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Related Site
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English Bible Versions
Links updated December 2005
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The Bible Gateway.
By Nick Hengeveld. Many versions for browsing or searching,
including the American Standard Version (1901), New American
Standard Bible (with notes), English Standard Version (with notes),
New International Version (with notes), King James Version, New King
James Version (with notes), Darby's New Translation, Young's Literal
Translation, the Amplified Bible, Contemporary English Version, the
New Living Translation, The Message, and a modern-spelling edition
of Wycliffe's New Testament. Search on whole words, parts of words,
or phrases.
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The Unbound Bible. At
Biola University. English versions include the New American Standard
Bible, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English, Darby's
New Translation, the Douay-Rheims version (Challoner revision), King
James Version, Webster's revision of the KJV, Weymouth's NT, Young's
Literal Translation. Texts include the Hebrew Old Testament, the
Septuagint, the Greek New Testament (in four different editions),
and the Latin Vulgate. Learning to use this resource is a bit of a
challenge.
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The Blue Letter Bible.
Here you can search the King James Version, and view the following
others: the New King James Version, New Living Translation, New
American Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, Webster's
Revision of the KJV, Young's Literal Translation, Darby's
Translation, American Standard Version, and the Latin Vulgate. You
can also view the Hebrew or Greek text, and for each word of the
original text you can see the entry in the Hebrew lexicon of
Gesenius (as translated by Tregelles) or the Greek lexicon of
Thayer.
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Olive Tree Bible. Search or browse the New King James
Version, New American Standard Bible, King James Version, Revised
Standard Version, Modern King James Version, Literal Translation
Version (Green), American Standard Version, Darby's New Translation,
Weymouth New Testament, Young's Literal Translation, Contemporary
English Version, Today's English Version, International Standard
Version, Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, and the Jewish Publication
Society translation (1917).
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Bible Database Online Bibles.
By Brent Maurer. The King James, Webster's, Young's Literal
Translation, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version,
and the
Wycliffe New Testament online in chapter files. This site also
has many Bibles in other European and Asian languages.
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Crosswalk.com's Bible Study
Tools. There are some recent versions on this site that are
not available elsewhere. The catch is, you have to view them in a
little window surrounded by agressive ads for the latest foolheaded
books and videos. But this may be an appropriate setting for some of
the new versions! Included are the New American Standard Bible,
American Standard Version, New King James Version, King James
Version, Third Millennium Bible, New Living Translation, New Revised
Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, Today's English Version,
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner Revision), New Century Version, God's
Word Translation, World English Bible, The Bible in Basic English,
The Darby Translation, The Webster Bible, Young's Literal
Translation, Holman Christian Standard Bible, Wesley's New
Testament, and the Latin Vulgate.
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English Standard Version
(Crossway, 2001). The recently published evangelical revision of the
RSV, now available for browsing or searching online. Sophisticated
advanced search options allow even searching of the marginal notes.
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Holman
Christian Standard Bible. The entire HCSB Bible with its
marginal notes.
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The NET Bible.
From the Biblical Studies
Foundation. This is a new on-line English translation, featuring
thousands of text-critical and philological annotations. For reading
only, with no search program. The notes are the really valuable
thing here.
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Browse
RSV and KJV Bibles in Frames. From the University of
Virginia. Search or browse the King James Version and the Revised
Standard Version of the Bible and Apocrypha side by side.
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New Revised Standard Version. Complete text with notes,
courtesy of Dr. Barry Bandstra of Hope College, Holland, Michigan.
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New Revised Standard
Version, Anglicized Edition (1995). Complete text with its
marginal notes. From the Oremus Bible Browser. Also available here
is the text of the original American edition of the NRSV (1989)
without the notes, and three different liturgical Psalters that have
been used in the Anglican Church.
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Modern King James Version.
Limited revision of the KJV by Jay P. Green Sr.
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The New American
Bible. Full text of the official Roman Catholic version,
courtesy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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J.B.
Phillips' paraphrase of the New Testament (1962 edition),
provided by Gordon Smith of Wales. Very nicely formatted. With
introductions and other helps.
