Bishop: New Bible translation shows ‘God never changes, but always has something new for us’

The Catholic American Bible is set to replace the New American Bible Revised Edition in 2027, becoming the common text for the Mass lectionary, Liturgy of the Hours and private use.

OSV News recently spoke with Auxiliary Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt of Hartford, Conn., chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Translation of Scripture, on what to expect from the new translation. The Catholic American Bible will be published through various approved publishers, including Our Sunday Visitor, the parent company of OSV News.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OSV News: Why are there continuous updates to Bible translations, especially since we already have so many versions?

Bishop Betancourt: Well, that’s always a great question, and the answer is, it’s not only to keep biblical scholars and publishers in business.

Many times, it’s due to linguistic evolution. Languages change, so words and phrases in all the various translations can become a little bit old, archaic, unclear.

Sometimes the semantic field (an area of human experience or perception that is described by a set of related terms in a given language) expands, and there’s a change.

One of the things that I love about this new Catholic American Bible is consistency, which the committee has worked to maintain.

For example, if a word can mean “mind” or “soul” or “heart,” we try to translate that word consistently. “Kardia” in Greek (which, along with Hebrew and Aramaic, are the original languages in which the Scriptures were written) means “heart.” But it can also mean, because of the semantic field, “mind” or “soul.”

Now (in The Catholic American Bible), every time that we find “Kardia,” it’s really “heart.” If there’s something where the translation actually may become a little bit difficult, then there’s a footnote explaining that this comes from the Greek. So, I like that. It improves the understanding of Scripture. 

Also, we are constantly learning more about the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The more we know of the usage of those words in their times, it increases accuracy and clarity, and makes the text more accessible too.

It also reflects also a better textual criticism — although not so much anymore, as we haven’t had a big manuscript discovery since the Qumran scrolls (also known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, consisting of some 950 ancient manuscripts of Hebrew biblical texts discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Israel). That was a big thing, because we found the oldest manuscripts available, especially for the Hebrew Bible. We had the medieval manuscripts, but now, after Qumran, we have manuscripts that were close to the time.

So those are a few reasons why we have, every 10, 15 or 20 years, a kind of updated translation.

I like to say “updated” rather than “new,” because the latter suggests the old was not good, and the new is always best. In an updated translation, we keep what we (already) have.

Along with consistency, we look for more accuracy and clarity, especially after the release of “Liturgiam Authenticam” (the Vatican’s 2001 instruction, issued under St. John Paul II in accordance with the Second Vatican Council, on the use of vernacular languages for the books of the Roman Catholic liturgy — which among other directives specifies that new translations of Sacred Scripture must be made directly from the original texts in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek.)

That gives us a way to go back to the fidelity of the original, to reject anything that has to do with ideology, to try to preserve the terms.

For example, in our new Catholic American Bible, we’re going back to the original names of the coins of the time. That comes from “Liturgiam Authenticam.”

So we’re trying to shift toward a more textual, and less adapted, approach.

OSV News: So it’s a return to the sources, in a sense.

Bishop Betancourt: Exactly. Nowadays, we have so many dynamic translations (also known as dynamic-equivalence translations, which focus on rendering the original text into the equivalent terms of a language).

Now, this example is not the case with the New American Bible, because that version was faithful to the original, but some English translations of the parable of the 10 virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) call them “young ladies” or “young girls,” and the sense of the virgin, and its theological meaning, goes away. But “virgin” is more accurate.

In the letters of St. Paul, where he speaks of justification and faith in Christ — in The Catholic American Bible, that actually comes with an exegetical note, just to avoid confusion, even though we keep the sense of ambiguity. We need to make clear if it’s the content of the faith or the action of the faith in Christ.

So we keep it faithful, but on the other hand, we put explanatory notes that are more useful.

OSV News: How will this translation help in a pastoral context?

Bishop Betancourt: The Catholic American Bible is more focused for study, liturgy and Bible groups. I like it too because the preacher can find that he doesn’t need to know too much biblical Greek in order to present it to the people, explaining the text in terms of if we want to go back to the customs of the time or the use of the terms or idiomatic expressions of the time.

Fidelity and accuracy, with a pastoral focus, is kept in this new Catholic American Bible. So many times before this edition, although the New American Bible did a great job always, many translations that we have were written for different goals, different pastoral purposes. And sometimes they changed the requirements when it came to being a bit more faithful to the text.

And then some other translations were actually really done because of ideology, and there are some Bibles there that are focused on groups, like the Bible for Young People, Bibles for men and so on. Usually, they come from Protestant translations.

But I think we’re going to find a great, reliable translation — one that is better and more accurate for liturgy and study — with The Catholic American Bible.

OSV News: Will there be a Spanish version as well?

Bishop Betancourt: The New Testament translation is done, and it will come out as La Biblia de la Iglesia en América Nuevo Testamento (with an estimated release date of Ash Wednesday 2026). We are trying to wrap up the Old Testament translation so we can send it to Rome.

We already have the Spanish-language version of the Roman Missal, and this is the official version that we use.

But we don’t yet have a Spanish-language lectionary, and so every diocese or even parish uses the edition that they see as being more fit.

Sometimes they use the Spanish from Spain (rather than from the Americas). It has happened in my diocese. And that presents a problem, because there are some translations where again, “virgins” are translated as “young girls” in Spanish, or the translations are more regional.

For example, the word for “platter” used in the beheading of St. John the Baptist (detailed in Mark 6:17-29 and Matthew 14:3-12) — there are words common for any country that is Spanish-speaking, but then if you look to one particular country that has published a lectionary, you see that it’s very regional, and that word for “platter,” instead of “bandeja,” is translated as “charola” (a term particularly used in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Honduras)

So once La Biblia de la Iglesia en América is fully complete, we will send it to Rome for confirmation, and then we’ll be able to publish the Spanish lectionary. And I’m pretty excited, because we really need a Spanish lectionary for the whole United States. And that’s coming.

OSV News: Will The Catholic American Bible be available in formats accessible to persons with disabilities?

Bishop Betancourt: I believe so. That will come with the help of the subcommittee, the Committee on Divine Worship and the publishers.

I know that we’re going to have every single format available for everybody. That will take time.

But the committee is on top of those things, and I’m happy to be part of it.

And once you open your heart to the Holy Spirit, you see that the same words that we have had for more than 2,000 years reveal the force, the power of the Holy Spirit. So even though God never changes, he always has something new for us.

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