014 BIBLE BIBLE SOCIETIES passages, which were often printed. It was not till toward the close of 1521 that he con- ceived the plan of translating the whole ; but having commenced, the work proceeded rap- idly. The New Testament was finished first; in a year came the Pentateuch ; another year completed the historical books and the Hagio- grapha; two years more brought Jonah and llaliakkuk; and the prophets were finished in 1532. It was all Luther's work. As the foun- dation he used the Brescia edition of 1494 (his copy is still preserved at Berlin), and with this the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and other Latin versions, while for the New Testament he took the text of Erasmus, 1519. Many versions have been made since Luther's in Germany, but for vigor and simplicity his has not been sur- passed, not even by that of August! and De Wette. . Portions of the Bible were translated into Saxon by Aldhelm, Egbert, Bede, and oth- ers, between the 8th and 10th centuries. An English version of the Psalms is supposed to have been made in 1290. Wycliffe finished his translation of the New Testament about 1380. That of the Old Testament, begun by his coadju- tor Nicholas de Hereford about 1382, was com- pleted probably by Wycliffe before 1384. The revision made by John Purvey and others about 1388 nearly displaced Wycliffe's, and was widely circulated in MS. among all classes, un- til superseded by the printed versions of the 16th century. The first volume printed by Gutenberg (1450-'55) was the Latin Bible, and hardly was it completed when versions be- gan to multiply. In 1524, William Tyndale, "finding no place to do it in all England," went to the continent, and there, at Worms, in 1525, printed his version of the New Testament from the original Greek. Coverdale, his fel- low laborer, finished his translation of the Old Testament in 1535, and this was followed by several editions of "Matthew's Bible," called also the "Great" Bible, or "Cranmer's," ac- cording to its editors. This was the authorized version under Edward VI. The " Genevan Bi- ble," the first English Bible with Roman type, verses, and no Apocrypha, was a new and care- ful revision from the original tongues by the English refugees at Geneva (1560, and London, 1576). Bishop Parker undertook another ver- sion by the help of eminent scholars, which was called the " Bishops' Bible," published in 1568, with preface and notes. Its basis was the "Great Bible," and the "Genevan." A little later appeared the Roman Catholic ver- sion known as the Douay Bible, the New Tes- tament in 1582, at Rheims, the Old Testament in 1609-'10, at Douay, upon the basis of the authorized Vulgate. Our present English ver- sion was made by direction of James I., who, on motion of Dr. Reynolds of Oxford, in the conference at Hampton Court, commissioned 54 divines to undertake the labor. Seven of the 54 died before the task was commenced, but in 1606 the books were distributed among the remainder in six portions, and the transla- lation was diligently pressed. The " Bishop's Bible" was the basis, faithfully compared with Tyndale's, Coverdale's, Matthew's, Cranmer's, and the Geneva version, and with the original, and corrected where defective. ' The whole was completed and sent from the press of Ro- bert Barker in 1611. This version has now been in use 260 years, and its faithfulness, pure and strong English, simple yet dignified style, and its common acceptance by persons of alt classes and all shades of religious belief, have given it a combination of advantages over any rival. Many have felt, however, that it could be improved in clearness and accuracy. The late Dean Alford especially urged a new revi- sion; and the convocation of Canterbury, in February, 1870, appointed a committee for this work. This committee comprises some of the most eminent Biblical scholars of the church of England, and has invited the cooperation of other eminent scholars both in England and America. The principles of revision have been adopted, and the work is now in progress (1873). A new version has also been long in progress under the care of the American Bible union. (See BIBLE SOCIETIES.) BIBLE SOCIETIES, associations for publishing and circulating the Bible among the people. The "Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England " bore the expense of printing Eliot's Indian Bible in 1C63; the "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," established in 1698, published before 1800 an edition of the New Testament in Arabic, one of the Bible in Manks, and four of the Bible in Welsh, besides English Bibles, prayer books, &c. But these and other similar societies in Great Britain did not make the publication and circulation of the Bible their main work. The Canstein Bi- ble institute (Die Ca-niteinsche Bibelamtalf), founded in 1712 by the baron of Canstein, to print and circulate Bibles at a cheap rate, and forming a part of Francke's institute at Halle, Germany, issued from 1712 to 1863 5,273.623 Bibles and 2,630,000 New Testaments. The "Naval and Military Bible Society" was formed in London in 1780, to supply the British army and navy with the Bible. The French Bible society, formed in London in 1792, was prevented by the French revolution from ac- complishing its object, the distribution of the Scriptures in France. A new era in Bible dis- tribution, however, commenced with the for- mation of the " British and Foreign Bible Soci- ety " (1804). There had long been a great scarcity of Bibles in Wales. The last edition of 10,000 Welsh Bibles, ordered in 1796 by the society for promoting Christian knowledge, and actually published in 1799, was soon ex- hausted. The Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, a leader among the Welsh Calvinistic Metho- dists, after vain efforts, first to obtain from this society another edition, and then to pub- lish an edition by subscription, went to Lon- don in 1802, where he was introduced to the executive committee of the religious tract soci-
