The newest Bible added to my collection of translations in English is the Darby Bible. This particular copy is a new (2006) printing of the 1890 edition. According to the auction page on eBay where I obtained it, "it conforms word for word to the 1961 Edition already in use, which includes all the prefatory Notes and Notices and the Chronological Table." This edition is quite small (4" x 6") and was designed to be an inexpensive edition "for serious Students of Scripture to have and to use the Darby translation." According to the seller, "J.N.Darby made this translation of the Bible from the original languages, using all the known manuscripts to assure accuracy. (Finished in 1875.) It has long been considered a masterpiece in rendering the Hebrew and Greek intelligible to the English reader."

I've wanted a Darby Bible for a while because I knew it was a significant gap in the 19th century segment of my collection. Although I'm grateful to have a copy finally (and an inexpensive one at that), it's small size will prohibit any prolonged use of it by me. Fortunately, the text is available online in a number of places.

So are there any fans of the Darby Bible out there? If so, why do you like it?

Tags: Translations