Among other translations of the Bible we hold is the Douay Bible, a translation into English carried out under the authority of the English College at Douay between 1578 and 1609. We have an edition of this version published in Dublin in 1861 by the publisher James Duffy, a notable Catholic publisher of the day. The Douay Bible was based on the Vulgate, the translation into latin made almost entirely by St Jerome in the 4th-5th century. We hold an edition of the vulgate published in Antwerp in 1631.

Among material held at the Central Catholic Library, which is related to the Bible, there are a number of atlases; for instance, the Atlas of the Bible, an illustrated guide to the Holy Land, and our Atlas of the Early Christian World. This publication contains a map showing the places in which St Augustine spent his life and the chief voyages he made, as well as a map giving details of the main Christian writers from 100-700 AD, (among them, of course, bible commentators).

We hold many books on the historical background to scripture. These cover topics such as life in ancient Israel, Jewish traditions at the time of Christ, and the social setting of the writings of St Paul.

Among the bible-related journals we subscribe to is Bible Today. This journal is available for consultation in our Reading Room. Each issue focuses on a particular book of the Bible or on a particular topic in bible studies. The March issue, to take an example, contains articles on the portrait of Jesus in the Gospel of St John and on the women who appear in this Gospel.

We hold a number of concordances to the Bible. As you may know, a concordance to a book is an alphabetical list of the (chief) words occurring in that book, together with details of where they occur. So a biblical concordance lists in alphabetical order the words which occur in the Bible, and tells the reader where these words occur.

Biblical concordances can be very useful to me as a librarian when I am answering queries from visitors and members. For instance, one caller needed to know when and where the Christian name “Anna” is used in the Bible. I was able to use a concordance to find out. To take another example, a visitor wanted to find out where the words of Christ, “I am the true vine” occur. I looked up the word “vine” in a concordance and found that the quotation comes from St John’s Gospel, ch. 15, verse 1.

This material is part of our extensive reference collection, and is available for consultation in the library. Copies of the Bible are of course available for loan in our Lending Department, as is a broad range of material on biblical history and biblical interpretation.