Matthew’s
Bible, 1537
Coverdale
was not the only person to use and build on Tyndale’s work. A friend of Tyndale, John Rogers, was responsible for publishing a complete
Bible which was largely a composite of Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s
works. Because this volume carried a dedication signed by Thomas Matthew, it was
called Matthew’s Bible, and contained newly-edited versions of Tyndale’s
translation as far as 2 Chronicles (more than previously published), Coverdale’s
translation of the rest of the Old Testament and the Deuterocanon, and Tyndale’s
New Testament. Like Tyndale’s Bible but unlike Coverdale’s, Matthew’s
Bible contained highly argumentative annotations.
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, Coverdale’s
and Matthew’s; while scholars found
Coverdale’s unsatisfactory because it was not based on original-language
texts, conservatives found the explanatory notes in Matthew’s 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 Matthew’s
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 Henry’s 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.
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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.
View Matthew 6.9-13 (Lord's Prayer) from the Rheims version.
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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.
View Matthew 6.9-13 (Lord's Prayer) in the Authorised version, 1611 First edition
View Matthew 6.9-13 (Lord's Prayer) in the Authorised version, 1778 edition
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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.
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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 God’s 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 Wycliffe’s
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
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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.
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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 Today’s 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.
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New
International Version, 1978
Today's
New International Version
This new translation by an international
team of scholars is intended to be clear and to have literary quality, and so
to be “suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorising
and liturgical use”. However, the controlling committee also sought to
preserve some measure of continuity with older translations, so many passages
in the NIV reflect, or even make direct use of, earlier versions.
An
'inclusive-language edition' of the NIV was published in 1995 which sought to
avoid translating passages in gender-specific ways where the original text was
not gender-specific. However, this did not supplant the earlier version/edition.
Another slight change to the NIV text has been heralded recently.
Today's New International Version (TNIV) is intended to reflect advances in linguistic
and archaeological knowledge, as well as changes to the English language, which
have occurred in recent decades. However, TNIV is not intended as a replacement
for NIV.
New King James Bible, 1982
The King James Bible has been revised a
number of times since it was first published in 1611, and the NKJV is the most
recent, and one of the most extensive, of these revisions. A large team of scholars
was involved in the task.
The NKJV has the same textual base as the old KJV, but archaic words and expressions have been replaced by modern English forms. It largely retains the style and the familiar text of the KJV, but two significant changes are that important alternative readings are noted and referenced, and quotation marks are now used for direct speech.
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Contemporary
English Version, 1994
The Contemporary English Version is a truly readable and truly international version produced by the United Bible Societies. Following the remarkable success of their Good News Bible (TEV), UBS responded again to the clear need for an entirely new translation of the Bible, one which would be readily understood by the widest possible range of modern readers of all age groups throughout the English-speaking world. Under the leadership of Barclay M Newman, Bible Society translation staff all over the world co-operated in producing a new ‘meaning-based’ English version, faithful to the original meaning of the best available texts. Its language is carefully styled to be suitable for reading aloud as well as for private study, and specialised theological or ‘churchy’ terms were avoided. The text is continuously studied and revised to ensure that the original meanings continue to be transmitted as clearly as possible in an ever-changing world. Initially, the CEV text was modified in many countries, including Australia, to recognise local differences in the English language. In 2004, the UBS movement determined to simplify the range of available texts by producing two main versions, one, the Global Edition, for countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and another American Edition for the US readership and other countries where US English is preferred.
New
Living Translation, 1996
Like most recent translations,
this version is a “thought-for-thought”, rather than a “word-for-word”
translation, and is intended to convey the meaning of the text clearly, in a way
that can easily be understood even when read aloud. The translators have also
attempted to use gender-neutral language wherever that in fact conveys the intended
meaning of the text more accurately than a literal translation would do.
New Testament
and Psalms: An Inclusive Version, 1995
This translation is based on the New Revised Standard Version, although it is an independent project not under the sponsorship of the US National Council of the Churches of Christ. It sets out “to replace or rephrase all gender-specific language not referring to particular historical individuals, all pejorative references to race, color [sic] or religion, and all identifications of persons by their physical disability alone, by means of paraphrase, alternative renderings, and other acceptable means of conforming the language of the work to an inclusive idea”. An extensive introduction explains the basis on which such changes were made.