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Wesley's New Testament of 1790, minus the notes, in book
files. Provided by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology at
Northwest Nazarene College, Nampa, Idaho.
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Jewish
Publication Society Translation of the Old Testament (1917
edition), courtesy of Mechon Mamre. Also
here.
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Good News
Bible, British usage edition (1994). Put online by the
British and Foreign Bible Society. Also on this site is the British
edition of the Contemporary English Version (1997).
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The Online Bible.
An first-rate Bible program you can download to your computer for
free. After downloading and installing the program, you can return
to the site to add many different English versions, also for free.
This is much better than trying to study online at the several sites
listed above, because a program on your hard drive is many times
faster than anything operated from the web.
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The Sword Project.
Another program similar to the Online Bible, with many versions and
original language texts.
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E-Sword. Another free
Bible program, with commentaries (including Barnes, Clarke, Gill),
dictionaries (ISBE, BDB), and a large variety of translations
(including the English Standard Version and the Holman Christian
Standard Bible).
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Bible Database. By
Brent Maurer. Another free downloadable Bible study program with
multiple versions.
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HTML Bible. By John
Hurt. A site where you can download the texts of many versions for
free.
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The Unbound
Bible download page. Download several English versions and
original language texts in zipped archive format.
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The Cædmon Manuscript: parts of Genesis, Exodus and
Daniel in Old English verse, illustrated with Anglo-Saxon drawings,
c. A.D. 1000. From the Early
Manuscripts at Oxford University. Extremely large (3-4 megabyte)
digital facsimiles of complete manuscripts, scanned directly from
the originals.
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A transcription of the Cædmon Manuscript (Codex Junius
11) and of
the Paris Psalter are online at the Labyrinth Library of
Old English Literature.
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Modern
English translation of the Cædmon manuscript (Codex Junius
11). By George W. Kennedy, The Caedmon Poems (New York,
1916). Provided by the Online Medieval and Classical Library.
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The Complete
Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Poetry has electronic texts of many
Anglo-Saxon works, including the text of the Caedmon poems and the
Paris Psalter.
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The Paris
Psalter. Richard Stracke at Augusta State University. An
edition of the Latin and Old English of the first fifty psalms in
the Paris Psalter (ms. bibliothèque nationale fonds latin 8824),
with introduction, notes, and glossary.
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The
Polyglot Bible. By Mark Davies at Brigham Young University.
This resource includes the Gospel of Luke in Anglo-Saxon.
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Tyndale's first edition
of the New Testament (1526), in modern spelling, provided by
Mario Valente of New Jersey. The same text is also available
with verse numbering
on the same site.
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Tyndale's New Testament (1534 edition) in original
spelling, online in text files. The electronic text is from the
Classic English
Bible Translations CD-ROM created by Sergej A. Fedosov. This
transcription has some problems. See my critique
here.
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Searchable Tyndale New Testament at studylight.org. Although
this is labeled "Tyndale New Testament (1526)," it is not the
1526 text: it is the 1534 text, derived from the Fedosov
transcription (original spelling), with a search utility. Bear in
mind that when searching for words you must use the old spelling,
and you must take account of the
errors in this transcription.
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The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer. By Sir Thomas More.
This is a 2-megabyte ASCII file containing the full text of More's
book against Tyndale. Right click on the link and save it to disk.
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William
Tyndale - Heretical Blasphemer? By Michael Scheifler. An
energetic defense of Tyndale against Sir Thomas More's criticisms.
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The Stuttgart Volume of Tyndale's 1526 New Testament. A full
description with good images, courtesy of the Württembergische
Landesbibliothek Stuttgart.
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William Tyndale: Covenant Theologian, Christian Martyr. Part 1:
Background and Early Biography and
Part 2: Later Biography. By Jules Grisham, at
Third Millenium Ministries.
This is the best biography of Tyndale on the web.
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William Tyndale resource page of the "Bibliotheca
Augustana" maintained by Prof. Ulrich Harsch in Augsburg, Germany.
