In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
The 1943 encyclical of Pope Pius XII, Divino afflante Spiritu, encouraged translations of the Catholic Bible from the original languages instead of the Vulgate alone, as had been the tradition since the Council of Trent. "It was in fact with a view to filling this rather obvious gap in the shortest possible time that some Catholic scholars considered the possibility of so editing the Revised Standard Version, on its appearance in 1952, as to make it acceptable to Catholic readers."[3]
In 1965, the RSV-CE New Testament was published.[4]
A Catholic Bible differs in the number, order, and occasionally preferred emphasis from books typically found in Bibles used by Protestants. The Catholic Church declares: "Easy access to Sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful. That is why the Church from the very beginning accepted as her own that very ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament which is called the Septuagint; and she has always given a place of honor to other Eastern translations and Latin ones especially the Latin translation known as the Vulgate."[5] Not all the books in the Septuagint[6] are included among those that the Catholic Church considers to be part of the Old Testament.[7]
In early 2006, Ignatius Press released the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE). The Ignatius Edition "was revised according to [the norms of] Liturgiam authenticam, 2001" and "approved under the same [i.e. 1966] imprimatur by the Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices, National Council of Catholic Bishops, February 29, 2000." To that end, Ignatius Press submitted its proposed revisions to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and to the Congregation for Divine Worship, making specifically-requested changes to those portions of the text in liturgical use as lectionary readings.[8] As with the original RSV and its first Catholic edition, the translation copyright remains in the hands of the National Council of Churches. The RSV-2CE is the basis for Ignatius Press' The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, and is likewise used in Midwest Theological Forum's The Didache Bible, a study Bible with commentaries based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.[9] The full Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, including both the Catholic Old Testament and the New Testament, will be published in Fall 2024.[10] The RSV-2CE is also the translation used in the English-language version Great Adventure Catholic Bible, published by Ascension Press.[11]Father Mike Schmitz reads from this translation in his podcast, The Bible in a Year.[12]
The Second Catholic Edition removed archaic pronouns (thee, thou) and accompanying verb forms (didst, speaketh), revised passages used in the lectionary according to the Vatican document Liturgiam authenticam and elevated some passages out of RSV footnotes when they favored Catholic renderings. For instance, the RSV-2CE renders "almah" as "virgin" in Isaiah 7:14, restores the term "begotten" in John 1:18 and other verses, uses the phrase "full of grace" instead of "favored one" in Luke 1:28, and substitutes "mercy" for "steadfast love" (translated from the Hebrewhesed) throughout the Psalms.[13]
^See any book by Hahn (ICSB, The Lamb's Supper, Reasons to Believe); Mitch (ICSB, CCSS [NAB], A Study Guide for Jesus of Nazareth); Jimmy Akin (Fathers Know Best, Salvation Controversy), title pages: "All quotations of Scripture in this book are taken from the Revised Standard Version - [Second] Catholic Edition unless otherwise noted".
