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The Bible: An American Translation

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For the later Bible translation by Beck, see Beck's American Translation.

The Bible: An American Translation (AAT) is an English version of the Bible consisting of the Old Testament translated by a group of scholars under the editorship of John Merlin Powis Smith,[1] the Apocrypha translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed, and the New Testament translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed.

An American Translation
Full nameThe Bible, An American Translation
AbbreviationAAT
LanguageEnglish
Complete Bible
published		1931; 1939 with Apocrypha
AuthorshipJ.M. Powis Smith (OT) and Edgar J. Goodspeed (deuterocanonical books and NT)
PublisherThe University of Chicago Press
Genesis 1:1–3
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a desolate waste, with darkness covering the abyss and a tempestuous wind raging over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light!"
John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that no one who believes in him should be lost, but that they should all have eternal life.

Editions

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This translation has been made available in a number of editions as shown here:

Editions of The Bible: An American Translation[2]
Edition Year Editors Publisher
The New Testament: An American Translation 1923 Goodspeed University of Chicago Press
The New Testament: An American Translation 1927 Powis Smith University of Chicago Press
The Bible: An American Translation 1931 Powis Smith and Goodspeed University of Chicago Press
The Short Bible: An American Translation 1933 Powis Smith and Goodspeed University of Chicago Press
The Junior Bible: An American Translation 1936 Goodspeed Macmillan
The Apocrypha: An American Translation 1938 Goodspeed University of Chicago Press
The Complete Bible: An American Translation 1939 Powis Smith and Goodspeed University of Chicago Press
The Apocrypha: An American Translation[3] 1959 Goodspeed Vintage Books

In the preface to the 1931 edition, Powis Smith and Goodspeed wrote, "The rapid advance of learning in recent years in the fields of history, archaeology, and language has thrown new light upon every part of the Bible. At the same time our changing English speech has carried us farther and farther from the sixteenth-century diction in which all our standard versions of it are clothed. Yet the great messages of the Old and New Testaments were never more necessary than in our present confused and hurried life. We have, therefore, sought to produce a new translation of them, based upon the assured results of modern study, and put in the familiar language of today."[citation needed]

Reception and legacy

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The initial reaction to the use of this translation, rather than the King James Bible of the 1600s, was poor,[4] but the idea of a 20th century Bible version was accepted over time.[5]

A similarly named Bible translated by William Beck, was published in 1976.[6] This was a reaction against the Revised Standard Version.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ This group of scholars consisted of Theophile Meek, Leroy Waterman, Alex R. Gordon, and Powis Smith himself.
  2. ^ Bible Researcher website, 20th century page, Goodspeed and Smith
  3. ^ Contains an introduction by Moses Hadas
  4. ^ Cambridge University Press, “Monkeying with the Bible”: Edgar J. Goodspeed's American Translation, article by R. Bryan Bademan dated June 18, 2018
  5. ^ JStor, Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter 2006), pp. 55-93, “Monkeying with the Bible”: Edgar J. Goodspeed's American Translation by R. Bryan Bademan,
  6. ^ Bible Researcher website, William Beck’s “Bible in the Language of Today” (1976)
  7. ^ Concordia Theological Seminary website, The Springfielder, January 1976 Volume 40, Number 1 Page 19 Dr William Beck’s American Translation of the Old Testament, by Raymond F Surburg


   

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