What's the best bible

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sean
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
  1. Confraternity Bible a revision of the challoners to more of a modern language
    2.sv ce 2nd edition
 
I just bought a Didache (RSV-2CE) Bible, and I really like it. The footnotes are taken predominantly from the CCC and are thorough without being overwhelming. It cost about $40, which I think is very reasonable for a hardcover book of its size.
 
Last edited:
nightshade said:
I think I wasted my money buying the NRSV. I had actually asked for the RSV when I was given the NRSV instead. I didn’t know the difference between the two at that time. Later, after about a year, I came to know that the official bible of the Catholic Church is the RSV and not the NRSV. I felt cheated. :mad: When I went there again and asked for the RSV, they told me that it was out of print and that the NRSV is the only one that is available. I want to ask - what is the purpose of the NRSV? …
Click to expand...
The New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, has the imprimatur of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (September 12, 1991) and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (October 15, 1991).

There are four main differences from the RSV.
  • replacement of archaic forms of speech addressed to God (Thee, Thou, wast, dost, etc.), and by replacement if words whose meaning has changed significantly since the RSV translation .
  • more accurate translation,
  • more easily understood, especially when read out loud
  • more inclusive of all humans, male and female, and where they intend to refer only to the male or female gender.
 
phil19034 said:
The NRSV and NRSV-CE has inclusive language.
Click to expand...
That bothers me and to me is unbiblical. But I’m not going to fault someone else whom reads it unless they start correcting me for the lack of “inclusive” language.

The New American Bible not the New American Bible - Revised Edition is the one read at mass.
angel12 said:
The ESV is a lovely translation.
Click to expand...
Yes for an Evangelical Christian Bible, the ESV is the most authoritative while the KJV is the most authoritative for mainstream Protestants. I don’t know if there’s an ESV for Catholics, but you can get those 7 books that had been removed from any of the Catholic bibles which is the deuterocanonical texts (called the Apocrypha in protestant circles). Among Catholic Bibles, I consider the NAB, RSV, and Douray Rheims editions of the Catholic Bible, but Phil has the list of the USCCB.

I prefer a more literal translation than a dynamic translation (aka NIV / NLT in the Protestant faith and NAB / RSV for the Catholic faith). But the most important is the one you’ll read.
 
Last edited:
Sean said:
Other than the Douay Rheims what is a good Bible.
Click to expand...
From a textual standpoint, the Douay Rheims probably shouldn’t even be talked about in the context of “which is the best Bible” because it is based off the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Greek and Hebrew texts, rather than on the original Greek and Hebrew texts themselves.

Personally, from textual and readability standpoint, I prefer the ESV. The NASB though is a great resource because it is such a fundamentally literal translation, and I use it frequently to check the accuracy of my translation when trying to read a Greek text.
 
Last edited:
So The New American Bible is the version approved to be read at Mass?

Should we be reading that one?
Is the NRSV-CE approved? Is the NRSV-CE different from the one read at mass?

I’m really just looking for a nice hardcover Bible to replace my paperback called “Good News Bible (with Deuterocanonicals and Apocrypha) Today’s English Version” that I got when I was a kid.
 
rightness said:
So The New American Bible is the version approved to be read at Mass?
Click to expand...
Well, yes and no. It is the translation used at Mass in the United States, but there are differences between the NABRE on the store shelves and what you hear at Mass. Just compare Luke 1:28 in the NABRE with the what is read at Mass for the Immaculate Conception. The translation has been modified from the NAB(RE) in some places to make it more suitable for use at Mass.

So, what we hear at Mass (in the United States) isn’t exactly like any translation that is out there. But it is mostly the same as the NAB.
rightness said:
Should we be reading that one?
Click to expand...
That is ultimately up to the individual. For some, it is helpful to read the translation that matches what we hear at Mass. For others, it isn’t critical.
rightness said:
Is the NRSV-CE approved? Is the NRSV-CE different from the one read at mass?
Click to expand...
Yes, the NRSV-CE is a completely different translation from what we hear at Mass. It is not approved for use at Mass, but it is approved for Catholics to use in private study.
rightness said:
I’m really just looking for a nice hardcover Bible to replace my paperback called “Good News Bible (with Deuterocanonicals and Apocrypha) Today’s English Version” that I got when I was a kid.
Click to expand...
This would depend on what you are looking for. Some people strongly prefer their translation to use the archaic language—the “these” and “thous” and “Thus saith the Lord”. If that’s what you like, then something like the Duoay-Rheims, or (to a lesser extent) the RSV-CE would be up your alley.

If you prefer that you Bible be in plainer English, then the NABRE or RSV-2CE would be a better choice.

For me, I like having a lot of translations. I mostly use the RSV-2CE for “every day” use, but also use all of the other translations that have been mentioned above.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, then I guess I’ll stick with RSV-2CE since even the NABRE won’t be exactly the one read at mass.

I guess the next question is where can I get a nice leather hardcover version of the RSV-2CE? My local Catholic bookstore doesn’t have it.
 
From a Catholic standpoint, though, the Vulgate is authoritative, right? The Church hold the Latin Vulgate up as the prime source of scripture.
 
whichwaytogo47 said:
I don’t know if there’s an ESV for Catholics,
Click to expand...
I understand that the bishops of India have approved an ESV-CE there. And Oxford University Press has published an ESV with “Apocrypha,” but the reviews I’ve seen say they’re placed at the end, not in the correct positions as in Catholic Bibles.
 
I think the NIV is favored more by evangelical Protestants. It’s not a Catholic Bible.
 
Last edited:
The Ignatius RSV-2CE is either leather or hardcover. As far as I know, there is no edition that is both.

Another option for the RSV-2CE is the Great Adventure Bible:


The cover is leather-like, and it is thicker than the Ignatius Bible’s leather cover, but it still isn’t rigid. This version also incorporates Jeff Cavin’s Bible Timeline into the Bible with lots of helpful maps, charts, and essays. It’s more expensive, but I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who is looking for one Bible to read and pray with. It’s very nice.
 
Ah yes, how could I forget that one? That is hardcover, but not leather. And it has commentary based on the Catechism. The Bible text is still the RSV-2CE.
 
Maximilian75 said:
From a Catholic standpoint, though, the Vulgate is authoritative, right? The Church hold the Latin Vulgate up as the prime source of scripture.
Click to expand...
I don’t know, you could speak to what the Catholic Church holds as authoritative. Logically though, it would not follow that a foreign language translation would be the authoritative version on a textual basis. That would be akin to making Coptic the “authoritative version” if the Church had originally decided that Alexandria should be considered the seat of Western Christianity.
 
Last edited:
I can’t say I know the difference between the two. 😦 How do you tell the difference?
 
I can usually tell by touch. Full grain leather is thicker and consists of actual leather cut from tanned animal hide. Bonded leather is thinner and made of chopped-up bits of leather that are then stuck together with a binder and rolled out into sheets.

So bonded leather is like particle board while full grain leather is like solid wood.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top