Reina-Valera
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The Reina-Valera, first published in 1569 and nicknamed the Bible of the Bear, was published in Basel, Switzerland. It was not the first complete Bible published in Spanish; several others, most notably the Alfonsina, were published in previous centuries. The facsimile reproduction of this historic text was published by the Spanish Bible Society (1970 ISBN 84-8083-073-5). Its principal translator was Casiodoro de Reina, an Independent Evangelical[1] but a manuscript found at the Bodleian Library gives further evidence of the fact that the Spanish Bible was a community project[2]. The 1569 version included the deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament.
This Bible, as central to the perception of the scriptures by Protestants in Spanish as the King James Version in English, has undergone numerous revisions, the first of which took place in 1602 under the editorial eye of Cipriano de Valera. This edition was printed in Amsterdam. The 1602 revision moved the deuterocanonical books to a section between the Old and New Testaments called the Apocrypha. A facsimile edition was produced by the Spanish Bible Society in 1992.
Next was the revision of 1862, followed by revisions in 1909, 1960 and 1995. Modern editions often omit the Apocrypha.
Since the 1960 revision was released, there has been much debate among conservative Christian groups which use the Reina-Valera Bible. However, the 1960 revision became the common Bible of many millions of Spanish-speaking Christians around the world. Proof of fact is that almost all Hispanic Fundamentalists use it, despite further attempts to revise it. Also, since the release of the 1995 edition, many Christians have rejected it and reaffirmed their belief in the 1960 revision as the true word of God.
It is important to note that this translation was based on the Hebrew Masoretic Text (Bomberg's Edition, 1525) and the Greek Textus Receptus (Stephanus' Edition, 1550). As secondary sources Reina was aided by the Ferrara Bible for the Old Testament and the Latin Edition of Santes Pagnini throughout. For the New Testament he had great aid from the translations of Francisco de Enzinas and Juan Pérez de Pineda.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Rosales, Raymond S. Casiodoro de Reina: Patriarca del Protestantismo Hispano. St. Louis: Concordia Seminary Publications. 2002.
- ^ González, Jorge A. The Reina-Valera Bible: From Dream to Reality
