1.
Papyrus 46
–
Papyrus 46, scribal abbreviation P46, is one of the oldest extant New Testament manuscripts in Greek, written on papyrus, with its most probable date between 175 and 225. Some leaves are part of the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, P46 contains most of the Pauline epistles, though with some folios missing. It contains the last eight chapters of Romans, all of Hebrews, virtually all of 1–2 Corinthians, all of Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, all of the leaves have lost some lines at the bottom through deterioration. Folio size is approximately 28 ×16 cm with a column of text averaging 11.5 cm. There are between 26 and 32 lines of text per page, although both the width of the rows and the number of rows per page increase progressively. Since the codex is formed from a stack of sheets folded in the middle, magazine-style, what is lost is the outer seven sheets. The contents of the seven missing leaves from the end is uncertain, there would be enough space for 2 Thessalonians and possibly Philemon, but not for the Pastoral epistles. Recently, Alessandra Peri has proposed that the final folios could contain the first three chapter of Apocalypse and they appear to mark sense divisions and are also found in portions of P45, possibly evidence of reading in the community which held both codices. Edgar Ebojo made a case that these reading marks with or without space-intervals were an aid to readers, P46 uses an extensive and well-developed system of nomina sacra. Griffin argued against Kim, in part, that such a usage of the nomina sacra system nearly eliminates any possibility of the manuscript dating to the 1st century. He admitted, however, that Kims dating cannot be ruled out on this basis alone, on the other hand, Comfort notes indications that the scribes exemplar made limited use of nomina sacra or none at all. Further, the text inconsistently uses either the short or the contracted forms of Christ. The Greek text of the codex is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type, kurt Aland placed it in Category I. In Romans 16,15 it has singular reading Βηρεα και Αουλιαν for Ιουλιαν, in 1 Corinthians 2,1 it reads μυστηριον along with א, Α, C,88,436, ita, r, syrp, copbo. Other manuscripts read μαρτυριον or σωτηριον, in 1 Corinthians 2,4 it reads πειθοις σοφιας for πειθοις σοφιας λογοις, the reading is supported only by Codex Boernerianus. In 1 Corinthians 7,5 it reads τη προσευχη along with P11, א*, A, B, C, D, F, G, P, Ψ,6,33,81,104,181,629,630,1739,1877,1881,1962, it vg, cop, arm, eth. Other manuscripts read τη νηστεια και τη προσευχη τη προσευχη και νηστεια, in 1 Corinthians 12,9 it reads εν τω πνευματι for εν τω ενι πνευματι. In 1 Corinthians 15,47 it has singular reading reads δευτερος ανθρωπος πνευματικος for δευτερος ανθρωπος, in 2 Corinthians 1,10 it reads τηλικουτων θανατων, along with 630, 1739c, itd, e, syrp, h, goth, majority reads τηλικουτου θανατου
2.
Textual criticism
–
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants in either manuscripts or printed books. Ancient scribes made alterations when copying manuscripts by hand, given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic might seek to reconstruct the original text as closely as possible. The same processes can be used to attempt to reconstruct intermediate versions, or recensions, the ultimate objective of the textual critics work is the production of a critical edition containing a scholarly curated text. There are three approaches to textual criticism, eclecticism, stemmatics, and copy-text editing. Techniques from the discipline of cladistics are currently also being used to determine the relationships between manuscripts. Textual criticism has been practiced for two thousand years. Early textual critics were concerned with preserving the works of antiquity, many ancient works, such as the Bible and the Greek tragedies, survive in hundreds of copies, and the relationship of each copy to the original may be unclear. Textual scholars have debated for centuries which sources are most closely derived from the original, hence which readings in those sources are correct. Although biblical books that are letters, like Greek plays, presumably had one original, interest in applying textual criticism to the Quran has also developed after the discovery of the Sanaa manuscripts in 1972, which possibly date back to the 7–8th centuries. However, the application of textual criticism to non-religious works does not antedate the invention of printing, while Christianity has been relatively receptive to textual criticism, application of it to the Jewish Torah and the Quran is, to the devout, taboo. The business of textual criticism is to produce a text as close as possible to the original, Maas comments further that A dictation revised by the author must be regarded as equivalent to an autograph manuscript. The lack of autograph manuscripts applies to many cultures other than Greek, in such a situation, a key objective becomes the identification of the first exemplar before any split in the tradition. That exemplar is known as the archetype, if we succeed in establishing the text of, the constitutio is considerably advanced. The textual critics ultimate objective is the production of a critical edition and this contains the text that the author has determined most closely approximates the original, and is accompanied by an apparatus criticus or critical apparatus. Before mechanical printing, literature was copied by hand, and many variations were introduced by copyists, the age of printing made the scribal profession effectively redundant. Printed editions, while less susceptible to the proliferation of variations likely to arise during manual transmission, are not immune to introducing variations from an authors autograph. Instead of a scribe miscopying his source, a compositor or a shop may read or typeset a work in a way that differs from the autograph. Since each scribe or printer commits different errors, reconstruction of the lost original is often aided by a selection of readings taken from many sources, an edited text that draws from multiple sources is said to be eclectic
3.
New Testament
–
The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
4.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
5.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
6.
Syriac language
–
Syriac /ˈsɪri. æk/, also known as Syriac Aramaic, is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent and Eastern Arabia. Indeed, Syriac literature comprises roughly 90% of the extant Aramaic literature, Old Aramaic was adopted by the Neo-Assyrian Empire when they conquered the various Aramean city-kingdoms to its west. The Achaemenid Empire, which rose after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, also adopted Old Aramaic as its official language, during the course of the third and fourth centuries AD, the inhabitants of the region began to embrace Christianity. Along with Latin and Greek, Syriac became one of the three most important Christian languages in the centuries of the Christian Era. Primarily a Christian medium of expression, Syriac had a cultural and literary influence on the development of Arabic. Syriac remains the language of Syriac Christianity to this day. Syriac is a Middle Aramaic language and, as such, a language of the Northwestern branch of the Semitic family and it is written in the Syriac alphabet, a derivation of the Aramaic alphabet. Syriac was the local accent of Aramaic in Edessa, that evolved under the influence of Church of the East and it has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in Ancient Britain, with inscriptions written by Assyrian and Aramean soldiers of the Roman Empire. Modern Syriac/Modern Syriac Aramaic is an occasionally used to refer to the modern Eastern Aramaic languages. In this terminology, Modern Syriac is divided into, Modern Western Syriac Aramaic, note however that these are sometimes excluded from the category of Modern Syriac. The modern varieties are, therefore, not discussed in this article, in 132 BC, the kingdom of Osroene was founded in Edessa and Proto-Syriac evolved in that kingdom. Many Syriac-speakers still look to Edessa as the cradle of their language, there are about eighty extant early Syriac inscriptions, dated to the first three centuries AD. All of these examples of the language are non-Christian. As an official language, Syriac was given a relatively coherent form, style, in the 3rd century, churches in Edessa began to use Syriac as the language of worship. There is evidence that the adoption of Syriac, the language of the Assyrian people, was to effect mission, much literary effort was put into the production of an authoritative translation of the Bible into Syriac, the Peshitta. At the same time, Ephrem the Syrian was producing the most treasured collection of poetry, in 489, many Syriac-speaking Christians living in the eastern reaches of the Roman Empire fled to the Sassanid Empire to escape persecution and growing animosity with Greek-speaking Christians. The Christological differences with the Church of the East led to the bitter Nestorian schism in the Syriac-speaking world, as a result, Syriac developed distinctive western and eastern varieties. Syriac literature is by far the most prodigious of the various Aramaic languages and its corpus covers poetry, prose, theology, liturgy, hymnody, history, philosophy, science, medicine and natural history
7.
Slavic languages
–
The Slavic languages are the Indo-European languages native to the Slavic peoples, originally from Eastern Europe. The Slavic languages are divided intro three subgroups, East, West, and South, which constitute more than twenty languages. Furthermore, the diasporas of many Slavic peoples have established isolated minorities of speakers of their languages all over the world, the number of speakers of all Slavic languages together is estimated to be 315 million. The Old Novgorod dialect may have reflected some idiosyncrasies of this group, mutual intelligibility also plays a role in determining the West, East, and South branches. Speakers of languages within the branch will in most cases be able to understand each other at least partially. The tripartite division of the Slavic languages does not take account the spoken dialects of each language. For example, Slovak and Ukrainian are bridged by the Rusyn of Eastern Slovakia, similarly, Polish shares transitional features with both western Ukrainian and Belarusian dialects. The Croatian Kajkavian dialect is similar to Slovene than to the standard Croatian language. Within the individual Slavic languages, dialects may vary to a degree, as those of Russian, or to a much greater degree. The secession of the Balto-Slavic dialect ancestral to Proto-Slavic is estimated on archaeological and glottochronological criteria to have occurred sometime in the period 1500–1000 BCE, the imposition of Church Slavonic on Orthodox Slavs was often at the expense of the vernacular. The use of such media hampered the development of the languages for literary purposes. Lockwood also notes that these languages have enriched themselves by drawing on Church Slavonic for the vocabulary of abstract concepts, the situation in the Catholic countries, where Latin was more important, was different. The Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski and the Croatian Baroque writers of the 16th century all wrote in their respective vernaculars, although Church Slavonic hampered vernacular literatures, it fostered Slavonic literary activity and abetted linguistic independence from external influences. Only the Croatian vernacular literary tradition nearly matches Church Slavonic in age, the most important early monument of Croatian literacy is the Baška tablet from the late 11th century. It is a stone tablet found in the small Church of St. Lucy, Jurandvor on the Croatian island of Krk. The independence of Dubrovnik facilitated the continuity of the tradition, more recent foreign influences follow the same general pattern in Slavic languages as elsewhere and are governed by the political relationships of the Slavs. In the 17th century, bourgeois Russian absorbed German words through direct contacts between Russians and communities of German settlers in Russia, in the 19th century, Russian influenced most literary Slavic languages by one means or another. The Proto-Slavic language existed until around AD500, by the 7th century, it had broken apart into large dialectal zones
8.
Ge'ez script
–
Geez is a script used as an abugida for several languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It originated as an abjad and was first used to write Geez, now the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. In Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is often called fidäl, the Geez script has been adapted to write other, mostly Semitic, languages, particularly Amharic in Ethiopia, and Tigrinya in both Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is also used for Sebatbeit, Meen, and most other languages of Ethiopia, in Eritrea it is used for Tigre, and it has traditionally been used for Blin, a Cushitic language. Tigre, spoken in western and northern Eritrea, is considered to resemble Geez more than do the other derivative languages, some other languages in the Horn of Africa, such as Oromo, used to be written using Geez, but have migrated to Latin-based orthographies. For the representation of sounds, this uses a system that is common among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages. This differs somewhat from the conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet, see the articles on the individual languages for information on the pronunciation. The earliest inscriptions of Semitic languages in Eritrea and Ethiopia date to the 9th century BC in Epigraphic South Arabian, after the 7th and 6th centuries BC, however, variants of the script arose, evolving in the direction of the Geez abugida. This evolution can be seen most clearly in evidence from inscriptions in Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, at least one of Wazebas coins from the late 3rd or early 4th century contains a vocalized letter, some 30 or so years before Ezana. It has been argued that the marking pattern of the script reflects a South Asian system. On the other hand, emphatic P̣ait ጰ, a Geez innovation, is a modification of Ṣädai ጸ, while Pesa ፐ is based on Tawe ተ. Thus, there are 24 correspondences of Geez and the South Arabian alphabet, Many of the names are cognate with those of Phoenician. Two alphabets were used to write the Geez language, an abjad and later an abugida. The abjad, used until c.330 AD, had 26 consonantal letters, h, l, ḥ, m, ś, r, s, ḳ, b, t, ḫ, n, ʾ, k, w, ʿ, z, y, d, g, ṭ, p̣, ṣ, ṣ́, f, p Vowels were not indicated. Modern Geez is written left to right. The Geez abugida developed under the influence of Christian scripture by adding obligatory vocalic diacritics to the consonantal letters. The diacritics for the vowels, u, i, a, e, ə, o, were fused with the consonants in a recognizable but slightly irregular way, the original form of the consonant was used when the vowel was ä, the so-called inherent vowel. The resulting forms are shown below in their traditional order, for some consonants, there is an eighth form for the diphthong -wa or -oa, and a ninth for -yä
9.
Armenian language
–
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages and it is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups, Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to an extent by Greek, Persian. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible and he is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. W. M. However, unlike shared innovations, the retention of archaisms is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann used the method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. Meillets hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse, eric P. Hamp supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian. Nevertheless, as Fortson comments, by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, graeco--Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC
10.
Alexandrian text-type
–
The Alexandrian text-type, associated with Alexandria, is one of several text-types used in New Testament textual criticism to describe and group the textual character of biblical manuscripts. The Alexandrian text-type is the form of the Greek New Testament that predominates in the earliest surviving documents, most modern New Testaments are based on what is called reasoned eclecticism, such as that of the Nestle-Aland 27, in formulating a Greek text. This invariably results in a text that is strongly Alexandrian in character, up until the 9th century, Greek texts were written entirely in upper case letters, referred to as Uncials. During the 9th and 10th centuries, the new lower-case writing hand of Minuscules came gradually to replace the older style, most Greek Uncial manuscripts were recopied in this period and their parchment leaves typically scraped clean for re-use. Consequently, surviving Greek New Testament manuscripts from before the 9th century are relatively rare and these include the oldest near-complete manuscripts of the New Testament Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and Codex Sinaiticus. It was used by Clement, Athanasius, and Cyril of Alexandria, according to the present critics codices P75 and B are the best Alexandrian witnesses, which present the pure Alexandrian text. All other witnesses are classified according to whether they preserve the excellent P 75-B line of text, with the primary Alexandrian witnesses are included P66 and citations of Origen. With the secondary witnesses are included manuscripts C, L,33, all extant manuscripts of all text-types are at least 85% identical and most of the variations are not translatable into English, such as word order or spelling. When compared to witnesses of the Western text-type, Alexandrian readings tend to be shorter, and are commonly regarded as having a lower tendency to expand or paraphrase. Some of the representing the Alexandrian text-type have the Byzantine corrections made by later hands.46,11,26,15,28, Luke 17,36. In Matthew 15,6 omitted η την μητερα — א B D copsa, In Mark 10,7 omitted phrase και προσκολληθησεται προς την γυναικα αυτου, in codices Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Athous Lavrensis,892, ℓ48, syrs, goth. Mark 10,37 αριστερων instead of ευωνυμων, in phrase εξ αριστερων or σου εξ αριστερων, In Luke 11,4 phrase αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου omitted. Omission is supported by the manuscripts, Sinaiticus, B, L, f1,700, vg, syrs, copsa, bo, arm, the above comparisons are tendencies, rather than consistent differences. Hence there are a number of passages in the Gospel of Luke where the Western text-type witnesses a shorter text — the Western non-interpolations. in Mark 15,34, but as Eli, Eli. in Matthew 27,46. Most textual critics of the New Testament favor the Alexandrian text-type as the closest representative of the autographs for many reasons, one reason is that Alexandrian manuscripts are the oldest found, some of the earliest church fathers used readings found in the Alexandrian text. Another is that the Alexandrian readings are adjudged more often to be the ones that can best explain the origin of all the variant readings found in other text-types, nevertheless, there are some dissenting voices to this consensus. A few textual critics, especially those in France, argue that the Western text-type, in the United States, some critics have a dissenting view that prefers the Byzantine text-type, such as Maurice Arthur Robinson and William Grover Pierpont. Thus, it is not surprising that ancient Biblical manuscripts that are found would come mostly from the Alexandrian geographical area and not from the Byzantine geographical area
11.
Codex Vaticanus
–
The Codex Vaticanus is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible, one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library and it is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters and has been dated palaeographically to the 4th century. The manuscript became known to Western scholars as a result of correspondence between Erasmus and the prefects of the Vatican Library, portions of the codex were collated by several scholars, but numerous errors were made during this process. The Codexs relationship to the Latin Vulgate was unclear and scholars were initially unaware of the Codexs value and this changed in the 19th century when transcriptions of the full codex were completed. It was at point that scholars realised the text differed significantly from the Textus Receptus. Most current scholars consider the Codex Vaticanus to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament, until the discovery by Tischendorf of the Sinaiticus text, the Codex was unrivaled. It was extensively used by Westcott and Hort in their edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek in 1881, the most widely sold editions of the Greek New Testament are largely based on the text of the Codex Vaticanus. Codex Vaticanus originally contained a complete copy of the Septuagint, lacking only 1-4 Maccabees. The original 20 leaves containing Genesis 1, 1–46, 28a and Psalm 105, 27–137,2 Kings 2, 5–7, 10-13 are also lost because of a tear to one of the pages. This order differs from that followed in Codex Alexandrinus and these missing leaves were supplemented by a 15th-century minuscule hand and are catalogued separately as the minuscule Codex 1957. Possibly some apocryphal books from the New Testament were included at the end, as it is also possible that Revelation was not included. Luke 17,36,22, 43–44, John 5,4, Pericope Adulterae, Acts 8,37,15,34,24,7,28,29, Romans 16,24. Mark 10,7 – καὶ προσκολληθήσεται πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, as in codices Sinaiticus, Codex Athous Lavrensis,892, ℓ48, Sinaitic Palimpsest, Mark 10,19 – μη αποστερησης omitted but added by a later corrector. Omission is supported by the manuscripts, P75, Sinaiticus, L, f1700 vg syrs copsa, bo, Luke 23,34 – And Jesus said, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. This omission is supported by the manuscripts P75, Sinaiticusa, D*, W, Θ,0124,1241,27,49 the Codex contains added text, ἄλλος δὲ λαβὼν λόγχην ἒνυξεν αὐτοῦ τὴν πλευράν, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ὖδορ καὶ αἳμα. This reading was derived from John 19,34 and occurs in other manuscripts of the Alexandrian text-type, the number of the quires is often found in the margin. Originally it must have composed of 830 parchment leaves. Currently, the Old Testament consists of 617 sheets and the New Testament of 142 sheets, the parchment is fine and thin
12.
