Why not a new Catholic Bible translation?

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Psalm89

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I was reading the Bible Translation report on CA, and have to wonder. Why doesn’t the Catholic Church translate the Bible into contemporary English as to make an official version? :hmmm:

Certainly the Catholic Church has some of the finest biblical linguists and historians in the world, so the undertaking couldn’t be too expensive or logistically impossible. While the initial costs might be high, if it was official, the sales could be in the millions over the next decade. They could have study versions and in depth commentary. The new Bible wouldn’t have any Protestant bias in the translation, and the english could be up to date and easy to read.

I recently purchased an ESV and am very impressed. The accuracy is top notch and the readability is superb. It just doesn’t include the apocrypha, and isn’t official Catholic.
 
If you’re looking for accuracy and appropriate material for a study Bible, I would heartily recommend the RSV-CE (Catholic Edition), aka the Ignatius Bible.

Since there’s just so many doggon words in the English language, any translation of the Bible into English will take the shape of the intent of the author(s). NAB has a more, eh, ‘populist’ bent (simple language, great for crowds). Douay Rhiems and KJV are excellent literature and devotional Bibles.
 
If you’re looking for accuracy and appropriate material for a study Bible, I would heartily recommend the RSV-CE (Catholic Edition), aka the Ignatius Bible.

Since there’s just so many doggon words in the English language, any translation of the Bible into English will take the shape of the intent of the author(s). NAB has a more, eh, ‘populist’ bent (simple language, great for crowds). Douay Rhiems and KJV are excellent literature and devotional Bibles.
 
Also keep in mind though, these new “contemporary English” translations like the Message, NLB, etc. really can lose A LOT in translation when you try to convert to common day vernacular. I’m sure the Catholic - sanctioned Bibles mentioned here are fine, but when you do go shopping around for non - Catholic ones (if you want to reference those) be careful.
 
Why would we need another Catholic translation? The Douay is just fine and is an accurate translation of the Latin Vulgate. Maybe the inability of some to read or understand the Douay english is an indication that we need to improve our reading skills? Children no longer read the clasical works. I find many when reading aloud can’t even get past the paperback level of reading.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
Why would we need another Catholic translation? The Douay is just fine and is an accurate translation of the Latin Vulgate.
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Maybe we need a translation of the Nova Vulgata. 🙂

Anyway, isn’t it more important to have an accurate translation of the original Hebrew and Greek? A translation of a translation can lose something in the translation, eh. And language changes over time. While some may understand the more archaic expressions of the Douay-Rheims, not everyone will.

I have 4 translations at home. Two English, one French, one Latin. (Three of these have an imprimatur. Believe it or not, the one that doesn’t is the Latin one. It’s largely the Vulgate, but not completely and includes some things that aren’t in the Catholic Canon.) It’s nice having different translations to read from.
 
“Anyway, isn’t it more important to have an accurate translation of the original Hebrew and Greek?”

That might be true in somethings like translating a translationThat might have been translated from another translation.

However when it comes to the Scriptures we no longer have any of the originals that St. Jerome could have seen and read himself. No person today would even come close to the skill of Jerome who lived the three original languages. The “original Greek and Hebrew” that are spoken of today are really copies and translations themselves. There are no complete books I believe in existance today eariler than the 800’s. There are many fragments anywhere from a single word to a line or maybe a page, of various dates, from various places. This is what is refered to today as “The original Greek and Hebrew”
 
Hi Br Rich,

Jerome and Augustine sure had some heated arguments about his translation. It wasn’t universally accepted as being the best at the time.

And, the translation from the Latin into English led to a lot of ‘latinisms’ that probably wouldn’t have appeared in a direct translation from the Hebrew and Greek.

There just might be a place for other English translations …
 
Modern translations in English do not get any better than the RSV-CE. I have numerous bibles and I bought this one based on numerous recommendations, and was not disappointed.
 
The NAB has a great NT, but the OT is not that good. I would totally recommend the NT of the NAB for your NT studies. I have not had a chance to check out the RSV-CE, but I hear alot of good things about it.

