The Complete Guide to Bible Versions

by Philip W. Comfort

Publisher:

Living Books

, 1991

Overview

Philip Comfort presents an easy-to-understand guide to English Bible translations. Comfort explains in simple terms how the Old and New Testaments have been passed down to us today, including what important ancient manuscripts were involved. He also guides the reader through the fascinating (and often inspirational) history of English Bible translations, showing how different Bible versions are related. Differences in several of today's common English versions are drawn out, providing an important guide for choosing between the often confusing plethora of English Bible versions currently available.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Second, the Greek text underlying the New Testament of the King James Version was an inferior text. The King James translators basically used a Greek text known as the Textus Receptus (or, the ‘Received Text’), which came from the work of Erasmus, who compiled the first Greek text to be produced on a printing press. When Erasmus compiled this text, he used five or six very late manuscripts dating from the tenth to the thirteenth century. These manuscripts were far inferior to earlier manuscripts.” (source)

“‘Formal Equivalence.’ According to this theory, the translator attempts to render the exact words (hence the word formal—form for form, or word for word) of the original language into the receptor language. The second has been called ‘dynamic equivalence’” (source)

“Even though the Dead Sea Scrolls are nearly a thousand years older than the Masoretic manuscripts, there are not as many significant differences between the two groups of manuscripts as one would expect.” (source)

“All translations of the English Bible prior to the work of Tyndale (discussed later) were done from the Latin text” (source)

“Wycliffe and his co-workers, unfamiliar with the original Hebrew and Greek, translated the Latin text into English.” (source)

Product Details

• Title: The Complete Guide to Bible Versions
• Author: Philip W. Comfort
• Publisher: Living Books
• Print Publication Date: 1991
• Logos Release Date: 2001
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible › Translating; Bible › Versions
• Resource ID: LLS:38.0.2
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T07:39:59Z

About Philip W. Comfort

Philip Wesley Comfort (1950–2022) was a noted professor, author, and editor. He was a professor of Greek and New Testament at Trinity Episcopal Seminary, visiting professor at Wheaton College, and senior editor of Bible reference at Tyndale House Publishers.

Comfort completed his second doctorate under the noted textual critic Jacobus H. Petzer at the University of South Africa.

Comfort wrote several journal articles—he was also the author of Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism and coauthor of the Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words in the Holman Reference Collection. He had also edited numerous titles, including The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts and the Life Application Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Corinthians.