Please Support the Bible Translation Work of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

$5.00

IMPORTANT NOTES: If a word is bold and has a footnote, it defines the term or gives you a few sentences to a few paragraphs of information on that term. This article is filled with 110 footnotes doing just that. The other footnotes (non-bold) are sources. This article also has numerous other article links that can take you far deeper so that you can appreciate the trustworthiness of the Bible. Attribution: This article incorporates some text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and Edward D. Andrews.

The Emphatic Diaglott
Full name	The Emphatic Diaglott
Abbreviation	Diaglott
NT published	1864
Derived from	New Testament
Translation type	formal equivalence
Genesis 1:1–3 Updated American Standard Version (UASV) 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and empty; and darkness was over the face of the deep,[1] and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. First Creation Day 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:1 in other translations   John 3:16 English translation: For God so loved the world, that he gave his son, the only-begotten, that every one believing into him may not perish, but obtain aionian life. Interlinear Reading: Thus for loved the God the world, so that the son of himself the only-begotten he gave, that every one who believing into him, not may be destroyed, but may have life age-lasting.   John 3:16 in other translations.   It should be noted, technically speaking, an interlinear is not a translation. It is the lexical glosses under the Greek words without ant consideration to grammar or syntax. There is a movement by those who favor interpretive translation philosophy to refer to interlinears as literal Bible translations when they are not. They are Bible study tools like lexicons. Why do they do this? Because if you string out the interlinear English glosses, it would look and sound very choppy and nonsensical. This is because when it is brought over in a real literal translation, grammar and syntax is applied. Why would they want that? It makes literal translations look, bringing better press to their interpretive translations. Look at the interlinear above of John 3:16, it is almost nonsensical. Now, look at as a literal translation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, in order that whoever believes in him will not be destroyed but have eternal life.”

The Emphatic Diaglott is a Diaglott, or two-language polyglot translation,[1] of the New Testament by Benjamin Wilson,[2] first published in 1864. It is an interlinear translation with the original Greek text, a word-for-word English translation in the left column, and a complete English translation in the right column. It is based on the interlinear translation, eminent critics’ renderings, and various Codex Vaticanus[3] readings. Furthermore, it includes illustrative and explanatory footnotes, references, and an alphabetical appendix.

The Greek text is that of Johann Jakob Griesbach.[4] The English text uses “Jehovah” for the divine name a number of times where the New Testament writers used “Ancient Greek: κύριος, Romanized:[5] kýrios” (Kyrios, the Lord) when quoting Hebrew scriptures. For example, Luke 20:42-43 reads: “For David himself says in the book of Psalms, Jehovah said to my Lord, sit thou at my Right hand, ‘till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet,” where Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1.

The text of the original edition’s title page is as follows:

The Emphatic Diaglott, containing the Original Greek Text of what is Commonly Styled the New Testament (According to the Recension of Dr. J. J. Griesbach), with an Interlinear Word for Word English Translation; A New Emphatic Version, based on the Interlinear Translation, on the Renderings of Eminent Critics, and on the various readings of the Vatican Manuscript, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library: Together with Illustrative and Explanatory Footnotes, and a copious selection of references; to the whole of which is added a valuable Alphabetical Appendix. Fowler and Wells, 1865.

Publishing History

A nephew of Benjamin Wilson wrote this account of the production of The Diaglott:

“While I was a boy, my father put me into The Gospel Banner office to learn the printing business. It was during this time, that the EMPHATIC DIAGLOTT was translated and printed. I can now in my mind’s eye see my Uncle Benjamin, sitting at his desk, making a literal word for word translation of the New Testament. I remember seeing the Greek type arrive from England. Many readers of the Diaglott may not be aware that my Uncle not only translated the Diaglott, but took charge of the mechanical work as well. He electro-typed the entire book himself. The following was the process he followed. As each page of the Diaglott was put into type, he took an impression of the page of type in wax. This wax mold was then blackened with very fine blacklead dust. He had a vat containing acid. In this acid he hung a copper plate, and also the wax mold, before he went home at night. In the morning he would find the wax mold would be covered with a thin sheet of copper. This acid dissolved the copper, and the black lead attracted it to the wax mold. He then made metal plates out of melted metal and fastened the copper sheet upon it. He then printed the first edition of the book, from these plates, on a hand press. I used to ink the plate by a soft roller while he worked the press.”

