Dr. Scott Hahn on his book Angels and Saints

The New English Bible, Water Buffalo Calfskin Edition

By Leighton, Guest Reviewer

When I found a hardcover edition of the New English Bible with the "Apocrypha" at a used bookstore some years ago, I picked it up because it was inexpensive (I paid less than ten dollars for it) and of high quality: it boasted a pristine dust jacket (like new, though it was a 1970 edition) and sewn signature pages (for me a necessity for a Bible, no getting around it; sorry, Benedictine Press, but for all the otherwise high quality of your Bibles, you really have to get it together in that department: I want a Bible that will last longer than I will, and glued pages don't cut it).

I spent a little time in the text and really liked most of the translation, in spite of some very unusual renderings--- some bordering on weird, and a couple even jarringly laughable (take Joshua 15:18, and Judges 1:14, for example). Most of the text flows with a certain cadence that I find exquisite. Take for example this rendering of Paul: "For if we have become incorporate with him in a death like his, we shall also be one with him in a resurrection like his. We know that the man we once were has been crucified with Christ, for the destruction of the sinful self, so that we may no longer be slaves of sin, since a dead man is no longer answerable for his sin" (Ro. 6:5-7). It gets even better, but you can read it for yourself. 

Even some of the more unusual renderings I find wonderfully fresh and lively. For instance, Matthew 5:3: "How blest are those who know their need of God," substitutes for the more literal and traditional, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." And Matthew 5:48: "There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father's goodness knows know bounds." (Love it, but better still is the first printing of the New Jerusalem Bible, which rendered this as "you must therefore set no bounds to your love, just as your heavenly Father sets none to his.") 

What I do with really "out there" renderings in the NEB, such as the above mentioned Joshua 5:18, that seem to obscure the meaning or even make one blush, is pencil in corrections or alternate translations from the RSV or NABRE to the side of the text (for example: in Psalm 22 I penciled in the NABRE's "pierced" for the NEB's "hacked" the persecuted's hands and feet).

I am usually more of a formal equivalence kind of guy, especially because I am not versed well in the original languages. I am a catechist by trade, not a Bible scholar. I rely on accuracy. The RSV gives me a certain confidence that I find reassuring, especially since I suffer from a certain scrupulosity that probably adds to the reason I buy a used Bible almost as often as I fill the tank of the car (as my wife points out quite frequently). On a side note, for all of you who do indeed have a spouse that likes to point out your frequent Bible purchases, take heart: once when my dear wife was teasing me in front of friends about the number of volumes in my collection, our lady friend said with a shrug, "Well, a lot of women I know would say they are grateful that their husband's addiction is the collecting of Bibles!" Zing! Kapow! 

Back to the NEB, though. 

I do Bible study with the NABRE, the RSV, the NJB (for the great notes), and the NRSV (a beautiful translation, only marred, in my layman's opinion, by the overarching use of inclusive language... but admittedly, I am a guy, so maybe I fail to understand the benefit of it... I just think it obscures too much in the text). For more devotional reading and lectio divina I usually enjoy the New Jerusalem Bible (for the text, which is much more measured than the NRSV as far as inclusive language goes), the Knox, and the British CTS version of the original Jerusalem Bible. 

But the reason, to be frank, why this beautiful hardcover copy of the NEB has been sitting on the shelf in spite of my appreciation of the text is because I am a Bible snob. I just can't seem to make a Bible that doesn't have a genuine leather cover my daily go-to Bible. I want a Bible that is well worn but beautiful (I know, it is what is between the covers that matters; alas, I am a work in progress). I take good care of my Bible. I tend to pencil notes to the side rather than mark up the actual text, because I want my eyes to be free to grab onto a certain passage or word without the distraction of highlighting during lectio divina. I don't want to miss something the Lord wants to say to me. I want a high quality, genuine leather Bible that, when it gets passed down to one of my children (I don't have to worry about not having enough personal Bibles for that, in spite of our large family size!), shows my children that Dad appreciated the Bible, that he used his Bible, that it is something to be cherished all one's life. I want them to be able to see which passages I treasured most by the little stars penciled to the side, or get a glimpse into my faith life by reading the small notes and prayers in the margins and back pages, like I can gratefully do with my late grandfather's Bible. 

