The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues: And with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised.

Item Number: 130482

Trenton: Isaac Collins, 1791.

First edition of the first Bible printed in New Jersey. Quarto, bound in full leather. morocco spine label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. This example contains the Apocrypha (this edition was issued with and without it), lengthy index at rear, and Downame’s Concordance (also not found with most examples) Herbert notes only one error in this edition (“thy” for “the” in I Timothy 4:16), and he further remarks, “this edition is particularly known for its accurate text, and served as a standard of correctness for later printers.” This edition is considered to be one of the most accurate English versions and one of the earliest large format Bibles printed in America. Herbert 1354; Felcone, 578. In very good condition.

The Bible has had an unprecedented influence on literature and history, especially in the Western World, where the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed using movable type. Commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611 under the sponsorship of James I and VI, the King James Version of the bible, or Authorized Version, includes the 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. Noted for its "majesty of style", the King James Version has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world. It was first printed by John Norton and Robert Barker, both holding the post of the King's Printer, and was the third translation into English approved by the English Church authorities. The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second had been the Bishops' Bible, commissioned in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1568). In Geneva, Switzerland the first generation of Protestant Reformers had produced the Geneva Bible of 1560 from the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures, which was influential in the writing of the Authorized King James Version.