What is Your Favourite Bible Translation?

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catholic03

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Pax Christi

I have a few different Bible translations that each have the imprimatur and nihil obstat.

I have the
  • Received Standard Version Catholic Edition.
  • The New American Bible.
  • The New Living Translation Catholic Edition.
  • The New Jerusalem Bible.
  • The Douay-Westminster Bible (essentially an update of the Douay Rheims).
  • The Didache Bible (which uses the RSV 2 CE).
I mostly use the New Living Translation at the moment.

What is your favourite translation?
 
I like the ESV the most. Right now I’m reading through the NIV and it’s OK, but not on the same level as the ESV. The ESV does a good job in 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul refers to both the active and passive partners of homosexual sex; it renders that text as “men who practice homosexuality”. I think they got it right. I like the KJV too, but not as much as the ESV.
 
I like to read Bibeln 1917 due to the older language used in it.
 
I read the Bible in French.

I use the (Catholic) Traduction officielle pour la liturgie for private readings, and the Traduction œcuménique de la Bible for study (along with my Greek NT and Hebrew OT).
 
For the New Testament I generally read the NKJV, for the Old Testament I use NRSV or sometimes the NASB.
 
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I have the Augustine press version of this and I like it a lot.
 
Depends on the day. It would be easier to tell you the versions I don’t like.
 
I use the Bible de Jérusalem on my phone for my French Bible, mainly because it is well known. I would not mind a physical copy.
 
Depends on my mood.

The Oxford-Cambridge Revised English Bible w/Apocrypha (Deuterocanon+) suits me just fine as a daily reader. Done in the UK with (name removed by moderator)ut from the Catholic Churches in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, it was produced with an eye toward reducing or eliminating denominational bias in translation. On balance, I find it superior to the NAB or NAB/RE.

The Knox translation, for its beautiful rendering of classic English and its Clementine Vulgate basis. It is a translation in which, as it is with Saint Jerome in the Vulgate, one may know a bit about the thoughts of the translator. Some say idiosyncratic. I say personal.

Any of the 1941-1969 Douay-Confraternity bibles. They possess a New Testament translation that is superb, and this is bolstered by exactly none of the new-agey modernist influence (was going to say nonsense) in certain “newer” Catholic bibles.

The Douay-Rheims. No explanation necessary.

Catholic Living Bible(!). On occasion, I refer to it - not for its overly casual English, but for the Deuterocanonical books, which were provided to Protestant publisher Tyndale by Our Sunday visitor.

The Catholic New Living Translation by Tyndale (odd when you think about it). Reading level slightly elevated above the other “new” translations, and a touch of Protestant influence remaining, but it’s fine if you know your faith.

The true blessing is that one may amass a relatively fine collection for a relative pittance, if one is attentive to eBay, Amazon, ThriftBooks and various thrift stores for excellent (un)used editions.
 
It looks like I’m the only one but I’d say the NABRE. The translation, not the footnotes. It was the first Bible I got when I returned to the faith. And since I memorize the Bible as much as I read it it’s the translation I started memorizing and continue to memorize. I really got the feel how it flows and now if I try memorizing any other translation it feels awkward and difficult. One exception is a few Psalms, for instance 23, which I prefer to memorize from the King James translation.
 
Zach said:
It looks like I’m the only one but I’d say the NABRE. The translation, not the footnotes. It was the first Bible I got when I returned to the faith. And since I memorize the Bible as much as I read it it’s the translation I started memorizing and continue to memorize. I really got the feel how it flows and now if I try memorizing any other translation it feels awkward and difficult. One exception is a few Psalms, for instance 23, which I prefer to memorize from the King James translation.
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The 2011 NABRE is actually one of the better translations these days. It still has a few irritating NAB-isms (“God-Hero” is still there and I still cringe over it). But overall an improvement over the 1970 and most certainly over the 1991 Psalms.
 
I generally use multiple translations at a time, cycling through them depending on my mood. I see priests and theologians who use one bible and its all beat up and used until they switch to a new one. I wish I could be like that at time. But I do enjoy multiple translations, and that may come from my Reformed background to be honest.
But most used translations over the last few years would be the RSV-2CE/Didache, the NABRE, the Douay-Rheims-Challoner, and the New Oxford Annotated Bible-NRSV.
Now why?
For academic and word study, I usually use the RSV. Extremely accurate, and the 2CE out back a lot of the traditional renderings, such as “full of grace” in St. Luke and “virgin” at Isaiah 9. The Didache is my main go to for study notes as well, since based on the CCC. Typically when I am discussing Scripture with friends or debating with the occasional Mormon that comes to my door, I use this one.
NABRE is my go to for just daily reading, for my personal reading schedule. I enjoy the easier reading in it compared to the RSV. Now, I am in a love/hate relationship with the notes. Some of them are really great. But others are down right near heretical and not faithbuilding. But, one can’t really have the version without the notes, so I take them with a grain of salt. Still, the Revised Edition’s OT is fantastic in my opinion.
The DR is just classic. I love the sound and the fact that it comes from the Vulgate. Usually when I do daily Mass readings I read from the DR. And occasionally when my personal readings take me into the Psalms I’ll switch to the DR for the poetic language that is nearly unbeatable.
And lastly, the NOAB-NRSV. Usually I frequent this when I want some ecumenical study notes, and I actually like St. Paul’s epistles in this one more than the others. Just due to the way the NRSV reads.
I think my goal is going to be to switch to the Didache as my only Bible and try to make it until next Easter with only that one version. But knowing me, I’ll give in, especially when I see my nice Baronius Press DR sitting open on my home altar haha!

God Bless and stay safe
 
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