- The First Printed English New Testament. Seven
large PDF files containing images of an old facsimile edition of the
uncompleted Cologne quarto (1525), with lengthy introduction by
Edward Arber (London, 1871). Provided by the Case Western Reserve
University Library. Arber's introduction:
part 1 (128KB, 7
pages); part 2
(1,539KB, 41 pages);
part 3 (799KB, 25 pages); Facsimile of Tyndale's edition:
part 1 (1,871KB,
20 pages); part 2
(1,584KB, 16 pages);
part 3 (1,553KB, 16 pages);
part 4 (1,406KB,
15 pages).
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William Tyndale and the History of the English Bible.
Several files on aspects of Tyndale's life and work, provided by the
drama troupe "Fire for the Ploughman."
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The Tyndale Society. A
scholarly society that promotes the study of Tyndale and his times.
The site has some good articles from
The Tyndale Society
Journal, notices of books published by members, and a good
links page.
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Searchable Geneva Bible at studylight.org. Full text in
original spelling, with a search utility. The notes are omitted.
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The Geneva
Bible. A brief history of the version, and files giving all
the annotations of a 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible. Please
note: the annotations that are given here (and on many other
sites) are not the original notes of the Geneva Bible as
published in 1560. Copies of the Geneva Bible printed after 1587
generally contain a New Testament revised and annotated in 1576 by
one Laurence Tomson of Geneva.
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The Geneva Bible Of 1560. By Bruce M. Metzger. A detailed
description of the version, originally published in Theology Today.
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The Geneva Bible. By C. Matthew McMahon.
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1599
Geneva Bible Online Catalog. Beautiful reprints by L.L.
Brown Publishing.
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Modern
Spelling Edition of the Geneva Bible's four Gospels and
Romans, by David L. Brown.
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1560 Geneva
Bible. Scans of the entire first edition in pdf format, each
book in a separate file.
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1583 Geneva Bible. The front matter and the book of
Genesis online in images, from an edition of the Geneva Bible
published in London by Christopher Barker, 1583. Provided by the
Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image at the University of
Pennsylvania Library.
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The Real Douay-Rheims Study
Bible. By William von Peters. At this site you can buy a CD
or download the entire Rheims New Testament of 1582 in a PDF file,
complete with prefaces and marginal notes, in modern spelling.
Volume 1 of the Douay Old Testament is also available. Very useful
for seeing details of how Roman Catholics interpreted the Bible at
the time of the Reformation.
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Douay-Rheims Bible Online.
The full text of the Challoner-Rheims (a substantial revision of the
Douay-Reims done in 1764), with a search utility. Includes notes
from the edition approved by Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore. The same
text with notes is
here,
without search utility. The same text without the notes is available
with some special concordance features
here.
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Douay Bible article from the Catholic Encylopedia. Also
here.
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The History of the Text of the Rheims and Douay Version of Holy
Scripture. By John Henry Newman. From Tracts Theological
and Ecclesiastical. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1908
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Douay-Rheims: A Story of Faith. By Sidney K. Ohlhausen,
from Catholic Heritage May/June 1999. A brief history of the
version, its revisions and editions. Also
here.
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Uncomfortable Facts About The Douay-Rheims. By James
Akin. A look at the origins, strengths and weaknesses of the
Douay-Rheims and Challoner-Rheims Bible. Akin, though Catholic, is
especially concerned to debunk traditionalists claims that this is
the only "pure" and "official" translation of the Catholic church.
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The Douay-Rheims
Version: The English Version of the Catholic Church. A page
from the Dr. Gene Scott Bible Collection tour.
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The Douay
Rheims Bible: The Achilles Heel of Papal Infallibility. By
Michael Scheifler. A discussion of the importance of the
Douay-Rheims translation of Genesis 3:15, "she shall crush thy
head."
General and Miscellaneous
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Parallel
Text of Historic Bibles. The New Testament from Wycliffe,
Tyndale, Geneva Bible, and King James Version in parallel columns,
provided by Mario Valente of New Jersey. See also the same versions
for The
Pentateuch & Jonah in the same format.
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Images of Historic Bible Versions. Large high-resolution
images of pages from early editions of the Bishops' Bibe,
Coverdale's Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Great Bible, the King James
Version (1611), Matthew's Bible, the Rheims New Testament, and
Tyndale's New Testament.
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Formatting the Word of God: the Charles Caldwell Ryrie collection.
An outstanding online exhibition of historic Bibles, hosted by the
Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist
University, from the CD-ROM edited by Valerie R. Hotchkiss & Charles
C. Ryrie.
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Prof's Soapbox: The Text and Translation of the New Testament.
By Dr. Daniel Wallace, Dallas Theological Seminary. A collection of
many good articles on English versions.
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History of the
English Bible. Here is a tour of the "Dr. Gene Scott
Collection" of historic Bibles, with some good images and an
historical commentary.
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From Papyri to King James: The Transmission of the English Bible.
From the University of Michigan. A very brief history featuring some
good images.
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History
of the English Bible. By Rev. Ronald D. Lesley, D.D. At the
Fundamental Baptist Institute website.
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The Development of the English Bible: How Our English Versions
Came Into Being. By William E. Paul, editor of Bible
Collector's World.
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English Bible Translations. Some good images of pages
from Coverdale's Bible, the Great Bible, Geneva Bible, and the King
James Bible.
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Translations on Trial: Is your Bible the Word of God? By Dr.
Robert G. Gromacki, at Cedarville College.
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The Bible Through The Ages. An excellent scholarly
article by Dr. Richard D. Balge.
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The English Bible as a Blow for Liberty. By Artur Kirov.
This is a helpful review and summary of Benson Bobrick's Wide as
the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It
Inspired. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).
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The
Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650, along with other historic
metrical Psalters, provided by
Music for the Church of God.
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The Bay
Psalm Book (1640). Scanned from the original, in one large
pdf file (6.78 MB).
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The 1662 Prayer Book Psalter. Based on Coverdale's
Translation of the Psalms.
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1979
Episcopal Prayer Book Psalter. Also
here (in one
big file).
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Parallel Latin/English Psalter. By Glenn Gunhouse, in the
Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies. Gives the Latin text of
the Book of Psalms from the Vulgate with the English text of the
Book of Psalms from Challoner's revision of the Douay translation.
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Apologetics Articles for Protestants and Non-Christians.
On this page are many links to pages which are critical of
Protestant versions (especially the KJV) by a Roman Catholic calling
himself "Charles the Hammer."
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Murder, Mayhem and the Making of the King James Bible.
Transcript of a discussion of the history of the English Bible
broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio program
The Spirit of Things (Dec. 8, 2001). Alister McGrath is one
of the participants.
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Bibles and
Testaments page of the Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts
Company. This is a bookseller's site for serious collectors. The
descriptions of the old editions they are selling are very
informative, providing background information on translators,
editors, and printers.
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Mace New Testament (1729) at studylight.org. Full text of
the version with a search utility. This (unitarian) version is of
some historical interest. See my
description of Mace's New Testament in the bibliography of
18th-century versions.
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A Paraphrase
upon the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians by Thomas Boston
(1676-1732). An interesting example of paraphrase from the early
eighteenth century. Boston was a notable Calvinist author and a
minister in the Church of Scotland. From the website of
Presbyterian's Armoury Publications in Australia.
Various Versions
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LOCAL
20th
Century Versions and
21st
Century Versions. A complete list of versions arranged by
date, with detailed reviews of many. By Michael Marlowe.
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Comparison
of Bible Translations. By Christopher Lee Pope, a student at
Southern Seminary in Louisville. An intelligent and detailed
discussion of differences, in several areas of comparison.
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Translation and Versions articles at Wisconsin Lutheran
Seminary.
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A Comparative Study of Major Translations of the Prologue to the
Gospel of John. By Philip Comfort, chief editor of the
New Living Translation New Testament. An interesting and highly
detailed comparative study from Comfort's book,
Essential
Guide to Bible Versions.
