Just wondering
God Bless:blessyou::signofcross:
***To start, you may want to get yourself a copy of The Catholic Bible Personal Study Edition (NAB) published by the Oxford Press.
There are other resources, of course of varying degrees of depth, but this is a good place to start.
For the “last word” on biblical commentaries, there is The New Jerome Biblical Commentary*, but that is definitely not for beginners.**
A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture by Dom Bernard Orchard has a good reputation. It is out of print, but is available at Loome Theological Booksellers.
I have seen volumes of the Navarre Bible at local Catholic bookstores. As far as I know, it is still a work in progress, but commentaries on individual books of the Bible are available.
I can’t vouch for the above commentaries personally, but from what I have read about them, they will build up your faith, whereas other modern commentaries (imho) will tend to erode it.
I can recommend Saint Thomas’ Catena Aurea from my reading, however it only covers the four gospels.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary has an excellent reputation. A majority of the reviewers on Amazon.com give it 5 stars out of 5. However, I’d encourage the OP to read this dissenting review before he purchases it. The historical-critical method has been the source of some of the most scholarly yet soul-numbing and spiritually useless homilies I’ve had to sit through at Mass. I’d never pick a commentary that leaned heavily on a skeptical approach to the Bible if my purpose was to grow spiritually.
I’d avoid the NAB for the same reason. Opening up my copy at random, I found this footnote on Matthew 27:9. The only explanation the editors offer is that Saint Matthew mistakenly combined texts from Zechariah and Jeremiah (and earlier they argue that the gospel was not actually written by the saint). By contrast, this more traditional commentary [the one graceandglory just mentioned] offers more respectful explanations.
The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament is excellent and fairly inexpensive on Amazon.
amazon.com/Ignatius-Catholic-Study-Bible-Testament/dp/1586172506
The only bad thing is that it is only the New Testament…but it’s excellent as it is orthodox and fairly easy to read with several references to the Catechism and such.
There is for Catholics “A Catholic Commentary On Holy Scripture by Father Bernard Orchard. There is the Haydock commentary by Father George Haydock 1859. There is The Great BIBLICAL COMMENTARY OF CORNELIUS À LAPIDE a multi volume work covering the entire OT and NT except the book of Job. Praised by Protestants and Catholics for its great scholarly work. Then there is St Thomas’ Catena aura (The Golden Chain n (the links between the Apostles and the church) A compilation of Church fathers commentary on the Gospels. This all flies in the face of the idea that the Catholic Church suppressed Bible reading and Bible study.