By Mary Elizabeth Sperry
Special Contributor

This article is the first in a series on the New American Bible, Revised Edition, which was released March 9.

Walk into any bookstore and you’ll see entire shelves of Bibles. Type “Bible” into the search engine on an online bookseller, and you’ll get more than a quarter of a million results!

Does it matter which one you buy?  How can you tell which one is right for you?

1. In some other Bibles, these books (and sometimes additional, non-Scriptural books) are printed between the Old and New Testaments.
2. A canonical rescript expresses a similar judgment.

You will also want to decide what style of translation you find most useful.  A formal equivalent translation will render the text more literally (word for word), keeping as close as possible to the language and structure of the original while remaining readable in the modern language.  A dynamic equivalent translation is less literal, conveying the overall meaning of the original text in the modern language (thought for thought) without necessarily following the language or structure.  A paraphrase retells the original text in the writer’s own words.  This style is used most frequently in Bible story books intended for children.

A Catholic translation will also have notes and annotations to help you understand the text.  These notes may provide alternate readings of passages that are unclear in the original, help in understanding plays on words that depend on knowing the original language, and brief explanations of how the Church has interpreted the passage.

Once you have picked a translation, look for features that will meet your personal needs, including price, size, and format.  Bibles may include added materials to help you understand the text better, including maps of biblical regions, time lines, dictionaries, listings of the readings used at Mass, and devotional materials.  A particular edition may be targeted to young people, moms, or married couples, providing articles and prayers to enrich your spiritual life. 

A given translation will be identical no matter which edition you choose.  If you pick your translation first, you’ll have a text you can rely on, no matter what other features you seek.

Mary Elizabeth Sperry is the Associate Director for USCCB Permissions and NAB Utilization at USCCB Publishing. She serves as staff to the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine which is responsible for the development, publication, and distribution of the New American Bible and the promotion of biblical literacy. For more information, visit www.usccb.org/nab/