In an update email to subscribers this morning, Ignatius Press shared a few bits of news on the complete Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (ICSB):
- Preorders are expected to begin July 1st.
- Anyone who has signed up for email updates on the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible website will be given the opportunity to preorder a week before public preorders begin.
- The imprimatur has been granted for the complete study bible, and print production has begun.
- Shipments of printed books will be arriving every two weeks starting in late October and continuing through November
Exciting news! Thanks, Marc.
In other good news, the new Schuyler ESVs with Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books are currently shipping their preorders.
That’s exciting. I pre-ordered the crimson red calfskin edition from Schuyler. I haven’t received a shipping notification yet, but hopefully soon!
I’m going to play it safe and go for the hardcover.
Marc and Leighton, do you both prefer the ESV? If so, care to share why?
And yeah, I’ll probably go for the hardcover Ignatius SB since it’s pretty large.
FrJT,
I only slightly prefer the ESV, because it is considered more accurate due to its benefit of recent biblical scholarship and manuscripts. It also smooths out some of the more dated and arguably awkward phrases (although they’re more accurate in the RSV), such as “gird up your loins,” which becomes “dress for action” in the ESV (cf. Job 38:3). There are other instances when phrasing gets smoothed out for the modern ear, such as when referring to a baby nursing. The Deuterocanonical books of the ESV are considered superior (though I’m not qualified to say).
I wanted the ESV with Deuterocanonicals by Schuyler because they produce exceptionally crafted Bibles, and the ESV is my main go-to Bible. I also have a terrific RSV-2nd Catholic edition rebound years ago in Goatskin by Leonard’s, which I often use in catechesis.
I certainly don’t expect the ICSB to come in premium leather, so will get a hardcover edition.
To be honest, the ESV is not my preferred translation, but I think I’ve been a bit unfairly biased against it. The translations I have used most are the NRSV and REB in recent years.
I’ve had a variety of hang-ups about the ESV. For a long time, I was annoyed by the fact that the Catholic Edition made unspecified changes to the ESV text that were not listed anywhere. If the point was to share a common translation with other Christians, the lack of transparency around the changes grated on me. Finally, someone on a protestant discussion forum took the time to compare the ESV with the ESV-CE and found such minimal differences that one wonders why any changes were needed at all (see the link below):
https://archive.azurewebsites.net/Documents/Differences%20Between%20the%20ESV%20and%20ESV-CE.pdf
I also look a bit askance at the “more literal” nature of the ESV compared to the RSV. When I compared the RSV, ESV-CE, and NRSVue in 1 Corinthians, a bunch of places where the ESV was technically “more literal” involved translating the Greek word “kai” while the RSV left it out. I suppose this gives a closer flavor of the original Greek, but it has no impact whatsoever on the meaning that is communicated in the translation (in my opinion).
Finally, I was put off by the Augustine Institute’s marketing of the ESV-CE. As I mentioned in a comment here a few years ago: “claiming that the ESV-CE ‘better draws upon the textual and theological traditions of the Church’ and cherry-picking verses from the NABRE to paint it in an unfavorable light is a real turn-off to me.”
All that said, I can see some virtues in it. In comparisons with other translations, I’ve occasionally found the ESV’s rendering to capture the meaning quite well. Admittedly, that has been based on a few verses here and there, not an exhaustive study. I also appreciate its removal of the “thee” and “thou” language from the RSV Psalms. I doubt that I’ll end up using the ESV as my primary translation, but I do think it’s worth referring to.
Watch there be an ‘unexpected delay’ and the Bible’s won’t be able to ship until… 2026
2026? You are far more optimistic than I…
I now have the original Oxford Annotated RSV with imprimatur.
I’m gonna skip.
Are there any speculations as to when a Kindle version of the complete Ignatius Catholic Study Bible will be available? The Kindle version of the New Testament made it so easy to access the footnotes and connections, and that is how I would like to read the OT books, too.
If Amazon is correct, the Kindle version of the NT edition came out within a week of the physical copy. That’s assuming those dates are right.
You know, that’s not a bad idea.
Hopefully they release some information about the leather edition prior to the preorder window.
It seems preorders have started early because I got an email a few hours ago. It’s live on the Ignatius Press site with the official release date of November 15, 2024. Naturally, I won’t believe it exists until it’s in my hands.
https://ignatius.com/ignatius-catholic-study-bible-2h