Darby Bible

The Darby Bible is a literal rendering of the complete Scriptures associated with John Nelson Darby, a leading figure among the Plymouth Brethren, and it has been highly influential within that movement and within the dispensational study tradition that grew alongside it. Rather than revising an existing English version, it was prepared as a fresh translation from the original languages, taking the Hebrew Old Testament and a critical Greek New Testament as its base texts and reflecting the nineteenth-century turn toward newly edited Greek manuscripts. Its translation philosophy is formal and literal, favouring close correspondence with the underlying wording over idiomatic ease, which gives the text a distinctive character in English. Among its notable features are its use of distinctive terminology and its extensive textual notes, which discuss manuscript readings and points of grammar. It has long been valued chiefly as a study aid rather than as a version for public reading.