Original 1582–1610; Challoner revision 1749–1752
Douay-Rheims (Challoner Revision) (DRA)
The Douay-Rheims is the historic Catholic English Bible. Translated from the Latin Vulgate by English exiles in France, it predates the King James Version and was the standard Catholic English text for centuries. The widely-read modern form is Bishop Challoner's mid-1700s revision.
"For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting."
Translators
English College at Douai and Rheims (originals); Bishop Richard Challoner (revision)
Source text
The Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome, with reference to Greek and Hebrew texts. The Challoner revision smoothed the English and conformed it to the Clementine Vulgate.
Language
18th-century English (Challoner) on a 17th-century Catholic base
Copyright
Public domain — free to read, share, and quote.
History
- 1582 — The Rheims New Testament is published in France for English-speaking Catholics.
- 1609–1610 — The Douay Old Testament is published in two volumes, completing the Bible.
- 1749–1752 — Bishop Richard Challoner issues a series of revisions modernizing the language and aligning it with the Clementine Vulgate.
- 19th–20th centuries — The Challoner text becomes the dominant English Catholic Bible until later 20th-century Catholic translations.
Strengths
- Preserves the readings and traditions of the Latin Vulgate used by the Western Church for over a millennium.
- Historically important counterpart to the King James Version — the two influenced each other's wording.
- Public domain.
Notes for readers
- This edition contains the 66 books of the Protestant canon for compatibility with the rest of the library; deuterocanonical books traditionally included in Catholic editions are not bundled here.
- Translates the divine name as 'the Lord' (following the Vulgate's 'Dominus').
Compare with
World English Bible (WEB)
The World English Bible is a freely-distributable, modern-English revision of the ASV. It keeps the literal, formal-equivalence approach of its parent translation while replacing archaic 'thee/thou' language with contemporary speech.
King James Version (KJV)
Commissioned by King James I of England in 1604 and published in 1611, the King James Version (also called the Authorized Version) is the most influential English Bible ever produced. Its rhythms shaped English literature for four centuries.
American Standard Version (ASV)
The American Standard Version is the American counterpart to the English Revised Version (1881–1885). It became the most widely-used scholarly translation of the early 20th century and is the parent text of the RSV, NASB, and WEB.
Bible in Basic English (BBE)
The Bible in Basic English uses a deliberately small vocabulary so that readers with limited English — children, English-as-a-second-language students, and the visually impaired who rely on read-aloud — can follow the whole biblical narrative without stumbling over rare words.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
Robert Young's translation is famous for its extreme literalness: Hebrew and Greek verb tenses are mapped onto English continuous and perfect forms even when the result reads strangely. It is a study Bible, not a devotional one — invaluable for tracing what the original languages actually say.
Darby Bible (DBY)
John Nelson Darby — the founder of the Plymouth Brethren and an influential dispensationalist — produced a careful, scholarly translation aimed at serious students who could not read the original languages. His footnotes are unusually detailed for a single-translator project.