The Douay/Rheims Version, the NADR Version & Features of the ECSB!
The Douay/Rheims Version:
March 28, 2009
The Douay-Rheims Bible is a scrupulously faithful translation into English of the Latin “Vulgate Bible,” which Saint Jerome (AD 342-420) translated into Latin from the original languages.
Saint Jerome was 1500 years closer to the original languages than any scholar today and knew Latin and Greek far better than any scholar today. Besides being a linguistic genius, had access to ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the 2nd and 3rd centuries (AD 200 – 400) which are no longer available to scholars today. As a careful word-for-word rendering of the original texts into Latin the Douay-Rheims becomes a most reliable Biblical standard by which the fanciful modern views of the Biblical text and re-interpretations of Scripture (1) can be judged.
The Latin Vulgate Holy Bible has been declared by the Council of Trent to be the official Latin version of the original and has now been read and honored by the Western Church for fifteen-hundred years. The Sacred Council decreed: “no one dare or presume under any pretext whatsoever to reject it." (Fourth Session, April 8, 1546). This means the Vulgate is “free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals” as Pope Pius XII stated in his 1943 encyclical letter Divino Afflante Spiritu.
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(1)The Douay-Rheims, because of its very ancient base, challenges the views of modern scholars which have accepted the notion that the reductionist texts (Vaticanus and Sinaticus) are the better texts, and thus reveals that all the modern versions of the Bible are deficient. These deficient versions include all the modern Protestant versions (except the NKJV), along with the Catholic NAB and Jerusalem Bible.
The Douay-Rheims is also free of the other serious translation errors found in the KJV, the older Protestant translation of the Bible still in use today, the NKJV, and the serious translation errors in the Catholic NAB.
The New Amplified Douay/Rheims Version in current English:
The New Amplified Douay-Rheims was the result of a desire to produce the most theologically and textually reliable Catholic translation, a reading that not only preserved its theological integrity but which could also be understood by readers today. This required the use of current terminology for archaic words no longer familiar to today’s reader. It required changes in awkward sentence structures which have proven an obstacle to readers. To make the work suitable to use with current research tools, all significant proper names of persons and places were given the current spellings. The old English pronouns (Thee and Thou) in reference to God, however, have been retained wherever possible as well as the “Thus saith the Lord’s.” All pronouns referring to deity were capitalized.
Because recent significant new evidence has supported the view that the texts used by Jerome for his Latin Bible represented the best texts, because the additions made in them were made by the original authors themselves, it became clear that it was the Douay-Rheims, all along, that needed revision rather than the creation of a new Bible. All the modern translators, unfortunately, misled by the later reductionist texts (the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus), have lost these most extraordinary Apostolic insights because they all used the new Bible, re-constructed by modern scholars.
In addition to the improvements made in the text itself, other important features of this work include clarifications and amplifications placed within the text and set off in brackets. This was done to help the reader gain the full meaning of the text, which is often only implied but not explicitly expressed by the translation. To find this material in the text rather than in footnotes will be a great help to the reader. Further, footnotes and text boxes are placed at the end of the paragraphs for easier and quicker access by the reader, rather than at the bottom of the page. Finally, every attempt was to convey to the reader the important continuity of the Scriptures and its many incredible interrelationships. Not only are the Biblical events and books strictly dated according to Biblical data, but the Old Testament books of history are placed in their proper sequence. They are also fully cross-referenced to the books of sacred poetry and literature and the prophets – which are also placed in chronological order. Likewise, the sacred literature and the prophets are all fully keyed back into the historical books. Our attempt was to reveal to the reader the full picture the whole grand scheme of sacred history and revelation with all its fascinating interrelationships – the forest, if you will, of sacred history, which has all too often been missed, for the trees! We pray for the glory of God and for the restoration of the faith of God’s people, that we have achieved a measure of our goals. |
