Bible Translation

A Global Chorus Before the Lord: Remembering Ethnomusicologist Vida Chenoweth

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment
Vida Chenoweth
Portrait of Vida Chenoweth, c. 1950s. SC114, Photo-08.

This March, in honor of Women’s History Month, Wheaton Archives and Special Collections remembers Vida Chenoweth—a concert marimbist, Bible translator, and pioneering ethnomusicologist. From the glittering concert halls of Europe to the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, Vida’s life and ministry combined a love of music with a deep commitment to the dignity of all peoples and a celebration of the unique traditions of diverse musical cultures. SC 114: Vida Chenoweth Papers showcase the breadth of her remarkable career, featuring recital and field recordings, photographs, press clippings, original research, correspondence, and diaries.

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“The Letter Kills but the Spirit Gives Life”: Julia E. Smith’s Bible Translation

/ Emily Banas / Leave a comment

From the first century onward, the form and text of the Bible has been a source of near-endless debate, review, reinvention, and artistry. Available in thousands of different translations, editions, and compilations, it is a text that is at once universal and individual.

Title page for a King James translation, 1613. (SC-10)

Wheaton Archives & Special Collections holds more than five hundred whole or partial Bible monographs. Each of these instances carry forward the spirit of their common text and yet remain unique, with their own voices and particularities. Some of this variety comes from the different language translations available in the Archives (ranging from Hawaiian to Sanskrit), but remarkable diversity can also be found within the English translations alone.

The archive’s shelves include multiple printings, editions, and facsimiles of famous English translations, such as the Wycliffe Bible (1388), the Coverdale Bible (1535), and the King James version (1613), as well more modern classics, like the New International Version (1984) and the Living Bible (1971), among many others.   

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