Which Version—Douay or Authorized?
When studying with Catholics, which version of the Word of God should be introduced, the Catholic Douay or the Protestant Authorized Version, and why?
I gladly submit here the reasons why I, personally, do not believe the Douay Version should be used for study in Catholic homes:
1. You have the added Apocryphal books with which to contend. It is quite natural for people to wish to compare the Douay with the Authorized Version. When they awake to the fact that the versions are not quite the same, a question arises as to the authenticity of what they term the "Protestant Bible." Suppose they should read from 2 Maccabees 12:46 this statement: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins." Again in Wisdom 3:1-4: "But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise, they seemed to die: . . . but they are in peace. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality." How difficult it would be for the teacher to persuade the pupil that these statements are not inspired. It would bring in a state of confusion which I fear would be most embarrassing. It might have a tendency to shut off the seeker from truth—the real truth—of the Word of God.
2. As teachers of the Word of God, we make Genesis 3:15 the basis for many of our studies. What would be the result if the student were to quote Genesis 3:15 from the Douay Version, which reads as follows: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel"? To the Catholic, the word "she" would naturally refer to the Virgin Mary, as there are many references made to Genesis 3:15 in Catholic works, referring to her.
In illustration, notice the following quotation from a standard Catholic work:
"It was indeed becoming that the three Divine Persons should preserve Mary from original sin. It was becoming that the Father should do so, because Mary was His first-born daughter. As Jesus was the first-born of God, the first-born of every creature, so also is Mary, the destined Mother of God, always considered by Him as His first-born daughter by adoption, and therefore He always possessed her by His grace: The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways. For the honor, therefore, of His Son, it was becoming that the Father should preserve His Mother from every stain of sin. It was also becoming that He should do so, because He destined this His daughter to crush the head of the infernal serpent, who had seduced man, as we read in Genesis, She shall crush thy head. How, then, could He permit that she should first be the slave of this infernal serpent? Moreover, Mary was also destined to become the advocate of sinners; therefore it was also becoming that God should preserve her from sin, that she might not appear guilty of the same fault as men, for whom she was to intercede."—"Glories of Mary," by St. Alphonsus de Liguori, p. 639. Brooklyn: Reclemptorist Fathers, 1931.
1. Also in the Douay Version there are the footnotes to contend with, which are very misleading.
2. In the Douay New Testament the word "penance" is supplied for the word "repentance" in Acts 2:38: "But Peter said to them: Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ."
From these few points the teacher of the Bible can readily see why it would not be advisable to use the Douay Version in Catholic homes.
Mary E. Walsh,
Bible Teacher, Brooklyn, N.Y