So, in spite of its appeal as a translation I have consulted my NEB only occasionally, and never marked in it, because it is only a hardcover. As I said, I am a Bible snob. Thus, the NEB translation has been a neglected treasure. 

Until now! 

A few days ago I was at a popular used bookstore, one of my favorite haunts on a day off, and after finding little of interest, I "just happened" to check out the rare books selection on a whim. I do this from time to time but rarely find anything of interest that isn't extremely expensive, so tend to avoid that section. As I was about to leave, I thought, "What the heck, I will take a glance." There, at the bottom of the shelf, was a golden box with the words: "The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Bound in Water Buffalo Calfskin, semi overlapping covers, 23 carat gold edges." I grabbed it, opened the box to find a beautifully preserved leather Bible inside, anxiously opened the soft cover to find the penciled in price, and was very excited to see it was quite inexpensive. I got it for less than the cost of a couple of pizzas for my family!

I have had it less than a week but I am very pleased with it. It was printed in 1971, and other than some yellowing of the first pages, it is in great condition. I expect this edition to become my companion Bible for morning prayer, bedtime reading, and chapel time. For catechesis I will continue to lean on the RSV, NRSV, and the NABRE, but this one is a personal treasure I hope to make good use of over the years. It has its faults (what translation doesn't?), but on the dust jacket of my hardcover edition I am reminded that no less a literary figure than Walker Percy said, "It is is a beautiful job--- first rate scholarship which does not sacrifice the language." Thomas Howard, quoted there as well, spoke highly of the NEB: "The great thing to be praised, from the layman's point of view, about this translation, is the clarity and simplicity of the prose. It is an epochal achievement." And Sheldon Vanauken wrote, "What I want in a translation of the Bible is, first of all clarity of meaning and, next, easy, graceful English. The New English Bible is the best I've found in both respects." Of course, it has also been said that the Venerable Fulton Sheen enjoyed the NEB quite a lot. If it's good enough for the likes of these greats, it's good enough for me. 

Finally, borrowing the Methodist theologian Albert Outler's review on the dust jacket, I can say, "And so, it is the one I [will] keep in easy reach."

Sunday Knox: 1 Peter 2:20-25

Knox:
If you do wrong and are punished for it, your patience is nothing to boast of; it is the patience of the innocent sufferer that wins credit in God’s sight. Indeed, you are engaged to this by the call of Christ; he suffered for our sakes, and left you his own example; you were to follow in his footsteps. He did no wrong, no treachery was found on his lips;[7] he was ill spoken of, and spoke no evil in return, suffered, and did not threaten vengeance, gave himself up into the hands of injustice.[8] So, on the cross, his own body took the weight of our sins; we were to become dead to our sins, and live for holiness; it was his wounds that healed you.[9] Till then, you had been like sheep going astray; now, you have been brought back to him, your shepherd, who keeps watch over your souls.[10]

Knox Notes:
[7] Is. 53.9.
[8] ‘Of injustice’; the Greek here has, ‘of a just judge’, that is, his heavenly Father.
[9] Is. 53.4, 5.
[10] ‘Your shepherd, who keeps watch’; literally, ‘the shepherd and overseer (or bishop) of your souls’.

NAB:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,  this is a grace before God.  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.  He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.  When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.  For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

KSMQ's Off 90 "Saint John's Bible"

Verbum Easter Giveaway

The fine folks at Verbum are having an Easter giveaway.  The winner will receive a brand new MacBook Air with Verbum Capstone software.  To enter, you can follow the link here.  

Verbum was created in order to empower Catholics to study Scripture and understand Church Tradition. With over 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, Verbum meets a need for Catholic digital resources that equip and connect the faithful, regardless of vocation or location. We’re passionate about fulfilling the call to a “New Evangelization” by providing the best digital resources to help Catholics better understand and communicate the Faith.

Verbum began in 2011 as the Catholic division of Logos Bible Software. Founded in 1992, Logos has grown from a couple of programmers in a basement into the largest developer of Bible study software and a worldwide leader in multilingual electronic publishing. Logos now partners with over 150 publishers to make tens of thousands of digital Bible study resources available to customers around the world. Our technology is used in more than 210 countries in a dozen languages.

