Bibles

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: TCB
Year Released: 1540

Miles Coverdale, ordained a priest about 1514, became interested in the works of such men as Erasmus, Luther, and Tyndale. He helped Tyndale in Antwerp in 1529. He translated the Psalms and Ecclesiastes from the Latin works of Campensis and published them in 1534 and 1535, respectively. He may have started his own work on the Bible in 1534.
This Bible is divided into six parts, as was Luther's. The chapters are divided into paragraphs without systemmatic numbering. The notes, comparatively few, concern alternate readings. Marginal cross-references abound. There are over one hundred fifty illustrations.
It was not translated from Hebrew and Greek, but from German and Latin. Coverdale was competent in both of the latter two languages. He trusted five different interpreters, translating from them purely and faithfully, without favor to any sect and subject to correction. These were Jerome, Pagninus, Luther, the translators of the Zurich Bible, and Tyndale.
There is an extensive introduction. The spelling and type are Old English.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: TDB
Year Released: 1961

It is an abridgment of the King James Version, edited by Roy B. Chamberlin and Herman Feldman with the counsel of an advisory board of Biblical scholars.
Some reasons why the resolve of many people to know the Bible has so often come to naught are as follows: its overwhelming length, its somber format, its eye-straining type, its many confused sequences, its repetitiveness, its occasional drabness of content, and its puzzling terms and allusions. There are difficulties of comprehending it because of lack of knowledge of its historical setting. Some editions have a traditional, doctrinal, or denominational tone. The editors of this version believed that they could reduce these barriers to a minimum.
After researching individuals and adult study groups, the following criteria were established for their work: abridgment, identification of each passage, freedom from bias of specialized scholarship or denominational outlook, employment of a recognized text, and a mature discussion of its problems.
Although the usual sequence of the books of the King James Version has been followed, there have been some changes. Ruth, Esther, and Jonah have been put into one group because of their similarity. The Prophets and the Pauline Epistles have been put into the currently accepted chronological order. The sayings within the Book of Proverbs have been classified according to subject. The four Gospels have been interwoven. There has been an attempt to make clearer the meanings of poetic portions with more pleasing visual effect. There is a detailed subject-and-name index. The guide maps have been annotated for easier consultation.
About one-half of the original text has been retained. Passages that have been omitted are those which are repetitive or are of little interest to readers who are not technical students. The manuscripts were submitted to laymen and clergymen from several Protestant bodies, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism.
In the Old Testament most of 1 and 2 Chronicles is omitted and Isaiah is divided into two books, while in the New Testament 2 and 3 John is omitted. The Apocrypha contains nine writings. There is a preface to each division in each of the three sections of the Bible.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: DSSB
Year Released: 1997

It was translated into English by Eugene Ulrich and edited by Martin Abegg, Jr., and Peter Flint.
The manuscripts are one thousand years older than any existing ones. Preserving parts of all but one biblical book [I Chronicles], the scrolls confirm that the text of the Old Testament as it has been handed down through the ages is largely correct. Yet, they reveal numerous important differences.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible (1) offers new and striking textual readings that clarify millennia-old puzzles; (2) restores lost psalms; (3) reveals previously unknown details about the lives of biblical figures; (4) provides new information on how the Hebrew Bible was created.
The book has been compiled according to seven principles: (1) maintaining the historical order of books; (2) including introductory material; (3) depending on large manuscripts; (4) integrating material from several manuscripts; (5) signaling variant readings; (6) highlighting interesting or important readings; (7) emphasizing accuracy over style.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: DNT
Year Released: 1934

This version was translated and historically arranged, with critical introductions, by G. W. Wade. To meet the needs of the English reader new translations of the Old and New Testaments have been produced, distinguished not only by the use of modern speech, but also by their constant reliance on recent important advances in textual criticism, in philology, and in archaeology. To this class of work this volume belongs.
The main body of this book is a translation which deliberately follows a course midway between an exact literal rendering of the original and a paraphrase intended to bring out the meaning of the writer. Where a passage is capable of two or more interpretations, Dr. Wade has assumed the responsibility of a commentator, making plain in his free rendering the view which he considers to be the more probable. In this way his translation becomes a running commentary.
The translator includes a table of the probable order and dates of the New Testament Documents. However, he notes that many of the dates are very uncertain.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: EBR
Year Released: 1959

This is a translation designed to set forth the exact meaning, the proper terminology, and the graphic style of the sacred original. The translator was Joseph Bryant Rotherham.
Throughout are signs of emphasis for reading. (') and (/ /) call for slight stress. (// //) and (< >) call for more decided stress. The latter of these is confined to preplaced words and clauses, leading up to what follows.
"God" printed in upper case represents El. "God" printed in Gothic represents Eloah. "God" printed without peculiarity of type represents Elohim. "Yahweh" is used instead of "Jehovah."
There is an extensive expository introduction dealing with special features of this translation, emphasis, the original texts, and the incommunicable name. For the Old Testament, the current Massoretic text was used. For the New Testament, the text of Westcott and Hort was used. An explanation concerning the suppression of the Divine Name [or Tetragrammaton] is given.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: EDW
Year Released: 1942

