The Reina–Valera is a

Spanish translation of the Bible Several Spanish translations of the Bible have been made since approximately 700 years ago. Jewish translations Medieval Spanish Jews had a tradition of oral translation of Biblical readings into Spanish, and several manuscript translations w ...

originally published in 1602 when

Cipriano de Valera Cipriano de Valera (1531–1602) was a Spanish Protestant Reformer and refugee who edited the first major revision of Casiodoro de Reina's Spanish Bible, which has become known as the Reina-Valera version. Valera also edited an edition of Ca ...

revised an earlier translation produced in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina. This translation was known as the ''"Biblia del Oso"'' (in English: ''Bear Bible'') because the illustration on the title page showed a bear trying to reach a container of honeycombs hanging from a tree. Since that date, it has undergone various revisions, notably those of 1865, 1909, 1960, 1977, 1995,Anon. ''¡Refrescante y más brillante que nunca!'' Sociedades Bíblicas Unidas (1995) p.92004, 2011, and 2015.

History

Starting point

Casiodoro de Reina, a former Catholic monk of the Order of St. Jerome, and later an independent

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

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, with the help of several collaborators produced the ''Biblia del Oso'', the first complete Bible printed in Spanish. (Earlier translations, such as the 13th-century Alfonsina Bible, translated from Jerome's

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

, had been copied by hand.) It was first published on September 28, 1569, in

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, Switzerland. The translation was based on the Hebrew

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

( Bomberg's edition of 1525) and the Greek

Textus Receptus The (Latin for 'received text') is the succession of printed Greek New Testament texts starting with Erasmus' ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) and including the editions of Robert Estienne, Stephanus, Theodore Beza, Beza, the House of Elzevir ...

( Stephanus' edition of 1550). As secondary sources, de Reina used the Ferrara Bible for the Old Testament and the Latin Edition of Santes Pagnino throughout. For the New Testament, he was greatly aided by the translations of

Francisco de Enzinas Francisco de Enzinas (1 November 1518? – 30 December 1552), also known by the humanist name Francis Dryander (from the Greek ''drus'', which can be translated ''encina'' in Spanish), was a classical scholar, translator, author, Protestant refor ...

and Juan Pérez de Pineda. The 1569 version included the

deuterocanonical The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second Biblical canon, canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be Biblical canon, canonical books of the Old ...

books within the Old Testament and the 1602 version included the deuterocanonical books sandwiched between the Old and New Testaments.

Edition by Cipriano de Valera

In 1602

, a student of de Reina, printed in

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a revision of the ''Biblia del Oso'' in which the deuterocanonical books were placed in a section between the Old and New Testaments called the Apocrypha. Among the reasons for the revision was the fact that in the intervening period words had changed their meanings or gone out of use. For a time, it was known simply by de Valera's name."Versiones castellanas de la Biblia" en ''Nuevo Diccionario Bíblico'' Ediciones Certeza (1991)

Further revisions

The

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, the

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and the

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published a total of fifteen revisions between 1808 and 1995 of which those of 1909, 1960 and 1995 are the most significant today and remain in print and a further revision appeared in 2011. Modern editions often omit the Apocrypha. The principle behind these revisions has been to remain as close to the original Reina–Valera as possible without causing confusion or misunderstanding. Even the 1995 New Testament is based on the traditional

despite the fact that the United Bible Societies use modern critical Greek texts as the basis for other translations. It retains the traditional form of the name of God, " Jehová" (with the notable exceptions of the Nueva Reina Valera 1990, revision which replaces "Jehová" with "El Eterno" and the Reina Valera Contemporánea, revision of 2011 which replaces "Jehová" with "El Señor"). In addition, it uses for the second-person plural the pronoun "vosotros" (except for the Reina Valera Contemporánea which replaces "vosotros" with "ustedes"), which is obsolete outside Spain. Apart from updating the vocabulary where necessary, its major innovations lie in the area of visual presentation: Hebrew verse is printed in a way that reflects its structure rather than as if it were prose, and while the numbering of verses has been retained; the text is laid out clearly in paragraphs. Since the resurgence of the

King James Only movement The King James Only movement (also known as King James Onlyism or KJV Onlyism) asserts that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is superior to all other English translations of the Bible. Adherents of the movement, mostly certain Conse ...

in the United States (and its exportation to other countries), there has been much debate among Christian groups who use the Reina–Valera Bible. However, the 1960 revision became the common Bible of many millions of Spanish-speaking Protestants around the world, surpassing the 1909 in its reception. Almost all Hispanic churches use it, despite the existence of projects to further revise it, such as the Reina Valera Gómez edition of 2004. The Reina–Valera Bible is authorized to be used in Spanish-language services by many religious groups, including the

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word and ...

and the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

Additional Revisions

* The Valera 1602 Purified is the work of Iglesia Bautista Bíblica la Gracia (Grace Bible Baptist Church) in Monterrey. They have spent years on the purification process of the original Valera 1602 Spanish Bible. They produce a version of the 1602 Bible, which has been in print since 2001. * The Reina–Valera 1865, made by Dr. Ángel Herreros de Mora of Spain, and subsequently printed by the

. The ABS continued to reprint this Valera edition until the 1950s. It was reprinted again in the year 2000 by the Local Church Bible Publishers of Lansing, Michigan, and the Valera Bible Society of Miami, Florida. * The Reina Valera Gómez (2004), a revision of the 1909 edition produced in Matamoros,

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, by advocates of King James Onlyism. * The

Trinitarian Bible Society The Trinitarian Bible Society was founded in 1831 "to promote the Glory of God and the salvation of men by circulating, both at home and abroad, in dependence on the Divine blessing, the Holy Scriptures, which are given by inspiration of God and a ...

has been working on a revision of the Valera 1909. *

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

s) published in 2009 their first official Spanish edition of the Bible based on the 1909 Reina–Valera edition, with "a very conservative update of outdated grammar and vocabulary."

Reina Valera Only Movement

Much like the case with the King James Version in English, the Reina Valera has a number of devotees who believe that it is a superiorly authentic translation in the Spanish language, or, more broadly, that the Reina Valera especially the 1960 revision is to be preferred over all other Spanish translations of Scripture or even later subsequent revisions of the Reina Valera. Apologists have opposed this view, arguing that while the Reina Valera is an important translation in Spanish Bible translation history, it is not to be elevated to such status, as new manuscript discoveries and scholarship have challenged that view. .

References

External links