Codex Sinaiticus
–
Codex Sinaiticus or Sinai Bible is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. The codex is a historical treasure. The codex is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment, current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament, along with the Codex Vaticanus. Until the discovery by Constantin von Tischendorf of the Sinaiticus text, the Codex Sinaiticus came to the attention of scholars in the 19th century at Saint Catherines Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, with further material discovered in the 20th and 21st centuries. Although parts of the codex are scattered across four libraries around the world, most of the manuscript is today vested in the British Library in London, since its discovery, study of the Codex Sinaiticus has proven to be extremely useful to scholars for critical studies of biblical text. While large portions of the Old Testament are missing, it is assumed that the codex contained the whole of both Testaments. About half of the Greek Old Testament survived, along with a complete New Testament, the entire Deuterocanonical books, the codex consists of parchment, originally in double sheets, which may have measured about 40 by 70 cm. The whole codex consists, with a few exceptions, of quires of eight leaves, each line of the text has some twelve to fourteen Greek uncial letters, arranged in four columns with carefully chosen line breaks and slightly ragged right edges. When opened, the eight columns thus presented to the reader have much the appearance as the succession of columns in a papyrus roll. The poetical books of the Old Testament are written stichometrically, in two columns per page. The codex has almost 4,000,000 uncial letters, the work was written in scriptio continua with neither breathings nor polytonic accents. Occasional points and a few ligatures are used, though nomina sacra with overlines are employed throughout, some words usually abbreviated in other manuscripts, are in this codex written in both full and abbreviated forms. The following nomina sacra are written in abbreviated forms, ΘΣ ΚΣ ΙΣ ΧΣ ΠΝΑ ΠΝΙΚΟΣ ΥΣ ΑΝΟΣ ΟΥΟΣ ΔΑΔ ΙΛΗΜ ΙΣΡΛ ΜΗΡ ΠΗΡ ΣΩΡ. Almost regularly, a plain iota is replaced by the diphthong, e. g. ΔΑΥΕΙΔ instead οf ΔΑΥΙΔ, ΠΕΙΛΑΤΟΣ instead of ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ, ΦΑΡΕΙΣΑΙΟΙ instead of ΦΑΡΙΣΑΙΟΙ. Each rectangular page has the proportions 1.1 to 1, if the gutters between the columns were removed, the text block would mirror the pages proportions. Typographer Robert Bringhurst referred to the codex as a piece of craftsmanship. The folios are made of vellum parchment primarily from calf skins, most of the quires or signatures contain four leaves, save two containing five. It is estimated that the hides of about 360 animals were employed for making the folios of this codex, as for the cost of the material, time of scribes and binding, it equals the lifetime wages of one individual at the time
13.
Alexandria
–
Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
14.
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
–
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the largest Christian Church in Egypt, Northeast Africa and the Middle East. According to tradition, the Church was established by Saint Mark, the head of the Church and the See of Alexandria is the Patriarch of Alexandria on the Holy See of Saint Mark, who also carries the title of Coptic Pope. The See of Alexandria is titular, and today the Coptic Pope presides from Saint Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District in Cairo. The precise Christological differences that caused the split with the Coptic Christians are still disputed, highly technical, the foundational roots of the Coptic Church are based in Egypt, but it has a worldwide following. Isaiah the prophet, in Chapter 19, Verse 19 says In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, the first Christians in Egypt were common people who spoke Egyptian Coptic. There were also Alexandrian Jews such as Theophilus, whom Saint Luke the Evangelist addresses in the chapter of his gospel. When the church was founded by Saint Mark during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, in the 2nd century, Christianity began to spread to the rural areas, and scriptures were translated into the local languages, namely Coptic. The Catechetical School of Alexandria is the oldest catechetical school in the world, St. Jerome records that the Christian School of Alexandria was founded by Saint Mark himself. Origen wrote over 6,000 commentaries of the Bible in addition to his famous Hexapla, many scholars such as Jerome visited the school of Alexandria to exchange ideas and to communicate directly with its scholars. The scope of this school was not limited to subjects, science, mathematics. The question-and-answer method of commentary began there, and 15 centuries before Braille, wood-carving techniques were in use there by blind scholars to read, the Theological college of the catechetical school was re-established in 1893. Many Egyptian Christians went to the desert during the 3rd century, by the end of the 5th century, there were hundreds of monasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered throughout the Egyptian desert. A great number of these monasteries are still flourishing and have new vocations to this day, countless pilgrims have visited the Desert Fathers to emulate their spiritual, disciplined lives. In the 4th century, an Alexandrian presbyter named Arius began a dispute about the nature of Christ that spread throughout the Christian world and is now known as Arianism. We confess one Baptism for the remission of sins and we look for the resurrection of the dead, as a consequence of this, he denied the title Mother of God to the Virgin Mary, declaring her instead to be Mother of Christ Christotokos. When reports of this reached the Apostolic Throne of Saint Mark, Pope Saint Cyril I of Alexandria acted quickly to correct this breach with orthodoxy, when he would not, the Synod of Alexandria met in an emergency session and a unanimous agreement was reached. Pope Cyril I of Alexandria, supported by the entire See and this epistle drew heavily on the established Patristic Constitutions and contained the most famous article of Alexandrian Orthodoxy, The Twelve Anathemas of Saint Cyril. In these anathemas, Cyril excommunicated anyone who followed the teachings of Nestorius, for example, Anyone who dares to deny the Holy Virgin the title Theotokos is Anathema
15.
New International Version
–
The New International Version is an English translation of the Protestant Bible. Biblica is the publisher and copyright holder of the NIV. Originally published in the 1970s, the NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011, a 2014 survey of Americans who read the Bible found that 19% use it. The NIV began in 1956 with the formation of a committee to study the value of producing a translation in the common language of the American people. Wenger, Stephen W. Paine, and Marten Woudstra, the New York Bible Society was selected to do the translation. The New Testament was released in 1973 and the full Bible in 1978, the English version underwent a minor revision in 1984. In 1990 the committee on Bible translation headed by Drs, a planned 1997 English edition was discontinued over inclusive language. An easy-reader version, New International Readers Version, was published in 1996, a revised English edition titled Todays New International Version released a New Testament in March 2002, with the complete Bible published February 2005. In 2011, a version was released. The update modified and dropped some of the language of the TNIV. Translational issues with Pauls letters were also addressed, the manuscript base for the Old Testament was the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Masoretic Hebrew Text. The manuscript base for the New Testament was the Koine Greek language editions of the United Bible Societies, the deuterocanonical books are not included in the translation. The core translation group consisted of fifteen Biblical scholars using Hebrew, Aramaic, the translation took ten years and involved a team of over 100 scholars. From the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the range of those participating included many different denominations such as Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Christian Reformed, Lutheran and Presbyterian. The NIV is a balance between word-for-word and thought-for-thought or literal and phrase by phrase translations, recent archaeological and linguistic discoveries helped in understanding passages that have traditionally been difficult to translate. Familiar spellings of traditional translations were generally retained, in Genesis 2,19 a translation such as the NRSV uses formed in a plain past tense So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal. But the NIV imposes a questionable pluperfect Now the LORD God had formed out of the all the wild animals. To try to make it appear that the animals had already been created, theologian John Sailhamer states Not only is such a translation
16.
New American Bible
–
The New American Bible is a Catholic Bible translation first published in 1970. The effort eventually became the New American Bible under the liturgical principles, the text of the first edition of the New American Bible is composed of, The New Testament directly translated from Greek, appearing in portions from 1964 and completed in 1970. The Old Testament, the Confraternity Bible text translated in stages between 1952 and 1969 from the languages, with minor revisions to the text and notes in 1970. Genesis newly translated from the Hebrew in 1970, replacing the 1948 translation, the spelling of proper names found in this edition departs from the ones found in older Catholic Bible versions, such as the Douay, and instead adopts those commonly found in Protestant Bibles. The notes in many places present 20th century theories still current, Catholic scholars translated this version with collaboration from members of other Christian denominations. The NAB is one of the versions authorized to be used in services of the Episcopal Church, the New Testament was almost completely revised, and bears a much closer resemblance to the 1941 Confraternity version, as opposed to the much more periphrastic 1970 NAB NT. In 1991 the Book of Psalms was amended to introduce the use of extensive gender-neutral language, controversy ensued because of its use of vertical gender-neutral language and some uses of horizontal gender-neutral language. These Psalms were rejected for liturgical use, the only difference between the 1986–1990 RNAB and the 1991–2011 RNAB is the book of Psalms, all 72 other books are identical. In 1994, work began on a revision of the Old Testament, however, since the 1991 Psalms were rejected for liturgical use, the text was modified by a committee of the Holy See and the Bishops for use in the Latin-Rite Catholic liturgy in 2000. This is the current text of the Lectionaries of the Catholic Church in the United States, the Holy See accepted some use of gender-neutral language, such as where the speaker is speaking of one of unknown gender, but rejected any changes relating to God or Christ. On November 2008, the revised Grail Psalter was accepted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and is currently awaiting Vatican approval and this will replace the current modified NAB Psalter for Lectionary use in the United States. In 2002, the Old Testament was completed and sent to the Ad Hoc Committee to see if it was a suitable Catholic translation, however, the US bishops Ad Hoc Committee rejected it. It was again revised in 2008 and sent to the Bishops Committee on Divine Worship, in September 2008, the last book of the Old Testament was accepted by the Ad Hoc Committee. In November of that year, the complete Old Testament was approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, however, they would not allow it to be published with the 1991 Psalms. A final revision of the NAB Psalter was undertaken using suggestions vetted by the Ad Hoc Committee, in January 2011, it was announced that the fourth edition of the NAB would be published on March 9 of that year. While the NABRE represents a revision of the NAB towards conformity to Liturgiam Authenticam, in 2012, the USCCB announced a plan to revise the New Testament of the New American Bible Revised Edition so a single version can be used for individual prayer, catechesis and liturgy. After they developed a plan and budget for the revision project, the editorial board is made up of the following individuals, Dr. Harold Attridge Rev. Christopher Ciccarino Dr. Mary Healy Rev. Felix Just, SJ Rev. Edward Mazich, O. S. B. Most Rev. Donald Trautman Mary Elizabeth Sperry The revision is now underway and, after the necessary approvals from the Bishops and the Vatican, is expected to be completed by 2025
17.
