Customer Reviews

Douay-Rheims Holy Bible

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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This is a faithful translation of Jerome's Vulgate, the official Bible of the Church until the New Vulgate was promulgated in this century. I would recommend that every Catholic own this Bible and use it along side of a current scholarly edition of the Bible such as the New Oxford Annotated Bible-Revised Standard Version, 1977; the New Jerusalem Bible; or the New American Bible. The dimensions, the leather cover, and the pages are nice, good quality. The notes are interesting and present good doctrinal exegesis which compliments current Biblical scholarship in modern translations. Though I would use the RSV as my primary Bible, the Douay is a classic that I would consult regularly.

I couldn't put this Bible down. There is something downright inspiring about it. The language is reverent, yet direct. The footnotes reflect interpretations that are faithful to the Magisterium of the Church and the cross references are very helpful for study purposes. I don't know what took me so long to get a copy of this translation but I'm glad I did. I think every Catholic should get one.

This bible is the most accurate and best catholic bible that one can buy. All other bibles are to be compared to this one. St. Jerome who translated this bible was very careful in using the most accurate texts. The Ignatius bible which comes in a close second cannot be claimed to be more accurate than this one. The douay rheims has been compared with the greek text in which the Ignatius bible is based and has been found lacking. For instance in the douay rheims it states in the book of ecclesistaces that the number of fools is infinite. Yet this quote is nowhere to be found in the Ignatius bible. This is not to say the Ignatius bible is bad but it is not as good as the douay rheims. This bible is majestic and simply breathes authenticity and beauty of expression. This is indeed the word of God. One has to read this bible to see what I mean. An outstanding translation that will probably never be surpassed.

A translation from the Vulgate which was first produced in 1609, and so predates the King James. The language is beautiful, though a little influenced by the King James later by Challoner, and the cover and pages are beautiful. Not only is this a copy of the Scriptures that everyone should want in their collection for historical reasons, or it's beauty, but it is also the one most faithful to the Magesterium. Footnotes make good references to verses which are traditionally read to support key Catholic Doctrines, such as the Petrine ministry. Any Catholic should have this in his or her collection.

This is the authentic English version of the Catholic Bible first published in 16th Century with the Challoner revision (1750 AD). It is meant for the discerning reader who wishes Scriptural purity with minimal "anglicized Latin" obscurities. It precedes the King James English Version and is, therefore, the original English Bible - no deletions from the Vulgate!

All translations and editions of scripture have their purpose. I recommend this bible for those who are already familiar with a more recent translation. This is not one I would recommend for scholarly work(unless for comparative purposes) but definately as part of a collection of classical literature (the "catholic king james"). This edition is a photo copy of the 1899 edition with a new preface. The quality of the padded hardcover is good and the pages are quality stock. Introductions and footnotes are of solid catholic doctrine.

I just received my copy of the Douay-Rheims bible a few days ago. The book is beautifully bound, the dimensions are perfect, and the size of the print is very legible. The stories inside are fascinating. The book also includes maps of the ancient world. I am very satisfied. This bible is a joy to read !

The best, most accurate, safest English translation that you can use. A careful word-for-word translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible (the official Bible of the Church)--plus of the original New Testament Greek. This version is a joy to read, is full of surprises and really makes the Bible come alive! (Publisher)

The Douay-Rheims Bible, for those who have used it carefully and comparatively along with others of the relatively few truly reliable Bibles in English (there being far too many translations of a loosely paraphrastic, liberal bias-affected, and/or sloppily translated quality), whether of Roman Catholic or Protestant provenance. Fortunately, the rock-solid Douay-Rheims-Challoner Bible still is available in a choice of editions and bindings. This paperback edition (published in 2000, not 1995, according to the data on the copy seen), if purchased in the Dominion of Canada (according to Amazon.ca) sells for three times the price listed for the U.S., thus for buyers from the U.S. source is all the more the best buy, for price combined with good quality, of the various range of options for obtaining a currently available edition of this surpassingly fine and lovely translation. Baronius Press has the most luxurious edition on the market, with improved type-face, but TAN's hardback and paperback editions, at their U.S. prices, will be the choice of most buyers of moderate means.

