The Douai Version.—The strength of the Ref ormation movement in England drove English Catholics to France. At Rheims and Douai English colleges were established by these refugees, for the purpose of educating young men for the priesthood. In 1582 an English New Testament, with annotations, was published at. Rheins, by .J(din Eogny. The work was completed by the publication of the Old Testament in 1609, at Douai. The English Bible used by Ilonthn Catholics is thus known as the Douai Bible. It is characteristic of this translation that it was made from the Vulgate and not from the Greek and Hebrew originals. This was because of the decree of the Council of Trent making the Vul gate the standard Bible of the Roman Church. The Rhenish Testament of I5S2 contains an elaborate preface setting forth the value and prdper use of a popular version, and defending the accuracy of the following translation. III the light of the preface one's judgment. of the version should lie charitable. It. was a serious, enINcien tions attempt, hampered. indeed, by a compulsory dependence on the Vulgate, but not. altogether blind to the necessity, at times, of falling back on the Greek. Its English is not so idiomatic as that of Tyndale's version. The renderings that have called forth ridicule, such as "the Pasche and the Azymes" (Mark xiv. 1), "the justifica tions of our Lord" (Luke i. 6), and the like, are not so numerous as is often implied: nor were they the result of carelessness on the part of the translators. In subsequent editions, such as those of Dr. Challoner (London, 1752), and Dr. AlacMahon (Dublin, 1791), and more modern reprints, these 'inkhorn' expressions are rare. In fact, the modern editions of the Douai Bibles show marked improvement over those of 1582 and 1609.
Authorized Version.—At the Hampton Court Conference, 1604, James 1, was petitioned to give the Genevan Bible preference over the Great and the Bishops' Bible, or else to authorize a new translation of the Scriptures. James was pleased with the latter proposition, and on July 22 directed the .Archbishop of Canterbury (Ban croft) to begin the undertaking. The work was done by a commission of forty-seven members, following directions suggested by the King. In 1611 the translation was completed and pub lished• with a fulsome dedication to the King and a wholesome explanatory and hortatory preface to the reader. According to the preface, the translators, by a en reftil comparison of all pre ceding sought to make a better one than any of the many good ones then in use. The new Bible was in good demand at once. Five editions were issued in three years. It found, however, a formidable rival in popularity in the Genevan Bible; yet its manifest superiority gave it inside of fifty years the field, and it became the Bible universally used by English-speaking people. Its influence on the English language has been un inea surable.
The neviNed l'ersion.—From 1702 to 1870 many schemes for further revision were Imposed, and many private translations of the whole or parts of the Bible were published. In 1870 the Convocation of Canterbury entertained a plan for the revision of the Authorized Version of 1611. The work was done by two committees, the one British, the other American, the latter being advisory only. Each committee was divid ed into all Old-Testament and a New-Testament company. After long and painstaking labor,
the Revised New Testament was published in ISSI and the whole Bible in 1885, by the Uni versity Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. The sale of the Revised New Testament was at first immense. Many unauthorized reprints appeared in America. It is c,timated that in less than one year after issue 3.000,000 copies were sold on both sides of the Atlantic. Though the Re vised Bible has been subjected to severe criticism, it has steadily won favor among the more edu cated circles in preference to the version of 1611. In 1902 it was announced that it would be issued by the British and Foreign Bible So ciety. This should be the best proof of its general acceptance, as the Society is restricted to the issue of Bibles in current use in English. In 1901 the surviving members of the American Committee published an American Revised Ver sion (New York), embodying the readings they had suggested to the British Committee, and such other improvements as had occurred to them in the interval.
Celtic Iersions.—ln the British Isles, there were no Celtic versions before the Reformation. An Irish New Testament was first published in 1595, the Old Testament in 1685. O'Kane's Irish Testament was issued in 1858. In Gaelic a New Testament appeared in 1690, the whole Bible in 1783-1801. It has since been revised in l826, 1560. and 1880. A Manx version was made in 1770-72. In Cymric a New Testament was printed in 1567. the whole Bible in 1588. A Breton New Testament was published in 1827, another in 1847, the Bible in 1860.
German Fersions.—The earliest Germanic ver sions did not include the whole Bible. but gen erally only the Psalter and the Gospels. The ifonsee Fragments. of the year 738. rescued from old book-covers. belonged to a bilingual copy of the Gospels, Latin on the left, old Bavarian Ger man on the right. The "German Tatian" is a harmony of the Ninth Century in the East Frankish dialect. Such manuscript versions were numerous, and continued to be made even after the invention of printing. Of printed German versions before Luther's, a register has been made of 18 editions of the entire Bible, 22 of the Psalter, and 12 of other portions, all between 1466 and 1521. The earliest was the Bible pub lished by Mantel, Strassburg, 1466. Next ap peared Eggstein's, Strasburg, 1470, and Pflanz mantis, Augsburg, 1473. None of these early editions became popular. They were all made trom the Vulgate, and by translators who were not masters of the German tongue. It was Luther's translation that made an epoch in the history of both the German Bible and language. Luther began translating as early as 1517, but not until 1521 did he decide to make a new ver sion of the entire Bible. The New Testament was completed during his confinement in the Wartburg 11521-22). and published at Witten berg by Melchior Lotther, September 21, 1522. A second edition was issued in December of the same year. The Old Testament tippeared gradu ally, the Pentateuch in 1523, other parts later, until in August. 1534, the first complete edition of Luther's Bible was published, probably by )tans LnIrt of Wittenberg. The character of this version was such that its author has been (-ailed the German translator. It was based on inde pendent study of the original I lebrew and Greek.