Navarre bible commentary- any thoughts?

I purchased the Navarre Bible - NT(one volume) two years ago on sale for $55.
I really like it, and I have used it a lot. I also picked up the Navarre St. Luke in December. I read most of it over the Christmas Holidays, specifically the introduction/overview section. Also, I recently purchased the Navarre Romans and Galatians. I have read through the entire part on Galatians.

(I am studying and preparing for an upcoming class on Galatians I will be leading in April-May.)

So comparing Galatians from the NT/one volume and from the individual book: They are almost two different books, for both the introduction/overview section and the commentary section.

I like the two individual volumes I have so much that I am going to purchase the set while it is on sale.

Volumes: 12 Pages: 2,404 cost $185 / $140 sale
Volumes: 1 pages: 1,200 cost $75 / $55 sale

My recommendation, buy the one that is on sale.

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Here is a comparison of commentary on the same verses of Galatians 2:1-10.

2. SALVATION IN CHRIST

2:1–10 The main body of the letter is made up of five sections, all of which centre on a single, key theme—St Paul’s mission as an apostle of Christ. The Apostle has been called to preach God’s saving mystery, his plan to draw together all mankind to form one, Jew and Gentile alike. This people is a Body whose Head is Christ. The central section (3:1–21) deals with this theme; in the preceding and subsequent sections, Paul deals with various aspects of the unity of the Church (2:11–22 and 4:1–16). At the beginning and the end of the letter, he focuses on those Gentiles who have become members of Christ, to help them appreciate their undeserved gift (vv. 1–10) and to draw practical consequences for their new lives as members of Christ and the Church (4:17–6:20).

The Navarre Bible: New Testament (Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers, 2008), 716.

Visit to Jerusalem
2:1–10. St Paul had ended his first apostolic journey by returning to Antioch in Syria, from where he had set out. We know that the Christian community in that city, which was an important crossroads of race and culture, had developed as a providential result of the dispersal of Jerusalem’s Christians following on Stephen’s martyrdom (cf. Acts 11:19–26). Some of those refugees had brought the new faith to Antioch but had confined themselves to preaching and converting Jews. Later, through the activity of other Christians, Jews of the diaspora, that is, domiciled outside Palestine, and pagans also began to adopt the new religion. Barnabas had been commissioned by the Jerusalem church to organize the young Christian community in Antioch (cf. Acts 11:19–24). He later chose Paul, who had been living quietly in Tarsus, to act as his assistant (cf. Acts 11:25–26).
The disciples in Antioch, where the name “Christians” was first used to describe them, belonged to the whole gamut of social and ethnic backgrounds, as we can see from the short list of “prophets and teachers” of the church there (cf. Acts 13:1–3): some were of African origin, like Symeon “who was called Niger”; others came from the western Mediterranean, like Lucius of Cyrene; Manaen was from the household of Herod the tetrarch; and there were Jews from communities outside Palestine—for example, Barnabas and Saul themselves.
Among those different types, we find some Christians of Jewish background who felt that pagan converts to Christianity should observe the prescriptions of the Mosaic Law (including the detailed precepts which Jewish tradition kept adding to that Law); these guardians of the gate of entry into the chosen people were requiring that pagan converts be circumcised, as all Jews were.
When these “Judaizers” from Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15:1) asserted that circumcision was necessary for salvation, they were raising an issue which went much deeper than simply conforming to the Law of Moses: was the Redemption wrought by Christ enough, of itself, for attaining salvation, or did people still need to become part of the people of Israel, conforming to all its ritual requirements?
Clearly, this question was a source of considerable division. Acts 15:2 refers to its causing “no small dissension”. The present passage of Galatians shows that Paul, receiving a revelation from God, decided to grasp the nettle by stating unequivocally that Christ’s redemption—on its own, and alone—brought salvation. In other words, circumcision was not necessary, nor did the elaborate ritual regulations of Judaism apply to Christians. In Jerusalem Paul expounded “the Gospel” he had been proclaiming to the Gentiles. He was accompanied by Barnabas, and by a young disciple, Titus, the son of pagan parents, quite possibly baptized by Paul himself (cf. Tit 1:4, where he calls him his “true child”), who would later became one of his most faithful co-workers.

Saint Paul’s Letters to the Romans & Galatians, The Navarre Bible (Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers, 2005), 147–148.

I have the complete Navarre set (AKA the "Standard Edition") in Verbum and the one volume New Testament (AKA the "Compact Edition") in print.

The Preface of the Compact Edition spells out the difference between editions (there is also a "Reader's Edition" that Logos does not sell). Of the Compact Edition, it says:

"This Compact Edition contains the entire New Testament (RSVCE); quite short introductions to each of the four Gospels, to the Acts, to the letters, and to the book of Revelation; and new commentaries/notes—much less extensive than those in the Standard and Reader's Editions, and often drawn from different sources."

So the Compact Edition is not a mere abridgement, but actually contains some different (though less extensive) material. Not that it is all new material. I haven't done a full side-by-side comparison, but there are portions of it that read pretty closely.

It's definitely much more compact. For example, the intro to Luke that you have has a 12 page introduction. The intro in the Compact Edition is a page and a half. Plus, the Compact Edition tends to "batch" the commentary. For example, at the beginning of Luke, there is commentary on Luke 1:1–4; 1:5–2:52; 1:5–25; 1:26–38; 1:39–56; and 1:57–80. There isn't as much in the way of individual verses.

If you look at the page count on the product pages, you see that the 7 volume is 2,400 pages and the 1 volume is 1,200 pages—which might be a mistake as my print copy of the 1 volume is only 700 pages. So it is definitely much smaller.

MJ. Smith said:

From my perspective, in the paper version where you have English, Vulgate and commentary there is more value than in the electronic version which tends to stand or fall based on your opinion of St. Josemaria and Navarre University.

I am certainly not a huge fan of St. Josemaria but I do find the Navarre Bible very useful. Josemaria for me can be useful but at times too dogmatic in his approach for me.

-Dan