As I mentioned earlier, our good friend Kevin Edgecomb kindly decided to send me a copy of the complete Orthodox Study Bible, an endeavor to which he attended with remarkable celerity: indeed, I received my copy of the OSB this afternoon, exactly a week after he made the offer! (Many, many thanks to Kevin.) Upon retrieving my new, shrinkwrapped OSB from the box in which it was carefully packed, I realized that the upper right corner of the front cover was bumped, as were several of the pages towards the middle of the volume. Whoever dropped this at Conciliar Press dropped it hard, I thought. Of course, I have bought a number of books thus damaged in my time, so this is in itself not a matter of concern to me; however, Mr Edgecomb paid full price for the book, and he certainly deserves his money’s worth! I alerted him of this small defect, and proceeded to continue to look through the book. As I examined the New Testament, I noticed that the back cover wasn’t sitting quite right, so I decided to take a look. Imagine my surprise when I saw this (with my apologies for the bad quality of the pictures):
It is truly unfortunate that it was this sloppily bound and sloppily handled copy of the OSB that made its way all the way down here. While the binding defect shown above was evidently in place before shrinkwrapping, I’m almost certain that the book was dropped in the process of inserting the list of errata, for which purpose the shrinkwrap was slit along the edge. In any case, a replacement copy has already been requested from Conciliar Press; no word from them yet on the matter, but I do intend to update as soon as there are news, and report on the quality of their customer service.
As an aside, Kevin also sent along a copy of Charles Thomson‘s translation of the Septuagint (1808). I was unaware that a reprint of this beautiful and lively translation is currently available (see here; more information about the reprint from the publisher go here). A bit more about Thomson’s translation (which apparently originally included also the New Testament) may be read here, and those interested in its printing history may learn more about it here. I’ve only had this beautiful volume for a few hours, and I can already tell that it will become one of my favorite Bibles. Again, thanks, Kevin!
Bouncing into Graceland 
That makes me angry! I hope they replace it with no problems. But on the bright side, I’m always pleased to receive new books (especially when I didn’t pay for them), and since I’m not the jealous type, I rejoice when others do as well! Congratulations!
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Frankly, I’m mortified that a gift that passed through my hands should be damaged! I know it’s not my fault, but still! I expected everything to be fine, of course, so I didn’t check it when it arrived, just squeezed in the Thomson and a card and taped it shut again.
But I’m VERY happy you’re enjoying the Thomson Bible surprise. It’s a very nice little Bible. One drawback is that it’s lacking the anaginoskomena: Thomson wanted only to translate and present what he considered the canonical texts. Still, what he did is indeed very nicely done.
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Does Leviticus 21:16-24 apply to your edition of the OSB?
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Nick> It upsets me, as well, and I do hope they are no problems to obtain a replacement. We’ll see, though! And many thanks, of course, for your congratulatory words. (You know, I also congratulate people when they get books. Heh.)
Kevin> No worries: we’ll bottle up all this mortification and make it count! ;-) And yes, I’m most certainly enjoying Thomson’s Septuagint. It is indeed a pity that it includes just the protocanonical books, but at least Esther is given in the full Greek version! I love the language, the vivacity of the translation; why couldn’t they use something wonderful like this as the basis of the OSB?
Anonymous> You’d think that they’d rip out that page from an defective copy such as this, but no, it’s right there! I do perversely enjoy the idea that a defective OSB would defile the holy place of God, along with men with a single testicle and slit noses. ;-)
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I’m sorry Esteban, there isn’t much worse than damaged books. I received a copy of the BHS a couple weeks ago and there’s a huge bend on it because it wasn’t packaged properly when they shipped it!
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Ouch, Mike! I feel your pain. If one of my Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft texts were damaged, I would probably cry. Can you get a replacement copy?
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