Good learning Bible?

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Flack

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Hey guys,

I posted this before the forums went down but didn’t get a chance to see if it got any responses so I’m reposting it now.

Unfortunately, I have never read the entire Bible cover to cover. Are there any Bibles out there that contain commentary that kind of explain what you are reading as you read it (kind of like CliffsNotes). My main concern it that as I read the Bible I will miss out on what some passages are really saying or mean, especially connections between the OT and NT.

I am assuming that such a thing doesn’t really exist due to the vast amount of information it would need to cover but I could be wrong.

Anyway, any tips regarding getting the most out of my reading as I am reading are greatly appreciated 😃

-Flack
 
There is the Navarre Bible … it comes in volumes though and if you want the whole thing (if you live in USA) will cost u about US$500. U can expect about 1:1 ratio between text and commentary (eg 1 page of text on page of commentary explaining the text).

If u live in Australia like me it costs almost double!!! Therefore I only have a couple of volumes

Another study Bible (in volumes too) is made by St Ignatius Press and its about half the price compared with Navarre. I have to admit I never read them but ppl have recommended them. Also I have never seen being sold OT only NT.

Cheers,

Alex
 
alexaustralia said:
There is the Navarre Bible … it comes in volumes though and if you want the whole thing (if you live in USA) will cost u about US$500. U can expect about 1:1 ratio between text and commentary (eg 1 page of text on page of commentary explaining the text).

If u live in Australia like me it costs almost double!!! Therefore I only have a couple of volumes

Another study Bible (in volumes too) is made by St Ignatius Press and its about half the price compared with Navarre. I have to admit I never read them but ppl have recommended them. Also I have never seen being sold OT only NT.

Cheers,

Alex
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A few comments: First, I highly recommend both of these series as the best. I spent a good amount of time looking on here for study Bibles, and these came up every single time as being both full of information and being orthodox in nature. Second, is that the Ignatius Study Bible is still being written. They have about 2/3 of the New Testament complete in 9 volumes so far. The good news is that each volume is only about $9. I have found them exceptionally good reading. Third, is that the Navarre Bible exists in three different forms. The most common form is in ten hardcover volumes at about $40 each (US dollars). Be aware that there are several places online that will give you a huge discount if you puchase this as a set. I’ve seen it as low as $280, not the $500 listed above. The New Testament is also available in 12 softcover volumes for slightly less money, or an abridged hardcover version for only $40. The abridged version eliminates the Latin Vulgate text (which is presented alongside the Revised Standard Version in the hardcover edition), and has shortened introductions. The Navarre Study Bible is published in the US by Scepter Press, as it was a product of Opus Dei. It is also a beautiful product, the kind of book you could hand down to your kids. Finally, I’d like to also recommend the last version that keeps coming up on here, the Haydock Douay-Rheims Bible. This is the original English translations for Catholics, published in the 1500s, with a commentary that dates to the early 1800s (not all Douay-Rheims Bibles are Haydock versions). It is regarded as an exceptional commentary if you want to know what the Early Church Fathers believed and said about the Bible. The downside is that it’s probably more challenging than the other two versions. It’d be hard to go wrong with any of these three versions. Personally, I’m intending on reading all three at some point.
 
I’m also reading the Bible for the first time and want to make sure I understand what I’m reading. The Navarre commentary is great, but it consists of nine volume which cost $34.95 - 39.95 each. Scott Hahn’s commentary on the Ignatius version of the Bible is also very good. It consists of nine volumes @ $9.95 each for New Testament only. On the very “deep” end, there is The New Jerome Biblical Commentary and Fr. Haydock’s Biblical Commentary (1859). With all of this, I’m not sure that I’m going to know any more than I would using the footnotes of a good New American STUDY Bible. Make sure it is the “study” version. It is about twice as thick as a regular New American Bible.

For the past nine months, I’ve been looking forward to my parish’s Bible study class which started about four weeks ago. I’m more disappointed than I can say. We get into groups, answers about 10 study questions and that’s it. There’s no one to lecture on the reading assignment, etc. I was hoping to have someone tell me something I couldn’t read for myself. No such luck. I wonder how they teach the Bible in Protestant churches.

Good luck and may the Holy Spirit be with you.

EDIT: Post #3 was posted while I was writing this response.
 
Rolltide said:
Be aware that there are several places online that will give you a huge discount if you puchase this as a set. I’ve seen it as low as $280, not the $500 listed above.
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Yeah I have seen them at $280 and almost was going to get the whole set but once I saw how much they charged for delivery :eek: . Hence I decided to instead support my local Catholic book shop :). Even if each hard cover volume goes for AUD$82…its worth it.
 
LeahInancsi said:
… On the very “deep” end, there is **The New Jerome Biblical Commentary **and Fr. Haydock’s Biblical Commentary (1859). …
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don’t be misled here. The NJBC is not an orthodox, early church interpretation type commentary.

It is strongly biased, and, I maintain, anti-doctrinal in at least several parts. I bought it at around $52 and I was very disappointed about its contents. Particularly, the melding of modern historical critism with traditional exegesis seems almost non-existent. The traditional views of the bible are treated simply as “pre-scientific.”

The late Fr.Raymond A. Brown seems to play this intellectual game: Look here are the few definitive statements of the Church about scripture, so…everything else isn’t defined. He then rushes in to fill that perceived void with his own views, particularly that the Bible isn’t historical, for the most part. In his book, “101 Questions and Answers about the Bible” he has an essay to discredit all the infancy of Jesus narratives. In his point of view, they’re all fiction, made up to make people believe something.

He seems to have a high regard for the liberal protestant theologian Rudolf Bultman (I’ve seen this name spelled Bultmann) who said the new testament was highly mytholiged, and who said the true essence is in de-mythologizing it, then in re-mythologizing for modern readers. For example, it cannot be believed that Jesus turned water into wine.

