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 together with a commentary designed for the general reader. The project was entrusted to the faculty by St Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei and the university’s first chancellor. The first volume – St Matthew’s Gospel – appeared in 1976; the project was completed February 2005.

The main feature of the English edition of this work, The Navarre Bible, is the commentary, that is, the notes and introductions provided by the editors; rarely very technical, these are designed to elucidate the spiritual and theological message of the Bible. Quotations from commentaries by the Fathers, and excerpts from other spiritual writers, not least St Josemaría Escrivá, are provided to show how they read Scripture and made it meaningful in their lives. The Standard Edition carries the Western Church’s offical Latin version of the Bible, the editio typica altera of the New Vulgate (1986). The Navarre Bible’s biblical text is the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.