1800 - 1900

TEXT HISTORY
WORLD HISTORY

1801
John Nelson Darby, the eventual father of modern dispensationalism, is born in London.



The Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland merge to become Great Britain.

1806


Noah Webster publishes his first dictionary.

The process of Webster's focus on pronunciation and the English language was grounded in his attention to the needs of early childhood education. His goal was to develop a commonly accepted grasp of terms and meanings by shifting certain spellings so that they would become uniform (defence = defense, centre = center).

1808


Thomson's Translation, developed over 19 years by Charles Thomson, is completed and noted by British Bible scholars to represent the best in American scholarship.


Worth noting is that Thomson served as the Secretary of the Continental Congress from 1774-1781 (key being 1776). He is often credited with designing the Great Seal of the United States (which includes a pyramid stating Novus Ordo Seclorum, or New World Order).

1812
Famed War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain.

1816
The American Bible Society is founded as a means to financially support the printing and translating of the Bible. Today, they are considered the translators of the Good News Translation (1976) and the CEV (1995).

1822
James Strong is born in New York City.

1825
Brooke Foss Westcott is born in Birmingham, Alabama.



The Plymouth Brethren begins in Dublin, Ireland.

While many of today's Plymouth Brethren have a tendency to be associated with a loose dispensational affiliation and connotation, the early "brethren" were established for the purpose of being unaffiliated with traditional church practices that had veered away from Biblical standards set forth in the New Testament.

1828
Fenton John Anthony Hort is born in Dublin, Ireland.

1830


Joseph Smith publishes his Book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ.

1831


Karl Lachmann (1793) publishes his first New Testament in a small version.

1833


Noah Webster's limited revision of the King James Bible is published purely from the standpoint of gaining a modern grasp of archaic English.


Within the covers of Webster's revision, very little was changed beyond words that were no longer used in any American school (wherefore, whence, thou). His intention was to establish a readable text that would make logical sense to children that were being taught in the schools that he educated. As such, those children would not be fearful of a book that was meant to instruct them in morality and salvation.

1835
S. Morse invents his famed Morse Code in the United States as a method of communication.

1837
E.W. Bullinger is born in Canterbury, England.

1841
Sir Robert Anderson is born in Dublin, Ireland.

1842-1845
Karl Lachmann begins publishing his larger second edition of the New Testament in two volumes.

1843
Cyrus Scofield is born in Michigan.

1844
Joseph Smith hustles to publish his revision of the Old and New Testaments based on the Book of Mormon (1830).


Over 3,000 alterations were made to the original texts and Smith's study of Hebrew or Greek had been very little.

1845

 
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is formed as a break from Northern leadership on the matter of slavery.

1846
Karl Lachmann publishes his third and final edition of the New Testament.

1848


The Communist Manifesto is published.
The Associated Press news wire service begins in New York.

1851
The death of Karl Lachmann

1853


Ferrar Fenton Bible is begun with the hope of being the first Biblical translations to make updates into the modern english.


One of the many intriguing and unfortunate things about this text is that Ferrar Fenton was only a businessman and his endeavor to turn the Scriptures into a chronologically based series was built out of very little understanding of Greek and Hebrew.

1854
Fenton John Anthony Hort, along with several contemporaries, establishes the Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology (the study of words and their etymology).

1855


Westcott (1825) publishes his History of the New Testament which would become the generally accepted standard for the English language.

1859


Darwin's Origin of the Species is published and immediately creates widespread interest and curiosity.

1861-1865
The American Civil War is fought between the Union and seceding Confederacy.

1862


Constantin Tischendorf first makes it known that he has discovered the Codex Sinaiticus.


He would later take this Codex, along with two other similarly questionable texts and line them up with the King James Bible in 1869.

1863


Young's Literal Translation is published.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is formally organized in Battle Creek, Michigan.

While other origins are often obscure and inconsistent, Young's translation was built out of Estienne's third edition of 1550. Its emphasis was to keep Greek and Hebrew inflections as they were without making presumptions about what they would become in a new language. In the preface to Young's first edition, the following is stated, "It has been no part of the Translator's plan to attempt to form a New Hebrew or Greek Text—he has therefore somewhat rigidly adhered to the received ones. Where he has differed, it is generally in reference to the punctuation and accentuation, the division of words and sentences, which, being merely traditional, are, of course, often imperfect."

1865
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.

