Customer Reviews

The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Todays World

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There has already been a great deal said about this Bible as far as spiritual and scholarly content goes, and I will only add that I agree this is a wonderful and much needed edition. Having said that, then, why have they produced this book, which must (and at that price should) last for years, so cheaply? The paper is so thin, you can see ALL of the type on the other side of each page too clearly, on EVERY page. The paper also has the feel of thin newsprint, not fine onionskin, like some well-produced thin Bibles. It is also not the most longlasting binding- I've already had to glue mine where a bunch of pages fell out. I have no idea if the leather edition is any more resilient, but I hope so- in any case, I HIGHLY recommend the contents, but not the throwaway printing and binding.

The Orthodox Study Bible (O.S.B.) is the long-awaited completion of a project to provide the full text of Holy Scripture (the entire canon of the Old Testament, with all of its deuterocanonical writings, as well as the New Testament), translated from the Greek texts that are normative for the Orthodox world, to meet the liturgical, devotional, and study needs of Eastern Orthodox laymen and clergy, yet it is also a landmark publication in Christian scholarship of more general application. This assessment of the superb O.S.B. is from the standpoint of an informed Québec layman whose background and research interests, in various ways, encompass Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and even Eastern Orthodoxy.

The "Orthodox Study Bible" (O.S.B.) is a marvellous choice for Catholic and Orthodox believers who are attached to the phraseology of Anglicanism's Authorised "King James" Version Bible tradition, for whom the O.S.B. is a good and wise choice. The O.S.B. includes the deuterocanon of the Old Testament (O.T.) as well, of course, as the other writings of the O.T., and it uses the N.K.J.V. in the New Testament (N.T.) part. The editors of the O.T. amended the N.K.J.V. to conform to the Greek Septuagint version's renderings. With the O.S.B.'s study notes, a Roman Catholic or Eastern (Uniate) Catholic reader, concerning doctrinal and exegetical matters, only has to ignore the annotation on perhaps one single passsage, St. Matthew 16:18 (which Catholics interpret to defend the role and alleged infallibility of the Papacy, the so-called "Petrine Office"), so Catholics and Eastern Orthodox alike can pretty much agree on everything else in the commentary of the notes.

The "Orthodox Study Bible" is quite different from other study or otherwise annotated Bibles, and in the most marvellous faith-affirming ways, integrating as it does Orthodox-Catholic tradition into the study of Holy Writ. The textual base of the translation is a welcome choice, too, the Septuagint (LXX) Greek O.T. and Byzantine Greek N.T., the latter entirely free of the serious flaws of the textual basis of Protestant and more or less recent Roman Catholic translations which are based too uncritically upon the late Hebrew Masoretic O.T. and the vilely corrupt "Critical Texts" (U.B.S., Nestle-Aland, and worse) of the Greek N.T. Refreshingly, the N.T. of the New King James Version (N.K.J.V.), to which the editors wisely resorted for a modern English usage translation, is based on that already mentioned Byzantine Text (also called "Textus Receptus"), so it is refreshingly free of the faults of so many other late 19th and 20th century translations from Greek "minority text" manuscript sources.

The ample study notes of the O.S.B. for the most part are taken from, or based upon, the writings of the great Fathers of the Church ("Patristic" writings) and of other early Christian theologians and saintly figures of post-Patristic times. These notes deal with only few of the subjects to which other study/annotated Bibles devote much space, but the notes are also free (hooray!) of the speculations on chiliasm (so irksomely prominent in Fundamentalist and Neo-Evangelical sectarian study Bibles), of misleading text critical notes (common to alike too many Protestant and Catholic study Bibles), or notes of the "higher critical" sort which so toxically and misleadingly deny the Bible's reliability factually and historically, and/or its faithful transmission across the ages. Conservative, "confessional", and believing Christians (of whichever labelled type) of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, and sectarian traditions alike will find the O.S.B.'s annotations faith-affirming and full of the deep Christian wisdom of the ages.

Whereas the O.S.B. incorporates its own freshly completed new translation of the Greek Septuagint O.T., known as the "St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint" English Version (S.A.A.S.), of which the translation project director is the estimable Jack Norman Sparks (who also is the principal editor of the O.S.B. as a whole), another recent translation into current English of the Greek LXX O.T. also appeared on the market only one year before the publication of the O.S.B. I am referring to "A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under That Title" (N.E.T.S)., edited by two Protestant scholars, Allen Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright (Oxford University Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-19-528975-6). As the O.S.B. had taken the N.K.J.V.'s O.T. as the point of departure (in editing it to conform to the LXX Greek O.T.), the N.E.T.S. chose to rework the New Revised Standard Version (N.R.S.V.) of the O.T. to conform it to the Greek LXX O.T.

