Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
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The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (also known as the RSV-CE) is a revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible for use by Catholics.
The Revised Standard Version was translated from the original languages for an American audience by the National Council of the Churches of Christ, and then adapted for Catholic use by the Catholic Biblical Association in 1966. It is widely used by conservative Catholic scholars and theologians, and is accepted as the one of the most accurate and literary Bible translations suitable for Catholic use.
When the New Revised Standard Version was released in 1989, the original RSV-CE went out of print. However, many Catholics reacted negatively to the NRSV's wide use of gender-inclusive language. This use of inclusive language was a major reason the Holy See rejected the NRSV for use in the liturgy and the English translation of the Catechism.
The original RSV-CE was revived in 1994 when Ignatius Press re-published it as the Ignatius Bible. Today, the RSV-CE is still published by Ignatius, Scepter Publishers, and Oxford University Press. It is also the Bible translation used in the English edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church alongside the NRSV where inclusive language is not used.
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Significant Differences from the RSV
The editors of the Catholic Edition made no changes to the Old Testament text; all they did was add the seven Deuterocanonical works in their traditional Catholic order. However, some minor changes were made to the New Testament in places that had variant readings more in line with Catholic understanding and tradition. Some of the more important changes were the use of the phrase "full of grace" in the angel's greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28, the restoration of the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) and the inclusion of the longer ending to the Gospel according to Mark. In other places, some word changes were made, and some texts were exchanged with footnotes.
A full index of changes to the original RSV New Testament is available as an appendix to the RSV-CE.
Second Edition
In 2006, Ignatius Press released the Second Catholic Edition of the RSV. This edition removed the archaic language in references to God, and exchanged some texts with footnotes in passages that had significance to Catholics. According to Ignatius Press, this revision brings the RSV-CE into confirmity with the translation principles called for by the Vatican Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam. The new edition also features new typesetting, section headings, and maps.
As was the case with the original RSV, gender-inclusive language is not used.
Liturgical Use
The RSV-CE text used to be permitted for use in the Lectionary in the United States. The permission has since been withdrawn. Today, there is only one text approved for use in the United States, a modified version of the New American Bible with the 1986 Revised New Testament, with inappropriate inclusive language removed.
However, the RSV-CE remains approved for use in the English translation of the Liturgy of the Hours for use in England and Wales, Australia, India, and many other English-speaking nations outside of the United States and Canada.
Ignatius Press is also publishing a Lectionary based on the RSV-Second Catholic Edition, approved for use by the Episcopal Conference of the Antilles. This Lectionary is not, at present, approved for use in the United States, although Ignatius Press is hopeful that other Episcopal Conferences will follow suit.
Endorsements
Many well-known Catholic personalities, including Scott Hahn, Curtis Mitch, Steve Ray, Jimmy Akin, and others use it as well. It is also used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and in English translations of Church documents. The English translations of the works of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) also use the RSV-CE or its Second Edition.
Differences between Catholic and Protestant Bibles
Bible translations used by the Catholic Church as well as the Eastern Orthodox, including the RSV-CE, contain more material than those used by Protestants. The Catholic Church recognizes 46 Old Testament books as canonical, while Protestants only recognize 39—seven fewer. The Catholic canon contains all of the books from the Greek Septuagint which was considered canonical in Jesus' time and would have been the canon Jesus used. The New Testaments are identical between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics refer to these seven Old Testament books as "deuterocanonical" meaning "second canon," and they include: Tobit (Tobias), Judith, Baruch, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Wisdom, First and Second Maccabees (Machabees) and parts of Esther and Daniel. Protestant Bibles through the beginning of the nineteenth century also typically included these books under a separate section called the "apocrypha" meaning "hidden." By including the deuterocanonical books in many editions, the RSV is following the older tradition of English Bibles, which includes the King James Version.
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