Revised Jerusalem Bible

[Berk Boyraz]

Beloware brief summaries of the various English translations used in Catholic Bibles today, discussing the basic literary characteristics, intended use, and availability of each translation. Further background information for them can be found in the article Catholic Bibles: A Modest History of the English Versions, which also covers older historical versions of these and other translations.

There are twenty-two currently available Bible translations listed below that at least claim to be Catholic editions, two of which are New Testaments. The versions have been organized into five groups, based on a combination of publication era, degree of Catholic involvement in producing the translation, and status as to whether it has been ecclesially approved for publication as a Catholic Bible. Use the links listed below to jump to a specific version, or just scroll down.

The New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) is the current version of the Bible published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and is the de facto standard Bible translation for the Catholic Church in America. It is the fourth published version of the New American Bible, originally published in 1970, which was incorporated into the new 1970 Lectionary for Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and other liturgical rites revised under the Vatican II reforms. This translation family is the basis for the only approved liturgical text in the USA and the Philippines today.

The liturgical books have not entirely kept up with the translation changes, but the current 2011 NABRE version does basically align with the Gospels and other New Testament readings proclaimed at Mass within the United States (or the Philippines). Those readings come from a Lectionary published in 1998 (or in 2001 for Weekdays). Serious Catholics in these two countries would do well to have a copy of the NAB; editions printed between 1987 and 2010 would best reflect the texts of the current Lectionaries.

Print versions of the NABRE are available in various formats and editions from numerous publishers. Free, online editions are available from the USCCB and Vatican websites, and also at biblegateway.com. The NABRE is also available in both desktop and tablet/mobile editions from the better Bible Study software vendors. Logos/Verbum offers an electronic edition of the NABRE with full reverse interlinear tagging, which is easily the best NABRE edition for serious Bible study, and costs less than some basic hardcovers. A small number of Bible apps for mobile also offer the NABRE as a premium option.

The RNJB is a formal equivalence translation revising a 1985 version called the New Jerusalem Bible, which itself had been a revision of a 1966 Jerusalem Bible. Neither of the earlier two versions in this family had used a formal equivalence translation approach, but had more or less employed functional or dynamic equivalence techniques (i.e. they were more meaning-for-meaning and less word-for-word than the RNJB).

The more rigorous approach taken with the RNJB has resulted in a translation that maintains the charm of the Jerusalem Bible literary tradition while considerably improving accuracy. A chief guiding principle for the revision was to demonstrate that the Biblical message is directed equally at women and men, so gender-neutral modifications presumed necessary to accomplish that will be encountered more so than in many other versions, especially other versions using a formal equivalence translation approach.

This is a new, independent translation, not beholden to older traditions, and willing to go against the grain at times, but eschewing the vulgarizing tendencies of many modern translations to flatten the rich vocabulary of Biblical tradition into pedestrian and vague dullness, or to surrender literary precision and clarity to identity politics. Fidelity to the revealed Word was clearly a translational priority. The annotations are refreshingly expository, and the provided cross references are generous in editions that contain them. Page layout is typical for a CBP Saint Joseph Edition Bible (back-referenced annotations at the bottoms of the columns; cross-references squished into a box of character soup), and several nice helps are included, depending on edition, including maps, charts, doctrinal Bible index, etc. This work is very useful as an ancillary version.

CBP has been multiplying available editions and formats since the 2019 release of the complete Bible, and options are available from compact to family size, large or even giant print, etc. Other than a web edition recently published on Biblegateway.com, the NCB is not yet available as an ebook. However, an audio (MP3) edition of the New Testament is available on a USB thumb drive, and an Audible edition of the NT is also available.

The marketing of this translation as the New Catholic Bible (NCB) could lead to some confusion, and purchasers should check twice to be sure the correct version is being ordered. There are several volumes with which this could be easily confused:

Despite the simplified vocabulary, and plethora of revisions, it is sometimes difficult to follow what the translator is intending to convey in English. This version hardly seems like it can be depended on to provide either a professional rendering of the Greek/Hebrew, or an aesthetically sound presentation of it in English. Another oddity: the book order used for the Old Testament was for many years a strange pastiche of the orders of the Jewish Bible and the Vulgate, though this odd ordering appears to have been abandoned in the most recent revisions.

