From Library Journal

With The New Oxford Annotated Bible ( New Revised Standard Version ) only four years old, the need for another annotated NRSV isn't readily apparent. Still, when the publisher of the Harper's Bible Commentary and the Harper's Bible Dictionary publishes its own edition of the NRSV, it merits the attention of any serious bible student. An impressive array of biblical scholars has assembled a completely new set of introductions to each testament and to each biblical book, a fresh set of annotations to the text, and a modified set of textual apparatus. The book has many strengths. Most helpful are the annotations, which serve to identify chronology and location and explain wordplay. Many of the comments themselves are both up-to-date (comparing Simon's nickname, "Peter," to "Rocky" in Matthew 16.18) and felicitous (noting the similarity between the story of Moses' midwives, Exodus 1.8-22, and fairy tales like "Snow White"). The annotations particularly do a good job of revealing the interplay between biblical books and actually begin to explicate the text of Revelation. Yet the volume's comprehensiveness can also be its weakness. Notes on the gospels refer to noncanonical works that the average reader will not know and is not likely to have ready access to. Notes on authorial patterns such as symmetry and acrostic poetry don't sufficiently explain the impact of form upon content. In light of the reach this edition attempts, these drawbacks cannot be ignored. Ultimately, the breadth and depth of this study Bible, matched with its superior scholarship, make it a volume worth having in any collection. However, it is close enough in most respects to the Oxford Annotated edition that, if funds are limited and your library already possesses that edition, the HarperCollins edition would not be a necessary purchase.

- W. Alan Froggatt, Bridgewater, Ct.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.