The Douay-Rheims Bible and Conversion

I am happy to present Jonny's conversion story into the Catholic Church and the role the Douay-Rheims Bible played in it. Jonny is a frequent commentator on this blog, as well as a regular guest blogger.

I wanted to share my story about the Catholic Holy Bible and my conversion. I was raised an evangelical Protestant Christian and mostly read the New International Version. My family bounced around to various denominations through the years, but two things remained fairly consistent: the NIV Bible, and the one-time salvation prayer. I admit, I did hear sermons regarding repentance and recommitment to varying degrees depending on the denomination, but there were never clear distinctions to me regarding morality, and if I was actually “saved” or holy enough to “go to Heaven if I died today” as I was frequently reminded. My overall impression ended up being that those who were supposedly most zealous about my salvation were very self-righteous and judgmental. I know this is a stereotype, but it was my feeling at the time, and I had no solid doctrinal foundation to check myself against.

Years had gone by, and I was out of church for some time and on my own. I was seeking a deeper truth, and I found that when I re-read the Holy Bible. The words of Christ were simply so profound to me. I was reading them without pre-conceived notions like “A-B-C” salvation, a second baptism only evidenced by “tongues,” tithe-conditional holiness, and others! But yet as I read the Scriptures, I desired to worship God in the Church with other believers. This led me on my spiritual journey that in retrospect went back in time to the roots of the Protestant Reformation. I will spare all the details here, but I will mention that along the way I was involved in a pacifist/feminist church that denied the inspiration of certain Scriptures and also left me with a great distaste for gender-inclusive Bible translations for a long time. But ultimately I ended up in the grandfather denomination of the Protestant Reformation: The Lutheran Church. I really liked the conservative doctrines of the Missouri Synod, and especially the beautiful ritual of the divine service, and the absence of the ridiculous and complex “left behind” rapture/millennium doctrines. I ended up being such a big Luther fan that when I saw a picture of him holding his precious copy of the Psalms in Latin, I just had to have an English translation of the Psalms in Latin! This brings me to the point of my story.

I don’t know if I would ever have even heard of the Douay-Rheims Bible if I did not have a Catholic grandfather who died before I was born. I saw the copy of the Douay-Confraternity Bible at my grandmother’s house when I was a child, which was given to her at my grandfather’s funeral. Remembering this, I looked up the nearest Catholic bookstore and forthwith drove 45 minutes to get there that day after work on the assumption that I would find a copy waiting for me. There was actually a copy there (but only one), and despite a nearly 70 dollar price sticker I happily purchased the book after just glancing through it in the few minutes before the store closed.

My Douay-Rheims Bible soon became dearly treasured amongst my collection. Not only did it have the majestic language of my King James Version that I had grown accustomed to in the past few years, I also found there were less archaisms therein (as being a revision from the 1750’s compared to the pre-1600’s language of the KJV.) I approached the D-R with a greater reverence due to its ancient connections to the Latin translations of the earliest centuries of Christianity. I felt that it had, therefore, a unique devotional quality, and also as a literal translation, one that demanded to be read slowly and reverently. But even beyond these things, the D-R had an extra super-power that really helped to change my life!

Part of what I am referring to here is the genius of the Christ’s Church expressed in the translation itself. I found that very common Biblical words such as “repent” and “righteousness” were instead translated as “do penance” and “justice.” My very first reading of the D-R brought me closer to the mind of Christ and the teaching of the Church! When I began to second guess my convictions, I turned to the major objector verses in Romans. I was pleasantly shocked to find in the footnotes the Church’s teachings about justification and what it really means to believe in Christ, and many references where Jesus himself explicitly explains over, and over, and over, that we are not justified by faith alone! Then I found other Biblical references in the notes about Mary’s perpetual virginity, and the fact that Jesus did not have any biological brothers and sisters is not disproved by scripture as I was formerly led to believe. All of my inhibitions against the Catholic Church and even my very self was crumbling underneath the rock of apostolic truth revealed by Christ, as the Scripture saith, “upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” (Luke 20.18.)

I know that many Catholics have heard the arguments pro and con the Douay-Rheims, although I believe it is frivolous to argue about translations of texts whose original autographs do not exist, and even the original understanding of the languages may have changed since they were written. Nor do I fault the D-R for being first translated from Latin (for in doing so I would also condemn our current Catechism which was first written in French before being translated into Latin, then into other languages.) I can argue, however, for the beauty of the Douay-Rheims Bible, and the effectiveness of its light but powerful annotations in blasting through the foundations of Sola Fide based theologies, which are as relevant and important today as the day they were written. I thank God for one, authoritative, interpretation of Scripture through the Church, and the Douay-Rheims Bible that helped me break the bondage of doctrines that only led me to many grey areas of uncertainty.

Bible Study Series: Philippians 1:1-11

I will typically include only one translation of the given passage for each study, but in this case, to show some of the main differences that are found in this letter, I am going to show both the NABRE and RSV-CE for this instance.

Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the holy ones in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the overseers and ministers: 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving.3 I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, 4 praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, 5 because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right that I should think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, you who are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, 10 to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God (NABRE).

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philip'pi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel thus about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (RSV-CE).

As with many of his letters, minus Galatians, Paul begins Philippians with a greeting and prayer of thanksgiving.

Let's take a look at a few of the verses:

**Philippians 1:1-2:
We see here a standard opening of Paul, though with a few twists. First off, my namesake, Timothy, is mentioned at the beginning, although it is clear that Paul is the primary writer of this letter with his use of "I" throughout. Timothy joined Paul, after Paul's parting-of-ways with Barnabas, just before the mission to Philippi. You can read about this at the beginning of Acts 16.

Of note, verse one proves to be interesting because it shows four significant differences between the NABRE and RSV. In the beginning of verse one, the NABRE goes with "slaves" instead of the RSV's "servants", while in the second half of that verse the NABRE goes with "holy ones", "overseers" and "ministers", instead of the RSV's "saints", "bishops", and "deacons". In the first case, concerning the Greek word doulos, I actually prefer the NABRE's decision to go with "slave". As the NABRE note in Romans 1:1 points out: "Paul applies the term slave to himself in order to express his undivided allegiance to the Lord of the church, the Master of all, including slaves and masters. "No one can serve (i.e., be a slave to) two masters," said Jesus (Mt. 6:24). It is this aspect of the slave-master relationship rather than its degrading implications that Paul emphasises when he discusses Christian commitment." However, I can certainly understand, nowadays, why some translators go with 'servant".

The second half of the verse I tend to prefer the all of RSV's rendering. The Greek term hagios can be either options, and I certainly understand the translators of the NABRE not wanting to confuse readers in regards to canonized saints, but historically it has always been rendered as "saints". Also, are we not called to strive for sainthood while here on earth? I think a footnote would have been sufficient to explain this.

As for the final two differences in verse one, the key is how one translates episkopos and diakonoi. The RSV is consistant, particularly with episkopos in translating it as "bishops". While in this one instance, the NABRE decided to go with "overseers" because, as the NABRE note says:

"Overseers: the Greek term episkopos literally means “one who oversees” or “one who supervises,” but since the second century it has come to designate the “bishop,” the official who heads a local church. In New Testament times this office had not yet developed into the form that it later assumed, though it seems to be well on the way to such development in the Pastorals; see 1 Tm 3:2 and Ti 1:7, where it is translated bishop. At Philippi, however (and at Ephesus, according to Acts 20:28), there was more than one episkopos, and the precise function of these officials is uncertain. In order to distinguish this office from the later stages into which it developed, the term is here translated as overseers.

While it seems likely that the development of the office of bishop was still in its infancy, a point that is made in both the Navarre and ICSBNT as well, is it not better to be consistent in translating it as either "bishops" or "overseers" throughout? In any case, we do see that, even before the writing of the Pastoral Letters, the local churches have some kind of hierarchical structure (Navarre 499). The same thing goes for the office of deacon, although there are some more complicated issues regarding diakonoi which may be a bit too much to get into at this point.

Finally, Paul concludes, in verse 2, with "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." We see here, not only a pretty standard Pauline greeting, but more importantly an important Christological statement. Grace and peace do not come simply from the Father, but also the Lord Jesus Christ, second Person of the Blessed Trinity. This will make more sense, once we look at the great Christ-hymn of 2:6-11.

**Philippians 1:3-11:
In my introduction to this series, I mentioned that of all Paul's letters, this one probably shows the most joy and affection. As the Navarre Compact New Testament confirms, these opening verses show "more vividly than any other, St. Paul's affection and appreciation for the Christians of those communities he founded (Navarre 499)." In many ways, this could be described as an epistle of joy. In verses 3-11 we find that Paul is joyful, thankful, holding in his heart, and yearning with affection for the Philippian church. (Could this be the anti-Galatians epistle?) It should be remembered that Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned, so you can imagine how uplifting it would be for him to be able to communicate with this thriving, yet young, Philippian church which he founded in Christ Jesus.

Yet, even with this sense of joy, there is an underlying sense of urgency, particularly when Paul mentions "the Day of Jesus Christ" in verses 6 and 10. While Paul recognizes the sanctity of the Philippian church, he also knows that they need to continue to grow spiritually. This is most clear in verses 9-10: "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ." Here, and in verse 6, Paul reminds them to cooperate with the graces that God is giving them, so that they will attain salvation. Here, we see echoes of what Paul will later say in 2:12-13, where he urges the Philippians to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Next time, we will look at chapter 1, verses 12-26.

Bible Study Series Contest Winner

Congrats to Mary Cardwell who was the randomly selected winner. Please send your address to my email, mccorm45 (at) yahoo (dot) com, and your prize will be sent out early this week. Congrats again and stay tuned since there will be one more contest very soon.

