Quick Look: Christian Community Bible New Testament with Lectio Divina

In 2019, Paulist Press published The New Testament with Lectio Divina using the Christian Community Bible (CCB) translation. The CCB is a Catholic Bible translation originally undertaken by Fr. Alberto Rossa — a Claretian missionary in the Philippines. The entire CCB is available for free online here.

A reader recently sent me some first impressions of this edition:

• It is a 5.25 x 7.25 x 1.00 inch hardback with a glued binding and 726 pages.
• It has one red ribbon marker.
• It contains the 2013 revised edition of the Christian Community Bible New Testament.
• At the beginning of the book there is a short two-page introduction to the New Testament briefly explaining lectio divina. This seems to be the only unique portion of this edition.
• It has the same book introductions, headings/cross references as the standard CCB (I used the 64th edition) but does not include the notes. All the text is single column.
• There is a half page illustration at the start of each book introduction. The same illustration is repeated in a smaller size in the top right corner at the beginning of each book.
• The illustrations are by Fr. Cerezo Barredo and are the same illustrations used in the NRSV Catholic Prayer Bible Lectio Divina Edition by Paulist Press. They are much more pleasing than those in the standard CCB. Maybe it’s just me, but I find the illustrations in the standard CCB edition very weird.
• The illustrations, chapter numbers and lectio divina boxes are printed in a reddish-brown (rust?) color. 
• There are twelve pages of liturgical calendar/readings at the end of the book. There are no maps.
• The only problem I have found with the lack of notes is in the fifth chapter of John. The words ‘Father’ and ‘Sabbath’ are italicized throughout this chapter. This is explained in the notes of the standard edition. But without the notes in this edition the reader is left mystified as to why these words are italicized.