From the title page we read as follows: "The Emphatic Diaglott, containing the original Greek text of what is commonly styled the New Testament (according to the recension of Dr. J. J. Griesbach) with an interlineary translation, on the renderings of eminent critics, and on the various readings of The Vatican Manuscript, No. 1209, in the Vatican Library, together with illustrative and explanatory foot notes, and a copious selection of references, ..., by Benjamin Wilson."
Although the translator does not claim this version to be superior to any other, he feels that this work presents certain valuable features not found elsewhere. These are listed in the Preface.
Careful fidelity in giving true rendering of the original text into English has been maintained throughout. No regard whatever has been given to prevailing doctrines or prejudices of sects, or the peculiar tenets of theologians.
Help in this work was derived from works of great and learned men. The sources include the following: lexicons, grammars, ancient and modern versions, commentaries (critical and explanatory), cyclopedias, and dictionaries (Bible and others). It is not presumed that this work is free from faults and errors.

Source Used: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (1942)

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: TGB
Year Released: 1560

It was translated according to the Ebreu and Greke, and conferred with the best translations in diuers langages; with the most profitable annotations vpon all the hard places, and other things of great importance as may appeare in the Epistle to the Reader. [This information appears on the title page.]
There is no question that the publication of the Geneva Bible in 1560 was a landmark in the history of the English Bible. It is second in importance only to the Authorized Version of 1611. The Geneva Bible continued to be printed until 1644, the date of the last known edition. This facsimile reproduction preserves the original marginal notes.
The work was done in Geneva, Switzerland. The translators do not identify themselves anywhere in the Bible. Several persons are considered to have been involved with the work, namely, William Whittingham (general editor), Miles Coverdale, John Knox, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, William Cole, and others. The translators were motivated to prepare a new translation because it behooved Christians to walk in the fear and love of God and this could best be done when one had knowledge of the Word of God.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: HBME
Year Released: 1900

The books of the Sacred Volume of our Faith, as they were arranged by the Editorial Committee appointed by the Great Sanhedrim, called at Jerusalem for the purpose, in the Third Century before Christ, were divided into Four Volumes, and put into the succession that this translator, Ferrar Fenton, has followed [Old Testament].
He used this order for the following reasons: It was the original one, and the accurate criticism, mental insight, and literary skill shown in it, and its grouping of both the Historical and the Divinely Inspired Writers, show a masterly comprehension of the work the Editors had before them, and the progressive nature of the Revelation from God to Man of the Everlasting Laws of Creation, Human Life, and Social and National health and duty, that has never been equalled, and which is itself, if studied, a commentary that cannot be excelled.
He first made, by his own hand and mental effort, the translation direct from the original, with no intermediary version between the Greek or Oriental Texts and his manuscript. He revised passages three to five times and submitted difficult ones to a few Orientalist and Grecianist friends. He tested their suggestions by various previous translators. Then he collated his version with a Polyglot Bible. He was dismayed to find, in doing the latter, that translators to the various languages had repeated errors made by the Greek translators of the Hebrew or Chaldee text. He found the same with the Latin version of the Greek New Testament.
For many years he read the Old Testament in Hebrew and Chaldee and the New Testament in Greek, so as to arrive at their meaning from ancient writers themselves alone. He also had before him no theological or historic theories to assail or to support.

[NSMinistries]

The Jewish Family Bible

Abbreviation: HSM
Year Released: 1973

Also known as the Jewish Family Bible, the text is that of the JPS edition of 1917. (See A New Translation) It is a large white book with the text on each page in three columns.
It includes a section "The Twelve Tribes of Israel," which states the blessings to the sons of Jacob as recorded in Genesis 49:1-27 and shows twelve pictures of the stain-glass windows of the synagogue at the Hebrew University Medical Centre in Ein Karem. There is also a section "Maps of the Lands of the Holy Scriptures." There is another section "Our Family Record." All three sections are on thick, glossy paper within the text. At the end are three other sections: (1) "Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Holy Scriptures;" (2) "Holidays and Their Meanings;" and (3) Chronology of the Holy Scriptures."

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: TJB
Year Released: 1966

The form and nature of this edition have been determined by two of the principal dangers facing the Christian religion today. The first is the reduction of Christianity to the state of a relic - affectionately regarded, but considered irrelevant to our times. The second is its rejection as a mythology, born and cherished in emotion with nothing at all to say to the mind.
Now for Christian thinking in the twentieth century two slogans have been wisely adopted: aggiornamento, or keeping abreast of the times, and approfondimento, or deepening of theological thought. Its first part can be carried out by translating into the language we use today, its second part by providing notes which are neither sectarian nor superficial.
In 1956, a one-volume edition, which came to be known popularly as La Bible de Jérusalem, appeared. This was prepared by the Dominican Biblical School in Jerusalem. The edition being described here is the English equivalent of that. Parts of the English edition were translated from the French, then carefully compared with the Hebrew or Aramaic texts. However, more parts were translated from the Hebrew or Greek and compared with the French. The Psalms presented a special problem because they are a collection of verse not only to be read but also to be sung or chanted.
The format of this edition has been chosen to make intelligent reading easier. Thus, the single column arrangement is used. The text is divided by bold-type section headings so that the reader can see at a glance what is ahead. The poetic passages are printed as verse. An introduction is located at the beginning of a book or group of books. There are numerous other characteristics to help the reader.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: JBFR
Year Released: 1957

