The Catholic Church issued a revised edition of The New American
Bible's Old Testament on March 9 for the first time since 1970, which
includes language that makes God gender-neutral, among other things.
The new edition, which is intended for private use and will not be used
during Catholic Mass, also adapts much Old Testament language to modern
English and includes updated information about the Middle East during
Biblical Times in the text.
Currently, the official Catholic Old Testament does not contain
information from the Dead Sea Scrolls from between the first century
A.D., which were discovered in the 1940s and provide scholars with a
more accurate history of Biblical times and a better understanding of
the Hebrew language.
According to the Rev. Joseph Jensen, executive secretary of the
Catholic Bible Association, the new edition uses more "inclusive
language" by rearranging words so that masculine pronouns do not appear
when referring to both men and women. It also replaces "He" with "God"
in many places.
The Rev. Sean Kealy, a Duquesne theology professor, said readers should approach this new inclusive language with caution.
"God has no sex," he said. "He is mysterious, very mysterious. We don't
fully understand Him. I think you have to respect the language people
use, though."
Edits that update the language to modern English include replacing
words such as "booty" with "spoils," and "holocaust" with "burnt
offering," according to Mary Elizabeth Sperry, associate director for
Bible Utilization with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"Some passages will look very much like what you've seen before, and
some will look very different," Sperry said. "It depends on how familiar
you are with the passages. In general, it's a complete revision."
The process to revise the translation of the Old Testament began in
1993, after the revision of Psalms was completed in 1991.
Forty-nine
bishops, editors and scholars worked on the translation and revision
process, Sperry said. The CBA also provided scholars and editors.
The revised translation was sent for final revisions in 2002 and was approved for distribution in 2008, Jensen said.
Sperry said the new edition was intended to create a meaning that is
closer to the original text, and added that the former editing was
become a bad translation because it mislead readers with outdated
language.
The vast differences between the structures of modern English and
Hebrew, the language that the Old Testament was written in, make new
translations necessary, according to the Rev. Patrick Cronhauer,
professor of biblical studies and languages at St. Vincent's Seminary in
Latrobe, Pa.
Cronhauer said ancient languages are conceptual languages, which often
results in one word having multiple definitions.
Modern languages depend
on specific definitions and can often restrict translations of ancient
texts.
He added that, because only one word can be used in an English
translation, the broader concepts of the words in the Bible are
sometimes lost.
"The Bible hasn't changed, but language changes often," he said.