Richard Challoner - Revision of English Bible

Revision of English Bible

Another work to which Challoner devoted much energy and time was revision of the English Catholic Bible. He had long perceived a need to update the language of the Douay Rheims Bible that had appeared over the years 1582-1610. While still at University of Douai, he was one of the approving prelates for a revision of the Rheims New Testament published in 1730 by the college president, Robert Witham.

After returning to England, he and Francis Blyth published in 1738 another revision of Rheims in an attractive large folio edition.

His more important work would appear over the years 1749 through 1752. An edition of the New Testament appeared in 1749, and another, together with the first edition of the Old Testament, in 1750. Between the two editions of the New Testament there are few differences, but the next edition, published in 1752, had important changes both in text and notes, the variations numbering over two thousand.

All revisions attributed to Challoner were published anonymously. It is unclear to what extent he was personally involved in, or even approved of, the various changes. Curiously, a book he published in 1762, Morality of the Bible, quotes Scriptural citations from the 1749 and 1752 revisions in different places.

Challoner is believed to have had the assistance of Robert Pinkard (alias Typper), the London agent for Douay College, in preparing the 1749 and 1750 revisions. The chief points to note in these revisions are the elimination of the obscure and literal translations from the Latin in which the original version abounds, the alteration of obsolete terms and spelling, a closer approximation in some respects to the Anglican Authorised Version (for instance, the substitution of "the Lord" for "our Lord"), and finally the printing of the verses separately.

For the next 200 years Challoner's revisions were the groundwork for nearly all English Catholic Bibles, including those published in America, beginning with a Philadelphia edition in 1790. Rather than use any particular revision, later editors tended to pick and choose from the several versions available. This means that many of the Douai-Rheims Bibles available differed from each other in the texts they contained.

Significantly, the American editions tended towards the later, more natural, revisions, while the English ones tended towards the earlier, more conservative versions, which were closer to the Latin.