New American Bible Revised Edition
–
Released on March 9,2011, it consists of the 1986 revision of the NAB New Testament with a fully revised Old Testament approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2010. Approved for private use and study by Catholics, the NABRE has not received approval for Catholic liturgical use and this edition has also been consulted. Some of these cases are explained in the notes, Old Testament major sources come by way of the New American Bible, specifically Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Where the translators have departed from those texts, e. g. Additional information on the tradition for some books may be found in the introduction to the book in the same Textual Notes. In particular, important manuscripts from Cave 4 of Qumran, as well as the most useful recensions of the Septuagint, have consulted in the preparation of 1 and 2 Samuel. Fragments of the lost Book of Tobit in Aramaic and in Hebrew, the lost original Hebrew text of 1 Maccabees is replaced by its oldest extant form in Greek. Judith,2 Maccabees, and parts of Esther are also translated from the Greek. The translation of The Wisdom of Ben Sira is based on the original Hebrew as far as it is preserved, with corrections from the ancient versions, otherwise, the Greek of the Septuagint is followed. In the Book of Baruch the basic text is the Greek of the Septuagint, in the deuterocanonical sections of Daniel, the basic text is the Greek text of so-called Theodotion, occasionally revised according to the Greek text of the Septuagint. In a press statement, the USCCB cited three reasons for the necessity of revising the Old Testament, the new translation, Aims to utilize modern scholastic advances in biblical study and adapt to changes in linguistics in order to render a more accurate translation in contemporary English. Takes advantage of recently discovered ancient manuscripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls which provide access to the historical textual tradition. Uses the best manuscript-translating traditions available in order to translate more literally and accurately than previous translations, the press statement claims that the New American Bible Revised Edition will in many ways be a more literal translation than the original New American Bible. In August 1990, the Catholic Biblical Association passed a resolution urging revision of the Old Testament of the New American Bible, in 1994, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed to pass the resolution and form a steering committee/editorial board to direct the revision. The editorial board for the majority of the Old Testament consisted of 8 editors and 40 translators, in 2002, the Old Testament was completed and sent to the Subcommittee for the Translation of Scripture Text to see if it was a suitable Catholic translation. In September 2008, the last book of the Old Testament was accepted by the Subcommittee, in November 2008, the Old Testament was approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. However, they would not allow it to be published with the 1991 Psalms, a final revision of the NAB Psalter was undertaken using suggestions vetted by the Subcommittee for the Translation of Scripture Text and stricter conformity to Liturgiam Authenticam. The Psalms have been the most controversial book of the Old Testament during the course of the leading up to the publication of the New American Bible Revised Edition
18.
Jerusalem Bible
–
The Jerusalem Bible is an English-language translation of the Bible that was first introduced to the English-speaking public in 1966 and published by Darton, Longman & Todd. It also contains copious footnotes and introductions, as a result, a number of Dominicans and other scholars at the École Biblique in Jerusalem translated the scriptures into French. The product of efforts was published as La Bible de Jérusalem in 1956. This French translation served as the impetus for an English translation in 1966, the footnotes and book introductions are almost literal translations from the French. The translation itself has been admired for its qualities, perhaps in part due to its most famous contributor. It is commonly held that the Jerusalem Bible was not a translation from the French, rather, the dynamic equivalence of the translation is more thought-for-thought than word-for-word compared to other modern translations. The introductions, footnotes, and even the translation itself reflect a modern scholarly approach, as examples, the introduction and notes reject Moses authorship of the Pentateuch, as well as the Book of Wisdom having been authored by King Solomon. The Jerusalem Bible was the first widely accepted Roman Catholic English translation of the Bible since the Douay-Rheims Version of the 17th century and it has also been widely praised for an overall very high level of scholarship, and is widely admired and sometimes used by liberal and moderate Protestants. The Jerusalem Bible is one of the versions authorized to be used in services of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The Jerusalem Bible returned to the use of the historical name Yahweh as the name of God in the Old Testament, rendered as such in 6,823 places within this translation. The move has been welcomed by some, however, it has not been popular among groups who would prefer the name of God be left unpronounced, in 1973, the French translation received an update. A third French edition was produced in 1998, in 1985, the English translation was completely updated. This new translation — known as the New Jerusalem Bible — was freshly translated from the original languages, the name Yahweh has been replaced by the LORD throughout the Old Testament, and the Psalms have been completely replaced by the 1963 Grail Psalter. The revised text is accompanied by new introductions, and textual and liturgical notes, last updated in 1998, the French La Bible de Jérusalem is currently the subject of a revision project operating under the title The Bible in its Traditions. According to the notes, more weight will be given to the Septuagint in the translation of the Hebrew Bible Scriptures, the French portion of the Demonstration Volume is available online, together with a single sample of the English translation
19.
Today's New International Version
–
Todays New International Version is an English translation of the Bible developed by the Committee on Bible Translation. The CBT also developed the New International Version in the 1970s, the TNIV is based on the NIV. It is explicitly Protestant like its predecessor, the books are not part of the translation. The TNIV New Testament was published March 2002, the complete Bible was published February 2005. The rights to the text are owned by Biblica, Zondervan publishes the TNIV in North America. Hodder & Stoughton publish the TNIV in the UK and European Union, forty other scholars, many of them experts on specific books of the Bible, reviewed the translations teams work. They came from a range of Evangelical denominational backgrounds, with the 2011 release of an updated version of the NIV, both the TNIV and the 1984 NIV have been discontinued. The intent of the TNIV translators was to produce an accurate, for translation a wide range of manuscripts were reviewed. The Dead Sea Scrolls were occasionally followed where the Masoretic Text seemed inconsistent, the United Bible Societies Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament text was used for the New Testament. There are a number of changes in the TNIV, craig Blomberg stated in a 2003 paper titled The Untold Story of a Good Translation that the changes in the TNIV move in a more literal direction three times more often than not. Mark L. Strauss has stated that the majority of changes are based on advances in scholarship, linguistics. In Matthew 1,18, where the NIV says that Mary was with child, in Luke 12,38, the phrase second or third watch of the night employed in the NIV is changed to middle of the night or toward daybreak in the TNIV. The TNIV translators have, at times, opted for more traditional Anglo-Saxon or poetic renderings than those found in the NIV. For example, the heavens is sometimes chosen to replace the sky, as is the case in Isaiah 50,3, I clothe the heavens with darkness, at times the TNIV offers a different or nuanced understanding of a passage. For example, in the NIV, Psalm 26,3 reads, For your love is ever before me, the TNIV reads, For I have always been mindful of your unfailing love / and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. There are a number of changes in one verse. The TNIV translators took this word to more than simple honesty in Psalm 26,3. The word for Spirit, where there is a chance it means the Holy Spirit, is now capitalized
20.
New American Standard Bible
–
The New American Standard Bible, also known as the New American Standard Version, is an English translation of the Bible. The New Testament was first published in 1963, the complete Bible was published in 1971. The most recent edition of the NASB text was published in 1995, copyright and trademark to the NASB text are owned by the Lockman Foundation. For convenience, this Concordance uses the same numbering system as Strongs Concordance. They shall give the Lord Jesus Christ His proper place, the place which the Word gives Him, therefore, the Hebrew text used for this translation was the third edition of Rudolf Kittels Biblia Hebraica as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia was consulted for the 1995 revision, for Greek, Eberhard Nestles Novum Testamentum Graece was used, the 23rd edition in the 1971 original, and the 26th in the 1995 revision. Seeing the need for a literal, modern translation of the English Bible, in cases where word-for-word literalness was determined to be unacceptable for modern readers, changes were made in the direction of more current idioms. In such instances, the more literal renderings were indicated in footnotes, the greatest strength of the NASB is its reliability and fidelity to the original languages. Additionally, the NASB includes printing of verses as individual units In 1992, in 1995, the Lockman Foundation reissued the NASB text as the NASB Updated Edition. Since then, it has become known as simply the NASB, supplanting the 1977 text in current printings. In the updated NASB, consideration was given to the latest available manuscripts with an emphasis on determining the best Greek text, primarily, the 26th edition of Nestle-Alands Novum Testamentum Graece is closely followed. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is also employed together with the most recent light from lexicography, cognate languages, the updated NASB represents recommended revisions and refinements, and incorporates thorough research based on current English usage. Vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure were meticulously revised for greater understanding and smoother reading, terms found in Elizabethan English such as thy and thou have been modernized, while verses with difficult word ordering are restructured. Punctuation and paragraphing have been formatted for modernization, and verbs with multiple meanings have been updated to account for their contextual usage. YHWH is rendered LORD or GOD in capital letters in the NASB, the committee stated the reason as, This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore it has been consistently translated LORD, the only exception is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai. In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion and it is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation. This is in direct contrast to the preface of ASV of 70 years earlier, according to the Lockman Foundation, the committee consisted of people from many Protestant, predominantly conservative, denominations
21.
