This is an excellent study Bible. I'll explain why I feel this way in a couple of sections: Layout, Maps and Helps, Indices and The TranslationLayout
The layout stems from a fairly novel but excellent idea: colour-code the verse of Scripture against 12 different colours symbolising such concepts at salvation (blue) and family (yellow). Those who own a Bible where the words of Christ are in red will understand the concept. In this Bible all words spoken by God (in any of the three Persons) are underlined. This really does help to bring out hidden patterns in the text as well as to explore new meanings the reader might not have considered before.
Many who have read Scripture well know that many verses could fit easily within many of the different colours. The editors respond to this in the beginning of the Bible by admitting they had hard choices to make. Sometimes they solve the problem by having the first half of the verse in one colour, and then the second half is in another colour. Other times, we can be sure they had some interesting discussions around the table.
Maps and Helps
This Bible is strewn with excellent, full-coloured, detailed maps in the context of the various texts they are helping to illustrate. This helps the reader avoid constantly flipping to the back to check a map. But for those who enjoy that, there are quite a number of colour maps in the back. Each book of Scripture has a detailed introduction to the "plot" and "action" of the book with a single overview map to help the reader see where things will take place as the book unfolds. There are also full-colour illustrations to help the reader see what life was like, or what a particular object looked like (such as a house in the time of the prophets, or a huge picture of Jerusalem in Christ's time as seen from above).
Indices
This Bible contains a variety of indices, one index specifcally arranged to show Biblical passages that support Catholic Doctrine, specically the Sacraments. There is also a plan for reading Scripture in a year, and a listing of 365 popular verses to memorise. There is a section containing an illustrated Stations of the Cross for devotional use.
Translation
The Translation is the TEV (Today's English Version) sometimes known as the Good News Bible. The translation follows the "dynamic correspondence" translation strategy. This means it is a freer than a word-for-word translation, putting the verses into more common, everyday patterns of speech. But it is not as extreme as a paraphrase. Some people might be put off by some aspects of this approach. For example, the Ark of the Covenant is always called the Covenant Box. Still, the translation will be useful for people who find lieral correspondence translations occassionally incomprehensible, as the text was put into everyday English on purpose.
Some Catholics might be put off that the Deuterocanonicals are lumped into a middle section apart from the Protocanonicals. This was done by the American Bible Society when preparing the TEV because this translation was not just going to be for Catholics but for all Christians. Still, many will no doubt be upset that in a Bible specifically designed for Catholics (The Catholic Rainbow Bible) this trend was continued, but in order to use the translation, I suspect they had to leave the translation as they received it verbatim from the ABS. Nevertheless, the editors of this Bible did colour-code every passage of the Deuterocanonicals. There are even some illuminating footnotes explaining the word plays in Susanna, for example.
Conclusion
My final assessment is that this is an excellent Bible which I hope to make an heirloom for my own children.
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