The book that every Catholic should read
Richard J Ounsworth on an edition of the New Testament that adds rich commentary to the best English translation
12 December 2008

St Matthew, author of the first Gospel, is depicted in a stained-glass window in Phoenix, Arizona (CNS Photo)

The Navarre Bible: New Testament

The latest edition from the theology faculty of the University of Navarre, founded by Josemaría Escrivá, is a work that deserves a place on every Catholic's bookshelf. It combines the best available English translation of the New Testament, the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version, with an extensive commentary that offers the reader rich pickings from the fruits of contemplation on the Word of God over the last 2,000 years.

This volume follows the basic format of other volumes in the series, with the English text at the top of each page, the new Vulgate - it must be said, in very tiny type - below, and below that a running commentary produced by members of the faculty, but incorporating a great range of extracts from other works.

Each book has a substantial introduction and there is also an introduction to the four Gospels, the Pauline Corpus and the Catholic Epistles. These editorial contributions are without exception written with clarity and an unpatronising simplicity that make them a pleasure to read.

This is truer yet of the general introduction, which covers the place of the New Testament in the canon of scripture, with consideration of questions of interpretation and the role of the Bible in the life of the Church; it goes on to consider the origins of the New Testament, its formation and shape, contents and unity.

Much of this is drawn from the Catechism, the documents of Vatican II, especially of course Dei Verbum, and the more recent document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church.

I would go so far as to say that for this introduction alone this volume deserves to be read, though at only 12 pages it is perhaps not worth paying the full cover price. As an outline of the contemporary Catholic understanding of the place of the scriptures in the life of the Church, and of the individual believer, it is exemplary, and one can only wish that every Catholic might read it and take it to heart, so finally laying to rest the tired cliché that Catholics don't read the Bible.

The emphasis in this section is rightly on the fruitfulness of reading the Bible and this is appropriate for a work that is so evidently itself the fruit of such meditation.

It should be emphasised that this is a work of scholarship, and very evidently so, but not a work for scholars. That is to say, it is not a "study Bible" and it is all the better for it. Study Bibles so often fall between two stools, with the offerings of modern critical thought obtruding without illuminating, leaving the reader puzzled and disturbed rather than enlightened.

A teacher of scripture can always tell when an essay has been cobbled together from the notes in a study Bible rather than from a proper study of the secondary literature, largely through the blandness of the offering. Critical study of scripture - that is, principally the use of the historical-critical method - forms a vital part of the work of theology, as this book readily acknowledges: "This type of reading can enhance our understanding of what the writers of the books are actually saying and what God is saying through them... it also serves to correct subjective interpretations which have no authority."

But it is another form of reading for which this volume is suited, namely Lectio Divina, in which it is good to see that there has been a recent upsurge in interest.

Yet we are also reminded that there is no strict divide between study and prayer, with the two informing one another rather than competing, and this becomes very clear when we turn to the text of the New Testament and see the richness of the commentary; this is clearly not intended to be, or to replace, an academic critical commentary, but rather to aid the reader in prayerful, contemplative and intelligent reading. There is nothing anti-intellectual here. The range of sources for this commentary is far too broad to list here, running from the writings of Popes (including Benedict XVI) and Councils (especially Vatican II), the Greek and Latin Fathers and the great medieval theologians to Thérèse of Lisieux and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). There are nuggets from less-well-known writers such as Theophylact of Bulgaria, although one cannot help but notice that many of the more obscure works cited coincide with what is found in the Breviary.

It is good to know that the doctors of Navarre are saying their office. Of course we also find the writings of Escrivá represented, along with his Spanish contemporaries, but the criticism that has been levelled at other volumes of the Navarre Bible, that there is an excessive predominance of Opus Dei-style conservative piety, certainly does not apply here. There is a notable shift towards the official documents of the Church, so that this is definitely representative of mainstream Catholicism.

But running, as it were, below the surface of these selections is an obvious familiarity with and respect for the sober conclusions of modern academia. If one were to level a criticism it would be that occasionally this essential hidden knowledge obtrudes where it is not helpful: to take one example, even if the two-source hypothesis is the correct answer to the synoptic problem, which many in this country especially take leave to doubt, I cannot see that it is an issue that helps the non-student to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of, say, the Gospel of Luke. Occasionally the editors have erred in the direction of making a study Bible after all.

However, this is a minor quibble. If anyone were thinking that it is time to engage seriously, or even tentatively, in Lectio Divina, a prayerful and contemplative study of the Word of God, whether alone or with others, this handsomely produced edition of the New Testament is an excellent way of doing so, and at the same time discovering that in so doing one is joining with the whole Church in a 2,000-year long adventure.