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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

New Matthew Bible

Another new project to announce today: This is a project to "republish" the Mathew Bible. The editor(s) are working from an actual 1549 reprint of the 1537 Matthew Bible. The project website has several articles including one titled "Editing the Matthew Bible for Today" which also gives some samples of the New Matthew Bible (NMB) text. There is an interim PDF of Romans available on the Topics Page.

{corrected 5-28-2010}

5 comments:

  1. Hi:

    Thank you for your interest in the New Matthew Bible Project. We would like to clarify one point raised in your summary. The editor is not working from Becke's version, but from a 1549 reprint of John Roger's original (1537) version of the Matthew Bible (Herbert #75). There are significant differences in the quality, tone, and theology of the notes in the two versions.

    Also, we are making interesting revisions to the Epistle to the Romans, based on further studies of Early Modern English...We hope to have the revised Epistle posted shortly.

    R Magnusson Davis
    Baruch House Publishing
    www.newmatthewbible.org

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  2. Thank you for the correction. Would you please provide the bibliographic information for that reprint? I would like to know as my copy is the Becke's - I want to get the Matthew's Bible as you have.

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  3. Hi again:

    We are blessed to have an original 1549 Bible, published by Raynalde and Hyll at London, a rare book. It was rebound in 1887 and is in very good condition, suitable for daily use. Because it was printed on rag paper, it has lasted well over the centuries. I am realizing that it is a bit confusing to call it a "reprint" - but of course, it was a reprint of the 1537 version.

    Some of the original Matthew Bibles that remain in existence had the notes obliterated, pursuant to royal decree. However, all the notes in our copy are intact. Sometimes, though, I need a magnifying glass to make out the letters.

    A photograph of our Matthew Bible is posted in the article Outline of the Project on our website.

    I understand that Hendrickson may be producing a facsimile copy of the 1537 MB. A comment is here (I hope this works): Facsimile of 1537 Matthew Bible. If they do produce such a facsimile, we will obtain a copy, so we can double check our version against it. In the meantime, we do have a facsimile copy of Tyndale's 1526 New Testament, also put out by Hendrickson. It is a lovely little book, and useful to study to see the changes Tyndale later made, especially after he had learned Hebrew and worked on the Old Testament. As you probably know, Tyndale published a revised New Testament in 1534. For that, we consult David Daniell's modern spelling version, called Tyndale's New Testament.

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  4. Ah, I misunderstood when I read "reprint." I apologize for my mistake - you are right that the 1549 was a reprint. And I can pass along good news - Hendrickson has published the 1537 Matthew Bible now. It is not the original size, but is very readable. I've been very pleased with it. They've done the 1526 Tyndale you mentioned, the 1537 Matthew and the 1560 Geneva. I hope they continue and do the rest of the historic English Bibles.

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