RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bible Versions
and of the Old Testament in five parts in 1721, in two columns, one being left blank in order to receive in St. Petersburg the Russian text. Language and orthography raised difficult questions in a revision of 1762, and another by Henry Cats and W. A. van Hengel in 1834. The first impression for the British and Foreign Bible Society was made in 1812.
About the middle of the last century members of the theological faculty of Leyden began a new revision; the New Testament was finished in 1866; work on the Old Testament was interrupted for a time, but was resumed in 1884 by A. Kuenen and his pupils, H. Oort, W H. Kosters, and J. Hooykas. The first instalment appeared at Leyden in 1897, the first part (Gen.-Esther) in 1900, the second part (Job-Malachi) in 1901.
Of other translations that by J. H. van der Palm (1825 and often) is worthy of mention. The New Testament has been translated by G. Vissering, a Mennonite (1854), by S. P Lipman, a Roman Catholic (1861), and by G. J. Vos of the Reformed Church (1895). E. Nestle.
Bibliography: The really important work is Isaac Le Long, Bcek-Zaal der nederduitsche Bybels, Amsterdam, 1732, 2d ed., 1764. Consult also Bible of Every Land, pp. 1S1-186, London, 1861; H. van Druten, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Bijbelvertaling, 2 vols., Leyden, 1896-97; G. N. De Vooys, ThT, March, 1903; J. M. Bebb, in DB, extra vol., pp. 414-415.
On the Staatenbibel consult N. Hinlopen, Historie van de Nederlandsche Overzettinge des Bybels, Leyden, 1777; P. Meyjes, Jacobus Revius, Amsterdam, 1895; J. Heinsius, Klank-en Buigingsleer van de taal des statenbijbels , Amsterdam, 1897.
IV. English Versions : Setting aside the Biblical poetry that is in the main wrongly ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon Caedmon (q.v.), and the translation of John's Gospel which Bede finished on his deathbed, but of which nothing further is known, the Psalms seem to have been the first part of the Bible to be translated into English. An Anglo- Saxon paraphrase is extant containing
Earliest the first fifty Psalms in prose, the Versions. rest m verse (ed. B. Thorpe, Oxford, 1835), which has been incorrectly attributed to Aldhelm (q.v.), bishop of Sherborne, who died in 709, and to King Alfred; the name of the translator is not known, but he did his work after 778 and used the Latin, not the Greek text, as did all the others down to and including Wyclif. A translation of the four Gospels was made probably in the ninth century (ed. Matthew Parker, 1571; T. Marshall, 1665; B. Thorpe, Tha halgan Gods-pel on Englisc. The Anglo-Saxon Ursion of the Holy Gospels, London, 1842; Joseph Bosworth and George Waring, The Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels, London, 1865; new ed., 1907), and interlinear glosses for the Psalms and the Gospels in the ninth and tenth centuries (Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum vetus, London, 1640). The so-called Vespasian Gospels probably belong to the first half of the ninth century (ci. J. Stevenson, Anglo-Saxon and Early English Psalter, 2 vols., London, 1843-47; H. Sweet, The Ocdesi English Texts, Early English Text Society, yoi. 83, London, 1SS5, pp. 183-420; E. Wende, Ueoerhejerung und Sprache der mittelenglischen Ver-
sion des Psalters und ihr Verhaltnis zur lateinischen Vorlage, Breslau, 1884). There are other similar glosses to the Psalter in the libraries of Cambridge University and Trinity College, Cambridge, in the British Museum, in the Bodleian at Oxford, in Lambeth Palace, and Salisbury Cathedral. For other Gospel versions, cf . G. Stevenson and G. Waring, The Lindisfarne and Rushioorth Gospels (4 vols., Durham and London, 1854-65); K. W Bouterwek, Die vier Evangelien in altnorthumbrischer Sprache (Gutersloh,1857); W W Skeat, The Gospel according to Matthew, etc. (Cambridge, 1SS7— Mark, 1871- Luke, 1871; John, 1878); A. S. Cook, A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels (Halle, 1894). Alfric (q.v.) translated the Pentateuch and Joshua in 997-998. The following may also be mentioned: homilies on the lessons by the Augustinian monk Ormin in the twelfth or thirteenth century (the so-called Ormulum): the translation of the Psalms by William de Shorham, vicar of Chart- Sutton, near Leeds in County Kent, about 1325 (the manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin, owned by John Hyde and perhaps written by him, may be a revision of this translation); and the commentary with a translation of the Psalms by Richard Rolle of Hampole near Doncaster, Yorkshire, written about 1330 (cf. H. R. Bramley, The Psalter by Richard Rolle Edited from
Manuscripts, Oxford, 1884; Heinrich Middendorff, Studien uber Richard Rolle von Hampole, Magdeburg, 1888).
The language developed and the thoughts of men strode onward. John Wyclif (q.v.) entered the lists to war for the pure truth, and he determined to give the people the Bible. With the help of his pupil Nicholas of Hereford (q.v.) he seems to have translated the whole Bible, and when he was charged with heresy and driven from 2. Wyclif. Oxford in 1382, he withdrew to Lutterworth and revised the whole very carefully. His pupil John Purvey (q.v.) appears also to have revised some things in the Old Testament; he did all he could to spread the translation abroad after Wyclif s death (cf. The New Testament in English, Translated by John Wycliffe circa 1880, now first printed from a contemporary manuscript. Printed at Chiswick by Charles Whittingham for William Pickering, London, 1848; Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible in the Earliest English Versions Made by John Wycliffe and his Followers, 4 vols., Oxford, 1850, with a list of 170 manuscripts; J. ten Brink, Geschichte der englischen Litteratur, vol. ii, by Alois Brandl, Strasburg, 1893, pp. 5-32, especially pp. 27; A. Richter, Das Wycliffesche Evangelium Johannis im 500. Bdc. der Tauchnitzer Collection of British Authors, die Wycliffesche Bibeliibersetzung, und das Verhaltnis des ersteren zu der letzteren, programme of the gymnasium at Wesel, Aug. 30, 1862). The first English Bible, the first Bible at all in a modern tongue, was well received by the people, but for a century and a half was the object of attack by priests and nobility. Even long after the discovery of printing no one could think of publishing this translation. It finally came out as a
Bible Versions