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Translating the Bible: Scholars are still laboring. By
Barry Hoberman, from the February 1985 Atlantic Monthly. Contains
some strange factual errors, but on the whole it gives a very
helpful account of the RSV and the plans for the NRSV. The Good News
Bible is well described. The Living Bible and the Inclusive Language
Lectionary are also discussed (unfavorably) at length. The article
is also available
here.
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Bible Translations.
By David Robert Palmer. Here is a thoughtful discussion of
translation issues, comparison of versions, reference chart of
manuscripts, and a new translation of the Gospels by the author of
the site.
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Bible
Translation: Why, What, and How? By Donald W. Burdick of the
Cincinnati Bible College & Seminary, from the Seminary Review,
XXI, 1 (March, 1975). A Good overview of the whole subject. Favors
the NIV.
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A View of the
Versions. By Al Maxey. Articles on the King James Version,
New International Version, Revised Standard Version, Living Bible,
New World Translation, New American Standard Bible, and the American
Standard Version. Worth reading.
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Comparing Bible Versions. By Reese Currie.
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The Use of Modern Translations and Their Effect in Replacing the
King James Version. By Joel Frank.
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InnVista - Bible Versions. An anonymous site, in which
quite a few versions are briefly described and compared. The
descriptions resemble advertisements, consisting of uncritical
excerpts from dust-jackets and prefaces. The affiliation of the
compilers is not indicated, but we note the presence of
anti-Trinitarian remarks in at least one place, at the bottom of
this page.
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The Joseph Smith Translation in Light of the New Testament: An
Examination of Key Passages in the Gospel of John. By Joel
B. Groat at the Institute for Religious Research. The Joseph Smith
"Translation" used by Mormons is the strangest and most heretical
English Bible ever produced.
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Review of the New English Bible by Henry J. Cadbury,
Theology Today 18/2 (July 1961).
- Information at
the publisher's website: A
brief
history of the Lockman Foundation, a more
detailed
history giving background information on the NASB, information
on the NASB
translation principles and translators, and a
comparison
of the NASB update with the original NASB and with other versions.
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The New American Standard Bible: Is This the Answer? By
Armin J. Panning. Panning reports the opinions of the Wisconsin
Lutheran Seminary Translation Review Committee, which rendered a
largely favorable verdict on the version. The article discusses at
length the criteria for a good version, and applies them to the
NASB. Theologically sensitive passages are discussed very
thoroughly.
Negative reviews of the ESV
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Allan Chapple in Australia gives a long and negative
review, published in Reformed Theological Review 62/2 (August
2003). The argument is rather strange. Chapple's main point is that
the ESV is not as literal as the NASB, but he prefers the NIV
because it is even less literal. He seems to think that there is no
call for a version that tries to strike a balance between the
literalism of the NASB and the looseness of the NIV.
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Rodney Decker
(Baptist Bible Seminary in Clarks Summit, Penn.) takes the same tack
as Chapple. His review is largely an attempt to defend the NIV
against criticism leveled against it by ESV-promoters, by showing
that the ESV itself is not perfectly literal. But he ignores the
fact that the ESV was not designed to be strictly literal. It was
designed to occupy a middle ground between the NIV and the NASB.
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Information about the
Revised Standard Version. By Roy Davison. This new site,
which currently consists mostly of external links, is designed "as a
focal point for information about the Revised Standard Version."
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What Does Almah Mean? By William F. Beck. This is Beck's
scholarly response to the RSV's interpretation of Isaiah 7:14.
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The RSV-Ecumenical Edition. By Bruce M. Metzger. Metzger
tells of the production and reception of various "ecumenical"
editions of the RSV.
Favoring free translation:
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SIL International (formerly
known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) and
Wycliffe International
(formerly known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators) are very much
committed to the method of "functional equivalence." See their
rather understated
Statement on Basic Principles and Procedures for Bible Translation
(Wycliffe) and
Translation Principles (SIL), and the formal committment of both
organizations to this method as agreed upon in the
Qualifications
for Translation Consultants issued by the Forum of Bible
Agencies. The SIL site also has an interesting list of
SIL Publications
on Translation.