Revised Standard Version
–
The Revised Standard Version is an English-language translation of the Bible published in several parts during the mid-20th century. The RSV is a revision of the American Standard Version authorized by the copyright holder, the RSV posed the first serious challenge to the popularity of the King James Version. In 1928, the International Council of Religious Education acquired the copyright to the ASV, a panel of 32 scholars was assembled for that task. Also, the Council hoped to set up a translation committee in Great Britain, as had been the case with the RV and ASV. Funding for the revision was assured in 1936 by a made with the publisher Thomas Nelson & Sons that gave Thomas Nelson & Sons the exclusive rights to print the new version for ten years. The Committee determined that, since the work would be a revision of the Standard Bible, the translation panel used the 17th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek text for the New Testament and the traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text for the Old Testament. In the Book of Isaiah, they sometimes followed readings found in the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls, the RSV New Testament was published on February 11,1946. In his presentation speech to the ICRE, Luther Weigle, dean of the committee, explained that he wanted the RSV to supplement and not supplant the KJV. In 1950, the ICRE merged with the Federal Council of Churches to form the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, the former ICRE became the new Councils Division of Christian Education, and the NCC became the RSVs official sponsor. After a thorough examination and approximately 80 changes to the New Testament text, the NCC authorized the RSV Bible for publication in 1951. The very first copy of the RSV Bible to come off the press was presented by Weigle to an appreciative President Harry S. Truman on September 26, four days before it was released to the general public. There were three key differences between the RSV, and the KJV, RV, and ASV, The translators reverted to the KJV and RVs practice of translating the Tetragrammaton, or the Divine Name, YHWH. In accordance with the 1611 and 1885 versions, the RSV translated it as LORD or GOD, a change was made in the usage of archaic English for second-person pronouns, thou, thee, thy, and verb forms art, hast, hadst, didst, etc. The KJV, RV, and ASV used these terms for addressing both God and humans, the RSV used archaic English pronouns and verbs only for addressing God, a fairly common practice for Bible translations until the mid-1970s. For the New Testament, the RSV followed the latest available version of Nestles Greek text, whereas the RV and ASV had used the Wescott and Hort Greek text, and the KJV had used the Textus receptus. The RSV New Testament was well received, but reactions to the Old Testament were varied, critics claimed that the RSV translators had translated the Old Testament from a non-Christian perspective. Such critics further claimed that other views, including those of the New Testament, were not considered, the focus of the controversy was the RSVs translation of the Hebrew word עַלְמָה in Isaiah 7,14 as young woman rather than the traditional Christian translation of virgin. Of the seven appearances of ʿalmāh, the Septuagint translates only two of them as parthenos, virgin, by contrast, the word בְּתוּלָה appears some 50 times, and the Septuagint and English translations agree in understanding the word to mean virgin in almost every case
22.
English Standard Version
–
The English Standard Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible. It is a revision of the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version that employs an essentially literal translation philosophy. Work on this translation was prompted, in the early 1990s, about 6 percent was revised in the ESV. The ESV uses some gender-neutral language, in 2007, the ESV underwent a minor revision, and the publisher did not identify the updated text as a revised edition. The update changed about 500 words by focusing on grammar, consistency, one notable change was from wounded for our transgressions to pierced for our transgressions. In April 2011, another edition was issued, and the 2007 edition has been phased out. In August 2016, Crossway announced the ESV Permanent Text Edition with 52 word changes in 29 verses, the publishers announced their intention to leave the text alone for the foreseeable future after this update. Lane Dennis, Crossways president and CEO, said, We apologize for this and for any concern this has caused for readers of the ESV Our desire, above all, is to do what is right before the Lord. The publishers hope for new edition which includes the Apocrypha is that it will be used widely in seminaries. The ESV version of the Apocrypha is a revision of the Revised Standard Version 1977 Expanded Edition, the team translating the Apocrypha includes Bernard A. Taylor, David A. deSilva, and Dan McCartney, under the editorship of David Aiken. In the edition including these books, they are printed and arranged in the order of the RSV and NRSV Common Bibles. The Oxford translating team relied on the Göttingen Septuagint for all of the Apocrypha except 4 Maccabees and 2 Esdras, which used the German Bible Societys 1983 edition Vulgate. Mark L. Strauss, in a paper presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, criticized the ESV for using dated language, ESV translator William D. Mounce has called these arguments against the ESV ad hominem. Biblical Archaeology Society,3, retrieved December 7,2012 Johnson, S
23.
Emphasized Bible
–
The New Testament Critically Emphasised was first published in 1872. However, great changes occurred in textual criticism during the last half of the 19th century culminating in Brooke Foss Westcotts and this led Rotherham to revise his New Testament twice, in 1878 and 1897, to stay abreast of scholarly developments. The entire Bible with the Old Testament appeared in 1902, Rotherham based his Old Testament translation on Dr. C. D Ginsburgs comprehensive Masoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible that anticipated readings now widely accepted, rotherhams translation has stayed in print over the years because of the wealth of information it presents. John R Kohlenberger III says in his preface to the 1994 printing, The Emphasized Bible is one of the most innovative and its presentation of emphases and grammatical features of the original languages still reward careful study. Reminiscences extending over a period of more than seventy years, the Emphasized Bible searchable text The Emphasized Bible 1902 edition GoogleBooks copy
24.
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
–
The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures is a translation of the Bible published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Though it is not the first Bible to be published by the group, it is their first original translation of ancient Classical Hebrew, Koine Greek, and Old Aramaic biblical texts. As of January 2017, the Watch Tower Society has published 217 million copies of the New World Translation in whole or in part in more than 140 languages, until the release of the NWT, Jehovahs Witnesses in English-speaking countries primarily used the King James Version. According to the publishers, one of the reasons for producing a new translation was that most Bible versions in common use, including the Authorized Version. The stated intention was to produce a translation, free of archaisms. Additionally, over the centuries since the King James Version was produced, more copies of manuscripts of the original texts in the Hebrew. According to the publishers, better manuscript evidence had made it possible to determine with greater accuracy what the writers intended. They said linguists better understood certain aspects of the original Hebrew, work began on December 2,1947 when the New World Bible Translation Committee was formed, composed of Jehovahs Witnesses who professed to be anointed. The Watch Tower Society is said to have become aware of the existence a year later. Several chapters of the translation were read to the directors, who voted to accept it as a gift. The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was released at a convention of Jehovahs Witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York, on August 2,1950. The translation of the Old Testament, which Jehovahs Witnesses refer to as the Hebrew Scriptures, was released in five volumes in 1953,1955,1957,1958, and 1960. The complete New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released as a volume in 1961. Cross references which had appeared in the six volumes were updated and included in the complete volume in the 1984 revision. By 1989 the New World Translation was translated into eleven languages, the New World Translation was produced by the New World Bible Translation Committee, formed in 1947. This committee is said to have comprised unnamed members of multinational background, the publishers believe that the particulars of university or other educational training are not the important thing and that the translation testifies to their qualification. Former high ranking Watch Tower staff have claimed knowledge of the translators identities, evangelical minister Walter Ralston Martin identified Nathan H. Knorr, Fredrick W. Franz, Albert D. None of these men had any university education except Franz, who left school two years, never completing even an undergraduate degree
25.
The Living Bible
–
The Living Bible is an English version of the Bible created by Kenneth N. Taylor and first published in 1971. Unlike most English language versions of the Bible, The Living Bible is a paraphrase, Taylor used the American Standard Version of 1901 as his base text. Our family devotions were tough going because of the difficulty we had understanding the King James Version, which we were using, or the Revised Standard Version. All too often I would ask questions to be sure the children understood, I would paraphrase it for them and give them the thought. It suddenly occurred to me one afternoon that I should write out the reading for that evening thought by thought, so I did, and read the chapter to the family that evening with exciting results—they knew the answers to all the questions I asked. The Living Bible was well received in many Evangelical circles, youth-oriented Protestant groups such as Youth for Christ and Young Life accepted it readily. He was impressed with its easy readability, and he asked for permission to print 50,000 paperback copies of Living Letters for use in his evangelistic crusades, over the next year he distributed 600,000 copies of Living Letters. There is also The Catholic Living Bible, which holds an imprimatur from the Catholic Church, the Catholic Living Bible does not use the word Paraphrased on the front cover, instead it places the word on the title page, underneath which is written A Thought-For-Thought Translation. It uses lingual contractions such as dont for do not, in 1972 and 1973, The Living Bible was the best-selling book in America. By 1997,40 million copies of The Living Bible had been sold, during this period, work started on foreign translations in, eventually, around 100 languages by Living Bibles International. In the Old Testament, the Living Bible sometimes uses Jehovah to represent the Tetragrammaton and this use of the term is not regular, sometimes it uses Lord to translate the identical Hebrew word. From the very beginning of its publication, Taylor had assigned the copyright to Tyndale House Foundation, so all of the royalties from sales of The Living Bible were given to charity. In the late 1980s, Taylor and his colleagues at Tyndale House Publishers invited a team of 90 Greek, after many years of work, the result was an entirely new translation of the Bible. It was published in 1996 as the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, measurements quoted in this version are converted into metric and in the British version of The Living Bible money sums are converted into pound sterling. In the British edition of The Living Bible, this wording was changed to to relieve himself, as a result of its translation of this passage, this version is sometimes known as The Bathroom Bible
26.
