13. Between 1611, the date of appearance of the Authorized Version, and 1870, the date of the beginning of a revision, a period of more than 250 years, scholars found a large number of very valuable manuscripts of the Bible, older and nearer the lost originals than any hitherto known. The English language, too, in that space of time, had changed in some important particulars. During this same period, several private attempts were made to give us a new and better translation than the Authorized Version. Several works were produced on the added new material of the new manuscripts now known to scholars. In fact, there was agitation toward a new translation on the grounds of the better Hebrew and Greek texts now at hand, of the more thorough and comprehensive scholarship available, and of the obsolete language of the Authorized Version.

14. In 1870 steps were taken toward revision, and before many years both a British and American Revision Committee, made up of many of the leading British and American Biblical scholars, were at work. After ten years of most conscientious and careful effort the Revised Version of the New Testament appeared in 1881, and four years later, in 1885, the Old Testament appeared—thus completing a translation on the basis of the best manuscripts now known to the scholarly world.

15. The American Revision Committee, not as conservative as the British in the retention of old terms, words and phrases, carefully revised the Revised Version and issued in 1901 The American Standard Revised Version—the best edition of the Bible in the English language.

Test Questions

1. What are the three most prominent of the editions of the Bible in English?

2. What are the two original languages of the Old Testament? The original language of the New Testament?

3. What is a special characteristic of the Hebrew language?

4. What is meant by the Septuagint?

5. Who was the great translator of the Bible into Latin? By what church was it officially adopted?

6. Into what language akin to Hebrew was the Bible translated, and through the agency of what people?