The use of the RSV liturgically is approved by the CHurch. It is not my favorite either, but it is allowed. I would prefer that we used the Douay. Or, it would be great if someone undertook a translation of the Septuagint, with the Church also regards as inspired.
We are in an irremedial situation in regards to the sourcing of the Bible.
What we have is the Latin Vulgate, which is testified by the Council of Trent
to be error-free. There has never been any other so-called version of
Scripture so defined by the authority of any council.
The Douay-Rheims is the most reliable English translation of the Latin Vulgate.
The Vulgate comes to us from St. Jerome, who lived in the 4th century, and at
that time he had recourse to sacred texts that have since fallen into dust, and
so, what he wrote was using resources that are no longer extant.
The Bible that St. Jerome used was the Septuagint, only it was already really
old when he used it, and he had more than one copy at his disposal, so he
could look for errors or omissions and the like.
St. Jerome was commissioned by the Pope and was well-known to be an
undisputed Latinist, perhaps the greatest of his age. We are very privileged to
have had such a great mind and talent doing what he did at that time.
You hear people claim that so-and-so has made a "new translation from the
original texts" but that's nonsense. The "original texts" do not exist any
more. So anyone who says they used them is spinning a fable. It is
impossible to use something when it is nowhere to be found. These people
just don't like the Latin Vulgate, because it says things that are too "difficult"
to accept for sinners who want to justify their sins. Until the time of the
printing press, the Latin Vulgate was the only Bible anyone had. Gutenberg's
first book to be printed on his new invention was the Bible, and it was called
the Gutenberg Bible. Guess what "version" it was - The Latin Vulgate. He had
nothing else to use at the time. So it was the fact of the new technology that
made possible the proliferation of other "versions."
I went to a Protestant exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls a few weeks ago, and
they had a lot of very old bibles on display. I hung around and listened to
what the Prots were talking about, which was almost more interesting than what
was in the displays. These people were chock-full of rumor and innuendo about
the Catholic Church. That was their major concern throughout. One of their
scholars was there to speak to visitors. I saw him shy away from the
assertion of Prots in his presence who made various statements critical of the
Catholic Church and the Bible. It was obviously the case that he did not want
to tell them that they were mistaken, even though he may have known that they
were. I did not let anyone know that I was Catholic in order to let them feel
more free to say the things they say when no Catholics can hear them.
Topic: latin vulgate in eastern rite churches? (Read 906 times)