Ok, so I am a Catholic teen (The 94 in my name shows it:D). Now as the traditionalist that I am, I am for the Douay Rheims bible. But the problem is that it’s my mom’s bible, and I barely have access to it. SO I went through my chores and found among the mess a Gideon’s Bible which I think belonged to my late Godmother. I read on wikipedia that ‘‘Gideons International (also known as Gideon’s Bible) is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible’’.
I’m just trying to know, Is this bible church approved’? Can I read it?
Of course you can read it. It is not a Catholic Bible but, it is a new testament. Many Catholics over the years read the KJV.
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its not bad to read it, but it also may be a bad translation. your best bet would be to save up the around $35 to buy the Douay-Rheims
Surely there’s some cheaper than $35 second-hand online if it’s an old translation? That’s probably worth a try.
I bought a second-hand NIV on Amazon for next to nothing, and my Jerusalem Bible was probably only the equivalent of $20-$25 from my local British bookshop.
At your age, I would save the money to purchase a Catholic Bible. Catholic Bibles have an Imprimatur and/or Nihil Obstat on the copyright page.
This means that the Bible and any footnotes are free from Catholic doctrinal error.
I don’t think so because I don’t think it has been approved by the church. It’s better to read the official bible approved by the church because there could be something in the others that is from the devil
I just bought a used copy of the New Catholic Answers Bible at half-price books for 7 dollars. So there are alternatives. I bet if you asked your priest he would be able to give you a Bible free. But, again I find no reason that you could not use the NT you have. Cardinal Newman (up for sainthood) was a Anglican convert. He read the KJV as well as Catholic versions.
The translation is probably okay, but I expect it has notes and guidance which will definitely not reflect the Catholic teaching.
The religious education department of your parish probably buys Catholic Bibles at wholesale prices. I expect they will give you a good price on one.
I’m always amused, and a little bit amazed as well, when I read a thread like this. It is clear that most who are posting know very little about bible translations. I have read the New Testament in the NAB, the RSVCE and DR, as well as the KJV, the NASB, the NIV and the HCSB. The differences in the Catholic bibles is as great as the differences between Catholic and Protestant bibles. In fact, the DR is closer to the KJV than it is to any other bible. The NAB is virtually identical to the NIV (both of them somewhat weak). So folks, if we’re talking the New Testament, it really doesn’t matter.
All Gideon bibles are KJV, and no Gideon bible has any footnotes so you should feel comfortable reading it.
As for the Old Testament, I would say the same thing except the Catholic bibles have 7 additional books not found in the Protestant versions,* i.e*., Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabes and 2 Maccabes. They also have a few extra chapters at the end of Esther and Daniel. These books are interesting reading and I have no problem with any of them but they present very little of doctrinal significance, the only exception being prayers for the dead presented in 2 Maccabes.
Actually, not – they also distribute the NKJV in the United States. I’ve seen the NKJV in hotels, and I’ve certainly received it when they pass it out.
There is a brief Wikipedia article here.
For the Original Poster – does your mom know you want your own Bible? A paperback Douay-Rheims is available for less than $20 at Amazon – here are two not-too-expensive hardcovers: (one two).
Another option – for $14 get a parallel Catholic NT with eight translations including the Rheims.
I’m a recent convert and I read only the New King James Bible as a Protestant. Which gradually lead me to consider becoming Catholic since I heard sermon’s from the pulpit of my Pentecostal Church to the effect the Catholics didn’t understand the bible since they believed in baptismal regeneration with baptising incorporating us into the body of Christ and forgiving our sins which they said wasn’t true, they said Catholics believed in recieving the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, and that Catholics believed in the Real Presence in the Eucharist which they called simply Communioun. All of which I began to believe on my own by reading Protestant Bible’s like the KJV, NKJV, and NIV. Also the Protestant Church taught pre-tribulation rapture of the Church which I could never find in the Bible and never accepted and later found that the Catholic Church didn’t teach either. So I became Catholic by reading Protestant Bible’s. Of the books that are shared by Catholics and Protestants they are almost identical I’ve read and compared the text’s of both there are minor variations that would favor an Evangelical perspective on some Scriptures but these are subtle and few. It would be nice for you to eventually get a Catholic Bible to have the complete Bible with the deutorocanonicals included. I thought I had read the entire Bible until I joined my RCIA class and realized I had a few more books to go which I recently finished Sirach the last one I had left. Anyway if all you have access to is a Gideon’s read it until you can afford a Catholic Bible I have an NAB and a RSV 2nd Catholic Edition from Ignatius Press and I prefer the RSV, and further I’ve seen many people say that Gideon’s only distributes King James Versions but I have two Gideon’s Bibles and they are both New King James Versions which uses a lot more modern English than a traditional King James Version; the difference between the two is like the difference between Douay-Rheims and the RSV 2nd Catholic Edition by Ignatius Press. Hope this is a help.
