“The Tynsdale version was not the basis for the KJV.”
Some 90% of the KJV came from Tyndale, although King James made a point of refusing to allow the translators to use congregation or elder, since “No Bishop, No King”.
“The fact that the Rheims New Testament was published in 1582 meant that it appeared almost thirty years before the KJV...”
yes, except the version you can buy today is the 1750 revision, which was based on the KJV:
“Much of the text of the 1582/1610 bible, however, employed a densely latinate vocabulary, to the extent of being in places unreadable; and consequently this translation was replaced by a revision undertaken by bishop Richard Challoner; the New Testament in three editions 1749, 1750, and 1752; the Old Testament (minus the Vulgate apocrypha), in 1750. Although retaining the title Douay–Rheims Bible, the Challoner revision was in fact a new version, tending to take as its base text the King James Bible rigorously checked and extensively adjusted for improved readability and consistency with the Clementine edition of the Vulgate.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible
Tyndale’s translation was superior to the KJV, in that his goal was accuracy, while the KJV’s goal was to support the Anglican Church.
But if anyone wants to suggest Tyndale’s translation was in error, let tehm look here and back up their claims (and Tyndale himself wished to revise his translation - if he hadn’t been killed before he could finish it):
http://www.faithofgod.net/WTNT/
Consider (updated spelling):
“And as Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lift up, that none which believeth in him perish: but have eternal life. God so loved the world, that he gave his only son for the intent, that none that believe in him, should perish: But should have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world, to condemn the world: But that the world through him, might be saved. He that believeth on him shall not be condemned. But he that believeth not, is condemned all ready, because he believeth not in the name of the only son of God. And this is the condemnation: Light is come into the world, and the men have loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil. For every man that evil doeth, hateth the light: neither cometh to light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds might be known, how that they are wrought in God.”
“O foolish Galatians: who hath bewitched you, that ye should not believe the truth? to whom Iesus Christ was described before the eyes, and among you crucified? This only would I learn of you, received ye the spirit by the deeds of the law? or else by preaching of the faith? Are ye so unwise, that after ye have begun in the spirit, ye would now end in the flesh? So many things ye have suffered in vain. If it be so that ye have suffered in vain. Which ministered to you the spirit, and worketh miracles among you doth he it though the deeds of the law? or by preaching of the faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was ascribed to him for righteousness. Understand therefore, that they which are of faith, are the children of Abraham.”
“At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and lauded God. And the prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundation of the prison was shaken, and by and by all the doors opened, and every man’s bonds were loosed. When the keeper of the prison waked out of his sleep, and saw the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had been fled. Paul cried with a loud voice saying: Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
He called for a light and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, Sirs what must I do to be saved? And they said: believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved and thy household. And they preached unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and was baptised with all that belonged unto him straight way. When he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and joyed that he with all his household believed on God.”
Not bad for a translation made some 80 years prior to the KJV.
>> “Tyndale’s translation was superior to the KJV, in that his goal was accuracy, while the KJV’s goal was to support the Anglican Church.” <<
.
Amazing what a little political power can do...
Probably the strongest point that can be made for the KJV is that it became widely available at the time that English was becoming the undisputed language of commerce throughout the world, resulting in the KJV becoming the basis of translations into over 40 eastern languages, and bringing God’s word to a hungry world.