John Jones (alias Ioan Tegid)

John Jones, the second son of Henry and Catherine Jones, was born on 10th of February, 1792 at Bala, in north Wales and christened at Llanycil church, on the banks of Llyn Tegid. It is from this lake which he later took his Welsh bardic name of Ioan Tegid, by which he is better known in Wales.

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. 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 Welsh poetry as Gwaith barddonawl y diweddar Barch. John Jones, M.A., Tegid.

Isaiah

Whilst at Oxford, Rev. John Jones translated the book of Isaiah from the Hebrew text of van de Hooght into English. This 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 of Isaiah from Hebrew into Welsh. The full Welsh translation was never published, and the original manuscript has been lost. However he submitted selections of it to various Welsh language journals and they were published between 1830 and 1846. Tegid also translated parts of Ruth and Psalms from Hebrew into Welsh.

Digital Edition

The 1842 second edition of this translation of Isaiah, was digitised for the Bible Society in 2021.