Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | And I having come to you, brethren, came not with eminence of word or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. |
| 2:2 | For I judged not to know any thing among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. |
| 2:3 | And I, in weakness, and in fear, and in much tremor, was with you. |
| 2:4 | And my word and my proclaiming not in persuasible words of man's wisdom, but in manifestation of the Spirit and of power |
| 2:5 | That your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. |
| 2:6 | But we speak wisdom among the perfected: and the wisdom not of this life, nor of the rulers of this life, they being left unemployed: |
| 2:7 | But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, hidden, which God determined beforehand, before the times to our glory: |
| 2:8 | Which none of the rulers of this world knew: for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. |
| 2:9 | But as has been written. Which the eye saw not, and the ear heard not, and upon the heart of man it came not up, what things God has prepared for them loving him. |
| 2:10 | And God has revealed to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, and the deep things of God. |
| 2:11 | For who of men knows the things of men except the spirit of man in him? so also the things of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. |
| 2:12 | And we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit from God; that we might know things bestowed upon us as a gift by God. |
| 2:13 | Which also we speak, not in words taught of man's wisdom, but in them taught of the Holy Spirit; examining spiritual things by spiritual. |
| 2:14 | And the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: and he cannot know, for they are spiritually examined. |
| 2:15 | And the spiritual truly examines all things, and he is examined by no one. |
| 2:16 | For who knew the mind of the Lord, who shall instruct him And we have the mind of Christ. |
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.