I am not impressed with the NAB commentary, tooooooo liberal. Though it does give some good info about variances in texts among manuscripts.
 
they dont because catholics dont encourage reading the biuble because it may prevoke people to ask questions
 
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kpnuts2k:
they dont because catholics dont encourage reading the biuble because it may prevoke people to ask questions
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What anti-Catholic source are you getting your erronious information from?

If someone is too lazy to pick up their Bible, they will hear the it in it’s entirety in three years if they go to Mass every Sunday, or in one year if they go every day.
 
Actually, I’ve NEVER been encouraged to read the biuble. And I’ll continue to avoid it, for I do not wish to be prevoked, whatever that is … could be painful. :eek:
 
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AmandaPS:
What anti-Catholic source are you getting your erronious information from?

If someone is too lazy to pick up their Bible, they will hear the it in it’s entirety in three years if they go to Mass every Sunday, or in one year if they go every day.
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They will hear about 90% if the Scriptures if they attend daily Mass for three years and about 70% of it if they only attend on Sunday for three years.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
They will hear about 90% if the Scriptures if they attend daily Mass for three years and about 70% of it if they only attend on Sunday for three years.
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My mistake. :o
 
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squirt:
Actually, I’ve NEVER been encouraged to read the biuble. And I’ll continue to avoid it, for I do not wish to be prevoked, whatever that is … could be painful. :eek:
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Squirt, I think it means to be voked before - definitely painful:D .

John
 
Do they have a RSVCE in large print study bible? I also heard that they were coming out with a new edition of the NAB. George
 
Though the plethora of translations of the Bible is disheartening, I feel that Catholics especially need new annotations for the Bible. I’d love to see some solid bishops and scholars who actually follow the Church’s teachings (e.g. Providentissimus Deus) and come up with at least a new series of notes for a Bible, either the NAB (which I feel is somewhat flawed as a translation) or the RSV or perhaps a Catholic edition of the ESV. (I’d love to see an ESV similar to the RSV common Bible - with the Catholic and Greek Deuterocanon) This one would be especially great if the USCCB or the Vatican were to approve of it and encourage it. Is a new translation needed? Probably not, but who knows?
 
Is there any type of forbidden rule the church imposes that would prevent a simple lay catholic from putting together a bible in modern language, selling it to a book publisher and making a profit?
 
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J_Chrysostomos:
Though the plethora of translations of the Bible is disheartening, I feel that Catholics especially need new annotations for the Bible. I’d love to see some solid bishops and scholars who actually follow the Church’s teachings (e.g. Providentissimus Deus) and come up with at least a new series of notes for a Bible, either the NAB (which I feel is somewhat flawed as a translation) or the RSV or perhaps a Catholic edition of the ESV. (I’d love to see an ESV similar to the RSV common Bible - with the Catholic and Greek Deuterocanon) This one would be especially great if the USCCB or the Vatican were to approve of it and encourage it. Is a new translation needed? Probably not, but who knows?
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Ditto! 👍

It would be really good to see a modern Catholic Bible translation that is as good as the ESV. The ESV is great because, unlike other Protestant translations, that can obscure the Sacramental texts the ESV does not. Beyond that it is so superior a translation to the RSV and especially the NAB as to make the latter look like a childrens book by comparison.

I honestly think the reason a good, non-feminized version has not come about yet is because the American Catholic Church is made up of way to many liberal , boomer generation clergy and "theologians’ who have bought into higher criticism. I think the younger generation has a much better chance of producing a worthy translation with worthy conservative study notes.

If I were Catholic or became Catholic you can bet that I would use the NKJV, NAS or ESV with a deutero-canonical supplement before I would eve waste my money on the NAB or the RSV. The former three are just far better translations. The NAB is much closer to a paraphrase than a translation anyway. Makes it tougher to get the actual meaning of the text. Plus, the poetic books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon etc.) are so much more beautiful in the NKJV and ESV. They do much better at translating the “feel” of Hebrew poetry.

Just my :twocents:.

Mel
 
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