P
patrick457
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…Are printers.
English-language Protestant Bibles in the 16th Century included the Deuterocanon – generally in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments; and there is evidence that these were widely read as popular literature, especially in Puritan circles. By the mid-17th Century, however, Puritan theologians were increasingly uneasy at the intermingling of biblical scripture with popular culture in general, and with the Deuterocanon in particular.
Further, these theologians were also inclined to reject books which owed their inclusion in the biblical canon to ecclesiastical authority. Starting in 1630, volumes of the Geneva Bible (completed 1557-60, published in England 1575-6; this translation was used by many English Dissenters and Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers during the English Civil War) were occasionally bound with the Deuterocanonicals excluded. After the Restoration in 1660, the Dissenters (those who separated from the Church of England) tended to discourage the reading of these books in both public services and in private devotion.
Obviously, by this time, the KJV still had its Deuterocanonicals intact. Indeed, the Book of Common Prayer specifies lectionary readings from it to be read in Morning and Evening Prayer in October.
The standardisation of the text of the KJV after 1769 together with the technological development of Stereotype printing made it possible to produce Bibles in large print-runs at very low unit prices.
Originally, it was against the law to print the Bible in America, because the Crown held perpetual copyright on the KJV (it still does so today) but did not license any printers in their American colonies. Then the American Revolution came and made the United States an independent country; shortly afterwards during the First Great Awakening there came a great demand for Bibles.
Since there were no international copyright treaties at the time, it was finally profitable, possible (and legal) to print an English Bible in the United States.
American publishers discovered that editions of the Authorized Version without the Deuterocanon reduced the cost, while having increased market appeal to non-Anglican Protestant readers and increasing their profits (as they sold the Bibles on the same price had it included the Books).
No one cared about it at the time since the Deuterocanonicals were rarely used, if at all by their churches. With the rise of the Bible societies in 1827, many editions have omitted the whole section of the Deuterocanon entirely.
(This thread is based on a post made on another thread. This is not a debate thread of sorts; but just some trivia I thought I’d share to you.)
English-language Protestant Bibles in the 16th Century included the Deuterocanon – generally in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments; and there is evidence that these were widely read as popular literature, especially in Puritan circles. By the mid-17th Century, however, Puritan theologians were increasingly uneasy at the intermingling of biblical scripture with popular culture in general, and with the Deuterocanon in particular.
Further, these theologians were also inclined to reject books which owed their inclusion in the biblical canon to ecclesiastical authority. Starting in 1630, volumes of the Geneva Bible (completed 1557-60, published in England 1575-6; this translation was used by many English Dissenters and Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers during the English Civil War) were occasionally bound with the Deuterocanonicals excluded. After the Restoration in 1660, the Dissenters (those who separated from the Church of England) tended to discourage the reading of these books in both public services and in private devotion.
Obviously, by this time, the KJV still had its Deuterocanonicals intact. Indeed, the Book of Common Prayer specifies lectionary readings from it to be read in Morning and Evening Prayer in October.
The standardisation of the text of the KJV after 1769 together with the technological development of Stereotype printing made it possible to produce Bibles in large print-runs at very low unit prices.
Originally, it was against the law to print the Bible in America, because the Crown held perpetual copyright on the KJV (it still does so today) but did not license any printers in their American colonies. Then the American Revolution came and made the United States an independent country; shortly afterwards during the First Great Awakening there came a great demand for Bibles.
Since there were no international copyright treaties at the time, it was finally profitable, possible (and legal) to print an English Bible in the United States.
American publishers discovered that editions of the Authorized Version without the Deuterocanon reduced the cost, while having increased market appeal to non-Anglican Protestant readers and increasing their profits (as they sold the Bibles on the same price had it included the Books).
No one cared about it at the time since the Deuterocanonicals were rarely used, if at all by their churches. With the rise of the Bible societies in 1827, many editions have omitted the whole section of the Deuterocanon entirely.
(This thread is based on a post made on another thread. This is not a debate thread of sorts; but just some trivia I thought I’d share to you.)