The Emphasized Bible

At the end of the 19th century, the british pastor and theologian Joseph Bryant Rotherham published his Emphasized Bible. It incorporated cutting edge biblical scholarship and used an ingenious system for revealing the emphasis obvious to readers of Hebrew and Greek but frequently obscured by translation.

Today, over a hundred years later, it is still in print and still extremely useful. Some of the scholarship Rotherham employed, particularly in the Old Testament, anticipated modern translators by decades.

But more than that, while his skillful rendering faithfully brought out the emphasis and meaning of the original, his considerable literary ability resulted a beautiful and eloquent version.

The Revised Emphasized Bible

The Emphasized Bible is now in the public domain. Our goal is to make the many values of this version available to a new generation. As much as possible, we plan to let Dr. Rotherham's massive accomplishment stand unchanged. But there are 3 changes we do plan to make.

The first and most major is to remove the various diacritical marks Rotherham used to show emphasis. This may seem to be working against our purpose, but in fact, as Rotherham pointed out, the emphases were mainly brought out in his English by skillful use of word order -- "emphatic idiom," as he called it.

I have felt for years that the additional marks Rotherham used to reveal emphasis, although they accomplished that goal, actually obscured the beauty of his translation. By removing these, this version can be more easily and fluently read, and the substantial emphasis he brought to light more readily appreciated.

The second change is an updating of the language. When Rotherham translated, it was virtually unthinkable to render the scriptures in non-elizabethan language. Now, it is commonly understood that "thee," "thou," and words ending in "-eth" are merely artifacts from the history of english Bible translation, not intrinsic parts of Hebrew and Greek. The English in this version, then, has been brought up to date.

Thirdly, we will update several translation errors and update the underlying scholarship. Dr. Rotherham would heartily approve of this: He is the man that threw aside his completed New Testament and started from scratch when the Westcott and Hort Greek text came available. He avidly struggled to keep his scholarship current so his translation would be as accurate as possible.

Conclusion

This project will, no doubt take years, since it is being done by one man in his spare time.  I plan to begin with Genesis and Matthew.  But it is a labor of love, and I look forward to progressively presenting to the world The Revised Emphasized Bible.

And to God be the glory!

Genesis Chapter 1

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now, the earth, had become waste and wild. Darkness was on the face of the roaring deep, but the Spirit of God was brooding on the face of the waters.

3 And God said, "Light, be."

And light was.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness, 5 and God called the light "day" but the darkness called he "night." So it was evening and it was morning, one day.

6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it be a means of dividing between waters and waters."

7 And God made the expanse and it divided between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse "heavens." So it was evening and it was morning, a second day.

9 And God said "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry ground appear."

And it was so.

10 God called the dry-ground "land" but the gathering together of the waters called he "seas." And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, "Let the land put forth vegetation: herb yielding seed, fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, whose seed is within it on the land. "

And it was so. 12 And the land brought forth vegetation: herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, whose seed is within it, after its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So it was evening and it was morning, a third day.

14 And God said, "Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to divide between the day and the night. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. 15 Indeed, let them be for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth."

And it was so. 16 And God made the two great luminaries, the greater luminary to rule the day, and the lesser luminary to rule the night. Also, the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So it was evening and it was morning, a fourth day.

20 And God said, "Let the waters swarm with an abundance of living soul, and birds shall fly over the earth, over the face of the expanse of the heavens. 21 And God created the great sea-monsters and every living soul that moves that the waters swarmed with after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply in the land. 23 So it was evening and it was morning, a fifth day.

24 And God said, "Let the land bring forth living soul after its kind: tame-beast and creeping thing and wild-beast of the land, after its kind."

And it was so. 25 And God made the wild-beast of the land after its kind, and the tame-beast after its kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the heavens and over the tame-beast, and over all the land, and over every creeping thing, that creeps upon the land."

27 And God created the man in his own image,

In the image of God created he him,

Male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the land.

29 And God said, "Behold! I have given to you every herb yielding seed which is on the face of all the land, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you shall it be, for food. 30 And to every living thing of the land, and to every bird of the heavens, and to every thing that moves on the land, in which is a living soul, every green herb for food. And it was so.

31 And God saw every thing which he had made and behold, it was very good. So it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.