Why aren’t there more Catholic Bibles?

[Michie]

You’re Catholic and it’s September. That means it’s the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows, right?

​

Sure. But did you know that it is also the Month of the Bible? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t. I don’t think anyone did. I’m a 54-year-old cradle Catholic and this year is the first I’ve heard of it.

The news arrived in my mailbox matter-of-factly, courtesy of the Catholic Transcript, the monthly magazine of the Archdiocese of Hartford. Our Auxiliary Bishop Juan Betancourt, a Scripture scholar who is on the USCCB Committee doing another revision of the New American Bible (NAB), announced it in his column. He said “the pastoral objective” of Month of the Bible is to “promote among the faithful the habit of reading the Bible.”

Which sent me down one of my favorite rabbit holes.

There are different kinds in the online Catholic world. You know what I mean: There is the culture war guy. The Vatican gossip guy. The liturgy guy. The apparitions guy. The apologetics guy. The Bible guy. And on and on.

Continued below.

Why aren’t there more Catholic Bibles?

Why is the Protestant Bible-selling market so much more gigantic than the Catholic one?

www.catholicculture.org

 

[Bob Crowley]

Protestants read their Bibles more - it's as simple as that.

I think part of the reason is that Catholics have more "distractions" - they might be praying the Rosary or the Divine Mercy; trying to keep up with the latest books from Pope Francis (and before him Pope Benedict, or JPII, or ..); getting their kids to confirmation; having a women's coffee morning rather than a Bible discussion group; keeping a subconscious reference to seven sacraments instead of two; focussing on the eucharist instead of the homily or the Bible readings; and sometimes going to reconciliation.

Whereas the Protestants pretty much have one rule of faith - the Bible and that's it. For them it is central.

Some years ago I was at a weekend Catholic seminar based on the Little Rock Scripture Study series. The main speaker was our current archbishop.

He said at one point that Protestants know their Bibles better than Catholics. He gaven an example - he asked us to say what the missing middle section was in "I am the Lord your God ... you shall have no other Gods before me."

I put my hand up to answer but he waved me down as he knew I was formerly Protestant. The others didn't know.

The missing bit is " .... who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery ..."

He said he wondered for years why Catholics didn't know the middle bit. If he asked Protestants they got it every time.

But then someone said to him that it was due to the Catechism (which I personally never had to recite being an adult convert) and added "It shows the power of the catechism".

They could recite the catechism but did not read the original Bible text from which that phrase was derived.

 

[Michie]

Protestants read their Bibles more - it's as simple as that.

I think part of the reason is that Catholics have more "distractions" - they might be praying the Rosary or the Divine Mercy; trying to keep up with the latest books from Pope Francis (and before him Pope Benedict, or JPII, or ..); getting their kids to confirmation; having a women's coffee morning rather than a Bible discussion group; keeping a subconscious reference to seven sacraments instead of two; focussing on the eucharist instead of the homily or the Bible readings; and sometimes going to reconciliation.

Whereas the Protestants pretty much have one rule of faith - the Bible and that's it. For them it is central.

Some years ago I was at a weekend Catholic seminar based on the Little Rock Scripture Study series. The main speaker was our current archbishop.

He said at one point that Protestants know their Bibles better than Catholics. He gaven an example - he asked us to say what the missing middle section was in "I am the Lord your God ... you shall have no other Gods before me."

I put my hand up to answer but he waved me down as he knew I was formerly Protestant. The others didn't know.

The missing bit is " .... who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery ..."

He said he wondered for years why Catholics didn't know the middle bit. If he asked Protestants they got it every time.

But then someone said to him that it was due to the Catechism (which I personally never had to recite being an adult convert) and added "It shows the power of the catechism".

They could recite the catechism but did not read the original Bible text from which that phrase was derived.

I have to say I am grateful for my Protestant background, warts and all. I do know my Bible. I was pleasantly surprised by the many Bible studies in my parish when I became Catholic.

 

[Doubting Bob]

Protestants are also quite likely to have multiple translations in their libraries. I have a King James version, a more literal translation, an easy reading translation, a study bible, a parallel text version and Hebrew and Greek texts on my shelf. These days I just use the one Catholic bible that is used in church.

 

[RileyG]

Also, we tend to have more Bible readings in mass compared to Protestant services.