Site History

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June 2012. Expanded the RSV review.

May 2012. Expanded the NASB review. Added a collection of articles on the ‘Muslim Idiom’ translation controversy.

March 2012. Expanded the page on Belsham’s New Testament (1808). Added a page on Noyes’ New Testament (1869).

February 2012. Added a page on Charles Williams’ New Testament in the Language of the People (1937). Expanded the page on Wesley’s New Testament (1755). Added a long article on English Versions by Edward H. Plumptre.

January 2012. Added pages on Mace’s New Testament of 1729 and Purver’s Bible of 1764.

December 2011. Added a complete list of changes in the 2011 edition of the ESV. Added the Ratio Translationis for the English Language published by the Vatican in 2007.

November 2011. Added a page on the Wessex Gospels, and a page on Manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels by Walter Skeat. Added some comments on the translation of Luke 17:21, “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Added another chapter and expanded the conclusion of my dissertation against Dynamic Equivalence.

October 2011. Added a page on the The Northumbrian Gloss, and a collection of links to Anglo-Saxon versions. Added a page on the meaning of the phrase ‘in Christ.’ Added Remarks On Translation by R.H. Horne.

September 2011. Added a page on the Translation of the Tetragrammaton.

August 2011. Revised the Holman Christian Standard Bible review. Added the Keil and Delitzsch commentary series to the commentary links. Added a link to my blog on the front page. Added a Letter to the Bishops Conferences on The Name of God in which the Vatican prohibits the use of “Yahweh” in liturgical translations.

July 2011. Added a page on the 2011 revision of the NIV, and some related documents: Gender Neutral Issues in the New International Version of 2011 by Vern Poythress, An Evaluation of Gender Language in the 2011 Edition of the NIV Bible by members of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and A Brief Response from the NIV Committee on Bible Translation.

June 2011. Added two articles by Edward Sapir: The Status of Linguistics as a Science and The Grammarian and his Language.

May 2011. Added a page on the Berkeley Version. Expanded the review of the Revised Standard Version. Added three articles on the NRSV: The Story of the New Revised Standard Version by Robert Dentan, Inclusive Language in the New Revised Standard Version by Walter Harrelson, and An Evaluation of the NRSV: Demystifying Bible Translation by J.J.M. Roberts.

April 2011. Added The Nature and Purpose of the New Testament in Today’s English Version by Robert Bratcher, and Some Principles of “Common-Language” Translation by William Wonderly. Added an instructional video to the Papyrus 52 page. Started pages on three Jewish versions of the Old Testament: Leeser’s Bible of 1853, the Jewish Publication Society translation of 1917, and the New Jewish Publication Society Version of 1962-1985.

March 2011. Updated and enlarged the page on the New American Bible. Expanded the page on The Critical Use of Faulty Manuscripts.

February 2011. Added a treatise on the Old Latin and Vulgate versions by B.F. Westcott. Added a page on Changes in the Revised Standard Version–Catholic Edition.

January 2011. Added an errata sheet for online ASV texts. Added The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jesus Christ: A Biblical and Theological Appraisal, by Bruce Metzger.

October 2010. Added a page on the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans.

September 2010. Added an English translation of the Preface to Lasserre’s Les Saints Evangiles. Added Jerome’s letter to Pammachius “on the Best Method of Translating” and an article on The Literal Character of the Vulgate. Added an article on “The Question of Modernness” in translations, by Henry Whitney.

August 2010. Added pages on George B. Stevens’ paraphrase of the Epistles of Paul (1898), Ballentine’s Modern American Bible (1901), the Twentieth Century New Testament (1902), and Weymouth’s New Testament (1903).

July 2010. Added a new chapter to my book Against the Theory of Dynamic Equivalence.

May 2010. Updated the links in the Web Directory. Added some pictures of the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran. Added a page on Newcome’s revision of the KJV New Testament (1796), and expanded the page on Belsham’s Unitarian revision of Newcome.

April 2010. Replaced the sample chapters of the Wycliffite version with a more accurate transcription. Added A Translation of the Book of Acts in Codex Bezae. Added a lecture on the language of the English Bible by George P. Marsh (1861).

March 2010. Added two articles by Margaret Deanesly: The Significance of the Lollard Bible (1951), and Arguments against the Use of Vernacular Bibles, Put Forward in the Controversy over their Lawfulness, 1400-1408 (1920). Added De Translatione Sacrae Scripturae in Linguam Anglicanam by Thomas Palmer (circa 1401). Added Unwarranted Verbal Differences and Agreements in the English Version, by Joseph Henry Thayer (1879).

