Reina-Valera


The Reina–Valera is a Spanish translation of the Bible originally published in 1602 until United Bible Societies in 1909 revised the earlier translation produced in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina. This translation was known as the "Biblia del Oso" 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 1602, 1862, 1909, 1960, 1977, 1995, and more recently in 2011.

History

Starting point

, a former Catholic monk of the Order of St. Jerome, and later an independent Lutheran theologian, with the help of several collaborators produced the Biblia del Oso, the first complete Bible printed in Spanish.
It was first published on September 28, 1569, in Basel, Switzerland. The translation was based on the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Textus Receptus. 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 and Juan Pérez de Pineda. The 1569 version included the deuterocanonical 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 Cipriano de Valera, a student of de Reina, published a revision of the Biblia del Oso which was printed in Amsterdam 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.

Further revisions

The British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society and the United Bible Societies 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 Textus Receptus 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".
In addition, it uses for the second-person plural the pronoun "vosotros", 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 in the United States, 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 further attempts to revise it.
The Reina–Valera Bible is one of the Bible translations authorized to be used in Spanish-language services of the Church of Christ, Scientist, the Anglican Communion as well as by many religious groups.

Unofficial revisions