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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
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-Title: Lectures on Bible Revision
-
-Author: Samuel Newth
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-Release Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #42514]
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-Language: English
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42514 ***
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Lectures on Bible Revision
-
-Author: Samuel Newth
-
-Release Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #42514]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.
-
-  With an Appendix
-
-  CONTAINING THE PREFACES TO THE CHIEF HISTORICAL
-  EDITIONS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
-
-
-  BY SAMUEL NEWTH, M.A., D.D.,
-  PRINCIPAL, AND LEE PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, NEW COLLEGE, LONDON;
-  MEMBER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY OF REVISERS.
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
-  27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
-  MDCCCLXXXI.
-
-  [_All rights reserved._]
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-The following work is especially intended for Sunday-school and
-Bible-class teachers, and for such others as from any cause may be unable
-to consult many books or to read lengthened treatises. It has seemed to me
-to be of great importance that those who are engaged in the responsible
-service of teaching the young, and to whom the Bible is the constant
-source of appeal, should be able both to take up an intelligent position
-in regard to the new revision of the English Scriptures, and to meet the
-various enquiries that will be made respecting it by those about them. I
-have therefore endeavoured to provide for their use, in a compendious
-form, a survey of the general argument for revision, and of the facts
-which exhibit the present duty of Christian men in relation thereto. In
-the execution of this purpose it has been necessary to direct attention to
-the chief stages in the growth of the English Bible, but this has been
-done only so far as seemed to be requisite for the illustration of the
-main argument. Those who may desire to study this part of the subject more
-at length are referred to the full and interesting volumes of Dr. Eadie,
-or to the convenient manuals published by Dr. Moulton and by Dr.
-Stoughton. Such as may wish to investigate more minutely the internal
-history of the Authorized Version will find Dr. Westcott's _General View
-of the History of the English Bible_ a most trustworthy and invaluable
-guide.
-
-In the Appendix I have brought together the prologues or prefaces to the
-chief historical editions of the English Bible. Some of these are not of
-easy access to ordinary readers, while all are of deep and lasting
-interest. They will abundantly repay a careful perusal. The reader will
-thereby, more readily than in any other way, come into personal contact
-with the noble men to whose self-denying labours our country and the world
-are so deeply indebted; will learn what was the spirit which animated
-them, and what were the aims and methods of their toil; and, in addition
-to much wise instruction respecting the study of the word of God, will
-learn how the deepest love and reverence for the Bible are not only
-tolerant of changes in its outward form, but will indeed imperatively
-demand them whenever needed for the more faithful exhibition of the truth
-it enshrines.
-
-It has formed no part of my purpose either to exhibit or to justify the
-changes which have been made in the revision in which I have had the
-honour and the responsibility of sharing. The former will best be learnt
-from the perusal of the Revised Version itself; the latter it would be
-unbecoming in me to undertake. The ultimate decision respecting them must
-rest upon the concurrent judgment of the wisest and most learned; and they
-who are the most competent to judge will be the least hasty in giving
-judgment, for they best know how difficult and delicate is the
-translator's task, and how manifold, and sometimes how subtle, are the
-various considerations which determine his rendering. Nor indeed would any
-such attempt be possible within the limits I have here assigned to myself.
-To be properly done it would require an appeal to special learning which
-I have no right to assume in my readers, and to habits of scholarly
-investigation which I may not presuppose. To the bulk of my readers the
-one justification for the changes they will discover in the Revised New
-Testament must practically rest in the fact that those who have for more
-than ten years conscientiously and diligently laboured in this matter, and
-who have with such anxious care revised and re-revised their work, have
-been constrained to the conclusion that in this way they would most
-faithfully and clearly present the sense of the sacred Word. May He whose
-word it is graciously accept their service, and deign to use it for His
-glory.
-
-  NEW COLLEGE,
-  _April 26, 1881_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-                                                                      Page
-
-  LECTURE I. SUBSTANCE AND FORM                                          1
-
-  LECTURE II. THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE                           11
-
-  LECTURE III. THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE                  25
-
-  LECTURE IV. THE REVISION OF 1611. THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION    39
-
-  LECTURE V. REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY                             51
-
-  LECTURE VI. ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN
-              THE REVISION OF 1611                                      61
-
-  LECTURE VII. ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW
-               KNOWN                                                    79
-
-  LECTURE VIII. THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING
-                THE PAST TWO CENTURIES                                  91
-
-  LECTURE IX. THE REVISION OF 1881                                     105
-
-
-  APPENDIX.
-
-  (A.) PURVEY'S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE. CH. XV.              129
-
-  (B.) TYNDALE'S PROLOGUES                                             137
-
-  (C.) COVERDALE'S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535                       160
-
-  (D.) PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 1560                              172
-
-  (E.) PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS' BIBLE. 1568                             177
-
-  (F.) PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611                                 199
-
-  (G.) THE REVISERS OF 1568                                            235
-
-  (H.) THE REVISERS OF 1611                                            237
-
-
-
-
-LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE I.
-
-_SUBSTANCE AND FORM._
-
-
-There are probably devout persons not a few in whose minds the mere
-suggestion of a Revision of the Scriptures arouses a feeling of mingled
-pain and surprise. In that Bible which they received from their fathers in
-the trustful confidence of childhood, they have heard the voice of God
-speaking to their souls. Not from any testimony given to them by others,
-but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to
-be the Father's gift unto His children. It has quickened, guided, and
-strengthened them, as no human words had ever done, answering the deepest
-cravings of their nature, stimulating them to endeavours after a nobler
-life, and enkindling within them the confidence of a sure and blessed
-hope. That it is from heaven, and not from men, they know, not because of
-what has been told them, but from what they themselves have seen and
-learnt; and they need no further evidence of its inspiration than the fact
-that it has opened their eyes to a knowledge of themselves, and to a
-perception of the loveliness of Christ. That any should dare to meddle
-with a book so precious and so honoured, seems to them a sacrilegious act,
-and a Revision of the Holy Scriptures is to them a presumptuous attempt to
-improve upon the handiwork of God.
-
-In this feeling there is much with which every Christian man will warmly
-sympathize; but there is in it also something that calls for correction
-and instruction. There is need here, as elsewhere, of careful thought and
-self-discipline, lest, by confounding things that differ, we transfer our
-reverence for what is God-given and divine to what is only human, and
-therefore fallible. A little consideration will suffice to show that, in
-such a matter as this, it is peculiarly important to distinguish between
-substance and form, between what is essential and permanent and what is
-accidental and variable. By the substance of the Bible we mean the
-statements which, in various ways and diverse manners, it presents to our
-thoughts; the precepts and the promises, the histories and the prophecies,
-the doctrines and the prayers, the truths about God and about man, through
-which our minds are instructed, our consciences enlightened, and our
-hearts established by grace. By the form of the Bible, we mean the signs
-or sounds by which the various statements contained in the Bible are
-presented to us, and which are, as it were, the channel through which the
-truths it teaches are conveyed to our minds. It will be obvious upon the
-least consideration, that the kind and degree of reverence which it is
-right to entertain towards the form of Scripture, is very different from
-that which it behoves us to cherish for the substance of Scripture.
-Respecting the latter, it is fitting to watch with all jealousy that no
-man add unto it or take from it; it is precious for its own sake. Not so,
-however, with the former; its worth is not in itself, but only in that
-which it enshrines. The two sentences--
-
-"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
-Jesus came into the world to save sinners,"
-
-"Gwir yw'r gair ac yn haeddu pob derbyniad, ddyfod Crist Iesu i'r byd i
-gadw pechaduriaid,"
-
-are very different in form, whether judged by the eye or the ear, and yet
-the truth conveyed by the former to an Englishman, or by the latter to a
-Welshman, is essentially the same. And although one who had learnt to
-prize that truth under either of the forms here given would naturally
-cherish also the very words by which it had been taught him, his reverence
-for the truth would impel him to adopt the other form in preference
-whenever that might be the better instrument for conveying it to another.
-Changes, therefore, in the form of Scripture may be lawful and right.
-
-Moreover, as a matter of history, the form of Scripture has, from the very
-beginning, been passing through a continued succession of changes, and
-with this fact it is most important that the Bible student should
-familiarize himself. These changes may be arranged under two general
-classes.
-
-One class of changes has arisen out of the perishable nature of the
-documents, of which the Bible at the first consisted.
-
-It is scarcely needful to state that we do not now possess the original
-copies of any of the books of the Old or the New Testament. Even while
-these were still in existence it was necessary to transcribe them in order
-that many persons in many places might possess and read them. In the work
-of transcription, however careful the transcriber might have been, errors
-of various kinds necessarily arose; some from mistaking one letter for
-another; some from failure of memory, if the scribe were writing from
-dictation; and some from occasional oversight, if he were writing from a
-copy before him; some from momentary lapses of attention, when his hand
-wrote on without his guidance; and some from an attempt to correct a real
-or fancied error in the work of his predecessor. If any of my readers will
-make an experiment by copying a passage of some length from any printed
-book, and then hand over his manuscript to a friend with a request to copy
-it, and afterwards pass on the copy so made to a third, and so on in
-succession through a list of ten or a dozen persons, each copying the
-manuscript of the one before him in the list, he will, on comparing the
-last with the printed book, have a vivid and interesting illustration of
-the number and kind of variations that arise in the process of
-transcription. In the case, therefore, of even very early copies of any of
-the books of the Scriptures, some sort of revision would become necessary,
-and the deeper the reverence for the book, the more obligatory would the
-duty of making such a revision be felt to be, and the more earnestly and
-readily would it be undertaken. So long as the original copies were in
-existence and accessible this work of revision would be comparatively easy
-and simple. It would call only for the ability to make careful and patient
-comparison. But when the originals could no longer be appealed to, and
-when, moreover, successive transcription had gone on through many
-generations, the work would become much more complex and difficult,
-calling for much knowledge and much persevering research, for a mind
-skilled in the appreciation of evidence, and able to judge calmly between
-conflicting testimony. At the same time, the need for revision would to
-some extent be greater than before. I say to some extent, because the
-natural multiplication of errors arising from successive transcription
-through many centuries, has in the case of the Scriptures been very
-largely checked. The special reverence felt for this book beyond other
-books led to the exercise of special care in the preparation of Biblical
-manuscripts, and special precautions were taken to guard them as far as
-possible from any variation. Owing to these and other causes a larger
-measure of uniformity is found in the later than in the earlier
-manuscripts now extant.
-
-A second class of changes in the form of the Scriptures has arisen from
-the natural growth and development of language.
-
-The earliest Bible of which we have any historical knowledge was in the
-form of a roll, made probably of skins, containing the five books of
-Moses, and written in the Hebrew language. This was described as "the Book
-of the Law of the Lord given by Moses" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14); more briefly
-as "the Book of the Law of Moses" (Joshua viii. 31; 2 Kings xiv. 6; Neh.
-viii. 1), or as "the Book of the Law of God" (Neh. viii. 8); and more
-briefly still as "the Book of the Law" (2 Kings xxii. 8), or as "the Book
-of Moses." (Ezra vi. 18; Mark xii. 26.) Two other collections of sacred
-books were subsequently added, known respectively as the Prophets and the
-Holy Writings, the former comprising Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings,
-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets; the latter
-comprising the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, Ruth,
-Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. It is
-in this order, we may note in passing, that the books of the Old Testament
-are still arranged in our Hebrew Bibles.
-
-Before the completion of the canon of the Old Testament the language of
-the Jews began to exhibit evidences of change, and through their
-intercourse with the various peoples of Mesopotamia (or Aram) the later
-books show a distinct tendency towards Aramaic forms and idioms. This
-tendency, already apparent at the time of the return from the Captivity,
-was accelerated by the political events which followed. During the hundred
-and eighty years and more which intervened between the Restoration of the
-Temple, B.C. 516, and the overthrow of Darius Codomannus, B.C. 331, Jud�a
-was a portion of that province of the Persian empire, in which the Aramaic
-was the prevalent dialect. The ancient Hebrew gradually ceased to be the
-language of the Jews in common life, and, before the time of our Lord, had
-been supplanted by the language of their Eastern neighbours.
-
-With the decline of the Hebrew language there arose amongst the Jews the
-class of men known as Scribes, whose primary function was that of
-preparing copies of the Scriptures, and of guarding the sacred text from
-the intrusion of errors. Owing to their great zeal for the preservation of
-the letter of Scripture, and to their natural tendency to hold fast to the
-honour and influence which their special knowledge and skill gave to
-them, they did not, when Hebrew ceased to be intelligible to the common
-people, set themselves to the task of giving them the Bible in a form
-which they could understand; but, magnifying their office overmuch,
-assumed the position of authoritative teachers and expounders of the Law.
-Scholars might still study for themselves the ancient Bible, but for the
-people at large the form which the Scriptures now practically assumed was
-that of the spoken utterances of the Scribes.
-
-How imperfect and unsatisfactory this must have been is obvious; and the
-more so as these teachers did not content themselves with simply rendering
-the ancient text into a familiar form, but intermingled with it a mass of
-human traditions that obscured and sometimes contradicted its meaning. It
-would have been a great gain for the people of Jud�a if their regard for
-the outward form of their Scriptures had been less extreme and more
-enlightened, and if competent men amongst them had ventured so to revise
-the ancient books that their fellow countrymen might read in their own
-tongue the wonderful works and words of God.
-
-This wiser course was adopted in that larger Jud�a which lay outside of
-Palestine. The Jews scattered through Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and
-other parts of the empire of Alexander and his successors, were less
-rigidly conservative than were the residents of Jud�a, and for their use a
-translation into Greek was made in the latter part of the third century
-before Christ. This is the version known as the Septuagint.[1] It is
-probable, both on general grounds and from internal evidence, that the
-Pentateuch was the portion first translated, and that subsequently, though
-after no very long interval of time, the other portions were translated
-also. It is quite certain that the whole was in circulation in the middle
-of the second century before Christ. Various tales respecting the origin
-of this translation got spread abroad.[2] These are largely due to the
-vivid imagination of their authors. They may, however, be taken as
-evidence of the high esteem in which this version was held; and we shall
-probably not err in concluding from them that Alexandria was the city in
-which it originated. During, then, the two centuries that preceded the
-Advent, the Bible, as used by the great majority of its readers in various
-parts of the world, had assumed an entirely different form from that in
-which it at first appeared. It was in Greek, and not in Hebrew, and it
-included several additional works; those, namely, which are now called
-collectively the Apocrypha. The use of this translation amongst the
-extra-Palestinian Jews contributed largely to the spread of Christianity;
-and to many amongst the earliest Christian churches, and for many
-generations, it was still the form under which they studied the books of
-the Old Testament.
-
-At the time of our Lord and His Apostles, Greek was the language which
-most widely prevailed through the Roman Empire. It was the ordinary
-language of intercourse amongst all the peoples that had formerly been
-subjugated by Grecian arms, and was read and spoken by many in Rome
-itself. It was in this language, and not in the sacred language of the
-ancient Church, that the books of the New Testament were written; and the
-lesson was thereby emphatically taught us that the Bible was for man, and
-not man for the Bible; that the form was subordinate to the substance, and
-should be so modified, as occasions occur, that it may best minister to
-the spiritual wants of mankind.
-
-As years passed on Christianity spread into the rural parts of the
-districts already occupied, where Greek was but little known, and into new
-regions beyond, where that language had never prevailed. This called for
-further changes in the form of Scripture, and in the second century of our
-era both the Old and New Testaments were translated for the use of the
-numerous Christians in Northern and Eastern Syria into that form of
-Aramaic which is known as Syriac. This language--the Syro-Aramaic--differs
-by dialectic peculiarities from the Palestinian Aramaic. In its earliest
-forms, however, we have probably the nearest representation we can now
-hope to obtain of the native language of the people amongst whom our Lord
-lived and laboured.
-
-About the same time also the Scriptures began to be translated into Latin
-for the use of the Churches of North Africa, and there is good reason for
-believing that in the last quarter of the second century the entire
-Scriptures in Latin were largely circulated throughout that region. This
-was what is termed the Old Latin version. It was the Bible as possessed
-and used by Tertullian and Cyprian, and subsequently, in a revised form,
-by Augustine. In the Old Testament this version was made, not from Hebrew,
-but from the Greek of the Septuagint, and so was but the translation of a
-translation.
-
-From Africa this Bible passed into Italy. Here a certain rudeness of
-style, arising from its provincial origin, awakened ere long a desire to
-secure a version that should be at once more accurate and more grateful to
-Italian ears. Various attempts at a revision of the Latin were
-consequently made. One of these, known as the Itala, or the Italic
-version, is highly commended by Augustine. In the year A.D. 383, Damasus,
-the then Bishop of Rome, troubled by the manifold variations that existed
-between different copies of the Latin Scriptures then in circulation,
-used his influence with one of the greatest scholars of the age, Eusebius
-Hieronymus, to undertake the laborious and responsible task of a thorough
-revision of the Latin text. Hieronymus, or, as he is commonly termed,
-Jerome, at once set himself to the task, and his revised New Testament
-appeared in A.D. 385. He also once and again revised the Old Latin version
-of the Book of Psalms, and subsequently the remaining books of the Old
-Testament, carefully comparing them with the Greek of the Septuagint, from
-which they had been derived. In A.D. 389, when in his sixtieth year, he
-entered upon the further task of a new translation of the books of the Old
-Testament from the original Hebrew, and completed it in the year A.D. 404.
-Out of the various labours of Jerome arose the Bible which is commonly
-known as the Vulgate. Jerome's translation of the Old Testament from the
-Hebrew was not made at the instance of any ecclesiastical authority, and
-the old prejudice in favour of the Septuagint led many still to cling to
-the earlier version. Only very gradually did the new translation make its
-way; and not until the time of Gregory the Great, at the close of the
-sixth century, did it receive the explicit sanction of the head of the
-Roman Church.[3] In the case of the Psalter, the old translation was never
-superseded.
-
-The Vulgate is thus a composite work. It contains (1) Jerome's translation
-from the Hebrew of all the books of the Old Testament, except the Psalms;
-(2) Jerome's revision of the Old Latin version of the Psalms, that version
-being, as stated above, made from the Septuagint; (3) the Old Latin
-version of the Apocrypha unrevised, save in the books of Judith and
-Tobit; (4) Jerome's revised New Testament, which in the Gospels was very
-careful and complete, and might almost be termed a new translation, though
-he himself repudiated any such claim.
-
-During many centuries the Vulgate was the only form in which the Bible was
-accessible to the people of Western Europe, and it was the Bible from
-which in turn the earliest Bibles of our own and other countries were
-immediately derived. It will thus be seen that the history of the Bible
-has from the beginning been a history of revision. Only so could they who
-loved the Bible fulfil the trust committed to them; only so could the
-Bible be a Bible for mankind.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE II.
-
-_THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE._
-
-
-The English Bible, more than any other of the forms in which the
-Scriptures have been used by Christian men, has been a growth. It is not
-the production of one man, or of one epoch. It has come down to us through
-a long series of transformations, and it is the result of the continuous
-endeavours of a succession of earnest labourers to give to their
-fellow-countrymen a faithful representation of the word of God.
-
-At what date, and by whom, the Scriptures were first set forth in a form
-which was intelligible to the people of this country is not known. In the
-earliest period respecting which we have any clear information, the Latin
-Vulgate was the Bible of the clergy and of public worship. Some portions
-only were rendered into the language of the common people. Few of them
-probably were able to read, and this may explain why it was that the
-Psalms were especially selected for translation. They could be more
-readily committed to memory, and be more easily wedded to music. But
-whatever the reason, the Psalter is the earliest English Bible of which we
-have any definite knowledge. It was translated quite early in the eighth
-century, both by Aldhelm, sometime Abbot of Malmesbury, but at his death,
-in A.D. 709,[4] Bishop of Sherborne, and by Guthlac,[5] the hermit of
-Croyland, who died A.D. 714.[6] A few years later, A.D. 735, the Venerable
-Bede translated the gospel of John, dying, as related in the touching
-narrative of his disciple Cuthbert, in the very act of completing it. In
-the following century King Alfred greatly encouraged the work of
-translation, and it is to this period that we are probably to attribute
-those Anglo-Saxon gospels which have come down to us.[7] Towards the close
-of the tenth century, or early in the eleventh, the first seven books of
-the Old Testament were partly translated and partly epitomised by �lfric,
-Archbishop of Canterbury. A verse from each of these two last-mentioned
-works will show of what sort was the form of these early English Bibles,
-and will at the same time illustrate one of the causes which from time to
-time have rendered the task of revision an imperative duty.
-
-The Anglo-Saxon gospel presents Matthew v. 3 thus:
-
-"Eadige sind �a gastlican �earfan, for�am hyra ys heofena rice."
-
-And in �lfric's Heptateuch, Genesis xliii. 29 reads:
-
-"�a josep geseah his gemeddredan bro�or beniamin �a cwae� he, is �is se
-cnapa �e ge me foresaedon and eft he cwae� god gemilt sige �e sunu min."
-
-In the course of time our language gradually changed from the form
-exhibited in these quotations to that seen in the writings of Chaucer and
-Wycliffe. During the earlier part of this transition period the Old
-English (Anglo-Saxon) Scriptures continued in use; but towards the middle
-part they seem to have become partially unintelligible, and attempts were
-consequently made to give the Scriptures to the people in the new form of
-language then prevalent, and which is known as the Early English. It has
-been asserted that the entire Scriptures were issued in this form; but for
-this there is no satisfactory evidence. We have certain knowledge only of
-a poetical version of the Psalms (the "Ormulum"), written about the close
-of the twelfth century; of a poetical narration of the principal events
-recorded in Genesis and Exodus, written about the middle of the thirteenth
-century; and of two prose verses of the Psalms, both belonging to the
-early part of the fourteenth century, one by William de Schorham, vicar of
-Chart-Sutton, in Kent, and the other by Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near
-Doncaster. In the version of the former the first two verses of Psalm i.
-are thus given:
-
-"Blessed be the man that ghed nought in the counseil of wicked: ne stode
-nought in the waie of singheres, ne sat nought in fals jugement. Ac hijs
-wylle was in the wylle of oure Lord; and he schal thenche in hijs lawe
-both daghe and nyght."
-
-The year 1382 is the earliest date at which it can with any confidence be
-affirmed that the entire Scriptures existed in the English language.[8]
-During several years previous to this date Wycliffe and his associates
-had in various ways been working towards the accomplishment of this
-result. But it was with some measure of secrecy, as of men who apprehended
-danger from the attempt. This renders it difficult to determine with
-precision the date when the work was completed, and what was the part
-which each of the joint labourers had in the common task. It is beyond
-controversy that the chief place of honour is due to John Wycliffe. His
-name is so closely and constantly associated with this Bible by those who
-refer to it in the times immediately succeeding, as to put it beyond all
-doubt that it is to his influence our country is mainly indebted for this
-unspeakable boon. The translation of the New Testament was probably in
-whole or in large part the work of Wycliffe himself. That of the Old
-Testament, down to the twentieth verse of the third chapter of Baruch, is
-credibly assigned, upon the authority of a MS. in the Bodleian library, to
-Nicholas de Hereford, one of the leaders of the Lollard party in Oxford.
-It is probable that this Bible was somewhat hurriedly completed, and that
-either the translators were prevented by circumstances from reviewing
-their work before issuing it, or, with the natural eagerness of men
-engaged in a first attempt, they did not allow themselves time for doing
-so. Possibly also they may themselves have regarded it but as a sort of
-first draft of their work, and the variations they had found to exist in
-their copies of the Vulgate had revealed to them the need of further
-labour before they could satisfactorily complete the task they had
-undertaken.
-
-Wycliffe died in December, 1384; but either before his death, or shortly
-afterward, a revision of this work was commenced by one of his most
-intimate friends, John Purvey, who, having resided with Wycliffe during
-the latter part of his life, may be reasonably credited with acting herein
-under a full knowledge of the wishes and aims of his honoured teacher.
-
-The course pursued by Purvey, as described by himself in his prologue,[9]
-is interesting and instructive, setting forth, as it does, most distinctly
-the main lines upon which any work of Biblical revision must proceed. His
-first step was to collect old copies of the Vulgate, and the works of
-learned men who had expounded and translated the same; and then, by
-examination and comparison, to remove as far as he could the errors which
-in various ways had crept into the Latin text. His second step was to
-study afresh the text so revised, and endeavour to arrive at a correct
-apprehension of its general meaning. His third was to consult the best
-authorities within his reach for the explanation of obscure terms, and of
-specially difficult passages. His fourth was to translate as clearly as
-possible, and then submit the same to the joint correction of competent
-persons; or, to use his own words, "to translate as clearly as he could to
-the sentence, and to have many good fellows, and cunning, at the
-correcting of the translation." By the co-operation of this band of
-skilful helpers the work was completed about the year 1388, and copies of
-it were rapidly multiplied.[10] It became, in fact, the accepted form of
-the Wycliffite version.
-
-By a comparison of the two verses of Psalm i., given above, with the forms
-in which they appeared in the two Wycliffe Bibles, the reader will be able
-in some degree to estimate the growth of our language, and will also
-understand how painstaking and reverent was the care taken by these
-"faithful men" that in this sacred work they might offer of their very
-best.
-
-In the earlier Wycliffe version the verses read thus:
-
-"Blisful the man that went not awei in the counseil of unpitouse, and in
-the wei off sinful stod not, and in the chagher of pestilence sat not. But
-in the lawe of the Lord his wil; and in the lawe of hym he shal sweteli
-thenke dai and nyght."
-
-In Purvey's revised version they read:
-
-"Blessid _is_ the man that ghede not in the councel of wickid men; and
-stood not in the weie of synneris, and sat not in the chaier of
-pestilence. But his wille _is_ in the lawe of the Lord; and he schal
-bithenke in the lawe of hym dai and nyght."
-
-This Bible, so long as it remained in use as the Bible of English people,
-existed, it should be remembered, only in a manuscript form.[11] The chief
-point, however, to be noticed here is, that with all its excellences, and
-unspeakable as was its worth, it was but the translation of a translation.
-Neither Wycliffe nor his associates had access to the Hebrew original of
-the Old Testament; and although some copies of the Greek New Testament
-were then to be found in England, there is no reason to believe that
-Purvey or his friends were able to make any use of them. They were,
-indeed, aware that the Latin of the common text did not always faithfully
-represent the Hebrew; but their knowledge of this fact was second-hand,
-gathered chiefly from the commentaries of Nicholas de Lyra, a writer
-whose works were held in high repute by Bible students in that age. They
-did not, therefore, venture to correct these places, but contented
-themselves with noting in the margin, "What the Ebru hath, and how it is
-undurstondun." This, Purvey states, he has done most frequently in the
-Psalter, which "of alle oure bokis discordith most fro Ebru."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The third stage in the growth of the English Scriptures is brought before
-us by the interesting series of printed Bibles that issued from the
-printing press in the reign of Henry VIII.
-
-After the death of Wycliffe the efforts of the Popish party to crush the
-Lollards had increased in violence, and various enactments were passed
-proscribing the use of the Bible which bore his name. An act, passed in
-the second parliament of Henry V., went still further, and declared that
-all who read the Scriptures in their native tongue should forfeit land,
-cattle, life, and goods, they and their heirs for ever. Notwithstanding
-these repressive measures, copies of the Wycliffe Bible were still made
-and read in secret. This could be done only with great risk and
-difficulty, and none but persons of some wealth could afford the expense
-of a complete copy. Those in humbler positions deemed themselves happy if
-they could secure a single book, or even a few leaves. Moreover, through
-the growing changes of the language, many passages were becoming very
-obscure to ordinary readers. During the hundred years which followed after
-the issuing of the law just referred to, two important events had
-happened; namely, the invention of printing,[12] and the German
-Reformation. Both of these had a large influence in stimulating the
-friends of the Bible to new efforts in revising it for popular use.
-
-The leader of this movement in our own country was William Tyndale, who,
-in the year 1525, printed on the Continent, whither he had been driven by
-the opposition which beset him at home, the first edition of his New
-Testament, translated from the Greek. A second and revised edition,
-"dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke," was printed at
-Antwerp, and published in November, 1534; and a third and final edition
-was published in the early part of 1535, in the May of which year he was
-arrested and committed to the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Of other
-parts of the Scriptures Tyndale was able to publish only the Pentateuch
-(1530 or 1531) and the book of Jonah (1534). On the sixth day of October,
-1536, he was led to the stake. He was there strangled and his body burnt.
-
-Just twelve months before the martyrdom of Tyndale, the first printed
-edition of the entire Scriptures in the English language was issued from
-the press of Jacob van Meteren, at Antwerp. The privilege and honour of
-accomplishing this memorable work belongs to Miles Coverdale, at that time
-a poor scholar, dependent upon the patronage of Thomas Cromwell and
-others, though subsequently, for a short period in the reign of Edward
-VI., Bishop of Exeter. The first edition of his Bible was "prynted in the
-year of our Lord MDXXXV., and fynished the fourthe day of October."
-Coverdale had been moved to the undertaking by his own deep sense of the
-needs of his country, and by the earnest appeals addressed to him by
-others. Through his modesty of disposition, and his lowly estimate of his
-own abilities, he would have declined the task, but the urgency of his
-friends prevailed. The expenses also of the preparation and publication of
-the work were met by the liberality of some of them. In his prologue he
-says, "It was neither my labour nor desire to have this work put in my
-hand; nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should be more
-plenteously provided for with the Scripture in their mother tongue than
-we; therefore, when I was instantly required, though I could not do as
-well as I would, I thought it my duty to do my best, and that with a good
-will;"[13] and in the dedication to the king, prefixed to some of the
-copies, he says, "As the Holy Ghost moved other men to do the cost hereof,
-so was I boldened in God to labour in the same." According to the
-statement on the title-page this was not a translation made from the
-original texts,[14] but was faithfully and truly translated out of the
-"Douche and Latyn in to Englishe." In the dedication he states that he
-had, "with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of
-five sundry interpreters," and in his prologue he explains further, that
-to help him in his work he had used "sundry translations, not only in
-Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters;" and he is careful, further, to
-explain that he did not "set forth this special translation" "as a
-reprover and despiser of other men's translations," but "lowly and
-faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under correction."
-The five interpreters to whom Coverdale thus refers were probably the
-Vulgate, the Latin version of Pagninus, Luther's translation, the Zurich
-Bible, and Tyndale's New Testament and Pentateuch. Though the volume was
-dedicated to the king, and though Coverdale was backed by powerful
-patrons, this Bible was not published with a royal license. No direct
-attempt, however, was made to suppress it. In the following year (1536) it
-was virtually condemned by the members of Convocation, who prayed the king
-that he would "grant unto his subjects of the laity the reading of the
-Bible in the English tongue, and that a new translation of it be made for
-that end and purpose." But notwithstanding this two new editions of
-Coverdale's Bible were printed in London in 1537, and on the title-page of
-both of these there appeared the words, "Set forth with the kynge's moost
-gracious licence."
-
-In the same year, 1537, and probably in the earlier part of it, there was
-issued in London another Bible, which also bore upon its title-page the
-inscription, "Set forth with the kinge's most gracyous lycence."[15] This
-Bible, commonly known as Matthew's Bible, was, it is now generally
-believed, prepared for the press by John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom at
-Smithfield, under the Marian persecution. In the New Testament and
-Pentateuch he agrees substantially with Tyndale's version. Of the other
-books of the Old Testament, a portion is obviously taken from Coverdale,
-the remaining part, Joshua to Chronicles, has been thought with good
-reason to be the work of Tyndale. It is known that Tyndale, after the
-publication of his Pentateuch, continued to labour at the translation of
-the Old Testament. In a letter written during his imprisonment he prays to
-be allowed to have his Hebrew Bible, and his Hebrew grammar and
-dictionary; and it is by no means unlikely that the results of his
-studies were committed to the care of Rogers. If this surmise be correct,
-then this Bible may be viewed as a compilation, two-thirds of it being due
-to Tyndale, and one-third to Coverdale. A sufficient reason for the
-adoption of the assumed name of Thomas Matthew is thus supplied, since
-Rogers could not claim the work as his own, and Tyndale's name would have
-arrayed against it the opposition both of the king and of the Romish
-party.
-
-Both of the last mentioned Bibles were open to certain obvious objections.
-Coverdale's, in that it was derived from German and Latin versions; and
-Matthew's, in that it was in part only made from the original texts.
-Matthew's also was accompanied by a considerable number of critical and
-explanatory notes, many of which were of a decided anti-papal cast.
-Accordingly, at the instigation and under the patronage of Thomas
-Cromwell, Coverdale set himself to revise his former work with the aid of
-the valuable contribution supplied to him in Matthew's Bible. The printing
-of this new Bible was completed in April, 1539, and from the circumstance
-that it was printed in the largest folio then used, 15 inches by 9, it
-was, and is, commonly described as the Great Bible. In the title-page it
-is declared to be "truly translated, after the veryte of the Hebrue and
-Greke textes by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men,
-expert in the forsayde tonges."[16] By this, it is now tolerably certain,
-we are to understand, not that several living scholars took part with
-Coverdale in the preparation of the volume, but that he availed himself of
-the published writings of men skilled in the ancient languages, who had
-translated and expounded the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures. His
-chief guides were Sebastian Munster for the Old Testament, and Erasmus for
-the New. The Bible appeared without notes, and had no dedication.[17]
-
-In the same year (1539) there appeared also the Bible[18] edited by
-Richard Taverner, formerly of Cardinal College (now Christ Church),
-Oxford, afterwards of the Inner Temple, and more recently Clerk of the
-Signet to the King.[19] It may be briefly described as a revised edition
-of Matthew's Bible. Taverner had some reputation as a Greek scholar, but
-his work is very unequally executed, and before the formidable competition
-of the Great Bible it soon sank into obscurity. After its first year of
-issue this Bible seems to have been only once reprinted in its entirety;
-namely, in 1549.[20]
-
-Not content with what he had already done, Coverdale persevered in the
-revision and re-revision of his work. A second edition was issued in
-April, 1540, to which was prefixed a prologue by Cranmer,[21] and its
-title contained the words, "This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the
-churches." Two other editions appeared in the same year, and three in the
-following year.[22] (The edition of April, 1540, seems, however, to have
-been regarded as a sort of standard edition.) This Bible was the Bible
-read in churches in the reign of Edward VI., and in the early part of the
-reign of Elizabeth.
-
-Hence it will be seen that of the four principal Bibles published in the
-reign of Henry VIII., namely, Tyndale's New Testament and Pentateuch,
-Coverdale's Bible, Matthew's Bible, and the Great Bible, the last three
-form a group of closely related versions, of which Tyndale's is the common
-parent, and the rest successively derived therefrom. And it is very
-noteworthy that these Bibles are mainly the result of the patient and
-devoted labours of two men only. The work done by such men as Rogers and
-Taverner, however important, is altogether of a subordinate kind. William
-Tyndale and Miles Coverdale stand apart, and above all others, as the men
-who, in those days of religious awakening and of conflict with the papal
-tyranny, gave the Bible to our countrymen in a form that could reach at
-once their understanding and their heart. Remembering this, and
-remembering also in what difficult circumstances the work was done, the
-wonder is far less that room was left for improvement, and that further
-revision was felt by themselves and others to be an imperative duty, than
-that so much was accomplished, and so well, by the indomitable and
-self-denying labours of these noble men.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE III.
-
-_THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE._
-
-
-The accession of Elizabeth, November 17th, 1558, conveniently marks the
-date of a fourth stage in the growth of the English Bible. The former
-translations and revisions had been done in troublous times, in the midst
-of harassing opposition, and under circumstances which forbade the full
-use of such aids as the scholarship of the times could furnish. The
-versions now to be mentioned were carried on in open day, and with free
-access to all that was then available for the correction and explanation
-of the original texts.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Amongst the many earnest men driven into exile by the Marian persecution
-was William Whittingham, some time Fellow of All Souls', Oxford, and
-subsequently Dean of Durham.[23] Along with others he found a refuge,
-first at Frankfort, and afterwards at Geneva. On the 10th day of June,
-1557, there was published, in the last mentioned city, a small volume,
-16mo, entitled "The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Conferred
-diligently with the Greke, and best approved translations. With the
-arguments aswel before the chapters, as for every Boke and Epistle, also
-diversities of readings, and moste proffitable annotations of all harde
-places; whereunto is added a copious Table." This translation, there is
-reason to believe, was the work of Whittingham alone. It may be noted, in
-passing, that it was the first English New Testament which contained the
-now familiar division into verses, and the first also to indicate by
-_italics_ the words added by the translator in order to convey more fully
-or more clearly the sense of the original.
-
-Three years afterwards (1560) there was published in the same city, "The
-Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament.
-Translated according to the Ebrue and Greeke, and conferred with the best
-translations in divers languages. With moste profitable annotations upon
-all the hard places, and other things of great importance as may appeare
-in the epistle to the reader." This is the celebrated Genevan version,
-which for nearly a century onward was the form of Bible most largely
-circulated in this country. It differed in several respects from its
-predecessors. It was a convenient quarto instead of a cumbrous folio. It
-was printed in Roman letters instead of the heavy Gothic or black letters.
-It marked by a different type all words inserted for the completion of the
-sense, and the chapters were divided into verses. But what was of more
-importance, it was, as stated in the title, compared throughout with the
-original texts. Both in the Old and New Testaments it largely reproduces
-the words of Tyndale. Sometimes it gives a preference to the version of
-Coverdale; but often it departs from both in order to give a more exact
-rendering of the Hebrew or the Greek. It seems that several of the Genevan
-refugees consecrated their enforced leisure to "this great and wonderful
-work," as they justly term it, moved thereto by the twofold consideration
-that, owing to "imperfect knowledge of the tongues," the previous
-"translations required greatly to be perused and reformed," and that
-"great opportunities and occasions" for doing this work were presented to
-them in the "so many godly and learned men" into whose society they had
-now been brought.
-
-The names of Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, Thomas
-Sampson, William Cole, and William Whittingham are given as those who,
-with some others, joined in this undertaking. On the accession of
-Elizabeth most of the exiles returned home, conveying with them, for
-presentation to the Queen, the Book of Psalms as a specimen of the work on
-which they were engaged.[24]
-
-Wittingham only, with one or two others, remained behind for a year and a
-half in order to complete the work. According to the statement given in
-the address to the reader, the entire period spent upon the preparation of
-this version was a little more than two years. It will hence be seen that
-whatever may have been the part taken in the work by Coverdale and others,
-by far the chief share in it devolved upon Whittingham and the one or two
-referred to, who were probably Gilby and Sampson. How weighty was the
-obligation which in the view of these self-denying men rested upon them to
-give the word of God to their country in the form that would best and most
-truly present it, and with what reverent care they laboured to attain
-unto this, is shown by the fact that although Whittingham had so recently
-published his version of the New Testament, he is not content with a
-simple reproduction of this, but subjects it to a thorough and very
-careful revision. A comparison of the introduction to Luke's gospel as it
-appears in the Genevan Bible of 1560 with the same passage in
-Whittingham's version of 1557 will help our readers in some measure to
-realize the nature and extent of this revision.
-
-In the earlier version the passages read thus:
-
-    "For asmuch as many have taken in hand to write the historie of those
-    thynges, wherof we are fully certified, even as they declared them
-    unto us, which from y{e} begynnyng saw them their selves, and were
-    ministers at the doyng: It seemed good also to me (moste noble
-    Theophilus) as sone as I had learned perfectly all thynges from the
-    beginnyng, to wryte unto thee therof from poynt to poynt: That thou
-    mightest acknowlage the trueth of those thinges where in thou hast
-    bene broght up."
-
-In the version of 1560 the same passage is given thus:
-
-    "For as much as many have taken in hande to set foorth the storie of
-    those thinges whereof we are fully persuaded. As they have delivered
-    them unto us, which from the beginning saw them theirselves, and were
-    ministers of the worde, It seemed good also to me (most noble
-    Theophilus), as sone as I had searched out perfectly all things from
-    the beginnyng, to write unto thee thereof from point to point, That
-    thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of these things, whereof thou
-    hast bene instructed."
-
-It will be seen that in this short passage the changes made from the
-earlier form of the work are as many as ten in number. As this, however,
-may be deemed a somewhat exceptional passage, let us take an ordinary
-chapter in the Gospels, presenting no special difficulty, as for instance
-Matt. xvii. A collation of the two versions will show that in this chapter
-of twenty-seven verses the revision of 1560 departs from Whittingham's
-earlier work in no fewer than forty places.[25] Thus persevering was the
-endeavour of these faithful men to do their very best, and with what
-success may to some extent be seen in the fact that of these forty
-changes twenty-six were confirmed in after years by the judgment of King
-James' translators.
-
-"So earnestly," says Strype[26] in his _Life of Archbishop Parker_, "did
-the people of the nation thirst in those days after the knowledge of the
-Scriptures, that that first impression was soon sold off." So earnestly
-also did the translators seek to perfect their work, that about the
-beginning of March, 1565, they had finished a careful review and
-correction of their translation in preparing for a fresh issue.
-
-Popular as was the Genevan Bible amongst the mass of the English people,
-the decidedly puritanic cast of its annotations stood in the way of its
-universal acceptance, while its manifest superiority as a translation to
-the Great Bible made it almost an impossibility that the latter could be
-maintained in its place of pre-eminence as the Bible appointed by
-authority to be read in churches. Steps were accordingly taken by Matthew
-Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to prepare a Bible, by the aid of
-"diverse learned fellow-bishops," that would accord with the
-ecclesiastical sympathies of the party to which he belonged.[27] He
-distributed portions to twelve of his episcopal brethren, and to other
-Church dignitaries;[28] one portion he took under his own charge. The
-completed work was presented to Elizabeth within a few weeks of the
-completion of the tenth year of her reign, October 5th, 1568.
-
-The rules laid down by Parker for the guidance of his colleagues were
-these: 1. "To follow the common English translation used in the churches,
-and not to recede from it but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew
-or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the texts as
-Pagnine[29] in his translation useth; and for the verity of the Hebrew, to
-follow the said Pagnine and Munster specially, and generally others
-learned in the tongues. 3. To make no bitter notes upon any text, or yet
-to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such
-chapters and places as contain matter of genealogies, or other such places
-not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in
-his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation
-to any offence of lightness or obscenity be expressed with more convenient
-terms and phrases." From the first of these rules it is clear that the
-work then undertaken was intended to be a revision of the Great Bible.
-Some of the revisers seem to have observed this rule in a most rigid
-manner, and have followed the Great Bible so closely as to retain its
-words, even in places which had been more correctly rendered in the
-Genevan. There appears to have been no co-operative action on the part of
-the several revisers, and to this cause we may attribute much of the
-irregularity that attaches to the execution of their work. In many
-respects they laid themselves open to adverse criticism, and a paper was
-sent to Parker by Thomas Lawrence, Head Master of Shrewsbury School, and
-an eminent Greek scholar, entitled, _Notes of Errors in the Translation of
-the New Testament out of the Greek_.[30] He points out fifteen passages in
-which the words are not "aptlye translated," eight in which "words and
-pieces of sentences" are "omytted," two in which superfluous words are
-inserted, two in which, owing to mistranslation, an "error in doctrine" is
-involved, and two in which the moods and tenses of verbs are changed.
-These passages, except one from the Colossians, are all taken from the
-Gospels; and we may hence not unreasonably infer that the writer intended
-the passages named to be regarded, not as an exhaustive list, but as
-illustrations simply of the kind of defects which called for correction.
-Moved, as would seem, by these criticisms, Parker set on foot a revision
-of his former volume; and in 1572 this Bible was, as his biographer
-expresses it,[31] "a second time by his means" "printed with Corrections
-and Amendments and other improvements, more than the former Editions."
-
-Although this Bible received the sanction of Convocation, and every
-Archbishop and Bishop was ordered to have a copy in his hall or
-dining-room for the use of his servants and of strangers; and although
-some editions bear on their title-page the words, "Set forth by
-Aucthoritie" (meaning thereby the authority of Convocation), it never came
-into anything like general use, nor did it even establish itself as the
-Bible exclusively read in churches. The Genevan Bible was still used by
-many of the clergy in their sermons and in their published works; and in
-1587, though nineteen years had then passed since its first publication,
-we find Archbishop Whitgift complaining that divers parish churches and
-chapels of ease had either no Bible at all, or those only which were not
-of the translation authorized by the Synods of Bishops. Between 1568,
-when this Bible was first published, and 1608, when the last New Testament
-of this version was issued, there were sent forth altogether twenty
-editions of the Bishops' Bible and eleven of the New Testament. In the
-same period there were published seventy-nine editions of the Genevan
-Bible, and thirty of the Genevan New Testament.[32]
-
-Besides the Genevan and the Bishops', another Bible made its appearance
-(so far, at least, as the New Testament was concerned) in the reign of
-Elizabeth. In the year 1582 there was printed at Rheims a translation of
-the New Testament,[33] made by certain scholars connected with the English
-seminary for the training of Catholic priests, formerly established at
-Douai, in Flanders. The translators, in their preface, candidly confess
-that they did not publish from any conviction "that the Holy Scriptures
-should alwaies be in our mother tonge," or that they ought "to be read
-indifferently of all," but because they had compassion to see their
-"beloved countrie men with extreme danger of their soules, to use only
-such prophane translations;" viz., as the Protestant Bibles previously
-referred to, "and erroneous men's mere phantasies, for the pure and
-beloved word of truth;" and because, also, they were "moved thereunto by
-the desires of many devout persons," and whom they hoped to induce to lay
-aside the "impure versions" they had hitherto been compelled to employ.
-Quite apart from the polemical purpose thus distinctly avowed, this
-translation was a retrograde movement. It did not profess to translate the
-original texts, but only the "vulgar Latin;" and the translators justify
-their procedure by this plea, amongst others, that "the holy Council of
-Trent ... hath declared and defined this onely of al other Latin
-translations to be authentical, and so onely to be used and taken in
-publike lessons, disputations, preachings, and expositions, and that no
-man presume upon any pretence to reject or refuse the same."
-
-In the accomplishment of their work the Rhemish translators have very
-faithfully observed the rule which they laid down for themselves, to be
-"very precise and religious in folowing our copie, the old vulgar approved
-Latin; not only in sense ... but sometime in the very wordes also, and
-phrases;" that is to say, they have given a very literal and exact
-translation of the Vulgate, in many parts extremely Latinized in its
-diction. A considerable number of words they virtually left untranslated,
-boldly venturing to transfer the unfamiliar, and in many cases
-unintelligible, vocables into their English text. Some of these Latinized
-words have obtained a permanent place in our language, but the larger
-number have failed to commend themselves.[34]
-
-Such then were the chief forms through which, at the close of the
-sixteenth century, the English Bible had passed. The devout and earnest
-scholars who from time to time sought to "open the Scriptures" to their
-fellow-countrymen were for the most part moved by a burning desire to give
-to God of their very best. They grudged no labour to render their work
-more complete. They allowed no spirit of self-satisfaction to blind them
-to a perception of defects. They were too humble and too well convinced of
-the greatness and manifoldness of their work to fancy that they had
-reached perfection, but were persevering and self-denying in their
-endeavours to attain unto it. And they have left behind them for us to
-follow a noble example of patient continuance in well doing.
-
-How in their hands the English Bible has grown, from the first attempt to
-set it forth in the language of our country to the form in which we are
-most familiar with it, can be fully learnt only by a careful comparison of
-the successive revisions to which it has been subjected. To aid my readers
-in forming some approximate idea of it I append Psalm xxiii., as it
-appears in the principal Bibles which have been mentioned in this and the
-preceding lecture.
-
-
-1. WYCLIFFE'S, 1382. (?)
-
-The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing to me shal lacke; in the place of
-leswe[35] where he me ful sette. Ouer watir of fulfilling he nurshide me;
-my soule he conuertide. He broghte doun me upon the sties of
-rightwisnesse; for his name. For whi and if I shal go in the myddel of the
-shadewe of deth; I shal not dreden euelis, for thou art with me. Thi
-gherde and thi staf; tho han confortid me. Thou hast maad redi in thi
-sighte a bord; aghen hem that trublyn me. Thou hast myche fattid in oile
-myn hed; and my chalis makende ful drunken, hou right cler it is. And thi
-mercy shal vnderfolewe me; alle the daghis of my lif. And that I dwelle in
-the hous of the Lord; in to the lengthe of daghis.
-
-
-2. PURVEY'S, 1388. (?)
-
-The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing schal faile to me; in the place of
-pasture there he hath set me. He nurschide me on the watir of
-refreischyng; he conuertide my soule. He ledde me forth on the pathis of
-rightfulnesse; for his name. For whi though Y schal go in the myddis of
-schadewe of deeth; Y schal not drede yuels, for thou art with me. Thi
-gherde and thi staf; tho han coumfortid me. Thou hast maad redi a boord in
-my siyt; aghens hem that troblen me. Thou hast maad fat myn heed with
-oyle; and my cuppe, fillinge greetli, is ful cleer. And thi merci schal
-sue me; in alle the daies of my lijf. And that Y dwelle in the hows of the
-Lord; in to the lengthe of daies.
-
-
-3. COVERDALE'S, 1535.
-
-The Lorde is my shepherde, I can want nothinge. He fedeth me in a greene
-pasture; and ledeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soule, and
-bringeth me forth in the waye of rightuousness for his name's sake. Though
-I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no
-euell, for thou art with me; thy staffe and thy shepehoke comforte me.
-Thou preparest a table before me agaynst mine enemies; thou anoyntest my
-heade with oyle, and fyllest my cuppe full. Oh let thy louying kyndnes and
-mercy folowe me all the dayes off my life that I maye dwell in the house
-off the Lord for euer.
-
-
-4. GREAT BIBLE, 1539.
-
-The Lorde is my shepherde, therefore can I lacke nothing. He shal fede me
-in a grene pasture and lead me forth besyde the waters of coforte. He shal
-conuerte my soule and bring me forth in the pathes of righteousnes for his
-name's sake. Yea, though I walke thorow y{e} valleye of y{e} shadow of
-death, I wyl feare no euell, for thou art w{t} me: thy rod and thy staff
-confort me.
-
-Thou shalt prepare a table before me, agaynst them that trouble me: thou
-hast annointed my head w{t} oyle, and my cup shal be ful. But (_thy_)
-louing kyndnes and mercy shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe: and I
-wyll dwel in the house of the Lord for euer.
-
-
-5. GENEVAN, 1560.
-
-1. The Lord _is_ my shepheard, I shall not want.
-
-2. Hee maketh mee to rest in greene pasture, _and_ leadeth me by the still
-waters.
-
-3. He restoreth my soule, _and_ leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse
-for his Names sake.
-
-4. Yea, though I should walke through the valley of the shadow of death, I
-will feare no euill, for thou art with me: thy rodde and thy staffe, they
-comfort me.
-
-5. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine adversaries:
-thou doest anoynt mine head with oyle, _and_ my cup runneth over.
-
-6. Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my
-life, and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord.
-
-
-6. BISHOPS, 1568.
-
-1. God is my shephearde, therefore I can lacke nothyng: he wyll cause me
-to repose myselfe in pasture full of grasse, and he wyll leade me vnto
-calme waters.
-
-2. He wyll conuerte my soule; he wyll bring me foorth into the pathes of
-righteousnesse for his name sake.
-
-3. Yea, though I walke through the valley of the shadowe of death, I wyll
-feare no euyll; for thou art with me, thy rodde and thy staffe be the
-thynges that do comfort me.
-
-4. Thou wylt prepare a table before me in the presence of myne
-aduersaries; thou has annoynted my head with oyle, and my cup shalbe
-brymme full.
-
-5. Truely felicitie and mercie shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe:
-and I wyll dwell in the house of God for a long tyme.
-
-
-7. DOUAI, 1610.
-
-1. The Psalme of Dauid.
-
-2. Our Lord ruleth one, and nothing shal be wanting to me: in place of
-pasture there he hath placed me.
-
-3. Upon the water of refection he hath brought me vp: he hath conuerted my
-soule.
-
-He hath conducted me upon the pathes of iustice for his name.
-
-4. For, although I shal walke in the middes of the shadow of death, I will
-not feare euils: because thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staffe, they
-haue comforted me.
-
-5. Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that truble me.
-
-Thou hast fatted my head with oyle; and my chalice inebriating how goodlie
-is it!
-
-6. And thy mercie shal folow me al the dayes of my life; And that I may
-dwel in the house of our Lord, in longitude of dayes.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE IV.
-
-_THE REVISION OF 1611--THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION._
-
-
-At the accession of James I. the GENEVAN BIBLE and the BISHOPS' BIBLE
-were, as we have seen, the Bibles in current use, the latter being the
-Bible upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the former the favourite Bible
-of the people at large. The Book of Psalms also in the version of the
-Great Bible survived, as it still does, in the psalter of the Prayer Book,
-and probably in some few parish churches old and worn copies of the Great
-Bible still maintained their place.
-
-The state of religious parties at that date rendered it almost an
-impossibility that either of the two first-named versions should become
-universally accepted. The close connection of the Genevan Bible with the
-Puritan party, and the decidedly puritanic cast of some of its notes,
-created an insuperable prejudice against it in the minds of the more
-zealous advocates of Episcopal authority; while the inferiority[36] of the
-Bishops' Bible as a version effectually barred its claim to an exclusive
-use. The need, then, for a new version was obvious, and a desire for it
-was probably felt by many of all parties.
-
-Public expression was first given to this desire on the second day of the
-Hampton Court Conference, January 16, 1604, by Dr. John Rainolds,[37] the
-leading representative of the Puritans in that assembly. It was not
-brought forward as one of the matters which he had been deputed to lay
-before the Conference; it seems rather to have been mentioned by him
-incidentally in connection with certain suggested reforms in the Prayer
-Book. "He moved his Majesty that there might be a new translation of the
-Bible, because those which were allowed in the reign of King Henry VIII.
-and Edward VI. were corrupt, and not answerable to the Truth of the
-Original,"[38] referring in illustration to the renderings given of Gal.
-iv. 25,[39] Ps. cv. 28,[40] and Ps. cvi. 30.[41] It is somewhat curious
-that no direct reference was made to the Bishops' Bible; the reason,
-probably, was that this Bible was not one of those which had been
-"allowed" by royal authority. Of the three mistranslations quoted by
-Rainolds, the first only is found in the Bishops' Bible; the other two
-occur in the Prayer Book Psalter.
-
-The suggestion of Rainolds met with no opposition. The king himself
-expressed his approval of it, not, however, without an ignorant and
-disingenuous fling at the Genevan version; and "presently after," say the
-translators in their preface, the king "gave order for this translation"
-to be made. In the course of a few months a scheme for the execution of
-the work was matured, and in a letter to Dr. Richard Bancroft, then Bishop
-of London, the king informed him that he had appointed fifty-four learned
-men to undertake the translation. He even seems to have contemplated the
-possibility of securing the co-operation of all the biblical scholars of
-the country; and in a letter to Bancroft, dated July 22, 1604, directed
-him "to move the bishops to inform themselves of all such learned men
-within their several dioceses as, having especial skill in the Hebrew and
-Greek tongues, have taken pains in their private studies of the Scriptures
-for the clearing of any obscurities, either in the Hebrew or the Greek, or
-touching any difficulties, or mistakings in the former English
-translation, which we have now commanded to be thoroughly viewed and
-amended; and thereupon to write unto them, earnestly charging them, and
-signifying our pleasure therein, that they send such their observations to
-Mr. Lively, our Hebrew reader in Cambridge, or to Dr. Harding, our Hebrew
-reader in Oxford, or to Dr. Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, to be imparted
-to the rest of their several companies; that so our said intended
-translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned
-men within this our kingdom."[42] Directions to a similar effect were sent
-also to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who was empowered in the king's
-name to associate with those already appointed any "fitt men" he might be
-acquainted with; and we may infer that a corresponding communication was
-sent to Oxford.
-
-To what extent this comprehensive scheme was carried out we have no means
-of determining. The names of the fifty-four learned men referred to are
-not given, and we are consequently left in uncertainty whether those who
-ultimately engaged in the work[43] were all men included in that list, or
-whether other scholars, chosen by the universities or recommended by the
-bishops, formed part of the number.
-
-The rules laid down for the guidance of the translators were as follows:
-
-1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the Bishops'
-Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the Original
-will permit.
-
-2. The Names of the Prophets and the Holy Writers, with the other Names of
-the Text to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were
-vulgarly used.
-
-3. The old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept; viz., the word _Church_ not to
-be translated _Congregation_, &c.
-
-4. When a Word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been
-most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers, being agreeable to
-the Propriety of the Place, and the Analogy of the Faith.
-
-5. The division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as
-little as may be, if necessity so require.
-
-6. No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of
-the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so
-briefly and fitly be exprest in the Text.
-
-7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down, as shall serve for
-the fit reference of one Scripture to another.
-
-8. Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or
-Chapters, and having translated or amended them severally by himself,
-where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done,
-and agree for their parts what shall stand.
-
-9. As any one Company hath despatched any one Book in this manner, they
-shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously,
-for his Majesty is very careful in this point.
-
-10. If any Company, upon the review of the Book so sent, doubt or differ
-upon any Place, to send them word thereof; Note the place, and withal send
-the Reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded
-at the General Meeting, which is to be of the chief Persons of each
-Company at the end of the Work.
-
-11. When any Place of special obscurity is doubted of, Letters to be
-directed, by Authority, to send to any Learned Man in the Land, for his
-judgment of such a Place.
-
-12. Letters to be sent from every Bishop, to the rest of his Clergy,
-admonishing them of this Translation in hand; and to move and charge, as
-many as being skilful in the Tongues; and having taken pains in that kind,
-to send his particular Observations to the Company, either at Westminster,
-Cambridg, or Oxford.
-
-13. The Directors in each Company to be the Deans of Westminster and
-Chester for that place; and the King's Professors in the Hebrew or Greek
-in either University.
-
-14. These Translations to be used, when they agree better with the Text
-than the Bishops' Bible; viz., _Tindall's_, _Matthew's_, _Coverdale's_,
-_Whitchurch's_,[44] _Geneva_.
-
-15. Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most
-Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the Universities not employed in
-Translating, to be assigned by the Vice-Chancellor upon conference with
-the rest of the Heads, to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew
-as Greek, for the better observation of the 4th rule above specified.[45]
-
-Besides these rules, some others of a more definite nature seem to have
-been adopted by the translators themselves. At the Synod of Dort, held in
-the years 1618 and 1619, the question of preparing a new Dutch translation
-came under consideration, and for the guidance of its deliberations upon
-this point the English Delegates[46] were requested to give an account of
-the procedure observed in the translation recently made in England. In a
-matter of such grave importance the Delegates felt that they ought not to
-give any off-hand statement, and accordingly, after careful consideration,
-prepared a written account, which was presented to the Synod on its
-seventh Session, November 20th, 1618. In this account eight rules are
-given, the first three of which embody the substance of the first, sixth,
-and seventh of the rules given above. The others direct:
-
-That where the Hebrew or Greek admits of a twofold rendering, one is to be
-given in the text, and the other noted in the margin; and in like manner
-where an important various reading is found in approved authorities.
-
-That in the translation of the books of Tobit and Judith, where the text
-of the old Latin Vulgate greatly differs from that of the Greek, the
-latter text should be followed.
-
-That all words introduced for the purpose of completing the sense are to
-be distinguished by a difference of type.
-
-That new tables of contents should be prefixed to each book, and new
-summaries to each chapter.
-
-And lastly, that a complete list of Genealogies[47] and a description of
-the Holy Land should be added to the work.[48]
-
-From various causes, which cannot now be discovered, a period of three
-years elapsed before the revisers commenced their labours. One reason may
-have been that no provision was made for meeting the necessary costs of
-the undertaking. With a cheap liberality the king directed Bancroft to
-write to the bishops, asking them, as benefices became vacant, to give him
-the opportunity of bestowing them upon the translators as a reward for
-their service; and as to current expenses, the king, while professing with
-much effusiveness his readiness to bear them, cleverly evaded the
-responsibility by stating that some of "my lords, as things now go, did
-hold it inconvenient."[49]
-
-The revision was completed, as the revisers themselves tell us, in "twice
-seven times seventy-two days and more;" that is to say, in about two years
-and three-quarters; and if to this be added the nine months spent in a
-final revision and preparation for the press, we have then only a period
-of three years and a half. The new Bible was published in 1611; the work,
-therefore, could not have been commenced before 1607.
-
-Although the men who engaged in this important undertaking are called
-"translators," their work was essentially that of revision. This is
-clearly shown both by the rules laid down for their guidance, and by the
-statement of the translators themselves, who say in their preface, "Truly,
-good Christian reader, wee never thought from the beginning that wee
-should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good
-one," "but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one
-principall good one, not justly to bee excepted against; that hath beene
-our indeavour, that our marke."[50]
-
-Further, this revision was a more extensive and thorough revision than any
-which had been heretofore undertaken. In former revisions, either the work
-had been done by the solitary labours of one or two, or when a fair number
-of competent men were engaged in it no sufficient provision had been made
-for combined action, and but few opportunities had been given for mutual
-conference. In this revision a larger number of scholars were engaged than
-upon any former, and the arrangements were such as secured that upon no
-part of the Bible should the labour of fewer than seven persons be
-expended. The revisers were divided into six companies, two of which met
-at Westminster, two at Cambridge, and two at Oxford. The books of the Old
-Testament, from Genesis to 2 Kings inclusive, were assigned to the first
-Westminster company, consisting of ten members; from 1 Chronicles to Song
-of Solomon, to the first Cambridge company, consisting of eight members;
-and from Isaiah to Malachi, to the first Oxford company, consisting of
-seven members. The Apocryphal books were assigned to the second Cambridge
-company, which also consisted of seven members. Of the books of the New
-Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse were
-given to the second Oxford company, in which as many as ten members were
-at different times associated; the Epistles were entrusted to the seven
-scholars forming the second Westminster company.[51]
-
-The portions assigned to each company were not again subdivided amongst
-its members; but, in accordance with the eighth rule, "every particular
-man of each company" translated and amended by himself each successive
-portion, and the company met from time to time to confer upon what they
-had done, and to agree upon what should stand.[52] Of the mode of
-procedure followed at the meetings of the several companies, we have no
-other information than the brief statement given by Selden in his _Table
-Talk_--that "one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands
-some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian,
-&c. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on."
-
-One interesting and touching picture of the translators at work, which
-however seems to have escaped the notice[53] of all writers upon the
-history of the English Bible, is given us by Dr. Daniel Featley in his
-account of the _Life and Death of John Rainolds_, and which is probably
-the substance, if not the very words, of the oration delivered by him at
-the funeral of the latter, when, on account of the large number of
-mourners, "the Chapell being not capable of the fourth part of the
-Funerall troupe," a desk was set up in the quadrangle of Corpus Christi
-College, and a brief history of Rainolds' life, "with the manner of his
-death," was thence delivered to the assembled company. Dr. Rainolds was
-one of the Oxford scholars to whom the difficult task was assigned of
-revising the prophetical books of the Old Testament; and Featley tells us
-that "for his great skill in the originall Languages," the other members
-of the company, "Doctor Smith, afterward Bishop of Gloster; Doctor
-Harding, President of Magdalens; Doctor Kilbie, Rector of Lincolne
-Colledge; Dr. Bret, and others, imployed in that worke by his Majesty, had
-recourse" to him "once a weeke, and in his Lodgings perfected their
-Notes; and though in the midst of this Worke, the gout first tooke him,
-and after a consumption, of which he dyed; yet in a great part of his
-sicknesse the meeting held at his Lodging, and he lying on his Pallet,
-assisted them, and in a manner in the very translation of the booke of
-life, was translated to a better life."[54] Rainolds died May 21st, 1607.
-
-In the discharge of their responsible task the translators made use of all
-the aids accessible to them for the perfecting of their work. Not only did
-they bring to it a large amount of Hebrew and Greek scholarship, and the
-results of their personal study of the original Scriptures, they were
-careful to avail themselves also of the investigations of others who had
-laboured in the same field. Translations and commentaries in the Chaldee,
-Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch
-languages were laid under contribution. "Neither," they add, "did we
-disdaine to revise that which wee had done, and to bring back to the
-anvill that which wee had hammered; but having and using as great helpes
-as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coveting
-praise for expedition, wee have at length, through the good hand of the
-Lord upon us, brought the worke to that passe that you see."
-
-When the several companies had completed their labours there was needed
-some general supervision of the work before it finally issued from the
-press. There is no evidence that the six companies ever met in one body
-(though possibly the two companies in each of the three centres may have
-had some communication with each other); but having spent almost three
-years upon the revision, "at the end whereof," says the writer of the
-life of John Bois,[55] "the whole work being finished, and three copies of
-the whole Bible sent from Cambridge, Oxford, and Westminster to London, a
-new choice was to be made of six in all, two out of every company,[56] to
-review the whole work, and extract one copy out of all these to be
-committed to the press, for the dispatch of which business Mr. Downes and
-Mr. Bois were sent for up to London, where,[57] meeting their four
-fellow-labourers, they went daily to Stationers' Hall, and in
-three-quarters of a year fulfilled their task, all which time they had
-from the Company of Stationers thirty shillings[58] each per week duly
-paid them, though they had nothing before but the self-rewarding,
-ingenious industry."[59] "Last of all Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and
-Dr. Miles Smith, again reviewed the whole work, and prefixed arguments to
-the several books."
-
-And thus at length, as Thomas Fuller quaintly puts it, "after long
-expectation, and great desire, the new translation of the Bible (most
-beautifully printed) by a select and competent number of Divines appointed
-for the purpose, not being too many, lest one should trouble another,
-and yet many, lest in any things might haply escape them. Who, neither
-coveting praise for expedition, nor fearing reproach for slackness (seeing
-in a business of moment none deserve blame for convenient slowness), had
-expended almost three years in a work, not only examining the channels by
-the fountain, translations with the original, which was absolutely
-necessary, but also comparing channels with channels, which was abundantly
-useful." "These, with Jacob, rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-Well of Life, so that now Rachel's weak women may freely come, both to
-drink themselves, and to water the flocks of their families at the
-same."[60]
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE V.
-
-_REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY._
-
-
-On the title-page of the first edition of King James's Bible there
-appeared as now the legend, "Appointed to be read in Churches." Whence
-this originated is unknown; it is even uncertain what meaning is to be
-attached to the words. Some contend[61] that they mean nothing more than
-that the book contained the directions in accordance with which the
-Scriptures were "appointed" to be read in public worship, such as are now
-given in the Book of Common Prayer. But, however this may be, there is no
-evidence that this Bible was ever formally sanctioned, either by the king,
-or by Parliament, or by Convocation. The king, as we have seen, encouraged
-the making of the revision, but that the revision when made was, by any
-public act on his part, invested with any special authority, is a fancy
-altogether unsupported by fact. Its designation as the Authorized
-Version has been due simply to common parlance; the claim which that
-designation seems to assert is absolutely baseless.
-
-It was not in virtue of any privileges conferred upon it by those in
-authority, but by its intrinsic excellence, that this version made its way
-into general use, and at length supplanted all previous versions. Its
-chief, if not only, competitor was the Genevan. So strong was the
-attachment of many to the latter that two editions of it, one a folio and
-the other a quarto, were published by the king's printer in the very year
-in which the new version was issued, and during at least five years after
-that date[62] various other editions were issued from the same source.
-After 1616 the Genevan ceased to be printed in England, but the demand for
-it still continuing, various editions were printed on the Continent, and
-thence introduced into this country. A folio edition, printed at
-Amsterdam, bears so late a date as 1644. In 1649, in order to win the
-favour of those who still clung to their old favourite, an edition of the
-new version was issued with the Genevan notes. After this date the
-revision of 1611 may be said to have gained for itself universal
-recognition, and for more than 230 years it has been the accepted and
-cherished Bible of almost all English-speaking people.
-
-We should, however, form a very erroneous opinion both of the spirit and
-of the learning of King James's translators, if we were to suppose that
-they would have claimed finality for their work. They were too well
-acquainted with the state of the original texts not to know what need
-there was for further research after the most ancient and trustworthy
-authorities. They were too keenly sensitive to the difficulties of
-translation not to feel that they must often have failed to convey the
-exact meaning of the words they were attempting to render. They were too
-conscious of the merits of their predecessors, and of the extent to which
-they had profited by their labours, to hesitate to acknowledge that others
-might in like manner profit by what they themselves had done. And they
-were too loyal in their reverence for the Scriptures, and too devoutly
-anxious that every imperfection should be removed from the form in which
-they were given to their fellow-countrymen, to offer any discouragement to
-those who should seek to remove the blemishes that might still remain.
-They would strongly have deprecated any attempt to find in their labours a
-plea against further improvement; and they would have emphatically
-proclaimed that the best expression of thankfulness for their services,
-and of respect for themselves, was in the imitation of their example, and
-in the promotion of further efforts for the perfecting of the book they so
-profoundly loved.
-
-In the case of such a book as the Bible, however perfect the translation
-which may at any time be made, the duty of revision is one of recurring
-obligation. The necessity for it is inevitable, and this from two causes
-in constant operation. (1) By the imperfection that attaches to all kinds
-of human labour various departures from the standard form became gradually
-introduced in the process of reproduction; and (2) by the natural growth
-of language, and the attendant changes in the meaning of terms, that which
-at one time was a faithful rendering becomes at another obscure or
-incorrect.
-
-No long time elapsed before blemishes arose in the version of 1611 from
-the first of these causes, and, to use the language of the translators
-themselves, their translation needed "to be maturely considered and
-examined, that being rubbed and polished it might shine as gold more
-brightly." The invention of printing, although it has largely diminished
-the liability to error in the multiplication of copies, has not, as
-everyone knows who has had occasion to minutely examine printed works,
-altogether removed them. Various typographical errors soon made their
-appearance in the printed copies of the Bible, and these became repeated
-and multiplied in successive editions, until at length no inconsiderable
-number of variations, sometimes amounting to several thousands, could be
-traced between different copies. Most of these it is true were unimportant
-variations, but some of them were of a more serious nature. The following
-instances will serve to illustrate this. The dates attached are the dates
-of the editions in which the errors may be found:
-
-Exod. xx. 14. "Thou shalt commit adultery," _for_ "Thou shalt not." 1631,
-Lond., 8vo.[63]
-
-Numb. xxv. 18. "They vex you with their wives," _for_ "their wiles." 1638,
-Lond., 12mo.
-
-Numb. xxvi. 10. "The fire devoured two thousand and fifty men," _for_ "two
-hundred and fifty." 1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Deut. xxiv. 3. "If the latter husband ate her," _for_ "hate her." 1682,
-Lond.
-
-2 Sam. xxiii. 20. "He slew two lions like men," _for_ "two lion-like men."
-1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Job xxix. 3. "By his light I shined through darkness," _for_ "I walked
-through." 1613, Lond.
-
-Isaiah xxix. 13. "Their fear toward me is taught by the people of men,"
-_for_ "by the precept of men." 1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Jer. iv. 17. "Because she hath been religious against me," _for_ "hath
-been rebellious." 1637, Edin., 8vo.
-
-Jer. xviii. 21. "Deliver up their children to the swine," _for_ "to the
-famine." 1682, Lond.
-
-Ezek. xxiii. 7. "With all their idols she delighted herself," _for_ "she
-defiled herself." 1613, Lond.
-
-Matt. xxvi. 36. "Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called
-Gethsemane," _for_ "Then cometh Jesus." 1611, Lond.
-
-Acts vi. 3. "Look ye out among you seven men of honest report ... whom ye
-may appoint," _for_ "whom we may appoint." 1638, Camb. fo.[64]
-
-1 Cor. v. 1. "And such fornication as is not so much as not among the
-Gentiles," _for_ "not so much as named." 1629, Lond., fo.[65]
-
-1 Cor. vi. 9. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom
-of God?" _for_ "shall not inherit." 1653, Lond., 32mo.
-
-2 Tim. iv. 16. "I pray God that it may be laid to their charge," _for_
-"may not be laid." 1613, Lond.
-
-Titus i. 14. "Now giving heed to Jewish fables," _for_ "not giving heed."
-1636 Edin., 8vo.
-
-James v. 4. "The Lord of Sabbath," _for_ "Sabaoth." 1640, Lond., 8vo.
-
-1 John i. 4. "That our joy may be full," _for_ "that your joy." 1769, Oxf.
-
-These facts will serve to show how soon some kind of revision became
-needful, and that a true reverence for Scripture is shown, not by
-opposition to revision, but by a desire, and even demand, that it should
-be undertaken. This necessity became all the more imperative in the case
-of the revision of 1611, because there existed no standard copy to which
-appeal could in all cases be made as evidence of the conclusions reached
-by the translators. It is a curious and remarkable fact, that two
-editions, differing in several respects, were issued by the king's
-printer, Robert Barker, in 1611, and competent judges are not agreed as to
-which of these two priority in time belongs. Nor even if this point were
-satisfactorily settled, would it suffice to reproduce that one of the two
-texts which might be proved to be the earlier. For excellent as was the
-main work done by the translators, the final revision and the oversight of
-the sheets as they passed through the press were not so thorough as was to
-be desired. In the most carefully prepared edition of this revision that
-has ever been issued, viz., the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, edited by Dr.
-Scrivener, the learned and laborious editor has seen it right to depart
-from the printed text of 1611 in more than nine hundred places.[66] It
-will be manifest that such corrections, whenever called for, ought not to
-be made in any haphazard way, and that it is in the interest of all that
-careful revisions of the printed texts should from time to time be made,
-and that they should be made by men thoroughly competent for the task.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The second cause to which reference has been made is, of course, much
-slower in its operation, but though slow it is certain; and sooner or
-later every version, whensoever and by whomsoever made, must call for
-revision, because of the changes to which all language is subject. Words
-which were once in common use pass altogether out of currency, and are
-utterly unintelligible save to a learned few. Other words change their
-meaning, and give to the sentences in which they occur a different and
-sometimes an alien sense to that which they formerly conveyed. Others
-again, while retaining fundamentally their original sense, become limited
-in their range of application, and when used in other connections than
-those to which they are thus confined by custom, become grotesque and
-disturb the mind of the reader by the strange associations which they
-suggest.
-
-How many words found in our Bibles have, since 1611, passed out of general
-use the following list will show. Most of these are wholly without
-meaning, even to an educated reader; a few survive as local
-provincialisms, and a few also are still employed in the technical
-vocabulary of certain arts or professions. All are out of place in a book
-intended for universal use.
-
-    _Assay._ Deut. iv. 34; Job iv. 2; Acts ix. 26, &c.
-
-    _Attent._ 2 Chron. vi. 40.
-
-    _Bestead._ Isa. viii. 21.
-
-    _Blain._ Exod. ix. 9, 10.
-
-    _Bolled._ Exod. ix. 31.
-
-    [_Brickle._ Wisd. xv. 13.]
-
-    _Brigandine._ Jer. xlvi. 4; li. 3.
-
-    _Bruit._ Jer. x. 22; Nah. iii. 19.
-
-    _Calamus._ Exod. xxx. 23; Cant. iv. 14; Exek. xxvii. 19.
-
-    _Camphire._ Cant. i. 14; iv. 13.
-
-    _Causey._ 1 Chron. xxvi. 18.
-
-    _Chanel-bone._ Job xxxi. 22, _marg._
-
-    _Chapiter._ Exod. xxxvi. 38, &c.
-
-    _Chapman._ 2 Chron. ix. 14.
-
-    _Chaws._ Ezek. xxix. 4.
-
-    [_Cithern._ 1 Macc. iv. 54.]
-
-    _Cockatrice._ Isa. xi. 8, &c.
-
-    _Collops._ Job xv. 27.
-
-    _Confection._ Exod. xxx. 35.
-
-    _Coney._ Lev. xi. 5, &c.
-
-    _To Convent._ Jer. xlix. 19, _marg._
-
-    _Cotes._ 2 Chron. xxxii. 28.
-
-    _To Couch._ Dent, xxxiii. 13.
-
-    _Countervail._ Esth. vii. 4.
-
-    _Daysman._ Job ix. 33.
-
-    [_Dehort._ 1 Macc. ix. 9.]
-
-    _Delicates._ Jer. li. 34.
-
-    _Dredge._ Job xxiv. 6, _marg._
-
-    _Dure._ Matt. xiii. 21.
-
-    _Earing._ Gen. xlv. 6.
-
-    _Endirons._ Ezek. xl. 43, _marg._
-
-    _Flue-net._ Hab. i. 15, _marg._
-
-    _Gier eagle._ Lev. xi. 18.
-
-    _Gorget._ 1 Sam. xvii. 6, _marg._
-
-    _Habergeon._ Exod. xxviii. 32; xxxix. 23, &c.
-
-    _Helve._ Deut. xix. 5.
-
-    _Hough._ Josh. xi. 6, 9.
-
-    _Implead._ Acts xix. 38.
-
-    _Jewry._ Dan. v. 13; John vii. 1.
-
-    _Knop._ Exod. xxv. 31, &c.
-
-    _Leasing._ Ps. iv. 2; v. 6.
-
-    _Makebate._ 2 Tim. iii. 3, _marg._
-
-    _Muffler._ Isa. iii. 19.
-
-    _Neesing._ Job xli. 18.
-
-    _Ossifrage._ Lev. xi. 13.
-
-    _Ouches._ Exod. xxviii. 11, &c.
-
-    _Pilled._ Gen. xxx. 37.
-
-    _Prelation._ 1 Cor. xiii., _heading_.
-
-    _Purtenance._ Exod. xii. 9.
-
-    _Ravin._ Gen. xlix. 27.
-
-    _Rereward._ Num. x. 25, &c.
-
-    _Scall._ Lev. xiii. 30.
-
-    _Scrabble._ 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
-
-    _A Settle._ Ezek. xliii. 14, &c.
-
-    _Silverling._ Isa. vii. 23.
-
-    _Sith._ Ezek. xxxv. 6.
-
-    _Tabering._ Nah. ii. 7.
-
-    _Tache._ Exod. xxvi. 6.
-
-    _Throughaired._ Jer. xxii. 14, _marg._
-
-    _Thrum._ Isa. xxxviii. 12, _marg._
-
-    _Viol._ Isa. v. 12.
-
-    _Wimple._ Isa. iii. 22.
-
-A still larger number of words or phrases, though still finding a place in
-our current speech, have wholly or partially changed their meanings.
-Amongst these are the following:
-
-    _All to brake._ Judges ix. 5.
-
-    _Base._ 1 Cor. i. 28; 2 Cor. x. 1.
-
-    _Botch._ Exod. ix. 9.
-
-    _Bought of a sling._ 1 Sam. xxv. 29, _marg._
-
-    _Bravery._ Isa. iii. 18.
-
-    _Bray._ Prov. xxvii. 27.
-
-    _By and by._ Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9.
-
-    _Captivate._ 2 Chron. xxviii.; Jer. xxxix., _headings_.
-
-    _Careful._ Dan. iii. 16; Phil. iv. 6.
-
-    _Carriage._ Judges xviii. 21; Acts xxi. 15.
-
-    _Cast about._ Jer. xli. 14.
-
-    _Chafed._ 2 Sam. xvii. 8.
-
-    _Champaign._ Deut. xi. 30.
-
-    _Charger._ Matt. xiv. 8; Mark vi. 25.
-
-    _Charity._ 1 Cor. xiii. 1, &c.
-
-    _Churl._ Isa. xxxii. 5, 7.
-
-    _Cieling._ 1 Kings vi. 15.
-
-    _Clouted._ Josh. ix. 5.
-
-    _Cockle._ Job xxxi. 40.
-
-    _Comfort._ Job ix. 27.
-
-    _Confectionary._ 1 Sam. viii. 13.
-
-    _Contain._ 1 Cor. vii. 9.
-
-    _Conversation._ Gal. i. 18; Phil. iii. 20; Heb. xiii. 5.
-
-    _Convince._ Jno. viii. 48; Jas. ii. 9.
-
-    _Cunning._ Ps. cxxxvii. 5.
-
-    _Curious._ Exod. xxviii. 8; xxix. 5.
-
-    _Damnation._ 1 Cor. xi. 29.
-
-    _Delicately._ Lam. iv. 5; Luke vii. 25.
-
-    _Discover._ Ps. xxix. 9; Mic. i. 6; Hab. iii. 13.
-
-    _Doctrine._ Mark iv. 2.
-
-    _Duke._ Gen. xxxvi. 15.
-
-    _Ensign._ Num. ii. 2; Isa. v. 26.
-
-    _Fast._ Ruth ii. 8, 21.
-
-    _Fetch a compass._ Acts xxviii. 13.
-
-    _Flood._ Josh. xxiv. 2, 3, &c.
-
-    _Footman._ Jer. xii. 5.
-
-    _Fret._ Lev. xiii. 55.
-
-    _Grudge._ Ps. lix. 15.
-
-    _Hale._ Luke xii. 58; Acts viii. 3.
-
-    _Harness._ 1 Kings xx. 11; xxii. 34.
-
-    _Indite._ Ps. xlv. 1.
-
-    _Jangling._ 1 Tim. i. 6.
-
-    _Kerchief._ Ezek. xiii. 18, 21.
-
-    _Lace._ Exod. xxviii. 28.
-
-    _Latchet._ Isa. v. 27; Mark i. 7.
-
-    _Let._ Exod. v. 24; Isa. xliii. 13; Rom. i. 13; 2 Thess. ii. 7.
-
-    _Lewd._ Acts xvii. 5.
-
-    _Lewdness._ Acts xviii. 14.
-
-    _Man-of-War._ Exod. xv. 3, &c.
-
-    _Maul._ Prov. xxv. 18.
-
-    _Minister._ Josh. i. 1; 1 Kings x. 5; Luke iv. 20.
-
-    _Napkin._ Luke xix. 20; John xi. 44; xx. 7.
-
-    _Naughtiness._ 1 Sam. xvii. 28; Prov. xi. 6; James i. 21.
-
-    _Naughty._ Prov. vi. 12.
-
-    _Nephew._ Judges xii. 14; 1 Tim. v. 4.
-
-    _Observe._ Mark vi. 20.
-
-    _Occupy._ Exod. xxxviii. 24; Judg. xvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 9; Luke xix.
-    13.
-
-    _Painfulness._ 2 Cor. xi. 27.
-
-    _Palestine._ Exod. xv. 14; Isa. xiv. 29.
-
-    _Pap._ Luke xi. 27; Rev. i. 13.
-
-    _Parcel._ Gen. xxxix. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32; Ruth iv. 3; John iv. 5.
-
-    _Peep._ Isa. viii. 19; x. 14.
-
-    _Poll._ Num. i. 2, &c.
-
-    _Pommel._ 2 Chron. ix. 12.
-
-    _Port._ Neh. ii. 13.
-
-    _Prefer._ Esth. ii. 9; Dan. vi. 3; John i. 25.
-
-    _Presently._ Matt. xxvi. 53; Phil. ii. 23.
-
-    _Prevent._ Ps. lix. 10; cxix. 147; 1 Thess. iv. 15.
-
-    _Proper._ Acts i. 19; 1 Cor. vii. 7; Heb. xi. 32.
-
-    _Prophesy._ 1 Cor. xi. 5; xiv. 3, 4.
-
-    _Publican._ Matt. v. 46, &c.
-
-    _Purchase._ 1 Tim. iii. 13.
-
-    _Ranges._ Lev. xi. 35.
-
-    _Refrain._ Prov. x. 19.
-
-    _Riot._ Titus i. 6; 1 Peter iv. 4; 2 Peter ii. 13.
-
-    _Rioting._ Rom. xiii. 13.
-
-    _Riotous._ Prov. xxiii. 20; Luke xv. 13.
-
-    _Road._ 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.
-
-    _Scrip._ 1 Sam. xvii. 40; Matt. x. 10, &c.
-
-    _Secure._ Judges viii. 11; xviii. 7, 10; Job xi. 18; xii. 6; Matt.
-    xxviii. 14.
-
-    _Set to._ John iii. 32.
-
-    _Shroud._ Ezek. xxxi. 3.
-
-    _Sod._ Gen. xxv. 29.
-
-    _Sottish._ Jer. iv. 22.
-
-    _Table._ Hab. ii. 2; Luke i. 63; 2 Cor. iii. 3.
-
-    _Target._ 1 Sam. xvii. 6; 1 Kings x. 16.
-
-    _Tire._ Isa. iii. 18; Ezek. xxiv. 17, 23.
-
-    _Tired._ 2 Kings ix. 30.
-
-    _Turtle._ Cant. ii. 12.
-
-    _Vagabond._ Gen. iv. 12; Ps. cix. 10; Acts xix. 13.
-
-    _Venison._ Gen. xxv. 28.
-
-    _Wealth._ 2 Chron. i. 12; Ps. cxii. 3; 1 Cor. x. 24.
-
-    _Witty._ Prov. viii. 22.
-
-If, in reading these passages, we attach to the words here mentioned the
-meaning that they ordinarily bear, the resulting sense will in each case
-be very different from that intended to be conveyed by the translators. In
-some of the passages the sense thus given will be so manifestly
-inappropriate that the reader is necessarily driven to seek for some
-explanation; but in others of them no such feeling may be awakened, and
-the reader is undesignedly betrayed into error. Through no fault of the
-translators, but by the inevitable law of change in language, the words
-which once served as stepping-stones, by whose aid the reader could rise
-to a clearer perception of the truth of God, have become stumbling-blocks
-in his path, and cause him to wander from the way. Respect, therefore, for
-the translators, as well as loyalty to the Scripture, constrain the demand
-that these rough places be made plain.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VI.
-
-_ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF
-1611._
-
-
-The two reasons for further revision which were illustrated in the last
-lecture are, as will have been seen, of universal application, and must
-sooner or later apply to every version of the Scriptures, however perfect
-that version may have been when it was first made. But whatever the skill
-with which King James's translators fulfilled their labours (and it is
-universally acknowledged to be worthy of the highest praise), it would be
-a vain fancy to imagine that theirs was a perfect work. They themselves
-would never have claimed such an honour for it, and already in their own
-day some of their renderings were called in question by competent men.
-Even if they had never failed in applying the means at their command for
-the interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek originals, they knew that the
-knowledge then possessed of these ancient tongues was far from complete,
-and that by further study and advancing research it would be possible to
-attain to a more accurate and extensive acquaintance with them.
-
-The progress made in the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew during the last two
-centuries has, in fact, been such as the revisers of 1611 could have
-little anticipated. A long list might easily be drawn up of eminent
-scholars who have given themselves to the investigation of the grammar of
-the two sacred languages, and of others who have laboured in illustrating
-the meaning of their terms. In the case of Hebrew, large additions to our
-knowledge, both of its grammar and its vocabulary, have been won from a
-source almost entirely unexplored in former times; namely, the study of
-Arabic and other cognate languages; and in the case both of Hebrew and
-Greek, much has been gained by the labours of those who have given
-themselves to the investigation of the general principles of language, and
-to the study of the relations which different languages sustain to each
-other. The knowledge of Hebrew and Greek thus attained has been from time
-to time applied by a still larger number of eminent men to the elucidation
-of the several books of the Bible, and an immense amount of valuable
-material for their interpretation has thus been stored up. The meaning of
-obscure and difficult passages has been elaborately and independently
-discussed by men of different nationalities, and of different types of
-theological opinion, and in this way the sense of many passages formerly
-misunderstood has been satisfactorily determined. And such being the case,
-it is clearly the incumbent duty of all who truly reverence the Scriptures
-to desire that these imperfections and obscurities shall be removed, and
-the more so that some of these erroneous renderings have been used by the
-opponents of the Bible as their weapons of attack.
-
-That the reader may be able to form some definite judgment upon the matter
-here presented to him, his attention is called to the following selection
-of passages from different parts of the Bible, in which it will now be
-generally acknowledged by competent judges that the translators of 1611
-have failed to give a faithful representation of the meaning of the
-original texts:
-
-Gen. iv. 15 is rendered, in the version of 1611, as in previous versions:
-"And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him,"
-and no small amount of ingenuity has been wasted in the endeavour to
-decide what this supposed mark upon the body of Cain might be. The
-rendering moreover altogether misrepresented the import of the passage.
-The "mark" or "sign" was not something intended for the warning of others,
-but was given to remove the fears of Cain himself, expressed in verses 13,
-14: "The Lord set a sign for Cain [to assure him] that whoever found him
-would not kill him."
-
-Gen. xx. 16. Here Abimelech is made to say to Sarah, "Behold, I have given
-thy brother a thousand _pieces_ of silver; behold, he is to thee a
-covering of the eyes, with all that are with thee, and with all _other_;
-thus she was reproved," a statement which is both misleading and obscure.
