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English Translations of the Scriptures: Bible

The Geneva Bible. In 1557 the whole Bible in quarto was printed at Geneva by

Rowland Harte. The translators were Bishop Coverdale, Anthony Gilby, William Whittingham, Christopher Woodman, Thomas Sampson, and Thomas Coleto whom some add John Knox, John Bodleigh, and John Pullain, all zealous Calvinists, both in doctrine and discipline. But the chief and most learned of them were the first three. Of this translation there were about 30 editions, mostly printed by the King's and Queen's printers, from 1560 to 1616. In this version the first distinction in verses was made. To some editions of the Geneva Bible is subjoined Beza's translation of the new text into English by L. Thomson, who was under-secretary to Sir Francis Walsingham. But, though he pretends to translate from Beza, he has seldom varied a word from the Geneva translation. Dr. Geddes gives honorable testimony to the last Geneva version, as he does not hesitate to declare that he thinks it in general better than that of the King James translators. / The Vinegar Bible. In an Oxford edition of the authorized version of the Bible "

the parable of the vineyard" appears in the chapter heading to Luke XX. as "

the parable of the vinegar." The book was published by J. Baskett in 1717, and is said to be the most sumptuous of all the Oxford Bibles. The printing is very beautiful, and some of the copies were printed on vellum; but unfortunately the proofs were carelessly read, and the book printed by Baskett was called "a basketful of printers' errors." The book is now prized on account of its scarcity. The

Bodleian copy is on vellum, and was presented to the University by Mr. Baskett himself. A second vellum copy is in the Royal Library of George III., and a third copy was at Blenheim.

The Breeches Bible. The typographical appearance of this work is quite a curiosity. Like most of the old books it is well printed, and is ornamented with the pen. The head and foot rules, as well as the divisions of the columns, are made with the pen in red ink. The title-page is quite profusely ornamented with red lines. This translation of the Bible is known as "the breeches Bible," from the following rendering of Genesis iii. 7: "Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-tree leaves together, and made themselves breeches." A peculiarity in this Bible, is the substitution of the letter v for u, vice versa, u for v. The name Eve is printed Heuah [Hevah]; Cain is printed Kain; Abel, Habel; Enoch, Henock; Isaac, Ishak; Hebrew, Ebrew, etc. The translations of many of the passages differ materially from our revised version.