New American Bible Revised Edition

The New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) is an English-language Catholic translation of the Bible, the first major update in 20 years to the New American Bible (NAB), which was translated by members of the Catholic Biblical Association and originally published in 1970. Released on March 9, 2011, the NABRE consists of the 1986 revision of the NAB New Testament with a fully revised Old Testament approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2010.

The NABRE is approved for Catholic personal use. Although the revised Lectionary based on the original New American Bible is still the sole translation approved for use at Mass in the dioceses of the United States, the NABRE New Testament is currently being revised so that American Catholics can read the same Bible translation in personal study and devotion that they hear in Mass.

Background
The first edition of the New American Bible was published in 1970. The New Testament had been updated in 1986, and the Psalms in 1991, but the rest of the Old Testament had not been revised. In August 1990, the Catholic Biblical Association passed a resolution urging revision of the remainder of the Old Testament.

In a press statement, the USCCB cited three reasons for the necessity of revising the Old Testament. The new translation:


 * 1) Aims to utilize modern scholastic advances in biblical study and adapt to changes in linguistics in order to render a more accurate translation in contemporary English.
 * 2) Takes advantage of recently discovered ancient manuscripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls which provide better access to the historical textual tradition.
 * 3) Uses the best manuscript-translating traditions available in order to translate more literally and accurately than previous translations.

The press statement said that the New American Bible Revised Edition would in many ways be a more literal translation than the original New American Bible.

Translation history
This revision was begun in 1994 by scholars of the Catholic Biblical Association, and was completed in 2002. The translators used the Masoretic text as their primary textual basis, with occasional corrections from the Septuagint or Dead Sea Scrolls. The bishops reviewed these translations, and sent them back to the scholars for revisions. The revisions were completed in 2008, and were approved by the USCCB at their November 2008 meeting. However, they would not allow it to be published with the 1991 translation of the Psalms. They decided to delay publication of the Old Testament until a revision of the Psalms, already in progress, could be completed.

Psalms
The 1991 NAB Psalter had initially been approved for liturgical use by the Vatican in 1992, but this approval was revoked in 1994, after changes to the policy regarding inclusive language. In April 2002, Father Joseph Jensen, one of the leading translators of that Psalter, announced a plan to revise it. This revision was completed in June 2003. Following further revisions, this new Psalter was approved by the USCCB in 2010.

Vocabulary
One of the more important changes found in the New American Bible Revised Edition is the substitution of various words and phrases for language which carries a modern connotation which is quite different from the original suggested meanings. Examples include changing "cereal" to "grain" and "booty" to "plunder."

Similarly, "holocaust" has been changed to "burnt offering". The word "holocaust" in modern English has become used almost exclusively to refer to the genocide of the Jewish people during World War II. In order to capture the biblical meaning, the translators chose the phrase "burnt offering" to replace "holocaust" throughout the text in reference to sacrifices made to God.

Gender-neutral language
Vatican norms for translation of the Bible direct that "[t]he translation of scripture should faithfully reflect the Word of God in the original human languages, without 'correction' or 'improvement' in service of modern sensitivities". The NABRE tried to use inclusive language while still following the Vatican's guidelines for translation. However, accuracy was a greater concern than inclusivity. Robert Miller II, who helped translate the Psalms, said that while there was not as much inclusive language in the new translation, this did not come from an attempt to "backtrack on the use of inclusive language" but rather "to use language as close as possible to the Hebrew." While the NABRE does use some horizontal inclusive language (referring to people), it does not contain vertical inclusive language (referring to God), which is prohibited by the USCCB.

Completion and use
In January 2011, the USCCB announced that the fourth edition of the NAB would be published on March 9 of that year. To be known as the "New American Bible, Revised Edition" or NABRE, the fourth edition of the NAB includes the newly revised Old Testament and re-revised Psalms, and the revised New Testament from the 1986 second edition. While the NABRE represents a revision of the NAB towards conformity towards Liturgiam Authenticam, there have not been any announced plans to use the NABRE for the lectionary in the United States. The USCCB announced the approval is for "private use and study" while Masses will continue to use a lectionary taken from "an earlier, modified version of the NAB translation."

The release garnered widespread press coverage by national news sources such as NPR and USA Today.

Future editions
In 2012, the USCCB "announced a plan to revise the New Testament of the New American Bible Revised Edition so a single version can be used for individual prayer, catechesis and liturgy." After they developed a plan and budget for the revision project, work began in 2013 with the creation of an editorial board made up of five people from the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA). The revision is now underway and, after the necessary approvals from the Bishops and the Vatican, is expected to be done around 2025.