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(More customer reviews)For purposes of full disclosure, allow me to say, first off, that I'm a practicing Catholic Christian of the Latin Rite, whose previous experience as a teacher of the English Language Arts will hopefully provide a unique perspective regarding the offerings of this particular Bible. I've been in possession of the leather-bound edition since I received it two months after my original pre-order; it's taken me a couple years, but I've really come to love it. As I mentioned in the title of this treatise, this Orthodox Study Bible has recently dethroned my trusty, old-RSV New Oxford Annotated Bible as my study Bible of choice. I had little notion that this would happen. Understand that I have quite an extensive collection of Bibles of the most varying translations that I use for comparative study; but, probably like you, I also have a preferred Bible to go to by default for prayerful reading. Over the last two years, I just found myself picking up the OSB more and more and the NOAB less and less. Allow me to articulate exactly why:
The case for the Septuagint Old Testament:
The unique and most compelling reason to acquire the OSB: it is the only complete Bible in English to be published with the Greek OT right next to the NT. If you have one of those reference Bibles, I'm sure you've noticed that many of the OT quotes used in the NT mismatch when you actually look them up, sometimes to a great degree--this is because Jesus and the disciples quoted from the Septuagint Greek, as opposed to other Hebrew sources, a vast majority of the time. This is so, because Greek was the common language of antiquity in the region and the Septuagint translation (which includes the apocryphal/deuterocanonical "hidden books" of the "second canon") was completed more than a century before Christ's birth. By the time of Jesus' ministry, it was in widespread use by Jews throughout Palestine, particularly outside of Jerusalem by those who couldn't speak or read Hebrew. Bear in mind: the Hebrew OT that 99% of modern English Bibles are translated from rely on Masoretic Hebrew (Hebrew with fixed vowels) whose manuscripts didn't exist until the high middle ages, approximately the 9th century AD--almost a thousand years after Christ! By then, the philosophy behind Jewish biblical scholarship had transformed immensely and the original meaning of certain passages were irrevocably changed. Isaiah 7:14 is the classic casualty of this: Masoretic Hebrew renders "young woman" while Septuagint Greek renders "virgin"--a pretty significant paradigm shift. Ever wonder why the OT books of the Christian Bible are in their current order as opposed to the way the Hebrew Bible orders them? That's right, the Septuagint lists them in order of Law, Histories, Writings, and Prophecy; the NT books are similarly ordered by Gospel, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation. In the end, the Masoretic/Septuagint wars will rage on; but the latter is still the most ancient and reliable source of the OT, it's quoted extensively by the Fathers of the early Church, and it was the de facto scriptures of Jesus and His Disciples. If you don't already have a Septuagint, it's well worth picking one up, and the OSB version is preferable to the aging Brenton translation and even to the flawed-NRSV-based NETS (if you're a conservative practitioner of your faith, it's really hard to take the NRSV seriously with its intentionally literal-but-unorthodox renderings of scripture and its politically-motivated gender-sterilized language).
The case for the New King James Version New Testament:
Other reviewers have mentioned a distaste for the NKJV and, though I can empathize somewhat as a Catholic, I must humbly admit I'm rather fond of it. Perhaps it's because of my teaching background, but I have a respect beyond the average non-Protestant for the old KJV due to its indisputable impact on linguistic and literary spheres ever after (doctrinal ramifications notwithstanding). The result of this is that it has shaped our ear in the English-speaking world--its rhythms and cadences so familiar to us in certain passages that we take it for granted. The NKJV retains the phraseology and eloquence of its predecessor to an extent unmatched by any other contemporary translation, while updating the language and spelling to much needed modern standards. Because it adheres strictly to the formal equivalence methodology, it maintains a vocabulary and style in accordance with high English--this is not a "dumbed-down" translation like many other popular ones out there. The result is that the Bible still reads like sacred scripture--which it should. Now, some of you may be indignant of the fact that the NKJV relies on the Textus Receptus, a Reformation Era-variant of Byzantine text-type manuscripts compiled by Erasmus. Instead, you may prefer your NT to be translated from the substantially older but far less prevalent Alexandrian text-type manuscripts--the "Critical Text." Well fear not, my friends, for though the OSB maintains TR renderings in the body of scripture, all variations from the Majority Text as well as the Nestle-Aland/UBS editions are comprehensively footnoted--you still get the best of both worlds.
