Douay BIBLE. After the translation of the Bible by the bishops, two other private versions had been made of the New Testament; the first by Laur. Tomson, from Beza's Latin edition, together with the notes of Beza, published in 1582 in 4to, and afterwards in 1589, varying very little from the Geneva Bible; the second by the Catholics at Rheims in 1582, with notes, called the Rheimish Testament. These finding it impossible to keep the people from reading the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, resolved to give a version of their own, and as favourable to their cause as circumstances would permit. It was printed on a large paper, with a fair letter and margin. One complaint against it was its retaining a multitude of Hebrew and Greek words untranslated, for want, as the editors express it, of proper and adequate terms in the English to render them by; as the words azyme, tunike, paraclete, holocaust, prepuce, pasche, and such like. However, many of the copies were seized by the queen's searchers, and confiscated, and Thomas Cartwright was solicited by Secretary Walsingham to refute it; but, after some progress had been made in the work, Archbishop Whitgift prohibited his further proceeding, judging it improper that the doctrine of the Church of England should be committed to the defence of a puritan, and appointed Dr Fulke in his place, who refuted the Rheimists with great spirit and learning. Cartwright's refutation was also afterwards published in 1618 under Archbishop Abbot. About thirty years after their New Testament, the Roman Catholics published a translation of the Old Testament at Douay, in 1609 and 1610, from the Vulgate, with annotations; so that the English Roman Catholics have now the whole Bible in their mother tongue. It is proper to mention here that the notes of the Rheimish and Douay translators have been generally discountenanced by the Roman Catholic clergy.
King James's Bible. The last English Bible was that which proceeded from the Hampton Court conference in 1603, where many exceptions being made to the Bishops' Bible, King James gave orders for a new one; not, as the preface expresses it, for a translation altogether new, nor yet to make a bad one good, but to make a good one better, or of many that were good, one best. Fifty-four learned persons were appointed for this office by the king, as appears by his letter to the archbishop, dated in 1604, three years before the translation was entered upon. It is probable, therefore, that seven of them had either died or declined the task, since Fuller's list of the translators gives but forty-seven; who, being ranged under six divisions, commenced their task in 1607. Their translation was published in 1611, with a dedication to King James, and a learned preface, and is commonly called King James's Bible. After this all the other versions dropped and fell into disuse; except the Epistles and Gospels in the Common Prayer Book, which were still continued according to the bishops' translation till the alteration of the liturgy in 1661; and the Psalms and Hymns, which are to this day continued as in the old version.
Speaking of this translation in his Table Talk, Selden observes, "The English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best, taking in for the English translation the Bishops' Bible, as well as King James's. The translators in King James's time took an excellent way. That part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a tongue (as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downs); and then they met together, and one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian, &c. If they found any fault, they spoke; if not, he read on."
King James's Bible is that now read in all the Protestant churches in Britain. One of its greatest faults is, that the translation of the same original word is often capriciously and improperly varied, at the expense of perspicuity; while, on the other hand, ambiguity is sometimes occasioned by the rendering of two original words in the same sentence by only one English word, which, however, is used in different meanings. An example of the one impropriety occurs, Acts xxiv. 14, "After the way which they call heresy." This would have been more intelligible if, in the fifth verse, the former words αἱρετικὴν τῶν Ναζωραίων had been rendered heresy of the Nazarenes, instead of sect of the Nazarenes. An example of the other fault occurs, John xvi. 23, where both εἰρηότες and αἰτηότες are translated ask, in senses really different, but not obviously so, nor indeed capable of being discovered to be different by an unlearned reader, who scarcely ever guesses that the first signifies to ask a question, and the second to ask a favour.
Welsh Bibles. There was a Welsh translation of the Bible made from the original in the time of Queen Elizabeth, in consequence of a bill brought into the house of commons for this purpose in 1563. It was printed in folio in 1588. Another version, which is the standard translation in that language, was printed in 1620. It is called Parry's Bible. An impression of this was printed in 1690, called Bishop Lloyd's Bible. These were in folio. The first octavo impression of the Welsh Bible was made in 1630.
Irish Bibles. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, set on foot a translation of the Old Testament into the Irish language; the New Testament and the liturgy having before been translated into that language. The bishop appointed one King to execute this work, who, not understanding the oriental languages, was obliged to translate it from the English. This work was revised by Bedell, who, after having compared the Irish translation with the English, compared
the latter with the Hebrew, the LXX. and the Italian version of Diodati. When this work was finished, the bishop would have himself been at the charge of the impression, but his design was stopped upon advice given to the lord-lieutenant and the archbishop of Canterbury, that it would be a shameful thing for a nation to publish a Bible translated by such a despicable hand as King. However, the manuscript was not lost, for it went to press in the year 1685. An edition of it was printed in 1690, at the expense of the Honourable Robert Boyle, for the use of the Highlanders. This edition was superintended by the Rev. R. Kirk.
Gaelic Bible. There is also a version of the Bible in the Gaelic or Erse language, of which several large impressions have been published both in Edinburgh and London.