Bible
Versions and Commentaries
Liturgical Use in United States
There is only one English text currently approved by the Church for use in the United
States. This text is the one contained in the Lectionaries approved for
Sundays & Feasts and for Weekdays by the USCCB and recognized by the
Holy See. These Lectionaries have their American and Roman approval documents
in the front. The text is that of the New American Bible with revised
Psalms and New Testament (1988, 1991), with some changes mandated by the
Holy See where the NAB text used so-called vertical inclusive language
(e.g. avoiding male pronouns for God). Since these Lectionaries have been
fully promulgated, the permission to use the Jerusalem Bible and the
RSV-Catholic at Mass has been withdrawn. [See note on inclusive
language]
Devotional Reading
A bewildering array of Catholic Bibles are available for personal use.
They all have imprimaturs, but not all avoid the use of inclusive language.
That use is indicated in the summary. The order is generally chronological.
1. Douai-Rheims. The original Catholic Bible in English,
pre-dating the King James Version (1611). It was translated from the Latin
Vulgate, the Church's official Scripture text, by English Catholics in
exile on the continent. The NT was completed and published in 1582 when
the English College (the seminary for English Catholics) was located at
Rheims. The Old Testament was published in 1610 when the College was
located at Douai. Bishop Challoner's 1750 edition, and subsequent
revisions by others up to the 20th century, is the most common edition.
Retains some archaic English. The 1899 edition is available from TAN
Books. The text is widely available on line, including EWTN's library.
2. Confraternity Edition. Begun in 1936 by the American bishops'
Confraternity for Christian Doctrine as a translation from the Clementine
Vulgate. The publication of Pius XII's encyclical Divino afflante
spiritu (1943) caused the translation committee to switch to the
original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. Not all books were completed by
the time of Vatican II (1962-1965). Those that were finished were used in
the liturgy in the 1950s and 60s. Published in a dignified American idiom.
Though hard to find, this edition of the Scriptures is worth possessing.
3. Revised Standard Version (RSV) - Catholic Edition.
Translated for an American audience from the original languages in the
1940s and 1950s by the National Council of the Churches of Christ, and
adapted for Catholic use by the Catholic Biblical Association (1966).
Considered the
best combination of literal (formal equivalence translation) and literary by many orthodox Catholic scholars.
Published today by Ignatius Press (Ignatius Bible) and Scepter Press, and
available through EWTN's Religious
Catalogue.
4.1 New American Bible or NAB (1970). Translated
from the original languages by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
according to the principles of Vatican II for use in the liturgy. It was
the basis of the American Lectionary from the 1970s until 2002. A good
translation, but it was criticized for its changing of some traditional
and familiar expressions, such as "full of grace".
4.2 NAB with Revised New Testament (1986). A
restoration of some traditional familiar phraseology. Unfortunately,
it also included some mild inclusive language. No longer widely available,
owing to the publication of the revised Psalms (see next entry).
4.3 NAB with Revised Psalms and Revised New Testament
(1991). It was due to the use of vertical inclusive language (re: God and
Christ) and some uses of horizontal inclusive language (re: human beings),
that the Holy See rejected this text as the basis of a revised Lectionary
for the United States. This is the version of the NAB currently on sale in
the United States.
4.4 Modified NAB with Revised Psalms and
Revised New Testament (2000-2002). This title is of my own
invention. It does not refer to any currently available Bible, but to the
NAB with Revised Psalms and Revised NT, as modified by a
committee of the Holy See and the Bishops for use in the liturgy. It is
the text found in all current Lectionaries in the U.S.. The Holy See
accepted some use of inclusive language, where the speaker/author intended
a mixed audience (e.g. "brothers and sisters", instead of the
older "brethren"), but rejected it in references to God or
Christ, and man, where the word has anthropological and theological
significance (e.g. Psalm 1:1, with reference to Adam and Christ). Whether
a Bible will be made available having these modified NAB texts is not
known at this time. Since they do not extend to the entire Bible, it is
possible that none will be, as that would require further editing of the
underlying NAB text.
5. Jerusalem Bible (1966). A translation based on
the French edition of the Dominicans of the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, who
translated it from the original languages. This Bible is the one used by Mother Angelica
on the air. The full version has copious footnotes but is hard to find, as
it has not been recently republished. A Reader's Edition, without the full
footnoting, is available through EWTN's Religious
Catalogue.
