The Confraternity Version of the Bible

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The Confraternity Version of the NewTestament is one of my favorite versions of the New Testament. TheConfraternity New Testament was originally published in 1941. It is atranslation from the Latin, with reference to the Greek, and is arevision of the Challoner-Rheims New Testament. It is called theConfraternity version because it was commissioned by the U.S. RomanCatholic Bishop's Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The NewTestament pages are marked for each day of the year; one can read theentire New Testament through twice a year by following theConfraternity New Testament's simple, built in reading plan. It alsohas introductions to all the books of the New Testament and lots ofstudy & footnotes.
The current publication is well made byScepter Publishers, and is very inexpensive at $10. It featuresbeautiful printing in black and red. It is laid out in single columnformat, and although the print is somewhat small, it is very easy toread.
As a Catholic Anglican, I enjoy thislovely, Latin-based translation of the New Testament for its dignified, traditional English and religious language. Readers of theDouay-Rheims version and King James Version will find the phraseologyand terms used very familiar. It is a reliable, traditionaltranslation. I like that it uses “Amen, Amen,” a transliterationof both the Greek and Latin, rather than “verily, verily,”“truly, truly,” “I solemnly assure you,” “I assure you,”“I tell you the truth,” or other renderings for Jesus' famousphrase.
At first, the Confraternity NewTestament was published in 1941 as a stand-alone volume. In 1950, theConfraternity New Testament was published along with the Douay OldTestament. This complete edition of the Bible was entitled, “TheNew Catholic Version.” It has also been called theDouay-Confraternity Bible, Douay being mentioned first, because theOld Testament, most of the rest of the Bible, was the Douay Bible.Although as the years went on, portions of the Old Testament weretranslated for the Confraternity version, the New CatholicVersion/Douay-Confraternity Bible was available from Kennedy and SonsPublishers as late as 1962.
There was a very brief period, between1950-1952, where some editions of the New Catholic Version/DouayConfraternity Bible were published incorporating the New EnglishTranslation of the Psalms. This version of the Psalms is atranslation of the New Latin Version of the Psalms promulgated byPope Pius XII. The New English Translation of the New Latin Versionof the Psalms was published in 1947 in a separate volume before beingincorporated into the New Catholic Edition of the Bible. However, theConfraternity of Christian Doctrine began another translation of thePsalms, from the Hebrew, and quickly replaced the New EnglishTranslation of the New Latin Psalms. The New English Translation ofthe New Latin Version of the Psalms is happily still in print andeasily obtainable. The Confraternity of the Precious Blood inBrooklyn, New York, you to publish the Confraternity New Testamentand New English Translation of the Psalms as a 2 volume companionset. See my post: The Confraternity New Testament & the NewEnglish Translation of the New Latin Version of the Psalms
In 1952, the first books were publishedof the Confraternity Old Testament, but these books version was nottranslated from the Latin. It is essentially a different translation.The Confraternity translators had begun to revised the Douay OldTestament from the Latin, but in 1943, Pope Piux XII, in hisencyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu allowed Roman Catholics totranslate directly from the original languages. So the translatorsabandon their Douay revision, and the text of the Confraternity OldTestament was translated from the oldest form of the Hebrew orAramaic text extant. For the Deuterocanonical books, the translatorsresorted to the Greek and Latin versions where Hebrew versions arelacking.
The Old Testament was completed instages over many years, and so the Bible was often called the“Confraternity-Douay Bible,” to indicate portions of the Biblewere the Confraternity version, with Douay version used foruntranslated portions. The Confraternity Old Testament essentiallybecame the Old Testament of the New American Bible in 1970, with someemendation, and with the Book of Genesis redone, and the Psalmsslightly revised. The 1941 Confraternity New Testament was droppedfor the publication of the complete Bible, in favor of the verymediocre New American Bible New Testament. I consider theConfraternity Old Testament to be a different translation from theNew Testament. The New Testament is from the Latin, and uses muchmore dignified language, and retains the use of the “thees” and“thou” pronouns, whereas the Confraternity Old Testament doesnot.
As a Catholic Anglican, I prefer theCatholic canon, developed in African synods at Hippo in 393 C.E. andat Carthage 397 C.E. The writers of the New Testament and the ancientChristian communities used the Greek Septuagint which included thedeuterocanonical books. When the New Testament writers quote the OldTestament they mostly do so from the Greek renderings, not theHebrew. These ancient synods listed the deuterocanonical booksinterspersed with the other books of the Hebrew Bible, not in aseparate section between the Testaments or at the back of the Bible,as in ecumenical editions of the Bible. I also prefer Latin andGreek- based translations of the Old Testament, at least fordevotional and liturgical purposes, as certain Christologicalpassages are obscured in the Masoretic textual tradition. The LatinVulgate and the Greek Septuagint represent older editions of theBible than the Masoretic text, and they agree with each other.
