Bishops Approve “Gay-Washed” Bible
Happy St. Jerome’s Day! Or maybe not so happy. News broke yesterday on the Catholic Bible Talk blog that a Catholic Edition of the New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) has been approved by the USCCB. According to the Friendship Press YouTube channel, from which Catholic Bible Talk got the news:
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has granted an Imprimatur for the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, Catholic Edition. This means that the NRSVue, Catholic Edition is approved for publication and “permitted for private use and study by the Catholic faithful.” The NRSVue, Catholic Edition is available for publishing partners to license and publish in print and digital formats. Those interested in securing a license for the NRSVue, CE should contact Riggins Rights Management at ncccopyright@rigginsrights.com. Please join us in celebrating this milestone and looking forward to the publication of the NRSVue, Catholic Edition in the near future! The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) owns the rights to NRSVue Bible translation, as well as the Revised Standard Version (RSV) and their derivatives, including the Catholic Editions. Friendship Press, the publishing arm of the NCC, manages the NCC’s Scripture translations along with the Bible Translation and Utilization Committee.
I wrote an article for Catholic Answers three years ago trying to stop, or slow down, an imprimatur for the NRSVue. In my article I quote Robert A.J. Gagnon, a Protestant Scripture scholar whose work is respected across denominational lines, particularly on the Bible and homosexuality. It was Gagnon who first warned that the NRSVue “gaywashes” the Bible, writing in a January 5, 2022 Facebook post:
They have now changed ‘sodomites’ to the nebulous ‘men who engage in illicit sex,’ [in 1 Corinthians 6:9] which does not indicate to English readers the connection to homosexual practice provided by the Greek word, contrary to both morphology and context. A textual note added by the NRSVue committee claims that the term is unclear. It isn’t.
The footnote was later changed from “Meaning of Gk uncertain” to “Meaning of Gk uncertain, possibly men who have sex with men.” Nevertheless as to the main text, as Gagnon wrote in 2022:
The NRSVue now becomes the first major modern English committee translation of the Bible to eliminate any reference to homosexual practice.
The Washington Times picked up the story a day after Gagnon’s 2022 post. In an article titled “Updated Bible’s interpretation of sodomy stirs debate: Scholars dispute claim ancient Greek word means only illicit sex,” the Times writes:
At issue: Does arsenokoitai (ἀρσενοκοῖται), a Greek word used only twice in the New Testament, mean all same-sex relations or only illicit ones?
More at: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/bishops-approve-gay-washed-bible/