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
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 ...