Catholic Bible used between 1900 and 1950 in America?

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What Roman Catholic Bible was used by Roman Catholics in the United States in their Missals during Mass between the years 1900 and 1950? Was it the Duoay Rheims Bible? I know that since 1970 until today, The New American Bible has been used. And that for a short time between 1960 and 1969, it was the Confraternity Bible. Thank you.
 
I’ve heard of the “Knox Bible” being popular for devotional reading then. My limited knowledge of it is that it was a more modern translation put out by Fr. Ronald Knox for English-speaking Catholics. I think the translation was made in the interwar period. Perhaps the most common alternative to the DR in those days.
 
Hmmm? I forgot about the Knox Bible. It is a Catholic Bible, but I do not know if it was used in the Roman Missal though, only for personal private reading at home. Well, Roman Catholics in the United States had these Catholic Bibles:
  1. Duoay Rheims Bible
  2. Knox Bible
  3. Confraternity Bible
  4. New American Bible
 
Since people’s hand missals were published by privately-owned publishers, rather than the Church itself, there was technically no “official” translation of the Order of Mass or its readings. The Mass was in Latin, and any translation was not actually official, though they were permitted, as evidenced by the presence of an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat in most missals.

On a practical level, though, most American missal publishers used Douay-Rheims until the 1950s or early 1960s. The Confraternity translation was available from 1941 through 1969 and was heard at Mass during the hybrid Latin/English days of 1965-69.
 
So I guess it is fair and accurate to say that the Roman Catholics in United States used these Catholic bibles in their Lectionary Missals readings, Gospels, and Psalms:
  • from 1776 to 1965: Duoay Rheims Bible
  • from 1965 to 1969: Confraternity Bible
  • from 1970 to present: New American Bible
 
faithster said:
So I guess it is fair and accurate to say that the Roman Catholics in United States used these Catholic bibles in their Lectionary Missals readings, Gospels, and Psalms:
  • from 1776 to 1965: Duoay Rheims Bible
  • from 1965 to 1969: Confraternity Bible
  • from 1970 to present: New American Bible
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Not sure why you are dating Confraternity version specifically to 1965. As previously stated, it was first published in 1941 and became increasingly popular in 1950s and early 1960s.
 
faithster said:
Hmmm? I forgot about the Knox Bible. It is a Catholic Bible, but I do not know if it was used in the Roman Missal though, only for personal private reading at home. Well, Roman Catholics in the United States had these Catholic Bibles:
  1. Duoay Rheims Bible
  2. Knox Bible
  3. Confraternity Bible
  4. New American Bible
Click to expand...
👍👍
 
Ok. I think this is the correct answer: Roman Catholic Missals in the United States used these Catholic Bibles as sources for their readings, gospels, and psalms
  1. Duoay Rheims Bible: 1776 to 1940
  2. Confraternity Bible: 1941 to 1969
  3. New American Bible: 1970 to present day
These three Roman Catholic Bibles are collectors items. Every Roman Catholic in the United States should own these three bibles at home and read from them daily.
 
I would have to check this with an older priest, but I don’t think that there was any one translation of the Bible used in American hand missals before Vatican II. The Knox translation is British, and I don’t think it was used in American. Remember the scriptures at Mass were read in Latin, and at least in my parish, a translation was read before the sermon. Just as the translations of the other prayers varied from missal to missal, since they were translations only and not the official text, the translation used for the scriptures could have varied too. I think I remember the Confraternity translation being used in my parish. I put my old missal in storage, but my new EF missal uses the Douay-Rheims translation. In those days when most people had hand missals, some were published that we easier to use than others, and were often given to kids at Confirmation. An example would have been the St. Joseph Sunday Missal which didn’t have every prayer in Latin, just the translations. These easier to use missals may have had the scriptures in the Confraternity translations. My new EF missal, published by Baronius, is a reprint of a British missal that did have all prayers in Latin and the Douay-Rheims translations of the scriptures. I don’t think I could have navigated it when I was ten years old.

