Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | Simon Peter, servant and sent of Jesus Christ, to them having received by inheritance equally honoured faith with us in the justice of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ: |
| 1:2 | May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, |
| 1:3 | As his divine power having bestowed upon us all things which for life and devotion, by the knowledge of him having called us by glory and fitness: |
| 1:4 | (By which the greatest and precious promises are bestowed upon us: that by these ye might be having escaped from the corruption in the world through eager desires.) |
| 1:5 | And also this same, having brought in at the side all earnestness, furnish in addition in your faith fitness; and In fitness knowledge; |
| 1:6 | And in knowledge self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience devotion; |
| 1:7 | And in devotion brotherly love; and in brotherly love, love. |
| 1:8 | For these being to you, and abounding, they establish you not without effort, neither unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. |
| 1:9 | For in whom these are not present, he is blind, being affected with shortness of sight, having taken 2Peter 1:forgetfulness of the cleansing formerly of his sins. |
| 1:10 | Wherefore rather, brethren, be earnest to have your calling and selection made firm: for doing these, ye should not once stumble: |
| 1:11 | For so shall an entrance be furnished richly to you in addition into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. |
| 1:12 | Wherefore I will not neglect to remind you always of these things, though having known, and being supported in the present truth. |
| 1:13 | And I deem just, in as far as I am in this tent, to arouse you by putting in mind; |
| 1:14 | Knowing that the laying aside of my tent is swift; as also our Lord Jesus Christ manifested to me. |
| 1:15 | And I shall also be earnest for you always to have, after my exit, this putting in mind to be done. |
| 1:16 | For not having followed ingeniously contrived fictions, we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but having been spectators of his majesty. |
| 1:17 | For having received from God the Father honour and glory, and such a voice brought to him from the magnificent glory, This is my dearly beloved Son, in whom I was contented. |
| 1:18 | And this voice brought from heaven we heard, being with him in the holy mountain. |
| 1:19 | And we have the prophetic word more firm; which holding to, ye do well, as to a light shining in a dusty place, even till the day shine through, and the morning star spring up in your hearts: |
| 1:20 | Knowing this first, that every prophecy of the writing is not of private solution. |
| 1:21 | For prophecy was not once brought by the will of man: but holy men of God spake, being moved by the Holy Spirit. |
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.