I have used the Catholic Edition of The Way Bible. I now need a much larger print Bible. Which ones would you recommend for me?
I thought this would be a good question to answer for all those Christmas shoppers out there seeking to fill someone’s stocking with a nice new printing of the word of God. Well, there are many different translations of the Bible in English. Which is the right one? The one you will actually read, of course! Some translations take a more literal approach to matching up with the original Hebrew and Greek. Some translations in an effort to make the text easier to read have more dynamic translations that try to keep the meaning if not the exact wording. Some so go so far as to simply paraphrase everything to change things like “new wine into old wineskins” to “new tubes in bald tires”. Another issue in translations is gender inclusive language. In all cases, there are tradeoffs—accuracy versus readability, traditional phrasing versus modernization, etc.
You have to ask yourself what you personally prefer and what will suit your purposes. You also have to select between reader’s editions (just the text of the scripture) to study editions (lots of footnotes and extra stuff to try to explain the text). I strongly recommend getting a Catholic Bible or a Catholic edition Bible. This will make sure it includes the “deuterocanonical” books such as Tobit, Wisdom, and 1 & 2 Maccabees. Protestant Bibles omit these books since they do not consider them part of Scripture. In addition, Catholic editions might have slight differences in translations since every translation requires some judgment on the translator’s part, and Catholics and Protestants see a few things differently.
My specific recommendations are the New American Bible (NAB) and the Revised Standard Version – Second Catholic Edition (RSV-SCE) (or first edition is fine too). I have heard it said that the readings for Mass are based off the NAB—they are pretty similar at least. The RSV is more literal in its translation than the NAB which is useful for studying but makes it a little harder to read.
Beyond these, there is a New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)–pretty much the RSV with gender inclusive language. I have used both the Jerusalem Bible (JB) and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)—they are some interesting alternatives among Catholic Bibles. If you were using The Way Bible (which I believe tends much toward dynamic interpretation) you probably would like Good News Translation or the New Living Translation if you can find it in a Catholic edition. I have little experience with them, but they probably have the most user-friendly English. Often, I use a mix of all these Bibles. One can learn a lot by seeing how they might translate a passage a bit differently in wording or phrasing.
-Fr. Greg
