Thomson Bible

The Thomson Bible holds the distinction of being the first English translation of the Septuagint to appear as part of a complete Bible, and it stands as one of the earliest major American Bible translations. In scope it is a complete Protestant Bible, prepared as a fresh translation rather than a revision of earlier English versions, a course that set it apart from the Authorized Version tradition then dominant among English-speaking Protestants. Its source language throughout is Greek: the Old Testament rests on the Septuagint and the New Testament on the Greek text. Its most distinctive feature is precisely this reliance on the Greek Septuagint for the Old Testament rather than on the Hebrew, the customary base for Protestant translators. The translation philosophy may be characterized as literal-to-idiomatic and scholarly, and the work is chiefly remembered for making the Septuagint accessible to English readers within the framework of a full Bible.