How does one obtain a ConfraternityBible?
The Douay-Confraternity Bible, with theDouay Old Testament and the Confraternity New Testament is theedition most to be prized in my estimation, and unfortunately, is notin print any more. It is also much more difficult to find than theConfraternity-Douay Bibles.
Fortunately, the Confraternity versionof the New Testament is still in print and easily attainable,produced by Scepter Publishers. Sinagtala Publishers in thePhilippines continue to publish the entire Confraternity-Douay Bible,as it last was printed before the publication of the New AmericanBible. It is very reasonable at $24 per copy, but the shipping isexpensive. Even though it has been out of print since 1969 in thiscountry, one can occasionally find a good used copy of the entireConfraternity Bible on eBay, Amazon, or used book stores. All mycopies are used and in good to excellent shape. I did not pay over$10 for any of them.
Purchasing Links:
Confraternity New Testament
Confraternity- Douay Bible

Preface to the Confraternity New Testament  

THENEW
TESTAMENTof Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Translated from the Latin Vulgate

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A Revision of the Challoner-Rheims Version
Edited by Catholic Scholars
Under the Patronage of
THE EPISCOPAL COMMITTEE
of the
CONFRATERNITY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINEST. ANTHONY GUILD PRESS
PATERSON, NEW JERSEY
1941PREFACE"The word of the Lord endures forever," is the saying of a great prophet (Isa. 40, 8) and of the Prince of the Apostles (1 Pet. 1, 25).In her belief in the divine authority and the perfect truth of the Bible, as being the inspired Word of God, the Catholic Church has never hesitated. Nor has the Church forgotten that this sacred Book was destined by its Author to convey His message to all His faithful servants of every place and time. Neither has she overlooked the fact that this message must lie sealed and silent to many of her children unless given them in their own language, at least by the voice of their pastors, if not by means of the written page.Further, the Church has always realized that Holy Scripture was committed to her charge by virtue of its very origin and object. Like the Apostolic Tradition of Christ's teaching, the Bible, too, is a treasury of divine revelation. As such, it can have no rightful guardian and dispenser except that Church which Christ formed and commissioned to teach to all the world the truths revealed for man's salvation. There can be no graver crime than the least corruption of that eternal truth which Christ has brought us. The Church is, therefore, watchful over Holy Scripture; and not only over its message, but likewise over its written transmission.In exercising this guardianship, the Church has given special sanction to that Latin version which, because of its common use for centuries, won the name of "Vulgate." Her intention in this is primarily to declare which of many Latin versions is to be regarded as substantially accurate and safe in all matters of faith and morals. It was from this Latin text that most of the vernacular versions of Europe were made. It was also from this text that our first printed Catholic Bible in English was taken.In 1560 the Catholic Church had been outlawed in England. The Catholics who remained in the country faced a particular danger to their faith from English versions of the Bible which altered the true meaning of the Scriptures. To meet this danger there was urgent need of a more faithful, a Catholic, version. This need was met by the "Rheims and Douay Version." It was so called because the New Testament was printed at Rheims in 1582, and the Old Testament at Douay in 1609-10. It was the work of exiled English priests and educators, the chief of whom was Dr. Gregory Martin.The Rheims-Douay remained the standard English version for Catholic use until near the time of the American Revolution. By this time the language had passed through many of those changes which are natural to all living tongues. It was Bishop Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, who saw the pressing need of an English version of the Bible more in keeping with the time. In spite of his heavy pastoral labors, he produced a new version ofthe entire Bible in English in 1750. Challoner regarded his work as merely a revision of the Rheims-Douay, as its title page shows. The Catholic version in English which is best known to us all, both in England and in America, is still practically that of Challoner. Other Catholic scholars sought to improve on his work, and some of our current editions are indebted to them as well; but Challoner's Bible has been the framework and the substance of our own down to the present time.But, in its turn, Challoner's version has suffered loss of value because of progressive changes in our language. The consequent need of revision in which it stands has been recognized for a long time. Challoner's text was made the approved English version for Catholics in America by the Archbishop of Baltimore and the Bishops of the United States in 1810. The approbation was confirmed by the Hierarchy at the First Provincial Council of Baltimore (1829), but at the same time the emendation of the "Douay" text, as Challoner's was still described, was earnestly recommended. This matter of the improvement of Challoner's version came up again at the Ninth Provincial Council of Baltimore (1858). The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda fide sanctioned in a particular way this desire for a better vernacular version, suggesting that it be entrusted to a group of theologians experienced in biblical studies.Notwithstanding this encouragement to undertake a revision of the approved version, the closing decades of the last century, and the first of the present century, found the Church in America too much occupied with other concerns and not sufficiently equipped to attempt this work. Archbishop Kenrick undertook the great task of revising the entire Bible, but his work never met with general acceptance. The result was that we have continued to use