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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #8300.
This volume presents the complete Douay‑Rheims Bible as revised by Bishop Richard Challoner in the mid‑eighteenth century. The opening pages explain the work’s origins: English exiles founded the College of Douay in 1568, and Gregory Martin produced the first modern‑English Catholic translation, published in Rheims (1582) and Douay (1609‑10). Challoner’s later overhaul modernized archaic spellings and phrasing while preserving Martin’s fidelity to the Latin Vulgate, and his notes accompany the text throughout. The book then proceeds in the traditional order of Scripture, beginning with Genesis, whose creation narrative is rendered in a formal, literal style that often retains Latin terms and Vulgate‑based numbering of the Psalms.
The language reflects an eighteenth‑century Catholic scholarly voice, marked by solemn diction, occasional Anglicised Latin glosses, and extensive marginal commentary. Readers who appreciate historic Bible translations, liturgical scholars, or anyone interested in the development of English Catholic scripture will find its measured cadence and detailed notes rewarding, even though it is less suited to casual devotional reading.
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This e-text comes from multiple editions of Challoner's revised Douay- Rheims Version of the Holy Bible. In 1568 English exiles, many from Oxford, established the English College of Douay (Douai/Doway), Flanders, under William (later Cardinal) Allen. In October, 1578, Gregory Martin began the work of preparing an English translation of the Bible for Catholic readers, the first such translation into Modern English. Assisting were William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas Worthington, and William Reynolds who revised, criticized, and corrected Dr. Martin's work. The college published the New Testament at Rheims (Reims/Rhemes), France, in 1582 through John Fogny with a preface and explanatory notes, authored chiefly by Bristol, Allen, and Worthington. Later the Old Testament was published at Douay in two parts (1609 and 1610) by Laurence Kellam through the efforts of Dr. Worthington, then superior of the seminary. The translation had been prepared before the appearance of the New Testament, but the publication was delayed due to financial difficulties. The religious and scholarly adherence to the Latin Vulgate text led to the less elegant and idiomatic words and phrases often found in the translation. In some instances where no English word conveyed the full meaning of the Latin, a Latin word was Anglicized and its meaning defined in a glossary. Although ridiculed by critics, many of these words later found common usage in the English language. Spellings of proper names and the numbering of the Psalms are adopted from the Latin Vulgate.
In 1749 Dr. Richard Challoner began a major revision of the Douay and Rheims texts, the spellings and phrasing of which had become increasingly archaic in the almost two centuries since the translations were first produced. He modernized the diction and introduced a more fluid style, while faithfully maintaining the accuracy of Dr. Martin's texts. This revision became the 'de facto' standard text for English speaking Catholics until the twentieth century. It is still highly regarded by many for its style, although it is now rarely used for liturgical purposes. The notes included in this electronic edition are generally attributed to Bishop Challoner.
This book is so called from its treating of the GENERATION, that is, of the creation and the beginning of the world. The Hebrews call it BERESITH, from the Word with which it begins. It contains not only the history of the Creation of the world; but also an account of its progress during the space of 2369 years, that is, until the death of JOSEPH.
1:2. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
1:3. And God said: Be light made. And light was made.
1:4. And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness.
1:5. And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day.
1:6. And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters.
A firmament... By this name is here understood the whole space between the earth, and the highest stars. The lower part of which divideth the waters that are upon the earth, from those that are above in the clouds.
1:7. And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so.
1:8. And God called the firmament, Heaven; and the evening and morning were the second day.
1:9. God also said; Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done.
1:10. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
1:11. And he said: let the earth bring forth green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done.
1:12. And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
1:13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
1:14. And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:
1:15. To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth, and it was so done.
1:16. And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars.
Two great lights... God created on the first day, light, which being moved from east to west, by its rising and setting, made morning and evening. But on the fourth day he ordered and distributed this light, and made the sun, moon, and stars. The moon, though much less than the stars, is here called a great light, from its giving a far greater light to the earth than any of them.
1:17. And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth.
1:18. And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
1:19. And the evening and morning were the fourth day.
1:20. God also said: let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven.
1:21. And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
1:22. And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth.
1:23. And the evening and morning were the fifth day.
1:24. And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done.
1:25. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
1:26. And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.
Let us make man to our image... This image of God in man, is not in the body, but in the soul; which is a spiritual substance, endued with understanding and free will. God speaketh here in the plural number, to insinuate the plurality of persons in the Deity.
1:27. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
1:28. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.
Increase and multiply... This is not a precept, as some Protestant controvertists would have it, but a blessing, rendering them fruitful; for God had said the same words to the fishes, and birds, (ver. 22) who were incapable of receiving a precept.
1:29. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:
1:30. And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done.
1:31. And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.
God resteth on the seventh day and blesseth it. The earthly paradise, in which God placeth man. He commandeth him not to eat of the tree of knowledge. And formeth a woman of his rib.
2:1. So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them.
2:2. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
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