Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 8:1 | And it was in the sixth year, in the sixth, in the fifth to the month, I sitting in my house, and the old men of Judah sitting before me, and the hand of the Lord Jehovah fell there upon me. |
| 8:2 | And I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins and downward, tire; and from his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the appearance of burnished brass. |
| 8:3 | And he sent forth the likeness of a hand, and he took me by a lock of my head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and between the heavens, and it brought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God, to the door of the gate within, looking to the north; where was there the seat of the image of jealousy possessing |
| 8:4 | And behold there the glory of the God of Israel as the vision which I saw in the valley. |
| 8:5 | And he said to me, Son of man, lift up now thine eyes the way of the north. And I lifter up mine eyes the way of the north, and behold, from the north at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entrance. |
| 8:6 | And he said to me, Son of man, west thou what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel are doing here, to go far off from my holy place? And thou shalt yet turn back, thou shalt see great abominations. |
| 8:7 | And he brought me to the door of the enclosure, and I saw, and behold, one hole in the wall. |
| 8:8 | And he said to me, Son of man, break thou now, into the wall: and I broke through into the wall, and behold, one door. |
| 8:9 | And he said to me, Come and see the evil abominations which they are doing here. |
| 8:10 | And I came and saw, and behold, every form of creeping thing, and beast of abomination, and all the blocks of the house of Israel, delineated upon the wall round about, round about |
| 8:11 | And seventy men from the old men of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, stood in the midst of them, standing before them, and each his censer in his hand; and a rich cloud of incense went up. |
| 8:12 | And he said to me, Sawest, thou son of man, what the old men of the house of Israel are doing in darkness, a man in the chambers of his images? for they are saying, Jehovah sees us not; Jehovah forsook the earth. |
| 8:13 | And he said to me, Thou shalt turn back yet; thou shalt see great abominations which they are doing. |
| 8:14 | And he brought me to the door of the gate of the house of Jehovah which was to, the north; and behold, there women sat weeping for Tammuz. |
| 8:15 | And he said to me, Sawest, thou son of man? yet shalt thou turn back, thou shalt see abominations great above these. |
| 8:16 | And he brought me to the enclosure of the house of Jehovah within, and behold, a door of the temple of Jehovah, and between the porch and between the altar, about twenty and five men, their backs to the temple, and their faces to the east; and they worshiping the east to the sun. |
| 8:17 | And he said to me, Sawest, thou son of man? Was it light to the house of Judah doing the abominations which they did here? for they filled the land with violence, and they turned back to irritate me: and behold them sending the branch to their nose. |
| 8:18 | And also I will do in wrath: mine eye shall not spare and I will not pity: and they shall call in mine ear with a great voice, and I will not hear them. |
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.