-It was not Abraham, but the present of money, that was to be for Sarah a
-covering of the eyes, that is, a testimony to her virtue, and by this act
-of the king she was not reproved for her conduct, but was cleared in her
-character. The latter part should be rendered, "Behold, it shall be to
-thee a covering of the eyes ... and thus she was righted."
-
-Exod. xvi. 15. "And when the children of Israel saw _it_, they said one to
-another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was." To the ordinary
-reader this seems to involve a contradiction; but the stumbling-block is
-at once removed by the more faithful rendering, "They said one to another,
-What is it? for they wist not what it was." Further on, in verse 31, it is
-stated that from this cry, "What is it?" the bread from heaven thus given
-to them was called Manna, or more correctly Man (the Hebrew word for
-What?).
-
-Josh. vi. 4. "And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets
-of rams' horns." This is a very unfortunate rendering; for not only are
-rams' horns solid, and so also unsuitable for wind instruments, but also
-it is only by the merest fancy that any reference to rams can be brought
-in at all. The word rendered "rams" is "jubilee," the same as that given
-to the great Year of Release. It denotes either some kind of trumpet, and
-is so used Exod. xix. 13, or the sound or signal given by a trumpet. The
-Year of Release derives its name, the Year of Jubilee, from the solemn
-sounding of trumpets throughout the land with which it was inaugurated.
-The original term should here be kept, and the verse should read, "And
-seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of jubilee."[67]
-
-Judges v. 7. "_The inhabitants of_ the villages ceased, they ceased in
-Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." Here
-the translators first of all misunderstood the word which they have
-rendered "villages," and were then driven to introduce the words "the
-inhabitants of," for which, as the italics show, there was nothing in the
-Hebrew. The picture really drawn in the verse is not that of the
-depopulation of the country, but of the defenceless and disorganized
-condition of the people through the absence of judges or rulers. The
-Septuagint gives the true sense: "The rulers ceased, they ceased in
-Israel."[68]
-
-Judges xv. 19. "But God clave an hollow place that _was_ in the jaw, and
-there came water thereout." A strange misrepresentation of the meaning of
-the original. The hollow place was not in the jaw-bone with which Sampson
-had slain the Philistines, but in some cliff in the neighbourhood, and
-which derived its name, Ramath-lehi, or more briefly Lehi, from this
-memorable exploit. The words should be rendered, "But God clave the hollow
-place which is in Lehi."
-
-1 Sam. ix. 20. "And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set
-not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom _is_ all the desire
-of Israel? _Is it_ not on thee and on all thy father's house?" A needless
-difficulty is here created by suggesting that already the hearts of the
-people had been set upon Saul for their future king, whereas his future
-elevation to that office was as yet known to Samuel only. This is removed
-by the right rendering: "Whose are all the desirable things of Israel? Are
-they not for thee, and for thy father's house."[69]
-
-2 Sam. v. 6. "Except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not
-come in hither;" a statement to which the reader finds it difficult to
-attach any appropriate sense. The verse is correctly rendered by
-Coverdale, who reads, "Thou shalt not come hither, but the blynde and lame
-shall dryve thee awaie."
-
-2 Sam. xiv. 14. "For we must needs die, and _are_ as water spilt on the
-ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect _any_
-person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from
-him." The statement that God doth not respect _any_ person, however true
-in itself, has here no relation to the context. The natural meaning of the
-original words is very different, "God doth not take away life," that is,
-as shown by what immediately follows, does not at once and without mercy
-inflict punishment as soon as guilt is incurred, but "deviseth means," &c.
-
-2 Kings viii. 13. "And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that
-he should do this great thing?" Thus read, the words imply that Hazael
-shrank indignantly from the actions described in the preceding verse;
-whereas the sense of the passage is that he viewed himself as too
-insignificant a person to do what he clearly regarded as a great exploit.
-"But what is thy servant, the [or this] dog, that he should do this great
-thing?"
-
-1 Chron. xvi. 7. "Then on that day David delivered first _this psalm_ to
-thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren." This conveys the
-impression that the psalm which follows is the first psalm that David
-published, whereas the statement is that on this memorable day--the day
-on which David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom--he formally
-appointed Asaph and his brethren to the office of superintending the
-service of praise. (Compare verse 37.) "Then on that day David first gave
-the praising of the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren."[70]
-
-Job iv. 6. "Is not _this_ thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the
-uprightness of thy ways?" By the insertion of "_this_," a wrong complexion
-is given to the passage. Eliphaz, in reference to Job's fainting under his
-sufferings, calls attention to the confidence he had formerly professed on
-the ground of his fear of God and of the uprightness of his conduct; and
-so indirectly suggests that Job's piety and uprightness had been unreal.
-"Is not thy fear [_i.e._ thy fear of God, thy piety] thy confidence; and
-thy hope, _is it not_ even the integrity of thy ways?"
-
-Job xix. 26. "And _though_ after my skin _worms_ destroy this _body_, yet
-in my flesh shall I see God." As the italics show, the original contains
-nothing corresponding to the words "though," "worms," and "body." Their
-insertion does not indeed change radically the meaning of the verse, but
-they weaken its force, and in a measure alter its imagery. The picture
-presented by the original is a very vivid one. The patriarch, pointing to
-his body wasting away under disease, says, "After my skin is destroyed
-thus, yet from my flesh shall I see God."
-
-Job xxiv. 16. "In the dark they dig through houses, _which_ they had
-marked for themselves in the daytime; they know not the light." Here the
-meaning of the second clause has been altogether missed, and the whole
-passage is thereby greatly obscured. The writer is describing the deeds of
-those who rebel against the light and love the darkness: as with the
-murderer (_v._ 14) and the adulterer (_v._ 15), so is it with the robber.
-"In the dark they dig through houses; in the daytime they shut themselves
-up; they know not the light."
-
-Job xxxi. 35. "Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire _is_, _that_
-the Almighty would answer me, and _that_ mine adversary had written a
-book." Job, having asserted his innocence, expresses his strong desire
-that the charges against him might be brought for decision before the
-divine tribunal. He, on his part, is quite prepared for the trial; there,
-he says, is his statement, signed and sealed; let the adversary in like
-manner present his indictment; he would then be sure of a triumphant
-issue. "Oh that I had one who would hear me! Behold my mark! May the
-Almighty answer me, and that I had the accusation that my adversary had
-written. Surely, I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it as
-chaplets upon me."
-
-Ps. xvi. 2, 3. "_Thou art_ my Lord; my goodness _extendeth_ not to thee.
-_But_ to the saints that _are_ in the earth, and _to_ the excellent, in
-whom is all my delight." Every reader of this psalm must have felt how
-obscure, if not unintelligible, are these words. A more faithful rendering
-gives a clear and appropriate sense, "Thou art my Lord, I have no good
-above thee. As for the saints on the earth, and the excellent, in them is
-all my delight."[71]
-
-Ps. xlii. 4. "When I remember these _things_, I pour out my soul in me,
-for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God."
-The words of the Psalmist are not, as this rendering makes them to be, a
-mere statement of what happens whenever he remembers the sorrows of the
-past, and the mockery of his adversaries. They are a declaration of his
-purpose to remember, with lively emotion and gratitude, the privileges and
-mercies with which he had been blessed. "I will remember these things
-[_i.e._ the things he is about to mention], and I will pour out my soul
-within me, how I passed along with the multitude, how I went with them [or
-how I led them] to the house of God."
-
-Ps. xlix. 5. "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, _when_ the
-iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?" This, though seemingly an
-exact rendering of the Hebrew, wholly misleads the English reader. The
-phrase, "iniquity of my heels," can only suggest to him the iniquity which
-the man himself has committed, a sense which is altogether unsuited to the
-passage. The Psalmist would never say that his own personal transgressions
-were not to him a ground of fear. The word, which in Hebrew means "heel,"
-is that also which, by a slight modification, forms the name of the
-patriarch Jacob, the "Heeler," or supplanter of his brother. In the
-opinion of many scholars, the simple form here used admits of the same
-meaning, and they render, "when the iniquity of my supplanters [or the
-iniquity of those who plot against me] compasseth me about." Whatever be
-the true explanation of the Hebrew phrase, it is quite certain that it is
-the iniquity of others, and not of the speaker, which is referred to. Some
-change, therefore, in the rendering is clearly called for.
-
-Ps. xci. 9, 10. "Because thou hast made the Lord, _which is_ my refuge,
-_even_ the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,"
-&c. The earlier English translations, the Bishops', the Genevan, the Great
-Bible, and Wycliffe's, have all kept nearer to the original than this. The
-most ancient version of all, the Septuagint, renders it correctly. The
-psalm is one of those which are intended to be sung by two singers, or two
-companies of singers, responding one to the other, and hence arises the
-frequent change of person that occurs in it. In the first clause of this
-verse we have one of the singers chanting, "For thou, O Lord, art my
-refuge." In the second clause we have the response of the other singer,
-"Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall
-thee," &c., down to end of verse 13.
-
-Eccl. iv. 14. "For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas, also, _he
-that is_ born in his kingdom _becometh_ poor." The meaning attached by the
-Revisers of 1611 to the second clause seems to be, that the old and
-foolish king referred to in the previous verse, who was "born in his
-kingdom," that is, who succeeded to the kingly power by inheritance,
-becomes, through his obstinacy, a poor man. This sense can only be got
-from the words by much straining, and has led to the introduction of the
-word "becometh," which represents nothing in the original.[72] The correct
-rendering gives a plain and suitable sense: "For from the house of
-prisoners he goeth forth to reign, although in his kingdom [namely, the
-kingdom over which he now rules] he was born poor."
-
-Isa. lxiii. 19. "We are _thine_: thou never barest rule over them; they
-were not called by thy name." The sense of this passage is entirely
-changed by the introduction of the word "thine." The verse is the
-penitential acknowledgment of the depressed condition into which the
-nation had fallen in consequence of its sins. They are no longer as the
-chosen inheritance (v. 17), they are as an alien people. The Genevan
-translators give the true sense of the passage, "We have been [better, We
-are become] as they over whom thou never barest rule, and upon whom thy
-name was not called."
-
-Jer. iv. 1, 2. "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto
-me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then
-shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in
-judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in
-him, and in him shall they glory." This as it stands is hopelessly
-obscure. The passage is an emphatic announcement of the blessings that
-would come to the nations from the penitent return of Israel to its
-faithful allegiance. If Israel will return, will put away all its
-abominations, and no longer swearing by idols, as if they were the highest
-objects of reverence, should make in truth and uprightness their appeals
-to Jehovah, then the nations would share in the blessedness of the
-kingdom. "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, wilt return unto
-me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, and wilt
-not go astray, and wilt swear, 'The Lord liveth' in truth, in judgment,
-and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him," &c.
-
-Ezek. x. 14. "And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of
-a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the
-face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle." This conveys a wrong
-impression. The prophet is describing, not as he is here represented, the
-four faces of all the cherubim, but one face only of each. The Bishops'
-Bible gives the true sense by rendering, "Every one of them had four
-faces, so that the face of the first was the face of a cherub, and the
-face of the second was the face of a man, and of the third the face of a
-lion, and of the fourth the face of an eagle."
-
-Ezek. xxii. 15, 16. "And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and
-disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of
-thee. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the
-heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." The dark phrase, "thou
-shalt take thine inheritance in thyself," is commonly explained to mean,
-that whereas aforetime they were God's inheritance, they shall now be left
-to find their inheritance by themselves. A more lucid and more suitable
-meaning is given to the words by the rendering adopted by most modern
-commentators, "thou shalt be profaned through thyself in the sight of the
-nations."
-
-Dan. iii. 25. "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
-and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of
-God." It is clearly misleading to attribute to Nebuchadnezzar any such
-exalted conception as that which we attach to the phrase, "the Son of
-God," and so to render the clause misrepresents the original. The correct
-translation is "one like to a son of the gods." A similar error occurs in
-vii. 13, where "one like the Son of man," should be "one like a son of
-man."
-
-Hos. vi. 3. "Then shall we know, _if_ we follow on to know the Lord;" thus
-making the prophet to declare that the attainment of knowledge is
-dependent upon our perseverance in the search after it. This is an
-important truth, but is not the meaning of the verse, which is simply an
-emphatic exhortation to know God and to persevere in knowing Him. "Yea,
-let us know, let us follow on to know, the Lord."
-
-Hosea xiii. 14. "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy
-destruction." Though there is some difference of opinion respecting the
-right rendering of the earlier part of this verse, all are agreed that
-these should be rendered as they are quoted in 1 Cor. xv. 55, "Where are
-thy plagues, O death? Where is thy destruction, O grave?"
-
-Matt. vi. 16. The rendering "they disfigure their faces, that they may
-appear unto men to fast," misleads the reader by conveying the impression
-that the Pharisees were endeavouring to obtain credit under false
-pretences--were seeming to fast when not doing so in reality; whereas the
-conduct condemned is that of parading, and calling public attention to,
-their religious observances. "They disfigure their faces, that they may be
-seen of men that they are fasting."[73] So also in verse 18.
-
-Matt. xi. 2. "Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
-he sent two of his disciples." Here the true force of the passage is
-missed. "Christ," as used by us, is a proper name, designating the person,
-and not simply the office of our Lord. It was not because John had heard
-of certain works done by Jesus of Nazareth that he sent his disciples to
-Him, but because he recognized in the accounts which were brought to him
-deeds characteristic of the Christ, the promised Messiah. "When John heard
-in the prison the works of the Christ."
-
-Matt. xv. 3. "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
-tradition?" The commandment of God might indeed be transgressed by
-compliance with the traditions of men, but this is not the meaning of our
-Lord's words. The Pharisees had asked why the disciples did not observe
-the traditions of the elders respecting washing. Our Lord justifies them
-by calling attention to the wrong doing of those who so exalted these
-outward observations, in themselves mere matters of indifference, as on
-their account to make void the commandments of God. "Why do ye also
-transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?"[74]
-
-Mark vi. 20. "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an
-holy, and observed him." This erroneous rendering has come down through
-Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan, the last of these, however,
-giving it in the less obscure form, "and did him reverence." The passage
-is rightly given by Wycliffe, "and kept him;" _i.e._ kept him in safety.
-
-Luke i. 59. "And they called him Zacharias." The form employed in the
-Greek expresses that the action here spoken of was attempted only, not
-completed, "they would have called him Zacharias."
-
-Luke xxi. 19. "In your patience possess ye your souls," a translation
-which altogether misses the meaning. The clause is not an exhortation to
-the maintenance of a calm composure in trouble, but is an exhortation to
-the acquirement of a higher and nobler life through the brave endurance of
-suffering. "In your patience win ye your lives." In the better texts this
-is given in the form of an assurance: "In your patience ye shall win your
-lives."
-
-Luke xxiii. 15. "No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and lo, nothing
-worthy of death is done unto him." Words unto which an intelligible sense
-can be put only by straining them to mean that nothing had been done to
-our Lord to show that in the judgment of Herod He was worthy of death. All
-obscurity is removed by the more faithful rendering, "nothing worthy of
-death hath been done by him."
-
-John iv. 27. "And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he
-talked with the woman." The surprise of the disciples was not occasioned
-by the fact that our Lord was conversing with this particular woman; they
-were surprised that He should talk with any woman. The correct rendering
-is, as given by the Rheims, "and they marueiled that he talked with a
-woman."
-
-John v. 35. "He was a burning and a shining light." Though this, by
-frequent quotation, has passed into a sort of proverbial phrase, it is a
-most unfortunate rendering, and gives an entirely wrong impression of the
-meaning of the passage. As thus read it sets forth the pre-eminence of
-John, whereas its true import is to emphasize the subordinate nature of
-his office and work. Christ, as stated in the first chapter of this
-Gospel, was "the Light." In comparison with Him, John was only a lamp
-which, in order that it may give light, must first be kindled from some
-other source. "He was the lamp which is kindled and [so] shineth."
-
-John xv. 3. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
-you," thus representing the word to be the instrument through which the
-cleansing was wrought. But though this be true, it is not the truth here
-set forth. It was not "through," but "on account of" the word, _i.e._
-because of its virtue and its cleansing power, that they were clean.
-Here, again, Wycliffe is free from the error into which all the later
-translators (except the Rheims) have fallen. He renders, "Now ye ben clene
-for the word that I haue spokun to you."
-
-Acts ii. 23. "Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
-slain." The ordinary reader naturally takes the "wicked hands" to be the
-hands of the Jews, whereas the reference is to the Romans, through whose
-agency the Jews brought about the crucifixion of Christ, "and by the hands
-of lawless men, ye crucified and slew." Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, the
-Genevan, the Bishops, and the Rheims, all render this clause correctly.
-
-Acts xi. 17. "Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as _he did_
-unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ." This is incorrect, and
-suggests a false contrast between "us" and "them," as if the latter were
-not believers. Faith in Christ is the ground upon which, in the case of
-both parties, the gifts referred to were received. The verse is thus given
-by Tyndale: "For as moche then as God gave them lyke gyftes, as he dyd
-unto vs when we beleved on the Lorde Iesus Christ."
-
-Acts xxvi. 23. "That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first
-that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and
-to the Gentiles." This both needlessly suggests a difficulty to many
-readers, and altogether conceals one main point of the passage; namely,
-that the resurrection of Christ was the great source from which
-illumination would come both to Jews and to Gentiles, "and that He first
-by _His_ resurrection from the dead should proclaim light to the people
-and to the Gentiles."
-
-Rom. ix. 3. "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
-brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Such a wish it is impossible
-that the Apostle could have entertained. His words are the expression of
-his strong affection for his fellow-countrymen. "I could have wished,"
-&c.; _i.e._ if such a wish had been right or possible.
-
-Rom. xiii. 11. "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to
-awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
-believed." This is ambiguous English, and though a very careful reader
-might gather the true sense from this rendering, it is very liable to be
-taken as if meaning that our salvation is nearer than we anticipated; nor
-is the ambiguity removed by the Genevan, which reads, "nearer than when we
-believed it." The reference is to the time of their first exercise of
-faith in Christ, "nearer than when we _first_ believed."
-
-1 Cor. i. 21. "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
-knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
-that believe." This rendering has been a fertile source of error, as if
-preaching was in itself, or as viewed by the Corinthians, an inappropriate
-means for the diffusion of the Gospel, a thought altogether at variance
-with the tone of the context, and with the facts of history. The Greeks
-were, of all the peoples of antiquity, the least disposed to think lightly
-of oratory, and the whole tenor of the passage shows that their tendency
-was to overrate, not underrate, the power of speech. What was foolishness
-to them was not the act of preaching, but the doctrine preached--salvation
-through a crucified Christ. The Rheims here clearly enough gives the true
-sense, "it pleased God by the folishnes of the preaching to saue them that
-beleeue."
-
-1 Cor. ix. 5. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well
-as other apostles?" This mode of speech implies that some only of the
-other apostles were married. What the Greek states is that all or most of
-them were. Here again the Rheims correctly renders, "as also the rest of
-the Apostles."
-
-2 Cor. v. 14. "Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were
-all dead," thus seeming to imply that the death of Christ upon the cross
-is a proof that all men were in a state of spiritual death; whereas the
-conclusion which the Apostle draws from the death of Christ is, that all
-who truly believe in Him die to their old fleshly sinful life, "because
-we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died."
-
-Eph. iii 10. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
-heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."
-It would only be after much careful consideration that the reader of these
-words would discover that they cannot mean that the manifold wisdom of God
-is to be known _by_ the Church. What the Apostle really states is, that it
-was in the Divine purpose that through the Church the manifold wisdom of
-God was to be made known to the angelic powers. Of all the ancient
-versions the Rheims, though here, as usual, disfigured by its offensive
-Latinisms, most clearly expresses the sense of the verse; its rendering
-is, "that the manifold wisdom of God may be notified to the Princes and
-Potentates in the celestials by the Church."
-
-Phil. iv. 3. "And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women
-which laboured with me in the gospel." This leaves it quite uncertain who
-are the women referred to, whereas in the original it is plain that they
-are the two women previously referred to, Euodia, and Syntyche; and the
-reason why it is urged that assistance should be given to them, is that
-they had bravely shared with Paul in the toil and conflict of the
-Christian service. "Help them, for they have laboured with me in the
-gospel."
-
-1 Tim. iv. 15. "Meditate upon these things." This wholly fails to express
-the apostle's meaning. His exhortation goes beyond the region of thought;
-it passes into the sphere of active life, and he urges Timothy to give
-himself to the diligent practice of the several departments of labour
-previously referred to. Of the old translators, Tyndale gives it
-correctly, "These thynges exercyse."
-
-1 Tim. vi. 2. "And they that have believing masters, let them not despise
-_them_, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because
-they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." The last clause
-of this passage has, in all probability, grievously puzzled many a reader;
-but with the fuller knowledge of the Greek syntax now possessed, all
-obscurity passes away. No scholar would now hesitate in rendering, "do
-them service because they who partake of the benefit are faithful and
-beloved."[75]
-
-1 Tim. vi. 5. "Supposing that gain is godliness." Here again an
-unnecessary difficulty is introduced; for it is hard to see how any sane
-person could consider "gain" to be "godliness." On the other hand, it is
-unhappily no uncommon experience to meet with persons who treat religion
-as a means of worldly advantage, and it is to such the Apostle refers. The
-correct rendering is, "supposing that godliness is gain."[76]
-
-Heb. iv. 2. "For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them," a
-rendering which at once raises the objection that "the Gospel," in the
-sense which ordinary readers attach to the term, was not preached to the
-Israelites in the wilderness; nor does any reference to "the Gospel" occur
-in the immediate context, but simply to the promise of entering into a
-rest. The plain sense of the passage is, "unto us were good tidings
-preached as well as unto them."
-
-Heb. viii. 5. "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things."
-The introduction of the preposition "unto" almost entirely obliterates the
-meaning of the clause; namely, that the Mosaic priesthood were the
-ministers, not of the true sanctuary, but of that which is only its copy
-and shadow. The Rheims correctly renders, "that serve the examplar and
-shadow of heavenly things."
-
-Heb. xiii. 7, 8. "Whose faith follow, considering the end of their
-conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
-Here there is a double error; first, the connection of the last clause
-with the preceding, as if it were intended to affirm that Christ was the
-end of the conversation of their faithful pastors; and secondly, the wrong
-sense thus given to the word "end," which here denotes the "outcome" or
-issue. The Hebrew Christians are urged to imitate the faith of their
-pastors, considering the blessed issue of their Christian cause. Then
-follows, as an independent statement, the assertion of the
-unchangeableness of Christ, which, though not altogether disconnected in
-thought with what precedes, stands in still closer connection with what
-follows: "Considering the issue of their way of life, imitate their faith.
-Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
-
-Such are some of the passages from which it may be said, that through the
-emphatic unanimity of Biblical scholars all obscurity and doubt have been
-removed. Their true meaning may now be affirmed with a confidence that
-closely borders upon moral certainty. Through numerous commentaries and
-other expository works, these results of scholarship are made widely
-known, and they whose duty it is to expound these passages to others are
-constrained to point out the imperfection that attaches to the renderings
-given in the English Bible now ordinarily used. It is obviously a most
-undesirable thing that the teacher or preacher should be placed under such
-a necessity. It is not at all times easy so to discharge the duty as that
-he shall give no offence even to educated hearers; while the simple-minded
-and unlearned are painfully perplexed; and, unprepared as they are to
-estimate the limits of possible error, seem to themselves to be launched
-upon a boundless sea of uncertainty. Revision, therefore, becomes
-imperative, both for the sake of removing acknowledged blemishes, and also
-for reassuring the anxious that they are trusting to a faithful guide, and
-for showing to them how little, comparatively, there is in their beloved
-Book that needs to be changed.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VII.
-
-_ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS, AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN._
-
-
-Another, and distinct, class of reasons for the further revision of the
-English Bible, arises from the more abundant material now possessed for
-the determination of the original text of Scripture than was within the
-reach of the Revisers of 1611.
-
-Even if these honoured men had perfectly fulfilled their work, and had
-never erred in their interpretation of the sacred books, the result of
-their labours would still be open to correction because of the less
-perfect form of the texts which they set themselves to translate. The
-exact words used by the inspired writers are, as was stated in the first
-lecture, not now to be found in any one book or manuscript. They have to
-be gathered from varied sources, by long and careful labour, demanding
-much skill and learning. These sources, moreover, are so numerous that the
-investigation of them can be accomplished only by a large division of
-labour, no one life being long enough for the task, and no one scholar
-having knowledge enough to complete it alone. Nevertheless, it is well
-that our sources are thus extensive. Had one copy only of the books of the
-Old and New Testament come down to us, then, indeed, we should have been
-freed from the necessity of this manifold and laborious research, but
-unless this were the original copy itself, we should have had no means
-whereby to detect and to remove the errors which had crept in from the
-human imperfections of the transcribers. And though none of these errata
-might in any serious degree have affected the great truths which the Bible
-conveys to us, or have diminished our estimate of its surpassing worth,
-they would have been as blots upon its pages which our love and reverence
-for it would long to see removed. The greater the number and variety of
-our resources, the greater is our ability, by the examination and
-comparison of their differences, to remove these blemishes; and the
-greater also is the confidence we are able to feel in the absolute
-correctness of those far more numerous and extensive passages in which our
-authorities agree. And hence, though the toil imposed upon us is so
-largely multiplied thereby, we cannot but rejoice in the number and extent
-of our authorities, and we gather therefrom a fresh illustration of the
-saying, that "in all labour there is profit."
-
-The sources, whence our knowledge of the original texts is chiefly
-derived, are three in number: (1) Manuscripts containing one or more of
-the books of Scripture; (2) Ancient Versions of the Bible; and (3)
-Quotations of Scriptural passages found in the works of early Christian
-writers.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Respecting our Manuscript Authorities, the first fact claiming emphatic
-notice is, that while in the case of the classic poets, philosophers and
-historians, the extant manuscript copies are numbered by tens and
-sometimes even by units, those of the Scriptures are numbered by hundreds.
-Of the New Testament alone nearly eighteen hundred manuscripts have been
-catalogued and more or less carefully examined. Of these 685 are
-manuscripts of the Gospels, 248 contain the Acts and Catholic Epistles,
-298 the Pauline Epistles, and 110 the Apocalypse; 428 are Lectionaries or
-service books of the Greek church, 347 of which contain passages from the
-Gospels and 81 passages from the Acts and the Epistles. Thus while our
-knowledge of the interesting narratives of Herodotus is dependent upon
-five or six authorities only, and the history of Livy upon eight or nine
-only (and none of these contain the whole even of the portions
-extant),[77] our knowledge of the life and words of our Lord is drawn from
-over a thousand manuscript authorities, and of which the larger part
-contain the whole of the four Gospels.
-
-In antiquity again the manuscripts of the New Testament far surpass those
-of classical authors. Few, if any, of the latter are older than the ninth
-or tenth century, while of the former we have copies belonging to the
-fourth and fifth centuries. The oldest manuscripts are written in capital
-letters, and on this account are called uncial[78] manuscripts, or briefly
-uncials. Later manuscripts are written in a smaller character, and in a
-style approaching to what we call a running hand, and are hence named
-cursives. Of uncial manuscripts, containing portions of the New Testament,
-one hundred and fifty-eight have been examined and catalogued. Some of the
-most valuable of these have been published under the superintendence of
-careful editors. Others have been thoroughly examined, and their
-variations so faithfully noted and recorded, that a private student is,
-for most practical purposes, placed in the same position as the possessor
-of the manuscript itself. This work is technically described as
-_collation_, and the amount of painstaking labour spent upon the collation
-of Biblical manuscripts during the past two hundred years, and especially
-in the last forty or fifty years, is simply enormous. To one who has never
-examined a document written many centuries ago it is difficult to convey
-any adequate notion of the amount of time and labour involved in the
-collation even of a single manuscript. The unusual and varying forms of
-the letters, the indistinctness of the characters, the various
-contractions employed by the scribe, and, as is the case with our most
-ancient documents, the non-separation of word from word, and the absence
-of stops, render the mere task of deciphering the manuscript very
-difficult and painfully wearying to the eyes.[79] Much watchful attention
-is also demanded, as well as a good knowledge of the language, in making
-the proper separation of the words, and in judging aright of any
-peculiarities of spelling that may attach to the writer. In making the
-collation of any Biblical manuscript--say of the New Testament--the course
-generally pursued is as follows: The collator procures a printed copy of
-the Greek text, commonly of some well-known edition, and in the margin of
-this he marks all the variations of the manuscripts from the printed text
-before him, whether of omission, addition, or otherwise, including even
-variations in spelling. He also marks carefully where each line and page
-of the manuscript begins and ends, what corrections or alterations have
-been made in it, whether these were made by the original writer or by a
-later hand; and where several handwritings may be detected, he specifies
-and distinguishes these. All this is done with so much minuteness that it
-would be possible for the collator to reproduce the original manuscript in
-every respect save in the shape of the letters and the appearance of the
-parchment or paper.
-
-Of the uncial manuscripts of the New Testament, the most ancient and
-important are the SINAITIC,[80] written in the fourth century, and now
-deposited in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg; the VATICAN,[81]
-also of the fourth century, and preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome;
-the ALEXANDRINE,[82] of the fifth century, now in the British Museum; the
-EPHRAEM CODEX,[83] of the fifth century, in the National Library at Paris;
-BEZA'S CODEX,[84] of the sixth century, in the University Library,
-Cambridge; and the CLAROMONTANE,[85] also of the sixth century, which
-formerly belonged to Beza, but is now in the National Library at Paris. As
-will be seen presently, only two of these most ancient manuscripts were
-available for the preparation of the text from which the translators of
-1611 made their revision. The Alexandrine was not brought to light until
-1628, when it was presented to Charles I. by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of
-Constantinople. Although the Ephraem Codex was brought to Europe in the
-early part of the sixteenth century, it was not known to contain a portion
-of the New Testament until towards the close of the seventeenth century,
-and was not collated until the year 1716. The Sinaitic was discovered by
-Dr. Tischendorf, in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, so
-recently as February 4th, 1859. And the Vatican, though deposited in the
-Library at Rome in the fifteenth century, was, during a long time, so
-jealously guarded by the Roman authorities, that little use could be made
-of it. Now, however, all these six important manuscripts have been edited
-and published, some in the ordinary style of printing, and some in _quasi
-fac-simile_. At the present time, by the application of the processes of
-photography, an exact copy of the Alexandrine is in course of preparation,
-and the New Testament portion has been successfully completed.
-
-In these and other ways, by the laborious efforts of many English and
-Continental scholars, an immense amount of material for the determination
-of the sacred text has been gathered together and safely garnered; and
-knowledge which aforetime could be attained only by slow and wearisome
-effort, by many long journeys to distant places, and by much personal
-search amongst the books and papers stored away in national and other
-libraries, can now be attained with comparative ease by the solitary
-student in his study. At the time when King James's translators entered
-upon their work a small fraction only of this mass of material was
-available, and even that fraction was but imperfectly used. The means were
-not then possessed for correctly judging of the relative value of the
-several documents, nor had experience given the skill to discriminate
-wisely between varying testimony.
-
-The translators of 1611 have left on record no statement respecting the
-Greek text from which they translated, but as far as can be gathered from
-internal evidence they contented themselves with accepting the forms of it
-which they found ready at hand. Of these the two then held in highest
-repute were those connected with the names of Theodore Beza and Robert
-Stephen. These, in their turn, were based upon the two primary editions of
-the printed text, the Complutensian and Erasmus's, editions which were
-made quite independently of each other. The Complutensian was the first
-printed, though not the first published.[86] It formed the fifth volume of
-the splendid Polyglot prepared under the munificent patronage of Cardinal
-Ximenes, at Alcala, in Spain, from the Latin name of which city
-(Complutum) it derives its designation, and was completed January 10th,
-1514. It is not now known from what manuscripts the text of this edition
-was derived, but it may be confidently affirmed that none of our most
-ancient authorities were used. They were probably not many in number, and
-were all what in this connection is termed modern; that is to say, not
-earlier than the tenth century. The first _published_ edition of the
-Greek New Testament was that edited by the celebrated Erasmus, and sent
-forth from the press of Froben, in Basle, February 24th, 1516. This was
-derived from six manuscripts, five of which are now in the public library
-of Basle, and one[87] in the library of the Prince of
-Oettingen-Wallerstein. Of these one, and the most valuable, contained the
-whole of the New Testament except the Apocalypse, but of this Erasmus made
-but little use. Of the rest, one contained the Gospels only, two the Acts
-and the Epistles only, one the Epistles of Paul only, and one the
-Apocalypse only. It will thus be seen that in the Gospels the text given
-by Erasmus rested almost entirely upon the authority of a single
-manuscript; in the Acts and Catholic Epistles upon that of two only; in
-the Epistles of Paul upon three; and in the Apocalypse upon one only, and
-that an imperfect one. The last six verses were wanting, and these Erasmus
-supplied by translating them into Greek from the Latin of the Vulgate. The
-work too was hastily done. The proposal to undertake it was made to
-Erasmus April 17th, 1515, so that less than ten months were given to the
-preparation of the volume, and this, too, at a time when Erasmus was
-busied with other engagements; an unseemly haste that we may probably
-ascribe to the publishers' eager desire to get the start of the
-Complutensian. Revised editions were published in 1519 and 1522, in the
-preparation of which the aid of a few additional manuscripts was obtained.
-These, again, were further revised by the aid of the Complutensian, which
-then became available, in an edition which Erasmus published in 1527.
-
-The next stage in the history of the printed text of the Greek New
-Testament is marked by the publication at Paris, in 1550, of the handsome
-folio of the celebrated and learned printer, Robert Stephen.[88] He tells
-us in his preface that in the preparation of this edition he made use of
-the Complutensian and of fifteen manuscripts. Two of these were ancient,
-one that is now known as Beza's Codex, which had been collated for him by
-a friend in Italy, and another, a manuscript in the National Library of
-Paris, written in the eighth or ninth century, and containing the four
-Gospels;[89] the rest were modern, and all were but imperfectly
-collated.[90]
-
-After the death of Robert Stephen (1559)[91] the work of revision was
-carried on by Theodore Beza, who, like the former, had embraced the
-Protestant cause, and like him also had found a home in Geneva. His first
-edition was published in this city in 1565, a second in 1582, a third in
-1589, and a fourth in 1598. In the preparation of these he had in his
-possession the collations made for Robert Stephen, and, in addition, the
-ancient manuscript of the Gospels and Acts which now bears his name; and
-for the Pauline Epistles, the equally ancient Claromontane. Beza's
-strength, however, lay rather in the interpretation, than in the
-criticism, of the text, and he made but a slight use of the materials
-within his reach.
-
-It will thus be seen how small, comparatively, was the manuscript
-authority for the text used by King James's translators. In the main they
-follow the text of Beza; sometimes, however, they give the preference to
-Stephen's; in some few places they differ from both. By what principles
-they were guided in their choice we do not know. They do not appear to
-have set on foot any independent examination of authorities, and when they
-forsake their two guides they commonly follow in the wake of some of the
-earlier English versions.
-
-But, as already stated, manuscripts are not the only source whence we
-derive our knowledge of the original texts. Translations of the Scriptures
-were made at an early date; some at an earlier date than that of the
-oldest manuscripts now extant. Two of these were referred to in the first
-lecture; namely, the old Latin and the old Syriac, both of which belong to
-the second century, and give, therefore, most important testimony as to
-the words of Scripture at that early period. Next to these in point of age
-may be placed the two Egyptian versions, one in the language of Lower
-Egypt, and called the Memphitic (or Coptic), and the other in that of
-Upper Egypt, and called the Thebaic (or Sahidic). In the opinion of
-competent judges, some portions, at least, of the Scriptures must have
-been translated into these dialects before the close of the second
-century; in their completed form these versions may be referred to the
-earlier part of the third century. A Gothic version of the Scriptures was
-made in the fourth century by Ulphilas, who was Bishop of the Moeso-Goths
-348-388; and of this some valuable portions are still extant. Two other
-ancient versions, the Armenian (cent. 5), and the �thiopic (cents. 6 and
-7), though of inferior importance, are not without value. During recent
-years a large amount of labour has been spent, first, in securing as
-accurate a knowledge as possible of the text of these various versions,
-and then in investigating the evidence they supply respecting the original
-texts from which they were severally made. From this source much valuable
-material has been obtained supplementary to that furnished by Biblical
-manuscripts.
-
-The works of early Christian writers contain, as might be expected, large
-quotations of Scripture passages. Some of these works are elaborate
-expositions of various books of the Old and New Testament, and others are
-controversial writings in which there is a frequent necessity for
-appealing to Scriptural authorities. Although not a few of the writings of
-the earliest Christian authors have perished, we have still a
-considerable collection of writings belonging to the second and third
-centuries, whose pages supply us with valuable evidence concerning the
-text of the New Testament, of a date earlier than the oldest of our
-manuscripts. We have also a still larger collection of writings belonging
-to the same age as that of our most ancient manuscripts, and from them are
-able to gather a further mass of testimony in confirmation or correction
-of that given by these venerable documents.
-
-The writings of Iren�us, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen,
-belonging to the latter part of the second century, and the beginning of
-the third, contain a large body of quotations from the Gospels and
-Epistles. The works of Origen alone may, with scarcely any exaggeration,
-be said to be equivalent to an additional manuscript of the New Testament.
-He died about A.D. 253 or 254, and during his entire life gave himself
-with a most indomitable perseverance to Biblical studies. In addition to
-an elaborate revision of the Greek text of the Septuagint, upon which he
-spent eight and twenty years, but of which unhappily some fragments only
-have reached us, he composed expositions or homilies upon the larger part
-of the books of the Old and New Testaments. Of these some very
-considerable portions have come down to us, and as his expositions on the
-Old Testament abound in quotations from the New, the number of passages
-from the latter found in his writings is very large.
-
-Of writers belonging to the fourth century we have commentaries in Greek
-by Chrysostom and Didymus, and in Latin by Hilary of Rome, and Jerome;
-and, in addition, extensive theological treatises, involving numerous
-appeals to the Scriptures, by Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Epiphanius, and
-the two Gregorys.
-
-In the following century we have the Greek commentaries of Theodore of
-Mopsuestia and Theodoret; the commentary of Pelagius on the Epistles of
-Paul; and the voluminous writings of Augustine, including commentaries on
-the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, John's Gospel and Epistles, and
-Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, together with a large number
-of Homilies on various parts of Scripture. These numerous writings form a
-mine of wealth to the Biblical critic; but it is a mine that has only been
-diligently worked in comparatively recent years. Much wearisome toil has
-been necessary in bringing to light its treasures, and these were either
-overlooked or neglected by the earlier editors of the Greek New Testament.
-
-It may perhaps be thought that, inasmuch as the documents from which these
-Christian writings are obtained are themselves of a later date, the
-testimony they give to the text of Scripture is of no higher worth than
-that of Biblical manuscripts of the same age. The scribes, it may be said,
-would be influenced by the form of text then current, and in copying these
-writings would naturally, when Scripture quotations occurred, give them in
-the form with which they were familiar. To some extent this may have been
-the case, and the testimony of these writings is of less weight when they
-simply reflect the form of text which prevailed at the date when they were
-copied. But then, on the other hand, their testimony is for the same
-reason proportionally the stronger whenever they do not agree with the
-current form, but give a different reading. Moreover it must be remembered
-that in many cases the authors comment minutely upon the Scripture text,
-and that here their testimony is quite unaffected by any tendency on the
-part of the copyist to use a familiar form, the comment itself showing
-beyond all doubt what was the form of the text which the author was
-expounding. In all such places the testimony of these early writers is
-especially valuable.
-
-From this mere outline of the manifold researches which scholars have made
-during the years that have passed since the Revision of 1611 was issued,
-some notion may be gathered of the extent to which our resources for the
-satisfactory determination of the sacred text have been multiplied. It
-will hence be seen how great is the confidence with which we are thereby
-enabled to affirm the verbal correctness of that far larger portion of the
-text in which our numerous and varied authorities are all agreed, and with
-what confidence also we can place our finger upon certain blemishes, and
-say that here an error has crept in through the inadvertence, or
-carelessness, or ignorance of the transcriber. If then there were no other
-reasons for the revision of the English Bible, this alone would be a
-sufficient ground for it. When it is in the power of any one to say that
-there are passages in our common Bibles which, as there given, are found
-in no Greek manuscript whatever, as is the case in Acts ix., the latter
-part of verse 5, and the beginning of verse 6; 1 Peter iii. 20; Heb. xi.
-13; and Rev. ii. 20; and when there are other passages, respecting which
-the evidence is greatly preponderating, that they ought to have no place
-in the text, as is the case with Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xvii. 21; Matt.
-xxiii. 35 (last clause); Mark xv. 28; Luke xi. 2, 4 (the last clause of
-each verse); John v. 3 (last clause), and 4; Acts viii. 37; Acts xv. 34;
-Acts xxviii. 29; Rom. xi. 6 (last clause); 1 Cor. vi. 20 (last clause); 1
-Cor. x. 28 (last clause); Gal. iii. 1 (second clause); Heb. xii. 20; and 1
-John v., from "in heaven," verse 7, to "in earth," verse 8. When these
-things can be said, and can be truly said, then all true lovers of the
-Bible will earnestly demand that they be forthwith removed.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VIII.
-
-_THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO
-CENTURIES._
-
-
-It has not been left to the present generation to be the first to
-recognize the force of the various considerations presented in the
-previous lectures. The duty of providing for a further revision of the
-English Bible has been handed down as a solemn trust from generation to
-generation. Every new discovery made of Biblical manuscripts, and every
-fresh field of research opened up, has at once made the need of revision
-more apparent, and given intensity to the desire that it should be
-undertaken; and, in their turn, this quickened desire and this increase of
-material have prompted to renewed efforts in obtaining all possible
-subsidiary helps. In this way it has come to pass that the whole period
-which has elapsed since the publication of the Revision of 1611 has been
-in effect a time of preparation for another and further revision, and
-here, as elsewhere, the divine law of human discipline has been verified,
-that every work accomplished is but the starting-point for fresh
-endeavours.
-
-In this work of preparation four distinct stages may be clearly traced:
-the first, that of unfriendly criticism; the second, that of premature
-attempts at correction; the third, that of diligent research and patient
-investigation; and the fourth, that of widespread conviction of the
-desirableness of further revision, and the discussion of the plans by
-which it may best be accomplished.
-
-From the very first the new version had to undergo an ordeal of
-criticism, springing sometimes from personal pique, sometimes from party
-prejudice, sometimes from a one-sided attachment to a favourite doctrine,
-the evidence for which seemed to be obscured by the rendering given to
-certain passages. Almost immediately upon the publication of the volume, a
-violent attack was made upon it by Hugh Broughton, who, though a man of
-immense erudition, and one of the best Hebraists of the day, was of so
-overbearing a temper that his offer to aid in the revision had been
-declined. Broughton declared that the version was so ill done that it bred
-in him a sadness which would grieve him whilst he breathed. "Tell his
-Majesty," he passionately said, "that I had rather be rent in pieces with
-wild horses than any such translation by my consent should be urged on
-poor churches."
-
-In the sharp controversies of the Commonwealth period the slight
-indications given by the version of a certain ecclesiastical bias were
-unduly exaggerated. Charges of a direct prelatic influence were freely
-made, and various rumours were circulated, as if upon good authority, that
-Archbishop Bancroft had taken upon himself to introduce alterations in
-opposition to the judgment, and even the protest of the translators.
-Influenced probably by the feeling thus awakened, though not sharing it,
-Dr. John Lightfoot, in a sermon preached before the Long Parliament on
-August 26th, 1645,[92] expressed the hope that they would find some time
-among their serious employments to think of a "review and survey of the
-translation of the Bible." "And certainly," he added, "it would not be the
-least advantage that you might do to the three nations, if they, by your
-care and means, might come to understand the proper and genuine reading of
-the Scriptures by an exact, vigorous, and lively translation."
-
-In 1653 the charge that the New Testament "had been looked over by some
-Prelates, to bring it to speak the Prelatical language," was formally
-repeated in the preamble of a Bill brought before the Long Parliament,
-which proposed the appointment of a committee "to search and observe
-wherein that last translation appears to be wronged by the Prelates or
-printers or others."[93] In 1659 a folio volume of 805 pages, entitled,
-"An Essay toward the Amendment of the Last English Translation of the
-Bible, or a Proof by many instances that the last Translation of the Bible
-into English may be improved," was published by Dr. Robert Gell, "Minister
-of the Parish of St. Mary, Alder-Mary, London." Dr. Gell was a man who
-stoutly maintained the doctrine that it is "possible and attainable
-through the grace of God and His Holy Spirit that men may be without sin,"
-and his book is an elaborate attempt to show that this doctrine "was
-frequently delivered in holy Scripture, though industriously obscured by
-our translators." An attack of another kind was made a quarter of a
-century later, by a Roman Catholic writer named Thomas Ward, who,
-repeating many of the charges made against the earlier English versions by
-Gregory Martin, one of the authors of the Rhemish version, charged the
-translators with corrupting the Holy Scriptures by false and partial
-translations, for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage in the
-controversy with the Church of Rome.[94]
-
-These hostile criticisms, though made in a spirit of partisanship and
-marred by much uncharitableness and unfairness, were nevertheless of
-service. They forced upon all, though in a rude and unpleasant way, the
-recognition of the fact that the new version, with all its excellences,
-was still the work of fallible men; and despite their passion and their
-hard words, they did undoubtedly hit some blots that here and there
-disfigured the sacred page. To this extent they served to prepare the way
-for further revision.
-
-A second stage in the process of preparation is seen in the various
-attempts which have been made to produce a version which should remove
-acknowledged blemishes, and more faithfully convey the meaning of the holy
-Word. Some of these have been based upon a well-conceived plan, and have
-sought to accomplish the desired end by the united efforts of a band of
-fellow-labourers; others have been the work of individual scholars, and
-were for the most part of a tentative character, intended simply to show
-what ought to be attempted, and how it might be done; others, again, have
-been the unwise labours of men who worked upon false principles, and with
-insufficient knowledge; but all have in their own way helped on the work,
-the former two classes by their felicitous renderings of some passages,
-and the light they have thrown upon the meaning of others, and the last
-mentioned class by their clear demonstration of what a translation of the
-Scriptures ought certainly not to be.
-
-The first[95] serious attempt at a further revision was made by the Rev.
-Henry Jessey, M.A., pastor of that greatly persecuted Congregational
-Church in Southwark, which had been gathered by Henry Jacob in 1616. In
-the time of the Commonwealth proposals were made by Jessey, that "godly
-and able men" should be appointed by "public authority" "to review and
-amend the defects in our translation." Pending their appointment, he set
-himself to secure the co-operation of a number of learned men, at home and
-abroad, writing to them in the following fashion: "There being a strange
-desire in many that love the truth, to have a more pure, proper
-translation of the originals than hitherto; and I being moved and inclined
-to it, and desirous to promote it with all possible speed and exactness,
-do make my request (now in my actual entrance on Genesis) that as you love
-the truth as it is in Jesus, and the edification of saints, you with
-others (in like manner solicited), will take share and do each a part in
-the work, which being finished will be fruit to your account." Of the
-names of his fellow-workers the only one recorded is that of Mr. John Row,
-Hebrew professor at Aberdeen, "who took exceeding pains herein," and who
-drew up the scheme in accordance with which the work was carried on.
-Jessey's proposal received at least so much of support from "public
-authority," that he was one of the committee whose appointment was
-recommended to the House of Commons in 1653. The result is thus quaintly
-told by Jessey's biographer:[96] "Thus thorow his perswasions many persons
-excelling in knowledge, integrity, and holiness, did buckle to this great
-Worke of bettering the Translation of the Bible, but their names are
-thought fit at present to be concealed to prevent undue Reflections upon
-their persons; but may come to light (if that work shall ever come to be
-made publick), and unto each of them was one particular book or more
-allotted, according as they had leisure, or as the bent of their Genius,
-advantages of Books or Studies lay, which when supervised by all the rest,
-dayes of assembling together were to have been set apart, to seek the Lord
-for His further direction, and for conference with each other touching the
-matter then under consideration. In process of time this whole work was
-almost compleated, and stayed for nothing but the appointment of
-Commissioners to examine it, and warrant its publication." The death of
-Cromwell, and the political events which followed, prevented the
-realization of Jessey's hopes. It had been with him the work of many years
-of his life, and his soul was so engaged in it that he frequently uttered
-the prayer, "O that I might see this done before I die."
-
-The ecclesiastical events arising out of the Act of Uniformity (1662) will
-sufficiently account for the absence of any efforts of revision during the
-latter part of the seventeenth century. In the earlier part of the
-following century there appeared one of those ill-advised attempts, whose
-chief use is to serve as a beacon of warning, in the Greek and English New
-Testament, published A.D. 1729, by W. Mace, M.D.[97] In his translation
-this author allowed himself to employ an unpleasantly free style of
-rendering, and deemed it fitting to substitute the colloquial style of the
-day for the dignified simplicity of the version he undertook to amend.
-
-Towards the latter part of the century a considerable number of well-meant
-endeavours at revision were made by devout and scholarly men.
-
-In 1764 "A new and literal Translation of the Old and New Testament, with
-notes, critical and explanatory," was published by Anthony Purver, a
-member of the Society of Friends.
-
-In 1770 there was issued "The New Testament, or New Covenant of our Lord
-and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from the Greek according to the
-present idiom of the English tongue, with notes and references," by John
-Worsley, of Hertford, whose aim, as stated in his preface, was to bring
-his translation nearer to the original, and "to make the present form of
-expression more suitable to our present language," adding, with a laudable
-desire to repudiate all sympathy with those who forced the Scripture to
-say what, according to their own fancies, it ought to say, "I have no
-design to countenance any particular opinions or sentiments. I have
-weighed, as it were, every word in a balance, even to the minutest
-particle, begging the gracious aid of the Divine Spirit to lead me into
-the true and proper meaning, that I might give a just and exact
-translation of this great and precious charter of man's salvation."[98]
-
-In 1781 Gilbert Wakefield, late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, but
-then classical tutor of the Warrington Academy, published "a new
-translation of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians,
-offered to the public as a specimen of an intended version of the whole
-New Testament, with a preface containing a brief account of the Author's
-plan." This was followed in 1782 by a new translation of the Gospel of
-Matthew, and in 1791 by a translation of the whole of the New
-Testament.[99]
-
-In 1786 a Roman Catholic clergyman (the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D.)
-issued a prospectus of "a New Translation of the Holy Bible from corrected
-texts of the originals, compared with the Ancient Versions." This
-prospectus was very favourably received by many of the leading Biblical
-scholars of the day, especially by the great Hebraist, Dr. Benjamin
-Kennicott, Canon of Christchurch, and by Dr. Robert Lowth, Bishop of
-London, and was followed in 1788 by formal proposals for printing the book
-by subscription. The first volume appeared in 1792, with the title "The
-Holy Bible, or the Books accounted sacred by Jews and Christians;
-otherwise called the Books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully
-translated from corrected texts of the Originals, with various readings,
-explanatory notes, and critical remarks." Two other volumes were
-afterwards published; but the death of the author, in 1801, prevented the
-completion of the work.[100]
-
-In 1796 Dr. William Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh, published "An attempt
-towards revising our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures, or the
-New Covenant of Jesus Christ; and towards illustrating the sense by
-philological and explanatory notes."
-
-Passing over some other works less worthy of notice, a scholarly attempt
-was made in 1836 by Grenville Penn to introduce into the English version
-some of the results which had then been attained by the critical
-examination of ancient authorities. This work bore the title, "The Book of
-the New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being a critical
-revision of the text and translation of the English version of the New
-Testament, with the aid of most ancient manuscripts, unknown to the age in
-which that version was last put forth by authority."
-
-It is not to be supposed that any of these translations were published
-with the expectation of securing so large a measure of favour as to
-supersede the current version. Their primary purpose was to aid the
-private study of the Bible; but they have been of great service also in
-keeping the general question of revision before the notice of thoughtful
-persons, and they have each in their measure contributed to a more exact
-knowledge of the Scriptures.
-
-The failure of the earlier of these attempts at revision arose in part
-from the imperfect state of the texts upon which they were based. This
-soon became obvious, and Biblical scholars saw that for some time to come
-their labours must be spent rather in laying the foundation for a future
-revision than in attempting it themselves, and this in three distinct
-departments. The first of these was the collection, as described in the
-last lecture, of the material supplied by ancient manuscripts, and by
-early versions and quotations. In this department a long succession of
-faithful men have laboured, amongst whom may be mentioned Brian Walton,
-who in 1657 published his famous Polyglot Bible in six folio volumes,
-giving in addition to the original Hebrew and Greek, the Samaritan
-Pentateuch, the Septuagint, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, �thiopic, and Persian
-versions; Dr. John Mill, whose New Testament was published in 1770, and of
-whom it has been justly said that "his services to Bible criticism surpass
-in extent and value those rendered by any other except one or two men yet
-living;"[101] Dr. Richard Bentley, who, having himself collated the
-Alexandrine and other ancient MSS., and by various agencies amassed a
-large store of critical material, published in 1720 his "Proposals for
-Printing" revised texts both of the Greek New Testament and the Latin
-Vulgate; Dr. Kennicott, who in 1760 aroused public attention to the
-importance of collating all Hebrew MSS. made before the invention of
-printing, and who personally, or through the aid of others, collated more
-than six hundred Hebrew MSS., and sixteen MSS. of the Samaritan
-Pentateuch; John Bernard de Rossi, professor of Oriental languages in the
-University of Parma, who in 1784-8 published the results of the collation
-of seven hundred and thirty-one MSS., and of three hundred editions of the
-Hebrew Scriptures; and, to come to more recent times, Dr. Constantine
-Tischendorf, Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and Dr. Frederick Henry
-Scrivener, whose names are to be held in the highest honour, as of men who
-have rendered invaluable service to their own and future generations in
-the exhausting and self-denying work of the collation of Biblical MSS.,
-and through whose care and accuracy the means of obtaining an exact
-knowledge of a large number of most precious documents have been placed
-within easy reach of all.
-
-The second department of labour is the application of the material thus
-collected to the correction of the text. Here again a vast amount of
-patient work has been done, and out of the successive labours of a long
-series of critics much valuable experience has been gained and the best
-methods gradually learnt. Amongst those who have thus laboured in the
-criticism of the text of the New Testament may be mentioned the names of
-Bengel, Wettstein, Griesbach, Scholz, Tischendorf, Lachmann, Alford,
-Tregelles, Westcott, and Hort; and of that of the Old Testament, Buxtorf,
-Leusden, Van der Hooght, Michaelis, Houbigant, Kennicott, and Jahn.
-
-The third department is that which is concerned with the investigation of
-the meaning of the sacred writers; and how much has been done in this will
-be manifest to any one who makes the attempt to reckon up the long series
-of commentaries, English and Continental, on the books of the Holy
-Scriptures, published since the Revision of 1611, commencing with the
-Annotations of the eminent Nonconformist, Henry Ainsworth, on the
-Pentateuch, Psalms, and Song of Solomon, 1627, down to the recent
-commentaries on Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, by Dr.
-J. B. Lightfoot, the present Bishop of Durham. The attempt to make this
-enumeration will deepen the desire that the light which has been shed upon
-the Bible by this long succession of its learned and earnest students
-should now be employed for the guidance and help of the ordinary readers
-of its pages.
-
-To such desire emphatic expression has been given in various ways through
-full two generations, with an ever increasing intensity, and by
-representative men amongst all Christian communities.
-
-So early in the present century as the year 1809, Dr. John Pye Smith,
-President of the Congregational College at Homerton, thus wrote: "That
-such blemishes should disfigure that translation of the best and most
-important of volumes, which has been and still is more read by thousands
-of the pious than any other version, ancient or modern; that they should
-be acknowledged by all competent judges to exist; that they should have
-been so long and often complained of; and yet that there has been no great
-public act, from high and unimpeachable authority, for removing them, we
-are constrained to view as a disgrace to our national literature. We do
-not wish to see our common version, now become venerable by age and
-prescription, superseded by another entirely _new_; every desirable
-purpose would be satisfactorily attained by a _faithful_ and
-_well-conducted revision_."[102]
-
-In the following year (1810) Dr. Herbert Marsh, then Margaret Professor of
-Divinity at Cambridge, and subsequently Bishop of Peterborough, in the
-first edition of his _Lectures_ wrote: "It is probable that our authorised
-version is as faithful a representation of the original Scriptures as
-_could_ have been formed at _that period_. But when we consider the
-immense accession that has _since_ been made, both to our critical and
-philological apparatus;" "when we consider that the most important sources
-of intelligence for the _interpretation_ of the original Scriptures were
-_likewise_ opened after that period, we cannot possibly pretend that our
-authorised version does not require _amendment_."[103]
-
-In 1816 Thomas Wemyss, a learned layman, who had devoted himself to
-Biblical studies, called attention, under the title of _Biblical
-Gleanings_, to a number of passages which were generally allowed to be
-mistranslated; and in 1819 Sir James Bland Burges published _Reasons in
-favour of a New Translation of the Scriptures_.
-
-During a few years after this, the subject remained in abeyance, but in
-1832 there was published, at Cambridge, a calm and scholarly pamphlet,
-entitled _Hints on an Improved Translation of the New Testament_, by the
-Rev. James Scholefield, A.M., Regius Professor of Greek in the University
-of Cambridge. A second edition was issued in 1836, and a third, with an
-appendix, in 1849.
-
-Through these and other publications a widely-spread conviction was
-produced that the work ought at length to be attempted, and in the years
-1855-57 the question was in a very emphatic form brought under public
-notice. In the _Edinburgh Review_ of October, 1855, in a notice of a
-certain Paragraph Bible then recently published, there appeared the
-following words: "Surely it is high time for a further revision. It is
-now almost 250 years since the last was made. During that long period
-neither the researches of the clergy nor the intelligence of the laity
-have remained stationary. We have become desirous of knowing more, and
-they have acquired more to teach us. Vast stores of Biblical information
-have been accumulating since the days of James I., by which, not merely
-the rendering of the Common Version, but the purity of the Sacred Text
-itself, might be improved. And it is essential to the interests of
-religion that that information should be fully, freely, and in an
-authoritative form, disseminated abroad by a careful correction of our
-received version of the Sacred Scriptures."
-
-In the following year, 1856, the Rev. William Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and
-Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, sent forth his _Notes on
-the proposed Amendment of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures_,
-in which he states: "I do not hesitate to avow my firm persuasion that
-there are at least one thousand passages of the English Bible that might
-be amended without any change in the general texture and justly reverenced
-language of the version."
-
-In July of the same year an address to the Crown was moved in the House of
-Commons by Mr. Heywood, member for North Lancashire, praying that Her
-Majesty would appoint a Royal Commission of learned men to consider of
-such amendments of the authorized version of the Bible as had been already
-proposed, and to receive suggestions from all persons who might be willing
-to offer them, and to report the amendments which they might be prepared
-to recommend.
-
-In the January of the following year a resolution in support of revision
-was proposed at the general meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian
-Knowledge, by the Rev. G. F. Biber, LL.D., who subsequently published the
-substance of his speech in support of this resolution, under the title, _A
-Plea for an Edition of the Authorized Version of Holy Scripture with
-explanatory and emendatory marginal readings_. Pamphlets also were
-published the same year by Dr. Beard and by Dr. Henry Burgess; but, what
-it is more important to note, in that year there was published the first
-of a series of works which were intended to show by example the kind of
-work which the wiser advocates of revision desired to see undertaken. This
-was _The Gospel according to John, after the Authorized Version, newly
-compared with the original Greek, and revised by five clergymen--John
-Barrow, D.D.; George Moberly, D.C.L.; Henry Alford, B.D.; William G.
-Humphry, B.D.; Charles J. Ellicott, M.A._ In that same year also Dr.
-Trench, then Dean of Westminster (now Archbishop of Dublin), published his
-work _On the Authorized Version of the New Testament_; and in 1863 Dr.
-Plumptre, in the _Dictionary of the Bible_, reiterated the statement, "The
-work ought not to be delayed much longer."
-
-In the spring of 1870 the desirableness of a fresh revision of the English
-Bible was advocated--by Dr. J. B. Lightfoot in a paper read before a
-meeting of clergy; by the writer of these lectures in a paper read before
-the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales; by
-the _British Quarterly Review_ in its January number; and, finally, by the
-_Quarterly Review_ in its April number.
-
-A weighty sentence from the last-mentioned writer will be a fitting
-conclusion to the present lecture. "It is positive unfaithfulness on the
-part of those who have ability and opportunity to decline the task. The
-Word of God, just because it is God's Word, ought to be presented to every
-reader in a state as pure and perfect as human learning, skill, and taste
-can make it. The higher our veneration for it the more anxious ought we to
-be to free it from every blemish, however small and unimportant. But
-nothing in truth can be unimportant which dims the light of Divine
-Revelation."
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE IX.
-
-_THE REVISION OF 1881._
-
-
-To the general consensus of opinion described in the last lecture
-practical expression was first given by the action of the Convocation of
-Canterbury, in the early part of 1870.
-
-On February 10, 1870, a resolution was moved in the Upper House of
-Convocation by Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, and seconded by Dr.
-Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, "That a Committee of both
-Houses be appointed, with power to confer with any committee that may be
-appointed by the Convocation of the Northern Province, to report upon the
-desirableness of a revision of the Authorized Version of the New
-Testament, whether by marginal notes or otherwise, in all those passages
-where plain and clear errors, whether in the Greek Text originally adopted
-by the translators, or in the translation made from the same, shall, on
-due investigation, be found to exist." On the motion of Dr. Ollivant,
-Bishop of Llandaff, seconded by Dr. Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids, it
-was agreed to enlarge this resolution so as to include the Old Testament
-also, and the resolution as so amended was ultimately adopted.
-
-This resolution was communicated to the Lower House on the following day
-(February 11), where it was accepted without a division.
-
-The joint Committee appointed in accordance with this resolution consisted
-of seven Bishops and fourteen Members of the Lower House.[104] This
-Committee met on March 24th, and agreed to the following report:[105]
-
-    I. "That it is desirable that a Revision of the Authorized Version of
-    the Holy Scriptures be undertaken."
-
-    II. "That the Revision be so conducted as to comprise both Marginal
-    renderings, and such emendations as it may be found necessary to
-    insert in the text of the Authorized Version."
-
-    III. "That in the above Resolutions we do not contemplate any new
-    translation of the Bible, or any alteration of the language except
-    where, in the judgment of the most competent Scholars, such change is
-    necessary."
-
-    IV. "That in such necessary changes, the style of the language
-    employed in the existing Version be closely followed."
-
-    V. "That it is desirable that Convocation should nominate a body of
-    its own Members to undertake the work of Revision, who shall be at
-    liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to
-    whatever nation or religious body they may belong."
-
-This Report was presented to the Upper House on May 3rd, where its
-adoption was moved by Bishop Wilberforce, and seconded by Bishop
-Thirlwall, and carried unanimously.
-
-Bishop Wilberforce then moved, and Bishop Thirlwall seconded, "That a
-Committee be now appointed to consider and Report to Convocation a scheme
-of revision on the principles laid down in the Report now adopted, and
-that the Bishops of Winchester, St. Davids, Llandaff, Gloucester and
-Bristol, Salisbury, Ely, Lincoln, and Bath and Wells, be members of the
-Committee. That the Committee be empowered to invite the co-operation of
-those whom they may judge fit from their Biblical Scholarship to aid them
-in their work." This also was carried unanimously.
-
-In the Lower House the above given Report of the joint Committee was
-presented on May 5th, when its adoption was moved by Canon Selwyn,[106]
-and seconded by Archdeacon Allen. In the discussion which followed two
-attempts were made to overthrow the principle embodied in the fifth
-resolution, and to confine the revision to Scholars in communion with the
-Church of England. Both of these were unsuccessful, and the adoption of
-the Report was carried, with two dissentients only. On the following day,
-May 6th, the House completed its action by agreeing to the suggestion of
-the Upper House, that on this occasion it should waive its privilege of
-appointing on joint Committees twice as many as were appointed by the
-Upper House, and should appoint eight Members only to co-operate with the
-eight Bishops mentioned above. The Members selected were Dr. Bickersteth
-the Prolocutor, Dean Alford, Dean Stanley, Canon Blakesley, Canon Selwyn,
-Archdeacon Rose, Dr. Jebb, and Dr. Kay.
-
-The first meeting of this second joint Committee was held on May 25th. It
-was then agreed that the Committee should separate into two Companies--one
-for the revision of the Old Testament, and one for that of the New. Of the
-Members of Committee belonging to the Upper House five were assigned to
-the former Company and three to the latter. The Members belonging to the
-Lower House were divided equally between the two Companies. At the same
-meeting the Committee selected the Scholars who should be invited to join
-the Companies, and also decided upon the general rules that should guide
-their procedure. These were:
-
-    1. "To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the
-    Authorized Version consistently with faithfulness."
-
-    2. "To limit as far as possible the expression of such alterations to
-    the language of the Authorized and earlier English versions."
-
-    3. "Each Company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once
-    provisionally, the second time finally, and on principles of voting as
-    hereinafter is provided."
-
-    4. "That the Text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is
-    decidedly preponderating; and that when the Text so adopted differs
-    from that from which the Authorized Version was made, the alteration
-    be indicated in the margin."
-
-    5. "To make or retain no change in the Text on the second and final
-    revision by each Company, except _two-thirds_ of those present approve
-    of the same, but on the first revision to decide by simple
-    majorities."
-
-    6. "In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to
-    discussion, to defer the voting thereupon till the next Meeting,
-    whensoever the same shall be required by one-third of those present at
-    the Meeting, such intended vote to be announced in the notice for the
-    next Meeting."
-
-    7. "To revise the headings of chapters, pages, paragraphs, italics,
-    and punctuation."
-
-    8. "To refer on the part of each Company, when considered desirable,
-    to Divines, Scholars, and Literary Men, whether at home or abroad, for
-    their opinions."
-
-To these it was added, that the work of each Company be communicated to
-the other as it is completed, in order that there may be as little
-deviation from uniformity in language as possible.
-
-Of the Scholars invited to join the Companies four[107] declined for
-various reasons, and one[108] was prevented by illness from taking part in
-the work. The two Companies when formed consisted of the following
-Members.
-
-
-THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. W. L. Alexander, Professor of Theology in the Congregational
-    Theological Hall, Edinburgh.
-
-    Dr. E. H. Browne, Bishop of Ely.[109]
-
-    Mr. O. T. Chenery, Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-    Edinburgh.
-
-    Dr. Benjamin Davies, Professor of Hebrew, Baptist College, Regent's
-    Park.
-
-    Dr. P. Fairbairn, Principal of Free Church College, Glasgow.
-
-    Dr. F. Field.
-
-    Dr. Ginsburg.
-
-    Dr. F. W. Gotch, Principal of the Baptist College, Bristol.
-
-    Rev. B. Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone.
-
-    Dr. A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
-
-    Dr. J. Jebb, Canon of Hereford.
-
-    Dr. W. Kay, late Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta.
-
-    Dr. Stanley Leathes, Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London.
-
-    Rev. J. McGill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St. Andrews.
-
-    Dr. A. Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff.
-
-    Dr. R Payne Smith, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford.[110]
-
-    Dr. J. J. S. Perowne, Professor of Hebrew, St. Davids College,
-    Lampeter.[111]
-
-    Rev. E. H. Plumptre,[112] Professor of New Testament Exegesis, King's
-    College, London.
-
-    Dr. H. J. Rose, Archdeacon of Bedford.
-
-    Dr. W. Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity,
-    Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids.
-
-    Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln.
-
-    Mr. W. A. Wright, Librarian[113] of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-
-THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. H. Alford, Dean of Canterbury.
-
-    Dr. J. Angus, Principal of the Baptist College, Regent's Park.
-
-    Dr. E. H. Bickersteth, Prolocutor of the Lower House of
-    Convocation.[114]
-
-    Dr. J. W. Blakesley, Canon of Canterbury.[115]
-
-    Dr. J. Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis to the
-    United Presbyterian Church, Scotland.
-
-    Dr. C. J. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
-
-    Rev. F. J. A. Hort.[116]
-
-    Rev. W. G. Humphry, Prebendary of St. Paul's.
-
-    Dr. B. H. Kennedy, Canon of Ely, and Regius Professor of Greek,
-    Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. W. Lee, Archdeacon of Dublin.
-
-    Dr. J. B. Lightfoot.[117]
-
-    Dr. W. Milligan, Professor of Divinity, Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. G. Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury.
-
-    Rev. W. F. Moulton, Professor of Classics, Wesleyan College,
-    Richmond.[118]
-
-    Rev. Samuel Newth, Professor of Classics, New College, London.[119]
-
-    Dr. A. Roberts.[120]
-
-    Dr. R. Scott, Master of Balliol College, Oxford.[121]
-
-    Rev. F. H. Scrivener.[122]
-
-    Dr. G. Vance Smith.[123]
-
-    Dr. A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster.
-
-    Dr. R. C. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin.
-
-    Dr. C. J. Vaughan, Master of the Temple.[124]
-
-    Dr. B. F. Westcott, Canon of Peterborough.[125]
-
-    Dr. S. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester.
-
-To these lists some changes have, from various causes, been made in the
-course of the last ten years, both in the way of addition, and in the way
-of removal.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-To the Old Testament Company thirteen members have been added--
-
-    Mr. R. N. Bensley, Hebrew Lecturer, Caius College, Cambridge.
-
-    Rev. J. Birrill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St Andrews,
-    Scotland.
-
-    Dr. F. Chance.
-
-    Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Hebrew Lecturer, Balliol College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. G. Douglas, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Glasgow.
-
-    Mr. S. R Driver, Tutor of New College, Oxford.
-
-    Rev. C. J. Elliott.
-
-    Rev. J. D. Geden, Professor of Hebrew, Wesleyan College, Didsbury.
-
-    Rev. J. R. Lumby, Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge.[126]
-
-    Rev. A. H. Sayce, Tutor of Queen's College, Oxford.
-
-    Rev. W. Robertson Smith, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-    Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. D. H. Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages, Glasgow.
-
-    Dr. W. Wright, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge.
-
-During the same period it has lost ten members, seven by death: Professor
-Davies, Professor Fairbairn, Professor McGill, Archdeacon Rose, Canon
-Selwyn, Bishop Thirlwall, Professor Weir; and three by resignation--Canon
-Jebb, Professor Plumptre, and Bishop Wordsworth.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The New Testament Company has undergone less change. Four members have
-been added--
-
-    Dr. David Brown, Professor of Divinity, Free Church College, Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. C. Merivale, Dean of Ely.
-
-    Rev. Edwin Palmer, Professor of Latin, Oxford.[127]
-
-    Dr. Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews.
-
-Four also have been removed--Dean Alford, Dr. Eadie, and Bishop
-Wilberforce by death, Dean Merivale by resignation.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The first chairman of the Old Testament Company was Bishop Thirlwall. Upon
-his resignation of the office in 1871 Dr. Harold Browne, then Bishop of
-Ely, now Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to succeed him, and has
-continued to hold the office until now. Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of
-Gloucester and Bristol, has from the first presided over the New
-Testament Company.
-
-The Old Testament Company appointed one of their own number, Mr. Aldis
-Wright, to act as their secretary, taking the minutes of their
-proceedings, and conducting all needful correspondence. The New Testament
-Company deemed it better to assign this office to one who was not himself
-burthened with the responsibilities of the revision, and they were happily
-able to secure the efficient services of the Rev. John Troutbeck, M.A.,
-one of the Minor Canons of Westminster Abbey.
-
-It will be seen that of the sixty-five English scholars who have taken
-part in this work forty-one have been members of the Church of England,
-and twenty-four members of other churches. Of the latter number two
-represent the Episcopal Church of Ireland, one the Episcopal Church of
-Scotland, four the Baptists, three the Congregationalists, five the Free
-Church of Scotland, five the Established Church of Scotland, one the
-United Presbyterians, one the Unitarians, and two the Wesleyan Methodists.
-
-It is on many grounds a matter for thankfulness that they who took the
-initiative in the formation of the two Companies were able to secure so
-wide a representation of the various religious communities of our country,
-and men belonging to different schools of religious thought. For while no
-one can reasonably suppose that in the present day any body of Scholars
-would consciously allow themselves in the translation of the Scriptures to
-be swayed by any theological bias, there is, as all know, such a thing as
-unconscious bias; and it was greatly to be desired that no such suspicion
-should be raised against this Revision as for a long time obtained in
-reference to the Revision of 1611. It was also to be desired that no
-ground should exist that would give an excuse for any to say that through
-the bias of theological prepossessions the interpretations given by some
-to important passages of Scripture were unconsciously ignored, and that,
-had such interpretations been brought under the consideration of the
-Revisers, they must, as honest scholars, have accepted them. Such a ground
-of objection has happily been excluded by the constitution of the two
-Companies. The varieties of theological opinion found amongst the Revisers
-have been an efficient protection against any lapse of the kind referred
-to, and it may safely be affirmed that no interpretation of any important
-doctrinal passage for which any respectable amount of authority could be
-claimed has failed to come under notice, or to receive a careful
-examination.
-
-The advantage resulting from this varied representation in the membership
-of the two Companies has been still further extended by the arrangements
-which have secured the co-operation of a considerable number of American
-Scholars. Shortly after the formation of the two Companies steps were
-taken for enlisting such co-operation; and after some correspondence with
-representative men in America, the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, of New York,
-was requested to act on behalf of the English Companies in selecting and
-inviting American Scholars. In October, 1871, it was reported to the New
-Testament Company that Dr. Schaff had verbally informed the secretary that
-the American Revisers were prepared to enter upon their work. Various
-causes of delay, however, intervened, and it was not until July 17th,
-1872, that the communication was made that the American Companies were
-duly constituted. These Companies held their first meeting on the 4th of
-October in that year. The following is the list of their Members.
-
-
-THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Professor T. J. Conant, Baptist, Brooklyn, New York.
-
-    Professor G. E. Day, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-    Professor J. De Witt, Reformed Church, New Brunswick, N.J.
-
-    Professor W. H. Green, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Professor G. E. Hare, Episcopalian, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-    Professor C. P. Krauth, Lutheran, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-    Professor Joseph Packard, Episcopalian, Fairfax, Va.
-
-    Professor C. E. Stowe, Congregationalist, Cambridge, Mass.
-
-    Professor J. Strong, Methodist, Madison, N.J.
-
-    Professor C. V. Van Dyke,[128] Beir�t, Syria.
-
-    Professor T. Lewis, Reformed Church, Schenectady, N.J.
-
-In all eleven members.
-
-
-THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Professor Ezra Abbot, Unitarian, Cambridge, Mass.
-
-    Dr. G. R. Crooks, Methodist, New York.
-
-    Professor H. B. Hackett, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-    Professor J. Hadley, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-    Professor C. Hodge, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Professor A. C. Kendrick, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-    Dr. Alfred Lee, Bishop of Delaware.
-
-    Professor M. B. Riddle, Reformed Church, Hartford, Conn.
-
-    Professor Philip Schaff, Presbyterian, New York.
-
-    Professor C. Short, Episcopalian, New York.
-
-    Professor H. B. Smith, Presbyterian, New York.
-
-    Professor J. H. Thayer, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.
-
-    Professor W. F. Warren, Methodist, Boston, Mass.
-
-    Dr. E. A. Washburn, Episcopalian, New York.
-
-    Dr. T. D. Woolsey, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-In all fifteen members.
-
-Four Members have since been added to the Old Testament Company; namely:
-
-    Professor C. A. Aiken, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Dr. T. W. Chambers, Reformed Church, New York.
-
-    Professor C. M. Mead, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.
-
-    Professor H. Osgood, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-One Member, Professor T. Lewis, has been removed by death.
-
-Four Members have been added to the New Testament Company:
-
-    Dr. J. K. Burr, Methodist, Trenton, N.Y.
-
-    Dr. T. Chase, Baptist, President of Haverford College, Pa.
-
-    Dr. H. Crosby, Baptist, Chancellor of New York University.
-
-    Professor Timothy Dwight, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-Four also have been removed by death, Dr. Hackett, Dr. Hadley, Dr. C.
-Hodge, Dr. H. B. Smith; and two by resignation, Dr. Crooks and Dr. Warren.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-It hence results that altogether ninety-nine Scholars have, to a greater
-or less extent, taken part in the work of this revision, forty-nine of
-whom have been members of the Episcopalian Churches of England, Scotland,
-Ireland, and America, and fifty members of other Christian Churches. This
-fact is in itself full of interest and significance. Upon no previous
-revision have so many Scholars been engaged. In no previous revision has
-the co-operation of those who were engaged upon it been so equally
-diffused over all the parts of the work. In no previous revision have
-those who took the lead in originating it, and carrying it forward, shown
-so large a measure of Christian confidence in Scholars who were outside of
-their own communion. In no previous revision have such effective
-precautions been created by the very composition of the body of Revisers,
-against accidental oversight, or against any lurking bias that might arise
-from natural tendencies or from ecclesiastical prepossessions. On these
-accounts alone, if on no other, this revision may be fairly said to
-possess peculiar claims upon the confidence of all thoughtful and devout
-readers of the Bible.
-
-The New Testament Company assembled for the first time on Wednesday, June
-22nd, 1870. They met in the Chapel of Henry VII., and there united in the
-celebration of the Lord's Supper. After this act of worship and holy
-communion they formally entered upon the task assigned to them. The Old
-Testament Company held their first meeting on June 30th.
-
-By the kindness of the Dean of Westminster, the New Testament Company was
-permitted to hold its meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber. This room,
-originally the parlour of the Abbot's Palace, is associated with many
-interesting events of English history. It was to this spot that Henry IV.
-was conveyed when seized with his last illness; and here, on March 20th,
-1413, he died. It was here, in the days of the Long Parliament, that the
-celebrated Assembly of Divines, driven by the cold from Henry VII.'s
-Chapel, held its sixty-sixth session, on Monday, October 2nd, 1643; and
-here thenceforward it continued to meet until its closing session (the
-1163rd), on February 22nd, 1649. Here were prepared the famed Westminster
-Confession of Faith, and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms so highly
-prized by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, and during many
-generations by the Independents of England. Here also, just fifty years
-later, assembled the memorable Commission appointed by William III., at
-the suggestion of the Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Tillotson), to devise a
-basis for a scheme of comprehension in a revision of the Prayer Book. In
-this room the New Testament Company have held the larger number of their
-sessions. Upon the few occasions on which it was not available the Company
-has most frequently met in the Dean of Westminster's library. Twice it has
-held its monthly session in the College Hall, twice in the Chapter
-Library, and once in Queen Anne's Bounty Office.
-
-The Jerusalem Chamber is an oblong room, somewhat narrow for its length,
-measuring about forty feet from north to south, and about twenty from east
-to west. Down the centre of the room there extends a long table; and on
-this table, in the middle of its eastern side, is placed the desk of the
-Chairman, Bishop Ellicott. Facing the Chairman, and on the opposite side
-of the room, is a small table for the use of the Secretary. The members
-of the Company took their places round the table without any
-pre-arrangement, but just as each might find a seat most ready at hand.
-The force of habit, however, soon prevailed, and most of the members sat
-constantly in the place which accident or choice had assigned to them. On
-the Chairman's right sat the Prolocutor, Dr. Bickersteth, and on his left,
-during the sixteen meetings he was spared to attend, sat the late Dean of
-Canterbury, Dr. Alford, who, to the great sorrow of the Company, was so
-early taken away from their midst. Between the Prolocutor and the northern
-end of the table were the places usually occupied by the Bishop of
-Salisbury, the Bishop of St. Andrews, Dean Blakesley, and Mr. Humphry.
-Between the Chairman and the southern end were the places of the
-Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Brown, Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Eadie, and Canon
-Westcott. Between the Secretary's table and the northern end of the long
-table were the seats of Canon Kennedy, Dr. Angus, Archdeacon Palmer, and
-Dr. Hort; and between the Secretary's table and the southern end were
-those of Dr. Vance Smith, Dr. Scrivener, Dr. Lightfoot, Dean Scott, and
-Dr. Newth. At the northern end of the table were the places of Archdeacon
-Lee and Dean Stanley; and at the southern end those of Dr. Moulton and Dr.
-Milligan.
-
-As the general rules under which the revision was to be carried out had
-been carefully prepared, no need existed for any lengthened discussion of
-preliminary arrangements, and the Company upon its first meeting was able
-to enter at once upon its work. The members of the Company had previously
-been supplied with sheets, each containing a column of the printed text of
-the Authorized Version, with a wide margin on either side for suggested
-emendations--the left hand margin being intended for changes in the Greek
-text, and the right hand margin for those which related to the English
-rendering. Upon these sheets each member had entered the result of his own
-private study of the prescribed portion, and thus came prepared with
-well-considered suggestions to submit for the judgment of the Company. The
-portion prescribed for the first session was Matt. i. to iv. This portion
-opening with the genealogy, the question of the spelling of proper names
-at once presented itself for decision. It was felt that, by the twofold
-forms so often given in the Authorized Version to the names of persons and
-places, a needless difficulty was set in the way of the simple reader of
-the Bible; and it was agreed that, while preserving in every case the
-familiar forms of names which had become thoroughly Englished, such as
-John, James, Timothy, Jacob, Solomon, &c., all Old Testament proper names
-quoted in the New should follow the Hebrew rather than the Greek or Latin,
-and so appear under the same form in both Testaments.
-
-This question being thus settled, the Company proceeded to the actual
-details of the revision, and in a surprisingly short time settled down to
-an established method of procedure. So little need arose for any change in
-this respect that the account of any one ordinary meeting will serve as a
-description of all. The Company assembles at eleven a.m. The meeting is
-opened by prayer, the Chairman reading three collects from the Prayer
-Book, and closing with the Lord's Prayer. The minutes of the last meeting
-are then read and confirmed. Any correspondence or other business that may
-require consideration is next dealt with. These matters being settled, the
-Chairman invites the Company to proceed with the revision, and reads a
-short passage as given in the Authorised Version. The question is then
-asked whether any _textual_ changes are proposed; that is, any readings
-that differ from the Greek text as presented in the edition published by
-Robert Stephen in 1550. If any change is proposed, the evidence for and
-against is briefly stated, and the proposal considered. The duty of
-stating this evidence is, by tacit consent, devolved upon two members of
-the Company, who, from their previous studies, are specially entitled to
-speak with authority upon such questions--Dr. Scrivener and Dr. Hort--and
-who come prepared to enumerate particularly the authorities on either
-side. Dr. Scrivener opens up the matter by stating the facts of the case,
-and by giving his judgment upon the bearing of the evidence. Dr. Hort
-follows, and mentions any additional matters that may call for notice, and
-if differing from Dr. Scrivener's estimate of the weight of the evidence,
-gives his reasons, and states his own view. After discussion, the vote of
-the Company is taken, and the proposed reading accepted or rejected. The
-text being thus settled, the Chairman asks for proposals on the rendering.
-Any member who has any suggestion on his paper then mentions it, and this
-is taken into consideration, unless some other member state that he has a
-proposal which refers to an earlier clause of the passage, in which case
-his proposal is taken first. The reasons for the proposed emendation are
-then stated; briefly, if it be an obvious correction, and one which it is
-likely that many members have noted down; if it be one less obvious, or
-less likely to commend itself at first sight, the grounds upon which it is
-based are stated more at length. Free discussion then follows, and after
-this the vote of the Company is taken. Succeeding suggestions are
-similarly dealt with, and then the passage, as amended, is read by the
-Chairman, or by the Secretary. The meeting lasts until six p.m., an
-interval of half-an-hour having been allowed for luncheon. The Company
-meets every month, excepting only in the months of August and September,
-for a session of four consecutive days.
-
-At a very early period of their labours it became clearly manifest to the
-Company that they could only do their work satisfactorily by doing it very
-thoroughly, and that no question in any way affecting the sense or the
-rendering could be passed over because of its seeming unimportance.
-Questions, whether of text or translation, which appeared, when regarded
-in relation only to the passage under review, to be too minute to be
-worthy of serious attention, became oftentimes invested with a grave
-importance when other, and especially parallel, passages were considered;
-and thus proposed changes, which might otherwise have been dismissed as
-unnecessary, claimed for themselves a careful examination. As a necessary
-result of this determination to make the revision as complete as might be
-in their power, the progress made in the work was but slow, and at the end
-of the ninth day of meeting not more than 153 verses had been revised, an
-average of only seventeen verses a day. Thereupon several members of the
-Company became alarmed at the probable length of time over which the
-revision would extend, and on the tenth day of meeting resolutions were
-submitted, that, "with a view to swifter progress, the Company be divided
-into two sections, of which one shall proceed with the Gospels and the
-other with the Epistles," and "that on the last day of each monthly series
-of meetings the whole Company meet together to review the work done by the
-two separate sections." To these resolutions a full consideration was
-given, and with the result of producing an almost unanimous conviction
-that such a division of the Company was undesirable. It was felt that the
-weight of authority attaching to this Revision, would, with many persons,
-be largely dependent upon the fact that it represented the united judgment
-of a considerable number of scholars, and that the proposed division of
-the Company would consequently tend to lessen the claims of the work to
-the confidence of the public. It was found, too, that it would not be
-possible to make any satisfactory division of the Company; and from the
-varied qualifications of the members, each felt that it would be a
-palpable loss to be deprived of the co-operation of any of the rest. It
-was also exceedingly doubtful whether any saving of time would be secured
-by the proposed arrangement. The review by the entire Company of the work
-done by the separate divisions would, in very many cases, reopen
-discussion; and questions which had been decided, perhaps unanimously,
-after lengthened debate, would be debated afresh, and that, too, by those
-who were less familiar with all the bearings of the question, and on
-whose account it would be necessary to give lengthened explanations, and
-sometimes to retrace other ground also. The resolutions were consequently
-withdrawn, and the conviction became general amongst the members of the
-Company that they had no other alternative than to face the probability of
-a much longer period of labour than any one amongst them had at first
-anticipated, and to accept the full responsibilities of the work which had
-been laid upon them.
-
-After this the work steadily proceeded, and various general questions
-having been decided as they arose, the rate of progress became more rapid;
-but even then the average did not rise above thirty-five verses a day.
-
-In accordance with the rules under which the Company was acting, all
-proposals made at the first revision were decided by simple majorities;
-but at the second revision no change from the Authorized Version could be
-accepted unless it were carried by a majority of two to one. Though here
-and there this rule stood in the way of a change which a decided majority
-of the Company were of opinion was right, its action upon the whole was
-very salutary.
-
-At the second revision also the suggestions of the American Revisers came
-to the help of the Company. From time to time, as each successive portion
-of the first revision was completed, it had been forwarded to America. The
-American Revisers subjected this to a careful scrutiny, and in their turn
-forwarded to England their criticisms thereupon. Where they approved the
-changes provisionally made nothing was said; where they differed they
-indicated their dissent, and submitted their own suggestions. In like
-manner, in passages where no change had been made, they either signified
-their assent by silence, or expressed their judgment by independent
-proposals.
-
-The first revision of the Gospel of Matthew was completed on the
-thirty-sixth day of meeting, May 24th, 1871; that of Mark on the
-fifty-third day, November 16th, 1871; that of Luke on the eighty-first
-day, June 22nd, 1872; and that of John on the one hundred and third day,
-February 19th, 1873. The first revision of the Acts and the Catholic
-Epistles was completed on the one hundred and fifty-second meeting, April
-23rd, 1874. Before proceeding to the first revision of the remaining books
-it was deemed desirable to undertake the second revision of the Gospels,
-and this was completed on the one hundred and eighty-fourth meeting,
-February 25th, 1875. The first revision of the Pauline Epistles was then
-commenced, and was completed on the two hundred and sixty-second meeting,
-February 27th, 1877. The first revision of the Apocalypse was completed on
-the two hundred and seventy-third meeting, April 20th, 1877.
-
-It will thus appear that the first revision engaged the Company during two
-hundred and forty-one meetings; that is to say, during sixty monthly
-sessions, or six years of labour. The attendance during this important
-period of the work maintained so high an average as 16�8.
-
-It had not been originally intended that at the second revision fresh
-proposals should be entertained; but as it was obviously necessary to do
-this with regard to the American suggestions, it was felt that we ought
-not to preclude our own members from bringing forward any new proposal
-that might seem worthy of consideration, and that we ought not, for the
-sake of gaining time, to fetter ourselves by any rigid rule. The second
-revision thus became a far more serious business than had been originally
-contemplated, and demanded a large measure of time and toil. It was
-completed on December 13th, 1878, having occupied on the whole ninety-six
-meetings, or about two years and a half. By rule 5 the "second" revision
-was to be regarded as "final," but the course of events rendered this an
-impossibility, and so far the rule had to be annulled.