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NIV Bible - New International
Version Resources. The International Bible Society (which
also subscribed to the above-mentioned "Qualifications") has put
here some books and articles explaining the method of translation
used in the NIV, which sometimes employs "dynamic
equivalence."
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The History and Practice of Bible Translation: A Brief Survey.
By Dr. David G. Burke, at the American Bible Society's Research
Center for Scripture and Media. A presentation that focuses upon the
work of the American Bible Society, explaining and advocating
"functional equivalence" as used in the Good News Bible and the
Contemporary English Version.
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UBS Translation.
Translation resources from the United Bible Societies. More of the
same.
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The Bible Translator. Fifty-one years (1950-2000) of the
American Bible Society's quarterly journal online, in JPEG images.
Many scholarly articles on translation are available here, if you
have the time to download the large page images. (NOTE: if a dialog
box asking for your username and password appears, enter the word
"any" in both fields.) A complete
database of article abstracts for 1950-2000 is available at the
UBS website, with links to the articles. Also on the UBS website are
selected articles from
recent issues.
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Translation Process for Scholars. From the
God's Word to the Nations
translation website, explaining and advocating "closest natural
equivalence."
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An Evaluation of the 'Colorado Springs Guidelines'. By
Ellis W. Deibler. Deibler, a Bible Translation Consultant with the
Wycliffe Bible Translators, criticizes the Colorado Springs
Guidelines from the standpoint of "dynamic eqivalence" translation
theory. (Read Vern Poythress's two-part response to this article
here
and here.)
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God's
Word or God's Words? By Ervin Bishop, Senior Translation
Consultant, World Bible Translation Center. The "World Bible
Translation Center" is the Bible agency that produced the New
Century Version (1991). Bishop's article defends the "dynamic
equivalence" approach by arguing against the doctrine of verbal
inspiration. His thesis is, "the Bible is the Message of God
expressed in the words of men."
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An Open
Letter on Translating. By Martin Luther, in defense of his
German translation, which sometimes employed non-literal
renderings.
Articles favoring more literal translation:
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LOCAL
Against the Theory of Dynamic Equivalence. By Michael
Marlowe.
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LOCAL
Was
the Bible written in Street Language? By Michael Marlowe.
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Bible Translation Differences: Criteria for Excellence in Reading
and Choosing a Bible Translation. By Dr. Leland Ryken at
Wheaton College. A 32-page booklet summarizing the arguments in
Ryken's recent book,
The Word of God
in English.
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The Word of God in
English. By Dr. Leland Ryken. The full text of the book can
be downloaded in a PDF file from this page.
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Theoretical Orientations In Bible Translation: A Comparative
Analysis of Two English-language Bible Versions. By Tommy
Wasserman (2001). An academic paper that criticizes dynamic
equivalence while comparing the Good News Bible with the New Revised
Standard Version.
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We Really Do Need Another Bible Translation. By
Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, in Christianity Today, October 22,
2001. Discusses at length the problems associated with "dynamic
equivalence" and the virtues of literal translation. Also
here.
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A Bible for Everyone. By Alan Jacobs, Professor of
English at Wheaton College. Criticism of dynamic equivalence, esp.
in the NLT, published in First Things 138 (December 2003).
Recommends use of essentially literal versions, esp. the ESV.
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An Open Letter
Regarding The NET Bible, New Testament. By Daniel B.
Wallace, the Senior New Testament Editor of the version. An article
published in Notes on Translation 14.4 (2000). Wallace
defends some of the more literal renderings of the NET Bible, and
offers some judicious comments about the downside of "dynamic
equivalence" in general.
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Thoughts on Bible Translations. By R. Scott Clark,
Associate Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological
Seminary, California.
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Does
it mean what it says? By Gene Edward Veith, in World, Vol.
17, No. 7 (Feb. 23, 2002). "Secular linguists—such as Stephen
Prickett, in
Words
and the Word and Origins of Narrative—describe the
dynamic equivalent approach as 'naïve' and 'simplistic' in its
understanding of language ..."
