Family Life

03.02.11 | Sarah Harnisch

   The word "booty"-- meant to describe the loot someone walks away with-- has been banned from a new Catholic version of the Bible. So have a host of other words that are considered to have double meanings based on today's patterns of speech. "Booty" is just one on a list of words banned at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week. The word "booty," which set off a case of snickers in Sunday school classrooms across the nation, will be replaced by "spoils of war" in the latest edition of the New American Bible, which comes out on ash Wednesday, March 9th. One of the members of the editing team said "we needed a new translation, because English is a living language." 50 scholars spent 17 years on the project. Other words on the banned list include "holocaust," which now signifies World War 2 genocide. It will be replaced by "burnt offering." Perhaps the most controversial change, though, comes from Isaiah 7:14, which reads "the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son." The 2011 text refers to "a young woman" instead of "the virgin"-- using the original Hebrew word "almah"-- which does not clearly signify that she was pure when she conceived.