And so, I’m a little disappointed and frustrated, and I have the following questions:
1.) Has anybody seen the new Oxford Reader’s Edition yet? Is it just a larger print version of the compact edition, or might it have some chain references, section headers, etc?
2.) Does the Catholic church have an official position with respect to these three RSV editions? It seems to me that the only truly authentic set of imprimaturs were granted to what is now the 1st edition of the Ignatius bible. (Perhaps this is why its the recommended version by Catholic Answers.) The Oxford and 2nd Ignatius editions seem to have taken some creative license with their respective approval citations.
3.) Does the debate really matter in the end? Are the differences in these various versions really significant in the scheme of God’s grand plan?
1.) No one on this board has seen it yet. I will probably be the first one to see it, as I have had it pre-ordered for months. I have checked my order status almost every day within the last two weeks, and
Overstock.com has continued to either tell me that it is “Accepted” or has given me a specific shipping date that has since been incremented every other day since the 16th. Today it says that it will be shipping on December 24th, though I really doubt that will happen (Christmas Eve and a Sunday? You have got to be kidding me!).
However, Oxford Press has had them in stock themselves now since about a week ago, but they are at retail price there, so I will wait.
2.) There is no official position on the issue, as no one knows about it outside of this board. As for the Ignatius 2nd Edition, they obtained proper permission from the holders of the copyright, which isn’t the Catholic Church. This is what Ignatius Press had to say about the Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat:
“Proposed changes were sent to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (which was then the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) and we were told that changes were of a sufficiently editorial nature to support retention of the previously granted Imprimatur. Later changes, made in conformity with translation guidelines of the Vatican document, Liturgiam Authenticam, were approved directly by the Congregation for Divine Worship, which also reviewed all of the text.”
For all we know, this is what happened with the Oxford Press edition as well, except for the Liturgiam Authenticam part.
3.) In absolute terms, the changes mean little, as the responsibility to properly teach the beliefs of the Church falls upon the Magisterium, and not directly on vernacular translations of the Bible. However, we could surely infer that these vernacular translations of the Bible are extensions of that teaching responsibility, when they hold an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat.
My interpretation of these two approvals is that they don’t set out to mean that the contents are perfect, but that they are there to make the faithful aware that the contents have no obvious errors involving faith and morals. There can always be corrections made if something is later seen unfit.
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I assume the context for this type of thing was that they were just trying to inform the reader that a particular traditional rendering from the Latin had been determined to not be as accurate, but was still relevant to mention.
