Was the book of Psalms in the 1602 Bishops' Bible a new version or translation?

[Logos1560]

As their starting point in English or as their English foundation, the KJV translators were given copies of the 1602 edition of the Bishops' Bible.

David Norton wrote: “The 1602 Bishops’ Bible frequently differs from the original 1568 text, so much so that in parts such as the Psalms it ought to be thought of as a new version” (Textual History of the KJB, p. 35).

Should the book of Psalms in the 1602 edition of the Bishops' Bible be considered a new version or a different translation than the book of Psalms in the 1568 edition of the Bishops' Bible?

 

[Logos1560]

In some 1572 editions of the Bishops’ Bible, the Psalms of the Bishops' Bible were printed in parallel columns with the Psalms of the Great Bible. In some of its later editions published in 1575 and 1595, the Psalms of the Great Bible were printed in place of Bishops’ Bible’s own rendering of them. Jack Lewis wrote: “All later printings of the Bishops’ Bible, except the 1585 edition which had the Bishops’ Psalms, carried these Great Bible Psalms rather than the Bishops’” (The Day after Domesday: The Making of the Bishops' Bible, p. 128). That statement would suggest that the 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible on which the KJV is based would likely have the book of Psalms from the Great Bible.

The fact that some editions of the Bishops' Bible had the psalms from the Great Bible printed in place of the psalms from the 1568 Bishops' Bible could explain why David Norton noticed the book of Psalms being so different in the 1602 edition of the Bishops' Bible. Instead of being a new version, the 1602 edition's book of Psalms likely was an older version or translation--one from an edition of the Great Bible.

 

[Logos1560]

The text of the 1602 edition of the Bishops' Bible is available online so its text can be examined and seen that it has the book of Psalms from the Great Bible.

The bible, ... 1602 : Bible-ENGLISH. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The bible, ... 1602..Digitized from IA40313714-40.Next issue: bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-bible-_bible-english_1611.

archive.org

In checking the assertion made by Jack Lewis, it was found that Psalm 14 in the 1568 edition of the Bishops’ Bible has seven verses. Psalm 14 in the 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible has eleven verses which would be evidence to suggest that edition would have the book of Psalms from the Great Bible.


An edition of the Great Bible in 1540 has over two hundred words in the book of Psalms that are not found in the KJV (check and compare Ps. 1:4, 2:11, 7:11, 11:4, 13:6, 14:2,14:5, 18:6, 19:14, 20:9, 22:1. 24:4. 28:3, 29:1, 30:7, 33:3, 33:10, 37:36, 38:16, 38:33, 42:10, 45:9, 48:4, 50:21, 55:23, 65:1, 71:8, 73:13, 73:28, 85:8, 92:13, 95:7, 108:1, 111:10, 115:9, 118:2, 119:97, 120:7, 132:4, 134:1, 134:2, 136:26, 137:1, 145:15, 147:8, 148:5).

At the end of Psalm 13:6, the 1602 Bishops’ Bible has this added sentence: “Yea, I will praise the name of the Lord most highest.” At Psalm 14:5-7, this 1602 Bishops’ Bible stated: “Their throat is an open sepulcre, with their tongues they have deceived: the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.” These readings are clear, compelling proof that the 1602 Bishops’ Bible has the book of Psalms from the Great Bible instead of the book of Psalms in the 1568 edition of the Bishops’.

Digitized 1602 Bishops’ Bible - Text and Translation

A copy of the Bishops' Bible (1602) which contains handwritten notes reflecting the work-in-progress of the four of the six translating companies which translated the King James Version (1611)...

www.textandtranslation.org

 

[Deacon]

[snip]

At the end of Psalm 13:6, the 1602 Bishops’ Bible has this added sentence: “Yea, I will praise the name of the Lord most highest.” At Psalm 14:5-7, this 1602 Bishops’ Bible stated: “Their throat is an open sepulcre, with their tongues they have deceived: the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.” These readings are clear, compelling proof that the 1602 Bishops’ Bible has the book of Psalms from the Great Bible instead of the book of Psalms in the 1568 edition of the Bishops’. [snip] - color and bolding added

That passage is so familiar...

