This day in history: Bible translator Charles Bray Williams died on this day in 1952. C.B. Williams should not to be confused with Bible translator Charles K. Williams.
Williams graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem NC, and was a Baptist minister.
Williams stated, "Our aim is to make this greatest book in the world readable and understandable by the plain people."
Some have noted that there are many similarities between Williams New Testament and Goodspeed's New Testament (one of the greatest New Testament translations ever produced).
Here are some comparisons:
Revelation 5:10 "and have made them a kingdom of priests for our God, and they are to reign over the earth." Goodspeed
"and have made them a kingdom of priests for our God; and they will rule over the earth." Williams
While "over" is a better translation, most Bible use the word "on".
John 10:38 "But if I am doing so, even if you will not believe me, believe the deeds, that you may come to know and continue to know that the Father is in union with me and I am in union with the Father." Williams
"But if I am doing them, then even if you will not believe me, believe the things I do, in order that you may realize and learn that the Father is in union with me, and I am in union with the Father." Goodspeed
Both Goodspeed and Williams use the phrase "in union with" many times.
John 8:58 "Jesus said to them, 'I tell you, I existed before Abraham was born!'" Goodspeed
"Then Jesus said to them, 'I most solemnly say to you, I existed before Abraham was born.'" Williams
This is a better translation than the traditional "I am" as the "Greek at John 8:58 fits an idiom described by grammarian Kenneth McKay as the “Extension from Past”, which occurs when a present tense verb is “used with an expression of either past time or extent of time with past implications.” (A New Syntax of the Verb in New Testament Greek: An Aspectual Approach), p. 41, 42 (Source)
However, Williams was much more conservative/fundagelical in many passages.
For instance at John 1:1 where Goodspeed has "the Word was divine", Williams goes overboard with the horrible rendering of "the Word was God Himself."
At John 1:18, where it should read, "No man hath seen God at any time; an only begotten god, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him", Williams has, "No one has ever seen God; the only son, Deity Himself, who lies upon His Father's breast, has made him known."
Where Goodspeed would use "homage" in places like Matthew 2:2, Williams reverted back to the word "worship,"
Additionally, Williams insisted on continuous action of a Greek verb made Mark 1:5 sound like the people were being repeatedly baptized, "And people from all over Judea and everybody in Jerusalem kept on going out to him and being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins."
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