CBN News, by Andrea Morris: One publishing house recently announced a significant change to its new Spanish edition of the Jerusalem Bible.
According to Catholic News Agency, the Desclée de Brouwer publishing house is replacing the phrase “fishers of men” with “fishers of persons” in Matthew 4:19.
Javier Gogeaskoetxea, managing director of Desclée de Brouwer, explained that replacing the wording is not a result of public pressure but to protect all “fidelity to the original texts.”
“If I were to put ‘man,’ we would be lacking in fidelity to the original text because the Greek word is neither man nor woman,” Gogeaskoetxea told Catholic News Agency. “I understand that there is an attempt to ‘polemicize’ by attributing ‘inclusive’ language to the translation. But nothing is further from reality. The reason is fidelity to the original text.”
He continued, “The basic rule followed by the Jerusalem Biblical and Archaeological School is that ‘the oldest text is always the most truthful.’ If the words are now changed to be ‘gender-friendly’ it has nothing to do with the decision of the Jerusalem Biblical and Archaeological School.”
“The biblical translations don’t conform to modern times, but rather try to be faithful to the ancient texts,” Gogeaskoetxea said.
However, the amended wording has faced criticism from Roman Catholic leaders.
“It doesn’t seem right to me, but I think it has the importance that we give it. If we read Holy Scripture every day, we would have realized long ago that the Jerusalem Bible translation is not the best option,” said Fr. Antonio María Domenech Guillén, a priest of the Diocese of Cuenca.
“The term that translates, anthropos, refers to a ‘human being’ regardless of sex. However, the translation as ‘persons’ has its problems. To what persons was Jesus referring: human, angelic or divine? Well, in the text, thus translated, it is not excluded that Jesus is calling the disciples to evangelize the angels or God himself,” Father Jesús Silva, a Spanish priest, tweeted in response to the new publication.
Prophetic Link:
“The iniquity and spiritual darkness that prevailed under the supremacy of Rome were the inevitable result of her suppression of the Scriptures; but where is to be found the cause of the widespread infidelity, the rejection of the law of God, and the consequent corruption, under the full blaze of gospel light in an age of religious freedom? Now that Satan can no longer keep the world under his control by withholding the Scriptures, he resorts to other means to accomplish the same object.” Great Controversy, page 586.