Posts tagged with "New American Bible"

Why I read the NAB

It’s taken me a while to put up this link.  But, I recently wrote a guest post at the invite of Chad and Rodney about why I read the New American Bible.  I’ll sum up the main points, but I hope you’ll head over and check it out.  First, I do not love the NAB.  I love studying Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible.  But, I find the NAB adequate and use it for reasons of canon, community, and liturgy.  If you’re interested in seeing what I mean by that, head on over and check out the post.

Buying a Bible is Confusing

Buying a Bible can be confusing as I was reminded when someone in my Monday morning Bible study class brought up that they may be purchasing one.  So, we had a discussion today about which one I would recommend.  That’s a little simpler for me because as a Catholic I generally (at least for classes in my parish) recommend a translation with Deuterocanonicals (e.g. New American Bible or the New Revised Standard Version), which narrows it down quite a bit.  But, as an academic, I think I can become a bit numb to just how confusing it is walking into a bookstore and buying a Bible even with the number of translations narrowed down.  I guess it would be somewhat analogous to me walking into a auto parts store and looking to buy a carburetor (yes, I had to Google that to get the correct spelling).

One of the aspects that I didn’t realize was confusing for my participants when buying a Bible was the different “editions” that are put out.  For instance, many in my parish use the St. Joseph edition of the NAB.   What was throwing them I think was whether the “St. Joseph Edition” or the “New American Bible” was the more important aspect of that equation.  I explained to them the difference between the translation and editions/study notes/etc. that are developed as additional elements included with the translation.

I don’t think that this discussion was necessary because it was a Catholic Bible study and we all know Catholics don’t read the Bible ;-).  I have had similar discussions to this one in Protestant communities of which I was a part.  And, I’m not sure what exactly the point is that I’m trying to make.  I guess it would just be to give another example of the “curse of knowledge.”  When you’ve studied something for quite a while, you sometimes have no idea what other people may or may not know.

Posts on Translation:

Genesis 1.1 and the Importance of Comparing Translations

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

Isaiah 41 – An Interesting Translation Issue

The Audio Bible I'm Listening To

I recently mentioned that I’m currently listening through the Bible. Here’s the Bible I’m listening to: New American Bible (Audio).  The reader is a little bit dry, but I’ve checked the guy out.  He is the reader for many of the most economical audio Bibles on the market currently.  It only cost me 1 Audible credit, which is in the neighborhood of $12 since I’m a Platinum Program member (if you just want an audio Bible, you can get 1 credit free with a trial – check out the right sidebar).  That’s not bad for a modern translation audio Bible, especially one that also has the Deuterocanon.