Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168712 in Books
• Published on: 1990-03-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1472 pages

Customer Reviews

Lighter, cheaper, but with full study notes and maps.
This study edition of the NJB is in English rather than American. It retains the close translation and textual accuracy of the larger editions. The supporting notes are far better than any other affordable edition - such as the Readers or Pocket editions.

It retains the lightweight but fine quality paper of the more expensive versions, which is useful for scribbling notes on the little blank space available. It is almost as easy to carry as the Pocket Edition. However, it is a paperback.. It will not last as long as the hardback versions.

This edition is very good at what it claims to be: "The Study Edition". I consider the current NJB to be the most accurate translation of the bible - this edition has many optional texts included. The language none the less retains a good linguistic style.

If you want powerful English or Good Literature, try the various versions of the RSV / NRSV. For easy reading, try the Good News or perhaps the Collins version.

Best and Most Scholarly Bible Available!
The New Jerusalem Bible is the version which I have chosen and recommend. The NJB evokes for me Jerome's Vulgate that he produced in the Holy Land and which is also a dynamic equivalence translation. The NJB belongs to the Nouvelle Théologie of the mainly French scholars who paved the way for the renewal witnessed at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The biblical renewal seen at the council was largely thanks to the Dominican M.J. Lagrange's École Biblique in Jerusalem whose original Bible de Jérusalem set the standard for subsequent editions. The École Biblique is one of only two Catholic colleges (along with the Biblicum in Rome) that awards the Sacred Scripture Doctorate (S.S.D.). The notes and other study material in the NJB are from the aforementioned Jerusalem Bible school: fine conservative scholarship, moderate in historico-criticism and displaying neither liberal scepticism nor mindless fundamentalism. The translation into English is wonderful and has been praised as the most poetic since the King James Version. The style is definitely scholarly and has been called more "British" than even the Revised English Bible (REB). I like the use of the Hebrew Divine names and applaud the scholarly usage of the varied textual sources including the Dead Sea Scrolls. The translation is loftier and more literal than the original Jerusalem Bible (1966) and its accuracy has been praised even by the Orthodox. The NJB is the only major contemporary English language (not American) Catholic Bible.

Perhaps the best Study Bible and translation
When I bought this Bible, I was amazed. I have quite a variety of versions from the NIV to the NASB. However, this ranks near the top of my list. The NJB is not too liberal, nor is it too fundamentalist conservative. It is even-handed and the notes, maps, and references are second to none, perhaps only to the NIV study Bible. The translation is clear and fairly poetic. As an evangelical scholarly Christian whose pursuit of God's truth is never finished, the NJB is a treasured Bible indeed.