It appears that the US Bishops were attempting to use inclusive language for other faiths. The thought was that this would assist in unifying the faiths. Rome disagreed with the Bible being printed in this format and request them to be changed. It appears that the US bishops made an error and Rome set them straight.
Shortly after the publication of the complete NAB Bible, the American bishops decided that the 1970 NAB New Testament was too paraphrastic for general use, (1) and so the New Testament was “revised” (translated anew, really, on different principles, from the 26th edition of Nestle-Aland) and published in 1986. This new translation of the New Testament was for the most part more literal, but it employed “dynamic equivalence” in places for the sake of gender-neutral language. The Book of Psalms was similarly “revised” in 1991. Therefore, the most recent editions of the NAB include the 1970 Old Testament, 1991 Psalter, and 1986 New Testament, though some older editions are still in print.
Pope John Paul II and other Vatican officials were not happy with this version, mainly because of the inclusive language, which was mandated by liturgical guidelines issued by a committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference in 1990 (2) but specifically disallowed by the provisional norms for translation of biblical texts sent by Vatican officials to American Bishops in June of 1997, (3) and also disallowed by the translation guidelines formally promulgated in an Instruction published by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in March 2001. (4) And so, although the NAB is the “official” translation of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, it became necessary for the Scripture portions included in the liturgy of the English Mass to be revised
The bishops had the NAB updated to the Revised New American Bible (RNAB), but Rome had objections to that and hurriedly appointed a committee to fix it up into what might be called the Amended Revised New American Bible (ARNAB), which is mandatory in lectionary use.
Any remaining expectations that the Vatican would eventually approve the use of artificial “inclusive language” were finally put to rest when in March 2001 the Vatican issued the comprehensive Instruction on translation known as Liturgiam Authenticam, “the Authentic Liturgy.” This document elaborated upon the 1997 guidelines, and is broadly opposed to paraphrastic renderings of all kinds. In April of 2005 Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.
literature
• James Barr, “After five years: a retrospect on two major translations of the Bible,” in Heythrop Journal 15 (October 1974), 381-405.
• Edward P. Arbez, “The New Catholic Translation of the Old Testament,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 14 (July 1952): 237-54.
• T.H. Stahel, “A Conversation with Scripture Scholar Myles M. Bourke.” America. 168/13 (1993), 4-9.
• Claude J. Peifer, review in Worship 45 (February 1971), 102-13.
• Gerard S. Sloyan, review in Living Light 7 (Fall 1970), 87-104.
• L. Sabourin, review in Biblical Theology Bulletin 2 (July 1972), 206-8.
• Keith R. Crim, review in Interpretation 26 (January 1972), 77-80.
• Robert L. Alden, review in Westminster Theological Journal 34 (May 1972), 217.
• Bruce M. Metzger, review in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin 64 (March 1971), 90-99.
• Frederick W. Danker, review in Catholic Biblical Quarterly 33 (July 1971), 405-9.
• John Reumann, review in Journal of Biblical Literature 92 (July 1973), 275-78.
• Frank Stagg, review in Review and Expositor 68 (Summer 1971), 400-2.