Product Description

A completely new typeset and designed edition of the popular Ignatius Revised Standard Version Bible, with minor revisions to some of the archaic language used in the first edition. This revised version is a contemporary English translation without dumbing-down the text. This second edition of the RSV doesn't put the biblical text through a filter to make it acceptable to current tastes and prejudices, and it retains the beauty of the RSV language that has made it such a joy to read and reflect on the Word of God. Now the only Catholic Bible in standard English is even more beautiful in word and design!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65076 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Leather Bound
• 1070 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780898709360
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
In addition to the outstanding treatment of the typeset and fidelity to the sacred texts, this particular bible features a beautifully crafted flexible bonded leather cover designed by our artists, making it a joy to both hold and behold. The front cover has a gold-foil stamped iconographic image of Christ, set within the representative symbols of the Four Evangelists. It is exceptional for its classic beauty, durability, and ease of use. There are also softcover and leather hardcover versions available from Ignatius Press.

Customer Reviews

RSV SCE is Excellent!
I am an ardent lover of the RSV bible. It has been my bible of choice for nearly 30 years. With the second Catholic edition, archaic language has been removed, and thus the RSV SCE is an excellent alternative for Catholics to the NAB and NRSV. I give the RSV SCE 5 stars.

I very much like that the designation, "Only Son," has been replaced by "Only Begotten Son" in John's gospel. This conforms more closely to our Nicene Heritage. I don't like the translation, "Only Son," as most modern versions have, even though that translation has merit.

The RSV SCE offers some welcome concessions to the Catholic understanding of the text. I mention two: 1) The Angel's greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28 is rendered as "hail, full of grace,the Lord is with you" rather than "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" as in the original RSV. 2) Isaiah 7:14 uses the word "Virgin" rather than "young women" as in the original RSV. This change is legitimate, even though the Hebrew simply has "young woman." The Bible of the ancient Christian community was the Greek Septuagint, which was considered inspired in its own right. The Septuagint uses the word "virgin (parthenos)" in Isaiah 7:14.

One might hope that eventually, the RSV SCE will replace the New American Bible in all Enlish language Catholic liturgies, both here and abroad. Some Churches are already taking advantage of the RSV SCE. The new RSV SCE Lectionary has been approved for use in the Roman Rite by the Antilles Bishops Conference. The new Ukrainian Catholic Divine Liturgy Service provides New Testament quotes from the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. The RSV SCE is literal, literary, and reliable.

For me, as a Byzantine Catholic, the best bibles to use are:

-The RSV SCE
-The Douay Rheims version
-The Confraternity New Testament
-The Orthodox New Testament (by Holy Apostles Convent)
-The New Testament by Ronald Knox
-The Third Millennium Bible (a recent update of the KJV, which only updates the most obscure language, and includes the Deutero-Canon/Apocrypha, and is based on the Byzantine Text)
-The Orthodox Study Bible (which uses the NKJV; wish they would have used the original KJV or the RSV) by Conciliar Press

All of these versions with the exception of the Confraternity Bible should be available on line. The Confraternity Version is available from Scepter Press.

The fact that the original RSV has spawned three major revisions - the NRSV, the RSV SCE, and the ESV- is a testimony to this great bible. Originally scorned by some conservative Christians (very unjustly, in my mind), it has aged well, and ironically has come into favor with many traditional Catholics and conservative Protestants. And now this new edition of the RSV SCE will help ensure the legacy of the RSV.

I recommend the RSV SCE heartily to all.

Very much improved
I have been using the old edition of the Ignatius RSV for two years. I love the text, but the format was horrible. When I heard this one was coming out, I was hoping for a good improvement over the last one. And it didn't disappoint me!

--Better-quality paper
--The asterisk notes are on the bottom of the page, not at the end of the Old/New Testament
--The margins are wider and perfect
--The font is more appealing
--Section headings
--Nicer cover design and better cover material
--Ribbon to mark page
--Each book starts on a new page
--Color maps at end of Bible

They also changed "thou" to "you," but the rest of the text is exactly the same as the beautiful RSV first Catholic edition. Definitely worth the money!

A Very Good Edition Marred by Unevenness
The Revised Standard Version - Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE) is an updated version of the 1966 RSV-Catholic edition. Important changes from the original Catholic edition have been highlighted by some of the reviewers, but they generally fall into either of 2 principles: (i) removing archaisms, such as "morrow", "thees" and "thous", from the much of the text (except the Pater noster), or (ii) adjustments in favour of the Nova Vulgata as requested by Liturgiam authenticam.

The revision had great promise, but unfortunately the second principle was not followed consistently in my opinion. While they changed "cup" to "chalice" in the Last Supper narrative found in the three synoptic Gospels and in St. Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians (11:23-26), it retained "cup" in the other places where the word refers to the cup/chalice of the Eucharist (10:16 and 11:27-28), leaving the reader puzzled as to the difference in terms in these cases. Similarly, while it is laudable that the RSV-2CE made some changes to Sirach to follow the Nova Vulgata, such as the inclusion of 1:5, 1:7 in the main biblical text rather than in the footnotes, it left out many (if not most) of the other unique verses found in the Nova Vulgata that were not translated in the original RSV-CE. It appears that the RSV-2CE is faithful to the second principle only for texts that are used somewhere in the Lectionary; perhaps the editors of the work simply took changes made by Rome to their edition of the RSV Lectionary and pasted them wholesale into the biblical text. The excellence of the text is therefore uneven: better than the RSV-CE no doubt, but likely to leave readers who want a Bible translation that presents the fullness of the Latin biblical tradition unsatisfied and disappointed.

A more promising development may lie in the production of a new English Lectionary by an international committee chaired by Bishop Mark Coleridge (Australia) and Fr Henry Wansbrough (editor of New Jerusalem Bible) by revising the New Revised Standard Version so that it is faithful to Liturgiam authenticam. They intend to publish a complete edition of the Bible so corrected in the near future, and this might provide a version of the Bible that is accurate and reflective of the Latin biblical tradition.

This leatherette edition has crisp and clear printing that makes the Bible a pleasure to read and meditate, though the paper is a tad too glossy. The iconic cover of the Bible is an excellent welcome from the boring and uninspiring alternatives commonly used for Bibles, Catholic or Protestant. Overall I would still recommend this Bible for serious readers while awaiting a better version to come along. But if you have some version of the original RSV-CE, you won't gain much by this new edition.