Don’t Catholics Believe in the Bible? The Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims' Theologically-Driven Mistranslations

The Catholic “Douay-Rheims” Bible contains a number of theologically-driven mistranslations (think the New World Translation's use of “a god” in John 1:1c). The Vulgate, which it is based on reads:

 

Petrus vero ad illos: Pœnitentiam, inquit, agite, et baptizetur unusquisque vestrum in nomine Jesu Christi in remissionem peccatorum vestrorum: et accipietis donum Spiritus Sancti.

 

This is translated by the Douay-Rheims as:

 

But Peter said to them: Do penace: and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 

The Greek does not read "do penance"; instead, the Greek is μετανοήσατε, the second personal plural aorist active imperative of μετανοεω, "change one's mind" or "feel remorse, repent, be converted" (BDAG). Firstly, it cannot be “penance” as, per the Baltimore Catechism, is the means “by which sins committed after baptism are forgiven through the absolution of a priest.” Or at the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, the Sacrament of Penance is

 

The liturgical celebration of God’s forgiveness of the sins of the penitent, who is thus reconciled with God and with the Church. The acts of the penitent—contrition, the confession of sins, and satisfaction or reparation—together with the prayer of absolution by the priest, constitute the essential elements of the Sacrament of Penance. (Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church [2d ed.; Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2019], 892)

 

Another theologically-driven mistranslation is found in Heb 10:12. The Greek reads:

αὐτὸς δὲ μίαν ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν προσενέγκας θυσίαν εἰς τὸ διηνεκές, ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ

The KJV renders the text as:

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.

The term translated as "he had offered" is προσεωεγκας, the nominative masculine aorist active participle of the verb  προσφερω, a sacrifical term meaning "to bring to/offer." It denotes how Christ's sacrifice (θυσια, the term it is coupled with in this verse) was done once-for-all in the past, and is not to be repeated.

The Vulgate renders the verse as:

Hic autem unam pro peccatis offerens hostiam, in sempiternum sedet in dextera De.

The Greek term προσεωεγκας is translated as "offerens" in the Latin Vulgate. As there are always difficulties and ambiguities due to translating texts into different languages, the Vulgate can be interpreted as speaking of Christ either as having had offered, or offering a sacrifice. However, the Douay-Rheims translated the Latin Vulgate as follows:

But this man offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God

The Douay-Rheims grossly misunderstood the text of Heb 10:12 to present Jesus as presently offering a sacrifice, commensurate with the Roman Catholic teaching on the Mass being a representation of the same sacrifice Christ offered on the cross.

 

As we can see here, the Catholic Douay-Rheims translation did not have to make big changes to the text; they just had to make small but very important theologically-driven changes. Such changes have a big impact on the Bible we read. Hopefully, this knowledge will help Latter-day Saints have accurate conversations with Roman Catholics, especially when some falsely claim that “A Catholic who studied the Bible a thousand years ago as well as Catholics today can have the certainty that their Bibles are accurate because of the Holy Spirit.”

 

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