Mondays with Verbum Domini

Dialogue between Christians and Muslims

Among the various religions the Church also looks with respect to Muslims, who adore the one God. They look to Abraham and worship God above all through prayer, almsgiving and fasting. We acknowledge that the Islamic tradition includes countless biblical figures, symbols and themes. Taking up the efforts begun by the Venerable John Paul II, I express my hope that the trust-filled relationships established between Christians and Muslims over the years will continue to develop in a spirit of sincere and respectful dialogue. In this dialogue the Synod asked for a deeper reflection on respect for life as a fundamental value, the inalienable rights of men and women, and their equal dignity. Taking into account the important distinction to be made between the socio-political order and the religious order, the various religions must make their specific contribution to the common good. The Synod asked Conferences of Bishops, wherever it is appropriate and helpful, to encourage meetings aimed at helping Christians and Muslims to come to better knowledge of one another, in order to promote the values which society needs for a peaceful and positive coexistence.-Verbum Domini 118

Article on Jewish Annotated New Testament

In this coming week's edition of the Catholic paper Our Sunday Visitor there is an interesting article, by Carl Olson, dealing with the recently published The Jewish Annotated New Testament from Oxford University Press. The article includes an interview with one of the volume's editors, Amy-Jill Levine. I own Oxford's Jewish Study Bible, which has provided some wonderful insights for my class on Thursday nights. Perhaps this new volume might need to be included in my library as well. The translation used for The Jewish Annotated New Testament is the NRSV.

Below is a snippet from the article that I found interesting:

“The Jewish Annotated New Testament” reflects the co-editors’ desire, first, to encourage Jews to open the New Testament and read it without fear or prejudice, especially when it comes to passages that might seem anti-Jewish.

“We felt that Jewish readers might be more comfortable reading the New Testament if it dealt explicitly with such issues,” the co-editors told OSV, “and if the annotations and essays were written entirely by Jews, so it was clear that the volume was not intending to proselytize.”

A second audience is Christian readers who wish to learn more about the first-century Jewish context in which Jesus lived and the Gospels and other New Testament books that were written. Some specific examples: “how Jesus’ Jewish audience would have understood the parables; how Jesus’ interpretation of Torah and his ethical teachings fit within first-century Judaism; how proclamations of Jesus’ divinity could be accepted by early Jews, and how understandings of the ‘messiah’ change over time.” To this end, the volume often highlights the common roots shared by Jews and Christians, but without glossing over or ignoring the significant differences between Jewish and Christian beliefs.

The third group consists of secular readers who “want to understand the New Testament in its historical context.”

You can read the whole article here.

Bible Study Series Contest

With the beginning of the Bible Study Series on Philippians, I am excited to offer a contest to coincide with it. The winner of this contest will receive a new paperback edition of the ICSB: The Letters of St. Paul to the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. All you need to do to enter is simply to put your name in the comment section of this post. No anonymous entries will be considered. The winner will be randomly drawn at the end of the contest, which will be Sunday, February 26th at 11:59PM. This contest is open to anyone in North America. (Sorry again to my loyal readers in the rest of the world.) Also, if you have a blog and would like to advertise this contest, it would be much appreciated. I will announce the winner on Monday.

Bible Study Series: Philippians Intro

Philippians is a favorite letter for many Bible readers, due to its mostly positive tone. One can really sense the affection that Paul has for the Philippian church, which he founded sometime around 50 AD. The founding of the church at Philippi is recorded in Acts 16, which should be consulted before engaging this letter. Philippians is also unique in the fact that it doesn't seem to be addressing any problems concerning doctrine or behavior. Rather, Paul seems to be encouraging these young Christians to remain faithful, while remaining joyful in imitating the Lord. There are a few other issues concerning themes and characteristics that will come up while examining each section, such as the unity of the letter.

Philippi was a a city in north east Greece in the province of Macedonia. Named after Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, this former Greek city had become a Roman colony during the reign of Augustus. This made Philippi unique, in that it had a large population of Roman veterans who resided there and had received full citizen rights due to their years of service. It also seems that there was only a small population of Jews there. Of note historically, Philippi was the site of a major battle during the Roman civil war between Mark Antony and Octavian (Augustus) and Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC.

Paul is the author of this letter, along with his spiritual son Timothy. It was written during a time of Paul's imprisonment (1:7), but a precise date is difficult to attain since he was imprisoned at various points during his apostolic work. If the "praetorian guard" mentioned in 1:13 and "Caesar's household" in 4:22 mean that he is under arrest in Rome, a date somewhere around 62 AD is possible. However, other scholars think the letter was written earlier, perhaps in the middle or late 50's, while Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea or Ephesus.

Finally, we will break Philippians into six manageable sections:

I: Opening Address (1:1-11)
II: Progress of the Gospel (1:12-26)
III: Exhortation to the faithful (1:27-2:18)
IV: Travel Plans (2:19-30)
V: The Way of Salvation (3:1-21)
VI: Final Instructions and Conclusion (4:1-23)