The Great Adventure Bible
The Great Adventure Catholic Bible makes the complexity of reading the Bible simple. Based on the color-coded Great Adventure Bible Timeline learning system developed by Jeff Cavins, this complete and authentic Catholic Bible has everything you need to develop and deepen your relationship with God through his Word.
We have multiple versions of the Great Adventure Bible in English, Spanish, Paperback and Large Print.
The original version of our Bible has a cover made from Alpha Cowhide, a synthetic, leather-like material. The depth of the Bible is approximately 1.5". Width and height are approximately 6 inches by 9 inches, and it weighs about 2.5 pounds. The Bible contains 1,984 pages. The font size is 9.5 and it does not currently come in large print.
For parishes, schools, and other institutions, Ascension also offers a paperback edition of the bible, which has the same number of pages and weighs a little less. This edition is available for bulk purchases, with a minimum of ten books purchased, and with a sliding discount based on the number of copies purchased.
We also offer The Great Adventure Bible in a large print version, which is nearly 13 point font - that's 26% larger than the original, so it is easy on the eyes. This edition weighs approximately 4.3 lbs, and features a hardbound cover to support the weight of the larger pages, has a sewn, round spine, three ribbons, and has the same page numbers and layout of the original TGA Bible!
Translation
Ascension chose the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition as the translation contained in The Great Adventure Catholic Bible. The Revised Standard Version, regarded for its balance of formality and readability, has ecclesiastical approval. In fact, it is the same translation the Church chose for inclusion in The Catechism of the Catholic Church. It also conforms with Pope Pius XII's encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, which encouraged scriptural translations from the original languages.
Comparisons With Other Translations
Every Bible translation is different, and sometimes they are translated with different purposes in mind. As mentioned above, The Revised Standard Version was intended to maintain a sense of formality and faithfulness to the original language while still being accessible to the modern reader and not appearing archaic. So while there are no "thees and thous," it does not attempt to change the meaning or intent of what was said. As an example, the translators did not attempt to modify the language to be gender-inclusive if the original languages used a masculine term.
Readers who compare translations, such as with the New American Bible, may see some minor differences in Chapter and verse numbers. For example, there are two different systems for numbering the psalms. The New American Bible only uses the Septuagint numbering of the psalms, which is the numbering used in the Greek translation. The Revised Standard Version typically uses the Masoretic or Hebrew numbering. To lessen this confusion, our version follows the RSV's numbering, but we also printed the Septuagint number next to it, so if you are comparing numbers between Bibles, you'll easily see where to find what you need. Many people don't know that Chapters and Verses are not standardized between translations. The reason for this is when these texts were written, there were no chapters at all. Each book was just written in one long narrative. It wasn't until about AD 900 that some scholars began to add in the concept of chapters to organize the books, and about AD 1,300 when some chose to further break them down according to verses. But since the original authors did not break their work into chapters, one translator may think the author was trying to end his thought after one verse, and another could think differently. So you occasionally see differences in verses between translations is at the beginning and end of chapters, but all the verses of the Catholic Bible are in every translation, so you are not missing anything at all.
The above difference between chapter and verse numbers leads us to one other difference that people notice when comparing the New American Bible and the RSV, involving the book of Esther. When reading this book the chapters APPEAR to be out of order, but they are not. There is a footnote at the beginning of the book explaining this. To clarify, please know that the original authors wrote the book as it is laid out in this Bible. Later, when Saint Jerome translated it into the Latin Vulgate, there were several passages where he was unsure of the canonicity, so he kept them, but moved them to the back of the book. Upon review, these books were determined to be authentic and canonical, but no one ever moved them back into their original place. Some 500-700 years later, when chapter and verse numbers were added to the Bible, these passages, still in the back became known as chapters 10-16. In this translation of the Bible, they are put back in the original place but are kept in italics so the reader can understand what is going on.
Features
The Bible has several features which make it unique among Catholic Bibles and will help you as you deepen your relationship with the Word.
Color-Coded Bible Timeline System
Our Bible follows the story of Salvation, as laid out in The Bible Timeline learning system. The Bible Timeline breaks Salvation History down into twelve periods, each color-coded, based on where the book is in the story. We worked these into the thumb tabs for each book. It Goes from the Early Word at the beginning of Genesis through the Church as the Bride of Christ (In the image above, you can see Luke's Gospel, which is from the Messianic Fulfillment Period, and has the color Gold on the thumb tab). The Bible Timeline shows the narrative story of God's plan for Salvation through fourteen narrative books of the Bible spread out through those twelve periods. But each period also contains supplemental books that go along with the narrative ones, so the entire Bible can be included, with each book assigned to a different period. This way, you can always know where you are in the big story even as you are reading individual books. It also helps to know when the tone of the story has shifted. There are also articles in the Bible, each several pages long, at the beginning of each period. This serves as an introduction to what is coming next, and what has changed.
It is important to note that most time periods, based on the way the Bible was written, happen to break down along certain books. That is, the next book in the Bible happens to line up with the next period in Salvation History. On a few occasions, though, there is a significant change in how the story is told in the middle of a book (for example, Genesis 1 through Genesis 11 is the Early Word, while Genesis 12 starts with the Patriarchs period). This is also the case with First Samuel. Starting with 1 Samuel 8, you move from the period of Conquest and Judges to the period of the Royal Kingdom.
Articles, Commentary, and Charts, Maps
In addition to all of the original footnotes of the translators, the Great Adventure Bible also has, as mentioned above, articles at the start of each time period of the bible. Each period also begins with a Bible Timeline Chart for that period, explaining the physical location of the events of that period, when the story took place, and what was going on in the secular world at that time. In this way, all of the pages of the Bible Timeline chart are integrated into the bible, but it does not contain a sIt also contains Commentaries on each of the seven major Covenants in Salvation History. There are also sixteen full-color maps of the Holy Land, describing everything from the locations of the twelve tribes of Israel to the journeys of Saint Paul.
Key Events and Call Outs
Seventy key events throughout the bible are called out and explained as to why they are important in the Journey of Salvation History. These are marked with a notation in the text itself, and with a call-out box on the same page, which gives deeper insight into why these are important. Above, on the page shown, you'll see an example of this when the Passion begins on the Mount of Olives.