The Confraternity translation is lovely, and I cannot figure out why no one has reprinted it except for the little pocket sized New Testament put out by Sinag-Tala Publishers. There have been treads on this, and I think that someone posted that the Confraternity translation is now in the public domain. I have my little one for travel, and recently purchased a beautiful hard bound edition of Ebay for about $20.00. It was at steal! Baronius Press has just republished the Knox Bible, and I am putting that on my Christmas list.
 
I purchased the hard bound 1961 Confraternity Bible from Amazon for 9 dollars. A great treasure to own! The Confraternity Bible is no longer sold in stores in the United States. It has to be ordered online from ebay or amazon or from a yard sale or flea market if you are lucky.

Confraternity Bible is that rare gem of a Catholic English Bible. I have been reading the first 35 chapters of Genesis and it reads nice. Similar to the New American Bible in terms of 20th century modern standard American English.
 
I just realized something…

The Confraternity Bible’s Old Testament is exactly the same word for word as the 1970 edition of the New American Bible, except for the Book of Genesis and the New Testament.

For example, I read the Book of Exodus and the Book of Samuel word for word, and it is identical 100% between the New American Bible and the Confraternity Bible.

I still cherish the Confraternity Bible I own. It is a very rare English Catholic Bible to find nowadays, now that the New American Bible replaced it as the preferred Roman Catholic English Bible for personal reading and for the Lectionary Missal by the American Roman Catholic bishops.
 
faithster said:
I just realized something…

The Confraternity Bible’s Old Testament is exactly the same word for word as the 1970 edition of the New American Bible, except for the Book of Genesis and the New Testament.

For example, I read the Book of Exodus and the Book of Samuel word for word, and it is identical 100% between the New American Bible and the Confraternity Bible.
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Here is the reason why: The 1941 Confraternity New Testament is a revision of the Challoner Douay-Rheims and according to its introduction “rests upon the Latin Vulgate.” The early work on the Confraternity Old Testament followed this same model but was halted upon the publication of Pope Pius XII’s 1943 encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu. I’m not sure any of this early OT work ever saw publication.

Following Divino Afflante’s encouragement to make wider use of the Scriptures in the original languages, the Confraternity Old Testament project was transformed into a completely original translation to be made from the Hebrew and the translation work was started again from scratch. The Latin of the Vulgate was no longer a factor.

These are the Confraternity translations which appeared at intervals over many years as groups of OT books were completed. These are the same translations which were coupled with the Douay-Rheims where necessary to furnish a complete bible for various Confraternity editions during the same era. Beginning in 1970, these are also the same translations which made up the Old Testament of the New American Bible until the revised edition (NABRE) of March 2011. Comparison between a pre-2011 NAB OT and a Confraternity OT will show what you have found. With the exception of Genesis (retranslated for the 1970 NAB debut) and Psalms (revised 1991 in the NAB), you will see only minor revisions or verse rearrangements. For all intents and purposes, the NAB OT is the Confraternity OT. The NAB OT was simply the final evolution of the U.S. bishops’ Confraternity translation project, not a separate newer work. The 1970 NAB New Testament, on the other hand was all-new and then revised in 1986.

Since 2011, the revised New American Bible (NABRE) contains an all-new Old Testament and Psalms and the 1986 New Testament.
 
The Confraternity Old Testament versions that exactly match the NAB 1970 Old Testament started in 1953.

It is quite possible to get combination Confraternity-Douay bibles BEFORE 1953 that do not exactly match the 1970 NAB Old Testament.

It is also possible to get a New translation of the New Latin Psalms approved by Pope Pius XII from 1945 and later that do not match the Confraternity Psalms.

Which is why the bible I recommend getting is one BEFORE 1953 with the Douay Rheims Challoner Old Testament–a New English translation of the New Latin Psalms approved by Pope Pius XII and a Confraternity New Testament.

In my opinion THIS COMBINATION bible is the most accurate English translation of the Catholic Bible to this day ever produced.

