French Portal
From Textus Receptus
The French have a great history of Received Text Bibles, including the Olivetan Bible and the Ostervald Bible. There appear to be two Received Text French Bibles available today.
The David Martin French Bible was released in 1699. It was based upon the Received Text and the English Geneva Bible 1588. An 1855 revision is available today. It can be obtained from the Association of the Biblique International, Box 225646, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
A 1996 revision of the Froussard edition of the Ostervald edition of 1881 is in print today. It can be obtained from Bearing Precious Seed-Milford and Bethel Baptist Church of Lambeth, Ontario. The 1996 revision was done by Missionary C. H. Boughman.
Both versions still need a final purification process.
Many Baptist missionaries use the French Louis Segond translation. This is far from being a reliable Received Text translation. The Trinitarian Bible Society publishes a “revised” Louis Segond—a few verses have been changed to reflect the Received Text. According to a 2006 email from Paul Rowland, the Trinitarian Bible Society is working on a revision of the David Martin Bible comparing it with the King James Bible.
French King James Version
The web-site www.kingjamesfrancaise.com contains a translation of the King James Bible into French. This translation is not in print yet.
Nadine Stafford sends this note about this translation:
- “In 1994, I was told by a French pastor that the word “enfer” (hell) was not to be found in the French Bibles. I was shocked to hear that! I immediately consulted the 1910 Segond and a few other French Bibles. What he said was true. Using New Age Bible Versions, by Gail A Riplinger, I started checking the many problem passages mentioned in her book and found that over 90% of those passages were also mistranslated in the French Bibles. It was then that I began work on translating the King James Bible into French for my own personal use. To my great dismay, even the 1885 Martin and the 1996 Ostervald Bibles, which are being promoted as the French equivalents of the King James version, were far from it and not even entirely faithful to the Textus Receptus and the Masoretic Text as is proclaimed.
- In 1999, I met Sister Gail Riplinger at the King James Conference at Mt Airy. After I showed her how far the 1996 Ostervald had strayed from the King James Bible, she encouraged me to continue my translation. In 2001 I was led providentially to a French Christian website, where the web master had just acquired a 1669 Bible de Geneve (Geneva Bible in French). I introduced him to the 1885 Martin Bible, the 1996 Ostervald Bible, the King James Bible, and the book, New Age Bible Versions. When I mentioned to him that I was translating the King James Bible into French, he asked for permission to post it on his site. I also translated parts of Gail Riplinger’s book for him.
- I have been researching and collating, verse by verse, the 1669 Bible de Geneve, the 1744 Martin and 1855 Martin, as well as the 1894 Ostervald, 1852 Ostervald New Teestament, 1938 Ostervald New Testament and Psalms and of course, the 1996 Ostervald, and compared them to the King James Bible. The many differences lead to confusion, especially in the Old Testament passages with references to the Millennial Kingdom, where the present tense of the verbs are used instead of the future tense. It is hard to teach correct eschatology using these Bibles which present Reformation theology. Don’t forget that Olivetan was John Calvin’s cousin!”
French Canadian missionary, Dr. Yvon Geoffrion is basing most of his ministry working upon a new translation of the Bible into French. He is a doctrinally sound fundamental Baptist preacher.
He is using a French translation done in the early 1800s as a base. It was translated by 30 men over 40 years. It was the product of an evangelical revival. It was printed in Lousanne, Switzerland and is sometimes called the Lousanne Version.
See Also
- Languages of France
- French language
- History of French
- List of countries where French is an official language
- List of English words of French origin
- List of French loanwords in Persian
- List of pseudo-French words adapted to English
- Louis Segond
- Varieties of French
- Language policy in France
- French grammar
- French phonology
