Knox vs. The Message: 4th Week of Advent (Luke 1:26-38)

I am going to continue this series of comparing one of the Sunday readings from the lectionary, using the Knox Bible and The Message.  While done in different ways, I think both Knox and Peterson desired to make the Bible more accessible to the average reader.  Let's see if they were successful.

Knox:
When the sixth month came, God sent the angel Gabriel to a city of Galilee called Nazareth,  where a virgin dwelt, betrothed to a man of David’s lineage; his name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name was Mary.  Into her presence the angel came, and said, Hail, thou who art full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. She was much perplexed at hearing him speak so, and cast about in her mind, what she was to make of such a greeting.  Then the angel said to her, Mary, do not be afraid; thou hast found favour in the sight of God.  And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call him Jesus.  He shall be great, and men will know him for the Son of the most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob eternally;  his kingdom shall never have an end.  But Mary said to the angel, How can that be, since I have no knowledge of man? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the most High will overshadow thee. Thus this holy offspring of thine shall be known for the Son of God.  See, moreover, how it fares with thy cousin Elizabeth; she is old, yet she too has conceived a son; she who was reproached with barrenness is now in her sixth month,  to prove that nothing can be impossible with God.  And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to thy word. And with that the angel left her.


The Message:

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name, Mary. Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:

Good morning!

You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,

Beautiful inside and out!

God be with you.

She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

He will be great,

be called ‘Son of the Highest.’

The Lord God will give him

the throne of his father David;

He will rule Jacob’s house forever—

no end, ever, to his kingdom.”

Mary said to the angel, “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”

The angel answered,

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

the power of the Highest hover over you;

Therefore, the child you bring to birth

will be called Holy, Son of God.

“And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”

And Mary said,

Yes, I see it all now:

I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.

Let it be with me

just as you say.

Then the angel left her.

A Great Bargain: The NRSV New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Loose-Leaf Edition

The NRSV NOAB w/ Apocrypha, Loose-Leaf Edition is massive, but if you are a teacher or Bible study leader it can be an amazing resource.  Right now, you can get it at Christianbook.com for under $30.  I think the binder itself costs that much at most office supply stores.

Students, professors and general readers alike rely on the New Oxford Annotated Bible for its outstanding scholarship and trustworthy guidance to the world of the Bible. Now this excellent resource is available in study-friendly loose-leaf format. Featuring the full content of the standard study Bible with the added flexibility of loose-leaf, it also includes wide margins that offer ample room for making notes.


Features

• Complete NRSV text with the Apocrypha
• Contributors from a wide range of traditions and backgrounds
• Book introductions and annotations offer helpful explanations, background, and insights. 
• Essays on the major divisions of the biblical text and the formation of the biblical canon
• Explanations of the Bible’s historical background provide guidance through the ancient Near Eastern context
• Clarifies the varieties of biblical criticism with guidance to developments in scholarly research
• A timeline of major events in the ancient Near East
• A history of biblical interpretation, from biblical times to the present
• In-text maps and diagrams
• Concordance
• Full index of the study material
• Wide margins offer lots of room for notes
• Clear 10-point type for ease of reading
• Sturdy 11 x 11.5 x 5 inch five-ring binder
• Durable 8.5 x 11 inch pages (fit any standard 3- or 5-ring binder)

Another Year of "7 Questions"

Another year, another group of "7 Questions" for you to enjoy.  I have linked all of the "7 Questions" interviews below.  I hope you have enjoyed them.  I have a few still in the planning stages for 2015.

Audio "7 Questions" with popular priest, speaker, and author Fr. Larry Richards

Mary Stommes, editor of Give Us This Day by Liturgical Press

William Griffin, translator of the Deuterocanonical portions of The Message

Author and speaker Alice Camille

Fr. Michael Patella, biblical scholar and chair of the Committee on Illumination and Text for The Saint John's Bible

Fr. Richard Clifford, SJ, biblical scholar and translator

I hope you have enjoyed them.  I have a few in the planning stages for 2015.

Thank You!

