Welsh Ruth, Psalms and Isaiah

John Jones, the second son of Henry and Catherine Jones, was born in 1792 at Bala, in north Wales. He was christened at Llanycil church, on the banks of Llyn Tegid. It is from this lake which he later took his bardic name Ioan Tegid. He studied at Bala and at Carmarthen, before going to Jesus College, Oxford, which traditionally recruited students from Wales. In 1819 he was ordained into the Anglican Church and became chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford. He was a scholar of Welsh and Hebrew. Whilst at Oxford he transcribed the Mabinogi and other stories from the Red Book of Hergest for Lady Charlotte Guest. He returned to Wales in 1841 and took an active part in Eisteddfod gatherings. He was vicar of Nevern (Nanhyfer) in Pembrokeshire from 1842, and became canon of St Davidʼs Cathedral in 1848. He remained at Nevern until he died in 1852 aged 60. He was buried at Nevern, where there is a memorial to him. In 1859 his nephew published his poetry as Gwaith barddonawl y diweddar Barch. John Jones, M.A., Tegid. Tegid translated the book of Isaiah from Hebrew into English, which was published at Oxford in 1830, and went to a second edition in 1842. His English translation was made to help get feedback for his translation from Hebrew into Welsh. The full Welsh translation was never published, and the original manuscript has been lost. However he submitted selections from his translation of Isaiah to various Welsh language journals and they were published between 1830 and 1846. The surviving selections are Eseia 5:1-7; chapter 10; 14:5-19; 17:12-14; chapters 19 and 23; 45:11; chapter 53; and 58:13-14. Tegid also translated parts of Ruth and Psalms from Hebrew into Welsh. He published these in instalments in Y Gwyliedydd. Selections of Ruth were published in June and July 1833. The selections are Ruth 1:6; 2:5; 3:1, 4, 9-13, 15; and 4:4, 11, 13-14. Tegid followed this with his translation of the Psalms. These were published in monthly instalments between March 1834 and August 1835. He completed the first 20 psalms before giving up because he got no positive feedback. These selections of Scripture from Ruth, Psalms and Isaiah were digitised for the Bible Society in 2021, for the Welsh Scripture Digitisation Project. The collection has been called Salmau 1-20 a detholiad o Ruth ac Eseia 1830-35 (Ioan Tegid).