The New Jerusalem Bible: The Complete Text of the Ancient Canon of the Scriptures with Up-to-Date Introductions and Notes

Even though it said second hand, it looks as good as new. Value for money as original costs three times more.

Fantastic bible

We are thrilled with the prompt delivery of the book, which could not be of more value to us! It is perfect, or as close to perfect as human products get these days! I is a New Jerusalem Bible; it is new; we love it! It is flawless or close to it, and we have no complaints or concerns of any kind! Fabulous!Again, sincere thanks to all of you who are involved!

The New Jerusalem Bible is a bold translation, and it's best read in the hardcover edition. While everyone expects something different out of a Bible, the combination of translation and features have made this one my favorite.The TranslationThis translation does not stand in the Tyndale tradition and lacks the familiar English Biblish. The editor opines that literary fidelity has been everywhere preferred to literary quality, but the translation is by no means wooden. It reads smoothly, and in some cases sacrifices familiar phrasing for correct interpretation:John 3:16For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.The most useful aspect of the translation is the treatment of God's names in the Old Testament. I know of no other modern translation that maintains the distinction of God's OT names so assiduously. El and Elohim are (depending on context) rendered God, god, or gods. El Elyon is rendered God Most High. Yahweh and El Shaddai are transliterated. Readers acquainted with the documentary hypothesis, or bronze age religion as it was practiced, will appreciate this distinction. Two examples:Exodus 6:2-3God spoke to Moses and said to him, 'I am Yahweh. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I appeared as El Shaddai, but I did not make my name Yahweh known to them.'Deuteronomy 32:8-9When the Most High gave the nations each their heritage, when he partitioned out the human race, he assigned the boundaries of nations according to the number of the children of God, but Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob was to be the measure of his inheritance. (Following the Septuagint.)The textual basis of the Old Testament is the Masoretic Text, but as you can see from the Deuteronomy excerpt, the translators availed themselves of other sources which they felt represented a more ancient tradition, or solved problems with the Hebrew text. Editorial emendations have also been made. The deuterocanon (presented in the Roman Catholic order) and New Testament are taken from modern critical texts, with reference to other versions. Footnotes identify anything in the text taken from the versions or created by editorial emendation. Longer questionable passages, such as the ending of Mark and the pericope of the adulteress, are kept in the text, but footnotes discuss the problems with these sections. Shorter spurious passages, like the Johannine comma, are removed to the footnotes.The FeaturesThe text is presented in a single-column, paragraphed format. Poetry is formatted as such. Major divisions within books are given numbered headings (Roman numerals, naturally), and subsections or pericopes have bold headings. Chapter numbers are large and bold in the text, while verse numbers are to be found in the inner margin. If two or more verses begin on the same line, a dot or bullet point is used to separate them. While this is a rather unusual layout, it is very easy to find things in this Bible, by chapter and verse or subject. It combines the best aspects of the traditional chapter and verse bible with the best aspect of the numberless “reader's Bibles” that have recently been (re-)introduced.All footnotes are found at the bottom of the right-hand page. Footnotes comprise mainly translation information, textual variants, and historical notes. These notes usually take a historical-critical approach, and do not assume we possess a completely inerrant text. Doctrinal notes are rare, but there are some. A notable example can be found in Luke 22:32k, which reads in part, “This saying gives Peter a function in directing faith with regard to the other apostles. His primacy within the apostolic college is affirmed more clearly than in Mt 16:17-19, where he could simply be the spokesman and representative of the Twelve.” The text, of course, says nothing of the sort. It only says Peter will “strengthen” his brothers.There are various other features along the margin of the page. At the top of the left-hand page, a page number, the name of the book, and the chapter and verse of the first verse on the page. The top of the right-hand page has the same information, but the chapter and verse are those of the last one on the page. The outer margin has references to parallels, quotations, and allusions. (Quotations in the text are helpfully italicized.) While all this could make the page seem very busy, it is very easy to ignore the marginalia and concentrate on the text due to the single-column format described earlier.Several groupings of books, and several individual books, have introductions of at least several pages each. Like the notes, these are full of historical information. There are fairly detailed discussions of the documentary hypothesis and the synoptic problem, the authenticity and dating of the epistles, etc. The introductions are fairly meaty, as these things go. They compare favorably to other study Bibles.There is also some interesting back matter in this volume. The chronological table presents two or three chronologies in parallel, displaying various events from Biblical and secular history. It runs for about 20 pages. There is a family tree of the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties. There is a page devoted to the calendar, and two pages devoted to measures and money. There are indexes to footnote subjects, to persons, and to the maps—of which there are seven, in full (if tastefully muted) color, one spread over two pages.The Physical ConstructionRemoving the somewhat ostentatious dust cover, one is presented with a slightly-less ostentatious blue hardcover, with a big gold foil JB on the front and more restrained markings on the spine. The paper is thin and there is bleed-through. Text lines are not matched with those on the opposite side of the page. The maps are on thick, glossy paper. It lays flat for reading.

