The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-06-09
"BREECHES BIBLE"

f. G. Tobey has in his possession an
old family Bible of considera BILE value as
photographic treasure, as we'll as for
Its family ASSOCIATE ms, says the Spring
field Republican. 1t is one of those IA
nous quarto Bibles published by author
lty of Archbishop Parker, and known as
the "Breeches Bible" on account of the
rendering of &c esis ill.,, 7, which is
translated to read that they made unto
themselves breaches instead of aprons.
In this the translators, however, only
followed Wycliff. Unfortunately this
distinctive mark is missing as the por-
ton between the beginning of Genesis
and l Kings is lost. The remainder
however, is in excellent preservation and
can readily be identified from biblio-
graphical manuals. The date is prob
ably 1897 or 1898, and it was undoubted-
ly published by Christopher Barker s
deputies in London. The Old Tesla
ment is in the famous Geneva version
and the New Testament is Tomson's
translation The title page of the New
Testament runs as follows:
"The New Testament of our Lord
Jesus Christ. translated out of the
Greeke by Theod. With brief sum-
maries and expositions upon the hard
places by the said author, Joach Gamer
and p. Loseler Villerius, Englished by
L. Tomson, together with the annota-
tions of FIR. Junius upon the Revelation
of st. John"
The title-page of the Old Testament is
lost, but judging from the close resem-
blance of the volume to copy of 1898,
which is among the treasures of our City
library, it probably ran:
1.-The Bible, that is, the Holy Scrip
lures, contained in the Olde and New
Testament, translated according to the
Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with
the best translations in diverse Ian
guages and with most profitable annota-
tions upon all the hard places and other
things of great Importance. Imprinted
at London by the deputies of Christie
pher Barker, printed to the Queene's
most excellent majestic. Ammo .59S.
Cum privllegio."
An interesting feature in this edition
is the notes, which did a great deal to
establishing the wonderful popularity
of the Geneva Bible or Family Bible, as
it is called which held the warmest
place in the hearts of the people for
many years only slowly giving place to
the King James or common version,
which appeared in 1911. The Geneva
Bible was the one that Shakespeare,
Bacon, Jonson, and other great men of
Elizabethan age knew, and it exerted a
powerful influence upon the generation
that read it. 1t was really a notable
translation, much more scholarly than
the bishops Bible, with which the
church Of England vainly tried to Sup
plant it. For many years it stood for
puritanism, principally because the
translation vas made by band of puri-
tar exiles in Geneva, and it's influence
was greatly dreaded by the hierarchy.
1t had a potent effect on theology, be-
cause it was the first edition to intro
duce the vicious system of dividing the
books into chapter and verse, which has
endured ever since. These arbitrary
divisions are chiefly useful for the pur-
pose of furnishing garbled proof texts,
an opportunity of which the Puritans
took advantage. The English of the
translation is noble and dignified and
scarcely more antiquated than that of
the King James version except for the
use of few obsolete words such as
'cratch" for manger, ''fardels' for
goods, 'herberons" for hospitable,
fakes for dunghill, 'pight" for
pitched, 'pilp' to make gain of,
trade for path, ''grenues' for traps.
The Bible was brought from England
by Thomas TObey, lst, who came to
America in 1885 and married Martha
Knott of Sandwich, Mass, in 1850. 1t
was gwen by him to his granddaughter,
Desire Stuart and has the following in
his handwriting:
Desire S uart, Hur Booke.
God give hur grace herein to locke.
from which it may be inferred that De-
sire was not fond of searching the scrip
lures. 1t was handed down in the fam
lily in unbroken succession and is now
owed by Mrs. Sara Barker of Bangor,
Me-, returning oddly enough, to an
owner of the same name as the pub
Usher.