As every effort has been made to attain it, I believe this fifth edition of my work is the most accurate rendering into any European language, ancient or modern, ever made, not only in words, but in editing, spirit, and sense. I contend that I am the only man who has ever applied real mental and literary criticism to the Sacred Scriptures. I specially refer to my discovery of the Hebrew laws of Syllabic verse.
"Great Fish" was the name of the ship mistranslated "Whale" in the version of the Greek translators, whose blunder has been repeated by all subsequent translators, in all languages, to the perplexity of their readers, until I decided to go back to the original statement of the prophet in his own Hebrew.--F.F.
Another passage that sticks out like a sore thumb for me in this version is Matthew 6: 9-13, known to believers everywhere as The Lord's Prayer. Here's the Fenton version:
Consequently, you must pray in this way:
"Our Father in the Heavens: Your Name must be being Hallowed;
"Your Kingdom must be being restored
"Your Will must be being done both in Heaven and upon the Earth.
"Give us to-day our to-morrow's bread;
"And forgive us our faults, as we forgive those offending us, for You would not lead
us into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
Back in the Hebrew Scriptures, Fenton attempts something equally bizarre with the Psalms. In order to present the idea of the psalms as poetry, he attempts to render them as English-style poems. So in Psalm 23, for example, we get a cute little poem, complete with iambic tetrameter:
STANZA 1
My LORD attends;--I shall not want;--
He lets me rest in verdant fields,
He leads me by the pleasant brooks,
He brings me back, my life refreshed,
To skip with joy, and praise His Name.
STANZA 2
Though I may walk through Death's dark Vale,
I fear no hurt, for You are there,
Your rod and staff direct my way.
STANZA 3
You spread my board before my foes,
With flowing cup have oiled my head,
Kindness and mercy follow me,
On every day I live;
And in the LORD's house I shall dwell;
To lengthen out my days.
The examples I've given above are just a smattering of the odd choices Mr. Fenton made in his translation. I will say I do like his practice of presenting the books of the Bible in a different order than that praditionally found in Protestant English Bibles. I found my print copy of the Ferrar Fenton Bible at a used bookstore, in excellent shape, and for a low price. Original hardback editions on Amazon get just a bit pricy, but there is a paperback reprint available that is pretty reasonably priced. Meanwhile, you can read some PDF scans of The Bible in Modern English at this site. If you are interested in unique versions of the Bible, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.