The New Testament: A Facsimile of the 1516 Edition: The First English Bible Translated From the Original Languages

I now love it. Initially I had a few reservations because it doesn't have the feel of a replica. This is due to the fact that they have reproduced images of all the original pages of the 1526 New Testament, yet left a narrow margin around each image. I feared that would be distracting, but once I started to read it I soon forgot about the margin and now it seems irrelevant. Once your eyes are focused on the text you have no eyes for anything else. The original sight of the pages also made me wonder if it would be rather heavy-going. The text was small and dark and heavy and close together and looked like it might be a strain to read. But again, once I started reading I found it perfectly comfortable. For anyone familiar with the King James Version, the text reads pretty much the same, so readers should find little difficulty in reading it beyond any struggles with the style of lettering. Familiarity with the language of the King James Version should quickly enable people to accustom their eyes to reading this Tyndale facsimile. I came to it after having already grown familiar with a 1599 Geneva Bible facsimile which had a Roman typeface, but irregular spellings and various ways of abbreviating the words which are no longer in use. So the spellings and abbreviations came as no shock to me here. With odd spellings then one generally just has to try to read the word phonetically, and their meaning should become clear. The most common abbreviation is a small horizontal line above a vowel, which means that an 'n' or an 'm'' comes after the vowel. So for example, 'ad' with a line over the 'a', should be read 'and'. It's straightforward enough once you are used to it. If you are having difficulty adjusting, perhaps try reading a chapter in a more modern translation or typeface first- KJV or NASB for example - and then go back and read the same passage in Tyndale when you have a sense of what it is trying to say. Or have another Bible on hand - KJV preferably as the language will be closest - and compare the texts as you come across a word which isn't easy to decipher. It doesn't have verse numbers (which weren't introduced until the Geneva Bible, but it is laid out in paragraphs, which many modern translations aren't. It is rather nice not to be distracted by verse numbers breaking up the flow of the sentences and dividing sentences in all sorts of odd ways. There was a facsimile produced in 1976 by David Parradine which is superior in some respects, which has the feel of a more true replica, with the appearance and feel of how Tyndale's New Testament must have felt when it was fresh off the press back in 1526, but it is also now scarce and costly. This Hendrickson version is nicely presented and the quality of the images is very good, very clear. And it is affordable, and very good value for money. I heartily recommend it and I only hope that all people who own it do actually read it and make use of it as a very readable translation, and don't just have it as a collector's item. It would make a lovely present for any Christian who enjoys reading old books. It was intended to promote faith, and is not for mere academic study. [Note added on 1st January 2016: Nearly a year after my original review I can still just as warmly recommend it. I used it throughout 2015 for my daily Bible-reading, in conjunction with my usual Bible, reading a chapter in my usual Bible first, and then in this version. Often when no thoughts struck me in the usual version, I would find something in Tyndale's wording which grabbed my attention and got me thinking. Sometimes the wording in my usual Bible translation seemed awkward, or its meaning ambiguous, while Tyndale constructed his sentences much better, and used wording which gave a more precise meaning. It was a joy to read this translation.]

Sehr gut

Excelente

It’s also really cool to have a facsimile of this awesome bible! I just need a magnifying glass to read it. The book is good quality except the picture I took, idk if it’s glue? Overall happy with it.

Amazing to hold English Bible history in my very hands! Even though the writing is from half a millennium ago, it is understandable and recognizable as (albeit very early) modern English. So much of it is familiar to readers of the KJB, as 84% of the King James Bible is taken straight from Tyndale, of those portions he translated. William Tyndale was sailing into uncharted waters, translating a Bible into English from the original tongues with little outside assistance. I encourage the reader to read more on his/her own about the history of William Tyndale and his contributions. I find it very interesting to read something printed at the end of the medieval period and beginning of the age of exploration, when the dam holding back the swelling waters of reformation were bursting asunder. The antique font and early-style Arabic numerals in the margin reveal the great antiquity of this book, and give it a fifteenth century feel, almost as if it were printed by the pioneering English printer, William Caxton. The apparently hand-tinted illustrations are beautiful! Sad that only three copies survive to the present, and not all of them complete. Tips for the modern reader: other reviewers already mentioned the macron or horizontal bar above letters indicating an m or n follows. The long s that resembles an f without the cross piece (today's short s at the end of words). The angled double hyphen at the end of a line when a word is divided. The lower case k that looks a little like a t. Finally, a strange character like a thin, wavy vertical line with a loop at the top. I'm guessing this represents "es". The plural form of nouns in the middle English era often ended with -es. You'll see this wavy thin character at the end of "things". You will have to mentally combine words to make sense, like "where" and "for" to get wherefore. The language is quite understandable once you get used to the archaic spellings and deciphering it. It's also beautiful poetry! Note some words are very archaic (wot/wit = know; ere = before). People familiar with the KJB should pick it up pretty quickly. Webster's 1828 dictionary defines early definitions of words whose meanings have changed over time -- a very valuable resource for readers of early modern English literature, including early English Bibles. Very good price, too! P.S., Amazingly, the letter J did not enter the English alphabet until the mid-17th century. An I was used instead. E.g., Iefus Chrift. At the beginning of a word, a v was always used even for a u sound (vntil for until); conversely, u was used anywhere else, even for a v sound (loue for love; vniuft for unjust). Interestingly, I don't see the old English thorn character (resembles a lower case y with a tiny e above it to represent "the"). This was commonly used as a shortcut right up through the early 17th century by early English printers. But since the Tyndale's work was published on the European continent, no such character would be present in the printer's jobcase.