American Standard Version
–
By the time its copyright was renewed in 1929, it had come to be known by its present name, the American Standard Version. Because of its prominence in seminaries, it was in America sometimes simply called the Standard Bible, the American Standard Version, which was also known as The American Revision of 1901, is rooted in the work begun in 1870 to revise the Authorized Version/King James Bible of 1611. This revision project eventually produced the Revised Version, an invitation was extended to American religious leaders for scholars to work on the RV project. In 1871, thirty scholars were chosen by Philip Schaff, the denominations represented on the American committee were the Baptist, Congregationalist, Dutch Reformed, Friends, Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, and Unitarian. These scholars began work in 1872, any suggestion the American team had would be accepted by the British team only if two-thirds of the British team agreed. This principle was backed up by an agreement that if their suggestions were put into the appendix of the RV, the appendix had about three hundred suggestions in it. The New Testament was published in 1881, the Old Testament in 1885, around this time, the British team disbanded. Also around this time, unauthorized copied editions of the RV appeared with the suggestions of the American team in the main text, in 1898, publishers for Oxford and Cambridge Universities published their own editions of the RV with the American suggestions included. However, these suggestions were reduced in number, some of those Americanized editions by Oxford and Cambridge Universities had the title of American Revised Version on the cover of their spines. Some of Thomas Nelsons editions of the American Standard Version Holy Bible included the Apocrypha of the Revised Version, the Revised Version are some of the Bible versions that are authorized to be used in services of the Episcopal Church and the Church of England. It was copyrighted in North America to ensure the purity of the ASV text, in 1928, the International Council of Religious Education acquired the copyright from Nelson and renewed it the following year. The copyright was a reaction to tampering with the text of the Revised Version by some U. S. publishers, there were two rationales for the ASV. One reason was to obviate any justification for the unauthorized copied editions of the RV that had been circulating, consequently, there were several changes to the KJV text in the ASV that were not present in the RV. Gospel Light Publishing Company publishes ASV New Testament editions, like the ASV, this commentary is a work formerly under copyright which has now expired so that it is in the public domain and free to be published at will without the payment of a royalty. There appears to be a growing interest in the ASV, in part because it is included as one of the versions in most recently released Bible-related CD-ROMs and it is also available in most Bible gateway Internet sites, since it is freely available. The divine name of the Almighty is consistently rendered Jehovah in 6,823 places of the ASV Old Testament, the reason for this change, as the Committee explained in the preface, was that. the American Revisers. Other changes from the RV to the ASV included substituting who and that for which when referring to people, page headings were added and footnotes were improved. The ASV was the basis of six revisions, the ASV was also the basis for Kenneth N. Taylors Bible paraphrase, The Living Bible,1971
27.
Good News Bible
–
The Good News Bible, also called the Good News Translation in the United States, is an English translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name Good News for Modern Man in 1966 and it was anglicised into British English by the British and Foreign Bible Society with the use of metric measurements for the Commonwealth market. Despite the official terminology, it is often referred to as the Good News Bible in the United States. It is published by HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, the beginnings of the Good News Bible can be traced to requests made by people in Africa and the Far East for a version of the Bible that was friendly to non-native English speakers. In 1961, a home missions board also made a request for the type of translation. Besides these requests, the GNB was born out of the theories of linguist Eugene Nida. In the 1960s, Nida envisioned a new style of translation called Dynamic equivalence and that is, the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek would be expressed in a translation thought for thought rather than word for word. The dynamic theory was inspired by a Spanish translation for Latin American native peoples, the American Bible Society, impressed with Nidas theories, decided to use them. Due to these requests and Nidas theories, Robert Bratcher did a translation of the Gospel of Mark. This later led to a translation of the full New Testament, the result, titled Good News for Modern Man, The New Testament in Todays English Version, was released in 1966 as a 599-page paperback with a publication date of January 1,1966. It received a marketing effort with copies even being made available through grocery store chains. In 1976, the Old Testament was completed and published as the Good News Bible, in 1979, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books were added to the Good News Bible and published as Good News Bible, Todays English Version with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. In 1992, the translation was revised with inclusive language, the Bible Societies released the Contemporary English Version in 1995, also using jargon-free English. While this translation is sometimes perceived as a replacement for the GNB, it was not intended as such, the GNB has been a popular translation. By 1969, Good News for Modern Man had sold 17.5 million copies, by 1971, that number had swelled to 30 million copies. In 1991, a Gallup poll of British parishioners showed that the GNB was the most popular Bible version in that nation, in 2003, the GNB was used as the basis for a film version of the Gospel of John. In 2008, Swedish group Illuminated World paired the text of the GNB with contemporary photography for the English translation of Bible Illuminated, The Book. The GNB is written in a simple, everyday language, with the intention that everyone can appreciate it, there are introductions to each book of the Bible
28.
Gaul
–
It covered an area of 190,800 sq mi. According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, Gaul was divided into three parts, Gallia Celtica, Belgica and Aquitania, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule, Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 203 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, Gallia remains a name of France in modern Greek and modern Latin. The Greek and Latin names Galatia, and Gallia are ultimately derived from a Celtic ethnic term or clan Gal-to-. Galli of Gallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves as Celtae by Caesar. Hellenistic folk etymology connected the name of the Galatians to the supposedly milk-white skin of the Gauls, modern researchers say it is related to Welsh gallu, Cornish galloes, capacity, power, thus meaning powerful people. The English Gaul is from French Gaule and is unrelated to Latin Gallia, as adjectives, English has the two variants, Gaulish and Gallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls, although the Celtic language or languages spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as Gaulish. The Germanic w- is regularly rendered as gu- / g- in French, also unrelated in spite of superficial similarity is the name Gael. The Irish word gall did originally mean a Gaul, i. e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to foreigner, to describe the Vikings, and later still the Normans. The dichotomic words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, by 500 BC, there is strong Hallstatt influence throughout most of France. By the late 5th century BC, La Tène influence spreads rapidly across the territory of Gaul. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, southwest Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, farther north extended the contemporary pre-Roman Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the Romans described Gallia Transalpina as distinct from Gallia Cisalpina, while some scholars believe the Belgae south of the Somme were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations have not been definitively resolved. One of the reasons is political interference upon the French historical interpretation during the 19th century, in addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia along the Mediterranean coast. Also, along the southeastern Mediterranean coast, the Ligures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto-Ligurian culture, the prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia, who were under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The Romans intervened in Gaul in 154 BC and again in 125 BC, whereas on the first occasion they came and went, on the second they stayed. Massilia was allowed to keep its lands, but Rome added to its territories the lands of the conquered tribes. The direct result of conquests was that by now, Rome controlled an area extending from the Pyrenees to the lower Rhône river
29.
Latin Church
–
The Latin Church, commonly called Roman Catholic Church, sometimes Western Church, is the largest autonomous particular church sui iuris within the Catholic Church, applying Latin liturgical rites. There are 24 such sui iuris particular churches within the Catholic Church, all the other particular churches sui iuris, of which there are 23, originated farther east and are, therefore, collectively known as the Eastern Catholic Churches. Because of the migrations, members of all of these particular churches sui iuris are no longer confined to their areas of origin. A person is a member of or belongs to a particular church, a person also inherits or is of, a particular patrimony or rite. Since the rite has liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary elements, Particular churches that inherit and perpetuate a particular patrimony are identified by metonymy with that patrimony. Accordingly, rite has been defined as a division of the Christian church using a distinctive liturgy, is considered equal to the Latin rite within the Church. It thus used the rite as a technical designation of what may now be called a particular church. Church or rite is used as a single heading in the United States Library of Congress classification of works. The last known use was Pope Pius XII in Humani generis who taught that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one. Most ecclesiologists - experts in the theology of the Church itself - instead use Roman Catholic to refer exclusively to the Latin Church. The reasons for this are that each of the 24 Catholic Churches sui iuris have a modifier - Maronite, Ukrainian, Roman, etc. - and that Latin and Roman are virtually interchangeable. Further, as Adrian Fortescue noted in his article in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, today, the most common Latin liturgical rites are the Roman Rite, the Ambrosian Rite, the Mozarabic Rite, and variations of the Roman Rite. The 23 Eastern Catholic Churches share five families of liturgical rites, the Latin liturgical rites, like the Armenian, are used only in a single sui iuris particular church. In the Eastern Churches these sacraments are usually administered immediately after baptism, celibacy, as a consequence of the duty to observe perfect continence, is obligatory for priests in the Latin Church. Rare exceptions are permitted for men who, after ministering as clergy in other churches and this contrasts with the discipline in most Eastern Catholic Churches. In the Latin Church, a man may not be admitted even to the diaconate unless he is legitimately destined to remain a deacon. Marriage after ordination is not possible, and attempting it can result in canonical penalties, Latin Mass Church of Rome Particular church General Roman Calendar Eastern Catholic Churches Catholic Encyclopedia, Latin Church
30.
Paraphrase
–
A paraphrase /ˈpærəfreɪz/ is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words. The term itself is derived via Latin paraphrasis from Greek παράφρασις, the act of paraphrasing is also called paraphrasis. A paraphrase typically explains or clarifies the text that is being paraphrased, for example, The signal was red might be paraphrased as The train was not allowed to pass because the signal was red. A paraphrase is usually introduced with verbum dicendi—a declaratory expression to signal the transition to the paraphrase, for example, in The signal was red, that is, the train was not allowed to proceed, the that is signals the paraphrase that follows. A paraphrase does not need to accompany a direct quotation, the paraphrase typically serves to put the statement into perspective or to clarify the context in which it appeared. A paraphrase is typically more detailed than a summary, one should add the source at the end of the sentence, for example, When the light was red, trains could not go. Paraphrase may attempt to preserve the meaning of the material being paraphrased. Thus, the reinterpretation of a source to infer a meaning that is not explicitly evident in the source itself qualifies as original research, unlike a metaphrase, which represents a formal equivalent of the source, a paraphrase represents a dynamic equivalent thereof. While a metaphrase attempts to translate a text literally, a paraphrase conveys the thought expressed in a source text, if necessary. For details, see dynamic and formal equivalence, the term is applied to the genre of Biblical paraphrases, which were the most widely circulated versions of the Bible available in medieval Europe. Nowadays, there are models to learn and recognize paraphrase on natural language texts
31.
