A very different way of doing things compared to the NWT of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, one of the most popular translations in the Protestant world now has a formal Catholic edition (and thus will drown the NWT further below the growing numbers of this new Bible edition).
Originally released to the English-speaking Catholics in India, and soon to be released in the UK and the United States, Tyndale publishers has received an imprimatur for their top-selling New Living Translation (NLT).
One of the best-selling Bibles in English, the NLT was originally designed to be a revision of the popular Living Bible. However, as the revision work grew, the NLT became a translation in its own right.
Not understanding what was involved, originally Tyndale attempted to release a Catholic edition of the NLT in the 1990s in the USA. It failed because the translating team and publishers, who at the time were mostly Evangelical Protestants, didn’t comprehend the way Catholic books get published and why Catholic faithful tend to put so much faith in the “official stamp” of an imprimatur.
Afterwards the translating team behind the NLT decided to bring their translation into the realm of interconfessional cooperation by building a team of translators from various Christian traditions and denominations. The only piece missing from their board was Catholic representation, that is until now.
As this video below explains, the popularity of the NLT was not lost on the Catholic English-speaking world. While interest in the United States still grew regarding an official NLT for Catholics, Tyndale was approached by Catholics in India to produce the project. The ending result was an official New Living Translation, Catholic Edition released just recently in India.
How Did the NLT-CE Come About? - https://youtu.be/Jynv7Jes0tU
Tyndale has begun the process of preparing editions for the rest of the English speaking world, and beginning in 2017 the NLT Catholic Edition will be available to persons in other English-speaking countries and territories. The US edition is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2017.
According to CBA (Christian Booksellers Association, which until recently counted only Protestant editions of Bible sales), the NLT is the second most popular Bible translation based on unit sales after the NIV in the Protestant world. While the NLT will not replace the formal official versions of Scripture used in the Catholic Liturgy in the US (the NABRE) and India (the RSV-CE 2nd Ignatius edition--the UK will start using the RSV-CE for Liturgy shortly), the new NLT-CE is currently approved for personal use by Catholics everywhere.
How very different from the Jehovah's Witness world where such a shared translation would never come about as it would be tantamount to making a deal with the Devil, literally.