The English–speaking church needs a vernacular Bible that:
- belongs to the church (is unencumbered by copyright and the possibility of captivity to God’s enemies),
- is based on the church’s historic manuscripts, and
- corrects erroneous or misleading historic translation.
The King James Version is a good example of the first and second points, but it retains archaic language and misleading translations such as “temple” (which ought to be “palace”) and “burnt offering” (which ought to be something like “going up” or “ascension”), and it overlooks the blamelessness of Jacob. The New King James Version corrects the archaic language of the King James, but it is protected by copyright and does not improve these misleading translations. In fact, there are very few versions that go far in correcting misleading translation; for example, Everett Fox’s Schocken Bible is the only English translation we’re aware of that rightly indicates Jephthah’s daughter went up to a life of service at the tabernacle rather than being burned as a human sacrifice:
Now there came upon Yiftah the rushing–spirit of YHWH;
he crossed over to Gil’ad and Menashe,
and he crossed over to Mitzpe of Gil’ad, and from Mitzpe of Gil’ad
he crossed over to the Children of Ammon.
And Yiftah vowed a vow to YHWH and said:
If you will give, yes, give the Children of Ammon into my hand,
it will be: the one going out who goes out of the doors of my house to meet me,
when I return in peace from the Children of Ammon
shall be YHWH’s
and shall be offered up by me as an offering–up! (Judges 11:29–31, Everett Fox)
However, Fox’s translation is unfinished, is under copyright, and has an intriguing but difficult air of unfamiliarity for most English readers.
The Fuquay Bible is an attempt to address this need. It is a slow, incremental, and iterative project, based on the KJV and depending on many insights from James Jordan and Peter Leithart.
Presently this project is copyrighted as a means of ensuring some return for our labor, but it is our plan to donate this to the church.