New Testament an Improved version (1808)
I found a copy [
link] and it is a Unitarian correction to the Newcomb Bible. Reading the notes on John 1, it clearly explains that it corrected the translation to reflect the reality that Jesus was 100% man and all divine titles in scripture are mere honorific. He in no way, shape or form existed prior to his birth.
1 THE Word* was in the beginningfj and the Word was
2 with God|. and the Word was a god ft- This Word was
3 in the beginning with God ||. All things were done by
* T/ieJVort/.^ " Jesus is so called, because God revealed himself, or his word, by him." Ncwcome. The same title is piven to Christ, Luke i. 2. For the same reason he is called the Word of" life, 1 John i. 1. which passage is so clear aiid useful a comment upon the proem to the fjospel, that it may be proper to cite the whole of it. "That which was from the begiimin^, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life ; for the Life w&s wmufested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you, that eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us ; that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you." By a similar metonymy Christ b called the Life, the Lie;ht, the Way, the Truth, and the ResuiTCCtion. See Cappe's Dissert, vol. i. p. 19.
fin the beginning.^ Or, from the first, i.e. from the commencement of the gospel dispensation, or of the ministry of Christ. This is the usual sense of the word in the writings of this evangelist. John \'i. 64, Jesus knew from the beginning, or from the first ; ch. xv. 27, ye liave been with me from the beginning. See ch. xvi. 14 ; ii. 24 ; iii. 11 ; also 1 John i. 1 ; ii. 7, 8; 2 John 6, 7. Nor is this sense of the word uncommon ill other passages of the New Testament. 2 Thess. ii. 13 ; Phil. iv. 15 ; Luke i. 2.
i the Wortl was with God.l He withdrew from the world to commune with God, and to receive divine ulstructions and qualifications previously to his public ministiy. As IMoses was with God in the mount, Exod. xxxiv.2S, so was Christ in the wilderness, or elsewhere, to be instructed and disciplined forliis high and important office. See Cappe, ibid. p. 22.
tt and the Word was a god.'] " was God," Newcome. Jesus received a commission as a prophet of the Most High, and was invested with extraordinaiy miraculous powers. But, in the Jewish plu'aseolog)-, they were called gods to w horn the \vo«l of God came. .Tohn X. 35. So Moses is declared to be a god to Pharoah. Exod. vii. 1. Some translate the passage, God was the Woi-d. q. d. it was not so properly he that spake to men, as God that spake to them by him. Cappe, ibid. See John x. 30, compared with xvii. 8, 11, 16 ; iii. ."4 ; v. 23 ; xii. 44. Crellius conjectured that the true reading was 0£y) the Word was God's, q. d. the first teacher of the gospel derived his commission from God. But this conjecture, however plausible, rests upon no authority.
D wasin the beginmng with Gorl.'] Before he entered upon his ministry he was fully in■-•tructed, bv intercoursg with God. in the nature and extent of his commission.
- (Sorry for the text quality, it is a machine scan to text, but you can follow the link to read the original scanned image)
[nice foundation you chose to build upon]
John 1:1-5 [Young’s Literal Translation]
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; 2 this one was in the beginning with God; 3 all things through him did happen, and without him happened not even one thing that hath happened. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men, 5 and the light in the darkness did shine, and the darkness did not perceive it.
(I just checked the first ACTUAL translation on your list that I could identify.)
