Purver Bible
A.D. 1764
aka "The Quaker Bible"
Anthony Purver (1702-1777) saw the need for a new English translation of the Bible other than the King James “Authorized” Bible that was the only English Bible allowed to be printed in England at the time. Bucking the authorities, both ecclesiastical and national, Purver, a shoemaker by trade, taught himself the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages in order to translate the scriptures. He labored single-handedly for over 30 years to produce a new translation of the Bible.
Unable to find a printer who would publish his new Bible translation, Purver, a Quaker Christian, sold his manuscript to a fellow Quaker, Dr. John Fothergill, for 1000 pounds. Fothergill published the Purver Bible in two folio volumes at his own expense in 1764, but it did not generate any volume of sales. That first edition was the only published edition of this Bible referred to as the “Purver Bible” and “The Quaker Bible.”
C.H. Spurgeon referred to the “Purver Bible” as “ungrammatical and unintelligible. Not without its good points, but much more curious than useful.” It has often been faulted as being a “one-man translation,” and for Purver’s own admission that “...on arriving at a difficult passage, he would shut himself up for two or three days and nights, waiting for inspiration.”
Both volumes of the only edition of the Purver Bible are displayed in the Fowler Bible Collection exhibit.
Unable to find a printer who would publish his new Bible translation, Purver, a Quaker Christian, sold his manuscript to a fellow Quaker, Dr. John Fothergill, for 1000 pounds. Fothergill published the Purver Bible in two folio volumes at his own expense in 1764, but it did not generate any volume of sales. That first edition was the only published edition of this Bible referred to as the “Purver Bible” and “The Quaker Bible.”
C.H. Spurgeon referred to the “Purver Bible” as “ungrammatical and unintelligible. Not without its good points, but much more curious than useful.” It has often been faulted as being a “one-man translation,” and for Purver’s own admission that “...on arriving at a difficult passage, he would shut himself up for two or three days and nights, waiting for inspiration.”
Both volumes of the only edition of the Purver Bible are displayed in the Fowler Bible Collection exhibit.
