The Trinitarian Bible Society was founded in 1831 "to promote the Glory of God and the salvation of men by circulating, both at home and abroad, in dependence on the Divine blessing, the Holy Scriptures, which are given by inspiration of God and are able to make men wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The Trinitarian Bible Society members separated from the British and Foreign Bible Society, itself founded in 1804, due to two controversies: * The Apocrypha Controversy, over inclusion of the

Biblical Apocrypha The biblical apocrypha (from the grc, ἀπόκρυφος, translit=apókruphos, lit=hidden) denotes the collection of apocryphal ancient books thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and AD 400. The Roman Catholic, Eastern Ort ...

in some Bibles published in Europe. * Inclusion of an adherent of

Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...

as an officer in the Society, and refusal of the Society to open every meeting with prayer. The arguments came into the open during the Annual Meeting in May 1831 of the Society. The membership voted six to one to retain the ecumenical status quo. On 7 December 1831, over two thousand people gathered in

Exeter Hall Exeter Hall was a large public meeting place on the north side of the Strand in central London, opposite where the Savoy Hotel now stands. From 1831 until 1907 Exeter Hall was the venue for many great gatherings by promoters of human bettermen ...

in London to form the Trinitarian Bible Society, explicitly endorsing the Trinitarian position, and rejecting the apocryphal books.

Early years

Ultra-dispensationalist

E. W. Bullinger Ethelbert William Bullinger (15 December 1837 – 6 June 1913) was an Anglican clergyman, biblical scholar, and ultradispensationalist theologian. Early life He was born in Canterbury, Kent, England, the youngest of five children of William ...

was clerical secretary of the Society from 1867 until his death in 1913. Activities during his secretariat include: * Completion of a Hebrew version of the New Testament under contract with

Christian David Ginsburg Christian David Ginsburg (, 25 December 1831 – 7 March 1914) was a Polish-born British Bible scholar and a student of the Masoretic tradition in Judaism. He was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw but converted to Christianity at the age of 15. ...

after the death of Isaac Salkinson. The first edition was published in 1885. * Publication of Ginsburg's first edition of the Old Testament along with his ''Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible'' in 1897. * Formation of the

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

Evangelical Mission Society under

Pasteur LeCoat Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

and translation of the Bible into the

Breton language Breton (, ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of t ...

. * First Protestant

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Reference Bible. * Distribution of

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

Bibles in Spain after the Spanish Revolution of 1868.

Later years

The Society provides Bibles and Christian literature (from a historically Reformed perspective) to the world. They have chapters in many countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Their primary function is to translate and disseminate worldwide Bibles in languages other than English. The translation of Bibles into non-English languages is based on the Hebrew

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

and Greek New Testament edition of the

Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denomi ...

compiled by

F. H. A. Scrivener Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (September 29, 1813, Bermondsey, Surrey – October 30, 1891, Hendon, Middlesex) was a New Testament textual critic and a member of the English New Testament Revision Committee which produced the Revised Version ...

and published in 1894. The Society sells copies of the King James Version of the Bible, as well as Scriptures in other languages, to the general public. These Scriptures are printed by the Society itself. They also sell or give away Scripture-based Christian literature, such as tracts and children's items in English and other languages. The Society produces a magazine, ''The Quarterly Record'', and sponsors meetings during which the Society's work and issues surrounding translation and text are discussed.

King James Only

The Trinitarian Bible Society has been associated with the

King James Only movement The King James Only movement asserts the belief that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is superior to all other translations of the Bible The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Arama ...

, due to its exclusive sales of the KJV Bible in English and number of articles defending the KJV and against other modern versions such as the NASB, NIV, ESV, and NKJV. However, the Society stated "The Trinitarian Bible Society does not believe the Authorised Version to be a perfect translation, only that it is the best available translation in the English language." Also the allegation is belied by the fact that the Society sells foreign translations, for instance the Dutch Statenvertaling, which does not precisely agree with the KJV in the translation of every phrase; examples include alternative translations of non-identical meaning which were relegated by the KJV translators to a marginal note; sometimes the English language

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

has an equivalent rendering to the Statenvertaling where it differs from the KJV (at least from its main text rather than marginal rendering). Unlike others in the King James Only movement, the Society claims, "The supernatural power involved in the process of inspiration, and in the result of inspiration, was exerted ''only'' in the ''original'' production of the sixty-six Canonical books of the Bible (2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 3:15-16)." "Translations from the original languages are likewise to be considered the written Word of God in so far as these translations are accurate as to the form and content of the Original." "Translations made since New Testament times must use words chosen by ''uninspired men'' to translate ''God’s'' words. For this reason no ''translation'' of the Word of God can have an absolute or definitive status. The final appeal must always be to the original languages, in the Traditional Hebrew and Greek texts."TBS ''Doctrine of Holy Scripture''
/ref>

References

External links

Trinitarian Bible Society
who currently heads the society. {{Authority control King James Only movement 1831 establishments in the United Kingdom Religious organizations established in 1831 Christian organizations established in the 19th century Bible societies

Early years

Later years

King James Only

See also

References

Further reading

External links