Christian Translations of the Ten Commandments

By the grace of G-d   
A Jewish Translation from Hebrew Scriptures >>  
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Jews have never referred to Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 1–17 * as "commandments." *  In the Jewish tradition, these ten items are variously translated into English as "the ten words," "the ten speeches," or "the ten matters" based on the Hebrew wording of the verse Exodus 20:1.  Jews also call these ten items the "Decalogue" which is the Greek translation of "ten words."
Nathaniel Segal, editor of this page, prefers to translate the Hebrew word d'varim as 'proclamations' and 'edicts'.  The English language is rich in synonyms with fine shadings of difference.  The Hebrew word d'varim has more than shadings of meaning, though.  This Hebrew word has within it a deep core philosophy.  This philosophy unites meanings that can be translated as "(subject) matters," "words," "speeches," or even "things."
A student of Hebrew in the Bible recognizes meaning by context.  The context of the verse Exodus 20:1 clearly denotes something that people heard.  "G-d spoke all these things . . ."  The people at the foot of Mount Sinai heard ten "speeches."
The nature of these speeches was specifically along the line of being articles of declaration.  This English word 'declaration' ultimately derives from the Latin verb clārāre, to make clear.  The content of Exodus 20 is certainly clear.  However, 'clear' is so inclusive that it doesn't help us to describe this special event.
The English word 'proclamation' comes from the Latin verb clāmāre, to cry out.  Here we have something that the people heard and that was loud.  The entire event was loud and overwhelming.  Everyone in the camp trembled as a loud blast of a trumpet grew even louder and louder (from Chapter 19, verses 16 and 19).
The English word 'edict' derives from the Latin verb dīcere, to speak.  With this word 'edict', we have a literal and accurate English translation to describe what G-d said.
Altogether, it is proper to speak of "Ten Edicts" or "Ten Proclamations."  You can see how this editor uses both words, 'edict' and 'proclamation', when he translates the Hebrew Scripture.
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*  Jews number the verses in this section of Scripture as Exodus 20:1–14 as explained in the next section.

*  commandments - Look carefully and you will see more than ten actual commandments.  In Edict II we read:

Numbering the verses

The verse numbering for Hebrew Scriptures — the Jewish Bible, also called the Old Testament — first appeared in the medieval period in a rabbi's manuscript from about 1440.  Rabbi Mordecai [Isaac] Nathan ben Kalonymos's verse numbering helped him produce a concordance * of Hebrew words in 1448.  It was published in 1523, around the time of the first printing of the Hebrew Bible.  Christians had already introduced chapter numbering at an earlier time, probably in a Latin translation during the thirteenth century.  Rabbi Mordecai Nathan retained Christian chapter divisions.  In some cases, though, Christian chapter divisions and Jewish chapter numbering diverge.
For Christians, Exodus Chapter 21 ends with verse 36.  Verse 36 also ends a paragraph in the Hebrew text.  For Christians, the next verse is the first verse of Chapter 22, corresponding to the beginning of the next Hebrew paragraph.  In contrast, in Jewish printed texts of Exodus where the last verse of the paragraph is numbered verse 36, it is followed by numbering the next verse as 37.  This Jewish verse 21:37 is the first verse of a new paragraph despite the numbering in traditional Jewish printed Bibles.  In these printed Bibles, the next chapter, Chapter 22, begins with what Christians number 22:2.
This is the least of it though.  Christians pull out the second half of this new paragraph and insert it after their verse 22:1.  Then they continue with the rest of the paragraph.*
Printed Hebrew Bibles generally include the chapter numbering that corresponds more or less to the Christian numbering.  This facilitates discussion and debate with Christian clergy.  When Christians cited a verse, a Jew could find the same verse in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Jews did not always precisely follow the Christian chapter divisions, though.
Concerning the Ten Commandments, Christians divide the single verse 13 of the Jewish text of Exodus Chapter 20 into four numbered verses — verses 13–16.  Christians then renumbered the next Hebrew verse (14) as verse number 17.  Despite the intention of facilitating discussion and debate with Christians, Jews have not been willing to present a single Hebrew verse as if it were two or more verses.
Since the text of the Old Testament never had chapter and verse numbering before the medieval period, this numbering only appeared regularly once the Bible was printed (from 1516 on onward;  see the next section).  In fact, a Torah scroll does not contain punctuation, not even marks between verses.  The melody of the traditional chanting generally falls where a verse ends.  We Jews learn the chanting by listening when the Torah is read for a congregation each Sabbath morning.  Young people who have a talent for the tonality of the chant learn to memorize the melody associated with the words and verses in the Torah.  The young reader of one generation becomes the congregation's reader for the next generation.
In the original Hebrew text, a beginning tone, an ending tone, and a middle, half-rest tone unify the eleven Hebrew words of verse 13 like other Hebrew verses.  Therefore, in keeping with Jewish tradition, Jews refrain from dividing these words into four separate verses.
For enumerating the "commandments" themselves, other religious groups divide Exodus 20:1–17 into ten parts in various ways as tabulated lower down on this page.  Understandably, most Christians do not count the verse about G-d having "brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Exodus 20:2).  Clearly, the ancestors of Christians did not spend time in Egypt as slaves.  However, Catholics and Mormons do count this idea as part (but only the first part) of the first "commandment."
For extensive information about the "Ten Commandments" see Wikipedia's article about the "Ten Commandments".  This article seems to be about as accurate as one can expect;  better than articles in some ordinary encyclopedias.
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* publish a concordance - The earliest known biblical concordance is from the early thirteenth century for the Latin translation.

* Christians pull the second half of this new paragraph and insert after their verse 22:1 - Contemporary Jewish practice follows the oldest Jewish manuscripts -- none more than a thousand years old.  These Jewish texts follow the Masoretic Text -- next section.  Contemporary Christian scholars are printing Hebrew texts of the Bible that reflect the Jewish tradition.  The British and Foreign Bible Society, London, published one such edition.  It replaced their edition from the early 1900s.  The Bible Society's new edition was ready for the printer just before the outbreak of World War II.  On the other hand, the Christian Revised Standard Version, published in 1952, does not follow the Hebrew text, not even the text published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

The Masoretic (Massoretic) Text

When scholars translate the Hebrew Scriptures, what text do they use for their translation?  The Masoretic (mă sō RET ik) Text is the traditional one that Jews have been using.  The word "Masoretic" comes from the Hebrew word masorah (mah soh RAH; mah SOH rah) which means "traditional" in the sense of having been passed from generation to generation.
Jewish English-language translators use printed Hebrew editions, although sometimes non-Jews have prepared these editions.  The earliest printed Hebrew Bible was printed in Venice (in today's Italy) by the Christian scholar-printer, Daniel Bomberg.  This edition was published in 1516-17.
A second, corrected edition followed Bomberg's first edition of the Hebrew Bible in 1524-25.  The editor was Rabbi Jacob ben Chaim.  He worked from manuscripts that he had at hand.  We call this a Rabbinic Bible since it was edited by a Jewish scholar from earlier manuscripts and notes which themselves came from Jewish scholars.  "Rabbinic Bible" is another way of saying "Masoretic Text" -- that the text is according to the Jewish tradition, masorah.  Jews only use whatever copies of the Torah that are descendants of earlier traditional books and manuscripts.  The text of our printed Torah readings, study Bibles, and our Torah scrolls follow the Masoretic Text.
Also, we Jews only translate from reliable traditional printings, in contrast to non-Jews.  We discount the content of any manuscript or printed edition except for the ones that have been in the hands of Jews during the last 500 years or so.  Although Jewish scribes and printers are likely to have introduced an error or two – looking at the Pentateuch only – but subsequent scholar-printers have corrected these errors.*  Actually, the Five Books of Moses are so familiar to Jews that well-educated Jews often catch these errors.
In contrast, non-Jews have prepared translations from their own critical editions of the Hebrew Bible.  In recent centuries, their versions of the Pentateuch have been adjusted to reflect readings in the Pentateuch of the Samaritans.*  As a group that developed its own approach to Judaism and its own theology, the Samaritans changed words and verses of the Torah from the time when they split from the rest of the Jewish people.  Non-Jewish scholars dismissed this consideration.  They have preferred older manuscripts -- which they believe that the Samaritans have remained faithful to -- over more recent texts in the hands of Jews.
These recent and contemporary scholars -- who now include some Jews -- have also preferred some readings in the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls.  Without question, these scrolls are one thousand years older than any manuscripts which are in Jewish hands (actually even a couple hundred years older than a millennium).
Our manuscripts (some of which may also contain an error or two) and our printed editions are descendants of the carefully edited manuscripts of two families who lived in Tiberias, Israel, from the sixth trough the tenth centuries ce.  These in turn are descendants of earlier manuscripts from the time when Jewish life thrived in both the Holy Land and in Babylonia.
Bomberg's Hebrew Bible became ". . . the basic printed text of the Reformation . . ." and also set the standard for printed Rabbinic Bibles.  "[T]he sixteenth- and seventeenth-century [Christian] translators probably used whatever printed edition they had to hand . . ."  (Norton, pp. 3-4).
Given that I'm only comparing translations of the "Ten Commandments," I'm not addressing the possibility of alternate readings in the books of the Prophets, in the Wisdom books, or in the historical books.
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* corrected these errors - It's not unusual for copyists and printers who are making corrections to introduce new errors.

* Samaritans - The name derives from the northern Kingdom of Israel's capital city, Samaria (Shomron in Hebrew; shohm ROHN).  The Kingdom of Israel had broken away from the unified kingdom that King Solomon had founded.  To avoid confusion, some scholars today are now calling the Jews of this rival kingdom "Israeleans."

Some of the Northern kings barred their subjects from worshiping in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  Some Israeleans themselves avoided the Temple in Jerusalem in favor of worshiping the gods Baal and making Asherahs.  Prophets Amos and Hosea had symbolically condemned these religious lapses of the northern kingdom by calling the Israeleans "Samaritans" after the name of the kingdom's capital city.
Assyrians then conquered the Kingdom of Israel and deported its Ten Tribes to other regions of the Assyrian Empire.  The end of the Kingdom of Israel is described in the book of II Kings 17:1-23.
Then follows the account of the Assyrian King resettling the towns of Samaria -- II Kings 17:24-41.  Assyrians brought people from Cuthah and other regions and settled them in the towns and on the empty land of the deported Ten Tribes.  Assyrians would relocate conquered populations from their native areas as a regular policy for subduing such conquered peoples.
The remaining Jews and later returnees to Judea still called these new people "Cutheans."  Cutheans, like other peoples of Mesopotamia and of the Levant, tended to abandon their gods in favor of the local gods.  Their sense was that survival and fertility depended on worshiping the local gods.
With ambivalence, Cutheans learned to respect the One G-d, creator of all peoples, the creator of the universe.  At the same time though, they allied themselves with remaining Israeleans who had been open to foreign influence and foreign gods.  To the Cutheans, Baal and Asherahs seemed to be local gods as much as or more so than the One G-d.
With education from priests and Levites, Cutheans started to become Jews although generally remaining aloof from the remaining Israeleans.  "Samaria became the natural and conveniently placed refuge for all who were dissatisfied with the stringent reforms taking place in Jerusalem"  (Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 671).  The harshest reform was that Jewish men had to send away their foreign -- non-Jewish -- wives.*
The Cutheans, now called Samaritans, learned from the Book of Deuteronomy how the entering Israelites, when first crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land, had assembled on the facing mountains, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.  Six of Jacob's descendants stood on one mountain and the other six on the facing mountain.  Priests stood in the valley and faced Mount Gerizim to declare the blessings: "Blessed is the man. . . ."  Then the priests, still standing in the valley, turned and faced Mount Ebal to declare the curses: "Cursed is the man . . ."  (see Deuteronomy 27:12-26).  (Scripture only describes the wording of the curses.  It makes sense, though, that the people would receive blessings for refraining from evil acts.  Why else write in verse 12, "These will stand to bless the people . . .?")
Just before this, the Israelites built an altar on Mount Ebal, the mountain of "curses"  (Deuteronomy 27:5).  As the first holy location in the Land of Israel, Samaritans spurned Jerusalem in preference to the holy place in their territory.  The Samaritans then rewrote a copy of the Torah for themselves in which the altar was built on the mountain of blessings, Mount Gerizim, instead of on Mount Ebal.  Accordingly, they have maintained an altar and a holy precinct on Mount Gerizim through the present.
Friction between Samaritans and the Jews of Jerusalem came to a head at the end of the seventy years of Jewish exile in Babylonia.  The Persian King Darius had issued a decree allowing Jews to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Led by their governor Sanballat opposed attempts to even rebuild the city of Jerusalem after the seventy years of Babylonian Exile.  This is recounted in the Biblical book Nehemiah, 3:33-35, chapters 4 and 6.
When Samaritans opposed rebuilding the city of Jerusalem as recounted in the Bible, perhaps they felt insulted that the Persian Great King chose Jerusalem over their holy place.  Later, when Alexander the Great marched through the Holy Land on his way to conquer Egypt, Samaritans appealed to him to spurn Jerusalem and its Holy Temple.  They promoted their altar on Mount Gerizim.  The Jewish High Priest (Great Priest) went out to intercept Alexander.  The High Priest impressed Alexander, and he promised to leave Jerusalem alone.
Samaritans claimed to be genuine descendants of the early Israelites, not converts.  According to the Samaritans, the account in the Book of Kings (II Kings 17:1-23) was a false account of their origins.  Moses was their only prophet, but they respected Joshua since he was Moses' foremost student and servant.
Samaritans rejected all Jewish Scriptures except for the Pentateuch -- the Five Books of Moses.  They also rejected Jewish observances that did not appear explicitly in a verse such as revival of the dead.  They calculated their own calendar.  Sometimes the first day of their months was a day earlier or later than the Jerusalem date.
Once the Jewish canon of the Bible was closed -- after the dedication of the second Holy Temple in Jerusalem (around the year 335 bce) -- no Jews wrote a history of their relationship with the Samaritan community.  Presumably, not all descendants of the first Samaritans continued to live near Mount Gerizim.  Those who spread out are likely to have assimilated to Jewish practice.
However, the status of Samaritans as Jews was often tenuous, and the Rabbis never approved of their altar.  On the other hand, "a commandment which the Samaritans follow they observe much more scrupulously than do the Jews"  (Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 10, p. 673).  For example, Samaritans had more severe restrictions for themselves on the Sabbath than Rabbinic Jews.
At the same time, there were several "Judaisms" during the Second Temple period.  Some sectarian groups organized around political relations with the Roman overlords, for example.  Some other Jews were angry with the Sages (for whatever reason) and asserted their own interpretations of Scriptures.  One of these groups was the Sadducees, who are mentioned in the New Testament.
Recollections about Samaritans were first recorded after the destruction of the Temple (69 ce).  The Sages considered Samaritans who had continued to retain their identity to be Gentiles for some purposes but Jewish for other.  They did rule that the path to Judaism for Samaritans was to reject worship on Mount Gerizim and worship only in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  Secondly, they had to admit to the principle of revival of the dead.
Let me note that a ruling from the Sages does not necessarily reflect current social conditions.  The Sages recorded rulings from hundreds of years before.
The last recollection of rulings concerning the Samaritans appeared as the Jerusalem Talmud was being closed -- around the year 351.  All remaining Samaritans were to be considered non-Jews for all purposes.  When this discussion was later recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Hullin 3b-6a, the Jerusalem ruling remained the last word on the subject.
By this time, the text of the Samaritan's Pentateuch had diverged from the Jewish text, sometimes deliberately.  Also, the script of their hand-written scroll of the Pentateuch (Torah scroll) did not closely resemble any Hebrew script.  Today's Samaritans still use copies of these older scrolls.
When Romans or Muslims persecuted Jews, Samaritans were also persecuted. They bore the identity of Jews by outsiders and the identity of Gentiles by Jews.
In contrast, Samaritans have full Jewish citizenship in today's State of Israel, although they refuse to integrate with the larger Jewish community as they have refused since late in the era of the second Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

* Dead Sea Scrolls - Found around Qumran near the Dead Sea.  These are discards.  The Sages of Jerusalem gathered improperly written scrolls of the Bible and hid them from the public by placing them in caves in the Judean desert.  I've seen at least one of these scrolls where G-d's name was written in a different style of script from the script of the rest of the scroll.  Such a scroll of any book of the Bible may not be read in a synagogue.  Non-standard theology lead sectarian groups to write G-d's name in Bible scrolls according to their invented theology.

Sectarian groups were proliferating in the last century before the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and they were adopting new philosophies and theologies.  Some of the finds in the Qumran caves reflect interpretations of Scripture that deviate from lessons of the prophets.  At least one sect developed a solar calendar to replace the standard Jewish lunar calendar, for example.  A consistent theme in some scrolls is complete opposition to the Temple in Jerusalem, even to the point of calling it an abomination.
Members of Jewish communities put aside documents with G-d's name in places where His name will not be disrespected or destroyed.  Such a location and its collection is called in Hebrew a genizah (g' NEE zuh).  The caves in the Judean desert are just such places.
The finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls is virtually useless for theories about the textual history of the Hebrew Bible.  The findings only inform us about newly developing sects of Judaism but not about the ancient traditions of Judaism.

