The Didache Bible: With Commentaries Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church

I teach Salvation History to people who want to convert to the Catholic Church as part of the conversion process (not the typical American RCIA program; we spend an academic year on the Bible before approaching the Catechism directly). The first thing I recommend is that they get a good Catholic Bible, and if they want one in English, to get the Didache. I tell them that if they are only going to get ONE English-language Catholic Bible in their lives, this is the one to get. It is easy to read (good font size), has two ribbons and color maps, hard-bound - so it's a book that doesn't put you off but invites you to read it. It IS heavy and substantial; you'll want another, smaller Bible if you want one to carry around. But this one has good footnotes and most importantly, many pages with explanations of Catholic teachings and references to the Catechism. ALL of my students who have bought one have been delighted with it, and so happy to have such a helpful Catholic Bible to read and refer to in classes as well as to see them through decades of Bible-reading and study. Our pastoral community has been blessed with the donation of a number of these Bibles, so even when our people can't afford to buy a Bible, or would rather get one in their native language (my students are from all over the world), this is the Bible we use in our classes so everyone is reading from the same translation. I have a number of different translations, and have only begun teaching using this one, but I'm very happy with it as a classroom Bible that I know will be a good 'family Bible' for my students in their future after reception into the Catholic Church. If anyone asked me to recommend 'a good Catholic Bible', this is the one I always suggest for people who want to see how Catholic teaching can be found in the Bible. (If they already have this one, and want one with more notes on the text itself, I recommend the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible - New Testament and whichever of the published OT books the Ignatius project has put out. The Didache is more Catechism-oriented, so those two together would be about all the average Catholic would need to read and study the Bible and find Catholic teaching in scripture.)

Beautiful made Bible. Translation is excellent, printing is excellent, paper quality is phenomenal with little bleed through and letters and words crisp and contrasted nicely on white paper. Binding stubtantial and should last a very long time. Content of Bible is full of helpful notations that include Catholic Catechism references as well. High recommend, for both devotional and study.

This is a wonderful Bible. I can think of some improvements, but all in all, it is a beautiful edition. 1) References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Originally, like others have said in their reviews, I thought the actual quotes from the CCC would be included. However, there are some brief summaries and the CCC is cited. At first I was disappointed, but then I realized that including full quotes from the CCC would easily double the size of the Bible, so obviously, it isn’t practical. 2) Scattered throughout the Bible, there are commentaries, based on CCC teaching. I love these. They say so much in just a page. 3) There are introductions to each book. They are important to understand the book in context. 4) Extensive footnotes that don’t just cite the CCC, but add a little bit more of info. 5) Connections to other scriptures are great so when I come across something, I can go to the other verses, sometimes in other books, and see the consistency of the writers. 6) Plenty of column and other space for me to write my own notes, and I am a prolific note writer. I write in ALL books that I own. 7) The page thickness is so much better than so many other Bibles I own (I do own a few!). I do not use highlighters, not even those advertised for Bibles, because in my experience, wet highlighters do bleed through. Instead I use “8-color” mechanical pencils, which are more like having a set of map-pencils-in-one and these pencils are dry. I can “highlight” without bleed through. So, I cannot say for certain if a highlighter would bleed through this Bible’s pages, but they SEEM sturdy enough to withstand a wet marker. 8) I do wish this Bible came with tabs. I bought my own and attached them, but already tabbed would have been nice. 9) I also wish this Bible came in paperback. It would make it easier to use. I have the leather bound edition, and I do like it, but a paperback is easier when it comes to study, and mark ups. All in all, this Bible is a treasure and I would give it a 4.9 stars if I could. But, since I can’t, I give it 5 stars.

Just arrived today and It's my second bible. I thinks I will have a great time reading this wonderful book. It's footnotes and explanations are apologetic from early Christians and Catholic Church.

This is a great catholic bible. Read and then read the section that explains it. Helps you interpret. I got one for each of my sons.

This great Bible is an Ignatius Bible. It is a great source for studying the Bible in depth as well as regular reading of the Scriptures. In addition to have updated/modern language that helps understand the Scriptures easier since you are not reading antique words that are no longer in use in modern times, the Bible contains tons of explanations, references to Catechism, maps, and concepts to assist the reader to “get it”. While reading throughout the Bible will take a little longer if you decide to review all the supplemental explanations (sometimes about half of the pages are notes about the verses explaining allegory, other related verses references addressing the same concepts/teachings, relationships to Catechism or prior/future events), the language used is so reader friendly that you rarely need to read a paragraph multiple times to understand it. This Bible is the Revised Standard Version- Second Catholic Edition (RSV -CE2) which is the version that Jeff Cavins uses in Bible in a year - also Father Mike in his Bible in a year podcast. Lastly, the Bible itself has marking ribbons, is sturdy, and was properly packed without damage. Very pleased and I highly recommended it. I hope this helps you in your decision and I want to reassure you that if you are looking for a Bible, it means you are seeking God and that fact alone is probably pleasing God. Do not stop your efforts to be obedient and getting closer to God.

