May God bless us all abundantly, bring us to His Kingdom, and forgive us our sins, through Christ our Lord, Amen.
After I had published my previous few
topics, I was praying about the subject and I had a thought. I thought that I may just be being
presumptuous and jumping to conclusions and condemning things I don’t fully
understand. As previously stated, I am a
young babe in Christ, and a young man, of only 26 years of age. After prayer, thought, and researching the
topic more thoroughly, as well as giving the introductions and notes of the NAB
a thorough reading through, I’ve come to the conclusion that I used too strong
of words and condemned all of the notes when they are not all bad.
After reading some works of Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI, I realized I needed to read the notes and intros with more
thought and prayer than I previously was.
My conclusion is thus: the introductions are solid, but they are lacking
in presenting a balanced view of tradition and historical critical
theories. Some of the introductions
though, such as the intros to the Psalms, the books of Maccabees, Sirach, and
many of the Minor Prophets, however, are entirely spot on, and in need of no
revision. So I now say, instead of
needing a complete overhaul, the introductions simply need to be reviewed and
revised. Which, from what I’ve gleaned,
is exactly what’s going to happen over the next decade while the Bishops,
Priests, Deacons and scholars of the USCCB and CBA are finishing their most
commendable and venerable work of translation the Sacred Scriptures.
The footnotes as well, it seems I have
jumped the gun in outright condemning them, when they do not deserve outright
condemnation. The footnotes, I have
found, are actually in a ratio of about 15 to 1. What I mean is, for every 16 notes you read,
15 are good, either as they stand, or only in need of slight revision. And 1 footnote is somewhat of a stinker,
either worded in a way that needs to be read 5 times in a row to understand, or
just scandalous in content. So, the
footnotes are still the most serious dent in the perfection of the NAB
Bible. The footnotes do need to be
rolled back in certain situations, a few do need to be deleted outright, and
many need revision. However, the vast
majority are good as they stand.
So my final conclusion is this –
The New American Bible, Revised Edition is
a solid Bible, all around. The USCCB and
CBA should maybe take a look at the People of God and their suggestions, and
also the New African Bible, and use that input to tamper and revise the
introductions and footnotes, in order to change them from decent to great, to
go from good to perfection. The
translation needs to be tweaked and revised, and brought into conformity with
Liturgiam Authenticum and the current Lectionary. I believe the revisers are already doing
everything I have just concluded, so I think the best thing we can do as a
unified voice of the American People of God is pray for our leadership and our
scholars. Pray for them to be guided by
the Spirit of God. Pray for St. Jerome,
Fr. Martin, Bishop Challoner, Msgr. Knox, and other Holy men of God to pray for
our scholars. And after we pray for
them, pray again. Then pray some more.
Forgive me for my ignorance, forgive me
for my presumptuousness, and forgive me for all my wrongdoings. Forgive me for what I have said, what I have
done, what I have thought, which has been sinful, wrong or scandalous. Forgive me for what I have failed to say,
failed to do, or failed to think, which has led to sinfulness, error or
scandal.
And most importantly, dear brothers and
sisters, pray for me to the Lord our God.
+Sincerely yours,
With Love and Peace in Christ Jesus,
Jason Michael Prewara
IC XC NIKA+
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