* Jewish men had to send away their foreign -- non-Jewish -- wives - See the Book of Ezra, Chapters 9 and 10.  The basis is what we read in Deuteronomy concerning the Canaanites in the Land of Israel:

Do not marry them.  Do not give your daughter to his son [a son of any of the Canaanites], and do not take a daughter of his [of any of the Canaanites] for your son;  because he [a Canaanite] will remove your son [grandchildren] from worshiping Me to worship idols [instead] . . ."  (verses 3 and 4)
A Canaanite man is liable to mislead the child of your daughter.  Such a child is called "your son," meaning that these children are Jewish.  However, there is no parallel passage about your grandchildren from a foreign daughter-in-law.  This is because these grandchildren are not Jewish -- not "your son."
An explanation is that mothers are the primary influence on their young children.  Children develop attitudes and values from the strong, natural bonds to their mothers in the early years of childhood.  Mothers tend to raise their children as their mothers raised them.  Jewish mothers raise Jewish children, at least in subtle ways.  Fathers, on the other hand, generally provide role models for their children.  The non-Jewish father can only provide a model of non-Jewish life.  The Torah anticipates the possibility, even likelihood, that the Canaanite father will lead these Jewish children away from living Jewish lives.  At the very least, he cannot teach them the ways of living as Jews because he is ignorant of these ways.
The Book of Ezra lists seventeen Priests, ten Levites, and eighty-six men from the other tribes  (10:18-44).  Although the foreign wives were given the choice of converting to become Jews, none of them chose to convert.
The Bible is silent about how the divorces were handled.  In fact, the word 'divorce' does not appear here in this section of the Book of Ezra.  Instead, the Hebrew verb generally means "take out" and "push out," with the emphasis on the idea of going "out."  In contrast, we read about how the Matriarch Sarah told Abraham to "send away" Hagar, the maidservant, and her son -- Ishmael, Abraham's first-born.  This same verb also means "divorce."  Apparently, Sarah was not provisioning Hagar for banishment (divorce).  On the other hand, Abraham gave Hagar and Ishmael bread and a bladder of water.
The Bible commentator Ba'al HaTurim associates Sarah's neglect with two other occurrences of the Hebrew word for "send away" in the Bible.  "Send away [banish] the insolent" (Proverbs 22:10), and "[Pharaoh] will send away [the Israelite slaves] completely" (Exodus 11:1).  Ba'al HaTurim continues:
Sarah was punished for banishing Hagar and the insolent Ishmael from her household.  How?  Sarah's descendants would be enslaved [in Egypt] and then they themselves would need to be sent away from there.
Ishmael's insolence was his insistence that he should receive Abraham's legacy regardless of G-d's plan.  Sarah's punishment was measure for measure.  She brought about anguish and then suffered the anguish of foreknowledge of the anguish of her descendants in Egypt.  (She was a prophet.)
Speaking of insolence, we know of an unnamed priest who married a daughter of Sanballat, governor of the Cutheans.  This priest was one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib who was the High Priest  (Nehemiah 13:28).  He refused to divorce his wife, and Nehemiah drove him away.  As a malcontent, he most likely took his wife back to Sanballat, his father-in-law.
In the Jewish Encyclopedia, A. Cowley (author of the article "Samaritans") speculated that the young priest's "advent no doubt had the effect of fixing the Israelitish character of the Samaritan religion. . . .  There seems to be no ground for believing in any admixture of heathen practises [sic] after this time"  (p. 671).  This is speculation of course.  It supposes a measure of redemption for this priest.

Sources:
 
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Hullin.
 
Encyclopedia Judaica. 1972. "Samaritan," "Samaria." Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.
 
Jacobs, Louis. 1999. A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion. "Samaritans." Oxford University Press.
 
The Jewish Encyclopedia. Isidore Singer, managing editor. 12 Volumes. New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-7. Reprinted New York: Ktav Publishing, 1960. "Samaritans," vol. 10, pp. 669-681. Available online in the public domain -- Internet Archive.
 
May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger, eds. 1973. The New Oxford Annotated Bible - The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Containing the Old and New Testaments. New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Metzger, Bruce M. and Michael D. Coogan, eds. 1993. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. "Samaria," Mary Joan Winn Leith. "Samaritans," Richard Coggins. New York: Oxford University Press.
 
Rabinowitz, Yosef, trans. and commentator. 1990. The Book Nehemiah. Artscroll Tanach Series. Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications.
 
Tractate Kutim (Cutheans). 2 chapters, as printed in a full set of the Talmud.

 
 
New International Version ~ King James Bible ~ Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version ~ English Standard Version
New American Standard Bible ~ Revised English Bible
Catholic Public Domain Version
New American Bible ~ New Jerusalem Bible
The Book of Mormon
Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted? ~ Biblical Criticism
A History of English Translations of the Bible
Enumerations of the Ten Commandments ~ A Jewish Translation from Hebrew Scriptures

The New International Version – NIV®

Kraus writes:

NIV (1978, 1984):  [A] project of the International Bible Society [now Biblica] and a group of Protestant evangelical scholars.  The New International Version is a middle-of the-road translation, an evangelical counterpart to the Revised Standard Version.  After the King James Version, it is the most popular Protestant version.  (Donald Kraus. 2006. Choosing a Bible: for Worship, Teaching, Study, Preaching, and Prayer. New York: Church Publishing, Inc., p. 93)
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc.  Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.
"Biblica is the international publisher and translator of the world's most popular Bibles including the NIV Bible. . . ."
Retrieved May 12, 2013, from:  New International Version (NIV) Bible :: Official Site | Biblica
®  Biblica  (formerly, International Bible Society)

[Exodus 20]

The Ten Commandments

1  And G-d spoke all these words:

2  “I am the L-RD your G-d, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3  “You shall have no other gods before me [or, besides me].

4  “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;  for I, the L-RD your G-d, am a jealous G-d, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,  6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7  “You shall not misuse the name of the L-RD your G-d, for the L-RD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8  “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the L-RD your G-d.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  11 For in six days the L-RD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the L-RD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12  “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the L-RD your G-d is giving you.

13  “You shall not murder.

14  “You shall not commit adultery.

15  “You shall not steal.

16  “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

The King James Version – KJV

Commonly known as the Authorized Version (AV) – authorized for reading in the Church of England;
also known as the King James Bible (KJB).

Kraus writes:

KJV (1611):  [T]he traditional English Protestant Bible, sometimes called the Authorized Version because it was authorized for reading in the Church of England in the seventeenth century.  The King James Version is largely a formal translation, but it also employs paraphrase.  It includes the Apocrypha, although most published versions omit it.  (p. 91)

Retrieved May 12, 2013, from:  Online Bible Text: KJV
In the public domain.

Compare this version from 1611 with the 21st Century King James Version®  >>

[Exodus 20]

1  And G-d spake all these words, saying,

2  I am the L-RD thy G-d, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:  for I the L-RD thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7  Thou shalt not take the name of the L-RD thy G-d in vain;  for the L-RD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the L-RD thy G-d:  in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11  For in six days the L-RD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:  wherefore the L-RD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12  Honour thy father and thy mother:  that thy days may be long upon the land which the L-RD thy G-d giveth thee.

13  Thou shalt not kill.

14  Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15  Thou shalt not steal.

16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

The Revised Standard Version

Kraus writes:

RSV (1952, 1971):  [T]he first major post-World War II English translation, which largely replaced the King James Version in mainline Protestant churches in the 1950s. . . .  Its translation committee was fully ecumenical, including Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox scholars, and interfaith, with a Jewish scholar as well.  (It appeared in editions for Catholics and Orthodox Christians.)  (p. 94)
So far, I have not found permission to quote from the Revised Standard Version:

Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 1952. Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Old Testament Section.

A searchable on-line edition is available from a registered user:  the University of Michigan.

The following description has been paraphrased by Nathaniel Segal from the Preface to the Revised Standard Version translation, Second Edition (1971) —

The Bible is more than a historical document to be preserved.  And it is more than a classic of English literature to be cherished and admired.  It is a record of G-d's dealing with men, of G-d's revelation of Himself and His will. . . .  The Bible carries its full message, not to those who regard it simply as a heritage of the past or praise its literary style, but to those who read it that they may discern and understand G-d's Word to men.  That Word must not be disguised in phrases that are no longer clear, or hidden under words that have changed or lost their meaning.  It must stand forth in language that is direct and plain and meaningful to people today.  It is our hope and our earnest prayer that this Revised Standard Version of the Bible may be used by G-d to speak to men in these momentous times [1971], and to help them to understand and believe and obey His Word.

The first English version of the Scriptures made by direct translation from the original Hebrew and Greek, and the first to be printed, was the work of William Tyndale.*  Tyndale's work became the foundation of subsequent English versions.

Myles Coverdale's version * was published in 1535;  Thomas Matthew's * in 1537;  and the Great Bible * in 1539.  The Geneva Bible * was published in 1560.  The King James Version was published in 1611.

The translators who made the King James Version took into account all of these preceding versions, and comparison shows that it owes something to each of them.  It kept felicitous phrases and apt expressions, from whatever source, which had stood the test of public usage. . . .

