The Bible

The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims
Version

This etext was prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia and
Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.

THE HOLY BIBLE

Translated from the Latin Vulgate
Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek, and Other Editions in
Divers Languages
THE OLD TESTAMENT First Published by the English College at
Douay A.D. 1609 & 1610
and
THE NEW TESTAMENT First Published by the English College at
Rheims A.D. 1582
With Annotations
The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate
by Bishop Richard Challoner A.D. 1749-1752

CREDIT
S
Without the assistance of many individuals and groups, this text of the
Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible would not be available for
the Project Gutenberg collection. Our most grateful and sincere thanks
goes to those at 'Catholic Software' who have provided the electronic
plain texts of the 73 books of the Bible. 'Catholic Software' also
produces a Douay Bible program on CD-ROM that features a fully
searchable Douay- Rheims Bible, footnotes, Latin text and dictionary,
topical index, maps, Biblical art gallery, and other features. For more
information of this and many other products contact:

Catholic Software Box 1914 Murray, KY 42071 (502) 753-8198
http://www.catholicity.com/market/CSoftware/ [email protected]
Additional production assistance has been provided by volunteers from
the Atlanta Council of the Knights of Columbus. Tad Book compiled
and reformatted the texts to Project Gutenberg standards. Dennis
McCarthy assisted Mr. Book and transcribed selections from the first
editions included as appendices.

HISTORY
This e-text comes from multiple editions of Challoner's revised Douay-
Rheims Version of the Holy Bible. In 1568 English exiles, many from
Oxford, established the English College of Douay (Douai/Doway),
Flanders, under William (later Cardinal) Allen. In October, 1578,
Gregory Martin began the work of preparing an English translation of
the Bible for Catholic readers, the first such translation into Modern
English. Assisting were William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas
Worthington, and William Reynolds who revised, criticized, and
corrected Dr. Martin's work. The college published the New Testament
at Rheims (Reims/Rhemes), France, in 1582 through John Fogny with a
preface and explanatory notes, authored chiefly by Bristol, Allen, and
Worthington. Later the Old Testament was published at Douay in two
parts (1609 and 1610) by Laurence Kellam through the efforts of Dr.
Worthington, then superior of the seminary. The translation had been
prepared before the appearance of the New Testament, but the
publication was delayed due to financial difficulties. The religious and
scholarly adherence to the Latin Vulgate text led to the less elegant and
idiomatic words and phrases often found in the translation. In some
instances where no English word conveyed the full meaning of the
Latin, a Latin word was Anglicized and its meaning defined in a
glossary. Although ridiculed by critics, many of these words later found
common usage in the English language. Spellings of proper names and
the numbering of the Psalms are adopted from the Latin Vulgate.
In 1749 Dr. Richard Challoner began a major revision of the Douay and
Rheims texts, the spellings and phrasing of which had become
increasingly archaic in the almost two centuries since the translations
were first produced. He modernized the diction and introduced a more
fluid style, while faithfully maintaining the accuracy of Dr. Martin's

texts. This revision became the 'de facto' standard text for English
speaking Catholics until the twentieth century. It is still highly regarded
by many for its style, although it is now rarely used for liturgical
purposes. The notes included in this electronic edition are generally
attributed to Bishop Challoner.
The 1610 printing of the second tome of the Old Testament includes an
appendix containing the non-canonical books 'Prayer of Manasses,'
'Third Booke of Esdras,' and 'Fourth Booke of Esdras.' While not part
of Challoner's revision, the 1610 texts are placed in the appendices of
this e-text. Also included are the original texts of two short books, 'The
Prophecie of Abdias' and 'The Catholike Epistle of Iude the Apostle,' to
give the reader a sense of the language of the first editions in
comparison to the Challoner revision. Further background on the
Douay-Rheims version may be found in a selection from the preface to
the 1582 edition and the original glossary included in the appendices.

CONTENTS
The Old Testament
Book of Genesis Book of Exodus Book of Leviticus Book of Numbers
Book of Deuteronomy Book of Josue Book of Judges Book of Ruth
First Book of Samuel, alias 1 Kings Second Book of Samuel, alias 2
Kings Third Book of Kings Fourth Book of Kings First Book of
Paralipomenon Second Book of Paralipomenon First Book of Esdras
Book of Nehemias, alias 2 Esdras Book of Tobias Book of Judith Book
of Esther Book of Job Book of Psalms Book of Proverbs Ecclesiastes
Solomon's Canticle of Canticles Book of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus