Many thanks to the readers who sent me this news! The Augustine Institute has released a range of new editions of the English Standard Version — Catholic Edition (ESV-CE), which are available on the Catholic Market store here. There are multiple color options available in bonded leather, hardcover, and paperback editions. Bonded leather editions are listed at $69.95, hardcover at $59.95, and the new paperback options are $49.95. The original paperback (which was released in December 2019) is still available for $29.95.
Both the bonded leather and hardcover editions will come with two ribbon markers. It appears that the paperback editions will not have ribbon markers. The promotional images of the text layout look very similar to the original paperback Augustine Bible from 2019, so I suspect the layout and paper are the same. All editions come with 8 pages of maps.
While I am happy about the existence of the ESV-CE, $70 is a lot for a bonded leather Bible with mediocre paper.
Crossway offers a whole range of options between $30-50 all with genuine leather or buffalo leather, while $90 will get you a six-volume set of hardcovers in a slipcase.
I bought a beautiful Crossway ESV for under twenty bucks. It’s very well made..$70 is pretty steep for me. Crossest also provides free ESV Bibles for Kindle readers. Nice.
Also..You can pick up up a Giant Print ESV paperback for between 6-8 dollars..
Peace be with you all.
I understand some complaints regarding the $70 pricetag, but I assure you, this bible is well worth the cost. I do not claim to be a bible expert by any means, but I have used my Augustine Institute bonded leather bible every day for over a year and have had no issues or complaints. The print is very clear and easy to read, the translation is exquisite, and the commentary and footnotes are extremely helpful.
The problems with the ESV bibles at Crossway is that they do not contain the 7 Old Testament books that were removed by protestants in the 19th century and the prices appear to be much higher than $70 for the bibles that are bound in real leather, buffalo, or goatskin. And as far as I can tell, the six-volume sets are hundreds of dollars; the set I saw was over $400.00.
May God bless you all.
Nice, very exciting! Way too pricey for me though, especially since I have the original $30 paperback (already kind of expensive) and it looks like these don’t do much more than place the same text block in a somewhat nicer cover. $70 for bonded leather seems a bit crazy, though if you really like the ESV translation and are looking to invest in a single Bible for a long time, I could see it perhaps.
Still, I will be interested to see how the production quality is on these, especially the bonded leather ones. I would be curious if they have improved or changed the paper to address ghosting at all. And I expect more good things to come in the future, especially as the ESVCE gets adopted in the lectionary in the UK. I might come back for another copy of the ESVCE if the price goes way down, or if they come out with new products that are more useful (like compact editions, journaling editions, single column editions, study bibles, etc.) For now I’ll stick with my original paperback.
Not sure about the Navy bonded leather described as “Cromwell bonded leather cover”. Perhaps, it is the Irish in me.
P.S. I do want to compliment them on one thing: I am very glad they are not going with the title “Augustine Bible” going forward. Instead, the covers all read something like “Holy Bible: English Standard Version – Catholic Edition” (and then they include their name as publisher at the bottom of the spine). *Much* more legit.
Whereas the original paperback has the title on the spine “The Augustine Bible,” which comes across as slightly strange and a bit amateurish because it is not descriptive, especially since there is nothing very special about the Bible in terms of extra features from the Augustine Institute.
So, excellent move there! Now if you take one of these to a Bible study with your evangelical friends, they won’t be looking at you weird because you have an “Augustine Bible” — they will truly recognize that you and they are both using the same Bible together.
Also, I have to say, I am honestly more attracted to the hardcovers at the moment than the bonded leather. The covers look very nice, and honestly kind of remind me of my beloved hardcover Ignatius RSV2CE, this one with the beautiful artwork in particular: https://bit.ly/2FpqBoO
I might go for one of these in the future if the price gets down enough!
I completely agree about the “Augustine Bible” name. I’m glad they dropped it. When they produce a study bible, it would be appropriate to name it the “Augustine Bible,” but I thought it was pretentious to brand a bare-bones ESV-CE with their name, especially when they merely licensed the text, without contributing anything original except the cover design.
$60 hardcovers and $50 plain gray paperbacks.
The Catholic Bible publishers are just… they’re just trolling us now, right?
Haha. I could see how one might feel this way.
Thankfully, they have sinced dropped the prices on the paperbacks to $19.95 and the hardcovers to $29.95.
While not as dramatic of a drop in price, the bonded leather editions are not $64.95.
I got the original hardcover from India when it first came out. I am waiting to see if there will be an updated edition based on the UK Lectionary. I like that decorative hard cover… but surely there will be better editions forthcoming!
But what say you all? If England modifies the ESV-CE text for their Lectionary, will there be a corresponding Liturgical Edition ESV-CE? I don’t think the problem is Crossway. I think the Indian Bishops approved a revision and put it in their Lectionary but the Bishops of England and Wales want to make improvements. We might end up with 2 Catholic editions of the ESV!
