Reading the Bible

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The question is Has there ever been a time in our church history has it been not allowed for someone to own a bible? (KJV or other)

Has it ever been prohibited to read the bible?
 
I don’t know but my question here is, are there any Catholics who read the KJV? Just wondering…
 
The Church has always encouraged Bible reading. What it has discouraged is the reading of faulty or heretical translations (like Tyndale’s) and self-interpretation when it leads to conclusions that are contrary to Church teaching. Maybe individual priests or bishops have forbidden it for local reasons (good or bad), but the Church has always encouraged the reading of Scripture. For more info, go here:
 
Actually the bible I received for my confirmation is KJV. I didn’t even know it was not a Catholic Bible until about 5 years ago. 🙂

CARose
 
I have both the KJV and the NAB since I live in ‘mixed household’ and I’m always defending myself. It’s nice to know what the other side says since it has “the prophets” interpretation footnotes and a topical guide.
 
I’ve always used the NRSV. The KJV seems to be missing a few pages.
 
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blueadept:
I have both the KJV and the NAB since I live in ‘mixed household’ and I’m always defending myself. It’s nice to know what the other side says since it has “the prophets” interpretation footnotes and a topical guide.
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If you really want to have solid answers to the majority of objections in a “mixed” household, get Karl Keating’s “Catholicism vs. Fundimentalism”.

Good Luck!

RyanL
 
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blueadept:
The question is Has there ever been a time in our church history has it been not allowed for someone to own a bible? (KJV or other)

Has it ever been prohibited to read the bible?
Click to expand...
There are two questions here, and there are two answers to them. First, has it ever been prohibited for someone to own a Bible, KJV or other? The answer is yes, sort of. The Church expressly prohibited the faithful from owning heretical translations like the KJV, but the Church has never prohibited the faithful from owning correct translations of the Bible.

And again, to the second question, the Church has never prohibited the faithful from reading correct translations of the Bible. Incorrect translations are another matter.

The Council of Trent, fourth session, prohibited the faithful from interpreting the Bible in a way contrary to the teachings of the Church. It also prohibited printers from printing Bibles without approval from ecclesiastical authorities and prohibited the faithful from even owning an unapproved Bible. Considering the havoc that a bad translation can cause (I heard of one edition that left the word “not” out of the commandment against adultery) this is not such a bad thing.
  • Liberian
 
The Catholic Church has had two strictures on the Bible – first, it must be an authentic Bible, and secondly, the Magisterium is the authorized interpreter.

Many early biblical translations were very bad – at best just paraphrases, and at worst deliverately twisted to make a particular point of view. The idea that Catholics could not read the Bible is actually an English concept – it was Englishmen who were forbidden, by the English secular and religious authorities to read vernacular versions of the Bible.

John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English around 1380 – or just about the time the Anglo-Saxon Germanic dialects and Norman French merged to create English as we know it. The Wycliffe Bible has both the afore mentioned problems – a poor translation and slanted editing to back Wycliffe’s radical political views.

The Wycliffe Bible became popular in the Peasant Revolt which pitted Anglo-Saxon peasants against their Norman overlords – and some of the leaders of that revolt were priests. The church in England was a mirror of English society – Norman bishops and church officials, and poor Anglo-Saxon parish priests.

Even after the Peasant Revolt was put down, the legacy lived on in Lolardry, a political movement that can be summed up in its motto, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?” Ultimately, the Lolards were too extreme even for Cromwell some 250 years later.

The Wycliffe Bible was therefore seen as seditious, and the possession of ANY bible in English was liable to get you in trouble.

The English later projected this onto the Church as a whole, pretending that it wad the Church that forbade English translation with the supposed intent of keeping the Bible out of the hands of the people.
 
“The Church expressly prohibited the faithful from owning heretical translations like the KJV, but the Church has never prohibited the faithful from owning correct translations of the Bible.”
Ouote from Liberian.

(How do you guys do those nice looking quotes in the box?)

The KJV is a translation that came from a protestant England, but it is a very good translation none the less. It has beautiful language. It is one of the forebearers of the RSV. I have cross referenced it many times to my Catholic Bibles and found no real differences. There is a language issue in the fact that is in the same language as Shakespeare and the Douay-Rheims version. I do not recommend it mainly because of this issue. The other issue is that it does bother me that King James translated the Bible without Church approval. But at least it appears the translators were intellectually honest. If it has the seven deutorocannonicals listed with the regular Old Testament it would be acceptable.

You should get a good study Bible with notes (New American) that is easy for you to understand. If you have questions about scripture interpretation ask your priest or someone who knows the faith well never go off thinking you are smarter than the 2000 year old Church who is guided in all truth by the Holy Spirit. If the Bible contradicted the teachings of the Church the Church wouldn’t hold for 2000 years and have a current membership of 1.1 billion with some of the finest minds in the world as faithful intellectual adherents to the teachings of the Church.