6. New Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition (1989). An
adaptation for Catholic use of the NRSV of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ. Although used in the American edition
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it was rejected for
liturgical use by the Holy See owing to inclusive language in some unacceptable
places. With this exception, like the predecessor RSV, it is a good formal
equivalent translation (i.e. literal, but literary).
7. New Jerusalem Bible (1990). A revision of the
Jerusalem Bible directly from the original languages. It contains inclusive
language, similar to that rejected in the revised NAB by the Holy See for
use in the liturgy, but is considered a very literary text, and comparable
in quality to the NRSV in scholarship.
8. Today's' English Version - Catholic (1992).
This is the Catholic edition of the popular Good News Bible
by the American Bible Society. Translated according to the principle of
dynamic equivalence for readability. The same principle was used by ICEL
to translate the Mass texts. Would be better to call a paraphrase than a
translation.
Catholic versus Protestant Bibles
Bible translations developed for Catholic use are
complete Bibles. This means that they contain the entire canonical
text identified by Pope Damasus and the Synod of Rome (382) and the local
Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), contained in St. Jerome's
Latin Vulgate translation (420), and decreed infallibly by the Ecumenical
Council of Trent (1570). This canonical text contains the same 27 NT Testament
books which Protestant versions contain, but 46 Old Testament books,
instead of 39. These 7 books, and parts of 2 others, are called
Deuterocanonical by Catholics (2nd canon) and Apocrypha (false writings)
by Protestants, who dropped them at the time of the Reformation. The
Deuterocanonical texts are Tobias (Tobit), Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus
(Sirach), Wisdom, First and Second
Maccabees and parts of Esther and Daniel. Some Protestant Bibles include
the "Apocrypha" as pious reading.
Commentaries
While an older orthodox commentary from the 1950s,
called A Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Nelson
Publishers) can sometimes be found, we are now starting to see new
faithful commentaries being published. The best one is the Navarre Bible
(Scepter Press). It is a work in progress from
the University of Navarre in Spain. It has both the RSV and the Latin Vulgate, with
commentary underneath from the Fathers, Doctors, the Magisterium and the writings of
St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei. So far the volumes of the New
Testament (one per Gospel and collections of the epistles) are available, as
well as some Old Testament volumes (Pentateuch, Joshua-Kings).
Additionally, Ignatius Press has begun to publish the Ignatius Catholic
Study Bible, individual NT volumes by orthodox scholars, including
Scott Hahn. Sop, far the Gospels and Acts have been published. Both the Navarre
Bible and the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible can be obtained
from EWTN's Religious Catalogue, the publishers,
and through most Catholic catalogs, distributors
and bookstores.
The most widely used Catholic commentary is probably the
Jerome Biblical Commentary, now in a 2nd edition. There is also a
summary version of it. This commentary is the work of well-known Catholic
Biblical scholars and is filled with articles on historical, archaeological,
linguistic and other subjects useful for understanding the background of
the Scriptures. The JBC is, therefore, a valuable resource for
those seeking such information. However, the textual commentaries use
primarily the historical-critical method, and thus must be read with
discernment. The Church approves of the use of this method for the purpose
of understanding the historical and literary foundations of the text (see
Vatican II, Dei Verbum 11-13), but finds it an incomplete method
apart from the Tradition. Scripture must be interpreted according to the
analogy of faith, that is, in accordance with what God has revealed in
toto, as taught by the Magisterium.
Inclusive Language
The common practice of English historically has been to
use male nouns and pronouns (man, mankind, he) when referring collectively
to human beings, regardless of sex. In recent decades some feminists have
claimed that this is offensive to them, as it represents a "patriarchal
worldview" in which men are superior to women. Through their media influence
they have effectively ended such use in publishing, academia, television and
movies, as well as in common speech. Within the Church, through the
well-oiled machinery of dissent, the rejection of such "non-inclusive"
language has been applied to the use of male terms in connection with
God.