1866
James Inglis introduces dispensational theology to a group of American evangelicals.

1869


Westcott (1825) publishes his History of the English Bible.
The Suez Canal is officially opened providing a connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

Prior to any modern criticisms of his error in translation, Westcott makes the following statement in his History of the English Bible:

"From the middle of the seventeenth century, the King's Bible has been the acknowledged Bible of the English-Speaking nations throughout the world simply because it is the best. A revision which embodied the ripe fruits of nearly a century of labour, and appealed to the religious instinct of a great Christian people, gained by its own internal character a vital authority which could never have been secured by an edict of sovereign rulers."


Constantin Tischendorf produces his Greek New Testament.


Constantin Tischendorf publishes The New Testament: The Authorized English Version with Introduction and the Three Most Celebrated Manuscripts of the Original Greek.

In his New Testament, Tischendorf states: "Many obvious blunders which are found in the manuscripts are passed over in silence." His intention of purpose behind creating a linear viewing of four New Testaments was to show the reader each of the variations that exist without missing a single point.

The three manuscripts were Codex Vaticanus (introduced here for the first time publically), Codex Sinaiticus (which he had discovered in 1862) and Codex Alexandrinus (first introduced by a lesser known Woide in 1786). Deeming these three as "celebrated" leaves the reader to deduce the possibility that they were merely celebrated within the eyes of Tischendorf's scholarly circles.

1870
The doctrine of papal infallibility is introduced.

1872
Dwight L. Moody is first introduced to dispensational theology.

1873



The typewriter is invented by Remington.

1876


Julia E. Smith Parker publishes her translation of the Bible.


Though being a credit to women as the first translation completed by a woman, this effort is largely criticized for its development without accountability. Similar to Charles Thomson's individual work of 1808, but his had received much more praise (likely because of his authority and known credibility).

1876-1880
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1877
Thomas Newberry publishes The Englishman's Greek New Testament, giving the Greek Text of Stephens (Estienne) 1550, with the various Readings of the Editions of Elzevir 1624, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth, together with an interlinear literal Translation, and the Authorized version of 1611.

1881


Westcott, Lightfoot, and Hort publish their first Greek New Testament.

Known more clearly as the Westcott and Hort edition of the Greek, it received most of its criticism because of a neutrality of any previous Latin or Byzantine texts that had been preserved. Rather than referring to a fuller body of options, Westcott and Hort focused solely on the recent copies of Codex Sinaiticus (introduced in 1862) and Codex Vaticanus (introduced in 1867).
The Revised Version of the English New Testament is published.

The Revised Version (RV) became the forerunner and original english Bible that set off a series of translations and editions to proceed on similar grounds and purpose. Those who had begun their efforts of turning the King James into a more modern english language than the 17th century dialogue chose to utilize the influence of more liberal Greek than the Textus Receptus. On the other side of the debate, RV translators noted all of the locations where their use of text varied from the Textus Receptus.

1885


The Revised Version of the English Old Testament is published.

1886


Moody Bible Institute is founded in Chicago. Out of MBI would come a tremendous amount of published literature regarding spirituality, Biblical study, and life application.

1889
Adolf Hitler is born in Austria.

1890


John Nelson Darby publishes the Darby Bible in which his aim is said to have been in writing a Biblical text legible to the unlearned.



Dr. James Strong (1822) publishes Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

Though credited to him, the effort of creating Strong's concordance was the cooperative effort of more than 100 scholars working together to construct a comprehensive work. The base for building was the King James Bible and the Textus Receptus. Interestingly, while many new translations of today such as the NIV (1978) or NASB (1971) utilize Strong's Concordance, the base is still the King James Bible. As such, many find words difficult to ascertain within their translations because of the difference in foundational text.

1892


Richard F. Weymouth publishes The Resultant Greek Testament: Exhibiting the text in which the majority of modern editors are agreed, and containing the readings of Stephens (1550), Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf, Lightfoot, Ellicott, Alford, Weiss, The Bale Edition (1880), Westcott and Hort, and the revision committee.
Fenton John Anthony Hort dies on November 30.

1894


Sir Robert Anderson publishes The Coming Prince and begins to be known (on the side) as a theologian of dispensationalism and prophecy.

1895


The Revised Version of the English Apocrypha is published.

1897


Eberhard Nestle publishes his Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament.

Available information on Eberhard Nestle, his faith, or his affiliation of support is one of the more difficult aspects of unbias timeline development. Often, depending on the resource, he is demonized as a heretic while others completely leave him omitted as an unknown character. Very little is known of his life at this stage in development.

1898


Eberhard Nestle publishes his Greek New Testament that would quickly become the staple GNT of the 20th century after several editions and new hands of involvement. Eventually, Kurt Aland would utilize the work of Nestle, but create his own Greek New Testament (1979) that would supercede the Nestle Greek New Testament.