Which Bible Translation is your Favorite?

[Mark_Blackburn]

Henri Nouwen’s favorite (and that of my late saintly spiritual director here in Winnipeg) was the Jerusalem. They stuck with that, and had no opinion on the “New Jerusalem.”

 

[Stanley_Peters]

I like the Jerusalem Bible with all the footnotes and cross-references. This is my study bible. I don’t like it for just reading. I get distracted by the notes, etc. Then, I like the RSV-CE.
Stan Peters

 

[tee_eff_em]

JLove:

I don’t know if your looking for an actual text, but this site may be of interest. latinvulgate.com/

Cool.

Latin lover,
tee

 

[Theodred]

I use the Douay Rheims Bible for reading at home. As far as modernist translations, the RSV is the most acceptable, and this is what I used when I was in the seminary. I carry a pocket NT with me, but it’s a NAB translation. I make due with it. So far I’ve been unable to find a DRB or RSV pocket NT. Does anyone know of one?

 

[romano]

JLove:

I can’t think of one off hand, but the Navarre Bible series has both the Latin Vulgate and English. (At least the NT. I don’t have the OT so I can’t say.)

I don’t know if your looking for an actual text, but this site may be of interest. latinvulgate.com/

I should have mentioned the 17-volume Navarre but, apart from the fact that it doesn’t give the Jerome but the New Vulgate (1986), I’d like a text for quick reference that gives the Latin-English in a single volume.

Thaks BTW for the latinvulgate.com link. What a great site!

 

[Mark_Blackburn]

Just to follow on my thought that the best translation is the one you actually picked up and read today . . .

I’m a reader and assist the priest at Mass each morning, in a little chapel a block from where I work.

This morning I was ready to ‘fill in’ as reader and assist the priest with communion, having lit the candles and all . . . and at one minute to eight o’clock “Stan” the regular reader on Thursdays, showed up. Stan is 76 and his hero is Saint Thomas Aquinas – whose ‘day’ is tomorrow. ‘Today’ it is Saint Angela Merici, “born in 1474, orphaned at ten, at 13 she became a Franciscan and she and several friends started educating poor girls, then formed a religious association under the protection of Saint Ursala – officially recognized by Pope Paul III four years after she died in 1540.” But you knew that. Don’t you love our calendar of saints?

As he always does, Stan introduced today’s reading as "from Paul’s letter to the Hebrews.” The priest, father Dominic when referencing Hebrews always says the same thing, “Paul’s letter to the Hebrews.” Ah well.

Father’s homily was good, focusing on the one line (in the NRSV translation: “let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” He singled out that expression “provoke one another to love,” and went with that for a while; asking us what we thought the phrase meant.

In my Contemporary English Version (the perfect ‘fit’ for my jacket or pant pocket that goes with me everywhere) that phrase becomes, “We should keep on encouraging each other to be thoughtful and to do helpful things.” Less provocative!

This little Bible, “printed in Korea” which carries the Imprimatur “Most Rev. Daniel Pilardzyk, President National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1991” is always close at hand – and therefore, by my own definition, my “favorite translation.”

To paraphrase a great line from Finnian’s Rainbow (1947) “When I’m not near the one that I love . . . I love the one I’m near!”

Mark B.
Winnipeg

 

[Terry_Fenwick]

campion:

I’m with you, Terry! I converted back in 1989, and I’m still searching for a true Study Bible similar to the ones I took for granted in Protestantism. You would think that Catholic scholars would “borrow” the skills that Protestants use in creating an exhaustive study bible. Here’s to hoping that we see one soon.

Thanks for your comment. You know what I am talking about having been a convert. We are doing a Catholic Scripture Study in CA (www.catholicscripturestudy.com) and I am seeing such a need for a good study bible. Scott Hahn is doing one but only book by book. I am sure you may know that. Hahn has the four Gospels, Acts, Romans and maybe more by now. If we wait for him to do all of them it may be along time. He is using RSV and I am glad to be back in that translation, if for nothing else, the diacritical marks! I had left it behind for NIV (which I did not like but our Study in CBS was using it at the time) and had preferred NASB which did have good study Bibles. This finding the best Bible, timeline and all, is truly a chore but I am making it. I can remember when I first started BSF as a new believer in 1971 we had so few Bibles to choose from. Now it is a growing market and always a new one. Do you use the Douay Rheims? That is my final check (thus far) for a word check in study. What all do you like to use? Thanks for your thoughts! Terry

 

[dbarrie_rcia05]

The first CE Bible I bought was the NRSV, but I later gave it away in favour of the New Jerusalem version. Despite the presence of some ‘inclusive’ language, I enjoy the NJV because it has good notes and it refers to God as Yaweh in its OT and Apocrypha. As I get closer to conversion I might purchase the RSV (or Ignatius) since many Catholics seem to recommend that one (including my sponsor). For a long time the only Bible I had was the Protestant KJV I inherited from my grandfather, who was a Free Methodist minister. To complete my KJV I bought the Apocypha last fall, and it includes some books only read by Orthodox Christians (e.g. Esdras, Prayer of Manasses), as well as ancient Judaic stories that have become obscure to most of us ‘gentiles’ (e.g. Bel and the Dragon).

