P045 The Bishops' Bible.

P045 The Bishops’ Bible.

Archbishop Parker, desiring a more satisfactory version, divided the work among twelve or fifteen learned men; and, as most of the revisers were bishops, the book, on its completion, received the name of the "Bishops’ Bible." Neither the actual number nor the names of all the revisers are known, though many of them are recognized by their initials attached to the books they revised. The archbishop took upon himself, besides the prefaces and other miscellaneous matter, the books of Genesis and Exodus, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and all of the Pauline Epistles, excepting First Corinthians. In addition to this he exercised an editorial supervision over the work of the others, though from his numerous other duties he could not give the work that careful consideration which its importance demanded and for which his scholarship amply qualified him.

Hence the great fault of the Bishops’ Bible is affirmed by critics to be a want of homogeneity in the work, such as an editor, careful as well as competent, might have given to it.

After three or four years’ labor the work was completed, and a copy presented to the queen on October 5, 1568. The title is brief and simple:— The | holie | Bible | conteyning the Olde Testament and the newe. |

These words are in a narrow border, the rest of the page being occupied with a copperplate engraving, in the center of which is an oval, containing a half-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

There is no formal dedication, perhaps the portrait of the queen being intended to suggest one.

There are, including maps and portraits, one hundred and forty-three engravings. The system of verses in the Genevan Bible is followed, but with this is united the old system of alphabetical divisions in the margin. The Bishops’ Bible is mainly a revision of the Great Bible, though in the New Testament are many original and vigorous renderings from the hand of Lawrence, one of the best Greek scholars of his day.(1) The volume is enriched with numerous notes, many of them from the Genevan version, which the archbishop affected to despise. The books of the Bible are strangely classified into "legal," "historical," "sapiential," and "prophetic." Passages not considered suitable for reading in public are marked, so that they may be omitted.

------------ (FN1)Westcott gives illustrations of these, p. 247, et seq.

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