Everything about The Douay-rheims Bible totally explained
The
Douay-Rheims Bible, also known as the
Rheims-Douai Bible or
Douai Bible and abbreviated as
D-R, is a translation of the
Bible from the
Latin Vulgate into
English. The
New Testament was published in one volume with extensive commentary and notes in 1582. The
Old Testament followed in 1609–10 in two volumes, also extensively annotated. The notes took up the bulk of the volumes and had a strong
polemical and
patristic character. They also offered insights on issues of translation, and on the Hebrew and Greek source texts of the
Vulgate. The purpose of the version, both the text and notes, was to uphold
Catholic tradition in the face of the
Protestant Reformation which was heavily influencing
England. As such it was an impressive effort by English Catholics to support the
Counter-Reformation.
Although the
New Jerusalem Bible and
New American Bible are most commonly used in English-speaking Catholic Churches, the Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims is still often the Bible of choice of
Traditionalist Roman Catholics today.
Origin
The
English exiles for religious causes, or
recusants, were not all Catholic. There were Catholic refugees on the
European mainland as well as
Puritan, and from the one, as from the other, there proceeded an English version of the Bible. The center of English Catholicism was the
English College at
Douai founded (in
1568) by
William Allen, formerly of
Queen's College, Oxford, and Canon of York, and subsequently
cardinal, for the purpose of training priests to convert the English again to Catholicism. And it was here where the Catholic translation of the Bible into English was produced.
A run of a few hundred or more of the New Testament, in
quarto form (not large folio), was published in the last months of
1582 (Herbert #177), during a temporary migration of the college to
Rheims; consequently, it has been commonly known as the Rheims New Testament. Though he died in the same year as its publication, this translation was principally the work of
Gregory Martin, formerly Fellow of
St. John's College, Oxford, close friend of Saint
Edmund Campion. He was assisted by others at Douai, notably Cardinal Allen himself,
Richard Bristow, and
Thomas Worthington, who proofed and provided notes and annotations. The
Old Testament is stated to have been ready at the same time, but for want of funds it couldn't be printed until later, after the college had returned to Douai; it's commonly known as the Douay Old Testament. It was issued as two
quarto volumes dated
1609 and
1610 (Herbert #300). Surprisingly these first New Testament and Old Testament editions followed the
Geneva Bible not only in their quarto format but also in the use of Roman type.
As an earlier translation, the Rheims New Testament was one which the preparers of the
King James Version consulted during their work. Afterwards it ceased to be of interest in the Anglican church. The city is now spelled Douai, but the Bible continues to be published as the
Douay-Rheims Bible, and has formed the basis of some later Roman Catholic Bibles in English.
The title page runs:
The Holy Bible, faithfully translated into English out of the authentic Latin. Diligently conferred with the Hebrew, Greek and other Editions. The cause of the delay was
our poor state of banishment, but there was also the matter of reconciling the Latin to the other editions. William Allen went to Rome and worked, with others, on the revision of the Vulgate. The Sixtine edition was published in
1590. The definitive
Clementine text followed in
1592. These revisions of the Vulgate allowed Dr Worthington, in the preface, to say: "we have again conferred this English translation and conformed it to the most perfect Latin Edition."
Style
The Douay-Rheims Bible is a translation of the
Latin Vulgate, which is itself a translation from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts. The Vulgate was largely created due to the efforts of Saint
Jerome (
345-
420), whose translation was declared to be the authentic Latin version of the Bible by the
Council of Trent. While the Catholic scholars "conferred" with the
Hebrew and
Greek originals, as well as with "other editions in diuerse languages," their avowed purpose was to translate from the Latin Vulgate, for reasons of accuracy as stated in their Preface, but which also tended to produce, in places, stilted syntax and Latinisms. The following short passage (
Ephesians 3:6-12), taken almost at random, is a fair example, admittedly without updating the spelling conventions then in use:
» The Gentils to be coheires and concorporat and comparticipant of his promis in Christ JESUS by the Gospel: whereof I'm made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God, which is given me according to the operation of his power. To me the least of al the sainctes is given this grace, among the Gentils to evangelize the unsearcheable riches of Christ, and to illuminate al men what is the dispensation of the sacrament hidden from worldes in God, who created al things: that the manifold wisedom of God, may be notified to the Princes and Potestats in the celestials by the Church, according to the prefinition of worldes, which he made in Christ JESUS our Lord. In whom we've affiance and accesse in confidence, by the faith of him.
Elsewhere, however, the English wording of the Rheims New Testament follows more or less closely the
Protestant version first produced by
William Tyndale in 1525; though the base text for the Rheims translators appears to be the revision of Tyndale found in an English and Latin diglot New Testament, published by
Miles Coverdale in Paris in 1538. Furthermore, the translators are especially accurate in their rendition of the
definite article from Greek to English, and in their recognition of subtle distinctions of the Greek
past tense, neither of which are well represented in the Vulgate Latin. Consequently, the Rheims New Testament is much less of a new version, and owes rather more to the original languages, than the translators admit in their preface.
