Catholics who read Protestant Bibles

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Dr. Hahn is exactly right. As the saying goes, “Just wouldn’t be prudent.” 😃
 
While I think it’s fine to appreciate the literal and literary qualities of Bibles translated by our Protestant brethren, Dr. Hahn makes a good point about evangelizing with our own Bishop(s) approved translation(s). I mean, why would a Protestant want to become Catholic when we don’t even use our own Bible when sharing the Good News in its fullness? That wouldn’t stir up much confidence in this being the one true Church established by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit.

:compcoff:
 

Hillbilly Hermit wrote: *I mean, why would a Protestant want to become Catholic when we don’t even use our own Bible when sharing the Good News in its fullness? That wouldn’t stir up much confidence in this being the one true Church established by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. *​

That is all the more reason to insist that Bibles that claim to be Catholic be more responsably translated and approved. When there are Bibles like the N.R.S.V. Catholic Edition, with its “inclusive language” :eek: (at least a bit restrained compared to some other versions) and the dreadful (“but American” – so what, dude?!?) N.A.B., with its too often heretical or dubious notes and sloppy renditions, which have been approved at the expense of other versions, non-Catholic but responsably translated (the A.V., E.S.V., and others) which are mostly free of such defects, why should we tolerate the deficient ones just because of labels and Imprimaturs that are carelessly given by bishops of notably liberal or modernist bent?

The Eastern Orthodox, from what i can tell, are not so forgiving as we are about applying the Orthodox label, and they use some Protestant Bibles (which include the deuterocanon, as some do) without feeling sub-Orthodox for doing so.
 
I myself have read Protestant bibles something is different in the translation for sure.
Especially in the new protestant bibles versus the old catholic bible i have at home
it gives a different feel in some passages so i stick to the catholic version and i don’t think
that it is a case were you cant afford the catholic bible and have to use the protestant bible .
 
That is all the more reason to insist that Bibles that claim to be Catholic be more responsably translated and approved. When there are Bibles like the N.R.S.V. Catholic Edition, with its “inclusive language” :eek: (at least a bit restrained compared to some other versions) and the dreadful (“but American” – so what, dude?!?) N.A.B., with its too often heretical or dubious notes and sloppy renditions, which have been approved at the expense of other versions, non-Catholic but responsably translated (the A.V., E.S.V., and others) which are mostly free of such defects, why should we tolerate the deficient ones just because of labels and Imprimaturs that are carelessly given by bishops of notably liberal or modernist bent?

The Eastern Orthodox, from what i can tell, are not so forgiving as we are about applying the Orthodox label, and they use some Protestant Bibles (which include the deuterocanon, as some do) without feeling sub-Orthodox for doing so.
I agree that the Church needs to have solid translations and footnotes that are in line with Rome. My wish is that all Catholic translations would have to meet the standards for the Mass with no changes needed.

I wonder though…
The NAB minus the book of Psalms, unless you know the “trick” to seeing them, is on the Vatican site including the footnotes. Could a perception of heretical/dubious footnotes be a misunderstanding/lack of knowledge on the part of the reader? I’ve often asked this of myself. Could it be the growing pains of going from childhood to adulthood in Biblical knowledge? I don’t mean that to be insulting, but can’t think of another way to word it while making sure breakfast doesn’t burn.
 

Indian Catholic wrote:* I myself have read Protestant Bibles something is different in the translation for sure. Especially in the new Protestant Bibles versus the old Catholic Bible I have at home it gives a different feel in some passages so I stick to the Catholic version and I don’t think that it is a case were you can`t afford the Catholic Bible and have to use the Protestant Bible.*​

The older Catholic Bibles, like the Douay-Rheims-Challoner Version 😛 and the 1969 Confraternity Version (or Confraternity-Douay Version) Bibles 👍 really are Catholic and fully deserve to be considered such. Too many of the later ones are not really traditionally Catholic, but rather modern Oecumenical, in orientation.

The same goes for so-called Protestant Bibles; post-W.W. II versions often are carelessly sectarian (Fundamentalist, neo-evangelical, Pentecostal) in spirit rather than more cautiously Protestant (Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian-Reformed). There are really Protestant versions, but they get lost in the rush of penny-dreadful sectarian junk-Bibles.
 
Hillbilly Hermit - love the name!!! Me too! (I call myself an apostolic anchoress.)

Here is a list of approved translations by the US Bishops.

“Approved” means approved for use in the liturgy. We are not forbidden from reading other translations or using other translations for other nonliturgical purposes.

