Advent Contest 2

As promised, there will be one more contest here on this blog for 2010, as we journey through this Advent season. This contest will be tied to a new series of posts, that I have already started and will continue into 2011, examining the NAB Revised New Testament, which will be a part of the upcoming NABRE. I have decided to use the NAB New Testament for my daily reading, Bible study, and even class work for the foreseeable future. I am hoping this will allow me to be better acquainted with the positive and negative features of the NAB NT in preparation for a thorough analysis of it in conjunction with the presumed publication of the complete NABRE in 2011. (Of course, if the NABRE will not be released in 2011, I have the right to immediately scrap this project and move on to something else.) With that being said, onto the contest.

The winner of this contest will receive:

1) ESV Thinline Bible (without Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha)

2) Berit Olam: 1 Kings

Here are the rules:

1) If you have a blog, please advertise this contest on your blog. (If you don't, you can still enter the contest.)


2) This contest is only for people who are in the United States or Canada. (Again, overseas shipping costs are a bit too high for me right now. Sorry.)

3) The question you need to answer in the comment box:

What should I name the upcoming series of posts focusing on my reading of the NAB Revised New Testament?


4) The contest ends on Saturday at 11:59PM EST.


5) One entry per person.

Revised Grail Psalms Pre-Order

Yes, you can now pre-order the Revised Grail Psalms. These will be the new Psalms used in the Mass in the United States, and conceivably in the future revision of the Liturgy of the Hours. I pre-ordered mine last night and look forward to sharing my thoughts about it with you sometime in January. Thank you to reader Sharon for the link!

NAB NT Series

The year 2011 will likely mark the publication of the NABRE. For those who are just joining this blog, that is the New American Bible Revised Edition, which will include a revised Old Testament and re-revised Psalms. For some additional information on the NABRE go here for a helpful question/answer post with Mary Sperry from the USCCB, which was done earlier this year. Hopefully there will be some additional information, like an actual publication date, early in 2011.

I am planning to spend some time over the next month, through various posts and guest reviews, analyzing the NAB NT. The current NAB NT will be the New Testament in the NABRE, so perhaps it is time to give it a fresh look.

To kick things off, I want to paste some portions of the revised edition of the NAB NT preface. I am hoping to begin the discussion with the basics, so I ask that any comments focus primarily on the preface. There will be plenty of time to discuss this or that translation choice. To read the entire preface, you can go here. So here are some selections I have picked out:

1) The primary aim of the revision is to produce a version as accurate and faithful to the meaning of the Greek original as is possible for a translation. The editors have consequently moved in the direction of a formal-equivalence approach to translation, matching the vocabulary, structure, and even word order of the original as closely as possible in the receptor language. Some other contemporary biblical versions have adopted, in varying degrees, a dynamic-equivalence approach, which attempts to respect the individuality of each language by expressing the meaning of the original in a linguistic structure suited to English, even though this may be very different from the corresponding Greek structure. While this approach often results in fresh and brilliant renderings, it has the disadvantages of more or less radically abandoning traditional biblical and liturgical terminology and phraseology, of expanding the text to include what more properly belongs in notes, commentaries, or preaching, and of tending toward paraphrase. A more formal approach seems better suited to the specific purposes intended for this translation.

2) A particular effort has been made to insure consistency of vocabulary. Always to translate a given Greek word by the same English equivalent would lead to ludicrous results and to infidelity to the meaning of the text. But in passages where a particular Greek term retains the same meaning, it has been rendered in the same way insofar as this has been feasible; this is particularly significant in the case of terms that have a specific theological meaning. The synoptic gospels have been carefully translated so as to reveal both the similarities and the differences of the Greek.

3) An especially sensitive problem today is the question of discrimination in language. In recent years there has been much discussion about allegations of anti-Jewish expressions in the New Testament and of language that discriminates against various minorities. Above all, however, the question of discrimination against women affects the largest number of people and arouses the greatest degree of interest and concern. At present there is little agreement about these problems or about the best way to deal with them. In all these areas the present translation attempts to display a sensitivity appropriate to the present state of the questions under discussion, which are not yet resolved and in regard to which it is impossible to please everyone, since intelligent and sincere participants in the debate hold mutually contradictory views.The primary concern in this revision is fidelity to what the text says. When the meaning of the Greek is inclusive of both sexes, the translation seeks to reproduce such inclusivity insofar as this is possible in normal English usage, without resort to inelegant circumlocutions or neologisms that would offend against the dignity of the language. Although the generic sense of man is traditional in English, many today reject it; its use has therefore generally been avoided, though it is retained in cases where no fully satisfactory equivalent could be found. English does not possess a gender-inclusive third personal pronoun in the singular, and this translation continues to use the masculine resumptive pronoun after everyone or anyone, in the traditional way, where this cannot be avoided without infidelity to the meaning. The translation of the Greek word adelphos, particularly in the plural form adelphoi, poses an especially delicate problem. While the term literally means brothers or other male blood relatives, even in profane Greek the plural can designate two persons, one of either sex, who were born of the same parents. It was adopted by the early Christians to designate, in a figurative sense, the members of the Christian community, who were conscious of a new familial relationship to one another by reason of their adoption as children of God. They are consequently addressed as adelphoi. This has traditionally been rendered into English by brothers or, more archaically, brethren. There has never been any doubt that this designation includes all the members of the Christian community, both male and female. Given the absence in English of a corresponding term that explicitly includes both sexes, this translation retains the usage of brothers, with the inclusive meaning that has been traditionally attached to it in this biblical context. Since the New Testament is the product of a particular time and culture, the views expressed in it and the language in which they are expressed reflect a particular cultural conditioning, which sometimes makes them quite different from contemporary ideas and concerns. Discriminatory language should be eliminated insofar as possible whenever it is unfaithful to the meaning of the New Testament, but the text should not be altered in order to adjust it to contemporary concerns. This translation does not introduce any changes, expansions, additions to, or subtractions from the text of scripture. It further retains the traditional biblical ways of speaking about God and about Christ, including the use of masculine nouns and pronouns.

Ok, what do you think of these first three selections? The selections are focused on issues of translation philosophy, consistant vocabulary, and inclusive language.

Advent Sales on Bibles

Just an FYI for those who are looking to purchase any one of these Bibles:

Ignatius Press is having a 25% off all their merchandise, including RSV-CE, RSV-2CE, and Ignatius Catholic Study Bible materials. Sale ends on Sunday.

Also, our friends at Scepter Publishers have selected discounts of up to 15% of books, including the Navarre Bible series.

Don't forget to support your local and online Catholic bookstores!

An Interesting Perspective on the NAB

Follow this link for an interesting post about the NAB translation. It was posted on the Political Jesus blog, but it is written by Jeremy Thompson. It makes some really interesting points, particularly in regards to using a translation even though one knows its not the best one out there. What do you think of his argument? Is there a case for using the NAB? (I think there is, but I know some of you really dislike it!.) ;)

Advent Contest Winner

Great entries again for this contest. Thank you to all who entered. In the end,
I went with the entry with the most vivid and creative imagination, which came from Diakonos. Congrats on winning the Luke commentary and the NRSV Lectio Divina Bible, which doesn't even come close to your dreams of a future NRSV edition! ;)

Just drop me an email at mccorm45 (at) yahoo (dot) com to claim your prize.

Another Giveaway, a Different Blog

You can go to Brandon's The Thin Veil blog, where he is having a giveaway this week with the winner getting some very fine books, including Pope Benedict's The Joy of Knowing Christ and two very important Scriptural documents Dei Verbum and Divino Afflante Spiritu. So, go check it out! Thanks Brandon!