Category Archives: English Bibles

Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible (abbreviated EBR to avoid confusion with the REB) is a translation of the Bible that uses various methods, such as “emphatic idiom” and special diacritical marks, to bring out nuances of the underlying Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. It was produced by Joseph Bryant Rotherham, a bible scholar and minister of the Churches of Christ, who described his goal as “placing the reader of the present time in as good a position as that occupied by the reader of the first century for understanding the Apostolic Writings.”
The New Testament Critically Emphasised was first published in 1872. However, great advances occurred in textual criticism during the last half of the 19th century culminating in Brooke Foss Westcott’s and Fenton John Anthony Hort’s Greek text of the New Testament. This led Rotherham to revise his New Testament twice, in 1878 and 1897, to stay abreast of scholarly developments.
The entire Bible with the Old Testament appeared in 1902. Rotherham based his Old Testament translation on Dr. C. D Ginsburg’s comprehensive Masoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible that anticipated readings now widely accepted.
Rotherham’s translation has stayed in print over the years because of the wealth of information it presents. John R Kohlenberger III says in his preface to the 1994 printing, “The Emphasized Bible is one of the most innovative and thoroughly researched translations ever done by a single individual. Its presentation of emphases and grammatical features of the original languages still reward careful study.”