Washington, USA - The nation's Roman Catholic bishops are releasing their first new Bible in decades as the season of Lent begins. The New American Bible, Revised Edition, will be available starting on Ash Wednesday, which falls this year on March 9.
The latest version contains a new translation of the Old Testament - the first such new translation in more than 40 years. The New Testament section had already been updated in 1986 and will not be changed in the new edition.
The translation effort started 17 years ago, prompted in part by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are the oldest known texts of Scripture. A group of more than 50 experts changed language and reordered passages to be closer to the original text and better reflect modern usage.
Separately this month, Zondervan, the publishing company based in Grand Rapids, Mich., is releasing the latest translation of the New International Version of the Bible. The NIV is the top-selling Bible in North America, used widely by evangelicals and other Protestants.
Zondervan says it has already sold 40,000 of the updated translation as an electronic book.
Past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions had been plagued by controversies about gender language.