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Retuning the Psalms. By Robert Alter, in First Things
58 (December 1995): 45-48. A critical review of a "dynamic
equivalence" version of the Psalms.
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Robert Alter's Fidelity. By Alan Jacobs, professor of
English at Wheaton College. A review of Alter's translation of the
Pentateuch (The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with
Commentary) published in First Things 155
(August/September 2005), in which Jacobs broadly defends the literal
approach to translation for literary reasons.
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The Church's Way of Speaking. By Robert Louis Wilken,
Professor of History at the University of Virginia. An article
published in First Things 155 (August/September 2005), in
which Wilken challenges the idea that Biblical and liturgical
translations need to use the idiomatic "patois of modernity."
Translators and liturgists should take account of the fact that
"Christianity is a culture in its own right," and there is a need
for the Church to "insist on its own way of speaking."
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Committee on Bible Translations Report. From the minutes of
the 1995 General Synod of the Canadian Reformed Churches.
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Dynamic Equivalence: Method of Translation or System of
Hermeneutics? By Robert L. Thomas, in
The Master's Seminary
Journal.
- Bible
Translations: Link between Exegesis and Expository Preaching.
By Robert L. Thomas, in The
Master's Seminary Journal.
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Principles of
Bible Translation. By Charles L. Winkler.
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The Excellence of the Authorized Version. By William
Einwechter, from Chalcedon Report, June 1997.
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Dynamic Equivalency: Its Influence and Error and
Dynamic
Equivalency: Death Knell of Pure Scripture. By David W.
Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service.
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Theology and the Great Tradition of English Bibles. By
Cameron A. MacKenzie, Concordia Theological Seminary. The same
article is available in Adobe format
here
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Which Translations of the Scriptures are Accurate? By
Mark Sarver
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Which Bible Translation? By Robert Beecham
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The Difference Between Translator and Teacher. A tract
opposing dynamic equivalence, from Chick Publications.
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Unmanning the Bible. By S. M. Hutchens, in Touchstone
Journal 15/5 (June 2002). "The goal of the translator must be to
transform or reform, not submit to, a conceptually or grammatically
deficient receptor language."
-
Political Correctness and Bible Translation: A Preliminary Response
to Ellis W. Deibler and
A Response to
Dr. Deibler on the Colorado Springs Guidelines, by Vern S.
Poythress. Poythress, Professor of New Testament at Westminster
Theological Seminary, defends literal translation of gender terms
against the claims of "dynamic equivalence."
-
Foreignizing and Domesticating Translations: the Case of Pindar.
By Steven J. Willett. This is an abstract of an article which
describes the method of "foreignizing" translation which has been
challenging the "domesticating" method (i.e. "dynamic equivalence")
in recent theoretical discussions.
-
Why a Literal Translation? By Jay N. Forrest. A good
essay from a supporter of the New King James Version.
-
Bible Translation and Contextualization: Theory And Practice in
Bangladesh. By Vern S. Poythress. Interesting discussion of
how some missionary translators in a third world country play fast
and loose with the text for political reasons.
-
Relevance Theory and Translation: Toward a New Realism in Bible
Translation. By Ernst-August Gutt. A paper presented at the
2004 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Argues that dynamic equivalence theory has been based upon "a
serious lack in realism, arising from an inadequate understanding of
the cognitive processes involved in human communication."
Other Translation Topics
-
Interfaith group asks publishers to erase anti-Jewish language
from children's Bibles. By David Crumm, at the Detroit Free
Press (June 30, 2001). Describes the Bible revision agenda of the
American Interfaith Institute.
-
Offensive references to Jews deleted in new Bible. By
Debra Nussbaum Cohen, at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (September
29, 1995).
-
Good
cause, bad method. By Marvin Olasky, at World Magazine
(April 14, 2001).
-
The Narratives of Jesus' Passion and Anti-Judaism. By Dr.
