Catholic NABRE Bibles: Which One?

American Catholics would do well to possess a copy of the American Church’s quasi-official version of the Bible, the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE). However, there are many different editions available, and some of the most popular are not necessarily the best option for everybody. It can be challenging to find the right one to buy.

The most important content (Biblical texts, footnotes, and cross-references) should be identical in every edition of the NABRE. The differences between editions will be found in the quality and type of materials, the page layout and typeface, and in the optional inclusion of additional study helps. Choosing an edition thus becomes a process of aligning features with the reader’s particular needs and price constraints.

Your mileage may vary, but my own preferences for the three main usage scenarios I envision would be as follows:

Below is an alphabetical listing of the active NABRE publishers, with brief summaries of their offerings. Last updated: Sept 4th, 2023.

American Bible Society:

The ABS publishes an inexpensive edition of the NABRE in both hardcover and paperback. It has been upgraded in recent years to a 9-pt typeface on less compact pages than earlier editions, but will still look like an inexpensive Bible. This edition contains the canonically required NABRE annotations, making it something of an anomaly among ABS published Bibles, but it is otherwise almost bare-bones, incorporating only lectionary schedules for helps. The ABS also publishes a military edition, free to military families, containing a Sunday Readings schedule, a number of prayers, and other devotional helps. ABS Bibles are generally not high-quality editions, historically being intended more for gift distribution to the unchurched than for individual purchase as personal Bibles.

Catholic Bible Press:

Catholic Bible Press (formerly HarperOne) offers a single, slightly oversized hardcover edition, with superior readability. The typeface, though not large (9 pt), is dark and sharp, set against cool white paper, which is thin enough to allow some bleeding. The two-column Biblical presentation is clearly distinguished from the editorial apparatus below by breaking the annotations into 3 columns of smaller text. A judicious use of dark red page element coloring enhances navigation. Cross-reference entries are well presented. There are no fan tabs, but the starting and ending Book/Chapter/Verse are shown on the outsides of the page header. Other than the narrow outside margins, the use of white space is more generous than is typical. No helps included except for 14 pages of Zondervan maps. Well bound, the hardcover lays flat from Gen 1 to Rev 22. The price has risen over the years, but you can still buy it for under $30. If it had a couple ribbon markers, this would make a perfect reader’s edition NABRE.

The same publisher has recently published a couple faux-leather large print editions (11-pt font) which include the aforementioned ribbon markers, but have removed the footnotes and cross-references from the pages of Biblical text to their own end sections. As a pure reader’s edition NABRE, I suppose these would be hard to beat, though the use of end notes instead of footnotes would be annoying to some.

Catholic Book Publishing:

Catholic Book Publishing (CBP) is a long-standing, very popular publisher of Catholic Bibles, most of which have carried the moniker “St. Joseph Edition”. For the past five decades, those offerings have been dominated by the various versions of the New American Bible, although there have also been “St. Joseph” editions of other translations. Over the past few years, CBP seems to be emphasizing their very own new translation, The New Catholic Bible, all editions of which appear to be published as “St. Joseph” editions. When looking for a NABRE, it is important not to mistake a “St. Joseph New Catholic Bible” for a “St. Joseph NABRE Edition”

If you pursue a NABRE from CBP, they are available in “St. Joseph NABRE” editions as well as in “NABRE” editions. The “Saint Joseph” editions tend to include more helps, such as articles, Church documents, lectionary cycle reading schedules, photos, maps, dictionaries, etc. But they also tend to have cramped page layouts, especially in their presentation of cross-references, which are typically mashed together end-to-end, paragraph style, in small print, rendering them all but unusable to tired eyes. The typeface for Biblical text is 7-pt for “Personal Size”, 9-pt for “Medium Size”, and 11-pt for “Full Size” editions. The plain “NABRE” editions, which are published under the imprint “World Catholic Press”, have a cleaner page layout, but less features.

Fireside Catholic Publishing:

Fireside sells NABRE editions in an array of sizes, bindings, and formats, with an emphasis on special occasion and gift Bibles. They also sell “youth” and other devotional/pastoral editions, including a unique amalgamation called Librosario, which has a single-decade rosary embossed on the back cover. They are also a publisher of the New Catholic Answer Bible, a vehicle for apologetic material.

For those interested in Bible study, Fireside offers a Personal Study Edition in paperback, and a practical looking School & Church edition in both medium and large print hardcover. These editions are affordable, and contain a concise Bible dictionary, Sunday Readings schedule, and other helps. Fireside “large print” editions typically use 12-pt typeface.

Liturgical Press:

Liturgical Press uses the NABRE as the base text of its Little Rock Study Bible, which incorporates both prefatory essays and extensive additional in-text annotations, often practical in nature, and presented in heavily colored callouts. The pages are busy, but the single-column Biblical text is well-defined visually due to the shaded non-Biblical matter, and is well segregated from the two-column footnotes. Cross references occupy the outer margins and are easy to read, but lack indicators for the referent passage. The hardcover list price is $70. The paperback lists for $50, although I don’t know how long a 2,700-page paperback would last. Some readers may be put off by the magazine-like presentation and/or the devotional elements, but many others would find this an ideal tool to assist in learning the Scriptures.