The King James Version had to compete with the Geneva Bible * in popular use. . . .  For more than two and a half centuries, no other authorized translation of the Bible into English was made.  The King James Version became the "Authorized Version" of the English-speaking peoples.*

The King James Version has with good reason been termed "the noblest monument of English prose."  Its revisers in 1881 expressed admiration . . . yet the King James Version has grave defects.  By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies * . . . call[ed] for revision of the English translation.  The task was undertaken, by authority of the Church of England, in 1870.

The English Revised Version of the Bible was published in 1881-1885;  and the American Standard Version,* its variant embodying the preferences of the American scholars associated in the work, was published in 1901.  Both are a revision of the King James Version, published in 1611.

Unhappily, the text of the English Revised Version was tampered with in the supposed interest of the American public.  The American Standard Version was then copyrighted, to protect the text from unauthorized changes.  In 1928 this copyright was acquired by the International Council of Religious Education,* and thus passed into the ownership of the churches of the United States and Canada which were associated in this Council.

A Council committee worked upon the problem of whether or not revision should be undertaken;  and if so, what should be its nature and extent.  In the end, the decision was reached that there is need for a thorough revision which would stay as close to the Tyndale-King James tradition as it can in the light of . . . our present understanding of English.

In 1937, work on the revision was authorized by vote of the Council, which directed that the resulting version should ". . . express the meaning of Scriptures and express it in English diction which is designed for use in public and private worship [as well as for reading and instruction].  [It would] preserve those qualities which have given to the King James Version a supreme place in English literature."

In 1951, the publication of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, containing the Old and New Testament, was authorized by vote of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.* – an authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901.

In 1952, it was published in full as the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, a comprehensive revision of the King James and American Standard Versions.

The Revised Standard Version Bible Committee is a continuing body, holding meetings at regular intervals.  It has become both ecumenical and international, with Protestant and Catholic members, who come from Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.

[The Second Edition (1971) is a modification of the text of the New Testament section first published alone in 1946 and then in 1952 with the Old Testament.]

_______

Notes from Nathaniel --Skip these notes \\

* William Tyndale (TIN dul) (1494-1536) published an English-language version of the New Testament in 1526 in Worms (Germany)  Revisions in 1534 and 1535 were also printed, all of these for export to England.  He had fled England in 1524 because the Catholic Church – England was still a Catholic country – opposed Bible translations into the language of the people, whether English or German for example.  The Church also opposed translations from the original languages – Hebrew and Greek.  The Church only recognized the Latin version of the Bible.*  However, Tyndale translated from the original Greek and Hebrew.

Given that such a publication in the presence of the Catholic Church was unlawful, he fled England to cities of Europe such as Cologne, Worms, and then to the city of Antwerp where he found sympathy for reforming the Catholic Church.  Antwerp was the metropolis of Europe at that time and was free of restrictions on printers.

For the most part, Tyndale's idea of reform was to help ordinary people understand the Bible.  Until his time, the Bible was only available in Latin and read out loud in churches in Latin-language sermons.  Because of his reform effort, Tyndale's 1526 Bible version was burned in London, in that same year, as "alien doctrine"  (words of a sermon by Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of London, as quoted by Teems, p. 80).  The Church's hierarchy was objecting to some of Tyndale's English translations from Greek – what they called an "untrue translation" since it didn't come from the Latin version.

Campbell writes that "Tyndale . . . was an excellent linguist [who] knew Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German, Spanish, and French"  (p. 10).  Somehow Tyndale studied Hebrew although no known opportunities presented themselves in England.  Tyndale published his translation of the Pentateuch in 1530.  Shortly thereafter, Coverdale * incorporated Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch in his own English Bible version.  Coverdale is likely to have also incorporated whatever else from Tyndale which had remained unpublished  (McGrath, p. 90).  We have Tyndale's introduction to the Pentateuch, too.

The established church in England was still the Roman Church (until November 1534).  The Roman Catholic hierarchy in England ordered Tyndale's arrest in Antwerp as a heretic – not thinking like a Catholic.  He had persisted in violating the Catholic Church's ban against Bible translations into languages of the people.  For Catholics at the time, Canon Law -- the Pope's laws -- overrode laws from scriptures.  Only the Pope and the Church's hierarchy understood the beliefs of the church fathers who themselves knew the authentic beliefs of Christianity.

Ironically, an English agent kidnapped Tyndale in 1535 in Antwerp just as the English king, Henry VIII, declared himself supreme head of the new Church of England (November 1534, as above).  The English kidnaper delivered Tyndale to nearby Belgium within the Catholic Holy Roman Empire where Tyndale was considered a heretic like Lutherans.  Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake in October 1536.

Tyndale was educated at Oxford in the liberal arts.  He also came away with a "very refined knowledge of Latin," the common language of the academic community and the language of the Church at that time  (Teems, p. 15).  Tyndale disliked the theologians there if only for ". . . beating the pulpit with their fists for madness, and roaring out with open and foaming mouth"  (Tyndale himself as quoted by Teems, p. 15).  Oxford was the breeding ground for some of whom would become Tyndale's "hostiles," and he never became an "Oxford man"  (Teems, p. 15).  After attending Oxford, some believe that Tyndale went to Cambridge where advanced Greek was taught.  Hebrew was not yet offered at either university  (Teems, pp. 18-19, and note).  Cambridge was also known to be somewhat sympathetic to reform of the Catholic Church.  Besides this, Cambridge was the home of Tyndale's future "friendl[ies]"  (Teems, p. 15).

* Latin version of the Bible - called the Vulgate.  Its origin lies in early translation work by some Christian writers such as Jerome in the late fourth and early fifth centuries.  The Vulgate was translated from a Greek-language version of the Old Testament (as well as from Greek manuscripts of the New Testament).  "Vulgate" refers to the "vulgar" Latin of the Roman Empire – the common Latin that was spoken by ordinary folk.  Notice the resemblance between the Latin "vulg-" and the English "folk" through a shift of the consonants (from voiced to unvoiced) and a shift of the vowel.

Translators (in several languages) found useful another Latin translation, an "extremely literal Latin translation" from the original Hebrew by the Dominican friar Sanctes Pagninus (1528)  (Norton, p. 6).  Pagninus made "extensive use of rabbinic sources"  (ibid.).

Pagninus transmitted numbered verses from a Hebrew Bible of 1440  (Campbell, p. 16).  Numbered chapters and verses in that Bible of 1440 were introduced for a concordance of Hebrew words.  Chapter divisions had already been in place.

* Myles Coverdale (1488-1569), in exile in Antwerp, published the entire Bible in English in 1535 – the first complete printed English Bible.*  It is best viewed as a compilation of other people's translations, including Tyndale's New Testament and whatever Old Testament manuscripts of his which were available to Coverdale  (McGrath, pp. 89-90; Campbell, p. 15).  Norton adds that Coverdale "was not a linguist to rank with Tyndale . . . lacking sufficient Hebrew and Greek to work from primary texts," so he used Latin translations from Hebrew.  Coverdale also used German-language translations  (Norton, p. 14; Campbell, p. 15).  He was a very able writer of English, though  (Norton, p. 14).

Coverdale placed Pagninus's numbering of verses in his version of the Bible.  Publishers of future English Bibles would follow Coverdale by numbering verses.

Coverdale's version was dedicated to King Henry VIII and was printed in England.  Eventually, though, this version lost royal favor and thereby was not authorized by the king.

* first complete printed English Bible - including both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.  Before this, two versions of complete English translations in manuscript form were written between 1380 and 1397 by associates and followers of John Wyclif [Wycliffe] (1329-1384), a theologian and religious reformer -- called by some the "Morning Star of the Reformation"  (Campbell, p. 9).  Wyclif's circle translated from the Latin Vulgate, not from the original Hebrew or Greek.  Nevertheless, the Catholic Church in England -- the official church -- condemned the translation since ordinary people were not supposed to read the Bible.

According to Campbell, there is little evidence that Tyndale and later translators consulted these fourteenth century translations  (ibid.).

In the earlier Anglo-Saxon period, before 1150, an abbot wrote an English free rendering of the first seven books of the Old Testament, Genesis through Judges (the Heptateuch).  The Anglo-Saxon language is also called Old English.  Despite this name, Old English might as well be a foreign language for us.

* Thomas Matthew (a pseudonym) - An associate of Tyndale's edited and published "Matthew's Bible" in 1537.  The Old Testament text is mostly influenced by Tyndale's Old Testament material, perhaps even Tyndale's precise text.  This version contained marginal notes that were viewed by some senior English clergy as biased strongly in favor of Protestant reforms  (McGrath, p. 94).  Most of the new work in this version consisted of notes in the margins.  At the same time, "Matthew" reverted to Tyndale's translation as much as he could, especially in the Pentateuch  (Norton, p. 16).

