Jerome Biblical Commentary

The Jerome Biblical Commentary is a 1968 book of Biblical scholarship and commentary edited by Raymond Edward Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy. It is arguably the most-used volume of Catholic scriptural commentary in the United States, with the first edition selling 200,000 copies; it was also translated into Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. The book's title is a reference to Jerome, known for his translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), and his extensive Biblical commentaries.
In 1990, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary was published by the same editors as a revised and updated edition. In the forward to the new edition, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini acknowledges it as the work of "the best of English-speaking Catholic exegetes... [that] condenses the results of modern scientific criticism with rigor and clarity. Yet this contemporary approach is achieved without neglecting the long road that Christian tradition has travelled in dedicated, constant, and loving attention to the Word of God... [The pages of the Bible] are duly situated in their appropriate historical and cultural context." Martini goes on to describe it as "an instrument for rich ecumenical dialogue" that avoids "arid literalism 'that kills'" and a drift "into generalized spiritual applications." It contains, besides detailed commentary on all the books of the Bible, introductory articles on parts of the Bible and on each book as well as topical articles: 