I received this request from Elizabeth Sanborn who works for Logos Bible Software, and am happy to put it up on the SCE blog. I have used Logos bible software myself for years – but I don’t think my budget will stretch to buying many of these new titles (some look particularly interesting). But perhaps I will win the competition?
Hi, David,
I work for Logos Bible Software, and we’ve been working on digitizing scores of Catholic titles. I saw your blog listed in the Catholic Blog Directory and thought that you and your readers would be interested to know about our efforts.
A recent blog post, “Logos Bible Software for Catholics,” explains everything in detail, and you can see all of our Catholic offerings in our new Catholic Product Guide.
There’s even an opportunity to win a free copy of the Collegeville Catholic Reference Library, Version 2 just for helping us to spread the word. All of the details are in the blog post.
Thanks for your time!
They are working on the Summa as a title, I can’t wait.
Talking about things Biblical,can anyone suggest to me a version of the Scriptures that is used in the catholic church,other than the Jerusalem Bible. I have inherited a New Testament ,which was my mother’s,and it is the Cardinal Knox version-interpreted from the Vulgate Bible. I went into the Bible Society once to ask for the price of both the Vulgate and the Geneva Bible,I was gob smacked as a figure of over a thousand was quoted for the latter.Obviously being from Geneva it was a predistined price.
Matthias,
In the United States they use the New American Bible. You can get a taste of the translation on the United States Bishops’ Conference Website: http://www.usccb.org/nab/
I’m not a huge fan of it. I’m too familiar with the JB for proclamation and the RSV for study.
God Bless
My recommendations, Matthias:
1) New Jerusalem Bible is better than the JB, as it is translated actually from the Greek and the Hebrew, not from the French (I don’t think Jesus spoke French);
2) The New Revised Standard Version – simply because it is used so ecumenically. It has problems, but then so does the RSV, which is still very good. Both are very good, but not perfect.
3) The New King James Version is a neat translation for the direct equivalent method – which makes it quite good for in depth bible study. I like it. I don’t know if the deutero-canonical books are available though.
AVOID: The NIV (its english is horrible), the NAB (despite being a Catholic translation, it is still pretty horrible), the Good News/TEV (it tries to give dynamic equivalent but results in only being dynamic). And I personally think the JB is dreadful too, because of the French connection.
Bottom line: Do what the Muslims do: learn the original language of your scriptures.
Oh David!
The JB is a beautiful translation (pity that it’s a bad one).
I remember a discussion a year or so ago on another blog about the most beautiful bad translation of a biblical text and a couple of the JB verses won hands down: “you are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it” – I’m sure that Paul would have written that if he hadn’t been in such a hurry.
And, the JB was not translated from the French but from the original languages. An eye was kept on the French in the case of problematic texts and diverse interpretative possibilities.
Obviously being from Geneva it was a predistined price.
Hehehe.
I use the JB, but mostly because I bought it before I really knew much about translations and it was the Bible used in the lectionary.
It is to this day (more than 20 years later) the Bible I read regularly, because it is “my” Bible. I can’t imagine using another one for prayer, but study is another matter. We have several versions, and one of them is an interlinear Bible with three English versions of the Gospels with the Greek words inserted.
When I read the JB, whether loud or in silence, I now substitute “LORD”, where “Yahweh” is written.
I like my Bibles Catholic! If there’s a Catholic version of the NRSV, that would probably be the one I would buy next.
Yes, there is a version of the NRSV that is “Catholic” – ie. with the deutero-canonicals in the right place in the OT – and also a version (in fact, the standard NRSV) that has the deutero-canonicals (including the extra books that the Greeks and Slavs have that we don’t have) in a central section between the OT and the NT.
If you’re talking about liturgical use, the JB is used throughout the English-speaking world except for North America, where the New American is used in the USA and (I think) the NRSV is optional for use in Canada. The French Jerusalem Bible (from the same stable as the Jerusalem Bible) is used throughout the French-speaking world (including francophone Canada).
If you’re talking about for reading or study, the RSV (Catholic edition) is very popular, but Jerusalem and NAB are also much used. I suspect your honours student will want to compare two or more translations against one another to get some idea of the nuances of meaning within the text. And of course your real honours student will knuckle down and learn Greek and Hebrew.
There’s any number of internet resources with various translations on them; have a look at http://www.biblegateway.com for an example. But many of them tend to have only the copyright-free translations, and so don’t offer the NAB, the RSV or the JB. But they are useful for extra comparisons, if you want them, or for tracking down the correct chapter and verse citation for that scripture quote you can remember, but can’t quite place.
Congratulations! You managed to snag a free copy of the Collegeville Catholic Reference Library, Version 2. Thanks for entering our Logos Bible Software for Catholics giveaway. Please send your name and mailing address to phil@logos.com with “Logos Bible Software for Catholics” in the title, and we’ll get your prize sent out right away.
Thanks, Phil. Glad to accept. Private email coming your way with requested details.