Why Are There So Few Douay-Rheims Editions?

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GloriaDei

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I love the Douay-Rheims, and have bought one Baronius Press Personal Size Edition and the St. Benedict Press Confirmation Edition Bible (Which is practically identical to the Leather, LeatherSoft, and Paperback plus a few inserts).

When I received the St. Benedict Press Edition (it’s hardback), genuinely, it’s almost like what you’d expect from a pew Bible, except with Gold gilded page edges, pretty design, and aforesaid inserts. Why are there no ‘Pew Bible’ type editions sold for cheap? (like $10-$20 range) The NRSV, NAB, RSV, KJV, and practically any other version available has a cheap hardback-edition available. Plus, if this is the ‘KJV’ of Catholicism (the historical version accepted for centuries among English-speaking Catholics), why is it so unavailable, as if it’s of no importance? It is one of a few literal English Bibles from the Latin Vulgate, is that of no value anymore?
 
That’s true, assuming you have internet at all times, but I have no smartphone or tablet :confused:
 
GloriaDei said:
Plus, if this is the ‘KJV’ of Catholicism (the historical version accepted for centuries among English-speaking Catholics), why is it so unavailable, as if it’s of no importance?
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Because, sadly, for a lot of our history, lay Catholics didn’t read the Bible to the extent our Protestant brothers and sisters did. You can find Tridentine hand missals with the same amount of wear as Grandma Suzy’s KJV, but most vintage Catholic bibles are in pretty good shape, which is simultaneously a bad thing and a good thing (if you’re into book collection like me)
 
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I mean, is there any way to tell if people in the Church now read the Bible more than they used to?
 
It was certainly promoted by V2.

I don’t know if there are statistics…
 
I have the St. Benedict Press leather version, but my favorite is the Douay-Rheims Haydock Bible. IMO, that’s the top of the line for English Bibles.
 
Publishers will publish what they think will sell. Given both the age of the translation and the number of competing translations, publishers will only provide what they see as reasonable market share.

In short, there is not that much demand for this translation; that does not of necessity indicate either how good it is, or how well it competes with others. It is simply a sign of market share.

And having taken Latin and Greek, the term “literal” is less than absolute.
 
Because the Douay-Rheims, historic as it is, is not that valuable. It did not contribute significantly to the literary development of the English language as the King James did, it does not have the same literary quality (I consider it Latin masquerading as English), and it is translated from the Vulgate, which is two languages removed from the originals. And since Pope Pius XII’s 1943 encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu, affirming the authority of the original languages over even the Vulgate, while not diminishing its value, and condemning as slothful scholars who do not advance their studies in the original languages, the Catholic Church has always required that Scripture for liturgical and scholarly use be from the original languages.

The Vulgate itself has great value because it IS a reliable early witness, but that does not mean that the DR, Confraternity, Knox, etc. also automatically inherit that value. If anything, they are less reliable because of the two-step translation.

This, and other reasons are why I do not have a Douay-Rheims, Confraternity, or Knox on my shelf beside my RSV’s, NRSV’s, and NAB’s
 
Though protestants seem to be fans of old English translations (if Walmart selling the KJV en masse is any indication), it wouldn’t seem that a sizeable number of Catholics are particularly attracted to it, so publishers aren’t printing too many of them. It’s all supply and demand.
 
The Douay-Rheims Haydock Bible is the English equivalent to the Latin Vulgate.
 
Why Are There So Few Douay-Rheims Editions?

Because the language was archaic already 150 years ago.
 
Believe it or not, I actually read your review from a link on Facebook last night. I have the ‘Personal Size’ edition in white and love it, but I presume the ‘Standard Size’ would have a more comfortable font size and would be a little less stiff due to the larger weight
 
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