Whether in the secular arena or in the Church, almost no
resistance has been offered to this forced development of language, and
few are even aware of what is at stake, seeing it only as a
matter of fairness to women. Thankfully, the Holy See has resisted the tide and clearly drawn
the lines between what is an acceptable use of inclusive language and what
is unacceptable. Acceptable use would include those collective expressions
for human beings which today a speaker or author would be expected to use,
such as "ladies and gentleman" or "brothers and
sisters". It is unlikely that any one would use "brothers"
or "brethren" for a mixed audience today. Thus, there is nothing
wrong in principle to this kind of horizontal inclusive language.
What is unacceptable to the Magisterium, however, is the use
of inclusive language in collective terms for human beings which have an
anthropological significance, or, in terms for God or Christ (vertical
inclusive language). The collective term man, for example, is both
a philosophically and theologically appropriate term for the human race.
Just as there is a certain precedence within the Trinity, by which the
Father is God, the Son is God by generation and the Holy Spirit is God by
spiration, Sacred Scripture reveals that an image of this Trinity of equal
Persons in God is reflected in the creation of woman from man. Adam (which
means man) is a man, Eve is a man (since she shares his
nature), and each of their descendants is a man. This expresses
equality, NOT inequality, as feminists claim. Whatever injustices men have
perpetrated on women through the millennia, Adam's sin is the
cause, not God and His
wise created design.
So, human nature is called man or mankind, and
each human person is a man, just as the divine nature is called God
and all Three Persons are God. (The sexual distinction is expressed as
male and female, though man and woman also does so. Even these contain
implicitly the evidence of the origins of woman from man
in the economy of creation.)
The problem with vertical inclusive language with
respect to Christ is similar. Destined to be the New Adam Christ is
prophetically anticipated in certain Hebrew texts which play on the word
adam as both the name for the human race and the name of the first member
of that race. A good example, which can be a test of a text to see if it
has objectionable inclusive language, is Psalm 1. It should read "Happy the
man who follows not the
counsel of the wicked" (or similar). Inclusive language versions will replace
"man" with "one" or "mortal" or some variation. The Holy See has rejected this as
contradicting the messianic references to Christ implicit in the text, where
man refers not only to David the author of the psalm, but back to Adam
(the man) and forward to Christ (Son of David and Son of Man).
Finally, the use of vertical inclusive language for God
is likewise unacceptable. No one should understand that God is male or
female. He is not. God is pure spirit, whereas masculinity and femininity
are the properties of animal bodies. In man these bodies are united to a
soul, and thus we can also speak of spiritual characteristic of men and
women - a way of loving others, for example, that is characteristic of
women, versus men, and vice versa. Such spiritual characteristics, whether
of men or women, must be rooted in some way in God, who is the source of
all good. Thus, in the Old Testament the love of God for his people is sometimes
referred to as a "womb-love" (rahamim), a clear reference to the
love of a mother for her child. Similarly, Jesus in the New Testament
speaks of wanting to take His People under His wings like a mother hen.
Thus, Scripture shows us, and the Church teaches, that all that is good in
man and woman, save the purely material sexual distinctions proper to
bodies, comes from the Author of all that is good.
However, is this a warrant to speak of God as Father and
Mother, and to avoid the use of male terms with respect to God (Father,
Son, Him, He etc.)? While it is certainly just to speak of what is
motherly or feminine in God, in the sense described above, it is nonetheless
certain that God has revealed Himself in a certain way and that we must
first respect His sovereign decision, and second try to understand it.
One of the difficulties is that as the debate has gone forward, it has
become clear that many Catholic feminists do not respect the Word of God,
but see it the word of men re-enforcing an unjust patriarchal order. Since
this overthrows Divine Revelation's authority, and many dogmas of the faith
with it, it cannot and should not be dialogued with or accommodated in any
way. Certainly, the Holy See has taken that stance. Unfortunately, many
others who do not intend such a vast rejection of Tradition have been
duped into believing in the bias of translations and the influence of
patriarchy on the transmission of Revelation in the Church, and so need a
good explanation of the reasons for the usages of Scripture and Tradition.
A direct understanding of God is not accessible to human
reason. Spirit cannot be perceived or tested experimentally, and so God
must speak in analogies familiar to our experience. In choosing which
analogs to use in reference to Himself He chose those most suitable within
creation. Unlike the Shamrock of St. Patrick, which has a certain
similitude to God, there was and is nothing more suitable for
explaining God than the
creatures He made in His image and likeness, both as God and as Trinity.
