New American Bible changes some words such as "holocaust"

Reuters/yahoo.com ^ | Mar 2, 2011 | Andrew Stern

[ColdOne]

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A new edition of one the most popular English-language Bibles will offer substitutes for words such as "booty" and "holocaust" to better reflect modern understanding, a Catholic group said on Wednesday.

Nearly 50 scholars from all faiths and a committee of Roman Catholic bishops have labored since 1994 over the first fresh edition of the New American Bible since 1970, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

The annual best-seller to be issued by a dozen publishers beginning next week on Ash Wednesday "is a beautiful translation -- it's a new way to look at an old love," said Mary Sperry, who oversees Bible licensing for the bishops.

[Salvation]

**to better reflect modern understanding**

This is a bad step. The NAB needs to go back to the original Vulgate and start over!

[Salvation]

LOL! Check your dates. St. Paul the Apostle did not have the KJV!

I’m still laughing.

[Salvation]

FYI, where do you think you got YOUR Bible from?

The Catholic Church, of course, only Luther left out books that he did not like.

[Salvation]

"We are compelled to concede to the Papists
that they have the Word of God,
that we received it from them,
and that without them
we should have no knowledge of it at all."

~ Martin Luther

"We are compelled to concede to the Papists
that they have the Word of God,
that we received it from them,
and that without them
we should have no knowledge of it at all."

~ Martin Luther

[ReverendJames]

Will have to check out the ESV and compare it. Thanks.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“IMHO, changing the word “virgin” to “young woman” is changing doctrine.”

Nope. There is no Church on earth which believes in Mary’s virginity more than the Catholic Church. The problem is that the Hebrew clearly means “young woman”. In the Septuagint it says “virgin”. The translators and editors decided to use the ACTUAL MEANING OF THE WORD. My complaint is not that, but that they also used a more poorly written footnote on the issue. I read both the old footnote and the new one and I though the old one was stronger in its explanation:

The sign proposed by Isaiah was concerned with the preservation of Judah in the midst of distress (cf Isaiah 7:15, 17), but more especially with the fulfillment of God’s earlier promise to David (2 Sam 7:12-16) in the coming of Immanuel (meaning, “With us is God”) as the ideal king (cf Isaiah 9:5-6; 11:1-5). The Church has always followed St. Matthew in seeing the transcendent fulfillment of this verse in Christ and his Virgin Mother. The prophet need not have known the full force latent in his own words; and some Catholic writers have sought a preliminary and partial fulfillment in the conception and birth of the future King Hezekiah, whose mother, at the time Isaiah spoke, would have been a young, unmarried woman (Hebrew, almah). The Holy Spirit was preparing, however, for another Nativity which alone could fulfill the divinely given terms of Immanuel’s mission, and in which the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God was to fulfill also the words of this prophecy in the integral sense intended by the divine Wisdom.

Here’s the new footnote:

[7:14] Isaiah’s sign seeks to reassure Ahaz that he need not fear the invading armies of Syria and Israel in the light of God’s promise to David (2 Sm 7:12–16). The oracle follows a traditional announcement formula by which the birth and sometimes naming of a child is promised to particular individuals (Gn 16:11; Jgs 13:3). The young woman: Hebrew ‘almah designates a young woman of marriageable age without specific reference to virginity. The Septuagint translated the Hebrew term as parthenos, which normally does mean virgin, and this translation underlies Mt 1:23. Emmanuel: the name means “with us is God.” Since for the Christian the incarnation is the ultimate expression of God’s willingness to “be with us,” it is understandable that this text was interpreted to refer to the birth of Christ.

No apostasy, just an accurate translation. I just wish they had a better footnote.

[vladimir998]

Some traditional minded Catholics like the Douay Rheims. Many also like the RSVCE or the RSV2CE (my choice).

[Salvation]

"We are compelled to concede to the Papists
that they have the Word of God,
that we received it from them,
and that without them
we should have no knowledge of it at all."