Don

 

[silverbullet]

Fidelis:

Personally, I would not recommend this commentary, especially for people just starting out in Bible Study. It is imbued with the Modernist influences of it’s main contributor and editor Fr. Raymond Brown (who also granted HIMSELF an imprimatur !). It’s a lot of money for something that may end up damaging someone’s faith, IMHO. Instead, I would recommend both the *Navarre Bible * series or The Ignatius Study Bibles, available at most Catholic bookstores or at amazon.com.

I have it and I do like it, but it is awfully ‘intellectual’ and not necessarily good for seeing what a specific verse means. That is one thing I like about the NET bible, it has so many notes and most of them are about what the words are in greek or hebrew.

I like the NASB for reading, but also interested in NEB or duay rheims, just because I do not have them.

Laura

 

[harveyc]

I’ve spent pretty much a day reading this thread and some of the linked sites and don’t know that I’m any closer to deciding what new Bible I want to purchase. I have had the NAB for some time and have a Knox translation on the way and may get the RSVCE and/or DR. Someone above mentioned that they had the DR on their Palm Pilot and that got me to looking for something on my Dell Axim (which uses the Pocket PC operating system). I thought I’d share with you what I found.

The e-sword site mentioned above also has a free version for the Pocket PC PDAs. While it has numerous translations, including the DR, it does not have the NAB or RSV (the site owner would like to but says he has not been given permission from publishers, etc.
http://www.e-sword.net/pocketpc/

Another provider laridian.com/ce/catpocketbible.asp has a free trial of theirs and does have the RSV available with it. The reading software is $10 and the RSV costs another $5.00 Some translations/versions run up to $29.99.

I haven’t downloaded either one yet, but probably will soon.

Thanks, everyone, for all of your great help.

God bless,

Harvey

P.S. I think I’ve probably been a forum member longer than anyone before actually making my first post!

 

[allhers]

These are the approved Catholic Bibles:

Douay Rheims
R.S.V. (Revised Standard Version)
Jerusalem
Ignatius
N.A.B. (New American Bible) and
Navarre
I got this information from the ewtn web site.
I have a Douay Rheims, a R.S.V. and a N.A.B. and I have access to an Ignatius, which I also like. Some of the Bible’s that I have were my grandparents and my parents and they are pretty old, kind of in delicate condition.

 

[belero]

Thanks for starting this thread, I am learning quite a bit. One question, I have noticed many good recommendations for the Ignatius RSV-CE, is the RSV-CE published by Scepter the same bible?

 

[Ric]

Sanctus:

Ok, I know it has been discussed elsewhere that people use several versions of the Bible-one for reference-and one for reading but what is your favorite? Possibly the one you think best incorporates accuracy and readibility.

This should be intresting!

God Bless,

My top five favorites in order are:

1. NASB (New American Standard Bible)
2. ESV (English Standard Version)
3. NIV (New International Version)
4. AMP (The Amplified Bible)
5. NLT (The New Living Translation)

 

[johnpaullover]

The worst translation I know of other than New World (JW’s version) is The “Message”. it’s like reading a poorly written novel. Yuck!

 

[Ric]

johnpaullover:

The worst translation I know of other than New World (JW’s version) is The “Message”. it’s like reading a poorly written novel. Yuck!

I don’t care to much for the translation know as “The Message” myself, but it is written to read like a novel.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

 

[johnpaullover]

Ric:

I don’t care to much for the translation know as “The Message” myself, but it is written to read like a novel.

Quite right, And yet you miss my point. My point is that it is a POORLY written version

 

[johnpaullover]

My selection was King James, but I like American Standard (not New American Standard) Also, I prefer to have Strong’s numbers.

 

[Ric]

johnpaullover:

Quite right, And yet you miss my point. My point is that it is a POORLY written version

If I did not say so in my last post, sorry. I do agree that the translation known as “The Message” is poorly written.

 

[DJorourke]

I had been using a Good News (GNT) Bible since high school. I went to a Catholic High School in Ontario, and the Good News Translation is the one we all had to own and study from.

I became really familiar with it, but rolled my eyes at some of the translation. Thanks to these forums I switched to an Ignatius RSV:CE. I very much prefer this translation, BUT not the format.

I don’t like the lack of titles (which I used all the time to locate things quickly), and even the plain sketches that served to just break up the text. I’m looking forward to the Naverre Study Bible, but it’s 1-2 years off.

I’ve got a Haydock Duay-Rheims on order, which I’m very much looking forward to receiving. However, it’s size will limit its usefullness to me. Catholics really do need a good study bible.

 

[Ric]

DJorourke:

I had been using a Good News (GNT) Bible since high school. I went to a Catholic High School in Ontario, and the Good News Translation is the one we all had to own and study from.

I became really familiar with it, but rolled my eyes at some of the translation. Thanks to these forums I switched to an Ignatius RSV:CE. I very much prefer this translation, BUT not the format.

I don’t like the lack of titles (which I used all the time to locate things quickly), and even the plain sketches that served to just break up the text. I’m looking forward to the Naverre Study Bible, but it’s 1-2 years off.

I’ve got a Haydock Duay-Rheims on order, which I’m very much looking forward to receiving. However, it’s size will limit its usefullness to me. Catholics really do need a good study bible.

The “Naverre Study Bible”??? Is there a site where there is more info about this Study Bible?