For the past twenty-five years, people have asked me, “What is the best translation of the Bible?” The classic answer is, “The one you’ll read.” There is some truth to this because, obviously, an unread Bible won’t do you any good. However, as a Catholic, you should be aware of some important guidelines when choosing a Bible translation.
First things first: Although there is no longer an Index of Forbidden Books, it is still important for Catholics to read a Catholic Bible. For one thing, Protestant Bibles have only 66 books while Catholic Bibles have 73. The Protestant Reformers removed from their Bibles seven Old Testament books – called deuterocanonical books – Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch as well as sections of Esther and Daniel. The Catholic Church considers these books, like the rest of the Bible, to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. And historically, it was the Catholic Church who established the canon or official table of contents for the Old and New Testaments.
It is also well to know that an authentically Catholic translation will have been granted a bishop’s imprimatur (Latin for “Let it be printed”). This does not mean that the bishop personally endorses that particular translation or that he agrees with every choice of the translator. However, his imprimatur is an assurance that the translation is complete and free from errors in matters of faith and morals. Consequently, there are many approved Catholic Bible Editions in English:
If you were to look on my nightstand, the Bible translation you would find there is the traditional Douay–Rheims Bible (DRB). This is the 16th-century English translation of St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate which for centuries was virtually the only Catholic Bible in English. While it is a beautiful translation and has clearly stood the test of time, some modern people find the 16th century English rather challenging – especially the epistles of Saint Paul which even the Bible suggests are hard to understand in the first place (2 Peter 3:15-16).
So for many years in my work as a catechist and a speaker, I typically employed the New American Bible (NAB). The NAB is the translation with which American Catholics are most familiar because it’s the one we use at Mass. It attempts a balanced translation in order to provide a text that is dynamic enough to be suitable for modern liturgical proclamation, but formal enough to be used for serious study and scholarship. As the official English text for the United States, it is not surprising that the NAB is the most popular translation here. However, there are other English versions. Notably:
The Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) and The New Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE). Both are modern revisions of the Protestant King James Bible in Catholic Editions. The RSV-CE is a more formal translation of the Bible than the NAB and is a favorite of Catholics who do serious academic Bible study, like Dr. Scott Hahn and Father Mike Schmitz among others. Some Catholic publishers like Ignatius Press and Catholic Answers employ the RSV-CE for biblical citations in their books and articles as an editorial policy. The likely reason is that a combination of the two Catholic Editions of the RSV is used for official English translations of Vatican documents and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liturgically, the Catholic Edition of the New Revised Standard Version is used for the Mass readings in Australia and Canada and the original RSV-CE for the Anglican Ordinariate Mass.*
Another popular version is The Jerusalem Bible (JB), a French version of the Bible translated into English in 1966. This is the Bible preferred by Mother Angelica for her classic TV show. There is also a New Jerusalem Bible.
For many years Holy Mass in England and Wales was celebrated with a combination of the Jerusalem Bible and the Grail Psalter which is the translation of the Psalms used for the Liturgy of the Hours in the U.S. The current official English translation for the United Kingdom is the English Standard Version (ESV) which is yet another modern revision of the King James Bible, and the one I read for the “Bible in a Year” feature on the Augustine Institute’s “Amen” smartphone app.
Among other approved English translations are The Good News Translation (GNT) and The Contemporary English Version (CEV) – these are both ecumenical modern English translations prepared by the American Bible Society. The GNT has been granted a bishop’s imprimatur as has the New Testament of the CEV. The New Testament of the CEV is also approved by the U.S. Bishops for use in children’s liturgy, but the Good News Bible is approved for private use only.
Last but not least, I’d like to mention the version that I turn to most often these days for my podcasts and articles, The New Catholic Bible. The NCB, is a contemporary translation prepared by a team of translators for the Catholic Book Publishing Company under the direction of Franciscan Biblical scholar Fr. Jude Winkler, OFM Conv. In many ways it is quite similar to the NAB, but I find it both a more readable, and, in some significant ways, a more accurate translation (especially regarding the use of so-called “inclusive language” which is another topic for another time). I will mention that the various editions of the NCB are both handsome and made to last as I’ve come to expect from Catholic Book Publishing Company.
A final word concerning Bible translations. There is an old saying in Italian: Traduttori, traditori (translators, traitors). Because it’s not really possible to render one language into another “word for word”. Translators, therefore, must always make choices—and you can’t please everyone. So, really, there is no perfect English translation of the Bible, and I regularly employ several translations in my own study and teaching. The good thing about Bible versions today is that you don’t have to buy them all in order to compare and contrast. Every version I’ve talked about in this video is available online for free at BibleGateway.com.
Perhaps in the end, the stock answer, “The best Bible for you is the one you’ll read,” has some merit. For Catholics, the thing to remember is to choose a Catholic Edition of the Bible – with a bishop’s imprimatur – and most importantly, that you take what you read to heart. As Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35).
And that’s no nonsense.
* Pope Benedict XVI established the Anglican Ordinariate in 2009 with the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. A “Personal Ordinariate,” it is a structure within the Catholic Church that allows former Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while keeping some of their traditions. Hence, the Anglican Ordinariate Mass.