King James vs. Douay-Rheims Trivia Quiz

Answer: Josue

Joshua or Josue comes from the Hebrew 'Yehoshua', meaning "Yahweh is my salvation" -- from which we also get the name 'Jesus' by way of Greek and Latin! Joshua is the sixth book in the Old Testament and the Tanakh. Apparently set in the 13th century B.C., it is part of the Deuteronomistic history, which spans Deuteronomy to Kings and comprises the Former Prophets in the Hebrew canon. Joshua further develops the theme of the previous book, Deuteronomy, of Israel as one people worshipping God in the Promised Land.

The New Testament portion of the Douay-Rheims was published in Reims, Flanders in 1582, and the Old Testament in Douai, France in 1609. The chief translator was Gregory Martin. (The name of Bible retains the archaic spelling.)

Answer: Osee

The Book of Hosea (or Osee) is one of the 12 Minor Prophets -- "minor" referring to their length, not their importance! Hosea (or Hôsheá in Hebrew) means "he saves". This prophet, who married a prostitute named Gomer, lived in the Kingdom of Israel (or possibly Samaria), where he preached against idolatry and foretold the Assyrian invasion of Samaria.

The D-R is a translation of the Latin Vulgate (largely the work of St. Jerome), which is itself a translation from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek sources. This produced Latinisms, some of which entered the language -- like victim, evangelize, adulterate, and co-operate -- while others were more contrived and so did not.

Answer: Sophonias

Zephaniah (Greco-Latin 'Sophonias') preached and wrote in the the 7th century B.C. during the reign of King Josiah and was a contemporary of Jeremiah. His book is the ninth of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. In Hebrew his name is Zephanja ("the Lord conceals" or "protects").

The Rheims New Testament appeared during a period when Catholics experienced persecution in Britain and Ireland, and to possess it was a crime. Then the Puritan William Fulke published the Rheims New Testament in parallel columns to the 1572 Bishops' Bible (an English translation that has fallen into disuse) to defend it against criticism by Gregory Martin of Reims. Possession of the Fulke edition was perfectly legal!

Answer: Micheas

The original Hebrew Mikayahu means "who is like Yahweh". Micheas or Micah, born in the village of Moresheth, Judah, was a contemporary of Isaiah, and he made his prophecies in Jerusalem. The Book of Micah, the sixth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, describes the impending destruction of Samaria and the failure of Judah to keep its Covenant with God, as well as the future restoration of Zion and Messianic peace.

King James authorized a translation for the Church of England in the 17th century. The translators of the KJV, some 47 scholars, used Greek, Latin, and Aramaic sources. They also had access to the Fulke edition and other earlier English translations of the Bible, like the Great Bible of 1539, the 1602 revision of the Bishops' Bible, and the Latin Vulgate. In the words of the original preface, they avoided words like "washing" for "baptism" employed by some Reformists, but also eschewed many of the Latinisms of the Rheims New Testament. However, the KJV employed more of the Latinate vocabulary of the Rheims than did earlier Protestant English versions, which helped make those words part of everyday English language.

From the preface: "Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the scrupulosity of the Puritans, who leave the old Ecclesiastical words, and betake them to other, as when they put WASHING for BAPTISM, and CONGREGATION instead of CHURCH: as also on the other side we have shunned the obscurity of the Papists, in their AZIMES, TUNIKE, RATIONAL, HOLOCAUSTS, PRAEPUCE, PASCHE, and a number of such like, whereof their late Translation is full...".

Answer: Canticle of Canticles

Song of Solomon (KJV) or Canticle of Canticles (D-R) is traditionally one of the three books of Solomon, the other two being Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In Hebrew it is Shir Hashirim, in the last section of the Tanakh called the Ketuvim ("Writings"). The phrasing of the Hebrew and D-R titles is rather like "the Holy of Holies" or "the King of Kings" or "Vanity of Vanities!" -- it means the greatest or most excellent of something. In more modern Catholic translations like the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), it is entitled "Song of Songs".

During the 18th century, the KJV (or Authorized Version) supplanted the Vulgate as the text used by English-speaking scholars. Benjamin Blayney at Oxford extensively re-edited the KJV text in 1769, removing the section containing the books of the Apocrypha, which had been included in the original 1611 print. Editions of the KJV printed today also use the letter "J", which was not used in 1611, and so it was called the "King Iames Bible" and told of "Iesus Christ" until a 1629 revision added the "J" to which we have grown accustomed!

