I feel that I got lucky with the following Bible, The New Catholic Answer Bible (2011).
It is in understandable English. It also features sections that justify the Catholic Church’s teachings by pointing to scripture. It is a “New American Bible” [NAB] translation, and personally the translation of Genesis 1:8 speaks to the quality. It states God created the dome and called it “sky”. Various other translations don’t quite nail it in my opinion.
The official Catholic church translation was the Revised Standard Version [RSV] and now is the New American Standard Bible [NASB] not to be confused with the NAB. The Catholic Bibles have an extra set of seven books that have always been in the Church’s official Bible since it was compiled in its present form around the 4th and early 5th centuries. In choosing a Catholic Bible, you are getting something more complete. The New Catholic Answer Bible has various color illustrated inserts that assert through scriptural proof, the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church, which was carried down through the generations by the apostle, Saint Simon Peter. Jesus nicknamed Simon as “Peter” which is a Greek form for “rock”. He stated he was the rock on which He would build His church. Some 2,000 years later, the Catholic church borrows its church liturgy of hymns and scriptural readings, from the old original Hebrew liturgy.
Bibles of past eras, the King James Version or the Douay-Rheims Bible use Old English from centuries past. Notably for “you” they use “thee”, for “yours” possessive they use “thy” or “thine”, or for “are” they use “art”. Instead of the American “while” expect the British “whilst”. Some scripture becomes memorized in the old language style and so it’s stuck in that form for public recitations. An example is The Lord’s Prayer, sometimes called The Our Father.
In conclusion if all you have on the bookshelf is the King James Version which was most prevalent until recent decades, it’s better than nothing, but it could hold you back from the spiritual nourishment of deeper learning. I would encourage you, if you don’t have a Bible around anyplace already, to acquire one. BibleHub.com BibleGateway.com and Bible.com are great – there’s even Catholic.Bible – but everybody doing a bible study in person needs a Bible, and everybody needs something to read when there’s a power outage. The free Bible.com app for iOS or Android may get you by if you have a tablet. Memorizing verses can help you to actualize your faith, because there is power in the Word of God.
Here is a sample of the inserts.
