Einheitsübersetzung

The NASB ( STP ) is a German Bible translation for liturgical use in the Roman Catholic worship. It is published by the Catholic Biblical Association and has been developed in 1962 to 1980 from Catholic theologians, with the participation of Protestant theologians. Together were responsible for the New Testament and the Psalms. The Protestant side withdrew from the project back in 2005 a revision of the translation unit.

Occasion

Development of the NASB is a consequence of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The Second Vatican Council made ​​to the next of the Latin language and the use of local languages ​​in the liturgy. Thereby, the development of new Bible translations for liturgical use in the national languages ​​was urgent: "Therefore, the Church strives to useful and accurate Bible translations will be developed in different languages. " ( Dei Verbum 22).

Name and Objectives

The NRSV Bible should be uniform all German dioceses. The name " translation unit " reflects this goal. Contrary to a widespread misconception does not mean the name that a common translation of the Bible of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant church should be created. While Protestant theologians have been involved since the beginning in the work, but a detachment of the common in the Protestant Church Luther translation was sought by the Protestant side at any time.

Linguistically, care should be taken both on a good course as a sophisticated style. To ensure wide applicability, even linguists and experts in liturgy, catechesis, teaching, media education and church music in the drafting worked with side by theologians.

The goal of a good understanding and wider application possibilities are also detailed introductions to the individual books of the Bible, which also take up income of historical-critical biblical scholarship, as well as the numerous statements that are added to the current text as footnotes.

Textual basis

The objective of the Second Vatican Council, to create a " useful and accurate " translation, included a development " with priority from the original text of the sacred books " ( Dei Verbum 22). The hitherto applicable primacy of the Latin Vulgate in the Roman Catholic Church was thus abandoned. That turned Catholic theologians faced the challenge of not to transfer, contrary to the usual practice of the Latin Bible into German, but to translate from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into German. The Roman Catholic Church realized so that a requirement of the Reformation, which had called for a return of the Vulgate to the sources.

Testing and approval

The translation work lasted from 1962 until 1974. Subsequently, the translation has been tested in practice and revised again from 1975 to 1978. 1978 approved the German Bishops' Conference, the final version. Since then, the translation unit has been proven in its purpose and has become the single textual basis of the liturgical books of the German dioceses.

Ecumenical importance and revision

From the beginning, Protestant theologians had been involved in the translation unit, first Michael brothers from the Berneuchener movement. On the translation of the Psalms and the New Testament then looked at the request of the German Bishops Conference, the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD ) officially. 1970 included the Bishops' Conference and the EKD a contract for the joint work on the unit translation, which thus became a special mark of ecumenism in Germany. Since 1980, the NRSV is also approved for use in the Lutheran Church and is used particularly in ecumenical events in addition to the Luther Bible.

For several years, the Bishops' Conference seeks a revision of the translation. Also, it should be a joint project with the Protestant church originally. However, in the course of the audit work, there was a conflict between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant side, in consequence of the EKD the 1970 agreement concluded aufkündigte (2005), because the Roman Catholic Church to a stronger emphasis on the ecclesial traditions compared to the original text urged and practiced until then consensus should no longer apply after the disputed issues in a commonality between the confessions had to be achieved. In addition, the revision should be subjected to after graduation a papal approbation what the EKD also declined. The current status of the new version (February 2010) preferred gender- neutral language and refuses to use playback of the divine name Yahweh.

The response to the failure of the common translation were different. The Catholic Church responded with incomprehension. The then chairman of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, spoke of a " significant burden " for ecumenism and threw the EKD representatives to a sudden withdrawal without clarifying before trial. Similarly, the Council of the EKD regretted the development, but stated that he had " made ​​every effort to avoid the now occurred result".

According to information from February 2010, the audit work had been completed on the New Testament at this time and work on the Old Testament was so far advanced that a completion of the work in 2011 was expected. Thereafter, however, the text must still be approved by the relevant bodies of the German bishops' conferences and the Vatican. The duration of the approval process at that time was not yet in sight, why could not yet be given a release date. In the Spring Plenary Meeting of the German Bishops' Conference, 2012, a license to practice the presentation of the New Testament was presented and adopted. A year later, the General Assembly adopted the revised approval templates for the New and the Old Testament.