“Dr. Nathan Harding and our team are fully dedicated to this translation, aiming for its timely completion. In response to the extraordinary enthusiasm for our project, we’re thrilled to introduce thematthewbible.com. Subscribe on our homepage for hassle-free updates – your privacy is our priority. We’ll provide email updates on The Matthew Bible: Modern Spelling Edition™, which will be available globally through our website and our publisher/printer’s channels.

While awaiting the release of The Matthew Bible: Modern Spelling Edition, we invite you to explore our collection of engaging books. These insightful resources delve into the history of the Matthew Bible and include the book of Psalms MBMS. Your purchases not only enrich your study library but also support our ongoing translation efforts. Visit our website for these valuable additions: [Books].”

We are only changing the spelling. No other translator has attempted this before now. Any other attempt has changed grammar or swapped passages with other texts. The Matthew Bible: Modern Spelling Edition™ is a faithful orthographic translation of the inspired Bible content. The Modern Spelling Edition™ does not try to recreate the Matthew Bible; it just updates the spelling of the 66 books of the Bible as commonly accepted in the King James version and by John Rogers.

See the FAQ “What does Modern Spelling™ mean?” below for more information.

Yes. We are capturing the original text and converting it to modern font and spelling. Our goal is to maintain the precious words of this Holy Writ. The verse numbering system is the Oxford Standard.

Note: Although the original Matthew Bible did not have “numbered” verse divisions, it did have paragraph separations.

We are using physical 1549 printings (the 1537 revision), which are almost identical reprints of the original. We chose this print because it is better preserved but has the same writing as the original. There were only a few total printings of the Thomas Matthew Bible. The known printings were in 1537 (First Edition), at least two in 1549 (one was almost identical to the original, the other one updated the notes), and up to four in 1551.

Although we will be adding a section called “The Notes,” our primary interest is in preserving the word of God as translated and printed by William Tyndale and John Rogers et al. in the Matthew Bible.

 The Matthew Bible: Modern Spelling Edition™ means that the Early Modern British English spelling has been updated to Modern American English. It does not mean that archaic (old and no longer used) or British words have been replaced. This is an orthographic translation. The vocabulary will read much like The King James Version that you are used to reading, (especially since the KJV incorporates nearly 77% of The Matthew Bible.

Words like thee and thou have not been taken out. The goal is not to update the language or grammar (in the Modern Spelling Edition™) but to update the spelling and font so that The Matthew Bible can be read by the average English-speaking person of today. This is truly more of a revision than a new edition. The goal is to make corrections that reflect today’s American spelling and not to replace any words from the original.

* Early Modern English (c.1440 – 1800)
** Modern English (c.1800 – present)

How these changes look:
Early Modern English did not have standardized spelling. They spelled (and read) phonetically. We are standardizing the spelling. As an example, the word “drink” might be spelled Drynk, Drynke or Drinke. Even in the same paragraph, some words will fail to maintain the same spelling.

Other updates:
The date that The Matthew Bible was first published in M, D, xxxvij in Roman numerals. This would be translated to 1000, 500, 37, and then added together. In modern spelling (numbering) this date would be written as 1537: M means 1000, D is 500, xxx is 30, and vij is 7. The Matthew Bible uses a combination of Roman numerals and written words to express dates, numbers, and times. We must update these to European digits (Hindu-Arabic) which is the standard United States numbering system (0123456789).

More About Modern Spelling:
The symbol for the word “and” looks like a fancy (A) with the connecting line slightly extended. This will be updated to the word (and) or a modern ampersand (&).

Early Modern English still used the letter “Thorn” which looks like this: Þ or this, þ. Thorn carries the same sound as “th”. We are working on changing the Thorn to the “th”. This means the early modern word “þe” is often translated to “the”, “thee”, or “that”.

Diacritical marks are being removed (the symbols above certain letters). For example, (ẏ) may translate to (The or That), and (Thē) would translate to (Thee).

The forward slash (virgule) is most often translated to a comma (,). Incorrect letters are being replaced with the correct ones (U=V), (F=S), (I=J), and missing past-tense endings (ED) are added to verbs.

The Matthew Bible often used a double L (LL) when only one is needed. We are removing one L. The name “Abell” would become “Abel.”

The pilcrow (¶) is a capital C with one or two vertical lines through it. It will be removed. It signals the start of a new paragraph. The pilcrow is still used today by typesetters and proofreaders, often on computer software.

Often the early English used “ea” instead of a single “e”. It also added an “e” to the end of many words. We are working on changing this. In early English, the word “rest” would be spelled “reaste”. 


*Special Acknowledgements: Pastor Bayless of the Lawton Church of God for giving permission to use an electronic copy of The Matthew Bible in Early Modern British English (Serif font, roman numeral numbering, original Geneva verse divisions).

The Matthew Bible: Modern Spelling Edition™ will be made available from this website and from the publishers/printer’s website. We will provide the information as it becomes available.

This Bible is being offered in several different bindings that range from economy to top grain leather. There will even be a collector’s edition to accentuate the facsimile edition that so many already own and enjoy.

See the Blog post for an Indepth discussion about the Apocrypha

Yes. And thank you for your generosity.
–Direct donation 
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–Order a Book

The Matthew Bible: Modern Spelling Edition™ uses European digits (Hindu-Arabic), which is the standard United States placeholder numbering system (0123456789). It does not use Roman numerals.

​It is our intention to show the words of Christ in red and to distinguish the Old Testament quotes used in the New Testament. This will be finalized when it is time to go to print.

The Matthew Bible, also known as The Thomas Matthew Bible, derives its name from the pseudonym’ Thomas Matthew’, under which it was initially published. The name ‘Thomas Matthew’ is a moniker, not an indication of ownership by someone named Matthew, so the title lacks an ‘s’ or’s. Similarly, you’ll notice the King James Bible also doesn’t have an apostrophe in its name.

The pseudonym’ Thomas Matthew’ first appeared on the title page of The Matthew Bible and was also used in the introduction.

Drawing from my expertise in the Matthew Bible, I believe there’s a significant meaning behind the name ‘Thomas Matthew.’ In the Greek language, ‘Thomas’ means ‘twin,’ and ‘Matthew’ translates to ‘gift from God.’ Combined, the name is most likely used to translate as “a twin gift from God,” thus reflecting the sentiment that this Bible translation is a faithful ‘twin’ to the original scriptures, untouched and true to Tyndale’s intended translation, like a divine gift, especially considering the context of religious turmoil where earlier versions were destroyed.

For more insights on this intriguing topic, I recommend visiting our detailed blog post this blog post.

It uses standard font like the one you are reading. See the “Black letter Font” page for an example. It will explain how the font is being updated and show you a picture of why it needs updates!