Greek New Testament . . . No Imprimatur

A reader writes:

I’ve been reading your blog occasionally and have noticed that you seem to be knowledgeable in a variety of areas (not just in apologetics),

Naw, I’m just curious about . . . y’know . . . stuff.

so I thought I’d ask you a question I’ve been having trouble getting answered elsewhere.

Okay, shoot!

I’m thinking of studying Greek in order to read the New Testament in its original language.

Good for you! I recommend William Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek as a starting point.

However, so far as I know, there are no editions of the Greek New Testament currently available that have ecclesiastical approval.

Yeah, I don’t know of any, either.

What are the Church’s regulations for reading/studying non-approved editions of Holy Scripture? Canon 825, §1 seems to indicate that it’s not permitted, but I’m not sure.

Ah, actually the canon you cite does not prohibit reading or studying such Scriptures. Here’s the canon in question:

Can. 825 §1. Books of the sacred scriptures cannot be published unless the Apostolic See or the conference of bishops has approved them. For the publication of their translations into the vernacular, it is also required that they be approved by the same authority and provided with necessary and sufficient annotations.

§2. With the permission of the conference of bishops, Catholic members of the Christian faithful in collaboration with separated brothers and sisters can prepare and publish translations of the sacred scriptures provided with appropriate annotations.

As you can see, the canon places the legal burden on the publisher of a book of sacred scripture. It is the publisher of the volume, not the reader, who has the responsibility to make sure that the needed approval is gathered (assuming it’s a Catholic publisher to begin with; Catholics are not bound by canon law).

For a reader, there is no prohibition on reading material that has not been granted ecclesiastical approval. There is a general moral requirement that one not read material that would be damaging to one’s faith or morals, but I am unware of any editions of the Greek New Testament that would do that. Not even the Jehovah’s Witnesses, as far as I know, have had the chutzpah to alter the original Greek text (though they have laced it up with erroneous glosses).

There really isn’t that much difference between different editions of the Greek New Testament, and what differences there are tend not to cut across confessional lines. It’s not like there’s a "Catholic Greek New Testament" versus a "Protestant Greek New Testament." The differences concern mostly minor manuscript variations that are neither Catholic nor Protestant.

For this reason, Catholic scholars tend to use the same editions of the Greek New Testament as Protestant scholars, notably the Nestle-Aland/United Bible Societies text, which is considered one of the better critical editions, though the differences between this and other editions are very small and would not be of concern to a person just learning the language.

The absence of confessional differences in the text of the Greek New Testament is one of the reasons that it’s hard to find an edition that has been given ecclesiastical approval. There may be some, and I did some poking around online looking, but I haven’t found any.

My advice would be to use any edition of the Greek New Testament that comes to hand. As a tool for learning the language, that’s all you really need.

And, as I said, I’d use Mounce if possible as an intro text.

Good luck!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

16 thoughts on “Greek New Testament . . . No Imprimatur”

  1. I might suggest obtaining a Greek New Testament from a Greek Orthodox publisher. You may also be able to get a copy of the Septuagint Old Testament. The LXX is really fascinating in and of itself. I don’t want to endorse any specific bookstore, but a Google search for Greek Orthodox bookstore should be fruitful.

  2. notably the Nestle-Aland/United Bible Societies text
    I thought the Nestle-Aland, and the UBS were two different manuscripts based on which original (Textus Receptus vs. Vaticanus) they were largely translated from. I say largely, because it’s my understanding that both draw from a variety of original texts.
    If anyone has additional information, please enlighten me.

  3. Jimmy,
    I presume you meant to write, “Non-Catholics are not bound by canon law”. 😉

  4. William Mounce has also published a Greek/English interlinear Bible. It’s great for studying Greek, because he doesn’t just show the translation (it’s the NIV, which is Protestant), he also gives the declension of each of the words. It’s designed to accompany his books on Greek.

  5. You might comment on what it means for John Paul II to have declared the Nova Vulgata to be the “edito typica” of the Bible.

  6. The “editio typica” is the text that is to be used for
    (a) use in Latin for public proclamation in worship and the sacraments
    (b) the basis for translations for vernacular public proclamation in worship and the sacraments.
    For study and devotion other translations may be used that are not based on the Nova Vulgata.

  7. Nestle and Mounds. Sound like a good way to make the medicine of learning Greek go down.
    Oh! You said ‘Mounce’. Never mind.

  8. I know there are bibles with Greek on one page and English on the opposite side of the page. I read a copy of Beowulf like this and I (with the added benefit of knowing English and some German) found myself able to follow much of the Anglo-Saxon with no education about the language.
    Amy’s suggestion (though I can’t quite picture what she is talking about) sounds even better if you can find it and if it isn’t to messy for the kind of reading you want to do.

  9. Clarification:
    The Anglo-Saxon was on the left page and the modern English on the right page, so you get both versions of the same text in front of you at the same time.

  10. The NA and the UBS are the same text. The appararatus is a little different, and the UBS typically has larger type.

  11. “Amy’s suggestion (though I can’t quite picture what she is talking about) sounds even better if you can find it and if it isn’t to messy for the kind of reading you want to do.”
    J.R., the Greek interlinear has the complete New Testament in Greek and English. It’s actually a reverse interlinear, not an interlinear as I posted earlier.
    An interlinear would have the Scripture in Greek, with the English translation underneath it.
    Instead of having the Greek on one page and the English translation on the facing page, the interlinear has a line of the English translation with the Greek text directly underneath each line. Under the Greek is the declension of each word, so it identifies the word as noun, verb, adj; singular or plural; masc or fem; etc. Underneath that it identifies the Strong’s number for each word.
    It’s a very thick book!

  12. I recommend Logos software for language tools. They have a lot to offer as well as a package for Language studies. It’s not cheap and it’s all on the computer, however there is a wealth of material available to use.

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