I own 5 Bibles. I own a Stuttgart Vulgate, a Jerusalem Bible, a St. Joseph edition of the NAB, a portable Ignatius version of the Revised Standard Version, and a Challoner Douay-Rheims.
I usually use the NAB when quoting Scripture for two reasons: it is the version used in Mass, and therefore the text most familiar to modern Catholics post Vatican II; and because it is the version used in the Liturgy of the Hours, so it is the one I read the most.
In my previous post, I use the Douay-Rheims translation of St. Jerome's Vulgate, instead of the New American Bible translation. My reason is because the NAB translates the Angelic Salutation as "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."
I don't doubt that that is, in a scholarly sense, an acceptable translation of St. Luke's Greek. But in a devotional sense, I have to shake my head and ask "What were they thinking?"
The Angelic Salutation forms the first part of the Hail Mary, which every English-speaking Catholic knows begins as "Hail Mary, full of grace . . . " and which those of us eccentrics who pray the Rosary in Latin know is "Ave Maria, gratia plena." To translate the phrase as "favored one" seems pretty weird to Catholic ears.
Wikipedia has a discussion about the phrase in its entry on the Immaculate Conception:
Some Roman Catholic theologians have also found Scriptural evidence for the Immaculate Conception in the angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary at the Annunciation, (Luke 1:28). The English translation, "Hail, Full of Grace," or "Hail, Favored One," is based on the Greek of Luke 1:28, "Χαίρε, Κεχαριτωμένη", Chaire kecharitomene, a phrase which can most literally be translated: "Rejoice, you who have been graced". The latter word, kecharitomene, is the Passive voice, Present Perfect participle of the verb "to grace" in the feminine gender, vocative case; therefore the Greek syntax indicates that the action of the verb has been fully completed in the past, with results continuing into the future. Put another way, it means that the subject (Mary) was graced fully and completely at some time in the past, and continued in that fully graced state. The angel's salutation does not refer to the Incarnation of Christ in Mary's womb, as he proceeds to say: "thou shalt conceive in thy womb…" (Luke 1:31).
To me, when in doubt, I stick with St. Jerome. In the Vulgate, the passage is rendered "et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus" which to my eyes pretty readily translates as "and an angel entered, and to her said, 'Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women." Bishop Challoner's rendering, which is very faithful to Jerome, is a bit clunkier, but undoubtedly more scholarly*, and renders it as "And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
The RSV renders it as "And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!". Again, scholarly, but tone deaf. And "he" is picking up on the angel's identity as Gabriel from verse 26, where he is named, ignoring the Vulgate's repetition of the word "angelus", angel, (and seeing verse 26, I would hastily revise my schoolboy translation to read "the angel entered").
The NAB follows the RSV; or perhaps both of them translate the Greek the same way.
The King James, which I don't own, but which is esteemed by all lovers of English, renders it is "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
Given that my purpose for the post is devotional, as a meditation on the Rosary which I am building on my right hand margin, and that I am a Catholic, I'm sticking with St. Jerome and Bishop Challoner on this one.
* I had two semesters of Latin at Notre Dame, and got a C. I'm no scholar of Latin.