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Back
in print: Tyndale BibleUpdated
for modern audience, now called 'The October Testament'
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At first Ruth Magnusson Davis did not feel she was
qualified to do the job. Republishing the Word of God, after all, is momentous
work. But she prayed on the issue for four years and eventually realized God was
calling her to do it.
So Davis set out to publish the New Matthew Bible,
an updated version of the 16th century Matthew Bible.
"I felt that the
world needed to have it again, and I felt passionately called to do it," Davis
told WND in an interview.
Last October Davis completed her update of the
New Testament, and it is now available in the WND Superstore under the title "The October
Testament."
Davis, a retired lawyer and founder of the small
publishing company Baruch House, said her New Matthew Bible Project developed
slowly over a period of several years. After Davis became a Christian in 1998,
she developed a voracious appetite for Bible reading. However, she found all the
versions she read to be lacking something.
"I found that as time went on
I couldn't put my finger on it, but I was dissatisfied with what I was reading,"
Davis revealed. "Then I discovered William Tyndale's New Testament, and I just
knew that I had found the depth of the truth that I was seeking."
Tyndale
was the 16th century scholar who first translated the New Testament from Greek
into English. His New Testament was first published in 1526, followed by revised
versions in 1534 and 1535.
Tyndale also published an English translation
of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament) in 1530 and the book
of Jonah in 1531. It is believed he was in the process of translating Joshua
through Chronicles when his enemies captured and imprisoned him. In 1536 he was
condemned for heresy and burned at the stake.
After Tyndale's martyrdom,
his friend John Rogers took control of his manuscripts and set out to turn them
into a complete Bible.
Rogers picked up where Tyndale had left off by
adding the Old Testament and Apocryphal translations of Miles Coverdale. (Some
historians believe Coverdale worked directly with Tyndale from time to time.)
Rogers then added a Table of Principal Matters, a summary of basic biblical
doctrines, and other helpful supplements for readers who were unfamiliar with
the Bible.
Rogers published the entire compilation under the name "Thomas
Matthew" in 1537, and it became known as the Matthew Bible. In 1549, publishers
Raynalde and Hyll issued a reprint, and a third edition came out in
1551.
Rogers, incidentally, would join Tyndale in martyrdom in 1555 when
he, too, was burned at the stake for heresy.
Davis said the fact that two
of the Matthew Bible's three creators were killed for their faith adds more
significance to their work.
"When I look all through Bible stories I see
that most significant testimonies were sealed in blood," she said. "The prophets
of the Old Testament, most of them died at the hands of men who rejected the
truth of what they were bringing. Jesus, of course, died at the hands of those
who rejected the words that he spoke.
"Tyndale and Rogers fought with a
courage and a faith and suffered so much and sealed their testimony in blood.
This is the only English Bible which was sealed in blood."
"THE OCTOBER
TESTAMENT: THE NEW TESTAMENT OF THE NEW MATTHEW" is now available in hardcover
at the WND Superstore. It makes the perfect Christmas
present!
After Davis discovered Tyndale's New
Testament, she shared it with some of her friends. One of them remarked it was
difficult to understand, and he suggested Davis update it. Davis was already
updating some of Tyndale's other works at the time, but she thought it would be
ridiculous for her to try to update the New Testament. Her friend's suggestion
filled her with fear and trembling because she didn't want to tamper with God's
Word.
However, she soon discovered the complete Matthew Bible, having
purchased a copy of the 1549 version. As she read through it, she began to feel
the world needed to reacquaint itself with this particular Bible.
"The
modern edition wasn't sufficient to mine out all of the beautiful truth and
teaching that was in Tyndale's translation," Davis asserted. "And also the
teaching of the notes, John Rogers' notes on the Matthew Bible, needed to come
forth again, because the modern commentators are so different from John
Rogers."
Davis started the process of updating the Matthew Bible by
intensively studying the history of the period in which it was written. She read
and reread the works of Tyndale and Coverdale to familiarize herself with their
thoughts and style of English.
 Davis has a background in languages and
loves grammar, so it wasn't much of a stretch when she began to study early
modern English grammar. In 2009 she retired from her law profession and
dedicated herself full-time to updating the Matthew Bible for a modern
audience.
Davis’s website states, "The goal is not to make a modern Bible
from an old one, but to keep as much of the old as possible and make it
understandable for today."
Therefore, Davis is replacing words whose
meanings have changed since the 1500s, changing eccentric spelling, and updating
syntax and grammar that obscure the meaning of certain passages. However, she is
keeping certain archaic constructions and words that are still understandable
even though they may be old.
Davis wanted to remain as close to the
original Matthew Bible as possible because it was the original English Bible. In
fact, it formed the basis for the more familiar King James Version. Davis told
WND the New Testament of the King James Bible is about 83 percent Tyndale's
words, while the King James Old Testament is about 75 percent Tyndale in those
portions Tyndale was able to complete before he died.
The Matthew Bible
and the King James Bible are very similar, but Davis pointed out a few
grammatical differences. She said the KJV has more Latin constructions, and it
also switches verb tenses often in contexts where it may confuse the reader.
Tyndale and Coverdale, meanwhile, used verb tenses more
consistently.
Davis said the New Testament took her six years to complete
because she was learning early modern English as she was going, building her own
dictionary of archaic terms. She hopes the Old Testament will not take as long,
although she acknowledged the Old Testament has lots of vocabulary different
from the New Testament, so she will likely have to study many more
words.
