Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>]

At 11:53 AM 1/5/2005, you wrote:

> Jim, just for clarification, are you in fact asserting the following?
>
> 1) The King James Version was based entirely on previous English versions 
> without reference to the original language texts.

No- it was based on earlier english texts and also compared with the hebrew 
and greek texts.  That is, imagine the translators of the KJV sitting at 
their desks (or standing- folk back in that time generally stood while they 
wrote).  On one side of the desk they have Tyndale and Wycliffe and on the 
other Hebrew and Greek texts.  They took Tyndale and Wycliffe and copied 
them out while glancing at the originals to make sure that Wycliffe and 
Tyndale were not too far off the mark.  Where they felt it necessary to 
update, they did.


> 2) The New World Translation was based entirely on previous English 
> versions without reference to the original language texts.

Same as above.


> Unfortunately I don't have the book you recommend. Does it in fact make 
> these assertions?

I don't think it discusses the NWV  but its been a while.  And of course 
Rogerson spells out the history of the KJV and so far as I recall makes 
precisely those points.  Though, as you can imagine, when one reads a lot 
of stuff after a while its hard to know who said what and which ideas are 
original or absorbed.

Best

Jim


++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD

http://web.infoave.net/~jwest Biblical Studies Resources
http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com Biblical Theology Weblog