Some Excellent (and beautifully made) Catholic Bibles and Prayer Books

THE ROMAN BREVIARY A new edition of the Roman Breviary 1961 in English and Latin. An invaluable set of books for all those attached to the traditional Roman Breviary, in the form approved by Pope Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum. We hope and pray that this edition which has taken many years of work to complete, will help to bring about an increased use of the traditional liturgy in the praying of the Divine Office of the Church. Flexible cover, 3-Volume Set, 4.5"x 7", 6064 pages, $359.95

THE HOLY BIBLE - Knox Translation Msgr. Knox's translation of the Latin Vulgate into elegant, timeless English is one of the greatest treasures of the 20th century Church. His translation is spiritual and literary, graceful and lyrical, making it one of the most beautiful vernacular versions of the Holy Bible. Flexible cover, 6"x 8.25", 1472 pages, $54.95 Douay-Rheims & Clementina Vulgata Those familiar with the Douay-Rheims Bible will know that it is one of the most beautiful and accurate Bible translations available today Having both Bibles side by side allows us to see exactly where the vernacular translation came from. Even those with limited Latin skills will be able to follow along, using the Douay-Rheims translation as an aid. Flexible cover, 8.5"x 11.5", 1488 pages, $89.95 DIVINE INTIMACY One of the best and most loved resources for meditative prayer. This book is designed to assist the faithful in the quest for intimate union with God through the practice of meditating on holy truths. These Carmelite meditations are easy to fit into even the busiest schedule, giving you food for thought and inspiration every day of the liturgical year. Flexible cover, 6"x 8.25", 1216 pages, $59.95 CATENA AUREA Imagine a round-table discussion of the Gospels among the supreme theologians of the Church. The Catena Aurea is very close! St. Thomas Aquinas compiled this opus from sermons and commentaries on the Gospels written by the early Church Fathers. For each of the four Gospel writers, the Catena Aurea starts by indicating the verses to be analyzed, then taking each verse phrase-by-phrase, provides the early Fathers' insights into the passage. Leather Hardback, 4-Volume Set, 6"x 8.25", 2832 pages, $149.95 For all of these and more, you can go to our friends at Baronius Press and still get them in time for Christmas!  As I have mentioned before, Baronius makes the nicest books in the Catholic publishing world.  Their many books and Bibles will indeed last a lifetime.

Illuminating the Word The Making of The Saint John's Bible Second Edition (March 2015)

Many of us who are fans/supporters of the Saint John's Bible are looking forward to this second edition finally being published.  The first edition is quite fantastic. This second edition of Illuminating the Word will be published in March.  

Description:

The time has come to tell the entire story of the creation of The Saint John's Bible. This completely revised and updated edition of Illuminating the Word devotes a separate chapter to each of the Bible's seven volumes. Readers get a behind-the-scenes tour of the creation of each volume, with a fascinating window into the activities, challenges, and struggles at Donald Jackson's Scriptorium in Wales. We can practically watch, through the eyes of every artist and calligrapher who participated in the project, the Bible's stunning illuminations move from conception to completion.

This edition includes a completely new chapter on the scripts used in The Saint John's Bible that will fascinate calligraphers and lovers of the art. Still another new chapter details the production of the Heritage Edition, a high-quality, fine-art facsimile of the original that makes The Saint John's Bible available to a wider audience than the singular manuscript.

Christopher Calderhead is a visual artist and graphic designer who has exhibited his letter-based works in the United States and Great Britain. He graduated from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in art history. In 1998 he obtained a master of divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Ordained the same year, he has served parishes in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church USA. He is editor of Alphabet, a journal of the lettering arts published by the Friends of Calligraphy, and author of One Hundred Miracles (2004), a collection of miracle paintings by the great masters.

Knox vs. The Message: Third Sunday of Advent (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)

I am going to continue this series of comparing one of the Sunday readings from the lectionary, using the Knox Bible and The Message.  While done in different ways, I think both Knox and Peterson desired to make the Bible more accessible to the average reader.  Let's see if they were successful.

Knox:
 Joy be with you always.  Never cease praying.  Give thanks upon all occasions; this is what God expects of you all in Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the utterances of the Spirit, do not hold prophecy in low esteem; and yet you must scrutinize it all carefully, retaining only what is good, and rejecting all that has a look of evil about it. So may the God of peace sanctify you wholly, keep spirit and soul and body unimpaired, to greet the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ without reproach.  The God who called you is true to his promise; he will not fail you.

The Message:

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil. May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!