Why the NAB?

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didymus

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Since the entire Engish-speaking world except the US uses the RSV-CE and the Holy See uses it in official documents why doesn’t the USCCB adopt it as well?

I’m no expert but everything I’ve read comparing English Bibles has really slammed the NAB.

Btw, I never heard of the RSV-CE until I started hanging out here but I plan yo get one :). Right now I use theNAB & Jerusalem Bible.
 
I don’t know, but the NAB is what is on the Vatican website.
 
I’m not sure, but I thought that the NAB was intended to be the new official translation for Catholics. When it first came out, it was apparently something of a disappointment to some, especially in its use of “inclusive language.” The RSV-CE came out later, and many people like it better.
 
The NRSV CE is even worse than the NAB as far as inclusive language.
 
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allhers:
yes, it sure is, I checked, NAB
www.vatican.va/archive/ENGO8391INDEX.HTM
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Now that is weird. I just checked my Catechism and they use the RSV-CE for that. I remember someone telling me they use RSV-CE for encyclicals so I looked up Dei Verbum and the citations don’t match my NAB.

Does the US have the largest single aglophone Catholic community in the world? That’s the only reason I can think of the Vatican would favor the NAB on their website.
 
All of these are approved by the Catholic Church
Navarre
RSV (Revised Standard Version)
NAB(New American Bible)
Jerusalem
Douay Rheims and
Ignatius
 
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didymus:
Since the entire Engish-speaking world except the US uses the RSV-CE and the Holy See uses it in official documents why doesn’t the USCCB adopt it as well?
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Becaue the NAB is a project of the USCCB itself (or rather its arm, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine). Naturally, they use their own product.

In the rest of the world, the other major translation for the Mass Lectionary is the Jerusalem Bible. Some countries use the RSV-CE for the Divine Office.
 
NAB is too ecumenical for my taste. I would stick with Douay.
 
I wonder…what version is used if you go through a different language portal at the site…I’ll have to try German.
 
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JimG:
I’m not sure, but I thought that the NAB was intended to be the new official translation for Catholics. When it first came out, it was apparently something of a disappointment to some, especially in its use of “inclusive language.” The RSV-CE came out later, and many people like it better.
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i have a new american catholic bible that i bought in 1978. i never noticed any inclusive language. it is enjoyable to read, the notes and cross references are excellent. my poor bible is all yellowed and falling apart, but it is my bible. i gave all my children copies of the same bible. (maybe they changed it???)

if i survive my current problems, i want to get a vulgate. easy way to learn latin!!!

oh. question. is there an online or downloadable vulgate??? would help.
 
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Sanctus:
I wonder…what version is used if you go through a different language portal at the site…I’ll have to try German.
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No matter what language portal you go thru the only language option for the Bbile are English (the NAB), Italian, and Latin. From this I’m assuming that those are the only languages in which there is an official Church-approved translation.

On another thread we were trying to figure out what the official French RC translation is and discovered there isn’t one – but they’re working on it.
 
I suppose the question has already been answered, Why the NAB?

It’s pretty much the standard American translation, and I suppose the footnotes represent the basic American Bishopric as well. I guess…

It’s just the footnotes, some of them… maybe not so great?

I got this cool RSV CE bible, it’s small, gray and black, by Oxford, like $30, just what I wanted, and the footnotes, very few of them, all located nicely at the end of each book of Scripture, instead of there in the text. Perfect little Catholic Bible to carry virtually anywhere.

I just thought I’d tell thousands of people about that little Bible, it’s pretty sweet. Prayers, devotions, Creed, DV, the real deal.

And if you set it on a sloped surface, it’s got a high traction cover so it probably won’t slide off.

That’s way off topic sorry:tsktsk:

Read the intro/preface to the NAB. The work is the product of 50 scholars, mostly Catholics, but not all of them were Catholic. The point was to get a translation that is pleasing to Catholics and non-Catholic Christians.

How well did they do? I don’t know.
 
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iowastate:
NAB is too ecumenical for my taste. I would stick with Douay.
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NAB is too non-standard-English for my taste. Many passages in the Psalms sound like they were translated by Yoda.

DaveBj
 
As much as I do not like the way the notes were liberally rendered, it is better than our ecumenical translation up here in the North; the liturgical bible is the NRSV, yet the bible of the people is the NAB, and the Apologists take the RSV-CE, and the traditionalists take the DRV, and the kids get the GNT… ARGH!!

The NAB still remains though as a Catholic translation and a Catholic project, which is why, besides its own faults and icky renderings of text, I laud the NAB project.
 
for all those disappointed by the NAB I urge you to switch to lectionary and devotional materials prepared in Canada using their officially approved translation. It is so bad you will be clamoring to return to the NAB.
 
Just as idea, I have always laughed at the amount of notes in the New Testament. The notes are more numerous than the text, especially for the gospels.

The CCC says we must start at the literal interpretation, and move to the other three, that is, allegory, moral and anagogical. I feel that the translation has, in some passages, destroyed the literal and making it most difficult to know and understand the other three levels of Scripture. Let me give one example: the burning thorn bush. Jesus tells us that thrones are worldly anxieties. Moses saw God in a burning thorn bush (c@nah: 1) a bush, thorny bush), not just a burning bush. Morally, God has to burn my worldly thorns, too.

Another simple example: I believe that the word barter or trade might be better than sell (poleo). I am to trade the world’s way for Christ’s way.

I know that the notes can be of help, too. I have learned many things from many different schools of theology. Unfortunately my knowledge of Greek, Hebrew and Latin make me laugh. I am the Sergeant Schultz of English, not to mention other languages.

Thus my next statement is that of a baby. I believe that the Septuagint (LXX) and the Vulgate are great. I know that some scholar, I don’t know the numbers, would be laughing now. My common sense says that the 70 knew the culture, history, geography and the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew much better than the scholars of today. I believe Isaiah 7: 14 of the LXX, a virgin was with child.

When I read the translations of Origen, Augustine and Ambrose I see that the Vulgate and LXX translate things differently than the Bibles of today. Who am I to believe? I will go with the people who lived and spoke the biblical languages.

Again, I know nothing of biblical languages. I am puzzled when the Holy Bible says the etymology of a word and the translators correct the Holy Bible, at least in the notes. I have no idea who is correct. I believe the Holy Bible.

Just an idea or two…
 
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puzzleannie:
for all those disappointed by the NAB I urge you to switch to lectionary and devotional materials prepared in Canada using their officially approved translation. It is so bad you will be clamoring to return to the NAB.
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I second that proposal 😛

As much as the NRSV is a beautiful bible for Ecumenical Canada to use, it has not been approved by the Holy See, or as I have heard. I hope that when the new translation of the Novus Ordo will come, the liturgical bible in Canada will change or get approved to make our Masses much better in terms of a unified bible :P.
 
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