Bible study

[ccassetty]

I am wondering what is considered to be the most accurate translation bible from the original. I am also wondering what is the best resource for understanding some of the more quoted bible verses by atheists and pro-abortion people. These are the ones like the great flood, Sodom and Gomorrah etc where women (many of them pregnant) and children were killed. I want to do this research so that when I see these kinds of comments I can respond appropriately.

I am also wondering if anyone has seen any major work in this area. I’ve seen quotes here and comments there on bits and pieces of this topic, but has anyone seen a thoroughly researched and comprehensive work? I’m most interested in the abortion side of all of this and what the bible does and does not say about it.

 

[Achilles6129]

The most accurate word-for-word translation is probably the NASB.

As far as your other question, modern theology really doesn’t have very good answers to these things. At least if they do have answers, they usually answer piecemeal. There are a couple of good websites that might help you out though:

carm.org/

christianthinktank.com/

tektonics.org/

newapologetics.com/

 

[jeannetherese]

Greetings ccassetty,

You might want to limit yourself to Catholic websites for your information.
The websites suggested by Achilles6129 do not necessarily represent our faith. Indeed, at least one argues that Catholics are not Christians.
I applaud your desire to learn more about your faith and think you might find the Douay Rheims Bible helpful. There is a link posted below.

drbo.org/

A more recent study bible that I like is the Ignatius Study bible which I am purchasing one book at a time. It has extensive notes.

You can also find the Catholic Encyclopedia, writings of the church fathers, and all sorts of other fascinating information at New Advent.

newadvent.org/

Of course you will wish to double check recommendations to ensure that they are in conformity with Catholic teaching.

May God bless you!
jeannetherese

 

[Mystophilus]

I am wondering what is considered to be the most accurate translation bible from the original.

There is no bible which is universally considered to be the most accurate, because translation just does not work like that. Since individual languages operate in dramatically different ways, some aspects are simply untranslatable (e.g., a single verb form which can be past or present in the source language, when the target language has different forms for those two times), which means that the translator is faced with a subjective choice regarding how to render the passage. As a result, translations proliferate.

There are, however, some translations which fall on the other side: the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation, for example, with its attempt to force the source text into conformity with JW theology; the NIV, with the same attempt for Protestant Evangelical theology; the KJV, because we have uncovered more and earlier source texts and learnt a lot about the source languages in the last 400 years.

If you want something which will give you a better idea of how the original works, get an interlinear bible, and dictionaries and grammars for the source languages.

Otherwise, go with a Catholic Bible: a) it will have all of the books which are used for your liturgy; b) you won’t get hassled about it by other Catholics who think that you might be misled by its non-Catholic rendering; c) it won’t contain non-Catholic rendering (this does sometimes happen). You might like to check out this list of Catholic Bibles.

 

[CalCatholic]

The Douay Rheims if you like the language of the KIng James version (old English). The RSV-2CE if you want a formal translation without the thees and thous. The NABRE if you want your translation to be similiar to the readings in Mass (US). The New Jerusalem Bible if you want a litte British flair in your translation.

 

[StGerardMajella]

I am wondering what is considered to be the most accurate translation bible from the original.

The Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew.

With that being said, I would agree with the other posts in stating that you really would be hard pressed to determine “the most accurate” translation, because there are different interpretations of the same text. For traditional Catholic versions, I would stick with the Douay-Rheims, the Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate.

Personally, I have a varied assortment of Bibles as well as a wide variety of commentaries. Between all of these resources, I can usually frame the general understanding of obscure passages in the Bible.