The New Jerusalem Bible: Study Edition Paperback – Student Edition, 1 Mar. 1994

This is a fantastic Bible. The New Jerusalem Bible Study Bible was recommended to me by my parish priest during an RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) or Adult Confirmation into the Roman Catholic Church. He also recommended the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) for a good rounded view of the Scriptures.I like the NJB, it's compact and easy to carry and the textual notes are excellent.The Editors chose to refer to God as Yahweh (Hebrew word for God) in the Old Testament, for me, it gives the OT a slightly more authoritative feel. A bit like unedited, unadulterated & pure approach to the texts.The New Jerusalem Bible is a Catholic Bible, but from what I've read so far it doesn't appear exclusive.It's a nice version, affordable and compact enough to put into a bag and carry around.Some reviews mention the small font size. It is quite small but I don't find it difficult to read at all.The major drawback though is that this version is paperback! I can't see the book lasting very long without a cover! So far I haven't been able to God a cover that fits the copy. If anybody knows of one please let me know!

As a Catholic Bible, the NJB is the best if you like an excellent commentary with a Bible. Some of the print size is tiny though, and you need a magnifier to read the commentary comfortably. It was highly recommended to me by a well-respected RC Priest. I would like to have been able to afford the £55 for the hard-back edition, but I am getting along okay with the magnifier on the commentaries. There are so many different Bible editions that they are a maze to choose something. Not all Bibles are the same, some 'favor' a certain church's 'teaching'. The NJB is as far as I've been advised, the most accurate, the commentary scholarly and aimed at measured, Catholic study.

The New Jerusalem Bible Study Edition is ideal for the preacher, student and reader. The notes are in quite small print and not so easy for the older eyes. The packaging was poor and the book arrived with slight damage which was reported to Amazon - no response from them to date.G O

The JB has become familiar over the last forty years or so (it was first published in English in the sixties) as it has been used for the readings at mass. Experience reading the text aloud is positive: its sentences are usually well constructed and the rhythm of the readings permits a dignified yet natural style of reading.It has stood the test of time.However this is in the first instance a reasonably priced study edition.It includes all the features which made the original edition and the revisions/updates in 1973 and 1984 so useful: introductions to sets of books and within those, to individual books, detailed footnotes and marginal cross-referencing, sub-headings in the text and 26 pages of keyword definitions also cross-referenced to the text.Its main rival (or alternative) is the NSRV which is preferable in some places; to take one example, at Matthew 3.3 it reads 'The voice of one crying out in the wilderness' while JB has 'A voice of one that cries in the desert' which sounds clumsy: 'A voice' sounds as if the Baptist's role is being minimised, 'crying' is at best ambiguous: indeed its primary meaning is now 'to weep' and a wilderness sounds more desolate than a desert.JB has also retained Yahhweh for the divine name, a missed opportunity although I understand the scholarly point made by the editor in defence of this much-criticised decision. But these are individual quibbles.The format is as handy as a bible can be: 20cm by 7.5cm, 4.5cm thick: you can get it off a shelf and carry it, even hold it in one hand (for a while!). The price for that useful format is that the print is very small indeed, a problem especially for over-60s like me! Nonetheless, I cope.I can't imagine there is a better or more scholarly study bible on the market.

Extremely good study guide but the notes are so small in size that I have difficulty reading it even with my reading glasses.

I needed the Study edition for a class I am taking. The study notes and introductions are very informative. The biggest complaint I have is that the text of the notes is so very tiny it is very difficult to read.

It is great for me

I chose this in order to be able to study some area of the bible in more detail. I think it contains a lot of useful information but the print is so small I struggle to read it even with a magnifying glass. Very dissapointing.