The New American Bible: The Leading Catholic Resource for Understanding Holy Scripture

The NAB is one of the best committee versions available, Protestant or Catholic. I'm a Protestant and I read the New Testament in the original Greek and find the NAB, particularly this last revised edition, as one of the more accurate versions available. This is saying something because Catholics did not have an approved version of the Bible from the original languages until the 1st edition of this NAB was released back in 1970. Until then they had the RSV Catholic edition by special arrangement. They did have a few private versions by Catholic translators, like Knox's, Spencer,s and Lattey's. But nothing with Church approval. Sad, when Protestants had many at their disposal besides dozens of private versions. But with the NAB and NJB (ponied from the French with Hebrew & Greek) Catholics have some of the best committee versions. NOTE: this particular edition review here has one of the most pleasing type faces and page arrangements of any Bible available. It is truly a beautifully printed book, and the notes are wonderfully arranged. I've used the earlier editions of the NAB and they were poorly presented. This is a vast improvement and is up to date in its scholarship. ADDITIONAL NOTE: The apocryphal book of Ben Sira is translated from the original Hebrew rather than from the Septuagint, where the Hebrew exists. Only a few versions make reference to the Hebrew of Ben Sira, but this NAB rendering is better than any others. It even correctly indicates where the Hebrew of Ben Sira used the divine name in the Tetragrammaton by LORD in all caps where other versions despite having the Hebrew in front of them do not. This edition of the NAB you'll find a pleasure to use and will refer to it often, not only due to this quality but due to it's scholarship. Along with its beautiful page it is well bound. Protestant or Catholic, you'll love it. Treat yourself!

The Bible itself is wonderful. Font is distinctly bigger. Sturdy and wellmade. Overall, it’s a great bible. This will be a great gift for my mom but I might get another for myself. I have close-up photo of the bible cover since I intended to have it painted. But for those who wanted a customized catholic bible, this has a perfect plain cover to use as canvas.

For anyone concerned about the Kindle navigation, there are no current issues. I was concerned over which e-NAVRE edition to purchase and wanted one easily navigable. I have the hard copy book of this version, and for continuity and familiarity it seemed best to buy this. Previous reviews mentioned navigation format issues. After downloading and some experimental clicking, I thought I’d provide this review for 1) anyone deciding which version to purchase or 2) anyone having initial challenges using this version after purchasing.Referencing has been well executed. The scriptural cross-references appear at the bottom of the page in a pop-up box when you click the plus/minus sign next to the verse, and are also located in a group at the end of the book (Old and New Testaments). The same with the study footnotes, indicated with an asterisk. To facilitate smooth reading, the notes and cross-references disappear upon closing the pop-up box by clicking the “x” at the upper right corner. Since all reference material is at the end of the book, nothing interrupts the flow of reading straight through, chapter by chapter, if one desires. The plus/minus and asterisk signs to indicate footnotes are small by design and work well. I asked my XXL-handed husband to try clicking them on a Kindle Paperwhite and he had no problems; I did increase the font size a bit, as they blend into the text on a Kindle reading device. Reference indicators are in a gentle blue on Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone instead of the typical red or bold red, so the text looks uniform. To me, they stand out more when reading on the iPad than on the dedicated Kindle reader. The Table of Contents divides the Old Testament scriptures into five sections and the New Testament scriptures into three sections. Once at the section, navigable clicking to each book’s chapter can be done.In summary, this is a classy, elegant electronic version of the NAVRE Bible. The cross referencing works well. It could require a bit of a learning or a patience curve, but nothing a studious person would consider an obstacle. I admit to some bias, as I own and love the hard copy version. Any previous issues with the Kindle version have apparently been resolved, with a most lovely result. I almost never write reviews. No compensation was provided :)

I like nearly everything about this book, but the pages are so thin that the text on the back side of the page bleeds through and to me is unreadable. Considering the main function of this book is to be read I cannot in good faith give it anything more than 1 star.I added a picture to show what I mean, but it honestly looks worse in person.

What's surprising to me is that I have bibles which are larger, and yet they are far harder to read. Great care went into the engineering (so to speak) of this beautiful bible. As other's have noted the very white paper (which connotes higher quality) along with choice of font, font size, what to highlight, and borders and details in design which are elegant yet streamline and not distracting, makes for perhaps the most practical and high-quality bible I've ever had. I can not recommend this bible enough. If you buy it as a gift you'll end up wanting it for yourself and buying a second copy, so go ahead and get two now, it's that good. :)

This Harper Catholic edition of the NAB Revised Edition could not be much better. There is some visual interference through the paper in the relatively few pages where the typeface size differs on the verso/recto sides, but that is mainly on the first pages of the individual books. That said, the type size isn't causing me a problem and I'm 70. The layout is superb. The new translation of the OT (2010), and greatly expanded notes, are a significant improvement on the earlier version. The re-revised Psalms (also 2010) are better, too. In short, excellent presentation, better content, and convenient size relative to every other study Bible I have handled. Thumbs up!

I like it especially with the fact that it has notes included to help understand the scripture. I have photos to show. Would recommend.

Excellent - both Item and Seller! highly recommended!

First a word on the product itself. This is a decent quality hardcover Bible. Pages are thin (as is to be expected), text is a readable size and layout is good. Solid hardcover Bible.Secondly (and most importantly) the translation itself and the commentary are top notch. I’d say the NABRE is a rare gem in its fidelity to translating the original text sans bias! There are some translation choices I think are mistaken, but the majority of the time there is an explanation for the choice with alternate renderings (many of which are more accurate). So either way the translation tries hard not to let theological bias creep in. In my opinion, the NABRE is vastly more superior to all of the major translations on the market (including, but not limited to, the NIV, ESV, CSB, NLT, KJV, NKJV, & NASB). I’d say the reason why the NABRE is so scholarly is because the catholic scholars involved in the translation tend to take a more liberal (or, arguably, more catholic) view of the scriptures and so are less tied to making the Bible fit their theology. The commentary is also really interesting, but it should be noted that it takes an extremely liberal view of the text. The scholars appear to take much of the Bible figuratively and also accept the speculative documentary hypothesis (as examples). So this should be kept in mind. This is my second favourite translation next to the NWT. The only obvious criticism is that it, like just about every other translation on the market, obscures and removes the name of God which is Jehovah (or Yahweh). They replace it was the title "LORD". The Bible is clear that no one should add or take away from God's word. These translators, however, have removed God's name which occurs almost 7,000 times in the Hebrew scriptures. If Jehovah approved of such a removal, then why would his name occur more than any other in the Bible?

I had been researching for a bible that is followed by the Catholic church and got hold of this one. This was a perfect bible for the best price.Pros:HardbindingReadable fontExplanatory notes at the bottom for each verseCross references to other bible versesCons:Fine paperNo red lettering for God's wordsNo tags for bookmarkingHeavy to carry around

This bible is basic. has a few maps, opens nicely, love the new revision with the comments on each page. The print is a good size to be able to read. Does not have reference to words in Bible. So if you are looking just to read a bible it is wonderful.