What are the top 3 best and most accurate bible for Catholics?

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ianskielem

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I don’t know if there is already an existing similar thread, but may i ask the top 3 best bible versions most accurate for Catholics?

In order please, and why?
Thank you very much and God bless us all.
 
Here’s my order:

(1) RSV (either Catholic or non-Catholic edition - both are reasonably good).
(2) New Jerusalem Bible
(3) Ronald Knox (I just love the beauty of this translation).

Personally, if you are looking for precision in meaning, nothing beats the original language with a good study guide alongside.
 
I have a New American Bible. I was wondering if it will make to the top 3. anyway may i wait for others’. I love its content because of introductions and footnotes and citations, i am not familiar about others. I haven’t finished the bible and considering of reading it in our school library and will look up for your advice of top 3. 👍
 
jonathan_hili said:
Here’s my order:

(1) RSV (either Catholic or non-Catholic edition - both are reasonably good).
(2) New Jerusalem Bible
(3) Ronald Knox (I just love the beauty of this translation).

Personally, if you are looking for precision in meaning, nothing beats the original language with a good study guide alongside.
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This is a personal decision. I don’t believe the New Jerusalem is considered “Accurate”. It’s got lots of problem areas. The RSV is very highly arespected.

I dislike recommending a Non catholic edition as the only bible for a catholic who is not familiar with the Cannon of Scripture. Non catholic bibles are missing 7 books plus sections of others, or have them shoved into a separate segment with non canonical books in a section called “Apocrypha” (lit. “False Writings”).
ianskielem said:
I have a New American Bible. I was wondering if it will make to the top 3. anyway may i wait for others’. I love its content because of introductions and footnotes and citations, i am not familiar about others. I haven’t finished the bible and considering of reading it in our school library and will look up for your advice of top 3. 👍
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I live in the UK. we don’t have to put up with the NAB or any of it’s revisions here.
It is a horrendously poor translation, and destroys the theology of many many scripture extracts.

You will never get me to vote for a translation which uses unrestricted “Inclusive Language”. The use of “Inclusive Language” can wreck the meaning of many passages of scripture.
I’ve seen NAB / NABRE extracts which replace direct references to God the Father as “The parent”, and to Jesus Christ as “A Citizen” or “The child” or “The son or daughter”.
These changes can totally obscure the meaning of the passage.

For the same reason I rarely open the NRSV except to cross reference when comparing multiple translations on a particular passage. It’s nowhere near as bad as the NABRE, but it still falls prey to this flaw.
 
My personal favourites are:
For day to day bible reading: The Christian Community Bible
(has other names in some countries)
Be carefull about edition. they’re up to the 54th ed in 2012, and 2013 has a host of new edition numbers.

The 1st edition excluded all inclusive language, and the introduction explained this and said it was to avoid the theological problems caused.
Later editions added inclusive language without changing the introduction.

Recent editions (2010, 2012) greatly revised these areas, and try to comply with the vatican guidelines in Liturgiam Authenticam, avoiding inclusive language in any situations that could be refering to God, but using inclusive language where it does not change the meanings of the text.

2nd Bible for daily use and simple study: RSV-2nd Catholic Edition (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.)
Currently the study bible is only available as a New Testament. I eagerly await the publication of the remainder of the Old Testament.

I would have recommended the ESV as an additional bible, on the basis that it was to be the basis of a New Lectionary for the whole English world (Outside N. America)… but I just learned that that project has been shelved.
It’s a nice translation, based on the RSV, but at the moment there’s no Catholic Edition.
 
I’d pick my top 3 as follows:
  1. RSV-Second Catholic Ed. It has all of the traditional phrasing of passages used in our devotional prayer, is accurate, and very readable.
  2. Douay-Rheims Chanoller (or Douay-Confraternity). Not as easy to read due to the archaic language, but has been around for centuries and is very accurate. If you want the accuracy with a bit more modern language, go with the Confraternity edition.
  3. I would select either the original Jerusalem Bible or the Knox, depending on if you’re comfortable with more archaic English (which Knox has). Either are not word for word translations, but are both very readable and don’t use ‘inclusive language’.
Do you plan to get 3 bibles? If you only plan using just one, I think you may just want to use whatever yoir country uses for its Lectionary (NABRE, NRSV, Jerusalem, or? ???). It would be the same you hear at Mass which will help with recognition.
 
All English Bible translations are different in how they may translate certain passages, what base texts they use, and how those meanings are interpreted. So asking this question, “what is the most accurate Bible” should probably be rephrased “what is the best Bible for me to use?” Technically, most English Bible translations are fairly accurate (maybe 85% of the time); it’s the other 15% that causes issues. Regardless of that, some of them are just downright horrible.

If you are looking to stay with Catholic translations and with more “modern” language, I suggest maybe the New American Bible: Revised Edition, Revised Standard Version: Second Catholic Edition, or the New Jerusalem Bible.

