The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version

I love the annotation, really expands my reading experience. Dense dramatic plot; sometimes spends too much time reciting geneology as it introduces the characters. Great philosophical insights, sometimes presented as parables, sometimes listed as commandments, sometimes inscrutable. It has a really tragic plot twist about three quarters the way through, but in the end leaves you full of hope and inspiration. Highly recommended.

A masterpiece woven during more than fifteen centuries, the Bible is explained and carefully dissected by masters in the field - a must for anyone interested in literature, religious study, or Jewish and Christian faith.

This text, NRSV Oxford Annotated, is a brilliant rendering and translation of the Biblical text. Very readable, simple and understandable. Also has articles and (in my view too little) notes on Biblical scholarship e.g., the documentary hypothesis and synoptic problem. It's unsurprising why it's the gold standard in Biblical translation among mainstream Biblical scholars. Though, conservative scholars have historically stayed away from the RSV family of translations due to their (often times, exaggerated) "liberalism" any prospective conservative religious buyer will be happy to know that the chairman of the NRSV translation committee was the world renowned conservative Bible scholar Dr. Bruce Metzger.Most importantly, the text contains the often ignored Apocryphal (also known as Deuterocanonical) works that are omitted in most printed Bibles, e.g., Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach etc. I wouldn't be too far off in claiming that the number of printed Bibles which contain this set of books probably doesn't number into the double digits, which I find disappointing.I'm very happy with this edition, except I wish I received a hardback or leather (or imitation leather, whatever) rather than paperback.If I have any qualms with this version, it would be the lack of notes and certain mistranslations in the text, for example Psalm 2:12, the Masoretic, Vulgate and Septuagint texts reading something like "maintain purity" and unfortunately, most printed editions of the Bible including the KJV and even the NRSV, render the text as "kiss the Son" or something like it. That's due to a Christian corruption of the text, not a literal rendering.However, since I'm not religious in any way, nor do I adhere to inerrancy of the Bible, nor do I, even if I were the aforementioned, would rely on a translation to convey the true meaning of the text, it's not a significant issue for me. Even so, I own the printed version of the Hebrew Bible (Biblia Hebraica Suttgartensia) so I have the necessary vorlage to check on the translation for it's accuracy if necessary.I bought this edition, as well as the King James Version with Apocrypha, also published by Oxford University Press, to read the Bible as literature, and that's what I intend to do with it.

Studying on my free time out of interest, and I wanted supplemental explanations as well as a translation that was as scholarly as possible. This does both in one convenient spot!I don’t have any in-depth background knowledge with biblical studies compared to the average person, and still this is pretty easy to understand, so totally ok for beginners. That said, it is written academically and is dense, so if you are someone who feel you may struggle with that, then maybe this isn’t for you. But otherwise, it isn’t too difficult to comprehend. If you can read a research paper for example, this should be fine for you.Overall, if you’re looking for an academic type of translation and understanding of the bible- this is great!

The book has a good solid binding; paper is sheer. It does not have a bookmark ribbon. Introductory section’s font is very small, but the scriptural text is adequately sized for reading. Commentary, which appears complete, is conveniently locate w/ text. It may be one could buy an older revision to save money. I have not studied the preface to see if the newest edition is necessary. That depends on the student I suppose.