February 2010. Added a page on the meaning of the word Righteousness (צְדָקָה and δικαιοσύνη) in the Bible.

January 2010. Expanded the article Against the Theory of Dynamic Equivalence into a book-length treatment of the subject. (NOTE: I will continue to expand this in the future.) Added a page on Lattimore’s New Testament (1982).

September 2009. Added a page on Julia Smith’s version of the Bible (1876). Revised the New King James Version review.

August 2009. Added a page on Harwood’s paraphrase of the New Testament (1768).

July 2009. Added a pdf file listing changes made in the New Living Translation between 2004 and 2007. Added pages on the meaning of the term Dynamic Equivalence and the application of its principles in the writings of E.A. Nida. Added an excerpt from Nida on “personal problems” in translation.

June 2009. Finished adding the original Greek and Latin texts to the Ancient Canon Lists.

May 2009. Expanded the essay on Dynamic Equivalence. Added to the Commentary links

April 2009. Added the SBL Greek font to the font download section, and made it the default font for the display of Greek on this site (Palatino Linotype continues to work fine also).

March 2009. Expanded the essay on the Effect of Language upon Thinking, added part of a related essay On Language and Words by Arthur Schopenhauer, and added the German text of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s essay On the Different Methods of Translating.

February 2009. Added a page on the Amplified Bible.

December 2008. Added pages on the American Bible Union versions (1850-65) and H.T. Anderson’s New Testament (1866). Revised and expanded the page on Alexander Campbell’s New Testament (1826-1835).

November 2008. Enlarged and categorized the commentary links. Added an article on Hebrew Poetry by T. K. Cheyne.

October 2008. Revised the Holman Christian Standard Bible review.

September 2008. Added a page of remarks by Reynolds Price on the impossibility of ‘Dynamic Equivalence’ in Bible versions. Added an index page for the articles on literary style in translations. Expanded the page on the New Century Version. Added a page on the word διαθηκη, and the article Hebrews, the Epistle of the Diatheke, by Geerhardus Vos.

August 2008. Added more links to the online commentaries page. Added the article On Improving the Style of the Bible by John H. Gardiner. Updated all the links in the web directory.

April 2008. Added a collection of articles on Inspiration and its implications for our understanding of the Bible.

March 2008. Added the canon list from the Synopsis Scripturae Sacrae. Added a page on The Protestant Doctrine of the Perspicuity of Scripture.

February 2008. Added many links to books at Google Books in the Web Directory and a new page of links to online biblical commentaries. Added Should we employ the hermeneutics of the New Testament writers? by Daniel McCartney. Revised and expanded the pages on Augustine and the third council of Carthage.

January 2008. Revised and expanded the pages on Jerome on the canon and Eusebius on the canon.

December 2007. Expanded the English Standard Version page and added a list of changes in the 2007 edition of the ESV. Added a page on the Hebrew word חסד.

November 2007. Added a review of the Christian Community Bible. Added and article on the Formation of the New Testament Canon by Stephen Voorwinde

October 2007. Updated many links in the Web Directory.

March 2007. Added a page giving Richard C. Trench’s remarks on the meaning of the word Tribulation. Added a Bibliography of the Septuagint.

February 2007. Created a separate index page for the English Guide to Various Readings and revised the coding of its files.

January 2007. Created an index page for the Byzantine/Majority Text materials. Updated the site map.

December 2006. Changed the coding of many pages to make them display correctly in the Firefox browser (Internet Explorer is still best for this site).

November 2006. Added pages for William F. Beck’s An American Translation (1976) and its revision, the God’s Word to the Nations New Testament (1988).

October 2006. Added The Inspiration of Scripture in the English Reformers Illuminated by John Calvin, by Philip E. Hughes.

September 2006. Added an article on the Biblical doctrine of Inspiration by Benjamin Warfield. Added an extract from Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies, on ‘the Treasure Hid in the Scriptures.’

August 2006. Revised the NET Bible review, and added a Critique of Hosea 4:1-14 in the NET Bible. Added a complete collation of the Robinson-Pierpont “Majority” text vs. the “Received” text of Scrivener.

July 2006. Started a page on the word χαρις (grace). Updated the links in the web directory.

June 2006. Added an article on the Only Begotten Son, with related pages on the meaning of the word μονογενης and on the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son. Added a page on the text-critical problem in John 1:18, and pictures of Codex Vaticanus for John 1:1-41. Added more to the TNIV review.

May 2006. Added an essay on the New Testament Canon by Glenn W. Barker. Added the full text of the New Testament from the English Revised Version. Added an essay on anthropomorphisms in the Old Testament by Ludwig Köhler.