Vetus Latina
–
However, the Vetus Latina texts survive in places in the liturgy. The Vetus Latina manuscripts that are preserved today are dated from 350 to the 13th century AD, there is no single Vetus Latina Bible. Instead, Vetus Latina is a collection of biblical texts that are Latin translations of Septuagint passages that preceded Jeromes Vulgate. After comparing readings for Luke 24, 4–5 in Vetus Latina manuscripts, other biblical passages, however, are extant only in excerpts or fragments. The language of Vetus Latina translations is uneven in quality, as Augustine of Hippo lamented in De Doctrina Christiana, grammatical solecisms abound, some reproduce literally Greek or Hebrew idioms as they appear in the Septuagint. Many grammatical idiosyncrasies come from the use of Vulgar Latin grammatical forms in the text and he broke with church tradition and translated most of the Old Testament of his Vulgate from Hebrew sources rather than from the Greek Septuagint. His choice was criticized by Augustine, his contemporary, a flood of still less moderate criticism came from those who regarded Jerome as a forger. Jeromes Vulgate offered a single, stylistically consistent Latin text translated from the original tongues, Jerome, in a letter, complains that his new version was initially disliked by Christians who were familiar with the phrasing of the old translations. Vetus Latina translations of books continued to be found in manuscripts as late as the 13th century. However, the Vulgate generally displaced the Vetus Latina as the standard Latin translation of the Bible to be used by the Catholic church, below are some comparisons of the Vetus Latina with text from critical editions of the Vulgate
32.
Byzantine text-type
–
The Byzantine text-type is one of several text-types used in textual criticism to describe the textual character of Greek New Testament manuscripts. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts, the New Testament text of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Patriarchal Text, is based on this text-type. While considerably varying, it underlies the Textus Receptus Greek text used for most Reformation-era translations of the New Testament into vernacular languages. Modern translations mainly use Eclectic editions that conform more often to the Alexandrian text-type, the Byzantine text is also found in a few modern Greek Orthodox editions, as the Byzantine textual tradition has continued in the Eastern Orthodox Church into the present time. The text used by the Greek Orthodox Church is supported by late minuscule manuscripts and it is commonly accepted as standard Byzantine text. The Byzantine textform is often marked with the abbreviations M or Byz, for some time following the fourth century different types of text were current in the East, but at the end the Byzantine text almost wholly displaced the rest. Amongst the earliest surviving manuscripts, the position is reversed, by comparison, the Alexandrian text-type is witnessed by nine surviving uncials earlier than the ninth century, and is also usually considered to be demonstrated in three earlier papyri. Modern critical editions of the New Testament tend to conform most often to Alexandrian witnesses — especially Codex Sinaiticus, chrysostom and Asterius used text only in 75% agreed with the standard Byzantine text. The form of the Byzantine text found in the earliest witnesses is not a monolithic whole, Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad, although this text does not correspond to any one particular manuscript. Papyri
33.
Koine Greek
–
It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties. Koine Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the vernaculars of the time. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, Koine Greek remained the court language of the Byzantine Empire until its dissolution in 1453, while Medieval and eventually Modern Greek were the everyday language. Literary Koine was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch, Koine is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint, and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koine Greek is also known as Biblical, New Testament and it continues to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church. The word koinē is the Greek word for common, and is understood as referring to the common dialect. The word is pronounced /kɔɪˈneɪ/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/ or /kiːˈniː/ in US English, the pronunciation of the word in Koine gradually changed from Greek pronunciation, to Greek pronunciation. Its pronunciation in Modern Greek is, the term was applied in several different senses by ancient scholars. Others chose to refer to Koine as the Alexandrian dialect or the dialect of Alexandria, the former was often used by modern classicists. Koine Greek arose as a dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. Under the leadership of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia and it replaced existing ancient Greek dialects with an everyday form that people anywhere could understand. The passage into the period, known as Medieval Greek. The post-Classical period of Greek thus refers to the creation and evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic, the linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been unclear since ancient times. During the Hellenistic period, most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων συνεστῶσα. The view accepted by most scholars today was given by the Greek linguist Georgios Hatzidakis, who showed that, despite the composition of the Four, the stable nucleus of Koine Greek is Attic. In other words, Koine Greek can be regarded as Attic with the admixture of elements especially from Ionic, the degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the Hellenistic World. The literary Koine of the Hellenistic age resembles Attic in such a degree that it is mentioned as Common Attic. Koine Greek was therefore considered a form of Greek which was not worthy of attention
34.
Constantinople
–
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
35.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
36.
Textus Receptus
–
Textus Receptus is the name given to the succession of printed Greek texts of the New Testament. The term Textus Receptus may also apply to ancient texts in other languages. The series originated with the first printed Greek New Testament, published in 1516 – a work undertaken in Basel by the Dutch Catholic scholar, priest and humanist Desiderius Erasmus. This edition of the New Testament represents the tradition of manuscripts of the New Testament as the one that the Orthodox Church has received and used without interruption since the 4th century. Manuscripts of the Byzantine family represent the vast majority of the 5700 manuscripts that have currently been found and collated, Erasmus had been working for years on two projects, a collation of Greek texts and a fresh Latin New Testament. In 1512, he began his work on a fresh Latin New Testament and he collected all the Vulgate manuscripts he could find to create a critical edition. He declared, It is only fair that Paul should address the Romans in somewhat better Latin. In the earlier phases of the project, he never mentioned a Greek text, My mind is so excited at the thought of emending Jerome’s text, with notes, that I seem to myself inspired by some god. I have already almost finished emending him by collating a number of ancient manuscripts. While his intentions for publishing a fresh Latin translation are clear, though some speculate that he intended on producing a critical Greek text or that he wanted to beat the Complutensian Polyglot into print, there is no evidence to support this. Rather his motivation may have simpler, he included the Greek text to prove the superiority of his Latin version. He wrote, There remains the New Testament translated by me, with the Greek facing, Erasmus new work was published by Froben of Basel in 1516, becoming the first published Greek New Testament, the Novum Instrumentum omne, diligenter ab Erasmo Rot. He used manuscripts,1, 1rK, 2e, 2ap, 4ap,7,817, the second edition used the more familiar term Testamentum instead of Instrumentum, and eventually became a major source for Luthers German translation. In the second edition Erasmus used also Minuscule 3, typographical errors abounded in the published text. Erasmus also lacked a copy of the book of Revelation. Though his work is criticized for that, this is an issue that everyone is faced with when translating the Bible from Greek manuscripts, the edition was a sell-out commercial success and was reprinted in 1519, with most—though not all—the typographical errors corrected. They all dated from the 12th Century or later, and only one came from outside the mainstream Byzantine tradition, consequently, most modern scholars consider his text to be of dubious quality. The overwhelming success of Erasmus Greek New Testament completely overshadowed the Latin text upon which he had focused, many other publishers produced their own versions of the Greek New Testament over the next several centuries
37.
Reformation
–
The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable
38.
King James Version
–
The King James Version, also known as Authorized Version or simply King James Bible, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, a section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha. It was first printed by the Kings Printer Robert Barker and was the translation into English approved by the English Church authorities. The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII, the translation is noted for its majesty of style, and has been described as one of the most important books in English culture. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer, the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible for Epistle and Gospel readings, over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English-speaking scholars. Today the unqualified title King James Version usually indicates that this Oxford standard text is meant, the title page carries the words Appointed to be read in Churches, and F. F. For many years it was not to give the translation any specific name. In his Leviathan of 1651, Thomas Hobbes referred to it as the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James. Similarly, a History of England, whose edition was published in 1775, writes merely that new translation of the Bible, viz. that now in Use, was begun in 1607. King Jamess Bible is used as the name for the 1611 translation in Charles Butlers Horae Biblicae and this name was also found as King James Bible, for example in a book review from 1811. The phrase King Jamess Bible is used as far back as 1715, the use of Authorized Version or Authorised Version, capitalized and used as a name, is found as early as 1814. For some time before this, descriptive phrases such as our present, and only publicly authorised version, our Authorised version, the Oxford English Dictionary records a usage in 1824. In Britain, the 1611 translation is known as the Authorised Version today. As early as 1814, we find King James version, evidently a descriptive phrase, the King James Version is found, unequivocally used as a name, in a letter from 1855. The next year King James Bible, with no possessive, appears as a name in a Scottish source, in the United States, the 1611 translation is generally known as the King James Version today. The followers of John Wycliffe undertook the first complete English translations of the Christian scriptures in the 14th century and these translations were banned in 1409 due to their association with the Lollards
39.