Nevertheless, it was a translation of a translation of the Bible. Many highly-regarded translations of the Bible still use the Vulgate for consultation, especially in certain difficult
Old Testament passages, but nearly all modern Bible versions go directly to the
Hebrew,
Aramaic, and
Greek Biblical texts for translation and not to a secondary version like the Vulgate. (The reason why the translators preferred the Vulgate, in many cases, was explained in their Preface, pointing to assorted corruptions of various 'original' texts available in that era, to assertions that
St. Jerome had access to manuscripts that were later destroyed, and to the
Council of Trent’s decree that the Vulgate was free of doctrinal error.)
The translation was prepared with a definite
polemical purpose in opposition to Protestant translations (which also had polemical motives). The notes and annotations reflected Catholic positions. The Catholic
Biblical canon was naturally used, with the
Deuterocanonical books in the Douay-Rheims
Old Testament, rather than in the
Apocrypha section as in Protestant Bibles.
Influence
The Douay Old Testament was reprinted once in the course of a century, and the Rheims New Testament a few times in the next century. In England, the Douay-Rheims Bible was ironically popularized by the action of a vehement adversary,
William Fulke, who, in order to expose its perceived errors, in
1589 (Herbert #202) printed the Rheims New Testament in parallel columns with the Protestant
Bishops' version of
1572, and the Rheims annotations with his own refutations of them; and this work had a considerable vogue among Protestant Reformers. Further editions of Fulke's work continued until
1633 (Herbert #480).
Regarded from the point of view of scholarship, the Douay-Rheims Bible is seen, despite its stilted prose, as a particularly accurate version of the Bible; which was just what Catholicism preferred in a time of various and specific religious disputes. It deserves mention in the history of the English Bible because it was one of the versions consulted by the translators of the
King James Version (the
Authorized Version), especially for the New Testament. Though the
Authorized Version is indeed distinguished by the strongly English (as distinct from Latin) character of its prose, some of the Latin vocabulary it used (for example:
emulation Romans 11:14) was derived from the Rheims-Douay.
Challoner Revision
Translation
The Douay-Rheims Bible, however, achieved little currency, even among English-speaking Catholics, until it was substantially revised between
1749 and
1752 by
Richard Challoner, an English
bishop, formally appointed to the deserted see of Debra. Challoner's revisions borrowed heavily from the
King James Version (himself being a convert from
Protestantism, and thus familiar with its style) whose translators had borrowed a few terms from the original Rheims NT of
1582. Challoner not only addressed the odd prose and the latinisms, but produced a version which, while still called the Douay-Rheims, was little like it.
The same passage of Ephesians in Challoner's revision gives a hint of the thorough stylistic editing he did of the text:
» That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body: and copartners of his promise in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, of which I'm made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, which is given to me according to the operation of his power. To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: and to enlighten all men, that they may see what is the dispensation of the mystery which hath been hidden from eternity in God who created all things: that the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places through the church, according to the eternal purpose which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord: in whom we've boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
For comparison, the same passage of Ephesians in the King James Bible:
» That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: in whom we've boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Publication
The extensive notes and commentary of the original were drastically reduced, resulting in a compact one-volume edition of the Bible, which contributed greatly to its popularity. Gone also was the longer paragraph formatting of the text; instead, the text was broken up so that each verse was its own paragraph. The
three apocrypha, which had been placed in an appendix to the second volume of the
Old Testament, were dropped.
This Challoner version, officially approved by the Church, remained the Bible of the majority of English-speaking Catholics well into the 20th century, and has remained in active printing in America since 1971. It was first published in America in 1899 by the John Murphy Company of Baltimore, Maryland, and is formally known as the "Douay-Rheims Challoner Revision". A new, revised version of the Douay-Rheims was also published in America in 1899, known as the "Douay-Rheims American Edition", but it's no longer in-print. In
1941 the New Testament and Psalms of the Douay-Rheims Bible were again heavily revised to produce the New Testament (and in some editions, the Psalms) of the
Confraternity Bible, however so extensive were these changes, that it was no longer identified as the Douay-Rheims.
Names of Books
The names, numbers, and chapters of the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Challoner revision follow that of the Vulgate and therefore differ from those of the King James Bible and its modern successors, making direct comparison of versions tricky in some places. For instance, the books called
Ezra and
Nehemiah in the King James Bible are called
1 and
2 Esdras in the Douay-Rheims Bible. The apocryphal books called
1 and
2 Esdras in the KJB are called
3 and
4 Esdras in the Douay. A table illustrating the differences can be found
here.
The names, numbers, and order of the books in the Douay-Rheims Bible follow
those of the Vulgate except that the
three apocryphal books are placed after the
Old Testament in the Douay-Rheims Bible; in the
Clementine Vulgate they come after the
New Testament. These three apocrypha are omitted entirely in the Challoner revision.
The Psalms of the Douay-Rheims Bible follow the numbering of the
Vulgate and the
Septuagint, whereas those in the KJB follow that of
Masoretic Text. For details of the differences see the article on the
Psalms. A summary list is shown below:
| Enumeration used by the Douay-Rheims Version, taken from the Vulgate |
Enumeration used by KJV and most modern English bibles; taken from the Masoretic Text. |
| 1-8 |
| 9 |
9-10 |
| 10-112 |
11-113 |
| 113 |
114-115 |
| 114-115 |
116 |
| 116-145 |
117-146 |
| 146-147 |
147 |
| 148-150 |
