Guest Review: Christian Community Bible Revised Edition (2013)

Thank you to Chris for this review of his CCB:

One of the pleasant surprises coming out of last week's Catholic Bible Taxonomy was getting to spend time with some less familiar translations. This week, let's take a closer look at the Christian Community Bible: Catholic Pastoral Edition.

 This is the English translation adapted from Father Hurault's Biblia Latinoamericana in 1986. Although it's been in print consistently since then, and older editions are widely available used and online, it's very hard to locate new in the US. (Thanks to Lenny for locating new copies on sale through St. Paul's Press.) Because I wanted to review the latest (59th!) Revised Edition published in 2013, I contacted Claretian Publications in Macau, who makes this Bible available to English-speaking Christians in China, India, and the Philippines (where the Imprimatur was issued).

The volume itself is quite attractive and very comfortable to read. Using it for a week in Morning Prayer, I can say it's probably my most comfortable Bible to hold and read. It has a surprisingly large typeface for a Bible that's not large print, and a compelling "global" design.

Consistent with Fr. Hurault's desire for a Bible that can be read easily by "ordinary poor people," the distinctive pen and ink drawings for each book of the Bible interpret key themes of the book through the experience of the working poor in the developing world. Here are some of my favorites.

Though I don't have an older copy to compare it to, I rather like the translation of the 2013 Revised Edition. It's definitely a translation, and not a paraphrase. If the New Jerusalem Bible and the Good News Translation (Catholic Edition) had children, this would be their firstborn. Liked the NJB, it uses the Divine Name to render the tetragrammaton. Like the GNT, it is conversational without being dumbed down. To be glib: this is the NJB for pastors instead of scholars, or the GNT for grownups. You can sample the text online, and here are some passages for flavor.

Gen 1:1 In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth had no form and was void; darkness was over the deep and the spirit of God hovered over the waters.

Is 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The Virgin is with child and bears a son and calls his name Immanuel.

Jer 20:7 Yahweh, you have seduced me and I let myself be seduced. You have taken me by force and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; they all make fun of me.

Jn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God

Eph 1:3-14 (One sentence in the Greek!) Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, who, in Christ, has blessed us from heaven, with every spiritual blessing. God chose us, in Christ, before the creation of the world, to be holy, and without sin in his presence. From eternity he destined us, in love, to be his adopted sons and daughters, through Christ Jesus, thus fulfilling his free and generous will. This goal suited him: that his loving-kindness, which he granted us in his beloved might finally received all glory and praise. For, in Christ, we obtain freedom, sealed by his blood, and have the forgiveness of sins. In this, appears the greatness of his grace, which he lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding, God has made known to us his mysterious design, in accordance with his loving-kindness, in Christ. In him, and under him, God wanted to unite, when the fullness of time had come, everything in heaven and on earth. By a decree of him, who disposes all things, according to his own plan and decision, we, the Jews, have been chosen and called, and we were awaiting the Messiah, for the praise of his glory. You, on hearing the word of truth, the gospel that saves you, have believed in him. And, as promised, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, the first pledge of what we shall receive, on the way to our deliverance, as a people of God, for the praise of his glory.

Earlier versions use a much criticized two-size typeface to pop essential passages off the page for visual emphasis. That's still here in the 2013 Revised Edition, but it's not as distracting as I feared, so maybe they've dialed it back a bit. Traditionalists and original language purists will not like the extensive use of horizontal inclusive language. One strange choice I think everyone will find jarring is the highly unusual decision to print the Old Testament not in Catholic or Protestant order, but rather in the order of the Torah!

Essentially this gives us a Catholic Bible built out of the New Testament with an English-language Tanakh in front of it. The guiding editorial principal of this translation is a pastoral focus on Catholic community organizing, so I can't imagine what real-world scenario made this a necessary choice. Perhaps a polemic strategy to counter some Protestant sect in the field?