editions of the English Bible which are, in language and substance, the text that Bishop Challoner gave us a hundred and ninety years ago.The passage of time has neither lessened the weaknesses of this version nor done away with the demand for its improvement. In the meantime, however, the number of priests in America trained in the theological sciences, and notably in the specialized discipline of biblical studies, has greatly increased. Parallel to this growth there has been a marked increase of popular interest in the study of Holy Scripture. This progress has brought to light again the unsatisfactory condition of our vernacular version, it has reawakened the desire for a version accommodated to the needs of our time, and it has called attention to the fact that we now possess the adequate means to produce a worthy English text.The English version which is presented in this volume is the answer of the Church in America to this need. Its preparation was requested and supervised by the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The principles upon which it rests were submitted to the Secretary and to other members of the Biblical Commission at Rome, and received complete approval. It is the accomplishment of some twenty-seven Catholic biblical scholars, all men of training and experience in their particular fields, who have devoted more than five years to the work. Many other scholars have had part in it, whether as special editors or as critics. It enjoys, therefore, in the first place the authority necessary in any serious attempt to meet the requirements of an improved Catholic version in English. And it claims a scholarship commensurate with that authority.While new in many of its aspects, this text is not a new version, but a revision of the work done by Bishop Challoner. While that venerable text has lost a great deal of its value with the lapse of time, it retains much that is commendable. To produce the type of, version required in our day, it was necessary to eliminate many of the characteristics of the older version, and even to change many of its familiar passages; but there was no reason for setting it aside entirely. In fact, this revised text can claim the advantage of preserving in an improved form the version to which English-speaking Catholics have become accustomed.The English text now being presented retains as much as possible of the version it seeks to replace. And yet, in striving for expression that is modern, much of the general style of Challoner's work has been improved upon. Many terms found in his version are no longer current in the sense in which he used them. The close adherence to Latin sentence structure, so evident in his text, is not the usage of our time. Such modifications are inevitable. It may be stated, however, that only such alterations in the Challoner text have been made in the revised edition as were necessary to give a simple and clear modern version.However, this present text is much more than an effort to bring the language of Challoner's version into conformity with modern English idiom. It is a revision in the sense that it goes back to the source upon which Challoner drew, and reconsiders in a thorough way the accurate rendering of the divine message in the language of our day.Like both the Rheims and the Challoner versions, the revised text rests upon the Latin Vulgate. This has been made necessary by a desire to have the version available for liturgical use. The excellence of the Vulgate as an ancient interpretation of the New Testament is an added advantage. The Clementine edition of the Vulgate is the main source of this revision. The readings of the Clementine, however, have been improved in not a few instances by recourse to the witnesses for a more ancient text of the Vulgate. This tends to bring the text basic to the present version very close to the modern critical editions of the original Greek. Where the Latin text differs from the Greek in such a way as to affect the meaning, attention is called to the fact in the footnotes.One immediate influence of the Vulgate will be observed in the spelling of proper names. The Latin form has been retained as more familiar to Catholics, and in some instances closer to the original pronunciation.In addition to improving on Challoner's use of the Latin text, the revised version will show the results of a more thorough method of interpretation. The Latin text often reflects the peculiarities and idiom of its Semitic and Greek origin. In accordance with the rules of sound biblical interpretation, the present version takes this into account; and when the Latin text clearly supposes such elements, it renders them in the sense that is native to them. In no case, however, has the Latin text been set aside in favor of the Greek. It can, therefore, be said that the present version is in every sense a translation of the Vulgate.As a further aid to the reading and understanding of the divine message, this new text abandons the old verse form of Challoner for the still older paragraphing of the Rheims-Douay Bible. Another improvement is offered in the addition of headings that show the main divisions of the books, and marginal titles describing the contents of their subdivisions. Citations from the Old Testament are, for the most part, set off in the center of the page. Those that are poetic in form are set in such a way as to manifest the parallelism of Hebrew poetry. Some other important citations, though not poetry in the original, are for emphasis written in verse form.This revised version is presented with the confidence that it will advance the reading and appreciation of the New Testament. It is offered with the hope that it may awaken new interest in the Word of God, and that it may bring to God's children the manifold blessings of His Letter to them. At the same time, it is presented with the humble prayer that, as it has been prepared with all diligence and care, it may not interpret the divine message in any way except in the full sense intended by the Holy Spirit. It is He who has given it to us for our learning, and that we might have hope. (Rom. 15, 4.)