The Confraternity OT was completed?

[Canto]

According a UK Amazon review the Old Testament of the Confraternity Translation was actually completed.

The reviewer says the full OT text of the C.V. at last appeared in 1969 but most are unaware as the NAB OT came out not long after and resulted in the withdrawal of edtions of the C.V. from the market.

The reviewer adds that the C.V. OT and NT was available in a single volume

The reviewer claims that the 1970 NAB OT differed only moderately from the 1969 C.V. OT.

amazon.co.uk/Confraternity-Monsignor-OConnell-illustrations-Celebrated/dp/B001947MD4

I was under the impression that only a chunk of the OT was completed with the rest taken from the Bishop Challoner Douay. Can anyone verifiy or add anything to this. Is there an edition you know of that has the full OT either seperate or with the NT?

 

[jpy15026]

Snippets of info I found out from various sources:

The Confraternity translation was done under the auspices of the U.S. bishops and was originally planned as a revision of the Douay-Rheims (except for the Psalms which were to follow Pope Pius XII’s new Psalter from the Hebrew).

The New Testament was published in 1941 after five years of work. However, after Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on scripture studies, Divino afflante Spiritu in 1943 encouraged consideration of the original texts, the bishops overhauled the Confraternity project and the Old Testament was translated from scratch from the original Hebrew.

As OT books were completed, various editions of the Confraternity Bible were published with the Douay translation used for the gradually shrinking remaining portions of the OT that had yet to be translated.

The Confraternity translations of the Books of Genesis to Ruth were first published in 1952;

Wisdom (or Sapiential) Books, Job to Sirach, in 1955;

Prophetic Books, Isaiah to Malachi, in 1961.

The remaining books were finished by 1969, but these never appeared under the Confraternity name, they were added to the existing Confraternity OT, Genesis was completely re- translated, other minor changes were made and a new translation of the New Testament from the Greek was added. The result was the 1970 New American Bible (NAB).

That is why the hybrid Confraternity version went away.

Comparisons between the NAB and Confraternity OT books are the same (with the exception of Genesis which is a unique translation in the Confraternity editions.

 

[Jerry-Jet]

The Old Testament Confraternity was indeed finished and published in 1969. I have seen Old Testament only Confraternity editions complete and published in 1969 on ebay.

I have never seen the Confraternity Old Testament and Confraternity New Testament COMPLETE and together in a single volume.

Why is this? For that to happen a publisher would have had to publish in late 1969 or early 1970 before the New American Bible came out.

Late in 1969 and early in 1970 most Catholics and most Catholic bible publishers were eagerly awaiting the NAB.

The Old Testament Confraternity was very different than the NAB when it came to the book of Genesis–Genesis was retranslated for the NAB–so though all the rest of the Confraternity Old Testament and the NAB were the same–Genesis was vastly different.

NAB proponents in late 1969 and early 1970 didn’t want people to know of those differences–they wanted to relegate the Confraternity Version Bible to Archaic status–that’s why you don’t see Confraternity Bibles being published in the early 1970s.

Now I wouldn’t say that it would be IMPOSSIBLE or no way that not even one publisher published a complete Confraternity Bible in late 1969 or early 1970 but I’ve never seen one,

At the old book seller Biblio I have seen a bible advertised as being the Confraternity version “read in the churches” that was published in 1970–it has “windsor” embossed on the spine. The price is at least $100 and no one has bought it in the last two years.

I have always wondered if possibly it is one of those rarest of rare bibles–a complete Confraternity Bible that was published right before the NAB came out.

Maybe someone out there will investigate–I haven’t because I currently don’t have at least $100 to spend on a Confraternity Bible that was not a COMPLETE Confraternity Bible but IF it were COMPLETE it would be so rare that it would be worth the money.

One last thing–I don’t know if it is true or not but I have heard that the last Old Testament books that were translated for the Confraternity Old Testament in 1969 used English spellings for Old Testament names and not Latin ones. Does anyone know if that is true?

 

[AmbroseSJ]

Snippets of info I found out from various sources:

The Confraternity translation was done under the auspices of the U.S. bishops and was originally planned as a revision of the Douay-Rheims (except for the Psalms which were to follow Pope Pius XII’s new Psalter from the Hebrew).

The New Testament was published in 1941 after five years of work. However, after Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on scripture studies, Divino afflante Spiritu in 1943 encouraged consideration of the original texts, the bishops overhauled the Confraternity project and the Old Testament was translated from scratch from the original Hebrew.

As OT books were completed, various editions of the Confraternity Bible were published with the Douay translation used for the gradually shrinking remaining portions of the OT that had yet to be translated.

The Confraternity translations of the Books of Genesis to Ruth were first published in 1952;

Wisdom (or Sapiential) Books, Job to Sirach, in 1955;

Prophetic Books, Isaiah to Malachi, in 1961.

The remaining books were finished by 1969, but these never appeared under the Confraternity name, they were added to the existing Confraternity OT, Genesis was completely re- translated, other minor changes were made and a new translation of the New Testament from the Greek was added. The result was the 1970 New American Bible (NAB).

That is why the hybrid Confraternity version went away.

Comparisons between the NAB and Confraternity OT books are the same (with the exception of Genesis which is a unique translation in the Confraternity editions.

My question is this; Does the original Confraternity version of the New Testament (an updated version on the D/R) published in 1941 get an overhaul in the 1970 NAB, from the original languages (as in the OT) and if so when? Can this be documented? Thanks!

 

[Canto]

Thanks for all the info

I have a CV from 1962 and an NAB from 1970. The books used from the Douay in the CV are listed in the NAB as 1969 not 1970. So it seems I now have the complete CV

The original 1970 NAB NT is a new dynamic translation directly from the Greek. The 1991 version is more literal.

 

[mccorm45]

The original 1970 NAB NT is a new dynamic translation directly from the Greek. The 1991 version is more literal.

The revised NAB NT came out in 1987 and indeed is more literal/formal than the NAB OT. The revised NAB OT, which is almost set to be published, will be more literal/formal like the NAB NT. (Along with a completely revised NAB Psalms)

 

[Canto]

The revised NAB NT came out in 1987 and indeed is more literal/formal than the NAB OT. The revised NAB OT, which is almost set to be published, will be more literal/formal like the NAB NT. (Along with a completely revised NAB Psalms)

A more literal NAB
A more literal Roman Misssal
Wonder what’ll come next…

Does anyone know if the 1970 NAB notes are as bad in parts as the update?

 

[puzzleannie]

does anyone have a separate history of psalm translations into English in the 20th c up to now, and what is the status of the psalms in the upcoming NAB revision.

 

[mccorm45]

does anyone have a separate history of psalm translations into English in the 20th c up to now, and what is the status of the psalms in the upcoming NAB revision.

The psalms are being completely revised for the revised NAB(NABRE). It is the last thing that needs to be completed before publication.