If you’re looking to stay with “classic” Catholic translations that are slightly harder to read, the Douay Rheims Version and Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition are for you.

If you’re looking for a Catholic translation that is more “modern” but retains some “nicer” language (but with no thee’s, thou’s, etc.) then the 1966 Jerusalem Bible is for you.

Or, if you want translations that are fairly easy to read and have gender neutral language, the Contemporary English Version and Good News Bible/Today’s English Version are other choices.
 
Hmm… thank you all for your answers. It is really complicated as I expected.

I hope the entire catholic world would narrow down those versions into two: mainly, modern and archaic version, which theologians, exegetes, apologetics, and the magisterium will all agree upon and that will not cause any theological problem like the “inclusive language” and all.

Maybe I’m looking for the most proper bible to acquire and not the one suited for me. You see in layman’s terms, if the bible is the one adjusting to everybody’s need, might as well create our own bible. 🙂

I’m planning to acquire only one bible. And oh, the Christian Community Bible is the one they’re using in the Gospel posts in facebook, by news.va english.

Again, hoping for the time when those versions will be narrowed down into two mainstream and delete all the others so that catholics and non-catholics will not find it hard to choose what to purchase or what.
 
  1. Douay-Rheims Bible of 1609
  2. Doauy-Rheims Challoner
The Douay-Rheims is an extremely literal and accurate translation of the Vulgate, which was the standard Bible of the Church for 2000 years. Challoner did a wonderful job revising the DR. I prefer the DR because it was not effected by the textual critics and their preferences that don’t yield to the preferences of the Magesterium.

I am editing the Douay-Rheims Bible of 1609, which will be called the New Douay-Rheims Bible NDRB. It is being put into modern English, with modern spelling of names and places, and all the thee, thou, thine, shalt, art, etc etc all in modern renderings. The Gospels will be released in a few weeks! All the original footnotes and introductions are included!
 
ianskielem said:
I don’t know if there is already an existing similar thread, but may i ask the top 3 best bible versions most accurate for Catholics?

In order please, and why?
Thank you very much and God bless us all.
Click to expand...
My preference is the Douay Rheims with Haydock commentary and the RSVCE.
 
ianskielem said:
I have a New American Bible. I was wondering if it will make to the top 3. anyway may i wait for others’. I love its content because of introductions and footnotes and citations, i am not familiar about others. I haven’t finished the bible and considering of reading it in our school library and will look up for your advice of top 3. 👍
Click to expand...
Sorry to disappoint you but I doubt very much if anyone in these forums would recommend the NAB. The Notes are terrible.
 
  1. Douay-Rheims: I may be wrong however I believe that the Church teaches that this translation is still the most reliable English version available to Catholics today.
  2. The New Jerusalem or Knox: Both translations are great to read and have their own strong points
  3. RSV-2CE: Based upon the revisions of the KJV this version is probably the best protestant based translation for Catholics to read.
 
COPLAND_3 said:
I am editing the Douay-Rheims Bible of 1609, which will be called the New Douay-Rheims Bible NDRB. It is being put into modern English, with modern spelling of names and places, and all the thee, thou, thine, shalt, art, etc etc all in modern renderings. The Gospels will be released in a few weeks! All the original footnotes and introductions are included!
Click to expand...
So will this New Douay Rheims be similar to the New King James Version?
 
Honorius said:
So will this New Douay Rheims be similar to the New King James Version?
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I’m not sure how close the NKJV stayed to the KJV, but the NDRB is as close to the original DRB of 1609 as it can possibly be. I originally had started a revision that only was a change in spelling, but changed direction and also smoothed out some of the senetence structures that were not practical to modern readers, and also updated all the spelling of names and places.
 
anruari said:
This is a personal decision. I don’t believe the New Jerusalem is considered “Accurate”. It’s got lots of problem areas. The RSV is very highly arespected.

I dislike recommending a Non catholic edition as the only bible for a catholic who is not familiar with the Cannon of Scripture. Non catholic bibles are missing 7 books plus sections of others, or have them shoved into a separate segment with non canonical books in a section called “Apocrypha” (lit. “False Writings”).

I live in the UK. we don’t have to put up with the NAB or any of it’s revisions here.
It is a horrendously poor translation, and destroys the theology of many many scripture extracts.

You will never get me to vote for a translation which uses unrestricted “Inclusive Language”. The use of “Inclusive Language” can wreck the meaning of many passages of scripture.
I’ve seen NAB / NABRE extracts which replace direct references to God the Father as “The parent”, and to Jesus Christ as “A Citizen” or “The child” or “The son or daughter”.
These changes can totally obscure the meaning of the passage.

For the same reason I rarely open the NRSV except to cross reference when comparing multiple translations on a particular passage. It’s nowhere near as bad as the NABRE, but it still falls prey to this flaw.
Click to expand...
I’d love to see where the NABRE does that kind of inclusive language you speak of, since I have spent quite a bit of time with it and have never seen any such thing.
 
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