April 2006. Added an essay on The Interpretation of Scripture by J.I. Packer. Added a review of Witness Lee’s Recovery Version by Murray Grindlay.

March 2006. Expanded the review of the God’s Word translation. Added a page of links on Music and the Worship Service. Added some images of Codex Alexandrinus from Romans 1 and 1 Timothy 3. Added images of Codex Vaticanus from John 8 and Mark 16.

February 2006. Added an article on Symbolism in the Bible by Vernon H. Kooy. Made additions to the Revised Standard Version page. Added a page on Hort’s theory of Western Non-Interpolations and its effect on English versions.

January 2006. Added some Cultural Background Resources to the hermeneutics links. Added some links to images of Papyrus 46.

December 2005. Updated the links in the web directory.

November 2005. Added the prefaces of Palfrey’s New Testament (1830) and the Confraternity Version (1941). Added Plutarch’s Conjugal Precepts (cultural background resource).

October 2005. Added the German text of Luther’s Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen. Added Marking the Watershed by Francis A. Schaeffer.

September 2005. Added a sample page of Codex Sinaiticus. Expanded the page on the Contemporary English Version (1995). Added some pages on The Christian Doctrine of Hell.

August 2005. Added an index page for the articles on gender-neutral translations. Added Male Meaning in Generic Masculines in Koine Greek by Vern Poythress. Added an index page for the articles on political correctness.

July 2005. Added a page on the word logos in the prologue of John’s Gospel. Added a review of the New Living Translation, second edition (2004). Added a page explaining Arminianism and an essay by R.C. Sproul on its connection to the Pelagian heresy. Added the Preface to Romans from Tyndale’s New Testament and from Luther’s German Bible. Expanded the pages on Noah Webster’s Revision of the KJV and Young’s Literal Translation.

June 2005. Expanded last month’s “Response to Blomberg” on the meaning of aner into a more comprehensive Response to Blomberg, Wallace, and Bock. Revised the Ancient Heretical Literature page and added some manuscript images to it. Added a page on Paul’s expression ‘because of the angels’ in 1 Corinthians 11:10.

May 2005. Added a page on the Greek word ανηρ (man), and a Response to Blomberg regarding its translation.

April 2005. Added a page on the translation by Goodspeed and Smith (1935).

March 2005. Added review articles on the New English Bible (1961) by T.S. Eliot, Henry Gifford, and C.L. Wrenn. Added a page on the Phillips Translation (1958).

February 2005. Updated the TNIV review and added a page on Zondervan’s marketing strategy for the version. Added Exposition Must Have Application by A. W. Tozer. Added Fullness versus Reductionistic Semantics in Biblical Interpretation by Vern Poythress.

January 2005. Added The Story of the Bible by Frederic G. Kenyon. Revised and expanded my articles on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.

December 2004. Added an article on the translation of the Greek word adelphos (“brother”). Added a page on Papyrus 66. Added an essay by A.W. Tozer, Why People Find the Bible Difficult. Added a new article on the Pericope Adulterae. Added a review of F.F. Bruce’s The Letters of Paul: An Expanded Paraphrase and a page on the translation of Galatians 6:16.

November 2004. Revised and expanded my review of The Message.

October 2004. Updated many external links in the Web Directory. Added a page of links to articles on textual criticism published in The Bible Translator. Added a page on Acrostics in the Hebrew Bible. Added a sample page of the first edition of the King James Version.

September 2004. Expanded the page on the New World Translation.

August 2004. Added an article on Translation Theory by T. David Gordon. Added a page about the Greek and Hebrew fonts I intend to begin using on the site, with a download page for the SBL Hebrew Font.

July 2004. Added a page on the Good As New version of the New Testament recently published in England. Added some articles on typological interpretation of the Old Testament. Added an image to the Codex Vaticanus page. Added a page on the The Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7-8). Expanded the review of the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

June 2004. Added a collection of articles on the ancient Aramaic Versions (Targums). Added Latin text to the Muratorian Fragment page. Created a separate index page for the articles on ancient versions. Added an article on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament.

May 2004. Added an article about Rashi, the famous Jewish commentator, with a sample of his commentary and a bibliography.

April 2004. Added an article on the Effect of Language upon Thinking.

March 2004. Expanded the article Was the Bible Written in ‘Street Language’? Added an article on The Semitic Style of the New Testament. Added the file J.B. Lightfoot on the Style of John’s Gospel. Added the file Conybeare and Stock on the Language of the Septuagint.