The case for the commentary:
If you're strictly an academic, you may find this to have a limiting appeal; but if you consider yourself a member of the faithful laity, you'll get quite a lot out of this. Even if you're a Christian of Reformation descent, you'll appreciate the uniqueness in character of the OSB commentary because it's the only modern one available that doesn't depend on the historical-critical method to explain passages. Instead, it's comprehensively Christological, even in the OT where it succeeds in pointing out both significant and obscure messianic prophecies. The result is an OT commentary that approaches scripture with the same Christ-centered worldview that is readily present in the NT. If you're an Eastern/Greek Orthodox Christian, my guess is that you're more likely to love it than not despite its simplistic nature when compared to the depth and breadth of the writings typical of Church Fathers. In my humble opinion, the OSB commentary's simplicity is its strength for ordinary study or prayerful reading. As someone who occasionally refers to the Haydock edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible for shedding light on certain difficult scripture passages, I find the OSB's concise, pointed commentary to be a refreshing change, in contrast to Haydock's sometimes excessive wordiness for normal use. Sure, for more in-depth study you'll certainly want an additional source, but the vast majority of the time, and for the vast majority of people out there, the OSB's solidly patristic commentary is a sight for sore eyes. If you're an Eastern Rite Catholic, this will fit you like a glove since it has the various apocryphal books not even included in the deuterocanon--it even has scripture notes referencing the Chrysostom Liturgy. If you're a Roman Rite Catholic, like me, trust me: there's no better modern, complete Bible out there that's made to bolster your faith like this one. The single-volume Navarre Bible is hopefully in the works and, as of this writing, the NT of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible is available for pre-order with the OT probably years away. The potential benefits to such future volumes would be references to papal encyclicals, pertinent teachings from the Catechism, and explanations by intellectual giants like Dr. Scott Hahn, Curtis Mitch, or other faithful scripture scholars. The OSB commentary, along with the introductions to each book, purposely limits its scope to the wisdom of the Holy Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils of the first millennium. While this may sound like a detractor at first, it has one substantial benefit: these are the teachings that predate any Reformation, or subsequently needed Counter-Reformation, as well as the Great East-West Schism. Essentially, these are the teachings of Christ's Church when that Church was One: singular and united.
Formatting notes:
Again, as someone who reads significant amounts of literature, I have a real appreciation for the OSB's adherence to Modern Language formatting--it's something that goes largely unnoticed by most, but you'll appreciate it once you have it. Why is this important in the first place? Proper formatting allows for increased reading speed, comprehension, and overall pleasure. Now, the NKJV, itself, conforms to standard spelling, punctuation, and usage, as would be expected. However, this is the only Bible I've ever found that is paragraphed correctly. This is huge, and once you experience it, you'll loathe to go back to anything else, especially verse-by-verse Bibles. Sure, there are alternatives out there that paragraph the text according to content--even my old NOAB or the Cambridge Paragraph Bible does that. But not even these highly respectable editions provide line breaks during conversations where there's an extensive exchange in dialogue; John 8:12-40 provides a great example. Other alternatives don't paragraph for lengthy quotations either; take a look at Acts 2. Likewise, the full biblical text is set in a two-column format to aid reading speed as well as to assist in skimming, if needed; it's also graced with section headers within the chapters themselves for easier searching. The font is a nicely-readable 11-point for the text and about 8-point for the footnotes and commentary. Overall, the page layout is among the most practical and beautiful I've seen in any study Bible.
Other observations of note:
One major upshot to the beneficial formatting choices is the page thinness. In order to pack the wealth of information contained in this veritable library into a single volume, the pages evidently had to become nearly tissue-paper thin. Despite this, text...Read more›
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