for the greater glory of God and the service of the Church.The translation is called the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible. It is a translation of the Sacred Bible, Sixtus V and Clement VIII Latin Vulgate edition. The 1914 Hetzenauer edition of the Vulgate was the main source text. Several other Latin editions were consulted including the 1861 Vercellone edition, the 1822 - 1824 Leander van Ess edition (which compares the 1590, 1592, 1593, 1598 editions of the Sixtus V and Clement VIII editions), and the modern-day Tweedale Edition (London, 2005). The Challoner Douay-Rheims Version of the Bible was used as a guide in translating the Latin text into English. The original Rheims Douai Bible was also frequently consulted.
Ronald L. Conte Jr. relied on God's Providence and Grace in translating and editing the Sacred Bible on his own, which is an incredible demanding task. Luckily he could rely on various reference texts, in print and in electronic form. Since the Latin editions of the Bible used in this translation are in the public domain, as the sole translator and editor of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible, he placed the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible in the public domain in perpetuity.
For him it is clear that the Bible is a gift from God to all humanity. No one should own or restrict what is given to all by God.
He writes
Anyone may make their own version of the Bible, based on, or derived from, this version. While some may criticize this translation, "no one is forbidden to do it better!" Any Biblical scholar, or other person, who thinks that he can improve on this version, can make whatever changes to this version that he sees fit to make. Changed, altered, or edited versions of the Catholic Public Domain Version can be published in print or electronically, in whole or in part; no further permission is needed. However, no one may copyright or otherwise restrict any edit of this edition of the Bible; this version must remain in the public domain. But if anyone prepares a substantially new version of the Bible, based on or derived from this version, please consider placing the new version also in the public domain.and ads
I strongly recommend that everyone refrain from doing anything with this version of the Bible that might incur the wrath of God. If anyone tries to copyright or otherwise restrict this version of the Bible, may God rebuke them. If anyone promotes or distributes this version of the Bible, or frees it from unjust restrictions, may God bless them.Though the The Catholic Public Domain Version, Original Edition was completed on March 28th, 2009, this August the 'final' version was presented and became available online free: SacredBible.org. And a brief page describing the translation is here: Version Information.
The translator writes
The CPDV is available from Amazon in Kindle format. However, since the translation is public domain, several different persons or entities have published an edition at Amazon. My edition in particular has a green mottled cover and is available here:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0051IBLXG/
According to the reviews of the translation on Amazon, some editions are incomplete. However, I assure my readers that my edition here has all 73 books of the Catholic Bible.
A printed version of the CPDV is available at Lulu.com here.
If anyone is interested in using the CPDV in any way, you do not need my permission. It is truly public domain. The online edition here:
www.sacredbible.org/catholic/
is the master files for the version. When I publish an edition in print, I work directly from those exact files. So there is no better reference source for this edition of the Bible.
— Ronald L. Conte Jr.
An on-going list of errors and corrections in the files and text of the CPDV, original edition,
since completion of the translation on March 28, 2009 can be found at the Errata page.
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