Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
1:1 | In the beginning God formed the heavens and the earth. |
1:2 | And the earth was desolation and emptiness, and darkness over the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. |
1:3 | And God will say there shall be light, and there shall be light |
1:4 | And God will see the light that it is good, and God will separate between the light and between the darkness. |
1:5 | And God will call to the light day, and to the darkness he called night: and the evening shall be, and the morning shall be one day. |
1:6 | And God will say there shall be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and there shall be a separating between waters to waters. |
1:7 | And God shall make a firmament, and he shall separate between the waters which are from the lower part of the firmament and between the waters which are from the upper part of the firmament: and it shall be so. |
1:8 | And God will call to the firmament the heavens: and the evening shall be, and the morning shall be the second day. |
1:9 | And God will say the waters shall be gathered together from the under part of the heavens to one place, and the dry shall be seen: and it shall be so. |
1:10 | And God will call to the dry, earth; and to the gathering of the waters he called seas: and God will see that it is good. |
1:11 | And God will say the earth shall bring forth the tender grass, and the green herb bearing seed, and the fruit tree making fruit according to its kind, in which is the seed in it upon the earth: and it shall be so. |
1:12 | And the earth shall bring forth the tender grass, the green herb bearing seed according to its kind, and the tree making fruit in which the seed is in it, according to its kind: and God will see that it is good. |
1:13 | And the evening shall be, and the morning shall be the third day. |
1:14 | And God will say there shall be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate between the day and between the night: and they shall be for signs and for set times, and for days and for years. |
1:15 | And they shall be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth: and it shall be so. |
1:16 | And God will make two great lights; the great light for the rule of the day, and the small light for the rule of the night and the stars. |
1:17 | And God will give them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. |
1:18 | And to rule in the day and in the night, and to separate between the light and between the darkness: And God will see that it is good. |
1:19 | And the evening shall be, and the morning shall be the fourth day. |
1:20 | And God will say the waters shall breed abundantly creeping things, the living soul, and birds shall fly over the earth, over the face of the firmament of the heavens. |
1:21 | And God will form great sea. monsters and every living soul creeping, which the waters bred abundantly according to their kind, and every bird of wing according to its kind: and God will see that it is good. |
1:22 | And God will praise them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and birds shall multiply in the earth. |
1:23 | And the evening shall be, and the morning shall be the fifth day. |
1:24 | And God will say, the earth shall bring forth the living soul according to its kind, cattle and creeping things, and living things of the earth after its kind: and it shall be so. |
1:25 | And God will make the living thing of the earth according to its kind, and cattle according to its kind, and every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind: and God will see that it is |
1:26 | And God will say, We will make man in our image according to our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every. creeping thing creeping upon the earth. |
1:27 | And God will form man in his image, in the image of God he formed him; male and female he formed them. |
1:28 | And God will praise them, and God will say to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing creeping upon the earth. |
1:29 | And God will say, Lo, I gave to you every green herb scattering seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree scattering seed; to you it shall be for food. |
1:30 | And to every living thing of the earth, and to all the birds of the heavens and to every thing creeping upon the earth, in which is a living soul, every green herb for food: and it shall be so. |
1:31 | And God will see every thing which he made: and lo, very good And the evening shall be, and the morning shall be the sixth day. |
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.