My Review of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible

Recently (for my birthday, in fact) I recieved a new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, New Testament from my lovely wife. Well, it's kind of new and it's not. If you are familiar with this Catholic study Bible, you know that it has been a work in progress for the last several years, being released in booklet form one or two (sometimes three) New Testament books at a time. Bible geek that I am, of course, I own that entire collection. I've found them extremely helpful, with my favorite Scripture translation (the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition), and edited by two of my favorite popular Biblical scholars, Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch. Now these books have been gathered together in a one volume Catholic New Testament study Bible--probably the best one on the market today.

This one volume study Bible has all the great notes that the booklets did (think of it as a Catholic version of, for example, the NIV Study Bible), with good cross references, insightful and infomative footnotes, references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other Church documents, as well as quotations from the Early Church Fathers and other great saints). It has a pretty good index and concordance in the back, as well as some full color maps. There are lots of informative sidebars and in-depth articles throughout that discuss important biblical words, concepts and interpretation issues.

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The text is very readable and set up nicely, with the side-bars, articles and some small black and white maps scattered throughout the text. There is a little margin on the sides for scribbling notes (more room than my NAB anyway), and it has very helpful headings for key passages. The size is somewhat on the large size--bigger than most personal Bibles. They could probably get away with a somewhat smaller font and less white space between the biblical books, so I'm hoping they might come up with a more compact version in the future. One thing they lack that the booklets had were questions for study and personal reflection on each book of the New Testament. Ignatius Press, however, has made these available on their promotional website, found here.

I wasn't going to get one of these, resolving to keep using the booklets until the entire Bible was finished (they are releasing the Genesis booklet this month), but now that I have the one volume New Testament, I'm glad I do. It is available in a number of formats; I asked for the inexpensive paperback edition ($14 on Amazon), because I consider it my temporary copy until the entire work is published-- and it will probably be worn out by then. When it finally is completed, it will be without a doubt, THE gold standard of Catholic study Bibles for the average Catholic who treasures God's Word in the Scriptures.

For more reviews on this study Bible, see the following:

St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

Absolutely No Spin

Catholic Bibles