The Oxford Study Bible REB with the Apocrypha

A review of The Oxford Study Bible, Revised English Bible (REB) with the Apocrypha (ISBN 9780195290011, 0195290011; Style 5930A). This study Bible is a glued hardback with the text formatted in two columns, divided into paragraphs, and printed in a ~9.5 point font. Page-bottom notes are in a single column of relatively modest length and detail (compared to, say, those in the ESV Study Bible) and are skeptical in character. The volume contains a 197-page section divided into nineteen articles on the topic of Understanding the Bible and its Communities." The words of Christ are in black ink, as they should be, but some pages are printed more darkly than others.

The introduction to the New Testament states that “This version claims to be a translation rather than a paraphrase, observing faithfulness to the meaning of the text without necessarily reproducing grammatical structure or translating word for word.” Indeed, the Revised English Bible is one of the least literal translations I have examined.

Detailed contents

00:00 Dimensions, margins, layout, font … (four charts)
01:10 Size compared to the The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (NRSV)
01:33 Size compared to the New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV)
01:46 Size compared to the HarperCollins Study Bible (NRSV)
02:05 The page layout
02:28 Page dimensions
03:08 The font in the text
04:19 The page-bottom notes
04:34 Paper qualities
05:10 Show-through
05:30 Print non-uniformity
05:40 Book introductions
06:52 Each book of the Bible begins on a new page
07:29 Quotations from the Old Testament in the New
08:14 The words of Christ are in black
08:44 Introductions to the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament
10:25 The Select Index to People, Places, and Things in the Bible
10:49 The 14 Oxford maps
11:26 The map index
11:41 The blue and white head and tail bands
11:48 The binding is glued
12:01 The Bible lies open and relatively flat in Revelation
12:35 The cloth-over-board hardback cover
13:04 The copyright page
13:35 The table of contents
14:05 How literal is the Revised English Bible? The translation continuum chart
14:25 The churches that sponsored the Revised English Bible
14:57 The books of the Apocrypha
15:41 The table of weights, measures, and values
15:52 Nineteen articles
16:59 Comparing the textual decisions the Revised English Bible translators made in the New Testament to the Nestle-Aland 28th edition and to the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform
18:04 Comparing the textual decisions the Revised English Bible translators made in the New Testament to the Nestle-Aland 28th edition and to Westcott & Hort’s Greek New Testament
18:40 The ‘free’ character of the Revised English Bible illustrated from 2 Thessalonians 1.1-3
20:06 A close-up look at the font, and the font compared to that in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (NRSV)
21:09 The font compared to that in the HarperCollins Study Bible (NRSV)
21:35 The font compared to that in the New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV)
22:09 A quick look at the notes, beginning with Genesis 3.14-19
23:05 A note on the flood: Genesis 6.5-8.22 (it was adapted from the Epic of Gilgamesh)
23:35 The note at Isaiah 7:14 – hint: it has nothing to do with the Virgin Birth
24:19 The note at Isaiah 52.13-53.12 – the Suffering Servant is Israel, of course
24:49 The note at Isaiah 53.9 – same as above
25:18 The introduction to the book of Daniel
25:44 The introduction to 2 Peter
26:06 The note at Revelation 13.1 – the beast from the sea is Rome/Nero
26:45 Summary and conclusion