"Matthew's Bible" was also dedicated to King Henry VIII.  The last line of the title page declared it to have been "'Set forth with the King's most gracious license'"  (Campbell, p. 20; modern spelling).  Despite this, "Matthew's Bible" was printed in Antwerp.

This edition was in a small format, and its 1,500 copies were insufficient for England's 8,000 parishes.  Also, its small format lacked the dignity for a church Bible  (Campbell, p. 20).

In 1539, Richard Taverner, a layman and a lawyer, . . . published a revision of Matthew's Bible.  [An edition of his] was issued in parts so that people who could not afford to purchase the whole Bible might buy one or more parts.  [Taverner] was a good Greek scholar, and made some changes in the translation of the New Testament which have been kept in later versions.  (New Oxford Annotated Bible, p. 1552)

Taverner's revision of "Matthew's Bible" was completely printed in England, the first such complete English-language version.  Meanwhile, Miles Coverdale (above) had begun a revision of "Matthew's Bible" which would be published as the Great Bible (next).

* the Great Bible - was commissioned to be printed in a large format on the finest press in Paris to be suitable for churches in all English parishes.  Since some English clergy saw strong Protestant bias in "Matthew's Bible," Coverdale was commissioned to revise this version for rapidly publishing a completed text.  The "offensive" marginal notes were removed.  Other changes were designed "to keep influential churchmen happy"  (McGrath, p. 94). 

Despite this, the Inquisition (France was Catholic) seized the early bound copies and unbound pages.  Printers resumed printing in England for release of 3,000 copies in 1539.

This Bible became known as the "Great Bible" – with a preface by the archbishop of Canterbury when it was reissued with revisions a year later in 1540.  It became the favored Bible for use in English churches.  "Great" refers to the size of the Bible -- about 38cm by 23cm; 15 inches by 9 inches  (Bratcher, Oxford Companion, p. 759).

The new revision of the Old Testament in the Great Bible reflected a literal Latin-language translation of a new edition of the Hebrew Bible from 1535.  References to Dutch scholar Erasmus's Latin translation of the New Testament (1516) also appeared.

Catholic Queen Mary ascended the English throne in 1553.  She followed the Catholic doctrine of not translating the Bible into languages of the people, not to mention reading these Bibles.  Mary inaugurated the persecution of her own subjects if they were suspected of being Protestants. She ended the printing of English-language Bibles in England and using them in churches.  Some Protestants chose exile.

English exiles organized churches in European cities such as Frankfurt (in today's Germany) and Geneva (capital of today's French-speaking canton of Switzerland).  Many exiles returned when Queen Mary died and was succeeded by Elizabeth, her half-sister (in 1558).  Elizabeth was a moderate Protestant.  Prospects opened for restoring English Bibles to churches.

The first prospect was the Geneva Bible.*  However, some of its interpretations of Scriptural passages displeased English church authorities.  Since the Great Bible had become the favored Bible for use in English churches (as above) a committee gathered to revise the Great Bible to compete with the popular Geneva Bible.

A large number of bishops served on the committee to revise the Great Bible.  The new version was published in 1568 and would be called the Bishops' Bible.*

The Great Bible became an intermediate version that, with another revision, would be issued as the King James Bible.  As such, the King James Bible was not written from scratch but was reworked from earlier versions during about seventy years and during the reigns of five English monarchs.  Meanwhile, the struggle over Reformation was resolved as the Church of England took on a permanent character  ("Great Britain, history of." Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Incorporated, 1991).

* Bishops' Bible - published in 1568.  Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote a preface to the Bishops' Bible's second edition.  In 1570, copies were placed in all cathedrals, and thereafter it was purchased by parish churches.  The last of twenty editions was published in 1602, nine years before the King James Version.  The last revised edition of the Bishops' Bible became the basis of the revision called for by King James in 1604.

The Bishops' Bible lost clarity compared to the Great Bible.  Also,

The plain English of Tyndale and Coverdale, elevated slightly to reflect the standing of the Bible as a holy book, ha[d] been edged aside in favour of Latinate rotundity.  Its scholarship is, alas, as lax as its prose is inflated.  It was clearly the work of senior churchmen who had more pressing duties on their minds.  Because it was authorized, it became the Bible that was read in churches;  at home, however, readers preferred the good demotic English of the Geneva Bible.  (Campbell, p. 30)

* Geneva Bible - The complete version was published in 1560.  This Bible was mainly the work of William Whittingham (c.1524-79) who translated the New Testament.  Others helped him with editing the translation of the Old Testament.  Whittingham styled this Bible as "[t]ranslated according to the Hebrew and Greek, and conferred with the best translations in divers languages"  (Whittingham's title page as quoted by McGrath, p. 117).  "The best translations" and "according to the Hebrew and Greek" refer primarily to Tyndale's version.  However, the Geneva version benefited from a new Latin translation of the New Testament from Greek, published in 1556.

Whittingham, an exile who had fled from Queen Mary, became "the senior of the English Church in Geneva"  (Campbell, p. 23).  Unlike most of the congregation who returned to England, Whittingham remained as pastor and scholar.

Biblical scholarship was flourishing in Geneva.  The translators were able to draw from experts in the Hebrew language.  They drew from the Hebrew-language Jewish commentary by the highly regarded Rabbi David Kimchi (c.1160-c.1235, Narbonne in Provence)  (Norton, p. 20).  Without his commentary, the Bible has been regarded by some as a closed book.  Altogether, the English translators in Geneva also drew from sources that were unavailable in England.

Geneva printers introduced features that helped readers study what they were reading.  The printers set the text in roman type rather than in the Germanic-appearing, older "Black Letter" type.  The printers also introduced the practice of numbering each verse, for the first time in English Bibles.  Chapter numbering in English Bibles was already a feature of Tyndale's Bible.  The Geneva Bible's size was easy to hold.  Such a size also made it cheap to print and easily available.

The Geneva Bible was so popular that it remained in print until 1640 with some seventy editions.  Sometimes, it was printed by the king's printer.  Between 1560 and 1644, some thirty years after the King James Version had been published, about half a million copies were sold in England.  The Geneva Bible was used by Shakespeare, and it was the Bible of the Puritans.  It became the house-hold Bible of the English-speaking nations for three-quarters of a century.

Unlike other English-language versions of the Bible, the Geneva Bible was a study Bible.  It contained extensive notes.  These notes were placed in the margins alongside the relevant text.  In the Old Testament, some notes informed the reader that another English word was also suitable as a translation of the original Hebrew text.  Some notes showed the reader that a Hebrew phrase was an idiom.  The translators rendered this idiom in understandable English but not word for word.

Some notes in the Geneva Bible were interpretations of Scripture according to a Protestant theology.  Translators, adhering to Protestant doctrines against Catholic ceremonies, explained phrases and verses in a way to support their opposition to Catholic "ceremonialism"  (Campbell, p. 26).  Some interpretations were deemed to be anti-monarchial despite the fact that the Geneva Bible edition was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I.

The city of Geneva (today's Switzerland) had been a Protestant republic since 1536.  The Geneva version of the Bible, as published in 1560, included Protestant marginal comments as well as annotations (like "Matthew's Bible") that alienated the English establishment.  This version also contained prefaces that introduced themes stressing and defending Protestant doctrines and critiquing Roman Catholic teachings  (McGrath, p. 121).  Authorities of the Church of England felt threatened by the Geneva Bible because of these comments, but it became the most popular English Bible in its time, smuggled into England from Europe.  It was primarily supported by English refugees, especially by exiles from the years while Queen Mary Tudor, sympathetic to Rome, persecuted Protestants in England – 1553-1558.

Having seen how popular the Geneva Bible had become, the archbishop of Canterbury had commissioned what he intended to become a national Bible.  He planned that this version would be set up in churches throughout England.  As I wrote above, this became the Bishops' Bible of 1568, based on the Great Bible with only essential revisions to make this edition acceptable to authorities of the Church of England.

The archbishop succeeded in blocking the printers' guild from printing the Geneva Bible in England.  He also ensured that only one printer retained a monopoly for printing the Bishops' Bible.  With the succession of a new archbishop in 1575, the "Queen's Printer" continued to print only the large size (folio) Bishops' Bibles to place on church lecterns.

* Reading the Geneva Bible - English speaking readers today can read and understand the early printings of the Geneva Bible as they do the King James Version.  They need to adjust to three archaic forms of spelling, though.  Sometimes the letter 's' appears as 'ſ'.  Also, the letters 'u' and 'v' both appear randomly, each one sometimes as the vowel 'u' and sometimes as the consonant 'v'.  The third difference between how they spelled and how we do is that the letter 'j' is not used.  The letter 'i' represents both our 'j' as well the letter 'i'.

