The Navarre Bible: Letters to the Corinthians
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
In the early 1970s the theology faculty of the University of Navarre embarked on the project of making a new Spanish translation of the Bible—a volume accompanied by commentary designed for the general reader. This project was entrusted to the faculty by St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei and the university’s first chancellor. The first volume, St. Matthew, appeared in 1976; the project was completed February 2005. The Navarre Bible series is considered by many the best Catholic commentary on the Bible available today.
More comprehensive than the The Navarre Bible: New Testament, this volume features notes and introductions—rarely very technical—designed to illuminate the spiritual and theological message of the Bible. The Standard Edition is replete with quotations from commentaries by the Fathers, as well as excerpts from other spiritual writers—not least among them, St. Josemaría Escrivá—provided to show how they read Scripture and made it meaningful in their lives.
The epistles to the Corinthians were written to the young church in Corinth as it wrestled with the immoral environment surrounding it—and with that environment’s clash with the moral standards of Christianity. Divisions in the church became a problem, so Paul wrote 1 Corinthians as a response to the discord. In his letter, Paul addresses a wide range of issues faced by the Corinthian church, including incest, marriage, virginity, lawsuits, and consumption of sacrificed meat—he sets guidelines to help the Corinthians discern what is morally right and wrong. Feeling attacked by the church in Corinth and sensing that the situation is still complicated, Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a defense of his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
The Navarre Bible New Testament, Standard Edition is both scholarly and readable, presenting an intellectual, historical, and applicable survey of the riches of the New Testament. In the Logos edition of Corinthians, each Scripture passage links to your favorite translation, and is easy to study side-by-side with your other commentaries. You can search by topic or Scripture with split-second results!
This commentary does not include the Bible texts. The print edition cites the RSVCE and the Nova Vulgata, each available separately, or in select Verbum packages.
- Provides an introduction to Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians
- Draws on numerous Catholic resources
- Contains a table of sources cited, maps, and informative notes
- Maps
- Preface and Preliminary Notes
- Abbreviations
- Introduction to the Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians
- The City of Corinth
- The Church of Corinth
- Introduction to the First Letter to the Corinthians
- Immediate Background
- Content
- The Church
- The Eucharist
- The Resurrection of the Dead
- The Resurrection of Christ
- The Resurrection of Christ, the Basis of Our Faith
- The Resurrection of Christ, the Cause of Our Resurrection
- The Form Our Resurrection Will Take
- The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians: English Version, with Notes
- Introduction to the Second Letter to the Corinthians
- The Reason for the Letter
- Content
- Authenticity and Integrity
- The Apostolic Ministry
- The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians: English Version, with Notes
- New Vulgate Text
- Explanatory Notes
- Headings Added to the Biblical Text
- Sources Quoted in the Commentary
Top Highlights
“Self-denial, mortification, does not have to be something very overt; it should be practised in the ordinary circumstances of life—for example, by being punctual for appointments, carefully fulfilling one’s duties, treating everyone with as much charity as possible, accepting little setbacks in a good-humoured way (cf. St Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 138).” (Page 147)
“They remind us, on the one hand, of the need to ask the Lord to help us when we experience difficulties, and at the same time to be full of trust and to abandon ourselves to God, who knows what is best for us. ‘The Lord is good’, St Jerome teaches, ‘because he often does not give us what we desire, in order to give us something we would prefer’ (Epist. ad Paulinum).” (Page 186)
“Charity is so excellent a gift that without it all other gifts make no sense.” (Page 100)
“‘I only want you to be warned that, if you would progress a long way on this road and ascend to the mansions that we desire, it is not a matter of thinking much, but of loving much; do, then, whatever most arouses you to love. Perhaps we do not know what it is to love; that would not greatly surprise me; for love consists, not in what most pleases us, but in the strength of our determination to desire to please God in everything and to endeavour to do everything we can not to offend him, and to pray him ever to advance the honour and glory of his Son and the growth of the catholic Church’ (Interior Castle, 4, 1, 7).” (Page 102)
“‘The Christian who has been cleansed by the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of regeneration’, St John Chrysostom comments, ‘is changed, as the Apostle puts it, into the likeness of Jesus Christ himself. Not only does he behold the glory of the Lord but he takes on some of the features of God’s glory […]. The soul who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit receives and radiates the splendour of the heavenly glory that has been given him’ (Hom. on 2 Cor, 7).” (Pages 143–144)
[The Bible is] presented unambiguously as the inspired Word of God and, with the help of the commentaries, we are introduced to 2,000 years of contemplative Christian reading and living of the sacred Word.
—Osservatore Romano
. . . Superb volume for adult Bible Study . . . most helpful, enlightening, and fascinating.
—Catholic Transcript
- Title: The Navarre Bible: Letters to the Corinthians
- Translator: Michael Adams
- Edition: Revised
- Publisher: Four Courts Press
- Publication Date: 2005
- Pages: 224
Michael Adams was a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast, and the University of Navarre, Pamplona. Michael’s first significant involvement in publishing was with Irish University Press. He was also instrumental in setting up Irish Academic Press, where he served as managing director until 1995. Michael was the author of Censorship: the Irish experience (the subject of his PhD thesis), as well as two short books on religion. In recognition of his contribution to academic studies in Ireland, Trinity College, Dublin awarded him an honorary doctorate in Letters in 2005.