Like Logos’ other brands and products, Verbum connects Christians from all walks of life. From Vyrso (a Christian ebook store and ereader app) to Faithlife.com (a social network that connects Christians from all over the world), the Logos family seeks to grow and enhance all aspects of the Christian life.

As Verbum continues to grow, our goal is not only to create the best Catholic study tools available, but to serve the Church by making Scripture and Tradition more accessible all over the globe.

Verbum is headquartered in the friendly city of Bellingham, Washington, USA.

American Bible Society holds Vatican conference on roots of the Bible

Benedict on Wednesday: Origen (I)

From Wednesday, 25 April 2007:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our meditations on the great figures of the early Church, today we become acquainted with one of the most remarkable. Origen of Alexandria truly was a figure crucial to the whole development of Christian thought. He gathered up the legacy of Clement of Alexandria, on whom we meditated last Wednesday, and launched it for the future in a way so innovative that he impressed an irreversible turning point on the development of Christian thought.

He was a true "maestro", and so it was that his pupils remembered him with nostalgia and emotion: he was not only a brilliant theologian but also an exemplary witness of the doctrine he passed on. Eusebius of Caesarea, his enthusiastic biographer, said "his manner of life was as his doctrine, and his doctrine as his life. Therefore, by the divine power working with him he aroused a great many to his own zeal" (cf. Church History, 6, 3, 7).

His whole life was pervaded by a ceaseless longing for martyrdom. He was 17 years old when, in the 10th year of the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, the persecution against Christians was unleashed in Alexandria. Clement, his teacher, fled the city, and Origen's father, Leonides, was thrown into prison. His son longed ardently for martyrdom but was unable to realize his desire. So he wrote to his father, urging him not to shrink from the supreme witness of faith. And when Leonides was beheaded, the young Origen felt bound to welcome the example of his father's life.

Forty years later, while preaching in Caesarea, he confessed: "It is of no use to me to have a martyr father if I do not behave well and honour the nobility of my ancestors, that is, the martyrdom of my father and the witness that made him illustrious in Christ" (Hom. Ez 4, 8). In a later homily—when, thanks to the extreme tolerance of the Emperor, Philip the Arab, the possibility of bearing witness by shedding one's blood seemed no longer to exist—Origen exclaims: "If God were to grant me to be washed in my blood so as to receive the second Baptism after accepting death for Christ, I would depart this world with assurance.... But those who deserve such things are blessed" (Hom. Iud. 7, 12). These words reveal the full force of Origen's longing for Baptism with blood.

And finally, this irresistible yearning was granted to him, at least in part. In the year 250, during Decius' persecution, Origen was arrested and cruelly tortured. Weakened by the suffering to which he had been subjected, he died a few years later. He was not yet 70.

We have mentioned the "irreversible turning point" that Origen impressed upon the history of theology and Christian thought. But of what did this turning point, this innovation so pregnant with consequences, consist? It corresponds in substance to theology's foundation in the explanation of the Scriptures. Theology to him was essentially explaining, understanding Scripture; or we might also say that his theology was a perfect symbiosis between theology and exegesis. In fact, the proper hallmark of Origen's doctrine seems to lie precisely in the constant invitation to move from the letter to the spirit of the Scriptures, to progress in knowledge of God. Furthermore, this so-called "allegorism", as von Balthasar wrote, coincides exactly "with the development of Christian dogma, effected by the teaching of the Church Doctors", who in one way or another accepted Origen's "lessons".

Thus, Tradition and the Magisterium, the foundation and guarantee of theological research, come to take the form of "scripture in action" (cf. Origene: Il mondo, Cristo e la Chiesa, Milan, 1972, p. 43). We can therefore say that the central nucleus of Origen's immense literary opus consists in his "threefold interpretation" of the Bible.  But before describing this "interpretation" it would be right to take an overall look at the Alexandrian's literary production.

St Jerome, in his Epistle 33, lists the titles of 320 books and 310 homilies by Origen. Unfortunately, most of these works have been lost, but even the few that remain make him the most prolific author of Christianity's first three centuries. His field of interest extended from exegesis to dogma, to philosophy, apologetics, ascetical theology and mystical theology. It was a fundamental and global vision of Christian life.

