Thanks, Anthony! To answer your question, the Douay-Rheims is a Catholic translation which was made by English Catholics in France during the Reformation. They had to flee England due to the persecutions of the Anglican church and produced an English translation which would be faithful and avoid some of the heretical readings and notes found in Protestant versions. It slightly predated the KJV but was a translation of the Latin Vulgate instead of the Hebrew/Greek. Bishop Challoner made a significant revision to it in the 18th century, updating the language and comparing it to the original languages; this is the version commonly available today. The Challoner Douay was the standard English Bible used by Catholics until the mid-20th century.
I use the Douay, as well as the Knox Translation (made by Monsignor Ronald Knox in the 1950s) because I believe they are the best Catholic translations, most faithful to the texts in accordance with Catholic doctrine. I also prefer their more reverential and sacred language. Protestant versions very often contain translations which diminish the explicitly Catholic sense of passages and they also leave out the Deuterocanonical OT books (in more recent centuries). Some modern Catholic translations, like the RSVCE, are tolerable, but many of them use gender-inclusive language which go beyond the original text or they follow some of the Protestant readings of the versions they were originally based on (for Catholic versions of Protestant originals). The Church permits Catholics to use any official Catholic Bible; the USCCB's readings use the NAB, but I quote the Douay or Knox to give a more faithful alternative. I hope this answers your question. God bless!
Kaleb, you really helped me contemplate this Sunday's reflection. Great work.
Thanks, Jonathon!
Thanks, Anthony! To answer your question, the Douay-Rheims is a Catholic translation which was made by English Catholics in France during the Reformation. They had to flee England due to the persecutions of the Anglican church and produced an English translation which would be faithful and avoid some of the heretical readings and notes found in Protestant versions. It slightly predated the KJV but was a translation of the Latin Vulgate instead of the Hebrew/Greek. Bishop Challoner made a significant revision to it in the 18th century, updating the language and comparing it to the original languages; this is the version commonly available today. The Challoner Douay was the standard English Bible used by Catholics until the mid-20th century.
I use the Douay, as well as the Knox Translation (made by Monsignor Ronald Knox in the 1950s) because I believe they are the best Catholic translations, most faithful to the texts in accordance with Catholic doctrine. I also prefer their more reverential and sacred language. Protestant versions very often contain translations which diminish the explicitly Catholic sense of passages and they also leave out the Deuterocanonical OT books (in more recent centuries). Some modern Catholic translations, like the RSVCE, are tolerable, but many of them use gender-inclusive language which go beyond the original text or they follow some of the Protestant readings of the versions they were originally based on (for Catholic versions of Protestant originals). The Church permits Catholics to use any official Catholic Bible; the USCCB's readings use the NAB, but I quote the Douay or Knox to give a more faithful alternative. I hope this answers your question. God bless!