I have no beef with that list. I don’t care for inclusive (feminist) language particularly, but I know some others do.
 
Hillbilly Hermit wrote: *I agree that the Church needs to have solid translations and footnotes that are in line with Rome. My wish is that all Catholic translations would have to meet the standards for the Mass with no changes needed.

I wonder though…

The NAB minus the book of Psalms, unless you know the “trick” to seeing them, is on the Vatican site including the footnotes. Could a perception of heretical/dubious footnotes be a misunderstanding/lack of knowledge on the part of the reader? I’ve often asked this of myself. Could it be the growing pains of going from childhood to adulthood in Biblical knowledge? I don’t mean that to be insulting, but can’t think of another way to word it while making sure breakfast doesn’t burn.*​

Some Catholic eras in history have been better than others, and we are living in ecclesiastically bottom-feeding times.

The Church has let down her guard. That pretty much is why the modern putatiatively Catholic Bibles can be so lacking in integrity, especially compared to earlier ones (pre-Vatican II Bibles). Someday the Church will recover and we`ll all look back on symptoms of the current malaise like the N.A.B. and wonder how Catholics ever could have taken it seriously.
 
Jerry Parker has it right my old family bible is printed in 1965; it feels very catholic to me
sort of distinct in its old English.
 
As said so many times before. This would all be solved if the RCC would put out a modern good quality Bible. Seems like all we have is Protestant versions with a CE at the end (RSV-CE or NRSV-CE). I end up using a combination of Confraternity NT, NASB and 66’ Jerusalem Bible.
 

Indian Catholic wrote: Jerry Parker has it right. [My] old family bible is printed in 1965; it feels very catholic to me, sort of distinct in its old English.​

Thanks, Indian Catholic! If the Bible dates from 1965 and is Catholic, it probably would be Douay-Rheims-Challoner 😛 or Confraterity-Douay. 😛 And, yes, those two Bibles were very, very Catholic, 👍 indisputably so, and excellent in every way. Alternatively, it might have been the Ronald Knox paraphrase, not bad in its own lesser way.

Thinking of a Bible from as late as 1965 as an heirloon seems so odd to me! I guess that you are relatively young. I turned 22 in that year (1965). The heirloom Bibles in my family are from 1909 or so!
 
Hillbilly Hermit - love the name!!! Me too! (I call myself an apostolic anchoress.)

Here is a list of approved translations by the US Bishops.

“Approved” means approved for use in the liturgy. We are not forbidden from reading other translations or using other translations for other nonliturgical purposes.

I have no beef with that list. I don’t care for inclusive (feminist) language particularly, but I know some others do.
Thanks Kentuckyliz! I thought it had a much nicer ring to it than SingleGuyInTheBoonies. LOL

I have no beef with that list either. Today I read from the GNT-CE. :bigyikes: After reading enough (too much actually) online about the topic of translations I’m gonna trust the Church Christ established and use whichever is approved and not worry about it.
 
Good. If you want to be treated as an adult, then you will be treated as such, if that’s what you want. 😉

Now first off. Is it really about what Trent said, or what YOU think Trent said? Second, who made you a judge over our souls? And finally, how can you be so sure that YOU are right and we are wrong?
I hate to tell you this, but the Coucil of Trent made the judgement, preppyboy is merely repeating, and quite accurately, what the documents of Trent say. May I suggest that you go to Session IV and the Ten Rules Concerning Prohibited Books Drawn Up By The Fathers Chosen By The Council Of Trent And Approved By Pope Pius. These are available at the EWTN website.

You’ll find that all of the protestant (no the word is not capitalized, it means protester) forgeries of the Bible are heretical. This is not to say that all Bibles that the protesters use are heretical, but most are. Some are heretical because of the text, and some are heretical because of the notes. Many of these heresies are very nuanced to give the appearance of charity. Many of the posts I have seen on this forum have stressed charity. My question to all, and I can’t wait for the responses, is this; what happened to the Spiritual Work of Mercy which is Educating the Ignorant?

I’ll take the opportunity to address the justification for altering the Bible in Luther’s own words:

“Thus I will have it, thus I order it, my will is reason enough… Luther will have it so, and … he is a Doctor above all Doctors in the whole of Popery” (in O’Connor, 25; Letter to Wenceslaus Link in 1530).

To find this and other quotes of Luther, Calvin and others, try reading Catholic Verses** by Dave Armstrong.

As for the ORIGINAL text of the King James “Bible”, it is heretical due to the additions in Mathew, as well as other of Luther’s additions and the deletion of Psalm 149. (By the way, I have owned a copy of this book for 35 years).

