(Response to a poster in a forum.)
The translations to avoid are not Catholic versions, but non-literal versions.
If one believes that each word in the original writings is inspired by God, one should avoid the NIV.
This and other recent translations are based on the notion that the ideas but not each word were inspired.
This gives the translators a lot of room to decide for themselves just what these inspired ideas are.
The additional books in the Catholic versions do not add significantly to the body of central Christian teaching.
Athough those books were used by Jews of the First Century along with Greek translations of the Hebrew scriptures, the traditional Protestant view seems to be that the Hebrew scriptures as maintained in Jerusalem by officials of the congregation of Israel were what Paul meant by the "oracles of God".
Romans 3:1-2 KJV What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? (2) Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
The difference between Catholic and Protestant teaching is not in versions of the Bible. It has to do with the Catholic notion that revelation is ongoing through the apostolic authority handed down to the bishops. Catholic scholars will readily admit that the main teachings that differ from traditional protestantism are based on the teaching authority of the Catholic Church much more than upon scripture.
