NRSV, Catholic Bible, Standard Personal Size, Leathersoft, Black, Comfort Print: Holy Bible

I didn't expect this bible's text block to be so excellent! Nice dark print, good line spacing, and line-matched text. Plenty of margin in the gutter - text doesn't roll into it. Decent quality paper with minimal ghosting of text. Very readable 9½-point print size NRSV Comfort Print by 2K/Denmark. All these qualities makes reading easy on the eyes. A supple synthetic cover is solidly attached to the text block with an attractively patterned card stock paste down liner. Well done gold gilding, perimeter stitched cover, and 4 raised spine hubs. The bible measures 8 7/8" by 5 3/4" by 1 1/4" on the outside. It is a very portable size for me. Even though it's listed as a "personal" size bible, it is not too small that it is difficult to read. That 9½-point print size reads more like a 10 point and jumps off that page at you. The binding is smyth-sewn with a nicely curved text block. The bible lies flat when open to any part of the text. The text block moves like butter. It's a pleasure to open, handle, and leaf through this bible. I did change the ribbons (you might have noticed them in the included pictures), but that is just me! I'm a ribbon nut and wanted longer ribbons. The ribbons that come with the bible are absolutely fine. I would recommend this bible whole-heartedly to anyone who wants a great NRSV-CE reader.

My 10-year-old granddaughter said she needed a bible for her 5th-grade class. I went online and did extensive research regarding font size, readability, ease of use, size, etc. THIS IS A PERFECT BIBLE for a backpack, desk, and convenient home use. I am 83 years old, and have owned and bought many bibles throughout my many decades. As I am getting older, my heavy bibles which are well-used and well-loved, are going to be replaced by this lighter, very readable bible. I bought one for myself as well as for my 18-year-old grandson who had worn out his old bible. One more point: There is an extensive glossary of terms in the back which is incredibly helpful. Also, there are suggestions for ways to read the bible more prayerfully and effectively. For a small bible, this one carries a spiritual punch! Well done! Oh, yes, and a thank you to the Holy Spirit for guidance!

Overall a great Bible, I love the color and the print size is perfect. there is a typo I’ve noticed. 1 Maccabees 12:33, there’s no spaces in the first half of the sentence

Beautiful bible with a nice cover and good font to read

very nice Catholic Bible. It must have and does have the Imprimatur inside the Bible, making it accepted by the Catholic Church. Love the fact I don't need reading glasses to read it.

Beautiful personal Bibles. Perfect for Confirmation gifts.

Very nice. Easy to hold.

I love this Bible! Seems as if all hard cover bibles are hard to find and are pretty high in price but this one was a great price!!! Also it’s very easy to read as well since the font isn’t extremely small and you need about 3 binoculars to see as to what you are reading

Beautiful cover, and very insightful so far. Came well packaged but did have some damage, I'm not mad about it as I have had my fair share of hardcover books in the past.

Diese Bibel hat mich auf Anhieb begeistert. Sie ist wunderschön gestaltet und gleichzeitig einfach und verständlich geschrieben, sodass man sofort einen guten Zugang zu den Texten findet. Besonders hilfreich ist das Lexikon mit den erklärten Wörtern im hinteren Teil des Buches. Viele Begriffe werden darin leicht verständlich erklärt. Ein weiteres Highlight sind die Karten im Anhang, die einen besseren Überblick über die biblischen Orte geben. Dadurch werden viele Geschichten lebendiger und anschaulicher. Durch all diese Elemente habe ich noch mehr Freude am Lesen und entdecke (wieder) die Bibel jedes Mal ein Stückchen neu. Eine wirklich empfehlenswerte Ausgabe, die sowohl schön gestaltet als auch inhaltlich sehr zugänglich ist.

The same publisher also produces Gift Editions of the same anglicized NRSV translation, which are also physically excellent. Both editions have 2 sewn-in ribbons, and gilded page-edges. This product, the Standard Personal Size, has exactly the same height and the same width as the Gift Editions, but is slightly thicker because it has about 100 more pages; the Gift Edition uses 8.5 point font size, and this Standard Personal Size uses 9.5 point font size, and that's why it needs more pages. There is a small difference in the contents between the 2 editions: the Gift Edition has about 60-pages-length more "front matter" before Genesis 1:1, than this Personal Size edition. This "front matter" contains: a century-by-century timeline of Church and World History, reference lists of Parables and Miracles, helpful and insightful short summaries of OT and NT personages, and some preachy sections entitled Sources of Catholic Morality and a glossary of Religious Terminology. It would have been nice to have at least some of this "front matter" also available in the Personal Size edition, especially the historical timeline, the list of parables and miracles, and the short summaries of OT and NT personages; the preachy stuff they could omit. There are 2 even larger Editions of the anglicized NRSV, which use even larger font sizes, namely: the Thin Line edition uses 10.0 point font size but is both higher and wider than this Standard Personal Size, and is consequently shorter by about 300 pages. The Standard Large Print edition uses 10.5 point font size, and is similarly both higher and wider than this Standard Personal Size, and is consequently shorter by about 100 pages. The Thin Line and Large Print editions also do not have any of the Gift Edition's extra "front matter". As for the translation itself, it is excellent, and reads as smoothly as can be expected from a word-for-word translation. I grew up with the RSV in high school, and the NRSV is definitely an improvement over the RSV. My only complaint is the "anglicized" nature of the translation: the British spelling doesn't bother me, since we already use it here in Canada, but the grammatical change of Subjunctive verbs to Conditional expressions sounds so unnatural here in Canada, since we use the same grammar as Americans do. I suppose the publisher can't really afford to produce a purely Canadian version (British spelling but American grammar), so I shall have to tolerate the Conditional expressions! Fortunately, in Canada we can also buy several different editions of NRSV with Apocrypha/Deuterocanon, using American spelling and grammar, from: the American Bible Society, Zondervan, and Oxford University Press, but unfortunately none of those editions come with gilded page-edges and ribbons. (I'm sorry, but bibles without gilded page-edges and sewn-in ribbons just don't have that "biblical feel" or atmosphere that many of us want when holding and reading a bible.)

After purchasing I decided to go online and investigate the veracity of this particular edition of the bible as nowadays anything can be created and published by AI and made to look real. As it turns out the publisher, Catholic Bible Press, is well established and this version of the bible has been officially sanctioned since the 1990's, while this particular edition goes back several years. (it's worth it to be cautious!)

Gorgeous cover. Great quality great buy