For my money, the real star of this edition is the commentary. It's quite different, at least to North American ears. Where most Catholic Bibles hew either to  historical-critical academic notes or dogmatic-catechetical notes, the Christian Community Bible: Catholic Pastoral Edition reads more like the preaching notes of a missionary trying to make clear the sense of Scripture that will help group leaders build and organize communities around the gospel for dignity and survival. That's because they are: essentially the commentary is Fr. Hurault's homiletic notes from his missionary work in 1960s / 1970s Argentina.

To that end, it finishes with a few handy charts of the Liturgical year for easy reference guiding Bible study or planning Liturgy. 

I could imagine a revitalized interest in this text given that it shares a common culture with the Holy Father. I could easily see teen and college ministers leading groups with this Bible in one hand and the Didache NABRE in the other.

What do you think? Especially if anyone has older editions, I'd love to hear how it compares and how you've encountered Scripture through it.

Christopher Buckley holds an M.A. in Religion from the Claremont School of Theology. He began as a United Methodist and passed through the Episcopal Church before being confirmed into the Catholic Church as an adult. He lives and works in Seattle with his wife and two children, and blogs occasionally at StoryWiseGuy.com. Connect with him on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Flickr, and LinkedIn.

New Community Bible (formerly the CCB)

Thanks to reader John for sharing this breaking news:


Archbishop of Brisbane and Chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Commission on the Liturgy, Mark , formally launched the international edition of The New Community Bible (NCB) in Sydney on the feast day of Blessed James Alberione, the founder of the Pauline Family.

Welcoming the release of the NCB in Australia, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said, “Now is the time when we have to become a more biblical Church, a people more immersed in the word of God. This is the best way to know Jesus whose voice we hear and whose face we see on every page of the Bible. That is why The New Community Bible (international edition) is such a gift. May it find its way into many hands and hearts and homes in this time of grace and faith.”

The NCB published by St Pauls Publications is a revised edition of the popular Christian Community Bible translated by Late Bernardo Hurault, a French Priest, from original languages to Spanish in 1971. Since then it has been translated into many languages and millions of copies have been distributed with its unique feature of a pastoral commentary that accompanied the text which has helped the faithful to understand, assimilate and live the word of God in their day to day life.

The Preface and the Presentation of the NCB states that it is the fruit of a challenging project undertaken by the Society of St Paul who brought together a competent team of Bible scholars who worked hard over a decade and undertook the responsible task of “completely re-writing the introduction and the commentary of each book of the Bible based on sound exegesis and relevant pastoral application” and has done a ‘careful revision of the text’ wherever it was required. Another unique feature of the NCB mentioned is “its many references to the deep spiritual message and biblical values found in the scriptures of other great world religions”.

The international edition of the NCB is published for special promotion in the Year of Faith by St Pauls based in Sydney, London and New York. It is a great resource for all those who wish to have a deeper understanding of the scriptures and a great help for all those who make use of Scripture in daily prayer, in Bible study groups and in small communities.

** You can also read a review of the NCB at the Raking through the Ashes of Christendom.

** I do not think this translation has anything to do with the Lectionary revision of the ESV, that Bishop Coleridge is currently involved in.  Perhaps some of our friends in Australian can comment on the NCB.

UPDATE:
You can check out a few renderings of the NCB here.
(HT: Servus Dei)

Psalm 23 (NCB)

A Psalm of David
¹ The LORD is my shepherd, what more do I need?
² In green pastures he lets me rest.
to quiet streams of water he leads me,
³ and revives my failing spirit.
He leads me along the right paths
ever true to his name.
⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
no harm would I fear, for you are there by my side.
With your rod and your staff you give me comfort.
⁵ You prepare a banquet for me
in the presence of my foes.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup is overflowing.
⁶ Only goodness and kindness will follow me
all the days of my life,
I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for ever and ever.

Guest Review: Christian Community Bible

Timothy has asked me to give a guest review of the CCB for the Catholic Bibles blog. I will be reviewing my copy of the CCB, which is from the 17th edition, printed in approximately in 1996. I am very fond of the CCB, and hope that my review can be a good introduction for those who haven’t used it before.

