From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Frederick Beck
(August 28, 1904 ? October 24, 1966) was an American
Lutheran
minister
best known for his
biblical translation
,
The Holy Bible, An American Translation
.
[1]
Biography
[
edit
]
William Frederick Henry Beck was born in
Little Falls, Minnesota
. He was the son of Paul Friedrich Gustav Beck (1869-1950) and Mary Marie Josephine (Butschke) Beck (1873-1964). His father was a Lutheran minister. He graduated from
Concordia College
in
Moorhead, Minnesota
, in 1924,
Concordia Seminary
in
Clayton, Missouri
in 1927. He returned to the seminary to earn a
Th.D.
in 1956. He subsequently taught courses at the seminary. In 1959 he published an English translation of Gospel texts, entitled
The Christ of the Gospels
.
[2]
His
New Testament
translation was first published during 1963. At the time of his death in 1966, he had finished the first draft of the
Old Testament
. Elmer Smick of
Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary
and Erich Kiehl of Concordia Seminary recommended certain revisions. The text with these revisions was published together with the New Testament as
The Holy Bible in the Language of Today, An American Translation
in 1976.
[3]
His work was the first translation of the Bible into English completed by a Lutheran minister. To commemorate that achievement, a copy was placed in the
Lutherhaus
in
Wittenberg
,
Germany
, on January 1, 1976.
[4]
He had hoped that the
Lutheran Church?Missouri Synod
would adopt it as their official translation, but this did not happen. Beck also worked as a technical advisor for several Hollywood films that had Biblical themes. He died in St. Louis, Missouri, and was buried at the
Lakewood Cemetery
in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
.
[5]
Beck briefly wrote of his time in
Arkansas
, publishing in his own paper the
Pea Ridge Pod
and later for
the Pulaskian
, a weekly newspaper in
Little Rock, Arkansas
.
[6]
Works
[
edit
]
- William F. Beck,
The New Testament in the Language of Today
(St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1963)
- William F. Beck et al.,
The Holy Bible in the Language of Today, An American Translation
(New Haven, Missouri: Leader Publishing Co., 1976)
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Multi-Language Publications Newsletter
Bringing the Written Word to the World
. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. March 2003 p. 2-3 Reu Beck "The Life and Work of Dr. William F. Beck"
pdf
Archived
2010-12-29 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Paul, William. 2003. "Beck, William F."
English Language Bible Translators
, p. 24. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland and Company.
- ^
"AAT Bible Beck"
. Northwestern Publishing House
. Retrieved
April 1,
2016
.
- ^
Paul, William. 2003. "Beck, William F."
English Language Bible Translators
, p. 25. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland and Company.
- ^
Surburg, Raymond F. (January 1976).
"Dr. William Beck's Translation of the Old Testament"
(PDF)
. The Springfielder. Volume 40, Number 1
. Retrieved
April 1,
2016
.
- ^
Allsopp, F. W. (1922). History of the Arkansas Press for a Hundred Years and More. United States: Parke-Harper Publishing.