February 2004. Added a page in defense of the pericope de adultera by Edward F. Hills. Added How to Read the Bible by Charles H. Spurgeon. Added an article on The Transmission of the Hebrew Text by Dr. John H. Skilton.

January 2004. Added an essay on the Language of the New Testament by Edwyn Hoskyns and Noel Davey.

November 2003. Added a page on The Roman Catholic Conflict Concerning Inclusive Language in Biblical Translation, with related pages on The 1997 Vatican Norms for Translation of Biblical Texts and the Vatican Instruction on translation known as Liturgiam Authenticam. Added a page on how you can help support this website.

October 2003. Added Some Observations on the Bible and Slavery. Added an article on the translation of the Greek word anthropos.

September 2003. Added a page on the enumeration of the Ten Commandments. Added two pages on the Aleppo Codex. Added a page of links to volumes of the Encyclopaedia Biblica edited by Cheyne and Black (1903).

August 2003. Added A Critique of the Revised Standard Version by the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary (1953). Added an essay on Making Merchandise of the Word of God. Expanded the review of the New Living Translation.

July 2003. Expanded several of the bibliographies and converted pages to XHTML formatting.

June 2003. Began work on a Greek-English New Testament with critical notes for students. Added an index to the pages dealing with the Bible’s teaching on womanhood. Added an article on the Old Latin Version, and a page on the Old Latin codex Bobbiensis. Revised and annotated the translation of Luther’s Open Letter on Translating.

May 2003. Added a Collation of the text of Hodges and Farstad against the text of Robinson and Pierpont. Added a page on Wuest’s Expanded Translation of the New Testament. Added Textual Criticism in the Writings of Francis Turretin, a case study in the history of textual criticism. Added a page on Luther’s Treatment of the Disputed Books of the New Testament (Hebrews, James, etc.).

April 2003. Created a new page for the Biblical Interpretation links and arranged them by subject. Added a site search form. Added a page on Cædmon’s Paraphrase.

March 2003. Finished adding hypertext links to the Bible Gateway site on the first page of the Gospel Parallels. Added a page of Bible Maps.

February 2003. Added a table of Gospel Parallels and a Bible Quiz. Added an article on Early Printed Editions of the Hebrew Text by A. J. Maas. Added a gospel tract.

January 2003. Finished transcribing the interview with E.V. Rieu and J.B. Phillips. Added a page on the Use of Cross-References. Started a new page of Quotations on Biblical Interpretation.

December 2002. Added some remarks on electronic transcriptions of early English versions. Added a page on the Chapter and Verse Divisions. Added paragraphs from Scrivener to the ending of Mark page. Added a page on the interpretation of I Corinthians 11:2-16, with an excursus on 1 Corinthians 11:5. Added a page on the New Century Version. Added Translating the Gospels: A Discussion Between Dr. E.V. Rieu and the Rev. J.B. Phillips.

November 2002. Added a page on the ending of Mark. Added an article on Manuscript Production by Louis Bréhier. Added some church history resources: The Persecution of the Early Church, Tolle Lege: the Conversion of St. Augustine, and Misinterpretation of Scripture by Early Heretics (extract from the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria).

October 2002. Added How To Translate by Vern Poythress and Wayne Grudem. Expanded the page on the New American Standard Bible.

September 2002. Added a page on Everett Fox’s translation, The Five Books of Moses. Added a page on Jewish interpretation of the Bible and a page of Judaica links.

August 2002. Added a page on the New World Translation. Added “Characters Used in Old and Middle English Writing” to the page Changes in the English Language. Added Guidelines of the NIV “Inclusive Language” revision of 1996. Added Encyclopedia Britannica articles on Anglo-Saxon Versions, Middle-English Versions and Wyclif, Tyndale, Coverdale, John Rogers, and Taverner’s Bible. Added a page on the Syriac Versions. Added some essays on the characteristics of Biblical Greek.

July 2002. Added a page on the NET Bible. Added an Ancient Versions page to the web directory. Started a Discussion Board at Yahoo Groups.

June 2002. Added a page on the Hebrew Alphabet and an Old Testament Bibliography. Expanded the page on the New King James Version.

May 2002. Added a whole new section on biblical interpretation.

April 2002. Added a page on the Good News Bible (1976) and an essay on Dynamic Equivalence. Added pages on the Jerusalem Bible (1966) and the New Jerusalem Bible (1985). Added a page on the Confraternity Version (1941), added to the page on the Challoner-Rheims, and revised the page on Roman Catholic Bibles.