-
-In due course the results of the second revision were forwarded to
-America, and while it indicated the extent to which the English Company
-had been able to adopt the American suggestions--or what was equivalent
-to this, some third suggestion that approved itself alike to the judgment
-of both Companies--it also necessarily invited a reply upon those points
-about which there was still a difference of opinion, and this, as
-necessarily, involved what was to some extent a third revision. The work
-of a further revision had, however, been previously imposed upon the
-Company by a resolution of its own, in which it was agreed that the
-members should privately read over the version as now revised, with the
-view of marking any roughnesses or other blemishes in the English
-phraseology; and that if it should appear to them that, without doing any
-violence to the Greek, the English might be amended, the emendations they
-proposed should be forwarded to the Secretary, and by him be duly arranged
-and printed. To the consideration of the various suggestions so forwarded,
-and of those contained in the further communications from America, the
-Company devoted thirty-six meetings, extending from February 11th, 1879,
-to January 27th, 1880, with portions of one or two subsequent meetings,
-being finally completed on March 17th, 1880.
-
-Although the Company had endeavoured throughout the whole course of its
-work to preserve, as far as the idiom of the English language permitted,
-uniformity in the rendering of the same Greek word, it had not been
-possible, when dealing with each passage separately, to keep in view all
-the other passages in which any particular word might be found. It was
-therefore felt to be desirable to reconsider the Revised Version with
-exclusive reference to this single point, and the pages of a Greek
-concordance were assigned in equal portions to different members of the
-Company, who each undertook to examine every passage in which the words
-falling to his share might occur, and to mark if in any case unnecessary
-variations in the English had either been introduced or retained. The
-passages so noted were brought before the notice of the assembled Company,
-and the question was in each case considered whether, without any injury
-to the sense, the rendering of the word under review might be harmonized
-with that found in other places. This work of harmonizing, together with
-the preparation of the preface, occupied the Company until November 11th,
-1880, on which day, at five o'clock in the afternoon, after ten years and
-five months of labour, the revision of the New Testament was brought to
-its close.
-
-On the evening of the same day, St. Martin's day, by the kind invitation
-of Prebendary Humphry, the Company assembled in the Church of St.
-Martin's-in-the-Fields, and there united in a special service of prayer
-and thanksgiving; of thanksgiving for the happy completion of their
-labours, for the spirit of harmony and brotherly affection that had
-throughout pervaded the meetings of the Company, and for the Divine
-goodness which had permitted so many with so little interruption to give
-themselves continuously to this work; of prayer that all that had been
-wrong in their spirit or action might be mercifully forgiven, and that He
-whose glory they had humbly striven to promote might graciously accept
-this their service, and deign to use it as an instrument for the good of
-man, and the honour of His holy name.
-
-The total number of meetings of the Company has been 407, and the total
-number of attendances 6,426,[129] or an average attendance at each meeting
-of 15�8 members.
-
-Upon one other point our readers will naturally look for some information.
-How have the necessary expenses of this undertaking been met? These, it
-will readily be seen, would necessarily be large. So many persons could
-not come together from various parts of the kingdom--some very distant,
-including the extreme north of Scotland, and the extreme west of
-Cornwall--and remain in London for a week in every month, without a
-considerable expenditure of money. It was also found necessary for the
-satisfactory execution of the work that each portion, from time to time as
-provisionally completed, should be set up in type, and in this way further
-expenses were entailed. The question of meeting these expenses was at an
-early period forced upon the attention of the Company; for some members
-before many months had elapsed had been put to serious costs, and while
-all willingly gave their time and labour, as far as they might be able,
-without reserve to this important work, it was felt to be impossible to
-allow this extra burden to rest upon any, and the more so as the pressure
-of it must needs be very unequally distributed. An appeal to the public
-for help having met with no adequate response, it was resolved to dispose
-of the copyright of the work, in the hope thereby of obtaining sufficient
-means of meeting the expenses of completing it. Several offers from
-different sources were made to the Companies; but ultimately, for various
-reasons, it was deemed best to accede to that made by the University
-Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, whereby, in return for the copyright of
-the Revised Version, the Chancellors, Masters, and Scholars of the two
-Universities agreed to provide a sum which it was hoped would suffice for
-the expenses that would be incurred in the prosecution and completion of
-the work, and to advance a certain portion of the same from time to time.
-A draft deed embodying these agreements having been submitted to the
-Companies was after some amendments accepted on December 10th, 1872.
-
-The agreement with the University Presses binds the two Companies to a
-revision of the Apocrypha, a work not contemplated in their original
-undertaking. The New Testament Company have made arrangements for taking a
-full share of this revision, and entered upon the work in April last.
-Until this is completed they will not be released from their
-responsibilities.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-
-
-(A.)
-
-_PURVEY'S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?)_
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-[130] For as much as Christ saith that the gospel shall be preached in all
-the world, and David saith of the Apostles and their preaching, "the sound
-of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the
-ends of the world;" and again David saith, "The Lord shall tell in the
-Scriptures of peoples and of these princes that were in it;"[131] that is,
-in holy Church, as Jerome saith on that verse, "Holy writ is the Scripture
-of peoples, for it is made that all peoples should know it;" and the
-princes of the Church that were therein be the apostles that had authority
-to write holy writ; for by that same that the Apostles wrote their
-Scriptures by authority and confirming of the Holy Ghost, it is holy
-Scripture and faith of Christian men, and this dignity hath no man after
-them, be he never so holy, never so cunning, as Jerome witnesseth on that
-verse. Also Christ saith of the Jews that cried Hosanna to Him in the
-temple, that though they were still stones should cry; and by stones He
-understandeth heathen men that worshipped stones for their gods. And we
-Englishmen be come of heathen men, therefore we be understood by these
-stones that should cry holy writ; and as Jews, interpreted
-acknowledging[132], signify clerks that should make acknowledgment to God
-by repentance of sins and by voice of God's praise, so our lewd (lay, or
-unlearned) men, suing (following) the corner-stone Christ, may be
-signified by stones that be hard and abiding in the foundation; for though
-covetous clerks be wood (wild, or mad), by simony, heresy, and many other
-sins, and despise and stop holy writ as much as they can, yet the lewd
-people cry after holy writ to ken it and keep it with great cost and peril
-of their life.
-
-For these reasons and other, with common charity to save all men in our
-realm which God would have saved, a simple creature hath translated the
-Bible out of Latin into English. First this simple creature had much
-travail, with divers fellows and helpers, to gather many old Bibles, and
-other doctors and common glosses, and to make one Latin Bible some deal
-true; and then to study it anew, the text with the gloss and other doctors
-as he might get, and especially Lyra on the Old Testament, that helped
-full much in this work; the third time to counsel with old grammarians and
-old divines of hard words and hard sentences, how they might best be
-understood and translated; the fourth time to translate as clearly as he
-could to the sentence,[133] and to have many good fellows and cunning at
-the correcting of the translation. First it is to know that the best
-translating out of Latin into English is to translate after the sentence,
-and not only after the words, so that the sentence be as open, either
-opener, in English as in Latin, and go not far from the letter; and if the
-letter may not be sued (followed) in the translating, let the sentence be
-ever whole and open, for the words ought to serve to the intent and
-sentence, and else the words be superfluous or false. In translating into
-English many resolutions may make the sentence open, as an ablative case
-absolute may be resolved into these three words, with convenable
-(suitable) verb, _the while_, _for if_, as grammarians say, as thus: _the
-master reading, I stand_, may be resolved thus, _while the master readeth
-I stand_, or, _if the master readeth, &c._, or, _for the master, &c._; and
-sometime it would accord well with the sentence to be resolved into _when_
-or into _afterward_, thus, _when the master read I stood_, or, _after the
-master read I stood_; and sometime it may well be resolved into a verb of
-the same tense as others be in the same clause, and into this word _et_;
-that is, _and_ in English, as thus, _arescentibus hominibus prae timore_;
-that is, _and men should wax dry for dread_. Also a participle of a
-present tense or preterite of active voice or passive may be resolved into
-a verb of the same tense and a conjunction copulative, as thus, _dicens_;
-that is, _saying_ may be resolved thus, _and saith_, or, _that saith_; and
-this will in many places make the sentence open, where to English it,
-after the verb, would be dark and doubtful. Also a relative, which may be
-resolved into his antecedent with a conjunction copulative, as thus,
-_which runneth_, _and he runneth_. Also when one word is once set in a
-clause it may be set forth as often as it is understood, or as often as
-reason and need ask. And this word _autem_, or _vero_, may stand for
-_forsooth_, or for _but_, and thus I use commonly; and sometime it may
-stand for _and_, as old grammarians say. Also when rightful construction
-is let (prevented) by relation, I resolve it openly; thus where this
-clause _Dominum formidabunt adversarii ejus_ should be Englished thus by
-the letter, _the Lord His adversaries shall dread_, I English it thus by
-resolution, _the adversaries of the Lord shall dread Him_; and so of other
-clauses that be like.
-
-At the beginning I purposed, with God's help, to make the sentence as true
-and open in English as it is in Latin, or more true and more open than it
-is in Latin; and I pray for charity and for common profit of Christian
-souls, that if any wise man find any default of the truth of translation,
-let him set in the true sentence and open of holy writ, but look that he
-examine truly his Latin Bible; for no doubt he shall find full many Bibles
-in Latin full false, if he look many, namely, new;[134] and the common
-Latin Bibles have more need to be corrected, as many as I have seen in my
-life than the English Bible late translated. And where the Hebrew, by
-witness of Jerome, of Lyra, and other expositors discordeth from our Latin
-Bibles, I have set in the margin, by manner of a gloss, what the Hebrew
-hath, and how it is understood in some place; and I did this most in the
-Psalter, that of all our books discordeth most from the Hebrew; for the
-church readeth not the Psalter by the last translation of Jerome, out of
-Hebrew into Latin, but another translation by other men, that had much
-less cunning and holiness than Jerome had; and in full few books the
-church readeth the translation of Jerome, as it may be proved by the
-proper originals of Jerome which he glossed. And where I have translated
-as openly or openlier in English as in Latin, let wise men deme (judge)
-that know well both languages, and know well the sentence of holy
-Scripture. And whether I have done thus or not, no doubt they that ken
-well the sentence of holy writ and English together, and will travail with
-God's grace thereabout, may make the Bible as true and as open, yea, and
-openlier, in English as in Latin. And no doubt to a simple man, with God's
-grace and great travail, men might expound much openlier and shortlier
-the Bible in English, than the old great doctors have expounded it in
-Latin, and much sharplier and groundlier than many late postillators, or
-expositors have done. But God of His great mercy, give us grace to live
-well, and to see the truth in convenable manner, and acceptable to God and
-His people, and to spell out our time, be it short, be it long, at God's
-ordinance.
-
-But some that seem wise and holy say thus, If men now were as holy as
-Jerome was, they might translate out of Latin into English, as he did out
-of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and else they should not translate
-now, so they think, for default of holiness and cunning. Though this
-replication seem colourable, it hath no good ground, neither reason,
-neither charity; for why, (because) this replication is more against Saint
-Jerome and against the first LXX. translators, and against holy church,
-than against simple men that translate now into English; for Saint Jerome
-was not so holy as the Apostles and Evangelists, whose books he translated
-into Latin, neither he had so high gifts of the Holy Ghost as they had;
-and much more the LXX. translators were not so holy as Moses and the
-Prophets, and specially David; neither they had so great gifts of God as
-Moses and the Prophets had. Furthermore, holy church approveth not only
-the true translation of mean Christian men, but also of open heretics,
-that did away mysteries of Jesus Christ by guileful translation, as Jerome
-witnesseth in one prologue on Job, and in the prologue of Daniel. Much
-more late the Church of England approve the true and whole translation of
-simple men, that would, for no good on earth, by their witting and power,
-put away the least truth, yea, the least letter or tittle of holy writ
-that beareth substance or charge. And dispute they not (let them not
-dispute) of the holiness of men now living in this deadly life; for they
-know not thereon, and it is reserved only to God's doom. If they know any
-notable default by the translators or their helps, let them blame the
-default by charity and mercy, and let them never damn a thing that may be
-done lawfully by God's law, as wearing a good cloth for a time, or riding
-on a horse for a great journey, when they wit not wherefore it is done;
-for such things may be done of simple men with as great charity and virtue
-as some that hold themselves great and wise, can ride in a gilt saddle, or
-use cushions and beds and cloths of gold and of silk, with other vanities
-of the world. God grant pity, mercy, and charity, and love of common
-profit, and put away such foolish dooms (judgment) that be against reason
-and charity. Yet worldly clerks ask greatly (grandly) what spirit maketh
-idiots (laymen) hardy to translate now the Bible into English, since the
-four great doctors durst never do this. This replication is so lewd
-(unlearned), that it needeth none answer but stillness or courteous scorn;
-for these great doctors were none English men, neither they were
-conversant among English men, neither they knew the language of English,
-but they ceased never till they had holy writ in the mother tongue of
-their own people. For Jerome, that was a Latin man of birth, translated
-the Bible, both out of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and expounded
-full much thereto; and Austin and many more Latins expounded the Bible,
-for many parts, in Latin, to Latin men among which they dwelt, and Latin
-was a common language to their people about Rome, and beyond and on this
-half (side), as English is common to our people, and yet (still) this day
-the common people in Italy speaketh Latin corrupt, as true men say that
-have been in Italy; and the number of translators out of Greek into Latin
-passeth man's knowing, as Austin witnesseth in the ij. book of _Christian
-Teaching_,[135] and saith thus: "The translators out of Hebrew into Greek
-may be numbered, but Latin translators, or they that translated into
-Latin, may not be numbered in any manner." For in the first times of
-faith, each man, as a Greek book came to him, and he seemed to himself to
-have some cunning of Greek and Latin, was hardy (bold) to translate, and
-this thing helped more than letted (hindered) understanding, if readers be
-not negligent, for why (because) the beholding of many books hath showed
-off or declared some darker sentences. This saith Austin here. Therefore
-Grosted (Grosseteste) saith that it was God's will that diverse men
-translate, and that diverse translations be in the church, where one said
-darkly, one other more said openly.
-
-Lord God, since at the beginning of faith so many men translated into
-Latin, and to great profit of Latin men, let one simple creature of God
-translate into English for profit of Englishmen; for if worldly clerks
-look well their chronicles and books they shall find that Bede translated
-the Bible, and expounded much in Saxon, that was English, or common
-language of this land, in his time; and not only Bede, but also King
-Alfred that founded Oxford, translated in his last days the beginning of
-the Psalter into Saxon, and would more if he had lived longer. Also
-Frenchmen, Beemers,[136] and Britons have the Bible and other books of
-devotion and of exposition translated in their mother language. Why should
-not Englishmen have the same in their mother language I cannot wit, no but
-(except) for falseness and negligence of clerks, or for (because) our
-people is not worthy to have so great grace and gift of God in pain
-(penalty) of their old sins. God for his mercy amend these evil causes,
-and make our people to have, and ken, and keep truly holy writ, to life
-and death.
-
-But in translating of words equivocal, that is, that have many
-significations under one letter, may lightly be peril (there may easily be
-a danger of mistake); for Austin saith in the ij. book of _Christian
-Teaching_ that if equivocal words be not translated into the sense or
-understanding of the author it is error,[137] as in that place of the
-psalm, _the feet of them be swift to shed out blood_. The Greek word is
-equivocal to _sharp_ and _swift_, and he that translated _sharp feet_
-erred, and a book that hath _sharp feet_ is false, and must be amended, as
-that sentence, _unkind young trees shall not give deep roots_, ought to be
-thus _plantings of adultery shall not give deep roots_.[138] Austin saith
-this there; therefore a translator hath great need to study well the
-sentence, both before and after, and look that such equivocal words accord
-with the sentence; and he hath need to live a clean life, and be full
-devout in prayers, and have not his wit occupied about worldly things,
-that the Holy Spirit, author of wisdom, and cunning, and truth, dress him
-in his work, and suffer him not for to err.
-
-Also this word _ex_ signifieth sometime _of_, and sometime it signifieth
-_by_, as Jerome saith; and this word _enim_ signifieth commonly
-_forsooth_, and, as Jerome saith, it signifieth, _cause thus_, _forwhy_.
-And this word _secundum_ is taken for _after_, as many men say, and
-commonly; but it signifieth well _by_ or _up_, thus _by your word_, or _up
-your word_. Many such adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions be set off
-one for another, and at free choice of authors sometime; and now they
-should be taken as it accordeth best to the sentence.
-
-By this manner, with good living and great travail, men may come to true
-and clear translating and true understanding of holy writ, seem it never
-so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and to
-keep well holy writ, and to suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last.
-Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(B.)
-
-_TYNDALE'S PROLOGUES._
-
-
-I. NEW TESTAMENT[139] 1525. 4TO.
-
-I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly
-beloved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritual edifying,
-consolation, and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are
-better seen in the tongues than I, and that have better gifts of grace to
-interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to
-consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness; and
-if they perceive in any places that I have not attained unto the very
-sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the
-right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering
-that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for
-ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the
-honouring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is
-the body of Christ.
-
-The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should
-imagine, than that I should rehearse them. Moreover I supposed it
-superfluous; for who is so blind as to ask why light should be showed to
-them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to
-stumble is the danger of eternal damnation; other so despiteful that he
-would envy any man (I speak not his brother) so necessary a thing; or so
-bedlam mad to affirm that good is the natural cause of evil, and darkness
-to proceed out of light, and that lying should be grounded in truth and
-verity, and not rather clean contrary, that light destroyeth darkness, and
-verity reproveth all manner of lying.
-
-After it had pleased GOD to put in my mind and also to give me grace to
-translate this fore-rehearsed New Testament into our English tongue,
-howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary to put you in
-remembrance of certain points, which are, that ye well understand what
-these words mean: the Old Testament, the New Testament; the law, the
-gospel; Moses, Christ; nature, grace; working and believing; deeds and
-faith; lest we ascribe to the one that which belongeth to the other, and
-make of Christ Moses, of the gospel the law, despise grace and rob faith;
-and fall from meek learning into idle dispicions; brawling and scolding
-about words.
-
-The Old Testament is a book wherein is written the law of God, and the
-deeds of them which fulfil them, and of them also which fulfil them not.
-
-The New Testament is a book wherein are contained the promises of God, and
-the deeds of them which believe them or believe them not.
-
-Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good,
-merry, glad, and joyful tidings, that maketh a man's heart glad, and
-maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy: as when David had killed Goliath
-the giant, came glad tidings unto the Jews, that their fearful and cruel
-enemy was slain, and they delivered out of all danger; for gladness
-whereof, they sung, danced, and were joyful. In like manner is the
-Evangelion of God (which we call gospel, and the New Testament) joyful
-tidings; and, as some say, a good hearing, published by the apostles
-throughout all the world, of Christ the right David, how that he hath
-fought with sin, with death, and the devil, and overcome them: whereby all
-men that were in bondage to sin, wounded with death, overcome of the
-devil, are, without their own merits or deservings, loosed, justified,
-restored to life and saved, brought to liberty and reconciled unto the
-favour of God, and set at one with him again; which tidings, as many as
-believe, laud, praise, and thank God; are glad, sing, and dance for joy.
-
-This Evangelion or gospel (that is to say, such joyful tidings) is called
-the New Testament; because that as a man, when he shall die, appointeth
-his goods to be dealt and distributed after his death among them which he
-nameth to be his heirs; even so Christ, before his death, commanded and
-appointed that such Evangelion, gospel, or tidings, should be declared
-throughout all the world, and therewith to give unto all that believe, all
-his goods; that is to say, his life, wherewith he swallowed and devoured
-up death; his righteousness, wherewith he banished sin; his salvation,
-wherewith he overcame eternal damnation. Now, can the wretched man, that
-[knoweth himself to be wrapped] in sin, and in danger to death and hell,
-hear no more joyous a thing than such glad and comfortable tidings of
-Christ; so that he cannot but be glad and laugh from the low bottom of his
-heart, if he believe that the tidings are true.
-
-To strength such faith withal, God promised this his Evangelion in the Old
-Testament by the prophets, as Paul saith (Rom. i.), how that he was chosen
-out to preach God's Evangelion, which he before had promised by the
-prophets in the Scriptures, that treat of his Son which was born of the
-seed of David. In Gen. iii. God saith to the serpent, "I will put hatred
-between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, that self seed
-shall tread thy head under foot." Christ is this woman's seed; he it is
-that hath trodden under foot the devil's head; that is to say, sin, death,
-hell, and all his power. For without this seed can no man avoid sin,
-death, hell, and everlasting damnation.
-
-Again (Gen. xxii.), God promised Abraham, saying, "In thy seed shall all
-the generations of the earth be blessed." Christ is that seed of Abraham,
-saith St. Paul. (Gal. iii.) He hath blessed all the world through the
-gospel. For where Christ is not, there remaineth the curse that fell on
-Adam as soon as he had sinned, so that they are in bondage under the
-condemnation of sin, death, and hell. Against this curse blesseth now the
-gospel all the world, inasmuch as it crieth openly, saying, Whosoever
-believeth on the Seed of Abraham shall be blessed, that is, he shall be
-delivered from sin, death, and hell, and shall henceforth continue
-righteous, living and saved for ever, as Christ himself saith, in the
-eleventh of John, "He that believeth on me shall never more die."
-
-"The law," saith the gospel of John in the first chapter, "was given by
-Moses: but grace and verity by Jesus Christ." The law, whose minister is
-Moses, was given to bring us unto the knowledge of ourselves, that we
-might thereby feel and perceive what we are of nature. The law condemneth
-us and all our deeds, and is called of Paul in 2 Cor. iii. the
-ministration of death. For it killeth our consciences and driveth us to
-desperation, inasmuch as it requireth of us that which is impossible for
-us to do. It requireth of us the deeds of a whole man. It requireth
-perfect love from the low bottom and ground of the heart, as well in all
-things which we suffer, as in the things which we do. But, saith John, in
-the same place, "grace and verity is given us in Christ," so that when the
-law hath passed upon us, and condemned us to death, which is its nature to
-do, then we have in Christ grace, that is to say, favour, promises of
-life, of mercy, of pardon, freely by the merits of Christ; and in Christ
-have we verity and truth, in that God fulfilleth all his promises to them
-that believe. Therefore is the gospel the ministration of life. Paul
-calleth it in the fore rehearsed place of 2 Cor. iii. the ministration of
-the Spirit and of righteousness.
-
-In the gospel, when we believe the promises, we receive the Spirit of
-life, and are justified in the blood of Christ from all things whereof the
-law condemned us. Of Christ it is written in the fore rehearsed John i.
-This is He of whose abundance, or fulness, all we have received, grace for
-grace, or favour for favour. That is to say, for the favour that God hath
-to his Son Christ he giveth unto us his favour and good will, as a father
-to his sons. As affirmeth Paul, saying, "Which loved us in his Beloved
-before the creation of the world." Christ is made Lord over all, and is
-called in scripture God's mercy-stool; whosoever therefore flieth to
-Christ can neither hear nor receive of God any other thing save mercy.
-
-In the Old Testament are many promises, which are nothing else but the
-Evangelion or gospel, to save those that believed them from the vengeance
-of the law. And in the New Testament is often made mention of the law, to
-condemn them which believe not the promises. Moreover the law and the
-gospel may never be separate; for the gospel and promises serve but for
-troubled consciences, which are brought to desperation, and feel the pains
-of hell and death under the law, and are in captivity and bondage under
-the law. In all my deeds I must have the law before me to condemn mine
-imperfectness. For all that I do, be I never so perfect, is yet damnable
-sin, when it is compared to the law, which requireth the ground and bottom
-of mine heart. I must therefore have always the law in my sight, that I
-may be meek in the spirit, and give God all the laud and praise, ascribing
-to him all righteousness, and to myself all unrighteousness and sin. I
-must also have the promises before mine eyes, that I despair not; in which
-promises I see the mercy, favour, and good will of God upon me, in the
-blood of his Son Christ, which hath made satisfaction for mine
-unperfectness, and fulfilled for me that which I could not do.
-
-Here may ye perceive that two manner of people are sore deceived. First,
-they which justify themselves with outward deeds, in that they abstain
-outwardly from that which the law forbiddeth, and do outwardly that which
-the law commandeth. They compare themselves to open sinners; and in
-respect of them justify themselves, condemning the open sinners. They set
-a veil on Moses' face, and see not how the law requireth love from the
-bottom of the heart. If they did they would not condemn their neighbours.
-"Love hideth the multitude of sins," saith St. Peter, in his first
-epistle. For whom I love from the deep bottom and ground of mine heart,
-him condemn I not, neither reckon his sins, but suffer his weakness and
-infirmity, as a mother the weakness of her son, until he grow up unto a
-perfect man.
-
-Those also are deceived which, without all fear of God, give themselves
-unto all manner vices with full consent, and full delectation, having no
-respect to the law of God (under whose vengeance they are locked up in
-captivity), but say, God is merciful and Christ died for us, supposing
-that such dreaming and imagination is that faith which is so greatly
-commended in holy scripture. Nay, that is not faith, but rather a foolish
-blind opinion springing of their own nature, and it is not given them of
-the Spirit of God; true faith is (as saith the apostle Paul) the gift of
-God, and is given to sinners after the law hath passed upon them, and hath
-brought their consciences unto the brink of desperation, and sorrows of
-hell.
-
-They that have this right faith, consent to the law that it is righteous,
-and good, and justify God which made the law, and have delectation in the
-law, notwithstanding that they cannot fulfil it, for their weakness; and
-they abhor whatsoever the law forbiddeth, though they cannot avoid it. And
-their great sorrow is, because they cannot fulfil the will of God in the
-law; and the spirit that is in them crieth to God night and day for
-strength and help, with tears (as saith Paul) that cannot be expressed
-with tongue. Of which things the belief of our popish (or of their)
-father, whom they so magnify for his strong faith, hath none experience at
-all.
-
-The first, that is to say, a justiciary, which justifieth himself with his
-outward deeds, consenteth not to the inward law, neither hath delectation
-therein: yea, he would rather that no such law were. So he justifieth not
-God, but hateth him as a tyrant, neither careth he for the promises, but
-will with his own strength be saviour of himself; no wise glorifieth he
-God, though he seem outward to do.
-
-The second, that is to say, the sensual person, as a voluptuous swine,
-neither feareth God in his law, neither is thankful to him for his
-promises and mercy, which is set forth in Christ to all them that believe.
-
-The right christian man consenteth to the law, that it is righteous, and
-justifieth God in the law; for he affirmeth that God is righteous and
-just, which is author of the law. He believeth the promises of God, and so
-justifieth God, judging him true, and believing that he will fulfil his
-promises. With the law he condemneth himself and all his deeds, and giveth
-all the praise to God. He believeth the promises, and ascribeth all truth
-to God: thus everywhere justifieth he God, and praiseth God.
-
-By nature, through the fall of Adam are we the children of wrath, heirs of
-the vengeance of God by birth, yea, and from our conception. And we have
-our fellowship with the devils under the power of darkness and rule of
-Satan, while we are yet in our mothers' wombs; and though we show not
-forth the fruits of sin, yet are we full of the natural poison whereof all
-sinful deeds spring, and cannot but sin outwardly, be we never so young,
-if occasion be given; for our nature is to do sin, as is the nature of a
-serpent to sting. And as a serpent yet young, or yet unbrought forth, is
-full of poison, and cannot afterward (when the time is come, and occasion
-given) but bring forth the fruits thereof; and as an adder, a toad, or a
-snake, is hated of man, not for the evil that it hath done, but for the
-poison that is in it and the hurt which it cannot but do; so are we hated
-of God for that natural poison which is conceived and born with us before
-we do any outward evil. And as the evil, which a venomous worm doeth,
-maketh it not a serpent; but because it is a venomous worm, therefore doth
-it evil and poisoneth; and as the fruit maketh not the tree evil, but
-because it is an evil tree, therefore it bringeth forth evil fruit, when
-the season of fruit is; even so do not our evil deeds make us evil; but
-because that of nature we are evil, therefore we both think and do evil,
-and are under vengeance under the law, convict to eternal damnation by the
-law, and are contrary to the will of God in all our will, and in all
-things consent to the will of the fiend.
-
-By grace, that is to say by favour, we are plucked out of Adam, the ground
-of all evil, and graffed in Christ the root of all goodness. In Christ,
-God loved us, his elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved
-us unto the knowledge of his Son and of his holy gospel; and when the
-gospel is preached to us, he openeth our hearts, and giveth us grace to
-believe, and putteth the Spirit of Christ in us, and we know him as our
-Father most merciful; and we consent to the law, and love it inwardly in
-our heart, and desire to fulfil it, and sorrow because we cannot; which
-will (sin we of frailty never so much) is sufficient till more strength be
-given us; the blood of Christ hath made satisfaction for the rest; the
-blood of Christ hath obtained all things for us of God. Christ is our
-satisfaction, Redeemer, Deliverer, Saviour, from vengeance and wrath.
-Observe and mark in Paul's, Peter's, and John's epistles, and in the
-gospel, what Christ is unto us.
-
-By faith are we saved only in believing the promises. And though faith be
-never without love and good works, yet is our saving imputed neither to
-love nor unto good works, but unto faith only. For love and works are
-under the law, which requireth perfection, and the ground and fountain of
-the heart, and damneth all imperfectness. Now is faith under the
-promises, which condemn not; but give all grace, mercy, favour, and
-whatsoever is contained in the promises.
-
-Righteousness is divers; blind reason imagines many manner of
-righteousness. There is, in like manner, the justifying of ceremonies,
-some imagine them their own selves, some counterfeit other, saying, in
-their blind reason, Such holy persons did thus and thus, and they were
-holy men, therefore if I do so likewise I shall please God; but they have
-no answer of God that that pleaseth. The Jews seek righteousness in their
-ceremonies; which God gave unto them, not to justify, but to describe and
-paint Christ unto them; of which Jews testifieth Paul, saying how that
-they have affection to God, but not after knowledge; for they go about to
-stablish their own justice, and are not obedient to the justice of
-righteousness that cometh of God. The cause is verily that except a man
-cast away his own imagination and reason, he cannot perceive God, and
-understand the virtue and power of the blood of Christ. There is the
-righteousness of works, as I said before, when the heart is away and
-feeleth not how the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the
-bottom of the heart, as the just ministration of all manner of laws, and
-the observing of them, and moral virtues wherein philosophers put their
-felicity and blessedness--which all are nothing in the sight of God. There
-is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled from the ground of the
-heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this life perfectly, but sighed
-after it. They were so far forth blessed in Christ, that they hungered and
-thirsted after it. Paul had this thirst; he consented to the law of God,
-that it ought so to be, but he found another lust in his members, contrary
-to the lust and desire of his mind, and therefore cried out, saying, "Oh,
-wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from this body of death?
-thanks be to God through Jesus Christ." The righteousness that before God
-is of value, is to believe the promises of God, after the law hath
-confounded the conscience: as when the temporal law ofttimes condemneth
-the thief or murderer, and bringeth him to execution, so that he seeth
-nothing before him but present death, and then cometh good tidings, a
-charter from the king, and delivereth him. Likewise when God's law hath
-brought the sinner into knowledge of himself, and hath confounded his
-conscience and opened unto him the wrath and vengeance of God; then cometh
-good tidings. The Evangelion showeth unto him the promises of God in
-Christ, and how Christ hath purchased pardon for him, hath satisfied the
-law for him, and appeased the wrath of God. And the poor sinner believeth,
-laudeth, and thanketh God through Christ, and breaketh out into exceeding
-inward joy and gladness, for that he hath escaped so great wrath, so heavy
-vengeance, so fearful and so everlasting a death. And he henceforth is an
-hungered and athirst after more righteousness, that he might fulfil the
-law; and mourneth continually, commending his weakness unto God in the
-blood of our Saviour, Christ Jesus.
-
-Here shall ye see compendiously and plainly set out, the order and
-practice of every thing before rehearsed.
-
-The fall of Adam hath made us heirs of the vengeance and wrath of God, and
-heirs of eternal damnation; and hath brought us into captivity and bondage
-under the devil. And the devil is our lord, and our ruler, our head, our
-governor, our prince, yea, and our god. And our will is locked and knit
-faster unto the will of the devil, than could a hundred thousand chains
-bind a man unto a post. Unto the devil's will consent we with all our
-hearts, with all our minds, with all our might, power, strength, will, and
-lusts. With what poison, deadly and venomous hate, hateth a man his enemy!
-With how great malice of mind, inwardly, do we slay and murder! With what
-violence and rage, yea, and with how fervent lust, commit we advoutry,
-fornication, and such like uncleanness! With what pleasure and delectation
-inwardly serveth a glutton his belly! With what diligence deceive we! How
-busily seek we the things of this world! Whatsoever we do, think, or
-imagine, is abominable in the sight of God. And we are as it were asleep
-in so deep blindness, that we can neither see nor feel what misery,
-thraldom, and wretchedness we are in, till Moses come and wake us, and
-publish the law. When we hear the law truly preached, how that we ought to
-love and honour God with all our strength and might, from the low bottom
-of the heart; and our neighbours, yea, our enemies, as ourselves,
-inwardly, from the ground of the heart, and do whatsoever God biddeth, and
-abstain from whatsoever God forbiddeth, with all love and meekness, with a
-fervent and a burning lust from the centre of the heart, then beginneth
-the conscience to rage against the law, and against God. No sea, be it
-ever so great a tempest, is so unquiet. For it is not possible for a
-natural man to consent to the law, that it should be good, or that God
-should be righteous which maketh the law; his wit, reason, and will being
-so fast glued, yea, nailed and chained unto the will of the devil. Neither
-can any creature loose the bonds, save the blood of Christ.
-
-This is the captivity and bondage whence Christ delivered us, redeemed,
-and loosed us. His blood, his death, his patience in suffering rebukes and
-wrongs, his prayers and fastings, his meekness and fulfilling of the
-uttermost point of the law, appeased the wrath of God, brought the favour
-of God to us again, obtained that God should love us first, and be our
-Father, and that a merciful Father, that will consider our infirmities and
-weakness, and will give us his Spirit again (which was taken away in the
-fall of Adam) to rule, govern, and strength us, and to break the bonds of
-Satan, wherein we were so straight bound. When Christ is thuswise
-preached, and the promises rehearsed which are contained in the prophets,
-in the psalms, and in divers places of the five books of Moses, then the
-hearts of them which are elect and chosen, begin to wax soft and melt at
-the bounteous mercy of God, and kindness shewed of Christ. For when the
-Evangelion is preached, the Spirit of God entereth into them whom God hath
-ordained and appointed unto eternal life, and openeth their inward eyes,
-and worketh such belief in them. When the woful consciences feel and taste
-how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is, and how merciful and
-loving God is through Christ's purchasing and merits, they begin to love
-again, and to consent to the law of God, that it is good and ought so to
-be, and that God is righteous which made it; and they desire to fulfil the
-law, even as the sick man desireth to be whole, and are an hungered and
-thirst after more righteousness and after more strength to fulfil the law
-more perfectly. And in all that they do, or omit and leave undone, they
-seek God's honour and his will with meekness, ever condemning the
-imperfectness of their deeds by the law.
-
-Now Christ standeth us in double stead, and us serveth in two manner wise:
-First, he is our Redeemer, Deliverer, Reconciler, Mediator, Intercessor,
-Advocate, Attorney, Solicitor, our Hope, Comfort, Shield, Protection,
-Defender, Strength, Health, Satisfaction, and Salvation. His blood, his
-death, all that he ever did, is ours. And Christ himself, with all that he
-is or can do, is ours. His blood-shedding and all that he did, doth me as
-good service as though I myself had done it. And God (as great as he is)
-is mine, with all that he hath, through Christ and his purchasing.
-
-Secondarily, after that we be overcome with love and kindness, and now
-seek to do the will of God, which is a christian man's nature, then have
-we Christ an example to counterfeit, as saith Christ himself in John, "I
-have given you an example." And in another evangelist he saith, "He that
-will be great among you, shall be your servant and minister, as the Son of
-man came to minister and not to be ministered unto." And Paul saith,
-"Counterfeit[140] Christ." And Peter saith, "Christ died for you, and
-left you an example to follow his steps." Whatsoever therefore faith hath
-received of God through Christ's blood and deserving, that same must love
-shed out every whit, and bestow it on our neighbours unto their profit,
-yea, and that though they be our enemies. By faith we receive of God, and
-by love we shed out again. And that must we do freely after the example of
-Christ, without any other respect, save our neighbour's wealth only, and
-neither look for reward in the earth, nor yet in heaven, for our deeds.
-But of pure love must we bestow ourselves, all that we have, and all that
-we are able to do, even on our enemies, to bring them to God, considering
-nothing but their wealth, as Christ did ours. Christ did not his deeds to
-obtain heaven thereby (that had been a madness), heaven was his already,
-he was heir thereof, it was his by inheritance; but did them freely for
-our sakes, considering nothing but our wealth, and to bring the favour of
-God to us again, and us to God. And no natural son that is his father's
-heir, doth his father's will because he would be heir; that he is already
-by birth, his father gave him that ere he was born, and is loather that he
-should go without it, than he himself hath wit to be; but out of pure love
-doth he that he doth. And ask him, Why he doth any thing that he doth? he
-answereth, My father bade, it is my father's will, it pleaseth my father.
-Bond servants work for hire, children for love: for their father with all
-he hath, is theirs already. So a Christian man doth freely all that he
-doth, considereth nothing but the will of God, and his neighbour's wealth
-only. If I live chaste, I do it not to obtain heaven thereby; for then
-should I do wrong to the blood of Christ; Christ's blood has obtained me
-that; Christ's merits have made me heir thereof; he is both door and way
-thitherwards: neither that I look for an higher room in heaven than they
-shall have which live in wedlock, other than a whore of the stews, if she
-repent; for that were the pride of Lucifer, but freely to wait on the
-evangelion; and to serve my brother withal; even as one hand helpeth
-another, or one member another, because one feeleth another's grief, and
-the pain of the one is the pain of the other. Whatsoever is done to the
-least of us (whether it be good or bad), it is done to Christ; and
-whatsoever is done to my brother, if I be a christian man, that same is
-done to me. Neither doth my brother's pain grieve me less than mine own:
-neither rejoice I less at his welfare than at mine own. If it were not so,
-how saith Paul? "Let him that rejoiceth, rejoice in the Lord," that is to
-say, Christ, which is Lord over all creatures. If my merits obtained me
-heaven, or a higher room there, then had I wherein I might rejoice besides
-the Lord.
-
-Here see ye the nature of the law, and the nature of the evangelion. How
-the law is the key that bindeth and damneth all men, and the evangelion
-looseth them again. The law goeth before, and the evangelion followeth.
-When a preacher preacheth the law, he bindeth all consciences; and when he
-preacheth the gospel, he looseth them again. These two salves (I mean the
-law and the gospel) useth God and his preacher to heal and cure sinners
-withal. The law driveth out the disease and maketh it appear, and is a
-sharp salve, and a fretting corosy, and killeth the dead flesh, and
-looseth and draweth the sores out by the roots, and all corruption. It
-pulleth from a man the trust and confidence that he hath in himself, and
-in his own works, merits, deservings, and ceremonies. It killeth him,
-sendeth him down to hell, and bringeth him to utter desperation, and
-prepareth the way of the Lord, as it is written of John the Baptist. For
-it is not possible that Christ should come to a man, as long as he
-trusteth in himself, or in any worldly thing. Then cometh the evangelion,
-a more gentle plaster, which suppleth and suageth the wounds of the
-conscience, and bringeth health. It bringeth the Spirit of God, which
-looseth the bonds of Satan, and uniteth us to God and his will, through
-strong faith and fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the
-world, or any creature to loose them. And the poor and wretched sinner
-feeleth so great mercy, love, and kindness in God, that he is sure in
-himself how that it is not possible that God should forsake him, or
-withdraw his mercy and love from him; and he boldly crieth out with Paul,
-saying, "Who shall separate us from the love that God loveth us withal?"
-That is to say, What shall make me believe that God loveth me not? Shall
-tribulation? anguish? persecution? Shall hunger? nakedness? Shall sword?
-Nay, "I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel, neither rule
-nor power, neither present things nor things to come, neither high nor
-low, neither any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God,
-which is in Christ Jesu our Lord." In all such tribulations, a christian
-man perceiveth that God is his Father, and loveth him even as he loved
-Christ when he shed his blood on the cross.
-
-Finally, as before, when I was bond to the devil and his will, I wrought
-all manner of evil and wickedness, not for hell's sake, which is the
-reward of sin, but because I was heir of hell by birth and bondage to the
-devil, did I evil (for I could none otherwise do; to do sin was my
-nature), even so now, since I am coupled to God by Christ's blood, do I
-well, not for heaven's sake, but because I am heir of heaven by grace and
-Christ's purchasing, and have the Spirit of God, I do good freely, for so
-is my nature: as a good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil tree
-evil fruit. By the fruits shall ye know what the tree is. A man's deeds
-declare what he is within, but make him neither good nor bad. We must
-first be evil ere we do evil, as a serpent is first poisonous ere he
-poison. We must be also good ere we do good, as the fire must be first hot
-ere it warm any thing. Take an example: As those blind which are cured in
-the evangelion could not see till Christ had given them sight, and deaf
-could not hear till Christ had given them hearing, and those sick could
-not do the deeds of an whole man till Christ had given them health; so can
-no man do good in his soul till Christ have loosed him out of the bonds
-of Satan, and have given him wherewith to do good; yea, and first have
-poured into him that self good thing which he sheddeth forth afterwards on
-other. Whatsoever is our own, is sin. Whatsoever is above that, is
-Christ's gift, purchase, doing, and working. He bought it of his Father
-dearly with his blood, yea, with his most bitter death, and gave his life
-for it. Whatsoever good thing is in us, that is given us freely, without
-our deserving or merits, for Christ's blood's sake. That we desire to
-follow the will of God it is the gift of Christ's blood. That we now hate
-the devil's will (whereunto we were so fast locked, and could not but love
-it) is also the gift of Christ's blood; unto whom belongeth the praise and
-honour of our good deeds, and not unto us.
-
-
-II. "THE EPISTLE TO THE READER" ATTACHED TO THE 8vo EDITION, 1525.
-
-Give diligence, reader, I exhort thee, that thou come with a pure mind,
-and, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health
-and of eternal life; by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are
-born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ,
-which blood crieth not for vengeance, as the blood of Abel, but hath
-purchased life, love, favour, grace, blessing, and whatsoever is promised
-in the Scriptures to them that believe and obey God, and standeth between
-us and wrath, vengeance, curse, and whatsoever the Scripture threateneth
-against the unbelievers and disobedient, which resist and consent not in
-their hearts to the law of God that it is right, holy, just, and ought so
-to be. Mark the plain and manifest places of the Scriptures, and in
-doubtful places see thou add no interpretation contrary to them, but as
-(Paul saith) let all be conformable and agreeing to the faith. Note the
-difference of the law and of the gospel. The one asketh and requireth,
-the other pardoneth and forgiveth; the one threateneth, the other
-promiseth all good things to them that set their trust in Christ only. The
-gospel signifieth glad tidings, and is nothing but the promises of good
-things. All is not gospel that is written in the gospel-book; for if the
-law were away thou couldest not know what the gospel meant, even as thou
-couldest not see pardon and grace, except the law rebuked thee and
-declared unto thee thy sin, misdeed, and trespass. Repent, and believe the
-gospel, as Christ saith in the first of Mark. Apply alway the law to thy
-deeds, whether thou find lust in thine heart to the law-ward; and so shalt
-thou no doubt repent and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief
-to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the
-law. Apply the gospel, that is to say the promises, unto the deserving of
-Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not
-despair, but shall feel God as a kind and merciful father. And his Spirit
-shall dwell in thee, and shall be strong in thee, and the promises shall
-be given thee at the last (though not by and by, lest thou shouldest
-forget thyself and be negligent), and all threatenings shall be forgiven
-thee for Christ's blood's sake, to whom commit thyself altogether, without
-respect either of thy good deeds or of thy bad.
-
-Them that are learned Christianly I beseech, forasmuch as I am sure, and
-my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and
-faithfully, I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of
-knowledge and understanding, that the rudeness of the work now at the
-first time offend them not; but that they consider how that I had no man
-to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had
-interpreted the same or such like thing in the Scripture beforetime.
-Moreover, even very necessity, and cumbrance (God is record) above
-strength, which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast
-ourselves, caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are
-required. Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but as it were
-born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished. In time
-to come (if God have appointed us thereunto) we will give it his full
-shape, and put out if ought be added superflously, and add to if ought be
-overseen through negligence, and will enforce to bring to compendiousness
-that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is
-required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a
-table to expound the words which are not commonly used, and show how the
-Scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common
-people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not
-another; and will endeavour ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better,
-and to make it more apt for the weak stomachs, desiring them that are
-learned and able to remember their duty, and to help them thereunto, and
-to bestow unto the edifying of Christ's body, which is the congregation of
-them that believe, those gifts which they have received of God for the
-same purpose.
-
-The grace that cometh of Christ be with them that love him. Amen.
-
-
-III. THE PREFACE TO THE PENTATEUCH, 1530.
-
-When I had translated the New Testament, I added an Epistle unto the
-latter end, in which I desired them that were learned to amend if aught
-were found amiss. But our malicious and wily hypocrites, which are so
-stubborn, and hard hearted in their wicked abominations, that it is not
-possible for them to amend any thing at all (as we see by daily
-experience, when both their livings and doings are rebuked with the truth)
-say, some of them, that it is impossible to translate the Scripture into
-English; some that it is not lawful for the lay people to have it in their
-mother tongue; some that it would make them all heretics; as it would no
-doubt from many things which they of long time have falsely taught; and
-that is the whole cause wherefore they forbid it, though they other
-cloaks pretend. And some, or rather every one, say that it would make them
-rise against the king, whom they themselves (unto their damnation) never
-yet obeyed. And lest the temporal rulers should see their falsehood, if
-the Scripture came to light, causeth them so to lie.
-
-And as for my translation, in which they affirm unto the lay people, (as I
-have heard say) to be I wot not how many thousand heresies, so that it
-cannot be mended or correct, they have yet taken so great pain to examine
-it, and to compare it unto that they would fain have it, and to their own
-imaginations and juggling terms, and to have somewhat to rail at, and
-under that cloak, to blaspheme the truth, that they might with as little
-labour (as I suppose) have translated the most part of the Bible. For they
-which in times past were wont to look on no more Scripture than they found
-in their _Duns_, or such like devilish doctrine, have yet now so narrowly
-looked on my Translation, that there is not so much as one _i_ therein, if
-it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto
-the ignorant people for an heresy. Finally, in this they be all
-agreed,--to drive you from the knowledge of the Scripture, and that ye
-shall not have the text thereof in the mother tongue; and to keep the
-world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the consciences
-of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine; to satisfy
-their filthy lusts, their proud ambition, and unsatiable covetousness; and
-to exalt their own honour above king and emperor, yea, and above God
-himself.
-
-A thousand books had they lever to be put forth against their abominable
-doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as
-long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with
-the mist of their sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or
-despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly
-similitudes and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wresting the
-Scripture unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order,
-and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with
-allegories; and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the
-unlearned lay people, (when it hath but one simple, literal sense, whose
-light the owls cannot abide) that though thou feel in thine heart, and art
-sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve
-their subtle riddles.
-
-Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had
-perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay
-people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their
-eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and
-meaning of the text: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these
-enemies of all truth quench it again, partly with the smoke of their
-bottomless pit, whereof thou readest in Apocalypse chap. ix. that is, with
-apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, founded
-without ground of Scripture, and partly in juggling with the text,
-expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text, if
-thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof.
-
-And even in the bishop of London's house I intended to have done it. For
-when I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer
-dwell there (the process whereof were too long here to rehearse), I this
-wise thought in myself--this I suffer because the priests of the country
-be unlearned; as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort which have
-seen no more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals,
-which yet many of them can scarcely read (except it be _Albertus de
-Secretis Mulierum_, in which yet, though they be never so sorrily learned,
-they pore day and night, and make notes therein, and all to teach the
-midwives as they say; and Linwode, a book of constitutions to gather
-tythes, mortuaries, offerings, customs, and other pillage which they call
-not theirs, but God's part, and the duty of holy church to discharge their
-consciences withal: for they are bound that they shall not diminish, but
-increase all things unto the uttermost of their powers), and, therefore
-(because they are thus unlearned, thought I), when they come together to
-the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings
-are heresy. And besides that, they add to of their own heads which I never
-spake, as the manner is, to prolong the tale to short the time withal, and
-accused me secretly to the chancellor, and other the bishop's officers.
-And, indeed, when I came before the chancellor, he threatened me
-grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog, and
-laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth (as
-their manner is not to bring forth the accuser), and yet all the priests
-of the country were the same day there.
-
-As I this thought, the bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom
-Erasmus (whose tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth
-up above the stars whosoever giveth him a little exhibition) praiseth
-exceedingly, among other in his Annotations on the New Testament, for his
-great learning. Then, thought I, if I might come to this man's service, I
-were happy. And so I gat me to London, and, through the acquaintance of my
-master, came to Sir Harry Gilford, the king's grace's comptroller, and
-brought him an _Oration of Isocrates_, which I had translated out of Greek
-into English, and desired him to speak unto my lord of London for me,
-which he also did as he shewed me, and willed me to write an epistle to my
-lord, and to go to him myself, which I also did, and delivered my epistle
-to a servant of his own, one William Hebilthwayte, a man of mine old
-acquaintance. But God (which knoweth what is within hypocrites) saw that I
-was beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way unto my purpose.
-And therefore he gat me no favour in my lord's sight.
-
-Whereupon my lord answered me, his house was full, he had more than he
-could well find, and advised me to seek in London, where he said I could
-not lack a service. And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the
-course of the world, and heard our praters (I would say our preachers),
-how they boasted themselves and their high authority; and beheld the pomp
-of our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet are, to set peace and
-unity in the world (though it be not possible for them that walk in
-darkness to continue long in peace, for they cannot but either stumble or
-dash themselves at one thing or another that shall clean unquiet all
-together) and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time, and
-understood at the last not only that there was no room in my lord of
-London's palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no
-place to do it in all England, as experience doth now openly declare.
-
-Under what manner, therefore, should I now submit this book to be
-corrected and amended of them, which can suffer nothing to be well? Or
-what protestation should I make in such a matter unto our prelates, those
-stubborn Nimrods which so mightily fight against God, and resist his Holy
-Spirit, enforcing with all craft and subtlety to quench the light of the
-everlasting Testament, promises, and appointment made between God and us?
-and heaping the fierce wrath of God upon all princes and rulers; mocking
-them with false feigned names of hypocrisy, and serving their lusts at all
-points, and dispensing with them even of the very laws of God, of which
-Christ himself testifieth, Matt. v. "That not so much as one tittle
-thereof may perish, or be broken." And of which the prophet saith, Psalm
-cxviii., "Thou hast commanded thy laws to be kept" _meod_, that is in
-Hebrew, exceedingly, with all diligence, might, and power; and have made
-them so mad with their juggling charms, and crafty persuasions, that they
-think it a full satisfaction for all their wicked lying to torment such as
-tell them truth, and to burn the word of their soul's health, and slay
-whosoever believe thereon.
-
-Notwithstanding, yet I submit this book, and all other that I have either
-made or translated, or shall in time to come, (if it be God's will that I
-shall further labour in his harvest,) unto all them that submit themselves
-unto the word of God, to be corrected of them; yea, and moreover to be
-disallowed and also burnt, if it seem worthy, when they have examined it
-with the Hebrew, so that they first put forth of their own translating
-another that is more correct.
-
-
-
-
-(C.)
-
-_COVERDALE'S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535._
-
-
-Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of
-scripture ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own
-insufficiency therein, and how weak I am to perform the office of a
-translator, I was the more loath to meddle with this work.
-Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it was that we should
-want it so long, and called to my remembrance the adversity of them which
-were not only of ripe knowledge, but would also with all their hearts have
-performed that they began, if they had not had impediment; considering, I
-say, that by reason of their adversity it could not so soon have been
-brought to an end, as our most prosperous nation would fain have had it;
-these and other reasonable causes considered, I was the more bold to take
-it in hand. And to help me herein, I have had sundry translations, not
-only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their
-singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more
-glad to follow for the most part, according as I was required. But, to say
-the truth before God, it was neither my labour nor desire to have this
-work put in my hand: nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should
-be more plenteously provided for with the scripture in their
-mother-tongue, than we: therefore, when I was instantly required, though I
-could not do so well as I would, I thought it yet my duty to do my best,
-and that with a good will.
-
-Whereas some men think now that many translations make division in the
-faith and in the people of God, that is not so: for it was never better
-with the congregation of God, than when every church almost had the Bible
-of a sundry translation. Among the Greeks had not Origen a special
-translation? Had not Vulgarius one peculiar, and likewise Chrysostom?
-Beside the seventy interpreters, is there not the translation of Aquila,
-of Theodotio, of Symmachus, and of sundry other? Again, among the Latin
-men, thou findest that every one almost used a special and sundry
-translation; for insomuch as every bishop had the knowledge of the
-tongues, he gave his diligence to have the Bible of his own translation.
-The doctors, as Hireneus, Cyprianus, Tertullian, St. Hierome, St.
-Augustine, Hilarius, and St. Ambrose, upon divers places of the scripture,
-read not the text all alike.
-
-Therefore ought it not to be taken as evil, that such men as have
-understanding now in our time, exercise themselves in the tongues, and
-give their diligence to translate out of one language into another. Yea,
-we ought rather to give God high thanks therefore, which through his
-Spirit stirreth up men's minds so to exercise themselves therein. Would
-God it had never been left off after the time of St. Augustine! then
-should we never have come into such blindness and ignorance, into such
-errors and delusions. For as soon as the Bible was cast aside, and no more
-put in exercise, then began every one of his own head to write whatsoever
-came into his brain, and that seemed to be good in his own eyes; and so
-grew the darkness of men's traditions. And this same is the cause that we
-have had so many writers, which seldom made mention of the scripture of
-the Bible; and though they sometime alleged it, yet was it done so far out
-of season, and so wide from the purpose, that a man may well perceive, how
-that they never saw the original.
-
-Seeing then that this diligent exercise of translating doth so much good
-and edifieth in other languages, why should it do evil in ours? Doubtless,
-like as all nations in the diversity of speeches may know one God in the
-unity of faith, and be one in love; even so may divers translations
-understand one another, and that in the head articles and ground of our
-most blessed faith, though they use sundry words. Wherefore methink we
-have great occasion to give thanks unto God, that he hath opened unto his
-church the gift of interpretation and of printing, and that there are now
-at this time so many, which with such diligence and faithfulness interpret
-the scripture, to the honour of God and edifying of his people: whereas,
-like as when many are shooting together, every one doth his best to be
-nighest the mark; and though they cannot all attain thereto, yet shooteth
-one nigher than another and hitteth it better than another; yea, one can
-do it better than another. Who is now then so unreasonable, so despiteful,
-or envious, as to abhor him that doth all his diligence to hit the prick,
-and to shoot nighest it, though he miss and come not nighest the mark?
-Ought not such one rather to be commended, and to be helped forward, that
-he may exercise himself the more therein?
-
-For the which cause, according as I was desired, I took the more upon me
-to set forth this special translation, not as a checker, not as a
-reprover, or despiser of other men's translations, (for among many as yet
-I have found none without occasion of great thanksgiving unto God;) but
-lowly and faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under
-correction; and though I have failed anywhere (as there is no man but he
-misseth in some thing), love shall construe all to the best, without any
-perverse judgment. There is no man living that can see all things, neither
-hath God given any man to know everything. One seeth more clearly than
-another, one hath more understanding than another, one can utter a thing
-better than another; but no man ought to envy or despise another. He that
-can do better than another, should not set him at nought that
-understandeth less. Yea, he that hath the more understanding ought to
-remember, that the same gift is not his, but God's, and that God hath
-given it him to teach and inform the ignorant. If thou hast knowledge
-therefore to judge where any fault is made, I doubt not but thou wilt
-help to amend it, if love be joined with thy knowledge. Howbeit,
-whereinsoever I can perceive by myself, or by the information of other,
-that I have failed (as it is no wonder), I shall now by the help of God
-overlook it better, and amend it.
-
-Now will I exhort thee, whosoever thou be that readest scripture, if thou
-find ought therein that thou understandest not, or that appeareth to be
-repugnant, give no temerarious nor hasty judgment thereof; but ascribe it
-to thine own ignorance, not to the scripture: think that thou
-understandest it not, or that it hath some other meaning, or that it is
-haply overseen of the interpreters, or wrong printed. Again, it shall
-greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is
-spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what
-time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what
-goeth before, and what followeth after. For there be some things which are
-done and written, to the intent that we should do likewise; as when
-Abraham believeth God, is obedient unto his word, and defendeth Loth his
-kinsman from violent wrong. There be some things also which are written,
-to the intent that we should eschew such like; as when David lieth with
-Uria's wife, and causeth him to be slain. Therefore, I say, when thou
-readest scripture, be wise and circumspect; and when thou comest to such
-strange manners of speaking and dark sentences, to such parables and
-similitudes, to such dreams or visions, as are hid from thy understanding,
-commit them unto God, or to the gift of his Holy Spirit in them that are
-better learned than thou.
-
-As for the commendation of God's holy scripture, I would fain magnify it,
-as it is worthy, but I am far unsufficient thereto: and therefore I
-thought it better for me to hold my tongue, than with few words to praise
-or commend it; exhorting thee, most dear reader, so to love it, so to
-cleave unto it, and so to follow it in thy daily conversation, that other
-men, seeing thy good works and the fruits of the Holy Ghost in thee, may
-praise the Father of heaven, and give his word a good report: for to live
-after the law of God, and to lead a virtuous conversation, is the greatest
-praise that thou canst give unto his doctrine.
-
-But as touching the evil report and dispraise that the good word of God
-hath by the corrupt and evil conversation of some that daily hear it and
-profess it outwardly with their mouths, I exhort thee, most dear reader,
-let not that offend thee, nor withdraw thy mind from the love of the
-truth, neither move thee to be partaker in like unthankfulness; but seeing
-the light is come into the world, love no more the works of darkness,
-receive not the grace of God in vain. Call to thy remembrance, how loving
-and merciful God is unto thee, how kindly and fatherly he helpeth thee in
-all trouble, teacheth thine ignorance, healeth thee in all thy sickness,
-forgiveth thee all thy sins, feedeth thee, giveth thee drink, helpeth thee
-out of prison, nourisheth thee in strange countries, careth for thee, and
-seeth that thou want nothing. Call this to mind, I say, and that
-earnestly, and consider how thou hast received of God all these benefits,
-yea, and many more than thou canst desire; how thou art bound likewise to
-shew thyself unto thy neighbour, as far as thou canst, to teach him, if he
-be ignorant, to help him in all his trouble, to heal his sickness, to
-forgive him his offences, and that heartily, to feed him, to cherish him,
-to care for him, and to see that he want nothing. And on this behalf I
-beseek thee, thou that hast the riches of this world, and lovest God with
-thy heart, to lift up thine eyes, and see how great a multitude of poor
-people run through every town; have pity on thine own flesh, help them
-with a good heart, and do with thy counsel all that ever thou canst, that
-this unshamefaced begging may be put down, that these idle folks may be
-set to labour, and that such as are not able to get their living may be
-provided for. At the least, thou that art of counsel with such as are in
-authority, give them some occasion to cast their heads together, and to
-make provision for the poor. Put them in remembrance of those noble cities
-in other countries, that by the authority of their princes have so richly
-and well provided for their poor people, to the great shame and dishonesty
-of us, if we likewise, receiving the word of God, shew not such like
-fruits thereof. Would God that those men, whose office is to maintain the
-commonwealth, were as diligent in this cause, as they are in other! Let us
-beware bytimes, for after unthankfulness there followeth ever a plague.
-The merciful hand of God be with us, and defend us, that we be not
-partakers thereof!
-
-Go to now, most dear reader, and sit thee down at the Lord's feet, and
-read his words, and, as Moses teacheth the Jews, take them into thine
-heart, and let thy talking and communication be of them, when thou sittest
-in thine house, or goest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou
-risest up. And, above all things, fashion thy life and conversation
-according to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost therein, that thou mayest be
-partaker of the good promises of God in the Bible, and be heir of his
-blessing in Christ: in whom if thou put thy trust, and be an unfeigned
-reader or hearer of his word with thy heart, thou shalt find sweetness
-therein, and spy wondrous things, to thy understanding, to the avoiding of
-all seditious sects, to the abhorring of thy old sinful life, and to the
-stablishing of thy godly conversation.
-
-In the first book of Moses, called Genesis, thou mayest learn to know the
-almighty power of God in creating all of nought, his infinite wisdom in
-ordering the same, his righteousness in punishing the ungodly, his love
-and fatherly mercy in comforting the righteous with his promise, &c.
-
-In the second book, called Exodus, we see the mighty arm of God in
-delivering his people from so great bondage out of Egypt, and what
-provision he maketh for them in the wilderness; how he teacheth them with
-his wholesome word, and how the tabernacle was made and set up.
-
-In the third book, called Leviticus, is declared, what sacrifices the
-priests and Levites used, and what their office and ministration was.
-
-In the fourth book, called Numerus, is declared, how the people are
-numbered and mustered, how the captains are chosen after the tribes and
-kindreds, how they went forth to the battle, how they pitched their tents,
-and how they brake up.
-
-The fifth book, called Deuteronomium, sheweth how that Moses, now being
-old, rehearseth the law of God unto the people, putteth them in
-remembrance again of all the wonders and benefices that God had shewed for
-them, and exhorteth them earnestly to love the Lord their God, to cleave
-unto him, to put their trust in him, and to hearken unto his voice.
-
-After the death of Moses doth Josua bring the people into the land of
-promise, where God doth wonderous things for his people by Josua, which
-distributeth the land unto them, unto every tribe their possession. But in
-their wealth they forgat the goodness of God, so that ofttimes he gave
-them over into the hand of their enemies. Nevertheless, whensoever they
-called faithfully upon him, and converted, he delivered them again, as the
-book of Judges declareth.
-
-In the books of the Kings is described the regiment of good and evil
-princes, and how the decay of all nations cometh by evil kings. For in
-Jeroboam thou seest what mischief, what idolatry, and such like
-abomination followeth, when the king is a maintainer of false doctrine,
-and causeth the people to sin against God; which falling away from God's
-word increased so sore among them, that it was the cause of all their
-sorrow and misery, and the very occasion why Israel first, and then Juda,
-were carried away into captivity. Again, in Josaphat, in Ezechias, and in
-Josias, thou seest the nature of a virtuous king. He putteth down the
-houses of idolatry, seeth that his priests teach nothing but the law of
-God, commandeth his lords to go with them, and to see that they teach the
-people. In these kings, I say, thou seest the condition of a true
-defender of the faith; for he spareth neither cost nor labour to maintain
-the Laws of God, to seek the wealth and prosperity of his people, and to
-root out the wicked. And where such a prince is, thou seest again, how God
-defendeth him and his people, though he have never so many enemies. Thus
-went it with them in the old time, and even after the same manner goeth it
-now with us. God be praised therefore, and grant us of his fatherly mercy
-that we be not unthankful; lest where he now giveth us a Josaphat, an
-Ezechias, yea, a very Josias, he send us a Pharao, a Jeroboam, or an
-Achab!
-
-In the two first books of Esdras, and in Hester, thou seest the
-deliverance of the people, which though they were but few, yet is it unto
-us all a special comfort; forsomuch as God is not forgetful of his
-promise, but bringeth them out of captivity, according as he had told them
-before.
-
-In the book of Job we learn comfort and patience, in that God not only
-punisheth the wicked, but proveth and trieth the just and righteous
-(howbeit there is no man innocent in his sight,) by divers troubles in
-this life; declaring thereby, that they are not his bastards, but his dear
-sons, and that he loveth them.
-
-In the Psalms we learn how to resort only unto God in all our troubles, to
-seek help at him, to call only upon him, to settle our minds by patience,
-and how we ought in prosperity to be thankful unto him.
-
-The Proverbs and the Preacher of Solomon teach us wisdom, to know God, our
-own selves, and the world, and how vain all things are, save only to
-cleave unto God.
-
-As for the doctrine of the Prophets, what is it else, but an earnest
-exhortation to eschew sin, and to turn unto God; a faithful promise of the
-mercy and pardon of God unto all them that turn unto him, and a
-threatening of his wrath to the ungodly? saving that here and there they
-prophesy also manifestly of Christ, of the expulsion of the Jews, and
-calling of the heathen.
-
-Thus much thought I to speak of the old Testament, wherein Almighty God
-openeth unto us his mighty power, his wisdom, his loving mercy and
-righteousness: for the which cause it ought of no man to be abhorred,
-despised, or lightly regarded, as though it were an old scripture that
-nothing belonged unto us, or that now were to be refused. For it is God's
-true scripture and testimony, which the Lord Jesus commandeth the Jews to
-search. Whosoever believeth not the scripture, believeth not Christ; and
-whoso refuseth it, refuseth God also.
-
-The new Testament, or Gospel, is a manifest and clear testimony of Christ,
-how God performeth his oath and promise made in the old Testament, how the
-new is declared and included in the old, and the old fulfilled and
-verified in the new.
-
-Now whereas the most famous interpreters of all give sundry judgments of
-the text; so far as it is done by the spirit of knowledge in the Holy
-Ghost, methink no man should be offended thereat, for they refer their
-doings in meekness to the spirit of truth in the congregation of God: and
-sure I am, that there cometh more knowledge and understanding of the
-scripture by their sundry translations, than by all the glosses of our
-sophistical doctors. For that one interpreteth something obscurely in one
-place, the same translateth another, or else he himself, more manifestly
-by a more plain vocable of the same meaning in another place. Be not thou
-offended, therefore, good reader, though one call a scribe that another
-calleth a lawyer; or elders, that another calleth father and mother; or
-repentance, that another calleth penance or amendment. For if thou be not
-deceived by men's traditions, thou shalt find no more diversity between
-these terms, than between fourpence and a groat. And this manner have I
-used in my translation, calling it in some place _penance_, that in
-another place I call _repentance_; and that not only because the
-interpreters have done so before me, but that the adversaries of the truth
-may see, how that we abhor not this word penance, as they untruly report
-of us, no more than the interpreters of Latin abhor _poenitere_, when they
-read _resipiscere_. Only our heart's desire unto God is, that his people
-be not blinded in their understanding, lest they believe penance to be
-ought save a very repentance, amendment, or conversion unto God, and to be
-an unfeigned new creature in Christ, and to live according to his law. For
-else shall they fall into the old blasphemy of Christ's blood, and believe
-that they themselves are able to make satisfaction unto God for their own
-sins: from the which error God of his mercy and plenteous goodness
-preserve all his!
-
-Now to conclude: forsomuch as all the scripture is written for thy
-doctrine and ensample, it shall be necessary for thee to take hold upon it
-while it is offered thee, yea, and with ten hands thankfully to receive
-it. And though it be not worthily ministered unto thee in this
-translation, by reason of my rudeness; yet if thou be fervent in thy
-prayer, God shall not only send it thee in a better shape by the
-ministration of other that began it afore, but shall also move the hearts
-of them which as yet meddled not withal, to take it in hand, and to bestow
-the gift of their understanding thereon, as well in our language, as other
-famous interpreters do in other languages. And I pray God, that through my
-poor ministration herein I may give them that can do better some occasion
-so to do; exhorting thee, most dear reader, in the mean while on God's
-behalf, if thou be a head, a judge, or ruler of the people, that thou let
-not the book of this law depart out of thy mouth, but exercise thyself
-therein both day and night, and be ever reading in it as long as thou
-livest: that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God, and not to turn
-aside from the commandment, neither to the right hand nor to the left;
-lest thou be a knower of persons in judgment, and wrest the right of the
-stranger, of the fatherless, or of the widow, and so the curse to come
-upon thee. But what office so ever thou hast, wait upon it, and execute it
-to the maintenance of peace, to the wealth of thy people, defending the
-laws of God and the lovers thereof, and to the destruction of the wicked.
-
-If thou be a preacher, and hast the oversight of the flock of Christ,
-awake and feed Christ's sheep with a good heart, and spare no labour to do
-them good: seek not thyself, and beware of filthy lucre; but be unto the
-flock an ensample in the word, in conversation, in love, in ferventness of
-the spirit, and be ever reading, exhorting, and teaching in God's word,
-that the people of God run not unto other doctrines, and lest thou
-thyself, when thou shouldest teach other, be found ignorant therein. And
-rather than thou wouldest teach the people any other thing than God's
-word, take the book in thine hand, and read the words, even as they stand
-therein; for it is no shame so to do, it is more shame to make a lie. This
-I say for such as are not yet expert in the scripture; for I reprove no
-preaching without the book, as long as they say the truth.
-
-If thou be a man that hast wife and children, first love thy wife,
-according to the ensample of the love wherewith Christ loved the
-congregation; and remember that so doing thou lovest even thyself: if thou
-hate her, thou hatest thine own flesh; if thou cherish her and make much
-of her, thou cherishest and makest much of thyself; for she is bone of thy
-bones, and flesh of thy flesh. And whosoever thou be that hast children,
-bring them up in the nurture and information of the Lord. And if thou be
-ignorant, or art otherwise occupied lawfully, that thou canst not teach
-them thyself, then be even as diligent to seek a good master for thy
-children, as thou wast to seek a mother to bear them; for there lieth as
-great weight in the one, as in the other. Yea, better it were for them to
-be unborn, than not to fear God, or to be evil brought up: which thing (I
-mean bringing up well of children) if it be diligently looked to, it is
-the upholding of all commonwealths; and the negligence of the same, the
-very decay of all realms.
-
-Finally, whosoever thou be, take these words of scripture into thy heart,
-and be not only an outward hearer, but a doer thereafter, and practise
-thyself therein; that thou mayest feel in thine heart the sweet promises
-thereof for thy consolation in all trouble, and for the sure stablishing
-of thy hope in Christ; and have ever an eye to the words of scripture,
-that if thou be a teacher of other, thou mayest be within the bounds of
-the truth; or at the least, though thou be but an hearer or reader of
-another man's doings, thou mayest yet have knowledge to judge all spirits,
-and be free from every error, to the utter destruction of all seditious
-sects and strange doctrines; that the holy scripture may have free
-passage, and be had in reputation, to the worship of the author thereof,
-which is even God himself; to whom for his most blessed word be glory and
-dominion now and ever! Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(D.)
-
-_PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE, 1560._
-
-
-  To our Beloved in the Lord,
-  The Brethren of England,
-  Scotland, Ireland, &c. Grace, mercie, and peace,
-  through Christ Jesus.[141]
-
-Besides the manifold and continuall benefits which Almightie God bestowed
-upon us, both corporall and spirituall, we are especially bound (deare
-brethren) to giue him thankes without ceasing for his great grace and
-vnspeakable mercies, in that it hath pleased him to call vs vnto this
-marueilous light of his Gospell, and mercifully to regarde vs after so
-horrible backesliding and falling away from Christ to Antichrist, from
-light to darknesse, from the liuing God to dumme and dead idoles, and that
-after so cruell murther of God's saints, as alas, hath bene among vs, wee
-are not altogether cast off, as were the Israelites, and many others for
-the like or not so manifest wickednesse, but receiued againe to grace with
-most evident signes and tokens of God's especiall loue and fauour. To the
-intent therefore that wee may not be vnmindfull of these great mercies,
-but seeke by all meanes (according to our duetie) to bee thankefull for
-the same, it behoueth vs so to walke in his feare and loue, that all the
-dayes of our life we may procure the glorie of his holy name.
-
-Nowe forasmuch as this thing chiefely is atteined by the knowledge and
-practising of the worde of God (which is the light to our paths, the keye
-of the kingdome of heauen, our comfort in affliction, our shielde and
-sworde against Satan, the schoole of all wisdome, the glasse wherein we
-beholde Gods face, the testimonie of his fauour, and the onely foode and
-nourishment of our soules), wee thought that wee coulde bestowe our
-labours and studie in nothing which coulde be more acceptable to God and
-comfortable to his Church then in the translating of the holy Scriptures
-into our natiue tongue: the which thing albeit that diuers heretofore haue
-endeuoured to atchieue; yet considering the infancie of those times and
-imperfect knowledge of the tongues in respect of this ripe age and cleere
-light which God hath now reueiled, y{e} translations required greatly to
-be perused and reformed. Not that we vendicate anything to our selues
-aboue the least of our brethren (for God knoweth with what feare and
-trembling we haue bene for the space of two yeeres and more day and night
-occupied herein), but being earnestly desired and by diuers, whose
-learning and godlinesse we reuerence, exhorted and also encouraged by the
-ready willes of such, whose hearts God likewise touched, not to spare any
-charges for the furtherance of such a benefite and fauour of God towarde
-his Church (though the time then was most dangerous, and the persecution
-sharpe and furious), we submitted our selues at length to their godly
-judgements, and seeing the great opportunitie and occasions, which God
-presented unto vs in his Church, by reason of so many godlie and learned
-men: and such diuersities of translations in diuers tongues, we vndertooke
-this great and wonderfull worke (with all reuerence, as in the presence of
-God, as intreating the word of God, whereunto we thinke our selues
-vnsufficient) which now God accepting according to his diuine prouidence
-and mercie hath directed to a most prosperous ende. And this we may with
-good conscience protest that we haue in euery point and worde, according
-to the measure of that knowledge which it pleased Almightie God to giue
-vs, faithfully rendred the text, and in all hard places most sincerely
-expounded the same. For God is our witnesse that we haue by all meanes
-indeuoured to set foorth the puritie of the word and the right sense of
-the holy Ghost for the edifying of the brethren in faith and charitie.
-
-Nowe as we have chiefely obserued the sence, and laboured allwayes to
-restore it to all integritie, so haue we most reuerently kept the
-proprietie of the wordes, considering that the Apostles who spake and
-wrote to the Gentiles in the Greeke tongue, rather constrained them to the
-liuely phrase of the Ebrew, then enterprised farre by mollifying their
-language to speake as the Gentiles did. And for this and other causes wee
-haue in many places reserued the Ebrew phrases, notwithstanding that they
-may seeme somewhat hard in their eares that are not well practised and
-also delite in the sweet sounding phrases of the holy Scriptures. Yet
-least eyther the simple should be discouraged, or the malicious haue any
-occasion of just cauilation, seeing some translations reade after one
-sort, and some after another, whereas all may serue to good purpose and
-edification, we haue in the margent noted that diuersitie of speech or
-reading which may also seeme agreeable to the minde of the holy Ghost, and
-proper for our language with this marke. [Symbol: ��]
-
-Againe, whereas the Ebrewe speache seemed hardly to agree with ours we
-haue noted it in the margent after this sort [Symbol: ++], vsing that
-which was more intelligible. And albeit that many of the Ebrewe names be
-altered from the olde text, and restored to the true writing and first
-originall, whereof they haue their signification, yet in the vsuall names
-litle is changed for feare of troubling the simple readers. Moreover,
-whereas the necessitie of the sentence required any thing to be added (for
-such is the grace and proprietie of the Ebrew and Greeke tongues that it
-cannot, but either by circumlocution, or by adding the verbe or some word,
-be understood of them that are not well practised therein) wee haue put
-in the text with an other kinde of letter that it may easily be discerned
-from the common letter.[142] As touching the diuision of the verses wee
-haue followed the Ebrewe examples, which haue so euen from the beginning
-distinguished them. Which thing as it is most profitable for memorie, so
-doeth it agree with the best translations, and is most easie to finde out
-both by the best Concordances, and also by the quotations which we haue
-diligently herein perused and set foorth by this *. Besides this the
-principall matters are noted by this marke �. Yea, and the arguments both
-for the booke and for the chapters with the number of the verse are added,
-that by all meanes the reader might be holpen. For the which cause also we
-haue set ouer the head of every page some notable worde or sentence which
-may greatly further as well for memorie as for the chiefe point of the
-page.
-
-And considering howe hard a thing it is to vnderstand the holy Scriptures,
-and what errors, sectes, and heresies growe dayly for lacke of the true
-knowledge thereof, and howe many are discouraged (as they pretend) because
-they cannot atteine to the true and simple meaning of the same, we haue
-also indeuoured both by the diligent reading of the best commentaries, and
-also by the conference with the godly and learned brethren, to gather
-briefe annotations upon all the hard places, as well for the
-vnderstanding of such wordes as are obscure, and for the declaration of
-the text, as for the application of the same, as may most appertaine to
-God's glory and the edification of his Church.
-
-Furthermore, whereas certaine places in the bookes of Moses, of the Kings,
-and Ezekiel, seemed so darke that by no description they could be made
-easie to the simple reader, wee have so set them foorth with figures and
-notes for the full declaration thereof, that they which cannot by
-judgement, being holpen by the letters a, b, c, &c., atteine thereunto,
-yet by the perspective and, as it were, by the eye, may sufficiently knowe
-the true meaning of all such places. Whereunto also wee haue added
-certaine maps of Cosmographie which necessarily serue for the perfect
-vnderstanding and memorie of diuers places and countries, partly described
-and partly by occasion touched both in the olde and newe Testament.
-
-Finally, that nothing might lacke which might be bought by labours, for
-the increase of knowledge and furtherance of God's glorie, we have
-adioyned two most profitable Tables, the one seruing for the
-interpretation of the Ebrew names, and the other conteining all the chiefe
-and principall matters of the whole Bible, so that nothing (as wee trust)
-that any could iustlie desire is omitted. Therefore as brethren that are
-partakers of the same hope and saluation with us, wee beseeche you that
-this rich pearle and inestimable treasure may not be offred in vaine, but
-as sent from God to the people of God, for the increase of his kingdome,
-the comfort of his Church, and discharge of our conscience, whom it hath
-pleased him to raise vp for this purpose, so you woulde willingly receive
-the worde of God, earnestly studie it, and in all your life practise it,
-that you may nowe appeare in deede to bee the people of God, not walking
-any more according to this worlde, but in the fruits of the Spirit, that
-God in vs may bee fully glorified through Christ Jesus our Lorde who
-liueth and reigneth for euer. Amen. From Geneva, 10th April, 1560.
-
-
-
-
-(E.)
-
-_THE PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS' BIBLE, 1568._
-
-
-  A Preface into the Byble
-  folowyng.
-
-Of all the sentences pronounced by our Sauiour Christe in his whole
-doctrine, none is more serious or more worthy to be borne in remembraunce,
-than that which he spake openly in his Gospell, saying: [Sidenote: John
-v.] Scrutamini scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam eternam habere,
-et ill� sunt qu� testimonium perhibent de me. Search ye the scriptures,
-for in them ye think to have eternall lyfe, and those they be which beare
-witnes of me. These wordes were first spoken vnto the Jewes by our
-Sauiour, but by hym in his doctrine ment to all: for they concerne all, of
-what nation, of what tongue, of what profession soeuer any man be. For to
-all belongeth it to be called vnto eternal life, so many as by the witnes
-of the scriptures desire to find eternall life. No man, woman, or chylde,
-is excluded from this saluation, and therefore to euery of them is this
-spoke proportionally yet, and in their degrees and ages, and as the reason
-and congruitie of their vocation may aske. For not so lyeth it in charge
-to the worldly artificer to searche, or to any other priuate man so
-exquisitely to studie, as it lyeth to the charge of the publike teacher to
-searche in the scriptures, to be the more able to walke in the house of
-God [Sidenote: 1 Tim. iii.] (which is the church of the lyuyng God, the
-pyller and ground of truth) to the establishing of the true doctrine of
-the same, and to the impugnyng of the false. And though whatsoever
-difference there may be betwixt the preacher in office, and the auditor in
-his vocation, yet to both it is said, =Search ye the scriptures=, whereby
-ye may fynde eternall lyfe, and gather witnesses of that saluation which
-is in =Christe Jesus= our Lorde. [Sidenote: Deut. xvii.] For although the
-prophete of God Moyses, byddeth the kyng when he is once set in the throne
-of his kingdome, to describe before his eyes the volume of God's lawe,
-according to the example whiche he shoulde receaue of the priestes of the
-liuiticall tribe, to haue it with him, and to reade it in all the dayes of
-his life, to thende[143] that he might learne to feare the Lorde his God,
-and to observe his lawes, that his heart be not aduanced in pryde ouer his
-brethren, not to swarue eyther on the ryght hande or on the left: yet the
-reason of this precept for that it concerneth all men, may reasonably be
-thought to be commanded to all men, and all men may take it to be spoken
-to them selfe in their degree. [Sidenote: Iosue i.] Though almightie God
-him selfe spake to his captayne Iosue in precise wordes, Non recedat
-volumen legis huius ab ore tuo sed meditaberis in eo diebus ac noctibus,
-&c. Let not the volume of this booke depart from thy mouth, but muse
-therein both dayes and nyghtes, that thou mayest kepe and perfourme all
-thinges which be written in it, that thou mayest direct well thy way and
-vnderstande the same: yet as well spake almightie God this precept to all
-his people in the directions of their wayes to himwarde, as he ment it to
-Iosue: [Sidenote: Peter v. Ephe. vi.] For that he hath care of all, he
-accepteth no man's person, his wyll is that all men should he saued,
-[Sidenote: 1 Tim. ii. Ioh xiiii.] his wyll is that all men should come to
-the way of trueth. Howe coulde this be more conueniently declared by God
-to man, then when Christe his welbeloued sonne our most louing sauiour,
-the way, the trueth, and the lyfe of vs all, dyd byd vs openly =Search the
-scriptures=, assuring vs herein to finde eternall life, to finde full
-testification of all his graces and benefites towardes vs in the treasure
-thereof. Therefore it is most conuenient that we shoulde all suppose that
-Christe spake to vs all in this his precept of searching the scriptures.
-If this celestiall doctour (so aucthorised by the father of heauen, and
-commaunded [Sidenote: Matt. xvii.] as his only sonne, to be hearde of vs
-all) biddeth vs busily to =Search the scriptures=: of what spirite can it
-proceede to forbid the reading and studying of the scriptures? If the
-grosse Iewes vsed to reade them, as some men thinke that our sauiour
-Christ dyd shew by such kynd of speaking, their vsage, with their opinion
-they had therin to finde eternall lyfe, and were not of Christe rebuked,
-or disproued, either for their searching, or for the opinion they had,
-howe superstitiously or superficially soeuer some of them vsed to expende
-the scriptures; How muche more vnaduisedly do suche as bost them selfe to
-be either Christe's vicars, or be of his garde, to lothe christen men from
-reading, by their couert slaunderous reproches of the scriptures, or in
-their aucthoritie by lawe or statute to contract this libertie of studiyng
-the worde of eternall saluation. Christe calleth them not onlye to the
-single readyng of scriptures (saith Chrisostome) but sendeth them to the
-exquisite searching of them, for in them is eternall lyfe to be founde,
-and they be (saith hym selfe) the witnesse of me: for they declare out his
-office, they commende his beneuolence towardes vs, they recorde his whole
-workes wrought for vs to our saluation. Antechriste therefore he must be,
-that vnder whatsoeuer colour woulde geue contrary precept or counsayle to
-that whiche Christe dyd geue vnto vs. Very litle do they resemble Christes
-louing spirite mouing vs to searche for our comfort, that wyll discourage
-vs from suche searching, or that woulde wishe ignoraunce and
-forgetfulnesse of his benefite to raigne in vs, so that they might by our
-ignoraunce raigne the more frankly in our consciences, to the danger of
-our saluation. Who can take the light from us in this miserable vale of
-blindnesse, and meane not to haue us stumble in the pathes of perdition to
-the ruine of our soules: who wyll enuie vs this bread of lyfe prepared and
-set on the table for our eternall sustenaunce, and meane not to famishe
-vs, or in steede thereof with their corrupt traditions and doctrines of
-men to infect vs: All the whole scripture, saith the holy apostle
-[Sidenote: ii. Tim. iii.] Saint Paul inspired from God aboue, is
-profitable to teache, to reproue, to refourme, to instruct in
-righteousnesse, that the man of God may be sounde and perfect, instructed
-to euery good worke.
-
-=Searche therefore=, good reader (on God's name), as Christe byddeth thee
-the holy scripture, wherein thou mayest find thy saluation: Let not the
-volume of this booke (by Gods owne warrant) depart from thee but occupie
-thy selfe therein in the whole journey of this [Sidenote: Psal. i.] thy
-wordly pilgrimage, to vnderstand thy way howe to walke ryghtly before hym
-all the dayes of thy lyfe. Remember that the prophete David pronounceth
-hym the blessed man whiche wyll muse in the lawe of God [Sidenote: Psal.
-cxix.] both day and night, remember that he calleth him blessed whiche
-walketh in the way of the Lorde, which wyll searche diligently his
-testimonies, and wyll in their whole heart seeke the same. Let not the
-couert suspicious insinuations of the adversaries driue thee from the
-searche of the holy scripture, either for the obscuritie whiche they say
-is in them, or for the inscrutable hidden misteries they talke to be
-comprised in them, or for the straungnes and homlynes of the phrases they
-would charge Gods booke with. Christe exhorteth thee therefore the rather
-for the difficultie of the same, to searche them diligently. [Sidenote:
-Hebr. v. 1 Cor. xiiii.] Saint Paul wylleth thee to haue thy senses
-exercised in them, and not to be a chylde in thy senses, but in malice.
-Though many thinges may be difficulte to thee to vnderstand, impute it
-rather to thy dull hearing and reading, then to thinke that the scriptures
-be insuperable, to them whiche with diligent searching labour to discern
-the evil from the good. [Sidenote: Math. vii.] Only searche with an humble
-spirite, aske in continuall prayer, seek with puritie of life, knocke with
-perpetuall perseueraunce, and crye to that good spirite of Christe the
-Comforter: and surely to euery suche asker it wyll be geuen, such
-searchers must nedes finde, to them it wylbe opened. Christ hym selfe wyll
-open the sense of the scriptures, [Sidenote: Math. xi. Esai. lxi.] not to
-the proude, or to the wyse of the worlde, but to the lowly and contrite in
-heart; [Sidenote: 1 Cor. xii.] for he hath the kay of Dauid, who openeth
-and no man shutteth, who shutteth and no man openeth. [Sidenote: Apoc.
-iii.] For as this spirite is a bening and liberall spirite, and wyll be
-easyly founde of them which wyll early in carefulnesse ryse to seeke hym,
-[Sidenote: Sapi i.] and as he promiseth he will be the comforter from
-aboue to teache vs, and to leade vs into all the wayes of truth,
-[Sidenote: Iob xiiii.] if that in humilitie we bowe vnto hym, deniyng our
-owne naturall senses, our carnall wittes and reasons: [Sidenote: Sapi i.]
-so is he the spirite of puritie and cleannes, and will receede from him,
-whose conscience is subiect to filthynesse of lyfe. Into suche a soule
-this heavenly wysdome wyll not enter, for all peruerse cogitations wyll
-separate vs from God: [Sidenote: Psal. lxviii.] and then howe busyly
-soeuer we searche this holy table of the scripture, yet will it then be a
-table to suche to their owne snare, a trap, a stumbling stocke, and a
-recompense to them selfe. We ought therefore to searche to finde out the
-trueth, not to oppresse it, we ought to seeke Christe, not as Herode did
-vnder the pretence of worshipping hym to destroy hym, or as the Pharisees
-searched the scriptures to disproue Christe, and to discredite him, and
-not to folowe him; but to embrace the saluation whiche we may learne by
-them. Nor yet is it inough so to acknowledge the scriptures as some of the
-Iewes dyd, of the holyest of them, who vsed such diligence, that they
-could number precisely, not only euery verse, but euery word and sillable,
-how oft euery letter of the alphabete was repeated in the whole
-scriptures: They had some of them suche reuerence to that booke, that they
-woulde not suffer in a greate heape of bookes, any other to lay over them,
-they woulde not suffer that booke to fall to the grounde as nye as they
-coulde, they woulde costly bynde the bookes of holy scriptures, and cause
-them to be exquisitely and ornately written. Whiche deuotion yet though it
-was not to be discommended, yet was it not for that intent, why Christe
-commended the scriptures, nor they therof alowed before God: For they did
-not call vpon God in a true fayth. they were not charitable to their
-neighbours, but in the middes of all this deuotion, they did steale, they
-were adulterers, they were slaunderers and backbiters, euen muche like
-many of our Christian men and women nowe a dayes, who glory muche that
-they reade the scriptures, that they searche them and loue them, that
-they frequente the publique sermons in an outwarde shewe of all honestie
-and perfection, yea they can pike out of the scriptures vertuous sentenses
-and godly preceptes to lay before other men. And though these maner of men
-do not muche erre for suche searching and studying, yet they see not the
-scope and the principall state of the scriptures, which is as Christe
-declareth it, to finde Christe as their Sauiour, to cleaue to his
-saluation and merites, and to be brought to the lowe repentaunce of their
-liues, and to amend them selfe, to rayse vp their fayth to our Sauiour
-Christe, so to thinke of him as the scriptures do testifie of hym. These
-be the principall causes why Christe did sende the Iewes to searche the
-scriptures: for to this ende were they wrytten, saith Saint Iohn, Hae
-scripta sunt ut credatis, et vt credentes vitam habeatis eternam. These
-were written to this intent, that ye shoulde beleue, [Sidenote: Iohn xx.]
