The Epistle of St Paul the Apostle
to the
Romans
Translated out of the Latin Vulgate
at the English College of Rheims, 1582
revised by Bishop Richard Challoner, 1749–1752
What this is
St Paul’s longest letter, written from Corinth to a church he had not yet visited, setting out at greater length than anything else he wrote his account of faith, the law and grace. It stands first among his letters for its weight rather than its date, and no book of the New Testament has been argued over more.
Challoner’s preface
St. Paul wrote this epistle at Corinth, when he was preparing to go to Jerusalem with the charitable contributions collected in Achaia and Macedonia for the relief of the Christians in Judea; which was about twenty-four years after Our Lord's Ascension. It was written in Greek; but at the same time translated into Latin, for the benefit of those who did not understand that language. And though it is not the first of his Epistles in the order of time, yet it is first placed on account of sublimity of the matter contained in it, of the preeminence of the place to which it was sent, and in veneration of the Church.
The translation
The Douay-Rheims: the Catholic English Bible, translated out of the Latin Vulgate — the New Testament at Rheims in 1582, the Old at Douay in 1609–10 — and revised by Bishop Richard Challoner between 1749 and 1752. The fuller history is on the title page of St Luke.