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Lesson 67

BIBLE TRANSLATIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The original text of the Bible is inspired. The translations of it are not. For that reason no translation can be entirely satisfactory. Translations of the Bible or portions thereof continue to be made and published.

When the English Revised Version was published, in 1885, the American Revision Committee continued its work of revision, and also further improved the Hebrew and Greek text used. The American committee, which began its work in 1872, was made up of scholars representing many denominations. The American committee had agreed not to publish a separate edition until after 1899; so the American Standard Version was not published until 1901. Its features and uses are worthy of more detailed consideration, and this will be taken up in Lessons 70 and 71.

In 1902 Joseph Bryant Rotherham published The Emphasized Bible, a rather literal translation of the revised Masoretic text edited by Dr. Ginsburg and the Greek text edited by Westcott and Hort. Instead of Jehovah, it uses the spelling Yahweh, which more nearly represents the Hebrew pronunciation of it. But, whatever be the technically correct Hebrew pronunciation, the popular Anglicized pronunciation is Jehovah. Later, Rotherham revised his translation of the Psalms and wrote comments thereon, but died before he could publish them. They were published by his son in 1911 under the title of Studies in the Psalms. This is a very careful, idiomatic literal translation. His son always uses the word Jehovah in this translation.

The Twentieth Century New Testament was first published in a "Tentative Edition" in three parts (1898, 1900, 1901). Then it was revised and published in one volume (1904). This translation of Westcott and Hort's Greek text into dignified, modern English was made by a group of about twenty scholars (at least one of whom was a woman) from different denominations. As is true of all free translations, the passages correctly translated are excellent, whereas the others are unfortunate.

In 1917 the Jewish Publication Society of America published in Philadelphia The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, A New Translation. This translation was produced by seven Jewish scholars, and it is sometimes called the Margolis Version because Max L. Margolis was the editor-in-chief of the work. The seven scholars worked on it from 1908 to 1915. It is based on Baer's edition of the Masoretic Hebrew text, with slight variations. Ancient and modern Jewish and non-Jewish versions were consulted (from the Septuagint to the American Standard Version), also Jewish and non-Jewish commentaries (from the Talmud on). It is literal and, as it says in its preface, it "presents many passages from the Jewish traditional point of view".

Richard Francis Weymouth, a Baptist, finished a translation of the Greek Scriptures in 1900. The text he used was his own Resultant Greek Testament, which gives the readings accepted by the majority of the following editors: Stephens, Lachmann, Tregelles, Lightfoot, Alford, B. Weiss, Westcott and Hort, and the text of the Revision Committee published in 1881. Having finished his translation so early he could not have had the full benefit of the advances in the understanding of the Greek spoken in the days of the apostles. Weymouth's translation was revised by Ernest Hampden-Cook and by one of Weymouth's sons and published in London in 1902. A second revised edition and a third revised edition were published. Then it was revised again: this time by the previous two revisers and A. J. D. Farrer, H. T. Andrews and S. W. Green. This fourth edition was published in 1924. Once more it was revised by the original two revisers and James Alexander Robertson. This fifth edition, published in 1929, is the one generally quoted in the Society's publications.

This translation attempts to present the Greek Scriptures in an English that sounds as natural to our ears today as the original Greek Scriptures sounded to the Greek-speaking people of the apostles' day. While the language is modern, it is not colloquial. It is therefore more conservative than the language of The Twentieth Century New Testament. Both are free translations.

James Moffatt, a Scotsman, in 1913 published his translation of von Soden's text of the Greek Scriptures. He published his translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in 1924. In 1935 he published his revised translation of the whole Bible under the title of A New Translation of the Bible. Concerning his use of the Masoretic text Moffatt says in his introduction: "Since nearly every page contains some emendation of the traditional text in the interests of accuracy and point, it has been impossible to annotate them." Moffatt's translation is a free translation in beautiful modern colloquial English. In the Greek Scriptures he makes

use of the advances in the knowledge of the Greek of the apostles' day.

The above-mentioned modern English translations have all been in British English. In 1923, in Chicago, the Greek Scriptures were published in everyday modern American English under the title of The New Testament, An American Translation. It was translated from the Westcott and Hort Greek text by Edgar Johnson Goodspeed. The translation is free. Even in prayer he uses "you" instead of "thou". Unfortunately he sometimes uses the word religious and thus gives the passage an improper twist. In 1927 the American translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was published under the title of The Old Testament, An American Translation. The translation was divided among Alexander R. Gordon, Theophile J. Meek, Leroy Waterman, and J. M. Powis Smith, the last-mentioned being also the editor of the whole work. In 1931 the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures were published in a single volume. The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was revised, and in 1935 the whole Bible was published under the title of The Complete Bible, An American Translation, and it is this work that is referred to when the Society's publications cite Smith-Goodspeed after a Scripture citation. It is a free translation in modern American English. The word Jehovah is not used, but, instead, the words Yahweh, LORD, and GOD.

The Holy Scriptures, Revised in Accordance with Jewish Tradition and Modern Biblical Scholarship, is a Jewish revision of the Authorized Version of the Hebrew Scriptures by Alexander Harkavy, published in 1936 in New York by the Hebrew Publishing Company. It is a literal translation. Jehovah is rendered "Lord", "Jehovah," and "God".

The Greek Scriptures of the Challoner-Douay Version have recently been revised by some Roman Catholic scholars, at least four of whom were Jesuits. The reason they give for this revision is that the former edition had become obsolete in many respects. This latest revision was

published in 1941. In it John 2:4 is translated, "and Jesus said to her, 'What wouldst thou have me do, woman?'"; the Challoner-Douay says, "And Jesus saith to her: 'Woman, what is that to me and to thee?'" Thus the recent revision makes Jesus appear subject to Mary. (Goodspeed gives Jesus' response as "Do not try to direct me".)

The majority of those the Lord commissions us to disciple are not acquainted with the Scriptures, and religion has made them suspicious of any Bible translation that differs from their own. If they are Protestant they rely on the Authorized Version; if Catholic, the Douay Version; if Jews, the Leeser, Margolis, or Harkavy. The majority of English-speaking people who have Bibles, however, have the Authorized Version; so that is the one used in the Society's publications, unless otherwise indicated.