Let's Talk a Bit About the Pope's New Encyclical.......

But not about what you may think.  I am happy to post this fascinating report from reader Chris, who examined the translations used throughout Laudato Si.  Thanks for this!  I know that you all will be fascinated by this.

As a Catholic, I offer my thanks to the Holy father for issuing Laudato si’ as a gift to the human family. He reminds us of moral impact of “throwaway culture,” that in using and reducing the material world to rubbish, we do so as well to the human beings with whom we share it.

As a former United Methodist seminarian and a Bible geek, however, it wasn’t just his stance on climate change and creation I wanted to dive into. I was also curious to see which Bible translation the official English text selected for the Pope’s Biblical citations. Though I count myself among the few who actually admire the balanced artistry to the NABRE Old Testament, I do wish the English-speaking Catholic world would settle together on a common translation from the original languages. The closest we are likely to get to an official Vatican English Bible is to pay attention to the source text chosen by the Pope’s translation team..

From paragraph 65 (II. The Wisdom of the Biblical Accounts) to paragraph 77 (III. The Mystery of the Universe), the Holy Father cites the Old Testament 24 times, including passages of short and medium length.

So, what Bible does the Holy Father use? Apparently, any Bible he likes!

Encyclical	Pope	Year	Quote	Reference	Translation
Laudato si	Francis	2015	God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good	Gen 1:31	RSV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	have dominion	Gen 1:28	RSV NRSV NABRE
Laudato si	Francis	2015	till it and keep it	Gen 2:15	RSV NRSV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	The earth is the Lord’s	Ps 24:1	RSV NRSV NABRE
Laudato si	Francis	2015	the earth with all that is within it	Dt 10:14
Laudato si	Francis	2015	The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me	Lev 25:23	RSV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	he commanded and they were created; and he established them for ever and ever; he fixed their bounds and he set a law which cannot pass away	Ps 148:5b-6
Laudato si	Francis	2015	You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and withhold your help… If you chance to come upon a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs; you shall not take the mother with the young	Dt 22:4, 6	RSV-2CE
Laudato si	Francis	2015	that your ox and your donkey may have rest	Ex 23:12	RSV-2CE NABRE
Laudato si	Francis	2015	the Lord rejoices in all his works	Ps 104:31
Laudato si	Francis	2015	the Lord by wisdom founded the earth	Prov 3:19	RSV NRSV NABRE
Laudato si	Francis	2015	What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground	Gen 4:9-11	RSV ESV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them	Gen 6:13	RSV ESV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	the wickedness of man was great in the earth	Gen 6:5	RSV ESV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	was sorry that he had made man on the earth	Gen 6:6	RSV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants	Lev 25:10
Laudato si	Francis	2015	When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after the harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner	Lev 19:9-10
Laudato si	Francis	2015	who spread out the earth on the waters, for his steadfast love endures for ever	Ps 136:6	RSV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created	Ps 148:3-5	RSV NRSV ESV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you… You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders	Jer 32:17, 21	NRSV ESV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless	Is 40:28b-29	NRSV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways!	Rev 15:3	RSV-2CE
Laudato si	Francis	2015	By the word of the Lord the heavens were made	Ps 33:6	RSV NRSV ESV
Laudato si	Francis	2015	For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it	Wis 11:24	NRSV

The RSV holding strong

Using BibleGateway to look up and compare each citation across translations, I expected to see a clear preference toward either the NRSV or the RSV. For the most part, that’s what I found.

Typically, where the English text presents a Biblical citation in language from the RSV, the NRSV language is often identical, leading me to believe that the default translation must be the RSV. Moreover, where an RSV quote differs from the the NRSV, the encyclical does skew toward the RSV. For instance, the English text of Laudato si’ renders Leviticus 25:3:

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

This is clearly a lift from RSV, and it is markedly different from its analogue in the NRSV (“with me you are but aliens and tenants”).

Not so fast...

However, reading further, I was surprised to see that the translation doesn’t seem to adhere strictly to any one version. In at least two instances, the Pope’s English translators opted for the NRSV over the RSV.

• Jeremiah 32:17 lacks the RSV’s archaic pronouns, and renders it “Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth…”  
• Isaiah 40:28b-29 is identical in the RSV and NRSV, until the very last phrase. “He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless” gives it away as a quote from the  NRSV. The RSV opts instead for: “and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

So the Vatican opted for the NRSV as readily as it did the RSV. In fact, the former passage is rendered identically in the ESV, but it seems unlikely that the translators chose it as their base translation, since (so far as I know) there is no full ESV version that has been approved for Catholic use.

With a very special guest star

It gets interesting, as soon as the Holy father starts mentioning livestock. Two passages really stood out for their use of the modern “donkey” instead of the RSV’s more traditional “ass” (Ex 23:12, Deut 22:4, 6). I was surprised to see that neither instance was quoting the NRSV.

You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and withhold your help… If you chance to come upon a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs; you shall not take the mother with the young. (Deut 22:4, 6)

Amazingly, the source of this citation is none other than the RSV-2CE!

The shorter “that your ox and your donkey may have rest” (Ex 23:12) also aligns with the NABRE, as do a few other isolated phrases. This seems to be a function of the brevity of the quote where it doesn’t conflict with a similar translation choice in the RSV / NRSV counterparts, so I’m confident saying that the NABRE isn’t actually represented here.

The English translators also opt for the RSV-2CE when they render Rev 15:3

Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways!

Says who?

Then there is a large portion of the citations that simply diverge from any text I could find. These usually start out like the RSV / NRSV, and then add or drop modifier or helping verb. I suspect these are either wholly original translations, glosses pulled from lectionaries, or simply the RSV “cleaned up” by the Vatican translators! Only here does:

• Lev 19:9-10 refer to “your” harvest (the RSV is rendered identically, except for “the” harvest)
• Deut 10:14 use “within” (i.e. “the earth and all that is within it”)
• Psalm 148:6 end “he set a law which cannot pass away”

And the winner is

Surprisingly, the RSV-2CE seems to be one of the main two English texts quoted by the Pope’s translators, supplemented by the NRSV. At first glance, that may seem like a stretch. After all, most of the quotations aren’t different between the first and second catholic editions.

It dawned on me after reviewing these citations, though, that although the RSV is quoted extensively (and possibly adapted when convenient), the only indication we have of one edition over another is specifically when the RSV-2CE is quoted to avoid an archaism. Since the RSV-2CE is cited at all, it is likely the source of all the RSV quotes throughout, both those it shares in common with the original 1966 edition, and those unique to itself.

In other words, the Vatican team now seems to be translating with the RSV-2CE in one hand and the NRSV in the other as back-up, freely supplementing with their own edits as needed! This is both exciting and frustrating if, like me, you are frustrated by the confusing status of the RSV-2CE’s imprimatur. Perhaps someone with a print edition of the encyclical can see if the permissions page specifies the sources of its Biblical citations?