Why don't Catholics have more specialty Bibles?

[QuestLove]

I think the idea is rather protestant in its genesis. Imagine picking a bible up and thinking "Gee, this is not really the version that I need right now…"
As noted theologian (may he rest in peace) Sam Kinison said, “the way a Christian takes the bible and he holds it sacred…”

Sacred means untouchable.

A devotional bible does not mean a changed bible. All it has is notes, devotionals etc. alongside the text. Some of them even have space for making notes.

 

[DebChris]

There is the NAB and some of the Jesuit editions.

But rather than focus on the Bible issue think of all the other tools we do have.

-The sacraments
-All of the many different prayer books
-The Rosary, the novenas
-All the different Holy orders that are there for us and others. Ones we can join
-The confraternities
-More ministry opportunities then I have ever seen in any other church
-Fellowship groups from bowling to rosary making

I have never seen anything that comes close to what we have.

When I have been on the Greyhound bus, or in an airport praying the Liturgy of the Hours, I have been often asked if I was reading the Bible. What I usually carried with me was the single volume Christian Prayer. This question came from non-Catholics.
There are many ways in which Catholics read scripture. The LOTH is the most common.
The LOTH can be purchased in the 4 volume set, which includes the Office of Readings (in America). I also have the 3 volume set (British version) that I used overseas.
Go to a Catholic bookstore to find Children’s Bibles. These are generally the same NAB translation that grownups read, although I had an easier version when I was a child.
The Fireside Catholic Youth Bible was the text used for high school Religious Formation at my last stateside parish.
http://www.firesidebibles.com/ShopB...lic-Youth-BibleNEXT-NABRE-Softcover_2664.aspx

I personally like the Catholic Answer Bible. Here you find the references for those who attack the Catholic Faith and our practices.

Many people also subscribe to Magnificat and the Word Among Us. By attending, or at least reading the daily Mass readings the entire Bible is read over the course of three years. The Magnificat and Word Among Us, as a several other Catholic publications give daily commentaries/reflections/prayers to go along with the daily readings.

 

[DebChris]

All I’m suggesting is a combination of a Catholic Bible and some good Catholic spiritual reading geared towards different groups of people. I have to admit I really don’t understand how that would make oneself the primary focus rather than the Bible or encourage someone to look for a different Church that “fits them”

St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of God.”
As stated in my last post, Catholics do read or at least hear the Word proclaimed.
As Catholics, we are encouraged to read the scriptures. Pope Francis recently called on everybody to carry a small Bible with them everywhere we go. Before the time of missalettes, everybody carried their missals to Mass. The Mass readings come directly from the Bible.

Catholic book stores are filled with great spiritual readings. There are various books geared toward those dealing with broken families, addictions, etc. Many of these books are devotional books. Often they will provide the reader with a meditation or refer the reader to a particular scriptural passage. Instead of Devotional Bible, a person finds a devotional book that deals with the problem he or she is having at the time. The devotional book is used in conjunction with the Bible. Any notes are made in the devotional book.

I have been praying the LOTH for many years. Most of those years, I only had the single volume Christian Prayer plus the Shorter Christian Prayer. I tucked the Shorter Christian Prayer in the glove compartment of my vehicle or my backpack for those times when I was not home and could pray Vigils. The single volume Christian Prayer listed the daily Biblical readings for the Office of Readings in the back. But what about the non-Biblical readings? I substituted a classic or modern spiritual reading of choice and read a chapter or section daily.

What I am trying to say is that a person does not need a Devotional Bible. There are other options and will save money in the long run. Find a good spiritual book of choice to read. If you want to take notes, get a journal to write your notes in. As a Catholic, you have several options as to how you want to read the Bible. Read the Mass readings. Pray the LOTH. Simply read the Bible as our non-Catholic brothers and sisters do, beginning from Genesis. Pray lectio divina and journal your thoughts.

Individual problems change throughout one’s life. The different devotional books one might to use to help with your spiritual life will also change. The one book that will remain constant is the Bible.

