New Version

A New Version of the Psalms of David, Fitted to the Tunes Used in Churches, by Nahum Tate* and Nicholas Brady* (1696) was a response to mounting criticism of Sternhold* and Hopkins*’s psalm paraphrases of 1562. It made slow headway against the Old Version*, but eventually gained an acknowledged place as an alternative psalm book for Anglican use. From about 1770 to 1830 it was probably the most widely used word book in the church, being frequently bound at the back of the Book of Common Prayer. Selections from it have continued to appear in hymnbooks down to the present time. Dissatisfaction with the Old Version had taken two forms. The Puritan wing of the church distrusted poetic or...