God preserved His pure words in English By: David A. Sargent Psalms 12:6-7, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Generations of the Bible: 1. Hebrew – Moses to Malachi in Hebrew 2. Chaldean – Parts of Daniel and other OT Passages In Chaldean 3. Greek – Matthew to Revelation – New Testament 4. Syrian – Translation of Old and New Testament 5. Old Italian – Translation of Old and New Testament 6. German – Luther’s Translation of Old and New Testament (1522/1534) 7. English – King James Translation of Old and New Testament 1. Wycliffite Bible was completed by 1390 2. William Tyndales English Bible 1530-1556 3. The Coverdale Bible 1535 and The Great Bible 1538: the first complete Bible to be printed in English. Unlike William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536), Miles Coverdale (ca. 1488-1569) was more of an editor than translator. He based much of his own text on Tyndales own work and was influenced by other contemporary translation efforts, such as Desiderius Erasmuss (1466-1536) Greek/Latin New Testament (1516), Martin Luthers German Bible (1522/1534) and others. And Matthews Bible 1537: Thomas Matthew, a pseudonym for John Rogers (ca. 1500-1555), one of William Tyndales companions, appeared in 1537. Matthews Bible, as it came to be known, essentially reprinted Tyndales earlier version, but with the addition of previously unprinted bits of the Old Testament Tyndale had translated while in prison and with parts of Coverdales Old Testament and Apocrypha.) (Commissioned by Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540) in 1538 and prepared by Coverdale, the Great Bible. 4. Richard Taverner (ca. 1505-1575) produced a revised version of Matthews Bible in 1539 that included additional textual prologues and notes, but it met with little public acceptance or commercial success, due in large part to the publication of the government-sponsored Great Bible the same year. 5. The Geneva Bible 1557-1560: (The Calvinist’s Bible): The first fifteen years of English Bible translation witnessed the publication of five major versions of the Scriptures, but there would be a gap of nearly twenty years before the appearance of the next significant English revision, the Geneva Bible. The accession of the Catholic Mary Tudor (1516-1558) to the English throne in 1553 marked the beginning of a period of Protestant persecution, leading thousands of English reformers to flee the country. Many of these Marian Exiles relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, where they came into contact with John Calvin (1509-1564) and his predestinarian brand of Protestantism and soon embarked on their own new translation of the Bible led by William Whittingham (1524-1579), Calvins brother-in-law. Their New Testament appeared in 1557, and the complete Geneva Bible—notably dedicated to the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)—was printed in 1560. The Geneva Bible is noted for a number of innovative features, chief among them its groundbreaking inclusion of verse numbers throughout the biblical text. It was the Bible used by Shakespeare and other English authors of the day, and it would remain the most popular English Bible until well into the seventeenth century. 6. The Bishops Bible 1568-1576: Although the Geneva Bible had been widely accepted by English Protestants, more traditional elements of the Church of England objected to the polemical tenor of much of its Calvinist-inspired marginal content which, its critics feared, advocated for a radical restructuring of church government. In an effort to defuse this polemic, Matthew Parker (1504-1575), Archbishop of Canterbury, launched a new translation project to create a more sober Bible that would replace the Geneva Bible and update the Great Bible of 1539. This new Bible, prepared by a panel of bishops, prioritized polite language and excised all polemical marginal notes. Although it never achieved much popularity and most English Protestants continued to use the Geneva Bible, everyone was at least familiar with the Bishops Bible because it was the official text used in all church services. 7. King James Bible (Authorized Version, 1611): The Holy Bible: Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues: And with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised, By his Maiesties speciall Commandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. 1. King James’s Bible (Authorized Version, 1611): The Holy Bible: Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues: And with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised, By his Maiesties speciall Commandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. 2. King James’s Bible Cambridge editions of 1629 & 1638 3. King James’ Bible (Authorized Version, 1648) 4. King James Bible Cambridge edition of 1760 5. King James Bible Oxford edition 1769 6. King James Bible Isaiah Thomas (Authorized Version, 1791) 7. King James Bible Oxford in 1833 All the above are primarily the same text base: Antiochian where they were first called Christians! Notes: The Rheims New Testament (1582) & Douai Old Testament (1609-10): An English Catholic College at Douai in Flanders in 1568 resolved to prepare an English Bible translation for Catholics that would faithfully provide a word-for-word literal translation of the Latin Vulgate. Douai-Rheims is a translation of the Latin Vulgate Catholic-Alexandrian Bible. It does not count as a faithful translation of the Antiochian Text Base. After 1881 all versions of the Bible are produced from the Alexandrian text type supplanting the Antiochian text type and are no longer in this same family of Bibles. The Alexandrian text base comes from Alexandria Egypt where they were first called Catholics! Continued…
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 11:56:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015