The New Testament of the Douay-Rheims Bible …

Years: 1610 - 1610

The New Testament of the Douay-Rheims Bible (also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D-R), the translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English undertaken by members of the English College, Douai, had been published in Reims (France) in 1582, in one volume with extensive commentary and notes.

The Old Testament, which is published by the university of Douai, follows nearly thirty years later in two volumes; the first volume (Genesis to Job) in 1609, the second (Psalms to 2 Machabees plus the apocrypha of the Clementine Vulgate) in 1610.

Marginal notes take up the bulk of the volumes and have a strong polemical and patristic character.

They also offer insights on issues of translation, and on the Hebrew and Greek source texts of the Vulgate.

The purpose of the version, both the text and notes, is to uphold Catholic tradition in the face of the Protestant Reformation which up until the late sixteenth century had overwhelmingly dominated Elizabethan religion and academic debate.

As such it is an impressive effort by English Catholics to support the Counter-Reformation.

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