Msg Base:  AREA 3  - ASK FATHER (AMDG)
  Msg No: 181.  Sat 12-12-92 12:08  (NO KILL)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Rick Mansfield
 Subject: Penance

RM|Fr. Mateo,
 
RM|Thank you for your response.  I knew that our respective traditions would
  |differ somewhat on the idea of repentance/penance (I am Baptist), and I
  |certainly didn't wish to argue that fact.  In reality, I believe that all
  |Christian faiths have some form of penance, though in a denomination like
  |mine, it is more subtle and different words are used.
 
RM|Anyway, after I sent you the post concerning the Greek word "metanoeo," I
  |checked my own collection of Bible translations (a hobby of mine), to see
  |how Catholic Bibles translated Luke 13:3,5.  I have five Catholic
  |translations in my posession and, you might be interested to know, that
  |only two (the New American Bible and the Douay-Rheims) used the word
  |"penance."  The other three (Smith-Goodspeed, Jerusalem, and New
  |Jerusalem) translated "metanoeo" with the more accurate word, repentance.
 
RM|I suppose that the denominational perspective creeped in somewhat into the
  |two using the word "penance."  This is one reason, I have strayed away
  |from "Baptist" translations for the majority of my own personal study and
  |have always preferred using translations produced by committees of various
  |Christian backgrounds.
 
RM|Thanks again for your response.
 
RM|Respectfully,
  |Rick Mansfield
 
Dear Rick,
 
Thank you for your very kind message of November 13.  I admire your
hobby of collecting Bible translations.
 
Maybe the translations of Luke 13:3,5 which show the English word
`penance' have been influenced by St. Jerome's Latin, which has
PAENITENTIAM in both verses.
 
                                        Sincerely in Christ,
                                                Father Mateo