Translations of the Bible - NAB vs. RSV2CE

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Johann_du_Toit said:
The RSV2CE is regarded by most Catholic Bible Scholars to be a far superior work.
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The Catholic Biblical Association was formed to translate the Bible; they are the scholars who translated the NAB and its revisions at the request of the US bishops. I would be surprised if most of the CBA thinks the RSV2CE is superior to the NABRE, but anything could happen. Most probably prefer the NRSV.
 
Is your affinity for the DR just because it’s the oldest? Written word cannot capture tone, so I want to clarify, I"m not being snide or snarky; I know many Protestants who feel the same way about the KJV as you seem to feel about DR. Please set me right if I’m misunderstanding your point of view.
 
Oooh, I did not know such a version existed! That was my primary dislike with the DR. Very nice!
 
If it’s word-for-word from the Latin, it must be horribly awkward to read: I speak two other Latin languages (Spanish, natively, and Portuguese, conversationally) and can read another (Italian) and if I were to write out a word-for-word translation of any kind of document from either of those languages it would be very, very unclear in many places. It makes me wonder if it’s a literal word-for-word, or maybe just the closest to word-for-word you can get while retaining linguistic integrity in English. Also, since the Vulgate is a translation from the Greek, I wonder if things don’t get lost in a translation of a translation. I’m not disparaging DR; I’ve never even read it. As a linguist, I’m simply musing.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I don’t see all this continuous re-translating as achieving any greater “accuracy”. It’s diminishing returns at this point afaik. It’s not like there’s some glaring error in the existing Bibles.
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Well said! It results from a confusion between the academic interest in the “original text” and the spiritual significance of the one we now have.

Just as the quest to “restore the Mass of the Early Church” was pased on a false premiss, so is the quest to reciver the “original” text.
 
You might find this article (and blog) interesting on the Confraternity Bible:

“The preface to the Confraternity Version clarifies that the Old Testament was translated from the original languages, however. Pope Pius XII issued Divino Afflante Spiritu in 1943, just after the Confraternity New Testament was translated from the Latin Vulgate. Thus, the Confraternity Version is an interesting mix — the New Testament was translated from the Vulgate, and the Old Testament was translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. In addition, The Old Testament was never finished, even though the translators were working on it for roughly 20 years. The 1963 edition I have contains the Confraternity translation of the first eight books (from Genesis to Ruth), the seven books of poetry and wisdom (from Job to Sirach), and the eighteen prophetic books. The remaining historical books were reprinted from the Douay-Challoner version. As I understand it, much of the Confraternity Old Testament became the basis of the 1970 NAB Old Testament.”
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JayCL said:
Of course it is. 😅 Oh well.

All good things, right?
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True. I’m no stranger to finding hard books: finding this could not possibly be harder than finding a set of Dominican breviaries.
 
This may be wonderful for scholars, but if the idea is to get ordinary people to read and contemplate and appreciate Scripture, then changing it every couple years and bombarding the public with a large number of Bible choices is not going to help.

The number of Bible options currently out there for ordinary Catholics is a bit overwhelming as it is. I’m actually most comfortable just reading the Bibles of my youth, from which I have heard the same readings many times.
 
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What I find interesting re. the use of “thee” and “thou” is that that’s the familiar, intimate form of you, not the more “reverent” or whatever, which is how it tends to be implied and oft-parodied by the public at-large (Catholic or otherwise). In many languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese, many others) there are two ways to say “you”: The formal and the familiar. You is akin to the “vous” (French), usted (Spanish) and você (Portuguese) while Thou is more like tu/tú in those same three languages. It makes one think about how we address the King of the universe who at the same time is our Abba (daddy in Hebrew) who loves us, picks us up, and hugs us when we stumble and fall. Pretty incredible dichotomy and mind-blowing to think about.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The number of Bible options currently out there for ordinary Catholics is a bit overwhelming as it is.
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Just imagine how it is for Protestants! About twenty years ago I worked at a Protestant book and Bible store and even back then it was a tall order to learn all the different major translations that folks would come in looking-for!
 
I keep hearing that. It’s unfortunate because shortly after I converted I got a (seemingly) really nice Catholic study Bible with all sorts of footnotes, introductions to the books, etc that was NAB without really researching the different translations.
 
I know, I am very glad that the requirement for Catholics to use a Catholic Bible narrows the field down considerably!

Although some of the Protestant bibles have nifty maps and illustrations, I think I would be a “King James Only” reader if I were a Protestant.
 
On the other side of the coin: One shouldn’t need to be a scholar to read and understand the Word of God. That’s why Jesus spoke to the common people in common language, not poetic, beautiful language. The every-man should be able to read God’s word and not have to look up archaic, out-of-date terminology, beautiful though it may be. Don’t you think?
 
I just got a copy of the whole Bible in the NRSV-2CE last week. I really do like the way it reads. I’ll have a look at this study Bible! Thanks!
 
Ireland along with the UK use the Jerusalem Bible, also the first one we had at home so have a soft spot for it.

Interesting the talk of going ESV, I wonder will Ireland also use it. In my own parish the priests are a bit hippyish and are always making the readings more inclusive (brothers to brothers & sisters and men to people or men and women etc). So I think it quite funny if we were to get a more literal translation.

Myself I just received delivery for my Didiache RSV2CE Bible and am looking forward to diving into the notes and essays.
 
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I haven’t looked too terribly hard, but here in the US I can’t seem to find the Jerusalem Bible or the ESV (Catholic edition). Maybe you have some websites you can recommend?
 
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