That portion of Psalm 14:5-7 (1602 Bishops') that you posted is found in the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible (translating from the Latin Vulgate), and is found in Romans 3:13-18.

Romans 3:13–18 (D-R)
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully. The venom of asps is under their lips.
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery in their ways:
17 And the way of peace they have not known.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.


Romans 3:13–18 (Clementine Vulgate)
13 Sepulchrum patens est guttur eorum,
linguis suis dolose agebant:
venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum:
14 quorum os maledictione, et amaritudine plenum est:
15 veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem:
16 contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum:
17 et viam pacis non cognoverunt:
18 non est timor Dei ante oculos eorum.

Rob

 

[Logos1560]

That portion of Psalm 14:5-7 (1602 Bishops') that you posted is found in the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible (translating from the Latin Vulgate), and is found in Romans 3:13-18.


Rob

That portion of Psalm 14 was earlier found in the 1535 Coverdale's Bible and 1539 Great Bible before it was found in the 1610 Douay Old Testament. It is also found in the Church of England's book of Psalms in its Book of Common Prayer. It is numbered Psalm 13 in the Latin Vulgate and Douay OT instead of Psalm 14.

 

[Logos1560]

Concerning the Bishops' Bible, Charles Butterworth noted: "Among its peculiarities is the frequent use of 'God' where other versions have 'the Lord'" (Literary Lineage, p. 180).

For example, the 1568 Bishops’ Bible has “God” at many verses [Ps. 3:1, 5:8, 6:1, 8:1, 15:1, 18:1, 20:1, 23:1, 24:1, 25:1, 26:1, 27:1, 30:1, 31:1, 33:1, 35:1, 38:1, 40:1, 41:1, 48:1, 71:1, 74:18, 79:5, 81:15, 96:1, 97:1, 99:1 etc.] where the KJV has “LORD” or “the LORD,” but it has “Lord” at other verses [Ps. 67:6, 74:1, 10, 80:3] where the KJV has “God.”

This peculiar or unique characteristic of the Psalms in the 1568 Bishops’ Bible is not true of the book of Psalms from the Great Bible found in the 1602 edition of the Bishops’. For example, the Great Bible and the 1602 Bishops’ have “Lord” at Psalm 3:1 where the 1568 Bishops’ has “God.” At Psalm 8:1, the 1568 Bishops’ has “O God our Lord” where the Great Bible and the 1602 Bishops’ have “O Lord our governor.” The Great Bible and the 1602 Bishops’ have “The Lord is my shepherd” at Psalm 23:1 where the 1568 Bishops’ has “God is my shepherd.” At Psalm 24:1, the Great Bible and the 1602 Bishops’ have “The earth is the Lords” where the 1568 Bishops’ has “The earth is Gods.”

This evidence would affirm that the book of Psalms in the 1602 edition of the Bishops' Bible is the one from the Great Bible and not the one in the 1568 Bishops' Bible.

 

[Logos1560]

Psalm 37 in the 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible has 41 verses, and the beginning of its verse 29 stated: “The righteous shalbe punished.”

Jack Lewis wrote: “All Bishops’ printings that have the Great Bible Psalms repeat its error: ‘The righteous shall be punished’ (Ps. 37:28)” (Day after Domesday, p. 129). “Righteous” was a printing error in some Great Bible editions for “unrighteous.”

 

[Logos1560]

Concerning the Bishops’ Bible, Henry Barker wrote: “In the tenth edition (1577) the Great Bible Psalms appear alone, as is the case in the seventeenth and eighteenth editions of 1595 and 1602. Several editions of the Bishops’ Bible contain the Prayer Book Psalms. In one and all there is the strange error in Psalm 37:29, where we read: 'The righteous shall be punished,' instead of 'The unrighteous,' etc.” (English Bible Versions, pp. 145-146).

 

[Logos1560]

Shawn Brasseaux, the modifier of the chart favorably posted by Alan Dale Gross in another thread, is misinformed, and his chart is misleading and inaccurate.

The book of Psalms in the 1602 Bishops' Bible would expose and refute Shawn Brasseaux's chart as being inaccurate.

