New Bible Needed

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:confused: Having just come back to the church I desperately need to replace my very old bible with whatever is considered the best for today. All suggestions are welcomed.
 
cistercian1 said:
:confused: Having just come back to the church I desperately need to replace my very old bible with whatever is considered the best for today. All suggestions are welcomed.
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You might consider doing a quick search as there are many many threads on this which contain great information that could be helpful to you.

This link from Catholic Answers does a great job of breaking down some of the different Bible translations and weighting their pros and cons.

catholic.com/tracts/bible-translations-guide

I went back and forth several times and ended up deciding on the RSV - Second Catholic Edition. I have been quite happy with it overall. My one complaint is that Ignatius Press has not developed more variety in their offerings. I would love to get a larger family Bible in that same translation, but they do not offer such things at present. I don’t have any complaints on the translation, just the scarcity of different offerings.

I hope this is helpful.

Peace,
 
cistercian1 said:
:confused: Having just come back to the church I desperately need to replace my very old bible with whatever is considered the best for today. All suggestions are welcomed.
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Hello Cistercian and Welcome home!!
There is not “one” particular translation that is considered “best”

But here is a guide to help you wade thru the various translations.

catholic.com/tracts/bible-translations-guide

I personally own a New Jerusalem, an Ignatius, a Knox, KJV, and a couple of others.
 
I have the New Living Translation of “The One Year Bible - Catholic Edition” – I read it day by day and each day includes a reading from the Old Testament – then usually a reading from the Psalms – then a reading from the New Testament – I like it very much and read it every night just before I turn out the light.
 
cistercian1 said:
:confused: Having just come back to the church I desperately need to replace my very old bible with whatever is considered the best for today. All suggestions are welcomed.
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Fr. John Ricardo (I think I have that spelling correct) - I just heard a talk from him about bibles, he suggested 2 specifically, one was a Catholic Study bible, (if you want notes) I forget the other, but he does podcasts, so if you are able, you might find one on the bible.

One thing he did say that stuck, was to test a bible look at say the line in Matt 18 I think - it is about the servant who owed 10,000 Talons (sp?)

Some translations say “a large amount”, but the true translation is 10,000 Talons, other translations are a translators change on the original language.

He then went into why this was important for the story and “a large amount” doesn’t tell the story as it should as that is variable to the reader.

This may help too…

catholic.com/tracts/bible-translations-guide
 
I use the New American Bible because that is the translation in the liturgy. The introductions to each book are excellent, the crossreferenced scripture references are better than any Prot edition I’ve ever came across including the ones that occompany the scolfield reference bible. However! The commentary in the NAB is HORRIBLE AND SOMETIMES HERETICAL!
 
Order the Catholic Answers topic tabs. The tabs stick onto the bottom of the Bible pages, and are color coded. Gold are Holy Spirit/Trinity passages, Lavendar are the Eucharistic verses…they are wonderful! When ever some one has a question about the faith, you can just turn right to the bible verses to find the teachings! 🙂
 
capablanca911 said:
However! The commentary in the NAB is HORRIBLE AND SOMETIMES HERETICAL!
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One thing to consider is that, while the RSV-2CE is sometimes brought up here as a more desirable alternative to the NAB on this point, it seems from my limited reading that the RSV’s notes are not free of liberalism either, such as its apparent endorsement of the documentary hypothesis. I will post a few examples from Genesis to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

On Genesis 2:

“This account of the state of the world at the beginning, which introduces the story of the first sin, comes from a different and earlier source and is composed in a very different style. There is nothing in any of these early chapters that commits us to any particular scientific view of the origins of the world or man, or that would exclude the evolution hypothesis.”

On Genesis 6:2:

“Sons of God could simply mean ‘divine beings,’ as elsewhere in the Old Testament. The writer, however, may be using an old story or myth to point out the progressive degredation of mankind before the Flood and to warn against the evil effects of intermarriage either of the descendants of Seth with the Kenites or, more probably, of the Israelites with the native populations of Canaan.”

On Genesis 6:11:

“Here begins the Flood narrative formed of two almost parallel accounts. This fact explains the existence of repetitions and discrepancies. It is, in places, remarkably similar to other Flood stories from the ancient Near East.”

