Bibles

[po18guy]

Wild immoral story! Makes you wonder why we tend to gloss over the horrendous sins of these Old Testament ‘heroes’. Maybe this helps explain why the Church for so long wasn’t eager for laity to study scripture. Not only would they interpret it for themselves, but they might begin to think that many of these ‘heroes’ weren’t all that heroic. I suspect that modern secularism is increasing because the Church still insists that such bizarre tales are ‘the Word of the Lord’. .

Parents were taking their children to be with Michael Jackson at Neverland. What do you mean “bizarre tales” in scripture? They were in the LA Times!

 

[po18guy]

I have several Bibles, Catholic and Protestant, but use my Catholic ones the most often. I have a bookmark that has Proverbs 3:5 written on it: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
I looked up this verse in both my Protestant bible and my NAB, St. Joseph Edition, and saw that the verse is translated somewhat differently in the Catholic bible.

Please consider buying either a Douay-Rheims or an Ignatius bible (RSV-2CE). I consider both to be better than the NAB or even the NABRE. In particular, the footnotes in the NAB can be toxic to the faith. They are horrible and have been replaced in the NABRE.

 

[Roy5]

The whole point of the Bible is that God is always faithful. One of the subsidiary points is that humans tend not to be faithful, and that therefore there’s a pattern of God saving everybody, everybody going yay!, and then many people becoming ungrateful and doing bad stuff instead of following God.

Many of the great Old and New Testament figures are themselves shown as embodying this pattern. David, Solomon, Gideon, Saul, Peter – they all do it. Noah starts embarrassing himself about five minutes after he gets off the Ark.

I’m sad if most people don’t realize this, but it’s certainly not something hidden from Catholics. The lectionary is full of screwups.

 God is always faithful? God drowned all the earth's inhabitants during the days of Noah. I assume all those little children and babies, many still in the womb, must have been evil.

  God ordered Joshua to murder everyone in Jericho and commanded Saul to kill every living Amalekite! Check out that odd little story in II Kings 2:23-25. Some kids tease Elisha because of his bald head. Elisha brings down the curse of God on them, two bears attacked and maul 42 of those wicked, wicked young ones.

  Give me a break! How are such stories of violence and injustice evidence that God is always faithful. Well, yes, I also believe that God is always faithful, which is why I have to reject such tales of God-ordered bloody murder, revenge and wholesale slaughter in the Old Testament. 

  By the way, check out Ex. 21-22, Lev. 20, Deut. 22-23 and see how many of those laws suggest that God is reasonable, let alone faithful. What about the commandment to kill 'witches' or the one calling for the execution anyone who doesn't worship Jehovah? What about bringing a rebellious son to the village gate and having the elders stone him to death? I believe a father was even permitted to sell his daughter into slavery! 

 These images of God are far from the God of love which Christ revealed. When the woman was about to be stoned for adultery, what did he do?

 

[COPLAND_3]

I’m afraid that’s the sad truth. There’s no use denying that too many Catholics do not take advantage of the wealth of Scripture that the Church provides them in all these areas. I get a little weary of hearing this cop-out by my fellow Catholics. There’s a lot of difference between the Church offering it (which it unceasingly does) and Catholics taking advantage of it. It does the average Catholic (who cannot/does not go to daily Mass, or never gets a good homily based on the Scriptures on Sunday, or who doesn’t pray the Divine Office) very little good if he doesn’t know or care about all these things. That’s where the rest of us Catholics need to pick it up a notch and promote Scripture reading for ALL our fellow Catholics on the parish level and in private devotions, be it lectio divino or serious study. After all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. Jerome in saying “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

I am a former Southern Baptist, and I was also disturbed by the lack of spirituality among them at the time. The mega-church mentality was growing, and it was becoming all about entertainment and church trends in order to compete with the other churches in town. Church growth was mainly due to people leaving their church to join the church with the next cool thing with a smooth talking preacher, electronic gadgetry in the sanctuary, and a jamming choir. But for us Catholics, I don’t think that the problem is so much in not enough quality Catholics as much as the problem with a spoiled majority of people who tend to been seen more than the deeply faithful Catholics (I hope anyway). Unfortunately it may take hard times to separate the wheat from the tares.

 

[Oldtimer_7]

Regardless of which church, we are all dipped from the same bucket full of sinners. I recall telling Randy, the man who invited me to this forum, that I wish I knew more Lutherans who were as knowledgeable about Lutheran teachings as he was. We at CAF are in a blessed communion of people who want to know God more closely. It then is our mission to help our brothers and sisters to draw closer to God also. Ours is a gift that is most meaningful when we give it away.

 

[po18guy]

Please consider buying either a Douay-Rheims or an Ignatius bible (RSV-2CE). I consider both to be better than the NAB or even the NABRE. In particular, the footnotes in the NAB can be toxic to the faith. They are horrible and have been replaced in the NABRE.

Now, I find that, apparently, even the notes in the NABRE suggest that John the Baptist doubted that Jesus was the Messiah. Maybe the third time will be the charm for an “approved” version from the USCCB. The NABR-RE?

 

[CalCatholic]

Now, I find that, apparently, even the notes in the NABRE suggest that John the Baptist doubted that Jesus was the Messiah. Maybe the third time will be the charm for an “approved” version from the USCCB. The NABR-RE?

Only the notes in the Old Testament (incl. the Psalms) were changed due to the revision of the Old Testament and the Psalms. The New Testament notes remain unchanged because the NT was not revised in the NABRE. But the USCCB did announce a future revision of the NT, but that could take many years.

 

[po18guy]

Only the notes in the Old Testament (incl. the Psalms) were changed due to the revision of the Old Testament and the Psalms. The New Testament notes remain unchanged because the NT was not revised in the NABRE. But the USCCB did announce a future revision of the NT, but that could take many years.

Until then, I shall save my money. The more the US Bishops are tested by fire, the more proved they become and perhaps, the more trustworthy future translations and notes will be.

Like the spirits, theologians must also be tested.