THE LIFE AND WORKS OF DR E.W. BULLINGER

ETHELBERT WILLIAM BULLINGER (1837-1913)

was born in Cambridge, England. He graduated from King's College, London, earning an Associate's degree in 1861, the year he married Emma Dobson.

Ordained in 1862, he served as curate in Bermondsey, Norfolk and Notting Hill. He was vicar of  St Stephen's, Walthamstow from 1874 to 1888. He was also the Secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society from 1867, until his death.

He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1881 in recognition of his biblical scholarship. He died in London, leaving a rich legacy of works to help Bible students.

He was the author of many books, most of which are still in print, including:

A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament (1887)

Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (1898)

The Companion Bible (1909-1922) - [completed after his death by his associates]

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE CONCORDANT VERSION

A PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS

The guiding principle used in making this version is expressed in Paul's instruction to Timothy - "Have a pattern of sound words."

The Concordant Version is unique in that it translates with a consistent vocabulary - no single word represents more than one word in the original scriptures. The translators made great efforts to exclude human opinion in the renderings, and based decisions as much as possible on internal evidence.

UNFAMILIAR WORDS

At first reading the language might seem a little difficult because of a few unfamiliar words. The use of these words was necessary to preserve the accuracy and reflect the meaning of the original text. This strangeness will quickly disappear as the meaning becomes clear

There are immense benefits to be gained from this version. Repeated expressions are easily recognized. Subjects that were once clouded or vague become clear, and chains of thought are easily followed. With clear understanding the words of scripture are more easily committed to memory.

The Concordant Version is of importance because to a great extent it avoids colouring God's word with the opinion of the translators. The work was done in two main stages, a literal translation - which does not make readable English - and an idiomatic version that is effectively an everyday English version.

A Greek text was prepared by collating the information from the three most ancient complete Greek texts, paying particular attention to corrector's notes. This work took many years, and when completed, was found to be almost identical to Weymouth's Resultant Greek Text.

EVERY WORD IN EVERY CONTEXT

Before translation was begun every word in the original language of the New Testament was examined in every context by a team of scholars. A single standard word was then chosen to accurately convey the meaning of this Greek word into English.

Idiomatic similes were then given to each of these standard words, so the text would make readable English. Thus, for example the Greek katargeo is given the standard DOWN-UN-ACT, its exact meaning. But this does not make readable English, and the similes (nullify, discard, exempt, abolish, make unproductive) are used as necessary, but are exclusive to this one word and not used for any other Greek term.

Another example is upodema. The literal meaning of this word is shown in its standard UNDER-BIND. This was a piece of leather bound under the foot with leather thongs, and in English we recognize this as sandal, which is used in the version; UNDER-BINDINGS are sandals. In this way the accuracy of God's word is preserved to a far greater extent than is possible by other means.

Remember...

The original scriptures, the words spoken by Jesus and the words penned by the apostles, were already concordant.

Further details of the Concordant Literal Version are available at www.concordant.org

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