Question About Scripture.

[Spem in alium]

In my Scripture class we were talking about inspiration - how the word of God is divinely inspired and writers are influenced by the Holy Spirit. It was interesting to learn about the mistakes and errancy that can occur through translations and paraphrasing, and I had this question:

What is the Church's view on Bibles that are heavily paraphrased (such as the Good News Bible)? I remember using it when I was little. Do you think that the GNB's simple and concise language detracts from its status of inspiration? I mean, it's still a Bible, right?

[cmotherofpirl]

saw this at CAF: [color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]The Good News Bible, while a dynamic equivalence Bible, IS a Bible that has been officially approved for use by Catholics. (In other words, it sacrifices a literal translation in order to make it more easy to understand.) It's the one that I grew up with in CCD. Some of the concerns that you have are not really concerns. As you probably know, the Catholic Bible has seven books in the Old Testament that Protestants do not use. They are called the Deuterocanonicals. They include:[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Tobit[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Judith[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Wisdom[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Sirach (also known as Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus)[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Baruch (which also includes an addition from the Greek version sometimes known as the Letter of Jeremiah)[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]1 Maccabees[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]2 Maccabees[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]What fewer people realize is that because the Catholic Bible was translated off the Greek translation (the Septuagint) rather than the Hebrew translation, there are some other slight differences. The Catholic Bible has a few more passages that were added to the Book of Daniel. Much of the time they are included within the text of Daniel itself, but sometimes, they're presented separately. That's probably why you're not aware of them, because usually they're just placed in Daniel and no one's the wiser. Anyway, when these stories ARE separated, they are known as:[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Holy Children[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Susanna[/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Bel and the Dragon[/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]All of these books and stories are FULLY part of the Catholic Bible, have no worries![/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Now, there IS a section in the Good News Bible usually called "Some Additional Books". This includes 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasseh. They are included because some branches of Orthodoxy regard them as canonical and part of scripture, while Catholics do not. (The Good News Bible was structured so that it could also be used by the Orthodox, although I can't say how many actually do.) That said, Catholics DO regard them as interesting documents of the time and worth reading, even if we don't consider them inspired.[/font][/color]

[Spem in alium]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]Thank you kindly or your helpful reply. I suppose such a Bible is useful, particularly for young children or for those whose first language is not English. [/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]It was interesting to read about the additions to Daniel and the inclusion of the Orthodox books too. [/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, tahoma, verdana, geneva, lucida,]God bless![/font][/color]