Agnostic Bible Commentary
The Old Oligarch links to an answer in EWTN's forum by Fr. Echert on one of the New American Bible footnotes and he goes on to say.
Bravo, Father, bravo. Let us swing the hammer and strike blows against that mass of modernist, agnostic commentary which presently enjoys the recommendation of the USCCB and is sold as "the" modern Catholic Bible in so many bookstores. Some aspects of the apparatus are great, but others are toxic waste, plain and simple, and deserve to be relegated to the dungpile history as a grave methodological mistake.
I bought The Catholic Bible Personal Study Edition NAB before coming into the Church. The text of the NAB is actually copyrighted by the by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. At first I though it was a shame that they did not make the text freely distributable, but after reading it I am glad they didn't. The NAB is a dynamic translation and I and I think there were a lot of questionable decisions as to how it was translated. But the footnotes in the study version are unbelievable. I think they outsourced them to a group of agnostic bible scholars or wannabe Jesus Seminar types. At times I would read the footnotes just to see how far off they would be and to get a good laugh. I expected after reading a passage in the Gospels of a saying by Jesus for the footnote to say "no he didn't" or else "this was added later" Then again those footnotes would have been more honest then the ones they had. If they come out with another edition I wonder if they will advertise it as "Now with even more heresies!"
Known as 
God's punishment always means something. What do you think the meaning of what happening with USCCB? What lesson is God trying to teach?
If it's because something that US citizen did, then what was it?
I've noticed the same thing with my Catholic Study Bible footnotes. Some of them are so skewed that they seem to be written by non-Catholics or even those with an anti-Catholic agenda.
As far as the NAB, look for the 'non-revised' edition (i.e., not the 'With Revised Psalms and New Testament). It is actually much better. The newer one seems to have as its goal the utter extinguishing of any and all remnants of piety among its readers.
Wasn't the Revised with Revised Psalms DISallowed for use in the liturgy? It was that bad a translation....not even mentioning the footnotes.
Actually it was the New Revised Standard Version that is not allowed because of its use of inclusive language.
Good news: The RNAB will be out within a few years. So, there is hope.
Oh Jeff, you're a bad man, mate! You gave me an idea: the Catholic Skeptical Bible. Go to my blog to see the ad. LOL
Any other bible recs? I've got a King James Version around here somewhere, a NAB, and an Oxford Bible. I think I've heard of something called the Jerusalem Bible -- any good? Thoughts? I'm wanting to go through the Gospels in a systematic manner soon, and I'd like a good study bible. I need something with historical context.
Oy. The NAB. The translation text (unrevised) is serviceable, for the most part--except for the "Reign of God" references, which are vomitous. I can largely stomach it, if the footnote and introductory apparati are separated from it (e.g., it's not too bad in the Liturgy of the Hours).
But the histocrit BS in the footnotes and introduction are too often so liberal and so tired that it's not funny.
Try the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, publishing NT (so far) up through Romans. You will not blanch at this publication.
Also, try to find a copy of the old Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, published in 1953 or, alternatively A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture published in 1969 (revised 1975). The former is magnificent, but the latter is reasonably solid.
Love the Douay-Rheims, if you can find one. I have also heard very good things about the Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition.
The Ignatius CSB uses the Revised Standard Version--Catholic Edition for its text.
I'll simply echo what was said about the Revised NAB--with a few exceptions, it was revised markedly for the worse. What was done with the Psalms in terms of "inclusive" language can only be described as an abomination. Not quite as bad as the godawful NRSV
A new NAB may be in the works, but until the USCCB mandates radical revisions of the explanatory apparatus and blocks the push for "inclusivity", the NAB is going to be a very nearsighted guide to God's Word.
As regards the Jerusalem Bible--a very fine read (much, much better than the NAB), but plagued with much of the same increasingly worn out historical-critical hypothesizing that makes the NAB so infuriating. The "Reader's Edition" has fewer of the footnotes, so that's the one to get if you want to avoid some dubious scholarly theories.
The Knox translation is another one to have, for my money. Translated from the old Latin Vulgate, it is one of the finer renderings in English, as Msgr. Knox was a master of our tongue.
"Not quite as bad as the godawful NRSV, but what is?"
--I meant to say.
Totally agree with you Dale. Knox's translation and the RSV-CE are excellent. The NRSV is crap. For bible study I like the Navarre and the Ignatious and I wish I had a copy of Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture.
Wow, this thread is an eye-opener. I'm a new 'revert' after many, many years away from the church. Wanting to (for the first time in my life) try to understand what the Church ACTUALLY teaches, I am now enrolled in a continuing ed type program through a local (jesuit) university. The NAB was the recommended study Bible. If it's approved by the USCCB, can it really be THAT bad?
RSV-Catholic Edition is OK. My picks are: KJV/Authorized Version with Apocrypha for reading, Douay-Rheims/pre-Vatican II Confraternity Bible for commentary.
LAS:
Sadly, yes, it can. Imprimaturs and nihil obstats aren't what they used to be, especially in biblical studies.
Look at it this way: Imprimaturs have been slapped on establishment-approved books that have been used to "reform" the liturgy into its current envervated state. See Huck, Gabriel.
Look at it another way--if the bishops were so slipshod in the protection of their own flocks from child rapists, what makes you think they were any more vigilant in policing the books used to teach the Faith?
Things are getting better in Catholic scripture studies, to be sure--but you have to do some searching and engage in careful discernment.