Discussion of the Wikisource Translation of the Bible

Wikisource is producing a new translation of the Bible. This project will review that translation.

Canon
The Wikisource Bible wrongly includes 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151 in the Apocrypha, although these books have never been recognised by the Church of England as part of the Apocrypha or included in the King James Version or any Roman Catholic Bibles. This error appears to have arisen because some printings of the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version have an "expanded" collection of "The Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Books" that includes these books. However, it is clear from The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce Metzger, the chairman of the NRSV translators, that these books are not part of the standard Apocrypha. See Apocrypha.

Genesis

 * 1:1 "At first" should be "In the beginning". The Hebrew is "Bereshis"; the prefix "Be" cannot be translated "At".  Further, the whole thrust of the passage is that this was the beginning, the creation; "at first" does not convey that sense.


 * 1:1 "sky" (Hebrew "shamayim") should be "heaven". "Sky" is "shachaq".

Judges

 * 1:3 "destiny" is not very clear. It means "my territory" or "the territory allotted to me".  It would read better if "likewise" were placed earlier in the verse.