Liturgical Press has also recently (2023) released another study Bible, called the Liturgy and Life Study Bible. Also based upon the NABRE, it incorporates a running index of references to every occasion a given Biblical passage is utilized in any of the Church’s various liturgies. It is an expensive volume, but will serve as a very useful reference work for those who study Scripture in light of its use in the prayer and worship life of the Church.

Both Liturgical Press study editions are further assessed here.

Midwestern Theological Forum:

MTF publishes a NABRE edition of its Didache Bible, which incorporates a full set of annotations based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, augmenting the standard NABRE annotations. The typeface is generous at 9.5 point, and the overall presentation is clean. Hefty at 2,500 pages, this is the most complete study edition of the NABRE available today. More information can be found here. $45 hardcover.

Our Sunday Visitor:

OSV sells easy-to-read, reasonably inexpensive (~$17) paperbacks of the basic NABRE text, which use thicker paper than many similar economy editions, sporting a clean page layout with two-column footnotes clearly set off from the two-column text with a page-wide horizontal bar. It provides well-formatted cross-references set in a lightly shaded box. Recommended.

At a higher but reasonable price, they also offer a good quality faux-leather NABRE Gift Bible. Another worthwhile NABRE offering from OSV is their Catholic Notetaking Bible, which sports very wide outside margins for taking notes. The Biblical text is presented in a single column, which works well on the narrowed page, although the inside margins are a bit tight. The footnotes are in two columns, as are the well-set-off and legible cross-references. OSV also sells other editions that use the NABRE as a vehicle for promulgating pastoral wisdom and advice, such as “Men’s”, “Women’s”, and “Teen” Bibles, as well as an edition of the New Catholic Answer Bible, and a couple devotional editions featuring writings from the saints and Church Fathers.

clip_image002_thumbOxford University Press:

OUP publishes a standard reader’s edition NABRE in both compact (paper, cloth, leather) and large print (paper, leather: 12-pt typeface) formats. They also publish two similar study editions of the NABRE, each including lengthy “Reader’s Guides” prefixed to the Biblical text. Each is available in several bindings, and the hardcover editions of each can be found for about $40, though you’ll pay more buying direct from OUP. Some details for comparison of the two study Bibles can be found here.

Saint Benedict Press:

SBP/TAN offers a compact edition in several bindings, which are attractive, but rather less economical than competing editions, and unfortunately not all that easy to read. The compact size is achieved at the price of smallish text size (8.5 pt. text, 6.5 pt. notes), and of paper thin enough to permit noticeable bleeding of the text on opposing pages. If your eyes are young enough to handle the font, this edition has a clean, pleasant layout, although the cross-references presentation is inadequate. Includes the 3-year Sunday Readings schedule, and a collection of Catholic prayers.

Saint Jerome’s Press:

Along with several “Teen” Bibles, Saint Jerome’s offers a very economical, medium-size paperback edition of the NABRE they call a Catholic Readers Edition, which includes the text of Dei Verbum. This edition would be suitable for supplying parish inventories, or for individuals looking for a very basic copy of the NABRE translation. A Catholic Student Edition, in a slightly larger hardback format, adds a Bible Dictionary, Sunday Lectionary schedule, and several other helps, while remaining economical.

St Mary’s Press:

Primarily a provider of Religious Education materials, St. Mary’s sells the NABRE in the Catholic Youth Bible and other teen-oriented devotional/pastoral editions. They also sell the elegantly styled Anselm Academic Study Bible (paperback or ebook only), which augments the NABRE annotations with about 100 pages of additional study content, packaged in a very attractive layout, albeit using typeface on the smallish side. The Anselm study edition seems a bit overpriced given the limited editorial additions, but is one of the more nicely formatted editions available. Be careful what you order on this site, as they sell very similar-looking products in various translations (NABRE, NRSV, GNT/TEV). The website seems more focused on the visuals of childish graphics than in conveying clear information. You might do better elsewhere.

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Dillon
Dillon
7 months ago

The NABRE is a little weird, the USCCB stopped selling any editions themselves and the most attractive ones to me are the ones sold by ABS. The NABRE is a great translation but I feel like it’s at an awkward stage of development, soon to be replaced by a newer version with an updated name. I like the idea of the NABRE, it is one of my favorite but I’m disappointed that I can only find standard/approachable editions by ABS and either everyone else has it as either a cheap thrift version or a clunky study set up. ABS seems to master the appeal for a regular, straight text with a standard (non-cheap) feel while remaining modest. I might just keep using my NJB hardback by Doubleday simply because it fits this description for a regular yet quality format with a modest look (and printed in the US). A lot of NABRE are also printed in China which I strongly discourage since China is a surveillance state with genocidal tendencies.
This website is the most help with finding a particular Catholic translation, I might just stick with my JB-NJB-RNJB choices since they have a superb background and uniqueness to their renderings as opposed to the messy selection we have here in America.