Douay Rheims Burgundy Leather Bible

This edition of the venerable Douay-Rheims Bible is a complete reprinting of the Challoner edition. Features include:

• Burgundy leather flex cover
• Gold-edged pages
• Double ribbon bookmark
• Completely re-typset for clarity
• 11 Color Re-drawn maps of Israel and the Temple
• 32 woodcut prints of biblical scenes
• Family register
• Historical and Chronological index of the Old and New Testaments
• Table of references for Catholic doctrine
• Table of readings for the pre-Vatican II Mass for all Sundays, major feasts and saints' feasts

• The Douay-Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, a version universally used in the Church for over 1500 years, itself meticulously translated from the original Hebrew and Greek by St. Jerome (A.D. 340-420).

• In 1546, the Council of Trent declared the Latin Vulgate Bible as authentic, and declared that “No one (may) dare or presume under any pretext whatsoever to reject it” (4th Session, April 8, 1546).

• In 1943, Pope Pius XII stated that the continuous use of the Vulgate Bible in the Church for many centuries showed that it was “free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals” (Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943), paragraph 21).

• In 1749-1752, Bishop Challoner, knowing that many English Catholics were reading distorted Protestant versions of the Bible such as the King James Version (KJV), made major revisions to the Douay-Rheims version, to improve its readability without diminishing its accuracy.

• The revised Douay-Rheims Bible has been approved by the Church many times over, including the approbation of Cardinal Gibbons for the 1899 edition that Baronius Press is publishing.

• For over 300 years, the Douay Rheims Bible was the only Catholic English translation of Scripture used. It continues to be used officially in Catholic churches today.

• Many anti-Catholics accuse the Church of having hidden Scripture from the faithful by refusing to translate it into the vernacular tongue. The Douay-Rheims was completed in 1609, and is therefore older than the King James Version, the oldest Protestant translation still in use, which was published in 1611. The Rheims New Testament was published nearly thirty years earlier, in 1582.

• Further, the translators of the KJV make specific reference to the Douay version in their translators’ preface. It is commonly acknowledged that, in preparing the KJV, the translators made use of the Rheims New Testament and adopted many of its readings in preference to those of other English editions.

• Since it was translated quite literally and with great reverence for each individual word from the Vulgate, which in turn reflects the structure of the original languages very clearly, the Douay-Rheims Bible can give great insight into the minds of the sacred authors. The notes, written by Bishop Challoner are entirely faithful to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church.