That holy missionary bishop of difficult times, Richard Challoner, immensely improved the text of the Douay-Rheims Bible. Critics of the Douay-Rheims often ignore his contribution and only refer to the Douay-Rheims as it first was published in the years before the Authorised "King James" Bible (of 1611) appeared and before Bp. Challoner made his great and scholarly improvements to the Douay-Rheims Bible. The only Roman Catholic Bible that is on its level is the Confraternity Version, which, alas, the mediocre New American Bible displaced on the market-place, to sad effect. The translation by Ronald Knox, also from the Clementine Latin Vulgate, has much literary merit (as, of course, the Douay-Rheims came to have as Challoner so gracefully revised it), but cannot compare to the accuracy and reliability of the Douay-Rheims-Challoner or Confraternity Bibles, since Knox' translation method was rather too free at times. The Jerusalem and New Jerusalem Bibles have much merit (including literarily), and are translated, for the New Testament (and also for the deutero-canonical books of the O.T. books), from the Greek (alas, in one of the mutilated "critical texts that modernist scholars wrongly prefer to the Ecclesiastical Greek "Received" Text, also called the "Textus Receptus", of the N.T.), but even they have to cede place of honour to the Douay-Rheims-Challoner and Confraternity Versions (the latter being, of course, based on Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts along with an healthy regard for the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate).

The Clementine Latin text, that underlies the Douay-Rheims Version, as already noted above, is superior to the tawdry, corrupted Greek "critical texts" (usually the numerous editions of the Nestlé/Aland or the United Bible Societies texts of the New Testament, all having a liberal and Westcott-Hort corrupt preponderance of often quite aberrant readings for the New Testament). It truly is better to translate from the Clementine Vulgate's fine Latin text than from tarnished Greek "critical texts", which tend to be more extreme than the more cautious critical text that underlies the Confraternity Version's New Testament) that betray the sacred words of the New Testament, even if, ideally, it is best to translate faithfully from the Textus Receptus or Majority Text of the N.T., as the translators of the A.V./K.J.V., with such supreme authority and probity, so did.

There are minor divergences between the American and British Douay-Rheims-Challoner texts, which have varied somewhat in editions over the years published in both countries. Good editions of British texts of the Douay-Rheims-Challoner translation long were available, including in inexpensive editions, from the Catholic Truth Society (C.T.S.). This reader's collection includes the C.T.S. edition in relatively small (but stoutly thick) format published in 1956 (with imprimatur and preface dated 1955), which states on the verso of the title page and in the preface, that modifications to the British Challoner text of 1955 are due to "certain emendations, mainly of a grammatical nature, to the [then] current Douay texts ... [and also] to provide for easier reading." Most traditionalist Roman Catholic and other readers probably will prefer the older 1899 American text, for which TAN Books and Baronius Press alike have opted to print or to reprint, to the slightly different 1955 or other British text. The prefaces of TAN Books' hardcover and later paperback editions differ, the latter lengthier, accounting for the 2000 paperback TAN edition's description as being an "Enlarged Softcover Edition", a difference that would affect few readers' choice to make a choice between these TAN editions. The buyer can always "tip in" a photocopy of the preface to the other edition, as this reader has done, to have both under one cover.

When all has been said, the Douay-Rheims, undeniably to the unprejudiced and discerning reader, is a genuinely beautiful translation of God's word; as Challoner revised the translation, it rivals even the stellar beauty of the A.V./K.J.V. that always has set the literary standard for the English Bible, and in some passages even surpasses the K.J.V. That is in no small part due to Challoner's effort to import into the Douay-Rheims Bible much of the beauty and clarity of expression in the Authorised Version; he succeeded in upgrading the style of the Douay-Rheims Bible without bowing to the A.V.'s slight Protestant/Anglican bias in certain passages. All who love the Bible should have both. The Christian should keep in mind that the A.V./K.J.V. included, in its Apocrypha, the deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament (as well as three biblical books or portions included only in the appendix of the Latin Vulgate Bible, but too often omitted in the deutero-canon of Roman Catholic Bibles as generally printed in Latin or as translated, and, when they do include the Apocrypha at all, as also omitted from the Apocrypha of Lutheran Bibles as well); some editions (albeit a bit hard to find in bookstores) of the A.V. Bible, mostly for the sake of Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and for some Lutherans, still include the Apocrypha.

One can only hope that traditionalist Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants return to the twin jewels of literary beauty and accuracy that the Douay-Rheims-Challoner and Authorised Version Bibles represent, now as had been the case for centuries in the past.

this has to be the best written bible for catholics.it shows marvelous details,wonderfully written. A sure bible treasure for all religions. A sure norm for the world.