Answer: Sentences (D-R, originally)

This book is one of the wisdom books in the Old Testament. The Book of Proverbs/Sentences is called Mishlei in the Jewish Tanakh. Broader in meaning than the English "proverb" is the Hebrew "mashal" (singular), which encompasses the instructions of ch. 1-9 as well as the maxims, observations, and comparisons of ch. 10-31. (It can also be applied to parables.) "Sentence" in the late 14th century meant "understanding, wisdom, or edifying subject matter", but in time this sense grew archaic.

Richard Challoner (1691-1781), Bishop of Debra, saw a need to update the D-R. In his 1750 revision, he eliminated various literal translations from the Vulgate that just failed in English, and in some cases adopted linguistic practices from the KJV. For example, the Book of Proverbs was called "Sentences" in the original D-R, but he applied the KJV name, derived from the Latin "proverbia" (also the title used in the Vulgate), and he changed "our Lord" to "the Lord" throughout. It is the Challoner revision that is used today.

Answer: 1 & 2 Kings (D-R)

This may be a little confusing, but 1 & 2 Kings in the Douay-Rheims is the equivalent to 1 & 2 Samuel in the King James. The Latin Vulgate on which D-R is based used both 1 & 2 Samuelis and 1 & 2 Regis to label these books; why the English translators in Douai chose one or the other is something only they know. Modern Catholic Bibles, such as the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), follow the naming practice of the KJV and derivatives. In the Hebrew scripture they are one book.

These books begin with the story of Samuel -- the last Judge of Israel, the first major prophet within the Promised Land, and the anointer of kings Saul and David. They cover most of the reign of David, up to his deathbed.

Answer: 3 & 4 Kings (D-R)

The Third and Fourth Books of Kings in the D-R are equivalent to the First and Second Books of Kings in the KJV. They cover King David's passing and the succession of Solomon to the fall of Jerusalem. While there is a narrative connection to the Books of Samuel, it is an independent work, as the styles are quite distinct.

As with 1 & 2 Samuel, modern Bibles used by Catholics such as the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), employ the names of these books that most English-speakers recognize.

In the original Hebrew, these two books are one book, Melakhim ("Kings").

Answer: 1 & 2 Paralipomenon

The word "paralipomenon" comes from the Greek and means "that which is passed over". It denotes things omitted from a work and added as a supplement. It is the title used in the Septuagint (written in Greek) and appears thus in the Vulgate and hence the Douay-Rheims. The word "paralipomenon" appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, but it's not an everyday word! (Try to pronounce it like phenomenon, with the major stress on the "pom" syllable: par-a-li-POM-e-non.)

The name suggests that the book contains material that the Books of Samuel and Kings (or the Four Books of Kings) overlooked. Or alternatively, it could mean that within these two books are many things that are "passed over", that is, reviewed (again). The Hebrew title is Dibhere Hayyamim ("the acts of the days" or "annals").

Answer: 1 Esdras (D-R)

The name of Ezra the Scribe, or Esdras as transliterated from the Greek, may come from the Hebrew 'Azaryahu', meaning "Yahweh helps".

Some confusion may arise with the titles of these books across the history of biblical translation. Beginning with the Geneva Bible (1599), Protestant translations used 'Ezra' and 'Nehemiah', and the KJV followed that practice, whereas Douay-Rheims followed the nomenclature the Vulgate had used since the 9th century and called them '1 & 2 Esdras'. They were actually one volume once upon a time in Jewish Scripture, but by the 16th century they were divided in two (and remain two in the modern Tanakh).

Answer: 2 Esdras (D-R)

The name 'Nehemiah' appears as 'Nehemias' in the Douay-Reims, which calls the book '2 Esdras', after the Vulgate and the early Jewish practice of putting both Ezra and Nehemiah into one volume. Nehemiah worked for King Artaxerxes of Persia (c. 445 B.C.), but he left his King to help rebuild Jerusalem. While some scholars believe the Book of Nehemiah was compiled and edited by the same author as Chronicles (Paralipomenon), it largely consists of memoirs written by the prophet Nehemiah himself.

