This Day in History: The Catholic New American Bible was published on this day in 1970. The 1986 Revised NAB is the basis of the revised Lectionary, and it is the only translation approved for use at Mass in the Latin-rite Catholic dioceses of the United States and the Philippines, and the 1970 first edition is also an approved Bible translation by the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The NAB was a reworking of the the Confraternity Bible, a translation of the Vulgate by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The Vulgate however was based on the Latin, not the Greek and Hebrew original languages of the Bible. Pope Pius XII's 1943 encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu changed all that and the New American Bible is the first popular Catholic Bible published using the Greek and Hebrew. It should be noted that James A. Kleist, SJ, and Joseph L. Lilly, SJ produced a Catholic New Testament that was published in the 1950's, using the Greek Text.
It is interesting to note that many Traditional Catholics reject the New American Bible, preferring either the old Douay-Rheims Bible or, oddly enough, the Protestant Revised Standard Version. The primary complaint was that the New American Bible did not have "Hail, full of grace" at Luke 1:28 as it reads in the Douay Rheims Bible (see also Knox and the Confraternity Bible).
The Douay-Rheims Bible uses the Latin Vulgate which has Gratia Plena here, of which "full of grace" is a proper translation. But the NAB Bible text of Luke, like most modern Bibles, is translated from the Greek, and the Greek word here is KECARITWMENH which most Bibles translate as "favored." The Douay Bible does though often translate Gratia(m) as "favor" (see Acts 2:47, 7:10, 25:3 and numerous times in the Old Testament).
The NAB does however have "full of grace" at Acts 6:8, but, this reading is different in the Greek than it is at Luke 1:28. Acts 6:8 has PLHRHS CARITOS* while Luke 1:28 has KECARITWMENH. From even a cursory examination PLHRHS CARITOS lends itself better as a translation of "full of grace" which leads one to wonder why those two words were not used at Luke 1:28 if the text was really meant to say "full of grace" in regards to Mary.
Additionally, the closing words at Luke 1:28, "blessed art thou among women" (Douay, KJV) appear to be a later interpolation. To go even further, some do not even consider the first 2 chapters of Luke authentic at all:
"The first two chapters of Luke were wanting in the gospels of the first century. They were also wanting in the Gospel of the Hebrews, or Nazarenes, about A. D. 125, as well as in the Gospel of Marcion, A. D. 145. They first appeared in the Protevangelion, about A. D. 125, and were probably not deemed by Marcion, authentic." History of the Christian Religion By Charles Burlingame Waite 1881
Another criticism of the NAB Bible is that it translates Genesis 1:2, "the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters" as opposed to the text in the Douay Bible: "And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters." Many do not like that the word "spirit" is not in the NAB. Did you notice that the word "spirit" in the Douay-Rheims Bible is not capitalized. Why is this? It is because something other than the Holy Ghost is referred to here.
John L. McKenzie S.J., who was once regarded as "the best Catholic theologian...in the United States" wrote of the Spirit:
"In summary, the spirit in the OT [Old Testament], originally the wind and the breath, is conceived as a divine dynamic entity by which Yahweh accomplishes his ends, it saves, it is a creative, charismatic power, and as an agent of His anger it is a demonic power. It remains impersonal. Like the wind, neither its origin nor its course can be discovered..." Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie S.J. (1965)
Monsignor Ronald A. Knox, who translated from the Latin Vulgate renders Genesis 1:2 as "Earth was still an empty waste, and darkness hung over the deep; but already, over its waters, stirred the breath of God."
Another complaint levied against the New American Bible is that has replaced the word "virgin" at Isaiah 7:14 with "young woman." That's not true for older editions, and the footnotes in the newer editions give "virgin" as an alternate rendering.
The NAB seemingly translated texts that went contrary to their own theology but retained a fidelity to the best Greek Testaments at hand. Some argue that that Catholics can be freer with the details of the text because they don’t have to pretend to find their theology in it in full-blown form.
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*Many Greek mss have PISTEWS here instead of CARITOS, but the NAB remained true to better Greek texts.
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