The results of the editors' work for the N.E.T.S. English translation of the Greek LXX O.T. are remarkably fine. The N.E.T.S. translation is crisply clear and freer of the slight ambiguities here and there that one finds even in in the S.A.A.S. English rendition of the LXX O.T. The traces of "feminist-speak" (or "inclusive language") and of other flaws in the N.R.S.V.'s at times too trendy translation seem, from what I can tell in having used it fairly intensively along with the O.S.B.'s S.A.A.S., to have disappeared entirely, so meticulously thorough has been the work of Pietersma and Wright in reworking and conforming the N.R.S.V.'s O.T. to the Greek LXX.

For this lay reader, there only a few real obstacles to, or reservations about, using the N.E.T.S. version of the O.T. confidently for daily reading. One is the slighter impediment of the N.E.T.S.' pedantic use of exactly transliterated forms of personal and place names, which differ (sometimes markedly) from the better-known forms of name in other English Bibles, which the O.S.B. wisely chose to retain as being more reader-friendly. Another and more serious failing is the presence of some passages where translation choices of dubious doctrinal orthodoxy occur, in part due, very likely, to Pietersma and Wright acceeding to pressures from Jewish scholars among their collaborators to downplay the Christian implications of certain readings which occur in the LXX text of the O.T. Apart from this sort of thing, the translation occasionally does resort elsewhere to peculiar or awkward wording which is less pellucidly clear, or that is more doubtfully pertinent, than what characterises most of the N.E.T.S.' admirably elegant prose. Also, of course, for the Christian reader, having the O.T. in a separate volume from the rest of the Bible, the N.T., makes it more convenient to use the O.S.B. for both of the Testaments as a principal choice for a practical edition of the Bible for constant use; in any case, the S.A.A.S. translation of the O.T. in the O.S.B. is free of the risky and hazardous readings which here and there occur in the otherwise so admirable N.E.T.S.

Hail to the successful completion of both of these translation and publishing projects, the Orthodox Study Bible and the N.E.T.S. English translation of the Greek Septuagint Old Testament. The Orthodox Study Bible, for its part, makes the complete Greek Bible translated into English available for today's Anglophone readers, especially for the Orthodox faithful among them, as well as for other Christians!

This Orthodox bible is the best ever translated Bible with explanations so it will help everyone to understand the verses and it is the most accurate version.

I found this bible truly did prove to be a great study guide....I am very impressed with it and believe it is unquestionably one of, if not the most significant piece of work ever published for English speaking orthodox Christians... With that being said I am EXTREMELY disappointed in the physical qualities of this bible produced by Thomas nelson publications!! the pages are cheap and very thin and you can see through to the next page which is very distracting and annoying when you are trying to read Gods word! I find i have to be extra careful turning the pages because they wrinkle so easily definitely not designed for long lasting durability....being unhappy with the hardcover version i decided to buy the next best thing the "bonded leather" version (which is leather fibers bonded with some type of toxic chemical adhesive) I say toxic because I actually felt dizzy the first time I opened the box it was contained in, that smell sticks around for a good week by the way. Once I got past the stench and the slimmy feel of it's cover I opened it up and found the same problem that plagued the hardcover version which is cheap, super thin see through paper. I am in the process of purchasing the only other alternative which is a genuine leather version I found at Conciliar press, I haven't received it yet but I am expecting it to be made from the same cheap, thin see through paper as the other versions since it to is produced by Thomas Nelson, but hey at least it should have a quality cover that won't stink (hopefully).

Thomas Nelson boast about there quality, but I have never bought a university textbook, regular book (fiction/nonfiction) or even magazine where I could see through to the next page!! How can they justify making a BIBLE of this significance out of such poor quality material?! I don't know who to be more disappointed with Nelson pub. or St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology who put so much effort into creating such a useful, insightful and beneficial study bible only have it presented on the cheapest material available!!!

If either of these 2 groups are out there reading this I'd like to say that there are plenty people out there willing to spend a few more dollars to have a "QUALITY and DURABLE" copy of the orthodox study bible that should last a lifetime!... how can you justify using such cheap materials to produce something as important as this bible? its inexcusable!

George

Fully satisfied with puchase of Orthodox Study Bible. My first purchase at AMAZON, but not the last. Thank you. Also found other related items.

For those who are wondering about the page thickness of this edition, it is still thin pages. However this is still a great study Bible and I use it at an Evangelical College :)

The Orthodox Study Bible is a true treasure. We feel It really is the fruit of many year of dedicated efforts directed and inspired by the Holy Spirit. It has become an essential companion in our family for our daily bible readings, and preparation for service. We have bought close to 10 of these bibles so far as we think it is the most precious gift that we could give to anyone.
In Christ

This title has been released for a couple of months now (it was released on 12 February 2008). Some of my friends, who obviously bought it somewhere else, already have their copies. Does anyone know why Amazon.ca is delaying this title?