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A review by dragonlilly
Catholic Bible-RSV by Ignatius Press
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
The Bible as a whole is full of interesting stories, lots of wisdom, tons of war, and some less nice things. I think it is very important for Christians to not just read the Bible, not just hear the words of priests, but to combine those things with historical research and context to understand everything better more fully. We can never understand everything perfectly, but I do believe a lot of nuance gets lost as time passes, more than we truly can comprehend, and this has caused bouts of mistranslation, misunderstandings, generalizations, and streams of hate rather than the search for truth. I highly doubt the Bible can be read solely as it is without the context of the times the books were written, no matter what I hear others say about the words being divinely inspired - because how are we supposed to know that for certain? But, the Bible is a great history book full of war but also hope, hate but also love, and there is a lot to explore within it, even if it will create more questions than can ever be answered.
In terms of the Catholic version in comparison to the Protestant ones, I understand why the books that were not included in the Protestant versions were deemed apocryphal, but many of those apocryphal books were pretty great and I probably would not have searched them out if I didn't have the Catholic version available. 1 and 2 Maccabees were cool works on historical wars, Wisdom of Solomon has some less relevant advice, but some good bits too, Sirach is an absolute beast in terms of wisdom and is awesome, and Tobit and Judith are cool too, (I already forgot what Baruch was about though). So I am glad that I got to read these books as well.
Of course I liked some books within the Bible more than others, and I have a lot to say about the mistranslations done within the Old Testament, and lack of contextual application that have led to people being hurt over the course of thousands of years and continues today. But in general, I implore people to do their own research, not take generalizations for granted, and seek a truth that steps with love first and foremost - and this goes for both the religious and non-religious. Maybe the Bible was divinely inspired, and I am sure much of it is, but we've got to remember that it was still written by tons of human people, and everyone is just human at the end of the day. Plus, we have lost so many writings and information to the passage of time, so I appreciate religious historians exploring the context of these works to help people be more informed, and help the religious better their faith.
In terms of the Catholic version in comparison to the Protestant ones, I understand why the books that were not included in the Protestant versions were deemed apocryphal, but many of those apocryphal books were pretty great and I probably would not have searched them out if I didn't have the Catholic version available. 1 and 2 Maccabees were cool works on historical wars, Wisdom of Solomon has some less relevant advice, but some good bits too, Sirach is an absolute beast in terms of wisdom and is awesome, and Tobit and Judith are cool too, (I already forgot what Baruch was about though). So I am glad that I got to read these books as well.
Of course I liked some books within the Bible more than others, and I have a lot to say about the mistranslations done within the Old Testament, and lack of contextual application that have led to people being hurt over the course of thousands of years and continues today. But in general, I implore people to do their own research, not take generalizations for granted, and seek a truth that steps with love first and foremost - and this goes for both the religious and non-religious. Maybe the Bible was divinely inspired, and I am sure much of it is, but we've got to remember that it was still written by tons of human people, and everyone is just human at the end of the day. Plus, we have lost so many writings and information to the passage of time, so I appreciate religious historians exploring the context of these works to help people be more informed, and help the religious better their faith.