Thus, He chose the human race to explain Who He is. Man is both the
creature in the visible creation most like God, and the creature most
understandable to man.
Image of God in the Nature of Man
The closest likeness
to the spiritual nature of God in the visible creation is the human soul.
The spiritual nature of the soul gives to man the capacities to reason and
to choose, to know and to love. This is why God made Adam governor of Eden
and told him to name the other creatures. In giving Adam a wife God made
her a helpmate in these tasks, as she too, having the same human nature as
Adam (unlike the other animals), is suited to this collaboration. It
should be noted that this work is in the first place a spiritual work, knowing
creatures, especially their natures and ends, and willfully directing them
to God's purposes. In the creation in which Man lives, however, this
cannot be separated from the need for a body. Thus, although the image of
God is primarily said of the soul of human beings, the body of Man
has been so designed as to serve the soul and the special place of Man in
creation. Unlike God, without a body Man cannot accomplish what has been
given to him to do. Thus, both man and woman have been equipped with the
primary faculties needed for this work (intellect and will), and with
bodies which complement each other in the multitude of different tasks
which must be done in life.
Image of God in the Differentiation of the
Sexes
God is
not a solitary nature but a Communion of Persons. As noted above, the
Processions of Persons (Father generating the Son, and Father and
Son spirating the Holy Spirit) is reflected in the order of Man's own
creation. "Let us make man in our image and likeness. Male and female
he created them" (Gen. 1:26). God made the representative type
Man (Adam) first, and then differentiated Man into two kinds, male and
female, by creating Eve. With respect to the likeness of God's divine nature
in Man, man and woman are equal. Thus, Adam is the representative type
because of his humanity, not his maleness. However, with respect to the
order of creating, as a created analogy to the order of procession within
the Trinity, there is a first and second. Adam is analogous to the Father
in coming first, Eve to the Son in coming second. Within God this is not a
sexual distinction, the Eternal Word is not male or female in the divine
nature, but God from God. Rather, it is an order of the procession of life
and love. The Father gives life and love to the Son, and the Son returns
both infinitely and perfectly, which can only be a Divine
Person, the Holy Spirit.
God's taking woman from man emphasizes in the first
place, therefore, a fact about God's own interior Life. It then
establishes a reality about Man - there is to be an orderly procession of
life and love within human nature, as there is in God. This is made
possible in human nature by the distinction of the sexes and a complementarity
of psychology and body suited to the perpetuation of human love and life
in this world. These bodies, male and female, are therefore particularly equipped
to pro-create and nurture human life to maturity. The psychology and body
of a man enables him to give life and love actively in a manner analogous to
the First Person of the Trinity in generating the Son, but also analogous
to God's creating the universe outside of the Godhead. On the other hand,
the psychology and body of woman allows her to receive, nurture and
herself communicate life and love, analogous to the Second Person
receptively then actively loving and giving life, as well as the creation
receiving life from God and nurturing it within.
So, in giving human nature this created order, an order
which in our embodied existence includes a common nature, as well as male
and female, God not only stamped us with an image and likeness of His own nature
and the Trinitarian Communion, but gave us a means and a language to understand
Him. The use of male terms (Father, Son, He, Him etc.) are not statements
about the masculinity of God, but ways to understand from our experience
of ourselves, imperfect as we are, what are essentially spiritual
realities. If God's self-revelation is perverted, then both our understanding
of God and ourselves is changed, as well. When God is named Mother (and a
name speaks of what is of the essence of a thing), God is turned into an
earth goddess of which we are but a part (panentheism). This is, in fact,
what New Agers believe, and sadly some Catholics. On the other hand, as
Father He is the transcendent Creator. Likewise, if there is no order in
creation between man and woman, then the Church's sexual and marital
teaching is not valid. Not surprisingly, there is a close connection
between the ideological foundations of feminism and those of lesbianism
(less so, male homosexuality). Thus, it is both theologically and
anthropologically necessary to preserve the use of male terms with respect
to God and Christ, as well as in some case of collective nouns referring
to the human race.
Back to top
Answered by Colin B. Donovan, STL
|