Overview
The Catholic Community Bible: Catholic Pastoral Edition (CCB) is a dynamic-equivalence translation from the Philippines. The CCB is something of a family of translations started by Fr. Bernardo Hurault for the people of the Third World. Much like la Bible de Jérusalem inspired the creation of the Jerusalem Bible, the CCB was born in Spanish as la Biblia Latinoaméricana. Currently there are similar translations into French, Chinese, Tagalog, Ilonggo, Cebuano (three languages spoken in the Philippines), and Bahasa (a language spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia). The English edition was first published around 1985.

Stylistic Points/Word Choice
The CCB translates the tetragrammaton as “Yahweh” consistently throughout the Old Testament, and seems to be mildly influenced by inclusive language. Paul writes to his “brothers and sisters”, but the first psalm is clearly about a man:

1 Blessed is the one
who does not go where the wicked gather,
or stand in the way of sinners,
or sit where the scoffers sit!

2 Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord
and meditates day and night
on his commandments.

3 He is like a tree beside a brook
producing its fruit in due season,
its leaves never withering.
Everything he does is a success.

Following the Septuagint, the CCB has “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14.

The CCB mostly follows a two-column format for the Old Testament and a one column format in the New Testament, though this is not done mechanically. Canticles in the Old Testament take the entire page and historical narrative in the New Testament (especially in Acts) is shown in two columns. I’ve only found a few pages in my edition without cross-references, and even a page or two where the cross-references were so many that they didn’t fit in the space provided at the bottom of the page. Additionally, the font size for important verses is bigger than the font size for less important verses, visually emphasizing those verses.

Notes
One of the things that I think that makes the CCB stand out is its footnotes and introductory essays. Each book begins with a topical discussion as well as the book’s relevance to modern life. Similarly footnotes both explain the text and reflect on the contemporary issues. Here is an excerpt from the footnote from Revelations chapter 18:

The great Babylon is of all times and is recognized in every power which pretends to give people a total solution to their problems while enclosing them in their net. We are leaving a century where many have identified it according to their personal point of view, be it international capitalism, or materialist socialism. It would be false to think that only one of these systems served the plans of the devil: the master of this world respects no frontiers and plays equally well on both sides. Atheist governments persecute the Church but very often the Church confronts violent or subtle persecution from the liberal classes or from dictatorships that pretend to be attached to Christian principles. A Church in which the best “good news” is for the poor will necessarily be persecuted by systems that produce millions of margina­lized people.

Here is the whole book of Revelations from the CCB’s website. If you’re looking for wishy-washy notes, look elsewhere! This pastoral approach (the CCB is called the “Catholic Pastoral Edition”, after all) can cause some of the notes to seem dated, though this can be exaggerated. The Cold War may be over, but life issues, the influence of the media on society, and social justice are just as important now as then. For example, the note to chapter 18 goes on to condemn what we now know as the dictatorship of relativism.

Reorganized Canon
The CCB has somewhat reorganized the order of the books of the Old Testament. The introduction to my edition says they did this to divide the canon into groups of “Law”, “History”, and “Writings” similar to how they are grouped in the Masoretic Text. In practice this means that the CCB’s Old Testament is ordered following Jewish tradition. The CCB’s Wikipedia page has a helpful table that explains how this compares to the Catholic canon and the Jewish canon. Additionally, some verses and chapters (most notably in Esther) are reordered. This basically means that if you’re coming to this book familiar with other Bibles you’ll need to use the index to find your way around the Old Testament. This also causes problems going the other way, since anyone who’s only read the CCB will be totally lost in every other Bible. I still can’t find Psalms in the NAB, for instance (though from its reputation this may be for the best).

