Question:
About 34 years ago my parents gave me a bible that was called the “Smith-Goodspeed” translation. I have not been able to find any information on this translation, nor have I been able to find a copy to purchase. Do you have any information on this translation?
Answer:
The Smith-Goodspeed Bible is also known as the American Translation, or the Chicago translation because the authors were from various institutions in the Chicago area.
As with most modern language translations, the authors saw a need for the Scriptures to be translated into the common English language. By the 1930’s when this version was started, textual criticism and the science of translation was far advanced from the days of the Authorized text.
Many Hebrew helps, lexicons, grammatical works and lexical studies were available. The Massoretic text was used as a the general guide.
It was not a widely popular translation. Other than falling into the usual KJV vs. every other Bible controversies, the Smith Goodspeed version does not suffer from any extreme translation problems that I am aware of.