Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | Paul, servant of God, and sent of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of the chosen of God, and the acknowledgment of the truth according to devotion; |
| 1:2 | In hope of eternal life, (which God, not false, promised before eternal times; |
| 1:3 | And manifested his word in his own times, in the proclamation, which I was entrusted with according to the command of the Saviour our God;) |
| 1:4 | To Titus, genuine child according to the common faith: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. |
| 1:5 | For this I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest rectify things left behind, and set elders in the city, as I directed thee: |
| 1:6 | If any be irreproachable, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not in accusation of licentiousness, or disorderly. |
| 1:7 | For a bishop must be irreproachable, as steward of God; not self-sufficient, not prone to anger, not intemperate, not a striker, not occupied in sordid gain. |
| 1:8 | But hospitable, a lover of good, of sound mind, just, holy, holding firm; |
| 1:9 | Holding firmly the faithful word according to instruction, that he may be able also to beseech in sound doctrine, and to refute those opposing. |
| 1:10 | For many also are disorderly, vain talkers and infatuates, especially they of the circumcision: |
| 1:11 | Who must be restrained, who subvert whole houses, teaching what they ought not, for the sake of sordid gain. |
| 1:12 | A certain of them said, their own prophet, The Cretians always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies. |
| 1:13 | This testimony is true. For this cause reprove them severely, that they may be sound in the faith; |
| 1:14 | Not holding to Jewish fictions, and commands of men, having turned away from the truth. |
| 1:15 | All things truly pure to the pure: and to the defiled and unbelieving nothing pure; but also their mind and consciousness are defiled. |
| 1:16 | They confess to know God; and in works they deny, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work not tried. |
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.