Catholic Bible Verses: Scripture in the Douay-Rheims and the Tradition

Catholic Bible verses are read in the Douay-Rheims — the traditional English Bible drawn from the Latin Vulgate — and they are read within the Church, in the light of her teaching and her Fathers. A Catholic does not take a verse as an isolated proof-text, nor as a motivational slogan, but as the word of God interpreted by the Church that gave it. So when we quote, for example, the most famous verse of all, we give it in the Douay wording:

For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. (John 3:16)

This page is our hub for Catholic Scripture. We set out how a Catholic reads a verse, why the Douay-Rheims is our English text, why the Psalms carry a different numbering, and how several well-known verses are commonly misread — charitably corrected from the sources.

How a Catholic reads a Bible verse

The Bible is the Church's book before it is the private reader's. The Church preached the Gospel before a line of the New Testament was written; it was she who, guided by the Holy Ghost, discerned which books were inspired and fixed the canon. So the same authority that gave us the Scriptures also guards their meaning. The Council of Trent, in the very preface meant for pastors, warned that the faithful are not to be "as children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine," but firmly attached to the unshakable foundation of the Faith (Catechism of the Council of Trent, Preface). A verse read against the Church is a verse wrested from its author.

This is why we do not treat a verse as a proof-text — a sentence lifted from its place to settle a question the reader brought to it — nor as a slogan printed for self-encouragement. The verse must be read in its context, in the analogy of faith (in harmony with the whole of revealed doctrine), and according to the sense the Fathers and the Church have given it. St Augustine laid down the rule that obscure passages are read by clear ones and the whole by the rule of charity; St Vincent of Lérins taught that we hold what has been believed "everywhere, always, and by all." St Thomas Aquinas distinguishes the literal sense — what the words themselves signify, and the foundation of all true doctrine — from the spiritual senses built upon it, and insists that no argument of faith can be drawn except from the literal sense (Summa Theologiae I, q. 1, a. 10). The Catholic reads the letter first, and reads it in the Church.

Why we quote the Douay-Rheims Bible verses

When we give Catholic Bible verses in English, we give them from the Douay-Rheims. It was made by exiled English Catholic scholars — the New Testament at Rheims in 1582, the Old Testament at Douay in 1609-1610 — translated faithfully from the Latin Vulgate that the Council of Trent had declared the authentic text of the Church, and later revised by Bishop Challoner. It holds the same place in English that the Crampon holds in French or the Vulgate in Latin: the vetted, traditional text. Its grave and reverent English was made for Catholic worship and instruction, and it carries all seventy-three books of the Catholic Bible, none removed. On which English version a Catholic should use and why, see What Bible Do Catholics Use?; on the Latin source behind it, see The Latin Vulgate Bible; and on the seven books the Protestant Bibles drop, see The Deuterocanonical Books.

To read a Catholic verse well, then, is to read the right text in the right light. The wording matters: a verse built on a loose rendering is a verse half-lost.

The Douay Psalm numbering

One difference catches every reader who opens a Douay-Rheims to the Psalms: the numbering differs from the Protestant Bibles. The Douay follows the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, where Psalms 9 and 10 of the Hebrew are counted as one (Psalm 9), so that from there onward the Douay number runs one behind the Hebrew (Protestant) number, until they rejoin near the end. The beloved shepherd psalm is Psalm 22 in the Douay, not 23:

The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing. He hath set me in a place of pasture. (Psalm 22:1-2)

So when a Catholic cites "the Lord is my shepherd," he cites Psalm 22 in the Douay, the same psalm Protestants number 23. We treat that psalm, and why the Douay opens it "The Lord ruleth me," in The Lord Is My Shepherd. Knowing the numbering spares confusion and marks the Catholic Scripture as the Church prays it in the Divine Office.

Verses commonly misread — corrected from the sources

Several famous Catholic Bible verses circulate stripped of their context and turned into private encouragements. We correct the misreadings charitably, because the verses are far greater than the slogans made of them.

"I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). This is not a promise of success in any undertaking we set our hearts on. St Paul has just said he has learned "to be content with the things that I have," to abound and to suffer need; the "all things" are the heights and depths of the Christian life borne in Christ, not whatever ambition we name. We open this out in I Can Do All Things Through Christ.

"For God so loved the world…" (John 3:16). The verse is true, and infinitely so — but it is no warrant for the notion that love alone, without faith, sacraments, and the keeping of the commandments, suffices. Our Lord says in the same chapter that a man must be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, and elsewhere that "if you love me, keep my commandments." The love of God in this verse is the love that gives the Son and asks belief in Him. We take it up in For God So Loved the World.

"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 45:11). This is often read as a counsel of calm or relaxation. In the Douay it is Psalm 45, and the verse is a command not to the anxious soul but to the raging nations: God bids the warring peoples be still and own His sovereignty, for He shall be "exalted among the nations." It is a word of His majesty, not a breathing exercise. See Be Still and Know That I Am God.

"Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence" (Proverbs 3:5). Rightly read, this is the law of Christian abandonment — not a charm for getting what we want, but the surrender of our judgement to God's, that "in all thy ways" we think on Him and He direct our steps. We treat it in Trust in the Lord With All Your Heart.

"All things work together unto good" (Romans 8:28); "I know the thoughts that I think towards you" (Jeremiah 29:11). Two more verses turned into bland promises of earthly success. The first is the law of Providence drawing good out of every trial for them that love God; the second was God's word to a captive people, not a guarantee of our private plans. We read them in All Things Work Together for Good and I Know the Plans I Have for You.

"Be anxious for nothing" (Philippians 4:6). Not a counsel to soothe the nerves but a command to pray: cast every care on God. We take it up in Be Anxious for Nothing.

In each case the cure for the misreading is the same: the Douay text, the surrounding verses, and the mind of the Church. So read, a verse loses nothing and gains everything; it ceases to be a slogan and becomes the word of God.

Catholic Bible verses about love

When a Catholic looks for Bible verses about love, he finds not a sentiment but the highest of the theological virtues — charity, the love of God for His own sake and of our neighbour for God's. The Douay does not say "love is patient" loosely; it gives St Paul's hymn of charity:

Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up… Charity never falleth away. (1 Corinthians 13:4, 8)

The love God commands is first the love of Himself, and then of neighbour as ourselves, on which "dependeth the whole law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). It is proved not by feeling but by keeping His word: "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). And its measure is the Cross: "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). The supreme verse of God's love for us is John 3:16, quoted above. We open out the full hymn in Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind and the most famous verse in For God So Loved the World.

Catholic Bible verses about strength and for hard times

Scripture's word on strength is never self-reliance; it is strength received from God and exercised in patience, especially in hard times. The verse most often quoted, rightly read, points away from our own power:

I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)

As we noted above, this is St Paul's strength to bear abundance and want alike in Christ — not a promise of worldly success. Other verses for strength in trial, in the Douay wording:

The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. (Psalm 17:3)
God is our refuge and strength: a helper in troubles, which have found us exceedingly. (Psalm 45:2)
They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary. (Isaias 40:31)
Wait on the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord. (Psalm 26:14)

In hard times the Catholic does not seize a verse as a charm but reads it as the law of Providence, which draws good out of every trial for them that love God (Romans 8:28). Strength, in the mind of the Church, is the gift of the Holy Ghost called fortitude, perfected in the martyrs. See I Can Do All Things Through Christ and All Things Work Together for Good.

Uplifting, encouraging, and inspirational Catholic Bible verses

Many readers seek verses that uplift, encourage, or inspire. The Catholic reads these as words of hope — the sure expectation of God's help and of eternal life — not as motivational slogans. The most powerful of them console precisely because they are true:

Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. (Matthew 11:28)
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)
Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God. (Isaias 41:10)
Cast all your care upon him, for he hath care of you. (1 Peter 5:7)
The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? (Psalm 26:1)

These are encouraging not because they promise an easy road but because they promise God Himself on the road. We take several up at length — Come to Me, All You Who Labour, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, and Be Anxious for Nothing.

Catholic Christmas Bible verses

The Catholic Christmas verses are the Scriptures the Church reads at the Nativity — the prophecy of Isaias and the Gospel of the Word made flesh, in the Douay wording:

For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. (Isaias 9:6)
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. (Luke 2:7)
Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will. (Luke 2:14)

The last is the Gloria in excelsis of the angels, sung at Mass. These are the verses proclaimed at the three Masses of Christmas in the traditional rite.

Catholic Easter Bible verses

The Easter verses are the proclamation of the Resurrection, the heart of the Faith — for "if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain" (1 Corinthians 15:14). In the Douay:

He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. (Matthew 28:6)
I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live. (John 11:25)
O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55)
This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. (Psalm 117:24)

The last verse is the gradual of Easter Sunday. The Church reads the Resurrection not as a metaphor of renewal but as the bodily rising of Christ, the pledge of our own.

Catholic confirmation Bible verses

For Confirmation — the sacrament that seals the baptized with the Holy Ghost and makes them soldiers of Christ — the fitting verses are those that name the Spirit and His gifts. From the prophecy Isaias, the Church draws the seven gifts conferred in the sacrament:

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. (Isaias 11:2-3)
But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. (Acts 1:8)
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. (2 Timothy 1:7)

These verses name what Confirmation gives: the indwelling of the Holy Ghost with His seven gifts, and the strength to confess the Faith openly. On the sacrament itself, see The Seven Sacraments.

