First Widely Used Modern Translation: By the early twentieth century many readers of the King James Bible began to yearn for a Bible translation which would read more like modem speech. Although the Authorized King James Bible had been updated from the original 1611 text to late nineteenth century spellings many still felt the translation itself used many seventeenth century terms with some difficult to understand meanings for modem readers then separated by three hundred years in time and speech patterns. James Moffatt, a Scotsman recently emigrated to America, pub­lished what many consider to be the first modem speech version in 1928. A final version was then published in 1935. It quickly became the most popular modem translation in America. Today, there are many modem translations each approaching the task with a slightly different point of view, but James Moffatt has been called the “grandfather” of the modern-language English Bible.

More Than Just A Translation: When approaching the task of developing a modem translation Moffatt determined he should also design into the translation ways to accurately depict portions of the Scripture that are poetry and to also set apart prose sections to retain the flow of the orginal language. Hebrew scholars have long known that large sections of the Bible are written in poetry and prose forms, but most Bible students had no way to know or appreciate that text. Moffatt also desired to be faithful to what he felt was an accurate verse arrangement of some parts of the Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts. Hence, there are places where Moffatt has arranged verses in slightly different order than that found in the King James Bible. However, these places are clearly marked so that the reader can take them into account. Moffatt also choose a “free” translation format in which the goal is to accurately capture the original thought or idea in the original language. This results in a language flow that is very easy to read while being quite different from the more traditional methods of translating a one for one word word match whenever possible. Using the Moffatt translation along with the King James Translation can certainly help the Bible student to better understand seemingly diffi­cult passages.

Author/Publisher Kregel Publications