What is the official bible for catholics?

Question

I know there are versions such as King James, NIV etc but not sure which one the catholic church endorses.

Answer 1

In the USA it's the New American Bible (NAB). In Ireland and the UK it's the Jerusalem Bible (JB). These translations are used in the Mass in these countries.

The 'official' Bible of the Catholic Church as a whole is considered to be the New Vulgate; it's in Latin. In practice it isn't used much, since each language uses its own translation from the original sources (in Greek and Hebrew).

For clarification: the Douay (or Douay-Rheims) is an older Catholic translation from the Vulgate. It's still in print, but is not an 'official' Bible anymore. Not many peope use it.

The St. Joseph Edition is an edition of the NAB published by the Catholic Book Publishing Company. It's the most common edition of the NAB in the USA, but there are also other publishers who issue their own editions of the same Bible translation. All of these would have the Imprimatur and be considered 'official' Catholic Bibles.

Answer 2

They New American Bible is the "official" bible in use in the United States. You can find it in its entirety at http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/

There are hundreds of "official," bibles in use. I believe the above description of the Vulgate as the universal standard is incorrect. I do believe it is the official standard only for the Roman Patriarchal Church. I believe the other particular churches use different standard bibles.

The Catholic canon is unchanged since it was issued in the year 382 by Pope Damasus. Protestants removed various books of both the new and old testament although protests forced Protestant leaders to put James, Jude and Revelations back into the New Testament. Still parts of the old testament were lost to Protestants.

A bible is "official," because the bishops have reviewed it in what is essentially a quality control process. Some Protestant bible translations have no equivalent process. This is actually the origin of the belief that Catholics were banned from reading the bible. They were never banned from reading the bible, just from reading ones not checked for the quality of their translation. Many medieavel texts were terrible, such as the infamous "Murderers bible," or even the KJV. When the KJV was corrected in 1890 they found 20,000 errors in it. It really wasn't the original translators fault, they got a very corrupted copy of a 12th century incomplete manuscript. They had the misfortune of getting a copy that was literally riddled with errors. Unfortunately entire denominations were founded on passages that often do not exist. You even see it in Christmas carols. "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men," is not in the bible. The bible reads "Peace on Earth to men of goodwill." That is a very different message.

So the answer for the United States in the New American Bible. Many people prefer the more poetic New Jerusalem Bible, which is an official bible in other English speaking countries, but the NAB is better in that it more literally translates the Greek.

Answer 3

The Vulgate was the standard version of the Bible for Roman Catholics for over fifteen hundred years Since Latin was only studied by priests and scholars, the vast majority of people could not read or understand the Vulgate, even though they would hear passages from it every time they went to church.

Now there are different versions printed and given the imprimatur by the Catholic Church that the members can read. The most popular one in English is the Douay Version.
They are mostly the same in content with the Protestant Bibles, except they added non-canonnical books into it which the Protestant Church does not include in their Bibles. They are called the Apocrypha. And they are:

1 Esdras
2 Esdras
Additions to Esther
1 Macabees
2 Macabees
Tobias
Judith
Wisdom
Sirach
Baruch
Epistle of Jeremiah
Susanna
Prayer of Azariah
Prayer of Manasseh
Bel and the Dragon
Laodiceans

The Apocrypha contain things that are not mentioned in the canonized bible or the sixty six books :

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Tobias
Judith
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Wisdom
Sirach
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Baruch
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
1 Macabees
2 Macabees
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation

Answer 4

The Latin Vulgate is the official Bible of the Catholic Church. It is the Latin translation of the Greek Septuagint.
The Latin Vulgate has all 46 Old Testament books. The KJV is the 16th century Protestant Bible that is missing the seven Old Testament books that Martin Luther threw out.

Different Catholic countries use different translations, but the Latin Vulgate is the official one for the whole universal Church.

Answer 5

Catholics use many different translations, but the New American Bible is the translation used in the official worship of the Church. In the USA, the Scripture readings at Mass are from that translation.
.

Answer 6

I know the catholic bible should include the apocripha but it seems not all catholiv#cs know about that I have never heard of the greenback but NIV and NAB are standered bible not catholic

Answer 7

In the United States, the New American Bible is the one used for liturgical purposes.

Answer 8

The New American Bible. It includes all the books that the Protestants keep out of theirs.

Answer 9

The St. Joseph Edition.
At least that's what the copy I have says. But any published by a Catholic publishing house would be acceptable.

Answer 10

New American Bible and the Douay Rheims are the ones that I'm familiar with.