John Rylands Library

So there's some scholarly discussion about whether paleographic research suggests a date in the 6th or 7th century or even later, as you can see on screen.

Similarly, Richard Price concludes that, "...it would clearly be imprudent to regard this papyrus any longer as reliable evidence for the greater antiquity of this prayer." Interestingly, the John Rylands Library itself, the institution that possesses this papyrus, notes the original 4th century proposal and then suggests 5th to 8th century is where a lot of people are putting the date now.

Now, I don't have a position on this.

I don't know.

The other is in St. Paul's Cathedral Library, wanting probably 78 leaves.

There is a lithograph reproduction in the Rylands Library, one of six copies printed on vellum, made from the Bristol copy by Francis Fry in 1862.

The cathedral copy, lent by the dean and chapter for the purpose, was shown in the Caxton exhibition of 1877.

The Testaments reached England sometime in the spring of 1526, and everything possible was done to prevent the entrance of the forbidden books and to destroy those which did come in.

He concludes by saying, There is but little to recommend the original rendering of the bishop's Bible in the Old Testament.

As a general rule, they appear to be arbitrary and at variance with the exact sense of the Hebrew text.

In like manner, Dr. Moulton, after examining the passage in 2 Samuel 23, verses 1-7, wherein seven verses of the great bible and the bishops differ about eighteen times finds that fifteen of the new renderings in the latter were taken from the genevan version of the eighteen changes thirteen may be called improvements with one exception they are derived from the genevan bible from which also come two changes which are clearly for the worse about twelve better renderings found in the genevan bible are at the same time here neglected after examining one or two other passages dr moulton gives judgment by saying the conclusion from this investigation is not very favorable to the bishop's bible in the old testament cranmer's bible was too closely followed and improvements which were ready to the hand of the translators were not appreciated what is original in this version does not often possess any great merit so far as the new testament is concerned the second edition was carefully revised dr wescott takes the passage in ephesians chapter four verses seven to sixteen as an illustration of how much merit is due to this part of the work having shown that in this passage the great bible and the bishop s bible differ in twenty-six places he adds of these twenty-six variations no less than sixteen are new while only ten are due to the genevan version and the character of the original corrections marks a very close and thoughtful revision based faithfully upon the greek He further shows that throughout the entire epistle, the changes amount to nearly 50, and among the new readings are some phrases which have become very familiar to us as It may be mentioned that copies of the chief editions of the Bishop's Bible are preserved in the British Museum, in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in the Rylands Library, and in that of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

and now at this point a notable fact occurred as the genevan version of fifteen sixty was followed in the way of a correction by the bishop's bible of fifteen sixty eight so this again was followed with the same purpose by the roman catholic version of the new testament in english known as the rheims douai bible of fifteen eighty two it was printed abroad and appeared in england bearing the following elaborate title the new testament of jesus christ translated faithfully into english out of the authentical latin according to the best corrected copies of the same diligently conferred with the greek and other editions in divers languages with arguments of books and chapters annotations and other necessary helps for the better understanding of the text and specially for the discovery of the corruptions of divers late translations and for clearing the controversies in religion in these days in the english college of rheims

And it did pretty well.

Second story from Manchester was earlier that week, my father and my husband and I went to the John Rylands Library.

That's a fascinating library, by the way.

If you are ever in Manchester, please go to the John Rylands Library for many reasons.

Number one, it's called the John Rylands Library, but the entire project was bankrolled and planned by his wife.

After his death, he never even was alive to see it.

And she named it after him and not herself.

The other is in St. Paul's Cathedral Library, wanting probably 78 leaves.

There is a lithograph reproduction in the Rylands Library, one of six copies printed on vellum, made from the Bristol copy by Francis Fry in 1862. the cathedral copy lent by the dean and chapter for the purpose was shown in the caxton exhibition of eighteen seventy seven the testaments reached england some time in the spring of fifteen twenty six and everything possible was done to prevent the entrance of the forbidden books and to destroy those which did come in many copies were bought up for large sums of money but this was futile work in the way of destruction for the money thus obtained only set more printers at work and we find that as many as three pirated editions were issued by antwerp printers in fifteen twenty six and the two following years this english new testament was the great event of the time it found its way into england in corn-ships and bales of merchandise and was mysteriously carried into the country far and near One of the most active agents in their distribution was Simon Fish, author of the Supplication for the Beggars, then living near the White Friars.

The Bishop of St. Asep seems to have been first to call Cardinal Wolseley's attention to the contraband trade thus being carried on.

The Cardinal, however, was disposed to make light of the matter.

They were lacking in independence.

The influence of the Genevan revision is perceptible throughout, but it is more obvious in the prophets than elsewhere.