Catholic baptism Bible verses

For Baptism — the sacrament that washes away original sin and makes us children of God — the verses are those that command and explain the new birth of water and the Spirit:

Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)
Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 28:19)
Be baptized, and wash away thy sins. (Acts 22:16)
For you are all the children of God by faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

These are the Scriptures behind the Church's teaching that Baptism is necessary for salvation and the gateway to the other sacraments. At the other end of the Christian life, the Scriptures the Church reads over her dead are gathered in Bible verses for funerals.

A Catholic Bible verse for today

Readers often look for a Catholic Bible verse "for today" — a verse of the day. The Church gives one in her own way: the Mass and the Divine Office appoint set Scriptures for every day of the year, so that the faithful read not a verse chosen by mood but the verse the Church prays on that day. This is the surest "verse for today" — the Epistle and Gospel of the day's Mass, read in their place in the liturgical year. The Iter Fidei app carries the Mass of each day with its readings in the Douay-Rheims, which is the Catholic way to have a verse for today.

More verses read in the Catholic light

Beyond the verses corrected above, many of the best-loved lines of Scripture are read most fully within the Church. We take several of them up one by one, always in the Douay wording and the mind of the Fathers:

• Ask and It Shall Be Given — Our Lord's promise on prayer, and what it does and does not promise (Matthew 7:7).
• Come to Me, All You Who Labour — the rest Christ offers the heavy-laden (Matthew 11:28).
• Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled — His word of consolation at the Last Supper (John 14:1).
• I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life — that no man comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6).
• Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind — St Paul's hymn to charity, not sentiment (1 Corinthians 13).
• Faith Without Works Is Dead — St James against faith alone (James 2:26).
• The Beatitudes — the charter of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5).
• Hail Mary, Full of Grace — the angel's greeting and what it reveals of Our Lady (Luke 1:28).
• This Is My Body — the words of institution and the Real Presence (Matthew 26:26).
• Thou Art Peter — the rock and the keys given to St Peter (Matthew 16:18).
• Whose Sins You Forgive — the power to absolve given to the apostles (John 20:23).

What does God say about — Scripture on the questions people ask

A great many readers come to Scripture asking what God says about a particular matter — a virtue, a temptation, a state of life, a hard question of the day. Here too the rule holds: read the verses in their context and in the mind of the Church, not as proof-texts plucked to settle the question we brought. We answer these questions one by one from the sources, gathered under What Does God Say About….

On the moral life and the passions — anger, pride, greed, lust, gluttony, jealousy, laziness, gossip, lying, stealing, cursing, cheating, hate, revenge, temptation, and judging others.

On virtue and the spiritual life — faith, hope, love, grace, prayer, meditation, fasting, forgiveness, obedience, modesty, tithing, going to church, and justice.

On trials of the soul — anxiety, fear, depression, loneliness, grief, suffering, healing, and suicide.

On marriage, family, and relationships — marriage, divorce, remarriage, dating, relationships, soulmates, sex before marriage, polygamy, family, parenting, friendship, and women.

On the body, sin, and hard questions of the day — abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, pornography, masturbation, abuse, the death penalty, war, racism, tattoos, piercings, cremation, alcohol, alcoholism, drugs, marijuana, gambling, money, and work.

On faith, the world, and the last things — atheism, salvation, free will, the soul, hell, the end times, the antichrist, Israel, evolution, dinosaurs, animals, witchcraft, superstition, dreams, and what God says about you.

Reading Scripture within the Church

The Church has always desired that the faithful read the Scriptures — but read them within her, under the guidance of her teaching and in approved versions with explanatory notes, lest the word of God be wrested to private error (St Pius X, Catechism). The Bible is not a book to be read against the Church that gave it, but within the Church that guards it: not less love for the text, but more, because we receive its meaning from the same authority that received its books.

To read Catholic Bible verses well is therefore a settled discipline: take the Douay-Rheims, mind the Douay numbering of the Psalms, read each verse in its context and in the light of the Fathers and the Church, and never reduce the living word to a proof-text or a slogan. So read, the verses we have quoted here open into the whole faith.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Bible does the Catholic Church use?

The traditional English Bible of the Catholic Church is the Douay-Rheims, translated by exiled English Catholic scholars from the Latin Vulgate — the New Testament at Rheims in 1582, the Old Testament at Douay in 1609-1610 — and later revised by Bishop Challoner. In Latin she uses the Vulgate, which the Council of Trent declared the authentic text of the Church (Session IV, 1546). These are vetted versions made for Catholic worship and instruction, with explanatory notes, as St Pius X urged.

How many books are in the Catholic Bible?

The Catholic Bible has seventy-three books: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. This is the canon the Church fixed under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. The Protestant Bibles drop seven Old Testament books — Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Machabees, with parts of Esther and Daniel — which the Catholic Bible keeps, none removed.

What bible translation does the Catholic Church use?

