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March 2, 2011 | 5:40 pm

Two “Jewish” Changes in New Catholic Bible

Posted by Jonah Lowenfeld

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As reported in USA Today and elsewhere, the new version of the New American Bible to be released on March 9 has a few changes aimed at being “more accurate, more accessible and more poetic.”

Two of the changes in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ new text might be of particular interest to Jewish readers. First, the word “holocaust,” which appears throughout the older versions of the bible, has become impossible to separate from the genocide of Jews during World War II. The new text uses the words “burnt offering.”

Isaiah 7:14, a verse that is often used by missionaries to convert Jews, has changed as well. Often cited as a foreshadowing for the birth of Jesus, the 1970 version of New American Bible translated the passage as, “the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”

The version being released this week uses the term “young woman,” instead of virgin, which is seen as a closer translation of the original Hebrew word, almah.

A spokesperson for the bishops told Reuters that the new translation didn’t signify any change in the Catholic church’s belief in the virgin birth of Jesus.

Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, whose organization Jews for Judaism works to counteract the work of Christian missionaries targeting Jews, welcomed the new translation.

“The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops new translation of the Bible is both timely and appreciated,” Kravitz wrote in an email. “Timely, in that it coincides with ArtScroll’s new English-only Jewish Bible, and appreciated because they both correct translation errors used by missionaries to convert Jews.”

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I have no problem with this. But, we as Catholic’s of Christ’s True Church are commissioned to go out to ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL!!! JEWISH PEOPLE AS WELL!!!!!

Comment by Calogero on 3/04/11 at 2:02 am

I have a problem with this.  The original “Ecce virgo concipiet…” was taken from the older Septuagint Greek Old Testament translation, used extensively in early Christianity. Now these “experts” want to use a post-Crucifixion Babylonian rabbi version of the text which tries to discredit the inviolate virginity of Our Lord’s Mother thereby confusing the faithful.  Worse still is that this is so anti-ecumenical towards our Orthodox brethren in Christ who still rely on the Septuagint.

Comment by Ted K on 3/04/11 at 7:30 am

So now it’s the “Blessed Young Woman Mary”? Does context play no role in biblical scholarship? Interfaith harmony is a laudable goal but this is embarrassing, harmful to the Christian faith and actually patronizing to Jews. A trifecta.

Comment by Martinsen on 3/04/11 at 8:10 am

I hate it when the managers of the Catholic Church have to be politically correct.  I wish they would be Catholic correct.
Christ was not politically correct, he was morally correct.

Comment by Barbara on 3/04/11 at 8:31 am

Christ spits out the “lukewarm”.
He will spit out this new Bible,
and the lukewarm Bishops who approved it.

Comment by George on 3/04/11 at 9:03 am

I agree strongly with Ted K.  It was Jews themselves who translated “almah” into the Greek word meaning “virgin” because that is the connotation carried by the word “almah.”  It is entirely possible to reason this out with a Jew who is seeking the Truth.  The NAB started as a flawed translation, witness the number of revisions is the past 40 years, and is only getting more so.  Could we, please, not simply switch to, and stick with, the RSV-CE?  I’m getting very tired of having to explain the wording of the NAB!

Comment by Jane K on 3/04/11 at 12:20 pm

NAB = Non-Authentic Bible

Comment by JLS on 3/04/11 at 9:26 pm

True Catholics don’t care about anything that comes from
Benedict or from the hi-jacked Vatican because we know
that he and it are not Catholic in any way. Neither would
we go to any of their so-called clergy for confession or
anything else.  We might just as well go to some clerk at
Walmart to confess our sins

Comment by c.zend on 3/06/11 at 6:07 pm

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