Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Of course, if they could read.
Ping?
The key man was an obscure but brilliant scholar named John Bois who gave the KJV its ringing poetic quality.
Having God's word in one’s own language has provided motivation for learning to read as well as having affordable copies available. So the invention of printing and work of Bible translation into the common languages has worked hand in glove to bolster literacy.
Those translators comments are well worth the time to read. thanks!
In the Empire, by 425 there was a fully functioning elementary school system and an Imperial university at Constantinople. It is estimated that 50% of the population, including peasants, not merely the city dwellers and soldiers, were literate. The Scriptures were written in the mother tongues of the people, mostly Greek but also Aramaic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Ge’ez, Coptic, etc. Of course, once the Slavs became Christian, it became a matter of both Church and State urgency that Scripture be translated into their vernacular...and a whole written language was created for that (as were the two Coptic dialects, also from Greek).
The idea that reading the bible in the vernacular was the gift of the Protestant Revolution is absolute, Western parochial nonsense.
***{Here the KJV translators have referred to the Douay-Rheims, a Catholic translation of the Bible into English, which came out in 1609, two years before the KJV.}***
Yet they also say they were forced to do their own translation because the Catholic Church were dragging their feet on producing a good translation and the translators had seen none of the Catholic version yet.
Glad to see someone else reading FROM THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Here is a link to a nicely formated FROM THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER. It is much easier to read.
http://avbtab.org/av/avPre.htm
And the translators here.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE
KING JAMES VERSION TRANSLATORS
I. The First Westminister Company—translated the historical books, beginning with Genesis and ending with the Second Book of Kings.
Dr. Lancelot Andrews
Dr. John Overall
Dr. Hadrian Saravia
Dr. Richard Clarke, Dr. John Laifield, Dr. Robert Tighe, Francis Burleigh, Geoffry King, Richard Thompson
Dr. William Bedwell
II. The Cambridge Company—translated Chronicles to the end of the Song of Songs.
Edward Lively, Dr. John Richardson, Dr. Lawrence Chaderton
Francis Dillingham, Dr. Roger Andrews, Thomas Harrison, Dr. Robert Spaulding, Dr. Andrew Bing
III. The Oxford Company—translated beginning of Isaiah to the end of the Old Testament.
Dr. John Harding, Dr. John Reynolds
Dr. Thomas Holland, Dr. Richard Kilby
Dr. Miles Smith, Dr. Richard Brett, Daniel Fairclough
IV. The Second Oxford Company—translated the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation of St. John the Divine.
Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dr. George Abbot
Dr. Richard Eedes, Dr. Giles Tomson, Sir Henry Savile
Dr. John Peryn, Dr. Ralph Ravens, Dr. John Harmar
V. The Fifth Company of Translators at Westminster—translated all of the Epistles of the New Testament
The fifth company of translators at Westminster are all found at this link
Dr. William Barlow
Dr. John Spencer
Dr. Roger Fenton
Dr. Ralph Hutchinson
William Dakins
Michael Rabbet
[Thomas(?)] Sanderson
VI. The Sixth Company of Translators at Cambridge translated the apocryphal books. The King James translators did not consider the Apocrypha to be scripture and neither did King James—see, Alexander McClure on the Apocryphal committee and Why the Apocrypha is not is the Bible.
Dr. John Duport, Dr. William Brainthwaite, Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe
Dr. Samuel Ward
Dr. Andrew Downes, John Bois
Dr. John Ward, Dr. John Aglionby, Dr. Leonard Hutten
Dr. Thomas Bilson, Dr. Richard Bancroft
If anyone is interested, last week Walmart had 400th Aniversery copies of the ORIGINAL KJV for $4.99.
With the preface and geaneologies of the various tribes. All this and OLDE ENGLISH lettering. Shows why the Geneva version still gave the KJV a run for it’s money till they modernized the alphabet.
Not bad for less than $5.00 bucks.
Praise God Almighty that Godly men who rightly feared the Living God [unlike 19th century translators, some of whom reject Jesus Christ, and who are only qualified for the sandbox]…these KJV Bible believing men were not only outstanding scholars of Greek, Hebrew, Latin: but also the target language, which is why they were eminently more qualified than present “scholars” whom poorly wrestle with the nuances of the target language: choosing only to make it a book of “easy” understanding.
Tyndale's translation of the 1520s was absolutely crucial in the development of the English bible. In fact, although he was executed for his work....his last words, a prayer, were answered. Tyndale said, "Lord, open the King of England's Eyes!" Within a few months, Tyndale's translation was republished as the official royally authorized "Great Bible."
The KJV often has exactly the same wording as Tyndale's version of 80 years before...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
William Tyndale (ca. 1495-1536) was the greatest of all English biblical scholars. His translation of the Bible into English formed the major part of the Authorized Version, or King James Bible.
William Tyndale was born in Gloucestershire and mostly educated at Oxford, where he earned a master of arts degree in 1515. He became a priest and, doubtless influenced among other things by the work of John Colet and Erasmus at Cambridge some years earlier, decided to produce an English translation of the Bible. He found support from a rich London cloth merchant. Within months, however, he became convinced he must leave London if he was to succeed; and, accordingly, with the financial support of the merchant, he left England in 1524, never again to return.
After short sojourns in Hamburg, and, possibly, Wittenberg, Tyndale settled down at Cologne in 1525. He quickly began the printing of his New Testament, but only a few sheets had been finished when the city fathers got wind of it and stopped it. The work was resumed at Worms, and by April 1526 an octavo edition was being sold in London. In November all available copies were burned at St. Paul's Cross. In 1528 Tyndale published the Parable of the Wicked Mammon, dealing with Luther's teaching concerning justification by faith, and the Obedience of a Christian Man, which replaced papal authority by royal authority and was heartily approved by King Henry VIII. However, in the Practice of Prelates in 1530, Tyndale not only attacked Cardinal Wolsey but opposed the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon. Meanwhile Bishop Tunstall of London had invited Sir Thomas More to reply to Tyndale's books, and a lively controversy took place.
Tyndale's Lutheran-inspired Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount was much admired; and possibly The Supper of the Lord, which appeared in 1533, was also his. Meanwhile throughout these years his work on the Old Testament had been proceeding. In 1530 he published his translation of the Pentateuch. As his New Testament had been pirated for various unsatisfactory editions, he published a revision in 1534, with a third, revised edition in 1535. In 1535, however, he was seized by the local government authorities in Antwerp, where he was living, for being a propagator of heresy. After months of imprisonment and many theological disputations he was condemned in August 1536 for persistence in heresy, and in October he was strangled to death and his body publicly cremated.
During his years at Antwerp, where he was so well maintained by the generosity of the English merchants there, Tyndale acquired a great reputation for austerity of character and frugality of life, combined with a steady attention to the needs of the poor, which offset the impression caused by the violent language found in his polemical works. In the year following his death there appeared in England a new Bible with the king's approval which was said to be the work of one Thomas Matthew. It was, however, a composite work edited by John Rogers and containing translations by him, by Miles Coverdale, and, for the greater part, by Tyndale. This Matthew Bible was reedited by Coverdale and published in 1539. It became known as the Great Bible. In this way Tyndale's translation was the basis of the first Bibles in English to get royal approval. His translation has underlain most subsequent English versions and has profoundly affected the development of the English language.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/william-tyndale#ixzz1LFuqXfYz
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.