Catholic Truth Society UK
I’ve
been meaning to post this for quite a while but am just getting around to it,
finally spurred to do so when checking to see if it were available on
Amazon.com found that while it has a page [LINK],
it shows as currently unavailable and there is virtually no information on it,
not even a customer review. I remedied that immediately and decided to also
post my thoughts here….
This is my daily reading Bible. A bit of background: I
am a convert to Catholicism, back in the 1980s, and my first Catholic Bible was
the Jerusalem Bible. Since then I have always loved the high literary quality
of the translation (the fact that J. R. R. Tolkien was part of the team producing
it back in the 1960s helped in that respect!), except for one thing that I found increasingly irksome
– its use of the Divine Name Yahweh against thousands of years of tradition,
both Jewish and Christian, rendering it as "The Lord." The Jerusalem
Bible may not be the most slavishly literal translation (for that, go to the
Douay-Rheims), but I do find it the most readable. Nevertheless, the
"Yahweh issue" eventually drove me to other translations, most
commonly the Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition, as a good balance of
readability and literal accuracy. Anyway, last year while on the Pilgrimage to
Italy [LINK],
I went into a little bookstore in St. Peter's Square where I found a red Compact
Edition of this Bible (not this edition) as one of the few English editions
available. Seeing that it was from the Catholic Truth Society, “Publishers to
the Holy See,” I picked it up, and a quick perusal of the introduction revealed
that I had finally found my dream reading Bible – a Jerusalem Bible with the
Divine Name rendered as "Lord," with an extra attraction as well: The
Psalms are printed in the Grail translation, which has become intimately
familiar to me from years of reciting the Breviary. The only reason I did not
immediately purchase that Bible on the spot was its compact size and tiny print,
which I knew was too small for daily reading with my middle-aged eyes. But
immediately upon arriving back in the States I was on the Internet seeking out
a larger copy, settling on this one, the Standard Edition, basically the next
size up, which I purchased directly from the CTS in the UK (The Internet is a
Wonderful Thing!). And I have used it daily ever since, because it came with
other features I didn't even know about at the time, but which further enhance
its utility as a daily reading Bible.
Here are the specifics: The dimensions on this Standard Edition are approx.
5-1/4" x 7-1/2" x 1-7/8". It’s a convenient size and feels
wonderful in the hand, with a soft flexible cover of some material that if it's
not really leather sure feels like it is. (Amazon calls it leather; the CTS
website calls it “leatherette.”) The cover is sewn around the edges, which I
associate with the highest quality workmanship. Inside, the print is crisp and
sharp. The book introductions and annotations are not as extensive as the old
Jerusalem Bible, and are geared toward a brief commentary enhancing the reading
experience rather than textual criticism. The theological position of the
annotator seems to me to be a fair medium between "conservative" and
"liberal/modernist." Among the "other features" I mentioned
at the end of the previous paragraph are: An outline/abstract of the Vatican II
Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation Dei
Verbum; A series of tables and notes including a time-line, weights,
measures and money; and the best part, eight
different indexes of scripture passages used in the various liturgies, among
them being: the readings for daily and Sunday Mass, as well as a table of all
the scriptural readings for Mass listed in
Biblical order; indexes of the Psalms and Canticles as they appear in the
Divine Office; and the daily reading order for the Office of Readings in both the one- and two-year cycles. It's
this latter that I like to follow, which gives a systematic program for reading
through about 60% of the Bible over the course of two years, with due attention
given to the liturgical seasons. Finally, there are color maps, conveniently
printed on the inside front and back covers and the end-papers. For a closer
look, the CTS website offers a 32-page sneak peek, basically the front matter
and the first few pages of Genesis [LINK].
I have tended to be fairly mercurial in my choice of a
daily reading Bible over the years, but I really think that with this one I
have found the one I will use for the rest of my life. I highly recommend it.
As indicated above, at least at the present time,
Amazon.com (US) lists it as "Currently Unavailable." Nevertheless, a
couple of different editions appear on Amazon.uk, and they do ship
internationally. Or you can do like I did, go directly to the Catholic Truth
Society webpage where the full line of available editions can be found. That
also entails international shipping, of course, but trust me – this Bible is
worth it.
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