Gideons still distrubute the KJV in America? In Britain now it’s the NIV (my Dad’s was KJV). They give NIV New Testaments to secondary school children, and the stuff in there about praying and reading the NT doesn’t seem to have a noticeable Protestant/evangelical tilt unless I’m missing something.
I would like to thank the person who started this thread.
We have a few DR, JR, a 1950 thick Family Bible approved by Samuel Cardinal Stritch of Chicago which I am presently reading. Recently obtained a 1970 HC New American Bible with a picture of Pope John Paul II on its cover, and a few very old French Bibles. I was always wondering about the KJV. Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut. 
As a disable person, I am making use of time researching our Catholic Religion, lately reading the Bible has become a passion.
God Bless
Here is a website that can download free for the Catholic RSV Bible. an it has several different ways to search.
And heres one for the DR
There is always a risk associated with reading non-Catholic Bibles because only the Catholic Bible has all 73 books and has THEE truth. A young person like yourself ough to began by learning what we believe and why; before looking elsewhere.
Love and prayers,
Pat
Pat –
The link you give is to the 1977 edition of the RSV, which is different in thousands of ways from the RSV-CE. Most of the differences are minor and even improvements – it is a later edition, and incorporates many (but not all) of the changes from the RSV-CE, but it is not the edition that received the imprimatur (and includes books not in the Catholic canon).
It also lacks the footnotes of either the RSV-CE or the RSV-1977, which is a more serious problem, since they give absolutely essential information about alternate readings.
Amen. 
Yeah…the Gideon’s International is just a Christian Organization it is not a certain translation they actually use the KJV and New KJV for most of the bibles they produce.
As others have observed, Gideons is an organisation, not a translator.
If it was your grandmother’s Bible, then it’s probably a King James Version.
The following response from Ask An Apologist was to a question about reading the KJV.
Since you recognize the limitations of the King James, and you read the Catholic bible, I don’t see why you can’t continue to use your King James Version of the Bible. Please read Jimmy Akin’s article Choosing a Bible Translation.
Of course, be wary of any study notes.
The article by Jimmy Akin referenced above includes this…
An anecdote about Billy Graham contains perhaps the best advice about Bible versions. According to the story (which may be apocryphal), Billy Graham was once asked which Bible version is the best. “The one you read,” he replied.
I keep a Gideons bible in the car, because it is compact, and because it’s better there than being unread.
I suffer from excess cheapness, so am always looking for a bargain, which in my case means free or nearly free. A number of bible study programs include the Douay-Rheims. For more modern translations, it is good to check out places like used book sellers, or Goodwill, to see if they have any Catholic Bibles. We have a discount house in our area called Ollie’s, which buys overstocks and remainders. The last time I was in there, I saw four different Catholic Bibles offered, including study Bibles. The cheapest was around $8. You might also check out your parish library to see if there are any multiple copies. You can offer to buy one, and you might even be given one.
The Gideon’s Bibles that you see in most hotels are very nicely made King James Versions (with the occasional NKJV). Other than not having the deuteros, the KJV is a great Bible version, that was made with tremendouns care and devotion. Many Catholics enjoy the KJV. The Douay-Rheims is similar. Most of the differences are to the favor of the KJV (as just one example, the DR has the awkward, “The Lord ruleth me” instead of the KJV’s classic, “The Lord is my shepherd”). Of course, the DR has “full of grace” in Luke 1:28, and the importance of this cannot be understated. Nonetheless, most bibles say “favored” or “highly favored,” so the KJV is not exactly on thin ice there. The KJV is a great, albeit often awkward/archaic, translation.