The Douay-Rheims is indeed a very precise and beautifully translated Bible. But it is a translation from the Latin texts which, themselves, are translations of the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek manuscripts in which the Scriptures were originally composed.
The New American Bible is a direct translation from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages that the original writers wrote in. It is also an extremely literal, word-for-word translation. This type of Bible translation is called “formal equivalence,” which means it sticks as close to the word choice and word order of the original languages as possible unless the English language syntax demands differently.
The Bible reads slightly different in the original languages than it does in Latin. Not too much, to be sure, but in some instances the differences can give rise to richer insight into the original culture and way of speaking. Both the Old Testament and the New are products of the Jewish world, and Latin doesn’t always capture the original Hebrew and Aramic as well as the original texts. The Apostles also chose to compose the New Testament in Greek becuase Greek had been chosen by Jewish scholars as the first language to translate the Bible into. So a Bible from the original languages is always a good choice.
If you ever want to know how literal and precise any translation is, use an interlinear Bible to help you.
Biblehub.com will give you an interlinear reading of any Bible text. Just go to the site, select the verse you want to examine, and after it appears choose “INT” from the top menu. You will then see the original language text with the literal English word below each foreign word. (Just remember that Hebrew reads right to left unlike English and Greek). While the Douay is still a great choice, you will find the NAB is about as literal as you can get. You can also purchase an interlinear Bible too.