-and that through your beliefe ye shoulde haue euerlasting life.
-
-And here good reader, great cause we have to extoll the wonderous wisdome
-of God, and with great thankes to prayse his prouidence, considering howe
-he hath preserued and renued from age to age by speciall [Sidenote: Hebr.
-v.] miracle, the incomparable treasure of his Churche. For first he did
-inspire Moyses, as Iohn Chrisostome doth testifie, to wryte the stonie
-tables, and kept him in the mountayne fourtie dayes to giue him his lawe:
-after him he sent the prophetes, but they suffred many thousande
-aduersities, for battayles did folowe, all were slayne, all were
-destroyed, bookes were brent vp. He then inspired agayne another man to
-repayre these miraculous scriptures, Esdras I meane, who of their leauings
-set them agayne together: after that he provided that the seuentie
-interpreters should take them in hande: at the laste came Christe him
-selfe, the Apostles did receaue them, and spread them throughout all
-nations, Christe wrought his miracles and wonders: and what followed?
-after these great volumes the Apostles also did wryte as Saint Paul doth
-say, [Sidenote: 1 Cor. x.] These be wrytten to the instruction of vs that
-be come into the ende of the worlde: [Sidenote: Math. xxii.] and Christe
-doth say, Ye therefore erre, because ye knowe not the scriptures nor the
-power of God: and Paul dyd say, [Sidenote: Colo. iii.] Let the worde of
-Christe be plentifull among you: and agayne saith Dauid, [Sidenote: Psal.
-cxix.] Oh howe sweete be thy wordes to my throte: he saide not to my
-hearing, but to my throte, aboue the hony or the hony combe to my mouth.
-Yea, Moyses saith, [Sidenote: Deut. xvi.] Thou shalt meditate in them
-evermore when thou risest, when thou sittest downe, when thou goest to
-sleepe, continue in them he saith: and a thousand places more. And yet
-after so many testimonies thus spoken, there be some persons that do not
-yet so much as knowe what the scriptures be: Wherevpon nothing is in good
-state amongst vs, nothing worthyly is done amongest vs: In this whiche
-pertayne to this lyfe, we make very great haste, but of spirituall goodes
-we have no regarde. Thus farre Iohn Chrisost. It must nedes signifie some
-great thing to our vnderstanding, that almightie God hath had such care to
-prescribe these bookes thus vnto vs: I say not prescribe them only, but to
-maintaine them and defende them against the malignitie of the deuill and
-his ministers, who alway went about to destroy them: and yet could these
-never be so destroyed, but that he woulde have them continue whole and
-perfect to this day, to our singular comfort and instruction, where other
-bookes of mortall wise men haue perished in great numbers. It is recorded
-that Ptolomeus Philadelphus kyng of Egypt, had gathered together in one
-librarie at Alexandria by his great coste and diligence, seuen hundred
-thousand bookes, wherof the principall were the bookes of Moyses, which
-reserued not much more, then by the space of two hundred yeres, were all
-brent and consumed, in that battayle when C�sar restored Cleopatra agayne
-after her expulsion. At Constantinople perished under Zenon by one common
-fire, a hundred and twentie thousande bookes. [Sidenote: _Iohannes
-Sarisberi. In Policratico, lib. 8, cap. 19. W. de regibus._] At Rome when
-Lucius Aurel Antonius dyd raigne, his notable librarie by a lightning from
-heauen was quite consumed: Yea it is recorded that Gregorie the first, dyd
-cause a librarie at Rome contayning only certaine Paynim's workes to be
-burned, to thintent the scriptures of God should be more read and studied.
-What other great libraries haue there ben cosumed but of late daies? And
-what libraries haue of olde throughout this realme almost in euery abbey
-of the same, ben destroyed at sundry ages, besides the losse of other
-men's private studies, it were to long to rehearse. Wherevpon seyng
-almightie God by his diuine prouidence, hath preserued these bookes of the
-scriptures safe and sounde, and that in their natiue languages they were
-first written, in the great ignoraunce that raigned in these tongues, and
-contrary to all other casualties, chaunced vpon all other bookes in mauger
-of all worldly wittes, who would so fayne haue had them destroyed, and yet
-he by his mightie hande, would haue them extant as witnesses and
-interpreters of his will toward mankind: we may soone see cause most
-reuerently to embrace these deuine testimonies of his will, to studie
-them, and to searche them, to instruct our blinde nature so sore corrupted
-and fallen from the knowledge in whiche first we were created. Yet hauing
-occasion geuen somewhat to recover our fall and to returne againe to that
-deuine nature wherein we were once made, and at the last to be inheritours
-in the celestiall habitation with God almightie, after the ende of our
-mortalitie here brought to his dust agayne: These bookes I say beyng of
-such estimation and aucthoritie, so much reuerenced of them who had any
-meane taste of them, coulde neuer be put out of the way, neither by the
-spyte of any tiraunt, as that [Sidenote: _Galfride mon_] tiraunt Maximian
-destroyed all the holy scriptures wheresoeuer they coulde be founde, and
-burnt them in the middes of the market, neither the hatred either of any
-Porphiran philosopher or Rhetoritian, neither by the enuie of the
-romanystes, and of such hypocrites who from tyme to time did euer barke
-against them, some of them not in open sort of condempnation: but more
-cunningly vnder suttle pretences, for that as they say, they were so harde
-to vnderstande, and specially for that they affirm it to be a perilous
-matter to translate the text of the holy scripture, and therefore it
-cannot be well translated. And here we may beholde the endeuour of some
-men's cauillation, who labour all they can to slaunder the translatours,
-to finde faulte in some wordes of the translation: but them selfe will
-neuer set pen to the booke, to set out any translation at al. They can in
-their constitutions prouinciall, [Sidenote: _Tho Arudel in concilio apud
-Oxon. An 1407 articlo 7._] vnder payne of excommunication, inhibite al
-other men to translate them without the ordinaries or the prouinciall
-counsayle agree therevnto. But they wyll be well ware neuer to agree or
-geue counsayle to set them out. Whiche their suttle compasse in effect,
-tendeth but to bewray what inwardly they meane, if they could bring it
-about, that is, vtterly to suppresse them: being in this their iudgement,
-farre vnlike the olde fathers in the primitiue church, who hath exhorted
-indifferently all persons, aswell men as women, to exercise them selues in
-the scriptures, which by Saint Hieroms aucthoritie be the scriptures of
-the people. Yea they be farre vnlike their olde forefathers that have
-ruled in this realme, who in their times, and in diuers ages did their
-diligence to translate the whole bookes of the scriptures to the erudition
-of the laytie, as yet at this day be to be seene diuers bookes translated
-into the vulgar tongue, some by kynges of the realme, some by bishoppes,
-some by abbotts, some by other deuout godly fathers: so desirous they were
-of olde tyme to have the lay sort edified in godlynes by reading in their
-vulgar tongue, that very many bookes be yet extant, though for the age of
-the speache and straungenesse of the charect of many of them almost worne
-out of knowledge. In whiche bookes may be seene euidently howe it was vsed
-among the Saxons, to haue in their churches read the foure gospels, so
-distributed and piked out in the body of the euangelistes bookes, that to
-euery Sunday and festiuall day in the yere, they were sorted out to the
-common ministers of the church in their common prayers to be read to their
-people. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Now as of the most auncient fathers the
-prophets, Saint Peter testifieth that these holy men of God had the
-impulsion of the holy Ghost, to speak out these deuine testimonies: so it
-is not to be doubted but that these latter holy fathers of the Englishe
-Church, had the impulsion of the holy Ghost to set out these sacred bookes
-in their vulgar language, to the edification of the people, [Sidenote:
-Acts xvii.] by the helpe whereof they might the better folowe the example
-of the godly Christians, in the beginning of the Churche, who not only
-receaued the worde withall readinesse of heart, but also did searche
-diligently in the scriptures, whether the doctrine of the Apostles were
-agreable to the same scripture. And these were not of the rascall sort
-(saith the deuine storie) but they were of the best and of most noble
-byrth among the Thessalonians, Birrhenses by name. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.]
-Yea the prophetes them selues in their dayes, writeth S. Peter, were
-diligent searchers to inquire out this saluation by Christe, searching
-when and at what article of time this grace of Christes dispensation
-shoulde appeare to the world. What ment the fathers of the Church in their
-writinges, but the advauncing of these holy bookes, where some do
-attribute no certaintie of vndoubted veritie, but to the canonicall
-scriptures: [Sidenote: _Aug. contra epistolam permemini Hieronimus
-Tertullian de doctrina Christiana Chrisost in Matt._ Ho. 47. _Basilius
-Hieronim._] Some do affirm it to be a foolishe rashe boldnesse to beleue
-hym, who proueth not by the scriptures that whiche he affirmeth in his
-worde. Some do accurse all that is deliuered by tradition, not found in
-the legall and evangelicall scriptures. Some say that our fayth must
-needes stagger, if it be not grounded vpon the aucthoritie of the
-scripture. Some testifieth that Christe and his Churche ought to be
-aduouched out of the scriptures, and do contende in disputation, that the
-true Church can not be knowen, but only by the holy scriptures: For all
-other thinges (saith the same aucthor) may be found among the heretikes.
-Some affirme it to be a sinfull tradition that is obtruded without the
-scripture. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Some playnely pronounce, that not to
-knowe the scriptures is not to know Christe. Wherefore let men extoll out
-the Churche practises as hyghly as they can, and let them set out their
-traditions and customes, their decisions in synodes and counsayles, with
-vaunting the presence of the holy Ghost among them really, as some doth
-affirme it in their writing, let their groundes and their demonstrations,
-their foundations be as stable and as strong as they blase them out:
-[Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Yet wyll we be bolde to say with Saint Peter,
-Habemus nos firmiorem sermonem propheticum. We have for our part a more
-stable grounde, the propheticall wordes (of the scriptures) and doubt not
-to be commended therefore of the same Saint Peter with these wordes: Cui
-dum attenditis ceu lucerne apparenti in obscuro loco, recte facitis donec
-dies illucescat &c. Wherevnto saith he, whyle ye do attende as to alight
-shining in a darke place, ye do well vntill the day light appeare, and
-till the bright starre do arise vnto our heartes, For this we know, that
-al the propheticall scripture standeth not in any priuate interpretation
-of vayne names, of severall Churches, of catholique vniuersall seas, of
-singuler and wylfull heades, whiche wyll chalenge custome all decision to
-pertayne to them only, who be working so muche for their vayne
-superioritie, that they be not ashamed now to be of that number,
-[Sidenote: Psal. xi.] Qui dixerunt linguam nostram magnificabimus, labia
-nostra a nobis sunt, quis noster dominus est: Which haue sayd with our
-tongue wyll we preuayle, we are they that ought to speake, who is Lord
-ouer vs. And whyle they shall contende for their straunge claymed
-aucthoritie, we will proceede in the reformation begun, and doubt no more
-by the helpe of Christe his grace, of the true vnity to Christes
-catholique Churche, [Sidenote: _Concilium braccar secundum._] and of the
-vprightnesse of our fayth in this prouince, then the Spanishe cleargie
-once gathered together in counsaile (only by the commaundement of their
-king, before whiche tyme the Pope was not so acknowledged in his
-aucthoritie which he now claymeth) I say as surely dare we trust, as they
-dyd trust of their faith and veritie. Yea no lesse confidence haue we to
-professe that, whiche the fathers of the vniuersall counsaile at Carthage
-in Affrike as they wryte them selfe did professe in their epistle written
-to Pope Celestine, laying before his face the foule corruption of him
-selfe (as two other of his predecessors did the like errour) in
-falsifiying the canons of Nicen counsayle, for his wrong chalenge of his
-newe claymed aucthoritie: Thus wrytyng. Prudentissime enim iustissimeque
-prouiderunt (Nicena et Affricana dicreta) quecunque negotia in suis locis
-(vbi orta sunt) finienda, nec vnicuiqui prouinci� gratiam sancti spiritus
-defuturam qua equitas a Christi sacerdotibus et prudenter videatur, et
-constantissime teneatur, maxime quia vnicuique concessum est, si iuditio
-offensus fuerit cognitorum, ad concilia suae prouinci� vel etiam
-vniuersale prouocare. That (the Nicen and Affrican decrees) haue most
-prudently and iustly prouided for all maner of matters to be ended in
-their teritories where they had their beginning, and they trusted that not
-to any one prouince shoulde want the grace of the holy Ghost, whereby both
-the truth or equitie might prudently be seene of the Christian prelates of
-Christe, and might be also by them most constantly defended, specially for
-that it is graunted to euery man (if he be greeued) by the iudgement of
-the cause once knowen to appeale to the counsayles of his owne prouince or
-els to the vniuersall. Except there be any man, whiche may beleue that our
-Lorde God woulde inspire the righteousnesse of examination, to any one
-singular person, and to denie the same to priestes gathered together into
-counsaile without number, &c. And there they do require the bishop of Rome
-to send none of his clarkes to execute such prouinciall causes, lest els
-say they, mought be brought in the vayne pride of the world into the
-Churche of Christe. In this antiquitie may we in this christian catholique
-Churche of Englande repose our selfe, knowyng by our owne annales of
-auncient recorde that Kyng Lucius whose conscience was much touched with
-the miracles whiche the seruauntes of Christe wrought in diuers nations,
-thervpon beyng in great loue with the true fayth, sent vnto Eleutherius
-then byshop of Rome requiring of hym the christian religion. [Sidenote:
-_Inter legis Edwardi._] But Eleutherius did redyly geue ouer that care to
-King Lucius in his epistle, for that the King as he wryteth, the vicar of
-God in his owne kingdome, and for that he had receiued the faith of
-Christe: And for that he had also both testamentes in his realme, he
-wylled hym to drawe out of them by the grace of God, and by the counsaile
-of his wisemen, his lawes, and by that lawe of God to gouerne his realme
-of Britanie, and not so much to desire the Romane and Emperour's lawes, in
-the whiche some defaulte might be founde saith he, but in the lawes of God
-nothing at all. [Sidenote: _Ex archiuis de statio landauensis ecclie in
-vita archiepiscopi dubritii, et in I. capgraue._] With which aunswere the
-Kinges legates, Eluanus and Medwinus sent as messengers by the King to the
-Pope, returned to Britanie agayne, Eluanus beyng made a byshop, and
-Medwine alowed a publique teacher: who for the eloquence and knowledge
-they had in the holy Scriptures, they repayred home agayne to Kyng Lucius,
-and by their holy preachings, Lucius and the noble men of the whole
-Britanie receiued their baptisme, &c. Thus farre in the storie. Nowe
-therefore knowing and beleuing with Saint Paul, Quod quecumque prescripta
-sunt, ad nostram doctrinam prescripta sunt vt per pacientiam et
-consolationem scripturarum spem habeamus: [Sidenote: Rom. xv.] Whatsoeuer
-is afore written, is written before for our instruction, [Sidenote: =And
-yet may it be true that W., of Malsberie, writeth that Phaganus and
-Dernuianus were sent after (as Coadiutours) with these learned men to the
-preaching of the Gospell, whiche was neuer extinguished in Britaine fro
-Joseph of Aramathia his time as to S. Austen, the first byshop of Canter,
-they do openly abouche.=] that we through the patience and comfort of
-scriptures might haue hope, the only suretie to our fayth and conscience,
-is to sticke to the scriptures. Wherevpon whyle this eternall worde of God
-be our rocke and anker to sticke vnto, we will haue pacience with all the
-vayne inuentions of men, who labour so highly to magnifie their tongues,
-to exalt them selues aboue al that is God. We wil take comfort by the holy
-scriptures against the maledictions of the aduersaries, and doubt not to
-nourishe our hope continually therewith so to liue and dye in this
-comfortable hope, and doubt not to pertayne to the elect number of
-Christes Churche, howe farre soeuer we be excommunicated out of the
-sinagogue of suche who suppose themselues to be the vniuersall lordes of
-all the world, Lordes of our fayth and consciences, at pleasure.
-
-Finally to commend further vnto thee good reader the cause in part before
-intreated, it shalbe the lesse needefull, hauing so nye folowing that
-learned preface, which sometime was set out by the diligence of that godly
-father Thomas Cranmer, late byshop in the sea of Canterburie, which he
-caused to be prefixed before the translation of that Byble that was then
-set out. And for that the copies thereof be so wasted, that very many
-Churches do want their conuenient Bybles, it was thought good to some well
-disposed men, to recognise the same Byble againe into this fourme as it is
-nowe come out, with some further diligence in the printing, and with some
-more light added, partly in the translation, and partly in the order of
-the text, not as condemning the former translation, whiche was folowed
-mostly of any other translation, excepting the originall text from whiche
-as litle variaunce was made as was thought meete to such as toke paynes
-therein: desiring thee good reader if ought be escaped, eyther by such as
-had the expending of the bookes, or by the ouersight of the printer, to
-correct the same in the spirite of charitie, calling to remembraunce what
-diuersitie hath ben seene in mens iudgementes in the translation of these
-bookes before these dayes, though all directed their labours to the glory
-of God, to the edification of the Churche, to the comfort of their
-christian brethren, and alwayes as God dyd further open vnto them, so euer
-more desirous they were to refourme their former humain ouersightes,
-rather then in a stubborne wylfulnesse to resist the gyft of the holy
-Ghost, who from tyme to tyme is resident as that heauenly teacher and
-leader into all trueth, by whose direction the Churche is ruled and
-gouerned. And let all men remember in them selfe howe errour and
-ignoraunce is created with our nature; [Sidenote: Eccle. xi. Sapi. ix.]
-let frayle man confesse with that great wise man, that the cogitations and
-inuentions of mortall man be very weake, and our opinions sone deceaued:
-For the body so subiect to corruption doth oppresse the soule, that it
-cannot aspire so hye as of dutie it ought. Men we be all, and that whiche
-we know, is not the thousand part of that we knowe not. Whereupon saith
-Saint Austen, otherwyse to iudge then the truth is, this temptation ryseth
-of the frailtie of man. [Sidenote: _De doctri Christia._] A man so to loue
-and sticke to his owne iudgement, or to enuie his brothers to the perill
-of dissoluing the christian communion, or to the perill of schisme, and of
-heresie, this is diabolicall presumption: but so to iudge in euery matter
-as the truth is, this belongeth onely to the angellicall perfection.
-Notwithstanding good reader, thou mayest be well assured nothing to be
-done in this translation eyther of malice or wylfull meaning in altering
-the text, eyther by putting more or lesse to the same, as of purpose to
-bring in any priuate iudgement by falsification of the wordes, as some
-certaine men hath ben ouer bold so to do, litle regarding the maiestie of
-God his scripture: but so to make it serue to their corrupt error, as in
-alleaging the sentence of Saint Paule to the Romaines the 6. One certaine
-wryter to proue his satisfaction, was bold to turne the worde of
-_Sanctificationem_ into the worde of _Satisfactionem_, thus, _Sicut
-exhibuimus antea membra nostra seruire immundicie et iniquitati ad
-iniquitatem ita deinceps exhibeamus membra nostra seruire iustitiae in
-satisfactionem_. [Sidenote: _Hosius in confessione catholic� fidi de sacro
-penitenti� Idem Hosius de spe. et oratione._] That is, as we have geuen
-our members to vncleannesse, from iniquitie to iniquitie: euen so from
-hencefoorth let vs geue our members to serue righteousnesse into
-satisfaction: where the true worde is into sanctification. Even so
-likewise for the auauntage of his cause, to proue that men may haue in
-their prayer fayth vpon saintes, corruptly alleageth Saint Paules text, Ad
-philemonem, thus, _Fidem quam habes in domino Iesu et in omnes sanctos_,
-leauing out the worde _charitatem_, which would have rightly ben
-distributed vnto _Omnes sanctos_. As _fidem_ vnto _in domino Iesu_. Where
-the text is _Audiens charitatem tuam et fidem quam habes in domino Iesu in
-omnes sanctos_, &c. It were to long to bryng in many examples, as may be
-openly founde in some mens wrytynges in these dayes, who would be counted
-the chiefe pillers of the Catholique fayth, or to note how corruptly they
-of purpose abuse the text to the comoditie of their cause. What maner of
-translation may men thinke to looke for at their handes, if they should
-translate the scriptures to the comfort of God's elect, whiche they neuer
-did, nor be not like to purpose it, but be rather studious only to seeke
-quarrels in other mens well doynges, to picke fault where none is: and
-where any is escaped through humaine negligence, there to crye out with
-their tragicall exclamations, but in no wyse to amende by the spirite of
-charitie and lenitie, that whiche might be more aptly set. Whervpon for
-frayle man (compassed hym selfe with infirmitie) it is most reasonable not
-to be to seuere in condemning his brothers knowledge or diligence where he
-doth erre, not of malice, but of simplicitie, and specially in handeling
-of these so deuine bookes so profounde in sense, so farre passing our
-naturall vnderstanding. And with charitie it standeth, the reader not to
-be offended with the diuersitie of translators, nor with the ambiguitie of
-translations: For as Saint Austen doth witnesse, [Sidenote: _De doctr.
-Christi. lib. 2. cap. 5._] by God's prouidence it is brought about, that
-the holy scriptures whiche be the salue for euery mans sore, though at the
-first they came from one language, and thereby might have ben spread to
-the whole worlde: nowe by diuersitie of manye languages, the translatours
-shoulde spreade the saluation (that is contayned in them) to all nations,
-by suche wordes of vtteraunce as the reader might perceaue the minde of
-the translatour, and so consequently to come to the knowledge of God his
-wyll and pleasure. And though many rashe readers be deceaued in the
-obscurities and ambiguities of their translations, whyle they take one
-thing for another, and whyle they vse muche labour to extricate them
-selues out of the obscurities of the same: yet I thinke (saith he) this is
-not wrought without the prouidence of God, both to tame the proude
-arrogancie of man by his suche labour of searching, as also to kepe his
-minde from lothsomnesse and contempt, where if the scriptures vniuersally
-were to easie, he woulde lesse regarde them. And though (saith he) in the
-primitive Churche the late interpreters whiche did translate the
-scriptures, be innumerable, yet wrought this rather an helpe, than an
-impediment to the readers, if they be not to negligent. For saith he,
-diuers translations haue made many tymes the harder and darker sentences,
-the more open and playne: so that of congruence, no offence can iustly be
-taken for this newe labour, nothing preiudicing any other mans iudgement
-by this doyng, nor yet hereby professing this to be so absolute a
-translation, as that hereafter might folowe no other that might see that
-whiche as yet was not vnderstanded. In this poynt it is conuenient to
-consider the iudgement that John, once byshop of Rochester was in, who
-thus wrote: [Sidenote: _Articulo, 17, contra Luth._] It is not vnknowen,
-but that many thinges hath ben more diligently discussed, and more
-clearely vnderstanded by the wittes of these latter dayes, as well
-concerning the gospels as other scriptures, then in olde tyme they were.
-The cause whereof is (saith he) for that to the olde men the yse was not
-broken, or for that their age was not sufficient exquisitely to expende
-the whole mayne sea of the scriptures, or els for that in this large field
-of the scriptures, a man may gather some eares vntouched, after the
-haruest men howe diligent soeuer they were. For there be yet (saith he) in
-the Gospels very many darke places, whiche without all doubt to the
-posteritie shalbe made muche more open. For why should we despayre herein,
-seing the Gospell (wryteth he) was deliuered to this intent, that it might
-be vtterly vnderstanded of vs, yea to the very inche. Wherefore, forasmuch
-as Christe showeth no lesse loue to his Churche now, then hitherto he hath
-done, the aucthoritie wherof is as yet no whit diminished, and forasmuch
-as that holy spirite the perpetuall Keper and Gardian of the same Church,
-whose gyftes and graces do flowe as continually and as aboundantly as from
-the beginning: who can doubt, but that such thinges as remayne yet
-unknowen in the Gospell, shalbe hereafter made open to the latter wittes
-of our posteritie, to their cleare vnderstanding. Only good readers let vs
-oft call vpon the holy spirite of God our heauenly father, by the
-mediation of our Lorde and Sauiour, with the wordes of the octonary psalme
-of Dauid, who did so importunately craue of God to haue the vnderstanding
-of his lawes and testament: [Sidenote: Psal. cxix.] Let vs humblye on our
-knees pray to almightie God, with that wyse [Sidenote: Sapi. ix.] Kyng
-Solomon in his very wordes saying thus--O God of my fathers, and Lorde of
-mercies (that thou hast made all thynges with thy worde, and didst ordain
-man through thy wisdome, that he shoulde haue dominion ouer thy creatures
-whiche thou hast made, and that he shoulde order the worlde according to
-holinesse and righteousnesse, and that he shoulde execute iudgement with a
-true heart) geue me wisdome whiche is euer about thy feate, and put me not
-out from among thy chyldren: For I thy seruant and sonne of thy handmayden
-am a feeble person, of a short time, and to weake to the vnderstanding of
-thy iudgementes and lawes. And though a man be neuer so perfect among the
-children of men, yet if thy wisdome be not with him, he shalbe of no
-value. O sende her out therefore from thy holy heauens, and from the
-throne of thy maiestie, that she may be with me, and labour with me, that
-I may know what is acceptable in thy sight: for she knoweth and
-vnderstandeth all thinges, and she shall lead me soberly in my workes, and
-preserue me in her power, So shall my workes be acceptable by Christe our
-Lorde, To whom with the father and the holy Ghost, be all honour and
-glorie, worlde without ende. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(F.)
-
-_THE PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611._
-
-
-[Sidenote: The best things have been calumniated.] Zeal to promote the
-common good, whether it be by devising any thing ourselves, or revising
-that which hath been laboured by others, deserveth certainly much respect
-and esteem, but yet findeth but cold entertainment in the world. It is
-welcomed with suspicion instead of love, and with emulation instead of
-thanks: and if there be any hole left for cavil to enter, (and cavil, if
-it do not find an hole, will make one) it is sure to be misconstrued, and
-in danger to be condemned. This will easily be granted by as many as know
-story, or have any experience. For was there ever any thing projected that
-savoured any way of newness or renewing, but the same endured many a storm
-of gainsaying or opposition? A man would think that civility, wholesome
-laws, learning and eloquence, Synods, and Churchmaintenance, (that we
-speak of no more things of this kind,) should be as safe as a Sanctuary,
-and[144] out of shot, as they say, that no man would lift up his heel, no,
-nor dog move his tongue against the motioners of them. For by the first we
-are distinguished from brute beasts led with sensuality: by the second we
-are bridled and restrained from outrageous behaviour, and from doing of
-injuries, whether by fraud or by violence: by the third we are enabled to
-inform and reform others by the light and feeling that we have attained
-unto ourselves: briefly, by the fourth, being brought together to a
-parley face to face, we sooner compose our differences, than by writings,
-which are endless: and lastly, that the Church be sufficiently provided
-for is so agreeable to good reason and conscience, that those mothers are
-holden to be less cruel, that kill their children as soon as they are
-born, than those nursing fathers and mothers (wheresoever they be) that
-withdraw from them who hang upon their breasts (and upon whose breasts
-again themselves do hang to receive the spiritual and sincere milk of the
-word) livelihood and support fit for their estates. Thus it is apparent,
-that these things which we speak of are of most necessary use, and
-therefore that none, either without absurdity can speak against them, or
-without note of wickedness can spurn against them.
-
-[Sidenote: _Anacharsis, with others._] Yet for all that, the learned know,
-that certain worthy men have been brought to untimely death for none other
-fault, but for seeking to reduce their countrymen to good order and
-discipline: [Sidenote: _In Athens: witness Libanius in Olynth. Demosth.
-Cato the elder._] And that in some Commonweals it was made a capital
-crime, once to motion the making of a new law for the abrogating of an
-old, though the same were most pernicious: And that certain, which would
-be counted pillars of the State, and patterns of virtue and prudence,
-could not be brought for a long time to give way to good letters and
-refined speech; but bare themselves as averse from them, as from rocks or
-boxes of poison: And fourthly, that he was no babe, but a great Clerk,
-[Sidenote: _Gregory the Divine._] that gave forth (and in writing to
-remain to posterity), in passion peradventure, but yet he gave forth, That
-he had not seen any profit to come by any synod or meeting of the Clergy,
-but rather the contrary: And lastly, against Churchmaintenance and
-allowance, in such sort as the Embassadors and messengers of the great
-King of kings should be furnished, it is not unknown what a fiction or
-fable (so it is esteemed, and for no better by the reporter himself,
-though superstitious) was devised: namely, [Sidenote: _Nauclerus._] That
-at such time as the professors and teachers of Christianity in the Church
-of Rome, then a true Church, were liberally endowed, a voice forsooth was
-heard from heaven, saying, Now is poison poured down into the Church, &c.
-Thus not only as oft as we speak, as one saith, but also as oft as we do
-any thing of note or consequence, we subject ourselves to every one's
-censure, and happy is he that is least tossed upon tongues; for utterly to
-escape the snatch of them it is impossible. If any man conceit, that this
-is the lot and portion of the meaner sort only, and that Princes are
-privileged by their high estate, he is deceived. [Sidenote: 2 Sam. 11.
-25.] As _the sword devoureth as well one as another_, as it is in
-_Samuel_; nay, as the great commander charged his soldiers in a certain
-battle to strike at no part of the enemy, but at the face; [Sidenote: 1
-Kin. 22. 31.] and as the king of _Syria_ commanded his chief captains _to
-fight neither with small nor great, save only against the king of Israel_:
-so it is too true, that envy striketh most spitefully at the fairest, and
-the chiefest. _David_ was a worthy prince, and no man to be compared to
-him for his first deeds; and yet for as worthy an act as ever he did, even
-for bringing back the ark of God in solemnity, he was scorned and scoffed
-at by his own wife. [Sidenote: 2 Sam. 6. 16.] _Solomon_ was greater than
-_David_, though not in virtue, yet in power; and by his power and wisdom
-he built a temple to the Lord, such an one as was the glory of the land of
-Israel, and the wonder of the whole world. But was that his magnificence
-liked of by all? We doubt of it. Otherwise why do they lay it in his son's
-dish, and call unto him for[145] easing of the burden? _Make_, say they,
-_the grievous servitude of thy father, and his sore yoke, lighter_.
-[Sidenote: 1 Kin. 12. 4.] Belike he had charged them with some levies, and
-troubled them with some carriages; hereupon they raise up a tragedy, and
-wish in their heart the temple had never been built. So hard a thing it is
-to please all, even when we please God best, and do seek to approve
-ourselves to every one's conscience.
-
-[Sidenote: The highest personages have been calumniated _C. C�sar.
-Plutarch_.] If we will descend to latter times, we shall find many the
-like examples of such kind, or rather unkind, acceptance. The first Roman
-Emperor did never do a more pleasing deed to the learned, nor more
-profitable to posterity, for conserving the record of times in true
-supputation, than when he corrected the Calendar, and ordered the year
-according to the course of the sun: and yet this was imputed to him for
-novelty, and arrogancy, and procured to him great obloquy. [Sidenote:
-_Constantine._] So the first Christened Emperor (at the least wise, that
-openly professed the faith himself, and allowed others to do the like,)
-for strengthening the empire at his great charges, and providing for the
-Church, as he did, got for his labour the name _Pupillus_, as who would
-say, a wasteful Prince, that had need of a guardian or overseer.
-[Sidenote: _Aurel. Vict. Theodosius. Zosimus._] So the best Christened
-Emperor, for the love that he bare unto peace, thereby to enrich both
-himself and his subjects, and because he did not seek war, but find it,
-was judged to be no man at arms, (though indeed he excelled in feats of
-chivalry, and shewed so much when he was provoked,) and condemned for
-giving himself to his ease, and to his pleasure. [Sidenote: _Justinian._]
-To be short, the most learned Emperor of former times, (at the least the
-greatest politician,) what thanks had he for cutting off the superfluities
-of the laws, and digesting them into some order and method? This, that he
-hath been blotted by some to be an Epitomist, that is, one that
-extinguished worthy whole volumes, to bring his abridgements into request.
-This is the measure that hath been rendered to excellent Princes in former
-times, _cum bene facerent, male audire_, for their good deeds to be evil
-spoken of. Neither is there any likelihood that envy and malignity died
-and were buried with the ancient. No, no, the reproof of _Moses_ taketh
-hold of most ages, [Sidenote: Num. 32. 14. Eccles. 1. 9.] _You are risen
-up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men. What is that that
-hath been done? that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
-the sun_, saith the wise man. And St. _Stephen_, _As your fathers did, so
-do ye_. [Sidenote: Acts 7. 51. His Majesty's constancy, notwithstanding
-calumniation, for the survey of the English translation. [Greek: Autos kai
-paides, kai paid�n pantote paides.]] This, and more to this purpose, his
-Majesty that now reigneth (and long, and long, may he reign, and his
-offspring for ever, _Himself, and children, and children's children
-always_!) knew full well, according to the singular wisdom given unto him
-by God, and the rare learning and experience that he hath attained unto;
-namely, That whosoever attempteth any thing for the publick, (especially
-if it pertain to religion, and to the opening and clearing of the word of
-God,) the same setteth himself upon a stage to be glouted upon by every
-evil eye; yea, he casteth himself headlong upon pikes, to be gored by
-every sharp tongue. For he that meddleth with men's religion in any part
-meddleth with their custom, nay, with their freehold; and though they find
-no content in that which they have, yet they cannot abide to hear of
-altering. Notwithstanding his royal heart was not daunted or discouraged
-for this or that colour, but stood resolute, _as a statue immovable, and
-an anvil not easy to be beaten into plates_, as one saith; [Sidenote:
-[Greek: Hosper tis andras aperitreptos]] he knew who had chosen him to be
-a soldier, or rather a captain; and [Sidenote: [Greek: kai akm�n
-an�latos], _Suidas_.] being assured that the course which he intended made
-much for the glory of God, and the building up of his Church, he would not
-suffer it to be broken off for whatsoever speeches or practices. It doth
-certainly belong unto kings, yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to
-have care of religion, yea, to know it aright, yea, to profess it
-zealously, yea, to promote it to the uttermost of their power. This is
-their glory before all nations which mean well, and this will bring unto
-them a far most excellent weight of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus.
-For the Scripture saith not in vain, [Sidenote: 1 Sam. 2. 30.] _Them that
-honour me I will honour_: neither was it a vain word that _Eusebius_
-delivered long ago, [Sidenote: [Greek: theosebeia], _Eusebius, lib. 10.
-cap. 8_.] That piety toward God was the weapon, and the only weapon, that
-both preserved _Constantine's_ person, and avenged him of his enemies.
-
-[Sidenote: The praise of the holy Scriptures.] But now what piety without
-truth? What truth, what saving truth, without the word of God? What word
-of God, whereof we may be sure, without the Scripture? The Scriptures we
-are commanded to search, _John_ v. 39. _Isaiah_ viii. 20. They are
-commended that searched and studied them, _Acts_ xvii. 11, and viii. 28,
-29. They are reproved that were unskilful in them, or slow to believe
-them, _Matth._ xxii. 29. _Luke_ xxiv. 25. They can make us wise unto
-salvation, _2 Tim._ iii. 15. If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if
-out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform
-us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us.
-[Sidenote: _St. August. Confess. lib. 8. cap. 12. St. August. De utilit.
-credendi, cap. 6._] _Tolle, lege; tolle, lege_; Take up and read, take up
-and read the Scriptures, (for unto them was the direction,) it was said
-unto St. _Augustine_ by a supernatural voice. _Whatsoever is in the
-Scriptures, believe me_, saith the same St. _Augustine_, _is high and
-divine; there is verily truth, and a doctrine most fit for the refreshing
-and renewing of men's minds, and truly so tempered, that every one may
-draw from thence that which is sufficient for him, if he come to draw with
-a devout and pious mind, as true religion requireth_. Thus St.
-_Augustine_. And St. _Hierome_, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. ad Demetriad. St.
-Cyrill 7 contra Julian._] _Ama Scripturas, et amabit te sapientia_, &c.
-Love the Scriptures, and wisdom will love thee. And St. _Cyrill_ against
-_Julian_, _Even boys that are bred up in the Scriptures become most
-religious_, &c. But what mention we three or four uses of the Scripture,
-whereas whatsoever is to be believed, or practised, or hoped for, is
-contained in them? or three or four sentences of the Fathers, since
-whosoever is worthy the name of a Father, from Christ's time downward,
-hath likewise written not only of the riches, but also of the perfection
-of the Scripture? [Sidenote: _Tertul. advers. Herm. Tertul. De carn.
-Christ._ [Greek: Oion te], _Justin_. [Greek: protrept. pros Hell�n.
-Huper�phanias kat�goria], _St. Basil_. [Greek: peri piste�s].] _I adore
-the fulness of the Scripture_, saith _Tertullian_ against _Hermogenes_.
-And again, to _Apelles_ an heretick of the like stamp he saith, _I do not
-admit that which thou bringest in_ (or concludest) _of thine own_ (head or
-store, _de tuo_) without Scripture. So St. _Justin Martyr_ before him; _We
-must know by all means_ (saith he) _that it is not lawful_ (or possible)
-_to learn_ (any thing) _of God or of right piety, save only out of the
-Prophets, who teach us by divine inspiration_. So St. _Basil_ after
-_Tertullian_, _It is a manifest falling away from the faith, and a fault
-of presumption, either to reject any of those things that are written, or
-to bring in_ (upon the head of them, [Greek: epeisagein]) _any of those
-things that are not written_. We omit to cite to the same effect St.
-_Cyrill_ Bishop of _Jerusalem_ in his 4. _Catech._ St. _Hierome_ against
-_Helvidius_, St. _Augustine_ in his third book against the letters of
-_Petilian_, and in very many other places of his works. Also we forbear
-to descend to later Fathers, because we will not weary the reader. The
-Scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can
-we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them? of curiosity,
-if we be not content with them? [Sidenote: [Greek: Eiresi�n� syka pherei,
-kai pionas artous, kai meli en kotul�, kai elaion], &c. An olive bough
-wrapped about with wool, whereupon did hang figs, and bread, and honey in
-a pot, and oil.] Men talk much of [Greek: eiresi�n�], how many sweet and
-goodly things it had hanging on it; of the Philosopher's stone, that it
-turneth copper into gold; of _Cornu-copia_, that it had all things
-necessary for food in it; of _Panaces_, the herb, that it was good for all
-diseases; of _Catholicon_ the drug, that it is instead of all purges; of
-_Vulcan's_ armour, that it was an armour of proof against all thrusts and
-all blows, &c. Well, that which they falsely or vainly attributed to these
-things for bodily good, we may justly and with full measure ascribe unto
-the Scripture for spiritual. It is not only an armour, but also a whole
-armoury of weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save
-ourselves, and put the enemy to flight. It is not an herb, but a tree, or
-rather a whole paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every
-month, and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine. It
-is not a pot of _Manna_, or a cruse of oil, which were for memory only, or
-for a meal's meat or two; but, as it were, a shower of heavenly bread
-sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great, and, as it were, a
-whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be
-provided for, and our debts discharged. In a word, it is a panary of
-wholesome food against fenowed traditions; [Sidenote: [Greek: Koinon
-iatreion], _St. Basil in Psal. primum._] a physician's shop (as St.
-_Basil_ calls it) of preservatives against poisoned heresies; a pandect of
-profitable laws against rebellious spirits; a treasury of most costly
-jewels against beggarly rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water
-springing up unto everlasting life. And what marvel? the original thereof
-being from heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the
-inditer, the Holy Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the
-penmen, such as were sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal
-portion of God's Spirit; the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness;
-the form, God's word, God's testimony, God's oracles, the word of truth,
-the word of salvation, &c.; the effects, light of understanding,
-stableness of persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life,
-holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of the
-study thereof, fellowship with the saints, participation of the heavenly
-nature, fruition of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that never
-shall fade away. Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and
-thrice happy that meditateth in it day and night.
-
-[Sidenote: Translation necessary.] But how shall men meditate in that
-which they cannot understand? How shall they understand that which is kept
-close in an unknown tongue? as it is written, [Sidenote: 1 Cor. 14. 11.]
-_Except I know the power of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a
-barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian to me_. The Apostle
-excepteth no tongue; not _Hebrew_ the ancientest, not _Greek_ the most
-copious, not _Latin_ the finest. Nature taught a natural man to confess,
-that all of us in those tongues which we do not understand are plainly
-deaf; we may turn the deaf ear unto them. [Sidenote: _Clem. Alex. 1 Strom.
-St. Hieronym. Damaso. Michael, Theophili fil. 2 Tom. Concil. ex edit.
-Petri Crab._] The _Scythian_ counted the _Athenian_, whom he did not
-understand, barbarous: so the _Roman_ did the _Syrian_, and the _Jew_:
-(even St. _Hierome_ himself calleth the _Hebrew_ tongue barbarous; belike,
-because it was strange to so many:) so the Emperor of _Constantinople_
-calleth the _Latin_ tongue barbarous, though Pope _Nicolas_ do storm at
-it: [Sidenote: _Cicero 5. De Finibus._] so the _Jews_ long before _Christ_
-called all other nations _Lognasim_, which is little better than
-barbarous. Therefore as one complaineth that always in the Senate of
-_Rome_ there was one or other that called for an interpreter; so lest the
-Church be driven to the like exigent, it is necessary to have translations
-in a readiness. Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the
-light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth
-aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that
-removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water; [Sidenote:
-Gen. 29. 10.] even as _Jacob_ rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-well, by which means the flocks of _Laban_ were watered. Indeed without
-translation into the vulgar tongue, [Sidenote: John 4. 11.] the unlearned
-are but like children at _Jacob's_ well (which was deep) without a bucket
-or something to draw with: [Sidenote: Isai. 29. 11.] or as that person
-mentioned by _Esay_, to whom when a sealed book was delivered with this
-motion, _Read this, I pray thee_; he was fain to make this answer, _I
-cannot, for it is sealed_.
-
-[Sidenote: The translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew into
-Greek. _See St. August. lib. 12. contra Faust. cap. 32._] While God would
-be known only in _Jacob_, and have his name great in _Israel_, and in none
-other place; while the dew lay on _Gideon's_ fleece only, and all the
-earth besides was dry; then for one and the same people, which spake all
-of them the language of _Canaan_, that is, _Hebrew_, one and the same
-original in _Hebrew_ was sufficient. But when the fulness of time drew
-near, that the Sun of righteousness, the Son of God, should come into the
-world, whom God ordained to be a reconciliation through faith in his
-blood, not of the _Jew_ only, but also of the _Greek_, yea, of all them
-that were scattered abroad; then, lo, it pleased the Lord to stir up the
-spirit of a _Greek_ prince, (_Greek_ for descent and language,) even of
-_Ptolemy Philadelph_ king of _Egypt_, to procure the translating of the
-book of God out of _Hebrew_ into _Greek_. This is the translation of the
-_Seventy_ interpreters, commonly so called, which prepared the way for our
-Saviour among the _Gentiles_ by written preaching, as St. _John Baptist_
-did among the _Jews_ by vocal. For the _Grecians_, being desirous of
-learning, were not wont to suffer books of worth to lie moulding in kings'
-libraries, but had many of their servants, ready scribes, to copy them
-out, and so they were dispersed and made common. Again the _Greek_ tongue
-was well known and made familiar to most inhabitants in _Asia_ by reason
-of the conquests that there the _Grecians_ had made, as also by the
-colonies which thither they had sent. For the same causes also it was well
-understood in many places of _Europe_, yea, and of _Africk_ too. Therefore
-the word of God, being set forth in _Greek_, becometh hereby like a candle
-set upon a candlestick, which giveth light to all that are in the house;
-or like a proclamation sounded forth in the market place, which most men
-presently take knowledge of; and therefore that language was fittest to
-contain the Scriptures, both for the first preachers of the Gospel to
-appeal unto for witness, and for the learners also of those times to make
-search and trial by. It is certain, that that translation was not so sound
-and so perfect, but that it needed in many places correction; and who had
-been so sufficient for this work as the Apostles or apostolick men? Yet it
-seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to take that which they found,
-(the same being for the greatest part true and sufficient,) rather than by
-making a new, in that new world and green age of the Church, to expose
-themselves to many exceptions and cavillations, as though they made a
-translation to serve their own turn; and therefore hearing witness to
-themselves, their witness not to be regarded. This may be supposed to be
-some cause, why the translation of the _Seventy_ was allowed to pass for
-current. Notwithstanding, though it was commended generally, yet it did
-not fully content the learned, no not of the _Jews_. For not long after
-_Christ_, _Aquila_ fell in hand with a new translation, and after him
-_Theodotion_, and after him _Symmachus_; yea, there was a fifth, and a
-sixth edition, the authors whereof were not known. These with the
-_Seventy_ made up the _Hexapla_, and were worthily and to great purpose
-compiled together by _Origen_. Howbeit the edition of the _Seventy_ went
-away with the credit, and therefore not only was placed in the midst by
-_Origen_, (for the worth and excellency thereof above the rest, as
-_Epiphanius_ gathereth,) [Sidenote: _Epiphan. De mensuris et ponderib. St.
-August. 2. De doctrin. Christian. c. 15. Novel. diatax. 146._] but also
-was used by the _Greek_ Fathers for the ground and foundation of their
-commentaries. Yea, _Epiphanius_ abovenamed doth attribute so much unto it,
-that he holdeth the authors thereof not only for interpreters, [Sidenote:
-[Greek: Proph�tik�s h�sper charitos perilampsas�s autous.]] but also for
-prophets in some respect: and _Justinian_ the Emperor, injoining the
-_Jews_ his subjects to use especially the translation of the _Seventy_,
-rendereth this reason thereof, Because they were, as it were, enlightened
-with prophetical grace. [Sidenote: Isai. 31. 3.] Yet for all that, as the
-_Egyptians_ are said of the Prophet to be men and not God, and their
-horses flesh and not spirit: so it is evident, (and St. _Hierome_
-affirmeth as much,) [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. de optimo genere interpret._]
-that the _Seventy_ were interpreters, they were not prophets. They did
-many things well, as learned men; but yet as men they stumbled and fell,
-one while through oversight, another while through ignorance; yea,
-sometimes they may be noted to add to the original, and sometimes to take
-from it: which made the Apostles to leave them many times, when they left
-the _Hebrew_, and to deliver the sense thereof according to the truth of
-the word, as the Spirit gave them utterance. This may suffice touching the
-_Greek_ translations of the Old Testament.
-
-[Sidenote: Translation out of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.] There were
-also within a few hundred years after _Christ_ translations many into the
-_Latin_ tongue: for this tongue also was very fit to convey the Law and
-the Gospel by, because in those times very many countries of the West, yea
-of the South, East, and North, spake or understood _Latin_, being made
-provinces to the _Romans_. But now the _Latin_ translations were too many
-to be all good: for they were infinite; (_Latini interpretes nullo modo
-numerari possunt_, saith St. _Augustine_.) [Sidenote: _St. August. de
-doctrin. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 11._] Again, they were not out of the
-_Hebrew_ fountain, (we speak of the _Latin_ translations of the Old
-Testament,) but out of the _Greek_ stream; therefore the _Greek_ being not
-altogether clear, the _Latin_ derived from it must needs be muddy. This
-moved St. _Hierome_, a most learned Father, and the best linguist without
-controversy of his age, or of any other that went before him, to undertake
-the translating of the Old Testament out of the very fountains themselves;
-which he performed with that evidence of great learning, judgment,
-industry, and faithfulness, that he hath for ever bound the Church unto
-him in a debt of special remembrance and thankfulness.
-
-[Sidenote: The translating of the Scripture into the vulgar tongues.] Now
-though the Church were thus furnished with _Greek_ and _Latin_
-translations, even before the faith of _Christ_ was generally embraced in
-the Empire: (for the learned know, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. Marcell.
-Zosim._] that even in St. _Hierome's_ time the Consul of _Rome_ and his
-wife were both Ethnicks, and about the same time the greatest part of the
-Senate also:) yet for all that the godly learned were not content to have
-the Scriptures in the language which themselves understood, [Sidenote: 2
-Kin. 7. 9.] _Greek_ and _Latin_, (as the good lepers were not content to
-fare well themselves, but acquainted their neighbours with the store that
-God had sent, that they also might provide for themselves;) but also for
-the behoof and edifying of the unlearned, which hungered and thirsted
-after righteousness, and had souls to be saved as well as they, they
-provided translations into the vulgar for their countrymen, insomuch that
-most nations under heaven did shortly after their conversion hear _Christ_
-speaking unto them in their mother tongue, not by the voice of their
-minister only, but also by the written word translated. If any doubt
-hereof, he may be satisfied by examples enough, if enough will serve the
-turn. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. Pr�f. in 4. Evangel._] First, St. _Hierome_
-saith, _Multarum gentium linguis Scriptura ante translata docet falsa esse
-qu� addita sunt_, &c.; that is, _The Scripture being translated before in
-the languages of many nations doth shew that those things that were added_
-(by _Lucian_ or _Hesychius_) _are false_. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron.
-Sophronio._] So St. _Hierome_ in that place. The same _Hierome_ elsewhere
-affirmeth that he, the time was, had set forth the translation of the
-_Seventy_, _su� ling� hominibus_; that is, for his countrymen of
-_Dalmatia_. Which words not only _Erasmus_ doth understand to purport,
-that St. _Hierome_ translated the Scripture into the _Dalmatian_ tongue;
-[Sidenote: _Six. Sen. lib. 4. Alphon. a Castro, lib. 1. cap. 23. St.
-Chrysost. in Joann. cap. 1. hom. 1._] but also _Sixtus Senensis_, and
-_Alphonsus a Castro_, (that we speak of no more,) men not to be excepted
-against by them of _Rome_, do ingenuously confess as much. So St.
-_Chrysostome_, that lived in St. _Hierome's_ time, giveth evidence with
-him: _The doctrine of St. John_ (saith he) _did not in such sort_ (as the
-Philosophers' did) _vanish away: but the Syrians, Egyptians, Indians,
-Persians, Ethiopians, and infinite other nations, being barbarous people,
-translated it into their (mother) tongue, and have learned, to be (true)
-Philosophers_, he meaneth Christians. [Sidenote: _Theodor. 5. Therapeut._]
-To this may be added _Theodoret_, as next unto him both for antiquity, and
-for learning. His words be these, _Every country that is under the sun is
-full of these words_, (of the Apostles and Prophets;) _and the Hebrew
-tongue_ (he meaneth the Scriptures in the _Hebrew_ tongue) _is turned not
-only into the language of the Grecians, but also of the Romans, and
-Egyptians, and Persians, and Indians, and Armenians, and Scythians, and
-Sauromatians, and, briefly, into all the languages that any nation useth_.
-[Sidenote: _P. Diacon. lib. 12. Isid. in Chron. Goth. Sozom. lib. 6. cap.
-57. Vasseus in Chro. Hisp. Polydor. Virg. 5. hist. Anglorum testatur idem
-de Aluredo nostro. Aventin. lib. 4._] So he. In like manner _Ulpilas_ is
-reported by _Paulus Diaconus_ and _Isidore_, and before them by _Sozomen_,
-to have translated the Scriptures into the _Gothick_ tongue: _John_ Bishop
-of _Sevil_ by _Vasseus_, to have turned them into _Arabick_ about the Year
-of our Lord 717: _Beda_ by _Cistertiensis_, to have turned a great part of
-them into _Saxon_: _Efnard_ by _Trithemius_, to have abridged the French
-Psalter (as _Beda_ had done the _Hebrew_) about the year 800: King
-_Alured_ by the said _Cistertiensis_, to have turned the Psalter into
-_Saxon_: _Methodius_ by _Aventinus_ (printed at _Ingolstad_) to have
-turned the Scriptures into _Sclavonian_: _Valdo_[146] Bishop of _Frising_
-by _Beatus Rhenanus_, to have caused about that time the Gospels to be
-translated into _Dutch_ rhyme, yet extant in the library of _Corbinian_:
-_Valdus_ by divers, to have turned them himself, or to have gotten them
-turned, into _French_, about the Year 1160: _Charles_ the Fifth of that
-name, surnamed _The wise_, to have caused them to be turned into _French_
-about 200 years after _Valdus'_ time; of which translation there be many
-copies yet extant, as witnesseth _Beroaldus_. [Sidenote: _Beroald.
-Thuan._] Much about that time, even in our King _Richard_ the Second's
-days, _John Trevisa_ translated them into _English_, and many _English_
-Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen with divers; translated, as it
-is very probable, in that age. So the _Syrian_ translation of the New
-Testament is in most learned men's libraries, of _Widminstadius'_ setting
-forth; and the Psalter in _Arabick_ is with many, of _Augustinus
-Nebiensis'_ setting forth. So _Postel_ affirmeth, that in his travel he
-saw the Gospels in the _Ethiopian_ tongue: And _Ambrose Thesius_ alledgeth
-the Psalter of the _Indians_, which he testifieth to have been set forth
-by _Potken_ in _Syrian_ characters. So that to have the Scriptures in the
-mother tongue is not a quaint conceit lately taken up, either by the Lord
-_Cromwell_ in _England_, or by the Lord _Radevile_ in _Polony_, or by the
-Lord _Ungnadius_ in the Emperor's dominion, but hath been thought upon,
-and put in practice of old, even from the first times of the conversion of
-any nation; no doubt, because it was esteemed most profitable to cause
-faith to grow in men's hearts the sooner, and to make them to be able to
-say with the words of the Psalm, [Sidenote: Psal. 48. 8.] _As we have
-heard, so we have seen_.
-
-[Sidenote: The unwillingness of our chief adversaries that the Scriptures
-should be divulged in the mother tongue, &c. [Greek: D�ron ad�ron kouk
-on�simon] _Sophocl._] Now the church of _Rome_ would seem at the length to
-bear a motherly affection toward her children, and to allow them the
-Scriptures in the mother tongue: but indeed it is a gift, not deserving to
-be called a gift, an unprofitable gift: they must first get a licence in
-writing before they may use them; and to get that, they must approve
-themselves to their Confessor, that is, to be such as are, if not frozen
-in the dregs, yet soured with the leaven of their superstition. Howbeit it
-seemed too much to _Clement_ the Eighth, that there should be any licence
-granted to have them in the vulgar tongue, and therefore he overruleth and
-frustrateth the grant of _Pius_ the Fourth. [Sidenote: See the
-observation (set forth by Clement's authority) upon the 4th rule of _Pius_
-the 4th's making in the _Index lib. prohib. pag. 15. ver. 5. Tertull. de
-resur. carnis._] So much are they afraid of the light of the Scripture,
-(_Lucifug� Scripturarum_, as _Tertullian_ speaketh,) that they will not
-trust the people with it, no not as it is set forth by their own sworn
-men, no not with the licence of their own Bishops and Inquisitors. Yea, so
-unwilling they are to communicate the Scriptures to the people's
-understanding in any sort, that they are not ashamed to confess, that we
-forced them to translate it into _English_ against their wills. This
-seemeth to argue a bad cause, or a bad conscience, or both. Sure we are,
-that it is not he that hath good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the
-touch-stone, but he that hath the counterfeit; [Sidenote: John 3. 20.]
-neither is it the true man that shunneth the light, but the malefactor,
-lest his deeds should be reproved; neither is it the plaindealing merchant
-that is unwilling to have the weights, or the meteyard, brought in place,
-but he that useth deceit. But we will let them alone for this fault, and
-return to translation.
-
-[Sidenote: The speeches and reasons both of our brethren, and of
-adversaries, against this work.] Many men's mouths have been opened a good
-while (and yet are not stopped) with speeches about the translation so
-long in hand, or rather perusals of translations made before: and ask what
-may be the reason, what the necessity, of the employment. Hath the Church
-been deceived, say they, all this while? Hath her sweet bread been mingled
-with leaven, her silver with dross, her wine with water, her milk with
-lime? (_lacte gypsum male miscetur_, saith St. _Irenee_.) [Sidenote: _St.
-Iren. lib. 3. cap. 19._] We hoped that we had been in the right way, that
-we had had the Oracles of God delivered unto us, and that though all the
-world had cause to be offended, and to complain, yet that we had none.
-Hath the nurse holden out the breast, and nothing but wind in it? Hath
-the bread been delivered by the Fathers of the Church, and the same proved
-to be _lapidosus_, as _Seneca_ speaketh? What is it to handle the word of
-God deceitfully, if this be not? Thus certain brethren. Also the
-adversaries of _Judah_ and _Jerusalem_, [Sidenote: Neh. 4. 2, 3.] like
-_Sanballat_ in _Nehemiah_, mock, as we hear, both at the work and workmen,
-saying, _What do these weak Jews, &c., will they make the stones whole
-again out of the heaps of dust which are burnt? although they build, yet
-if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stony wall_. Was their
-translation good before? Why do they now mend it? Was it not good? Why
-then was it obtruded to the people? Yea, why did the Catholicks (meaning
-Popish _Romanists_) always go in jeopardy for refusing to go to hear it?
-Nay, if it must be translated into _English_, Catholicks are fittest to do
-it. They have learning, and they know when a thing is well, they can
-_manum de tabula_. We will answer them both briefly: [Sidenote: _St.
-Hieron. Apolog. advers. Ruffin._] and the former, being brethren, thus
-with St. _Hierome_, _Damnamus veteres? Minime, sed post priorum studia in
-domo Domini quod possumus laboramus._ That is, _Do we condemn the ancient?
-In no case: but after the endeavours of them that were before us, we take
-the best pains we can in the house of God._ As if he said, Being provoked
-by the example of the learned that lived before my time, I have thought it
-my duty to assay, whether my talent in the knowledge of the tongues may be
-profitable in any measure to God's Church, lest I should seem to have
-laboured in them in vain, and lest I should be thought to glory in men
-(although ancient) above that which was in them. Thus St. _Hierome_ may be
-thought to speak.
-
-[Sidenote: A satisfaction to our brethren.] And to the same effect say we,
-that we are so far off from condemning any of their labours that
-travelled before us in this kind, either in this land, or beyond sea,
-either in King _Henry's_ time, or King _Edward's_, (if there were any
-translation, or correction of a translation, in his time,) or Queen
-_Elizabeth's_ of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have
-been raised up of God for the building and furnishing of his Church, and
-that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting
-remembrance. The judgment of _Aristotle_ is worthy and well known:
-[Sidenote: _Arist. 2. Metaphys. cap. 1._] _If Timotheus had not been, we
-had not had much sweet musick: But if Phrynis_ (_Timotheus'_ master) _had
-not been, we had not had Timotheus_. Therefore blessed be they, and most
-honoured be their name, that break the ice, and give the onset upon that
-which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can be more
-available thereto, than to deliver God's book unto God's people in a
-tongue which they understand? Since of an hidden treasure, and of a
-fountain that is sealed, there is no profit, as _Ptolemy Philadelph_ wrote
-to the Rabbins or masters of the _Jews_, as witnesseth _Epiphanius_:
-[Sidenote: _St. Epiphan. loco ante citato. St. August. lib. 19. De civit.
-Dei, cap. 7._] and as St. _Augustine_ saith, _A man had rather be with his
-dog than with a stranger_ (whose tongue is strange unto him.) Yet for all
-that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, and the latter
-thoughts are thought to be the wiser: so, if we building upon their
-foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, do
-endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are
-sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we persuade ourselves, if they were
-alive, would thank us. The vintage of _Abiezer_, that strake the stroke:
-yet the gleaning of grapes of _Ephraim_ was not to be despised. See
-_Judges_ viii. 2. [Sidenote: 2 Kin. 13. 18, 19.] _Joash_ the king of
-_Israel_ did not satisfy himself till he had smitten the ground three
-times; and yet he offended the Prophet for giving over then. _Aquila_, of
-whom we spake before, translated the Bible as carefully and as skilfully
-as he could; and yet he thought good to go over it again, and then it got
-the credit with the _Jews_, to be called [Greek: kat' akribeian], that is,
-accurately done, as St. _Hierome_ witnesseth. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. in
-Ezech. cap. 3._] How many books of profane learning have been gone over
-again and again, by the same translators, by others? Of one and the same
-book of _Aristotle's_ Ethicks there are extant not so few as six or seven
-several translations. Now if this cost may be bestowed upon the gourd,
-which affordeth us a little shade, and which to day flourisheth, but to
-morrow is cut down; what may we bestow, nay, what ought we not to bestow,
-upon the vine, the fruit whereof maketh glad the conscience of man, and
-the stem whereof abideth for ever? And this is the word of God, which we
-translate. [Sidenote: Jer. 23. 28.] _What is the chaff to the wheat? saith
-the Lord. Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum!_ (saith _Tertullian_.)
-[Sidenote: _Tertull. ad Martyr. Si tanti vilissimum vitrum, quanti
-preciosissimum margaritum! Hier. ad Salvin._] If a toy of glass be of that
-reckoning with us, how ought we to value the true pearl! Therefore let no
-man's eye be evil, because his Majesty's is good; neither let any be
-grieved, that we have a Prince that seeketh the increase of the spiritual
-wealth of _Israel_; (let _Sanballats_ and _Tobiahs_ do so, which therefore
-do bear their just reproof;) but let us rather bless God from the ground
-of our heart for working this religious care in him to have the
-translations of the Bible maturely considered of and examined. For by this
-means it cometh to pass, that whatsoever is sound already, (and all is
-sound for substance in one or other of our editions, and the worst of ours
-far better than their authentick vulgar) the same will shine as gold more
-brightly, being rubbed and polished; also, if any thing be halting, or
-superfluous, or not so agreeable to the original, the same may be
-corrected, and the truth set in place. And what can the King command to be
-done, that will bring him more true honour than this? And wherein could
-they that have been set a work approve their duty to the King, yea, their
-obedience to God, and love to his Saints, more, than by yielding their
-service, and all that is within them, for the furnishing of the work? But
-besides all this, they were the principal motives of it, and therefore
-ought least to quarrel it. For the very historical truth is, that upon the
-importunate petitions of the Puritanes at his Majesty's coming to this
-crown, the conference at _Hampton-court_ having been appointed for hearing
-their complaints, when by force of reason they were put from all other
-grounds, they had recourse at the last to this shift, that they could not
-with good conscience subscribe to the communion book, since it maintained
-the Bible as it was there translated, which was, as they said, a most
-corrupted translation. And although this was judged to be but a very poor
-and empty shift, yet even hereupon did his Majesty begin to bethink
-himself of the good that might ensue by a new translation, and presently
-after gave order for this translation which is now presented unto thee.
-Thus much to satisfy our scrupulous brethren.
-
-[Sidenote: An answer to the imputations of our adversaries.] Now to the
-latter we answer, That we do not deny, nay, we affirm and avow, that the
-very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our
-profession, (for we have seen none of their's of the whole Bible as yet)
-containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God: As the King's speech
-which he uttered in Parliament, being translated into _French_, _Dutch_,
-_Italian_, and _Latin_, is still the King's speech, though it be not
-interpreted by every translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so
-fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense, every where. For it is
-confessed, that things are to take their denomination of the greater part;
-[Sidenote: _Horace._] and a natural man could say, _Verum ubi multa nitent
-in carmine, non ego paucis offendor maculis, &c._ A man may be counted a
-virtuous man, though he have made many slips in his life, (else there were
-none virtuous, for _in many things we offend all_,) [Sidenote: Jam. 3. 2.]
-also a comely man and lovely, though he have some warts upon his hand;
-yea, not only freckles upon his face, but also scars. No cause therefore
-why the word translated should be denied to be the word, or forbidden to
-be current, notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be
-noted in the setting forth of it. For what ever was perfect under the sun,
-where Apostles or apostolick men, that is, men endued with an
-extraordinary measure of God's Spirit, and privileged with the privilege
-of infallibility, had not their hand? The Romanists therefore in refusing
-to hear, and daring to burn the word translated, did no less than despite
-the Spirit of grace, from whom originally it proceeded, and whose sense
-and meaning, as well as man's weakness would enable, it did express. Judge
-by an example or two.
-
-[Sidenote: _Plutarch in Camillo._] _Plutarch_ writeth, that after that
-_Rome_ had been burnt by the _Gauls_, they fell soon to build it again:
-but doing it in haste, they did not cast the streets, nor proportion the
-houses, in such comely fashion, as had been most sightly and convenient.
-Was _Catiline_ therefore an honest man, or a good patriot, that sought to
-bring it to a combustion? Or _Nero_ a good Prince, that did indeed set it
-on fire? So by the story of _Ezra_ and the prophecy of _Haggai_ it may be
-gathered, [Sidenote: Ezra 3. 12.] that the temple built by _Zerubbabel_
-after the return from _Babylon_ was by no means to be compared to the
-former built by _Solomon_: for they that remembered the former wept when
-they considered the latter. Notwithstanding might this latter either have
-been abhorred and forsaken by the _Jews_, or profaned by the _Greeks_? The
-like we are to think of translations. The translation of the _Seventy_
-dissenteth from the Original in many places, neither doth it come near it
-for perspicuity, gravity, majesty. Yet which of the Apostles did condemn
-it? Condemn it? Nay, they used it, (as it is apparent, and as St.
-_Hierome_ and most learned men do confess;) which they would not have
-done, nor by their example of using of it so grace and commend it to the
-Church, if it had been unworthy the appellation and name of the word of
-God. And whereas they urge for their second defence of their vilifying and
-abusing of the _English_ Bibles, or some pieces thereof, which they meet
-with, for that hereticks forsooth were the authors of the translations:
-(hereticks they call us by the same right that they call themselves
-catholicks, both being wrong:) we marvel what divinity taught them so. We
-are sure _Tertullian_ was of another mind: [Sidenote: _Tertull. de
-pr�script. contra h�reses._] _Ex personis probamus fidem, an ex fide
-personas?_ Do we try men's faith by their persons? We should try their
-persons by their faith. Also St. _Augustine_ was of another mind:
-[Sidenote: _St. August. 3. de doct. Christ. cap. 30._] for he, lighting
-upon certain rules made by _Tychonius_ a _Donatist_ for the better
-understanding of the word, was not ashamed to make use of them, yea, to
-insert them into his own book, with giving commendation to them so far
-forth as they were worthy to be commended, as is to be seen in St.
-_Augustine's_ third book _De Doct. Christ_. To be short, _Origen_, and
-the whole Church of God for certain hundred years, were of another mind:
-for they were so far from treading under foot (much more from burning) the
-translation of _Aquila_ a proselyte, that is, one that had turned _Jew_,
-of _Symmachus_, and _Theodotion_, both _Ebionites_, that is, most vile
-hereticks, that they joined them together with the _Hebrew_ original, and
-the translation of the _Seventy_, (as hath been before signified out of
-_Epiphanius_,) and set them forth openly to be considered of and perused
-by all. But we weary the unlearned, who need not know so much; and trouble
-the learned, who know it already.
-
-Yet before we end, we must answer a third cavil and objection of their's
-against us, for altering and amending our translations so oft; wherein
-truly they deal hardly and strangely with us. For to whom ever was it
-imputed for a fault, (by such as were wise,) to go over that which he had
-done, and to amend it where he saw cause? [Sidenote: _St. August. Epist.
-9. St. August. lib. Retract Video interdum vitia mea. St. August. Epist.
-8._] St. _Augustine_ was not afraid to exhort St. _Hierome_ to a
-_Palinodia_ or recantation. The same St. _Augustine_ was not ashamed to
-retractate, we might say, revoke, many things that had passed him, and
-doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities. If we will be sons of the
-truth, we must consider what it speaketh, and trample upon our own credit,
-yea, and upon other men's too, if either be any way an hindrance to it.
-This to the cause. Then to the persons we say, that of all men they ought
-to be most silent in this case. For what varieties have they, and what
-alterations have they made, not only of their service books, portesses,
-and breviaries, but also of their _Latin_ translation? The service book
-supposed to be made by St. _Ambrose_, (_Officium Ambrosianum_,) was a
-great while in special use and request: but Pope _Adrian_, [Sidenote:
-_Durand. lib. 5. cap. 2._] calling a council with the aid of _Charles_ the
-Emperor, abolished it, yea, burnt it, and commanded the service book of
-St. _Gregory_ universally to be used. Well, _Officium Gregorianum_ gets by
-this means to be in credit; but doth it continue without change or
-altering? No, the very _Roman_ service was of two fashions; the new
-fashion, and the old, the one used in one Church, and the other in
-another; as is to be seen in _Pamelius_ a Romanist, his preface before
-_Micrologus_. The same _Pamelius_ reporteth out of _Radulphus de Rivo_,
-that about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope _Nicolas_ the Third removed out
-of the churches of _Rome_ the more ancient books (of service,) and brought
-into use the missals of the Friers Minorites, and commanded them to be
-observed there: insomuch that about an hundred years after, when the
-aboved named _Radulphus_ happened to be at Rome, he found all the books to
-be new, of the new stamp. Neither was there this chopping and changing in
-the more ancient times only, but also of late. _Pius Quintus_ himself
-confesseth, that every bishoprick almost had a peculiar kind of service,
-most unlike to that which others had; which moved him to abolish all other
-breviaries, though never so ancient, and privileged and published by
-Bishops in their Dioceses, and to establish and ratify that only which was
-of his own setting forth in the year 1568. Now when the Father of their
-Church, who gladly would heal the sore of the daughter of his people
-softly and slightly, and make the best of it, findeth so great fault with
-them for their odds and jarring; we hope the children have no great cause
-to vaunt of their uniformity. But the difference that appeareth between
-our translations, and our often correcting of them, is the thing that we
-are specially charged with; let us see therefore whether they themselves
-be without fault this way, (if it be to be counted a fault to correct,)
-and whether they be fit men to throw stones at us: _O tandem major parcas
-insane minori_: They that are less sound themselves ought not to object
-infirmities to others. If we should tell them, that _Valla_,
-_Stapulensis_, _Erasmus_, and _Vives_, found fault with their vulgar
-translation, and consequently wished the same to be mended, or a new one
-to be made; they would answer peradventure, that we produced their enemies
-for witnesses against them; albeit they were in no other sort enemies,
-than as St. _Paul_ was to the _Galatians_, [Sidenote: Gal. 4. 16.] for
-telling them the truth: and it were to be wished, that they had dared to
-tell it them plainlier and oftener. But what will they say to this, That
-Pope _Leo_ the Tenth allowed _Erasmus'_ translation of the New Testament,
-so much different from the vulgar, by his apostolick letter and bull?
-[Sidenote: _Sixtus Senens._] That the same _Leo_ exhorted _Pagnine_ to
-translate the whole Bible, and bare whatsoever charges was necessary for
-the work? Surely, as the apostle reasoneth to the _Hebrews_, [Sidenote:
-Heb. 7. 11. & 8. 7.] that _if the former Law and Testament had been
-sufficient, there had been no need of the latter_: so we may say, that if
-the old vulgar had been at all points allowable, to small purpose had
-labour and charges been undergone about framing of a new. If they say, it
-was one Pope's private opinion, and that he consulted only himself; then
-we are able to go further with them, and to aver, that more of their chief
-men of all sorts, even their own _Trent_ champions, _Paiva_ and _Vega_,
-and their own inquisitor _Hieronymus ab Oleastro_, and their own Bishop
-_Isidorus Clarius_, and their own Cardinal _Thomas a vio Cajetan_, do
-either make new translations themselves, or follow new ones of other men's
-making, or note the vulgar interpreter for halting, none of them fear to
-dissent from him, nor yet to except against him. And call they this an
-uniform tenor of text and judgment about the text, so many of their
-worthies disclaiming the now received conceit? Nay, we will yet come
-nearer the quick. [Sidenote: _Sixtus 5. Pr�f. fixa bibliis._] Doth not
-their _Paris_ edition differ from the _Lovain_, and _Hentenius's_ from
-them both, and yet all of them allowed by authority? Nay, doth not _Sixtus
-Quintus_ confess, that certain Catholicks (he meaneth certain of his own
-side) were in such an humour of translating the Scriptures into _Latin_,
-that Satan taking occasion by them, though they thought of no such matter,
-did strive what he could, out of so uncertain and manifold a variety of
-translations, so to mingle all things, that nothing might seem to be left
-certain and firm in them, &c.? Nay further, did not the same _Sixtus_
-ordain by an inviolable decree, and that with the counsel and consent of
-his Cardinals, that the _Latin_ edition of the Old and New Testament,
-which the council of _Trent_ would have to be authentick, is the same
-without controversy which he then set forth, being diligently corrected
-and printed in the printinghouse of _Vatican_? Thus _Sixtus_ in his
-preface before his Bible. And yet _Clement_ the Eighth, his immediate
-successor to account of, publisheth another edition of the Bible,
-containing in it infinite differences from that of _Sixtus_, and many of
-them weighty and material; and yet this must be authentick by all means.
-What is to have the faith of our glorious Lord _Jesus Christ_ with yea and
-nay, if this be not? Again, what is sweet harmony and consent, if this be?
-Therefore, as _Demaratus_ of _Corinth_ advised a great King, before he
-talked of the dissensions among the _Grecians_, to compose his domestick
-broils; (for at that time his queen and his son and heir were at deadly
-feud with him) so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and
-so various editions themselves, and do jar so much about the worth and
-authority of them, they can with no shew of equity challenge us for
-changing and correcting.
-
-[Sidenote: The purpose of the Translators, with their number, furniture,
-care, &c.] But it is high time to leave them, and to shew in brief what we
-proposed to ourselves, and what course we held, in this our perusal and
-survey of the Bible. Truly, good Christian Reader, we never thought from
-the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to
-make of a bad one a good one: (for then the imputation of _Sixtus_ had
-been true in some sort, that our people had been fed with gall of dragons
-instead of wine, with wheal instead of milk;) but to make a good one
-better, or out of many good ones one principal good one, not justly to be
-excepted against; that hath been our endeavour, that our mark. To that
-purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other men's eyes than
-in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise.
-Again, they came, or were thought to come, to the work, not _exercendi
-causa_, (as one saith,) but _exercitati_, that is, learned not to learn;
-for the chief overseer and [Greek: ergodi�kt�s] under his Majesty, to whom
-not only we, but also our whole Church was much bound, knew by his wisdom,
-which thing only _Nazianzen_ taught so long ago, [Sidenote: _Nazianz._
-[Greek: eis rn. episk parous.] _Idem in Apologet._] that it is a
-preposterous order to teach first and to learn after; that [Greek: to en
-pith� keramian manthanein] to learn and practise together, is neither
-commendable for the workman, nor safe for the work. Therefore such were
-thought upon, as could say modestly with St. _Hierome_, _Et Hebr�um
-sermonem ex parte didicimus, et in Latino pene ab ipsis incunabulis, &c.,
-detriti sumus; Both we have learned the Hebrew tongue in part, and in the
-Latin we have been exercised almost from our very cradle._ St. _Hierome_
-maketh no mention of the _Greek_ tongue, wherein yet he did excel; because
-he translated not the Old Testament out of _Greek_, but out of _Hebrew_.
-And in what sort did these assemble? In the trust of their own knowledge,
-or of their sharpness of wit, or deepness of judgment, as it were in an
-arm of flesh? At no hand. They trusted in him that hath the key of
-_David_, opening, and no man shutting; they prayed to the Lord, the Father
-of our Lord, to the effect that St. _Augustine_ did: [Sidenote: _St.
-August. lib. 11. Confess. cap. 2._] _O let thy Scriptures be my pure
-delight; let me not be deceived in them, neither let me deceive by them_.
-In this confidence, and with this devotion, did they assemble together;
-not too many, lest one should trouble another; and yet many, lest many
-things haply might escape them. If you ask what they had before them;
-truly it was the _Hebrew_ text of the Old Testament, the _Greek_ of the
-New. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, wherethrough the
-olivebranches empty themselves into the gold. [Sidenote: _St. Aug. 3. De
-doctr. cap. 3., &c. St. Hieron. ad Suniam et Fretel. St. Hieron. ad
-Lucinium, Dist 9._ Ut veterum.] St. _Augustine_ calleth them precedent, or
-original, tongues; St. _Hierome_, fountains. The same St. _Hierome_
-affirmeth, and _Gratian_ hath not spared to put it into his decree, That
-_as the credit of the old books_ (he meaneth of the Old Testament) _is to
-be tried by the Hebrew volumes; so of the new by the Greek tongue_, he
-meaneth by the original _Greek_. If truth be to be tried by these tongues,
-then whence should a translation be made, but out of them? These tongues
-therefore (the Scriptures, we say, in those tongues) we set before us to
-translate, being the tongues wherein God was pleased to speak to his
-Church by his Prophets and Apostles. [Sidenote: _Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12._]
-Neither did we run over the work with that posting haste that the
-_Septuagint_ did, if that be true which is reported of them, that they
-finished it in seventy-two days; neither were we barred or hindered from
-going over it again, having once done it, like St. _Hierome_, [Sidenote:
-_St. Hieron. ad Pammach. pro lib. advers. Jovinian._ [Greek:
-pr�topeiroi.]] if that be true which himself reporteth, that he could no
-sooner write anything, but presently it was caught from him, and
-published, and he could not have leave to mend it; neither, to be short,
-were we the first that fell in hand with translating the Scripture into
-_English_, and consequently destitute of former helps, as it is written of
-_Origen_, that he was the first in a manner, that put his hand to write
-commentaries upon the Scriptures, and therefore no marvel if he overshot
-himself many times. None of these things: The work hath not been huddled
-up in seventy-two days, but hath cost the workmen, as light as it seemeth,
-the pains of twice seven times seventy-two days, and more. Matters of such
-weight and consequence are to be speeded with maturity: for in a business
-of moment a man feareth not the blame of convenient slackness. Neither did
-we think much to consult the translators or commentators, [Sidenote:
-[Greek: Philei gar oknein pragm' an�r prass�n mega], _Sophocl. in Elect._]
-_Chaldee_, _Hebrew_, _Syrian_, _Greek_, or _Latin_; no, nor the _Spanish_,
-_French_, _Italian_, or _Dutch_; neither did we disdain to revise that
-which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had
-hammered: but having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing
-no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at
-length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to
-that pass that you see.
-
-[Sidenote: Reasons moving us to set diversity of senses in the margin,
-where there is great probability for each. [Greek: panta ta, anagkaia
-d�la].] Some peradventure would have no variety of senses to be set in
-the margin, lest the authority of the Scriptures for deciding of
-controversies by that shew of uncertainty should somewhat be shaken. But
-we hold their judgment not to be so sound in this point. For though
-_whatsoever things are necessary are manifest_, as St. _Chrysostome_
-saith; [Sidenote: _St. Chrysost. in 2 Thess. cap. 2. St. Aug. 2. De doctr.
-Christ, c. 9._] and, as St. _Augustine_, _in those things that are plainly
-set down in the Scriptures all such matters are found, that concern faith,
-hope, and charity_: Yet for all that it cannot be dissembled, that partly
-to exercise and whet our wits, partly to wean the curious from lothing of
-them for their every where plainness, partly also to stir up our devotion
-to crave the assistance of God's Spirit by prayer, and lastly, that we
-might be forward to seek aid of our brethren by conference, and never
-scorn those that be not in all respects so complete as they should be,
-being to seek in many things, ourselves, it hath pleased God in his Divine
-Providence here and there to scatter words and sentences of that
-difficulty and doubtfulness, not in doctrinal points that concern
-salvation, (for in such it hath been vouched that the Scriptures are
-plain,) but in matters of less moment, that fearfulness would better
-beseem us than confidence, and if we will resolve, to resolve upon modesty
-with St. _Augustine_, [Sidenote: _St. August. lib. 8. De Gen. ad liter.
-cap. 5._] (though not in this same case altogether, yet upon the same
-ground,) _Melius est dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis_: It
-is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, than to strive
-about those things that are uncertain. [Sidenote: [Greek: hapax
-legomena].] There be many words in the Scriptures, which be never found
-there but once, (having neither brother nor neighbour, as the _Hebrews_
-speak,) so that we cannot be holpen by conference of places. Again, there
-be many rare names of certain birds, beasts, and precious stones, &c.
-concerning which the _Hebrews_ themselves are so divided among themselves
-for judgment, that they may seem to have defined this or that, rather
-because they would say something, than because they were sure of that
-which they said, [Sidenote: _Hier. in Ezek. cap. 3._] as St. _Hierome_
-somewhere saith of the _Septuagint_. Now in such a case doth not a margin
-do well to admonish the Reader to seek further, and not to conclude or
-dogmatize upon this or that peremptorily? For as it is a fault of
-incredulity, to doubt of those things that are evident; so to determine of
-such things as the Spirit of God hath left (even in the judgment of the
-judicious) questionable, can be no less than presumption. [Sidenote: _St.
-Aug. 2. De doctr. Christ. c. 1._] Therefore as St. _Augustine_ saith, that
-variety of translations is profitable for the finding out of the sense of
-the Scriptures: so diversity of signification and sense in the margin,
-where the text is not so clear, must needs do good; yea, is necessary, as
-we are persuaded. [Sidenote: _Sixtus 5. Pr�f. Bibl._] We know that _Sixtus
-Quintus_ expressly forbiddeth that any variety of readings of their vulgar
-edition should be put in the margin; (which though it be not altogether
-the same thing to that we have in hand, yet it looketh that way;) but we
-think he hath not all of his own side his favourers for this conceit. They
-that are wise had rather have their judgments at liberty in differences of
-readings, than to be captivated to one, when it may be the other.
-[Sidenote: _Plat. in Paulo secundo._] If they were sure that their high
-priest had all laws shut up in his breast, as _Paul_ the Second bragged,
-and that he were as free from error by special privilege, as the dictators
-of _Rome_ were made by law inviolable, it were another matter; then his
-word were an oracle, his opinion a decision. [Sidenote: [Greek:
-homoiopath�s Tr�tos g' h� chr�s esti.]] But the eyes of the world are now
-open, God be thanked, and have been a great while; they find that he is
-subject to the same affections and infirmities that others be, that his
-body is subject to wounds; and therefore so much as he proveth, not as
-much as he claimeth, they grant and embrace.
-
-[Sidenote: Reasons inducing us not to stand curiously upon an identity of
-phrasing.] Another thing we think good to admonish thee of, gentle Reader,
-that we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing, or to an
-identity of words, as some peradventure would wish that we had done,
-because they observe, that some learned men somewhere have been as exact
-as they could that way. Truly, that we might not vary from the sense of
-that which we had translated before, if the word signified the same thing
-in both places, [Sidenote: [Greek: polys�ma.]] (for there be some words
-that be not of the same sense every where,) we were especially careful,
-and made a conscience, according to our duty. But that we should express
-the same notion in the same particular word; as for example, if we
-translate the _Hebrew_ or _Greek_ word once by _purpose_, never to call it
-_intent_; if one where _journeying_, never _travelling_; if one where
-_think_, never _suppose_; if one where _pain_, never _ache_; if one where
-_joy_, never _gladness_, &c. thus to mince the matter, we thought to
-savour more of curiosity than wisdom, and that rather it would breed scorn
-in the atheist, than bring profit to the godly reader. For is the kingdom
-of God become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them, if
-we may be free? use one precisely, when we may use another no less fit as
-commodiously? [Sidenote: Abed. _Niceph. Calist. lib. 8. cap. 42. St.
-Hieron. in 4 Jon�. See St. Aug. Epist. 10._] A godly Father in the
-primitive time shewed himself greatly moved, that one of newfangledness
-called [Greek: krabbaton, skimpous], though the difference be little or
-none; and another reporteth, that he was much abused for turning
-_cucurbita_ (to which reading the people had been used) into _hedera_. Now
-if this happen in better times, and upon so small occasions, we might
-justly fear hard censure, if generally we should make verbal and
-unnecessary changings. We might also be charged (by scoffers) with some
-unequal dealing towards a great number of good _English_ words. For as it
-is written of a certain great Philosopher, that he should say, that those
-logs were happy that were made images to be worshipped; for their fellows,
-as good as they, lay for blocks behind the fire: so if we should say, as
-it were, unto certain words, Stand up higher, have a place in the Bible
-always; and to others of like quality, Get you hence, be banished for
-ever; we might be taxed peradventure with St. _James's_ words, namely, _To
-be partial in ourselves, and judges of evil thoughts_. [Sidenote: [Greek:
-leptologia. adoleschia to spoudazein epi onomasi.] _See Euseb._ [Greek:
-proparask.] _lib. 2. ex Plat._] Add hereunto, that niceness in words was
-always counted the next step to trifling; and so was to be curious about
-names too: also that we cannot follow a better pattern for elocution than
-God himself; therefore he using divers words in his holy writ, and
-indifferently for one thing in nature: we, if we will not be
-superstitious, may use the same liberty in our _English_ versions out of
-_Hebrew_ and _Greek_, for that copy or store that he hath given us.
-Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the scrupulosity of the Puritanes,
-who leave the old Ecclesiastical words, and betake them to other, as when
-they put _washing_ for _baptism_, and _congregation_ instead of _Church_:
-as also on the other side we have shunned the obscurity of the Papists, in
-their _azymes_, _tunike_, _rational_, _holocausts_, _prepuce_, _pasche_,
-and a number of such like, whereof their late translation is full, and
-that of purpose to darken the sense, that since they must needs translate
-the Bible, yet by the language thereof it may be kept from being
-understood. But we desire that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in
-the language of _Canaan_, that it may be understood even of the very
-vulgar.
-
-Many other things we might give thee warning of, gentle Reader, if we had
-not exceeded the measure of a preface already. It remaineth that we
-commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to
-build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our
-eyes, the vail from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand
-his word, enlarging our hearts, yea, correcting our affections, that we
-may love it above gold and silver, yea, that we may love it to the end.
-[Sidenote: Gen. 26. 15.] Ye are brought unto fountains of living water
-which ye digged not; do not cast earth into them, with the Philistines,
-neither prefer broken pits before them, with the wicked Jews. [Sidenote:
-Jer. 2. 13.] Others have laboured, and you may enter into their labours. O
-receive not so great things in vain: O despise not so great salvation. Be
-not like swine to tread under foot so precious things, neither yet like
-dogs to tear and abuse holy things. Say not to our Saviour with the
-_Gergesites_, [Sidenote: Matt. 8. 35. Heb. 12. 16.] Depart out of our
-coasts; neither with _Esau_ sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. If
-light be come into the world, love not darkness more than light: if food,
-if clothing, be offered, go not naked, starve not yourselves. [Sidenote:
-_Nazianz._ [Greek: peri hag bapt. Deinon pan�gyrin parelthein, kai
-t�nikauta pragmateian epiz�tein.]] Remember the advice of _Nazianzene_,
-_It is a grievous thing_ (or dangerous) _to neglect a great fair, and to
-seek to make markets afterwards_: also the encouragement of St.
-_Chrysostome_, _It is altogether impossible, that he that is sober_ (and
-watchful) _should at any time be neglected_: lastly, the admonition and
-menancing of St. _Augustine_, _They that despise God's will inviting them
-shall feel God's will taking vengeance of them_. [Sidenote: _St. Chrysost.
-in Epist. ad Rom. c. 14._] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
-the living God; [Sidenote: _orat. 26. in_ [Greek: �thik. Ham� chanon,
-sphodra am�chanon.]] but a blessed thing it is, and will bring us to
-everlasting blessedness in the end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken;
-when he setteth his word before us, to read it; when he stretcheth out his
-hand and calleth, to answer, Here am I, here we are to do thy will, O God.
-[Sidenote: _St. August, ad artic. sibi falso object. Art. 16._ Heb. 10.
-31.] The Lord work a care and conscience in us to know him and serve him,
-that we may be acknowledged of him at the appearing of our Lord JESUS
-CHRIST, to whom with the Holy Ghost be all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(G.)
-
-_THE REVISERS OF A.D. 1568._
-
-
-The twelve bishops who are mentioned as taking part with Archbishop Parker
-in this revision, are:
-
-    William Alley, Bishop of Exeter.
-
-    William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester.
-
-    Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
-
-    Nicholas Bullingham, Bishop of Lincoln.
-
-    Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely.
-
-    Richard Davies, Bishop of St. Davids (Menevensis).
-
-    Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.
-
-    Edmund Guest (or Geste), Bishop of Rochester.
-
-    Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester.
-
-    John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich.
-
-    Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Worcester.
-
-    Edmund Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough.
-
-The other church dignitaries who are mentioned are:
-
-    Andrew Pearson, Canon of Canterbury.
-
-    Andrew Perne, Prebendary of Ely.
-
-    Thomas Beacon, Prebendary of Canterbury.
