Bible

[poppie04]

Should Catholics read the bible at home too? Do many Catholics do this?

 

[Brother Simon]

Should Catholics read the bible at home too? Do many Catholics do this?

I think everyone should read the Bible. I read it everyday, and I know all of my Catholic friends do as we have a discussion about certain passages every week.

Pax et Bonum!
Simon

 

[Adammi]

Of course!

 

[MParedon]

St. Jerome has a really great quote:

"Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ"

Catholics should definitely read the Bible at home.

Catholics do read the Bible at home. I remember when I first starting reading in Spanish when I was little, it was from my mother's Bible that was in Spanish. My mom was never a reader (she didn't get pass second grade), but she did read her Bible
In CCD, everybody in class was given a NAB Bible and encouraged to read.

I think the best way to read the Bible is to read the Scripture for the day that is read in Mass. It really helps tie-in the Old Testament and the New Testament for me.

 

[Spence06]

Yea, I think the Catholic Bishops of America just sent out a letter trying to jumpstart the faithful in reading their bibles more.

I read a little by little

 

[Wolseley]

If you read nothing but the Scripture selections from Mass for every day of the year (weekends as well as weekdays), at the end of the three years, you've read 98% of it anyway.

I like to take certain books and read through them in their entirety. Right now I'm reading Tobit, one of my favorite books.

 

[xxRachaelxx]

Can you buy Latin Bibles - and if you can - are they actually easy to find?

I can't actually speak Latin - but I'd love to

 

[Adammi]

I can't actually speak Latin - but I'd love to

You are not the only one!

~Adam

 

[MParedon]

Seton Home Study Has Latin books for those that want to learn.

And if you go to any Catholic bookstore online, chances are they will have a Latin Vulgate Bible (hopefully ). Or if there is a Catholic Store in your area you could most probably find one there.

If there isn't a Catholic Store but there is a Christian Bookstore that can order books, I would order one from them. (You can usually tell if they are Catholic friendly if they have atleast one NAB Bible in stock, usually they don't carry many Catholic books because there isn't a demand that they know of.)

 

[xxRachaelxx]

what does NAB stand for?

 

[MParedon]

NAB stands for New American Bible. I have heard it compared to the NIV (but I've never read NIV, so I couldn't say for sure). The NAB translation is what is used in all US Catholic Churches.
It is an easy translation to read, but I would be wary of the footnotes in some of them, to be safe I would check out the NAB versions at the Catholic Answers Website.

The Catholic Churches in Canada use the RSV-CE translation (Revised Standard Version-Catholic Editioni) I think everyone likes that one the best. The translation is a closer representation of the original language than the NAB, and most RSV-CE versions have really good footnotes from what I gather. The Ignatius Bible is a really good RSV-CE version.

But the ultimate translation in most peoples opinions, is the Douay-Rheims. It is a translation from the Latin Vulgate. The translation language is comparible to the King James Version, so for some it might be a little more difficult to read. It is said to be the most accurate translation in English and I'm pretty sure that the footnotes in all the Douay-Rheim versions are safe.

In translations of the Bible there are two terms that are used; dynamic and literal. Dynamic means that the translation does the best to get the meaning across in our modern-day language, so you get the meaning, but you lose some of the accuracy.
Literal means that it adheres to exactly what the Greek and Hebrew in the Bible are, so you get the accuracy, but you might not understand exactly what it means.


Hee Hee, I didn't mean to write a whole essay, but I hoped I helped.


Edit: oops the Catholic Answers website doesn't carry the NAB, I'll try to find another website

 

[KennySe]

If you read nothing but the Scripture selections from Mass for every day of the year (weekends as well as weekdays), at the end of the three years, you've read 98% of it anyway.

I do that often.

For those who don't know, the US Catholic Bishops' website has the calendar. http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm

 

[Polycarp1]

I'll mention the New Jerusalem Bible, which was produced under Catholic auspices and has a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, and which is IMO the absolute best study Bible, as well as one of the best reading Bible translations, around. Though I use various translations for various purposes (as we Episcopalians can get away with), it's probably the version to which I refer in my personal study and devotions easily 70% of the time.

 

[CeeBee]

If there isn't a Catholic Store but there is a Christian Bookstore that can order books, I would order one from them. (You can usually tell if they are Catholic friendly if they have atleast one NAB Bible in stock, usually they don't carry many Catholic books because there isn't a demand that they know of.)

Good advice I think lol I have found this out myself to be true. Luckily there is a Catholic store 35 minutes away. (may seem a long way for you city slickers, lol, but for us, the nearest city with a Wal-Mart is 30 minutes) I haven't been to it yet but know it is there I want to go there with some big time money one ady lol mom said she would bring me when she got a chance! Btw, my mom has seemed to really get better feelings for Catholics. A good darn bit better. I think I will make a new thread about that though.

 

[Paul S]

Can you buy Latin Bibles - and if you can - are they actually easy to find?

I can't actually speak Latin - but I'd love to

You can get the Clementine Vulgate, used at Mass for the past 400 years, here.
http://www.aclclassics.org/tmrc/catalog.asp?parent=182&c=&prefix=B&number=728

It's also available online here. http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/html/index.html

If you want the Nova Vulgata, which is a revised Vulgate, it's at the Vatican site.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_index_lt.html

The NAB, which is used at the new Mass in the US (in English) is here, with a calendar of the readings. http://www.usccb.org/nab/

My preference is the Clementine Vulgate, but since my Latin isn't good enough to really read the whole thing, I use the Douay-Rheims.

The NIV, the New International Version, is a Protestant translation and missing seven books, plus parts of two others.

If you're interested in learning Latin, a good book is the Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin, by John Collins. Wheelock's is also excellent, but it's classical Latin, but the two aren't that different. Learning the grammar and vocabulary and doing the exercises are good, but to really start to get it, you need to read stuff in Latin. The Vulgate is excellent for this, especially since you can use the Douay-Rheims as a almost word-for-word translation. The vulsearch site has a free program with both versions in side-by-side windows.

http://www.ravendays.org/latin/lists/listindex.html is a mailing list with various Latin groups on it working through Wheelock's and other texts. Everyone sends in their translations each week, and they're put together and you can compare answers. A classroom's probably best, but if that's not available, the group's pretty good.