Preferable Catholic Study Bible?

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NSUberalles

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I am both new to Catholicism and new to this forum, so please excuse me if i’m asking in the wrong place. 🤷

I’m looking for a study Bible that will teach the scripture (without questioning it) and closely follow the Catholic church.

I’ve looked into the Oxford Catholic Study Bible, but read that it misquoted Catholic teaching and contained atheistic/secular points of view within the commentary.

After that, i checked the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible, only to find that it had some of the same, going as far as to question the authors of the books, refer to the Biblical figures as “characters” in a “story”, and suggest interpreting the scripture as mere moral teaching devoid of actual history.

So what are some Study Bibles available that correctly teach and don’t deny scripture or the teachings of Catholicism?
 
I don’t know if this is the right place for this inquiry, but let me help you out a bit! I fail to use this often in my studies, but my favorite Catholic study Bible is the Didache Bible. It has notes and commentary straight from the Catechism. It is a beautifully made Bible and has great notes and I just highly recommend it!

Pax.
 
The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible will be the best modern study bible available once it is complete. You can get the New Testament in a single volume, but the Old Testament is not complete.

As you mentioned, I do recommend you stay away from any of the NAB and NABRE “Study Bibles” because of the questionable footnotes that accompany the text.

Another great option to consider is the Navarre Bible. The downside is the Old Testament is divided into 7 volumes. The New Testament comes in one, three, or 12 volumes depending on how you want to buy it. It gets pricey buying up the series.

The Haydock Bible is a great resource, but it is from the 19th century using the older Douay Rheims version. I still consider this to be the best Catholic study Bible ever. There was a company making reprints, but it is no longer in business and the reprints are starting to get harder to find. If you can find one it will most likely run you over 100 dollars. The entire text of the commentary is available online. I think a Catholic publisher would do well to print a leather bound version with an updated layout.

The Didache Bible is a nice resource with helpful references to the CCC, but if you are looking for something like a typical modern protestant study Bible, you may find it wanting.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture is a good resource, but it is a Commentary series as opposed to a study Bible. The volumes do contain the entire text of the scripture with lengthy commentary. The series is intended to be accessible to all readers, and the books are not too expensive. The downsides are that it is not yet complete, and only covers the New Testament.
 
Keep in mind that the Catholic Church is not literalist; it is contextualist.

Legitimate scholarship may question some things about both the OT and the NT, and still be well within what the Church finds acceptable.
 
I agree with Haydock, combined with using a Catholic encyclopedia such as the online one at New Advent. Add to that the numerous resources from the Church Fathers and Doctors. The Protestant study Bibles, which are legion, have great historical resources, but slant all comments toward a protestant ideology, naturally.
 
Little Rock is designed for group study. The diocese of LR produced the study booklets with a series of questions in 6 lessons per week with the 7th being the meeting day. They use the Collegeville Binle Commentary, which is very good. I used LR for 10 years as a group leader and did not find the Collegeville Commentary problematic. Quite the opposite. LR is not a study Bible, it’s a bible study and uses other sources such as Collegeville.

I have the NAB Study Bible, among other bibles. I have the complete Collegeville Commentary as well as the little individual ones that came with LR over the years. Then I have several Ignatius Bible Study individual books of the bible, a couple of Navarres, several of the Ascension Press video based bible studies, you just collect these over the years.
 
I give another vote for the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. It has extensive notes, great maps and good commentaries. I use it for study and the Didache for regular reading and catechesis.
 
Adam95 said:
The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible will be the best modern study bible available once it is complete. You can get the New Testament in a single volume, but the Old Testament is not complete.

As you mentioned, I do recommend you stay away from any of the NAB and NABRE “Study Bibles” because of the questionable footnotes that accompany the text.

Another great option to consider is the Navarre Bible. The downside is the Old Testament is divided into 7 volumes. The New Testament comes in one, three, or 12 volumes depending on how you want to buy it. It gets pricey buying up the series.

The Haydock Bible is a great resource, but it is from the 19th century using the older Douay Rheims version. I still consider this to be the best Catholic study Bible ever. There was a company making reprints, but it is no longer in business and the reprints are starting to get harder to find. If you can find one it will most likely run you over 100 dollars. The entire text of the commentary is available online. I think a Catholic publisher would do well to print a leather bound version with an updated layout.

The Didache Bible is a nice resource with helpful references to the CCC, but if you are looking for something like a typical modern protestant study Bible, you may find it wanting.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture is a good resource, but it is a Commentary series as opposed to a study Bible. The volumes do contain the entire text of the scripture with lengthy commentary. The series is intended to be accessible to all readers, and the books are not too expensive. The downsides are that it is not yet complete, and only covers the New Testament.
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Does anyone have a good PDFs of the Haydock bible? It must be in the public domain.
 
Anthony2112 said:
Does anyone have a good PDFs of the Haydock bible? It must be in the public domain.
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haydock1859.tripod.com/

Not a PDF, but here is a free online version. There is also a mobile app called iPieta that has it in there. The Haydock Bible is my favorite for study, it has been recommended to me by so many Priests so I finally ordered one online.
 
