Bibles

[NSMinistries]

Jewish New Testament
Abbreviation: CJB
Year Released: 1989


Description
This version expresses its original and essential Jewishness. Most other English translations of the New Testament present their message in a Gentile-Christian linguistic, cultural, and theological framework. Yeshua, the Messiah, was a Jew, was born to Jews, grew up among Jews, ministered to Jews, and died and rose from the dead in the Jewish capital.
Much of what is written in the New Testament is incomprehensible outside its Jewish context. The best demonstration of its Jewishness is also the most convincing of its truth, namely, the number of Tanakh prophecies which are fulfilled in Yeshua. Three of the areas in which the Jewish New Testament can aid in "fixing up the world" are: Christian antisemitism, Jewish failure to receive the Gospel, and separation between the Church and the Jewish people.
Semitic names and terms belonging to "Jewish English" substitute for certain English words (e.g., Yochanan for "John" and emissary for "apostle"). Cultural or religious terms change to a Jewish context (e.g., the "fringe" or "edge" of Yeshua's robe to his tzitzit, which is a ritual tassel). Theological changes are made where Gentile-Christian theologies de-emphasize Jews as God's people (e.g., New Covenant "has been enacted through better promises" to has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises -- Hebrews 8:6).
Formally equivalent translation, or paraphrase, has been used to bring out meanings that original readers would have understood.
It is based primarily on the United Bible Societies' The Greek New Testament, which is a critical edition. "Kurios" is not translated Lord, but Adonai. In Messianic Christianity, as opposed to Judaism, this term can include Yeshua the Messiah and Holy Spirit.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: CLNT
Year Released: 1926

Since men carry over the truth into another language only so far as they grasp it themselves, no translation can be fully satisfactory. The compiler of this version, the late A. E. Knoch, was aware of his shortcomings in this regard. To keep from emphasizing his personal views and traditional errors, he developed the concordant method of translation.
The purpose of the compiler was to make a translation that agreed as closely as possible to the original language, yet be presented in readable English. This method recognizes the importance of the vocabulary of Scripture keeping distinct the well-chosen words of God in His revelation of truth. There is an effort to keep to a minimum the confusion resulting from translating different Greek words with only one English word. Thus, phileo is rendered "be fond" and agapao is rendered "love." Except for a few idiomatic usages, each English word stands for only one Greek word in this version.
The word order and sentence structure of the early Greek manuscripts are followed more in this version than in most others. However, when needed, the Greek sentence structure is altered in order to achieve acceptable English.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: CCDT
Year Released: 1953

The editors have incorporated in this new edition of the Holy Bible the better translations which modern Bible scholarship has put at their disposal. The Old Testament, in prose paragraph format, is the venerable Douay Version, with the exception of the first eight books (Genesis to Ruth), translated by members of the Catholic Biblical Association of America under the patronage of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. In addition, the Book of Psalms is a new English translation from the new Latin version approved by Pope Pius XII. The New Testament is the newly revised version of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
Other features of this edition include the following: (1) appropriate chapter and sub-headings; (2) newly edited and numbered annotations in the Old Testament; (3) historical dates conforming with the most recent discoveries in Bible Lands; (4) an easy-to-read, sight-saving type face; and (5) two Bible reading guides.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: CEV, CE

It was translated with the attempt that the text be faithful to the meaning of the original and that it can be read with ease and understanding by readers of all ages. It was made directly from the original languages of the Scriptures and is not an adaptation of any existing translation.
Some nouns (e.g., "salvation") of traditional translations are not used as they describe actions. Every word, phrase, and of the original was carefully studied by the translators. Then, they tried to find the best way to translate the verse so that it could be easily read and understood.
Poetic sections were expected not only to sound good but also to look good. Poetic lines were carefully measured to avoid awkwardly divided phrases and words that run over to the next line in clumsy ways.
The New Testament was translated directly from the Greek text and published by the United Bible Societies (third edition, corrected, 1983). Psalms and Proverbs were translated directly from the Masoretic Hebrew text printed in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (fourth edition, 1990) and published by the German Bible Society.
Drafts in their early stages were sent for review and comment to a number of Biblical scholars, theologians, and educators representing a wide variety of denominations, also to all English-speaking Bible Societies and to over forty United Bible Societies translation consultants around the world. Final approval was given by the American Bible Society's Board of Trustees upon recommendation of its Translation Subcommittee.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: CVNT
Year Released: 1898