The inspiring nucleus of this work, as we have said, was the "threefold interpretation" of the Scriptures that Origen developed in his lifetime. By this phrase, we wish to allude to the three most important ways in which Origen devoted himself to studying the Scriptures: they are not in sequence; on the contrary, more often than not they overlap.

First of all, he read the Bible, determined to do his utmost to ascertain the biblical text and offer the most reliable version of it. This, for example, was the first step: to know truly what is written and what a specific scriptural passage intentionally and principally meant.

He studied extensively for this purpose and drafted an edition of the Bible with six parallel columns, from left to right, with the Hebrew text in Hebrew characters - he was even in touch with rabbis to make sure he properly understood the Bible's original Hebrew text -, then the Hebrew text transliterated into Greek characters, and then four different translations in Greek that enabled him to compare the different possibilities for its translation. Hence comes the title of "Hexapla" ("six columns"), attributed to this enormous synopsis. This is the first point: to know exactly what was written, the text as such.

Secondly, Origen read the Bible systematically with his famous Commentaries. They reproduced faithfully the explanations that the teacher offered during his lessons at Alexandria and Caesarea.

Origen proceeded verse by verse with a detailed, broad and analytical approach, with philological and doctrinal notes. He worked with great precision in order to know completely what the sacred authors meant.

Lastly, even before his ordination to the priesthood, Origen was deeply dedicated to preaching the Bible and adapted himself to a varied public. In any case, the teacher can also be perceived in hisHomilies, wholly dedicated as he was to the systematic interpretation of the passage under examination, which he analyzed step by step in the sequence of the verses.

Also in his Homilies, Origen took every opportunity to recall the different dimensions of the sense of Sacred Scripture that encourage or express a process of growth in the faith: there is the "literal" sense, but this conceals depths that are not immediately apparent.

The second dimension is the "moral" sense: what we must do in living the word; and finally, the "spiritual" sense, the unity of Scripture which throughout its development speaks of Christ.

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to understand the Christological content, hence, the unity in diversity of Scripture. It would be interesting to demonstrate this. I have made a humble attempt in my book, Jesus of Nazareth, to show in today's context these multiple dimensions of the Word, of Sacred Scripture, whose historical meaning must in the first place be respected.

But this sense transcends us, moving us towards God in the light of the Holy Spirit, and shows us the way, shows us how to live. Mention of it is found, for example, in the ninth Homily on Numbers, where Origen likens Scripture to [fresh] walnuts: "The doctrine of the Law and the Prophets at the school of Christ is like this", the homilist says; "the letter is bitter, like the [green-covered] skin; secondly, you will come to the shell, which is the moral doctrine; thirdly, you will discover the meaning of the mysteries, with which the souls of the saints are nourished in the present life and the future" (Hom. Num. 9, 7).

It was especially on this route that Origen succeeded in effectively promoting the "Christian interpretation" of the Old Testament, brilliantly countering the challenge of the heretics, especially the Gnostics and Marcionites, who made the two Testaments disagree to the extent that they rejected the Old Testament.  In this regard, in the same Homily on Numbers, the Alexandrian says, "I do not call the Law an "Old Testament' if I understand it in the Spirit. The Law becomes an "Old Testament' only for those who wish to understand it carnally", that is, for those who stop at the literal meaning of the text.

But "for us, who understand it and apply it in the Spirit and in the Gospel sense, the Law is ever new and the two Testaments are a new Testament for us, not because of their date in time but because of the newness of the meaning.... Instead, for the sinner and those who do not respect the covenant of love, even the Gospels age" (cf. ibid., 9, 4).

I invite you - and so I conclude - to welcome into your hearts the teaching of this great master of faith. He reminds us with deep delight that in the prayerful reading of Scripture and in consistent commitment to life, the Church is ever renewed and rejuvenated. The Word of God, which never ages and is never exhausted, is a privileged means to this end. Indeed, it is the Word of God, through the action of the Holy Spirit, which always guides us to the whole truth (cf. Benedict XVI,Address at the International Congress for the 50th Anniversary of Dei Verbum, L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 21 September 2005, p. 7).

And let us pray to the Lord that he will give us thinkers, theologians and exegetes who discover this multifaceted dimension, this ongoing timeliness of Sacred Scripture, its newness for today. Let us pray that the Lord will help us to read Sacred Scripture in a prayerful way, to be truly nourished with the true Bread of Life, with his Word.