-
-    Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster.
-
-At the end of sixteen of the books are placed initials, which are
-evidently those of the revisers. These, with more or less of certainty,
-have been identified with names given in the above list.[147] They are as
-follows, and in the following order:
-
-  Deuteronomy   W. E.      Bishop of Exeter.
-  2 Samuel      R. M.      Bishop of St. Davids.
-  2 Chronicles  E. W.      Bishop of Worcester.
-  Job           A. P. _C_  Andrew Pearson.
-  Psalms[148]   T. B.      Thomas Beacon.
-  Proverbs      A. P. _C_  Andrew Pearson.
-  Canticles     A. P. _E_  Andrew Perne.
-  Lamentations  R. W.      Bishop of Winchester.
-  Daniel        T. C.L.    Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
-  Malachi       E. L.      Bishop of London.
-  Wisdom        W. C.      Bishop of Chichester.
-  2 Maccabees   J. N.      Bishop of Norwich.
-  Acts          R. E.      Bishop of Ely.
-  Romans        R. E.      Bishop of Ely.
-  1 Corinthians G. G.      Gabriel Goodman.
-
-From a list of the revisers, enclosed in a letter from Parker to Cecil,
-dated October 5th, 1568, and now in the State Paper Office, we may further
-gather that the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse were revised by
-Bishop Bullingham, the Gospels of Luke and John by Bishop Scambler, and
-that the portions undertaken by Parker himself were Genesis, Exodus,
-Matthew, Mark, and the Epistles from 2 Corinthians to Hebrews
-inclusive.[149]
-
-
-
-
-(H.)
-
-_THE REVISERS OF 1611._
-
-
-In the collection of Records appended to the Second Part of Bishop
-Burnet's _History of the Reformation of the Church of England_, there is
-given a list of the Revisers of 1611, copied, as the writer tells us,[150]
-from the paper of Bishop Ravis himself, one of the number. The list is
-thus given:[151]
-
-    WESTMINSTER (1). Mr. Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dean of Pauls, Mr.
-    Doctor Saravia, Mr. Doctor Clark, Mr. Doctor Leifield, Mr. Doctor
-    Teigh, Mr. Burleigh, Mr. King, Mr. Tompson, Mr. Beadwell.
-
-    CAMBRIDGE (1). Mr. Livelye, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Chatterton, Mr.
-    Dillingham, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Spalding, Mr. Burge.
-
-    OXFORD (1). Doctor Harding, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Holland, Dr. Kilbye, Mr.
-    Smith, Mr. Brett, Mr. Fairclough.
-
-    CAMBRIDGE (2). Doctor Dewport, Dr. Branthwait, Dr. Radclife, Mr. Ward
-    (Eman.), Mr. Downes, Mr. Boyes, Mr. Warde (Reg.).
-
-    OXFORD (2). Mr. Dean of Christchurch, Mr. Dean of Winchester, Mr. Dean
-    of Worcester, Mr. Dean of Windsor, Mr. Sairle, Dr. Perne, Dr. Ravens,
-    Mr. Haviner.[152]
-
-    WESTMINSTER (2). Dean of Chester, Dr. Hutchinson, Dr. Spencer, Mr.
-    Fenton, Mr. Rabbet, Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Dakins.
-
-Some difference of opinion has existed in reference to the date of this
-document. Its date is determined within comparatively narrow limits by
-internal evidence.
-
-The writer, Dr. Ravis, describes himself as Dean of Christ Church; it must
-therefore have been written _before_ March 19, 1605, when he was
-consecrated Bishop of Gloucester. He also refers to the Dean of Worcester
-(Dr. Eedes), who died November, 1604, and hence he may be assumed to have
-written before that date also. The difficulty is that he describes Dr.
-Barlow, who is known to have taken part in the work, as Dean of Chester,
-and it must therefore have been written _after_ Barlow's appointment of
-this office. This appointment, as stated by Cardwell, took place in
-December, 1604;[153] but the correctness of that date is open to some
-doubt.[154]
-
-The names contained in the above given list have, with some few
-exceptions, been satisfactorily identified; namely, as follows:
-
-
-FIRST WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. Launcelot Andrews, Dean of Westminster.[155]
-
-    Dr. John Overall, Dean of St. Paul's.[156]
-
-    Dr. Adrian de Saravia.
-
-    Dr. Richard Clark, Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. John Layfield, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. Robert Tighe, Vicar of All Hallows, Barking.
-
-    [Dr. Francis Burley, Fellow of King James's College, Chelsea.]
-
-    Mr. Geoffry King, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.[157]
-
-    Mr. Richard Thomson, Clare Hall, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. William Bedwell, Vicar of Tottenham.
-
-
-FIRST CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
-
-    Mr. Edward Lively,[158] Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. John Richardson,[159] Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Laurence Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. F. Dillingham, Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Thomas Harrison, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Roger Andrews.[160]
-
-    Mr. Robert Spalding,[161] Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Andrew Byng, Fellow of Peter House.
-
-
-FIRST OXFORD COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and President of
-    Magdalen.
-
-    Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College.
-
-    Dr. Thomas Holland,[162] Regius Professor of Divinity.
-
-    Dr. Richard Kilbye, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. Miles Smith,[163] Brasenose College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. Richard Brett, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
-
-    Mr. Richard Fairclough, Fellow of New College, Oxford.
-
-
-THE SECOND CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. John Duport, Master of Jesus College.
-
-    Dr. William Branthwaite, Master of Caius College.
-
-    Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe, Fellow of Trinity College.
-
-    Mr. Samuel Ward, Fellow of Emmanuel College.[164]
-
-    Mr. Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of Greek.
-
-    Mr. John Bois, Fellow of St. John's, and Rector of Boxworth.
-
-    Mr. Ward, Fellow of King's College.[165]
-
-
-THE SECOND OXFORD COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dean of Christ Church.[166]
-
-    Dr. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester.[167]
-
-    Dr. Richard Eedes, Dean of Worcester.[168]
-
-    Dr. Giles Thomson, Dean of Windsor.
-
-    Mr. Henry Saville,[169] Warden of Merton and Provost of Eton.
-
-    Dr. John Perin, Fellow of St. John's College.
-
-    [Dr. Ralph Ravens, Fellow of St. John's College.]
-
-    Dr. John Harmer, Regius Professor of Greek.
-
-To these, Wood, who does not mention the names of either Eedes or Ravens,
-in the list given in his _History of the University of Oxford_, adds the
-following two; they were probably appointed to take the places of some
-removed by death:
-
-    Dr. John Aglionby,[170] Principal of Edmunds Hall.
-
-    Dr. Leonard Hutten,[171] Canon of Christ Church.
-
-
-THE SECOND WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. William Barlow, Dean of Chester.
-
-    Dr. Hutchinson. (?)
-
-    Dr. John Spenser, Chaplain to King James.[172]
-
-    Mr. Roger Fenton, Pembroke Hall, Oxford.
-
-    [Mr. Michael Rabbett, Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane.]
-
-    [Mr. Thomas Sanderson, Rector of All Hallows.]
-
-    Mr. William Dakins, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-
-
-
-NOTE TO PAGE 117.
-
-
-DEAN STANLEY (_Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, p. 440) states
-generally that the Assembly of Divines removed from Henry VII.'s Chapel to
-the Jerusalem Chamber at the end of September. The exact date is, as
-stated in the text, October 2nd. In the Minutes of the Sessions of the
-Assembly, preserved in Dr. Williams's Library, there occurs at the close
-of the sixty-fifth session the entry, "Adjourned to the Hierusalem Chamber
-on Monday, at ten o'clock," and the following session, the sixty-sixth, is
-dated Monday, October 2nd. The permission to adjourn to the Jerusalem
-Chamber from Henry VII.'s Chapel, "on account of the coldness of the said
-chapel," was granted by Parliament on September 21st, 1643.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  A.
-
-  Abbot, Dr. Ezra, 115
-
-  �lfric's Heptateuch, 12, 13
-
-  Aiken, Dr. C. A., 115
-
-  Ainsworth, H., his Commentaries, 101
-
-  Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, 11
-
-  Alexander, Dr. W. L., 109
-
-  Alexandrine Manuscript, 83
-
-  Alford, Dean, 104, 107, 110, 112, 125
-
-  Alfred, King, 12
-
-  Allen, Archdeacon, 107
-
-  Andrews, Dr. Launcelot, 41
-
-  Anglo-Saxon Gospel, 12
-
-  Angus, Dr. Jos., 110, 125
-
-  Authorized Version, first suggestion of, 40
-
-  ---- ordered by King James, 41
-
-  ---- a revision, not a translation, 45
-
-  ---- rules followed by the revisers, 42-44
-
-  ---- misprints in, 54
-
-  ---- obsolete words in, 57-59
-
-  ---- imperfect renderings of, 62
-
-  ---- preface to, 199
-
-  ---- list of its revisors, 237
-
-
-  B.
-
-  Bancroft, Archbishop, 41, 45
-
-  Barrow, Dr. John, 104
-
-  Bede, 11
-
-  Bensley, Mr. R. N., 111
-
-  Bentley, Dr. Richard, his proposals for revised texts of the Greek New
-        Testament and of the Vulgate, 100
-
-  Beza's Codex, 83
-
-  Beza, Theodore, his edition of the Greek New Testament, 84, 86
-
-  Biber, Dr. G. F., 103
-
-  Bible, earliest form of, 4
-
-  ---- Authorized Version of, 39
-
-  ---- Bishops', 30, 37, 39
-
-  ---- Coverdale's, 18, 36
-
-  ---- Douai, 33, 38
-
-  ---- Genevan, 26, 37, 39
-
-  ---- Great, 21, 36
-
-  ---- Matthew's, 20
-
-  ---- Purvey's, 15, 36
-
-  ---- Taverner's, 22
-
-  ---- Wycliffe's, 13, 14, 35
-
-  Bickersteth, Dean, 107, 110, 125
-
-  Bilson, Bishop, 49
-
-  Birrell, Rev. J., 111
-
-  Bishops' Bible, 30, 37, 39
-
-  Bishops' Bible, preface thereto, 177
-
-  ---- translators of, 235
-
-  Blakesley, Dean, 106_n_, 107, 110, 125
-
-  Bodley, John, bears the expenses of the Genevan Bible, 30_n_
-
-  Bois, John, 46, 49
-
-  Broughton, Hugh, 92
-
-  Brown, Dr. David, 112, 125
-
-  Browne, Dr. E. H. (Bishop of Winchester), 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-
-  C.
-
-  Chambers, Dr. T. W., 115
-
-  Chance, Dr. F., 111
-
-  Chenery, Professor, 109
-
-  Cheyne, Rev. T. K., 111
-
-  Claromontane Manuscript, 83
-
-  Clergymen, Five, their revision of the Gospel of John, 104
-
-  Collation of Manuscripts, 82
-
-  Complutensian Polyglot, 84
-
-  Conant, Dr. T. J., 114
-
-  Coverdale, first edition of his Bible, 18
-
-  ---- his Prologue thereto, 160
-
-  ---- prepares the Great Bible, 21
-
-  ---- issues a second and other editions of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  ---- a refugee at Geneva, 27
-
-  Cranmer, his opinion of Matthew's Bible, 20_n_
-
-  ---- his Prologue to the second edition of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  Cromwell, Thomas, patron of Coverdale, 18
-
-  ---- promotes the preparation of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  Crooks, Dr. G. R., 115, 116
-
-
-  D.
-
-  Davidson, Dr. A. B., 109
-
-  Davies, Dr. B., 109
-
-  Day, Dr. G. E., 114
-
-  De Witt, Dr. J., 114
-
-  Dort, Synod of, 44, 49
-
-  Douglas, Dr. G., 111
-
-  Downes, A., 49
-
-  Driver, Mr. S. R., 111
-
-
-  E.
-
-  Eadie, Dr. J., 110, 112
-
-  Ellicott, Bishop, 104, 105, 110, 125
-
-  Elliott, Rev. C. J., 112
-
-  Ephraem Codex, 83
-
-  Erasmus, his editions of the Greek New Testament, 85
-
-
-  F.
-
-  Fairbairn, Dr. P., 109
-
-  Field, Dr. F., 109
-
-
-  G.
-
-  Geddes, Dr. A., his projected translation of the Bible, 98
-
-  Geden, Professor, 112
-
-  Gell, R., his essay upon the amendment of the Authorized Version, 93
-
-  Genevan Bible, 26-30, 37
-
-  ---- popularity of, 32, 52
-
-  ---- preface to, 172
-
-  Genevan Psalter, 27
-
-  Genevan New Testament, 28, 29
-
-  Ginsburg, Dr., 109
-
-  Gotch, Dr. F. W., 109
-
-  Green, Dr. W. H., 114
-
-  Gutenberg Bible, 17_n_
-
-  Guthlac of Croyland, 11, 12
-
-
-  H.
-
-  Hackett, Dr. H. B., 115, 116
-
-  Hadley, Dr. J., 115, 116
-
-  Hampton Court Conference, 40
-
-  Harding, Dr. J., 41
-
-  Hare, Dr. G. E., 114
-
-  Harrison, Archdeacon, 109
-
-  Harwood, E., his translation of the New Testament, 97_n_
-
-  Hereford, Nicholas de, 14
-
-  Hervey, Bishop, 107
-
-  Heywood, James, his motion in the House of Commons for a new revision,
-        103
-
-  Hodge, Dr. C., 115, 116
-
-  Holbein, his design for title-page of Great Bible, 22_n_
-
-  Hort, Dr. F. J. A., 110, 120, 125
-
-  Humphry, Prebendary, 104, 110, 125
-
-
-  I.
-
-  Itala, The, 9
-
-
-  J.
-
-  Jebb, Dr. J., 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Jerome, revises the old Latin version, 9
-
-  ---- translates Old Testament, 9
-
-  Jerusalem Chamber, 117, 127, 242
-
-  Jessey, Henry, his attempted revision of Authorized Version, 95
-
-  Johnson, Anthony, his Historical Account, 27_n_
-
-
-  K.
-
-  Kay, Dr. W., 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Kendrick, Dr. A. C., 115
-
-  Kennedy, Canon, 110, 125
-
-  Kennicott, Dr. B., 100
-
-  Kilbie, Dr. R., 47
-
-  Krauth, Dr. C. P., 115
-
-
-  L.
-
-  Latin Versions, 8, 9
-
-  Lawrence, T., his notes of errors in the Bishops' Bible, 32
-
-  Leathes, Dr. S., 109
-
-  Lee, Archdeacon, 110, 125
-
-  Lee, Dr. A., 115
-
-  Lewis, Dr. T., 115
-
-  Lewis, John, his History of the English Bible, 41, 49_n_
-
-  Lightfoot, Dr. J., urges upon Parliament the revision of the English
-        Bible, 92
-
-  Lightfoot, Dr. J. B. (Bishop of Durham), 101, 110, 125
-
-  Lindisfarne Gospels, 12_n_
-
-  Lively, Ed., 41
-
-  Lumby, Rev. J. R., 112
-
-  Lyra, Nicholas de, 17
-
-
-  M.
-
-  Mace, W., his Greek and English New Testament, 96
-
-  Marsh, Bishop, on the Authorized Version, 102
-
-  Manuscripts of the New Testament, 80
-
-  Mazarin Bible, 17_n_
-
-  McGill, Professor, 109
-
-  Mead, Dr. C. M., 115
-
-  Merivale, Dean, 112, 125
-
-  Mill, Dr. J., 99
-
-  Milligan, Dr. W., 110, 125
-
-  Moberly, Bishop, 104, 110, 125
-
-  Moulton, Dr. W. F., 111, 125
-
-  M�nster, Sebastian, 22, 31
-
-
-  N.
-
-  Newcome, Archbishop, his revised New Testament, 98
-
-  Newth, Dr., 111, 125
-
-
-  O.
-
-  Ollivant, Bishop, 105, 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Ormulum, The, 13
-
-  Osgood, Dr. H., 115
-
-
-  P.
-
-  Packard, Dr. J., 115
-
-  Pagninus, his Latin translation, 19, 31_n_
-
-  Palmer, Archdeacon, 112, 125
-
-  Parker, Archbishop, superintends the preparation of the Bishops' Bible,
-        30-32
-
-  ---- his letter to Cecil, 30_n_
-
-  Payne Smith, Dean, 110
-
-  Penn, Grenville, his revised text and translation of New Testament, 99
-
-  Perowne, Dean, 110
-
-  Plumptre, Dr. E. H., 110
-
-  Printed Bible, the first, 17
-
-  Printing, invention of, 17
-
-  Psalter, Genevan, 27
-
-  ---- Guthlac's, 11_n_
-
-  ---- Prayer Book, 9_n_, 39
-
-  ---- Rolle's, 13
-
-  ---- Schorham's, 13
-
-  Purver, A., his translation of the Bible, 97
-
-  Purvey, John, Wycliffe's friend and fellow-labourer, 15
-
-
-  Q.
-
-  Quotations in early Christian Writings, 87-89
-
-
-  R.
-
-  Rainolds, Dr. J., moves for a new revision, 40
-
-  Rainolds, Dr. J., appointed one of King James's revisers, 47
-
-  ---- works at the revision on his death-bed, 47
-
-  Revisers, the American, 114, 116
-
-  ---- of 1568, 235
-
-  ---- of 1611, 237
-
-  ---- of 1881, 109-112
-
-  Riddle, Dr. M. B., 115
-
-  Roberts, Dr. A., 111
-
-  Rogers, John, the probable editor of Matthew's Bible, 20
-
-  Rolle, Richard, 13
-
-  Rose, Archdeacon, 106_n_, 107, 110
-
-  Rossi, J. B. de, 100
-
-
-  S.
-
-  Sayce, Rev. A. H., 112
-
-  Schaff, Dr. Philip, 114, 115
-
-  Scholefield, Professor, on an improved translation of the New Testament,
-        102
-
-  Schorham, W. de, 13
-
-  Scott, Dean, 111, 125
-
-  Scribes, primary function of, 3
-
-  Scrivener, Dr. F. H., 56, 100, 111, 120, 125
-
-  Selwyn, Canon, 103, 107, 110
-
-  Septuagint Version, 6
-
-  Short, Dr. C., 115
-
-  Sinaitic Manuscript, 82
-
-  Smith, Dr. G. Vance, 111, 125
-
-  Smith, Dr. H. B., 115, 116
-
-  Smith, Dr. J. Pye, his testimony in favour of revision, 101
-
-  Smith, Dr. Miles, 47, 49
-
-  Smith, Professor, W. R., 112
-
-  Stanley, Dean, 107, 111, 125
-
-  Stephen, Robert, his editions of the Greek New Testament, 85
-
-  Stephen, Henry, 86_n_
-
-  Stowe, Dr. C. E., 115
-
-  Strong, Dr. J., 115
-
-  Syriac Version, 8, 87
-
-
-  T.
-
-  Taverner, John, 22_n_
-
-  Taverner, Richard, 22
-
-  Testament, New, Genevan, 28
-
-  ---- Rheims, 33
-
-  ---- Tyndale's, 18
-
-  ---- Whittingham's, 25
-
-  ---- See "Bible"
-
-  Thayer, Dr. J. H., 115
-
-  Thirlwall, Bishop, 105, 106, 110
-
-  Tischendorf, Dr. C., 100
-
-  Transcription, errors of, 3
-
-  Tregelles, Dr. S. P., 100, 109_n_
-
-  Trench, Archbishop, 111, 125
-
-  Tyndale, W., his translations, 18
-
-  ---- his Prologue to New Testament, 137
-
-  ---- his Epistle to the Reader, 152
-
-  ---- his Preface to the Pentateuch, 154
-
-
-  U.
-
-  Ussher, A., his revised version, 94_n_
-
-
-  V.
-
-  Vatican Manuscript, 83
-
-  Van Dyke, Dr. C. V. A., 115
-
-  Vaughan, Dean, 111, 125
-
-  Version, �thiopic, 87
-
-  ---- Armenian, 87
-
-  ---- Gothic, 87
-
-  ---- Italic, 8
-
-  ---- Memphitic, 87
-
-  ---- Old Latin, 8
-
-  ---- Septuagint, 6
-
-  ---- Syriac, 8
-
-  ---- Thebaic, 87
-
-  Vulgate, 9
-
-
-  W.
-
-  Wakefield, G., his translation of the New Testament, 98
-
-  Walker, Anthony, his Life of Bois, 46_n_, 49_n_
-
-  Walton's Polyglot, 99
-
-  Ward, Dr. S., 44_n_
-
-  Ward, T., his Errata to the Protestant Bible, 33_n_, 93
-
-  Warren, Dr. W. F., 115, 116
-
-  Weir, Dr. D. H., 112
-
-  Wemyss, T., his Reasons in favour of a new translation, 102
-
-  Westcott, Canon, 22_n_, 41_n_, 111, 125
-
-  Whittingham's New Testament, 25
-
-  ---- his version and the Genevan compared, 28, 29
-
-  Wicked Bible, 54_n_
-
-  Wilberforce, Bishop, 105, 106, 111, 125
-
-  Woolsey, Dr. T. D., 115
-
-  Wordsworth, Dr. Christopher (Bishop of Lincoln), 107, 110
-
-  Wordsworth, Dr. Charles (Bishop of St. Andrews), 112, 125
-
-  Worsley, J., his translation of the New Testament, 97
-
-  Wright, Dr. W., 109_n_, 112
-
-  Wright, Mr. W. A., 110, 113
-
-  Wycliffe, John, 13, 14
-
-  ---- his Bible, 16, 35
-
-  ---- preface to his Bible, 129
-
-
-  Z.
-
-  Zurich Bible, 19
-
-
-_W. Brendon and Son, Plymouth._
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] From the Latin for seventy, this being the supposed number of the
-translators. It is referred to as the translation of the Seventy Elders so
-early as the middle of the second century. See Justin Martyr, _Dialogue
-with Trypho_, c. 68.
-
-[2] See Philo Jud�us, _Life of Moses_, book ii. Josephus, _Antiquities_,
-xii. ii. 5, 11, 12, 14. Eusebius, _Eccl. Hist._, v. 8. Josephus states
-that the translation was made by seventy-two elders in seventy-two days.
-The story as given in Eusebius is, that the seventy elders were placed
-apart in seventy different cells, that each translated the entire
-Scriptures, and that the seventy translations when compared were found to
-agree to a word.
-
-[3] And this he gave, not by any formal enactment, but by using Jerome's
-translation as the basis of his own _Exposition of the Book of Job_. (See
-Gregory's _Letter to Leander_, forming the preface to that work.) The old
-version of the Psalms retained its ground apparently from its close
-connection with the music of the Church. From a like cause the old version
-of the English Psalms, which in fact was made from the Latin of the
-Vulgate, retains its place in the Psalter of the Prayer Book. It should
-however be noted that it is but the translation of the translation of a
-translation.
-
-[4] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, A.D. 709.
-
-[5] "I have seen a book at Crowland Abbey, which is kept there for a
-relic. The book is called _Saint Guthlake's Psalter_, and I weene verily
-that it is a copy of the same that the king did translate; for it is
-neither English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nor Dutch, but something sounding
-to our English; and as I have perceived since the time I was last there,
-being at Antwerp, the Saxon tongue doth sound likewise, and it is to ours
-partly agreeable." The answer of John Lambert to the twenty-sixth of the
-Articles laid against him. (FOXE, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. v. p. 213.)
-
-[6] _The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester_, A.D. 699, and A.D. 714.
-
-[7] Many of the clergy were probably at this time unable to interpret the
-Latin Bibles used in the Church services. Several MSS. exist which have an
-English translation (gloss) inserted between the lines by writers of the
-ninth or tenth centuries. One of these, the "Lindisfarne Gospels," now in
-the British Museum, is a most richly-adorned MS. It was written by one
-bishop of Lindisfarne, and ornamented by another, and was encased in
-jewelled covers. Over each Latin word is written its equivalent in English
-(Anglo-Saxon). This, as is explained by a note at the end, was done by one
-"Aldred, the priest," and, as his handwriting shows, in the tenth century.
-It cannot be supposed that this was done for the benefit of ordinary
-readers. So valued a MS. would not be likely to come into any other hands
-than those of the clergy or the monks.
-
-[8] There is no direct evidence for the existence at an earlier date of
-any translation of the entire Scriptures into any form of English. In an
-interesting tract (commonly assigned to the earlier part of the fifteenth
-century, and printed by Foxe in the first edition of his _Acts and
-Monuments_, 1563), entitled, "A Compendious Old Treatise, showing how that
-we ought to have the Scripture in English." It is stated, "Also a man of
-London, whose name was Wyring, had a Bible in English, of northern speech,
-which was seen of many men, and it seemed to be two hundred years old."
-(FOXE, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. iv. p. 674.) It cannot, however, be
-inferred from this statement that the volume referred to was a complete
-Bible.
-
-[9] See Appendix A.
-
-[10] As many as one hundred and fifty manuscripts, containing the whole or
-parts of Purvey's Bible, are still in existence, and the majority of these
-were written within forty years from the time of its completion.--FORSHALL
-and MADDEN, _Wycliffite Versions of the Holy Bible_, Preface, p. xxxiii.
-
-[11] No portion of the Wycliffe Bible was printed until 1731, when the New
-Testament, in the later of its forms, was published by the Rev. John
-Lewis, of Margate. This was reprinted in 1810, under the editorship of the
-Rev. Henry Baber. The complete Bible was not printed till so recently as
-1850, in the splendid volumes issued from the University press of Oxford,
-and edited by the Rev. J. Forshall and Rev. F. Madden.
-
-[12] The first work known to have been printed with moveable metal type is
-the Latin Bible, issued from the press of John Gutenberg at Maintz,
-1450-55. This Bible is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible, from
-the accidental circumstance that a copy of it was found about the middle
-of last century in Cardinal Mazarin's library at Paris. (HALLAM,
-_Literature of Europe_, vol. i. p. 210.) With more propriety it may be
-called the Gutenberg Bible.
-
-[13] See Appendix C.
-
-[14] Mr. Blunt, in his article "English Bible," in the _Encyclop�dia
-Britannica_, maintains that Coverdale translated directly from the Hebrew
-and Greek. But in order to this he has, first, forcibly to set aside the
-statement on the title-page as "placed there by mistake," and then to
-represent Coverdale as including the Hebrew and Greek originals in the
-same category as Latin, German, and English translations, and as
-describing them all as "five interpreters" from which he had translated.
-
-[15] This license seems to have been obtained from the king by Cromwell at
-Cranmer's suggestion. (See Cranmer's Letter to Cromwell, August 4th, 1537.
-_Remains and Letters_, p. 344. Parker Society.) In this letter Cranmer
-thus expresses his opinion of the book: "And as for the translation, as
-far as I have read thereof I like it better than any other translation
-heretofore made; yet not doubting but that there may be and will be found
-some fault therein, as you know no man ever did or can do so well, but it
-may be from time to time amended. And forasmuch as the book is dedicated
-unto the king's grace, and also great pains and labour taken in setting
-forth of the same: I pray you, my lord, that you will exhibit the book
-unto the king's highness, and to obtain of his grace, if you can, a
-license that the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger
-of any act, proclamation, or ordinance, heretofore granted to the
-contrary, until such time as we bishops shall set forth a better
-translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday."
-
-[16] The full title is, "The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the
-content of all the holy scrypture, bothe of the olde and newe testament,
-truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes by y{e}
-dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde
-tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio
-ad imprimendum solum. 1539."
-
-[17] This was more than compensated by the remarkable and interesting
-engraving, said to be designed by Hans Holbein, which formed the
-title-page. Herein the king is flattered to his heart's content. On the
-top of the engraving the king on his knees and uncrowned is addressed by
-our Lord in the words, "I have found a man after mine own heart, who shall
-fulfil all my will." Below this the king on his throne distributes books
-labelled "_Verbum Dei_," the Word of God, to the clergy with his right
-hand, to Cromwell and others with the left. Lower down on the right of the
-page is the figure of Cromwell distributing the books to the laity, and on
-the left that of Cranmer distributing it to the clergy. At the bottom of
-the page is a crowd of people of all sorts and conditions, some crying out
-in Latin, "_Vivat Rex_" others in English, "God save the king."
-
-[18] With the title, "The Most Sacred Bible, which is the Holy Scripture,
-conteyning the old & new testament translated into English, & newly
-recognised with great diligence after most faythful exemplars, by Rychard
-Taverner. Harken thou heuen, & thou earth gyve eare: for the Lorde
-speaketh. Esaie i. Printed at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the
-sonne by John Byddell, for Thomas Barthlet. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum
-solum M.D. XXXIX."
-
-[19] In Fox, _Acts and Monuments_, v. 428, amongst the names of "godly
-brethren at Oxford" suspected of heresy, and compelled to do public
-penance, mention is made of "Taverner the musician," of "Friswide College"
-(Frideswede, now Christ Church); and again, v. 423, Anthony Dalaber says,
-"I stode at the quier door and heard Master Taverner play." Dr. EADIE,
-_The English Bible_, i. 343, assumes that the reference in this last
-passage is to Richard Taverner; but far more probably the reference is to
-John Taverner, who, according to WOOD, _Athen� Oxoniensis_, i. 124, was
-"sometime organist of Cardinal College." I find no other foundation than
-these doubtful passages for the statement made by WESTCOTT, _History of
-the English Bible_, ed. 2, p. 85, and by EADIE, _loc. cit._, that Richard
-Taverner was one of those who suffered persecution upon the first
-circulation of Tyndale's New Testament.
-
-[20] See COTTON, _Editions of the English Bible_, p. 21.
-
-[21] From this circumstance the Great Bible is often, but improperly,
-called Cranmer's Bible. "The Prologue or Preface made by Thomas Cranmer
-sometime Archbishop of Canterbury," is prefixed to many Bibles, to some
-editions of the Genevan, and to the Bishops.
-
-[22] The dates of these editions, as given in the colophons, are, July,
-1540; November, 1540 (1541 on title-page); May, 1541; November, 1541;
-December, 1541.
-
-[23] He married Catherine, sister of John Calvin. An interesting account
-of "The Life and Death of Mr. William Whittingham, Deane of Durham, who
-departed this life A.D. 1579, June 10," found amongst the papers of
-Anthony � Wood, preserved in the Bodleian Library, is given by DR.
-LORIMER, _John Knox and the Church of England_, pp. 303-317.
-
-[24] The dedication to the queen, prefixed to this volume, is dated
-Geneva, February 10th, 1559. After exhorting the queen to persevere in the
-reformation of religion, the writers state that "albeit they had begun
-more than a year ago to peruse the _English_ Translation of the Bible, and
-to bring it to the pure simplicity and true meaning of the Spirit of God,
-yet when they heard that Almighty God had miraculously preserved her to
-that most excellent dignity, with most joyful minds and great diligence
-they endeavoured themselves to set forth this most excellent Book of the
-Psalms unto her Grace as a special token of their service and goodwill
-till the rest of the Bible, which was in good readiness, should be
-accomplished and presented." (ANTHONY JOHNSON, _Historical Account of the
-Several English Translations of the Bible_. Reprinted in WATSON'S
-_Collection of Theological Tracts_, vol. iii. p. 87.)
-
-[25]
-
-    _verse._   1557.                        1560.
-   1. out of the way                apart
-   3. they saw                      there appeared unto them
-   4. here is good beying for us    it is good for us to be here
-   5. that cloude                   the cloude
-      my deare sonne                my beloved sonne
-      in whom I delyte              in whom I am well pleased
-   6. were afrayed                  were sore afrayde
-   7. But Jesus                     Then Jesus
-   8. loked up                      lifted up their eyes
-   9. See that ye shewe             Shewe
-      be risen                      rise
-      death                         the dead
-  11. Jesus                         And Jesus
-  12. lusted                        would
-      In like wise                  likewise
-  14. people                        multitude
-  15. mercie                        pitie
-      oft                           ofttimes
-  17. Jesus                         Then Jesus
-      how long (_bis_).             how long now (_bis_)
-  18. came out                      went out
-      even that same                at that
-  19. secrectly                     apart
-  20. Jesus                         And Jesus
-      if ye had                     if ye have
-      ye should                     ye shall
-      it should                     it shall
-      neither could anything        and nothing shall
-      for you to do                 unto you
-  22. As they                       And as they
-      passed the time               abode
-      betraied                      delivered
-  23. and the thyrd                 but the third
-      sorowed greatly               were verie sorie
-  24. were wont to gather           received
-  25. spake first to him            prevented
-  27. thyne angle                   an angle
-      the fyshe that first          the first fish that
-      pay                           give it unto them
-
-[26] Strype also tells us that the expenses of publication were borne
-chiefly by John Bodley, father of Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the
-Bodleian Library at Oxford.--_Life of Parker_, p. 206.
-
-[27] It is very pleasant to read that, notwithstanding this, Parker joined
-with Grindal, Bishop of London, in pleading for an extension of the patent
-granted to Bodley, in order to enable him to publish the new edition of
-the Genevan referred to above. Writing, March 9th, 1565, to Cecil, the
-Queen's Secretary, the Archbishop and Bishop say, "That they thought so
-well of the first Impression, and the Review of those who had since
-travelled therein, that they wisht it would please him to be a Means, that
-Twelve Years longer Term might be by Special Privilege granted him, in
-consideration of the Charges by him and his Associates in the first
-Impression, and the Review sithence sustained. And that tho' one other
-special Bible for the Churches were meant by them to be set forth, as
-convenient Time and Leisure hereafter should permit, yet should it nothing
-hinder, but rather do much good, to have Diversity of Translations and
-Readings."--STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, p. 207, Folio Edition.
-
-[28] See Appendix G.
-
-[29] Pagninus was a learned Dominican, who published at Lyons, in 1528, a
-new translation in Latin of the Old and New Testaments.
-
-[30] STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, Appendix, p. 139.
-
-[31] _Ibid_, p. 399.
-
-[32] In an attack made upon Protestant versions of the Scriptures by
-Thomas Ward, in the reign of James II., or three-quarters of a century
-after the publication of the Authorized Version, the writer selects his
-examples from Genevan Bibles of the years 1562, 1577, and 1579, and speaks
-of this Bible as "well known in England even to this day, as being yet in
-many men's hands."--_Errata to the Protestant Bible_, p. 19, ed. 1737.
-
-[33] The Old Testament was not published till long afterwards, when the
-College was once more settled at Douai. It is hence called the Douai
-Bible. The first volume was published in 1609, and the second in 1610. In
-the preface it is stated that the translation was made "about thirtie
-yeares since."
-
-[34] Amongst the former are advent, allegory, anathema, assumption,
-calumniate, co-operate, evangelize, eunuch, gratis, holocaust, neophyte,
-paraclete, pentecost, victim. Amongst the latter are agnition, azymes,
-commessation, condigne, contristate, depositum, donaries, exinanited,
-parasceue, pasche, prefinition, loaves of proposition, repropitiate,
-superedified.
-
-[35] Compare the word "leasowes," still used in some parts of the country
-for "meadows."
-
-[36] "Of all the English versions, the Bishops' Bible had probably the
-least success. It did not command the respect of scholars, and its size
-and cost were far from meeting the wants of the people. Its circulation
-appears to have been practically limited to the churches which were
-ordered to be supplied with it."--Dr. PLUMPTRE, _Dictionary of the Bible_,
-vol. iii. p. 1,675.
-
-[37] His name is variously spelt Rainolds, Rainoldes, Reinolds, Reynolds.
-
-[38] See Dr. WILLIAM BARLOW'S _Sum and Substance of the Conference which
-it pleased his Excellent Majesty to have with the Lords Bishops, and
-others of his Clergy, in his Majesty's Privy Chamber at Hampton Court,
-Jan. 1603_ (o.s.). Reprinted in _The Phenix: or a Revival of Scarce and
-Valuable Pieces_, p. 157. Lond. 1707.
-
-[39] Rendered in the Bishops' and the Great Bible, "and bordereth upon the
-city which is now called Jerusalem," instead of, "and answered to
-Jerusalem which now is."
-
-[40] Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, "they were not
-obedient," instead of, "they were not disobedient," as in Genevan, or
-"they rebelled not," as in our present Bibles.
-
-[41] Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, "and prayed,"
-instead of, "and executed judgment."
-
-[42] See LEWIS, _History of the English Translations of the Bible_, p.
-313; or EADIE, _The English Bible_, vol. ii. p. 180; or WESTCOTT, _History
-of the English Bible_, p. 113. The king's letter is given in full by
-CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England_, vol. ii.
-p. 65, ed. 1839.
-
-[43] For the names of the Revisers of 1611 see Appendix H.
-
-[44] That is, the Great Bible; called Whitchurch's, from the name of one
-of the printers.
-
-[45] BURNET, _History of the Reformation_, part ii., Appendix, p. 368, ed.
-1681.
-
-[46] One of whom, Dr. Samuel Ward, had himself taken part in the English
-revision.
-
-[47] Tables of Genealogies and a description of the Holy Land are found
-prefixed to many early editions of King James's Bible.
-
-[48] _Acta Synodi Dordrechti habit�_, p. 19, ed. 1620.
-
-[49] CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals_, vol. ii. p. 68, ed. 1839.
-
-[50] See Appendix F.
-
-[51] For a list of the Revisers see Appendix H.
-
-[52] In some cases, however, this further subdivision of work seems to
-have taken place. Anthony Walker, in his _Life of John Bois_, p. 47
-(reprinted in PECK'S _Desiderata Curiosa_), says: "Sure I am that Part of
-the Apocrypha was allotted to him (for he hath showed me the very copy he
-translated by), but to my Grief I know not what part." Bois was a member
-of the company to which the Apocrypha was assigned. Walker goes on to say,
-"All the time he was about his own Part, his Commons were given to him at
-St. Johns, where he abode all the week till Saturday night; and then he
-went home to discharge his Cure, returning thence on Monday morning. When
-he had finished his own part, at the earnest request of him to whom it was
-assigned he undertook a Second, and then he was to common in another
-College. But I forbear to name both the person and the House."
-
-[53] The bare fact that the Oxford Revisers met in Rainolds' lodgings is
-mentioned by WOOD, _Historia Univ. Oxon._, vol. i. p. 311, and is referred
-to by STOUGHTON, _Our English Bible_, p. 248.
-
-[54] FULLER'S _Abel Redivivus_, p. 487. In his _Church History_, book x.
-p. 48, Fuller says of Rainolds that he was a man deserving of the epitaph.
-"Incertum est utrum Doctior an Melior." "We know not which was the
-greater, his learning or his goodness."
-
-[55] PECK, _Desiderata Curiosa_, p. 47.
-
-[56] It is clear, from the words which immediately follow, that the writer
-uses the word "company" here for the entire number of translators
-belonging to any one of the three centres. In the written account
-presented to the Synod of Dort by the English delegates, it is said that
-_twelve_ persons, selected out of the companies, met together, and
-reviewed and corrected the entire work. Wood also (_Athen� Oxon._, vol. i.
-p. 490) gives twelve as the number of the "selected," and amongst them
-includes Bilson and Miles Smith.
-
-[57] The writer quaintly remarks in a parenthesis, "Though Mr. Downes
-would not go till he was either fetcht or threatened with the Pursuivant."
-
-[58] Lewis (_History of the English Translations of the Bible_, p. 323) by
-a strange blunder turns these shillings into pounds.
-
-[59] Walker adds, "Whilst they were employed in this last business, he and
-he only took notes of their proceedings, which notes he kept till his
-dying day." If these notes could be recovered they would throw much light
-upon many points of interest in connection with the Revision of 1611.
-
-[60] FULLER, _Church History_, book x. p. 57.
-
-[61] See Mr. HENRY STEVENS, _Printed Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition_, p.
-110. But if Mr. Stevens be right in this contention, the publisher can
-scarcely be held free from the charge of false suggestion, since the
-phrase occurs in earlier Bibles in the sense which it most naturally
-bears. In the edition of the Great Bible dated April, 1540, we have on the
-title-page: "This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the churches," and
-the meaning of this is shown by the fuller form that appears in the
-title-page of the edition of November, 1540, "auctorysed and apoynted by
-the commaundement of oure moost redoubted Prynce and soveraygne Lorde
-Kynge Henrye the VIII. ... to be frequented and used in every churche
-within this his sayd realme." An edition of the Bishops' Bible dated 1585
-has the inscription, "Authorized and appointed to be read in Churches;"
-and King Charles II.'s _Declaration to all His Loving Subjects_, is
-"Appointed to to be Read in all Churches and Chapels within this kingdom."
-
-[62] The latest quarto edition of the Genevan published in England bears
-the date 1615, the latest folio, 1616.
-
-[63] This edition has hence been described by Bible collectors as the
-"Wicked Bible." The error was of course speedily discovered and the
-edition suppressed. Archbishop Laud fined the printer in the sum of �300,
-and with this he is said to have bought a fount of Greek type for the
-University of Oxford.
-
-[64] In the reign of Charles II. a silly report was set afloat that Field,
-the printer of what is known as the Pearl Bible of 1653, had received a
-present of �1,500 from the Independents to introduce this corruption into
-the text. See D'ISRAELI'S _Curiosities of Literature_, Art. Pearl Bible.
-Mr. D'Israeli must have been ignorant of the fact that this error occurs
-in Bibles printed fifteen years earlier than the Pearl Bible, and by the
-University Press, Cambridge.
-
-[65] This may possibly have been a change deliberately made by the editor,
-who either had a different Greek text or followed the Vulgate; but even in
-that case it would be a very awkward way of rendering the text before him.
-
-[66] This he has done, professedly, in the attempt to represent the
-version of 1611, "so far as may be, in the precise shape that it would
-have assumed if its venerable translators had shown themselves more exempt
-than they were from the failings incident to human infirmity; or if the
-same severe accuracy which is now demanded in carrying so important a
-volume through the press had been deemed requisite, or was at all usual in
-their age."--Introduction to Cambridge Paragraph Bible, p. i.
-
-[67] The LXX. and Vulgate are here right; so also Wycliffe, who,
-translating from the Latin, renders, "Seven trompes, whos vse is in the
-iubile."
-
-[68] Wycliffe, "Stronge men seseden in Yrael."
-
-[69] Here again the LXX., Vulgate, and Wycliffe are right. Wycliffe
-renders, "of whom shulen be alle the best thingis of Yrael."
-
-[70] The LXX., Vulgate, Wycliffe, the Great Bible, the Genevan, and the
-Bishops', all give the true sense.
-
-[71] In their rendering of verse 3 the Revisers of 1611 have followed the
-Genevan. Of the older versions, the Great Bible best renders this verse,
-"All my delyte is upon the saynctes that are in the earth, and upon suche
-as excell in vertue."
-
-[72] The Vulgate leads the way in this error.
-
-[73] Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan render correctly.
-
-[74] So the Rheims, "Why do you also trangresse the commaundement of God
-for your tradition?"
-
-[75] So Wycliffe, "for they ben feithful and loued, the whiche ben
-parceners of benefice;" and the Rheims, "because they be faithful and
-beloued which are partakers of the benefite."
-
-[76] Here all the older versions go wrong.
-
-[77] The first four books of the _Annals of Tacitus_ are found only in a
-single MS. (the Medicean) of the eleventh century. The nine books of the
-_Letters of Pliny the Younger_ are found complete in one MS. only, of the
-tenth century; this also is in the Medicean Library.
-
-[78] From the Latin _uncia_, an inch.
-
-[79] In some MSS. called _palimpsests_, the more ancient, and to us the
-more valuable, writing has been partially washed away, in order that the
-vellum might be used again for some more recent work. In these cases it is
-exceedingly difficult to decipher, beneath the later and darker writing,
-the traces of the older writing; indeed, not unfrequently the characters
-are so faded that they cannot be read at all until revived by some
-chemical preparation. The Ephraem Codex is a MS. of this kind.
-
-[80] Commonly referred to under the symbol [Hebrew], the Hebrew letter,
-_Aleph_.
-
-[81] Referred to as B.
-
-[82] Referred to as A.
-
-[83] Referred to as C.
-
-[84] Referred to as D of the Gospels.
-
-[85] Referred to as D of the Epistles.
-
-[86] The License for its publication was not granted until March 20, 1520.
-
-[87] Namely, his sole authority for the Apocalypse.
-
-[88] He had previously published two smaller editions (16mo), one in 1546,
-and another in 1549.
-
-[89] Now called the Codex Regius, and denoted by L.
-
-[90] The collation of the eight Parisian MSS. was done for him by his son
-Henry, then a youth of eighteen.
-
-[91] At Geneva, whither he had deemed it prudent to remove shortly after
-the publication of his celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament.
-
-[92] _Works_, vol. vi. p. 194.
-
-[93] The draft of this Bill is preserved in the State Paper Office
-(_Domestic Interreg._, Bundle 662, f. 12), and is given in full by Dr.
-STOUGHTON, _Church of the Commonwealth_, p. 543.
-
-[94] _Errata to the Protestant Bible_, Pref. p. 3., ed. 1737.
-
-[95] In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is a manuscript in
-three volumes of an English version of the Bible, by Ambrose Ussher,
-brother of Archbishop Ussher. The date assigned to it is about 1620. It
-does not, however, seem to be in any proper sense a revision of the
-version of 1611, but rather an independent revision based upon the earlier
-versions. In an "epistle dedicatorie" to James I. the writer describes
-himself as having "leisurelie and seasonablie dressed" and "served out
-this other dish" while His Majesty was "a doing on" the "seasonable sudden
-meale" which the translators had hastily prepared. He further states that
-he did not oppose "to our new translation old interpretationes alreadie
-waighed and reiected," but "fresh and new that yeeld new consideration and
-that fight not onlie with our English Bible, but likelie with all
-translated bibles in what language soeuer and contrarieth them." As far as
-can be gathered from the examination of a single chapter, the work seems
-chiefly based upon the Genevan. The version is incomplete. Vol. i.
-contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua
-(imperfect), Judges, Ruth, Samuel; vol. ii. contains Kings, Chronicles,
-Ezra, Nehemiah (imperfect), Esther, and a Latin version of part of Joshua;
-vol. iii. contains Job, Psalms (partly in Latin), Proverbs, Song of
-Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
-(partly in Latin), the Minor Prophets, the first chapter of St. John's
-Gospel, Romans, Corinthians, Philemon, James, Peter, John, Apocalypse
-(partly in Latin), Jude.--Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
-_Fourth Report_, pp. 589-598.
-
-[96] _The Life and Death of Mr. Henry Jessey_, p. 47.
-
-[97] Mace's rendering of James iii. 5, 6 is the passage most frequently
-quoted in illustration of his style. "So the tongue is but a small part of
-the body, yet how grand are its pretensions, a spark of fire! what
-quantities of timber will it blow into a flame? the tongue is a brand that
-sets the world in a combustion, it is but one of the numerous organs of
-the body, yet it can blast whole assemblies: tipped with infernal sulphur
-it sets the whole train of life in a blaze." It is but right, however, to
-state that this is perhaps the very worst passage in the book. The
-following verses are a fair specimen of his ordinary style. Acts xix. 8,
-9: "At length Paul went to the synagogue, where he spoke with great
-freedom, and for three months he conferred with them to persuade them of
-the truth of the evangelical kingdom, but some of them being such obdurate
-infidels as to inveigh against the institution before the populace, he
-retired, and taking the disciples with him, he instructed them daily in
-the school of one Tyrannus."
-
-A yet more offensive specimen of this style of translation was supplied by
-the New Testament published in 1768, by E. Harwood, and entitled, _A
-literal translation of the New Testament, being an attempt to translate
-the Sacred Writings with the same Freedom, Spirit, and Elegance with which
-other English Translations from the Greek Classics have lately been
-executed_; a work which, however faithfully it may represent the inflated
-and stilted style which then prevailed, can now be read only with
-astonishment and disgust.
-
-[98] Worsley died before the publication of the volume. It was edited by
-M. Bradshaw and S. Worsley.
-
-[99] In 3 vols., 8vo. A second edition in 2 vols., 8vo., was published in
-1795. _Memoirs of Gilbert Wakefield_, vol. i. p. 355; vol. ii. p. 468.
-
-[100] The work was intended to form eight vols. 4to.
-
-[101] SCRIVENER, _Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament_, p.
-397.
-
-[102] _Eclectic Review_, January, 1809, p. 31.
-
-[103] _Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible_, p. 297,
-ed. 1828. The italics are Dr. Marsh's own.
-
-[104] The members of this first joint Committee were Dr. Wilberforce, Dr.
-Ellicott, Dr. Thirlwall, Dr. Ollivant, Dr. E. H. Browne (Bishop of Ely),
-Dr. Chr. Wordsworth (Bishop of Lincoln), and Dr. G. Moberly (Bishop of
-Salisbury); Dr. Bickersteth (the Prolocutor); Deans Alford, Jeremie, and
-Stanley; Archdeacons Rose, Freeman, and Grant; Chancellor Massingberd;
-Canons Blakesley, How, Selwyn, Swainson, and Woodgate; Dr. Kay, Dr. Jebb,
-and Mr. De Winton.
-
-[105] The Convocation of York declined to take part in the revision, on
-the ground that in their judgment the time was unfavourable for such a
-work.
-
-[106] Canon Selwyn had persistently advocated the claims of revision, and
-had brought it before the Notice of the Lower House of Convocation so
-early as March 1st, 1856. Notice of a renewed motion on the question had
-been given by him for the meeting of Convocation on February, 1870, and
-was only withdrawal when superseded by the proposal sent down on February
-11th from the Upper House.
-
-[107] Canon Cook, Dr. J. H. Newman, Canon Pusey, and Dr. W. Wright. Dr.
-Wright, however, subsequently joined the Old Testament Company.
-
-[108] Dr. S. P. Tregelles.
-
-[109] Now Bishop of Winchester.
-
-[110] Now Dean of Canterbury.
-
-[111] Now Dean of Peterborough.
-
-[112] Now D.D.
-
-[113] Now Bursar.
-
-[114] Now Dean of Lichfield.
-
-[115] Now Dean of Lincoln.
-
-[116] Now D.D. and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
-
-[117] Now Bishop of Durham.
-
-[118] Now D.D., and Master of the Leys School, Cambridge.
-
-[119] Now D.D., Principal of New College, London, and Lee Professor of
-Divinity.
-
-[120] Now Professor of Humanity, St. Andrews.
-
-[121] Now Dean of Rochester.
-
-[122] Now LL.D.
-
-[123] Now Principal of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen.
-
-[124] Now also Dean of Llandaff.
-
-[125] Now also Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
-
-[126] Now Lady Margaret Preacher, Cambridge.
-
-[127] Now Archdeacon of Oxford.
-
-[128] Corresponding Member.
-
-[129] These have been thus distributed:
-
-  Bishop of Gloucester     405
-  Dr. Scrivener            399
-  Mr. Humphry              385
-  Dr. Newth                373
-  Dr. Hort                 362
-  Dean of Lichfield        352
-  Dean of Rochester        337
-  Canon Westcott           304
-  Dean of Llandaff         302
-  Dean of Lincoln          297
-  Bishop of Durham         290
-  Archdeacon Lee           283
-  Dr. Moulton              271
-  Archdeacon Palmer        255
-  Dean of Westminster      253
-  Dr. Vance Smith          245
-  Dr. Brown                209
-  Dr. Angus                199
-  Dr. Milligan             182
-  Canon Kennedy            165
-  Dr. Eadie                135
-  Bishop of Salisbury      121
-  Bishop of St. Andrews    109
-  Dr. Roberts               94
-  Archbishop of Dublin      63
-  Dean Merivale             19
-  Dean Alford               16
-  Bishop Wilberforce         1
-
-[130] As the original would be very obscure to many of my readers, I have
-somewhat reluctantly decided to give the modern spelling and the modern
-equivalent for obsolete words.
-
-[131] Psalm lxxxvii. 6 is thus rendered in the Wycliffite versions, after
-the Vulgate and LXX. The LXX. here differs from the Hebrew.
-
-[132] The word Judah, from which "Jew" is derived, is from a Hebrew verb,
-meaning "to praise." (See Gen. xxix. 35; xlix. 8.)
-
-[133] By "sentence" Purvey commonly means "sense," or "meaning."
-
-[134] That is, if he examine many copies, and especially those of recent
-date.
-
-[135] AUGUSTINE, _Christian Doctrine_, book ii., c. xi.
-
-[136] Bohemians.
-
-[137] AUGUSTINE, _Christian Doctrine_, b. ii. c. xii.
-
-[138] Wisdom, iv. 3.
-
-[139] This Prologue contains but little in the way of historical
-information. It has this especial interest, that it is the preface of the
-first printed portion of the English Bible.
-
-[140] Imitate.
-
-[141] Changed in later editions, first into "To the diligent and Christian
-Reader. Grace, mercie, and peace, through Christ Jesus," and then "To the
-Christian Reader" simply.
-
-[142] Whittingham had previously done the same in his New Testament of
-1557. In his address "To the Reader" he says: "And because the Hebrewe and
-Greke phrases, which are strange to rendre in other tongues, and also
-short, shulde not be to hard, I haue sometyme interpreted them without any
-whit diminishing the grace of the sense, as our lagage doth vse them, and
-sometyme have put to that worde which lacking made the sentence obscure,
-but haue set it in such letters as may easily be discerned from the comun
-text."
-
-In some later editions of the Genevan Bible, printed in black letter, this
-clause is altered into "wee have put in the text between these two markes
-[ ] such worde or verbe as doth more properlie explane or manifest the
-text in our tongue."
-
-[143] To the end that.
-
-[144] [Greek: ex� belous]
-
-[145] [Greek: seisachtheian]
-
-[146] _Circa annum 900. B. Rhenan. rerum German lib. 2._
-
-[147] STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, b. iv. c. 20; JOHNSON, _Historical
-Account_, p. 87; BURNET, _History of the Reformation_, part ii. book iii.
-p. 406, ed. 1681.
-
-[148] The Psalms were in the first instance assigned to Guest, Bishop of
-Rochester. It is probable that the Archbishop was dissatisfied with
-Guest's work, and on good grounds, for he despatched it very quickly, and
-forwarded it to the Archbishop with a letter, in which he thus sets forth
-his estimate of his duty as a translator: "I have not altered the
-Translation but where it giveth occasion of an error. As in the first
-Psalm, at the beginning I turn the preterperfect tense into the present
-tense; because the tense is too hard in the preterperfect tense. Where in
-the New Testament one piece of a Psalm is reported, I translate it in the
-Psalm according to the translation thereof in the New Testament, for the
-avoiding of the offence that may rise to the people upon diverse
-translations." (STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, b. iii. c. 6; _Parker
-Correspondence_, PARKER, sec. ed. p. 250.)
-
-[149] _Parker Correspondence_, PARKER, sec. ed. p. 335.
-
-[150] _Hist. of Ref._, part ii. book iii. p. 406, ed. 1681.
-
-[151] _Collection of Records_, part ii. book iii. number 10.
-
-[152] Probably a misprint for Harmer.
-
-[153] CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals_, vol. ii. p. 110.
-
-[154] Barlow was present at the Hampton Court Conference in January, 1601,
-and all accounts describe him as then Dean of Chester; and his narrative
-of the Conference, published in 1604, is described as "contracted by
-William Barlow, Doctor of Divinity, and Dean of Chester." Sir Peter
-Leycester, _Hist. Antiq. of Cheshire_, p. 169, states that Barlow was
-appointed Dean in 1603.
-
-[155] Bishop of Chichester, November 3rd, 1605; Bishop of Ely, 1609;
-Bishop of Winchester, 1619.
-
-[156] Bishop of Lichfield, April, 1614; Bishop of Norwich, 1618.
-
-[157] Subsequently Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
-
-[158] Lively died May, 1605, and hence could not have taken any active
-part in the Revision.
-
-[159] Afterwards D.D., and successively Master of Peterhouse and of
-Trinity College.
-
-[160] Succeeded Dr. Duport in the Mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge.
-
-[161] Succeeded Mr. Lively as Regius Professor of Hebrew.
-
-[162] Afterwards Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.
-
-[163] Afterwards Bishop of Gloucester.
-
-[164] Master of Sidney College, January, 1609; Archdeacon of Taunton,
-1615; Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge, 1620; Lady Margaret Professor of
-Divinity, 1621.
-
-[165] Afterwards D.D., Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop's
-Waltham, Hants.
-
-[166] Bishop of Gloucester, March 19th, 1605; Bishop of London, May 18th,
-1607.
-
-[167] Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1609; Bishop of London, 1610.
-
-[168] Died November, 1604, and hence could have taken no part in the work
-of the Company. His name is not mentioned by Wood in the list given in
-_Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._, i. p. 311, ed. 1674.
-
-[169] Knighted at Windsor, September 21st, 1604.
-
-[170] WOOD, _Athen� Oxoniensis_, i. 355.
-
-[171] _Ibid_, i. 570.
-
-[172] Subsequently, on the death of Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi
-College. Dr. WESTCOTT, _History of English Bible_, sec. ed. p. 117, and
-Dr. MOULTON, _History of English Bible_, p. 196, both have Dr. _T._
-Spencer, but his name, as inscribed on the monument in the Chapel of
-Corpus Christi College, is IOHANNES SPENSER, and is so given by Wood.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes:
-
-Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
-
-Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
-
-Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
-
-The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not
-represented in this text version.
-
-The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with
-transliterations in this text version.
-
-The original text includes a Hebrew character that is represented as
-[Hebrew] in this text version.
-
-The original text includes various symbols that are represented as
-[Symbol: description] in this text version.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Lectures on Bible Revision
-
-Author: Samuel Newth
-
-Release Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #42514]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.
-
-  With an Appendix
-
-  CONTAINING THE PREFACES TO THE CHIEF HISTORICAL
-  EDITIONS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
-
-
-  BY SAMUEL NEWTH, M.A., D.D.,
-  PRINCIPAL, AND LEE PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, NEW COLLEGE, LONDON;
-  MEMBER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY OF REVISERS.
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
-  27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
-  MDCCCLXXXI.
-
-  [_All rights reserved._]
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-The following work is especially intended for Sunday-school and
-Bible-class teachers, and for such others as from any cause may be unable
-to consult many books or to read lengthened treatises. It has seemed to me
-to be of great importance that those who are engaged in the responsible
-service of teaching the young, and to whom the Bible is the constant
-source of appeal, should be able both to take up an intelligent position
-in regard to the new revision of the English Scriptures, and to meet the
-various enquiries that will be made respecting it by those about them. I
-have therefore endeavoured to provide for their use, in a compendious
-form, a survey of the general argument for revision, and of the facts
-which exhibit the present duty of Christian men in relation thereto. In
-the execution of this purpose it has been necessary to direct attention to
-the chief stages in the growth of the English Bible, but this has been
-done only so far as seemed to be requisite for the illustration of the
-main argument. Those who may desire to study this part of the subject more
-at length are referred to the full and interesting volumes of Dr. Eadie,
-or to the convenient manuals published by Dr. Moulton and by Dr.
-Stoughton. Such as may wish to investigate more minutely the internal
-history of the Authorized Version will find Dr. Westcott’s _General View
-of the History of the English Bible_ a most trustworthy and invaluable
-guide.
-
-In the Appendix I have brought together the prologues or prefaces to the
-chief historical editions of the English Bible. Some of these are not of
-easy access to ordinary readers, while all are of deep and lasting
-interest. They will abundantly repay a careful perusal. The reader will
-thereby, more readily than in any other way, come into personal contact
-with the noble men to whose self-denying labours our country and the world
-are so deeply indebted; will learn what was the spirit which animated
-them, and what were the aims and methods of their toil; and, in addition
-to much wise instruction respecting the study of the word of God, will
-learn how the deepest love and reverence for the Bible are not only
-tolerant of changes in its outward form, but will indeed imperatively
-demand them whenever needed for the more faithful exhibition of the truth
-it enshrines.
-
-It has formed no part of my purpose either to exhibit or to justify the
-changes which have been made in the revision in which I have had the
-honour and the responsibility of sharing. The former will best be learnt
-from the perusal of the Revised Version itself; the latter it would be
-unbecoming in me to undertake. The ultimate decision respecting them must
-rest upon the concurrent judgment of the wisest and most learned; and they
-who are the most competent to judge will be the least hasty in giving
-judgment, for they best know how difficult and delicate is the
-translator’s task, and how manifold, and sometimes how subtle, are the
-various considerations which determine his rendering. Nor indeed would any
-such attempt be possible within the limits I have here assigned to myself.
-To be properly done it would require an appeal to special learning which
-I have no right to assume in my readers, and to habits of scholarly
-investigation which I may not presuppose. To the bulk of my readers the
-one justification for the changes they will discover in the Revised New
-Testament must practically rest in the fact that those who have for more
-than ten years conscientiously and diligently laboured in this matter, and
-who have with such anxious care revised and re-revised their work, have
-been constrained to the conclusion that in this way they would most
-faithfully and clearly present the sense of the sacred Word. May He whose
-word it is graciously accept their service, and deign to use it for His
-glory.
-
-  NEW COLLEGE,
-  _April 26, 1881_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-                                                                      Page
-
-  LECTURE I. SUBSTANCE AND FORM                                          1
-
-  LECTURE II. THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE                           11
-
-  LECTURE III. THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE                  25
-
-  LECTURE IV. THE REVISION OF 1611. THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION    39
-
-  LECTURE V. REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY                             51
-
-  LECTURE VI. ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN
-              THE REVISION OF 1611                                      61
-
-  LECTURE VII. ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW
-               KNOWN                                                    79
-
-  LECTURE VIII. THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING
-                THE PAST TWO CENTURIES                                  91
-
-  LECTURE IX. THE REVISION OF 1881                                     105
-
-
-  APPENDIX.
-
-  (A.) PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE. CH. XV.              129
-
-  (B.) TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES                                             137
-
-  (C.) COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535                       160
-
-  (D.) PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 1560                              172
-
-  (E.) PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 1568                             177
-
-  (F.) PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611                                 199
-
-  (G.) THE REVISERS OF 1568                                            235
-
-  (H.) THE REVISERS OF 1611                                            237
-
-
-
-
-LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE I.
-
-_SUBSTANCE AND FORM._
-
-
-There are probably devout persons not a few in whose minds the mere
-suggestion of a Revision of the Scriptures arouses a feeling of mingled
-pain and surprise. In that Bible which they received from their fathers in
-the trustful confidence of childhood, they have heard the voice of God
-speaking to their souls. Not from any testimony given to them by others,
-but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to
-be the Father’s gift unto His children. It has quickened, guided, and
-strengthened them, as no human words had ever done, answering the deepest
-cravings of their nature, stimulating them to endeavours after a nobler
-life, and enkindling within them the confidence of a sure and blessed
-hope. That it is from heaven, and not from men, they know, not because of
-what has been told them, but from what they themselves have seen and
-learnt; and they need no further evidence of its inspiration than the fact
-that it has opened their eyes to a knowledge of themselves, and to a
-perception of the loveliness of Christ. That any should dare to meddle
-with a book so precious and so honoured, seems to them a sacrilegious act,
-and a Revision of the Holy Scriptures is to them a presumptuous attempt to
-improve upon the handiwork of God.
-
-In this feeling there is much with which every Christian man will warmly
-sympathize; but there is in it also something that calls for correction
-and instruction. There is need here, as elsewhere, of careful thought and
-self-discipline, lest, by confounding things that differ, we transfer our
-reverence for what is God-given and divine to what is only human, and
-therefore fallible. A little consideration will suffice to show that, in
-such a matter as this, it is peculiarly important to distinguish between
-substance and form, between what is essential and permanent and what is
-accidental and variable. By the substance of the Bible we mean the
-statements which, in various ways and diverse manners, it presents to our
-thoughts; the precepts and the promises, the histories and the prophecies,
-the doctrines and the prayers, the truths about God and about man, through
-which our minds are instructed, our consciences enlightened, and our
-hearts established by grace. By the form of the Bible, we mean the signs
-or sounds by which the various statements contained in the Bible are
-presented to us, and which are, as it were, the channel through which the
-truths it teaches are conveyed to our minds. It will be obvious upon the
-least consideration, that the kind and degree of reverence which it is
-right to entertain towards the form of Scripture, is very different from
-that which it behoves us to cherish for the substance of Scripture.
-Respecting the latter, it is fitting to watch with all jealousy that no
-man add unto it or take from it; it is precious for its own sake. Not so,
-however, with the former; its worth is not in itself, but only in that
-which it enshrines. The two sentences--
-
-“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
-Jesus came into the world to save sinners,”
-
-“Gwir yw’r gair ac yn haeddu pob derbyniad, ddyfod Crist Iesu i’r byd i
-gadw pechaduriaid,”
-
-are very different in form, whether judged by the eye or the ear, and yet
-the truth conveyed by the former to an Englishman, or by the latter to a
-Welshman, is essentially the same. And although one who had learnt to
-prize that truth under either of the forms here given would naturally
-cherish also the very words by which it had been taught him, his reverence
-for the truth would impel him to adopt the other form in preference
-whenever that might be the better instrument for conveying it to another.
-Changes, therefore, in the form of Scripture may be lawful and right.
-
-Moreover, as a matter of history, the form of Scripture has, from the very
-beginning, been passing through a continued succession of changes, and
-with this fact it is most important that the Bible student should
-familiarize himself. These changes may be arranged under two general
-classes.
-
-One class of changes has arisen out of the perishable nature of the
-documents, of which the Bible at the first consisted.
-
-It is scarcely needful to state that we do not now possess the original
-copies of any of the books of the Old or the New Testament. Even while
-these were still in existence it was necessary to transcribe them in order
-that many persons in many places might possess and read them. In the work
-of transcription, however careful the transcriber might have been, errors
-of various kinds necessarily arose; some from mistaking one letter for
-another; some from failure of memory, if the scribe were writing from
-dictation; and some from occasional oversight, if he were writing from a
-copy before him; some from momentary lapses of attention, when his hand
-wrote on without his guidance; and some from an attempt to correct a real
-or fancied error in the work of his predecessor. If any of my readers will
-make an experiment by copying a passage of some length from any printed
-book, and then hand over his manuscript to a friend with a request to copy
-it, and afterwards pass on the copy so made to a third, and so on in
-succession through a list of ten or a dozen persons, each copying the
-manuscript of the one before him in the list, he will, on comparing the
-last with the printed book, have a vivid and interesting illustration of
-the number and kind of variations that arise in the process of
-transcription. In the case, therefore, of even very early copies of any of
-the books of the Scriptures, some sort of revision would become necessary,
-and the deeper the reverence for the book, the more obligatory would the
-duty of making such a revision be felt to be, and the more earnestly and
-readily would it be undertaken. So long as the original copies were in
-existence and accessible this work of revision would be comparatively easy
-and simple. It would call only for the ability to make careful and patient
-comparison. But when the originals could no longer be appealed to, and
-when, moreover, successive transcription had gone on through many
-generations, the work would become much more complex and difficult,
-calling for much knowledge and much persevering research, for a mind
-skilled in the appreciation of evidence, and able to judge calmly between
-conflicting testimony. At the same time, the need for revision would to
-some extent be greater than before. I say to some extent, because the
-natural multiplication of errors arising from successive transcription
-through many centuries, has in the case of the Scriptures been very
-largely checked. The special reverence felt for this book beyond other
-books led to the exercise of special care in the preparation of Biblical
-manuscripts, and special precautions were taken to guard them as far as
-possible from any variation. Owing to these and other causes a larger
-measure of uniformity is found in the later than in the earlier
-manuscripts now extant.
-
-A second class of changes in the form of the Scriptures has arisen from
-the natural growth and development of language.
-
-The earliest Bible of which we have any historical knowledge was in the
-form of a roll, made probably of skins, containing the five books of
-Moses, and written in the Hebrew language. This was described as “the Book
-of the Law of the Lord given by Moses” (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14); more briefly
-as “the Book of the Law of Moses” (Joshua viii. 31; 2 Kings xiv. 6; Neh.
-viii. 1), or as “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh. viii. 8); and more
-briefly still as “the Book of the Law” (2 Kings xxii. 8), or as “the Book
-of Moses.” (Ezra vi. 18; Mark xii. 26.) Two other collections of sacred
-books were subsequently added, known respectively as the Prophets and the
-Holy Writings, the former comprising Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings,
-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets; the latter
-comprising the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, Ruth,
-Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. It is
-in this order, we may note in passing, that the books of the Old Testament
-are still arranged in our Hebrew Bibles.
-
-Before the completion of the canon of the Old Testament the language of
-the Jews began to exhibit evidences of change, and through their
-intercourse with the various peoples of Mesopotamia (or Aram) the later
-books show a distinct tendency towards Aramaic forms and idioms. This
-tendency, already apparent at the time of the return from the Captivity,
-was accelerated by the political events which followed. During the hundred
-and eighty years and more which intervened between the Restoration of the
-Temple, B.C. 516, and the overthrow of Darius Codomannus, B.C. 331, Judæa
-was a portion of that province of the Persian empire, in which the Aramaic
-was the prevalent dialect. The ancient Hebrew gradually ceased to be the
-language of the Jews in common life, and, before the time of our Lord, had
-been supplanted by the language of their Eastern neighbours.
-
-With the decline of the Hebrew language there arose amongst the Jews the
-class of men known as Scribes, whose primary function was that of
-preparing copies of the Scriptures, and of guarding the sacred text from
-the intrusion of errors. Owing to their great zeal for the preservation of
-the letter of Scripture, and to their natural tendency to hold fast to the
-honour and influence which their special knowledge and skill gave to
-them, they did not, when Hebrew ceased to be intelligible to the common
-people, set themselves to the task of giving them the Bible in a form
-which they could understand; but, magnifying their office overmuch,
-assumed the position of authoritative teachers and expounders of the Law.
-Scholars might still study for themselves the ancient Bible, but for the
-people at large the form which the Scriptures now practically assumed was
-that of the spoken utterances of the Scribes.
-
-How imperfect and unsatisfactory this must have been is obvious; and the
-more so as these teachers did not content themselves with simply rendering
-the ancient text into a familiar form, but intermingled with it a mass of
-human traditions that obscured and sometimes contradicted its meaning. It
-would have been a great gain for the people of Judæa if their regard for
-the outward form of their Scriptures had been less extreme and more
-enlightened, and if competent men amongst them had ventured so to revise
-the ancient books that their fellow countrymen might read in their own
-tongue the wonderful works and words of God.
-
-This wiser course was adopted in that larger Judæa which lay outside of
-Palestine. The Jews scattered through Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and
-other parts of the empire of Alexander and his successors, were less
-rigidly conservative than were the residents of Judæa, and for their use a
-translation into Greek was made in the latter part of the third century
-before Christ. This is the version known as the Septuagint.[1] It is
-probable, both on general grounds and from internal evidence, that the
-Pentateuch was the portion first translated, and that subsequently, though
-after no very long interval of time, the other portions were translated
-also. It is quite certain that the whole was in circulation in the middle
-of the second century before Christ. Various tales respecting the origin
-of this translation got spread abroad.[2] These are largely due to the
-vivid imagination of their authors. They may, however, be taken as
-evidence of the high esteem in which this version was held; and we shall
-probably not err in concluding from them that Alexandria was the city in
-which it originated. During, then, the two centuries that preceded the
-Advent, the Bible, as used by the great majority of its readers in various
-parts of the world, had assumed an entirely different form from that in
-which it at first appeared. It was in Greek, and not in Hebrew, and it
-included several additional works; those, namely, which are now called
-collectively the Apocrypha. The use of this translation amongst the
-extra-Palestinian Jews contributed largely to the spread of Christianity;
-and to many amongst the earliest Christian churches, and for many
-generations, it was still the form under which they studied the books of
-the Old Testament.
-
-At the time of our Lord and His Apostles, Greek was the language which
-most widely prevailed through the Roman Empire. It was the ordinary
-language of intercourse amongst all the peoples that had formerly been
-subjugated by Grecian arms, and was read and spoken by many in Rome
-itself. It was in this language, and not in the sacred language of the
-ancient Church, that the books of the New Testament were written; and the
-lesson was thereby emphatically taught us that the Bible was for man, and
-not man for the Bible; that the form was subordinate to the substance, and
-should be so modified, as occasions occur, that it may best minister to
-the spiritual wants of mankind.
-
-As years passed on Christianity spread into the rural parts of the
-districts already occupied, where Greek was but little known, and into new
-regions beyond, where that language had never prevailed. This called for
-further changes in the form of Scripture, and in the second century of our
-era both the Old and New Testaments were translated for the use of the
-numerous Christians in Northern and Eastern Syria into that form of
-Aramaic which is known as Syriac. This language--the Syro-Aramaic--differs
-by dialectic peculiarities from the Palestinian Aramaic. In its earliest
-forms, however, we have probably the nearest representation we can now
-hope to obtain of the native language of the people amongst whom our Lord
-lived and laboured.
-
-About the same time also the Scriptures began to be translated into Latin
-for the use of the Churches of North Africa, and there is good reason for
-believing that in the last quarter of the second century the entire
-Scriptures in Latin were largely circulated throughout that region. This
-was what is termed the Old Latin version. It was the Bible as possessed
-and used by Tertullian and Cyprian, and subsequently, in a revised form,
-by Augustine. In the Old Testament this version was made, not from Hebrew,
-but from the Greek of the Septuagint, and so was but the translation of a
-translation.
-
-From Africa this Bible passed into Italy. Here a certain rudeness of
-style, arising from its provincial origin, awakened ere long a desire to
-secure a version that should be at once more accurate and more grateful to
-Italian ears. Various attempts at a revision of the Latin were
-consequently made. One of these, known as the Itala, or the Italic
-version, is highly commended by Augustine. In the year A.D. 383, Damasus,
-the then Bishop of Rome, troubled by the manifold variations that existed
-between different copies of the Latin Scriptures then in circulation,
-used his influence with one of the greatest scholars of the age, Eusebius
-Hieronymus, to undertake the laborious and responsible task of a thorough
-revision of the Latin text. Hieronymus, or, as he is commonly termed,
-Jerome, at once set himself to the task, and his revised New Testament
-appeared in A.D. 385. He also once and again revised the Old Latin version
-of the Book of Psalms, and subsequently the remaining books of the Old
-Testament, carefully comparing them with the Greek of the Septuagint, from
-which they had been derived. In A.D. 389, when in his sixtieth year, he
-entered upon the further task of a new translation of the books of the Old
-Testament from the original Hebrew, and completed it in the year A.D. 404.
-Out of the various labours of Jerome arose the Bible which is commonly
-known as the Vulgate. Jerome’s translation of the Old Testament from the
-Hebrew was not made at the instance of any ecclesiastical authority, and
-the old prejudice in favour of the Septuagint led many still to cling to
-the earlier version. Only very gradually did the new translation make its
-way; and not until the time of Gregory the Great, at the close of the
-sixth century, did it receive the explicit sanction of the head of the
-Roman Church.[3] In the case of the Psalter, the old translation was never
-superseded.
-
-The Vulgate is thus a composite work. It contains (1) Jerome’s translation
-from the Hebrew of all the books of the Old Testament, except the Psalms;
-(2) Jerome’s revision of the Old Latin version of the Psalms, that version
-being, as stated above, made from the Septuagint; (3) the Old Latin
-version of the Apocrypha unrevised, save in the books of Judith and
-Tobit; (4) Jerome’s revised New Testament, which in the Gospels was very
-careful and complete, and might almost be termed a new translation, though
-he himself repudiated any such claim.
-
-During many centuries the Vulgate was the only form in which the Bible was
-accessible to the people of Western Europe, and it was the Bible from
-which in turn the earliest Bibles of our own and other countries were
-immediately derived. It will thus be seen that the history of the Bible
-has from the beginning been a history of revision. Only so could they who
-loved the Bible fulfil the trust committed to them; only so could the
-Bible be a Bible for mankind.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE II.
-
-_THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE._
-
-
-The English Bible, more than any other of the forms in which the
-Scriptures have been used by Christian men, has been a growth. It is not
-the production of one man, or of one epoch. It has come down to us through
-a long series of transformations, and it is the result of the continuous
-endeavours of a succession of earnest labourers to give to their
-fellow-countrymen a faithful representation of the word of God.
-
-At what date, and by whom, the Scriptures were first set forth in a form
-which was intelligible to the people of this country is not known. In the
-earliest period respecting which we have any clear information, the Latin
-Vulgate was the Bible of the clergy and of public worship. Some portions
-only were rendered into the language of the common people. Few of them
-probably were able to read, and this may explain why it was that the
-Psalms were especially selected for translation. They could be more
-readily committed to memory, and be more easily wedded to music. But
-whatever the reason, the Psalter is the earliest English Bible of which we
-have any definite knowledge. It was translated quite early in the eighth
-century, both by Aldhelm, sometime Abbot of Malmesbury, but at his death,
-in A.D. 709,[4] Bishop of Sherborne, and by Guthlac,[5] the hermit of
-Croyland, who died A.D. 714.[6] A few years later, A.D. 735, the Venerable
-Bede translated the gospel of John, dying, as related in the touching
-narrative of his disciple Cuthbert, in the very act of completing it. In
-the following century King Alfred greatly encouraged the work of
-translation, and it is to this period that we are probably to attribute
-those Anglo-Saxon gospels which have come down to us.[7] Towards the close
-of the tenth century, or early in the eleventh, the first seven books of
-the Old Testament were partly translated and partly epitomised by Ælfric,
-Archbishop of Canterbury. A verse from each of these two last-mentioned
-works will show of what sort was the form of these early English Bibles,
-and will at the same time illustrate one of the causes which from time to
-time have rendered the task of revision an imperative duty.
-
-The Anglo-Saxon gospel presents Matthew v. 3 thus:
-
-“Eadige sind ða gastlican þearfan, forðam hyra ys heofena rice.”
-
-And in Ælfric’s Heptateuch, Genesis xliii. 29 reads:
-
-“Ða josep geseah his gemeddredan broþor beniamin þa cwaeþ he, is þis se
-cnapa þe ge me foresaedon and eft he cwaeþ god gemilt sige þe sunu min.”
-
-In the course of time our language gradually changed from the form
-exhibited in these quotations to that seen in the writings of Chaucer and
-Wycliffe. During the earlier part of this transition period the Old
-English (Anglo-Saxon) Scriptures continued in use; but towards the middle
-part they seem to have become partially unintelligible, and attempts were
-consequently made to give the Scriptures to the people in the new form of
-language then prevalent, and which is known as the Early English. It has
-been asserted that the entire Scriptures were issued in this form; but for
-this there is no satisfactory evidence. We have certain knowledge only of
-a poetical version of the Psalms (the “Ormulum”), written about the close
-of the twelfth century; of a poetical narration of the principal events
-recorded in Genesis and Exodus, written about the middle of the thirteenth
-century; and of two prose verses of the Psalms, both belonging to the
-early part of the fourteenth century, one by William de Schorham, vicar of
-Chart-Sutton, in Kent, and the other by Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near
-Doncaster. In the version of the former the first two verses of Psalm i.
-are thus given:
-
-“Blessed be the man that ȝed nouȝt in the counseil of wicked: ne stode
-nouȝt in the waie of sinȝeres, ne sat nouȝt in fals jugement. Ac hijs
-wylle was in the wylle of oure Lord; and he schal thenche in hijs lawe
-both daȝe and nyȝt.”
-
-The year 1382 is the earliest date at which it can with any confidence be
-affirmed that the entire Scriptures existed in the English language.[8]
-During several years previous to this date Wycliffe and his associates
-had in various ways been working towards the accomplishment of this
-result. But it was with some measure of secrecy, as of men who apprehended
-danger from the attempt. This renders it difficult to determine with
-precision the date when the work was completed, and what was the part
-which each of the joint labourers had in the common task. It is beyond
-controversy that the chief place of honour is due to John Wycliffe. His
-name is so closely and constantly associated with this Bible by those who
-refer to it in the times immediately succeeding, as to put it beyond all
-doubt that it is to his influence our country is mainly indebted for this
-unspeakable boon. The translation of the New Testament was probably in
-whole or in large part the work of Wycliffe himself. That of the Old
-Testament, down to the twentieth verse of the third chapter of Baruch, is
-credibly assigned, upon the authority of a MS. in the Bodleian library, to
-Nicholas de Hereford, one of the leaders of the Lollard party in Oxford.
-It is probable that this Bible was somewhat hurriedly completed, and that
-either the translators were prevented by circumstances from reviewing
-their work before issuing it, or, with the natural eagerness of men
-engaged in a first attempt, they did not allow themselves time for doing
-so. Possibly also they may themselves have regarded it but as a sort of
-first draft of their work, and the variations they had found to exist in
-their copies of the Vulgate had revealed to them the need of further
-labour before they could satisfactorily complete the task they had
-undertaken.
-
-Wycliffe died in December, 1384; but either before his death, or shortly
-afterward, a revision of this work was commenced by one of his most
-intimate friends, John Purvey, who, having resided with Wycliffe during
-the latter part of his life, may be reasonably credited with acting herein
-under a full knowledge of the wishes and aims of his honoured teacher.
-
-The course pursued by Purvey, as described by himself in his prologue,[9]
-is interesting and instructive, setting forth, as it does, most distinctly
-the main lines upon which any work of Biblical revision must proceed. His
-first step was to collect old copies of the Vulgate, and the works of
-learned men who had expounded and translated the same; and then, by
-examination and comparison, to remove as far as he could the errors which
-in various ways had crept into the Latin text. His second step was to
-study afresh the text so revised, and endeavour to arrive at a correct
-apprehension of its general meaning. His third was to consult the best
-authorities within his reach for the explanation of obscure terms, and of
-specially difficult passages. His fourth was to translate as clearly as
-possible, and then submit the same to the joint correction of competent
-persons; or, to use his own words, “to translate as clearly as he could to
-the sentence, and to have many good fellows, and cunning, at the
-correcting of the translation.” By the co-operation of this band of
-skilful helpers the work was completed about the year 1388, and copies of
-it were rapidly multiplied.[10] It became, in fact, the accepted form of
-the Wycliffite version.
-
-By a comparison of the two verses of Psalm i., given above, with the forms
-in which they appeared in the two Wycliffe Bibles, the reader will be able
-in some degree to estimate the growth of our language, and will also
-understand how painstaking and reverent was the care taken by these
-“faithful men” that in this sacred work they might offer of their very
-best.
-
-In the earlier Wycliffe version the verses read thus:
-
-“Blisful the man that went not awei in the counseil of unpitouse, and in
-the wei off sinful stod not, and in the chaȝer of pestilence sat not. But
-in the lawe of the Lord his wil; and in the lawe of hym he shal sweteli
-thenke dai and nyȝt.”
-
-In Purvey’s revised version they read:
-
-“Blessid _is_ the man that ȝede not in the councel of wickid men; and
-stood not in the weie of synneris, and sat not in the chaier of
-pestilence. But his wille _is_ in the lawe of the Lord; and he schal
-bithenke in the lawe of hym dai and nyȝt.”
-
-This Bible, so long as it remained in use as the Bible of English people,
-existed, it should be remembered, only in a manuscript form.[11] The chief
-point, however, to be noticed here is, that with all its excellences, and
-unspeakable as was its worth, it was but the translation of a translation.
-Neither Wycliffe nor his associates had access to the Hebrew original of
-the Old Testament; and although some copies of the Greek New Testament
-were then to be found in England, there is no reason to believe that
-Purvey or his friends were able to make any use of them. They were,
-indeed, aware that the Latin of the common text did not always faithfully
-represent the Hebrew; but their knowledge of this fact was second-hand,
-gathered chiefly from the commentaries of Nicholas de Lyra, a writer
-whose works were held in high repute by Bible students in that age. They
-did not, therefore, venture to correct these places, but contented
-themselves with noting in the margin, “What the Ebru hath, and how it is
-undurstondun.” This, Purvey states, he has done most frequently in the
-Psalter, which “of alle oure bokis discordith most fro Ebru.”
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The third stage in the growth of the English Scriptures is brought before
-us by the interesting series of printed Bibles that issued from the
-printing press in the reign of Henry VIII.
-
-After the death of Wycliffe the efforts of the Popish party to crush the
-Lollards had increased in violence, and various enactments were passed
-proscribing the use of the Bible which bore his name. An act, passed in
-the second parliament of Henry V., went still further, and declared that
-all who read the Scriptures in their native tongue should forfeit land,
-cattle, life, and goods, they and their heirs for ever. Notwithstanding
-these repressive measures, copies of the Wycliffe Bible were still made
-and read in secret. This could be done only with great risk and
-difficulty, and none but persons of some wealth could afford the expense
-of a complete copy. Those in humbler positions deemed themselves happy if
-they could secure a single book, or even a few leaves. Moreover, through
-the growing changes of the language, many passages were becoming very
-obscure to ordinary readers. During the hundred years which followed after
-the issuing of the law just referred to, two important events had
-happened; namely, the invention of printing,[12] and the German
-Reformation. Both of these had a large influence in stimulating the
-friends of the Bible to new efforts in revising it for popular use.
-
-The leader of this movement in our own country was William Tyndale, who,
-in the year 1525, printed on the Continent, whither he had been driven by
-the opposition which beset him at home, the first edition of his New
-Testament, translated from the Greek. A second and revised edition,
-“dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke,” was printed at
-Antwerp, and published in November, 1534; and a third and final edition
-was published in the early part of 1535, in the May of which year he was
-arrested and committed to the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Of other
-parts of the Scriptures Tyndale was able to publish only the Pentateuch
-(1530 or 1531) and the book of Jonah (1534). On the sixth day of October,
-1536, he was led to the stake. He was there strangled and his body burnt.
-
-Just twelve months before the martyrdom of Tyndale, the first printed
-edition of the entire Scriptures in the English language was issued from
-the press of Jacob van Meteren, at Antwerp. The privilege and honour of
-accomplishing this memorable work belongs to Miles Coverdale, at that time
-a poor scholar, dependent upon the patronage of Thomas Cromwell and
-others, though subsequently, for a short period in the reign of Edward
-VI., Bishop of Exeter. The first edition of his Bible was “prynted in the
-year of our Lord MDXXXV., and fynished the fourthe day of October.”
-Coverdale had been moved to the undertaking by his own deep sense of the
-needs of his country, and by the earnest appeals addressed to him by
-others. Through his modesty of disposition, and his lowly estimate of his
-own abilities, he would have declined the task, but the urgency of his
-friends prevailed. The expenses also of the preparation and publication of
-the work were met by the liberality of some of them. In his prologue he
-says, “It was neither my labour nor desire to have this work put in my
-hand; nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should be more
-plenteously provided for with the Scripture in their mother tongue than
-we; therefore, when I was instantly required, though I could not do as
-well as I would, I thought it my duty to do my best, and that with a good
-will;”[13] and in the dedication to the king, prefixed to some of the
-copies, he says, “As the Holy Ghost moved other men to do the cost hereof,
-so was I boldened in God to labour in the same.” According to the
-statement on the title-page this was not a translation made from the
-original texts,[14] but was faithfully and truly translated out of the
-“Douche and Latyn in to Englishe.” In the dedication he states that he
-had, “with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of
-five sundry interpreters,” and in his prologue he explains further, that
-to help him in his work he had used “sundry translations, not only in
-Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters;” and he is careful, further, to
-explain that he did not “set forth this special translation” “as a
-reprover and despiser of other men’s translations,” but “lowly and
-faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under correction.”
-The five interpreters to whom Coverdale thus refers were probably the
-Vulgate, the Latin version of Pagninus, Luther’s translation, the Zurich
-Bible, and Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch. Though the volume was
-dedicated to the king, and though Coverdale was backed by powerful
-patrons, this Bible was not published with a royal license. No direct
-attempt, however, was made to suppress it. In the following year (1536) it
-was virtually condemned by the members of Convocation, who prayed the king
-that he would “grant unto his subjects of the laity the reading of the
-Bible in the English tongue, and that a new translation of it be made for
-that end and purpose.” But notwithstanding this two new editions of
-Coverdale’s Bible were printed in London in 1537, and on the title-page of
-both of these there appeared the words, “Set forth with the kynge’s moost
-gracious licence.”
-
-In the same year, 1537, and probably in the earlier part of it, there was
-issued in London another Bible, which also bore upon its title-page the
-inscription, “Set forth with the kinge’s most gracyous lycence.”[15] This
-Bible, commonly known as Matthew’s Bible, was, it is now generally
-believed, prepared for the press by John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom at
-Smithfield, under the Marian persecution. In the New Testament and
-Pentateuch he agrees substantially with Tyndale’s version. Of the other
-books of the Old Testament, a portion is obviously taken from Coverdale,
-the remaining part, Joshua to Chronicles, has been thought with good
-reason to be the work of Tyndale. It is known that Tyndale, after the
-publication of his Pentateuch, continued to labour at the translation of
-the Old Testament. In a letter written during his imprisonment he prays to
-be allowed to have his Hebrew Bible, and his Hebrew grammar and
-dictionary; and it is by no means unlikely that the results of his
-studies were committed to the care of Rogers. If this surmise be correct,
-then this Bible may be viewed as a compilation, two-thirds of it being due
-to Tyndale, and one-third to Coverdale. A sufficient reason for the
-adoption of the assumed name of Thomas Matthew is thus supplied, since
-Rogers could not claim the work as his own, and Tyndale’s name would have
-arrayed against it the opposition both of the king and of the Romish
-party.
