A Nice Catholic Bible edition

To keep things going along the line of fine Catholic books I wanted to highlight what I think is the nicest Catholic Bible I have seen and used. It is one of the only ones out there that compares favorably to those showcased on the Bible Design Blog. (I have yet to see TAN's leatherbound Douay-Rheims which I see have just come out.) Of course we're talking about the Ignatius Press Leatherbound Revised Standard Version - Second Catholic Edition. It is published by Nelson for Ignatius Press.

This is a 6" x 9" tall, floppy, and moderately thin Bible with a nice bonded leather and gold foil stamped cover. I realize some would like it without the icons on the front but for my eyes they make the book look very classy.

The Bible feels great to hold. And since this is a tall and thin Bible it easily flops around when reading. It is flexible enough to bend back upon itself so you can hold it in one hand. Here it is doing the "Bible yoga". Please do not shriek in horror - the Word of God is sacred, not the book itself or the printing.

I don't know if the binding is glued or sewn. You can see glue on the top and bottom spine but it doesn't appear to be holding the whole thing together. It may be a combination of both. But the pages being so tall and the NT being so slender near the back means that you can easily put a lot of pressure on it. So far it is giving way a tiny bit but it isn't loose or anything.

The following horrid picture shows the text layout. It is very easy on the eyes...I really need a new camera and some good lighting. But you can see the layout and that is all that matters.

Aha! But now we come to its weakness, which could be a deal breaker for the serious Bible reader. Glossy pages. The book is a little difficult to read at times and you have to continually tilt it to see the text if you are under a reading lamp. Daylight is no problem, nor is reading under a ceiling light. Again, an off-balance photo but you can see the font and margins are very nice. The margins aren't quite wide enough for note taking, but I'm not even sure a pencil would write on the pages very easily considering the glossy material.

All in all, the Ignatius RSV-2CE Leatherbound is a great Bible. If you took away the glossy pages it would be closer to perfection. It may be the nicest one we have out there. At $39.00 it is well below the "high-end" price range and you get a really stellar readers' edition. There are very few notes but it does have cross references and two ribbon markers.

RSV-CE Inconsistencies

I've wondered about this. Take a look at this link I found while perusing the web today:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071218022237/http://umsis.miami.edu/~medmunds/RSVCEdiff.htm

Especially this line:

"The Ignatius Bible Second Edition looks to have simply updated the Ignatius Bible First Edition according to the Douay Rheims/Latin Vulgate/Nova Vulgata in a few cases (I have separated the differences so it is visible), while the Oxford Press CE also matches the Douay Rheims/Latin Vulgate/Nova Vulgata, but by way of the 1971 RSV, and in different cases. "

Get that?

The "Ignatius Bible" is a revision of the original 1966 which was a revision of the 1959 RSV Protestant edition. The Ignatius Second Edition has some new, unique translations to make it in conform to the Liturgiam Authenticam. The version put out by Scepter and Oxford is a Catholic revision of the RSV 1971 Protestant edition. The matching to the Vulgate(s) happens at different occasions.

So they aren't the same. I wonder... when our Catholic apologists are recommending the RSV-CE to people which they have in mind? The RSV is kind of a mess isn't it? We essentially have two different lines of RSV-CE going on.

Nevertheless, and I explained this to some fellow Catholics a while back, the RSV is often touted for its ecumenical value. (Look, we all can use same Bible!) But if you walk into any generic Christian Bookstore you are going to be hard pressed to find a copy. While Catholics continue to use and love the RSV-CE it has been crowded out by various updates (with different translation philosphies) such as the NRSV and ESV. I recently purchased (shock I know) a copy of both for about $6 each.

So if we really want an ecumenical Bible it isn't going to be the RSV anymore. We might need to look at promoting the idea of an ESV-CE. But... why can't we have a Catholic version which is used as the base text? Perhaps it is the modern Catholic trend to continually bow to others in the ecumenical dialog rather than take the lead. That is another commentary altogether.

If what the above link says is true, then it appears the Wikipedia article needs some work too. A revision perhaps? :-)

I also found this here:

Roman Catholic Edition, 1966. The Holy Bible: Revised standard version, containing the Old and New Testaments. Catholic edition, prepared by the Catholic Biblical Association of Great Britain; with a foreword by His Eminence John Cardinal Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster. London: Nelson, 1966.

Although the RSV translators in their revisions of 1952, 1959 and 1971 turned a deaf ear to the criticisms offered by conservative Protestants, they did cooperate with Roman Catholics in the production of this edition. The extra books included in the "deuterocanon" of the Roman Catholic Church were inserted among the books of the Old Testament, in accordance with traditional Catholic practice. A number of minor alterations were made in the New Testament in accordance with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church (e.g., "full of grace" substituted for "favored one" in Luke 1:28). For this the chief editor of the RSV, Luther Weigle, was rewarded by Pope Paul VI, who conferred upon Weigle the "Papal Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great" in 1966. ⁽⁷⁾ In 1969 six Roman Catholic scholars joined the RSV Committee. The RSV Catholic edition received theimprimatur (i.e. it was officially declared to be acceptable for use by Catholics) and it went on to become a Bible of choice among many conservative Catholics who did not care for the "inclusive language" of later versions sponsored by the Roman Catholic hierarchy (i.e. the New American Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible).

From: http://www.bible-researcher.com/rsv.html