Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | The words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. And it will be in the month Chisleu, the twentieth year, and I was in Shushan the fortress; |
| 1:2 | And Hanani one of my brethren will come, he and men from Judah; and I shall ask them concerning the Jews of the escaping which were left from the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. |
| 1:3 | And they will say to me, They being left which were left of the captivity there in the province, in great evil and in reproach: and the walls of Jerusalem being broken down, and its gates were burnt with fire. |
| 1:4 | And it will be in my hearing these words, I sat down, and I shall weep and mourn days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens, |
| 1:5 | And saying, Now O Jehovah, God of the heavens, the great and terrible God watching the covenant and mercy to those loving him, and to those watching his commands: |
| 1:6 | Will now thine ear be attentive and thine eye opened to hear to the prayer of thy servant which I pray before thee this day, day and night, for the sons of Israel thy servants, and confess for the sins of the sons of Israel which we sinned against thee? and and the house of my father sinned. |
| 1:7 | Being perverse, we were perverse against thee, and we watched not the commands and the laws and the judgments which thou didst command Moses thy servant |
| 1:8 | Remember now the word that thou didst command Moses thy servant, saying, Ye will transgress; I will scatter you among the nations: |
| 1:9 | And did ye turn back to me and watch my commands and do them; if there shall be a thrusting forth of you into the extremity of the heavens, from thence will I gather them and bring them to the place which I chose for my name to dwell there. |
| 1:10 | And these thy servants and thy people whom thou didst redeem in thy great power and by thy strong hand. |
| 1:11 | Now, O Lord, now will thine ear be attending to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, desiring to fear thy name? and prosper now to thy servant this day: and wilt thou give him for compassion before this man? And I was giving drink to the king. |
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.