Raymond E. Brown, America magazine, 1 April 1995. A
moderately liberal scholar's explanation of how the expression "the
Jews" came to be used for opponents of Jesus and his followers in
the New Testament, despite the fact that the first Christians were
Jewish.
-
How Have Inclusiveness and Tolerance Affected the Bauer-Danker
Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG)? By Vern S.
Poythress, published in the Journal of the Evangelical
Theological Society 46/4 (2003). Criticizes changes in the third
English edition (2000) of Bauer's Greek lexicon that are designed to
make translators stop using the English word "Jew" for the Greek
word Ioudaios.
-
Translating
Hoi Ioudaioi in the New Testament. By David G. Burke.
"The problem is not how well the English locution reflects the Greek
text or the escalating polemical realities of the first century
situation, but rather its effect on the (poorly informed) modern
reader."
Gender-Neutral Bibles
Books on Translation
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 he
Geneva Bible is a critical, yet almost completely forgotten part of the
Protestant Reformation. Driven out of England by the persecutions of
Bloody Mary, several future leaders of the Reformation came to Geneva to
create a pure and accurate translation of the Holy Writ. Concerned about
the influence that the Catholic Church had on the existing
 translations
of the Bible from the Latin, these men turned to the original Hebrew and
Greek texts to produce the Geneva Bible. This made the Geneva Bible the
first complete Bible to be translated into English from the original
Hebrew and Greek texts.
The creation of the Geneva Bible was a substantial undertaking. Its
authors spent over two years, working diligently day and night by
candlelight, to finish the translation and the commentaries. The entire
project was funded by the exiled English congregation in Geneva, making
the translation a work supported by the people and not by an
authoritarian church or monarch.
All the marginal commentaries were finished by 1599, making the 1599
edition of the Geneva Bible t he
most complete study aide for Biblical scholars and students. This editon
does contain the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha’s notes are minimal or absent
in other editions. Additional highlights of this edition include maps of
the Exodus route and Joshua’s distribution of land, a name and subject
index, and Psalms sung by the English congregation in Geneva.
The greatest
distinction of the Geneva Bible, however, is the extensive collection of
marginal notes that it contains. Prominent Reformation leaders such as
John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore
Beza, and Anthony Gilby wrote the majority of these notes in order to
explain and interpret the scriptures. The notes comprise nearly 300,000
words, or nearly one-third the length of the Bible itself, and they are
justifiably considered the most complete source of Protestant religious
thought available.
Owing
to the marginal notes and the superior quality of the translation, the
Geneva Bible became the most widely read and influential English Bible
of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was continually printed from 1560 to
1644 in over 200 different editions. It was the Bible of choice for many
of the greatest writers, thinkers, and historical figures of the
Reformation era. William Shakespeare’s plays and the writings of John
Milton and John Bunyan were clearly influenced by the Geneva Bible.
Oliver Cromwell issued a pamphlet containing excerpts from the Geneva
Bible to his troops during the English Civil War. When the Pilgrims set
sail on the Mayflower they took with them exclusively the Geneva Bible.
The
marginal notes of the Geneva Bible enraged the Catholic Church, since
the notes deemed the act of confession to men – the Catholic Bishops –
as unjustified by Holy Script. Man should confess to God only; man’s
private life was man’s private life. The notes also infuriated King
James, since they allowed disobedience to tyrannical kings. King James
went so far as to make ownership of the Geneva Bible a felony. He then
proceeded to make his own version of the Bible, but without the marginal
notes that had so disturbed him. Consequently, during King James’s
reign, and into the reign of Charles I, the Geneva Bible was gradually
replaced by the King James Bible.
Because of the print size, this facsimile reproduction is
more difficult for some readers. A magnifying glass is often necessary
for the marginal notes. On some of the printing the marginal notes are
not entirely clear. Also, some adjustment is required to get accustomed
to the interchanged I and J, u and v, and f and s in the old print
style. L. L. Brown Publishing is proud to offer the Geneva Bible to
Christians serious about understanding the Bible. A wealth of
information that has been left to us by the Leaders of the Protestant
Reformation is now available after four centuries of being out of print. |
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