The notes are, however, at least less frequent than the NAB’s so they can be more sasily ignored, but I think Catholics should be able to have a Bible without any such notes.
 
QNDNNDQDCE said:
One thing to consider is that, while the RSV-2CE is sometimes brought up here as a more desirable alternative to the NAB on this point, it seems from my limited reading that the RSV’s notes are not free of liberalism either, such as its apparent endorsement of the documentary hypothesis. I will post a few examples from Genesis to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

On Genesis 2:

“This account of the state of the world at the beginning, which introduces the story of the first sin, comes from a different and earlier source and is composed in a very different style. There is nothing in any of these early chapters that commits us to any particular scientific view of the origins of the world or man, or that would exclude the evolution hypothesis.”

On Genesis 6:2:

“Sons of God could simply mean ‘divine beings,’ as elsewhere in the Old Testament. The writer, however, may be using an old story or myth to point out the progressive degredation of mankind before the Flood and to warn against the evil effects of intermarriage either of the descendants of Seth with the Kenites or, more probably, of the Israelites with the native populations of Canaan.”

On Genesis 6:11:

“Here begins the Flood narrative formed of two almost parallel accounts. This fact explains the existence of repetitions and discrepancies. It is, in places, remarkably similar to other Flood stories from the ancient Near East.”

The notes are, however, at least less frequent than the NAB’s so they can be more sasily ignored, but I think Catholics should be able to have a Bible without any such notes.
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The benefit with the current Ignatius Bible is that it can be had in either a study version (New Testament and some OT books only, as of this writing), or a plain version with very few notes. The NAB, while, in my opinion a good translation, comes with the notes each and every time. Some of them are straight up contradictory to Catholic faith. I noticed it quite a bit in Matthew. They like to pick on his Gospel for some reason. They also love to bring up different source theories, such as the Q source, and they state the great majority of their pure speculation as fact.

If one could have the cheap red paperback version of the NAB WITHOUT the notes, and with larger font (it is literally around 6 point, which is straining on the eyes), it would be ideal. Now, if one wants a thinner Bible with 9-9.5 print, Ignatius will have to do. A $7-$10 paperback Ignatius Bible would be nice, too.
 
My favorite is the Douay-Rheims is a literal translation of the Clementine Latin Vulgate but, it uses KJV language. If you are looking for a conservative translation with modern language, I’d suggest the Jerusalem Bible (JRR Tolkien helped translate it :cool: ) or the Ignatius Bible RSV-2CE (2nd Catholic Edition).

The Orthodox Study Bible is awesome! The New Testament is the NKJV and the Old Testament is NKJV altered to follow the Greek Septuagint of the Apostles and the Early Church Fathers. Lots of conservative study notes from a Byzantine perspective. 🙂

Douay-Rheims: baroniuspress.com/book.php?wid=56&bid=2#tab=tab-1

The Jerusalem Bible amazon.com/The-Jerusalem-Bible-Readers-Edition/dp/0385499183/

Ignatius Bible RSV-2CE: amazon.com/The-Ignatius-Bible-Standard-Catholic/dp/0898708338/

The Orthodox Study Bible: amazon.com/Orthodox-Study-Bible-Ancient-Christianity/dp/0718003594/
 
Speaking for myself, the best translation I’ve found in terms of its closeness and accuracy with the Greek is the RSV (I haven’t seen the CE, but if it is good, I’d recommend it). The NRSV is surprisingly not as good.
 
Sorry for the late answer, just had 3 tests within little more than a week, now the Maths class has ended.
See this post I wrote just now: accordancebible.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9479&p=43735
Abbrevations: REB = Revised English Bible. NETS = New English Translation of the Septuagint. CEB = Common English Bible. NLT = New Living Translation (2007 Edition is the newest). Explanation of NET: bible-researcher.com/net.html

(When You buy from Amazon.com, enter Amazon through the link at the right on csntm.org/ and then the Center for the Study of the New Testament Manuscripts will be given portion of Your purchase free at no cost for You.)
 
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