She tentatively set 2020 as the target date for completion of the
Old Testament, but she admitted to WND that may be too ambitious.
As for
the New Testament, Davis said she has received very good feedback so
far.
"I haven't had as many criticisms as I thought I would have," she
confessed. "Sometimes I get queries from people saying, 'Why did you update this
word?' or 'I don't like that you updated that word.' Minor things like that, but
I've been amazed. I've been overwhelmed by how people love it."
The
paperback version of "The October Testament" is available in the WND
Superstore. Davis said roughly 120 hardcover copies
remain.
"THE OCTOBER
TESTAMENT: THE NEW TESTAMENT OF THE NEW MATTHEW" is now available in hardcover
at the WND Superstore. It makes the perfect Christmas
present!
More Bibles and Bible study material to
choose from:
The Word of
Promise is a great bargain for those who like hearing the Word.
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- Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (Prison Break,
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Today!
King
James Version
 The WND Superstore has a broad selection of "Authorized Version"
editions on sale this week.
Why is this Bible so significant?
Before even discussing its centrality for the faith of English-speaking
Christians for over four centuries, we must recognize the King James Bible as a
cultural artifact like none other. It's influence on the English language has
been immense.
At the time King James I called for a new "Protestant"
translation, there was discussion in learned circles about whether a language as
crude as the English of the time was even sufficient to convey Christian truths.
Soon after it was published, many Catholics typically read it
because it was more readable than the Catholic Bibles of the era.
 But when you open your King James
Bible, what you have before you is much more than a "version" of Holy
Scriptures. You have a surprisingly direct link to the words and ideas of the
individuals who carried out the Protestant Reformation.
There's an edition for
every need this weekend as we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James
Bible! Click here to see the great discounts in the WND Superstore.
In fact, we ought to think of it as the "Reformation Bible" because it's
pedigree so directly stems from the great reformers of the 16th century.
A key mandate to the translating committees who began work in 1604 was
to "stand on the shoulders of giants" and refer to previous English Bible
translations circulating at the time. Thus, the translation finally published in
1611 was the culmination of a trajectory begun hundreds of years earlier, even
predating the work of John Wycliffe in the 1400s.
In the end, the
translation work by William Tyndale between 1522 and 1530 comprised the most
substantial individual influence on the final draft of the New Testament. During
his various flights from the authorities, Tyndale spent time with Martin Luther
in Germany and with the Protestant community in Switzerland. Tyndale referred
primarily to Erasmus' "Received Text" version of the Greek New Testament, as
well as the Luther's Bible, the Latin Vulgate and other sources (Tyndale
completed only a portion of the Old Testament).
 Tyndale's translations formed the basis for all of the English
language "Protestant" Bibles available to King James' committees: the Tyndale
Bible, Great Bible, Geneva Bibles, Matthew Bible and Bishop's Bible.
There were some revisions to the text following 1611. Notably, the
unfortunate "Wicked Bible" of 1631 contained the misprint "Thou shalt commit
adultery." Few editions survived, and that publisher's business suffered
dramatically. However the changes to the King James Version (KJV) over the next
100 years consisted mainly of piecemeal updates to spelling and punctuation.
When you read your King James Bible,
therefore, you are practically "looking into the eyes of giants" - because the
words on the page are passed down, largely unaltered, from the thoughts and
phrasings of people either integrally involved or no more than one generation
removed from the major events of the Reformation.
The passages in your
KJV are precisely those read, spoken and sung by English-speaking Christians
from the final years of the Renaissance through the Industrial Revolution, the
Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the peopling and expansion of the United States,
and the spread of Protestant Christianity from America - the world's only
Protestant-born nation - out to much of the globe.
Yes, there are those
who say the KJV is written in archaic English and hard to read. But actually
less than 30 words defy easy comprehension for modern readers. Many study guides
and online resources can quickly bring you up to speed on those terms.
To get you started:
- Cruse - a utensil, a flask or cup for holding water
- Cubit - lower arm, 20.24 inches
- Distaff - circle, instrument used for twisting threads
- Firkin - about 8 7/8 gallons
- Froward -turning back to one's own ways, backsliding
 Learn about 18 more of those and you are basically
good to go as a reader of the King James Bible.
And what a shame it
would be to forego the majesty and immutability of the overall text for a few
archaisms, when so many excellent study aids are available! (Plenty of KJV
"reference" editions have all the resource materials and notations you'll ever
need built right in, and with a few keystrokes you can find all you need to know
on the Web).
After all, this is the book that helped shape the very
thought patterns of Western civilization. As Professor Leland Ryken of Wheaton
College recently wrote:
"For more than three centuries, the King
James Bible provided the central frame of reference for the English-speaking
world. Former Yale University Prof. George Lindbeck well claims that until
recently 'Christendom dwelt imaginatively in the biblical world.' During the
years of its dominance, the King James Bible was the omnipresent force in any
cultural sphere that we can name - education (especially childhood education),
religion, family and home, the courtroom, political discourse, language and
literacy, choral music and hymns, art and literature. For more than two
centuries children in England and America learned to read by way of the
Bible."
Get one for home, one
for the office, and one for travel: Click here to see the full selection of King
James Bibles and study aids now available at special discount prices in the WND
Superstore.
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