* The King James Version became the "Authorized Version" of the English-speaking peoples. - Not quite.  It was "authorized" within the Anglican communion.*  Many other Protestants have adopted the King James Version for their use.  Even today, many Protestants feel most comfortable with the King James version although a variety of revisions have appeared as well as altogether new translations.

The King James Versions and preceding translations had not been acceptable for Catholics since these versions were not translations of the Latin-language Vulgate * (above), the only version of the Bible that the Catholic Church recognized until 1943.  Roman Catholics published their own translation of the Bible into English even before the King James Version appeared.  Catholic translations of the Ten Commandments appear below.

* The King James Version was "authorized" within the Anglican communion. - Note the quotation marks, which appear in the above Preface to the Revised Standard Version.  The editors of this version write,

It is a strange fact that no evidence has yet been found that the King James Version was ever authorized in the sense of being publicly sanctioned by Convocation or by Parliament.

The King James Version was dedicated to King James when it was published in 1611.  This dedication has been taken as authorization.  Furthermore, King James ordained that a translation be made and printed for use in all churches.

* the development of Biblical studies - This is a reference to material that archaeologists have discovered as well as to early manuscripts and editions of the Bible which had not previously been seen or studied.

For example, some scholars believe that "the Dead Sea (Qumran) Scrolls afford evidence that there were variant recensions of the same Old Testament book"  (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, "Introduction to the Old Testament," p. xxvi).  According to these scholars, "Before the time of the council of Jamnia, about a.d. 90-100, there did not exist a single standard text of the various books of [Hebrew] Scripture regarded as possessing sole authority (a textus receptus)"  (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, "Introduction to the Old Testament," p. xxvi).

* American Standard Version - a variant of the English Revised Version of the Bible, 1881-1885, according to preferences of American scholars associated with the English Revised Version.

* International Council of Religious Education - founded in 1907, and formally united into the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. in 1950.  In 1928, the copyright of the American Standard Version was acquired by churches of the United States and Canada by their association with the International Council of Religious Education.

* National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. - its Division of Christian Education.  The National Council is "a cooperative organization of which 32 Protestant and Orthodox churches are members.  It was formally organized in 1950 by a union of several preexisting bodies."  Its headquarters is in New York City ("National Council of Churches." Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Inc., 1991, p. 202).

 
 
References for Nathaniel's Notes:

Bratcher, Robert G. 1993. "Translations, English Language." In Metzger, Bruce M. and Michael D. Coogan, eds. 1993. The Oxford Companion to the Bible, pp. 758-763.

Campbell, Gordon. 2010. Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger, eds. 1973. The New Oxford Annotated Bible - The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Containing the Old and New Testaments. New York: Oxford University Press.

McGrath, Alister E. 2001. In the Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. New York: Doubleday.

Metzger, Bruce M. and Michael D Coogan, eds. 1993. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press.

Norton, David. 2011. The King James Bible: a Short History from Tyndale to Today. Cambridge University Press.

Specht, Walter F. 1993. "Chapter and Verse Divisions." In Metzger, Bruce M. and Michael D Coogan, eds. 1993. The Oxford Companion to the Bible, pp. 105-107.

Teems, David. 2012. Tyndale: The Man Who Gave G-d an English Voice. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson.

The New Revised Standard Version

Kraus writes:

NRSV (1989):  [A] full revision of the Revised Standard Version.  It is still, along with the Revised Standard Version, the only translation that includes every book regarded as part of the Bible by one or more of the various Christian churches.  [Bible editions which include the Old Testament include every book that is in the Jewish canon.]  (p. 93)

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editions:
 
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 1989. New Revised Standard Version. San Francisco: HarperOne.
 
—————. 1999. New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Anglicized Edition: Reader's Text.* Oxford University Press.

The Ten Commandments
20
Then G-d spoke all these words:
2 I am the L-rd your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;  3 you shall have no other gods before a me.
 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;  for I the L-rd your G-d am a jealous G-d, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation b of those who love me and keep my commandments.
 7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the L-rd your G-d, for the L-rd will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the L-rd your G-d;  you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  11 For in six days the L-rd made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day;  therefore the L-rd blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
 12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the L-rd your G-d is giving you.
 13 You shall not murder. c
 14 You shall not commit adultery.
 15 You shall not steal.
 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
 17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house;  you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

a  Or besides
b  Or to thousands
c  Or kill
_______

* Catholic Anglicized Edition - The translation of Chapter 20 in the Book of Exodus is the same in this edition for British readers as in the earlier American edition.  Editors of this edition have only replaced American spelling and punctuation styles with those used by British readers and by other English-speaking publics.  For example:  honor/honour, neighbor/neighbour.  Also, British publishers place a single quote mark where Americans place a double quote mark.

Catholics accepted the New Revised Standard Version from the beginning since the committee of scholars who produced this edition included Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox members.  The edition also includes all the readings that Catholics expect to find in Bibles.

English Standard Version

Kraus writes:

ESV (2001):  [A]n adaptation of the Revised Standard Version by a group of evangelical Protestant scholars, which updates some archaic language in the Revised Standard Version and makes some adjustments to reflect evangelical theological understandings.  (p. 90)

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

20
G-d spoke all these words:

2 “I am the L-RD your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the L-RD your G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the L-RD your G-d in vain, for the L-RD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the L-RD your G-d. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the L-RD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the L-RD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the L-RD your G-d is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

(ESV Text Edition: 2007, 2001)
_______

Excerpts from the "Preface to the English Standard Version" --
(concerning this version's translation legacy)

//  Nathaniel's note and reaction

The English Standard Version (ESV) stands in the classic mainstream of English Bible translations over the past half-millenium.  The fountainhead of that stream was William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526;  marking its course were the King James Version of 1611 (KJV), the English Revised Version of 1885 (RV), the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV), and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV).  In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression.  Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.
 
To this end each word and phrase in the ESV has been carefully weighed against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity and to avoid under-translating or overlooking any nuance of the original text.  The words and phrases themselves grow out of the Tyndale-King James legacy, and most recently out of the RSV, with the 1971 RSV text providing the starting point for our work.  Archaic language [in English] has been brought to current usage and significant corrections have been made in the translation of key texts.  But throughout, our goal has been to retain the depth of meaning and enduring language that have made their indelible mark on the English-speaking world . . . (p. 19)
 
Translation Philosophy:  The ESV is an "essentially literal" translation that seeks as much as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text . . . letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original.
 
In contrast to the ESV, some Bible versions have followed a "thought-for-thought" rather than "word-for-word" translation philosophy, emphasizing "dynamic equivalence rather than the "essentially literal" meaning of the original.  A "thought-for-thought" translation is of necessity more inclined to reflect the interpretative opinions of the translator and the influences of contemporary culture.
 
Every translation is at many points a trade-off between literal precision and readability, between "formal equivalence" in expression and "functional equivalence" in communication, and the ESV is no exception.  Within this framework we have sought to be "as literal as possible" while maintaining clarity of expression and literary excellence.  Therefore, to the extent that plain English permits and the meaning in each case allows, we have sought to use the same English word for important recurring words in the original . . .  [W]e have sought to capture the echoes and overtones of meaning that are so abundantly present in the original texts.
 
As an essentially literal translation, then, the ESV seeks to carry over every possible nuance of meaning in the original words of Scripture into our own language.  As such, it is ideally suited for in-depth study of the Bible.  Indeed, with its emphasis on literary excellence, the ESV is equally suited for public reading and preaching, for private reading and reflection, for both academic and devotional study, and for Scripture memorization.  (pp.19-20)
 
Translation Style:  The ESV also carries forward classic translation principles in its literary style. . . .  The ESV lets the stylistic variety of the biblical writers fully express itself -- from the exalted prose that opens Genesis, to the flowing narratives of the Historical Books, to the rich metaphors and dramatic imagery of the Poetic Books, to the ringing rhetorical indictments in the Prophetic Books . . .
 
In punctuating, paragraphing, dividing long sentences, and rendering connectives, the ESV follows the path that seems to make the ongoing flow of thought clearest in English.  The biblical languages regularly connect sentences by frequent repetition of words such as "and," "but," "for," in a way that goes beyond the conventions of literary English.  Effective translation, however, requires that these links in the original be reproduced so that the flow of the argument will be transparent to the to the reader.  We have therefore normally translated these connectives, though occasionally we have varied the rendering by using alternatives (such as "also," "however," "now," "so," "then," or "thus") when they better capture the sense in specific instances.
 
In the area of gender language, the goal of the ESV is to render literally what is in the original.  For example, "anyone" replaces "any man" . . . where the original languages refer to both men and women. . . .
 
The inclusive use of the generic "he" has also regularly been retained, because this is consistent with similar usage in the original languages and because an essentially literal translation would be impossible without it. . . .
 
