Re the What’s Rite column (CR, June 9) on the new Roman Missal, I have problems understanding the various translations and the reason for them when it changes things that we have become used to. One that stands out to me is the change to the 23rd Psalm where the words “and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” has been changed to “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come”. Forever seems to be a much better connotation.
Then there is the change to the book Isaiah when it was translated from Hebrew to Greek some 400 years after it was written. In this translation, the Hebrew word used was almah, which in Hebrew means a young woman. The Hebrew word for virgin is betulah. When the translators used virgin in the translation for the verses in Isaiah they affected greatly what we believe today.