John Reece
February 3rd 2004, 12:44 PM
The thread title refers to the attitude of the translators who produced the New American Bible (NAB), about which the following comment:
Richard John Neuhaus
Some years ago I had a friendly correspondence with a New York Times columnist who regularly used "righteous" as an adjective of denigration. For instance, she would criticize "righteous political leaders." I suggested that surely she meant "self–righteous," to which she responded that righteous and self–righteous are today synonymous. I thought of this again when working on a Sunday homily. The text was Luke 18, and the New American Bible (NAB), which is, regrettably, the most widely used in Catholic parishes, renders verse 9 this way: "Jesus spoke this parable addressed to those who believed in their own self–righteousness while holding every one else in contempt." The KJV, RSV, NIV, and other standard English translations all speak of those who trust in their own righteousness, correctly translating the Greek dikaioi. It is of more than passing interest that the NAB translators seem to agree with the above–mentioned columnist that righteousness today means self–righteousness. Rome’s response to the joint declaration with the Lutherans on justification by faith emphasized the need to find fresh language with which to communicate the good news of justification in contemporary culture. The need is highlighted by the NAB treatment of Luke 18:9. Presumably we do not want to say that the sinner is justified in appropriating by faith the self–righteousness of Christ. Behind this apparently small linguistic quibble is a larger cultural shift in which necessary distinctions are erased in a process of denigrating any appeal to the normative. Righteousness becomes self–righteousness, a moral argument becomes a moralistic argument, and reference to objective truth is absolutism. Although it goes largely unnoticed, it is a change in language that changes how people think. Of course the ideologues of relativism know perfectly well what they are doing, and feel very righteous about it—as in "self–righteous." It must immediately be said that this is not to suggest that the NAB translators are part of a conspiracy. The deficiencies of that hapless translation can be explained quite satisfactorily in terms of insouciance toward the original text, deafness to verbal grace and clarity, and easy acquiescence in cultural drift. The parties responsible for the NAB should not be accused of more than they are guilty.
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9902/public.html#john
"Insouciance toward the original text": a phenomenon that is not limited to the producers of liberal renderings in modern versions of the Bible.
Richard John Neuhaus
Some years ago I had a friendly correspondence with a New York Times columnist who regularly used "righteous" as an adjective of denigration. For instance, she would criticize "righteous political leaders." I suggested that surely she meant "self–righteous," to which she responded that righteous and self–righteous are today synonymous. I thought of this again when working on a Sunday homily. The text was Luke 18, and the New American Bible (NAB), which is, regrettably, the most widely used in Catholic parishes, renders verse 9 this way: "Jesus spoke this parable addressed to those who believed in their own self–righteousness while holding every one else in contempt." The KJV, RSV, NIV, and other standard English translations all speak of those who trust in their own righteousness, correctly translating the Greek dikaioi. It is of more than passing interest that the NAB translators seem to agree with the above–mentioned columnist that righteousness today means self–righteousness. Rome’s response to the joint declaration with the Lutherans on justification by faith emphasized the need to find fresh language with which to communicate the good news of justification in contemporary culture. The need is highlighted by the NAB treatment of Luke 18:9. Presumably we do not want to say that the sinner is justified in appropriating by faith the self–righteousness of Christ. Behind this apparently small linguistic quibble is a larger cultural shift in which necessary distinctions are erased in a process of denigrating any appeal to the normative. Righteousness becomes self–righteousness, a moral argument becomes a moralistic argument, and reference to objective truth is absolutism. Although it goes largely unnoticed, it is a change in language that changes how people think. Of course the ideologues of relativism know perfectly well what they are doing, and feel very righteous about it—as in "self–righteous." It must immediately be said that this is not to suggest that the NAB translators are part of a conspiracy. The deficiencies of that hapless translation can be explained quite satisfactorily in terms of insouciance toward the original text, deafness to verbal grace and clarity, and easy acquiescence in cultural drift. The parties responsible for the NAB should not be accused of more than they are guilty.
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9902/public.html#john
"Insouciance toward the original text": a phenomenon that is not limited to the producers of liberal renderings in modern versions of the Bible.