Date and language:
edition 1789-1796 - Dutch
Translation: for a large
number of years, from about 1775, van Vloten worked on his own
Bible translation in Leiden. It is a bulky and cumbersome work
of no less than 13 volumes, consisting of a translation, a paraphrase
and a description all alongside each other. The first parts
were officially approved by the Leiden theological faculty.
Later, however, objections regarding the translation were raised
and van Vloten left the reformed church. He joined the Mennonite
Church in the Netherlands. In the end he published his translation
at his own expense. He gave many of his Bibles to interested
people who were less fortunate than himself.
Translator: Willem Anthony
van Vloten was born in 1740 in Utrecht. After a difficult elementary
and junior high school period his parents hoped that Willem
would become a preacher. During his school years at the Academy
of Utrecht he was mainly interested in languages, declaration
and Jewish antiquities. In 1767, he became a pastor in Waddinxveen.
The work gave him no satisfaction. In 1775 he became sick and
he was unable to continue to serve as a preacher. He then started,
at the instigation of a friend, to produce his own Bible translation.
Because of the conflict with the religious censorship of Leiden,
he moved to Amsterdam, where he died in 1809.
God's name: the unique
feature of this Bible is that wherever the State Bible represents
God's name as LORD, in this Bible the divine name is displayed
as Jehovah. It is the first translation that also does the same
in the New Testament, in places where the old testament is quoted
from. The New World Translation is the only other translation
that follows this practice of van Vloten, and this was not until
1961.
Due to the above practice, God’s
name is written on almost every page of this edition, but we
are showing here Exodus 6: 1 and 2, Revelation 1: 8 and 9 and
Romans 10: 12 and 13. We also show the statement that van Vloten
has signed himself.
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