THE ENGLISH VERSIONS.

OF

THE BIBLE.

A HAND-BOOK

WITH COPIOUS EXAMPLES

ILLUSTRATING THE ANCESTRY AND RELATIONSHIP
OF THE SEVERAL VERSIONS, AND
COMPARATIVE TABLES.

BY THE

REV. J. I. MOMBERT, D.D.

Multæ terricolis linguæ, cœlestibus una.

LONDON: SAMUEL BAGSTER & SONS, Limited.
NEW YORK; ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO.

PREFACE.

NEXT in importance to the conservation of a pure text of the Original Scriptures is confessedly their faithful translation into the living speech of man. An account therefore of the common English Version, from its first rude beginnings in Anglo-Saxon times, through all the changes it has undergone, to the form in which more than seventy millions of people diffused over the globe, now claim it as their common inheritance and joint possession, needs no apology for its existence.

From the moment of the first inception, and throughout the long course of the preparation of this work, I have striven to write a history useful not only to scholars but to all readers of the English Bible, and therefore deemed it expedient to present the longer illustrative examples, drawn from the sacred originals and from versions in extinct or foreign tongues, with companion translations in English.

In submitting the results of independent study and research in the interesting field of inquiry touching the ancestry of the Authorized Version, and its relationship to various English and Foreign Versions, the noble labors of others have been duly acknowledged to the full extent of their use.