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Ramseyer-Northern Bible Society Collection
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For many years the British Crown retained the right to authorize the printing of the Bible, which meant that printers in the American Colonies had no right to print it. Thus, the first Bible printed in North America was in Algonquian. But when printing of the Bible became open, the tradition of an "authorized" version was continued by various church authorities, at first for their own members, but then gradually committees were formed to represent a grouping of denominations, and in recent years groups representing Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish interests have overseen translations.
For Catholics, the Douai version was followed by the modern translation of Ronald Knox of 1955, which he first published for private circulation. The Ramseyer Collection was fortunate in being able to obtain a copy of this limited edition. Also the Confraternity Version, the Jerusalem Bible and now the New Jerusalem Bible have the approval of the Catholic Church.
For Protestants, the changes began with the Revised Version of 188 l-85, published in Britain, which was followed by the American Revised Version of 1898. These have been rapidly followed by further revisions, as new documents and new knowledge became available, with British and American versions such as the Revised Standard Version of 1952, the New English Bible of 1961 and the New Revised Standard Version of 1989.
These versions, for the most part, subscribe to the policy that the translation should be literal as much as possible, changing the text only when necessary for reasons of clarity and understanding.
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Knox: The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ newly translated from the Vulgate Latin at the request of their Lordships the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales. London, Burnes Oates and Washbourne, 1944. #458 |
Confraternity: Saint Joseph Edition of the New English Bible. Translated from the Original Languages with Critical Use of All the Ancient Sources by Members of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1970. #1555 |
The New Jerusalem Bible. New York, etc., Doubleday, 1985. #1554 |
American Revised Version: The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testament ... Standard edition., 1929. #493 |
Holy Bible. The New King James Version containing the Old and New Testaments. 1982. #1420 |
Not Pictured: The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments. New Revised Standard Version. 1990. #1433 The Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version, containing the Old and New Testaments. 1951 #1469 |