The prices are absurd.
Maybe it’s just because they don’t anticipate a huge market and so it will be costly to produce these in smaller quantity.
But that’s a lot of money for a paperback, a hardcover, and a BONDED leather edition.
Hopefully they corrected the typo “Forword” for the foreword.
Way too pricey for me too :(. Especially for the quality. I have an ESV without apocrypha that is more compact that will do just fine for the time being.
Is there any benefit of using the ESV instead of the NRSV, besides inclusive language (which has been discussed ad nauseam)?
Thanks!
The ESV translates certain passages in the OT that Christians have traditionally interpreted as referring to Christ or the New Covenant in such a manner that makes that connection explicit, usually by relying on the Septuagint Greek translation of the OT. For example, in Isaiah, the NRSV notes that Emmanuel is born of a woman (based on the Hebrew), while the ESV states it is a “virgin” based on the Greek. That would probably be the number one advantage.
Otherwise, I can’t think of any other benefits (besides inclusive language which really has been discussed ad nauseam).
The ESV is more literal, and is (if I recall correctly) based on more recently discovered texts than the NRSV (that will change, I assume, with the NRSV updated edition). The NRSV is famous for its stated maxim: “As literal as possible, as free as necessary,” which makes it, to my mind, a very readable and yet overall trustworthy translation, its treatment of inclusivity aside. While I appreciate the flow of the NRSV (compare the epistles, for instance), I prefer the ESV, especially for more in depth study, but keep them both on hand because they are both reliable and pleasant to read translations.
I know this is a late reply, but I just saw this.
Consider Psalm 1 as an example of the ESV’s literal rendering giving us a richer insight than the NRSV’s dynamic approach. Verse 1 describes three bodily positions in relation to the wicked: walking, standing, and sitting. 1) It’s a more visual and poetic reading than the NRSV, 2) The changes in bodily position indicate a gradually increasing comfort with sin, and 3) “the man” ultimately points to Christ, the definitive example of shunning sin and delighting in the law of the Lord. By changing all of these things, the NRSV seems to have missed the poetry, the subtle teaching on sin, and the Christology in one fell swoop.
I know this is just one example and doesn’t mean the NRSV is bad altogether. But I also think it speaks to some key principles with the ESV and NRSV in general.
The NRSV doesnt beg Tŕinitarian translations. It is more scholarly, I think.
N.B. Just went back and they just re-priced the items. Hardcovers are now $30 and paperbacks $20. Much more reasonable! (Bonded leather are now $65, still on the high end.)
At that price, I may go for the hardcover that I liked, although I might wait until it comes out on Amazon or someplace else, because the reviews on their “Augustine Bible” seemed to indicate a lot of people had problems with extremely slow shipping, no official invoices being sent, etc. If other people buy from them and have good experiences though, please let us know.
What happened to Tim’s post I saw earlier? (And what happened to the blog? It disappeared for hours.)
The web hosting provider had a major outage that took the site down for several hours. I’m checking with Tim on whether the outage took any of his posts down with it.
Just circling back to say I’m loving my blue leatherbound as my daily reading Bible.
Will likely “trade up” should Augustine ever produce the “Study Bible” edition they suggested might someday come. But for now, this is just what I’ve been seeking for years.
Excellent news, Christopher. One thing I was wondering is if the bible lies open when you’re at the beginning of Genesis or the end of Revelation? I always struggled with my RSV-2CE bonded leather bible wanting to close when it was opened to the beginning or end, unless my hand was there to hold it down!
Not instantly, but I imagine it could be “trained.”
I was always shown to start a new Bible by slowly opening it flat, a few pages at a time.
First the covers, then adding a few pages at a time to both the front and back until you reach the middle.
I originally purchased the paperback copy of this Bible. I didn’t like it. The cover, while attractive, has an odor similar to nail polish. The cover is hard with sharp pointed corners, and not comfortable to hold. The front cover has a flap that folds inside, so when you open the book to the first page, there is a loose flap fanning out at you.
I recently purchased the bonded leather copy of this Bible and it is very nice. I have no complaints except that it is overpriced. Augustine Institute needs to look at the ESV Bibles published by Crossway to compare quality and price. Crossway publishes a beautiful “Trutone Leather” ESV Bible that is less expensive, the cover is soft and comfortable in your hand, is flexible and very nice quality for the price. The Crossway ESV doesn’t have the additional deuterocanonical books found in the Catholic Bibles.
You can get a much cheaper ESV Bible with Apocrypha books from Anglican Liturgy Press.. I own the ESV Catholic edition bonded leather, and it is a great Bible. I also on the hard cover Anglican Liturgy Press ESV Bible and recommend it. It has a sewn binding and it’s only $20.
has anyone heard about further editions of the ESVCE from Augustine Institute?
No, but Cambridge Bibles has stated that a calfskin ESV-CE is being released this year.