 

[po18guy]

A devotional bible does not mean a changed bible. All it has is notes, devotionals etc. alongside the text. Some of them even have space for making notes.

And if one helps you, great! It’s just not how Catholics and Orthodox normally practice devotions. Neither Catholicism nor orthodoxy is bible-centered. Both are Christ-centered. That is a concept which many of our separated post-reformation brethren find rather foreign.

 

[DebChris]

My link to the Fireside Bibles link didn’t stay in my earlier post.
firesidebibles.com/shopbibles/shopbyoccasion/youthbiblestudy/

There are study Bibles for Catholics, and Bibles specifically marketed for different purposes.
When we study the Bible, we do study God’s Word, and especially in the New Testament the Life of Christ. St. John Paul II encouraged the meditation of scripture before each mystery when reciting the rosary.
Where we differ from our separated brothers and sisters in Christ is that we put equal emphasis on Tradition, the teachings the Apostles received directly from Christ and passed through the generations intact protected by the power of the Holy Spirit under the jurisdiction of the magisterium.

More often you will find devotionals with the specific and related scripture verses and meditations that will help at a given point in time. There is also a myriad of spiritual literature to read in addition to books written by the Saints and about the Saints, as well as more contemporary spiritual writing to help a person wherever he or she may be on their journey.

 

[hadulzo]

I am baffled by your question. If you are shopping in a Christian book store you wont find many Catholic bibles. I have a Lecito Divina bible. I bought my daghterinlaw a womans devotional bible. They have a men’s version. The sunday visitor has an apoligetics bible. Of course there are catholic childrens bibles. Several catholic
teen bibles. I have fouty seven catholic bibles, and looking forward to getting the new Didache bible in the fall.

 

[Mintaka]

Okay, let’s sum up.

1. There are Catholic devotional Bibles around for people in various walks of life.
2. Most Catholics aren’t particularly interested in devotional Bibles, or don’t know they exist. Maybe they would like them if they tried them.
3. But there is no call for people to be telling the OP that Catholics shouldn’t have such things or that a Catholic would be wrong to want one. The whole point of listening to the Bible with the mind of the Church is to apply it to yourself as well as to vague other people out there, or to Bible people way back in time.

Also, a lot of the homily literature, devotional works, moral works, etc. of Catholics throughout the ages are essentially matters of interpreting the Bible for specific problems of monks, kings, farmers, merchants, etc. That’s pastoral work, or your mom elbowing you during the readings.

Actually, the thing I find interesting is that the more I study patristics or medieval Bible interpretation, the more interconnections I find in the OT and NT, without even looking for them. But modern Bibles often leave these out, even if you check out the itsy-bitsy footnotes. You could probably do a Really Deep devotional Bible if you pulled out those connections.

 

[po18guy]

Here at CAF, it is only a matter of time before opinion is condemned as judgment.

To quote Bruce Hornsby: “That’s just the way it is. Some things will never change…”

 

[DebChris]

I am baffled by your question. If you are shopping in a Christian book store you wont find many Catholic bibles. I have a Lecito Divina bible. I bought my daghterinlaw a womans devotional bible. They have a men’s version. The sunday visitor has an apoligetics bible. Of course there are catholic childrens bibles. Several catholic
teen bibles. I have fouty seven catholic bibles, and looking forward to getting the new Didache bible in the fall.

Whatever you can find in a non-Catholic book store, you can find in a Catholic book store. Plus you can find the devotionals that will point to meditations and scriptural readings if you don’t want to buy another Bible but to simply use the Bible you already have. Often the clerk can special order a book if it is not in stock.

 

[thewanderer]

I am baffled by your question. If you are shopping in a Christian book store you wont find many Catholic bibles. I have a Lecito Divina bible. I bought my daghterinlaw a womans devotional bible. They have a men’s version. The sunday visitor has an apoligetics bible. Of course there are catholic childrens bibles. Several catholic
teen bibles. I have fouty seven catholic bibles, and looking forward to getting the new Didache bible in the fall.