You can find these bible for sale on the internet or at used book stores.

They have conservative notes and are fully Catholic–not modernist yet much easier to read than even the complete Douay Rheims Challoner bibles.

Most of them are copyrighted between 1945 and 1952.
 
Jerry-Jet said:
The Confraternity Old Testament versions that exactly match the NAB 1970 Old Testament started in 1953.

It is quite possible to get combination Confraternity-Douay bibles BEFORE 1953 that do not exactly match the 1970 NAB Old Testament.
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Perhaps I am confused about your meaning, but this is inaccurate according to my understanding of the publishing history of the Confraternity Old Testament which was completed in stages. The Confraternity translations of the Books of Genesis to Ruth were first published together in 1952; the Wisdom Books, Job to Sirach, not until 1955; the Prophetic Books, Isaiah to Malachi, in 1961. The remaining books were finished by 1969 but I don’t think ever appeared under the Confraternity name in a complete bible because the NAB was due to be released the following year. I got these dates from a post of mine from years ago here on CAF on a topic that I think we both were following closely. Wikipedia has these same dates in an article heavily contributed to by yet another CAF poster, mmortal03.
 
What I am saying is that there were combination bibles printed in 1952 and BEFORE 1952 that didn’t have ANY of the Confraternity translations of the Old Testament–they only had Confraternity translations of the New Testament–their Old testaments were ONLY Douay.

SOME had the Psalms in a New Translation of the new Latin Psalms (Bea Psalter) authorized by Pope Pius XII in 1945.

I like Genesis 1:1 to read “In the beginning God” whereas in the NAB it says “In the beginning WHEN”.

Did “In the beginning WHEN” come only with the NAB re-translation of Genesis in 1970 or did it come with the Confraternity translation of “Genesis to Ruth” in 1952?
 
I recently picked up two different Confraternity Bibles from eBay, both in their original boxes and in very good condition. The first is simply called the New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible by the Catholic Book Publishing Company and the second is the Catholic Action Bible by Goodwill Publishers.

My New Catholic Edition Bible has a copyright date of 1954 with the Psalms translated from the new Latin version. (I really enjoy this version of the psalms) My Catholic Action Bible has a copyright date of 1953, but with a different version of the Psalms. The description of the Psalms reads "Book of Psalms, copyrighted 1950 by the same owner as the “The Holy Bible, Book of Psalms and the Canticles of the Roman Breviary”

The Latin translation of the Psalms seems to have more use of archaic language, (which is why I tend to favor it more).

I feel extremely lucky to have picked up both of these versions. The Catholic Action Bible resembles the large family bibles of the time, but it’s packed full of Catholic Prayers, Artwork, devotions and other essays and doctrines. It’s really amazing!

I love my New Catholic Edition as well, it’s smaller and easier to hold while reading, plus it has semi flexible leather bound covers which makes it look very beautiful. I think these are my new favorite bibles!
 
Jerry-Jet said:
What I am saying is that there were combination bibles printed in 1952 and BEFORE 1952 that didn’t have ANY of the Confraternity translations of the Old Testament–they only had Confraternity translations of the New Testament–their Old testaments were ONLY Douay.

SOME had the Psalms in a New Translation of the new Latin Psalms (Bea Psalter) authorized by Pope Pius XII in 1945.
Click to expand...
I get it now. When you said “The Confraternity Old Testament versions that exactly match the NAB” I thought you meant the OT in its entirety.
Jerry-Jet said:
I like Genesis 1:1 to read “In the beginning God” whereas in the NAB it says “In the beginning WHEN”.

Did “In the beginning WHEN” come only with the NAB re-translation of Genesis in 1970 or did it come with the Confraternity translation of “Genesis to Ruth” in 1952?
Click to expand...
That was the NAB. The Confraternity Genesis does not have “when”.
 
What is the Confraternity Old Testament translation of Isaiah 7:14–does it say “young woman” will conceive or “virgin” will conceive?
 
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