Bible Missing Red Letters on Christ's Quotes

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Wm777

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I have a question about my Bible.

I use the Catholic Edition of the New Americam Bible published by Saint Benedict Press. There doesn’t seem to be a publication date on it, but the Imprimaturs and Nihil Obstats are dated 1991.

The problem seems to be, on a few different passages, some of Christ’s quotes are not in red letters.

My question is - whether it is intentional or a clerical error of some sort? And, while the inconsistencies are confusing, and it might indicate (regrettably) a lack of attention to the content, I wonder if (assuming it is an oversight) the oversight matters all that much?
 
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Can you clarify - none of Christ’s words are in red or it’s hit-and-miss?

Not all Bible editions include the red lettering, so if it has none, my guess is that’s by design.

Sometimes Christ was quoting scripture, in which case those wouldn’t be red while the rest would be according to some editors.
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
Can you clarify - none of Christ’s words are in red or it’s hit-and-miss?
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More in the hit-and-miss sense, as you describe it.

In my copy, John Chapter 9 verses 35-40, when Jesus is speaking with the man born blind, Christ’s words are all in black.

It’s definitely a proof-reading oversight.

There seem to be a few other passages I cannot recall, where they seem to have missed it. Some of these may be for the reason you mentioned regarding scriptural quotes, but the passage from John is definitely Jesus speaking.
 
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That is unfortunate. ☹️
Appears to just be poor workmanship. I would be equally disappointed.
 
Thank you, Cor_ad_Cor, I was wondering if I should give them a call to tell them about it, but I didn’t want to bother them if there was perhaps a reason why the passages were left black. That’s why I asked.

In any case, unless anyone else comes forward with an explanation, I’ll at least let them know. It’s been awhile since this Bible was printed, and they may well have already fixed it, but it can’t hurt to be sure.
 
Wm777 said:
In any case, unless anyone else comes forward with an explanation, I’ll at least let them know. It’s been awhile since this Bible was printed, and they may well have already fixed it, but it can’t hurt to be sure.
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I agree, that’s the right thing to do
 
I have a NAB that was published in 1970 and one that was published in 1986 and neither of them have Christ’s words in red.

I have the NAB-RE that came out a couple of years ago, and they make a point to tell readers that they have now printed Christ’s word in red.
 
It’s my understanding that “red letter Bibles” are primarily Protestant. I’ve honestly never seen a Catholic one with Christ’s words in red letters. Not saying they might not exist someplace, but I’ve only seen it in Protestant Bibles from places like Moody’s.

If it’s some recent trend for the Catholics, perhaps they are doing it to appeal to Protestants?
 
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That’s very interesting.

The cover clearly says it is published by St Benedict Press, and it is a “Catholic Edition”. By saying it is a Catholic Edition, it suggests what you say is true about Protestantism, although I haven’t found too many (if any) departures from NAB translation.

FWIW, for sentimental purposes, I bought it at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception’s bookstore, so I have just assumed Saint Benedict Press was a Catholic publisher.
 
St Benedict Press is a Catholic publishers and it appears to just be an oversight. Red Letters for Christ’s words is a comparatively recent thing. I would just call them and let them know so they can correct it for future editions.
 
Wm777 said:
Catholic Edition of the New Americam Bible
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Just an FYI-
The NAB is always Catholic. It is the translation used in the Lectionary for the US, and I believe that the USCCB holds the copyright.

There is now a NAB-RE that has new translations and Christ’s words are in red.
 
You might try checking out the translators notes in the preface. It it is intentional they would like state their methodology and reasoning for doing so there.
 
I have the same edition from St. Benedict Press and have never noticed the error. It’s probably an oversight.

The Nihil Obstat doesn’t mean anything, since that doesn’t really cover the color of the letters. A Nihil Obstat is more about theological errors. I think there’s editions of the NAB without the red letters.
 
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From the picture you showed, it looks like an oversight. You can certainly write a letter to the publisher pointing that out. They may or may not already be aware of it. Correcting these things is often far more complex than just editing a Word document for the next time you print it out. So don’t be surprised if you never see the fruit of your letter.

There are some other passages, though (like John 3) where it seems to shift from Jesus speaking to the narrator speaking and not everyone agrees on exactly when that shift happens. Keep in mind that there was no such thing as quotation marks when the Bible was originally written. So there will be some spots that are more ambiguous.

The photo you shared, though, is pretty clearly an editorial error. It happens.
 
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