-
-Both of the last mentioned Bibles were open to certain obvious objections.
-Coverdale’s, in that it was derived from German and Latin versions; and
-Matthew’s, in that it was in part only made from the original texts.
-Matthew’s also was accompanied by a considerable number of critical and
-explanatory notes, many of which were of a decided anti-papal cast.
-Accordingly, at the instigation and under the patronage of Thomas
-Cromwell, Coverdale set himself to revise his former work with the aid of
-the valuable contribution supplied to him in Matthew’s Bible. The printing
-of this new Bible was completed in April, 1539, and from the circumstance
-that it was printed in the largest folio then used, 15 inches by 9, it
-was, and is, commonly described as the Great Bible. In the title-page it
-is declared to be “truly translated, after the veryte of the Hebrue and
-Greke textes by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men,
-expert in the forsayde tonges.”[16] By this, it is now tolerably certain,
-we are to understand, not that several living scholars took part with
-Coverdale in the preparation of the volume, but that he availed himself of
-the published writings of men skilled in the ancient languages, who had
-translated and expounded the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures. His
-chief guides were Sebastian Munster for the Old Testament, and Erasmus for
-the New. The Bible appeared without notes, and had no dedication.[17]
-
-In the same year (1539) there appeared also the Bible[18] edited by
-Richard Taverner, formerly of Cardinal College (now Christ Church),
-Oxford, afterwards of the Inner Temple, and more recently Clerk of the
-Signet to the King.[19] It may be briefly described as a revised edition
-of Matthew’s Bible. Taverner had some reputation as a Greek scholar, but
-his work is very unequally executed, and before the formidable competition
-of the Great Bible it soon sank into obscurity. After its first year of
-issue this Bible seems to have been only once reprinted in its entirety;
-namely, in 1549.[20]
-
-Not content with what he had already done, Coverdale persevered in the
-revision and re-revision of his work. A second edition was issued in
-April, 1540, to which was prefixed a prologue by Cranmer,[21] and its
-title contained the words, “This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the
-churches.” Two other editions appeared in the same year, and three in the
-following year.[22] (The edition of April, 1540, seems, however, to have
-been regarded as a sort of standard edition.) This Bible was the Bible
-read in churches in the reign of Edward VI., and in the early part of the
-reign of Elizabeth.
-
-Hence it will be seen that of the four principal Bibles published in the
-reign of Henry VIII., namely, Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch,
-Coverdale’s Bible, Matthew’s Bible, and the Great Bible, the last three
-form a group of closely related versions, of which Tyndale’s is the common
-parent, and the rest successively derived therefrom. And it is very
-noteworthy that these Bibles are mainly the result of the patient and
-devoted labours of two men only. The work done by such men as Rogers and
-Taverner, however important, is altogether of a subordinate kind. William
-Tyndale and Miles Coverdale stand apart, and above all others, as the men
-who, in those days of religious awakening and of conflict with the papal
-tyranny, gave the Bible to our countrymen in a form that could reach at
-once their understanding and their heart. Remembering this, and
-remembering also in what difficult circumstances the work was done, the
-wonder is far less that room was left for improvement, and that further
-revision was felt by themselves and others to be an imperative duty, than
-that so much was accomplished, and so well, by the indomitable and
-self-denying labours of these noble men.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE III.
-
-_THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE._
-
-
-The accession of Elizabeth, November 17th, 1558, conveniently marks the
-date of a fourth stage in the growth of the English Bible. The former
-translations and revisions had been done in troublous times, in the midst
-of harassing opposition, and under circumstances which forbade the full
-use of such aids as the scholarship of the times could furnish. The
-versions now to be mentioned were carried on in open day, and with free
-access to all that was then available for the correction and explanation
-of the original texts.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Amongst the many earnest men driven into exile by the Marian persecution
-was William Whittingham, some time Fellow of All Souls’, Oxford, and
-subsequently Dean of Durham.[23] Along with others he found a refuge,
-first at Frankfort, and afterwards at Geneva. On the 10th day of June,
-1557, there was published, in the last mentioned city, a small volume,
-16mo, entitled “The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Conferred
-diligently with the Greke, and best approved translations. With the
-arguments aswel before the chapters, as for every Boke and Epistle, also
-diversities of readings, and moste proffitable annotations of all harde
-places; whereunto is added a copious Table.” This translation, there is
-reason to believe, was the work of Whittingham alone. It may be noted, in
-passing, that it was the first English New Testament which contained the
-now familiar division into verses, and the first also to indicate by
-_italics_ the words added by the translator in order to convey more fully
-or more clearly the sense of the original.
-
-Three years afterwards (1560) there was published in the same city, “The
-Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament.
-Translated according to the Ebrue and Greeke, and conferred with the best
-translations in divers languages. With moste profitable annotations upon
-all the hard places, and other things of great importance as may appeare
-in the epistle to the reader.” This is the celebrated Genevan version,
-which for nearly a century onward was the form of Bible most largely
-circulated in this country. It differed in several respects from its
-predecessors. It was a convenient quarto instead of a cumbrous folio. It
-was printed in Roman letters instead of the heavy Gothic or black letters.
-It marked by a different type all words inserted for the completion of the
-sense, and the chapters were divided into verses. But what was of more
-importance, it was, as stated in the title, compared throughout with the
-original texts. Both in the Old and New Testaments it largely reproduces
-the words of Tyndale. Sometimes it gives a preference to the version of
-Coverdale; but often it departs from both in order to give a more exact
-rendering of the Hebrew or the Greek. It seems that several of the Genevan
-refugees consecrated their enforced leisure to “this great and wonderful
-work,” as they justly term it, moved thereto by the twofold consideration
-that, owing to “imperfect knowledge of the tongues,” the previous
-“translations required greatly to be perused and reformed,” and that
-“great opportunities and occasions” for doing this work were presented to
-them in the “so many godly and learned men” into whose society they had
-now been brought.
-
-The names of Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, Thomas
-Sampson, William Cole, and William Whittingham are given as those who,
-with some others, joined in this undertaking. On the accession of
-Elizabeth most of the exiles returned home, conveying with them, for
-presentation to the Queen, the Book of Psalms as a specimen of the work on
-which they were engaged.[24]
-
-Wittingham only, with one or two others, remained behind for a year and a
-half in order to complete the work. According to the statement given in
-the address to the reader, the entire period spent upon the preparation of
-this version was a little more than two years. It will hence be seen that
-whatever may have been the part taken in the work by Coverdale and others,
-by far the chief share in it devolved upon Whittingham and the one or two
-referred to, who were probably Gilby and Sampson. How weighty was the
-obligation which in the view of these self-denying men rested upon them to
-give the word of God to their country in the form that would best and most
-truly present it, and with what reverent care they laboured to attain
-unto this, is shown by the fact that although Whittingham had so recently
-published his version of the New Testament, he is not content with a
-simple reproduction of this, but subjects it to a thorough and very
-careful revision. A comparison of the introduction to Luke’s gospel as it
-appears in the Genevan Bible of 1560 with the same passage in
-Whittingham’s version of 1557 will help our readers in some measure to
-realize the nature and extent of this revision.
-
-In the earlier version the passages read thus:
-
-    “For asmuch as many have taken in hand to write the historie of those
-    thynges, wherof we are fully certified, even as they declared them
-    unto us, which from y{e} begynnyng saw them their selves, and were
-    ministers at the doyng: It seemed good also to me (moste noble
-    Theophilus) as sone as I had learned perfectly all thynges from the
-    beginnyng, to wryte unto thee therof from poynt to poynt: That thou
-    mightest acknowlage the trueth of those thinges where in thou hast
-    bene broght up.”
-
-In the version of 1560 the same passage is given thus:
-
-    “For as much as many have taken in hande to set foorth the storie of
-    those thinges whereof we are fully persuaded. As they have delivered
-    them unto us, which from the beginning saw them theirselves, and were
-    ministers of the worde, It seemed good also to me (most noble
-    Theophilus), as sone as I had searched out perfectly all things from
-    the beginnyng, to write unto thee thereof from point to point, That
-    thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of these things, whereof thou
-    hast bene instructed.”
-
-It will be seen that in this short passage the changes made from the
-earlier form of the work are as many as ten in number. As this, however,
-may be deemed a somewhat exceptional passage, let us take an ordinary
-chapter in the Gospels, presenting no special difficulty, as for instance
-Matt. xvii. A collation of the two versions will show that in this chapter
-of twenty-seven verses the revision of 1560 departs from Whittingham’s
-earlier work in no fewer than forty places.[25] Thus persevering was the
-endeavour of these faithful men to do their very best, and with what
-success may to some extent be seen in the fact that of these forty
-changes twenty-six were confirmed in after years by the judgment of King
-James’ translators.
-
-“So earnestly,” says Strype[26] in his _Life of Archbishop Parker_, “did
-the people of the nation thirst in those days after the knowledge of the
-Scriptures, that that first impression was soon sold off.” So earnestly
-also did the translators seek to perfect their work, that about the
-beginning of March, 1565, they had finished a careful review and
-correction of their translation in preparing for a fresh issue.
-
-Popular as was the Genevan Bible amongst the mass of the English people,
-the decidedly puritanic cast of its annotations stood in the way of its
-universal acceptance, while its manifest superiority as a translation to
-the Great Bible made it almost an impossibility that the latter could be
-maintained in its place of pre-eminence as the Bible appointed by
-authority to be read in churches. Steps were accordingly taken by Matthew
-Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to prepare a Bible, by the aid of
-“diverse learned fellow-bishops,” that would accord with the
-ecclesiastical sympathies of the party to which he belonged.[27] He
-distributed portions to twelve of his episcopal brethren, and to other
-Church dignitaries;[28] one portion he took under his own charge. The
-completed work was presented to Elizabeth within a few weeks of the
-completion of the tenth year of her reign, October 5th, 1568.
-
-The rules laid down by Parker for the guidance of his colleagues were
-these: 1. “To follow the common English translation used in the churches,
-and not to recede from it but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew
-or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the texts as
-Pagnine[29] in his translation useth; and for the verity of the Hebrew, to
-follow the said Pagnine and Munster specially, and generally others
-learned in the tongues. 3. To make no bitter notes upon any text, or yet
-to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such
-chapters and places as contain matter of genealogies, or other such places
-not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in
-his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation
-to any offence of lightness or obscenity be expressed with more convenient
-terms and phrases.” From the first of these rules it is clear that the
-work then undertaken was intended to be a revision of the Great Bible.
-Some of the revisers seem to have observed this rule in a most rigid
-manner, and have followed the Great Bible so closely as to retain its
-words, even in places which had been more correctly rendered in the
-Genevan. There appears to have been no co-operative action on the part of
-the several revisers, and to this cause we may attribute much of the
-irregularity that attaches to the execution of their work. In many
-respects they laid themselves open to adverse criticism, and a paper was
-sent to Parker by Thomas Lawrence, Head Master of Shrewsbury School, and
-an eminent Greek scholar, entitled, _Notes of Errors in the Translation of
-the New Testament out of the Greek_.[30] He points out fifteen passages in
-which the words are not “aptlye translated,” eight in which “words and
-pieces of sentences” are “omytted,” two in which superfluous words are
-inserted, two in which, owing to mistranslation, an “error in doctrine” is
-involved, and two in which the moods and tenses of verbs are changed.
-These passages, except one from the Colossians, are all taken from the
-Gospels; and we may hence not unreasonably infer that the writer intended
-the passages named to be regarded, not as an exhaustive list, but as
-illustrations simply of the kind of defects which called for correction.
-Moved, as would seem, by these criticisms, Parker set on foot a revision
-of his former volume; and in 1572 this Bible was, as his biographer
-expresses it,[31] “a second time by his means” “printed with Corrections
-and Amendments and other improvements, more than the former Editions.”
-
-Although this Bible received the sanction of Convocation, and every
-Archbishop and Bishop was ordered to have a copy in his hall or
-dining-room for the use of his servants and of strangers; and although
-some editions bear on their title-page the words, “Set forth by
-Aucthoritie” (meaning thereby the authority of Convocation), it never came
-into anything like general use, nor did it even establish itself as the
-Bible exclusively read in churches. The Genevan Bible was still used by
-many of the clergy in their sermons and in their published works; and in
-1587, though nineteen years had then passed since its first publication,
-we find Archbishop Whitgift complaining that divers parish churches and
-chapels of ease had either no Bible at all, or those only which were not
-of the translation authorized by the Synods of Bishops. Between 1568,
-when this Bible was first published, and 1608, when the last New Testament
-of this version was issued, there were sent forth altogether twenty
-editions of the Bishops’ Bible and eleven of the New Testament. In the
-same period there were published seventy-nine editions of the Genevan
-Bible, and thirty of the Genevan New Testament.[32]
-
-Besides the Genevan and the Bishops’, another Bible made its appearance
-(so far, at least, as the New Testament was concerned) in the reign of
-Elizabeth. In the year 1582 there was printed at Rheims a translation of
-the New Testament,[33] made by certain scholars connected with the English
-seminary for the training of Catholic priests, formerly established at
-Douai, in Flanders. The translators, in their preface, candidly confess
-that they did not publish from any conviction “that the Holy Scriptures
-should alwaies be in our mother tonge,” or that they ought “to be read
-indifferently of all,” but because they had compassion to see their
-“beloved countrie men with extreme danger of their soules, to use only
-such prophane translations;” viz., as the Protestant Bibles previously
-referred to, “and erroneous men’s mere phantasies, for the pure and
-beloved word of truth;” and because, also, they were “moved thereunto by
-the desires of many devout persons,” and whom they hoped to induce to lay
-aside the “impure versions” they had hitherto been compelled to employ.
-Quite apart from the polemical purpose thus distinctly avowed, this
-translation was a retrograde movement. It did not profess to translate the
-original texts, but only the “vulgar Latin;” and the translators justify
-their procedure by this plea, amongst others, that “the holy Council of
-Trent ... hath declared and defined this onely of al other Latin
-translations to be authentical, and so onely to be used and taken in
-publike lessons, disputations, preachings, and expositions, and that no
-man presume upon any pretence to reject or refuse the same.”
-
-In the accomplishment of their work the Rhemish translators have very
-faithfully observed the rule which they laid down for themselves, to be
-“very precise and religious in folowing our copie, the old vulgar approved
-Latin; not only in sense ... but sometime in the very wordes also, and
-phrases;” that is to say, they have given a very literal and exact
-translation of the Vulgate, in many parts extremely Latinized in its
-diction. A considerable number of words they virtually left untranslated,
-boldly venturing to transfer the unfamiliar, and in many cases
-unintelligible, vocables into their English text. Some of these Latinized
-words have obtained a permanent place in our language, but the larger
-number have failed to commend themselves.[34]
-
-Such then were the chief forms through which, at the close of the
-sixteenth century, the English Bible had passed. The devout and earnest
-scholars who from time to time sought to “open the Scriptures” to their
-fellow-countrymen were for the most part moved by a burning desire to give
-to God of their very best. They grudged no labour to render their work
-more complete. They allowed no spirit of self-satisfaction to blind them
-to a perception of defects. They were too humble and too well convinced of
-the greatness and manifoldness of their work to fancy that they had
-reached perfection, but were persevering and self-denying in their
-endeavours to attain unto it. And they have left behind them for us to
-follow a noble example of patient continuance in well doing.
-
-How in their hands the English Bible has grown, from the first attempt to
-set it forth in the language of our country to the form in which we are
-most familiar with it, can be fully learnt only by a careful comparison of
-the successive revisions to which it has been subjected. To aid my readers
-in forming some approximate idea of it I append Psalm xxiii., as it
-appears in the principal Bibles which have been mentioned in this and the
-preceding lecture.
-
-
-1. WYCLIFFE’S, 1382. (?)
-
-The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing to me shal lacke; in the place of
-leswe[35] where he me ful sette. Ouer watir of fulfilling he nurshide me;
-my soule he conuertide. He broȝte doun me upon the sties of riȝtwisnesse;
-for his name. For whi and if I shal go in the myddel of the shadewe of
-deth; I shal not dreden euelis, for thou art with me. Thi ȝerde and thi
-staf; tho han confortid me. Thou hast maad redi in thi siȝte a bord; aȝen
-hem that trublyn me. Thou hast myche fattid in oile myn hed; and my chalis
-makende ful drunken, hou riȝt cler it is. And thi mercy shal vnderfolewe
-me; alle the daȝis of my lif. And that I dwelle in the hous of the Lord;
-in to the lengthe of daȝis.
-
-
-2. PURVEY’S, 1388. (?)
-
-The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing schal faile to me; in the place of
-pasture there he hath set me. He nurschide me on the watir of
-refreischyng; he conuertide my soule. He ledde me forth on the pathis of
-riȝtfulnesse; for his name. For whi thouȝ Y schal go in the myddis of
-schadewe of deeth; Y schal not drede yuels, for thou art with me. Thi
-ȝerde and thi staf; tho han coumfortid me. Thou hast maad redi a boord in
-my siyt; aȝens hem that troblen me. Thou hast maad fat myn heed with oyle;
-and my cuppe, fillinge greetli, is ful cleer. And thi merci schal sue me;
-in alle the daies of my lijf. And that Y dwelle in the hows of the Lord;
-in to the lengthe of daies.
-
-
-3. COVERDALE’S, 1535.
-
-The Lorde is my shepherde, I can want nothinge. He fedeth me in a greene
-pasture; and ledeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soule, and
-bringeth me forth in the waye of rightuousness for his name’s sake. Though
-I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no
-euell, for thou art with me; thy staffe and thy shepehoke comforte me.
-Thou preparest a table before me agaynst mine enemies; thou anoyntest my
-heade with oyle, and fyllest my cuppe full. Oh let thy louying kyndnes and
-mercy folowe me all the dayes off my life that I maye dwell in the house
-off the Lord for euer.
-
-
-4. GREAT BIBLE, 1539.
-
-The Lorde is my shepherde, therefore can I lacke nothing. He shal fede me
-in a grene pasture and lead me forth besyde the waters of cōforte. He shal
-conuerte my soule and bring me forth in the pathes of righteousnes for his
-name’s sake. Yea, though I walke thorow y{e} valleye of y{e} shadow of
-death, I wyl feare no euell, for thou art w{t} me: thy rod and thy staff
-confort me.
-
-Thou shalt prepare a table before me, agaynst them that trouble me: thou
-hast annointed my head w{t} oyle, and my cup shal be ful. But (_thy_)
-louing kyndnes and mercy shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe: and I
-wyll dwel in the house of the Lord for euer.
-
-
-5. GENEVAN, 1560.
-
-1. The Lord _is_ my shepheard, I shall not want.
-
-2. Hee maketh mee to rest in greene pasture, _and_ leadeth me by the still
-waters.
-
-3. He restoreth my soule, _and_ leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse
-for his Names sake.
-
-4. Yea, though I should walke through the valley of the shadow of death, I
-will feare no euill, for thou art with me: thy rodde and thy staffe, they
-comfort me.
-
-5. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine adversaries:
-thou doest anoynt mine head with oyle, _and_ my cup runneth over.
-
-6. Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my
-life, and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord.
-
-
-6. BISHOPS, 1568.
-
-1. God is my shephearde, therefore I can lacke nothyng: he wyll cause me
-to repose myselfe in pasture full of grasse, and he wyll leade me vnto
-calme waters.
-
-2. He wyll conuerte my soule; he wyll bring me foorth into the pathes of
-righteousnesse for his name sake.
-
-3. Yea, though I walke through the valley of the shadowe of death, I wyll
-feare no euyll; for thou art with me, thy rodde and thy staffe be the
-thynges that do comfort me.
-
-4. Thou wylt prepare a table before me in the presence of myne
-aduersaries; thou has annoynted my head with oyle, and my cup shalbe
-brymme full.
-
-5. Truely felicitie and mercie shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe:
-and I wyll dwell in the house of God for a long tyme.
-
-
-7. DOUAI, 1610.
-
-1. The Psalme of Dauid.
-
-2. Our Lord ruleth one, and nothing shal be wanting to me: in place of
-pasture there he hath placed me.
-
-3. Upon the water of refection he hath brought me vp: he hath conuerted my
-soule.
-
-He hath conducted me upon the pathes of iustice for his name.
-
-4. For, although I shal walke in the middes of the shadow of death, I will
-not feare euils: because thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staffe, they
-haue comforted me.
-
-5. Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that truble me.
-
-Thou hast fatted my head with oyle; and my chalice inebriating how goodlie
-is it!
-
-6. And thy mercie shal folow me al the dayes of my life; And that I may
-dwel in the house of our Lord, in longitude of dayes.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE IV.
-
-_THE REVISION OF 1611--THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION._
-
-
-At the accession of James I. the GENEVAN BIBLE and the BISHOPS’ BIBLE
-were, as we have seen, the Bibles in current use, the latter being the
-Bible upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the former the favourite Bible
-of the people at large. The Book of Psalms also in the version of the
-Great Bible survived, as it still does, in the psalter of the Prayer Book,
-and probably in some few parish churches old and worn copies of the Great
-Bible still maintained their place.
-
-The state of religious parties at that date rendered it almost an
-impossibility that either of the two first-named versions should become
-universally accepted. The close connection of the Genevan Bible with the
-Puritan party, and the decidedly puritanic cast of some of its notes,
-created an insuperable prejudice against it in the minds of the more
-zealous advocates of Episcopal authority; while the inferiority[36] of the
-Bishops’ Bible as a version effectually barred its claim to an exclusive
-use. The need, then, for a new version was obvious, and a desire for it
-was probably felt by many of all parties.
-
-Public expression was first given to this desire on the second day of the
-Hampton Court Conference, January 16, 1604, by Dr. John Rainolds,[37] the
-leading representative of the Puritans in that assembly. It was not
-brought forward as one of the matters which he had been deputed to lay
-before the Conference; it seems rather to have been mentioned by him
-incidentally in connection with certain suggested reforms in the Prayer
-Book. “He moved his Majesty that there might be a new translation of the
-Bible, because those which were allowed in the reign of King Henry VIII.
-and Edward VI. were corrupt, and not answerable to the Truth of the
-Original,”[38] referring in illustration to the renderings given of Gal.
-iv. 25,[39] Ps. cv. 28,[40] and Ps. cvi. 30.[41] It is somewhat curious
-that no direct reference was made to the Bishops’ Bible; the reason,
-probably, was that this Bible was not one of those which had been
-“allowed” by royal authority. Of the three mistranslations quoted by
-Rainolds, the first only is found in the Bishops’ Bible; the other two
-occur in the Prayer Book Psalter.
-
-The suggestion of Rainolds met with no opposition. The king himself
-expressed his approval of it, not, however, without an ignorant and
-disingenuous fling at the Genevan version; and “presently after,” say the
-translators in their preface, the king “gave order for this translation”
-to be made. In the course of a few months a scheme for the execution of
-the work was matured, and in a letter to Dr. Richard Bancroft, then Bishop
-of London, the king informed him that he had appointed fifty-four learned
-men to undertake the translation. He even seems to have contemplated the
-possibility of securing the co-operation of all the biblical scholars of
-the country; and in a letter to Bancroft, dated July 22, 1604, directed
-him “to move the bishops to inform themselves of all such learned men
-within their several dioceses as, having especial skill in the Hebrew and
-Greek tongues, have taken pains in their private studies of the Scriptures
-for the clearing of any obscurities, either in the Hebrew or the Greek, or
-touching any difficulties, or mistakings in the former English
-translation, which we have now commanded to be thoroughly viewed and
-amended; and thereupon to write unto them, earnestly charging them, and
-signifying our pleasure therein, that they send such their observations to
-Mr. Lively, our Hebrew reader in Cambridge, or to Dr. Harding, our Hebrew
-reader in Oxford, or to Dr. Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, to be imparted
-to the rest of their several companies; that so our said intended
-translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned
-men within this our kingdom.”[42] Directions to a similar effect were sent
-also to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who was empowered in the king’s
-name to associate with those already appointed any “fitt men” he might be
-acquainted with; and we may infer that a corresponding communication was
-sent to Oxford.
-
-To what extent this comprehensive scheme was carried out we have no means
-of determining. The names of the fifty-four learned men referred to are
-not given, and we are consequently left in uncertainty whether those who
-ultimately engaged in the work[43] were all men included in that list, or
-whether other scholars, chosen by the universities or recommended by the
-bishops, formed part of the number.
-
-The rules laid down for the guidance of the translators were as follows:
-
-1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the Bishops’
-Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the Original
-will permit.
-
-2. The Names of the Prophets and the Holy Writers, with the other Names of
-the Text to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were
-vulgarly used.
-
-3. The old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept; viz., the word _Church_ not to
-be translated _Congregation_, &c.
-
-4. When a Word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been
-most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers, being agreeable to
-the Propriety of the Place, and the Analogy of the Faith.
-
-5. The division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as
-little as may be, if necessity so require.
-
-6. No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of
-the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so
-briefly and fitly be exprest in the Text.
-
-7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down, as shall serve for
-the fit reference of one Scripture to another.
-
-8. Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or
-Chapters, and having translated or amended them severally by himself,
-where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done,
-and agree for their parts what shall stand.
-
-9. As any one Company hath despatched any one Book in this manner, they
-shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously,
-for his Majesty is very careful in this point.
-
-10. If any Company, upon the review of the Book so sent, doubt or differ
-upon any Place, to send them word thereof; Note the place, and withal send
-the Reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded
-at the General Meeting, which is to be of the chief Persons of each
-Company at the end of the Work.
-
-11. When any Place of special obscurity is doubted of, Letters to be
-directed, by Authority, to send to any Learned Man in the Land, for his
-judgment of such a Place.
-
-12. Letters to be sent from every Bishop, to the rest of his Clergy,
-admonishing them of this Translation in hand; and to move and charge, as
-many as being skilful in the Tongues; and having taken pains in that kind,
-to send his particular Observations to the Company, either at Westminster,
-Cambridg, or Oxford.
-
-13. The Directors in each Company to be the Deans of Westminster and
-Chester for that place; and the King’s Professors in the Hebrew or Greek
-in either University.
-
-14. These Translations to be used, when they agree better with the Text
-than the Bishops’ Bible; viz., _Tindall’s_, _Matthew’s_, _Coverdale’s_,
-_Whitchurch’s_,[44] _Geneva_.
-
-15. Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most
-Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the Universities not employed in
-Translating, to be assigned by the Vice-Chancellor upon conference with
-the rest of the Heads, to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew
-as Greek, for the better observation of the 4th rule above specified.[45]
-
-Besides these rules, some others of a more definite nature seem to have
-been adopted by the translators themselves. At the Synod of Dort, held in
-the years 1618 and 1619, the question of preparing a new Dutch translation
-came under consideration, and for the guidance of its deliberations upon
-this point the English Delegates[46] were requested to give an account of
-the procedure observed in the translation recently made in England. In a
-matter of such grave importance the Delegates felt that they ought not to
-give any off-hand statement, and accordingly, after careful consideration,
-prepared a written account, which was presented to the Synod on its
-seventh Session, November 20th, 1618. In this account eight rules are
-given, the first three of which embody the substance of the first, sixth,
-and seventh of the rules given above. The others direct:
-
-That where the Hebrew or Greek admits of a twofold rendering, one is to be
-given in the text, and the other noted in the margin; and in like manner
-where an important various reading is found in approved authorities.
-
-That in the translation of the books of Tobit and Judith, where the text
-of the old Latin Vulgate greatly differs from that of the Greek, the
-latter text should be followed.
-
-That all words introduced for the purpose of completing the sense are to
-be distinguished by a difference of type.
-
-That new tables of contents should be prefixed to each book, and new
-summaries to each chapter.
-
-And lastly, that a complete list of Genealogies[47] and a description of
-the Holy Land should be added to the work.[48]
-
-From various causes, which cannot now be discovered, a period of three
-years elapsed before the revisers commenced their labours. One reason may
-have been that no provision was made for meeting the necessary costs of
-the undertaking. With a cheap liberality the king directed Bancroft to
-write to the bishops, asking them, as benefices became vacant, to give him
-the opportunity of bestowing them upon the translators as a reward for
-their service; and as to current expenses, the king, while professing with
-much effusiveness his readiness to bear them, cleverly evaded the
-responsibility by stating that some of “my lords, as things now go, did
-hold it inconvenient.”[49]
-
-The revision was completed, as the revisers themselves tell us, in “twice
-seven times seventy-two days and more;” that is to say, in about two years
-and three-quarters; and if to this be added the nine months spent in a
-final revision and preparation for the press, we have then only a period
-of three years and a half. The new Bible was published in 1611; the work,
-therefore, could not have been commenced before 1607.
-
-Although the men who engaged in this important undertaking are called
-“translators,” their work was essentially that of revision. This is
-clearly shown both by the rules laid down for their guidance, and by the
-statement of the translators themselves, who say in their preface, “Truly,
-good Christian reader, wee never thought from the beginning that wee
-should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good
-one,” “but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one
-principall good one, not justly to bee excepted against; that hath beene
-our indeavour, that our marke.”[50]
-
-Further, this revision was a more extensive and thorough revision than any
-which had been heretofore undertaken. In former revisions, either the work
-had been done by the solitary labours of one or two, or when a fair number
-of competent men were engaged in it no sufficient provision had been made
-for combined action, and but few opportunities had been given for mutual
-conference. In this revision a larger number of scholars were engaged than
-upon any former, and the arrangements were such as secured that upon no
-part of the Bible should the labour of fewer than seven persons be
-expended. The revisers were divided into six companies, two of which met
-at Westminster, two at Cambridge, and two at Oxford. The books of the Old
-Testament, from Genesis to 2 Kings inclusive, were assigned to the first
-Westminster company, consisting of ten members; from 1 Chronicles to Song
-of Solomon, to the first Cambridge company, consisting of eight members;
-and from Isaiah to Malachi, to the first Oxford company, consisting of
-seven members. The Apocryphal books were assigned to the second Cambridge
-company, which also consisted of seven members. Of the books of the New
-Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse were
-given to the second Oxford company, in which as many as ten members were
-at different times associated; the Epistles were entrusted to the seven
-scholars forming the second Westminster company.[51]
-
-The portions assigned to each company were not again subdivided amongst
-its members; but, in accordance with the eighth rule, “every particular
-man of each company” translated and amended by himself each successive
-portion, and the company met from time to time to confer upon what they
-had done, and to agree upon what should stand.[52] Of the mode of
-procedure followed at the meetings of the several companies, we have no
-other information than the brief statement given by Selden in his _Table
-Talk_--that “one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands
-some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian,
-&c. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on.”
-
-One interesting and touching picture of the translators at work, which
-however seems to have escaped the notice[53] of all writers upon the
-history of the English Bible, is given us by Dr. Daniel Featley in his
-account of the _Life and Death of John Rainolds_, and which is probably
-the substance, if not the very words, of the oration delivered by him at
-the funeral of the latter, when, on account of the large number of
-mourners, “the Chapell being not capable of the fourth part of the
-Funerall troupe,” a desk was set up in the quadrangle of Corpus Christi
-College, and a brief history of Rainolds’ life, “with the manner of his
-death,” was thence delivered to the assembled company. Dr. Rainolds was
-one of the Oxford scholars to whom the difficult task was assigned of
-revising the prophetical books of the Old Testament; and Featley tells us
-that “for his great skill in the originall Languages,” the other members
-of the company, “Doctor Smith, afterward Bishop of Gloster; Doctor
-Harding, President of Magdalens; Doctor Kilbie, Rector of Lincolne
-Colledge; Dr. Bret, and others, imployed in that worke by his Majesty, had
-recourse” to him “once a weeke, and in his Lodgings perfected their
-Notes; and though in the midst of this Worke, the gout first tooke him,
-and after a consumption, of which he dyed; yet in a great part of his
-sicknesse the meeting held at his Lodging, and he lying on his Pallet,
-assisted them, and in a manner in the very translation of the booke of
-life, was translated to a better life.”[54] Rainolds died May 21st, 1607.
-
-In the discharge of their responsible task the translators made use of all
-the aids accessible to them for the perfecting of their work. Not only did
-they bring to it a large amount of Hebrew and Greek scholarship, and the
-results of their personal study of the original Scriptures, they were
-careful to avail themselves also of the investigations of others who had
-laboured in the same field. Translations and commentaries in the Chaldee,
-Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch
-languages were laid under contribution. “Neither,” they add, “did we
-disdaine to revise that which wee had done, and to bring back to the
-anvill that which wee had hammered; but having and using as great helpes
-as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coveting
-praise for expedition, wee have at length, through the good hand of the
-Lord upon us, brought the worke to that passe that you see.”
-
-When the several companies had completed their labours there was needed
-some general supervision of the work before it finally issued from the
-press. There is no evidence that the six companies ever met in one body
-(though possibly the two companies in each of the three centres may have
-had some communication with each other); but having spent almost three
-years upon the revision, “at the end whereof,” says the writer of the
-life of John Bois,[55] “the whole work being finished, and three copies of
-the whole Bible sent from Cambridge, Oxford, and Westminster to London, a
-new choice was to be made of six in all, two out of every company,[56] to
-review the whole work, and extract one copy out of all these to be
-committed to the press, for the dispatch of which business Mr. Downes and
-Mr. Bois were sent for up to London, where,[57] meeting their four
-fellow-labourers, they went daily to Stationers’ Hall, and in
-three-quarters of a year fulfilled their task, all which time they had
-from the Company of Stationers thirty shillings[58] each per week duly
-paid them, though they had nothing before but the self-rewarding,
-ingenious industry.”[59] “Last of all Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and
-Dr. Miles Smith, again reviewed the whole work, and prefixed arguments to
-the several books.”
-
-And thus at length, as Thomas Fuller quaintly puts it, “after long
-expectation, and great desire, the new translation of the Bible (most
-beautifully printed) by a select and competent number of Divines appointed
-for the purpose, not being too many, lest one should trouble another,
-and yet many, lest in any things might haply escape them. Who, neither
-coveting praise for expedition, nor fearing reproach for slackness (seeing
-in a business of moment none deserve blame for convenient slowness), had
-expended almost three years in a work, not only examining the channels by
-the fountain, translations with the original, which was absolutely
-necessary, but also comparing channels with channels, which was abundantly
-useful.” “These, with Jacob, rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-Well of Life, so that now Rachel’s weak women may freely come, both to
-drink themselves, and to water the flocks of their families at the
-same.”[60]
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE V.
-
-_REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY._
-
-
-On the title-page of the first edition of King James’s Bible there
-appeared as now the legend, “Appointed to be read in Churches.” Whence
-this originated is unknown; it is even uncertain what meaning is to be
-attached to the words. Some contend[61] that they mean nothing more than
-that the book contained the directions in accordance with which the
-Scriptures were “appointed” to be read in public worship, such as are now
-given in the Book of Common Prayer. But, however this may be, there is no
-evidence that this Bible was ever formally sanctioned, either by the king,
-or by Parliament, or by Convocation. The king, as we have seen, encouraged
-the making of the revision, but that the revision when made was, by any
-public act on his part, invested with any special authority, is a fancy
-altogether unsupported by fact. Its designation as the Authorized
-Version has been due simply to common parlance; the claim which that
-designation seems to assert is absolutely baseless.
-
-It was not in virtue of any privileges conferred upon it by those in
-authority, but by its intrinsic excellence, that this version made its way
-into general use, and at length supplanted all previous versions. Its
-chief, if not only, competitor was the Genevan. So strong was the
-attachment of many to the latter that two editions of it, one a folio and
-the other a quarto, were published by the king’s printer in the very year
-in which the new version was issued, and during at least five years after
-that date[62] various other editions were issued from the same source.
-After 1616 the Genevan ceased to be printed in England, but the demand for
-it still continuing, various editions were printed on the Continent, and
-thence introduced into this country. A folio edition, printed at
-Amsterdam, bears so late a date as 1644. In 1649, in order to win the
-favour of those who still clung to their old favourite, an edition of the
-new version was issued with the Genevan notes. After this date the
-revision of 1611 may be said to have gained for itself universal
-recognition, and for more than 230 years it has been the accepted and
-cherished Bible of almost all English-speaking people.
-
-We should, however, form a very erroneous opinion both of the spirit and
-of the learning of King James’s translators, if we were to suppose that
-they would have claimed finality for their work. They were too well
-acquainted with the state of the original texts not to know what need
-there was for further research after the most ancient and trustworthy
-authorities. They were too keenly sensitive to the difficulties of
-translation not to feel that they must often have failed to convey the
-exact meaning of the words they were attempting to render. They were too
-conscious of the merits of their predecessors, and of the extent to which
-they had profited by their labours, to hesitate to acknowledge that others
-might in like manner profit by what they themselves had done. And they
-were too loyal in their reverence for the Scriptures, and too devoutly
-anxious that every imperfection should be removed from the form in which
-they were given to their fellow-countrymen, to offer any discouragement to
-those who should seek to remove the blemishes that might still remain.
-They would strongly have deprecated any attempt to find in their labours a
-plea against further improvement; and they would have emphatically
-proclaimed that the best expression of thankfulness for their services,
-and of respect for themselves, was in the imitation of their example, and
-in the promotion of further efforts for the perfecting of the book they so
-profoundly loved.
-
-In the case of such a book as the Bible, however perfect the translation
-which may at any time be made, the duty of revision is one of recurring
-obligation. The necessity for it is inevitable, and this from two causes
-in constant operation. (1) By the imperfection that attaches to all kinds
-of human labour various departures from the standard form became gradually
-introduced in the process of reproduction; and (2) by the natural growth
-of language, and the attendant changes in the meaning of terms, that which
-at one time was a faithful rendering becomes at another obscure or
-incorrect.
-
-No long time elapsed before blemishes arose in the version of 1611 from
-the first of these causes, and, to use the language of the translators
-themselves, their translation needed “to be maturely considered and
-examined, that being rubbed and polished it might shine as gold more
-brightly.” The invention of printing, although it has largely diminished
-the liability to error in the multiplication of copies, has not, as
-everyone knows who has had occasion to minutely examine printed works,
-altogether removed them. Various typographical errors soon made their
-appearance in the printed copies of the Bible, and these became repeated
-and multiplied in successive editions, until at length no inconsiderable
-number of variations, sometimes amounting to several thousands, could be
-traced between different copies. Most of these it is true were unimportant
-variations, but some of them were of a more serious nature. The following
-instances will serve to illustrate this. The dates attached are the dates
-of the editions in which the errors may be found:
-
-Exod. xx. 14. “Thou shalt commit adultery,” _for_ “Thou shalt not.” 1631,
-Lond., 8vo.[63]
-
-Numb. xxv. 18. “They vex you with their wives,” _for_ “their wiles.” 1638,
-Lond., 12mo.
-
-Numb. xxvi. 10. “The fire devoured two thousand and fifty men,” _for_ “two
-hundred and fifty.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Deut. xxiv. 3. “If the latter husband ate her,” _for_ “hate her.” 1682,
-Lond.
-
-2 Sam. xxiii. 20. “He slew two lions like men,” _for_ “two lion-like men.”
-1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Job xxix. 3. “By his light I shined through darkness,” _for_ “I walked
-through.” 1613, Lond.
-
-Isaiah xxix. 13. “Their fear toward me is taught by the people of men,”
-_for_ “by the precept of men.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Jer. iv. 17. “Because she hath been religious against me,” _for_ “hath
-been rebellious.” 1637, Edin., 8vo.
-
-Jer. xviii. 21. “Deliver up their children to the swine,” _for_ “to the
-famine.” 1682, Lond.
-
-Ezek. xxiii. 7. “With all their idols she delighted herself,” _for_ “she
-defiled herself.” 1613, Lond.
-
-Matt. xxvi. 36. “Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called
-Gethsemane,” _for_ “Then cometh Jesus.” 1611, Lond.
-
-Acts vi. 3. “Look ye out among you seven men of honest report ... whom ye
-may appoint,” _for_ “whom we may appoint.” 1638, Camb. fo.[64]
-
-1 Cor. v. 1. “And such fornication as is not so much as not among the
-Gentiles,” _for_ “not so much as named.” 1629, Lond., fo.[65]
-
-1 Cor. vi. 9. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom
-of God?” _for_ “shall not inherit.” 1653, Lond., 32mo.
-
-2 Tim. iv. 16. “I pray God that it may be laid to their charge,” _for_
-“may not be laid.” 1613, Lond.
-
-Titus i. 14. “Now giving heed to Jewish fables,” _for_ “not giving heed.”
-1636 Edin., 8vo.
-
-James v. 4. “The Lord of Sabbath,” _for_ “Sabaoth.” 1640, Lond., 8vo.
-
-1 John i. 4. “That our joy may be full,” _for_ “that your joy.” 1769, Oxf.
-
-These facts will serve to show how soon some kind of revision became
-needful, and that a true reverence for Scripture is shown, not by
-opposition to revision, but by a desire, and even demand, that it should
-be undertaken. This necessity became all the more imperative in the case
-of the revision of 1611, because there existed no standard copy to which
-appeal could in all cases be made as evidence of the conclusions reached
-by the translators. It is a curious and remarkable fact, that two
-editions, differing in several respects, were issued by the king’s
-printer, Robert Barker, in 1611, and competent judges are not agreed as to
-which of these two priority in time belongs. Nor even if this point were
-satisfactorily settled, would it suffice to reproduce that one of the two
-texts which might be proved to be the earlier. For excellent as was the
-main work done by the translators, the final revision and the oversight of
-the sheets as they passed through the press were not so thorough as was to
-be desired. In the most carefully prepared edition of this revision that
-has ever been issued, viz., the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, edited by Dr.
-Scrivener, the learned and laborious editor has seen it right to depart
-from the printed text of 1611 in more than nine hundred places.[66] It
-will be manifest that such corrections, whenever called for, ought not to
-be made in any haphazard way, and that it is in the interest of all that
-careful revisions of the printed texts should from time to time be made,
-and that they should be made by men thoroughly competent for the task.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The second cause to which reference has been made is, of course, much
-slower in its operation, but though slow it is certain; and sooner or
-later every version, whensoever and by whomsoever made, must call for
-revision, because of the changes to which all language is subject. Words
-which were once in common use pass altogether out of currency, and are
-utterly unintelligible save to a learned few. Other words change their
-meaning, and give to the sentences in which they occur a different and
-sometimes an alien sense to that which they formerly conveyed. Others
-again, while retaining fundamentally their original sense, become limited
-in their range of application, and when used in other connections than
-those to which they are thus confined by custom, become grotesque and
-disturb the mind of the reader by the strange associations which they
-suggest.
-
-How many words found in our Bibles have, since 1611, passed out of general
-use the following list will show. Most of these are wholly without
-meaning, even to an educated reader; a few survive as local
-provincialisms, and a few also are still employed in the technical
-vocabulary of certain arts or professions. All are out of place in a book
-intended for universal use.
-
-    _Assay._ Deut. iv. 34; Job iv. 2; Acts ix. 26, &c.
-
-    _Attent._ 2 Chron. vi. 40.
-
-    _Bestead._ Isa. viii. 21.
-
-    _Blain._ Exod. ix. 9, 10.
-
-    _Bolled._ Exod. ix. 31.
-
-    [_Brickle._ Wisd. xv. 13.]
-
-    _Brigandine._ Jer. xlvi. 4; li. 3.
-
-    _Bruit._ Jer. x. 22; Nah. iii. 19.
-
-    _Calamus._ Exod. xxx. 23; Cant. iv. 14; Exek. xxvii. 19.
-
-    _Camphire._ Cant. i. 14; iv. 13.
-
-    _Causey._ 1 Chron. xxvi. 18.
-
-    _Chanel-bone._ Job xxxi. 22, _marg._
-
-    _Chapiter._ Exod. xxxvi. 38, &c.
-
-    _Chapman._ 2 Chron. ix. 14.
-
-    _Chaws._ Ezek. xxix. 4.
-
-    [_Cithern._ 1 Macc. iv. 54.]
-
-    _Cockatrice._ Isa. xi. 8, &c.
-
-    _Collops._ Job xv. 27.
-
-    _Confection._ Exod. xxx. 35.
-
-    _Coney._ Lev. xi. 5, &c.
-
-    _To Convent._ Jer. xlix. 19, _marg._
-
-    _Cotes._ 2 Chron. xxxii. 28.
-
-    _To Couch._ Dent, xxxiii. 13.
-
-    _Countervail._ Esth. vii. 4.
-
-    _Daysman._ Job ix. 33.
-
-    [_Dehort._ 1 Macc. ix. 9.]
-
-    _Delicates._ Jer. li. 34.
-
-    _Dredge._ Job xxiv. 6, _marg._
-
-    _Dure._ Matt. xiii. 21.
-
-    _Earing._ Gen. xlv. 6.
-
-    _Endirons._ Ezek. xl. 43, _marg._
-
-    _Flue-net._ Hab. i. 15, _marg._
-
-    _Gier eagle._ Lev. xi. 18.
-
-    _Gorget._ 1 Sam. xvii. 6, _marg._
-
-    _Habergeon._ Exod. xxviii. 32; xxxix. 23, &c.
-
-    _Helve._ Deut. xix. 5.
-
-    _Hough._ Josh. xi. 6, 9.
-
-    _Implead._ Acts xix. 38.
-
-    _Jewry._ Dan. v. 13; John vii. 1.
-
-    _Knop._ Exod. xxv. 31, &c.
-
-    _Leasing._ Ps. iv. 2; v. 6.
-
-    _Makebate._ 2 Tim. iii. 3, _marg._
-
-    _Muffler._ Isa. iii. 19.
-
-    _Neesing._ Job xli. 18.
-
-    _Ossifrage._ Lev. xi. 13.
-
-    _Ouches._ Exod. xxviii. 11, &c.
-
-    _Pilled._ Gen. xxx. 37.
-
-    _Prelation._ 1 Cor. xiii., _heading_.
-
-    _Purtenance._ Exod. xii. 9.
-
-    _Ravin._ Gen. xlix. 27.
-
-    _Rereward._ Num. x. 25, &c.
-
-    _Scall._ Lev. xiii. 30.
-
-    _Scrabble._ 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
-
-    _A Settle._ Ezek. xliii. 14, &c.
-
-    _Silverling._ Isa. vii. 23.
-
-    _Sith._ Ezek. xxxv. 6.
-
-    _Tabering._ Nah. ii. 7.
-
-    _Tache._ Exod. xxvi. 6.
-
-    _Throughaired._ Jer. xxii. 14, _marg._
-
-    _Thrum._ Isa. xxxviii. 12, _marg._
-
-    _Viol._ Isa. v. 12.
-
-    _Wimple._ Isa. iii. 22.
-
-A still larger number of words or phrases, though still finding a place in
-our current speech, have wholly or partially changed their meanings.
-Amongst these are the following:
-
-    _All to brake._ Judges ix. 5.
-
-    _Base._ 1 Cor. i. 28; 2 Cor. x. 1.
-
-    _Botch._ Exod. ix. 9.
-
-    _Bought of a sling._ 1 Sam. xxv. 29, _marg._
-
-    _Bravery._ Isa. iii. 18.
-
-    _Bray._ Prov. xxvii. 27.
-
-    _By and by._ Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9.
-
-    _Captivate._ 2 Chron. xxviii.; Jer. xxxix., _headings_.
-
-    _Careful._ Dan. iii. 16; Phil. iv. 6.
-
-    _Carriage._ Judges xviii. 21; Acts xxi. 15.
-
-    _Cast about._ Jer. xli. 14.
-
-    _Chafed._ 2 Sam. xvii. 8.
-
-    _Champaign._ Deut. xi. 30.
-
-    _Charger._ Matt. xiv. 8; Mark vi. 25.
-
-    _Charity._ 1 Cor. xiii. 1, &c.
-
-    _Churl._ Isa. xxxii. 5, 7.
-
-    _Cieling._ 1 Kings vi. 15.
-
-    _Clouted._ Josh. ix. 5.
-
-    _Cockle._ Job xxxi. 40.
-
-    _Comfort._ Job ix. 27.
-
-    _Confectionary._ 1 Sam. viii. 13.
-
-    _Contain._ 1 Cor. vii. 9.
-
-    _Conversation._ Gal. i. 18; Phil. iii. 20; Heb. xiii. 5.
-
-    _Convince._ Jno. viii. 48; Jas. ii. 9.
-
-    _Cunning._ Ps. cxxxvii. 5.
-
-    _Curious._ Exod. xxviii. 8; xxix. 5.
-
-    _Damnation._ 1 Cor. xi. 29.
-
-    _Delicately._ Lam. iv. 5; Luke vii. 25.
-
-    _Discover._ Ps. xxix. 9; Mic. i. 6; Hab. iii. 13.
-
-    _Doctrine._ Mark iv. 2.
-
-    _Duke._ Gen. xxxvi. 15.
-
-    _Ensign._ Num. ii. 2; Isa. v. 26.
-
-    _Fast._ Ruth ii. 8, 21.
-
-    _Fetch a compass._ Acts xxviii. 13.
-
-    _Flood._ Josh. xxiv. 2, 3, &c.
-
-    _Footman._ Jer. xii. 5.
-
-    _Fret._ Lev. xiii. 55.
-
-    _Grudge._ Ps. lix. 15.
-
-    _Hale._ Luke xii. 58; Acts viii. 3.
-
-    _Harness._ 1 Kings xx. 11; xxii. 34.
-
-    _Indite._ Ps. xlv. 1.
-
-    _Jangling._ 1 Tim. i. 6.
-
-    _Kerchief._ Ezek. xiii. 18, 21.
-
-    _Lace._ Exod. xxviii. 28.
-
-    _Latchet._ Isa. v. 27; Mark i. 7.
-
-    _Let._ Exod. v. 24; Isa. xliii. 13; Rom. i. 13; 2 Thess. ii. 7.
-
-    _Lewd._ Acts xvii. 5.
-
-    _Lewdness._ Acts xviii. 14.
-
-    _Man-of-War._ Exod. xv. 3, &c.
-
-    _Maul._ Prov. xxv. 18.
-
-    _Minister._ Josh. i. 1; 1 Kings x. 5; Luke iv. 20.
-
-    _Napkin._ Luke xix. 20; John xi. 44; xx. 7.
-
-    _Naughtiness._ 1 Sam. xvii. 28; Prov. xi. 6; James i. 21.
-
-    _Naughty._ Prov. vi. 12.
-
-    _Nephew._ Judges xii. 14; 1 Tim. v. 4.
-
-    _Observe._ Mark vi. 20.
-
-    _Occupy._ Exod. xxxviii. 24; Judg. xvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 9; Luke xix.
-    13.
-
-    _Painfulness._ 2 Cor. xi. 27.
-
-    _Palestine._ Exod. xv. 14; Isa. xiv. 29.
-
-    _Pap._ Luke xi. 27; Rev. i. 13.
-
-    _Parcel._ Gen. xxxix. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32; Ruth iv. 3; John iv. 5.
-
-    _Peep._ Isa. viii. 19; x. 14.
-
-    _Poll._ Num. i. 2, &c.
-
-    _Pommel._ 2 Chron. ix. 12.
-
-    _Port._ Neh. ii. 13.
-
-    _Prefer._ Esth. ii. 9; Dan. vi. 3; John i. 25.
-
-    _Presently._ Matt. xxvi. 53; Phil. ii. 23.
-
-    _Prevent._ Ps. lix. 10; cxix. 147; 1 Thess. iv. 15.
-
-    _Proper._ Acts i. 19; 1 Cor. vii. 7; Heb. xi. 32.
-
-    _Prophesy._ 1 Cor. xi. 5; xiv. 3, 4.
-
-    _Publican._ Matt. v. 46, &c.
-
-    _Purchase._ 1 Tim. iii. 13.
-
-    _Ranges._ Lev. xi. 35.
-
-    _Refrain._ Prov. x. 19.
-
-    _Riot._ Titus i. 6; 1 Peter iv. 4; 2 Peter ii. 13.
-
-    _Rioting._ Rom. xiii. 13.
-
-    _Riotous._ Prov. xxiii. 20; Luke xv. 13.
-
-    _Road._ 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.
-
-    _Scrip._ 1 Sam. xvii. 40; Matt. x. 10, &c.
-
-    _Secure._ Judges viii. 11; xviii. 7, 10; Job xi. 18; xii. 6; Matt.
-    xxviii. 14.
-
-    _Set to._ John iii. 32.
-
-    _Shroud._ Ezek. xxxi. 3.
-
-    _Sod._ Gen. xxv. 29.
-
-    _Sottish._ Jer. iv. 22.
-
-    _Table._ Hab. ii. 2; Luke i. 63; 2 Cor. iii. 3.
-
-    _Target._ 1 Sam. xvii. 6; 1 Kings x. 16.
-
-    _Tire._ Isa. iii. 18; Ezek. xxiv. 17, 23.
-
-    _Tired._ 2 Kings ix. 30.
-
-    _Turtle._ Cant. ii. 12.
-
-    _Vagabond._ Gen. iv. 12; Ps. cix. 10; Acts xix. 13.
-
-    _Venison._ Gen. xxv. 28.
-
-    _Wealth._ 2 Chron. i. 12; Ps. cxii. 3; 1 Cor. x. 24.
-
-    _Witty._ Prov. viii. 22.
-
-If, in reading these passages, we attach to the words here mentioned the
-meaning that they ordinarily bear, the resulting sense will in each case
-be very different from that intended to be conveyed by the translators. In
-some of the passages the sense thus given will be so manifestly
-inappropriate that the reader is necessarily driven to seek for some
-explanation; but in others of them no such feeling may be awakened, and
-the reader is undesignedly betrayed into error. Through no fault of the
-translators, but by the inevitable law of change in language, the words
-which once served as stepping-stones, by whose aid the reader could rise
-to a clearer perception of the truth of God, have become stumbling-blocks
-in his path, and cause him to wander from the way. Respect, therefore, for
-the translators, as well as loyalty to the Scripture, constrain the demand
-that these rough places be made plain.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VI.
-
-_ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF
-1611._
-
-
-The two reasons for further revision which were illustrated in the last
-lecture are, as will have been seen, of universal application, and must
-sooner or later apply to every version of the Scriptures, however perfect
-that version may have been when it was first made. But whatever the skill
-with which King James’s translators fulfilled their labours (and it is
-universally acknowledged to be worthy of the highest praise), it would be
-a vain fancy to imagine that theirs was a perfect work. They themselves
-would never have claimed such an honour for it, and already in their own
-day some of their renderings were called in question by competent men.
-Even if they had never failed in applying the means at their command for
-the interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek originals, they knew that the
-knowledge then possessed of these ancient tongues was far from complete,
-and that by further study and advancing research it would be possible to
-attain to a more accurate and extensive acquaintance with them.
-
-The progress made in the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew during the last two
-centuries has, in fact, been such as the revisers of 1611 could have
-little anticipated. A long list might easily be drawn up of eminent
-scholars who have given themselves to the investigation of the grammar of
-the two sacred languages, and of others who have laboured in illustrating
-the meaning of their terms. In the case of Hebrew, large additions to our
-knowledge, both of its grammar and its vocabulary, have been won from a
-source almost entirely unexplored in former times; namely, the study of
-Arabic and other cognate languages; and in the case both of Hebrew and
-Greek, much has been gained by the labours of those who have given
-themselves to the investigation of the general principles of language, and
-to the study of the relations which different languages sustain to each
-other. The knowledge of Hebrew and Greek thus attained has been from time
-to time applied by a still larger number of eminent men to the elucidation
-of the several books of the Bible, and an immense amount of valuable
-material for their interpretation has thus been stored up. The meaning of
-obscure and difficult passages has been elaborately and independently
-discussed by men of different nationalities, and of different types of
-theological opinion, and in this way the sense of many passages formerly
-misunderstood has been satisfactorily determined. And such being the case,
-it is clearly the incumbent duty of all who truly reverence the Scriptures
-to desire that these imperfections and obscurities shall be removed, and
-the more so that some of these erroneous renderings have been used by the
-opponents of the Bible as their weapons of attack.
-
-That the reader may be able to form some definite judgment upon the matter
-here presented to him, his attention is called to the following selection
-of passages from different parts of the Bible, in which it will now be
-generally acknowledged by competent judges that the translators of 1611
-have failed to give a faithful representation of the meaning of the
-original texts:
-
-Gen. iv. 15 is rendered, in the version of 1611, as in previous versions:
-“And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him,”
-and no small amount of ingenuity has been wasted in the endeavour to
-decide what this supposed mark upon the body of Cain might be. The
-rendering moreover altogether misrepresented the import of the passage.
-The “mark” or “sign” was not something intended for the warning of others,
-but was given to remove the fears of Cain himself, expressed in verses 13,
-14: “The Lord set a sign for Cain [to assure him] that whoever found him
-would not kill him.”
-
-Gen. xx. 16. Here Abimelech is made to say to Sarah, “Behold, I have given
-thy brother a thousand _pieces_ of silver; behold, he is to thee a
-covering of the eyes, with all that are with thee, and with all _other_;
-thus she was reproved,” a statement which is both misleading and obscure.
-It was not Abraham, but the present of money, that was to be for Sarah a
-covering of the eyes, that is, a testimony to her virtue, and by this act
-of the king she was not reproved for her conduct, but was cleared in her
-character. The latter part should be rendered, “Behold, it shall be to
-thee a covering of the eyes ... and thus she was righted.”
-
-Exod. xvi. 15. “And when the children of Israel saw _it_, they said one to
-another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was.” To the ordinary
-reader this seems to involve a contradiction; but the stumbling-block is
-at once removed by the more faithful rendering, “They said one to another,
-What is it? for they wist not what it was.” Further on, in verse 31, it is
-stated that from this cry, “What is it?” the bread from heaven thus given
-to them was called Manna, or more correctly Man (the Hebrew word for
-What?).
-
-Josh. vi. 4. “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets
-of rams’ horns.” This is a very unfortunate rendering; for not only are
-rams’ horns solid, and so also unsuitable for wind instruments, but also
-it is only by the merest fancy that any reference to rams can be brought
-in at all. The word rendered “rams” is “jubilee,” the same as that given
-to the great Year of Release. It denotes either some kind of trumpet, and
-is so used Exod. xix. 13, or the sound or signal given by a trumpet. The
-Year of Release derives its name, the Year of Jubilee, from the solemn
-sounding of trumpets throughout the land with which it was inaugurated.
-The original term should here be kept, and the verse should read, “And
-seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of jubilee.”[67]
-
-Judges v. 7. “_The inhabitants of_ the villages ceased, they ceased in
-Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.” Here
-the translators first of all misunderstood the word which they have
-rendered “villages,” and were then driven to introduce the words “the
-inhabitants of,” for which, as the italics show, there was nothing in the
-Hebrew. The picture really drawn in the verse is not that of the
-depopulation of the country, but of the defenceless and disorganized
-condition of the people through the absence of judges or rulers. The
-Septuagint gives the true sense: “The rulers ceased, they ceased in
-Israel.”[68]
-
-Judges xv. 19. “But God clave an hollow place that _was_ in the jaw, and
-there came water thereout.” A strange misrepresentation of the meaning of
-the original. The hollow place was not in the jaw-bone with which Sampson
-had slain the Philistines, but in some cliff in the neighbourhood, and
-which derived its name, Ramath-lehi, or more briefly Lehi, from this
-memorable exploit. The words should be rendered, “But God clave the hollow
-place which is in Lehi.”
-
-1 Sam. ix. 20. “And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set
-not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom _is_ all the desire
-of Israel? _Is it_ not on thee and on all thy father’s house?” A needless
-difficulty is here created by suggesting that already the hearts of the
-people had been set upon Saul for their future king, whereas his future
-elevation to that office was as yet known to Samuel only. This is removed
-by the right rendering: “Whose are all the desirable things of Israel? Are
-they not for thee, and for thy father’s house.”[69]
-
-2 Sam. v. 6. “Except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not
-come in hither;” a statement to which the reader finds it difficult to
-attach any appropriate sense. The verse is correctly rendered by
-Coverdale, who reads, “Thou shalt not come hither, but the blynde and lame
-shall dryve thee awaie.”
-
-2 Sam. xiv. 14. “For we must needs die, and _are_ as water spilt on the
-ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect _any_
-person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from
-him.” The statement that God doth not respect _any_ person, however true
-in itself, has here no relation to the context. The natural meaning of the
-original words is very different, “God doth not take away life,” that is,
-as shown by what immediately follows, does not at once and without mercy
-inflict punishment as soon as guilt is incurred, but “deviseth means,” &c.
-
-2 Kings viii. 13. “And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that
-he should do this great thing?” Thus read, the words imply that Hazael
-shrank indignantly from the actions described in the preceding verse;
-whereas the sense of the passage is that he viewed himself as too
-insignificant a person to do what he clearly regarded as a great exploit.
-“But what is thy servant, the [or this] dog, that he should do this great
-thing?”
-
-1 Chron. xvi. 7. “Then on that day David delivered first _this psalm_ to
-thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.” This conveys the
-impression that the psalm which follows is the first psalm that David
-published, whereas the statement is that on this memorable day--the day
-on which David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom--he formally
-appointed Asaph and his brethren to the office of superintending the
-service of praise. (Compare verse 37.) “Then on that day David first gave
-the praising of the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.”[70]
-
-Job iv. 6. “Is not _this_ thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the
-uprightness of thy ways?” By the insertion of “_this_,” a wrong complexion
-is given to the passage. Eliphaz, in reference to Job’s fainting under his
-sufferings, calls attention to the confidence he had formerly professed on
-the ground of his fear of God and of the uprightness of his conduct; and
-so indirectly suggests that Job’s piety and uprightness had been unreal.
-“Is not thy fear [_i.e._ thy fear of God, thy piety] thy confidence; and
-thy hope, _is it not_ even the integrity of thy ways?”
-
-Job xix. 26. “And _though_ after my skin _worms_ destroy this _body_, yet
-in my flesh shall I see God.” As the italics show, the original contains
-nothing corresponding to the words “though,” “worms,” and “body.” Their
-insertion does not indeed change radically the meaning of the verse, but
-they weaken its force, and in a measure alter its imagery. The picture
-presented by the original is a very vivid one. The patriarch, pointing to
-his body wasting away under disease, says, “After my skin is destroyed
-thus, yet from my flesh shall I see God.”
-
-Job xxiv. 16. “In the dark they dig through houses, _which_ they had
-marked for themselves in the daytime; they know not the light.” Here the
-meaning of the second clause has been altogether missed, and the whole
-passage is thereby greatly obscured. The writer is describing the deeds of
-those who rebel against the light and love the darkness: as with the
-murderer (_v._ 14) and the adulterer (_v._ 15), so is it with the robber.
-“In the dark they dig through houses; in the daytime they shut themselves
-up; they know not the light.”
-
-Job xxxi. 35. “Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire _is_, _that_
-the Almighty would answer me, and _that_ mine adversary had written a
-book.” Job, having asserted his innocence, expresses his strong desire
-that the charges against him might be brought for decision before the
-divine tribunal. He, on his part, is quite prepared for the trial; there,
-he says, is his statement, signed and sealed; let the adversary in like
-manner present his indictment; he would then be sure of a triumphant
-issue. “Oh that I had one who would hear me! Behold my mark! May the
-Almighty answer me, and that I had the accusation that my adversary had
-written. Surely, I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it as
-chaplets upon me.”
-
-Ps. xvi. 2, 3. “_Thou art_ my Lord; my goodness _extendeth_ not to thee.
-_But_ to the saints that _are_ in the earth, and _to_ the excellent, in
-whom is all my delight.” Every reader of this psalm must have felt how
-obscure, if not unintelligible, are these words. A more faithful rendering
-gives a clear and appropriate sense, “Thou art my Lord, I have no good
-above thee. As for the saints on the earth, and the excellent, in them is
-all my delight.”[71]
-
-Ps. xlii. 4. “When I remember these _things_, I pour out my soul in me,
-for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God.”
-The words of the Psalmist are not, as this rendering makes them to be, a
-mere statement of what happens whenever he remembers the sorrows of the
-past, and the mockery of his adversaries. They are a declaration of his
-purpose to remember, with lively emotion and gratitude, the privileges and
-mercies with which he had been blessed. “I will remember these things
-[_i.e._ the things he is about to mention], and I will pour out my soul
-within me, how I passed along with the multitude, how I went with them [or
-how I led them] to the house of God.”
-
-Ps. xlix. 5. “Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, _when_ the
-iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?” This, though seemingly an
-exact rendering of the Hebrew, wholly misleads the English reader. The
-phrase, “iniquity of my heels,” can only suggest to him the iniquity which
-the man himself has committed, a sense which is altogether unsuited to the
-passage. The Psalmist would never say that his own personal transgressions
-were not to him a ground of fear. The word, which in Hebrew means “heel,”
-is that also which, by a slight modification, forms the name of the
-patriarch Jacob, the “Heeler,” or supplanter of his brother. In the
-opinion of many scholars, the simple form here used admits of the same
-meaning, and they render, “when the iniquity of my supplanters [or the
-iniquity of those who plot against me] compasseth me about.” Whatever be
-the true explanation of the Hebrew phrase, it is quite certain that it is
-the iniquity of others, and not of the speaker, which is referred to. Some
-change, therefore, in the rendering is clearly called for.
-
-Ps. xci. 9, 10. “Because thou hast made the Lord, _which is_ my refuge,
-_even_ the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,”
-&c. The earlier English translations, the Bishops’, the Genevan, the Great
-Bible, and Wycliffe’s, have all kept nearer to the original than this. The
-most ancient version of all, the Septuagint, renders it correctly. The
-psalm is one of those which are intended to be sung by two singers, or two
-companies of singers, responding one to the other, and hence arises the
-frequent change of person that occurs in it. In the first clause of this
-verse we have one of the singers chanting, “For thou, O Lord, art my
-refuge.” In the second clause we have the response of the other singer,
-“Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall
-thee,” &c., down to end of verse 13.
-
-Eccl. iv. 14. “For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas, also, _he
-that is_ born in his kingdom _becometh_ poor.” The meaning attached by the
-Revisers of 1611 to the second clause seems to be, that the old and
-foolish king referred to in the previous verse, who was “born in his
-kingdom,” that is, who succeeded to the kingly power by inheritance,
-becomes, through his obstinacy, a poor man. This sense can only be got
-from the words by much straining, and has led to the introduction of the
-word “becometh,” which represents nothing in the original.[72] The correct
-rendering gives a plain and suitable sense: “For from the house of
-prisoners he goeth forth to reign, although in his kingdom [namely, the
-kingdom over which he now rules] he was born poor.”
-
-Isa. lxiii. 19. “We are _thine_: thou never barest rule over them; they
-were not called by thy name.” The sense of this passage is entirely
-changed by the introduction of the word “thine.” The verse is the
-penitential acknowledgment of the depressed condition into which the
-nation had fallen in consequence of its sins. They are no longer as the
-chosen inheritance (v. 17), they are as an alien people. The Genevan
-translators give the true sense of the passage, “We have been [better, We
-are become] as they over whom thou never barest rule, and upon whom thy
-name was not called.”
-
-Jer. iv. 1, 2. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto
-me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then
-shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in
-judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in
-him, and in him shall they glory.” This as it stands is hopelessly
-obscure. The passage is an emphatic announcement of the blessings that
-would come to the nations from the penitent return of Israel to its
-faithful allegiance. If Israel will return, will put away all its
-abominations, and no longer swearing by idols, as if they were the highest
-objects of reverence, should make in truth and uprightness their appeals
-to Jehovah, then the nations would share in the blessedness of the
-kingdom. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, wilt return unto
-me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, and wilt
-not go astray, and wilt swear, ‘The Lord liveth’ in truth, in judgment,
-and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him,” &c.
-
-Ezek. x. 14. “And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of
-a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the
-face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.” This conveys a wrong
-impression. The prophet is describing, not as he is here represented, the
-four faces of all the cherubim, but one face only of each. The Bishops’
-Bible gives the true sense by rendering, “Every one of them had four
-faces, so that the face of the first was the face of a cherub, and the
-face of the second was the face of a man, and of the third the face of a
-lion, and of the fourth the face of an eagle.”
-
-Ezek. xxii. 15, 16. “And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and
-disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of
-thee. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the
-heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.” The dark phrase, “thou
-shalt take thine inheritance in thyself,” is commonly explained to mean,
-that whereas aforetime they were God’s inheritance, they shall now be left
-to find their inheritance by themselves. A more lucid and more suitable
-meaning is given to the words by the rendering adopted by most modern
-commentators, “thou shalt be profaned through thyself in the sight of the
-nations.”
-
-Dan. iii. 25. “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
-and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of
-God.” It is clearly misleading to attribute to Nebuchadnezzar any such
-exalted conception as that which we attach to the phrase, “the Son of
-God,” and so to render the clause misrepresents the original. The correct
-translation is “one like to a son of the gods.” A similar error occurs in
-vii. 13, where “one like the Son of man,” should be “one like a son of
-man.”
-
-Hos. vi. 3. “Then shall we know, _if_ we follow on to know the Lord;” thus
-making the prophet to declare that the attainment of knowledge is
-dependent upon our perseverance in the search after it. This is an
-important truth, but is not the meaning of the verse, which is simply an
-emphatic exhortation to know God and to persevere in knowing Him. “Yea,
-let us know, let us follow on to know, the Lord.”
-
-Hosea xiii. 14. “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy
-destruction.” Though there is some difference of opinion respecting the
-right rendering of the earlier part of this verse, all are agreed that
-these should be rendered as they are quoted in 1 Cor. xv. 55, “Where are
-thy plagues, O death? Where is thy destruction, O grave?”
-
-Matt. vi. 16. The rendering “they disfigure their faces, that they may
-appear unto men to fast,” misleads the reader by conveying the impression
-that the Pharisees were endeavouring to obtain credit under false
-pretences--were seeming to fast when not doing so in reality; whereas the
-conduct condemned is that of parading, and calling public attention to,
-their religious observances. “They disfigure their faces, that they may be
-seen of men that they are fasting.”[73] So also in verse 18.
-
-Matt. xi. 2. “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
-he sent two of his disciples.” Here the true force of the passage is
-missed. “Christ,” as used by us, is a proper name, designating the person,
-and not simply the office of our Lord. It was not because John had heard
-of certain works done by Jesus of Nazareth that he sent his disciples to
-Him, but because he recognized in the accounts which were brought to him
-deeds characteristic of the Christ, the promised Messiah. “When John heard
-in the prison the works of the Christ.”
-
-Matt. xv. 3. “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
-tradition?” The commandment of God might indeed be transgressed by
-compliance with the traditions of men, but this is not the meaning of our
-Lord’s words. The Pharisees had asked why the disciples did not observe
-the traditions of the elders respecting washing. Our Lord justifies them
-by calling attention to the wrong doing of those who so exalted these
-outward observations, in themselves mere matters of indifference, as on
-their account to make void the commandments of God. “Why do ye also
-transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”[74]
-
-Mark vi. 20. “For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an
-holy, and observed him.” This erroneous rendering has come down through
-Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan, the last of these, however,
-giving it in the less obscure form, “and did him reverence.” The passage
-is rightly given by Wycliffe, “and kept him;” _i.e._ kept him in safety.
-
-Luke i. 59. “And they called him Zacharias.” The form employed in the
-Greek expresses that the action here spoken of was attempted only, not
-completed, “they would have called him Zacharias.”
-
-Luke xxi. 19. “In your patience possess ye your souls,” a translation
-which altogether misses the meaning. The clause is not an exhortation to
-the maintenance of a calm composure in trouble, but is an exhortation to
-the acquirement of a higher and nobler life through the brave endurance of
-suffering. “In your patience win ye your lives.” In the better texts this
-is given in the form of an assurance: “In your patience ye shall win your
-lives.”
-
-Luke xxiii. 15. “No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and lo, nothing
-worthy of death is done unto him.” Words unto which an intelligible sense
-can be put only by straining them to mean that nothing had been done to
-our Lord to show that in the judgment of Herod He was worthy of death. All
-obscurity is removed by the more faithful rendering, “nothing worthy of
-death hath been done by him.”
-
-John iv. 27. “And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he
-talked with the woman.” The surprise of the disciples was not occasioned
-by the fact that our Lord was conversing with this particular woman; they
-were surprised that He should talk with any woman. The correct rendering
-is, as given by the Rheims, “and they marueiled that he talked with a
-woman.”
-
-John v. 35. “He was a burning and a shining light.” Though this, by
-frequent quotation, has passed into a sort of proverbial phrase, it is a
-most unfortunate rendering, and gives an entirely wrong impression of the
-meaning of the passage. As thus read it sets forth the pre-eminence of
-John, whereas its true import is to emphasize the subordinate nature of
-his office and work. Christ, as stated in the first chapter of this
-Gospel, was “the Light.” In comparison with Him, John was only a lamp
-which, in order that it may give light, must first be kindled from some
-other source. “He was the lamp which is kindled and [so] shineth.”
-
-John xv. 3. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
-you,” thus representing the word to be the instrument through which the
-cleansing was wrought. But though this be true, it is not the truth here
-set forth. It was not “through,” but “on account of” the word, _i.e._
-because of its virtue and its cleansing power, that they were clean.
-Here, again, Wycliffe is free from the error into which all the later
-translators (except the Rheims) have fallen. He renders, “Now ye ben clene
-for the word that I haue spokun to you.”
-
-Acts ii. 23. “Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
-slain.” The ordinary reader naturally takes the “wicked hands” to be the
-hands of the Jews, whereas the reference is to the Romans, through whose
-agency the Jews brought about the crucifixion of Christ, “and by the hands
-of lawless men, ye crucified and slew.” Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, the
-Genevan, the Bishops, and the Rheims, all render this clause correctly.
-
-Acts xi. 17. “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as _he did_
-unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is incorrect, and
-suggests a false contrast between “us” and “them,” as if the latter were
-not believers. Faith in Christ is the ground upon which, in the case of
-both parties, the gifts referred to were received. The verse is thus given
-by Tyndale: “For as moche then as God gave them lyke gyftes, as he dyd
-unto vs when we beleved on the Lorde Iesus Christ.”
-
-Acts xxvi. 23. “That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first
-that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and
-to the Gentiles.” This both needlessly suggests a difficulty to many
-readers, and altogether conceals one main point of the passage; namely,
-that the resurrection of Christ was the great source from which
-illumination would come both to Jews and to Gentiles, “and that He first
-by _His_ resurrection from the dead should proclaim light to the people
-and to the Gentiles.”
-
-Rom. ix. 3. “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
-brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Such a wish it is impossible
-that the Apostle could have entertained. His words are the expression of
-his strong affection for his fellow-countrymen. “I could have wished,”
-&c.; _i.e._ if such a wish had been right or possible.
-
-Rom. xiii. 11. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to
-awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
-believed.” This is ambiguous English, and though a very careful reader
-might gather the true sense from this rendering, it is very liable to be
-taken as if meaning that our salvation is nearer than we anticipated; nor
-is the ambiguity removed by the Genevan, which reads, “nearer than when we
-believed it.” The reference is to the time of their first exercise of
-faith in Christ, “nearer than when we _first_ believed.”
-
-1 Cor. i. 21. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
-knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
-that believe.” This rendering has been a fertile source of error, as if
-preaching was in itself, or as viewed by the Corinthians, an inappropriate
-means for the diffusion of the Gospel, a thought altogether at variance
-with the tone of the context, and with the facts of history. The Greeks
-were, of all the peoples of antiquity, the least disposed to think lightly
-of oratory, and the whole tenor of the passage shows that their tendency
-was to overrate, not underrate, the power of speech. What was foolishness
-to them was not the act of preaching, but the doctrine preached--salvation
-through a crucified Christ. The Rheims here clearly enough gives the true
-sense, “it pleased God by the folishnes of the preaching to saue them that
-beleeue.”
-
-1 Cor. ix. 5. “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well
-as other apostles?” This mode of speech implies that some only of the
-other apostles were married. What the Greek states is that all or most of
-them were. Here again the Rheims correctly renders, “as also the rest of
-the Apostles.”
-
-2 Cor. v. 14. “Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were
-all dead,” thus seeming to imply that the death of Christ upon the cross
-is a proof that all men were in a state of spiritual death; whereas the
-conclusion which the Apostle draws from the death of Christ is, that all
-who truly believe in Him die to their old fleshly sinful life, “because
-we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died.”
-
-Eph. iii 10. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
-heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”
-It would only be after much careful consideration that the reader of these
-words would discover that they cannot mean that the manifold wisdom of God
-is to be known _by_ the Church. What the Apostle really states is, that it
-was in the Divine purpose that through the Church the manifold wisdom of
-God was to be made known to the angelic powers. Of all the ancient
-versions the Rheims, though here, as usual, disfigured by its offensive
-Latinisms, most clearly expresses the sense of the verse; its rendering
-is, “that the manifold wisdom of God may be notified to the Princes and
-Potentates in the celestials by the Church.”
-
-Phil. iv. 3. “And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women
-which laboured with me in the gospel.” This leaves it quite uncertain who
-are the women referred to, whereas in the original it is plain that they
-are the two women previously referred to, Euodia, and Syntyche; and the
-reason why it is urged that assistance should be given to them, is that
-they had bravely shared with Paul in the toil and conflict of the
-Christian service. “Help them, for they have laboured with me in the
-gospel.”
-
-1 Tim. iv. 15. “Meditate upon these things.” This wholly fails to express
-the apostle’s meaning. His exhortation goes beyond the region of thought;
-it passes into the sphere of active life, and he urges Timothy to give
-himself to the diligent practice of the several departments of labour
-previously referred to. Of the old translators, Tyndale gives it
-correctly, “These thynges exercyse.”
-
-1 Tim. vi. 2. “And they that have believing masters, let them not despise
-_them_, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because
-they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit.” The last clause
-of this passage has, in all probability, grievously puzzled many a reader;
-but with the fuller knowledge of the Greek syntax now possessed, all
-obscurity passes away. No scholar would now hesitate in rendering, “do
-them service because they who partake of the benefit are faithful and
-beloved.”[75]
-
-1 Tim. vi. 5. “Supposing that gain is godliness.” Here again an
-unnecessary difficulty is introduced; for it is hard to see how any sane
-person could consider “gain” to be “godliness.” On the other hand, it is
-unhappily no uncommon experience to meet with persons who treat religion
-as a means of worldly advantage, and it is to such the Apostle refers. The
-correct rendering is, “supposing that godliness is gain.”[76]
-
-Heb. iv. 2. “For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them,” a
-rendering which at once raises the objection that “the Gospel,” in the
-sense which ordinary readers attach to the term, was not preached to the
-Israelites in the wilderness; nor does any reference to “the Gospel” occur
-in the immediate context, but simply to the promise of entering into a
-rest. The plain sense of the passage is, “unto us were good tidings
-preached as well as unto them.”
-
-Heb. viii. 5. “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.”
-The introduction of the preposition “unto” almost entirely obliterates the
-meaning of the clause; namely, that the Mosaic priesthood were the
-ministers, not of the true sanctuary, but of that which is only its copy
-and shadow. The Rheims correctly renders, “that serve the examplar and
-shadow of heavenly things.”
-
-Heb. xiii. 7, 8. “Whose faith follow, considering the end of their
-conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
-Here there is a double error; first, the connection of the last clause
-with the preceding, as if it were intended to affirm that Christ was the
-end of the conversation of their faithful pastors; and secondly, the wrong
-sense thus given to the word “end,” which here denotes the “outcome” or
-issue. The Hebrew Christians are urged to imitate the faith of their
-pastors, considering the blessed issue of their Christian cause. Then
-follows, as an independent statement, the assertion of the
-unchangeableness of Christ, which, though not altogether disconnected in
-thought with what precedes, stands in still closer connection with what
-follows: “Considering the issue of their way of life, imitate their faith.
-Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
-
-Such are some of the passages from which it may be said, that through the
-emphatic unanimity of Biblical scholars all obscurity and doubt have been
-removed. Their true meaning may now be affirmed with a confidence that
-closely borders upon moral certainty. Through numerous commentaries and
-other expository works, these results of scholarship are made widely
-known, and they whose duty it is to expound these passages to others are
-constrained to point out the imperfection that attaches to the renderings
-given in the English Bible now ordinarily used. It is obviously a most
-undesirable thing that the teacher or preacher should be placed under such
-a necessity. It is not at all times easy so to discharge the duty as that
-he shall give no offence even to educated hearers; while the simple-minded
-and unlearned are painfully perplexed; and, unprepared as they are to
-estimate the limits of possible error, seem to themselves to be launched
-upon a boundless sea of uncertainty. Revision, therefore, becomes
-imperative, both for the sake of removing acknowledged blemishes, and also
-for reassuring the anxious that they are trusting to a faithful guide, and
-for showing to them how little, comparatively, there is in their beloved
-Book that needs to be changed.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VII.
-
-_ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS, AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN._
-
-
-Another, and distinct, class of reasons for the further revision of the
-English Bible, arises from the more abundant material now possessed for
-the determination of the original text of Scripture than was within the
-reach of the Revisers of 1611.
-
-Even if these honoured men had perfectly fulfilled their work, and had
-never erred in their interpretation of the sacred books, the result of
-their labours would still be open to correction because of the less
-perfect form of the texts which they set themselves to translate. The
-exact words used by the inspired writers are, as was stated in the first
-lecture, not now to be found in any one book or manuscript. They have to
-be gathered from varied sources, by long and careful labour, demanding
-much skill and learning. These sources, moreover, are so numerous that the
-investigation of them can be accomplished only by a large division of
-labour, no one life being long enough for the task, and no one scholar
-having knowledge enough to complete it alone. Nevertheless, it is well
-that our sources are thus extensive. Had one copy only of the books of the
-Old and New Testament come down to us, then, indeed, we should have been
-freed from the necessity of this manifold and laborious research, but
-unless this were the original copy itself, we should have had no means
-whereby to detect and to remove the errors which had crept in from the
-human imperfections of the transcribers. And though none of these errata
-might in any serious degree have affected the great truths which the Bible
-conveys to us, or have diminished our estimate of its surpassing worth,
-they would have been as blots upon its pages which our love and reverence
-for it would long to see removed. The greater the number and variety of
-our resources, the greater is our ability, by the examination and
-comparison of their differences, to remove these blemishes; and the
-greater also is the confidence we are able to feel in the absolute
-correctness of those far more numerous and extensive passages in which our
-authorities agree. And hence, though the toil imposed upon us is so
-largely multiplied thereby, we cannot but rejoice in the number and extent
-of our authorities, and we gather therefrom a fresh illustration of the
-saying, that “in all labour there is profit.”
-
-The sources, whence our knowledge of the original texts is chiefly
-derived, are three in number: (1) Manuscripts containing one or more of
-the books of Scripture; (2) Ancient Versions of the Bible; and (3)
-Quotations of Scriptural passages found in the works of early Christian
-writers.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Respecting our Manuscript Authorities, the first fact claiming emphatic
-notice is, that while in the case of the classic poets, philosophers and
-historians, the extant manuscript copies are numbered by tens and
-sometimes even by units, those of the Scriptures are numbered by hundreds.
-Of the New Testament alone nearly eighteen hundred manuscripts have been
-catalogued and more or less carefully examined. Of these 685 are
-manuscripts of the Gospels, 248 contain the Acts and Catholic Epistles,
-298 the Pauline Epistles, and 110 the Apocalypse; 428 are Lectionaries or
-service books of the Greek church, 347 of which contain passages from the
-Gospels and 81 passages from the Acts and the Epistles. Thus while our
-knowledge of the interesting narratives of Herodotus is dependent upon
-five or six authorities only, and the history of Livy upon eight or nine
-only (and none of these contain the whole even of the portions
-extant),[77] our knowledge of the life and words of our Lord is drawn from
-over a thousand manuscript authorities, and of which the larger part
-contain the whole of the four Gospels.
-
-In antiquity again the manuscripts of the New Testament far surpass those
-of classical authors. Few, if any, of the latter are older than the ninth
-or tenth century, while of the former we have copies belonging to the
-fourth and fifth centuries. The oldest manuscripts are written in capital
-letters, and on this account are called uncial[78] manuscripts, or briefly
-uncials. Later manuscripts are written in a smaller character, and in a
-style approaching to what we call a running hand, and are hence named
-cursives. Of uncial manuscripts, containing portions of the New Testament,
-one hundred and fifty-eight have been examined and catalogued. Some of the
-most valuable of these have been published under the superintendence of
-careful editors. Others have been thoroughly examined, and their
-variations so faithfully noted and recorded, that a private student is,
-for most practical purposes, placed in the same position as the possessor
-of the manuscript itself. This work is technically described as
-_collation_, and the amount of painstaking labour spent upon the collation
-of Biblical manuscripts during the past two hundred years, and especially
-in the last forty or fifty years, is simply enormous. To one who has never
-examined a document written many centuries ago it is difficult to convey
-any adequate notion of the amount of time and labour involved in the
-collation even of a single manuscript. The unusual and varying forms of
-the letters, the indistinctness of the characters, the various
-contractions employed by the scribe, and, as is the case with our most
-ancient documents, the non-separation of word from word, and the absence
-of stops, render the mere task of deciphering the manuscript very
-difficult and painfully wearying to the eyes.[79] Much watchful attention
-is also demanded, as well as a good knowledge of the language, in making
-the proper separation of the words, and in judging aright of any
-peculiarities of spelling that may attach to the writer. In making the
-collation of any Biblical manuscript--say of the New Testament--the course
-generally pursued is as follows: The collator procures a printed copy of
-the Greek text, commonly of some well-known edition, and in the margin of
-this he marks all the variations of the manuscripts from the printed text
-before him, whether of omission, addition, or otherwise, including even
-variations in spelling. He also marks carefully where each line and page
-of the manuscript begins and ends, what corrections or alterations have
-been made in it, whether these were made by the original writer or by a
-later hand; and where several handwritings may be detected, he specifies
-and distinguishes these. All this is done with so much minuteness that it
-would be possible for the collator to reproduce the original manuscript in
-every respect save in the shape of the letters and the appearance of the
-parchment or paper.
-
-Of the uncial manuscripts of the New Testament, the most ancient and
-important are the SINAITIC,[80] written in the fourth century, and now
-deposited in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg; the VATICAN,[81]
-also of the fourth century, and preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome;
-the ALEXANDRINE,[82] of the fifth century, now in the British Museum; the
-EPHRAEM CODEX,[83] of the fifth century, in the National Library at Paris;
-BEZA’S CODEX,[84] of the sixth century, in the University Library,
-Cambridge; and the CLAROMONTANE,[85] also of the sixth century, which
-formerly belonged to Beza, but is now in the National Library at Paris. As
-will be seen presently, only two of these most ancient manuscripts were
-available for the preparation of the text from which the translators of
-1611 made their revision. The Alexandrine was not brought to light until
-1628, when it was presented to Charles I. by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of
-Constantinople. Although the Ephraem Codex was brought to Europe in the
-early part of the sixteenth century, it was not known to contain a portion
-of the New Testament until towards the close of the seventeenth century,
-and was not collated until the year 1716. The Sinaitic was discovered by
-Dr. Tischendorf, in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, so
-recently as February 4th, 1859. And the Vatican, though deposited in the
-Library at Rome in the fifteenth century, was, during a long time, so
-jealously guarded by the Roman authorities, that little use could be made
-of it. Now, however, all these six important manuscripts have been edited
-and published, some in the ordinary style of printing, and some in _quasi
-fac-simile_. At the present time, by the application of the processes of
-photography, an exact copy of the Alexandrine is in course of preparation,
-and the New Testament portion has been successfully completed.
-
-In these and other ways, by the laborious efforts of many English and
-Continental scholars, an immense amount of material for the determination
-of the sacred text has been gathered together and safely garnered; and
-knowledge which aforetime could be attained only by slow and wearisome
-effort, by many long journeys to distant places, and by much personal
-search amongst the books and papers stored away in national and other
-libraries, can now be attained with comparative ease by the solitary
-student in his study. At the time when King James’s translators entered
-upon their work a small fraction only of this mass of material was
-available, and even that fraction was but imperfectly used. The means were
-not then possessed for correctly judging of the relative value of the
-several documents, nor had experience given the skill to discriminate
-wisely between varying testimony.