The NKJV's book of Psalms would be more in agreement overall with the KJV's book of Psalms than the 1602 Bishops' Bible's book of Psalms is.

By having the Psalms from the Great Bible, this 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible would have over two hundred words in the book of Psalms that are not found in the KJV (check and compare Ps. 1:4, 2:11, 7:11, 11:4, 13:6, 14:2,14:5, 18:6, 19:14, 20:9, 22:1, 22:31, 24:4, 28:3, 29:1, 30:7, 33:3, 33:10, 37:28, 37:36, 38:16, 38:22, 41:1, 42:10, 45:9, 48:4, 50:21, 51:1, 55:12, 55:23, 65:1, 67:1, 71:8, 73:13, 73:28, 85:8, 92:12, 95:7, 108:1, 111:10, 115:9, 118:2, 118:25, 119:97, 120:7, 132:4, 134:1, 134:2, 136:26, 137:1, 145:15, 147:8, 148:5). The verse numbers do not always match between the 1602 Bishops’ Bible and the 1611 KJV. Sometimes the verse before or after the reference in one of them will have to be compared to find the difference.

At the end of Psalm 13:6, the 1602 Bishops’ Bible has this added sentence: “Yea, I will praise the name of the Lord most highest.” At Psalm 14:5-7, this 1602 Bishops’ Bible stated: “Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have deceived: the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.” At the end of Psalm 20:9, the 1602 Bishops’ added a phrase “upon thee.” After the words “My God, my God” at Psalm 22:1, the 1602 Bishops’ added “(look upon me).” In the 1602 Bishops’ Bible, Psalm 29:1 stated: “Bring unto the Lord (O ye mighty) bring young rams unto the Lord: ascribe unto the Lord worship and strength.” Thus, the 1602 Bishops’ has the added clause “bring young rams unto the Lord” at Psalm 29:1. At Psalm 33:10, the 1602 Bishops’ has these added words: “and calleth out the counsels of princes.” Psalm 37 in the 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible has 41 verses, and the beginning of its verse 29 stated: “The righteous shalbe punished.” Jack Lewis wrote: “All Bishops’ printings that have the Great Bible Psalms repeat its error: ‘The righteous shall be punished’ (Ps. 37:28). The Prayer Book was not corrected until 1661” (Day after Domesday, p. 129). “Righteous” at this verse was a printing error in some Great Bible editions for “unrighteous.” At Psalm 41:1, the 1602 Bishops’ added the words “and needy” after the word “poor.” The 1602 Bishops’ Bible has the addition “neither the temples of my head to take any rest” at Psalm 132:4. Psalm 134 in the 1602 Bishops’ has four verses which include an addition “even in the courts of the house of our God.” All these example readings and renderings would be clear, compelling proof that the 1602 Bishops’ Bible has the book of Psalms from the Great Bible instead of the book of Psalms from the 1568 edition of the Bishops’.

The rendering in the Great Bible and 1602 Bishops’ at Psalm 6:5 is “the pit” where the 1568 Bishops’ and the 1611 KJV have “the grave.” The Great Bible and the 1602 Bishops’ have the rendering “soul out of hell” at Psalm 30:3 where the 1568 Bishops’ has “soul from the grave.” At Psalm 32:5, the Great Bible and the 1602 Bishops’ Bible have an obsolete or archaic use of knowledge as a verb in their rendering “I will knowledge” while the 1568 Bishops’ has the rendering “I have made known.” At Psalm 33:12, the 1602 Bishops’ has the rendering “God is the Lord Jehova” while the 1568 Bishops’ has “God to be their Lord.” Along with these other translation decisions, the archaic rendering “seek their meat at God” at Psalm 104:21 in the 1602 Bishops’ Bible would be additional evidence that its book of Psalms is that of the Great Bible. At Psalm 105:28, the 1602 Bishops’ has “they were not obedient unto his word” where the 1568 Bishops’ has “they went not from his words.” At Psalm 106:30, the Great Bible and 1602 Bishops read: “Then stood up Phinehas, and prayed” where the 1568 Bishops’ reads “Then stood up Phinehas, he executed justice.”