~ Martin Luther

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"We are compelled to concede to the Papists
that they have the Word of God,
that we received it from them,
and that without them
we should have no knowledge of it at all."

~ Martin Luther

[SuziQ]

What will the word “Holocaust” be replaced with and what sort of definition will be used?

My guess is 'sacrifice', because isn't that what a holocaust was, in the Old Testament, a sacrifice of an animal on an altar?

[SuziQ]

Hubby and I went to a meeting this week about the changes coming in the New Missal for the Roman Catholic Mass. The Monsignor doing the talk mentioned Dynamic Equivalency, and how it had created so much angst among so many. They used Formal Equivalency for the new version to eliminate the personal biases that were prevalent in the previous translations, and to hew more closely to the original meanings. He also mentioned the changes being made in the NAB, for the same reasons.

[A. Patriot]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I learned something. And yes, apostasy is too strong a word. I just couldn’t believe that the Catholic Church would change it, even if it were a questionable translation.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

” I just couldn’t believe that the Catholic Church would change it, even if it were a questionable translation.”

I’m not trying to argue with you, but it isn’t questionable. The Hebrew word means “young woman”. The “young woman” can be a virgin of course, but that is not explicit in the text. I don’t think that it is wrong to translate it as “virgin” since it appears that way in the Septuagint, but in Hebrew it’s just young woman.

[ReverendJames]

This is interesting. I'm currently reading a novel titled "A Death In Vienna" - the hero of the story is a Mossad agent. There was a testimony in the story by this woman who suffered at Birkenau/Auschwitz - anyway the term/word Holocaust is very special to the Jewish people. It's a reminder of what happened to them at the hands of the Nazi's. It's a special word to them. My mother was Jewish (she's passed) and a relative of hers (and mine) named Olga Lengyel who wrote a famous book with photographs about Auschwitz.

I think that in taking away that term is sad. To the Jews (and since my mom was Jewish makes me one too) it wasn't a sacrifice at the extermination camps. My thinking is that the world is trying to put behind itself the murder of all those people, both Jewish, Romani (gypsies) priests, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses and all those that the Nazi regime deemed useless peoples.

In the OT a sacrifice to God of an animal was not a Holocaust but a burnt offering to take away the sins of the people (I'm being simplistic here. There's more to it than just that.) The bombing of Dresden was a Holocaust. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima was a Holocaust. The murder of millions of people in the Nazi death camps was a Holocaust.

Sorry for going on like this but I wanted to lay out what really is behind the word "Holocaust"

[Chaguito]

Although I’m not certain what you mean by ‘original Bible’, the original Hebrew word ‘olah, meaning a sacrifice completely consumed by fire was translated by the seventy Jewish scholars into the Greek ‘holocauston’ in the Septuagint, meaning the same thing. Example Exodus 18:12.

[boatbums]

Agreed. The argument that the Hebrew of the passage in Isaiah from the mesoretic text would be better translated "young woman" disappears when you realize the Greek Septuagint specifically translated it as "virgin" despite several preferable Greek words available for "maiden" or "young women". The Septuagint was translated by 70 Jewish scholars, who spoke Biblical Hebrew as a first or second language, and were 2200 years closer to the original Hebrew text and usage. The proper translation is "virgin".

Totally agree on that. The context of the verse also rules out saying "young woman", since it says "A sign will be given to you...". What sign would it possibly be for a young woman to bear a child?

[circlecity]

"The Hebrew word means “young woman"

Then why did 70 of the best Hebrew scholars translate it as "virgin" in the Septuagint? Why is a the 10th century masoretic text, and a contemporary usage of the word, to be preferred to the septugint which was written by people who spoke Biblical Hebrew everyday and thought the word meant "virgin"?

[Straight Vermonter]

Here is the list of times it is used. 150 times in total.

[Straight Vermonter]

See post #57 for the link.

[Biggirl]

I have at least one book by Mr. Tolkien, “The Hobiet”, bear with me any mispellings. :)=^..^=

[Biggirl]

To me, New American Bible is a starter Bible or intro Bible.