Odds and Ends
In addition to the text and notes the CCB has a list of the morning and evening psalmody of the four-week psalter (without antiphons). It also has a topical index in the front helping readers locate specific verses that discuss various Catholic doctrines, and a section that lines up the stories of the synoptic gospels. My edition of the CCB also has helpful aids on the side that show where each book is clearly marked. I’m not sure what these are called exactly, but they are very helpful when I’m looking for a particular passage (most dictionaries have these, for similar reasons). I assume this was put in so that the reader can find the books of the Old Testament easily, since they aren’t where they’re “supposed” to be. The CCB also has artwork that goes with each book, often depicting modern takes on each book’s theme. The picture that goes with Joshua has an African man walking into a city, and the First Letter of Saint Peter has a portrait of John Paul II looking pensively at the reader.

One thing I do not like about the CCB is how it translates the Beatitudes. The CCB uses “fortunate” where more traditional translations use “blessed”. Also, in the CCB Jesus starts many of his sentences with “Truly, I say to you…”, instead of the NAB’s “Amen, I say to you…”. Both are relatively minor points, but which some people might be sensitive to. Additionally the CCB doesn’t have a list of the readings from the lectionary.

Overall I am very happy with my edition of the CCB, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new translation for personal study!

Resources:

CCB Website

CCB at Amazon.com

Many thanks to reader Francesco for this fine review of the CCB. I feel like I have never really done the CCB justice on this blog, so I was very excited that Francesco agreed to put together this review.

Another Year, Another Bible

So, last year, around New Years, I decided to give the NRSV-CE a good read through by using it as my primary Bible. I was faithful to this commitment, using the NRSV for personal devotions, work in ministry, as well as class work at the seminary. This lasted for more than six months, almost into August. For devotional reading, I utilized the NRSV-CE edition published by Oxford, while using the HarperCollins Study Bible for study.

I found the overall quality of the NRSV translation to be pretty high. In particular, I appreciated the nice mix between literal and dynamic renderings, certainly leaning more towards the literal end. And while the NRSV is not as literal as the original RSV, I found that to be a positive. In particular, I found reading through the OT to be very enjoyable. I think the text flows quite well, in both Testaments. Also, I appreciate the textual notes at the bottom of each page. They were very helpful. However, some of the excesses in inclusive language use bothered me at times. I am one who believes that it is appropriate to use some inclusive language, but I feel the NRSV is too much. (I think the NJB does a nice job overall.) In particular, the "Son of Man" renderings in the OT, by rendering them "mortals", obscures the messianic meanings behind them. Sure, I know that there may be some legitimate linguistic reasons for an inclusive rendering, but the fact that Jesus referred to himself as the "Son of Man" indicates that he read those OT inferences in that way. In addition, I am not sure changing a passage to the plural is always a good idea.

Also, while I mentioned above that I like the fact the NRSV provides many textual notes, the one thing I noticed is that many of them are simply the more literal Greek rendering. Oftentimes, those notes are the actual text in the RSV or even the NAB. There are a few other things that nag me, but I don't want to harp on the NRSV too much. Like I said, overall I think the NRSV is pretty good, but there are just some things about it that make me uncomfortable with it.

So, since on Sunday we begin a new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent, I have decided to do the same thing I did with the NRSV earlier in the year. But, what translation should I go with? Right now, I am seriously considering going with the new Emergent New Testament: The Voice! Actually no, I am just kidding. Truthfully, I am considering the NAB, which in all honesty, I have rarely used. (Of course I hear it every time I go to Holy Mass). I certainly own a few copies of the NAB, including the nicely made Fireside Librosario NAB and a leather 1990 edition of the Catholic Study Bible by Oxford. But, I am still considering which translation to go with. I am open for any of your thoughts! RSV-2CE?

In any case, I hope to blog about my experiences with whatever translation I decide to use. I would like to show, possibly on a weekly basis, how I have used it in study and ministry, along with insights from my daily devotional reading.

Update: I think I shall make the REB a candidate as well.

Update 2: Five additional translations I am considering are the RSV-2CE, NJB, NLT (Catholic Edition), Good News Translation, and the Christian Community Bible.

Update 3: Leaning towards the RSV-2CE.

Update 4: Now leaning nowhere!