Although Wilson prepared the plates himself, the first edition was published in 1865 by Orson Squire Fowler[6] of Fowler and Wells Ltd. of New York. Fowler and Wells were phrenologists[7] who published a periodical to which Walt Whitman[8] contributed and published his Leaves of Grass.[9] (Fowler also had an earlier indirect connection to Wilson’s associates among the Christadelphians[10] through having employed Robert Roberts[11] on a trip to Huddersfield in 1861.)

After Wilson’s death in 1900, the plates and copyright were inherited by his heirs. Charles Taze Russell,[12] then president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society,[13] approached Wilson’s family via a third party and obtained the copyright and the plates at some later point. The Society published the Diaglott in 1902 and later had the type reset for publication on its own presses in 1927, with an additional printing in 1942.

In 1952, the copyright to the Diaglott expired, and it came into the public domain.[14] The Watch Tower Society sold the Diaglott inexpensively (offering it free of charge from 1990), making it non-viable for others to print until the depletion of that inventory. Others, such as Wilson’s home church, Church of the Blessed Hope,[15] had considered reprinting their own edition; in 2003, the Miami church of the group, with support from Christadelphians in the United Kingdom and the United States, published their own edition, with a new preface.

The public domain status of The Emphatic Diaglott has made it a popular online translation. Click HERE for a PDF Emphatic Diaglott

Attribution: This article incorporates some text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and other parts by Edward D. Andrews.

SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW

BIBLE TRANSLATION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

TECHNOLOGY

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

PRAYER

 

CHRISTIAN COMMENTARIES

Apocalyptic-Eschatology [End Times]

CHRISTIAN FICTION

[1] A polyglot is a book that contains side-by-side versions of the same text in several different languages. Some editions of the Bible or its parts are polyglots, in which the Hebrew and Greek originals are exhibited along with historical translations.

[2] Benjamin Wilson (1817–1900) was an autodidact Biblical scholar and writer of the Emphatic Diaglott translation of the Bible (which he translated between 1856 and 1864). He was also a co-founder of the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith.

[3] The Codex Vaticanus (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; no. B or 03 Gregory-Aland, δ 1 von Soden) is one of the oldest copies of the Bible, one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library, where it has been kept since at least the 15th century.[2] It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters and has been dated palaeographically to 300-325 C.E.

[4] Johann Jakob Griesbach (4 January 1745 – 24 March 1812) was a German biblical textual critic. Griesbach’s fame rests upon his work in New Testament criticism, in which he inaugurated a new epoch.

[5] Romanization of Greek is the transliteration (letter-mapping) or transcription (sound-mapping) of text from the Greek alphabet into the Latin alphabet.

[6] Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was an American phrenologist, vegetarian, and lecturer. He also popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century.

[7] Phrenology (from Ancient Greek φρήν (phrēn) ‘mind’, and λόγος (logos) ‘knowledge’) is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.

[8] Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works.

[9] Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. First published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting Leaves of Grass, revising it multiple times until his death.

[10] The Christadelphians (or Christadelphianism) are a restorationist and millenarian Christian group who hold a view of biblical unitarianism. There are approximately 50,000 Christadelphians in around 120 countries.

[11] Robert Roberts (April 8, 1839 – September 23, 1898) is the man generally considered to have continued the work of organizing and establishing the Christadelphian movement founded by Dr. John Thomas.

[12] Charles Taze Russell (February 16, 1852 – October 31, 1916), or Pastor Russell, was an American Christian restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and founder of what is now known as the Bible Student movement. After his death, Jehovah’s Witnesses and numerous independent Bible Student groups developed from this base.

[13] The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Warwick, New York. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah’s Witnesses to direct, administer and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as “the Society.”

[14] The public domain consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. As examples, the works of William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci and Georges Méliès are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright existed, or by their copyright term having expired.

[15] The Church of the Blessed Hope (or Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith) is a small first-day Adventist Christian body. The churches have common roots with the Christadelphians and the Church of God General Conference (Abrahamic Faith).