This eBook was produced by David Widger
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgiaand Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.
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 withthe Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard ChallonerA.D. 1749-1752
This e-text comes from multiple editions of Challoner's revised Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible. In 1568 English exiles, many fromOxford, established the English College of Douay (Douai/Doway), Flanders,under William (later Cardinal) Allen. In October, 1578, Gregory Martinbegan the work of preparing an English translation of the Bible forCatholic readers, the first such translation into Modern English.Assisting were William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas Worthington, andWilliam Reynolds who revised, criticized, and corrected Dr. Martin'swork. 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 OldTestament was published at Douay in two parts (1609 and 1610) by LaurenceKellam through the efforts of Dr. Worthington, then superior of theseminary. The translation had been prepared before the appearance of theNew Testament, but the publication was delayed due to financialdifficulties. The religious and scholarly adherence to the Latin Vulgatetext led to the less elegant and idiomatic words and phrases often foundin the translation. In some instances where no English word conveyed thefull meaning of the Latin, a Latin word was Anglicized and its meaningdefined in a glossary. Although ridiculed by critics, many of thesewords later found common usage in the English language. Spellings ofproper names and the numbering of the Psalms are adopted from the LatinVulgate.
In 1749 Dr. Richard Challoner began a major revision of the Douay andRheims texts, the spellings and phrasing of which had become increasinglyarchaic in the almost two centuries since the translations were firstproduced. He modernized the diction and introduced a more fluid style,while faithfully maintaining the accuracy of Dr. Martin's texts. Thisrevision became the 'de facto' standard text for English speakingCatholics until the twentieth century. It is still highly regarded bymany for its style, although it is now rarely used for liturgicalpurposes. The notes included in this electronic edition are generallyattributed to Bishop Challoner.
The Old Testament