1 & 2 Esdras of the D-R should not be confused with 1 & 2 Esdras that were published in the Aprocrypha of the 1611 King James Bible. The books of 1 & 2 Esdras in D-R correspond to Ezra and Nehemiah in the KJV. The books labeled 1 & 2 Esdras in the KJV Aprocrypha correspond to the books of 3 & 4 Esdras that were in the Aprocrypha of the Douay-Rheims. So to summarize, they are Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras in the KJV (and modern English Bibles used by both Catholics and Protestants), but 1-4 Esdras in the Douay-Rheims.

Answer: Habacuc

The name "Habakkuk" or "Habacuc" (or "Ambakoum" in the Septuagint) means "ardent embrace". The Book of Habakkuk (or The Prophecy of Habacuc) is a dialogue between the titular prophet and God. In the first part, the prophet complains to the Lord about the wickedness of Judah, and the Lord responds. The second part is a prayer in the form a lyric ode, entitled "A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth" (3:1 KJV).*"Shigionoth" is a technical Hebrew term whose meaning has been lost in the ages, but it is likely a musical notation. This term and the references to stringed instruments in verse 19 indicate that the ode was used in worship.

In the 1899 American edition of the D-R, Habacuc 3:1 reads instead "A PRAYER OF HABACUC THE PROPHET FOR IGNORANCES" (which is also how it reads in the 1599 Geneva Bible, minus the capitalization.)

Answer: Aggaeus (or Aggeus)

In this tenth among the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, Aggeus or Haggai is called Hággáy in the Hebrew Tanakh. The origin of Haggai's name is disputed. It might be an abbreviation of Hággíyyah, "my feast is Yahweh", a Jewish proper name found in or 1 Chronicles 6:30 (KJV) or 1 Paralipomenon 6:30 (D-R).

When the Jews returned from Babylonian exile in 536 B.C., they zealously laid the foundation of the Second Temple, a/k/a the Temple of Zarubbabel (KJV) or Zorobabel (D-R), after the king's grandson and governor of Judah who led the returnees. Sadly, they soon lost heart. In the second year of the reign of Darius, son of Hystaspes (520 B.C.), Haggai rebuked the neglect of the Jews of the restoration of the Temple and urged them to finish their work.

The chapter-and-verse numbering of Aggeus in the D-R differs a bit from that of Haggai in the KJV (and the NABRE). The books are identical in both translations until the end of the first chapter, where the KJV ends with verse 15 "In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king" (where it is part of the previous sentence). The D-R follows the Vulgate and puts it as the first verse of chapter two: "In the four and twentieth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king, they began."

Answer: Abdias

The Douay-Rheims used the romanized Greek form whereas the KJV used an anglicized form of the Hebrew Obhádhyah, which means "servant of Yahweh". Obadiah/Abdias is the shortest of the Twelve Minor Prophets and deals primarily with the doom of Edom, a vassal state of Israel.

Some scholars think that Obhádhyah is not the prophet's name but an epitaph. The book most likely refers to Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Jerusalem in 589 B.C. and the Babylonian Captivity, but some scholars have placed Obadiah as a contemporary of Elijah (see 1 Kings 18:7-8 [KJV] or 3 Kings 18:7-8 [D-R]), which would put him in the 800s B.C., when the Arabs and Philistines sacked Jerusalem.

Answer: Apocalypse

Written by John of Patmos (who may also be the Apostle John), this is the only book in the New Testament that differs in name between King James and Douay-Rheims. The full name in the D-R is The Apocalypse of John. In everyday English 'apocalypse' has come to mean "the end of the world", but in fact it is from the Greek 'apokalypsis' which means..."revelation"! So they are the same name, one is from the Greek and the other from the Latin by way of Old French.

The old 'Catholic Encyclopedia' (1913) observes: "It would be alike wearisome and useless to enumerate even the more prominent applications made of the Apocalypse. Racial hatred and religious rancour have at all times found in its vision much suitable and gratifying matter. Such persons as Mohammed, the Pope, Napoleon, etc., have in turn been identified with the beast and the harlot."

Admitting that interpretations of St. John's prophetic and eschatological visions have been fervently argued over the last 2000 years, I will spare you further discussion of that and instead share with you the interesting facts that Patmos, off the coast of Turkey, was once a penal colony, and that Revelation/Apocalypse is the only book in the New Testament to use the exclamation 'Alleluia!', in chapter 19 (KJV or D-R).