Introduction to Holy Scriptures

Chapter Five

5. English Versions of the Bible

Objectives of the Study

At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

 To define the two basic methods of translation.

 To elaborate the first translation into English, the reformation, the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Centuries translation of King James Bible.
 To demonstrate the Major Revisions and Translations of the Twentieth Century: Revised
Standard Versions (RSV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), New Revised
Standard Version, and New International Version (NIV).

Before we discuss the various English versions of the Bible that have been created, we should
first examine a few issues related to translation.

Since few people today are able to understand Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek (the languages in
which the Bible was originally written), it has been necessary to translate the Scriptures into the
language of the people. In other words, the message of the original languages has been rendered
in an understandable way in another language. English, of course, is one of the languages into
which the Scriptures were translated.

If we look at Bible translation in the simplest of terms, there are two basic methods.

 The first is called "formal equivalence" (meaning word-for -word). In doing a formal –
equivalence translation, the translator attempts to retain as much of the specific wording
of the original languages (Hebrew or Greek) as possible when rendering a sentence into
the language (in this case, English).
 The second is called "functional equivalence" or "dynamic equivalence" (meaning
thought-for-thought). In doing a functional –equivalence translation, the translator tries to
convey the thoughts of the original languages into the closest natural equivalent in

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English. This approach places a greater emphasis upon meaning and style than a word –
for –word approach does when rendering a sentence in English.

The truth of the matter is that not one English translation is either completely word-for-word or
completely thought-for-thought. Translations are usually a mixture, with tendencies toward one
method or the other.

Most of the older English translations tended to be literal (word-for-word) translations of the
original languages. Some modern translations have continued this trend toward literalness. Some
of these translators have preferred the literal approach to guard against misrepresenting the text
in an attempt to make it more clear. This is a constant danger with thought-for –thought
translations, because the more freedom a translator is given in rendering a phrase, the more
subjective the process becomes. The thought-for-thought translator must try, in a sense, to enter
into the mind of the author

5.1. The First Translations into English

The long and fascinating history of the English Bible begins as early as the seventh century.
Christianity had spread to London, England, by the third century, and it is possible that the Bible
was translated into the native language of the people there, but have no record of this.

We do know that missionaries from Rome brought the Latin Vulgate to England as early as the
fifth century. Christians living in England as that time depended on monks for any kind of
instruction from the Bible, and these monks read and taught the Latin Vulgate. After a few
centuries, more monasteries were founded, and the need arose for translations of the Bible in
English.

The earliest English translation, as far as we know, was one done by a seventh-century monk
named Caedmon, who made a metrical, or poetic, version of parts of the Old and New
Testaments. Another English churchman named Bede is said to have translated the Gospels into
English (Philip 2000).

John Wycliffe (about 1329-1384), the most eminent Oxford theologian of his day, and his
associates were the first to translate the entire Bible from Latin vulgate into English. This great

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and historic work was accomplished before the days of printing. Wycliffe and his associates
completed the New Testament around 1380 and the Old Testament in 1382 (William 1902).

5.2. The Reformation

William Tyndale can be considered the father of most modern English translations, because:-

 He was the first to translate the Bible from the original languages
 Many standard versions find their roots in his work, and
 Almost all other English translations have at least been influenced by Tyndale's work

Translations of the Bible prior to the work of William Tyndale were done from the Latin text,
which was itself a translation of the original Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible. By translation
from the original languages, Tyndale helped to improve the accuracy of English Bibles and set a
new standard for Bible translation.

Tyndale himself was only able to complete the New Testament, although he translated several
Old Testament books as well. While Tyndale was in prison on charges of heresy, an associate of
his named Miles Coverdale (1488-1569) brought to completion an entire Bible in English –based
largely on Tyndale's translation of the New Testament and other Old Testament books.

Among the most noteworthy of the Reformation period is Thomas Matthew's Version: the Great
Bible (1538), the Geneva Bible (1550), the Bishops' Bible (1568), and the Douai-Reims Bible
(1609-1610). These works prepared the way for the Authorized King James Version (KJV) of
1611-a translation that has captured the attention of the English – speaking world even to this
day.

The King James Version was the product of a group of scholars commissioned by King James.
Once it was completed, the Authorized King James Version became the standard version of
England.

5.3. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The King James Bible continued to reign as the Standard English Bible throughout the
eighteenth century, but by the nineteenth century, the King James Version's deficiencies were
becoming increasingly apparent to scholars.

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 First, knowledge of Hebrew and Greek was very limited in the early seventeenth century.
By the advances in linguistic studies had enriched and sharpened the scholars'
understanding of Hebrew and Greek grammar and vocabulary.
 Second, as was discussed, manuscript discoveries in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries spawned new editions of the Greek New Testament.

The King James translators had done well the resources that were available to them, but by the
nineteenth century, the limitations of those resources were becoming very apparent to many
scholars.

The first major corporate effort was initiated in1870 by the Convocation of Canterbury, which
decided to sponsor a major revision of the King James Version. Sixty-five British scholars,
working in various committees, made significant changes to the King James Version. The Old
Testament scholars corrected mistranslations of Hebrew words and reformatted poetic passages
into poetic form. The New Testament scholars made thousands of changes based upon better
textual evidence. Their goal was to make the New Testament revision reflect not the Textus
Receptus. Over 3 million copies sold in the first year of its publication.

