Red letter edition

A red-letter King James Bible

Red letter edition Bibles are those in which words spoken by Jesus, commonly only while he was on the Earth, are printed in red ink. This is not to be confused with the Red-Letter Christian movement, which emphasizes the teachings of Jesus in the Bible, particularly in regard to social justice.

History

The inspiration for printing the words of Jesus in red comes from Luke 22:20 - This cup is the new testament in my blood, which I shed for you. On June 19, 1899, Louis Klopsch, then editor of The Christian Herald magazine, conceived the idea while working on an editorial. Klopsch asked his mentor Rev. T. De Witt Talmage what he thought of a testament with the words spoken by Jesus printed in red ink and Dr. Talmage replied, "It could do no harm and it most certainly could do much good."[1]

Klopsch published the first red-letter New Testament later in 1899. The first red-letter Bible was published in 1901.[2] This style of Bible instantly became popular, and is sometimes favored by Protestant Christians in the United States. Especially in King James Bibles, this format can be useful, as quotation marks are not used.[1][2]

Use

Title page of Klopsch red letter edition of the New Testament

Because the original texts do not have quotation marks, it is often up to interpretation as to what words were spoken by Jesus, as opposed to explanatory text that followed. For example, a footnote in the New International Version for John 3:21 explains "Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 15."[3] In addition, some publishers have chosen to print the words spoken by Jesus after his Ascension to Heaven in red (for example in the words spoken to Saul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, as well as words spoken to John of Patmos in Revelation 1-3). Thus, red-lettering may not match the quote marks, and may vary from edition to edition.

A feature of the first Klopsch edition is that the words of Jesus were also printed in italics. This rather defeated the specific use of italics in the KJV to mark words supplied by the translators that are not present in the original languages. From the title page:

Red Letter Edition
WITH THE WORDS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR
SET FORTH IN DIGNIFIED RED ITALICS

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 Eng, Steve. "The Story Behind: Red Letter Bible Editions". International Society of Bible Collectors. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
  2. 1 2 "Origin of Red-Letter Bibles | Crossway". Esv.org. 1994-06-20. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  3. ↑ HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.
  4. ↑ "The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ : (Authorized Version) with all the words recorded therein, as having been spoken by our Lord, printed in color. (Book, 1903)". [WorldCat.org]. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  5. ↑ "Life-work of Louis Klopsch : romance of a modern knight of mercy (Book, 1910)". [WorldCat.org]. Retrieved 2011-11-22.

External links

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