The Great Bible, 1539-41
In September, 1538, Henry VIII commanded that every parish church should have one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English. Two complete Bibles were now circulating, Coverdales and Matthews; while scholars found Coverdales unsatisfactory because it was not based on original-language texts, conservatives found the explanatory notes in Matthews Bible (and its connection with Tyndale) to be offensive. A new, official Bible was therefore planned, and Coverdale was chosen to be the editor, but it was Matthews Bible that was chosen as the basis for the revised text. This was a very influential work; it was the model for the principal later translations, including the King James Bible.
The new Bible was to be printed in Paris, for technical reasons, but when this proved impossible printers, machinery, type and paper were sent to England and the project was completed there. Henry VIII issued a proclamation that this Bible should be read in the churches, and copies were chained to stands in various parts of the larger churches, although later only licensed persons were allowed to read or expound the Bible in church or in any open gathering.
After Henrys death in 1547, his successor, Edward VI, again commanded that there be a copy of the Bible in every parish church, and even under Queen Mary the English Bible was not forbiden, although many copies were destroyed.
The Geneva Bible, 1560
During the reign of Queen Mary, a number of strongly-Protestant scholars and clerics found it necessary to leave England. Many of them, including John Knox, went to Geneva, where they began working on a new translation of the Bible into English. The New Testament and the Psalms were produced in 1557, followed by a revised Psalter in 1559 and a complete Bible in 1560. This Geneva translation benefited from the fact that Geneva was a significant centre of (Protestant) Biblical study. Furthermore, French and Italian vernacular translations were being prepared there at the same time, and each group of translators benefited from the presence and activity of the others.
Although the last edition of the Geneva Bible was printed in 1644, its influence can be seen both in the language of later translations and in the physical structure of the volume. The Geneva Bible provided not only a meticulously-translated text but also variant translations where they might be useful. Where English idiom requires additional words to make sense of a Greek or Hebrew phrase, the additional words were printed in italics. Chapters were divided into verses to make it easier to give references and so to use concordances, and the text is annotated to some degree. Maps and tables were provided, and the volume was printed in quarto size rather than folio, for greater ease of handling. This was also the first time that an English Bible was printed in Roman, rather than Gothic, script.
The Geneva Bible became for many years the favoured family Bible among the English, and was the first Bible to be printed in Scotland.
View Matthew 6.9-13 (Lord's Prayer) in the Geneva version.
The Rhemes-Douay Bible, 1582-1609
These earlier translations were all Protestant in outlook. Some of the scholars of the English College at Reims, who had left England when Elizabeth I ascended the throne, began working on a vernacular Bible that would be suitable for Catholics to use. Begun in 1578, the New Testament was completed in 1582 (and had some influence on the language of the King James Version), but the translation of the Old Testament was not published until 1609/10. It was based on the Latin Vulgate, although in the New Testament some reference was also made to the Greek.
By the time the translation was complete, the College had moved to Douai, so this translation came to be known as the Rhemes-Douay Bible, after the two cities in which the work was done. The style of English in the text was often clumsy or difficult to understand, and its annotations were strongly critical of Protestant teachings.
The Authorised Version of King James, 1611
King James I came to the throne in 1603 after the death of Elizabeth. In an attempt to resolve some of the significant religious controversies of the day, the new king summoned the Hampton Court Conference in January of the following year.
During the conference Dr John Reynolds of Oxford, speaking for the Puritan faction, proposed that a new translation or revision of the Bible be made that would have the approval of all religious groups. James decided to take a personal interest in the work, supporting the idea with enthusiasm and vigour, and fifty-four scholars were appointed to undertake it. Groups of committee members were assigned to work on certain sections of the text.
Careful rules were laid down, and editing and supervision were meticulous. Also, knowledge of Hebrew and also of related languages such as Aramaic and Syriac had advanced considerably in the years since Tyndale and his immediate successors had been at work. As a result, the King James Version was not only reasonably harmonious in style, but it was also more accurate than any previous English translation. Even so, a lack of access to good editions of original-language texts and a still-imperfect knowledge of the original-language idioms, and even, in some cases, of their grammar, meant that it had significant limitations.
The enormous work of translation and revision took almost three years, and the final editors, Bishop Bilson of Winchester and Miles Smith (later Dean of Gloucester), checked it over for a further nine months before completion. Although it was then published without formal authorisation by King James or the hierarchy of the church, it immediately replaced other translations for use in churches, and within fifty years had even largely replaced the Geneva Bible as the favoured Bible for private use.
It is important to remember that this was a full Bible, including the books of the Deuterocanon/ Apocrypha, unlike many of the KJV Bibles printed today; however, the books (or chapters of books) which had only Greek original were not given the same status as the rest of the text. These additional sections were regarded as suitable for public reading and for reflection; no teaching based principally on them could be regarded as "necessary for salvation", but reading from books such as Sirach were included in the Anglican lectionary, and the stories contained in the Apocrypha were so much "common currency" that George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) based some of his oratorios on them.
V Revised English Versions
After the King James Version, no other lasting revisions of the English Bible appeared for almost two hundred and fifty years. However, during the nineteenth century, more ancient manuscripts were discovered, and the increased knowledge gained through the continuing work of scholars and through archaeological discoveries in the Middle East began to throw light on some of the difficult or obscure passages in the text. Over the centuries, the English language itself had also changed considerably. Although the great authority which the 17th-century text had gained by this time made any change difficult, there was a growing need to incorporate this new knowledge in the text, and to adjust the style of its language so that it could again be readily understood.
