Caveat Emptor (or more lessons learned from the Brady Bunch)



Just because it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck doesn't mean it's a duck. Sometimes you have to look more closely to make sure it's not a loon.


Last night, after the little ones were in bed, Beulah paged through her bible and suddenly piped up with this "fast fact" from the book of St. James. "James was Jesus' brother?!" she demanded. Surely, I thought, it had gotten too late or her young eyes were failing her. Quickly, I had the book in my hands and seconds later, after having scanned the "fact box" I had shoved the book under the Captain's nose in shock! My family and I have enjoyed many fine Catholic products from the self-proclaimed Catholic store where we purchased not one, but TWO of these bible. Knowing that we were ordering from a company that is faithful to the Church's teaching was and is very important to us. Originally, we purchased two Catholic Youth Bibles, but received a phone call from the company that they were unavailable. However, they offered the only other "kids" bible they had in stock. It was called the Kid's Life Application bible, and in good faith, on the reputation of the company, I accepted the replacement.

I am not certain if you are aware (we certainly weren't), but if you are purchasing bibles for your children, this translation does NOT include all the books of the Catholic bible. It is missing the Deuterocanonical books: Tobias, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, and Maccabees. In addition, included in one of the "fast facts" boxes in the book of James is information explaining James as Jesus' brother, having the same parents, living in the same house, which would be contrary to the Church's teaching.

This information is not to debate Church teaching about the relationship between James, Joseph and Jesus (but if you are interested in that, you can read about it here), only to make future buyers aware, that even the most reputable of sources can make a mistake now and then. And it's up to us, as buyers, to do our homework.