Bible Class 08
Al Krummenacher

Bible Class 08

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Bible Class 08 - The Text

Know Your Bible Class 08 Text

Know Your Bible Week Eight

So Many Versions of the Bible!  Where did they all come from??

Early Bibles

Emperor Constantine

Roman Emperor 306-337CE

313 CE  Edict of Milan

331CE    Commissioned Eusebius of Caesarea to produce 50 copies of the Christian scriptures to be produced and widely distributed.

The Fifty Bibles of Constantine

The Four Great Uncial Codices

Ancient biblical manuscripts written in Greek

Original codices contained the entire OT and NT

Most reliable witnesses to the original texts of the Bibles

Codex Vaticanus

Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Alexandrinus

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

Codex Vaticanus
340 CE

Contains most of the OT (Septuagint)

Most of the NT (Not Revelation)

One of oldest documents in the Vatican Library

First mentioned by

Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536)

May be one of the fifty Bibles of Constantine

Codex Sinaiticus
330 CE

Oldest Complete NT

Contains half of OT (Septuagint)

Includes Most of the Apocryphal Books

1844CE  Discovered at St. Catherine’s Monastery at the base of Mt. Saini

by Constantin von Tischendorf

May be one of the fifty Bibles of Constantine

Codex Alexandrinus
450 CE

Contains Most of the OT (Septuagint).      Most of the NT

Written in a Byzantine style which was dominate in the Eastern Roman region

Kept in Alexandria, Egypt until 1627, when it was presented to the King of England

Codex  Ephraemi Rescriptus
450 CE

Contains Most of the OT and NT

A Palimpsest

Original writing was scrapped off so the document could be reused.

This parchment was reused to record

“The 38 Treatises” of Ephrum the Syrian.

1843CE  Tischendorf used a chemical wash to remove the “38 Treatises”, bringing the original biblical text to the surface.

Unfortunately the parchment was severely damaged and continues to disintegrate rapidly.

The Latin Vulgate
382 CE

Primarily written by St. Jerome

Contains entire OT and NT

First to translate the OT from Hebrew texts to Latin

NT was translated from a variety of earlier manuscripts written in Greek and in Latin.

By 13th century it was most commonly used version.

1545CE Council of Trent declared it to be the official version of the Roman Catholic church

The Bible in English

The Wycliffe Bible
1382 CE

John Wycliffe, (1328-1384 CE)

Translated the complete Latin Vulgate into English

Oxford University Professor

A dissident within the Roman Catholic church

The “Morning Star” of Protestant Reformation

Convicted of 260 charges of heresy at the Council of Constance

The Tyndale Bible
1526 CE

William Tyndale (1494 – 1536 CE)

First English translation of Bible to work directly

from Hebrew and Greek.

His work obviously leans heavily upon Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and Martin Luther’s New Testament in German (1522 CE)

First English Bible mass-produced by printing presses

Declared a heretic in 1536 CE

Strangled to death and body cremated by civil authorities for disturbing the peace

The Great Bible
1539 CE

Authorized by King Henry VIII

Ordered a copy to be secured by chain to the pulpit of every Anglican church and read from aloud during all services of worship

It was produced by Myles Coverdale, working under the supervision of Thomas Cromwell

Did not use original Greek and Hebrew sources

Relied heavily upon the Tyndale Bible, except in those areas which the Anglican clergy found objectionable.

The Geneva Bible
Written 1557CE
Published in England 1576 CE

Written by English Protestant scholars exiled in Switzerland

during the reign of the Roman Catholic, Queen Mary (1553-1558)

Translated from the original Hebrew and Greek

Considered Calvinistic because of notes published in margins

Very popular with Protestants, especially Puritans.

Distrusted by mostly conservative clergymen.

Never officially approve by any church or council

The Bishop’s Bible
1568 CE

Officially authorized by the Church of England to succeed the Great Bible of 1539

Led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker,

Anglican scholars sought to produce a popular alternative to the Geneva Bible.

Primarily translated from the original Hebrew and Greek

Matthew Parker did not assign a Senior Editor to oversee the project, so, there were a lot of inconsistencies from book to book.

Became the basis for the popular King James Version of 1611

King James Bible
1611CE  and 1789ce

1604 CE, King James of England ordered a new version of the Bible be printed in English because existing translations “were corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the original”.

•      47 English scholars working in six teams worked separately at Oxford, Westminster and Cambridge Universities.

•      Earliest printed version filled with editorial oversight errors (for example, the omission of the word not in the commandment forbidding adultery)

•      Became most widely read Bible in the English language until middle of the 20th Century

English Revised Version

New Testament 1881;       Old Testament 1885;         Apocrypha 1894

Commissioned in 1870 “to adapt King James’ version to the present state of the English Language without changing the idiom and vocabulary” and “to adapt it to the present standard of Biblical scholarship.”

Revisions were permitted only if they rendered a translation more accurate and faithful to the original texts, regardless of theological persuasions.

Only the most reliable Hebrew and Greek manuscripts were used as sources.

50 English scholars of various theological traditions contributed.

(A handful of American scholars contributed through written correspondence)

Over 30,000 changes from the KJV in the New Testament alone.

Published in America as the American Standard Version (1901)

Revised Standard Version
1952

Revision of the American Standard Version (1901)

Published by the National Council of Churches

50 Ecumenical scholars including Protestants, Catholics, and Jews

Aimed to present a literally accurate translation in modern English without the bias of any specific theological tradition.

First Bible translators to work with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dropped “–eth” ending of verbs and also ”Thee” and “Thou”

First truly ecumenical Bible widely used by both Protestants and Roman Catholic

Jerusalem Bible
1966

1943 Pope Pius XII called for a new version of the Bible translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek, instead of from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.

First version was published in French (1956)

The English version (1966) was translated from the French

Widely used for Mass in Roman Catholic churches

New International Version
1978 and 2011

In 1967 the New York Bible Society (now called Biblica) hired 15 Evangelical Scholars and tasked them with producing an English Bible that was easily understood and consistent with evangelical theology.

Translation from original Hebrew and Greek

Best-selling version of the Bible in the USA

In 2011 an inclusive language revision was published.

Common English Bible
2011

120 scholars from variety of Protestant denominations

Translated from original Hebrew and Greek

Emphasis on the meaning of the passages rather than the accuracy of the original wording

Intended for use in public reading and personal devotion

New Revised Standard 1989
New Revised Standard Updated Edition 2011

Published by National Council of Churches

30 Scholars from Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish traditions

Motto, ”As literal as possible, as free as necessary”

First version to commit to examining and erasing translator bias.

“Human” was no longer translated as “mankind”

“All the people” was used instead of “men” when the context made it clear

that women were present.

Most commonly used version in Higher Education

The Society of Biblical Literature initiated the 2021 revision for the purpose of incorporating advances in textual scholarship since 1989.

Know Your Bible