The Church in India Releases English Standard Version (ESV) Catholic Bible
The New Edition of the Bible is for Liturgical use
Bengaluru: His Eminence Oswald Cardinal Gracias the President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) and the Archbishop of Bombay released the English Standard Version Catholic Edition of the Bible (ESV-CE) and handed over the first copy to His Eminence Telesphore Cardinal Toppo, the Archbishop of Ranchi at a solemn function held during the 30th Plenary Assembly of the CCBI, at Bangalore on 4 February, 2018.
His Eminence Oswald Cardinal Gracias releases the ESV-CE Bible
“Releasing of the ESV-CE Bible is a historical event and it would be of valuable help to the people of our country and the biblical apostolate. The ESV Catholic Bible is the Indian Church’s contribution to the universal Church” said Cardinal Gracias.
“The ESV-CE translation came into being due to the preparation of the Lectionary for India and so it would be used not only for the Lectionary but also in the Divine Office and all Liturgical Books,” said Archbishop Dominic Jala, the Chairman of the Commission for Liturgy and the Archbishop of Shillong.
Through a circular, Bishop J. Susaimanickam, the Chairman of the CCBI Commission for Bible has requested the rectors and heads of all formation houses to replace all existing Bible translations with the ESV-CE in their training of students. “Since the Lectionary in India, which is under preparation, will feature the text of ESV-CE, it would be extremely commendable to introduce the ESV-CE to the students of Sacred Scripture in Seminaries, Formation Houses, Study Houses and in higher Institutes of learning, so that becoming familiar with it, they would be better equipped when they turn to the Lectionary and use the same text for their personal reading, prayer and preaching” explains the circular of the Chairman of the CCBI Commission for Bible.
ESV-CE is a joint venture of the CCBI Commissions for Liturgy and Bible. The CCBI Commission for Liturgy was looking for an English Version of the Bible, which could form the basis for the new Lectionary in India. The ESV was then finalized based on various parameters. The most important reason why the ESV text was chosen is that it has grown out of the erstwhile RSV, which we have known and used in the seminary and in the Liturgy for many years. Therefore, there would be continuity with the text with which we were familiar with. Moreover, in the ESV, the archaic language used in the RSV has been brought into line with current usage. There is an exceptional freshness to the text of the ESV.
The ESV text had been studied by a team of Indian Catholic Scholars, headed by Rev. Dr Lucien Legrand, MEP. During the 29th Plenary Assembly of the CCBI, held at Bhopal, the house unanimously voted in favour of the ESV. Subsequently, His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias, on behalf of the CCBI, granted an imprimatur to the ESV-CE. The publishers for the ESV-CE is the Asian Trading Corporation, Bangalore.