Booty Recall: Bishops Drop Word from Bible

March 2, 2011 -- American Bishops have come out publicly against gratuitous booty.

To be more precise the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has ordered up a new translation of the Bible, one that -- among other changes -- replaces the word "booty" with "spoils."

But before anyone howls about censorship or the purity of the original text, church leaders are swift to point out that the latest translation aims to be more accurate, more contemporary and even more poetic. The newest edition of the New American Bible, the English-language Catholic Bible, comes out on Ash Wednesday, March 9.

"Our official line is that this is the Bible in high-def," Mary Elizabeth Sperry of the U.S. Conference told ABC News. "It's not a new Bible; it's not a new story. It's the same text you've known but hopefully you'll be able to see it in great detail."

Ergo, "booty" is out and "spoils" of war -- which is simultaneously truer to the original intent of the text and less likely to set off a round of giggles in Sunday school -- is in.

(When initially approached by this reporter, Sperry joked, "Is this a booty call? Because I'm not sure I can take those at work.")

Earlier this year, a Mark Twain scholar kicked up a storm of controversy when he oversaw the publication of a new version of "Huckleberry Finn" -- one that swaps the "N-word" which occurs 219 times throughout, for "slave."

But Bible scholars insist that their new translation is a completely different animal. Fifty scholars, linguistics experts, theologians and five bishops spent 17 years on the project. They extensively consulted original manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls and archaeology findings (or, if you will, booty) unearthed since research behind the current text, published in 1970.

"I actually think it's a good idea," Curt Niccum, an associate professor at Abilene Christian University who was not involved with the project, told ABC News.

"Similar examples would be the words 'gay' and 'grass' and 'getting stoned'," he said. "All of those ideas are in the Bible, but because our language changes, translations have to better convey the original intent. Avoiding snickers is part of that."