Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 7:1 | Know ye not brethren, (for I speak to them knowing law,) that law rules over man as much time as he lives? |
| 7:2 | For a married woman is bound by the law to a living husband; and if the husband die, she is left inactive from the law of the husband. |
| 7:3 | Wherefore, the husband living, she shall be called adulteress if she be to another man: but if the man die, she is free from the law; not to be an adulteress, being to another man. |
| 7:4 | Therefore, my brethren, ye also were dead to the law by the body of Christ; for you not to be to another, but to him raised from the dead, that we bring forth fruit to God. |
| 7:5 | For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, those by the law, were energetic in our members to bring forth fruit to death. |
| 7:6 | And now we were left inactive from the law, having died in what we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. |
| 7:7 | What then shall we say? The law sin? It may not be. But I knew not sin except by the law: for I knew not lust, if the law said not, Thou shalt not eagerly desire. |
| 7:8 | And sin, having taken occasion by the command, wrought in me every lust. For without law sin dead. |
| 7:9 | And I was living without law once: and the command having come, sin came back to life, and I died. |
| 7:10 | And the command was found to me which for life, this for death. |
| 7:11 | For sin having taken occasion by the command, deceived me completely, and by it killed me. |
| 7:12 | Therefore truly the law holy, and the command holy, and just, and good. |
| 7:13 | Was then good death to me? It may not be. But sin, that it might appear sin, by the good working death in me; that sin might be sinful to excess by the command. |
| 7:14 | For we know that the law is spiritual: and I am fleshly, sold under sin. |
| 7:15 | For what I work I know not: for what I would not, this I do; but what I hate, this I do. |
| 7:16 | And if what I would not this I do, I consent to the law that it is good. |
| 7:17 | And now I no more wish it, but sin dwelling in me. |
| 7:18 | For I know that in me dwells no good, (that is, in my flesh:) for to will lies near me; but to work good I find not. |
| 7:19 | For not what good I would, do I; but the evil I would not, this I do. |
| 7:20 | And if what I would not, this I do, I no more work it, but sin dwelling in me. |
| 7:21 | I find therefore a law to me, wishing to do good, that evil lies near me. |
| 7:22 | For I rejoice in the law of God, according to the man within: |
| 7:23 | And I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive to the law of sin being in my members. |
| 7:24 | I an oppressed man: who shall save me from the body of this death? |
| 7:25 | I return thanks to God by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore truly with the mind I serve the law of God; and with the flesh the law of sin. |
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
The Julia Evelina Smith Parker Translation is considered the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a woman. The Bible was titled The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Literally from the Original Tongues, and was published in 1876.
Julia Smith, of Glastonbury, Connecticut had a working knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Her father had been a Congregationalist minister before he became a lawyer. Having read the Bible in its original languages, she set about creating her own translation, which she completed in 1855, after a number of drafts. The work is a strictly literal rendering, always translating a Greek or Hebrew word with the same word wherever possible. Smith accomplished this work on her own in the span of eight years (1847 to 1855). She had sought out no help in the venture, even writing, "I do not see that anybody can know more about it than I do." Smith's insistence on complete literalness, plus an effort to translate each original word with the same English word, combined with an odd notion of Hebrew tenses (often translating the Hebrew imperfect tense with the English future) results in a translation that is mechanical and often nonsensical. However, such a translation if overly literal might be valuable to consult in checking the meaning of some individual verse. One notable feature of this translation was the prominent use of the Divine Name, Jehovah, throughout the Old Testament of this Bible version.
In 1876, at 84 years of age some 21 years after completing her work, she finally sought publication. The publication costs ($4,000) were personally funded by Julia and her sister Abby Smith. The 1,000 copies printed were offered for $2.50 each, but her household auction in 1884 sold about 50 remaining copies.
The translation fell into obscurity as it was for the most part too literal and lacked any flow. For example, Jer. 22:23 was given as follows: "Thou dwelling in Lebanon, building as nest in the cedars, how being compassionated in pangs coming to thee the pain as in her bringing forth." However, the translation was the only Contemporary English translation out of the original languages available to English readers until the publication of The British Revised Version in 1881-1894.(The New testament was published in 1881, the Old in 1884, and the Apocrypha in 1894.) This makes it an invaluable Bible for its period.