Who said anything about looking for Catholic Bibles in a Christian bookstore? I have been a Catholic my whole life, I have searched through multiple online Catholic stores, including Catholic Answers online store without finding specialty Bibles beyond the new Ignatius Study Bible and the “Family” versions of Bibles which usually just have space in the front to add in details about your family, and maybe some nice colour pictures in the middle. I didn’t even know that things such as specialty Bibles existed until I spent more time with some Protestants. After that, it just struck me as odd that I had never in my life seen anything like that for Catholics, especially seeing as it looks like it would be very helpful for better immersing yourself in scripture and applying scripture and Christ’s teachings to your own life. I’m just curious, but where did you manage to find the Catholic specialty Bibles that you have?

 

[thewanderer]

My link to the Fireside Bibles link didn’t stay in my earlier post.
firesidebibles.com/shopbibles/shopbyoccasion/youthbiblestudy/

Interesting, thanks for the link.

There are study Bibles for Catholics, and Bibles specifically marketed for different purposes.
When we study the Bible, we do study God’s Word, and especially in the New Testament the Life of Christ. St. John Paul II encouraged the meditation of scripture before each mystery when reciting the rosary.
Where we differ from our separated brothers and sisters in Christ is that we put equal emphasis on Tradition, the teachings the Apostles received directly from Christ and passed through the generations intact protected by the power of the Holy Spirit under the jurisdiction of the magisterium.

More often you will find devotionals with the specific and related scripture verses and meditations that will help at a given point in time. There is also a myriad of spiritual literature to read in addition to books written by the Saints and about the Saints, as well as more contemporary spiritual writing to help a person wherever he or she may be on their journey.

 

[thewanderer]

I would suspect because there is not as large a demand for them as perhaps protestants have.

If you mean how do you change the trend that there aren’t tons of Catholic devotional Bibles, then you first need a demand for them. No publisher is going to put out a product that is going to sit on the shelf. Doing a quick search on Amazon for “catholic devotional bible” does show some (i.e. women’s, men’s, couples, saints, children’s, lectio divina, etc), so they are out there. I don’t suspect you would see a huge selection in a book store because the local market for them might be tiny.

One average, most Catholics I know might have one or two bibles in their house. The might have one for each member of the family. Protestants I know often have 8-10+. Each member seems to have at least 2 Bibles. For them having different Bibles for different purposes is a way to come closer to God. Most Catholics I know don’t read the Bible as a devotion. They turn to prayer, LOTH, novenas, the sacraments, etc. We also have daily Mass where protestants don’t have the opportunity to encounter the Lord in liturgical worship on a daily basis.

So to turn it around would require generating more demand. That in turn would require convincing significant numbers of Catholics to want to do devotional Bible reading. I think that would be a tough row to hoe given the many other traditional devotions already available to Catholics.

This makes sense. Especially seeing the responses on this thread, I guess a lot of Catholics just have no interest in the idea of a specialty/devotional Bible.

 

[thewanderer]

If you are looking for a good bible including extra readings on the scripture I highly recommend the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (amazon.com/Ignatius-Catholic-Study-Bible-Testament/dp/1586172506). Although it contains only the New Testament, included in it are writings of the Fathers of the Church and other catholic scholars. I agree that it would be nice to have more comprehensive study bible, but I think at the same time it is not really necessary to have one because all of the catholic doctrines are so easily accessible to anyone with internet connection, and I will post some resources at the end of this post. Hopefully this post was able to help you.

Papal documents (w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html)
Church Fathers (newadvent.org/fathers/index.html)
summa (newadvent.org/summa/)
Scott Hahn (scotthahn.com/)

Oremus pro invicem.

Thank you, I already own the Ignatius Study BIble, the New Testament. And while I already knew where to find the Summa and the Papal documents, having a link to the Church Fathers is a great resource, as is the reminder to look into Scott Hahn and his writings more.