March 2002. Added a sampling of Coverdale’s Psalms, and Tyndale’s version of Romans. Added a page on Wesley’s New Testament (1755). Added the Preface to the New English Bible (1970). Added a new index page on Translation Theories and Methods. Added an article on Hebrew Poetry in the Old Testament.

February 2002. Added a page on the Holman Christian Standard Bible (2001). Moved the Gender-Neutral Bible links to a separate page. Added a page on the Latin Vulgate. Added a page on the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament. Added a review of Today’s New International Version. Added a page on The Five Gospels (Scholars Version) by the “Jesus Seminar,” and a collection of related links. Added a collation of Majority Text readings. Added a page on the God’s Word translation. Added the preface of Tyndale’s New Testament (1526)

January 2002. Added pages on the Living Bible (1971) and the Inclusive Language Lectionary. Expanded the pages on the RSV and the NRSV. Added an index page on the Luther Bible with Schaff’s Account of the version and Luther’s Open Letter on Translating. Added a page of links to resources on German Bibles. Added a page on Today’s New International Version (the International Bible Society’s third gender-neutral revision of the NIV).

December 2001. Added a new index page for the Septuagint and a long article on the version by Thackeray (from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia). Added articles on the New Testament Canon by F.F. Bruce and B.B. Warfield. Added a long article by F.G. Kenyon on the English versions. Added the canon list of John of Damascus, revised the table of canon authorities for the Old Testament, and created individual files for the canon lists quoted in full. Added a bibliography on the canon, and expanded the bibliography on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Added a page on the medieval lectionary. Added a page on the Moffatt Bible. Added a file on textual criticism in the writings of the church Fathers: Textual Criticism is Nothing New. (I will be adding quotations to this file as I find examples.) Expanded the page on the New English Bible (1970) and added a page on the Revised English Bible (1989). Added an index page on Roman Catholic Bibles and a page on the New American Bible (1970)

November 2001. Moved the site to its own domain: bible-researcher.com. (Yahoo Geocities increased the size of its ads so that they covered the text on my pages. They also sent me a message telling me that they had been turning off my site at times to keep its use below 3 gigabytes of data transfer per month, which was their limit for free web hosting.) Added hypertext links to the Bibliography of Textual Criticism. Added a list of the NIV translators. Revised and expanded the bibliography of 18th and 19th century English versions. Added an article on the Majority Text. Added a page showing the apparatus of a critical edition. Added Lancelot Brenton’s brief Historical Account of the Septuagint. Added the article Text and Manuscripts of the New Testament from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

October 2001. Added a page on the Joseph Smith Translation used by the Mormons. Expanded the page on the English Standard Version, now a detailed review of the version. Added a page on Papyrus 46. Added a page of statistical comparisons of critical editions of the Greek New Testament.

September 2001. I spent this month making additions to the English Versions section. For the older versions, I added Tyndale’s poignant Letter from Prison, corrected Cranmer’s Preface, added a History of the King James Version and an article on Defects of the King James Version. I expanded the 19th Century Versions with more information. To the 20th Century Versions I added several files, including articles on Gender-Neutral Language, the New Living Translation, Peterson’s The Message, the New International Version, and the brand-new English Standard Version edited by J.I. Packer. I also expanded Hebrews 1:1-4 in Many Versions.

August 2001. Added Bibliography of English Versions; Schaff’s account of Wyclif; The Prologue to the Wyclif Bible; Foxe’s account of Tyndale; Tyndale’s Preface; The Poem and Prayer of the Geneva Bible; Decree of the Council of Trent. Revised Cranmer’s Preface to the Great Bible (modern spelling). Expanded Hebrews 1:1-4 in many versions. Organized files under index pages Geneva Bible (with image of the title page); King James Bible; William Tyndale (with portrait); John Wyclif.

July 2001. Added Changes in the English Language (showing a scripture passage in Old, Middle, and Early Modern English), Anglo-Saxon Versions, The Greatest English Classic: A Study of the KJV (essay by Cleland MacAfee), Cranmer’s Preface to the Great Bible, and reorganized files pertaining to English versions under the new index page English Versions.

June 2001. Added Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia Articles on texts (Old Testament, New Testament) and versions.

May 2001. Added Preface to the King James Version, Which Greek Text is the Best? (article by Douglas Kutilek), and Passages of Dogmatic Importance

April 2001. Added Web directory, Westminster Confession, and Bibliography of Textual Criticism.

March 2001. Added material on the canon and versions.

February 2001. Uploaded the English Guide to the Various Readings of the Greek Testament to Yahoo geocities at the address www.geocities.com/marlowe44663.

January 2001. Began to develop the website on my computer. (Thanks for the new computer, Mom!)