Anthony2112 said:
Did you get the big red one? That book looked like a monster…😉
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Well I have seen the GIANT red ones, I do not have one of those. Mine is like 2 math textbooks stacked on top of each other. Though I sometimes feel like an elf checking Santa’s list when I read it, so maybe it is kind of giant…
 
LordHaveMercy said:
Well I have seen the GIANT red ones, I do not have one of those. Mine is like 2 math textbooks stacked on top of each other. Though I sometimes feel like an elf checking Santa’s list when I read it, so maybe it is kind of giant…
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Is there a maybe a paperback edition? I want to buy one. Where did you get yours?
 
NSUberalles said:
After that, i checked the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible, only to find that it had some of the same, going as far as to question the authors of the books, refer to the Biblical figures as “characters” in a “story”, and suggest interpreting the scripture as mere moral teaching devoid of actual history.
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The Bible is a story. That does not mean it is fiction. It has a narrative and that makes it a story. It is the story of your salvation. Every story has characters.

The Oxford Annotated Study Bible is an excellent Bible even for Catholics.

catholicbiblesblog.com/ has many reviews and suggestions.
 
TimothyH said:
The Bible is a story. That does not mean it is fiction. It has a narrative and that makes it a story. It is the story of your salvation. Every story has characters.

The Oxford Annotated Study Bible is an excellent Bible even for Catholics.

catholicbiblesblog.com/ has many reviews and suggestions.
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I have the Oxford Annotated Study Bible as I have had to use this version in my honors college program at University. It has good historical perspectives and comments, but from a Christian perspective I am not that big of a fan of a majority of the commentary that I have read. It’s just not my cup of tea.
 
landon13 said:
I have the Oxford Annotated Study Bible as I have had to use this version in my honors college program at University. It has good historical perspectives and comments, but from a Christian perspective I am not that big of a fan of a majority of the commentary that I have read. It’s just not my cup of tea.
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I was a fan of the NOAB until the fouth edition when a new generation of commentators took over. The current commentator of Exodus denies that the exodus is a historical event. That undermines the rest of the Bible which makes the fourth edition useless for me. Older editions are much better and as a rule, the earlier the edition, the better the commentary and articles.

The first edition can be had used at Amazon.com for less that seven dollars shipped in either the RSV or the NRSV.
 
Anthony2112 said:
I was a fan of the NOAB until the fouth edition when a new generation of commentators took over. The current commentator of Exodus denies that the exodus is a historical event. That undermines the rest of the Bible which makes the fourth edition useless for me. Older editions are much better and as a rule, the earlier the edition, the better the commentary and articles.

The first edition can be had used at Amazon.com for less that seven dollars shipped in either the RSV or the NRSV.
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That must be what it is. I had to have the New Oxford for my courses here at university, and the commentary throughout Genesis and Exodus was really quite horrifying to read. That’s why I ended up taking a totally different translation of the Bible with me to classes and lectures, because I could not stand the blatant heresy.
 
Anthony2112 said:
Is there a maybe a paperback edition? I want to buy one. Where did you get yours?
Click to expand...
I got mine on Amazon. It’s an investment, but worth saving up for if you can. Of course it’s available for free online as well, and a few mobile apps (like iPieta).
 
landon13 said:
That must be what it is. I had to have the New Oxford for my courses here at university, and the commentary throughout Genesis and Exodus was really quite horrifying to read. That’s why I ended up taking a totally different translation of the Bible with me to classes and lectures, because I could not stand the blatant heresy.
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Why dump the translation because the footnotes are bad? There are plenty of earlier editions around with good footnotes.

catholicbiblesblog.com/2008/10/new-oxford-annotated-bible-rsv.html

-Tim-
 
Adam95 said:
The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible will be the best modern study bible available once it is complete. You can get the New Testament in a single volume, but the Old Testament is not complete.

As you mentioned, I do recommend you stay away from any of the NAB and NABRE “Study Bibles” because of the questionable footnotes that accompany the text.

Another great option to consider is the Navarre Bible. The downside is the Old Testament is divided into 7 volumes. The New Testament comes in one, three, or 12 volumes depending on how you want to buy it. It gets pricey buying up the series.

The Haydock Bible is a great resource, but it is from the 19th century using the older Douay Rheims version. I still consider this to be the best Catholic study Bible ever. There was a company making reprints, but it is no longer in business and the reprints are starting to get harder to find. If you can find one it will most likely run you over 100 dollars. The entire text of the commentary is available online. I think a Catholic publisher would do well to print a leather bound version with an updated layout.

The Didache Bible is a nice resource with helpful references to the CCC, but if you are looking for something like a typical modern protestant study Bible, you may find it wanting.

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture is a good resource, but it is a Commentary series as opposed to a study Bible. The volumes do contain the entire text of the scripture with lengthy commentary. The series is intended to be accessible to all readers, and the books are not too expensive. The downsides are that it is not yet complete, and only covers the New Testament.
Click to expand...
This is an excellent list. I have the Didache, Ignatius, and just ordered my first Navarre volume.
 
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