Category: Scripture

Scripture

At the Heart of Liberty is the Right to Encounter and Know the Truth!

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Be holy. Be perfect. Be children of your heavenly father. The spirit of God dwells in you. You are the temple of God… The various liturgical readings this week come together around a common thread concerning the necessary holiness of the Spirit-filled disciple, and of how that holiness is manifest as a reflection of the loving-kindness of God. Can the sudden mad rush to post-human or trans-human existence we find Western civilization engulfed in be enlightened by reflection on this call of God to be holy/perfect/complete? 7th Week in Ordinary Time,...

Scripture

I will give you as a light to the nations: 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

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First Reading:            Isaiah 49:3, 5–6Psalm Response:       Psalm 40:8a, 9aPsalm Versicles:         Psalm 40:2, 4, 7–8, 8–9, 10Second Reading:       1 Corinthians 1:1–3Gospel Acclamation: John 1:14a, 12aGospel:                      John 1:29–34 The NAB Lectionary reading from 1Cor 1:2 has Paul addressing those who are “called to be a holy people.” The implications of that particular calling had changed significantly from the earlier time of the Deuteronomic covenant, when the Lord had declared: “The LORD will establish you as a people hol...

Scripture

Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’

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The Gospel reading for the 2nd Sunday of Advent in Year A, taken from the Gospel of Matthew, contains a passage I think provides a key to understanding a different and controversial passage from the same Gospel. When John the Baptist saw the religious leaders coming to be baptized, he challenged them to demonstrate their repentance in concrete actions, not just in playing “show and tell”. He then said to them: “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.'” This criticism is reminiscent of a passage in Jeremiah where he ...

Scripture

You know not on what day your Lord is coming.

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Jesus’ depiction of the coming “of the Son of Man” stands in pretty stark contrast to popular ideas of how things might end, or at least of how the race my move into a new kind of future. We largely live among the “don’t worry, be happy” crowd – many of whom do not believe a word of the testimony concerning the last things, while others of them accept some notion of Divine judgment and some version or another of eternal or “heavenly” life, but who are at least implicitly and often explicitly convinced that such eventualities are of no real consequence, o...

Scripture

Let Us Go Rejoicing

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The liturgical year culminates this week in the celebration of the joyous and triumphant solemnity of Christ the King. In the Entrance Antiphon, the Church echoes the cry of the numberless host of heaven, witnessed to in the Revelation to St John, acclaiming in loud voices the worthiness of the Lamb that was slain (Rev 5:12). In the Collect, She prays “that the whole creation, set free from slavery,” might ceaselessly praise God – thus joining...

Scripture

The Revised New Jerusalem Bible (RNJB)–Initial Thoughts

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I received an early Christmas present from myself today. I had pre-ordered the hardcover edition of the full Revised New Jerusalem Bible from CBD a while back, with the expectation that it would arrive near the end of the month. That was several weeks later than other distributors were offering, but the discount CBD was offering was irresistible. To my delight, it showed up earlier than anyone was advertising delivery. In fact, Amazon is still promoting delivery on the “release date” of December 3rd. Three extra cheers for the good people at Christian Bo...

Scripture

The Holocaust, “holocausts”, and the NABRE

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Complaints about modern Biblical translations succumbing to “political correctness” are hardly uncommon. Most often, these revolve around the increasingly fraught usage of pronouns. However, sometimes the sentiments that inform the “PC” mindset direct the work of translation down the same path of evacuated meaning and self-defeat in surprising ways. In the “Preface to the Revised New American Old Testament”, the editors of the NABRE

Scripture

The Open English Bible: Trendiness, Updated

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Along with the previously mentioned CEB, I spent some time last weekend checking out a couple other new Bible translations, one of which was the Open English Bible (New Testament), published electronically in 2011 – I viewed a PDF rendition dated April 4th, 2011. Primarily an individual effort by Russell Allen, this work is an “open source” revision of the rather obscure 1904 Twentieth Century New Testament. Considered the first “modern English” translation, the TCNT was produced in Britain by a group of mostly laymen seeking to produce an &#...

Scripture

The Common English Bible: Yet another failed attempt at “The Bible for Dummies”

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A group calling itself the Church Resources Development Corp is preparing to release yet another new English translation of Sacred Scripture, this one being marketed as the  the  Common English Bible (CEB) (not to be confused with the 1999 Common Edition New Testament, or with the American Bible Society’s Contemporary English Version from 1995, which goes by CEV). This “fresh” translation was an interdenominational effort (predominantly by members of old-line, liberal Protestant denominations, it would seem). It was translated from NA27, using vari...

Scripture

The USCCB Swings & Whiffs on the NAB Revised Edition

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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced the release on this coming Ash Wednesday (March 9th) of what amounts to the completion of a Revised version of the New American Bible, which will be known as the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). I should be happy to see the publication of what is being touted as a more formal translation of the Old Testament for the NAB, but I can’t help but feel that the USCCB has bungled this. This will be the fourth release of the NAB family of translations. The original translation was ...