In 1870, at a convention of the Church of England, the Bishop of Winchester proposed that a new revision be made, and a committee representing various denominations was appointed. Shortly afterwards, American scholars were invited to take part in the work, and documents were frequently exchanged between New York and London. In 1881, a revision of the New Testament was published, and in 1885 the complete Bible appeared. Where the preferences of the American Revision Committee differed from those of the English scholars, they were printed in an appendix. In 1901 the American Standard Revised Version was published, with these and other changes in the text.
Twentieth Century Translations of the Bible
The beginning of this century saw a renewal of interest in Biblical studies, stimulated in part by the missionary movements of the 19th century and in part by a continued growth in critical scholarship and the development of archaeology as an academic discipline rather than merely a curio-hunt for the wealthy. Greater knowledge of the original languages of the Bible, and of the history and the cultural patterns of the various peoples of ancient times, began to lead to a better understanding of the text than had been possible for translators in earlier centuries. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, in caves at Qumran near the Dead Sea, gave us copies of texts 1000 years older than the earliest Hebrew manuscripts previously known, and archaeologists have continued to find fragments and even extended sections of text going back to the very early centuries of the common era. Yet ordinary Christians were not getting any direct benefit from this greater understanding of the meaning of Scripture.
The preparation of new translations was also stimulated by a growing need for churches and for ordinary people to have access to Gods word in language that they could more easily understand. Indeed, some now argue that, because all languages are continuously changing and developing, no major translation should go for more than fifty years without a thorough revision. We should remember that one of the objectives of the translators of the King James Version in 1611 was to express the word of God in the language of common use. In fact, the King James Version was the seventh revision of the Bible in English since Wycliffes Bible of 1383. Revision of the translated text is not, therefore, just a 20th century phenomenon; indeed, since 1611, there have been nearly 40 different English versions of the whole Bible, almost 100 additional translations of the New Testament, and over 150 published English translations of at least one book of the New Testament.
The translations by James Moffatt (1926) and by Ronald Knox in the middle of this century gained considerable acceptance, and the most significant English versions since 1950 include the following versions
Revised Standard Version, 1952
New Revised Standard Version, 1990
With publication authorised by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, this was intended to be a revision of the King James, the English Revised, and the American Standard versions, rather than a fresh translation. Like most traditional translations, it is rather literal. The New RSV is an up-to-date and very readable revision of the 1952 text, and is the work of an interdenominational team of scholars headed by Bruce M. Metzger, a leading scholar of the text of the New Testament.
J. B. Phillips New Testament, 1958
New Testament in Modern English, 1970
Many people regard Phillips Letters to Young Churches (1947) as the first translation to use the principles of functional equivalence, that is, translation based on meaning (sometimes called thought-for-thought), rather than literal (word-for-word) rendering. The 1970 edition is a full revision of his earlier work, based on the latest and best Greek text, and Phillips in fact refers to it as a new translation.
New American Standard Bible, 1963
Although the name given to this version would suggestion that it is a revision of the American Standard version, it is actually a conservative and scholarly new translation. It makes use of the latest available Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, and aims to follow the principles used in the ASV.
Jerusalem Bible, 1966
New Jerusalem Bible, 1985
An entirely new Catholic translation, the first Jerusalem Bible was largely based on the French Bible de Jérusalem, and preserves in English many of the readings and interpretations of that version. The New Jerusalem Bible is a very thorough revision of the 1966 edition. In this newer version, translation directly into English from the original language texts has largely replaced the earlier French-based text.
The order of the books of the Old Testament is different from that in other English versions, largely reflecting the order of the Vulgate Bible, and the books often grouped together as the Apocrypha or (more properly) the Deuterocanon are here included in the main part of the text.
New English Bible, 1970
Revised English Bible, 1989
Sponsored by the leading Protestant churches of Great Britain, this new translation was intended to present to English readers a faithful rendering of the Greek and Hebrew texts into the current speech of our time. The result was a completely new text in English of a high literary level, although archaisms such as the use of thee and thou (referring to God) were retained.
The Revised English Bible is a substantial revision of the 1970 translation, and aims to be not only fluent and intelligible, but also of appropriate dignity for use in worship. It was sponsored by a broader group of British churches than was the original version.
Living Bible, 1971
Translated by Kenneth Taylor, this version is a free rendering of the text in everyday English, designed primarily for young people and for family reading. The translator himself describes it as a paraphrase. This means that where the text seems unclear the translator has added or changed material in an effort to make it clear or to explain textual difficulties.
Good News Bible, 1976 today
This version is also known as Todays English Version (TEV). It was first published by the American Bible Society, and has been widely distributed by many Bible Societies throughout the English-speaking world. It does not conform to a traditional style of language, but seeks to express the meaning of the original texts in words and forms easily recognised by people everywhere who use English as a means of communication. The translation was produced by a panel under the leadership of Robert G. Bratcher.
Unlike other versions, the Good News Bible has been subject to a policy of continual revision, with changes being made in each new addition as the need has arisen. In 1988, the Bible Society in Australia released an Australian edition which incorporates certain changes to reflect Australian usage and idiom.
:: shrug ::
So?
I still don't get what your issue is.
Dan