THE VULGATE OF ST. JEROME

St. Jerome translated the books of Sacred Scripture from the original languages into Latin around 342-420. And this was the Bible used in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. So near to the origins of Scriptures, Jerome was closer to the original languages than any scholar today. This made him a much better judge of the exact meaning of any Greek or Hebrew word in the text. A scholar, genius and a saint, he had access to the original manuscripts which are no longer available to scholars today.

The most faithful translation of the Latin Vulgate in English is the Douay-Rheims edition. And the advantage of this translation over the modern translation is this: when a passage in Scriptures seemed strange or unintelligible, the Douay-Rheims version left it alone, even if obscure, and left it for the holier or more intelligent among us to interpret it. On the other hand, modern bible translators, when met with an obscure passage, will decide what they think it means and then translate it accordingly. This makes modern translation easier to understand but not necessarily transmitting God's message.

The Douay-Rheims version was written in old English with archaic spellings. This was made up-to-date by the Holy Bishop Challona who used to spend most of his time escaping the persecutions in England. This makes the Douay-Rheims version the most reliable bible for Catholics.

(01-21-04)