This version in the Northern Dialect is also known as Memphitic or Bohairic. The work was undertaken at the suggestion of Dr. Wallis Budge, Keeper of the Egyptian Department of the British Museum. The original idea was to ascertain the character of the MSS., and to print a text with various readings of ten or twelve authorities. The process of collating MSS. began in 1890. Printing began in 1894.
The object of the translation was to supply the English reader with some knowledge of the Greek text which was translated by the Egyptians of the North-Western province, whose dialect had survived to the time of this work in the liturgical books of the Coptic church. This being the main object, it was also intended by literal treatment to give an idea of the peculiarities of the language and the method of the version.
Care has been taken with the vocabulary, yet no claim is made to secure and fix absolutely the best meaning of Coptic words in English. The translated word must be regarded as a token for a Greek word. The Revised Version was used at times as an aid.
The preface gives details of the collating of the manuscripts. The introduction gives details of the text, the translation, and the description of the manuscripts. Both the Coptic and the English have been printed.
Coptic is the Hamitic language of the Copts, the latest form of the ancient Egyptian: a dead language since 1500 but still the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. (Standard Dictionary of the English Language, vol. 1. Page 287.)
It contains the New Testament in four volumes.

[Dee Dee Warren]

This is a great thread!!

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: DHB
Year Released: 1923


This translation of the Old Testament has been derived from a study of the common Hebrew text, and represents at the same time a collation of the late J. N. Darby's German and French Versions, he having himself revised the first few books within a short time of his decease. Those who use this English translation may accordingly expect to find incorporated with it whatever is of special value in the above-mentioned Versions, particularly the French, where the common English Bible is defective.
The purpose of this translation is not to offer to the man of letters a learned work, but rather to provide the simple and unlearned reader with as exact a translation as possible. To this end, all available helps have been used. The work is not a revision of the Bible in common use. The style of the Authorised Version [KJV] has been retained as far as possible within the purpose of the translation.
Poetical parts are distinguished from the rest by a metrical arrangement to which those are accustomed who use Paragraph Bibles. However, this has been abandoned in the Prophets where the poetical form is often complicated.
Elohim will in the text appear only in the name Jehovah Elohim; moreover, when Elohim following immediately on Jehovah has a grammatical adjunct, its place will be taken by the English word "God." For the meaning of Jehovah, Yahweh or Yehveh, see Exodus 3:14,15; Isaiah 40:28; for Jah, see Exodus 25:2. Ordinary spelling of proper names has been adhered to, subject to numerous and necessary corrections. Italics indicate emphasis.
In the first edition of the New Testament, the translator used the Textus Receptus. But the Textus Receptus was itself often changed in the text of the work. He decided to adopt its reading, not attempt to make a text of his own. His object was a more correct translation: only there was no use in translating what all intelligent critics held to be a mistake in the copy.
Since the first edition, various new helps became available. However, there has been little change in the actual translating. There have been changes involving clarity, inaccuracies, and uniformity.