For English, the traditional translation is the Douay-Rheims, drawn faithfully from the Latin Vulgate rather than from later editions of the Hebrew and Greek. It holds the same place in English that the Crampon holds in French or the Vulgate in Latin: the traditional, approved text. Its grave and reverent wording was made for the worship and instruction of Catholics, never a loose paraphrase.

Is the King James Bible Catholic?

No. The King James Version of 1611 is a Protestant translation, made for the Church of England, and it omits the seven deuterocanonical books that belong to the Catholic canon (or relegates them to an "Apocrypha"). The Catholic English Bible is the Douay-Rheims, which predates the King James and carries all seventy-three books drawn from the Vulgate. A Catholic should read his Scripture from an approved version, within the Church that gave it.

What is the Catholic Bible called?

In English it is most properly called the Douay-Rheims Bible, named for the two English Catholic colleges where it was translated — Douay and Rheims. The underlying Latin text is the Vulgate, St Jerome's translation (c. 382-405) declared authentic by the Council of Trent. Both names point to the same vetted, traditional Catholic Scripture.

What is the Catholic Bible?

The Catholic Bible is the collection of seventy-three inspired books — Old and New Testament — that the Catholic Church discerned and fixed as the canon of Sacred Scripture. It is the Church's book before it is the private reader's: she preached the Gospel before a line of the New Testament was written, and the same authority that gave us the Scriptures also guards their meaning. Read within the Church, in the Douay-Rheims and the light of the Fathers, it opens into the whole of the Faith.

What are the best Catholic Bible verses about love?

The best are St Paul's hymn to charity — "Charity is patient, is kind… Charity never falleth away" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) — together with Our Lord's two commandments of love (Matthew 22:37-40), His "Greater love than this no man hath" (John 15:13), and the supreme verse of God's love, "For God so loved the world" (John 3:16). The Catholic reads these as charity, the highest theological virtue, proved by keeping the commandments — not as mere feeling.

What are good Catholic Bible verses about strength?

For strength the Church gives "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13) — rightly read as strength received in Christ, not self-reliance — with "God is our refuge and strength, a helper in troubles" (Psalm 45:2) and "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaias 40:31). In hard times these are read as the law of Providence (Romans 8:28) and the gift of fortitude, not as charms for success.

What Bible verses are read at a Catholic confirmation?

The fitting verses name the Holy Ghost and His seven gifts: "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding…" (Isaias 11:2-3), "You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you" (Acts 1:8), and "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love" (2 Timothy 1:7). Confirmation seals the baptized with the Spirit and His gifts.

What Bible verses are used for a Catholic baptism?

The verses are those on the new birth of water and the Spirit: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5); "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19); and "As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). Baptism washes away original sin and makes us children of God.

What is a good Catholic Bible verse for today?

The surest "verse for today" is the one the Church herself appoints: the Epistle and Gospel of the day's Mass, read in their place in the liturgical year. Rather than a verse chosen by mood, the Catholic prays the Scripture the Church reads on that day, in the Douay-Rheims wording.

How do you cite a Catholic Bible verse?

A verse is cited by book, chapter, and verse — so "John 3:16" means the Gospel of St John, chapter 3, verse 16. The Psalms in the Douay-Rheims carry a numbering one behind the Protestant Bibles, following the Septuagint and Vulgate, so the shepherd psalm is Psalm 22, not 23; mind this when you quote. We give the wording from the Douay-Rheims, the traditional English text drawn from the Latin Vulgate.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Douay-Rheims Bible, with the Psalms and the Scriptures in Latin and your own language. Download it here.

Sources. Douay-Rheims Bible (Rheims New Testament 1582; Douay Old Testament 1609-1610; Challoner revision) — John 3:16; Psalm 22:1-2; Psalm 45:11; Philippians 4:11-13; Proverbs 3:5-6; John 3:5; John 14:15; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; Matthew 22:37-40; John 15:13; Psalm 17:3; Psalm 45:2; Isaias 40:31; Psalm 26:1, 14; Matthew 11:28; John 14:1; Isaias 41:10; 1 Peter 5:7; Isaias 9:6; John 1:14; Luke 2:7, 14; Matthew 28:6, 19; John 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:14, 55; Psalm 117:24; Isaias 11:2-3; Acts 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:7; Acts 22:16; Galatians 3:26-27; Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), Preface (the duty of pastors; against "every wind of doctrine"); Council of Trent, Session IV (1546), on the Vulgate as the authentic text; St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 1, a. 10 (the senses of Scripture; the literal sense as the ground of doctrine); St Augustine, On Christian Doctrine (obscure passages read by clear, the rule of charity); St Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium (what is held everywhere, always, by all); St Pius X, Catechism (1908), on the reading of Sacred Scripture in approved versions within the Church; St Jerome, the Latin Vulgate (c. 382-405).