Gratia et pax vobiscum,
Yeah, that’s what I like about the Confraternity. It’s “moderate” archaic… enough old-fashioned language to instill a sense of mystery, beauty, and otherworldliness in Sacred Scripture, but not as hard to read as the unrevised Douay-Rheims. I think it’s a good compromise. I used to read the NAB, but the footnotes are odd and the language is so banal. Not to mention that “Hail, favored daughter!” really gets my blood boiling. I think it’s been changed back to “Hail, full of grace!” in later editions of the NAB. I think it’s telling that last time I checked EWTN doesn’t even sell NAB. I wish they’d reprint the Confraternity. I’m surprised some traditional publisher hasn’t done so… especially as it was the last “official” English Catholic Bible before Vatican II.
Scepter has it reprinted in pocket form:
Gratia et pax vobiscum sir galahad,
The Confraternity translation was done under the auspices of the U.S. bishops and was envisioned as a revision of the Douay-Rheims (except for the Psalms which would follow Pope Pius XII’s new Psalter from the Hebrew). The New Testament was pblished in 1941 after five years of work. However, after Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on scripture studies, Divino afflante Spiritu in 1943 encouraged consideration of the original texts, the bishops overhauled the Confraternity project and the Old Testament was translated from scratch from the original languages. As OT books were completed, various editions of the Confraternity Bible were published with the Douay translation used for the gradually shrinking remaining portions of the OT, as you noted. The Confraternity translations of the Books of Genesis to Ruth were first published in 1952; the Wisdom Books, Job to Sirach, in 1955; the Prophetic Books, Isaiah to Malachi, in 1961. The remaining books were finished by 1969 but never appeared under the Confraternity name. They were added to the existing Confraternity OT, Genesis was completely retranslated, other minor changes were made and a new translation from the Greek of the New Testament was added. The result was the 1970 New American Bible (NAB). The NAB was now the new official bible of the U.S. bishops. That is why the Confraternity version went away. The Confraternity Bible I have is a 1957 edition which measures 5.75" x 8.25". Similar bibles appear on ebay almost continuously. A search on “confraternity” will show them.
No, I’m not a Maronite. I just read about St. Rafqa and was very touched by her life and suffering. I think I’m a lone voice in the traditional world in that I love to sometimes assist at Mass at Eastern Churches, but am so much at home in the Roman rite that I prefer to worship at a reverently said NO Mass to an Eastern liturgy. Cranch, I had no idea that later books were added to the Confraternity Bible in its Old Testament. Mine doesn’t have the later books. I assume that the translations of the other books from 1961 are different than the ones that appear in the NAB?
On the contrary, the Confraternity translations of OT books newly published from 1952 through 1961 (33 books in all) with the exception of Genesis are indeed essentially the same as found in the NAB. When the remaining 13 OT books and a retranslation of Genesis were finished (by 1969), they were joined with the existing Confraternity books (some of which received minor editing) to form the complete NAB OT. Make some comparisons between the NAB and the OT books your Confraternity title page says are newly translated. You will find the NAB OT in the Confraternity and vice-versa!
demerzel85 - Do you own this edition? I emailed the publisher some time ago requesting info on the size and seem to recall the Bible is quite small and thick, something like 4.5" x 6".
Can’t you look in the book?
Or is it in storage?Yes in fact I bought it on my very first visit to the Opus Dei centre where I am. Sinag Tala is a publishing arm of Opus Dei.
The New Testament of the Holy BibleCan’t you look in the book?