This is not intended to be critical. I guess I’m just not satisfied with the praise heaped on the Navarre Bible.
Yes, I’ve heard it praised over and over, but no one says what’s so good about it. I’d like to hear a couple examples about how well the Navarre Bible handles some texts. Some say Is 7:13 - 14 is the most controversial verse in the Bible. What does Navarre say about that?
These prices that have been mentioned here are low to moderate in my opinion. I think everybody ought to specify some lifetime budget that they owe to themselves to spend on Bible study commentaries and such. It’s easy to spend hundreds of dollars, like about $30 each for the 28 volumes of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS)series. I’m not bragging, but I’m about 8 volumes into that series.
Look at what people are willing to spend on guns, boats, cottages, vacations, cars, etc. The average sale price of a car today is over $30,000.
I propose that people should think about this, in general, and set some goals for themselves, for their spiritual growth. What should people buy, in each range of budget? – is the expanded form of the OP of this thread.
Dt 6:4ff says that we should love God with all our heart, soul, and strength. “Strength” is replaced by “resources” in some of the Jewish commentaries that I’ve seen, to emphasize that we should be willing to use our financial resources even to depletion for the kingdom of God. That is how much love we should have.
I guess one thing I’m saying is, just don’t go too cheap on Bible study.
Another bias that seems to be present in similar threads is for American publications (yes, I realize the Navarre is a translation from the Spanish). What I’m asking here is, aren’t there Bible study publications from Great Britian that are worth mentioning? Are these available in Canada, for example?
Pope Benedict recommends Jewish commentaries on scripture as first class resources for study – recognizing the fundamental differences of our faith, of course. I’m about $400 into Jewish commentaries. They’re quite good on matters of Hebrew scriptures, up to a point, of course. The Torah commentaries from the Jewish Publication Society are very helpful, for someone beyond the introductory level of Bible study. These are written for the serious lay person with at least a full high school education.
Another bias in threads of this sort is that they’re talking about non-academic resources for Bible study. I can only glimpse the academic resources in the bibliographies of the non-academic scripture study books.
I also long ago picked up a non-Catholic Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, at a Christian book store. It’s a commentary of enduring value that was written in the 18th century. Today, they’re probably still less than $30. I find it interesting for what it says and what subjects it avoids (eg Catholic topics).
Pope Benedict has two great volumes in the Jesus of Nazareth series, with a third coming out in Dec 2012 on the infancy narratives. He deals with technical issues that may be foreign to people at the introductory level of Bible study, but what he does say is very scholarly, written to the level of the average reader, and is very inspirational, in my opinion. Definitely should be on your shelf and read over and over.