The Didache Bible has everything I wanted in a Bible. My first impression of the Didache Bible was it was done in a professional and reverent style. The leather cover is well made and the back binding leaves room for ribbon inserts. The font appears to be about a 10 (it's not uncomfortably small). The pages are thin; but, nothing like onion skin and can be easily separated. The Biblical texts are in an easy to read narrative form (many of you remember growing up with Bibles that took a lot of concentration to understand what was written). There are "Apologetical Explanations" throughout the Bible and the explanation includes the cross-reference to the paragraph in the Catechism where applicable. One of the things I was specifically looking for in a new Bible was how Psalm 23 was worded. Our other Bibles had "verdant pastures" and I wanted the old way of "green pastures", which is in the Didache Bible. The page opposite this passage is "An Apologetical Explanation of the Moment of Death" that explains what happens when you die (the immortal soul separates from the mortal body and every person undergoes the Particular Judgment.....) and it also has a cross-reference to the paragraph in the Catechism. The Didache Bible passages are easy to read and still keep the context of the original Bible. Each book of the Bible has information on the Author and Date, Audience (for whom the initial passages were written), and Main Themes (historical narrative and primary intent). The commentaries are at the bottom of the page and are a good summary of the passages. The Table of Contents includes the regular "How to Read the Bible" and the "Books of the Bible". It also includes where to find brief summaries of the Sacred Scripture (Old and New Testament) and a chronology of the Old and New Testaments. The back of the Bible has detailed color maps specific to important Biblical times as well as indexes to the Apologetical Explanations by both Title and Subject. While there is a Catholic influence on this Bible, it really is a Bible for everyone. The cross-references to the Catechism are for Catholics to tie back to the teachings of the Church and there is absolutely no intention or attempt on converting anyone to Catholicism. One of the struggles we have in today's world is to let people know the Bible does have meaning in their lives. There can't be meaning if there is no understanding and this Bible tells the stories, in an easy to understand format, we need to keep going generation after generation.

Reviewing the Bible seems like a bit of a foolish endeavor. To religious people, it would probably seem blasphemous. To non-religious, it would seem at least useless. However, without venturing to review the Bible itself, it does seem worthwhile to review this particular edition of the Bible, and that's what I'm setting out to do here, however briefly. This edition makes use of the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition translation, which is a well-respected Catholic translation of the Bible. Overall, I think that's the best translation to balance elegance of language with readability in modern English. Admittedly, I sometimes prefer to read some of the more poetic passages in an older translation like the King James Version purely for the linguistic aesthetics, but I think this translation does an excellent job of balancing the various needs of the text. More importantly with regard to this specific edition, the annotations and cross references throughout are extremely useful. Each book is introduced with a one-page note regarding its authorship, contents, and intended audience. The text, then, is well-annotated with notes on almost every page that help the reader understand the subtleties of translation, references to other books or historic events, and so forth. Reading the Bible is all well and good, but surely the goal of reading any text is to understand its meaning, and given the complexity of a text like the Bible, I found these notes quite useful.

Updated to my original view. I originally wrote: "Excellent bible resource and faithful to the majesterium." and gave the Didache bible 5 stars. However after doing more research comparing what the catholic church traditionally teaches, some of the introductory essays to the books in the bible, call into question matters of the Catholic faith, that the writings are not the inspired word of God, since it questions the authorships. The Pontifical Biblical Commission under the authority of the majestium declared the authorship of Genesis, Isaiah and Daniel to be true, as well as Paul writing the book of hebrews and 2 Peter. While footnotes and apologetical essays are faithful to the majesterium, the authors took liberties in using the modernist historical critical method to write about these books, which casts doubt on the faith. This bible has gotten rave reviews, however modernists are wolves in sheep's clothing and do dodgey things like this.

I communicated with the seller to enquire if there were any marks on the book and they were very quick to respond. Even though the book was described as "Used, Very Good" it could have been brand new. It arrived very quickly and I am very happy with my purchase.

Why isn’t it sealed? I received the item scratched and bare-naked! Did I received a used item? Overall the item was still good!

After doing a few hours of research as to which Bible was most likely to satisfy me in terms of "features," this was the obvious choice. Based on the RSV2CE translation (although for various reasons it only claims to be an RSVCE translation), it does contain changes unique to the RSV2CE such as replacing thy, thee, thou, etc. with modern pronouns as well as correcting a small number of verses where the authors of the original RSVCE translation departed from other, more traditional translations of key verses. Beyond the RSV2CE changes, this version of the Bible includes commentaries throughout based on the Catechism, tying the two books together. There are also a fair number of explanatory footnotes, though nothing like the more dense Ignatius Catholic Study Bible by Dr. Scott Hahn, which has 17,500 of them, much of it intended for advanced, scholarly study. Despite the use of modern pronouns, it preserves the more traditional male gender-oriented wording of most other Bibles (i.e., no politically correct gender-neutral wording). Both Bibles are from Ignatius Press and therefore both use the same RSV2CE translation. If you want a highly readable version intended for ordinary mortals, including an ideal level of commentary for non-scholars, Didache is the one to get. The printed version of the Didache Bible is about 1800 pages, bound in an almost-2-inch-thick green hardcover (necessary to support the number of pages without falling apart), with golden lettering on the cover and golden edges to the pages. Despite the thinness of the pages, there is only a limited amount of "ghost" text visible through the paper from the other side of each printed 2-sided page, and not enough to hinder readability. While I wish the font was a little bigger for my aging eyes, I still find it quite readable. A larger font would have required an even thicker book or a larger book. The Didache Bible is about the size in length and width of a small tablet. Given its thickness and weight, this is a book you're more likely to read at a desk or table, or have it resting on your lap in a comfy chair. It's not a pocket Bible to carry around. Highly recommended.

A must have for notes and annotations and commentary. Useful for non Catholics