I was reading Pope Benedict’s “Jesus of Nazareth” (which is very good BTW) and noticed that he uses the Revised Standard Version for citation.
When I first started exploring Catholicism I bought a New American Bible from my parish. Now I have three of these: a small St. Joseph one for work (which gets the most use and is wore out), a fireside study one, and a family Bible. In addition to this translation I have also heard of the Good News Bible. I’ve read some stuff about how there’s preference for certain translations and that some people feel certain ones that are more modern are distorted, to which I have no clue. I can’t effectively translate Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc.
So, which version of the Bible (with all books that Catholics have in their Bible) do you all prefer and why?
Also, if anyone knows of good Bible versions and/or specific printings that are good for beginners let me know. I would like to get my wife some sort of study bible that will encourage her to learn it. I take my Bible straight with some footnotes but I don’t think her learning style is conductive to that; she would do better with a Bible version that helps explain meaning and Catholic theology as well as relevance to her religion. I’ve seen people with study Bibles loaded with bookmarks, notes, etc. and I think something like this would be good for her.
I’m Catholic, but I attended a bible study at a Christian Reformed Church twenty years ago. For that, I bought a New International Version Study Bible. That’s a Protestant Bible to begin with. But, I really like it for the notes, diagrams, maps, copious footnotes, copious cross references, and for the translation itself. The NIV is like the NAB, in that they are both paraphrased translations. But, I like the NIV much better.
I also have the Ignatius Study Bible (New Testament only). It has a concordance in the back, which is handy. Not so copious with the footnotes or cross references. Those are much more select in the ISB. But, ISB does have references to the Catechism of the Catholic church. I like the RSV-2CE translation used in the ISB.
More of a stretch, I have the Jewish Study Bible which has lots of notes and explanations of OT stuff, including more Hebrew word analysis, if you’re at that level of study – probably overwhelming for a beginner.
The pontifical biblical commission issued a document back in 1992-3 called the Interpretation of the bible in the Church. It’s not for beginners; took me ten years to make sense of what they were saying. But, they recommended the rank-and-file Catholic to read the bible alongside a commentary for explanations.
Well, that’s a whole different ball park. The commentaries I’ve run across are a full step up from using a study Bible. So, again, it’s all down to where you’re at.
recommendation: Ignatius Study Bible, in paperback. Get a hardcover version when the OT is finished and included in one Bible.
Catholic NT commentaries are expensive, to begin with. I don’t see many people on this webpage referring to any of them, although some claim to have them, like the Navarre Commentary, or whatever. The academic type people lurking around here don’t seem offer up much on this subject.
check out Scott Hahn’s website for the latest:
www.salvationhistory.com before you do anything.