This version, compiled by Joseph Gaer, was undertaken in the conviction that, with most of the impediments removed, the Bible would be read with ease and enjoyment by many who have turned away from it because of its obstacles, and that they would find in it the spiritual sustenance it has given generation after generation.
In this version, every chapter is accounted for. Yet, it is considerably shorter than any of the standard versions because all duplications, specifications, detailed descriptions of rituals, and genealogies have been relegated to summarized notes at the end of the book. The principal laws are given separately in a summary, alphabetically arranged. All obvious redundancies are omitted altogether.
The language approximates the Authorized King James Version more closely than any other version in English. The Hebrew Scriptures were compared word for word and sentence for sentence with the Authorized Version. All obscurities and archaisms were eliminated.
Each book of the Bible is divided into logical parts and identified by descriptive titles to guide the reader. Each group of books, as well as each book, is preceded by a brief introduction in which the historical background of the section is given, and the specific problems of the book are discussed.
It contains 1 Macabees from The Apocrypha. A brief digest of the books of the Apocrypha appear in the Appendix.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: TM & MS
Year Released: 1995


This version, otherwise known as The Message, is the work of Eugene H. Peterson. He was a pastor of a Presbyterian church in Maryland and is a professor of spiritual theology at a college in British Columbia and is a writer.
A feature of the original writings of the New Testament is that it was done in the street language of the day. At that time in the Greek-speaking world, there were two levels of language: formal and informal. Formal language was used to write philosophy, history, government decrees, and epic poetry. Some people suppose that language dealing with a holy God and holy things should be elevated -- stately and ceremonial. However, Jesus preferred down-to-earth stories and easy association with common people.
The followers of Jesus in their witness and preaching, translating and teaching, have always tried to get the Message -- the "good news" -- into the language of whatever street they happened to be living on. In order to understand the Message right, the language must be a rough and earthy one that reveals God's presence and action where we least expect it.
This version is in a contemporary idiom that is current, fresh, and understandable in the same language that we use in all of our activities. The goal was not to render a word-for-word conversion of Greek into English, but rather to convert the tone, the rhythm, the events, and the ideas into the way that we actually think and speak. There is an introduction to each book. Verses are not numbered, except at the top of the page where the range for that page is given.
A later version contains, in addition, the Old Testament books of Psalms and Proverbs.
The translator states that most Christians have learned to pray by praying the Psalms. In his pastoral work of teaching people to pray, he started paraphrasing the Psalms into contemporary rhythms. The Psalms in Hebrew are earthy and rough. They are not the prayers of nice people, couched in cultural language.
The book of Proverbs concentrates on matters of everyday practicality more than any other book of the Bible. This book distills it all into riveting images and sound bites that keep us connected in holy obedience to the ordinary.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: MSNT
Year Released: 1902

This translation, made by Richard Francis Weymouth, offered to English-speaking Christians, is a bona fide translation made directly from the Greek, and is in no sense a revision. The plan adopted has fourteen points.
The Greek text used is that given in the Translator's Resultant Greek Testament. There was an earnest endeavor to ascertain the exact meaning of every passage not only by the light that classical Greek throws on the language used, but also by that which the Septuagint and the Hebrew Scriptures afford. Aid was also sought from Versions and Commentators ancient and modern, and theological and classical reviews and magazines. Then it had to be considered how it could be most accurately and naturally exhibited in the English of the present day. Lastly, comparison was made with the renderings of other scholars, especially with the Authorized and Revised Versions. There was an attempt to bring out the sense of the Scriptures as well as present-day English. Pains were taken to bring out an exact rendering of the tenses of the Greek verbs.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: NBV
Year Released: 1969

This version of the New Testament (1945) has gained for Dr. Gerrit Verkuyl a place among the first rank of translators of the Bible into modern English. This version of the Old Testament (1959) under his editorship, exhibits the same characteristics of faithful rendering of the original texts into lively modern English that mark his New Testament.
The aim of this version was to achieve plain, up-to-date expression which reflects as directly as possible the meaning of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. It is not a paraphrase.
After twenty-five years, the need for revision became evident. This revision was very extensive, while not being a retranslation. Explanatory notes were revised as well as added. Topical headings were rephrased.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: NMB
Year Released: 1999

This is a rendition of the Bible in contemporary English by George Wallace.
The new Testament appears before the Old Testament. Otherwise, the order of books within each Testament is the same as in the King James Version. Chapters are numbered, but verse form has been replaced by paragraph form. At the beginning of each book is a brief introduction. The books of the Old Testament have been abbreviated.
It contains a short addendum describing the period the two Testaments.