Perhaps the most accurate translation of the Holy Bible into English.

The New Jerusalem Bible  I've just received the New Jerusalem Bible. The notes are outstanding. The print is relatively small, but OK. But I have to use a magnifying glass to read the small text notations, "a," "b," "c," etc. The introductory articles are outstanding, too. I've checked it against my NIV and the JB Jerusalem Bible-Jr (Bible Jb) . They form together my gold standard:Galatians 3, 16: (1) "Now the promises were addressed to Abraham "and to his descendants"--notice, in passing, that scripture does not use a plural word as if there were several descendants, it uses the singular: to his posterity, which is Christ." JB (2) "Now the promises were addressed to Abraham "and to his progeny." The words were not "and to his progenies" in the plural, but in the singular "and to his progeny," which means Christ." NJB (3) "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say `and to his seeds,` meaning many people, but `and to his your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ." NIV The terms descendant/descendants along with "posterity," progeny/progenies, and seed/seeds all present problems. (1) JB has "descendants" as being singular in contrast to "descendants" in the plural. "Descendant" is the common contrasting singular form and should have been used to avoid ambiguity. The Greek lists contrasting forms, "spermati," singular, and "spermasin," plural (see [a link to an online interlinear translation of the Bible, which was removed; evidently outside links are not OK] ). In addition the JB uses the word "posterity" as if it were singular, pointing a single individual far removed from Abraham in time: it is only singular in form; it refers to all in his line. (2) The NJB uses a mass noun in a singular sense, resulting in ambiguity: for "progeny" means all the progeny. To construe it as singular means to confer on it a special, unfamiliar sense. (3) NIV's seed/seeds is used in a non-literal, figurative sense, taking the source, Abraham (as seed), for the result, Christ. Further, "Progeny" is a count noun, pointing to an entire descent from a source, rather than to a remote individual in the line. The 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary lists "Offspring, progeny" as rare, except in biblical phraseology. So as it is, the NIV takes the prize--but using terminology meaningful only to someone already grounded in the Biblical usage. If the JB had translated "spermati" in the singular, "descendant," it would have provided a sound translation for the general reader. The mass-noun/count-noun distinction is not rigidly followed, though one could expect it to be in a Bible.In future I'll use the New Jerusalem Bible and the NIV as my gold standards. I haven't tagged my NIV because I'm not sure it is the latest.12/23/10 I have since run onto problems with some notes commenting on the text. For example, the NJB note on the song of Simeon, Lk 2, 29-32, reads: "Unlike [the] `Magnificat' and `Benedictus' this canticle seems to have been written by Luke himself, using especially texts from Isaiah. . . ." The note on the "Magnificat," Lk 1, 46-55, is largely to the same effect. Here the commentator does not say flatly that it is the work of Luke himself, but that "Lk must have found this canticle in the circles of the `Poor,' where it was perhaps attributed to the Daughter of Zion. He found it suitable to bring it into the prose narrative and put on the lips of Mary." The commentator's use the word "`Poor`" without further explanation seems pejorative, i.e., as if to say "the poor and ignorant." The note on the "Benedictus," Lk 1, 68-79: "Like the `Magnificat' this canticle is a poem which Lk has drawn from elsewhere to put on Zechariah's lips, adding vv. 76-77 to adapt it to the context. . . ." ["All those who heard it treasured it in their hearts. . . ."]These are offensive in tone. The comments not do justice to what Luke says at the start: Lk 1, 2-4: an account drawn up "as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word[.] I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you . . . ." When Luke says, for example, "treasured up in their hearts," this includes various memories by Mary and others. Textual criticism asks questions of a text, e.g., How do you come to know Mary's thinking?--Because she talked about it, reminisced about it with others: it was of increasing interest to them. These were religious people in touch with religious life: Elizabeth and Zechariah, and the bystanders at the critical times. They treasured it up in their hearts: their lives were coming to be defined by these "wonders." It should come as no surprise that their thinking tended to be expressed in terms of appropriate, familiar texts. Luke drew on the record of these memories as he wrote.Today I'd give 3 stars to the New Jerusalem Study Bible, and only as a second Bible. The New Jerusalem BibleJerusalem Bible-Jr (Bible Jb)

The photo is a 10x magnification :-) This is a really small bible. I am guessing if you have good eyes and a magnifying glass you could get on well with it but I've had to send it back and order a bigger vesion. Its a shame, although it is mini, the bible does look well made so I'm guessing it will be good for some people.