NRSV - The New Oxford Annotated Bible - H/C

New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, Third Edition

An Ecumenical Study Bible

Translation: New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Genera Editor: Michael D. Coogan

Associate Editors: Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom and Pheme Perkins

ISBN: 019528478X

Format: Hardcover

Concordance: 64 Pages

Pages: 2180

Size:9-1/4" x 6-7/8" x 2-1/8"

Font Size: 10 (notes are 8-9)

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Synopsis:

For decades, students, professors and general readers have relied upon The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha for essential scholarship and guidance to the world of the Bible. Now a new editorial board and contributors have completely updated this classic work for a new generation of scholars and readers. the result is a volume which maintains and extends the excellence the Annotated's users have come to expect, bringing new insights, new information, and new approaches to bear upon the understanding of the text of the Bible.

What's New about the Scholarship in the "New" Annotated?

This third edition of the classic New Oxford Annotated Bible represents not only a revision of a classic textbook and biblical reference work for the general reader, but nearly an entirely new book. In planning for the third edition, the Oxford University Press staff saw the need to update the introductions, annotations, and essays to bring in a new generation of scholars, with new insights and interpretations, to augment the classic "Annotated" bottom-of-the-page commentary.

The new editorial team of Professors Michael Coogan, Carol Newsom, Marc Brettler, and Pheme Perkins made every effort to broaden and deepen the scholarly reach of the new edition. More Catholic scholars, a new group of Jewish scholars, more women, and scholars from a wider diversity of backgrounds (African-American, Latino, and Asian-American), joned the distinguished roster of contributors. The variety of interpretations, liberal and conservative, was increased. The space for annotations and book introductions was expanded to allow for more contextual readings and a wider range of interpretive styles.

Contributors were encouraged to use not only historical approaches, but literary, sociological, theological, and canonical ones as well, to bring out the full meaning of the text and how that meaning has been seen over time. Parallels to ancient Near Eastern literature are cited in the notes, as well as rabbinic interpretations, early Christian ideas, and modern and post-modern interpretations.

The essays in the back of the volume are completely new, and in effect offer a "short course" in the interpretation of the Bible: From the establishment of the contents (canon) of the Bible itself, the determination of the text to be translated, and the choice of translation method, through the history of interpretation in the Jewish and Christian communities, up to the era of modern critical reading, the essays give the reader an overview of twenty-five centuries of human engagement with this central text. The backgrounds of the biblical writings - ancient Near Eastern, Persian and Hellenistic, and Roman - are carefully explained, as is the geographical setting of the events in biblical history.

The result of this effort is an unmatched resource for understanding the biblical text, including those areas in which traditional interpretation or translation might have been misleading in the past. These new interpretations are in the Annotated because they represent scholarly understandings of the text, or of the history of interpretation, that are accepted in academic research today.

There has been a focus in certain circles of Christian comment on these changes from traditional understanding. It is important to recognize that Oxford University Press is not aiming at influencing any current social or political trends, whether within secular society or within any church or denomination. The annotators and authors of the essays were given general instructions to guide them in writing their study materials, but except for specific indications of the length of their submissions, and the format in which they were to be submitted, they were left free to determine what they would comment on and how those comments would be shaped. The editorial board and Oxford staff reviewed every submission, and suggested numerous changes, but every revised version went back to the original author for acceptance or adjustment of the changes. No contributor was made to say anything with which he or she disagreed. It would have been impossible for one editor to impose a personal view or agenda on this process, and no editor attempted to do so. The views expressed in any of the annotations are the scholar's own, as that scholar understands the research of colleagues on the particular book of the Bible being commented on.

Improved Features summary:

• Wholly revised, and with greatly expanded book introductions and annotations.
• Annotations in a single column across the page bottom, paragraphed according to their boldface topical headings.
• In-text background essays on the major divisions of the biblical text.
• More in-depth treatment of the varieties of biblical criticism.
• New Essays on the history of the formation of the biblical canon for Jews and various Christian churches.
• More detailed explanations of the historical background of the text help the Bible stand out from its ancient Near Eastern context.
• Timeline of major events in the ancient Near East.
• A brief history of biblical interpretation, from biblical times to the present.
• A full index to all the study materials, keyed to all the study materials, keyed to page numbers.
• 14 authoritative, full color double page New Oxford Bible Maps (with place name index); approximately 40 in-text line drawing maps and diagrams.

About the NRSV

The NRSV first appeared in 1989 and has received the widest acclaim and broadest support from academics and church leaders of any modern English translation. It is the only Bible translation that is as widely ecumenical:
 

• The ecumenical NRSV Bible Translation Committee consists of thirty men and women who are among the top scholars in America today. They come from Protestant denominations, the Roman Catholic church, and the Greek Orthodox Church. The committee also includes a Jewish scholar.
• The RSV was the only major translation in English that included both the standard Protestant canon and the books that are traditionally used by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians (the so-called "Apocryphal" or "Deuterocanonical" books). Standing in this tradition, the NRSV is available in three ecumenical formats: a standard edition with or without the Apocrypha, a Roman Catholic Edition, which has the so-called "Apocryphal" or "Deuterocanonical" books in the Roman Catholic canonical order, and The Common Bible, which includes all books that belong to the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox canons.
• The NRSV stands out among the many translations available today as the Bible translation that is the most widely "authorized" by the churches. It received the endorsement of thirty-three Protestant churches. It received the imprimatur of the American and Canadian Conferences of Catholic bishops. And it received the blessing of a leader of the Greek Orthodox Church.

The NRSV is truly a Bible for all Christians!

Rooted in the past, but right for today, the NRSV continues the tradition of William Tyndale, the King James Version, the American Standard Version, and the Revised Standard Version. Equally important, it sets a new standard for the 21st Century. The NRSV stands out among the many translations because it is "as literal as possible" in adhering to the ancient texts and only "as free as necessary" to make the meaning clear in graceful, understandable English. It draws on newly available sources that increase our understanding of many previously obscure biblical passages. These sources include new-found manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, other texts, inscriptions, and archaeological finds from the ancient Near East, and new understandings of Greek and Hebrew grammar.

Improvements over the RSV are of four different kinds:

• updating the language of the RSV, by replacing archaic forms of speech addressed to God (Thee, Thou, wast, dost, etc.), and by replacing words whose meaning has changed significantly since the RSV translation (for example, Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 11.25 that he was "stoned" once)
• making the translation more accurate,
• helping it to be more easily understood, especially when it is read out loud, and
• making it clear where the original texts intend to include all humans, male and female, and where they intend to refer only to the male or female gender.