Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation

Black Imitation-Leather Vinyl

This is a lighter-weight, more compact edition of the Ferrar Fenton Bible than the hard cover edition, approx. 5.25 x 8.25 inches in size, 1271 pages. Please note that the type used is somewhat smaller (about 10 point), compared to the approximately 12 point type of the hard-cover edition. Although the cover is not genuine leather, the attractive black vinyl produces a lighter Bible and is nice looking. A fascinating translation by a noted language scholar with a good understanding of Bible history and the Two Houses of Israel found in the Scriptures. Read Fenton's statement concerning that subject below. See pictures above for illustration of the black-vinyl cover Bible.

            It can truly be said that this translation is like no other in the English language, accomplished over a half century of hard work, with input from some of the greatest language scholars of that day. In addition, the unique features of this Bible make it an excellent companion for both pleasurable reading and intense Bible study. Several of the fascinating renderings of specific passages in the text are discussed in our adjacent essay accompanying the hardcover edition of this work. Here we will mention some of the wonderful general features of the translation.

            Ferrar Fenton explained how this unique Bible translation was accomplished: “I first made, by my own hand and mental effort, the translation absolutely direct from the original, with no intermediary version between the Greek or Oriental Texts and my manuscript.” He then “submitted difficult passages to “Orientalist and Grecianist friends, who were the only men in Europe or America with devotion enough to the Scriptures to give any aid.” These scholars included Dr. Benjamin Wilson, author of the “Emphatic Diaglott” literal Bible translation that is still treasured by Bible students today. Other scholars included Dr. Sir Thomas Phillips, the chief trustee of the British Museum, considered the greatest English language scholar of his day. Dr. Karl Von Baer, another highly respected language scholar, as well as others aided the translation effort.

            This is not considered a strictly “literal” translation, for as the author states, “My object was from the first to present the Spirit as well as the Letter of the Sacred Writers in our own tongue as accurately as a photograph shows the features, expression and mental characteristics of a man’s face and mind. This, I believe, I have accomplished as no other translators have done, and not a few correspondents write me that they see I have attained my hope.”

            Even though the translation takes into account the Spirit or meaning of the text, a great effort was made to be faithful to the original Hebrew. After initial translation work was accomplished, Fenton compared a number of previous translations for their rendering from the original Hebrew and Greek. He states, “The result of this last was surprising and saddening. For I discovered, in the Old Testament, that wherever the Greek translators had blundered in their rendering of the Hebrew or Chaldee text, every translator in every language, from the Latin to the German, French, Spanish, and Italian, onward to the English, authorized or unauthorized versions alike, had one after another repeated the blunders of the Greek, down to a version I lately added to my collation, made within the last twenty years. These are facts…my readers can verify for themselves with a little industry.”

            Another important aspect of this translation is the rendering of proper names of both geographical locations and individuals. Fenton stated, “As I made my translation from the Hebrew without any English version open before me, I have followed the now general plan of Oriental scholars and simply transliterated those names, except a few, such as “Moses,” “Joshua,” etc., which are too fixed by popular use to be altered. The Geographical names I invariably retain in transliterated form; because the attempt of my predecessors in translation from the Septuagint and Vulgate, and their versionists, to render them into their supposed Greek equivalents territorially, has made such wild misplacing of Nations and Towns as to remind one of the dreams of a mapmaker gone mad, whole kingdoms often having been put thousands of miles away from their actual locatities; and these blunders have been incorporated in all our literature.”

            The Fenton translation is not a “Sacred Name” Bible, because the author wished to translate the Hebrew into its meaning in English. For that reason, the name of God is not YHWH (Yahweh), nor the popular “Lord,” but its English equivalent of “The Everliving.” Most scholars even today believe that the Hebrew name of God meant, “Who Was, Who Is, and Who Will Come,” signifying God’s Eternality. The New Testament also relates this meaning in Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord, the God Who exists and Who was, and Who comes—the All-ruler.” (Fenton translation)

            Although the Fenton translation of the Bible is relatively little-known today, it is highly respected work. The introductory note tells us, “The reception by the public of my work when issued part by part has been far more encouraging than I ever expected, or could have hoped. It has had no assistance from Publishers or Universities, but by its own self it has gone over the world;--and cheering voices from every region of the globe and from all classes have wished me ‘God speed’ and urged me to go forward. Like Israel, across the Sea of Difficulty I have gone, and God has brought me to the promised land of Canaan of full success.” (pg. viii)

            It is also little known today that Ferrar Fenton was a strong proponent of the “Two House” or “Anglo-Israel” belief, and dedicated this volume to “all those nations who have sprung from the race of the British Isles, and to whom the English language, in its developed power, is the mother tongue; and with them to all the inhabitants of the world to whom Enlgish has become, or may become, the language of thought, in hope that a clear presentment of the laws of creation and human existence will restore them from the mental distress of atheistic doubt, to a firm reliance upon God, their creator, and the practice of his revealed laws of life, bodily and Spiritual.”

            In an editorial published in the 1893 book, “The Heart Of History,” Ferrar Fenton stated, “After many years I accidentally was asked by an illiterate lady ‘if the English were descendants from the Jews?’ She had read yesterday in a magazine that they were! ‘No,’ I replied, ‘they are not descended from the Jews, but they are the sons or descendants of Abraham. They are the posterity of the Ten Tribes who fled before the Assyrian Invaders according to Isaiah, to Tarshish (Spain) and the Isles of the Sea, or Isles of the West!’ At that time I had become a Christian, and took up the study again and became convinced of its vital bearing on our existence and history as a Race.” In fact, Fenton’s friend and author of “The Emphatic Diaglott” to the Scriptures, Dr. Benjamin Wilson, was also a strong believer in the “Two House” interpretation. The full statements of both men on that subject are given in an article entitled, “Wisdom From The Past” on the Two-House Information Center website.

            We believe that you will enjoy and learn much from this important translation of the Bible. See our comments concerning the hardcover edition of this work for interesting specific translation details.