Contemporary English Translations of Scripture

Abstract

AGENERATION has passed since English began to be used in the liturgy, and concomitantly the Douai-Rheims and CCD versions were supplanted in public and private reading of Scripture by up-to-date translations of the entire Bible, done under Catholic auspices. The experience of these 25 years seems ripe for assessment. The principles guiding the newer translations, and their strengths and weaknesses, by now have come into clear focus. This article will study the two versions that have become familiar to American Catholics, The New American Bible (NAB) and The Jerusalem Bible (JB); these are the translations most commonly heard at Mass and used for study. For some time, there seem to have been second thoughts about these versions, for each has undergone revision. Thus we have the 1985 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) and the 1986 reworking of NAB called The New American Bible New Testament, Revised Edition (hereafter NAB RNT), which in fact is virtually a fresh translation of the NT. (The NAB OT remains unchanged, though the Psalter is being translated afresh for the revision of the lectionary due to appear in 1990 or 1991.) It will be useful to make some general comments about modern translation practice and illustrate them by reference to JB and NAB, and then to study more in detail the two newly released reworkings.