The NJBC may not be the best place to start studying the Bible.
 
Crumpy said:
The NJBC may not be the best place to start studying the Bible.
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I agree. Even the original JBC, which, if you can still find it, is considered less modernist by some (myself included) is a tough place to start.

I always recommend the Navarre and/or the Ignatius series. If cost were a serious factor, I think I’d start getting the Navarre and wait until the Ignatius is finished and put into a final form, at least the New Testament – that way the bugs (printing errors, etc) will be worked out, plus you won’t have to buy it twice. I have both because I prepare and lead Bible studies, and I like the study questions in the back, which I doubt will be in the final editions – plus I’m spiritually impatient and greedy. 😃

For more recommendations, please visit my Catholic Bible study website linked below.
 
LeahInancsi said:
For the past nine months, I’ve been looking forward to my parish’s Bible study class which started about four weeks ago. I’m more disappointed than I can say. We get into groups, answers about 10 study questions and that’s it. There’s no one to lecture on the reading assignment, etc. I was hoping to have someone tell me something I couldn’t read for myself. No such luck.
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This is a subject I’ve really been wanting to explore – what do Catholics expect in a parish Bible study? I think I’ll start a new thread on this.
 
LeahInancsi said:
I’m also reading the Bible for the first time and want to make sure I understand what I’m reading. The Navarre commentary is great, but it consists of nine volume which cost $34.95 - 39.95 each. Scott Hahn’s commentary on the Ignatius version of the Bible is also very good. It consists of nine volumes @ $9.95 each for New Testament only. On the very “deep” end, there is The New Jerome Biblical Commentary and Fr. Haydock’s Biblical Commentary (1859). With all of this, I’m not sure that I’m going to know any more than I would using the footnotes of a good New American STUDY Bible. Make sure it is the “study” version. It is about twice as thick as a regular New American Bible.

For the past nine months, I’ve been looking forward to my parish’s Bible study class which started about four weeks ago. I’m more disappointed than I can say. We get into groups, answers about 10 study questions and that’s it. There’s no one to lecture on the reading assignment, etc. I was hoping to have someone tell me something I couldn’t read for myself. No such luck. I wonder how they teach the Bible in Protestant churches.

Good luck and may the Holy Spirit be with you.

EDIT: Post #3 was posted while I was writing this response.
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Just to clarify, the Navarre hardcover version is in 10 volumes, not 9. BUT… since each one contains a pretty fair amount of reading, if you buy them once every couple of months, it’s not as bad on your budget. The Ignatius series has a great feature also in that in uses three symbols to highlight particularly important passages and clarify their importance. One symbol represents “content and unity” of scripture, showing how passages from the Old Testament illuminate passages from the New. Another marks passages that refer to “living tradition”, and that support various doctrines of the Catholic Church. The third symbol signifies passages that defend infallible teachings of the Catholic Church.
 
Wow. Thanks for all of the replies guys, they’re greatly appreciated 🙂
 
Before you buy a set of study Bibles, I’d recommend going tosalvationhistory.com All of the courses are free and really informative so I’d go here before a major purchase.

It’s given me a great deal of knowledge on how to read my Bible as a Catholic. This is important to know before you begin disecting the inner workings of the Word. Just a suggestion.
(I advise the “Genesis to Jesus” class first. It’s really interesting!)
 
scapularkid8 said:
Before you buy a set of study Bibles, I’d recommend going tosalvationhistory.com All of the courses are free and really informative so I’d go here before a major purchase.

It’s given me a great deal of knowledge on how to read my Bible as a Catholic. This is important to know before you begin disecting the inner workings of the Word. Just a suggestion.
(I advise the “Genesis to Jesus” class first. It’s really interesting!)
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I’ll point out that this organization was started by Scott Hahn, who is one of the two writers of the Ignatius Study Bible.
 
Fidelis said:
This is a subject I’ve really been wanting to explore – what do Catholics expect in a parish Bible study? I think I’ll start a new thread on this.
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I started a new thread in Other Religions asking for Protestant (name removed by moderator)ut.

The main thing that I want that, apparently, isn’t available at my parish is a knowlegable person to lecture on the reading assignment and tie things together. The class I have now is closely akin to the blind leading the blind with the exception of the handout material. There’s no one to answer questions.
 
Personally, I own several different Bibles, both Catholic and Protestant. I like the RSV-CE, NRSV with Apocrypha (which also has books recognized by the Orthodox Churches, but considered apocryphal by the Catholic Church), Douay-Rheims, NAB, KJV, and NASB. I use all of these translations for my Bible studies.
 
Flack said:
Hey guys,

I posted this before the forums went down but didn’t get a chance to see if it got any responses so I’m reposting it now.

Unfortunately, I have never read the entire Bible cover to cover. Are there any Bibles out there that contain commentary that kind of explain what you are reading as you read it (kind of like CliffsNotes). My main concern it that as I read the Bible I will miss out on what some passages are really saying or mean, especially connections between the OT and NT.

I am assuming that such a thing doesn’t really exist due to the vast amount of information it would need to cover but I could be wrong.

Anyway, any tips regarding getting the most out of my reading as I am reading are greatly appreciated 😃

-Flack
Click to expand...
The Haydock commentary from 1859 previously mentioned can be viewed for the entire NT and a portion of OT now available at
haydock1859.tripod.com/
 
Michael_G said:
The Haydock commentary from 1859 previously mentioned can be viewed for the entire NT and a portion of OT now available at
haydock1859.tripod.com/
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I just discovered this website. I wish I had know about it before I bought the Haydock commentaries.

The guy who is putting this commentary on the Internet is making it more reader friendly than the original text.
 
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