HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH VERSIONS

 

THE first English version of the New Testament was that made by JOHN WICLIF, or WYCLIFFE, about the year 1367. It was translated from the Latin Bible, verbatim, without any regard to the idiom of the languages. Though this version was first in point of time, no part of it was printed before the year 1731.

 

TYNDALE’S translation was published in 1526, either at Antwerp or Hamburg. It is commonly said that Tyndale translated from the Greek, but he never published it to be so on any title page of his Testament. One edition, not published by him, has this title—“The Newe Testament”, dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke, by Willyam Tyndale, and fynesshed in the yere of oure Lorde God, A. M. D. And xxxiiij. in the moneth of Nouember.” It is evident he only translated from the Vulgate Latin.

 

COVERDALE published the whole Bible in English, in the year 1535. He “followed his interpreters,” and adopted Tyndale’s version, with the exception of a few alterations.

 

MATTHEW’S BIBLE was only Tyndale and Coverdale’s published under the feigned name of Thomas Matthew.

 

HOLLYBUSHE’S NEW TESTAMENT was printed in 1538, “both in Latin and English, after the Vulgate text,” to which Coverdale prefixed a dedication to Henry VIII.

 

THE GREAT BIBLE, published in 1539, purported to be “translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes,” but it is certain that it was only a revision of Matthew’s, with a few small alterations. It was named “the Great Bible,” because of its large size.

 

CRANMER’S BIBLE, published in 1540, was essentially the same as the Great Bible, but took his name on account of a few corrections which he made in it.

 

THE GENEVA BIBLE was published at Geneva in 1560. The New Testament in 1557. Coverdale was one of the Geneva brethren who issued it.

 

THE BISHOP’S BIBLE was a revisal of the English Bible, made by the bishops, and compared with the originals. It was published in 1568.

 

THE DOUAY BIBLE appeared in 1609, and was translated from the authentical Latin, or Vulgate.

 

KING JAMES’ BIBLE, or the Authorized Version, was published in 1611. In the year 1604, forty-seven persons learned in the languages were appointed to revise the translation then in use. They were ordered to use the Bishop’s Bible as the basis of the new version, and to alter it as little as the original would allow; but if the prior translations of Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, Cranmer or Whitechurch, and the Geneva editors agreed better with the text, to adopt the same. This translation was perhaps the best that could be made at the time, and if it had not been published by kingly authority, it would not now be venerated by English and American protestants, as though it had come direct from God. It has been convicted of containing over 20,000 errors. Nearly 700 Greek MSS. are now known, and some of them very ancient; whereas the translators of the common version had only the advantage of some 8 MSS. none of which was earlier than the tenth century.

 

Since 1611, many translations of both Old and New Testaments, and portions of the same, have been published. The following are some of the most noted.

 

The Family Expositor: or a Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, with Critical Notes. By Philip Doddridge. 1755.

 

The four Gospels translated from the Greek. By George Campbell. 1790.

 

A New Literal Translation, from the Original Greek of the Apostolical Epistles. By James Macknight. 1795.

 

A Translation of the New Testament. By Gilbert Wakefield. 1795.

 

A Translation of the New Testament, from the original Greek. Humbly attempted by Nathaniel Scarlett, assisted by men of piety and literature. 1798.

 

The New Testament in an Improved Version, upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation, with a corrected Text. 1808.

 

The New Testament, in Greek and English; the Greek according to Griesbach; the English upon the basis of the fourth London edition of the Improved Version, with an attempt to further improvement from the translations of Campbell, Wakefield, Scarlett, Macknight, and Thomson. By Abner Kneeland. 1822.

 

A New Family Bible, and improved Version, from corrected Texts of the Originals, with Notes Critical, &c. By B. Boothroyd. 1823.

 

The Sacred Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists, translated from the original, by Campbell, Macknight, and Doddridge, with various Emendations by A. Campbell. 1833.

 

A New and Corrected Version of the New Testament. By R. Dickinson. 1833.

 

The Book of the New Covenant, a Critical Revision of the Text and Translation of Common Version, with the aid of most ancient MSS. By Granville Penn. 1836.

 

The Holy Bible, with 20,000 emendations. By J. T. Conquest. 1841.

 

The Good News of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed; from the Critical Greek of Tittman. By N. N. Whiting. 1849.

 

A Translation of the New Testament, from the Syriac. By James Murdock. 1852.

 

Translation of Paul’s epistles. By Joseph Turnbull. 1854.

 

The New Testament, translated from Griesbach

s Text. By Samuel Sharpe. 1856.

 

 

 

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