Several American scholars had been invited to join the revision work, with the understanding
that any of their suggestions not accepted by the British scholars would appear in an appendix.
Furthermore, the American scholars had agreed not to publish their own American revision until
fourteen years later. When the time came (1901), the American Standard Version (ASV) was
published by several surviving members of the original American committee. This translation,
generally regarded as superior to the English Revised Version, is an accurate, literal rendering of
very trustworthy texts both in the Old Testament and the New Testaments.

5.4. Major Revisions and Translations of the Twentieth Century

The nineteenth century was an era for the Greek New Testament and subsequent English
translations. It was also a century in which Hebrew studies were greatly advanced. The twentieth
century has also been for textual studies.

Those living in the twentieth century have witnessed the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the
Chester Beatty Papyri, and the Bodmer Papyri. These amazing discoveries, providing scholars

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with hundreds of ancient manuscripts, have greatly enhanced the effort to recover the original
wording of the Old and New Testaments. At the same time, they have prompted revisions to
existing translations.

5.4.1. Revised Standard Versions (RSV)

The organizational that held the copyright to the American Standard Version, called the
International Council of Religious Educations, authorized a new revision in 1937. The New
Testament translators generally followed the seventeenth edition of the Nestle Text (1941), while
the Old Testament translators followed the Masoretic Text. Both groups, however, adopted
readings from other ancient sources when they were considered to be more accurate. The New
Testament was published in 1946, and the entire Bible with the Old Testament in 1952. The
principles of the revision were specified in the preface to the Revised Standard Version:

This revision was received by many Protestant churches and soon became their "standard" text.
The Revised Standard Version was later published with the Apocrypha of the Old Testament
(1957), in a Catholic Edition (1965), and in what is called the Common Bible, which includes the
Old Testament, the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and the Deuterocanonical books, with
international endorsements by Protestants, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholics.

Many evangelical Christians, however, did not receive the Revised Standard Version very well –
primarily because of one verse, Isaiah 7:14, which reads, "Therefore the Lord himself will give
you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel." Evangelicals contended that the text should read "virgin" not "young woman." As a
result, the Revised Standard Version was banned by many Christians.

5.4.2. New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Dissatisfaction with the Revised Standard Version prompted evangelical scholars to produce
their own revision of the American Standard Version. The Lockman Foundation, a nonprofit
Christian corporation committed to evangelism, promoted this revision of the American Standard
Version. Indeed, the American Standard Version was a monumental work of scholarship and a
very accurate translation according to Lockman’s Foundation. However, its popularity was
waning, and it was fast disappearing from the scene. Therefore, the Lockman Foundation

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organized a team of thirty –two scholars to prepare a new revision. These scholars, all committed
to the inspiration of Scripture, strove to produce a literal translation of the Bible.

After the New American standard Bible was published (1963 for the New Testament and 1971
for the entire Bible), it received a mixed response. Some critics applauded its literal accuracy,
while others sharply criticized its language for hardly being contemporary or modern. According
to them, on the whole, the New American Standard Bible became respected as a good study
Bible that accurately reflects the wording of the original languages but that is lacking as a
translation for Bible reading (William 1902)..

5.4.3. New Revised Standard Version

In due course, the time came for the Revised Standard Version to be further revised. This
revision is called the New Revised Standard Version, published in 1990. Its history and heritage
is stated explicitly in its introduction by Bruce Metzger, the chairperson of the revision
committee:

The need for issuing a revision of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible arises from three
circumstances:

 The acquisition of still older Biblical manuscripts

 Further investigation of linguistic features of the text, and
 Changes in preferred English usage.

These three criteria specified by Metzger are essentially the same principles behind all revisions
of Bible translations.

5.4.4. New International Version (NIV)

This translation is the New International Version, a completely new rendering of the original
languages done by an international group of more than a hundred scholars. These scholars
worked many years and in several committees to produce an excellent thought-for-thought
translation in contemporary English for private and public use.

The translators of the New International Version sought to make a version that was midway
between a literal rendering and a free paraphrase. Their goal was to convey in English the

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thought of the original writers. This is succinctly explained in the original preface to the New
Testament:

The New Testament of the New International Version was published in 1973, and the entire
Bible in 1978. This version has been phenomenally successful. Millions upon millions of readers
have adopted the New International Versions as their Bible.

5.4.5. Other Translations of the Twentieth Century

Because of the many textual and linguistic advances that other translations continuing to be made
in the twentieth century, translation after translation continued to appear (Philip 2000).

Study Questions for Chapter Five

 How to define the two basic methods of translation?
 In which era to elaborate the first translation into English, the reformation, the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries translation of King James Bible?
 At what types of demonstrating the Major Revisions and Translations of the Twentieth
Century: Revised Standard Versions (RSV), New American Standard Bible (NASB),
New Revised Standard Version, and New International Version (NIV)?

Remark: All English versions of the Bible should analyze and reflect only to acquiring
knowledge and at the end you have to keep the biblical Conon of EOTC.

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