In each case the objective has been transparency to the original text, allowing the reader to understand the original on its own terms rather than on the terms of our present-day culture.  (pp. 20-21)
 
Textual Basis:  The ESV is based on the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible as found in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1983) . . .  The currently renewed respect among Old Testament scholars for the Masoretic text is reflected in the ESV's attempt, wherever possible, to translate difficult Hebrew passages as they stand in the Masoretic text rather than resorting to emendations or to finding an alternative reading in the ancient versions [such as] the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, the Latin Vulgate . . . [unless necessary in exceptional, difficult cases] . . . to shed possible light on the text, or . . . to support a divergence from the Masoretic text.  (p. 22)
 
("Preface to the English Standard Version."® The ESV Study Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles, 2008, pp. 19-22)
_______

from Nathaniel --
 
Two versions of contemporary English-language Bibles begin from the same earlier translation but then diverge in how they produce their new versions.

New American Standard Bible

Kraus writes:

NASB (1995):  [A] revision by evangelical Protestant scholars of the American Standard Version of 1901. The NASB is the most consistently formal translation generally available. It is sometimes difficult reading, but that reflects the underlying texts.  (p. 92)

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

The Ten Commandments

20 
Then G-d spoke all these words, saying,

 2  ¶ "I am the L-RD your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
 3  ¶ "You shall have no other gods a before Me.
 4  ¶ "You shall not make for yourself b an idol, or any likeness of what is in the heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
 5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the L-RD your G-d, am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
 6  but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
 7  ¶ "You shall not take the name of the L-RD your G-d in vain, for the L-RD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
 8  ¶ "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
 9 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work;
10  but the seventh day is a sabbath of the L-RD your G-d;  in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
11 "for in six days the L-RD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the L-RD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12  ¶ "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the L-RD your G-d gives you.
13  ¶ "You shall not murder.
14  ¶ "You shall not commit adultery.
15  ¶ "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
16  ¶ "You shall not bear false witness against against your neighbor.
17  ¶ "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

a  Or besides Me
b  Or a graven image

The Revised English Bible

  A project of the British Council of Churches *

Kraus writes:

New English Bible (NEB) (1970) and Revised English Bible (REB) (1989):  [T]he New English Bible was the first major English translation since the sixteenth century to begin afresh, without reference to previous translations.  It is poetical and literary in a high degree, and, while not always easy, is generally readable.  It was revised and published as the Revised English Bible in 1989.  (p. 92)

Scripture quotations taken from the Revised English Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press 1989. All rights reserved.
Used by permission.

20 
G-d spoke all these words:
 2 I am the L-rd your G-d who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 3 You must have no other god besides me.
 4 You must not make a carved image for yourself, nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.
 5 You must not bow down to them in worship;  for I, the L-rd your G-d, am a jealous G-d, punishing the children for the sins of parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me.  6 But I keep faith with thousands, those who love me and keep my commandments.
 7 You must not make wrong use of the name of the L-rd your G-d;  the L-rd will not leave unpunished anyone who misuses his name.
 8 Remember to keep the sabbath day holy.  9 You have six days to labour and do all your work;  10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the L-rd your G-d;  that day you must not do any work, neither you, nor your son or your daughter, your slave or your slave-girl, your cattle, or the alien residing among you;  11 for in six days the L-rd made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested.  Therefore the L-rd blessed the sabbath day and declared it holy.
 12 Honour your father and your mother, so that you may enjoy long life in the land which the L-rd your G-d is giving you.
 13 Do not commit murder.
 14 Do not commit adultery.
 15 Do not steal.
 16 Do not give false evidence against your neighbour.
 17 Do not covet your neighbour's household:  you must not covet your neighbour's wife, his slave, his slave-girl, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to him.
* * *

The following description of the Revised English Bible has been paraphrased by Nathaniel Segal from the introduction to this Bible's translation of the Old Testament —

The committee of translators of the Revised English Bible examined today's traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament and believed that this text has remained substantially unaltered, at least since the second century ce.  However, the translators and revisers maintained that this text contains a number of errors.  These scholars examined evidence to "correct" – change – the traditional Jewish reading as they translated.

They examined the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch and the fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls.  The translators also studied evidence from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Septuagint itself had been translated into Old Latin.  Then Jerome (c. 347-420) examined the original Hebrew and produced the Latin-language Vulgate towards the end of the fourth century.  The committee of translators of the Revised English Bible often preferred the text of Jerome's Vulgate for the English translation.

The Hebrew text of the Bible had been rendered into Aramaic for Jews who found it difficult to understand Hebrew.  These are called Targums.  The translators of the Revised English Bible also consulted these Targums for their English rendering.

Overall, the guiding principle for developing the Revised English Bible has been "to seek a fluent and idiomatic way of expressing biblical writing in contemporary English.  Much emphasis has been laid on correctness and intelligibility, and at the same time on endeavouring to convey something of the directness and simplicity of the Hebrew original."  (xv-xvii)

[This introduction also appears in The Complete Parallel Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books (Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. xxii-xxiv.)]

_______

* British Council of Churches - Includes Baptist, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and other representatives.

The Catholic Public Domain Version – from the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
  of the John Murphy Company, Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Kraus writes:

Douay-Rheims Bible (1609-10):  [T]he traditional Roman Catholic English translation. The Douay Bible, as it is often called, is a translation from the Vulgate with reference to the original Greek and Hebrew, undertaken by by English scholars who did not convert to Anglicanism during the sixteenth century English reformation. The Douay Bible tends to use Latin-influenced vocabulary . . . [A] revised edition by Bishop Challoner, 1749-52  [DRA]  (p. 90).

The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.

The Sacred Bible –

Book of Exodus

Chapter 20

The ten commandments.
 
 
{20:1}  And the L-rd spoke all these words:
{20:2}  I am the L-rd thy G-d, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
{20:3}  Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
{20:4}  Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.
{20:5}  Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them:  I am the L-rd thy G-d, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
{20:6}  And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.
{20:7}  Thou shalt not take the name of the L-rd thy G-d in vain:  for the L-rd will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the L-rd his G-d in vain.
{20:8}  Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.
{20:9}  Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.
{20:10}  But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the L-rd thy G-d:  thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.
{20:11}  For in six days the L-rd made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day:  therefore the L-rd blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
{20:12}  Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the L-rd thy G-d will give thee.
{20:13}  Thou shalt not kill.
{20:14}  Thou shalt not commit adultery.
{20:15}  Thou shalt not steal.
{20:16}  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
{20:17}  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house: neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

This text has been copied from:
Bible Study Tools  
>>  Bible Study Tools is a member of the Salem Media Group -- Salem Communications Corporation.

See also the Douay-Rheims Bible with Challoner Notes  >>
_______

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
Version Information
The Douay–Rheims Bible is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the Catholic seminary English College, Douai,* France [near Lille, France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region].  It is the foundation on which nearly all English Catholic versions are still based.
 
It was translated principally by Gregory Martin, an Oxford-trained scholar, working in the circle of English Catholic exiles on the Continent, under the sponsorship of William (later Cardinal) Allen.  The New Testament appeared at Rheims * in 1582 [Reims, France, Champagne-Ardenne region];  the Old Testament at Douai in 1609.*
 
The translation, although competent, exhibited a taste for Latinisms that was not uncommon in English writing of the time but seemed excessive in the eyes of later generations.  The New Testament influenced the Authorized Version.*
 
Between 1749 and 1752, English bishop Richard Challoner substantially revised the translation with an aim to improve readability and comprehensibility.  It was first published in America in 1790 * by Mathew Carey of Philadelphia.  Several American editions followed in the 19th and early 20th centuries;  prominent among them the Douay–Rheims 1899 American Edition Version.
from:  www.BibleGateway.com  (retrieved Jul 22, 2015)
 
>>  BibleGateway is a brand name of HarperCollins Christian Publishing which is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers which is owned by News Corp (News Corporation).

* Douai - then spelled Douay; then in Flanders.
 
* Rheims - The college moved to Rheims in 1578 where the work was continued.  Sometimes pronounced REEMZ; in French RAnS.
 
* 1609 - fully issued in 1610.  By then, the college had moved back to Douay.
 
* The New Testament [translation] influenced the Authorized Version - Translators of the King James Version took seriously the scholarly work of the Douay–Rheims New Testament  (Campbell, p. 31).  The Old Testament had not been published early enough to influence the King James Version.
 
* first published in America in 1790 - The Challoner revision was authorized for use in the United States in 1810.
 
* At the same time that the popularity of the Geneva Bible distressed Anglican bishops, its popularity distressed Roman Catholics.  They saw a need to for an "antidote"  (Campbell, p. 30).  Robert G. Bratcher writes in the The Oxford Companion to the Bible that "Roman Catholic authorities [in the 1500s] felt the need for an officially approved English version for Catholics"  (p. 760).  Nevertheless, Catholic authorities did not concede the right of the laity to read the Bible in the vernacular without permission  (ibid.).