Targeted at third-world communities where English is a second language, the CCB can be difficult to find in print in the US, but several editions continue to be published by Claretian Publications. PDFs of all the books are available online from or

The presentation of this edition is remarkable: single-column text framed on heavy, colorful pastel pages sporting abundant photos and other graphics, having verse numbering relegated to the center gutter, heading text presented in a bold red, and Old Testament quotations highlighted in a heavy black bold. The Biblical text is presented in a very generous 11.5 point font with subtle serifs, making it very easy on the eyes.

A sturdy 656-page softcover is the only printed edition of the full New Testament. A subset consisting of Romans-Hebrews was published in a compact edition in 2008 as Letters of Saint Paul. The Gospels had been published in 1992 as The Alba House Gospels: So You May Believe, but that appears out of print. No electronic editions of this version exist

Several well-made editions of the DRC are available from print publishers such as TAN/Saint Benedict, Baronius, Loreto, Angelus, and others, including editions suitable for study. Economy editions of this version in print appear to be lacking. However, it is widely available as an electronic text, for both commercial and publicly licensed Bible Study software, as a searchable text on numerous public websites, and for various mobile Bible apps.

This is a fresh, fairly dynamic translation of the Vulgate published between 1945-1949 by Monsignor Ronald Knox, an Englishman and Anglican convert to Catholicism. The work was very well-received, and gained considerable exposure in America as the version preferred by Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen during the time of his television presentation ministry. However, it never really caught on in the States, and was soon eclipsed on both sides of the pond by new translations direct from the original languages. Although a modern translation, it retains some archaic word forms, yet it is perfectly understandable, and makes for a good alternate literary perspective on the Scriptures.

After having been out of print for years, it is available again, in a fine, single-column edition from Baronius, published in 2012. Electronically, it is available as an excellent on-line text from New Advent (a three-column parallel format, comparing it to Latin and Greek versions), but it does not appear to be available in any ebook format.

The RSV-CE includes the original RSV textual notes dealing with alternate readings and translation decisions. It also additionally provides a limited number of endnote annotations collected in appendices following the Old and New Testaments. A modest number of cross-references were provided in the 1994

Ignatius edition, which have not been replicated in all newer editions. Overall, the annotations in this version are sparse, especially for a Catholic Bible.

The RSV-CE remains popular among serious Catholic students of the Bible, especially those who prefer traditional diction and dignified literary style over more modern priorities. It is available in fine or common print editions from several publishers. Electronically, it is available on the web at biblegateway.com, as well as in Logos format, where it can be purchased with or without embedded reverse interlinear tagging.

The RSV-2CE is the underlying text for the superb Ignatius Catholic Study Bible project, which is the most comprehensive Study Bible available for Catholics. A New Testament volume was completed in 2010. Much of the Old Testament is available in fascicle form, and an edition of the full Bible is currently being prepared by Ignatius for release in the fall of 2024.

Several nice editions of the NRSV-CE are published in print, available in both typical (American) and Anglicized versions. Of particular note among print editions of the NRSV-CE is the new Word on Fire Bible, from the evangelizing ministry of the indomitable Bishop Robert Barron. Being published in multiple volumes (volumes one and two, covering the New Testament, are currently available), these volumes are rich in modern and traditional commentary, artwork, and workmanship.

Available in print from Tyndale in limited editions, the Catholic Edition NLT is available electronically in ePub and Kindle editions. The standard NLT is widely available electronically, and Logos even published an edition incorporating a reverse interlinear, for some reason. The text of the 66-book standard NLT 2015 edition is identical to the corresponding text in the Catholic Edition, so the only differences lie in the inclusion of the Deuterocanon in the Catholic Edition.

3a8082e126