Courtney McGrailed. by Ronald A. Beers and others
(Hodder and Stoughton, £29.99)
In essence the idea for this edition of the scriptures (edited for the Protestant publisher Tyndale House in the US) is excellent.
It provides not just notes careful balanced, but also information on the context and various levels of information which will aid both the general reader and student.
I suspect though that mature readers or advanced theology students will chafe at the restrictive nature of the notes. In the Protestant tradition (at least in England) it was decreed that Bibles should be issued without notes.
This, of course, leads only to misunderstanding and to doctrinal confusion. So while this book is useful, it should not replace wider reading of theological teaching and opinion: one book is never enough. The editorial board, by the way, lacks any Catholic representative.
Information
This edition comes, curiously enough, with preliminary pages allowing the owner to record such things as marriages, births, deaths, and family information, of a kind that used to be common in Victorian Bibles, but has long since lapsed. However, the major fault of the book is that it is printed on too light a paper.
There is show through on every page, which is a technical fault that would need to be remedied in later editions.