Contradictions in New testament Part 4 :English Translations

English Translations

Christianity reached England with a Latin Bible. There was a need to offer an English

Bible for both the clergy and the laymen. Between the seventh and fourteenth centuries,

parts of the Bible were roughly translated into English as an aid to the clergy. Interest in

translation from Latin to English grew rapidly in the fourteenth century, and in 1382 the

first complete English Bible appeared in manuscript. It was the work of the English

scholar John Wycliffe, whose goal was to give the Bible to the people.

In 1525 the English scholar William Tyndale translated the New Testament from

the Greek text. It was printed in Germany and smuggled into England. Tyndale's

translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew text was only partly completed. His

simple writing and popular expression established a style in English translation that

dominated future versions.

In 1535 the English scholar Miles Coverdale published an English translation

based on German and Latin versions in addition to Tyndale's. This was not only the first

complete English Bible to appear in printed form, but unlike its predecessors, it was an

approved version by the Canterbury Convocation. Later, Oliver Cromwell nominated

Coverdale to produce a new Bible, which appeared in six editions between 1539 and

1568. This Bible was called the Great Bible, which was primarily a scholarly Bible. The

next important version was produced in Geneva in 1560 by English Protestants in exile,

and was called the Geneva Bible. This Bible contained several innovations including the

division of chapters into numbered verses. The final revision of the Great Bible, in 1568,

by scholars and bishops of the Anglican Church was known as the Bishops' Bible. This

Bible was designed to replace the Great Bible with a translation for the laymen.

The King James Version and Its Revisions

In 1604 King James I commissioned a new revision of the English Bible; it was

completed in 1611. Following Tyndale primarily, this Authorized Version, also known as

the King James Version, was widely acclaimed for its beauty and simplicity of style. In

the years that followed, the Authorized Version underwent several revisions, the most

notable being the English Revised Version (1881-85), the American Standard Version

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(1901), and the revision of the American Standard Version undertaken by the

International Council of Religious Education, representing 40 Protestant denominations

in the US and Canada. This Revised Standard Version (RSV) appeared between 1946

and 1952. Widely accepted by Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic Christians, it

provided the basis for the first accepted English Bible. In the Preface of the RSV, 1971,

the following is written:

“The King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth

century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts

more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it

manifest, that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for the revision

of the English translation.” The preface continued to refer to the unhappy experience

with unauthorized publications, “which tampered with the text of the English

Revised Version, in the supposed interest of the American public.”

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV, 1989) eliminated much

obsolete and ambiguous usage. The New King James Bible, with contemporary

American vocabulary, was published in 1982. The Holy Bible, Easy-to-Read version, in

1987 and 1989, was adapted from the existing text by the World Bible Translation

Center to represent present day English.

The Roman Catholic Versions

Roman Catholics in English-speaking countries commonly used the Douay or Douay-

Rheims Bible, completed between 1582 and 1609, until the eighteenth century, when the

English bishop Richard Challoner considerably revised it. The Douay Bible was a

translation from the Latin Vulgate, primarily the work of two English exiles in France,

William Allen (1532-1594) and Gregory Martin (1540? -1582). During the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries, Roman Catholics replaced the Douay and Challoner Bibles with

other translations. In the United States, one of the most widely used is the New

American Bible of 1970. It is the first complete Bible to be translated from Hebrew and

Greek by American Roman Catholics.

The Roman Catholic Version, RCV, is the oldest version that one can buy today.

Despite its antiquity, the whole Protestant world condemns the RCV, because it contains

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seven extra books, which they refer to as the Apocrypha. Notwithstanding the terrible

warning contained in the Apocalypse, which is the last book in the RCV (renamed as

“Revelation” by the Protestant), it is “revealed”:

Revelation 22:18-19 “If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto

him the plagues written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the

words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book

of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

In spite of the above warning, the Protestants have eliminated or the Catholics

have added seven whole books from their “Word of God”. These books are: Tobias,

Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 1 Machabees, and 2 Machabees.