I know this post is a few months old but I noticed a reference in this string about the “Haydock Bible Commentary”. Is this approved by the church? If not, what is out there, approved by the church, that would help to translate the “Douay-Rheims” Bible?
The
Haydock Commentary is a fruit of the labors of
Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774-1849), scion of one of the oldest English Recusant families (he was, in fact, born in Cottam at Lancashire, the heart of Catholic resistance to the Penal Laws). Fr. Haydock took his text from the Challoner-MacMahon revision of the DR, but added a substantially extended commentary. This commentary was partly original and partly compiled from Patristic writings and the writings of Bible scholars in his day - one of whom was
Dom Antoine Augustin Calmet OSB, who authored the ground-breaking
Commentaire littéral sur tous les livres de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament (“Literal Commentary on All the Books of the Old and New Testament”). I say
ground-breaking because his work was the very first Biblical commentary to devote itself solely on the literal meaning of the passage, as opposed to the allegorical or moral meaning, which made it a hit among both Catholic and Protestant audiences.
Protestants in Haydock’s day often used the Bible as a weapon against Catholics (and some people still do today!); Fr. Haydock helped Catholics to launch a counteroffensive against it.
George’s brother,
Thomas, was the Bible’s publisher. Production began in 1811 and was completed in 1814, in a large, folio edition. As were many editions of the Bible at the time, Haydock’s was published and sold by subscription, a few leaves at a time. Subscribers would accumulate the sets of leaves over the years and ultimately have the completed Bible bound. Different copies have general title pages dated 1811, 1812, or 1813, showing variously Thomas Haydock’s Manchester or Dublin locations. Given the enormous scope of annotating the entire Bible, Father Haydock was unable to maintain his brother’s demanding production schedule in addition to his pastoral duties at Ugthorpe. Therefore, another Douay alumnus, Fr. Benedict Rayment (1764-1842), was called on for assistance. He and a group of colleagues compiled the New Testament portion of the commentary.
There was contemporary criticism that haste in preparation of the commentary resulted in some errors. However, given the spartan resources available for Catholic publishing in England at the time, the Haydock Bible must be considered a remarkable achievement. English Catholics enthusiastically welcomed this impressive volume that symbolized a reinvigorated Catholicism on the verge of winning its long fight to repeal the Penal Laws. At least 1,500 copies of the first edition were sold.
Still, despite successful sales, this expensively produced edition was a financial loss to Fr. George’s brother Thomas, whose enthusiasm for publishing Catholic books far exceeded his business acumen, and to Fr. George, who personally subsidized the project. Despite this, an undismayed Thomas took on several partners and managed to produce an octavo edition in 1822-1824. The very first American edition was published in 1823-1825 by Irish immigrant Eugene Cummiskey of Philadelphia; it remains, to this day, the only folio Catholic Bible ever published in America.
In 1874-1878, two converts from the Oxford Movement, Frs. Frederick Oakeley (1802-1880) and Thomas Law (1836-1904) thoroughly revised the commentary to incorporate advances in Biblical scholarship since Haydock’s time in Virtue and Company Limited’s edition of the Haydock Bible. Beginning with this edition, title pages to the New Testament sections incorrectly credit Father Haydock with the New Testament commentary. Since the names of Father Rayment and his associates were never mentioned, even in the earliest editions, their contribution was forgotten over the years.
As an aside, as a news for everyone here: the Haydock Commentary would reach its bicentennial in 2011! I guess that would be a good time to celebrate the achievements of Frs. Haydock and Rayment, Thomas Haydock, and all those who contributed to the Haydock Bible and Commentary, helping and spiritually nourishing generations of English-speaking Catholics by their works, would it not?
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