English Bible Collection (24 vols.)

Published in 1560, the Geneva Bible is arguably the most important early English translation of the Bible. With the publication of the New Testament in 1557, and the complete Bible in 1560, the Geneva Bible predates the King James Version by 51 years. Some of history’s most influential men, such as William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Milton, John Knox, and John Bunyan, used the Geneva Bible.

The Geneva Bible was also the first complete Bible to be mass produced Bible for the public, making it readily accessible for the common person to read, study, and cherish. With the inclusion of notes and study aids, the Geneva Bible was one of the first “study Bibles” to ever be published.

Published between the years 1382–1395, the Wycliffe Bible is one of the earliest and most recognizable English translations of the Bible. Translated from the Latin Vulgate, the Wycliffe Bible was published with the intent to give the common people a Bible in their language, because according to Wycliffe, it profits greatly when a person can study the Bible in their own tongue and by so doing come to know Christ as Savior. Although the Wycliffe Bible was never an "authorized" translation in its time, nevertheless it remains the most common manuscript literature in Middle English remaining today.

Commenced in 1522, the Tyndale New Testament was the first English Bible translation to be translated directly from the Greek texts. With the invention of the printing press, the Tyndale New Testament was also the first English Bible to be mass produced, making it easily and widely accessible for the commoner to read and study.

Inspired by an illegal copy of Luther’s German New Testament, William Tyndale took to translating the New Testament for the English reader despite severe persecution and threat of punishment. His translation of the New Testament was based on the third edition of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament, Erasmus’ Latin New Testament, the Vulgate, and Luther’s German New Testament.

The Coverdale Bible, translated into English by Myles Coverdale, was the first complete Bible translated into English. It was also the first English Bible to have the full approval from the Crown to be published. Finished and printed in 1535, the Coverdale Bible stands as a landmark in the history of the English Bible.

The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments is the product of the Bible Union and is a revision of an earlier work published in 1865, also contained in this collection.

The New Dispensation is a translation of the Greek New Testament into English. Because Greek does not translate smoothly into English, Weekes was sensitive to certain idioms, tenses, etc. in order to render in English what the Greek text was conveying.

The New Testament in Modern Speech is a translation into everyday English from the Greek of the Resultant Greek Testament, edited also by Weymouth.

In this revision of the King James Version, William Whiston based his translation of the New Testament from three "primitive" manuscripts: the Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis for the Gospels and Acts; the Codex Claromontanus for the Pauline epistles; and the Codex Alexandrinus for the remaining content.

With a Liberal Translation of the New Testament, Edward Harwood sought to translate the Greek New Testament to a popular form, just like other Greek classical works were being loosely translated in that era. His aim was "to cloathe the genuine ideas and doctrines of the Apostles with that propriety and perspicuity, in which they themselves, I apprehend, would have exhibited them had they now lived and written in our language."

Known as the Samuel Davidson New Testament, The New Testament, Translated from the Critical Text of Von Tischendorf provides an in-depth history of the criticism, translation, and interpretation of the New Testament since the KJV.

Read the New Testament translation edited by an influential leader of the Restoration movement and the Church of Christ. Alexander Campbell was convinced that the Authorized Version of the New Testament was rife with poor translation, bad theology, and awkward English. To address these problems, he compiled a new edition—a bold move in his time. Based on the earlier work of George Campbell, James MacKnight, and Phillip Doddridge, it went on to become the preferred version of the Campbell-Stone movement throughout the nineteenth century. Commonly known as The Living Oracles New Testament, this translation is hailed as the first of the modern versions.

The New Testament in the Common Version, Conformed to Griesbach’s Standard Greek Text, known as the J. G. Palfrey New Testament, is based on a revision of the KJV by J. J. Griesbach. Griesbach’s work was revolutionary because he revised the text itself, rather than making his preferences known in the margin. Palfrey, a professor at Harvard Divinity, followed Griesbach’s lead and updated the text itself to reflect updated punctuation and other revisions for his lectures in the college. His volume was published anonymously at first, for it was meant for small circulation among his students, but eventually was widespread and serves as an early example of the textual criticism pioneered by Griesbach.

In 1840, Sharpe published an English revision of the New Testament based off J. J. Griesbach’s Greek translation. In 1865, he published a revision of the KJV Old Testament. These were published together the year of his death, and are known as the Sharpe Bible. A historian and Egyptologist, his revisions mainly focused in antiquarian matters, in manners and customs, in geography, natural history, and also political history, by removing vague generalities—"allowing the writers to point clearly to persons living in their own time."

Edgar Taylor’s revision of the KJV New Testamemt used J. J. Griesbach’s Greek New Testament as a guide, but also synthesized the revisions from other translators, such as William Newcome, Alexander Campbell, and Moses Stuart.

Sawyer’s English translation of the New Testament is based on Tischendorf’s Greek New Testament. The Preface states that the translation is "a strict literal rendering," aiming "to express the original with the utmost clearness, force, and precision. It adopts a thoroughly modern style, except for the prayers, and makes freely whatever changes are necessary for this purpose."

This revised New Testament was prepared under the auspices of the American Bible Union, by the most competent scholars of the day. They followed these rules for the revision:

• The received Greek text, critically edited, with known errors corrected, must be followed
• The common English version must be the basis of revision, and only such alterations must be made as the exact meaning of the text and the existing state of the language may require.
• The exact meaning of the inspired text, as that text expressed it to those who understood the original Scriptures at the time they were first written, must be given in corresponding words and phrases, so far as they can be found in the English language, with the least possible obscurity or indefiniteness.

The American Bible Union published another revision in 1912. Both were widely used.

Published in two volumes as An Attempt toward Revising Our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures, Newcome’s New Testament is thought to be the first to use the critical text of J. J. Griesbach as the basis for translation.

"It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world, and thought to be the most difficult to translate." Against all odds, Julia Smith did it. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments is the first complete translation of the Bible by a woman. The work is strictly literal, even when the literalness rendered the passages incoherent in their English translation.

Helen Spurrell, who taught herself Hebrew after her fiftieth birthday, set out to translate the unpointed Hebrew text of the Old Testament. A Translation of the Old Testament Scriptures from the Original Hebrew was the result, and it garnered much positive attention from critics.

This revision of the KJV used the texts of Westcott and Hort and Samuel Tregelles as their basis for the revision of the New Testament. The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha contain separate, detailed introductions on the process and method of revision.

The H. T. Anderson New Testament was published as The New Testament Translated from the Original Greek. Anderson was part of the Disciples of Christ (Campbell Movement) in the early 19th century, and his translation reflects those leanings: "baptizmo" is translated as "immerse" in every instance. Before he died, he sent his publisher and friend instructions to revise this translation error, and to substitute "baptism" whenever the reference was to the ordinance. Besides this controversy, his translation was well regarded by scholars and was reviewed positively.