For more information about the Douay-Rheims Bible see:  "Douay-Rheims Bible: The English Translation of the Latin Vulgate." The Latin Vulgate Bible -- Vulgate.Org, 2005-2012.

The New American Bible

Kraus writes:

NAB (New Testament 1991; Old Testament 1970):  [T]he official translation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), translated largely by Catholic scholars * who are members of the Catholic Biblical Association. The New American Bible is a generally formal translation,* but is quite readable. It is accompanied in most editions by introductions and extensive notes to the text, in keeping with the Catholic Church's teaching that the Bible should be presented to the reader in the context of church teaching and scholarship. The Old Testament is currently being revised [as of 2006]  (p. 92).
* translated largely by Catholic scholars - For the first time, beginning in 1944, American Catholic scholars began to translate directly from the original Hebrew and Greek texts rather than from the Latin Vulgate and did so with the Church's authorization.  In an encyclical letter of 1943, Pope Pius XII urged translation of the Scriptures from the original languages, which is to say Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament).  Volumes began to be published from 1952 onward, issued as the New American Bible in 1970.  A revised version of the New Testament was published in 1991.

* A formal translation - Also called an "essentially literal" translation.  It emphasizes a "word-for-word" rendering in English from the original languages.
A formal translation pays close attention to the source language -- Hebrew, Greek, or Latin -- resulting in a literal version, including reproducing the original language's sentence structure.  A functional translation pays more attention to the target language -- English, for example -- resulting in using common English-language word order which recreates the meaning of the original language sentence but with a new structure.  By using paraphrase, the version is "meaning-for-meaning."
 
. . . [T]ranslations tend to cluster in the middle of the spectrum [from literal to functional].  This is not coincidental:  most translations are specifically intended to be as readable as they possibly can be while still remaining fairly wedded to a formal to a formal or literal approach to word choices.  This means that these translations are good, usable versions that can be widely read in churches or privately, but can also be used in the classroom or in contexts where users must pay attention to specific words or phrases, such as in commentaries.  (Kraus, p. 15-16)

Kraus places the following in the middle of the spectrum:

The following are more literal, according to Kraus:

The most literal and formal is:

The King James Version (KJV) and Douay fall between the previous two groups, according to Kraus.

According to Kraus, the version (not yet appearing on this page) which is most functional, most paraphrased is:

The REB is a bit more formal than the NJB, but not quite in the middle of the spectrum  (Kraus, p. 17).

So far, Nathaniel has not found permission to quote from either the New Jerusalem Bible or the New American Bible.

New American Bible. Old Testament Text, 1970. New Testament Text, revised 1991. (Washington, D.C.: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine)
 
The New American Bible appears together with the NRSV, REB, and NJB in:
The Complete Parallel Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books (Oxford University Press, 1993)

 

The New Jerusalem Bible

Kraus writes:

JB  and NJB: The Jerusalem Bible (1965) and The New Jerusalem Bible (1985):  [T]hese British Catholic translations are based on the original Greek and Hebrew texts, but they draw inspiration from a modern French Catholic translation, La Bible de Jerusalem.  The Jerusalem Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible translations are among the most poetical English versions.  J. R. R. Tolkien was among the literary scholars who advised the Jerusalem Bible translators on style  (p. 91).
So far, Nathaniel has not found permission to quote from the New Jerusalem Bible.

The New Jerusalem Bible. 1985. Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday.

The editor, Henry Wansbrough, writes in the Foreword --

The Bible is not a book but a library, joining together dozens of writings, history, stories, poetry and letters.  Almost the only common factor is that they all speak to us of G-d, revealing his nature, his awesome sovereignty and tender love. . . .
 
The translation follows the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts.  For the Old Testament (OT) the 'Massoretic Text' (MT), established in the 8-9th centuries * ad [sic] by Jewish scholars, is used.  Only when this presents insuperable difficulties have emendations or other versions, such as the ancient Greek translation begun in 200 bc at Alexandria, the 'Septuagint' * (abbreviated 'LXX'), been used.  (The Complete Parallel Bible, p. xli)
_______

Notes from Nathaniel --

* 8-9th centuries (ce) - This dating is surprising.  Rabbis in the Galilee (Tiberias) formalized vowels (vowel points) and cantillation notes to add to teaching material.  Sages in the Jewish communities of Babylonia had also developed a system of adding points to educational texts.  By the 8-9th centuries, Jewish communities everywhere were mostly using a system from Tiberias and had abandoned the Babylonian system.
 
Essentially, these vowel pointing systems must have an early origin.  Considering the stresses of Jewish life in the second century ce and onward, oral teaching had receded in usefulness.  The Mishnah, for example, had been committed to writing around the year 200.  By the year 500 or so, the Talmud was completely in the written form as we have it today.
 
Wansbrough refers to the oldest surviving Massoretic Text (unless I mistaken).  The lack of earlier evidence is not evidence.  In theory, we have yet to find an earlier manuscript that may exist.  No way exists to determine that there is no earlier manuscript somewhere in the world.
 
So, the New Jerusalem version English translation of the Old Testament translated from Hebrew is probably based on the earliest two manuscripts from the 10th or 11th centuries.  To say that the 'Massoretic Text' (MT), was not established before the 8-9th centuries is misleading.
 
* Septuagint - This name comes to us from a Latin word meaning 'seventy'.  'LXX' are the Roman numerals for the number seventy.  Seventy-two Jewish Sages translated the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language about sixty years after Alexander the Great's death.  We have no evidence that the earliest manuscripts of the Septuagint which are available to scholars are precisely accurate.

The Book of Mormon

  [from:  Mosiah 12:34-36,  Mosiah 13:15-16,  Mosiah 13:20-24]


New International Version ~ King James Bible ~ Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version ~ English Standard Version
New American Standard Bible ~ Revised English Bible
Catholic Public Domain Version
New American Bible ~ New Jerusalem Bible
The Book of Mormon
Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted? ~ Biblical Criticism
A History of English Translations of the Bible
Enumerations of the Ten Commandments ~ A Jewish Translation from Hebrew Scriptures
Top of this page

Enumerations of the Ten Commandments

This table is the editor's adaptation of Wikipedia's article about the Ten Commandments, retrieved June 6, 2013.

The two texts commonly known as the Ten Commandments are given in two books of the Bible:  Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21.

Religious groups use various historical divisions of Exodus 20:1–17 to assemble ten parts, as tabulated below:

The Ten Commandments

T A C L R S Individual article in Wikipedia Exodus 20:2-17 Deuteronomy 5:6-21
1 – 1 – (1) – I am the L-rd thy G-d
(For some, this is a Prologue)		 2 “I am the L-RD your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 6 “I am the L-RD your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
2 1 1 1 1 1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 7 “You shall have no other gods before me.
2 1 1 1 2 2 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image 4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the L-RD your G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 8-10 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the L-RD your G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3 2 2 2 3 3 Thou shalt not take the name of the L-rd thy G-d in vain 7 “You shall not take the name of the L-RD your G-d in vain, for the L-RD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 11 “You shall not take the name of the L-RD your G-d in vain, for the L-RD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4 3 3 3 4 4 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy 8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the L-RD your G-d. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the L-RD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the L-RD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 12-15 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the L-RD your G-d commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the L-RD your G-d. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the L-RD your G-d brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the L-RD your G-d commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
5 4 4 4 5 5 Honour thy father and thy mother 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the L-RD your G-d is giving you. 16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the L-RD your G-d commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the L-RD your G-d is giving you.
6 5 5 5 6 6 Thou shalt not kill 13 “You shall not murder. 17 “You shall not murder.
7 6 6 6 7 7 Thou shalt not commit adultery 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 18 “And you shall not commit adultery.
8 7 7 7 8 8 Thou shalt not steal 15 “You shall not steal. 19 “And you shall not steal.
9 8 8 8 9 9 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 20 “And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 10 10 9 10 10 Thou shalt not covet 17a “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; 21b “And you shall not desire your neighbor's house,
10 9 9 10 10 10 Thou shalt not covet 17b “you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, 21a “And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10 10 10 9 10 10 Thou shalt not covet 17c “or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” 21c “his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
T A C L R S Individual article in Wikipedia Exodus 20:2-17 Deuteronomy 5:6-21
New International Version ~ King James Bible ~ Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version ~ English Standard Version
New American Standard Bible ~ Revised English Bible
Catholic Public Domain Version
New American Bible ~ New Jerusalem Bible
The Book of Mormon
Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted? ~ Biblical Criticism
A History of English Translations of the Bible
Enumerations of the Ten Commandments ~ A Jewish Translation from Hebrew Scriptures
Top of this page

Citation:

Kraus, Donald. 2006. Choosing a Bible: for Worship, Teaching, Study, Preaching, and Prayer. New York: Church Publishing, Inc.
Copyright © 2014-15 Nathaniel Segal 
unless otherwise noted