Thanks to commenter Erap10 for alerting me to this exciting new Bible in the comments! In September, Ascension Press will release the Great Adventure Bible, printed in full color with study articles and insets that correspond to the Great Adventure Bible Study produced by Jeff Cavins. The Bible text will be the Revised Standard Version – Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE). More information is available on the Ascension Press website.
This will be a red-letter edition (with the words of Jesus printed in red). I don’t see any details on the cover material or the binding. The marketing photos show a leather-like cover (probably imitation leather). The books of the Bible will include color-coded tabs that correspond with the Great Adventure Bible Timeline. This looks like a good resource for Catholics who want to study the broad narrative of the Bible — the course of salvation history from Genesis through the New Testament.
This looks very enticing. Regarding the cover, the email sent from Ascension Press states “Instantly comfortable, slow-wearing Alpha Cowhide cover.“
Marc-
I contacted Ascension Press to see if we could get some more details about how the Great Adventure Study Bible is put together. You were right, the cover is “a synthetic leather-like material known as Alpha Cowhide”. There wasn’t a ready answer to whether the binding is glued or sewn, but Robin, from Ascension Press, is checking and will let me know when she finds out. Naturally I will pass that information along to the blog. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it’s sewn!
Tate, I asked about cover and binding, too, but haven’t heard back as of this posting. Thanks for keeping us updated. For nearly $60 the Bible should be sewn binding, not glued, but I will be pleasantly surprised if it is. As for “synthetic leather-like material… Alpha Cowhide?” Hmmm. No comment.
Thanks for the blog, Marc.
Thanks for sharing the additional details! I’m holding out hope for a sewn binding. It will also be interesting to see what this Alpha Cowhide is really like. With a name like that, it had better feel similar to real cowhide!
I am on the fence with this one. The Didache is almost perfect… except it omits inexplicably the original RSV-CE translation notes. The Great Adventure Bible appears to have less content than the Didache, but the text notes appear to be intact. The decisive issue may be if it has sewn binding… Either way, it appears to be a great format for the 2CE, with better margins than the original edition. My Didache has the Great Adventure thumb tabs, and of course I have the chart… but that new cover sure does look attractive. Looking forward to seeing the maps and other extra features it might have.
I’m not gonna lie but even at $60 I still will apend that much just to get it even if it had a glued binding. Why? Because Saint Benedict Press already messed it up for me with their Catholic Scritpure Study Bible as well as their Spiritual Warfare Bible. Not that the content was horrible. In fact, BOTH have excellent added info. The only thing with both of them is that the extra info is located on glossy inserts that exceeds no more than 9 AND they have a glued binding. And they still have the audacity to charge $60 on these babies.
But the GACB (Great Adventure Catholic Bible) will have INTEGRATED notes in the text. That for me is worth every penny.
But hey, there is a little side of me that would demand a sewn binding after being charged $69. But still. to each their own.
I am very interested in this bible. Hope it has a sewn binding and is printed in a Christain country.
Mark
I submitted 2 questions to Ascension Press, questions on the cover (what exactly IS alpha cowhide?) and the binding (glued OR sewn?), and received the following response (which neglected the cover question): “The new TGA Bible will actually be both sewn and glued together.”
I’m assuming sewn signatures reinforced with glue. My main concern is that the pages are signatures, not loose leaf papers, glued together, which will eventually fall out.
That sounds promising!