La bible est-elle parole de Dieu?

"Toutefois la version du Roi James se caractérise par de sérieux défauts. Et ces défauts sont si nombreux et si importants qu'il faut une révision..."

Ainsi s'expriment, entre autres, les savants chrétiens orthodoxes " les plus éminents". Une autre brillante assemblée de Docteurs en Divinitè doit prochainement rédiger une encyclopédie explicitant la cause de cesimperfections dans leur Saint Ecrit et les raisons qu'ils ont de vouloir les éliminer.

Ce qui suit est la reproduction photographique de la PREFACE de la version Standars Révisée (R.V.S.) de la Bible.

rsIoVersion Standard RévI E d e la Version HE Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an authorized revision of
the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision
of the King James Version, published in 1611.
The first English version of the Scriptures made b direct translation from the original Hebrew and Greek, and the first to printed, was the work of William Tvndale. He met bitter opposition. He was accused of willfullY perverting the meaning of the Scriptures, and his New Testaments were ordered to be burned as "untrue translations. He was finally betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and in October 1536, was publicly executed and burned at the stake. Yet Tyndale's worx became the foundation of subsequent English versions, notablY those of Coverdale, 1?35' Thomas Matthew (probably a pseudonym for John Ro ers), 153; the reat Bible, 1 39; the Geneva Bible, 1560, and the Bishops' Bible, 15. In 1582 a translation of the New Testament, made from the Latin Vulgate by Roman Catholic scholars, was published at Rheims.

The translators who made the King James Version took into account ail of these preceding versions; and comparison shows that it owes something to each o them. It kept felicitous phrases and apt expressions, from whatever source, which had stood the test of public usage. t owed most, especially In the New Testament, to Tyndale.

The Kin ames Version had to compete with the Geneva Bible in popular g use; but ln t 4e end it prevailed, and for more than two and a half centuries no other authorized translation of the Bible into English was made. The Kin amer Version became the "Authorized Version" of the EnglishJ spea in peo les.The I~in ames Version has with good reason n r m " t
monum n o s rose. s rev sers in 18 1 x r~i s s c s s wer, its ha turns omus c o s cadences. an e e c es o s rhythm." It -ntered, as noer as n o e ma ng o e Pe rsona c aracter and the public
o institutions of the English-speaking peoples. We owe to it an incalculables. By the middle of the vemen o ca s udies and the discovery of manY manuscri ts more anc eut than those upon which the King JamesPVersion was based, made it manifest ha h o man and soof the English translation. The task was un2er-a en. Y authority o e Church of En gland, in 18 0. The English Revised Version of the Bible was ublished in 1 1-1885; an the American Standard Version its variant em ying the preferences of the American scholars associated in the work, was published in 1901.

Because of unhappy experience with unauthorized publications in the two decades between 1881 and 1901, which tampered with the text of the E lish Revised Version in the supposed interest of the American public, the American Standard Version was copyrighted, to protect the tex from unauihorized changes. In 1928 this copyright was acquired by the International Council of Reli ous Education. an thus passed into the ownership of the churches of the nited States and Canada which were associated in this Council through their boards of education and publication.

The Council appointed a committee of scholars to have charge of the text of the American Standard Version and to undertake inquiry as to whether

Reproduction photographique tirée de la RSV, 1971.

CHAPITRE IV

Cinquante mille erreurs (?)

Les témoins de Jéhovah, dans leur magazine "Awake !" (Réveillez-vous !) du 8 septembre 1957, ont publié un titre effrayant: "50.000 erreurs dans la Bible" (voir la reproduction page suivante).