Confraternity New Testament

The principal American Catholic translation project of the twentieth century, the Confraternity Bible began as a revision of the Douay-Rheims/Challoner tradition, which served as both its predecessor and its base translation, and evolved directly into the New American Bible. Its New Testament was completed as a unit, while the Old Testament appeared in stages over a period of years. The work drew on Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and did so increasingly directly: the New Testament was initially Vulgate-oriented with consultation of the Greek, whereas the Old Testament became progressively Hebrew-based. Its translation philosophy reflected formal-to-moderate Catholic scholarship, and it falls into the category of fresh translation combined with revision. Its most distinctive feature is that its methodology changed midcourse, as official Catholic permission for translating from the original languages broadened, leaving the finished project a record of that shift in practice.