New King James Version
–
The New King James Version is a translation of the Bible published by HarperCollins. The New Testament was published in 1979, the Psalms in 1980, and it took seven years to complete. The anglicized edition was known as the Revised Authorized Version. The NKJV translation project was conceived by Arthur Farstad and it was inaugurated in 1975 with two meetings of 130 biblical scholars, pastors, and theologians. The men who were invited prepared the guidelines for the NKJV, the aim of its translators was to update the vocabulary and grammar of the King James Version, while preserving the classic style and literary beauty of the original 1611 KJV. The 130 translators believed in unyielding faithfulness to the original Greek, Aramaic, also agreed upon for most New King James Bibles were easier event descriptions, a history of each book, and added dictionary and updated concordance. Both the Old Testament text of the NKJV and that of the KJV come from the ben Chayyim text, however, the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica used by the NKJV uses an earlier manuscript than that of the KJV. The New King James Version also uses the Textus Receptus for the New Testament, as explained in the preface, notes in the center column acknowledge variations from Novum Testamentum Graece and the Majority Text. The task of updating the English of the KJV involved significant changes in order, grammar, vocabulary. The Executive Editor of the NKJV, Arthur L. Farstad, is labeled best or most reliable. The reader is permitted to make up his or her own mind about the correct reading, the NKJV translation has become one of the best-selling Bibles. As of July 2012 it is listed as the third best selling Bible after the NIV, an unabridged audiobook version called The Word of Promise Audio Bible has been produced by the publisher. It is narrated by celebrities and fully dramatized with music. As of 2013, however, the Gideons have chosen to start using the English Standard Version instead of the NKJV
40.
Tyndale Bible
–
The Tyndale Bible generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale. Tyndale’s Bible is credited with being the first English translation to directly from Hebrew. Furthermore, it was the first English biblical translation that was mass-produced as a result of new advances in the art of printing, the term Tyndales Bible is not strictly correct, because Tyndale never published a complete Bible. Prior to his execution Tyndale had only finished translating the entire New Testament, of the latter, the Pentateuch, Jonah and a revised version of the book of Genesis were published during his lifetime. His other Old Testament works were first used in the creation of the Matthew Bible, the chain of events that led to the creation of Tyndale’s New Testament possibly began in 1522, the year Tyndale acquired a copy of Martin Luther’s German New Testament. Tyndale made his purpose known to the Bishop of London at the time, Cuthbert Tunstall, thwarted in England, Tyndale moved to the continent. A partial edition was put into print in 1525 in Cologne, but before the work could be completed, Tyndale was betrayed to the authorities and forced to flee to Worms, where the first complete edition of his New Testament was published in 1526. Two revised versions were published in 1534 and 1536, both personally revised by Tyndale himself. After his death in 1536 Tyndale’s works were revised and reprinted numerous times and are reflected in modern versions of the Bible, including, perhaps most famously. Tyndales Pentateuch was published at Antwerp by Merten de Keyser in 1530 and his English version of the book of Jonah was published the following year. This was followed by his version of the book of Genesis in 1534. When Tyndale was martyred these works came to be in the possession of one of his associates John Rogers and these translations would be influential in the creation of the Matthew Bible which was published in 1537. Tyndale used a number of sources when carrying out his translations of both the New and Old Testaments, when translating the New Testament, he referred to the third edition of Erasmus’s Greek New Testament, often referred to as the Received Text. Tyndale also used Erasmus Latin New Testament, as well as Luther’s German version, scholars believe that Tyndale stayed away from using Wycliffes Bible as a source because he didn’t want his English to reflect that which was used prior to the Renaissance. The sources Tyndale used for his translation of the Pentateuch however are not known for sure, scholars believe that Tyndale used either the Hebrew Pentateuch or the Polyglot Bible, and may have referred to the Septuagint. It is suspected that his other Old Testament works were translated directly from a copy of the Hebrew Bible and he also made abundant use of Greek and Hebrew grammars. Tyndale’s translations were condemned in England, where his work was banned, betrayed to church officials in 1536, he was defrocked in an elaborate public ceremony and turned over to the civil authorities to be strangled to death and burned at the stake. His last words are said to have been, Lord, open the King of Englands eyes
41.
Coverdale Bible
–
The Coverdale Bible, compiled by Myles Coverdale and published in 1535, was the first complete Modern English translation of the Bible, and the first complete printed translation into English. The later editions published in 1539 were the first complete Bibles printed in England, the 1539 folio edition carried the royal licence and was therefore the first officially approved Bible translation in English. The place of publication of the 1535 edition was long disputed, the printer was assumed to be either Froschover in Zurich or Cervicornus and Soter. Since the discovery of Guido Latré, in 1997, the printer has been identified as Merten de Keyser, the publication was partly financed by Jacobus van Meteren, in Antwerp, whose sister-in-law, Adriana de Weyden, married John Rogers. The other backer of the Coverdale Bible was Jacobus van Meteren’s nephew, Leonard Ortels, father of Abraham Ortelius, although Coverdale was also involved in the preparation of the Great Bible of 1539, the Coverdale Bible continued to be reprinted. The last of over 20 editions of the whole Bible, or its New Testament, Coverdale based his New Testament on Tyndale’s translation. For the Old Testament, Coverdale used Tyndale’s published Pentateuch and possibly his published Jonah and he apparently did not make use of any of Tyndale’s other, unpublished, Old Testament material. Instead, Coverdale himself translated the books of the Old Testament. Guido Latre, The 1535 Coverdale Bible and its Antwerp Origins, in The Bible as Book, The Reformation, ed. by OSullivan, Orlaith, pp. 89-102
42.
Geneva Bible
–
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne and it was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower. The Geneva Bible was used by many English Dissenters, and it was respected by Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the time of the English Civil War. Because the language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous, in the words of Cleland Boyd McAfee, it drove the Great Bible off the field by sheer power of excellence. The Geneva Bible followed the Great Bible of 1539, the first authorized Bible in English, whittingham was directly responsible for the New Testament, which was complete and published in 1557, while Gilby oversaw the Old Testament. The first full edition of this Bible, with a further revised New Testament, appeared in 1560, over 150 editions were issued, the last probably in 1644. The very first Bible printed in Scotland was a Geneva Bible, some editions from 1576 onwards included Laurence Tomsons revisions of the New Testament. Some editions from 1599 onwards used a new Junius version of the Book of Revelation, the Geneva Bible had also motivated the earlier production of the Bishops Bible under Elizabeth I, for the same reason, and the later Rheims-Douai edition by the Catholic community. The Geneva Bible remained popular among Puritans and remained in use until after the English Civil War. The Geneva notes were included in a few editions of the King James version. Like most English translations of the time, the Geneva Bible was translated from editions of the Greek New Testament. The English rendering was substantially based on the translations by William Tyndale. However, the Geneva Bible was the first English version in all of the Old Testament was translated directly from the Hebrew. The Geneva Bible was the first English Bible to use verse numbers based on the work of Stephanus and it also had an elaborate system of commentary in marginal glosses. This annotation was done by Laurence Tomson, who translated LOiseleurs notes on the Gospels, in 1576 Tomson added LOiseleurs notes for the Epistles, which came from Bezas Greek and Latin edition of the Bible. Beginning in 1599 Franciscus Junius notes on Revelation were added, replacing the original notes deriving from John Bale, bales The Image of both churches had a great effect on these notes as well as Foxes Book of Martyrs. Both the Junius and Bullinger-Bale annotations are explicitly anti-Roman Catholic and representative of much popular Protestant apocalypticism during the Reformation, the 1560 Geneva Bible was printed in Roman type—the style of type regularly used today—but many editions used the older black-letter type. Of the various later English Bible translations, the next to use Roman type was the Douay-Rheims Bible of 1582, the Geneva Bible was also issued in more convenient and affordable sizes than earlier versions
43.
Bishops' Bible
–
The Bishops Bible is an English translation of the Bible which was produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568. It was substantially revised in 1572, and the 1602 edition was prescribed as the text for the King James Bible that was completed in 1611. The Bishops Bible succeeded the Great Bible of 1539, the first authorized bible in English, the thorough Calvinism of the Geneva Bible offended the high-church party of the Church of England, to which almost all of its bishops subscribed. They associated Calvinism with Presbyterianism, which sought to replace government of the church by bishops with government by lay elders, in an attempt to replace the objectionable Geneva translation, they circulated one of their own, which became known as the Bishops Bible. The promoter of the exercise, and the figure in translating was Matthew Parker. It was at his instigation that the various sections translated by Parker and his fellow bishops were followed by their initials in the early editions. For instance, at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we find the initials W. E. which, according to a letter Parker wrote to Sir William Cecil, stand for William Alley, Bishop of Exeter. Parker tells Cecil that this system was to make more diligent, hence, in most of the Old Testament the tetragrammaton YHWH is represented by the LORD, and the Hebrew Elohim is represented by God. But in the Psalms the practice is the way around. The books that Parker himself worked on are fairly sparingly edited from the text of the Great Bible, while those undertaken by Grindal of London emerged much closer to the Geneva text. The bishops deputed to revise the Apocrypha appear to have delivered very little, as the Apocrypha of the Great Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate, the Bishops Bible cannot strictly claim to have been entirely translated from the original tongues. The Bishops Bible was first published in 1568, but was then re-issued in a revised form in 1572. From 1577 the new translation was dropped altogether, while further incremental changes were made to the text of the New Testament in subsequent editions. The Bible had the authority of the warrant, and was the second version appointed to be read aloud in church services. It failed to displace the Geneva Bible as a domestic Bible to be read at home, the intention was for it to be used in church as what would today be termed a pulpit Bible. The version was more grandiloquent than the Geneva Bible, the first edition was exceptionally large and included 124 full-page illustrations. The second and subsequent editions were rather smaller, around the size as the first printing of the King James Bible. The last edition of the complete Bible was issued in 1602, the Bishops Bible or its New Testament went through over 50 editions, whereas the Geneva Bible was reprinted more than 150 times