He concludes by saying, there is but little to recommend the original rendering of the bishop's bible in the old testament as a general rule they appear to be arbitrary and at variance with the exact sense of the hebrew text in like manner dr moulton after examining the passage in second samuel chapter twenty three verses one to seven wherein seven verses of the great bible and the bishop's differ about eighteen times finds that fifteen of the new renderings in the latter were taken from the genevan version of the eighteen changes thirteen may be called improvements with one exception they are derived from the genevan bible from which also come two changes which are clearly for the worse about twelve better renderings found in the genevan bible are at the same time here neglected after examining one or two other passages dr moulton gives judgment by saying the conclusion from this investigation is not very favourable to the bishop's bible in the old testament cranmer's bible was too closely followed and improvements which were ready to the hand of the translators were not appreciated what is original in this version does not often possess any great merit so far as the new testament is concerned the second edition was carefully revised dr wescott takes the passage in ephesians chapter four verse seven sixteen as an illustration of how much merit is due to this part of the work having shown that in this passage the great bible and the bishop s bible differ in twenty-six places he adds of these twenty-six variations no less than sixteen are new while only ten are due to the genevan version and the character of the original corrections marks a very close and thoughtful revision based faithfully upon the greek He further shows that throughout the entire epistle, the changes amount to nearly 50, and among the new readings are some phrases which have become very familiar to us as It may be mentioned that copies of the chief editions of the Bishop's Bible are preserved in the British Museum, in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in the Rylands Library, and in that of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

and now at this point a notable fact occurred as the genevan version of fifteen sixty was followed in the way of a correction by the bishop's bible of fifteen sixty eight so this again was followed with the same purpose by the roman catholic version of the new testament in english known as the rheims douai bible of fifteen eighty two it was printed abroad and appeared in england bearing the following elaborate title the new testament of jesus christ translated faithfully into english out of the authentical latin according to the best corrected copies of the same diligently conferred with the greek and other editions in divers languages with arguments of books and chapters annotations and other necessary helps for the better understanding of the text and specially for the discovery of the corruptions of divers late translations and for clearing the controversies in religion in these days in the english college of rheims

The other is in St. Paul's Cathedral Library, wanting probably 78 leaves.

There is a lithograph reproduction in the Rylands Library, one of six copies printed on vellum, made from the Bristol copy by Francis Fry in 1862.

The cathedral copy, lent by the dean and chapter for the purpose, was shown in the Caxton Exhibition of 1877.

The Testaments reached England sometime in the spring of 1526, and everything possible was done to prevent the entrance of the forbidden books and to destroy those which did come in.

It is, however, not to be forgotten that the Book of Psalms and the New Revision had to yield, in the end, to that of the Great Bible.

The edition of 1572 prints both in parallel columns.

one properly belonging to the version the other taken from the great bible that there were defects in this version we might expect from the way in which it was brought about the work was as we have seen given out in parcels to different men each man acting independently and there was no common meeting for the purpose of discussing the various renderings the final revision was left in the hands of parker himself who as archbishop was a very busy man and not conspicuously eminent as a scholar and one at least of the others did not give very much time to his task it is said that the revision of the books of kings and chronicles was despatched in about seven weeks by bishop sandys as to the comparative value of the version as a whole we are fortunate in possessing the deliberate judgment of two eminent members of the revision company who brought out the revised version of eighteen eighty one bishop wescott and dr w f moulton they are agreed in the opinion that the greek scholarship of the revisers of the bishop's bible is superior to their hebrew scholarship dr westcott says that in the historical books of the old testament they followed the text of the great bible very closely they were lacking in independence the influence of the genevan revision is perceptible throughout but it is more obvious in the prophets than elsewhere he concludes by saying there is but little to recommend the original rendering of the bishop's bible in the old testament as a general rule they appear to be arbitrary and at variance with the exact sense of the hebrew text in like manner dr moulton after examining the passage in second samuel chapter twenty three verses one to seven wherein seven verses of the great bible and the bishop's differ about eighteen times finds that fifteen of the new renderings in the latter were taken from the genevan version of the eighteen changes thirteen may be called improvements with one exception they are derived from the genevan bible from which also come two changes which are clearly for the worse about twelve better renderings found in the genevan bible are at the same time here neglected after examining one or two other passages dr moulton gives judgment by saying the conclusion from this investigation is not very favourable to the bishop's bible in the old testament cranmer's bible was too closely followed and improvements which were ready to the hand of the translators were not appreciated what is original in this version does not often possess any great merit so far as the new testament is concerned the second edition was carefully revised dr wescott takes the passage in ephesians chapter four verse seven sixteen as an illustration of how much merit is due to this part of the work having shown that in this passage the great bible and the bishop s bible differ in twenty-six places he adds of these twenty-six variations no less than sixteen are new while only ten are due to the genevan version and the character of the original corrections marks a very close and thoughtful revision based faithfully upon the greek He further shows that throughout the entire epistle, the changes amount to nearly 50, and among the new readings are some phrases which have become very familiar to us as It may be mentioned that copies of the chief editions of the Bishop's Bible are preserved in the British Museum, in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in the Rylands Library, and in that of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

and now at this point a notable fact occurred as the genevan version of fifteen sixty was followed in the way of a correction by the bishop's bible of fifteen sixty eight so this again was followed with the same purpose by the roman catholic version of the new testament in english known as the rheims douai bible of fifteen eighty two it was printed abroad and appeared in england bearing the following elaborate title The New Testament of Jesus Christ, translated faithfully into English, out of the authentical Latin, according to the best corrected copies of the same, diligently conferred with the Greek and other editions in diverse languages, with arguments of books and chapters, annotations and other necessary helps for the better understanding of the text, and specially for the discovery of the corruptions of diverse late translations, and for clearing the controversies in religion in these days, in the English College of Reims.