Here is an interesting article I found on Scott Hahn’s Web site:
salvationhistory.com/library/scripture/wordofgod/lienhardauthority.cfm
 
DaveD said:
(How do you guys do those nice looking quotes in the box?)
Click to expand...

Select the quote button to start.

You’ll notice that a quote section will begin “{QUOTE=DaveD]” (I substituted a { bracket for the bracket to make this one appear separately.)

The end of the quote will be {/quote] (again, I put in a bracket.)

Simply put the end-of-quote code ({/quote]) where you want the quoted section to end. Then copy in the start (with a name if you want it, or simply {/quote].)

Note the differernce between the start of quote and the end of quote is simply that the latter has a slash (/). And both have square brackets surrounding the word “quote.”
 
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blueadept:
The question is Has there ever been a time in our church history has it been not allowed for someone to own a bible? (KJV or other)

Has it ever been prohibited to read the bible?
Click to expand...
The Bible is a Catholic treasure, and the Church has at all times taken the most practical means to make it understood by her children. So no matter what other Christians think, the Bible is a Catholic book! You cannot use it to contradict the teachings of the Church!
I’m living like the Church prohibits reading Protestant bibles, I think she still does!
Why would the Church prohibit reading the bible?
 
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CARose:
Actually the bible I received for my confirmation is KJV. I didn’t even know it was not a Catholic Bible until about 5 years ago. 🙂

CARose
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Who gave it to you? :rolleyes:
You know why it was given, it’s free to obtain one…haha
 
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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blueadept:
The question is Has there ever been a time in our church history has it been not allowed for someone to own a bible? (KJV or other)

Has it ever been prohibited to read the bible?
Click to expand...
All excellent responses, but I would like to point out that when you hear stories of the Bible being chained inside of Churches during the Middle Ages. the Bibles of the time were all HAND manuscripted and were precious treasures. Anyone could walk into these Churches and read if they wanted to.

I’ve read the KJV NT as 3/4 of my background is Protestant so when relatives pass away I get the family Bibles. The similarities are amazing between the KJV and the DR verstions at times. Thanks and God Bless.
 
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Lovez4God:
Who gave it to you? :rolleyes:
You know why it was given, it’s free to obtain one…haha
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Actually, I thought I got it from my Catholic Grandmother, whom I would have thought would have known better, but maybe she never even considered that there was such a thing as a difference in the Bible. I never thought about it. It’s actually a reqally nice little one, small format, tiny fony, the thinnest paper, a pretty cloth picture cover with nice illustrations inside. I still have quite a fondness for it, as it was my own bible for so many years. I remember we used “The Good News Bible” in school and I thought the modern language usage didn’t sound sufficiently biblical to me. Seems I still need to get a Douey Rheims. 🙂

BTW, I now have many bibles, both Catholic and various Protestant editions. It’s helpful when discussing something with someone to be able to refer to the various ways a particular verse is translated in the different bibles. Sorta brings home the point that translation matters, so perhaps it’s good to have an authority before deciding how you want to interpret a passage.

God Bless,

CARose
 
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CARose:
Actually, I thought I got it from my Catholic Grandmother, whom I would have thought would have known better, but maybe she never even considered that there was such a thing as a difference in the Bible. I never thought about it. It’s actually a reqally nice little one, small format, tiny fony, the thinnest paper, a pretty cloth picture cover with nice illustrations inside. I still have quite a fondness for it, as it was my own bible for so many years. I remember we used “The Good News Bible” in school and I thought the modern language usage didn’t sound sufficiently biblical to me. Seems I still need to get a Douey Rheims. 🙂

BTW, I now have many bibles, both Catholic and various Protestant editions. It’s helpful when discussing something with someone to be able to refer to the various ways a particular verse is translated in the different bibles. Sorta brings home the point that translation matters, so perhaps it’s good to have an authority before deciding how you want to interpret a passage.

God Bless,

CARose
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I also have many Bibles from Protestants and Catholics. And just recently I was able to find a good parallel New Testament (Greek, Amplified, KJV, Rheims, NASB, NAB, NIV, NRSV) and another with the Apocrypha (Greek, KJV, Douay, Knox, TEV, NRSV, NAB, NJB). I too have found knowledge of different versions to be useful when discussing with even Catholic friends. Thanks and God Bless.
 
We had the big Family Bible as well. Oh, and we were also, as evidenced I suppose by my posts above, somewhat nominal Catholics.

Although my mom spent time as a novitiate. Go figure,

CARose
 
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