[NSMinistries]

Translator: Theodor H. Gastner
Publisher: Doubleday, 1976


The purpose of this book is to provide a complete and reliable translation of the celebrated Dead Sea Scrolls, insofar as the original Hebrew texts have yet been published. No translation is offered of the Dead Sea Scrolls of Isaiah or of the other more fragmentarily preserved Biblical manuscripts. This edition is concerned only with what the Scrolls themselves have to say.
The texts presented here were composed at various dates between about 250 B.C.E. and 68 C.E. They formed part of the library at a religious brotherhood located at Qumran. The Scrolls and the religious movement help us to reconstruct the spiritual climate of early Christianity. The brotherhood did not believe in a martyred Messianic Teacher of Righteousness who reappeared posthumously to his disciples and whose Second Coming was awaited. They possess value in their own right as conveying the religious message of men who gave up the world and were able to find God in a wilderness.
The Scrolls were found in a cave at the northern end of the Dead Sea by an Arab boy in 1949. It is not known for certain who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, when, and where. Attempts to date them by palaeography or by allusion to known persons or events have not yielded conclusive results.
The Scrolls furnish a picture of the religious and cultural climate in which John the Baptist conducted his mission and in which Jesus initially was reared. However, they contain no trace of any of the cardinal theological concepts.

The Service of God:
The Manual of Discipline
The Zadokite Document
The Letter of the Law: Ordinances
A Formuary of Blessings

The Praise of God
The Hymn of the Initiants
The Book of Hymns
Poems from a Qumran Hymnal
Lament for Zion
Hymns of Triumph

The Mercy of God
Prayer for Intercession

Glory to God in the Highest
The Litany of the Angels

The Word of God
Expositions of Scripture
Everyman's Bible

The Triumph of God
The War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness
The Rout of Belial: Scriptural Predictions
The Coming Doom
Weal and Woe: An Exhortation
The Last Jubilee: A Sermon
Melchizedek Texts
The New Covenant
Manual of Discipline for the Future
Congregation of Israel
Thy Kingdom Come

Virtue
The Wooing of Wisdom [Sirach 51.13ff.]

Vice
The Wiles of the Harlot

Visions and Testaments
The Last Words of Amram

Destiny
The Epochs of Time

Appendix
The Copper Scroll and the Prayer of Nabonidus

[NSMinistries]

Translator: Editors of The Shrine of Wisdom
Publisher: The Shrine of Wisdom, 1957


In this treatise, the writer gathers together and explains a number of the symbolical Names by which the nature of the Supreme and Absolute God is revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The author speaks of two aspects of the nature of the Supreme God -- the undifferentiated and the differentiated.
It would appear that the work was written in the 5th century BCE by Dionysius the Areopagite.
There are thirteen chapters as follows:

1: The purpose of the discourse, and the tradition concerning the Divine Names
2: The undifferentiated and the differentiated; union and distinction
3: The power of prayer
4: God, Light, Beauty, Love, Ecstacy, Jealousy; the existence or non-existence of evil
5: Being and Paradigms
6: Life
7: Wisdom, Intellect, Reason, Truth, Faith
8: Power, Justice, Preservation, Redemption, Inequality
9: Great, Small, Same, Different, Similar, Dissimilar, Rest, Motion, Equality
10: Omnipotent, Ancient of Days, Eternity, Time
11: Peace, Being Itself, Life Itself, Power Itself
12: Holy of Holies, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God of Gods
13: Perfect and One

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: DRB
Year Released: 1610/1899
Contents: Old Testament 1610, New Testament 1609


Catholic answer to King James Bible
This is a scrupulously faithful translation into English of the Latin Vulgate Bible which Jerome (342-420) translated into Latin from the original languages. The Latin Vulgate Bible had been declared by the Council of Trent to be the official Latin version of the canonical Scriptures. The DRB translators took great pains to translate exactly. When a passage seemed strange and unintelligible they left it alone, even if obscure.
The translators translated from a translation for ten reasons, ending by stating that the Latin Vulgate "is not onely better than al other Latin translations, but then the Greeke text itselfe, in those places where they disagree." They also state that the Vulgate is "more pure then the Hebrew or Greke now extant" and that "the same Latin hath bene farre better conserved from corruptions."
It has the imprimatur of James Cardinal Gibbons.
When Catholics were considering a vernacular Bible, professors at the English College at Douay, France, took up the work. Because of political unrest, the college was moved to Rheims, also in France. Work started in 1578. The New Testament, translated faithfully into the English out of authentic Latin and diligently conferred with the Greek, was printed at Rheims in 1582. The purpose was to discover corruptions in numerous late translations and to clear controversies in the religion of the day. In more peaceful times, the vernacular would not have been necessary. The Church never wholly condemned vulgar (popular or pertaining to common people) versions but warned against indiscriminate interpretation.
The groundwork was supplied by such sources as Coverdale, Bishop's Bible, and the Geneva Bible, but mostly Wycliffe. The Vulgate was used for translation because of its ancient character, its tradition, its accuracy, its sincerity, and the decree of the Council of Trent. The aim of the translators was a literal translation. The Old Testament was published in two volumes in 1609-1610. At the time of publication, both Testament translators were criticized. Later scholars praised the accuracy of the Douay-Rheims Bible.