As for preppyboys age, perhaps the *Catechism of the Catholic Church *is something to which we should all look;

1308 Although Confirmation is sometimes called the “sacrament of Christian maturity,” we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need “ratification” to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this:
Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood man can attain spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: "For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years. "Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood.

I have seen a lot of opinion on this forum, but not a whole lot from history OR the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the greatest gift of catechesis given to us by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Yes, Jerry Parker, there is a Magisteriium, and it is clearly defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, check the glossary section.

Brutal Truth is always delivered with charity and love. Some folks just don’t want to appreciate it because it doesn’t sound “nice”.

Does anyone know what “anathema” means?
 
Wait a second…are you saying that the Council of Trent says Catholics cannot use “protestant” versions of the Holy Scriptures?
 

Pharaig wrote: Yes, Jerry Parker, there is a Magisteriium, and it is clearly defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, check the glossary section.

Of course, there is a Magisteriium of the Catholic Church! I just doubt that our participating teenager conceives of it aright.

I have checked in my copy of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 👍 as published by Liguori Publications (ISBN 0-892430-565-8), which I had purchased in Montréal before moving to where I now live, and there is no glossary section in it. Do you have an edition that has added its own glossary, as a study aid, to this work, or was the Catechism revised after publication to add a glossary? There are no English-language book stores here in this rather small municipality of Rouyn-Noranda or libraries here that have substantial English book collections, or even minimally adequate French holdings in the way of Catholic religion, so it is not easy for me to verify this matter for myself with other editions of the Catechism.

That said, I doubt that an individual bishop, least of all of the kind that puts his Imprimatur readily on books, such as poor editions of the Bible with many demonstrably heretical notes)or other books that are of dubious Catholic orthodoxy, thereby is ipso facto the Magisteriium! 🤷 I surely hope not!

Anyway, if you can quote from this elusive glossary, I would appreciate that.
 
Wait a second…are you saying that the Council of Trent says Catholics cannot use “protestant” versions of the Holy Scriptures?
Use of the word “version” here is key. A protestant “version” is prohibited, with exceptions which are listed in the documents from the Council of Trent that I have referenced. A translation should not be confused with a version. A “version” will probably have alterations such as the word “alone” being used after the word “faith” when speaking in the context of justification (see Session VI) and/or the dueterocanononical books deleted. It becomes very dangerous to use the words “version” & “translation” interchangeably. In the documents that I have referenced, Trent is very specific about the prohibitions and the exceptions. When reading these documents it is helpful to have an understanding of how the language was used at the time of the Council of Trent.

Please remember that I wrote “This is not to say that all Bibles that the protesters use are heretical, but most are.”

After reading the documents, and I encourage you to do so, if you are in any way confused, ask your priest or bishop to explain it to you. Their authority far exceeds mine. The alteration of the Bible by Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Balthasar Friedberg, Schwenkfeld and others came down to a question of authority. They all rejected the authority of the Magisterium and tried to establish themselves as the authority. This is why, not only their “bibles” conflict with each other, but so do the thousands of protestant churches which were spawned by disagreement with **them **also conflict each other, sometimes even within the same “denomination”.
 

Pharaig wrote: Yes, Jerry Parker, there is a Magisteriium, and it is clearly defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, check the glossary section.

Of course, there is a Magisteriium of the Catholic Church! I just doubt that our participating teenager conceives of it aright.

I have checked in my copy of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 👍 as published by Liguori Publications (ISBN 0-892430-565-8), which I had purchased in Montréal before moving to where I now live, and there is no glossary section in it. Do you have an edition that has added its own glossary, as a study aid, to this work, or was the Catechism revised after publication to add a glossary? There are no English-language book stores here in this rather small municipality of Rouyn-Noranda or libraries here that have substantial English book collections, or even minimally adequate French holdings in the way of Catholic religion, so it is not easy for me to verify this matter for myself with other editions of the Catechism.

That said, I doubt that an individual bishop, least of all of the kind that puts his Imprimatur readily on books, such as poor editions of the Bible with many demonstrably heretical notes)or other books that are of dubious Catholic orthodoxy, thereby is ipso facto the Magisteriium! 🤷 I surely hope not!

Anyway, if you can quote from this elusive glossary, I would appreciate that.
Jerry,

The Catechism that you have may be the “Mass Market” one that has no glossary. Amazon.com has the Second Edition with Glossary and Index available in paperback, hardcover and kindle formats. If you want immediate access to the glossary, then please follow this link: usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm
 
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