Dear Robin,

Thanks for the question.

You are wise to use more than one translation because there is no one translation that is perfect, as my professor said, “Every translation is a traitor.”  (He may actually have said translator, but you get the drift)

In the case of the Corinthians passage, the Douay-Rheims, which is based on the Latin vulgate, misses the mark.  While it is faithful to the Latin, the Latin is not accurately reflecting the Greek.  I would go with the more recent translations like the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE).  

As far as the Genesis passage, the Douay-Rheims (and vulgate for that matter) is reflecting some ambiguity in the Hebrew, which some early translators took to mean ipsa vs ipsum, and there has been no shortage of debate over this.  I would say do your own research on this to see all the arguments but know in the end Mary is bound to Christ who is the ultimate crusher.

In general, I like the Douay-Rheims as it reflects the long-standing tradition of the Church, but there are easier to read, and more accurate bits in the RSVCE and others.  Whatever you do, remember we don’t speak Greek or Hebrew, nor do we fully appreciate the idioms of the time, so we rely on the Church to give us the best interpretation of the texts and fundamentally what is codified in doctrine.  (Though we have officially recognized translations, and the Vulgate was the standard for centuries, nonetheless the above point still stands, there is no one.) So, we read Scripture in the tradition of the Church, knowing the Creed and other essentials that help us to contextualize and comprehend the mysteries that are often hard to see firsthand.  Peter warned of the difficulties experienced when reading Paul, in particular, to his own contemporaries (cf. 2 Peter 3:16).

So keep up what you are doing, and don’t worry too much when one translation makes a mistake, there are others that balance out, and when it comes to dogma, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is your best bet.

Peace,