There are great words of wisdom in the Bible. Growing up in Catholic school, I've read the Douay Rheims version (containing more books than the King James version). many times.
I found this description on Reddit and found it enlightening over and above what I remember from school.
"Douay Rheims is translated directly from the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Vulgate is translated directly from the Septuagint. The Septuagint was a collection Greek translations of Jewish Scripture written during the reign of Ptolemy II (283BC to 246BC). During the life of Christ and His Apostles, Greek was the Lingua Franca within the Roman Empire. The Apostles made many references to the Septuagint, and it was the primary resource for spreading the Christian Faith, as it was an already existing Greek translation of Jewish scripture, which was incredibly important while converting Greek speaking gentiles throughout the Empire. Hence why the New Testament was written in Greek.
The King James version was an unauthorized (i.e. not sanctioned by the Catholic Church) translation of the bible in English. However, the major difference is that the KJV does not draw its translations from the Septuagint. The KJV uses contemporary Jewish Scripture (what was contemporary for that time). The problem with this is, the Jews reformed their scriptural canon at the Council of Jamnia after the death of Christ. Many of the books found in the Septuagint were removed from the new Jewish Scripture by the rabbinical council for various reasons. By not using the Septuagint, or older Jewish texts the translators for the KJV unfortunately used a version of Jewish Scripture that had been drastically changed after the death of Christ.
The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox bibles are all based on the Septuagint (though all three Churches have different numbers of books in their bibles). The Catholic Church, in recognition that some books in the Old Testament were no longer found in the Jewish Canon called these books "deuterocanonical," meaning they were still Christian Canon, just a secondary cannon.
The Protestants removed these books from their bibles altogether and called them "Apocrypha" (a Protestant term not used by us Catholics) meaning writings not considered genuine, or doubtful authenticity. Interestingly many of these books cause the divide between Catholics and Protestants. Maccabees for example talks about praying for the dead - one of the foundations we have in Catholicism is praying for the dead so that they may enter Heaven. The passage is one of the parts where the idea of Purgatory comes from. Protestants, of course, do not believe in Purgatory, nor do they believe we need to pray for the dead, because the faithful enter Heaven immediately, and are saved by Faith, and Grace alone. Interesting how missing a few books can completely change one's theology.
Another interesting fact, when Martin Luther was rearranging the bible for his Reformation, he considered taking books out of the New Testament as well - ones that lent themselves to Catholic theology (such as the Epistle of James). He was eventually convinced not to by colleagues. One book he considered taking out was Apocalypse (Revelations). Considering how there are so many Protestant sects today that obsess over The Book of Revelations, consider how different things would be if Martin Luther had his way and Revelation never ended up in the Protestant Bible.
Anyway, in the end the King James Bible is through and through a Protestant Bible, even if it has an addendum with "Apocrypha" included.
Douay Rheims is through and through a Catholic Bible. It was the only authorized English translation of the Bible in the Catholic Church and the most widely accepted from its printing in 1582, & 1609-1610 until the Confraternity Bible was published and released between 1941 and 1969 (331 years)."
I found this description on Reddit and found it enlightening over and above what I remember from school.
"Douay Rheims is translated directly from the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Vulgate is translated directly from the Septuagint. The Septuagint was a collection Greek translations of Jewish Scripture written during the reign of Ptolemy II (283BC to 246BC). During the life of Christ and His Apostles, Greek was the Lingua Franca within the Roman Empire. The Apostles made many references to the Septuagint, and it was the primary resource for spreading the Christian Faith, as it was an already existing Greek translation of Jewish scripture, which was incredibly important while converting Greek speaking gentiles throughout the Empire. Hence why the New Testament was written in Greek.
The King James version was an unauthorized (i.e. not sanctioned by the Catholic Church) translation of the bible in English. However, the major difference is that the KJV does not draw its translations from the Septuagint. The KJV uses contemporary Jewish Scripture (what was contemporary for that time). The problem with this is, the Jews reformed their scriptural canon at the Council of Jamnia after the death of Christ. Many of the books found in the Septuagint were removed from the new Jewish Scripture by the rabbinical council for various reasons. By not using the Septuagint, or older Jewish texts the translators for the KJV unfortunately used a version of Jewish Scripture that had been drastically changed after the death of Christ.
The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox bibles are all based on the Septuagint (though all three Churches have different numbers of books in their bibles). The Catholic Church, in recognition that some books in the Old Testament were no longer found in the Jewish Canon called these books "deuterocanonical," meaning they were still Christian Canon, just a secondary cannon.
The Protestants removed these books from their bibles altogether and called them "Apocrypha" (a Protestant term not used by us Catholics) meaning writings not considered genuine, or doubtful authenticity. Interestingly many of these books cause the divide between Catholics and Protestants. Maccabees for example talks about praying for the dead - one of the foundations we have in Catholicism is praying for the dead so that they may enter Heaven. The passage is one of the parts where the idea of Purgatory comes from. Protestants, of course, do not believe in Purgatory, nor do they believe we need to pray for the dead, because the faithful enter Heaven immediately, and are saved by Faith, and Grace alone. Interesting how missing a few books can completely change one's theology.
Another interesting fact, when Martin Luther was rearranging the bible for his Reformation, he considered taking books out of the New Testament as well - ones that lent themselves to Catholic theology (such as the Epistle of James). He was eventually convinced not to by colleagues. One book he considered taking out was Apocalypse (Revelations). Considering how there are so many Protestant sects today that obsess over The Book of Revelations, consider how different things would be if Martin Luther had his way and Revelation never ended up in the Protestant Bible.
Anyway, in the end the King James Bible is through and through a Protestant Bible, even if it has an addendum with "Apocrypha" included.
Douay Rheims is through and through a Catholic Bible. It was the only authorized English translation of the Bible in the Catholic Church and the most widely accepted from its printing in 1582, & 1609-1610 until the Confraternity Bible was published and released between 1941 and 1969 (331 years)."
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