Thank you for explaining this to me. Where can I get the DRC version?
Anywhere that sells Catholic Bibles.
Search for “Douay-Rheims” on Amazon. All modern “Douay-Rheims” sold are DRCs (Challoner revisions), or are listed as “Douay-Confraternity”, which is the CCD revision of the DRC.
The “Haydock Bible” is the best example of the DRC for two reasons: format (much larger print than most DRCs, which uniformly have very small print), quality (normal high-quality paper, not Bible paper) and an abundance of notes (usually 1/2 to 2/3 of the page, in very small typeface). It would be 3600+ pages if bound in normal Bible size: it comes in a massive 1-volume hardback edition (about $115), and a 2-volume softcover edition (about $15 each in “used - very good” or “like new”), which is still massive, but easier to use. It also comes with some nice traditional supplements, introductions, etc., including a 200-page woodcut-illustrated Bible Dictionary, and a 60-page history of the Bible.
Salesian: if you’re looking mainly to compare and read New Testaments, save yourself some money and
just get the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament. It’s the full RSV-2CE NT with many excellent study notes and 200 pages worth of concordance and doctrinal index (it’s worth it for the concordance if nothing else, which is invaluable for study and comparison: don’t write the notes and score of articles off until you’ve at least seen them, as the articles are invaluable for a beginner [that is, someone who’s not read the entirety of the *New Jerome Commentary or something similar, and also conservative rebuttals thereof] even if you don’t use the notes; they present most positions on dating, authorship, etc. fairly and impartially, and also present most of the different resolutions for seeming problems in the text, such as the dating of the Last Supper, etc.). There’s no reason to get the full text-only edition, as (being text-only) it doesn’t have notes, if you’re reading the OT, and I can’t recommend large parts of any RSV, -2CE or not, OT (especially Psalms, the Patriarchal History, and almost every Prophetic passage elsewhere except for the “litmus test” ones, which were brought in line in order to please conservatives on first sight) in any case, unless it had many notes to correct the poor renderings (as is the case in the Navarre Bible). However, the rendering of Sirach in the RSV-2CE is excellent.
The New Testament is very good, with only a few of the passages (2 Cor 10:2, Acts 14:23) translating “presbyter” as “elder” instead of “priest”. Just, whenever you read “elder” or “overseer”, replace it with “priest” and “bishop” respectively in your mind.
The footnotes in the RSV-2CE, few and far between, always are used to cast doubt or deny traditional doctrines (such as a literal creation, the truth of prophecy, the accuracy of Biblical history, etc.), but are written in a more even tone than the NAB notes. The main difference being that the RSV-2CE has about 25-35 small footnotes total, written in a restrained manner (yet still undeniably biased), and the NAB is filled with blatant, in-your-face heresy to the tune of 50% of each page.
The OT in the OSB is usable in almost all places with other Bibles, except for in dating (the ancients in Genesis live longer in the LXX), and in a few places in Jeremiah and one of the Minor Prophets (and in Job, where the LXX is about 35% shorter, but I believe the MT-version of Job is retained in the OSB, as in the NETS, in italics). The only somewhat-difficult part is that the OSB numbers the verses straight through, not taking in to account the standard numbering of modern versions in OT versification (which omit many verses, so you’ll see skips on the page from verse 14 to verse 17, for example), so, if referencing by chapter and verse, the verse you’re looking for might be three or four in either direction, although almost always three or four earlier than the standard reference given (as it omits the verses omitted in the LXX and modern MT editions, without leaving verse numbers “open”: for example, in the RSV-2CE in Sirach, the verses go: 1:2-4, 6, 8-11… with 5 and 7 footnoted. In the OSB, those same verses are numbered 1:1-9. In the NETS, the verse numbers are given in agreement with modern versions).
The best OT around with the full canon in modern English is probably the ESV (it’s as good as the DRC and KJV in general, and better in some places, and worse in very few). The NETS has major problems in the rendering of the Psalms, stylistically (it puts everything in past tense), and has a dubious rendering of Gen 1:1-3, but, beyond a few concerns, is generally excellent, as the LXX, even when translated poorly, can’t be translated in such a way as to destroy prophecy, as the MT can (due to the nature of Hebrew, all that has to be done is a “conjectural emendation” of niqqud and one can turn “they’ve pierced my hands and feet” to “like lions…”, or mistranslate and say, “the Hebrew/vowel pointing on this line is uncertain/likely corrupt”, etc.).
