Julia E. Smith Parker Translation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|
| Old English (pre-1066) |
| Middle English (1066-1500) |
| Early Modern English (1500-1800) |
| Modern Christian (1800-) |
| Modern Jewish (1853-) |
| Miscellaneous |
The Julia Evelina Smith Parker Translation is considered the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a woman.
Julia Smith 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, Julia 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. Mrs. Parker 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."[1]
Smith's insistence on complete literalness, 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.
Only at 84 years of age, some 21 years after completing her work did Julia seek publication.
It was published in 1876, personally funded by Julia and her sister Abby Smith. The printing cost $4,000. The 1,000 copies printed sold for $2.50 each.
The translation fell into obscurity as it was for the most part too literal and lacked any flow.
[edit] References
- ^ Metzger, Bruce M., The Bible in Translation, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI, 2001
[edit] External links
- http://www.polybiblio.com/pjbooks/9862.html - About Julia Smith's translation of the Bible and her family.
- http://www.bible-researcher.com/ - Overview of translations from the 19th Century
 |
This article about a book related to Christianity is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
