautiful leather cover with gold stampted iconography of the Jesus Pantocrater and the Four Gospels, the text is printed on non-glare paper, nice line letting and it opens nicely in the palm of your hand.

I am the author of The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You

An "Early" Online Review of the RSV Second Catholic Edition

These are the most preliminary of comments. I have yet to read the text to see what changes have been made if any. I assume that the changes to the text are in accordance with those made in the study edition of the RSVCE which is being published in fascicles by Ignatius Press.

Good Points and Bad Points:

1) The Bible is attractive. Although I only have the paperback I can imagine, based on the paperback's look and the photo at aquinasandmore.com, that the bonded leather version for $39.99 is quite beautiful. Each side of the burgundy colored cover has a Byzantine icon of Christ (in gold) holding the scriptures, and the symbols of the four evangelists in the corners. This is attractive on the paperback. I am sure it is a beautiful effect on the bonded leather version.

2) The pages are of a fine, cream colored paper. The printing is crisp and clear. The page size is a bit larger than the old Ignatius Bible. This means that note taking will be a bit easier. We all heard that the Bible was set to new type to make reading the text easier. I am not sure that that goal has been accomplished. The combination of cream colored paper, text lines that are actually now longer than before, and longer pages (i.e. pages with even more text) doesn't seem to make the text much easier to read than the old Ignatius Bible. So far the easiest to read RSVCE I've come across is Paul Thigpen's MY DAILY CATHOLIC BIBLE (which contains the entire RSVCE divided into 20 to 30 minute reading sections).

3) There have been several changes that will take some getting used to. The endnotes are now footnotes! That's a real plus. They're right there on the page for you. No paging to the end just to find a half line endnote. The downside is that the notes seem to be largely the same useless ones that were always in the RSVCE. We will have to wait - at this rate until we are all old and gray - for Ignatius to finish the study Bible version already in production for more than half a decade. Another change: Instead of "Daniel 3" as the heading at the top of the page you might find "Daniel 3, 4" because parts of those two chapters appear on that page. It's a bit odd to look at, but shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

4) The maps are excellent and colorful. Not only are there the usual Old Testament and New Testament maps, but there is a modern map detailing Israel and the Occupied Territories.

5) The Introduction is STILL drawn from the 1966 edition. Why? Why not explain why this new edition was published? You would think that a new edition would warrant a new introduction wouldn't you?

6) It is clearly stated on the cover page that the new RSV2CE was revised according to Liturgiam Authenticam (2002).

7) There is no appendix to detail what textual changes have been made! No hint at all. If you want to know about the textual changes in previous RSVs see the appendix to Morrison's AN ANALYTICAL CONCORDANCE TO THE REVISED STANDARD VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (1979). I hope that Ignatius places such an appendix in the study bible -- whenever that is FINALLY done.

The print is very sharp and clear. The book is obviously of very high quality and small enough to carry around with you ... with the leather cover, it's about 6.5" by 9.5" by a little over 1".

Matthew 6:9 has just enough Thy old styled English to make the prayer beautiful. Isaih refers to a "virgin" rather than a "young woman". It makes for a nice translation.

I couldn't wait for it to become available here and finally bought it at a local book store. Amazon definitely has the best listed price.

Listen to this:

"And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said:

'Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingom of God.

Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh...

'If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them...But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful...'" (Luke 6:20-21,32,35-36)

This Ignatius Second Catholic Revised Standard Version is incredible! Listen to the beauty of Isaiah 18:

"Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear! For thus the Lord said to me: 'I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'"

"For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he will hew away. They shall all of them be left to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them. At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts."(Isaiah 18)

All of these verses reveal a unique presentation of language. Recent scholars, according to the introduction of this bible, did several things differently. First of all, accordingly, their final choice of Greek translation is preferable to any other Greek versions, and, secondly, textural differences between Catholic and Protestant versions exist less often than more. So it is that this bible--at least in my opinion--aspires to follow the words of Jesus "that they may all be one" (John 17:21)

Open your life to this bible!