[NSMinistries]

The Apostolic Fathers
Translator: Maxwell Staniforth
Publisher: Dorset Press, 1968


Regarded as virtually equal to Holy Scripture by the nascent Church, these works are immensely valuable both historically and doctrinally. Written for the most part in the form of letters, they provide historians with the only available source from a dark era, and illuminate the emerging Church during a time when its powers and principles were still independent from the state.
In addition to the translation of the writing, there is information about each writer and writing.

The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
The Epistles of Ignatius (To the Ephesians; To the Magnesians; To the Trallians; To the Romans; To the Philadelphians; To the Smyrnaeans; To Polycarp)
The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
The Epistle to Diognetus
The Epistle of Barnabas
The Didache

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: EVD, OE
Contents: Old Testament 1986, New Testament 1978
Easy-to-Read Version

This version has been prepared to meet the special needs of the deaf. Whether it is published as the English Version for the Deaf or the Easy-to-Read Version, the text is the same. Hearing persons learn English largely through oral conversation. However, for the deaf, this experience with language is severely limited. Children, people who learn English as a foreign language, and many others face similar difficulties in reading. This specialized English version is designed to help such people overcome or avoid the most common obstacles to reading with understanding.
One of the basic ideas that guided the work on this version was that good translation is good communication. The main concern of the translators was always to communicate to the reader the message of the Biblical writers as effectively and as naturally as the original writings did to people in that time. The translators worked to convey to their special audience the meaning of the Biblical text in a form that would be simple and natural. There are several special features used to aid understanding. Uses less than 4,000 word vocabulary for verb syntax not understood by those who can not hear.

[NSMinistries]

Abbreviation: EVPB
Year Released: 1858

This is a thick, pocket-size edition of the King James Version. There is no evidence of what the other languages or versions of the original Polyglott Bible, of which this was a part, are. The print is extemely small. There are two columns of text on each page, with a narrow column of cross-references between them. At the beginning of each Testament are two paintings of Biblical settings. Following the New Testament is the second inclusion of the Book of Psalms, this time in metre.
On the flyleaf is the following handwritten inscription: "Presented to Mifs. Julia Parker by a friend Jan. 1st, 1860, China, A. G."

[NSMinistries]

Translator: Malcolm Lee Peel
Publisher: SCM Press, 1969


This is a Valentinian letter on resurrection. This edition contains a fresh translation and exposition of one of the writings from the Nag Hammadi Library. Its importance is that it provides the first Gnostic document devoted exclusively to the subject of individual eschatology.
The letter is one of the numerous writings from a religious library probably used by a fourth century Gnostic community of Sethian disposition. It was probably composed sometime prior to that century. The thought and vocabulary of Paul are found throughout it. It contains eight pages.

[NSMinistries]

Editor: J. M. Harden
Publisher: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1920


It is one of the least known of a number of similar documents that have come down to us from comparatively early times. It has been preserved by the Monophysite Church of Abyssinia. It has been said to be a somewhat rambling discourse on Church life and society.
It is claimed to be a message to the Church from the Twelve Apostles assembled in Jerusalem. It deals with such topics as morality, studying the Scriptures, strict obedience of the Seventh Commandment, mutual duties of husband and wife, offices and duties of Christian ministers, and other topics. There are forty-three chapters.