Opinions on Bibles

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I’m a convert to the Catholic faith and some of the things that drew me to it were the differences between Vulgate based translations and Protestant translations.

I love “supersubstantial bread” for example in the Lord’s prayer–it helped me understand transubstantiation better!

Modern Catholic translations that sound like Protestant translations did not bring me towards the Catholic faith–translations that were different led me to the Catholic faith. Like “person of Christ” in 2 Corinthians 2:10 providing proof positive that St. Paul had granted the incestuous Corinthian absolution.

I don’t get the mind set that says that Catholic bibles should sound like Protestant bibles so we won’t hurt any ecumenical feelings.

The other think I hate to hear is “It doesn’t matter what the exact words say–we have the magisterium to make everything OK!” So the most important words in the universe–the Holy Scriptures shouldn’t be translated as accurately as possible with greater care than any other documents out of the Holy See?

If it was up to me bible translation would only be done by bishops! Yes–let the Pope appoint bishops who have been conservative biblical translators in the past. And after they get through let the Pope approve whatever they come up with–and put out a new edition of the bible every 10 years.

Now of course that won’t happen–I only say those things because I am a convert and really do believe in the magisterium and specifically the Holy See and Pope himself as who the best ultimate guarantors of the sacred scriptures would be.

Seeing that this will probably never happen all I can do is use a variety of bibles and pray that future changes to the NABRE will be good ones. Until then I’ll rely mainly on the Confraternity Douay Bible and the RSV-CE2.

As much as I don’t like the notes of the NAB I do like some of the notes in the deuterocanonical books–especially Maccabees. As a convert I wasn’t up to date on all that was happening in Israel and the rest of the world during those years. A lot of the historical notes of the NABRE in the deuterocanonical books were good ones!
 
Great perspectives Jerry.

“Supersubstantial” bread is an awesome rendering. Apparently, the word translated there is very rare and does indeed mean more than “daily.” Some suggestions are “bread for ever more” or “bread for the journey home.”

I must agree too, regarding the historical (and linguistic) notes of the NAB. Yes, there are some terrible notes but I often learn a lot from the cultural context and linguistic background provided by the NAB.

And welcome to the Church- whether it’s been twenty years or twenty minutes! Praise God.
 
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