-
-The translators of 1611 have left on record no statement respecting the
-Greek text from which they translated, but as far as can be gathered from
-internal evidence they contented themselves with accepting the forms of it
-which they found ready at hand. Of these the two then held in highest
-repute were those connected with the names of Theodore Beza and Robert
-Stephen. These, in their turn, were based upon the two primary editions of
-the printed text, the Complutensian and Erasmus’s, editions which were
-made quite independently of each other. The Complutensian was the first
-printed, though not the first published.[86] It formed the fifth volume of
-the splendid Polyglot prepared under the munificent patronage of Cardinal
-Ximenes, at Alcala, in Spain, from the Latin name of which city
-(Complutum) it derives its designation, and was completed January 10th,
-1514. It is not now known from what manuscripts the text of this edition
-was derived, but it may be confidently affirmed that none of our most
-ancient authorities were used. They were probably not many in number, and
-were all what in this connection is termed modern; that is to say, not
-earlier than the tenth century. The first _published_ edition of the
-Greek New Testament was that edited by the celebrated Erasmus, and sent
-forth from the press of Froben, in Basle, February 24th, 1516. This was
-derived from six manuscripts, five of which are now in the public library
-of Basle, and one[87] in the library of the Prince of
-Oettingen-Wallerstein. Of these one, and the most valuable, contained the
-whole of the New Testament except the Apocalypse, but of this Erasmus made
-but little use. Of the rest, one contained the Gospels only, two the Acts
-and the Epistles only, one the Epistles of Paul only, and one the
-Apocalypse only. It will thus be seen that in the Gospels the text given
-by Erasmus rested almost entirely upon the authority of a single
-manuscript; in the Acts and Catholic Epistles upon that of two only; in
-the Epistles of Paul upon three; and in the Apocalypse upon one only, and
-that an imperfect one. The last six verses were wanting, and these Erasmus
-supplied by translating them into Greek from the Latin of the Vulgate. The
-work too was hastily done. The proposal to undertake it was made to
-Erasmus April 17th, 1515, so that less than ten months were given to the
-preparation of the volume, and this, too, at a time when Erasmus was
-busied with other engagements; an unseemly haste that we may probably
-ascribe to the publishers’ eager desire to get the start of the
-Complutensian. Revised editions were published in 1519 and 1522, in the
-preparation of which the aid of a few additional manuscripts was obtained.
-These, again, were further revised by the aid of the Complutensian, which
-then became available, in an edition which Erasmus published in 1527.
-
-The next stage in the history of the printed text of the Greek New
-Testament is marked by the publication at Paris, in 1550, of the handsome
-folio of the celebrated and learned printer, Robert Stephen.[88] He tells
-us in his preface that in the preparation of this edition he made use of
-the Complutensian and of fifteen manuscripts. Two of these were ancient,
-one that is now known as Beza’s Codex, which had been collated for him by
-a friend in Italy, and another, a manuscript in the National Library of
-Paris, written in the eighth or ninth century, and containing the four
-Gospels;[89] the rest were modern, and all were but imperfectly
-collated.[90]
-
-After the death of Robert Stephen (1559)[91] the work of revision was
-carried on by Theodore Beza, who, like the former, had embraced the
-Protestant cause, and like him also had found a home in Geneva. His first
-edition was published in this city in 1565, a second in 1582, a third in
-1589, and a fourth in 1598. In the preparation of these he had in his
-possession the collations made for Robert Stephen, and, in addition, the
-ancient manuscript of the Gospels and Acts which now bears his name; and
-for the Pauline Epistles, the equally ancient Claromontane. Beza’s
-strength, however, lay rather in the interpretation, than in the
-criticism, of the text, and he made but a slight use of the materials
-within his reach.
-
-It will thus be seen how small, comparatively, was the manuscript
-authority for the text used by King James’s translators. In the main they
-follow the text of Beza; sometimes, however, they give the preference to
-Stephen’s; in some few places they differ from both. By what principles
-they were guided in their choice we do not know. They do not appear to
-have set on foot any independent examination of authorities, and when they
-forsake their two guides they commonly follow in the wake of some of the
-earlier English versions.
-
-But, as already stated, manuscripts are not the only source whence we
-derive our knowledge of the original texts. Translations of the Scriptures
-were made at an early date; some at an earlier date than that of the
-oldest manuscripts now extant. Two of these were referred to in the first
-lecture; namely, the old Latin and the old Syriac, both of which belong to
-the second century, and give, therefore, most important testimony as to
-the words of Scripture at that early period. Next to these in point of age
-may be placed the two Egyptian versions, one in the language of Lower
-Egypt, and called the Memphitic (or Coptic), and the other in that of
-Upper Egypt, and called the Thebaic (or Sahidic). In the opinion of
-competent judges, some portions, at least, of the Scriptures must have
-been translated into these dialects before the close of the second
-century; in their completed form these versions may be referred to the
-earlier part of the third century. A Gothic version of the Scriptures was
-made in the fourth century by Ulphilas, who was Bishop of the Moeso-Goths
-348-388; and of this some valuable portions are still extant. Two other
-ancient versions, the Armenian (cent. 5), and the Æthiopic (cents. 6 and
-7), though of inferior importance, are not without value. During recent
-years a large amount of labour has been spent, first, in securing as
-accurate a knowledge as possible of the text of these various versions,
-and then in investigating the evidence they supply respecting the original
-texts from which they were severally made. From this source much valuable
-material has been obtained supplementary to that furnished by Biblical
-manuscripts.
-
-The works of early Christian writers contain, as might be expected, large
-quotations of Scripture passages. Some of these works are elaborate
-expositions of various books of the Old and New Testament, and others are
-controversial writings in which there is a frequent necessity for
-appealing to Scriptural authorities. Although not a few of the writings of
-the earliest Christian authors have perished, we have still a
-considerable collection of writings belonging to the second and third
-centuries, whose pages supply us with valuable evidence concerning the
-text of the New Testament, of a date earlier than the oldest of our
-manuscripts. We have also a still larger collection of writings belonging
-to the same age as that of our most ancient manuscripts, and from them are
-able to gather a further mass of testimony in confirmation or correction
-of that given by these venerable documents.
-
-The writings of Irenæus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen,
-belonging to the latter part of the second century, and the beginning of
-the third, contain a large body of quotations from the Gospels and
-Epistles. The works of Origen alone may, with scarcely any exaggeration,
-be said to be equivalent to an additional manuscript of the New Testament.
-He died about A.D. 253 or 254, and during his entire life gave himself
-with a most indomitable perseverance to Biblical studies. In addition to
-an elaborate revision of the Greek text of the Septuagint, upon which he
-spent eight and twenty years, but of which unhappily some fragments only
-have reached us, he composed expositions or homilies upon the larger part
-of the books of the Old and New Testaments. Of these some very
-considerable portions have come down to us, and as his expositions on the
-Old Testament abound in quotations from the New, the number of passages
-from the latter found in his writings is very large.
-
-Of writers belonging to the fourth century we have commentaries in Greek
-by Chrysostom and Didymus, and in Latin by Hilary of Rome, and Jerome;
-and, in addition, extensive theological treatises, involving numerous
-appeals to the Scriptures, by Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Epiphanius, and
-the two Gregorys.
-
-In the following century we have the Greek commentaries of Theodore of
-Mopsuestia and Theodoret; the commentary of Pelagius on the Epistles of
-Paul; and the voluminous writings of Augustine, including commentaries on
-the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, John’s Gospel and Epistles, and
-Paul’s Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, together with a large number
-of Homilies on various parts of Scripture. These numerous writings form a
-mine of wealth to the Biblical critic; but it is a mine that has only been
-diligently worked in comparatively recent years. Much wearisome toil has
-been necessary in bringing to light its treasures, and these were either
-overlooked or neglected by the earlier editors of the Greek New Testament.
-
-It may perhaps be thought that, inasmuch as the documents from which these
-Christian writings are obtained are themselves of a later date, the
-testimony they give to the text of Scripture is of no higher worth than
-that of Biblical manuscripts of the same age. The scribes, it may be said,
-would be influenced by the form of text then current, and in copying these
-writings would naturally, when Scripture quotations occurred, give them in
-the form with which they were familiar. To some extent this may have been
-the case, and the testimony of these writings is of less weight when they
-simply reflect the form of text which prevailed at the date when they were
-copied. But then, on the other hand, their testimony is for the same
-reason proportionally the stronger whenever they do not agree with the
-current form, but give a different reading. Moreover it must be remembered
-that in many cases the authors comment minutely upon the Scripture text,
-and that here their testimony is quite unaffected by any tendency on the
-part of the copyist to use a familiar form, the comment itself showing
-beyond all doubt what was the form of the text which the author was
-expounding. In all such places the testimony of these early writers is
-especially valuable.
-
-From this mere outline of the manifold researches which scholars have made
-during the years that have passed since the Revision of 1611 was issued,
-some notion may be gathered of the extent to which our resources for the
-satisfactory determination of the sacred text have been multiplied. It
-will hence be seen how great is the confidence with which we are thereby
-enabled to affirm the verbal correctness of that far larger portion of the
-text in which our numerous and varied authorities are all agreed, and with
-what confidence also we can place our finger upon certain blemishes, and
-say that here an error has crept in through the inadvertence, or
-carelessness, or ignorance of the transcriber. If then there were no other
-reasons for the revision of the English Bible, this alone would be a
-sufficient ground for it. When it is in the power of any one to say that
-there are passages in our common Bibles which, as there given, are found
-in no Greek manuscript whatever, as is the case in Acts ix., the latter
-part of verse 5, and the beginning of verse 6; 1 Peter iii. 20; Heb. xi.
-13; and Rev. ii. 20; and when there are other passages, respecting which
-the evidence is greatly preponderating, that they ought to have no place
-in the text, as is the case with Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xvii. 21; Matt.
-xxiii. 35 (last clause); Mark xv. 28; Luke xi. 2, 4 (the last clause of
-each verse); John v. 3 (last clause), and 4; Acts viii. 37; Acts xv. 34;
-Acts xxviii. 29; Rom. xi. 6 (last clause); 1 Cor. vi. 20 (last clause); 1
-Cor. x. 28 (last clause); Gal. iii. 1 (second clause); Heb. xii. 20; and 1
-John v., from “in heaven,” verse 7, to “in earth,” verse 8. When these
-things can be said, and can be truly said, then all true lovers of the
-Bible will earnestly demand that they be forthwith removed.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VIII.
-
-_THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO
-CENTURIES._
-
-
-It has not been left to the present generation to be the first to
-recognize the force of the various considerations presented in the
-previous lectures. The duty of providing for a further revision of the
-English Bible has been handed down as a solemn trust from generation to
-generation. Every new discovery made of Biblical manuscripts, and every
-fresh field of research opened up, has at once made the need of revision
-more apparent, and given intensity to the desire that it should be
-undertaken; and, in their turn, this quickened desire and this increase of
-material have prompted to renewed efforts in obtaining all possible
-subsidiary helps. In this way it has come to pass that the whole period
-which has elapsed since the publication of the Revision of 1611 has been
-in effect a time of preparation for another and further revision, and
-here, as elsewhere, the divine law of human discipline has been verified,
-that every work accomplished is but the starting-point for fresh
-endeavours.
-
-In this work of preparation four distinct stages may be clearly traced:
-the first, that of unfriendly criticism; the second, that of premature
-attempts at correction; the third, that of diligent research and patient
-investigation; and the fourth, that of widespread conviction of the
-desirableness of further revision, and the discussion of the plans by
-which it may best be accomplished.
-
-From the very first the new version had to undergo an ordeal of
-criticism, springing sometimes from personal pique, sometimes from party
-prejudice, sometimes from a one-sided attachment to a favourite doctrine,
-the evidence for which seemed to be obscured by the rendering given to
-certain passages. Almost immediately upon the publication of the volume, a
-violent attack was made upon it by Hugh Broughton, who, though a man of
-immense erudition, and one of the best Hebraists of the day, was of so
-overbearing a temper that his offer to aid in the revision had been
-declined. Broughton declared that the version was so ill done that it bred
-in him a sadness which would grieve him whilst he breathed. “Tell his
-Majesty,” he passionately said, “that I had rather be rent in pieces with
-wild horses than any such translation by my consent should be urged on
-poor churches.”
-
-In the sharp controversies of the Commonwealth period the slight
-indications given by the version of a certain ecclesiastical bias were
-unduly exaggerated. Charges of a direct prelatic influence were freely
-made, and various rumours were circulated, as if upon good authority, that
-Archbishop Bancroft had taken upon himself to introduce alterations in
-opposition to the judgment, and even the protest of the translators.
-Influenced probably by the feeling thus awakened, though not sharing it,
-Dr. John Lightfoot, in a sermon preached before the Long Parliament on
-August 26th, 1645,[92] expressed the hope that they would find some time
-among their serious employments to think of a “review and survey of the
-translation of the Bible.” “And certainly,” he added, “it would not be the
-least advantage that you might do to the three nations, if they, by your
-care and means, might come to understand the proper and genuine reading of
-the Scriptures by an exact, vigorous, and lively translation.”
-
-In 1653 the charge that the New Testament “had been looked over by some
-Prelates, to bring it to speak the Prelatical language,” was formally
-repeated in the preamble of a Bill brought before the Long Parliament,
-which proposed the appointment of a committee “to search and observe
-wherein that last translation appears to be wronged by the Prelates or
-printers or others.”[93] In 1659 a folio volume of 805 pages, entitled,
-“An Essay toward the Amendment of the Last English Translation of the
-Bible, or a Proof by many instances that the last Translation of the Bible
-into English may be improved,” was published by Dr. Robert Gell, “Minister
-of the Parish of St. Mary, Alder-Mary, London.” Dr. Gell was a man who
-stoutly maintained the doctrine that it is “possible and attainable
-through the grace of God and His Holy Spirit that men may be without sin,”
-and his book is an elaborate attempt to show that this doctrine “was
-frequently delivered in holy Scripture, though industriously obscured by
-our translators.” An attack of another kind was made a quarter of a
-century later, by a Roman Catholic writer named Thomas Ward, who,
-repeating many of the charges made against the earlier English versions by
-Gregory Martin, one of the authors of the Rhemish version, charged the
-translators with corrupting the Holy Scriptures by false and partial
-translations, for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage in the
-controversy with the Church of Rome.[94]
-
-These hostile criticisms, though made in a spirit of partisanship and
-marred by much uncharitableness and unfairness, were nevertheless of
-service. They forced upon all, though in a rude and unpleasant way, the
-recognition of the fact that the new version, with all its excellences,
-was still the work of fallible men; and despite their passion and their
-hard words, they did undoubtedly hit some blots that here and there
-disfigured the sacred page. To this extent they served to prepare the way
-for further revision.
-
-A second stage in the process of preparation is seen in the various
-attempts which have been made to produce a version which should remove
-acknowledged blemishes, and more faithfully convey the meaning of the holy
-Word. Some of these have been based upon a well-conceived plan, and have
-sought to accomplish the desired end by the united efforts of a band of
-fellow-labourers; others have been the work of individual scholars, and
-were for the most part of a tentative character, intended simply to show
-what ought to be attempted, and how it might be done; others, again, have
-been the unwise labours of men who worked upon false principles, and with
-insufficient knowledge; but all have in their own way helped on the work,
-the former two classes by their felicitous renderings of some passages,
-and the light they have thrown upon the meaning of others, and the last
-mentioned class by their clear demonstration of what a translation of the
-Scriptures ought certainly not to be.
-
-The first[95] serious attempt at a further revision was made by the Rev.
-Henry Jessey, M.A., pastor of that greatly persecuted Congregational
-Church in Southwark, which had been gathered by Henry Jacob in 1616. In
-the time of the Commonwealth proposals were made by Jessey, that “godly
-and able men” should be appointed by “public authority” “to review and
-amend the defects in our translation.” Pending their appointment, he set
-himself to secure the co-operation of a number of learned men, at home and
-abroad, writing to them in the following fashion: “There being a strange
-desire in many that love the truth, to have a more pure, proper
-translation of the originals than hitherto; and I being moved and inclined
-to it, and desirous to promote it with all possible speed and exactness,
-do make my request (now in my actual entrance on Genesis) that as you love
-the truth as it is in Jesus, and the edification of saints, you with
-others (in like manner solicited), will take share and do each a part in
-the work, which being finished will be fruit to your account.” Of the
-names of his fellow-workers the only one recorded is that of Mr. John Row,
-Hebrew professor at Aberdeen, “who took exceeding pains herein,” and who
-drew up the scheme in accordance with which the work was carried on.
-Jessey’s proposal received at least so much of support from “public
-authority,” that he was one of the committee whose appointment was
-recommended to the House of Commons in 1653. The result is thus quaintly
-told by Jessey’s biographer:[96] “Thus thorow his perswasions many persons
-excelling in knowledge, integrity, and holiness, did buckle to this great
-Worke of bettering the Translation of the Bible, but their names are
-thought fit at present to be concealed to prevent undue Reflections upon
-their persons; but may come to light (if that work shall ever come to be
-made publick), and unto each of them was one particular book or more
-allotted, according as they had leisure, or as the bent of their Genius,
-advantages of Books or Studies lay, which when supervised by all the rest,
-dayes of assembling together were to have been set apart, to seek the Lord
-for His further direction, and for conference with each other touching the
-matter then under consideration. In process of time this whole work was
-almost compleated, and stayed for nothing but the appointment of
-Commissioners to examine it, and warrant its publication.” The death of
-Cromwell, and the political events which followed, prevented the
-realization of Jessey’s hopes. It had been with him the work of many years
-of his life, and his soul was so engaged in it that he frequently uttered
-the prayer, “O that I might see this done before I die.”
-
-The ecclesiastical events arising out of the Act of Uniformity (1662) will
-sufficiently account for the absence of any efforts of revision during the
-latter part of the seventeenth century. In the earlier part of the
-following century there appeared one of those ill-advised attempts, whose
-chief use is to serve as a beacon of warning, in the Greek and English New
-Testament, published A.D. 1729, by W. Mace, M.D.[97] In his translation
-this author allowed himself to employ an unpleasantly free style of
-rendering, and deemed it fitting to substitute the colloquial style of the
-day for the dignified simplicity of the version he undertook to amend.
-
-Towards the latter part of the century a considerable number of well-meant
-endeavours at revision were made by devout and scholarly men.
-
-In 1764 “A new and literal Translation of the Old and New Testament, with
-notes, critical and explanatory,” was published by Anthony Purver, a
-member of the Society of Friends.
-
-In 1770 there was issued “The New Testament, or New Covenant of our Lord
-and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from the Greek according to the
-present idiom of the English tongue, with notes and references,” by John
-Worsley, of Hertford, whose aim, as stated in his preface, was to bring
-his translation nearer to the original, and “to make the present form of
-expression more suitable to our present language,” adding, with a laudable
-desire to repudiate all sympathy with those who forced the Scripture to
-say what, according to their own fancies, it ought to say, “I have no
-design to countenance any particular opinions or sentiments. I have
-weighed, as it were, every word in a balance, even to the minutest
-particle, begging the gracious aid of the Divine Spirit to lead me into
-the true and proper meaning, that I might give a just and exact
-translation of this great and precious charter of man’s salvation.”[98]
-
-In 1781 Gilbert Wakefield, late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, but
-then classical tutor of the Warrington Academy, published “a new
-translation of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians,
-offered to the public as a specimen of an intended version of the whole
-New Testament, with a preface containing a brief account of the Author’s
-plan.” This was followed in 1782 by a new translation of the Gospel of
-Matthew, and in 1791 by a translation of the whole of the New
-Testament.[99]
-
-In 1786 a Roman Catholic clergyman (the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D.)
-issued a prospectus of “a New Translation of the Holy Bible from corrected
-texts of the originals, compared with the Ancient Versions.” This
-prospectus was very favourably received by many of the leading Biblical
-scholars of the day, especially by the great Hebraist, Dr. Benjamin
-Kennicott, Canon of Christchurch, and by Dr. Robert Lowth, Bishop of
-London, and was followed in 1788 by formal proposals for printing the book
-by subscription. The first volume appeared in 1792, with the title “The
-Holy Bible, or the Books accounted sacred by Jews and Christians;
-otherwise called the Books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully
-translated from corrected texts of the Originals, with various readings,
-explanatory notes, and critical remarks.” Two other volumes were
-afterwards published; but the death of the author, in 1801, prevented the
-completion of the work.[100]
-
-In 1796 Dr. William Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh, published “An attempt
-towards revising our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures, or the
-New Covenant of Jesus Christ; and towards illustrating the sense by
-philological and explanatory notes.”
-
-Passing over some other works less worthy of notice, a scholarly attempt
-was made in 1836 by Grenville Penn to introduce into the English version
-some of the results which had then been attained by the critical
-examination of ancient authorities. This work bore the title, “The Book of
-the New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being a critical
-revision of the text and translation of the English version of the New
-Testament, with the aid of most ancient manuscripts, unknown to the age in
-which that version was last put forth by authority.”
-
-It is not to be supposed that any of these translations were published
-with the expectation of securing so large a measure of favour as to
-supersede the current version. Their primary purpose was to aid the
-private study of the Bible; but they have been of great service also in
-keeping the general question of revision before the notice of thoughtful
-persons, and they have each in their measure contributed to a more exact
-knowledge of the Scriptures.
-
-The failure of the earlier of these attempts at revision arose in part
-from the imperfect state of the texts upon which they were based. This
-soon became obvious, and Biblical scholars saw that for some time to come
-their labours must be spent rather in laying the foundation for a future
-revision than in attempting it themselves, and this in three distinct
-departments. The first of these was the collection, as described in the
-last lecture, of the material supplied by ancient manuscripts, and by
-early versions and quotations. In this department a long succession of
-faithful men have laboured, amongst whom may be mentioned Brian Walton,
-who in 1657 published his famous Polyglot Bible in six folio volumes,
-giving in addition to the original Hebrew and Greek, the Samaritan
-Pentateuch, the Septuagint, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Æthiopic, and Persian
-versions; Dr. John Mill, whose New Testament was published in 1770, and of
-whom it has been justly said that “his services to Bible criticism surpass
-in extent and value those rendered by any other except one or two men yet
-living;”[101] Dr. Richard Bentley, who, having himself collated the
-Alexandrine and other ancient MSS., and by various agencies amassed a
-large store of critical material, published in 1720 his “Proposals for
-Printing” revised texts both of the Greek New Testament and the Latin
-Vulgate; Dr. Kennicott, who in 1760 aroused public attention to the
-importance of collating all Hebrew MSS. made before the invention of
-printing, and who personally, or through the aid of others, collated more
-than six hundred Hebrew MSS., and sixteen MSS. of the Samaritan
-Pentateuch; John Bernard de Rossi, professor of Oriental languages in the
-University of Parma, who in 1784-8 published the results of the collation
-of seven hundred and thirty-one MSS., and of three hundred editions of the
-Hebrew Scriptures; and, to come to more recent times, Dr. Constantine
-Tischendorf, Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and Dr. Frederick Henry
-Scrivener, whose names are to be held in the highest honour, as of men who
-have rendered invaluable service to their own and future generations in
-the exhausting and self-denying work of the collation of Biblical MSS.,
-and through whose care and accuracy the means of obtaining an exact
-knowledge of a large number of most precious documents have been placed
-within easy reach of all.
-
-The second department of labour is the application of the material thus
-collected to the correction of the text. Here again a vast amount of
-patient work has been done, and out of the successive labours of a long
-series of critics much valuable experience has been gained and the best
-methods gradually learnt. Amongst those who have thus laboured in the
-criticism of the text of the New Testament may be mentioned the names of
-Bengel, Wettstein, Griesbach, Scholz, Tischendorf, Lachmann, Alford,
-Tregelles, Westcott, and Hort; and of that of the Old Testament, Buxtorf,
-Leusden, Van der Hooght, Michaelis, Houbigant, Kennicott, and Jahn.
-
-The third department is that which is concerned with the investigation of
-the meaning of the sacred writers; and how much has been done in this will
-be manifest to any one who makes the attempt to reckon up the long series
-of commentaries, English and Continental, on the books of the Holy
-Scriptures, published since the Revision of 1611, commencing with the
-Annotations of the eminent Nonconformist, Henry Ainsworth, on the
-Pentateuch, Psalms, and Song of Solomon, 1627, down to the recent
-commentaries on Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, by Dr.
-J. B. Lightfoot, the present Bishop of Durham. The attempt to make this
-enumeration will deepen the desire that the light which has been shed upon
-the Bible by this long succession of its learned and earnest students
-should now be employed for the guidance and help of the ordinary readers
-of its pages.
-
-To such desire emphatic expression has been given in various ways through
-full two generations, with an ever increasing intensity, and by
-representative men amongst all Christian communities.
-
-So early in the present century as the year 1809, Dr. John Pye Smith,
-President of the Congregational College at Homerton, thus wrote: “That
-such blemishes should disfigure that translation of the best and most
-important of volumes, which has been and still is more read by thousands
-of the pious than any other version, ancient or modern; that they should
-be acknowledged by all competent judges to exist; that they should have
-been so long and often complained of; and yet that there has been no great
-public act, from high and unimpeachable authority, for removing them, we
-are constrained to view as a disgrace to our national literature. We do
-not wish to see our common version, now become venerable by age and
-prescription, superseded by another entirely _new_; every desirable
-purpose would be satisfactorily attained by a _faithful_ and
-_well-conducted revision_.”[102]
-
-In the following year (1810) Dr. Herbert Marsh, then Margaret Professor of
-Divinity at Cambridge, and subsequently Bishop of Peterborough, in the
-first edition of his _Lectures_ wrote: “It is probable that our authorised
-version is as faithful a representation of the original Scriptures as
-_could_ have been formed at _that period_. But when we consider the
-immense accession that has _since_ been made, both to our critical and
-philological apparatus;” “when we consider that the most important sources
-of intelligence for the _interpretation_ of the original Scriptures were
-_likewise_ opened after that period, we cannot possibly pretend that our
-authorised version does not require _amendment_.”[103]
-
-In 1816 Thomas Wemyss, a learned layman, who had devoted himself to
-Biblical studies, called attention, under the title of _Biblical
-Gleanings_, to a number of passages which were generally allowed to be
-mistranslated; and in 1819 Sir James Bland Burges published _Reasons in
-favour of a New Translation of the Scriptures_.
-
-During a few years after this, the subject remained in abeyance, but in
-1832 there was published, at Cambridge, a calm and scholarly pamphlet,
-entitled _Hints on an Improved Translation of the New Testament_, by the
-Rev. James Scholefield, A.M., Regius Professor of Greek in the University
-of Cambridge. A second edition was issued in 1836, and a third, with an
-appendix, in 1849.
-
-Through these and other publications a widely-spread conviction was
-produced that the work ought at length to be attempted, and in the years
-1855-57 the question was in a very emphatic form brought under public
-notice. In the _Edinburgh Review_ of October, 1855, in a notice of a
-certain Paragraph Bible then recently published, there appeared the
-following words: “Surely it is high time for a further revision. It is
-now almost 250 years since the last was made. During that long period
-neither the researches of the clergy nor the intelligence of the laity
-have remained stationary. We have become desirous of knowing more, and
-they have acquired more to teach us. Vast stores of Biblical information
-have been accumulating since the days of James I., by which, not merely
-the rendering of the Common Version, but the purity of the Sacred Text
-itself, might be improved. And it is essential to the interests of
-religion that that information should be fully, freely, and in an
-authoritative form, disseminated abroad by a careful correction of our
-received version of the Sacred Scriptures.”
-
-In the following year, 1856, the Rev. William Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and
-Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, sent forth his _Notes on
-the proposed Amendment of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures_,
-in which he states: “I do not hesitate to avow my firm persuasion that
-there are at least one thousand passages of the English Bible that might
-be amended without any change in the general texture and justly reverenced
-language of the version.”
-
-In July of the same year an address to the Crown was moved in the House of
-Commons by Mr. Heywood, member for North Lancashire, praying that Her
-Majesty would appoint a Royal Commission of learned men to consider of
-such amendments of the authorized version of the Bible as had been already
-proposed, and to receive suggestions from all persons who might be willing
-to offer them, and to report the amendments which they might be prepared
-to recommend.
-
-In the January of the following year a resolution in support of revision
-was proposed at the general meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian
-Knowledge, by the Rev. G. F. Biber, LL.D., who subsequently published the
-substance of his speech in support of this resolution, under the title, _A
-Plea for an Edition of the Authorized Version of Holy Scripture with
-explanatory and emendatory marginal readings_. Pamphlets also were
-published the same year by Dr. Beard and by Dr. Henry Burgess; but, what
-it is more important to note, in that year there was published the first
-of a series of works which were intended to show by example the kind of
-work which the wiser advocates of revision desired to see undertaken. This
-was _The Gospel according to John, after the Authorized Version, newly
-compared with the original Greek, and revised by five clergymen--John
-Barrow, D.D.; George Moberly, D.C.L.; Henry Alford, B.D.; William G.
-Humphry, B.D.; Charles J. Ellicott, M.A._ In that same year also Dr.
-Trench, then Dean of Westminster (now Archbishop of Dublin), published his
-work _On the Authorized Version of the New Testament_; and in 1863 Dr.
-Plumptre, in the _Dictionary of the Bible_, reiterated the statement, “The
-work ought not to be delayed much longer.”
-
-In the spring of 1870 the desirableness of a fresh revision of the English
-Bible was advocated--by Dr. J. B. Lightfoot in a paper read before a
-meeting of clergy; by the writer of these lectures in a paper read before
-the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales; by
-the _British Quarterly Review_ in its January number; and, finally, by the
-_Quarterly Review_ in its April number.
-
-A weighty sentence from the last-mentioned writer will be a fitting
-conclusion to the present lecture. “It is positive unfaithfulness on the
-part of those who have ability and opportunity to decline the task. The
-Word of God, just because it is God’s Word, ought to be presented to every
-reader in a state as pure and perfect as human learning, skill, and taste
-can make it. The higher our veneration for it the more anxious ought we to
-be to free it from every blemish, however small and unimportant. But
-nothing in truth can be unimportant which dims the light of Divine
-Revelation.”
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE IX.
-
-_THE REVISION OF 1881._
-
-
-To the general consensus of opinion described in the last lecture
-practical expression was first given by the action of the Convocation of
-Canterbury, in the early part of 1870.
-
-On February 10, 1870, a resolution was moved in the Upper House of
-Convocation by Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, and seconded by Dr.
-Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, “That a Committee of both
-Houses be appointed, with power to confer with any committee that may be
-appointed by the Convocation of the Northern Province, to report upon the
-desirableness of a revision of the Authorized Version of the New
-Testament, whether by marginal notes or otherwise, in all those passages
-where plain and clear errors, whether in the Greek Text originally adopted
-by the translators, or in the translation made from the same, shall, on
-due investigation, be found to exist.” On the motion of Dr. Ollivant,
-Bishop of Llandaff, seconded by Dr. Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids, it
-was agreed to enlarge this resolution so as to include the Old Testament
-also, and the resolution as so amended was ultimately adopted.
-
-This resolution was communicated to the Lower House on the following day
-(February 11), where it was accepted without a division.
-
-The joint Committee appointed in accordance with this resolution consisted
-of seven Bishops and fourteen Members of the Lower House.[104] This
-Committee met on March 24th, and agreed to the following report:[105]
-
-    I. “That it is desirable that a Revision of the Authorized Version of
-    the Holy Scriptures be undertaken.”
-
-    II. “That the Revision be so conducted as to comprise both Marginal
-    renderings, and such emendations as it may be found necessary to
-    insert in the text of the Authorized Version.”
-
-    III. “That in the above Resolutions we do not contemplate any new
-    translation of the Bible, or any alteration of the language except
-    where, in the judgment of the most competent Scholars, such change is
-    necessary.”
-
-    IV. “That in such necessary changes, the style of the language
-    employed in the existing Version be closely followed.”
-
-    V. “That it is desirable that Convocation should nominate a body of
-    its own Members to undertake the work of Revision, who shall be at
-    liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to
-    whatever nation or religious body they may belong.”
-
-This Report was presented to the Upper House on May 3rd, where its
-adoption was moved by Bishop Wilberforce, and seconded by Bishop
-Thirlwall, and carried unanimously.
-
-Bishop Wilberforce then moved, and Bishop Thirlwall seconded, “That a
-Committee be now appointed to consider and Report to Convocation a scheme
-of revision on the principles laid down in the Report now adopted, and
-that the Bishops of Winchester, St. Davids, Llandaff, Gloucester and
-Bristol, Salisbury, Ely, Lincoln, and Bath and Wells, be members of the
-Committee. That the Committee be empowered to invite the co-operation of
-those whom they may judge fit from their Biblical Scholarship to aid them
-in their work.” This also was carried unanimously.
-
-In the Lower House the above given Report of the joint Committee was
-presented on May 5th, when its adoption was moved by Canon Selwyn,[106]
-and seconded by Archdeacon Allen. In the discussion which followed two
-attempts were made to overthrow the principle embodied in the fifth
-resolution, and to confine the revision to Scholars in communion with the
-Church of England. Both of these were unsuccessful, and the adoption of
-the Report was carried, with two dissentients only. On the following day,
-May 6th, the House completed its action by agreeing to the suggestion of
-the Upper House, that on this occasion it should waive its privilege of
-appointing on joint Committees twice as many as were appointed by the
-Upper House, and should appoint eight Members only to co-operate with the
-eight Bishops mentioned above. The Members selected were Dr. Bickersteth
-the Prolocutor, Dean Alford, Dean Stanley, Canon Blakesley, Canon Selwyn,
-Archdeacon Rose, Dr. Jebb, and Dr. Kay.
-
-The first meeting of this second joint Committee was held on May 25th. It
-was then agreed that the Committee should separate into two Companies--one
-for the revision of the Old Testament, and one for that of the New. Of the
-Members of Committee belonging to the Upper House five were assigned to
-the former Company and three to the latter. The Members belonging to the
-Lower House were divided equally between the two Companies. At the same
-meeting the Committee selected the Scholars who should be invited to join
-the Companies, and also decided upon the general rules that should guide
-their procedure. These were:
-
-    1. “To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the
-    Authorized Version consistently with faithfulness.”
-
-    2. “To limit as far as possible the expression of such alterations to
-    the language of the Authorized and earlier English versions.”
-
-    3. “Each Company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once
-    provisionally, the second time finally, and on principles of voting as
-    hereinafter is provided.”
-
-    4. “That the Text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is
-    decidedly preponderating; and that when the Text so adopted differs
-    from that from which the Authorized Version was made, the alteration
-    be indicated in the margin.”
-
-    5. “To make or retain no change in the Text on the second and final
-    revision by each Company, except _two-thirds_ of those present approve
-    of the same, but on the first revision to decide by simple
-    majorities.”
-
-    6. “In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to
-    discussion, to defer the voting thereupon till the next Meeting,
-    whensoever the same shall be required by one-third of those present at
-    the Meeting, such intended vote to be announced in the notice for the
-    next Meeting.”
-
-    7. “To revise the headings of chapters, pages, paragraphs, italics,
-    and punctuation.”
-
-    8. “To refer on the part of each Company, when considered desirable,
-    to Divines, Scholars, and Literary Men, whether at home or abroad, for
-    their opinions.”
-
-To these it was added, that the work of each Company be communicated to
-the other as it is completed, in order that there may be as little
-deviation from uniformity in language as possible.
-
-Of the Scholars invited to join the Companies four[107] declined for
-various reasons, and one[108] was prevented by illness from taking part in
-the work. The two Companies when formed consisted of the following
-Members.
-
-
-THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. W. L. Alexander, Professor of Theology in the Congregational
-    Theological Hall, Edinburgh.
-
-    Dr. E. H. Browne, Bishop of Ely.[109]
-
-    Mr. O. T. Chenery, Lord Almoner’s Professor of Arabic, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-    Edinburgh.
-
-    Dr. Benjamin Davies, Professor of Hebrew, Baptist College, Regent’s
-    Park.
-
-    Dr. P. Fairbairn, Principal of Free Church College, Glasgow.
-
-    Dr. F. Field.
-
-    Dr. Ginsburg.
-
-    Dr. F. W. Gotch, Principal of the Baptist College, Bristol.
-
-    Rev. B. Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone.
-
-    Dr. A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
-
-    Dr. J. Jebb, Canon of Hereford.
-
-    Dr. W. Kay, late Principal of Bishop’s College, Calcutta.
-
-    Dr. Stanley Leathes, Professor of Hebrew, King’s College, London.
-
-    Rev. J. McGill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St. Andrews.
-
-    Dr. A. Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff.
-
-    Dr. R Payne Smith, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford.[110]
-
-    Dr. J. J. S. Perowne, Professor of Hebrew, St. Davids College,
-    Lampeter.[111]
-
-    Rev. E. H. Plumptre,[112] Professor of New Testament Exegesis, King’s
-    College, London.
-
-    Dr. H. J. Rose, Archdeacon of Bedford.
-
-    Dr. W. Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity,
-    Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids.
-
-    Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln.
-
-    Mr. W. A. Wright, Librarian[113] of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-
-THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. H. Alford, Dean of Canterbury.
-
-    Dr. J. Angus, Principal of the Baptist College, Regent’s Park.
-
-    Dr. E. H. Bickersteth, Prolocutor of the Lower House of
-    Convocation.[114]
-
-    Dr. J. W. Blakesley, Canon of Canterbury.[115]
-
-    Dr. J. Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis to the
-    United Presbyterian Church, Scotland.
-
-    Dr. C. J. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
-
-    Rev. F. J. A. Hort.[116]
-
-    Rev. W. G. Humphry, Prebendary of St. Paul’s.
-
-    Dr. B. H. Kennedy, Canon of Ely, and Regius Professor of Greek,
-    Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. W. Lee, Archdeacon of Dublin.
-
-    Dr. J. B. Lightfoot.[117]
-
-    Dr. W. Milligan, Professor of Divinity, Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. G. Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury.
-
-    Rev. W. F. Moulton, Professor of Classics, Wesleyan College,
-    Richmond.[118]
-
-    Rev. Samuel Newth, Professor of Classics, New College, London.[119]
-
-    Dr. A. Roberts.[120]
-
-    Dr. R. Scott, Master of Balliol College, Oxford.[121]
-
-    Rev. F. H. Scrivener.[122]
-
-    Dr. G. Vance Smith.[123]
-
-    Dr. A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster.
-
-    Dr. R. C. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin.
-
-    Dr. C. J. Vaughan, Master of the Temple.[124]
-
-    Dr. B. F. Westcott, Canon of Peterborough.[125]
-
-    Dr. S. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester.
-
-To these lists some changes have, from various causes, been made in the
-course of the last ten years, both in the way of addition, and in the way
-of removal.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-To the Old Testament Company thirteen members have been added--
-
-    Mr. R. N. Bensley, Hebrew Lecturer, Caius College, Cambridge.
-
-    Rev. J. Birrill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St Andrews,
-    Scotland.
-
-    Dr. F. Chance.
-
-    Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Hebrew Lecturer, Balliol College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. G. Douglas, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Glasgow.
-
-    Mr. S. R Driver, Tutor of New College, Oxford.
-
-    Rev. C. J. Elliott.
-
-    Rev. J. D. Geden, Professor of Hebrew, Wesleyan College, Didsbury.
-
-    Rev. J. R. Lumby, Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge.[126]
-
-    Rev. A. H. Sayce, Tutor of Queen’s College, Oxford.
-
-    Rev. W. Robertson Smith, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-    Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. D. H. Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages, Glasgow.
-
-    Dr. W. Wright, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge.
-
-During the same period it has lost ten members, seven by death: Professor
-Davies, Professor Fairbairn, Professor McGill, Archdeacon Rose, Canon
-Selwyn, Bishop Thirlwall, Professor Weir; and three by resignation--Canon
-Jebb, Professor Plumptre, and Bishop Wordsworth.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The New Testament Company has undergone less change. Four members have
-been added--
-
-    Dr. David Brown, Professor of Divinity, Free Church College, Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. C. Merivale, Dean of Ely.
-
-    Rev. Edwin Palmer, Professor of Latin, Oxford.[127]
-
-    Dr. Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews.
-
-Four also have been removed--Dean Alford, Dr. Eadie, and Bishop
-Wilberforce by death, Dean Merivale by resignation.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The first chairman of the Old Testament Company was Bishop Thirlwall. Upon
-his resignation of the office in 1871 Dr. Harold Browne, then Bishop of
-Ely, now Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to succeed him, and has
-continued to hold the office until now. Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of
-Gloucester and Bristol, has from the first presided over the New
-Testament Company.
-
-The Old Testament Company appointed one of their own number, Mr. Aldis
-Wright, to act as their secretary, taking the minutes of their
-proceedings, and conducting all needful correspondence. The New Testament
-Company deemed it better to assign this office to one who was not himself
-burthened with the responsibilities of the revision, and they were happily
-able to secure the efficient services of the Rev. John Troutbeck, M.A.,
-one of the Minor Canons of Westminster Abbey.
-
-It will be seen that of the sixty-five English scholars who have taken
-part in this work forty-one have been members of the Church of England,
-and twenty-four members of other churches. Of the latter number two
-represent the Episcopal Church of Ireland, one the Episcopal Church of
-Scotland, four the Baptists, three the Congregationalists, five the Free
-Church of Scotland, five the Established Church of Scotland, one the
-United Presbyterians, one the Unitarians, and two the Wesleyan Methodists.
-
-It is on many grounds a matter for thankfulness that they who took the
-initiative in the formation of the two Companies were able to secure so
-wide a representation of the various religious communities of our country,
-and men belonging to different schools of religious thought. For while no
-one can reasonably suppose that in the present day any body of Scholars
-would consciously allow themselves in the translation of the Scriptures to
-be swayed by any theological bias, there is, as all know, such a thing as
-unconscious bias; and it was greatly to be desired that no such suspicion
-should be raised against this Revision as for a long time obtained in
-reference to the Revision of 1611. It was also to be desired that no
-ground should exist that would give an excuse for any to say that through
-the bias of theological prepossessions the interpretations given by some
-to important passages of Scripture were unconsciously ignored, and that,
-had such interpretations been brought under the consideration of the
-Revisers, they must, as honest scholars, have accepted them. Such a ground
-of objection has happily been excluded by the constitution of the two
-Companies. The varieties of theological opinion found amongst the Revisers
-have been an efficient protection against any lapse of the kind referred
-to, and it may safely be affirmed that no interpretation of any important
-doctrinal passage for which any respectable amount of authority could be
-claimed has failed to come under notice, or to receive a careful
-examination.
-
-The advantage resulting from this varied representation in the membership
-of the two Companies has been still further extended by the arrangements
-which have secured the co-operation of a considerable number of American
-Scholars. Shortly after the formation of the two Companies steps were
-taken for enlisting such co-operation; and after some correspondence with
-representative men in America, the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, of New York,
-was requested to act on behalf of the English Companies in selecting and
-inviting American Scholars. In October, 1871, it was reported to the New
-Testament Company that Dr. Schaff had verbally informed the secretary that
-the American Revisers were prepared to enter upon their work. Various
-causes of delay, however, intervened, and it was not until July 17th,
-1872, that the communication was made that the American Companies were
-duly constituted. These Companies held their first meeting on the 4th of
-October in that year. The following is the list of their Members.
-
-
-THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Professor T. J. Conant, Baptist, Brooklyn, New York.
-
-    Professor G. E. Day, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-    Professor J. De Witt, Reformed Church, New Brunswick, N.J.
-
-    Professor W. H. Green, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Professor G. E. Hare, Episcopalian, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-    Professor C. P. Krauth, Lutheran, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-    Professor Joseph Packard, Episcopalian, Fairfax, Va.
-
-    Professor C. E. Stowe, Congregationalist, Cambridge, Mass.
-
-    Professor J. Strong, Methodist, Madison, N.J.
-
-    Professor C. V. Van Dyke,[128] Beirût, Syria.
-
-    Professor T. Lewis, Reformed Church, Schenectady, N.J.
-
-In all eleven members.
-
-
-THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Professor Ezra Abbot, Unitarian, Cambridge, Mass.
-
-    Dr. G. R. Crooks, Methodist, New York.
-
-    Professor H. B. Hackett, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-    Professor J. Hadley, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-    Professor C. Hodge, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Professor A. C. Kendrick, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-    Dr. Alfred Lee, Bishop of Delaware.
-
-    Professor M. B. Riddle, Reformed Church, Hartford, Conn.
-
-    Professor Philip Schaff, Presbyterian, New York.
-
-    Professor C. Short, Episcopalian, New York.
-
-    Professor H. B. Smith, Presbyterian, New York.
-
-    Professor J. H. Thayer, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.
-
-    Professor W. F. Warren, Methodist, Boston, Mass.
-
-    Dr. E. A. Washburn, Episcopalian, New York.
-
-    Dr. T. D. Woolsey, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-In all fifteen members.
-
-Four Members have since been added to the Old Testament Company; namely:
-
-    Professor C. A. Aiken, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Dr. T. W. Chambers, Reformed Church, New York.
-
-    Professor C. M. Mead, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.
-
-    Professor H. Osgood, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-One Member, Professor T. Lewis, has been removed by death.
-
-Four Members have been added to the New Testament Company:
-
-    Dr. J. K. Burr, Methodist, Trenton, N.Y.
-
-    Dr. T. Chase, Baptist, President of Haverford College, Pa.
-
-    Dr. H. Crosby, Baptist, Chancellor of New York University.
-
-    Professor Timothy Dwight, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-Four also have been removed by death, Dr. Hackett, Dr. Hadley, Dr. C.
-Hodge, Dr. H. B. Smith; and two by resignation, Dr. Crooks and Dr. Warren.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-It hence results that altogether ninety-nine Scholars have, to a greater
-or less extent, taken part in the work of this revision, forty-nine of
-whom have been members of the Episcopalian Churches of England, Scotland,
-Ireland, and America, and fifty members of other Christian Churches. This
-fact is in itself full of interest and significance. Upon no previous
-revision have so many Scholars been engaged. In no previous revision has
-the co-operation of those who were engaged upon it been so equally
-diffused over all the parts of the work. In no previous revision have
-those who took the lead in originating it, and carrying it forward, shown
-so large a measure of Christian confidence in Scholars who were outside of
-their own communion. In no previous revision have such effective
-precautions been created by the very composition of the body of Revisers,
-against accidental oversight, or against any lurking bias that might arise
-from natural tendencies or from ecclesiastical prepossessions. On these
-accounts alone, if on no other, this revision may be fairly said to
-possess peculiar claims upon the confidence of all thoughtful and devout
-readers of the Bible.
-
-The New Testament Company assembled for the first time on Wednesday, June
-22nd, 1870. They met in the Chapel of Henry VII., and there united in the
-celebration of the Lord’s Supper. After this act of worship and holy
-communion they formally entered upon the task assigned to them. The Old
-Testament Company held their first meeting on June 30th.
-
-By the kindness of the Dean of Westminster, the New Testament Company was
-permitted to hold its meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber. This room,
-originally the parlour of the Abbot’s Palace, is associated with many
-interesting events of English history. It was to this spot that Henry IV.
-was conveyed when seized with his last illness; and here, on March 20th,
-1413, he died. It was here, in the days of the Long Parliament, that the
-celebrated Assembly of Divines, driven by the cold from Henry VII.’s
-Chapel, held its sixty-sixth session, on Monday, October 2nd, 1643; and
-here thenceforward it continued to meet until its closing session (the
-1163rd), on February 22nd, 1649. Here were prepared the famed Westminster
-Confession of Faith, and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms so highly
-prized by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, and during many
-generations by the Independents of England. Here also, just fifty years
-later, assembled the memorable Commission appointed by William III., at
-the suggestion of the Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Tillotson), to devise a
-basis for a scheme of comprehension in a revision of the Prayer Book. In
-this room the New Testament Company have held the larger number of their
-sessions. Upon the few occasions on which it was not available the Company
-has most frequently met in the Dean of Westminster’s library. Twice it has
-held its monthly session in the College Hall, twice in the Chapter
-Library, and once in Queen Anne’s Bounty Office.
-
-The Jerusalem Chamber is an oblong room, somewhat narrow for its length,
-measuring about forty feet from north to south, and about twenty from east
-to west. Down the centre of the room there extends a long table; and on
-this table, in the middle of its eastern side, is placed the desk of the
-Chairman, Bishop Ellicott. Facing the Chairman, and on the opposite side
-of the room, is a small table for the use of the Secretary. The members
-of the Company took their places round the table without any
-pre-arrangement, but just as each might find a seat most ready at hand.
-The force of habit, however, soon prevailed, and most of the members sat
-constantly in the place which accident or choice had assigned to them. On
-the Chairman’s right sat the Prolocutor, Dr. Bickersteth, and on his left,
-during the sixteen meetings he was spared to attend, sat the late Dean of
-Canterbury, Dr. Alford, who, to the great sorrow of the Company, was so
-early taken away from their midst. Between the Prolocutor and the northern
-end of the table were the places usually occupied by the Bishop of
-Salisbury, the Bishop of St. Andrews, Dean Blakesley, and Mr. Humphry.
-Between the Chairman and the southern end were the places of the
-Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Brown, Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Eadie, and Canon
-Westcott. Between the Secretary’s table and the northern end of the long
-table were the seats of Canon Kennedy, Dr. Angus, Archdeacon Palmer, and
-Dr. Hort; and between the Secretary’s table and the southern end were
-those of Dr. Vance Smith, Dr. Scrivener, Dr. Lightfoot, Dean Scott, and
-Dr. Newth. At the northern end of the table were the places of Archdeacon
-Lee and Dean Stanley; and at the southern end those of Dr. Moulton and Dr.
-Milligan.
-
-As the general rules under which the revision was to be carried out had
-been carefully prepared, no need existed for any lengthened discussion of
-preliminary arrangements, and the Company upon its first meeting was able
-to enter at once upon its work. The members of the Company had previously
-been supplied with sheets, each containing a column of the printed text of
-the Authorized Version, with a wide margin on either side for suggested
-emendations--the left hand margin being intended for changes in the Greek
-text, and the right hand margin for those which related to the English
-rendering. Upon these sheets each member had entered the result of his own
-private study of the prescribed portion, and thus came prepared with
-well-considered suggestions to submit for the judgment of the Company. The
-portion prescribed for the first session was Matt. i. to iv. This portion
-opening with the genealogy, the question of the spelling of proper names
-at once presented itself for decision. It was felt that, by the twofold
-forms so often given in the Authorized Version to the names of persons and
-places, a needless difficulty was set in the way of the simple reader of
-the Bible; and it was agreed that, while preserving in every case the
-familiar forms of names which had become thoroughly Englished, such as
-John, James, Timothy, Jacob, Solomon, &c., all Old Testament proper names
-quoted in the New should follow the Hebrew rather than the Greek or Latin,
-and so appear under the same form in both Testaments.
-
-This question being thus settled, the Company proceeded to the actual
-details of the revision, and in a surprisingly short time settled down to
-an established method of procedure. So little need arose for any change in
-this respect that the account of any one ordinary meeting will serve as a
-description of all. The Company assembles at eleven a.m. The meeting is
-opened by prayer, the Chairman reading three collects from the Prayer
-Book, and closing with the Lord’s Prayer. The minutes of the last meeting
-are then read and confirmed. Any correspondence or other business that may
-require consideration is next dealt with. These matters being settled, the
-Chairman invites the Company to proceed with the revision, and reads a
-short passage as given in the Authorised Version. The question is then
-asked whether any _textual_ changes are proposed; that is, any readings
-that differ from the Greek text as presented in the edition published by
-Robert Stephen in 1550. If any change is proposed, the evidence for and
-against is briefly stated, and the proposal considered. The duty of
-stating this evidence is, by tacit consent, devolved upon two members of
-the Company, who, from their previous studies, are specially entitled to
-speak with authority upon such questions--Dr. Scrivener and Dr. Hort--and
-who come prepared to enumerate particularly the authorities on either
-side. Dr. Scrivener opens up the matter by stating the facts of the case,
-and by giving his judgment upon the bearing of the evidence. Dr. Hort
-follows, and mentions any additional matters that may call for notice, and
-if differing from Dr. Scrivener’s estimate of the weight of the evidence,
-gives his reasons, and states his own view. After discussion, the vote of
-the Company is taken, and the proposed reading accepted or rejected. The
-text being thus settled, the Chairman asks for proposals on the rendering.
-Any member who has any suggestion on his paper then mentions it, and this
-is taken into consideration, unless some other member state that he has a
-proposal which refers to an earlier clause of the passage, in which case
-his proposal is taken first. The reasons for the proposed emendation are
-then stated; briefly, if it be an obvious correction, and one which it is
-likely that many members have noted down; if it be one less obvious, or
-less likely to commend itself at first sight, the grounds upon which it is
-based are stated more at length. Free discussion then follows, and after
-this the vote of the Company is taken. Succeeding suggestions are
-similarly dealt with, and then the passage, as amended, is read by the
-Chairman, or by the Secretary. The meeting lasts until six p.m., an
-interval of half-an-hour having been allowed for luncheon. The Company
-meets every month, excepting only in the months of August and September,
-for a session of four consecutive days.
-
-At a very early period of their labours it became clearly manifest to the
-Company that they could only do their work satisfactorily by doing it very
-thoroughly, and that no question in any way affecting the sense or the
-rendering could be passed over because of its seeming unimportance.
-Questions, whether of text or translation, which appeared, when regarded
-in relation only to the passage under review, to be too minute to be
-worthy of serious attention, became oftentimes invested with a grave
-importance when other, and especially parallel, passages were considered;
-and thus proposed changes, which might otherwise have been dismissed as
-unnecessary, claimed for themselves a careful examination. As a necessary
-result of this determination to make the revision as complete as might be
-in their power, the progress made in the work was but slow, and at the end
-of the ninth day of meeting not more than 153 verses had been revised, an
-average of only seventeen verses a day. Thereupon several members of the
-Company became alarmed at the probable length of time over which the
-revision would extend, and on the tenth day of meeting resolutions were
-submitted, that, “with a view to swifter progress, the Company be divided
-into two sections, of which one shall proceed with the Gospels and the
-other with the Epistles,” and “that on the last day of each monthly series
-of meetings the whole Company meet together to review the work done by the
-two separate sections.” To these resolutions a full consideration was
-given, and with the result of producing an almost unanimous conviction
-that such a division of the Company was undesirable. It was felt that the
-weight of authority attaching to this Revision, would, with many persons,
-be largely dependent upon the fact that it represented the united judgment
-of a considerable number of scholars, and that the proposed division of
-the Company would consequently tend to lessen the claims of the work to
-the confidence of the public. It was found, too, that it would not be
-possible to make any satisfactory division of the Company; and from the
-varied qualifications of the members, each felt that it would be a
-palpable loss to be deprived of the co-operation of any of the rest. It
-was also exceedingly doubtful whether any saving of time would be secured
-by the proposed arrangement. The review by the entire Company of the work
-done by the separate divisions would, in very many cases, reopen
-discussion; and questions which had been decided, perhaps unanimously,
-after lengthened debate, would be debated afresh, and that, too, by those
-who were less familiar with all the bearings of the question, and on
-whose account it would be necessary to give lengthened explanations, and
-sometimes to retrace other ground also. The resolutions were consequently
-withdrawn, and the conviction became general amongst the members of the
-Company that they had no other alternative than to face the probability of
-a much longer period of labour than any one amongst them had at first
-anticipated, and to accept the full responsibilities of the work which had
-been laid upon them.
-
-After this the work steadily proceeded, and various general questions
-having been decided as they arose, the rate of progress became more rapid;
-but even then the average did not rise above thirty-five verses a day.
-
-In accordance with the rules under which the Company was acting, all
-proposals made at the first revision were decided by simple majorities;
-but at the second revision no change from the Authorized Version could be
-accepted unless it were carried by a majority of two to one. Though here
-and there this rule stood in the way of a change which a decided majority
-of the Company were of opinion was right, its action upon the whole was
-very salutary.
-
-At the second revision also the suggestions of the American Revisers came
-to the help of the Company. From time to time, as each successive portion
-of the first revision was completed, it had been forwarded to America. The
-American Revisers subjected this to a careful scrutiny, and in their turn
-forwarded to England their criticisms thereupon. Where they approved the
-changes provisionally made nothing was said; where they differed they
-indicated their dissent, and submitted their own suggestions. In like
-manner, in passages where no change had been made, they either signified
-their assent by silence, or expressed their judgment by independent
-proposals.
-
-The first revision of the Gospel of Matthew was completed on the
-thirty-sixth day of meeting, May 24th, 1871; that of Mark on the
-fifty-third day, November 16th, 1871; that of Luke on the eighty-first
-day, June 22nd, 1872; and that of John on the one hundred and third day,
-February 19th, 1873. The first revision of the Acts and the Catholic
-Epistles was completed on the one hundred and fifty-second meeting, April
-23rd, 1874. Before proceeding to the first revision of the remaining books
-it was deemed desirable to undertake the second revision of the Gospels,
-and this was completed on the one hundred and eighty-fourth meeting,
-February 25th, 1875. The first revision of the Pauline Epistles was then
-commenced, and was completed on the two hundred and sixty-second meeting,
-February 27th, 1877. The first revision of the Apocalypse was completed on
-the two hundred and seventy-third meeting, April 20th, 1877.
-
-It will thus appear that the first revision engaged the Company during two
-hundred and forty-one meetings; that is to say, during sixty monthly
-sessions, or six years of labour. The attendance during this important
-period of the work maintained so high an average as 16·8.
-
-It had not been originally intended that at the second revision fresh
-proposals should be entertained; but as it was obviously necessary to do
-this with regard to the American suggestions, it was felt that we ought
-not to preclude our own members from bringing forward any new proposal
-that might seem worthy of consideration, and that we ought not, for the
-sake of gaining time, to fetter ourselves by any rigid rule. The second
-revision thus became a far more serious business than had been originally
-contemplated, and demanded a large measure of time and toil. It was
-completed on December 13th, 1878, having occupied on the whole ninety-six
-meetings, or about two years and a half. By rule 5 the “second” revision
-was to be regarded as “final,” but the course of events rendered this an
-impossibility, and so far the rule had to be annulled.
-
-In due course the results of the second revision were forwarded to
-America, and while it indicated the extent to which the English Company
-had been able to adopt the American suggestions--or what was equivalent
-to this, some third suggestion that approved itself alike to the judgment
-of both Companies--it also necessarily invited a reply upon those points
-about which there was still a difference of opinion, and this, as
-necessarily, involved what was to some extent a third revision. The work
-of a further revision had, however, been previously imposed upon the
-Company by a resolution of its own, in which it was agreed that the
-members should privately read over the version as now revised, with the
-view of marking any roughnesses or other blemishes in the English
-phraseology; and that if it should appear to them that, without doing any
-violence to the Greek, the English might be amended, the emendations they
-proposed should be forwarded to the Secretary, and by him be duly arranged
-and printed. To the consideration of the various suggestions so forwarded,
-and of those contained in the further communications from America, the
-Company devoted thirty-six meetings, extending from February 11th, 1879,
-to January 27th, 1880, with portions of one or two subsequent meetings,
-being finally completed on March 17th, 1880.
-
-Although the Company had endeavoured throughout the whole course of its
-work to preserve, as far as the idiom of the English language permitted,
-uniformity in the rendering of the same Greek word, it had not been
-possible, when dealing with each passage separately, to keep in view all
-the other passages in which any particular word might be found. It was
-therefore felt to be desirable to reconsider the Revised Version with
-exclusive reference to this single point, and the pages of a Greek
-concordance were assigned in equal portions to different members of the
-Company, who each undertook to examine every passage in which the words
-falling to his share might occur, and to mark if in any case unnecessary
-variations in the English had either been introduced or retained. The
-passages so noted were brought before the notice of the assembled Company,
-and the question was in each case considered whether, without any injury
-to the sense, the rendering of the word under review might be harmonized
-with that found in other places. This work of harmonizing, together with
-the preparation of the preface, occupied the Company until November 11th,
-1880, on which day, at five o’clock in the afternoon, after ten years and
-five months of labour, the revision of the New Testament was brought to
-its close.
-
-On the evening of the same day, St. Martin’s day, by the kind invitation
-of Prebendary Humphry, the Company assembled in the Church of St.
-Martin’s-in-the-Fields, and there united in a special service of prayer
-and thanksgiving; of thanksgiving for the happy completion of their
-labours, for the spirit of harmony and brotherly affection that had
-throughout pervaded the meetings of the Company, and for the Divine
-goodness which had permitted so many with so little interruption to give
-themselves continuously to this work; of prayer that all that had been
-wrong in their spirit or action might be mercifully forgiven, and that He
-whose glory they had humbly striven to promote might graciously accept
-this their service, and deign to use it as an instrument for the good of
-man, and the honour of His holy name.
-
-The total number of meetings of the Company has been 407, and the total
-number of attendances 6,426,[129] or an average attendance at each meeting
-of 15·8 members.
-
-Upon one other point our readers will naturally look for some information.
-How have the necessary expenses of this undertaking been met? These, it
-will readily be seen, would necessarily be large. So many persons could
-not come together from various parts of the kingdom--some very distant,
-including the extreme north of Scotland, and the extreme west of
-Cornwall--and remain in London for a week in every month, without a
-considerable expenditure of money. It was also found necessary for the
-satisfactory execution of the work that each portion, from time to time as
-provisionally completed, should be set up in type, and in this way further
-expenses were entailed. The question of meeting these expenses was at an
-early period forced upon the attention of the Company; for some members
-before many months had elapsed had been put to serious costs, and while
-all willingly gave their time and labour, as far as they might be able,
-without reserve to this important work, it was felt to be impossible to
-allow this extra burden to rest upon any, and the more so as the pressure
-of it must needs be very unequally distributed. An appeal to the public
-for help having met with no adequate response, it was resolved to dispose
-of the copyright of the work, in the hope thereby of obtaining sufficient
-means of meeting the expenses of completing it. Several offers from
-different sources were made to the Companies; but ultimately, for various
-reasons, it was deemed best to accede to that made by the University
-Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, whereby, in return for the copyright of
-the Revised Version, the Chancellors, Masters, and Scholars of the two
-Universities agreed to provide a sum which it was hoped would suffice for
-the expenses that would be incurred in the prosecution and completion of
-the work, and to advance a certain portion of the same from time to time.
-A draft deed embodying these agreements having been submitted to the
-Companies was after some amendments accepted on December 10th, 1872.
-
-The agreement with the University Presses binds the two Companies to a
-revision of the Apocrypha, a work not contemplated in their original
-undertaking. The New Testament Company have made arrangements for taking a
-full share of this revision, and entered upon the work in April last.
-Until this is completed they will not be released from their
-responsibilities.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-
-
-(A.)
-
-_PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?)_
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-[130] For as much as Christ saith that the gospel shall be preached in all
-the world, and David saith of the Apostles and their preaching, “the sound
-of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the
-ends of the world;” and again David saith, “The Lord shall tell in the
-Scriptures of peoples and of these princes that were in it;”[131] that is,
-in holy Church, as Jerome saith on that verse, “Holy writ is the Scripture
-of peoples, for it is made that all peoples should know it;” and the
-princes of the Church that were therein be the apostles that had authority
-to write holy writ; for by that same that the Apostles wrote their
-Scriptures by authority and confirming of the Holy Ghost, it is holy
-Scripture and faith of Christian men, and this dignity hath no man after
-them, be he never so holy, never so cunning, as Jerome witnesseth on that
-verse. Also Christ saith of the Jews that cried Hosanna to Him in the
-temple, that though they were still stones should cry; and by stones He
-understandeth heathen men that worshipped stones for their gods. And we
-Englishmen be come of heathen men, therefore we be understood by these
-stones that should cry holy writ; and as Jews, interpreted
-acknowledging[132], signify clerks that should make acknowledgment to God
-by repentance of sins and by voice of God’s praise, so our lewd (lay, or
-unlearned) men, suing (following) the corner-stone Christ, may be
-signified by stones that be hard and abiding in the foundation; for though
-covetous clerks be wood (wild, or mad), by simony, heresy, and many other
-sins, and despise and stop holy writ as much as they can, yet the lewd
-people cry after holy writ to ken it and keep it with great cost and peril
-of their life.
-
-For these reasons and other, with common charity to save all men in our
-realm which God would have saved, a simple creature hath translated the
-Bible out of Latin into English. First this simple creature had much
-travail, with divers fellows and helpers, to gather many old Bibles, and
-other doctors and common glosses, and to make one Latin Bible some deal
-true; and then to study it anew, the text with the gloss and other doctors
-as he might get, and especially Lyra on the Old Testament, that helped
-full much in this work; the third time to counsel with old grammarians and
-old divines of hard words and hard sentences, how they might best be
-understood and translated; the fourth time to translate as clearly as he
-could to the sentence,[133] and to have many good fellows and cunning at
-the correcting of the translation. First it is to know that the best
-translating out of Latin into English is to translate after the sentence,
-and not only after the words, so that the sentence be as open, either
-opener, in English as in Latin, and go not far from the letter; and if the
-letter may not be sued (followed) in the translating, let the sentence be
-ever whole and open, for the words ought to serve to the intent and
-sentence, and else the words be superfluous or false. In translating into
-English many resolutions may make the sentence open, as an ablative case
-absolute may be resolved into these three words, with convenable
-(suitable) verb, _the while_, _for if_, as grammarians say, as thus: _the
-master reading, I stand_, may be resolved thus, _while the master readeth
-I stand_, or, _if the master readeth, &c._, or, _for the master, &c._; and
-sometime it would accord well with the sentence to be resolved into _when_
-or into _afterward_, thus, _when the master read I stood_, or, _after the
-master read I stood_; and sometime it may well be resolved into a verb of
-the same tense as others be in the same clause, and into this word _et_;
-that is, _and_ in English, as thus, _arescentibus hominibus prae timore_;
-that is, _and men should wax dry for dread_. Also a participle of a
-present tense or preterite of active voice or passive may be resolved into
-a verb of the same tense and a conjunction copulative, as thus, _dicens_;
-that is, _saying_ may be resolved thus, _and saith_, or, _that saith_; and
-this will in many places make the sentence open, where to English it,
-after the verb, would be dark and doubtful. Also a relative, which may be
-resolved into his antecedent with a conjunction copulative, as thus,
-_which runneth_, _and he runneth_. Also when one word is once set in a
-clause it may be set forth as often as it is understood, or as often as
-reason and need ask. And this word _autem_, or _vero_, may stand for
-_forsooth_, or for _but_, and thus I use commonly; and sometime it may
-stand for _and_, as old grammarians say. Also when rightful construction
-is let (prevented) by relation, I resolve it openly; thus where this
-clause _Dominum formidabunt adversarii ejus_ should be Englished thus by
-the letter, _the Lord His adversaries shall dread_, I English it thus by
-resolution, _the adversaries of the Lord shall dread Him_; and so of other
-clauses that be like.
-
-At the beginning I purposed, with God’s help, to make the sentence as true
-and open in English as it is in Latin, or more true and more open than it
-is in Latin; and I pray for charity and for common profit of Christian
-souls, that if any wise man find any default of the truth of translation,
-let him set in the true sentence and open of holy writ, but look that he
-examine truly his Latin Bible; for no doubt he shall find full many Bibles
-in Latin full false, if he look many, namely, new;[134] and the common
-Latin Bibles have more need to be corrected, as many as I have seen in my
-life than the English Bible late translated. And where the Hebrew, by
-witness of Jerome, of Lyra, and other expositors discordeth from our Latin
-Bibles, I have set in the margin, by manner of a gloss, what the Hebrew
-hath, and how it is understood in some place; and I did this most in the
-Psalter, that of all our books discordeth most from the Hebrew; for the
-church readeth not the Psalter by the last translation of Jerome, out of
-Hebrew into Latin, but another translation by other men, that had much
-less cunning and holiness than Jerome had; and in full few books the
-church readeth the translation of Jerome, as it may be proved by the
-proper originals of Jerome which he glossed. And where I have translated
-as openly or openlier in English as in Latin, let wise men deme (judge)
-that know well both languages, and know well the sentence of holy
-Scripture. And whether I have done thus or not, no doubt they that ken
-well the sentence of holy writ and English together, and will travail with
-God’s grace thereabout, may make the Bible as true and as open, yea, and
-openlier, in English as in Latin. And no doubt to a simple man, with God’s
-grace and great travail, men might expound much openlier and shortlier
-the Bible in English, than the old great doctors have expounded it in
-Latin, and much sharplier and groundlier than many late postillators, or
-expositors have done. But God of His great mercy, give us grace to live
-well, and to see the truth in convenable manner, and acceptable to God and
-His people, and to spell out our time, be it short, be it long, at God’s
-ordinance.
-
-But some that seem wise and holy say thus, If men now were as holy as
-Jerome was, they might translate out of Latin into English, as he did out
-of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and else they should not translate
-now, so they think, for default of holiness and cunning. Though this
-replication seem colourable, it hath no good ground, neither reason,
-neither charity; for why, (because) this replication is more against Saint
-Jerome and against the first LXX. translators, and against holy church,
-than against simple men that translate now into English; for Saint Jerome
-was not so holy as the Apostles and Evangelists, whose books he translated
-into Latin, neither he had so high gifts of the Holy Ghost as they had;
-and much more the LXX. translators were not so holy as Moses and the
-Prophets, and specially David; neither they had so great gifts of God as
-Moses and the Prophets had. Furthermore, holy church approveth not only
-the true translation of mean Christian men, but also of open heretics,
-that did away mysteries of Jesus Christ by guileful translation, as Jerome
-witnesseth in one prologue on Job, and in the prologue of Daniel. Much
-more late the Church of England approve the true and whole translation of
-simple men, that would, for no good on earth, by their witting and power,
-put away the least truth, yea, the least letter or tittle of holy writ
-that beareth substance or charge. And dispute they not (let them not
-dispute) of the holiness of men now living in this deadly life; for they
-know not thereon, and it is reserved only to God’s doom. If they know any
-notable default by the translators or their helps, let them blame the
-default by charity and mercy, and let them never damn a thing that may be
-done lawfully by God’s law, as wearing a good cloth for a time, or riding
-on a horse for a great journey, when they wit not wherefore it is done;
-for such things may be done of simple men with as great charity and virtue
-as some that hold themselves great and wise, can ride in a gilt saddle, or
-use cushions and beds and cloths of gold and of silk, with other vanities
-of the world. God grant pity, mercy, and charity, and love of common
-profit, and put away such foolish dooms (judgment) that be against reason
-and charity. Yet worldly clerks ask greatly (grandly) what spirit maketh
-idiots (laymen) hardy to translate now the Bible into English, since the
-four great doctors durst never do this. This replication is so lewd
-(unlearned), that it needeth none answer but stillness or courteous scorn;
-for these great doctors were none English men, neither they were
-conversant among English men, neither they knew the language of English,
-but they ceased never till they had holy writ in the mother tongue of
-their own people. For Jerome, that was a Latin man of birth, translated
-the Bible, both out of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and expounded
-full much thereto; and Austin and many more Latins expounded the Bible,
-for many parts, in Latin, to Latin men among which they dwelt, and Latin
-was a common language to their people about Rome, and beyond and on this
-half (side), as English is common to our people, and yet (still) this day
-the common people in Italy speaketh Latin corrupt, as true men say that
-have been in Italy; and the number of translators out of Greek into Latin
-passeth man’s knowing, as Austin witnesseth in the ij. book of _Christian
-Teaching_,[135] and saith thus: “The translators out of Hebrew into Greek
-may be numbered, but Latin translators, or they that translated into
-Latin, may not be numbered in any manner.” For in the first times of
-faith, each man, as a Greek book came to him, and he seemed to himself to
-have some cunning of Greek and Latin, was hardy (bold) to translate, and
-this thing helped more than letted (hindered) understanding, if readers be
-not negligent, for why (because) the beholding of many books hath showed
-off or declared some darker sentences. This saith Austin here. Therefore
-Grosted (Grosseteste) saith that it was God’s will that diverse men
-translate, and that diverse translations be in the church, where one said
-darkly, one other more said openly.
-
-Lord God, since at the beginning of faith so many men translated into
-Latin, and to great profit of Latin men, let one simple creature of God
-translate into English for profit of Englishmen; for if worldly clerks
-look well their chronicles and books they shall find that Bede translated
-the Bible, and expounded much in Saxon, that was English, or common
-language of this land, in his time; and not only Bede, but also King
-Alfred that founded Oxford, translated in his last days the beginning of
-the Psalter into Saxon, and would more if he had lived longer. Also
-Frenchmen, Beemers,[136] and Britons have the Bible and other books of
-devotion and of exposition translated in their mother language. Why should
-not Englishmen have the same in their mother language I cannot wit, no but
-(except) for falseness and negligence of clerks, or for (because) our
-people is not worthy to have so great grace and gift of God in pain
-(penalty) of their old sins. God for his mercy amend these evil causes,
-and make our people to have, and ken, and keep truly holy writ, to life
-and death.
-
-But in translating of words equivocal, that is, that have many
-significations under one letter, may lightly be peril (there may easily be
-a danger of mistake); for Austin saith in the ij. book of _Christian
-Teaching_ that if equivocal words be not translated into the sense or
-understanding of the author it is error,[137] as in that place of the
-psalm, _the feet of them be swift to shed out blood_. The Greek word is
-equivocal to _sharp_ and _swift_, and he that translated _sharp feet_
-erred, and a book that hath _sharp feet_ is false, and must be amended, as
-that sentence, _unkind young trees shall not give deep roots_, ought to be
-thus _plantings of adultery shall not give deep roots_.[138] Austin saith
-this there; therefore a translator hath great need to study well the
-sentence, both before and after, and look that such equivocal words accord
-with the sentence; and he hath need to live a clean life, and be full
-devout in prayers, and have not his wit occupied about worldly things,
-that the Holy Spirit, author of wisdom, and cunning, and truth, dress him
-in his work, and suffer him not for to err.
-
-Also this word _ex_ signifieth sometime _of_, and sometime it signifieth
-_by_, as Jerome saith; and this word _enim_ signifieth commonly
-_forsooth_, and, as Jerome saith, it signifieth, _cause thus_, _forwhy_.
-And this word _secundum_ is taken for _after_, as many men say, and
-commonly; but it signifieth well _by_ or _up_, thus _by your word_, or _up
-your word_. Many such adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions be set off
-one for another, and at free choice of authors sometime; and now they
-should be taken as it accordeth best to the sentence.
-
-By this manner, with good living and great travail, men may come to true
-and clear translating and true understanding of holy writ, seem it never
-so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and to
-keep well holy writ, and to suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last.
-Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(B.)
-
-_TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES._
-
-
-I. NEW TESTAMENT[139] 1525. 4TO.
-
-I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly
-beloved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritual edifying,
-consolation, and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are
-better seen in the tongues than I, and that have better gifts of grace to
-interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to
-consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness; and
-if they perceive in any places that I have not attained unto the very
-sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the
-right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering
-that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for
-ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the
-honouring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is
-the body of Christ.
-
-The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should
-imagine, than that I should rehearse them. Moreover I supposed it
-superfluous; for who is so blind as to ask why light should be showed to
-them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to
-stumble is the danger of eternal damnation; other so despiteful that he
-would envy any man (I speak not his brother) so necessary a thing; or so
-bedlam mad to affirm that good is the natural cause of evil, and darkness
-to proceed out of light, and that lying should be grounded in truth and
-verity, and not rather clean contrary, that light destroyeth darkness, and
-verity reproveth all manner of lying.
-
-After it had pleased GOD to put in my mind and also to give me grace to
-translate this fore-rehearsed New Testament into our English tongue,
-howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary to put you in
-remembrance of certain points, which are, that ye well understand what
-these words mean: the Old Testament, the New Testament; the law, the
-gospel; Moses, Christ; nature, grace; working and believing; deeds and
-faith; lest we ascribe to the one that which belongeth to the other, and
-make of Christ Moses, of the gospel the law, despise grace and rob faith;
-and fall from meek learning into idle dispicions; brawling and scolding
-about words.
-
-The Old Testament is a book wherein is written the law of God, and the
-deeds of them which fulfil them, and of them also which fulfil them not.
-
-The New Testament is a book wherein are contained the promises of God, and
-the deeds of them which believe them or believe them not.
-
-Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good,
-merry, glad, and joyful tidings, that maketh a man’s heart glad, and
-maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy: as when David had killed Goliath
-the giant, came glad tidings unto the Jews, that their fearful and cruel
-enemy was slain, and they delivered out of all danger; for gladness
-whereof, they sung, danced, and were joyful. In like manner is the
-Evangelion of God (which we call gospel, and the New Testament) joyful
-tidings; and, as some say, a good hearing, published by the apostles
-throughout all the world, of Christ the right David, how that he hath
-fought with sin, with death, and the devil, and overcome them: whereby all
-men that were in bondage to sin, wounded with death, overcome of the
-devil, are, without their own merits or deservings, loosed, justified,
-restored to life and saved, brought to liberty and reconciled unto the
-favour of God, and set at one with him again; which tidings, as many as
-believe, laud, praise, and thank God; are glad, sing, and dance for joy.
-
-This Evangelion or gospel (that is to say, such joyful tidings) is called
-the New Testament; because that as a man, when he shall die, appointeth
-his goods to be dealt and distributed after his death among them which he
-nameth to be his heirs; even so Christ, before his death, commanded and
-appointed that such Evangelion, gospel, or tidings, should be declared
-throughout all the world, and therewith to give unto all that believe, all
-his goods; that is to say, his life, wherewith he swallowed and devoured
-up death; his righteousness, wherewith he banished sin; his salvation,
-wherewith he overcame eternal damnation. Now, can the wretched man, that
-[knoweth himself to be wrapped] in sin, and in danger to death and hell,
-hear no more joyous a thing than such glad and comfortable tidings of
-Christ; so that he cannot but be glad and laugh from the low bottom of his
-heart, if he believe that the tidings are true.
-
-To strength such faith withal, God promised this his Evangelion in the Old
-Testament by the prophets, as Paul saith (Rom. i.), how that he was chosen
-out to preach God’s Evangelion, which he before had promised by the
-prophets in the Scriptures, that treat of his Son which was born of the
-seed of David. In Gen. iii. God saith to the serpent, “I will put hatred
-between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, that self seed
-shall tread thy head under foot.” Christ is this woman’s seed; he it is
-that hath trodden under foot the devil’s head; that is to say, sin, death,
-hell, and all his power. For without this seed can no man avoid sin,
-death, hell, and everlasting damnation.
-
-Again (Gen. xxii.), God promised Abraham, saying, “In thy seed shall all
-the generations of the earth be blessed.” Christ is that seed of Abraham,
-saith St. Paul. (Gal. iii.) He hath blessed all the world through the
-gospel. For where Christ is not, there remaineth the curse that fell on
-Adam as soon as he had sinned, so that they are in bondage under the
-condemnation of sin, death, and hell. Against this curse blesseth now the
-gospel all the world, inasmuch as it crieth openly, saying, Whosoever
-believeth on the Seed of Abraham shall be blessed, that is, he shall be
-delivered from sin, death, and hell, and shall henceforth continue
-righteous, living and saved for ever, as Christ himself saith, in the
-eleventh of John, “He that believeth on me shall never more die.”
-
-“The law,” saith the gospel of John in the first chapter, “was given by
-Moses: but grace and verity by Jesus Christ.” The law, whose minister is
-Moses, was given to bring us unto the knowledge of ourselves, that we
-might thereby feel and perceive what we are of nature. The law condemneth
-us and all our deeds, and is called of Paul in 2 Cor. iii. the
-ministration of death. For it killeth our consciences and driveth us to
-desperation, inasmuch as it requireth of us that which is impossible for
-us to do. It requireth of us the deeds of a whole man. It requireth
-perfect love from the low bottom and ground of the heart, as well in all
-things which we suffer, as in the things which we do. But, saith John, in
-the same place, “grace and verity is given us in Christ,” so that when the
-law hath passed upon us, and condemned us to death, which is its nature to
-do, then we have in Christ grace, that is to say, favour, promises of
-life, of mercy, of pardon, freely by the merits of Christ; and in Christ
-have we verity and truth, in that God fulfilleth all his promises to them
-that believe. Therefore is the gospel the ministration of life. Paul
-calleth it in the fore rehearsed place of 2 Cor. iii. the ministration of
-the Spirit and of righteousness.
-
-In the gospel, when we believe the promises, we receive the Spirit of
-life, and are justified in the blood of Christ from all things whereof the
-law condemned us. Of Christ it is written in the fore rehearsed John i.
-This is He of whose abundance, or fulness, all we have received, grace for
-grace, or favour for favour. That is to say, for the favour that God hath
-to his Son Christ he giveth unto us his favour and good will, as a father
-to his sons. As affirmeth Paul, saying, “Which loved us in his Beloved
-before the creation of the world.” Christ is made Lord over all, and is
-called in scripture God’s mercy-stool; whosoever therefore flieth to
-Christ can neither hear nor receive of God any other thing save mercy.
-
-In the Old Testament are many promises, which are nothing else but the
-Evangelion or gospel, to save those that believed them from the vengeance
-of the law. And in the New Testament is often made mention of the law, to
-condemn them which believe not the promises. Moreover the law and the
-gospel may never be separate; for the gospel and promises serve but for
-troubled consciences, which are brought to desperation, and feel the pains
-of hell and death under the law, and are in captivity and bondage under
-the law. In all my deeds I must have the law before me to condemn mine
-imperfectness. For all that I do, be I never so perfect, is yet damnable
-sin, when it is compared to the law, which requireth the ground and bottom
-of mine heart. I must therefore have always the law in my sight, that I
-may be meek in the spirit, and give God all the laud and praise, ascribing
-to him all righteousness, and to myself all unrighteousness and sin. I
-must also have the promises before mine eyes, that I despair not; in which
-promises I see the mercy, favour, and good will of God upon me, in the
-blood of his Son Christ, which hath made satisfaction for mine
-unperfectness, and fulfilled for me that which I could not do.
-
-Here may ye perceive that two manner of people are sore deceived. First,
-they which justify themselves with outward deeds, in that they abstain
-outwardly from that which the law forbiddeth, and do outwardly that which
-the law commandeth. They compare themselves to open sinners; and in
-respect of them justify themselves, condemning the open sinners. They set
-a veil on Moses’ face, and see not how the law requireth love from the
-bottom of the heart. If they did they would not condemn their neighbours.
-“Love hideth the multitude of sins,” saith St. Peter, in his first
-epistle. For whom I love from the deep bottom and ground of mine heart,
-him condemn I not, neither reckon his sins, but suffer his weakness and
-infirmity, as a mother the weakness of her son, until he grow up unto a
-perfect man.
-
-Those also are deceived which, without all fear of God, give themselves
-unto all manner vices with full consent, and full delectation, having no
-respect to the law of God (under whose vengeance they are locked up in
-captivity), but say, God is merciful and Christ died for us, supposing
-that such dreaming and imagination is that faith which is so greatly
-commended in holy scripture. Nay, that is not faith, but rather a foolish
-blind opinion springing of their own nature, and it is not given them of
-the Spirit of God; true faith is (as saith the apostle Paul) the gift of
-God, and is given to sinners after the law hath passed upon them, and hath
-brought their consciences unto the brink of desperation, and sorrows of
-hell.
-
-They that have this right faith, consent to the law that it is righteous,
-and good, and justify God which made the law, and have delectation in the
-law, notwithstanding that they cannot fulfil it, for their weakness; and
-they abhor whatsoever the law forbiddeth, though they cannot avoid it. And
-their great sorrow is, because they cannot fulfil the will of God in the
-law; and the spirit that is in them crieth to God night and day for
-strength and help, with tears (as saith Paul) that cannot be expressed
-with tongue. Of which things the belief of our popish (or of their)
-father, whom they so magnify for his strong faith, hath none experience at
-all.
-
-The first, that is to say, a justiciary, which justifieth himself with his
-outward deeds, consenteth not to the inward law, neither hath delectation
-therein: yea, he would rather that no such law were. So he justifieth not
-God, but hateth him as a tyrant, neither careth he for the promises, but
-will with his own strength be saviour of himself; no wise glorifieth he
-God, though he seem outward to do.
-
-The second, that is to say, the sensual person, as a voluptuous swine,
-neither feareth God in his law, neither is thankful to him for his
-promises and mercy, which is set forth in Christ to all them that believe.
-
-The right christian man consenteth to the law, that it is righteous, and
-justifieth God in the law; for he affirmeth that God is righteous and
-just, which is author of the law. He believeth the promises of God, and so
-justifieth God, judging him true, and believing that he will fulfil his
-promises. With the law he condemneth himself and all his deeds, and giveth
-all the praise to God. He believeth the promises, and ascribeth all truth
-to God: thus everywhere justifieth he God, and praiseth God.
-
-By nature, through the fall of Adam are we the children of wrath, heirs of
-the vengeance of God by birth, yea, and from our conception. And we have
-our fellowship with the devils under the power of darkness and rule of
-Satan, while we are yet in our mothers’ wombs; and though we show not
-forth the fruits of sin, yet are we full of the natural poison whereof all
-sinful deeds spring, and cannot but sin outwardly, be we never so young,
-if occasion be given; for our nature is to do sin, as is the nature of a
-serpent to sting. And as a serpent yet young, or yet unbrought forth, is
-full of poison, and cannot afterward (when the time is come, and occasion
-given) but bring forth the fruits thereof; and as an adder, a toad, or a
-snake, is hated of man, not for the evil that it hath done, but for the
-poison that is in it and the hurt which it cannot but do; so are we hated
-of God for that natural poison which is conceived and born with us before
-we do any outward evil. And as the evil, which a venomous worm doeth,
-maketh it not a serpent; but because it is a venomous worm, therefore doth
-it evil and poisoneth; and as the fruit maketh not the tree evil, but
-because it is an evil tree, therefore it bringeth forth evil fruit, when
-the season of fruit is; even so do not our evil deeds make us evil; but
-because that of nature we are evil, therefore we both think and do evil,
-and are under vengeance under the law, convict to eternal damnation by the
-law, and are contrary to the will of God in all our will, and in all
-things consent to the will of the fiend.
-
-By grace, that is to say by favour, we are plucked out of Adam, the ground
-of all evil, and graffed in Christ the root of all goodness. In Christ,
-God loved us, his elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved
-us unto the knowledge of his Son and of his holy gospel; and when the
-gospel is preached to us, he openeth our hearts, and giveth us grace to
-believe, and putteth the Spirit of Christ in us, and we know him as our
-Father most merciful; and we consent to the law, and love it inwardly in
-our heart, and desire to fulfil it, and sorrow because we cannot; which
-will (sin we of frailty never so much) is sufficient till more strength be
-given us; the blood of Christ hath made satisfaction for the rest; the
-blood of Christ hath obtained all things for us of God. Christ is our
-satisfaction, Redeemer, Deliverer, Saviour, from vengeance and wrath.
-Observe and mark in Paul’s, Peter’s, and John’s epistles, and in the
-gospel, what Christ is unto us.
-
-By faith are we saved only in believing the promises. And though faith be
-never without love and good works, yet is our saving imputed neither to
-love nor unto good works, but unto faith only. For love and works are
-under the law, which requireth perfection, and the ground and fountain of
-the heart, and damneth all imperfectness. Now is faith under the
-promises, which condemn not; but give all grace, mercy, favour, and
-whatsoever is contained in the promises.
-
-Righteousness is divers; blind reason imagines many manner of
-righteousness. There is, in like manner, the justifying of ceremonies,
-some imagine them their own selves, some counterfeit other, saying, in
-their blind reason, Such holy persons did thus and thus, and they were
-holy men, therefore if I do so likewise I shall please God; but they have
-no answer of God that that pleaseth. The Jews seek righteousness in their
-ceremonies; which God gave unto them, not to justify, but to describe and
-paint Christ unto them; of which Jews testifieth Paul, saying how that
-they have affection to God, but not after knowledge; for they go about to
-stablish their own justice, and are not obedient to the justice of
-righteousness that cometh of God. The cause is verily that except a man
-cast away his own imagination and reason, he cannot perceive God, and
-understand the virtue and power of the blood of Christ. There is the
-righteousness of works, as I said before, when the heart is away and
-feeleth not how the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the
-bottom of the heart, as the just ministration of all manner of laws, and
-the observing of them, and moral virtues wherein philosophers put their
-felicity and blessedness--which all are nothing in the sight of God. There
-is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled from the ground of the
-heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this life perfectly, but sighed
-after it. They were so far forth blessed in Christ, that they hungered and
-thirsted after it. Paul had this thirst; he consented to the law of God,
-that it ought so to be, but he found another lust in his members, contrary
-to the lust and desire of his mind, and therefore cried out, saying, “Oh,
-wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from this body of death?
-thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” The righteousness that before God
-is of value, is to believe the promises of God, after the law hath
-confounded the conscience: as when the temporal law ofttimes condemneth
-the thief or murderer, and bringeth him to execution, so that he seeth
-nothing before him but present death, and then cometh good tidings, a
-charter from the king, and delivereth him. Likewise when God’s law hath
-brought the sinner into knowledge of himself, and hath confounded his
-conscience and opened unto him the wrath and vengeance of God; then cometh
-good tidings. The Evangelion showeth unto him the promises of God in
-Christ, and how Christ hath purchased pardon for him, hath satisfied the
-law for him, and appeased the wrath of God. And the poor sinner believeth,
-laudeth, and thanketh God through Christ, and breaketh out into exceeding
-inward joy and gladness, for that he hath escaped so great wrath, so heavy
-vengeance, so fearful and so everlasting a death. And he henceforth is an
-hungered and athirst after more righteousness, that he might fulfil the
-law; and mourneth continually, commending his weakness unto God in the
-blood of our Saviour, Christ Jesus.
-
-Here shall ye see compendiously and plainly set out, the order and
-practice of every thing before rehearsed.
-
-The fall of Adam hath made us heirs of the vengeance and wrath of God, and
-heirs of eternal damnation; and hath brought us into captivity and bondage
-under the devil. And the devil is our lord, and our ruler, our head, our
-governor, our prince, yea, and our god. And our will is locked and knit
-faster unto the will of the devil, than could a hundred thousand chains
-bind a man unto a post. Unto the devil’s will consent we with all our
-hearts, with all our minds, with all our might, power, strength, will, and
-lusts. With what poison, deadly and venomous hate, hateth a man his enemy!
-With how great malice of mind, inwardly, do we slay and murder! With what
-violence and rage, yea, and with how fervent lust, commit we advoutry,
-fornication, and such like uncleanness! With what pleasure and delectation
-inwardly serveth a glutton his belly! With what diligence deceive we! How
-busily seek we the things of this world! Whatsoever we do, think, or
-imagine, is abominable in the sight of God. And we are as it were asleep
-in so deep blindness, that we can neither see nor feel what misery,
-thraldom, and wretchedness we are in, till Moses come and wake us, and
-publish the law. When we hear the law truly preached, how that we ought to
-love and honour God with all our strength and might, from the low bottom
-of the heart; and our neighbours, yea, our enemies, as ourselves,
-inwardly, from the ground of the heart, and do whatsoever God biddeth, and
-abstain from whatsoever God forbiddeth, with all love and meekness, with a
-fervent and a burning lust from the centre of the heart, then beginneth
-the conscience to rage against the law, and against God. No sea, be it
-ever so great a tempest, is so unquiet. For it is not possible for a
-natural man to consent to the law, that it should be good, or that God
-should be righteous which maketh the law; his wit, reason, and will being
-so fast glued, yea, nailed and chained unto the will of the devil. Neither
-can any creature loose the bonds, save the blood of Christ.
-
-This is the captivity and bondage whence Christ delivered us, redeemed,
-and loosed us. His blood, his death, his patience in suffering rebukes and
-wrongs, his prayers and fastings, his meekness and fulfilling of the
-uttermost point of the law, appeased the wrath of God, brought the favour
-of God to us again, obtained that God should love us first, and be our
-Father, and that a merciful Father, that will consider our infirmities and
-weakness, and will give us his Spirit again (which was taken away in the
-fall of Adam) to rule, govern, and strength us, and to break the bonds of
-Satan, wherein we were so straight bound. When Christ is thuswise
-preached, and the promises rehearsed which are contained in the prophets,
-in the psalms, and in divers places of the five books of Moses, then the
-hearts of them which are elect and chosen, begin to wax soft and melt at
-the bounteous mercy of God, and kindness shewed of Christ. For when the
-Evangelion is preached, the Spirit of God entereth into them whom God hath
-ordained and appointed unto eternal life, and openeth their inward eyes,
-and worketh such belief in them. When the woful consciences feel and taste
-how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is, and how merciful and
-loving God is through Christ’s purchasing and merits, they begin to love
-again, and to consent to the law of God, that it is good and ought so to
-be, and that God is righteous which made it; and they desire to fulfil the
-law, even as the sick man desireth to be whole, and are an hungered and
-thirst after more righteousness and after more strength to fulfil the law
-more perfectly. And in all that they do, or omit and leave undone, they
-seek God’s honour and his will with meekness, ever condemning the
-imperfectness of their deeds by the law.
-
-Now Christ standeth us in double stead, and us serveth in two manner wise:
-First, he is our Redeemer, Deliverer, Reconciler, Mediator, Intercessor,
-Advocate, Attorney, Solicitor, our Hope, Comfort, Shield, Protection,
-Defender, Strength, Health, Satisfaction, and Salvation. His blood, his
-death, all that he ever did, is ours. And Christ himself, with all that he
-is or can do, is ours. His blood-shedding and all that he did, doth me as
-good service as though I myself had done it. And God (as great as he is)
-is mine, with all that he hath, through Christ and his purchasing.
-
-Secondarily, after that we be overcome with love and kindness, and now
-seek to do the will of God, which is a christian man’s nature, then have
-we Christ an example to counterfeit, as saith Christ himself in John, “I
-have given you an example.” And in another evangelist he saith, “He that
-will be great among you, shall be your servant and minister, as the Son of
-man came to minister and not to be ministered unto.” And Paul saith,
-“Counterfeit[140] Christ.” And Peter saith, “Christ died for you, and
-left you an example to follow his steps.” Whatsoever therefore faith hath
-received of God through Christ’s blood and deserving, that same must love
-shed out every whit, and bestow it on our neighbours unto their profit,
-yea, and that though they be our enemies. By faith we receive of God, and
-by love we shed out again. And that must we do freely after the example of
-Christ, without any other respect, save our neighbour’s wealth only, and
-neither look for reward in the earth, nor yet in heaven, for our deeds.
-But of pure love must we bestow ourselves, all that we have, and all that
-we are able to do, even on our enemies, to bring them to God, considering
-nothing but their wealth, as Christ did ours. Christ did not his deeds to
-obtain heaven thereby (that had been a madness), heaven was his already,
-he was heir thereof, it was his by inheritance; but did them freely for
-our sakes, considering nothing but our wealth, and to bring the favour of
-God to us again, and us to God. And no natural son that is his father’s
-heir, doth his father’s will because he would be heir; that he is already
-by birth, his father gave him that ere he was born, and is loather that he
-should go without it, than he himself hath wit to be; but out of pure love
-doth he that he doth. And ask him, Why he doth any thing that he doth? he
-answereth, My father bade, it is my father’s will, it pleaseth my father.
-Bond servants work for hire, children for love: for their father with all
-he hath, is theirs already. So a Christian man doth freely all that he
-doth, considereth nothing but the will of God, and his neighbour’s wealth
-only. If I live chaste, I do it not to obtain heaven thereby; for then
-should I do wrong to the blood of Christ; Christ’s blood has obtained me
-that; Christ’s merits have made me heir thereof; he is both door and way
-thitherwards: neither that I look for an higher room in heaven than they
-shall have which live in wedlock, other than a whore of the stews, if she
-repent; for that were the pride of Lucifer, but freely to wait on the
-evangelion; and to serve my brother withal; even as one hand helpeth
-another, or one member another, because one feeleth another’s grief, and
-the pain of the one is the pain of the other. Whatsoever is done to the
-least of us (whether it be good or bad), it is done to Christ; and
-whatsoever is done to my brother, if I be a christian man, that same is
-done to me. Neither doth my brother’s pain grieve me less than mine own:
-neither rejoice I less at his welfare than at mine own. If it were not so,
-how saith Paul? “Let him that rejoiceth, rejoice in the Lord,” that is to
-say, Christ, which is Lord over all creatures. If my merits obtained me
-heaven, or a higher room there, then had I wherein I might rejoice besides
-the Lord.
-
-Here see ye the nature of the law, and the nature of the evangelion. How
-the law is the key that bindeth and damneth all men, and the evangelion
-looseth them again. The law goeth before, and the evangelion followeth.
-When a preacher preacheth the law, he bindeth all consciences; and when he
-preacheth the gospel, he looseth them again. These two salves (I mean the
-law and the gospel) useth God and his preacher to heal and cure sinners
-withal. The law driveth out the disease and maketh it appear, and is a
-sharp salve, and a fretting corosy, and killeth the dead flesh, and
-looseth and draweth the sores out by the roots, and all corruption. It
-pulleth from a man the trust and confidence that he hath in himself, and
-in his own works, merits, deservings, and ceremonies. It killeth him,
-sendeth him down to hell, and bringeth him to utter desperation, and
-prepareth the way of the Lord, as it is written of John the Baptist. For
-it is not possible that Christ should come to a man, as long as he
-trusteth in himself, or in any worldly thing. Then cometh the evangelion,
-a more gentle plaster, which suppleth and suageth the wounds of the
-conscience, and bringeth health. It bringeth the Spirit of God, which
-looseth the bonds of Satan, and uniteth us to God and his will, through
-strong faith and fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the
-world, or any creature to loose them. And the poor and wretched sinner
-feeleth so great mercy, love, and kindness in God, that he is sure in
-himself how that it is not possible that God should forsake him, or
-withdraw his mercy and love from him; and he boldly crieth out with Paul,
-saying, “Who shall separate us from the love that God loveth us withal?”
-That is to say, What shall make me believe that God loveth me not? Shall
-tribulation? anguish? persecution? Shall hunger? nakedness? Shall sword?
-Nay, “I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel, neither rule
-nor power, neither present things nor things to come, neither high nor
-low, neither any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God,
-which is in Christ Jesu our Lord.” In all such tribulations, a christian
-man perceiveth that God is his Father, and loveth him even as he loved
-Christ when he shed his blood on the cross.
-
-Finally, as before, when I was bond to the devil and his will, I wrought
-all manner of evil and wickedness, not for hell’s sake, which is the
-reward of sin, but because I was heir of hell by birth and bondage to the
-devil, did I evil (for I could none otherwise do; to do sin was my
-nature), even so now, since I am coupled to God by Christ’s blood, do I
-well, not for heaven’s sake, but because I am heir of heaven by grace and
-Christ’s purchasing, and have the Spirit of God, I do good freely, for so
-is my nature: as a good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil tree
-evil fruit. By the fruits shall ye know what the tree is. A man’s deeds
-declare what he is within, but make him neither good nor bad. We must
-first be evil ere we do evil, as a serpent is first poisonous ere he
-poison. We must be also good ere we do good, as the fire must be first hot
-ere it warm any thing. Take an example: As those blind which are cured in
-the evangelion could not see till Christ had given them sight, and deaf
-could not hear till Christ had given them hearing, and those sick could
-not do the deeds of an whole man till Christ had given them health; so can
-no man do good in his soul till Christ have loosed him out of the bonds
-of Satan, and have given him wherewith to do good; yea, and first have
-poured into him that self good thing which he sheddeth forth afterwards on
-other. Whatsoever is our own, is sin. Whatsoever is above that, is
-Christ’s gift, purchase, doing, and working. He bought it of his Father
-dearly with his blood, yea, with his most bitter death, and gave his life
-for it. Whatsoever good thing is in us, that is given us freely, without
-our deserving or merits, for Christ’s blood’s sake. That we desire to
-follow the will of God it is the gift of Christ’s blood. That we now hate
-the devil’s will (whereunto we were so fast locked, and could not but love
-it) is also the gift of Christ’s blood; unto whom belongeth the praise and
-honour of our good deeds, and not unto us.
-
-
-II. “THE EPISTLE TO THE READER” ATTACHED TO THE 8vo EDITION, 1525.
-
-Give diligence, reader, I exhort thee, that thou come with a pure mind,
-and, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health
-and of eternal life; by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are
-born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ,
-which blood crieth not for vengeance, as the blood of Abel, but hath
-purchased life, love, favour, grace, blessing, and whatsoever is promised
-in the Scriptures to them that believe and obey God, and standeth between
-us and wrath, vengeance, curse, and whatsoever the Scripture threateneth
-against the unbelievers and disobedient, which resist and consent not in
-their hearts to the law of God that it is right, holy, just, and ought so
-to be. Mark the plain and manifest places of the Scriptures, and in
-doubtful places see thou add no interpretation contrary to them, but as
-(Paul saith) let all be conformable and agreeing to the faith. Note the
-difference of the law and of the gospel. The one asketh and requireth,
-the other pardoneth and forgiveth; the one threateneth, the other
-promiseth all good things to them that set their trust in Christ only. The
-gospel signifieth glad tidings, and is nothing but the promises of good
-things. All is not gospel that is written in the gospel-book; for if the
-law were away thou couldest not know what the gospel meant, even as thou
-couldest not see pardon and grace, except the law rebuked thee and
-declared unto thee thy sin, misdeed, and trespass. Repent, and believe the
-gospel, as Christ saith in the first of Mark. Apply alway the law to thy
-deeds, whether thou find lust in thine heart to the law-ward; and so shalt
-thou no doubt repent and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief
-to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the
-law. Apply the gospel, that is to say the promises, unto the deserving of
-Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not
-despair, but shall feel God as a kind and merciful father. And his Spirit
-shall dwell in thee, and shall be strong in thee, and the promises shall
-be given thee at the last (though not by and by, lest thou shouldest
-forget thyself and be negligent), and all threatenings shall be forgiven
-thee for Christ’s blood’s sake, to whom commit thyself altogether, without
-respect either of thy good deeds or of thy bad.
-
-Them that are learned Christianly I beseech, forasmuch as I am sure, and
-my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and
-faithfully, I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of
-knowledge and understanding, that the rudeness of the work now at the
-first time offend them not; but that they consider how that I had no man
-to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had
-interpreted the same or such like thing in the Scripture beforetime.
-Moreover, even very necessity, and cumbrance (God is record) above
-strength, which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast
-ourselves, caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are
-required. Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but as it were
-born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished. In time
-to come (if God have appointed us thereunto) we will give it his full
-shape, and put out if ought be added superflously, and add to if ought be
-overseen through negligence, and will enforce to bring to compendiousness
-that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is
-required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a
-table to expound the words which are not commonly used, and show how the
-Scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common
-people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not
-another; and will endeavour ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better,
-and to make it more apt for the weak stomachs, desiring them that are
-learned and able to remember their duty, and to help them thereunto, and
-to bestow unto the edifying of Christ’s body, which is the congregation of
-them that believe, those gifts which they have received of God for the
-same purpose.
-
-The grace that cometh of Christ be with them that love him. Amen.
-
-
-III. THE PREFACE TO THE PENTATEUCH, 1530.
-
-When I had translated the New Testament, I added an Epistle unto the
-latter end, in which I desired them that were learned to amend if aught
-were found amiss. But our malicious and wily hypocrites, which are so
-stubborn, and hard hearted in their wicked abominations, that it is not
-possible for them to amend any thing at all (as we see by daily
-experience, when both their livings and doings are rebuked with the truth)
-say, some of them, that it is impossible to translate the Scripture into
-English; some that it is not lawful for the lay people to have it in their
-mother tongue; some that it would make them all heretics; as it would no
-doubt from many things which they of long time have falsely taught; and
-that is the whole cause wherefore they forbid it, though they other
-cloaks pretend. And some, or rather every one, say that it would make them
-rise against the king, whom they themselves (unto their damnation) never
-yet obeyed. And lest the temporal rulers should see their falsehood, if
-the Scripture came to light, causeth them so to lie.
-
-And as for my translation, in which they affirm unto the lay people, (as I
-have heard say) to be I wot not how many thousand heresies, so that it
-cannot be mended or correct, they have yet taken so great pain to examine
-it, and to compare it unto that they would fain have it, and to their own
-imaginations and juggling terms, and to have somewhat to rail at, and
-under that cloak, to blaspheme the truth, that they might with as little
-labour (as I suppose) have translated the most part of the Bible. For they
-which in times past were wont to look on no more Scripture than they found
-in their _Duns_, or such like devilish doctrine, have yet now so narrowly
-looked on my Translation, that there is not so much as one _i_ therein, if
-it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto
-the ignorant people for an heresy. Finally, in this they be all
-agreed,--to drive you from the knowledge of the Scripture, and that ye
-shall not have the text thereof in the mother tongue; and to keep the
-world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the consciences
-of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine; to satisfy
-their filthy lusts, their proud ambition, and unsatiable covetousness; and
-to exalt their own honour above king and emperor, yea, and above God
-himself.
-
-A thousand books had they lever to be put forth against their abominable
-doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as
-long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with
-the mist of their sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or
-despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly
-similitudes and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wresting the
-Scripture unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order,
-and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with
-allegories; and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the
-unlearned lay people, (when it hath but one simple, literal sense, whose
-light the owls cannot abide) that though thou feel in thine heart, and art
-sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve
-their subtle riddles.
-
-Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had
-perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay
-people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their
-eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and
-meaning of the text: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these
-enemies of all truth quench it again, partly with the smoke of their
-bottomless pit, whereof thou readest in Apocalypse chap. ix. that is, with
-apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, founded
-without ground of Scripture, and partly in juggling with the text,
-expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text, if
-thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof.
-
-And even in the bishop of London’s house I intended to have done it. For
-when I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer
-dwell there (the process whereof were too long here to rehearse), I this
-wise thought in myself--this I suffer because the priests of the country
-be unlearned; as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort which have
-seen no more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals,
-which yet many of them can scarcely read (except it be _Albertus de
-Secretis Mulierum_, in which yet, though they be never so sorrily learned,
-they pore day and night, and make notes therein, and all to teach the
-midwives as they say; and Linwode, a book of constitutions to gather
-tythes, mortuaries, offerings, customs, and other pillage which they call
-not theirs, but God’s part, and the duty of holy church to discharge their
-consciences withal: for they are bound that they shall not diminish, but
-increase all things unto the uttermost of their powers), and, therefore
-(because they are thus unlearned, thought I), when they come together to
-the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings
-are heresy. And besides that, they add to of their own heads which I never
-spake, as the manner is, to prolong the tale to short the time withal, and
-accused me secretly to the chancellor, and other the bishop’s officers.
-And, indeed, when I came before the chancellor, he threatened me
-grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog, and
-laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth (as
-their manner is not to bring forth the accuser), and yet all the priests
-of the country were the same day there.
-
-As I this thought, the bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom
-Erasmus (whose tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth
-up above the stars whosoever giveth him a little exhibition) praiseth
-exceedingly, among other in his Annotations on the New Testament, for his
-great learning. Then, thought I, if I might come to this man’s service, I
-were happy. And so I gat me to London, and, through the acquaintance of my
-master, came to Sir Harry Gilford, the king’s grace’s comptroller, and
-brought him an _Oration of Isocrates_, which I had translated out of Greek
-into English, and desired him to speak unto my lord of London for me,
-which he also did as he shewed me, and willed me to write an epistle to my
-lord, and to go to him myself, which I also did, and delivered my epistle
-to a servant of his own, one William Hebilthwayte, a man of mine old
-acquaintance. But God (which knoweth what is within hypocrites) saw that I
-was beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way unto my purpose.
-And therefore he gat me no favour in my lord’s sight.
-
-Whereupon my lord answered me, his house was full, he had more than he
-could well find, and advised me to seek in London, where he said I could
-not lack a service. And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the
-course of the world, and heard our praters (I would say our preachers),
-how they boasted themselves and their high authority; and beheld the pomp
-of our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet are, to set peace and
-unity in the world (though it be not possible for them that walk in
-darkness to continue long in peace, for they cannot but either stumble or
-dash themselves at one thing or another that shall clean unquiet all
-together) and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time, and
-understood at the last not only that there was no room in my lord of
-London’s palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no
-place to do it in all England, as experience doth now openly declare.
-
-Under what manner, therefore, should I now submit this book to be
-corrected and amended of them, which can suffer nothing to be well? Or
-what protestation should I make in such a matter unto our prelates, those
-stubborn Nimrods which so mightily fight against God, and resist his Holy
-Spirit, enforcing with all craft and subtlety to quench the light of the
-everlasting Testament, promises, and appointment made between God and us?
-and heaping the fierce wrath of God upon all princes and rulers; mocking
-them with false feigned names of hypocrisy, and serving their lusts at all
-points, and dispensing with them even of the very laws of God, of which
-Christ himself testifieth, Matt. v. “That not so much as one tittle
-thereof may perish, or be broken.” And of which the prophet saith, Psalm
-cxviii., “Thou hast commanded thy laws to be kept” _meod_, that is in
-Hebrew, exceedingly, with all diligence, might, and power; and have made
-them so mad with their juggling charms, and crafty persuasions, that they
-think it a full satisfaction for all their wicked lying to torment such as
-tell them truth, and to burn the word of their soul’s health, and slay
-whosoever believe thereon.
-
-Notwithstanding, yet I submit this book, and all other that I have either
-made or translated, or shall in time to come, (if it be God’s will that I
-shall further labour in his harvest,) unto all them that submit themselves
-unto the word of God, to be corrected of them; yea, and moreover to be
-disallowed and also burnt, if it seem worthy, when they have examined it
-with the Hebrew, so that they first put forth of their own translating
-another that is more correct.
-
-
-
-
-(C.)
-
-_COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535._
-
-
-Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of
-scripture ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own
-insufficiency therein, and how weak I am to perform the office of a
-translator, I was the more loath to meddle with this work.
-Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it was that we should
-want it so long, and called to my remembrance the adversity of them which
-were not only of ripe knowledge, but would also with all their hearts have
-performed that they began, if they had not had impediment; considering, I
-say, that by reason of their adversity it could not so soon have been
-brought to an end, as our most prosperous nation would fain have had it;
-these and other reasonable causes considered, I was the more bold to take
-it in hand. And to help me herein, I have had sundry translations, not
-only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their
-singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more
-glad to follow for the most part, according as I was required. But, to say
-the truth before God, it was neither my labour nor desire to have this
-work put in my hand: nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should
-be more plenteously provided for with the scripture in their
-mother-tongue, than we: therefore, when I was instantly required, though I
-could not do so well as I would, I thought it yet my duty to do my best,
-and that with a good will.
-
-Whereas some men think now that many translations make division in the
-faith and in the people of God, that is not so: for it was never better
-with the congregation of God, than when every church almost had the Bible
-of a sundry translation. Among the Greeks had not Origen a special
-translation? Had not Vulgarius one peculiar, and likewise Chrysostom?
-Beside the seventy interpreters, is there not the translation of Aquila,
-of Theodotio, of Symmachus, and of sundry other? Again, among the Latin
-men, thou findest that every one almost used a special and sundry
-translation; for insomuch as every bishop had the knowledge of the
-tongues, he gave his diligence to have the Bible of his own translation.
-The doctors, as Hireneus, Cyprianus, Tertullian, St. Hierome, St.
-Augustine, Hilarius, and St. Ambrose, upon divers places of the scripture,
-read not the text all alike.
-
-Therefore ought it not to be taken as evil, that such men as have
-understanding now in our time, exercise themselves in the tongues, and
-give their diligence to translate out of one language into another. Yea,
-we ought rather to give God high thanks therefore, which through his
-Spirit stirreth up men’s minds so to exercise themselves therein. Would
-God it had never been left off after the time of St. Augustine! then
-should we never have come into such blindness and ignorance, into such
-errors and delusions. For as soon as the Bible was cast aside, and no more
-put in exercise, then began every one of his own head to write whatsoever
-came into his brain, and that seemed to be good in his own eyes; and so
-grew the darkness of men’s traditions. And this same is the cause that we
-have had so many writers, which seldom made mention of the scripture of
-the Bible; and though they sometime alleged it, yet was it done so far out
-of season, and so wide from the purpose, that a man may well perceive, how
-that they never saw the original.
-
-Seeing then that this diligent exercise of translating doth so much good
-and edifieth in other languages, why should it do evil in ours? Doubtless,
-like as all nations in the diversity of speeches may know one God in the
-unity of faith, and be one in love; even so may divers translations
-understand one another, and that in the head articles and ground of our
-most blessed faith, though they use sundry words. Wherefore methink we
-have great occasion to give thanks unto God, that he hath opened unto his
-church the gift of interpretation and of printing, and that there are now
-at this time so many, which with such diligence and faithfulness interpret
-the scripture, to the honour of God and edifying of his people: whereas,
-like as when many are shooting together, every one doth his best to be
-nighest the mark; and though they cannot all attain thereto, yet shooteth
-one nigher than another and hitteth it better than another; yea, one can
-do it better than another. Who is now then so unreasonable, so despiteful,
-or envious, as to abhor him that doth all his diligence to hit the prick,
-and to shoot nighest it, though he miss and come not nighest the mark?
-Ought not such one rather to be commended, and to be helped forward, that
-he may exercise himself the more therein?
-
-For the which cause, according as I was desired, I took the more upon me
-to set forth this special translation, not as a checker, not as a
-reprover, or despiser of other men’s translations, (for among many as yet
-I have found none without occasion of great thanksgiving unto God;) but
-lowly and faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under
-correction; and though I have failed anywhere (as there is no man but he
-misseth in some thing), love shall construe all to the best, without any
-perverse judgment. There is no man living that can see all things, neither
-hath God given any man to know everything. One seeth more clearly than
-another, one hath more understanding than another, one can utter a thing
-better than another; but no man ought to envy or despise another. He that
-can do better than another, should not set him at nought that
-understandeth less. Yea, he that hath the more understanding ought to
-remember, that the same gift is not his, but God’s, and that God hath
-given it him to teach and inform the ignorant. If thou hast knowledge
-therefore to judge where any fault is made, I doubt not but thou wilt
-help to amend it, if love be joined with thy knowledge. Howbeit,
-whereinsoever I can perceive by myself, or by the information of other,
-that I have failed (as it is no wonder), I shall now by the help of God
-overlook it better, and amend it.
-
-Now will I exhort thee, whosoever thou be that readest scripture, if thou
-find ought therein that thou understandest not, or that appeareth to be
-repugnant, give no temerarious nor hasty judgment thereof; but ascribe it
-to thine own ignorance, not to the scripture: think that thou
-understandest it not, or that it hath some other meaning, or that it is
-haply overseen of the interpreters, or wrong printed. Again, it shall
-greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is
-spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what
-time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what
-goeth before, and what followeth after. For there be some things which are
-done and written, to the intent that we should do likewise; as when
-Abraham believeth God, is obedient unto his word, and defendeth Loth his
-kinsman from violent wrong. There be some things also which are written,
-to the intent that we should eschew such like; as when David lieth with
-Uria’s wife, and causeth him to be slain. Therefore, I say, when thou
-readest scripture, be wise and circumspect; and when thou comest to such
-strange manners of speaking and dark sentences, to such parables and
-similitudes, to such dreams or visions, as are hid from thy understanding,
-commit them unto God, or to the gift of his Holy Spirit in them that are
-better learned than thou.
-
-As for the commendation of God’s holy scripture, I would fain magnify it,
-as it is worthy, but I am far unsufficient thereto: and therefore I
-thought it better for me to hold my tongue, than with few words to praise
-or commend it; exhorting thee, most dear reader, so to love it, so to
-cleave unto it, and so to follow it in thy daily conversation, that other
-men, seeing thy good works and the fruits of the Holy Ghost in thee, may
-praise the Father of heaven, and give his word a good report: for to live
-after the law of God, and to lead a virtuous conversation, is the greatest
-praise that thou canst give unto his doctrine.
-
-But as touching the evil report and dispraise that the good word of God
-hath by the corrupt and evil conversation of some that daily hear it and
-profess it outwardly with their mouths, I exhort thee, most dear reader,
-let not that offend thee, nor withdraw thy mind from the love of the
-truth, neither move thee to be partaker in like unthankfulness; but seeing
-the light is come into the world, love no more the works of darkness,
-receive not the grace of God in vain. Call to thy remembrance, how loving
-and merciful God is unto thee, how kindly and fatherly he helpeth thee in
-all trouble, teacheth thine ignorance, healeth thee in all thy sickness,
-forgiveth thee all thy sins, feedeth thee, giveth thee drink, helpeth thee
-out of prison, nourisheth thee in strange countries, careth for thee, and
-seeth that thou want nothing. Call this to mind, I say, and that
-earnestly, and consider how thou hast received of God all these benefits,
-yea, and many more than thou canst desire; how thou art bound likewise to
-shew thyself unto thy neighbour, as far as thou canst, to teach him, if he
-be ignorant, to help him in all his trouble, to heal his sickness, to
-forgive him his offences, and that heartily, to feed him, to cherish him,
-to care for him, and to see that he want nothing. And on this behalf I
-beseek thee, thou that hast the riches of this world, and lovest God with
-thy heart, to lift up thine eyes, and see how great a multitude of poor
-people run through every town; have pity on thine own flesh, help them
-with a good heart, and do with thy counsel all that ever thou canst, that
-this unshamefaced begging may be put down, that these idle folks may be
-set to labour, and that such as are not able to get their living may be
-provided for. At the least, thou that art of counsel with such as are in
-authority, give them some occasion to cast their heads together, and to
-make provision for the poor. Put them in remembrance of those noble cities
-in other countries, that by the authority of their princes have so richly
-and well provided for their poor people, to the great shame and dishonesty
-of us, if we likewise, receiving the word of God, shew not such like
-fruits thereof. Would God that those men, whose office is to maintain the
-commonwealth, were as diligent in this cause, as they are in other! Let us
-beware bytimes, for after unthankfulness there followeth ever a plague.
-The merciful hand of God be with us, and defend us, that we be not
-partakers thereof!
-
-Go to now, most dear reader, and sit thee down at the Lord’s feet, and
-read his words, and, as Moses teacheth the Jews, take them into thine
-heart, and let thy talking and communication be of them, when thou sittest
-in thine house, or goest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou
-risest up. And, above all things, fashion thy life and conversation
-according to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost therein, that thou mayest be
-partaker of the good promises of God in the Bible, and be heir of his
-blessing in Christ: in whom if thou put thy trust, and be an unfeigned
-reader or hearer of his word with thy heart, thou shalt find sweetness
-therein, and spy wondrous things, to thy understanding, to the avoiding of
-all seditious sects, to the abhorring of thy old sinful life, and to the
-stablishing of thy godly conversation.
-
-In the first book of Moses, called Genesis, thou mayest learn to know the
-almighty power of God in creating all of nought, his infinite wisdom in
-ordering the same, his righteousness in punishing the ungodly, his love
-and fatherly mercy in comforting the righteous with his promise, &c.
-
-In the second book, called Exodus, we see the mighty arm of God in
-delivering his people from so great bondage out of Egypt, and what
-provision he maketh for them in the wilderness; how he teacheth them with
-his wholesome word, and how the tabernacle was made and set up.
-
-In the third book, called Leviticus, is declared, what sacrifices the
-priests and Levites used, and what their office and ministration was.
-
-In the fourth book, called Numerus, is declared, how the people are
-numbered and mustered, how the captains are chosen after the tribes and
-kindreds, how they went forth to the battle, how they pitched their tents,
-and how they brake up.
-
-The fifth book, called Deuteronomium, sheweth how that Moses, now being
-old, rehearseth the law of God unto the people, putteth them in
-remembrance again of all the wonders and benefices that God had shewed for
-them, and exhorteth them earnestly to love the Lord their God, to cleave
-unto him, to put their trust in him, and to hearken unto his voice.
-
-After the death of Moses doth Josua bring the people into the land of
-promise, where God doth wonderous things for his people by Josua, which
-distributeth the land unto them, unto every tribe their possession. But in
-their wealth they forgat the goodness of God, so that ofttimes he gave
-them over into the hand of their enemies. Nevertheless, whensoever they
-called faithfully upon him, and converted, he delivered them again, as the
-book of Judges declareth.
-
-In the books of the Kings is described the regiment of good and evil
-princes, and how the decay of all nations cometh by evil kings. For in
-Jeroboam thou seest what mischief, what idolatry, and such like
-abomination followeth, when the king is a maintainer of false doctrine,
-and causeth the people to sin against God; which falling away from God’s
-word increased so sore among them, that it was the cause of all their
-sorrow and misery, and the very occasion why Israel first, and then Juda,
-were carried away into captivity. Again, in Josaphat, in Ezechias, and in
-Josias, thou seest the nature of a virtuous king. He putteth down the
-houses of idolatry, seeth that his priests teach nothing but the law of
-God, commandeth his lords to go with them, and to see that they teach the
-people. In these kings, I say, thou seest the condition of a true
-defender of the faith; for he spareth neither cost nor labour to maintain
-the Laws of God, to seek the wealth and prosperity of his people, and to
-root out the wicked. And where such a prince is, thou seest again, how God
-defendeth him and his people, though he have never so many enemies. Thus
-went it with them in the old time, and even after the same manner goeth it
-now with us. God be praised therefore, and grant us of his fatherly mercy
-that we be not unthankful; lest where he now giveth us a Josaphat, an
-Ezechias, yea, a very Josias, he send us a Pharao, a Jeroboam, or an
-Achab!
-
-In the two first books of Esdras, and in Hester, thou seest the
-deliverance of the people, which though they were but few, yet is it unto
-us all a special comfort; forsomuch as God is not forgetful of his
-promise, but bringeth them out of captivity, according as he had told them
-before.
-
-In the book of Job we learn comfort and patience, in that God not only
-punisheth the wicked, but proveth and trieth the just and righteous
-(howbeit there is no man innocent in his sight,) by divers troubles in
-this life; declaring thereby, that they are not his bastards, but his dear
-sons, and that he loveth them.
-
-In the Psalms we learn how to resort only unto God in all our troubles, to
-seek help at him, to call only upon him, to settle our minds by patience,
-and how we ought in prosperity to be thankful unto him.
-
-The Proverbs and the Preacher of Solomon teach us wisdom, to know God, our
-own selves, and the world, and how vain all things are, save only to
-cleave unto God.
-
-As for the doctrine of the Prophets, what is it else, but an earnest
-exhortation to eschew sin, and to turn unto God; a faithful promise of the
-mercy and pardon of God unto all them that turn unto him, and a
-threatening of his wrath to the ungodly? saving that here and there they
-prophesy also manifestly of Christ, of the expulsion of the Jews, and
-calling of the heathen.
-
-Thus much thought I to speak of the old Testament, wherein Almighty God
-openeth unto us his mighty power, his wisdom, his loving mercy and
-righteousness: for the which cause it ought of no man to be abhorred,
-despised, or lightly regarded, as though it were an old scripture that
-nothing belonged unto us, or that now were to be refused. For it is God’s
-true scripture and testimony, which the Lord Jesus commandeth the Jews to
-search. Whosoever believeth not the scripture, believeth not Christ; and
-whoso refuseth it, refuseth God also.
-
-The new Testament, or Gospel, is a manifest and clear testimony of Christ,
-how God performeth his oath and promise made in the old Testament, how the
-new is declared and included in the old, and the old fulfilled and
-verified in the new.
-
-Now whereas the most famous interpreters of all give sundry judgments of
-the text; so far as it is done by the spirit of knowledge in the Holy
-Ghost, methink no man should be offended thereat, for they refer their
-doings in meekness to the spirit of truth in the congregation of God: and
-sure I am, that there cometh more knowledge and understanding of the
-scripture by their sundry translations, than by all the glosses of our
-sophistical doctors. For that one interpreteth something obscurely in one
-place, the same translateth another, or else he himself, more manifestly
-by a more plain vocable of the same meaning in another place. Be not thou
-offended, therefore, good reader, though one call a scribe that another
-calleth a lawyer; or elders, that another calleth father and mother; or
-repentance, that another calleth penance or amendment. For if thou be not
-deceived by men’s traditions, thou shalt find no more diversity between
-these terms, than between fourpence and a groat. And this manner have I
-used in my translation, calling it in some place _penance_, that in
-another place I call _repentance_; and that not only because the
-interpreters have done so before me, but that the adversaries of the truth
-may see, how that we abhor not this word penance, as they untruly report
-of us, no more than the interpreters of Latin abhor _pœnitere_, when they
-read _resipiscere_. Only our heart’s desire unto God is, that his people
-be not blinded in their understanding, lest they believe penance to be
-ought save a very repentance, amendment, or conversion unto God, and to be
-an unfeigned new creature in Christ, and to live according to his law. For
-else shall they fall into the old blasphemy of Christ’s blood, and believe
-that they themselves are able to make satisfaction unto God for their own
-sins: from the which error God of his mercy and plenteous goodness
-preserve all his!
-
-Now to conclude: forsomuch as all the scripture is written for thy
-doctrine and ensample, it shall be necessary for thee to take hold upon it
-while it is offered thee, yea, and with ten hands thankfully to receive
-it. And though it be not worthily ministered unto thee in this
-translation, by reason of my rudeness; yet if thou be fervent in thy
-prayer, God shall not only send it thee in a better shape by the
-ministration of other that began it afore, but shall also move the hearts
-of them which as yet meddled not withal, to take it in hand, and to bestow
-the gift of their understanding thereon, as well in our language, as other
-famous interpreters do in other languages. And I pray God, that through my
-poor ministration herein I may give them that can do better some occasion
-so to do; exhorting thee, most dear reader, in the mean while on God’s
-behalf, if thou be a head, a judge, or ruler of the people, that thou let
-not the book of this law depart out of thy mouth, but exercise thyself
-therein both day and night, and be ever reading in it as long as thou
-livest: that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God, and not to turn
-aside from the commandment, neither to the right hand nor to the left;
-lest thou be a knower of persons in judgment, and wrest the right of the
-stranger, of the fatherless, or of the widow, and so the curse to come
-upon thee. But what office so ever thou hast, wait upon it, and execute it
-to the maintenance of peace, to the wealth of thy people, defending the
-laws of God and the lovers thereof, and to the destruction of the wicked.
-
-If thou be a preacher, and hast the oversight of the flock of Christ,
-awake and feed Christ’s sheep with a good heart, and spare no labour to do
-them good: seek not thyself, and beware of filthy lucre; but be unto the
-flock an ensample in the word, in conversation, in love, in ferventness of
-the spirit, and be ever reading, exhorting, and teaching in God’s word,
-that the people of God run not unto other doctrines, and lest thou
-thyself, when thou shouldest teach other, be found ignorant therein. And
-rather than thou wouldest teach the people any other thing than God’s
-word, take the book in thine hand, and read the words, even as they stand
-therein; for it is no shame so to do, it is more shame to make a lie. This
-I say for such as are not yet expert in the scripture; for I reprove no
-preaching without the book, as long as they say the truth.
-
-If thou be a man that hast wife and children, first love thy wife,
-according to the ensample of the love wherewith Christ loved the
-congregation; and remember that so doing thou lovest even thyself: if thou
-hate her, thou hatest thine own flesh; if thou cherish her and make much
-of her, thou cherishest and makest much of thyself; for she is bone of thy
-bones, and flesh of thy flesh. And whosoever thou be that hast children,
-bring them up in the nurture and information of the Lord. And if thou be
-ignorant, or art otherwise occupied lawfully, that thou canst not teach
-them thyself, then be even as diligent to seek a good master for thy
-children, as thou wast to seek a mother to bear them; for there lieth as
-great weight in the one, as in the other. Yea, better it were for them to
-be unborn, than not to fear God, or to be evil brought up: which thing (I
-mean bringing up well of children) if it be diligently looked to, it is
-the upholding of all commonwealths; and the negligence of the same, the
-very decay of all realms.
-
-Finally, whosoever thou be, take these words of scripture into thy heart,
-and be not only an outward hearer, but a doer thereafter, and practise
-thyself therein; that thou mayest feel in thine heart the sweet promises
-thereof for thy consolation in all trouble, and for the sure stablishing
-of thy hope in Christ; and have ever an eye to the words of scripture,
-that if thou be a teacher of other, thou mayest be within the bounds of
-the truth; or at the least, though thou be but an hearer or reader of
-another man’s doings, thou mayest yet have knowledge to judge all spirits,
-and be free from every error, to the utter destruction of all seditious
-sects and strange doctrines; that the holy scripture may have free
-passage, and be had in reputation, to the worship of the author thereof,
-which is even God himself; to whom for his most blessed word be glory and
-dominion now and ever! Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(D.)
-
-_PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE, 1560._
-
-
-  To our Beloved in the Lord,
-  The Brethren of England,
-  Scotland, Ireland, &c. Grace, mercie, and peace,
-  through Christ Jesus.[141]
-
-Besides the manifold and continuall benefits which Almightie God bestowed
-upon us, both corporall and spirituall, we are especially bound (deare
-brethren) to giue him thankes without ceasing for his great grace and
-vnspeakable mercies, in that it hath pleased him to call vs vnto this
-marueilous light of his Gospell, and mercifully to regarde vs after so
-horrible backesliding and falling away from Christ to Antichrist, from
-light to darknesse, from the liuing God to dumme and dead idoles, and that
-after so cruell murther of God’s saints, as alas, hath bene among vs, wee
-are not altogether cast off, as were the Israelites, and many others for
-the like or not so manifest wickednesse, but receiued againe to grace with
-most evident signes and tokens of God’s especiall loue and fauour. To the
-intent therefore that wee may not be vnmindfull of these great mercies,
-but seeke by all meanes (according to our duetie) to bee thankefull for
-the same, it behoueth vs so to walke in his feare and loue, that all the
-dayes of our life we may procure the glorie of his holy name.
-
-Nowe forasmuch as this thing chiefely is atteined by the knowledge and
-practising of the worde of God (which is the light to our paths, the keye
-of the kingdome of heauen, our comfort in affliction, our shielde and
-sworde against Satan, the schoole of all wisdome, the glasse wherein we
-beholde Gods face, the testimonie of his fauour, and the onely foode and
-nourishment of our soules), wee thought that wee coulde bestowe our
-labours and studie in nothing which coulde be more acceptable to God and
-comfortable to his Church then in the translating of the holy Scriptures
-into our natiue tongue: the which thing albeit that diuers heretofore haue
-endeuoured to atchieue; yet considering the infancie of those times and
-imperfect knowledge of the tongues in respect of this ripe age and cleere
-light which God hath now reueiled, y{e} translations required greatly to
-be perused and reformed. Not that we vendicate anything to our selues
-aboue the least of our brethren (for God knoweth with what feare and
-trembling we haue bene for the space of two yeeres and more day and night
-occupied herein), but being earnestly desired and by diuers, whose
-learning and godlinesse we reuerence, exhorted and also encouraged by the
-ready willes of such, whose hearts God likewise touched, not to spare any
-charges for the furtherance of such a benefite and fauour of God towarde
-his Church (though the time then was most dangerous, and the persecution
-sharpe and furious), we submitted our selues at length to their godly
-judgements, and seeing the great opportunitie and occasions, which God
-presented unto vs in his Church, by reason of so many godlie and learned
-men: and such diuersities of translations in diuers tongues, we vndertooke
-this great and wonderfull worke (with all reuerence, as in the presence of
-God, as intreating the word of God, whereunto we thinke our selues
-vnsufficient) which now God accepting according to his diuine prouidence
-and mercie hath directed to a most prosperous ende. And this we may with
-good conscience protest that we haue in euery point and worde, according
-to the measure of that knowledge which it pleased Almightie God to giue
-vs, faithfully rendred the text, and in all hard places most sincerely
-expounded the same. For God is our witnesse that we haue by all meanes
-indeuoured to set foorth the puritie of the word and the right sense of
-the holy Ghost for the edifying of the brethren in faith and charitie.
-
-Nowe as we have chiefely obserued the sence, and laboured allwayes to
-restore it to all integritie, so haue we most reuerently kept the
-proprietie of the wordes, considering that the Apostles who spake and
-wrote to the Gentiles in the Greeke tongue, rather constrained them to the
-liuely phrase of the Ebrew, then enterprised farre by mollifying their
-language to speake as the Gentiles did. And for this and other causes wee
-haue in many places reserued the Ebrew phrases, notwithstanding that they
-may seeme somewhat hard in their eares that are not well practised and
-also delite in the sweet sounding phrases of the holy Scriptures. Yet
-least eyther the simple should be discouraged, or the malicious haue any
-occasion of just cauilation, seeing some translations reade after one
-sort, and some after another, whereas all may serue to good purpose and
-edification, we haue in the margent noted that diuersitie of speech or
-reading which may also seeme agreeable to the minde of the holy Ghost, and
-proper for our language with this marke. ∥
-
-Againe, whereas the Ebrewe speache seemed hardly to agree with ours we
-haue noted it in the margent after this sort ‡, vsing that which was more
-intelligible. And albeit that many of the Ebrewe names be altered from the
-olde text, and restored to the true writing and first originall, whereof
-they haue their signification, yet in the vsuall names litle is changed
-for feare of troubling the simple readers. Moreover, whereas the
-necessitie of the sentence required any thing to be added (for such is the
-grace and proprietie of the Ebrew and Greeke tongues that it cannot, but
-either by circumlocution, or by adding the verbe or some word, be
-understood of them that are not well practised therein) wee haue put in
-the text with an other kinde of letter that it may easily be discerned
-from the common letter.[142] As touching the diuision of the verses wee
-haue followed the Ebrewe examples, which haue so euen from the beginning
-distinguished them. Which thing as it is most profitable for memorie, so
-doeth it agree with the best translations, and is most easie to finde out
-both by the best Concordances, and also by the quotations which we haue
-diligently herein perused and set foorth by this *. Besides this the
-principall matters are noted by this marke ¶. Yea, and the arguments both
-for the booke and for the chapters with the number of the verse are added,
-that by all meanes the reader might be holpen. For the which cause also we
-haue set ouer the head of every page some notable worde or sentence which
-may greatly further as well for memorie as for the chiefe point of the
-page.
-
-And considering howe hard a thing it is to vnderstand the holy Scriptures,
-and what errors, sectes, and heresies growe dayly for lacke of the true
-knowledge thereof, and howe many are discouraged (as they pretend) because
-they cannot atteine to the true and simple meaning of the same, we haue
-also indeuoured both by the diligent reading of the best commentaries, and
-also by the conference with the godly and learned brethren, to gather
-briefe annotations upon all the hard places, as well for the
-vnderstanding of such wordes as are obscure, and for the declaration of
-the text, as for the application of the same, as may most appertaine to
-God’s glory and the edification of his Church.
-
-Furthermore, whereas certaine places in the bookes of Moses, of the Kings,
-and Ezekiel, seemed so darke that by no description they could be made
-easie to the simple reader, wee have so set them foorth with figures and
-notes for the full declaration thereof, that they which cannot by
-judgement, being holpen by the letters a, b, c, &c., atteine thereunto,
-yet by the perspective and, as it were, by the eye, may sufficiently knowe
-the true meaning of all such places. Whereunto also wee haue added
-certaine maps of Cosmographie which necessarily serue for the perfect
-vnderstanding and memorie of diuers places and countries, partly described
-and partly by occasion touched both in the olde and newe Testament.
-
-Finally, that nothing might lacke which might be bought by labours, for
-the increase of knowledge and furtherance of God’s glorie, we have
-adioyned two most profitable Tables, the one seruing for the
-interpretation of the Ebrew names, and the other conteining all the chiefe
-and principall matters of the whole Bible, so that nothing (as wee trust)
-that any could iustlie desire is omitted. Therefore as brethren that are
-partakers of the same hope and saluation with us, wee beseeche you that
-this rich pearle and inestimable treasure may not be offred in vaine, but
-as sent from God to the people of God, for the increase of his kingdome,
-the comfort of his Church, and discharge of our conscience, whom it hath
-pleased him to raise vp for this purpose, so you woulde willingly receive
-the worde of God, earnestly studie it, and in all your life practise it,
-that you may nowe appeare in deede to bee the people of God, not walking
-any more according to this worlde, but in the fruits of the Spirit, that
-God in vs may bee fully glorified through Christ Jesus our Lorde who
-liueth and reigneth for euer. Amen. From Geneva, 10th April, 1560.
-
-
-
-
-(E.)
-
-_THE PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE, 1568._
-
-
-  A Preface into the Byble
-  folowyng.
-
-Of all the sentences pronounced by our Sauiour Christe in his whole
-doctrine, none is more serious or more worthy to be borne in remembraunce,
-than that which he spake openly in his Gospell, saying: [Sidenote: John
-v.] Scrutamini scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam eternam habere,
-et illæ sunt quæ testimonium perhibent de me. Search ye the scriptures,
-for in them ye think to have eternall lyfe, and those they be which beare
-witnes of me. These wordes were first spoken vnto the Jewes by our
-Sauiour, but by hym in his doctrine ment to all: for they concerne all, of
-what nation, of what tongue, of what profession soeuer any man be. For to
-all belongeth it to be called vnto eternal life, so many as by the witnes
-of the scriptures desire to find eternall life. No man, woman, or chylde,
-is excluded from this saluation, and therefore to euery of them is this
-spoke proportionally yet, and in their degrees and ages, and as the reason
-and congruitie of their vocation may aske. For not so lyeth it in charge
-to the worldly artificer to searche, or to any other priuate man so
-exquisitely to studie, as it lyeth to the charge of the publike teacher to
-searche in the scriptures, to be the more able to walke in the house of
-God [Sidenote: 1 Tim. iii.] (which is the church of the lyuyng God, the
-pyller and ground of truth) to the establishing of the true doctrine of
-the same, and to the impugnyng of the false. And though whatsoever
-difference there may be betwixt the preacher in office, and the auditor in
-his vocation, yet to both it is said, =Search ye the scriptures=, whereby
-ye may fynde eternall lyfe, and gather witnesses of that saluation which
-is in =Christe Jesus= our Lorde. [Sidenote: Deut. xvii.] For although the
-prophete of God Moyses, byddeth the kyng when he is once set in the throne
-of his kingdome, to describe before his eyes the volume of God’s lawe,
-according to the example whiche he shoulde receaue of the priestes of the
-liuiticall tribe, to haue it with him, and to reade it in all the dayes of
-his life, to thende[143] that he might learne to feare the Lorde his God,
-and to observe his lawes, that his heart be not aduanced in pryde ouer his
-brethren, not to swarue eyther on the ryght hande or on the left: yet the
-reason of this precept for that it concerneth all men, may reasonably be
-thought to be commanded to all men, and all men may take it to be spoken
-to them selfe in their degree. [Sidenote: Iosue i.] Though almightie God
-him selfe spake to his captayne Iosue in precise wordes, Non recedat
-volumen legis huius ab ore tuo sed meditaberis in eo diebus ac noctibus,
-&c. Let not the volume of this booke depart from thy mouth, but muse
-therein both dayes and nyghtes, that thou mayest kepe and perfourme all
-thinges which be written in it, that thou mayest direct well thy way and
-vnderstande the same: yet as well spake almightie God this precept to all
-his people in the directions of their wayes to himwarde, as he ment it to
-Iosue: [Sidenote: Peter v. Ephe. vi.] For that he hath care of all, he
-accepteth no man’s person, his wyll is that all men should he saued,
-[Sidenote: 1 Tim. ii. Ioh xiiii.] his wyll is that all men should come to
-the way of trueth. Howe coulde this be more conueniently declared by God
-to man, then when Christe his welbeloued sonne our most louing sauiour,
-the way, the trueth, and the lyfe of vs all, dyd byd vs openly =Search the
-scriptures=, assuring vs herein to finde eternall life, to finde full
-testification of all his graces and benefites towardes vs in the treasure
-thereof. Therefore it is most conuenient that we shoulde all suppose that
-Christe spake to vs all in this his precept of searching the scriptures.
-If this celestiall doctour (so aucthorised by the father of heauen, and
-commaunded [Sidenote: Matt. xvii.] as his only sonne, to be hearde of vs
-all) biddeth vs busily to =Search the scriptures=: of what spirite can it
-proceede to forbid the reading and studying of the scriptures? If the
-grosse Iewes vsed to reade them, as some men thinke that our sauiour
-Christ dyd shew by such kynd of speaking, their vsage, with their opinion
-they had therin to finde eternall lyfe, and were not of Christe rebuked,
-or disproued, either for their searching, or for the opinion they had,
-howe superstitiously or superficially soeuer some of them vsed to expende
-the scriptures; How muche more vnaduisedly do suche as bost them selfe to
-be either Christe’s vicars, or be of his garde, to lothe christen men from
-reading, by their couert slaunderous reproches of the scriptures, or in
-their aucthoritie by lawe or statute to contract this libertie of studiyng
-the worde of eternall saluation. Christe calleth them not onlye to the
-single readyng of scriptures (saith Chrisostome) but sendeth them to the
-exquisite searching of them, for in them is eternall lyfe to be founde,
-and they be (saith hym selfe) the witnesse of me: for they declare out his
-office, they commende his beneuolence towardes vs, they recorde his whole
-workes wrought for vs to our saluation. Antechriste therefore he must be,
-that vnder whatsoeuer colour woulde geue contrary precept or counsayle to
-that whiche Christe dyd geue vnto vs. Very litle do they resemble Christes
-louing spirite mouing vs to searche for our comfort, that wyll discourage
-vs from suche searching, or that woulde wishe ignoraunce and
-forgetfulnesse of his benefite to raigne in vs, so that they might by our
-ignoraunce raigne the more frankly in our consciences, to the danger of
-our saluation. Who can take the light from us in this miserable vale of
-blindnesse, and meane not to haue us stumble in the pathes of perdition to
-the ruine of our soules: who wyll enuie vs this bread of lyfe prepared and
-set on the table for our eternall sustenaunce, and meane not to famishe
-vs, or in steede thereof with their corrupt traditions and doctrines of
-men to infect vs: All the whole scripture, saith the holy apostle
-[Sidenote: ii. Tim. iii.] Saint Paul inspired from God aboue, is
-profitable to teache, to reproue, to refourme, to instruct in
-righteousnesse, that the man of God may be sounde and perfect, instructed
-to euery good worke.
-
-=Searche therefore=, good reader (on God’s name), as Christe byddeth thee
-the holy scripture, wherein thou mayest find thy saluation: Let not the
-volume of this booke (by Gods owne warrant) depart from thee but occupie
-thy selfe therein in the whole journey of this [Sidenote: Psal. i.] thy
-wordly pilgrimage, to vnderstand thy way howe to walke ryghtly before hym
-all the dayes of thy lyfe. Remember that the prophete David pronounceth
-hym the blessed man whiche wyll muse in the lawe of God [Sidenote: Psal.
-cxix.] both day and night, remember that he calleth him blessed whiche
-walketh in the way of the Lorde, which wyll searche diligently his
-testimonies, and wyll in their whole heart seeke the same. Let not the
-couert suspicious insinuations of the adversaries driue thee from the
-searche of the holy scripture, either for the obscuritie whiche they say
-is in them, or for the inscrutable hidden misteries they talke to be
-comprised in them, or for the straungnes and homlynes of the phrases they
-would charge Gods booke with. Christe exhorteth thee therefore the rather
-for the difficultie of the same, to searche them diligently. [Sidenote:
-Hebr. v. 1 Cor. xiiii.] Saint Paul wylleth thee to haue thy senses
-exercised in them, and not to be a chylde in thy senses, but in malice.
-Though many thinges may be difficulte to thee to vnderstand, impute it
-rather to thy dull hearing and reading, then to thinke that the scriptures
-be insuperable, to them whiche with diligent searching labour to discern
-the evil from the good. [Sidenote: Math. vii.] Only searche with an humble
-spirite, aske in continuall prayer, seek with puritie of life, knocke with
-perpetuall perseueraunce, and crye to that good spirite of Christe the
-Comforter: and surely to euery suche asker it wyll be geuen, such
-searchers must nedes finde, to them it wylbe opened. Christ hym selfe wyll
-open the sense of the scriptures, [Sidenote: Math. xi. Esai. lxi.] not to
-the proude, or to the wyse of the worlde, but to the lowly and contrite in
-heart; [Sidenote: 1 Cor. xii.] for he hath the kay of Dauid, who openeth
-and no man shutteth, who shutteth and no man openeth. [Sidenote: Apoc.
-iii.] For as this spirite is a bening and liberall spirite, and wyll be
-easyly founde of them which wyll early in carefulnesse ryse to seeke hym,
-[Sidenote: Sapi i.] and as he promiseth he will be the comforter from
-aboue to teache vs, and to leade vs into all the wayes of truth,
-[Sidenote: Iob xiiii.] if that in humilitie we bowe vnto hym, deniyng our
-owne naturall senses, our carnall wittes and reasons: [Sidenote: Sapi i.]
-so is he the spirite of puritie and cleannes, and will receede from him,
-whose conscience is subiect to filthynesse of lyfe. Into suche a soule
-this heavenly wysdome wyll not enter, for all peruerse cogitations wyll
-separate vs from God: [Sidenote: Psal. lxviii.] and then howe busyly
-soeuer we searche this holy table of the scripture, yet will it then be a
-table to suche to their owne snare, a trap, a stumbling stocke, and a
-recompense to them selfe. We ought therefore to searche to finde out the
-trueth, not to oppresse it, we ought to seeke Christe, not as Herode did
-vnder the pretence of worshipping hym to destroy hym, or as the Pharisees
-searched the scriptures to disproue Christe, and to discredite him, and
-not to folowe him; but to embrace the saluation whiche we may learne by
-them. Nor yet is it inough so to acknowledge the scriptures as some of the
-Iewes dyd, of the holyest of them, who vsed such diligence, that they
-could number precisely, not only euery verse, but euery word and sillable,
-how oft euery letter of the alphabete was repeated in the whole
-scriptures: They had some of them suche reuerence to that booke, that they
-woulde not suffer in a greate heape of bookes, any other to lay over them,
-they woulde not suffer that booke to fall to the grounde as nye as they
-coulde, they woulde costly bynde the bookes of holy scriptures, and cause
-them to be exquisitely and ornately written. Whiche deuotion yet though it
-was not to be discommended, yet was it not for that intent, why Christe
-commended the scriptures, nor they therof alowed before God: For they did
-not call vpon God in a true fayth. they were not charitable to their
-neighbours, but in the middes of all this deuotion, they did steale, they
-were adulterers, they were slaunderers and backbiters, euen muche like
-many of our Christian men and women nowe a dayes, who glory muche that
-they reade the scriptures, that they searche them and loue them, that
-they frequente the publique sermons in an outwarde shewe of all honestie
-and perfection, yea they can pike out of the scriptures vertuous sentenses
-and godly preceptes to lay before other men. And though these maner of men
-do not muche erre for suche searching and studying, yet they see not the
-scope and the principall state of the scriptures, which is as Christe
-declareth it, to finde Christe as their Sauiour, to cleaue to his
-saluation and merites, and to be brought to the lowe repentaunce of their
-liues, and to amend them selfe, to rayse vp their fayth to our Sauiour
-Christe, so to thinke of him as the scriptures do testifie of hym. These
-be the principall causes why Christe did sende the Iewes to searche the
-scriptures: for to this ende were they wrytten, saith Saint Iohn, Hae
-scripta sunt ut credatis, et vt credentes vitam habeatis eternam. These
-were written to this intent, that ye shoulde beleue, [Sidenote: Iohn xx.]
-and that through your beliefe ye shoulde haue euerlasting life.
-
-And here good reader, great cause we have to extoll the wonderous wisdome
-of God, and with great thankes to prayse his prouidence, considering howe
-he hath preserued and renued from age to age by speciall [Sidenote: Hebr.
-v.] miracle, the incomparable treasure of his Churche. For first he did
-inspire Moyses, as Iohn Chrisostome doth testifie, to wryte the stonie
-tables, and kept him in the mountayne fourtie dayes to giue him his lawe:
-after him he sent the prophetes, but they suffred many thousande
-aduersities, for battayles did folowe, all were slayne, all were
-destroyed, bookes were brent vp. He then inspired agayne another man to
-repayre these miraculous scriptures, Esdras I meane, who of their leauings
-set them agayne together: after that he provided that the seuentie
-interpreters should take them in hande: at the laste came Christe him
-selfe, the Apostles did receaue them, and spread them throughout all
-nations, Christe wrought his miracles and wonders: and what followed?
-after these great volumes the Apostles also did wryte as Saint Paul doth
-say, [Sidenote: 1 Cor. x.] These be wrytten to the instruction of vs that
-be come into the ende of the worlde: [Sidenote: Math. xxii.] and Christe
-doth say, Ye therefore erre, because ye knowe not the scriptures nor the
-power of God: and Paul dyd say, [Sidenote: Colo. iii.] Let the worde of
-Christe be plentifull among you: and agayne saith Dauid, [Sidenote: Psal.
-cxix.] Oh howe sweete be thy wordes to my throte: he saide not to my
-hearing, but to my throte, aboue the hony or the hony combe to my mouth.
-Yea, Moyses saith, [Sidenote: Deut. xvi.] Thou shalt meditate in them
-evermore when thou risest, when thou sittest downe, when thou goest to
-sleepe, continue in them he saith: and a thousand places more. And yet
-after so many testimonies thus spoken, there be some persons that do not
-yet so much as knowe what the scriptures be: Wherevpon nothing is in good
-state amongst vs, nothing worthyly is done amongest vs: In this whiche
-pertayne to this lyfe, we make very great haste, but of spirituall goodes
-we have no regarde. Thus farre Iohn Chrisost. It must nedes signifie some
-great thing to our vnderstanding, that almightie God hath had such care to
-prescribe these bookes thus vnto vs: I say not prescribe them only, but to
-maintaine them and defende them against the malignitie of the deuill and
-his ministers, who alway went about to destroy them: and yet could these
-never be so destroyed, but that he woulde have them continue whole and
-perfect to this day, to our singular comfort and instruction, where other
-bookes of mortall wise men haue perished in great numbers. It is recorded
-that Ptolomeus Philadelphus kyng of Egypt, had gathered together in one
-librarie at Alexandria by his great coste and diligence, seuen hundred
-thousand bookes, wherof the principall were the bookes of Moyses, which
-reserued not much more, then by the space of two hundred yeres, were all
-brent and consumed, in that battayle when Cæsar restored Cleopatra agayne
-after her expulsion. At Constantinople perished under Zenon by one common
-fire, a hundred and twentie thousande bookes. [Sidenote: _Iohannes
-Sarisberi. In Policratico, lib. 8, cap. 19. W. de regibus._] At Rome when
-Lucius Aurel Antonius dyd raigne, his notable librarie by a lightning from
-heauen was quite consumed: Yea it is recorded that Gregorie the first, dyd
-cause a librarie at Rome contayning only certaine Paynim’s workes to be
-burned, to thintent the scriptures of God should be more read and studied.
-What other great libraries haue there ben cōsumed but of late daies? And
-what libraries haue of olde throughout this realme almost in euery abbey
-of the same, ben destroyed at sundry ages, besides the losse of other
-men’s private studies, it were to long to rehearse. Wherevpon seyng
-almightie God by his diuine prouidence, hath preserued these bookes of the
-scriptures safe and sounde, and that in their natiue languages they were
-first written, in the great ignoraunce that raigned in these tongues, and
-contrary to all other casualties, chaunced vpon all other bookes in mauger
-of all worldly wittes, who would so fayne haue had them destroyed, and yet
-he by his mightie hande, would haue them extant as witnesses and
-interpreters of his will toward mankind: we may soone see cause most
-reuerently to embrace these deuine testimonies of his will, to studie
-them, and to searche them, to instruct our blinde nature so sore corrupted
-and fallen from the knowledge in whiche first we were created. Yet hauing
-occasion geuen somewhat to recover our fall and to returne againe to that
-deuine nature wherein we were once made, and at the last to be inheritours
-in the celestiall habitation with God almightie, after the ende of our
-mortalitie here brought to his dust agayne: These bookes I say beyng of
-such estimation and aucthoritie, so much reuerenced of them who had any
-meane taste of them, coulde neuer be put out of the way, neither by the
-spyte of any tiraunt, as that [Sidenote: _Galfride mon_] tiraunt Maximian
-destroyed all the holy scriptures wheresoeuer they coulde be founde, and
-burnt them in the middes of the market, neither the hatred either of any
-Porphiran philosopher or Rhetoritian, neither by the enuie of the
-romanystes, and of such hypocrites who from tyme to time did euer barke
-against them, some of them not in open sort of condempnation: but more
-cunningly vnder suttle pretences, for that as they say, they were so harde
-to vnderstande, and specially for that they affirm it to be a perilous
-matter to translate the text of the holy scripture, and therefore it
-cannot be well translated. And here we may beholde the endeuour of some
-men’s cauillation, who labour all they can to slaunder the translatours,
-to finde faulte in some wordes of the translation: but them selfe will
-neuer set pen to the booke, to set out any translation at al. They can in
-their constitutions prouinciall, [Sidenote: _Tho Arūdel in concilio apud
-Oxon. An 1407 articlo 7._] vnder payne of excommunication, inhibite al
-other men to translate them without the ordinaries or the prouinciall
-counsayle agree therevnto. But they wyll be well ware neuer to agree or
-geue counsayle to set them out. Whiche their suttle compasse in effect,
-tendeth but to bewray what inwardly they meane, if they could bring it
-about, that is, vtterly to suppresse them: being in this their iudgement,
-farre vnlike the olde fathers in the primitiue church, who hath exhorted
-indifferently all persons, aswell men as women, to exercise them selues in
-the scriptures, which by Saint Hieroms aucthoritie be the scriptures of
-the people. Yea they be farre vnlike their olde forefathers that have
-ruled in this realme, who in their times, and in diuers ages did their
-diligence to translate the whole bookes of the scriptures to the erudition
-of the laytie, as yet at this day be to be seene diuers bookes translated
-into the vulgar tongue, some by kynges of the realme, some by bishoppes,
-some by abbotts, some by other deuout godly fathers: so desirous they were
-of olde tyme to have the lay sort edified in godlynes by reading in their
-vulgar tongue, that very many bookes be yet extant, though for the age of
-the speache and straungenesse of the charect of many of them almost worne
-out of knowledge. In whiche bookes may be seene euidently howe it was vsed
-among the Saxons, to haue in their churches read the foure gospels, so
-distributed and piked out in the body of the euangelistes bookes, that to
-euery Sunday and festiuall day in the yere, they were sorted out to the
-common ministers of the church in their common prayers to be read to their
-people. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Now as of the most auncient fathers the
-prophets, Saint Peter testifieth that these holy men of God had the
-impulsion of the holy Ghost, to speak out these deuine testimonies: so it
-is not to be doubted but that these latter holy fathers of the Englishe
-Church, had the impulsion of the holy Ghost to set out these sacred bookes
-in their vulgar language, to the edification of the people, [Sidenote:
-Acts xvii.] by the helpe whereof they might the better folowe the example
-of the godly Christians, in the beginning of the Churche, who not only
-receaued the worde withall readinesse of heart, but also did searche
-diligently in the scriptures, whether the doctrine of the Apostles were
-agreable to the same scripture. And these were not of the rascall sort
-(saith the deuine storie) but they were of the best and of most noble
-byrth among the Thessalonians, Birrhenses by name. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.]
-Yea the prophetes them selues in their dayes, writeth S. Peter, were
-diligent searchers to inquire out this saluation by Christe, searching
-when and at what article of time this grace of Christes dispensation
-shoulde appeare to the world. What ment the fathers of the Church in their
-writinges, but the advauncing of these holy bookes, where some do
-attribute no certaintie of vndoubted veritie, but to the canonicall
-scriptures: [Sidenote: _Aug. contra epistolam permemini Hieronimus
-Tertullian de doctrina Christiana Chrisost in Matt._ Ho. 47. _Basilius
-Hieronim._] Some do affirm it to be a foolishe rashe boldnesse to beleue
-hym, who proueth not by the scriptures that whiche he affirmeth in his
-worde. Some do accurse all that is deliuered by tradition, not found in
-the legall and evangelicall scriptures. Some say that our fayth must
-needes stagger, if it be not grounded vpon the aucthoritie of the
-scripture. Some testifieth that Christe and his Churche ought to be
-aduouched out of the scriptures, and do contende in disputation, that the
-true Church can not be knowen, but only by the holy scriptures: For all
-other thinges (saith the same aucthor) may be found among the heretikes.
-Some affirme it to be a sinfull tradition that is obtruded without the
-scripture. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Some playnely pronounce, that not to
-knowe the scriptures is not to know Christe. Wherefore let men extoll out
-the Churche practises as hyghly as they can, and let them set out their
-traditions and customes, their decisions in synodes and counsayles, with
-vaunting the presence of the holy Ghost among them really, as some doth
-affirme it in their writing, let their groundes and their demonstrations,
-their foundations be as stable and as strong as they blase them out:
-[Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Yet wyll we be bolde to say with Saint Peter,
-Habemus nos firmiorem sermonem propheticum. We have for our part a more
-stable grounde, the propheticall wordes (of the scriptures) and doubt not
-to be commended therefore of the same Saint Peter with these wordes: Cui
-dum attenditis ceu lucerne apparenti in obscuro loco, recte facitis donec
-dies illucescat &c. Wherevnto saith he, whyle ye do attende as to alight
-shining in a darke place, ye do well vntill the day light appeare, and
-till the bright starre do arise vnto our heartes, For this we know, that
-al the propheticall scripture standeth not in any priuate interpretation
-of vayne names, of severall Churches, of catholique vniuersall seas, of
-singuler and wylfull heades, whiche wyll chalenge custome all decision to
-pertayne to them only, who be working so muche for their vayne
-superioritie, that they be not ashamed now to be of that number,
-[Sidenote: Psal. xi.] Qui dixerunt linguam nostram magnificabimus, labia
-nostra a nobis sunt, quis noster dominus est: Which haue sayd with our
-tongue wyll we preuayle, we are they that ought to speake, who is Lord
-ouer vs. And whyle they shall contende for their straunge claymed
-aucthoritie, we will proceede in the reformation begun, and doubt no more
-by the helpe of Christe his grace, of the true vnity to Christes
-catholique Churche, [Sidenote: _Concilium braccar secundum._] and of the
-vprightnesse of our fayth in this prouince, then the Spanishe cleargie
-once gathered together in counsaile (only by the commaundement of their
-king, before whiche tyme the Pope was not so acknowledged in his
-aucthoritie which he now claymeth) I say as surely dare we trust, as they
-dyd trust of their faith and veritie. Yea no lesse confidence haue we to
-professe that, whiche the fathers of the vniuersall counsaile at Carthage
-in Affrike as they wryte them selfe did professe in their epistle written
-to Pope Celestine, laying before his face the foule corruption of him
-selfe (as two other of his predecessors did the like errour) in
-falsifiying the canons of Nicen counsayle, for his wrong chalenge of his
-newe claymed aucthoritie: Thus wrytyng. Prudentissime enim iustissimeque
-prouiderunt (Nicena et Affricana dicreta) quecunque negotia in suis locis
-(vbi orta sunt) finienda, nec vnicuiqui prouinciæ gratiam sancti spiritus
-defuturam qua equitas a Christi sacerdotibus et prudenter videatur, et
-constantissime teneatur, maxime quia vnicuique concessum est, si iuditio
-offensus fuerit cognitorum, ad concilia suae prouinciæ vel etiam
-vniuersale prouocare. That (the Nicen and Affrican decrees) haue most
-prudently and iustly prouided for all maner of matters to be ended in
-their teritories where they had their beginning, and they trusted that not
-to any one prouince shoulde want the grace of the holy Ghost, whereby both
-the truth or equitie might prudently be seene of the Christian prelates of
-Christe, and might be also by them most constantly defended, specially for
-that it is graunted to euery man (if he be greeued) by the iudgement of
-the cause once knowen to appeale to the counsayles of his owne prouince or
-els to the vniuersall. Except there be any man, whiche may beleue that our
-Lorde God woulde inspire the righteousnesse of examination, to any one
-singular person, and to denie the same to priestes gathered together into
-counsaile without number, &c. And there they do require the bishop of Rome
-to send none of his clarkes to execute such prouinciall causes, lest els
-say they, mought be brought in the vayne pride of the world into the
-Churche of Christe. In this antiquitie may we in this christian catholique
-Churche of Englande repose our selfe, knowyng by our owne annales of
-auncient recorde that Kyng Lucius whose conscience was much touched with
-the miracles whiche the seruauntes of Christe wrought in diuers nations,
-thervpon beyng in great loue with the true fayth, sent vnto Eleutherius
-then byshop of Rome requiring of hym the christian religion. [Sidenote:
-_Inter legis Edwardi._] But Eleutherius did redyly geue ouer that care to
-King Lucius in his epistle, for that the King as he wryteth, the vicar of
-God in his owne kingdome, and for that he had receiued the faith of
-Christe: And for that he had also both testamentes in his realme, he
-wylled hym to drawe out of them by the grace of God, and by the counsaile
-of his wisemen, his lawes, and by that lawe of God to gouerne his realme
-of Britanie, and not so much to desire the Romane and Emperour’s lawes, in
-the whiche some defaulte might be founde saith he, but in the lawes of God
-nothing at all. [Sidenote: _Ex archiuis de statio landauensis ecclie in
-vita archiepiscopi dubritii, et in I. capgraue._] With which aunswere the
-Kinges legates, Eluanus and Medwinus sent as messengers by the King to the
-Pope, returned to Britanie agayne, Eluanus beyng made a byshop, and
-Medwine alowed a publique teacher: who for the eloquence and knowledge
-they had in the holy Scriptures, they repayred home agayne to Kyng Lucius,
-and by their holy preachings, Lucius and the noble men of the whole
-Britanie receiued their baptisme, &c. Thus farre in the storie. Nowe
-therefore knowing and beleuing with Saint Paul, Quod quecumque prescripta
-sunt, ad nostram doctrinam prescripta sunt vt per pacientiam et
-consolationem scripturarum spem habeamus: [Sidenote: Rom. xv.] Whatsoeuer
-is afore written, is written before for our instruction, [Sidenote: =And
-yet may it be true that W., of Malsberie, writeth that Phaganus and
-Dernuianus were sent after (as Coadiutours) with these learned men to the
-preaching of the Gospell, whiche was neuer extinguished in Britaine frō
-Joseph of Aramathia his time as to S. Austen, the first byshop of Canter,
-they do openly abouche.=] that we through the patience and comfort of
-scriptures might haue hope, the only suretie to our fayth and conscience,
-is to sticke to the scriptures. Wherevpon whyle this eternall worde of God
-be our rocke and anker to sticke vnto, we will haue pacience with all the
-vayne inuentions of men, who labour so highly to magnifie their tongues,
-to exalt them selues aboue al that is God. We wil take comfort by the holy
-scriptures against the maledictions of the aduersaries, and doubt not to
-nourishe our hope continually therewith so to liue and dye in this
-comfortable hope, and doubt not to pertayne to the elect number of
-Christes Churche, howe farre soeuer we be excommunicated out of the
-sinagogue of suche who suppose themselues to be the vniuersall lordes of
-all the world, Lordes of our fayth and consciences, at pleasure.
-
-Finally to commend further vnto thee good reader the cause in part before
-intreated, it shalbe the lesse needefull, hauing so nye folowing that
-learned preface, which sometime was set out by the diligence of that godly
-father Thomas Cranmer, late byshop in the sea of Canterburie, which he
-caused to be prefixed before the translation of that Byble that was then
-set out. And for that the copies thereof be so wasted, that very many
-Churches do want their conuenient Bybles, it was thought good to some well
-disposed men, to recognise the same Byble againe into this fourme as it is
-nowe come out, with some further diligence in the printing, and with some
-more light added, partly in the translation, and partly in the order of
-the text, not as condemning the former translation, whiche was folowed
-mostly of any other translation, excepting the originall text from whiche
-as litle variaunce was made as was thought meete to such as toke paynes
-therein: desiring thee good reader if ought be escaped, eyther by such as
-had the expending of the bookes, or by the ouersight of the printer, to
-correct the same in the spirite of charitie, calling to remembraunce what
-diuersitie hath ben seene in mens iudgementes in the translation of these
-bookes before these dayes, though all directed their labours to the glory
-of God, to the edification of the Churche, to the comfort of their
-christian brethren, and alwayes as God dyd further open vnto them, so euer
-more desirous they were to refourme their former humain ouersightes,
-rather then in a stubborne wylfulnesse to resist the gyft of the holy
-Ghost, who from tyme to tyme is resident as that heauenly teacher and
-leader into all trueth, by whose direction the Churche is ruled and
-gouerned. And let all men remember in them selfe howe errour and
-ignoraunce is created with our nature; [Sidenote: Eccle. xi. Sapi. ix.]
-let frayle man confesse with that great wise man, that the cogitations and
-inuentions of mortall man be very weake, and our opinions sone deceaued:
-For the body so subiect to corruption doth oppresse the soule, that it
-cannot aspire so hye as of dutie it ought. Men we be all, and that whiche
-we know, is not the thousand part of that we knowe not. Whereupon saith
-Saint Austen, otherwyse to iudge then the truth is, this temptation ryseth
-of the frailtie of man. [Sidenote: _De doctri Christia._] A man so to loue
-and sticke to his owne iudgement, or to enuie his brothers to the perill
-of dissoluing the christian communion, or to the perill of schisme, and of
-heresie, this is diabolicall presumption: but so to iudge in euery matter
-as the truth is, this belongeth onely to the angellicall perfection.
-Notwithstanding good reader, thou mayest be well assured nothing to be
-done in this translation eyther of malice or wylfull meaning in altering
-the text, eyther by putting more or lesse to the same, as of purpose to
-bring in any priuate iudgement by falsification of the wordes, as some
-certaine men hath ben ouer bold so to do, litle regarding the maiestie of
-God his scripture: but so to make it serue to their corrupt error, as in
-alleaging the sentence of Saint Paule to the Romaines the 6. One certaine
-wryter to proue his satisfaction, was bold to turne the worde of
-_Sanctificationem_ into the worde of _Satisfactionem_, thus, _Sicut
-exhibuimus antea membra nostra seruire immundicie et iniquitati ad
-iniquitatem ita deinceps exhibeamus membra nostra seruire iustitiae in
-satisfactionem_. [Sidenote: _Hosius in confessione catholicæ fidi de sacrō
-penitentiæ Idem Hosius de spe. et oratione._] That is, as we have geuen
-our members to vncleannesse, from iniquitie to iniquitie: euen so from
-hencefoorth let vs geue our members to serue righteousnesse into
-satisfaction: where the true worde is into sanctification. Even so
-likewise for the auauntage of his cause, to proue that men may haue in
-their prayer fayth vpon saintes, corruptly alleageth Saint Paules text, Ad
-philemonem, thus, _Fidem quam habes in domino Iesu et in omnes sanctos_,
-leauing out the worde _charitatem_, which would have rightly ben
-distributed vnto _Omnes sanctos_. As _fidem_ vnto _in domino Iesu_. Where
-the text is _Audiens charitatem tuam et fidem quam habes in domino Iesu in
-omnes sanctos_, &c. It were to long to bryng in many examples, as may be
-openly founde in some mens wrytynges in these dayes, who would be counted
-the chiefe pillers of the Catholique fayth, or to note how corruptly they
-of purpose abuse the text to the comoditie of their cause. What maner of
-translation may men thinke to looke for at their handes, if they should
-translate the scriptures to the comfort of God’s elect, whiche they neuer
-did, nor be not like to purpose it, but be rather studious only to seeke
-quarrels in other mens well doynges, to picke fault where none is: and
-where any is escaped through humaine negligence, there to crye out with
-their tragicall exclamations, but in no wyse to amende by the spirite of
-charitie and lenitie, that whiche might be more aptly set. Whervpon for
-frayle man (compassed hym selfe with infirmitie) it is most reasonable not
-to be to seuere in condemning his brothers knowledge or diligence where he
-doth erre, not of malice, but of simplicitie, and specially in handeling
-of these so deuine bookes so profounde in sense, so farre passing our
-naturall vnderstanding. And with charitie it standeth, the reader not to
-be offended with the diuersitie of translators, nor with the ambiguitie of
-translations: For as Saint Austen doth witnesse, [Sidenote: _De doctr.
-Christi. lib. 2. cap. 5._] by God’s prouidence it is brought about, that
-the holy scriptures whiche be the salue for euery mans sore, though at the
-first they came from one language, and thereby might have ben spread to
-the whole worlde: nowe by diuersitie of manye languages, the translatours
-shoulde spreade the saluation (that is contayned in them) to all nations,
-by suche wordes of vtteraunce as the reader might perceaue the minde of
-the translatour, and so consequently to come to the knowledge of God his
-wyll and pleasure. And though many rashe readers be deceaued in the
-obscurities and ambiguities of their translations, whyle they take one
-thing for another, and whyle they vse muche labour to extricate them
-selues out of the obscurities of the same: yet I thinke (saith he) this is
-not wrought without the prouidence of God, both to tame the proude
-arrogancie of man by his suche labour of searching, as also to kepe his
-minde from lothsomnesse and contempt, where if the scriptures vniuersally
-were to easie, he woulde lesse regarde them. And though (saith he) in the
-primitive Churche the late interpreters whiche did translate the
-scriptures, be innumerable, yet wrought this rather an helpe, than an
-impediment to the readers, if they be not to negligent. For saith he,
-diuers translations haue made many tymes the harder and darker sentences,
-the more open and playne: so that of congruence, no offence can iustly be
-taken for this newe labour, nothing preiudicing any other mans iudgement
-by this doyng, nor yet hereby professing this to be so absolute a
-translation, as that hereafter might folowe no other that might see that
-whiche as yet was not vnderstanded. In this poynt it is conuenient to
-consider the iudgement that John, once byshop of Rochester was in, who
-thus wrote: [Sidenote: _Articulo, 17, contra Luth._] It is not vnknowen,
-but that many thinges hath ben more diligently discussed, and more
-clearely vnderstanded by the wittes of these latter dayes, as well
-concerning the gospels as other scriptures, then in olde tyme they were.
-The cause whereof is (saith he) for that to the olde men the yse was not
-broken, or for that their age was not sufficient exquisitely to expende
-the whole mayne sea of the scriptures, or els for that in this large field
-of the scriptures, a man may gather some eares vntouched, after the
-haruest men howe diligent soeuer they were. For there be yet (saith he) in
-the Gospels very many darke places, whiche without all doubt to the
-posteritie shalbe made muche more open. For why should we despayre herein,
-seing the Gospell (wryteth he) was deliuered to this intent, that it might
-be vtterly vnderstanded of vs, yea to the very inche. Wherefore, forasmuch
-as Christe showeth no lesse loue to his Churche now, then hitherto he hath
-done, the aucthoritie wherof is as yet no whit diminished, and forasmuch
-as that holy spirite the perpetuall Keper and Gardian of the same Church,
-whose gyftes and graces do flowe as continually and as aboundantly as from
-the beginning: who can doubt, but that such thinges as remayne yet
-unknowen in the Gospell, shalbe hereafter made open to the latter wittes
-of our posteritie, to their cleare vnderstanding. Only good readers let vs
-oft call vpon the holy spirite of God our heauenly father, by the
-mediation of our Lorde and Sauiour, with the wordes of the octonary psalme
-of Dauid, who did so importunately craue of God to haue the vnderstanding
-of his lawes and testament: [Sidenote: Psal. cxix.] Let vs humblye on our
-knees pray to almightie God, with that wyse [Sidenote: Sapi. ix.] Kyng
-Solomon in his very wordes saying thus--O God of my fathers, and Lorde of
-mercies (that thou hast made all thynges with thy worde, and didst ordain
-man through thy wisdome, that he shoulde haue dominion ouer thy creatures
-whiche thou hast made, and that he shoulde order the worlde according to
-holinesse and righteousnesse, and that he shoulde execute iudgement with a
-true heart) geue me wisdome whiche is euer about thy feate, and put me not
-out from among thy chyldren: For I thy seruant and sonne of thy handmayden
-am a feeble person, of a short time, and to weake to the vnderstanding of
-thy iudgementes and lawes. And though a man be neuer so perfect among the
-children of men, yet if thy wisdome be not with him, he shalbe of no
-value. O sende her out therefore from thy holy heauens, and from the
-throne of thy maiestie, that she may be with me, and labour with me, that
-I may know what is acceptable in thy sight: for she knoweth and
-vnderstandeth all thinges, and she shall lead me soberly in my workes, and
-preserue me in her power, So shall my workes be acceptable by Christe our
-Lorde, To whom with the father and the holy Ghost, be all honour and
-glorie, worlde without ende. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(F.)
-
-_THE PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611._
-
-
-[Sidenote: The best things have been calumniated.] Zeal to promote the
-common good, whether it be by devising any thing ourselves, or revising
-that which hath been laboured by others, deserveth certainly much respect
-and esteem, but yet findeth but cold entertainment in the world. It is
-welcomed with suspicion instead of love, and with emulation instead of
-thanks: and if there be any hole left for cavil to enter, (and cavil, if
-it do not find an hole, will make one) it is sure to be misconstrued, and
-in danger to be condemned. This will easily be granted by as many as know
-story, or have any experience. For was there ever any thing projected that
-savoured any way of newness or renewing, but the same endured many a storm
-of gainsaying or opposition? A man would think that civility, wholesome
-laws, learning and eloquence, Synods, and Churchmaintenance, (that we
-speak of no more things of this kind,) should be as safe as a Sanctuary,
-and[144] out of shot, as they say, that no man would lift up his heel, no,
-nor dog move his tongue against the motioners of them. For by the first we
-are distinguished from brute beasts led with sensuality: by the second we
-are bridled and restrained from outrageous behaviour, and from doing of
-injuries, whether by fraud or by violence: by the third we are enabled to
-inform and reform others by the light and feeling that we have attained
-unto ourselves: briefly, by the fourth, being brought together to a
-parley face to face, we sooner compose our differences, than by writings,
-which are endless: and lastly, that the Church be sufficiently provided
-for is so agreeable to good reason and conscience, that those mothers are
-holden to be less cruel, that kill their children as soon as they are
-born, than those nursing fathers and mothers (wheresoever they be) that
-withdraw from them who hang upon their breasts (and upon whose breasts
-again themselves do hang to receive the spiritual and sincere milk of the
-word) livelihood and support fit for their estates. Thus it is apparent,
-that these things which we speak of are of most necessary use, and
-therefore that none, either without absurdity can speak against them, or
-without note of wickedness can spurn against them.
-
-[Sidenote: _Anacharsis, with others._] Yet for all that, the learned know,
-that certain worthy men have been brought to untimely death for none other
-fault, but for seeking to reduce their countrymen to good order and
-discipline: [Sidenote: _In Athens: witness Libanius in Olynth. Demosth.
-Cato the elder._] And that in some Commonweals it was made a capital
-crime, once to motion the making of a new law for the abrogating of an
-old, though the same were most pernicious: And that certain, which would
-be counted pillars of the State, and patterns of virtue and prudence,
-could not be brought for a long time to give way to good letters and
-refined speech; but bare themselves as averse from them, as from rocks or
-boxes of poison: And fourthly, that he was no babe, but a great Clerk,
-[Sidenote: _Gregory the Divine._] that gave forth (and in writing to
-remain to posterity), in passion peradventure, but yet he gave forth, That
-he had not seen any profit to come by any synod or meeting of the Clergy,
-but rather the contrary: And lastly, against Churchmaintenance and
-allowance, in such sort as the Embassadors and messengers of the great
-King of kings should be furnished, it is not unknown what a fiction or
-fable (so it is esteemed, and for no better by the reporter himself,
-though superstitious) was devised: namely, [Sidenote: _Nauclerus._] That
-at such time as the professors and teachers of Christianity in the Church
-of Rome, then a true Church, were liberally endowed, a voice forsooth was
-heard from heaven, saying, Now is poison poured down into the Church, &c.
-Thus not only as oft as we speak, as one saith, but also as oft as we do
-any thing of note or consequence, we subject ourselves to every one’s
-censure, and happy is he that is least tossed upon tongues; for utterly to
-escape the snatch of them it is impossible. If any man conceit, that this
-is the lot and portion of the meaner sort only, and that Princes are
-privileged by their high estate, he is deceived. [Sidenote: 2 Sam. 11.
-25.] As _the sword devoureth as well one as another_, as it is in
-_Samuel_; nay, as the great commander charged his soldiers in a certain
-battle to strike at no part of the enemy, but at the face; [Sidenote: 1
-Kin. 22. 31.] and as the king of _Syria_ commanded his chief captains _to
-fight neither with small nor great, save only against the king of Israel_:
-so it is too true, that envy striketh most spitefully at the fairest, and
-the chiefest. _David_ was a worthy prince, and no man to be compared to
-him for his first deeds; and yet for as worthy an act as ever he did, even
-for bringing back the ark of God in solemnity, he was scorned and scoffed
-at by his own wife. [Sidenote: 2 Sam. 6. 16.] _Solomon_ was greater than
-_David_, though not in virtue, yet in power; and by his power and wisdom
-he built a temple to the Lord, such an one as was the glory of the land of
-Israel, and the wonder of the whole world. But was that his magnificence
-liked of by all? We doubt of it. Otherwise why do they lay it in his son’s
-dish, and call unto him for[145] easing of the burden? _Make_, say they,
-_the grievous servitude of thy father, and his sore yoke, lighter_.
-[Sidenote: 1 Kin. 12. 4.] Belike he had charged them with some levies, and
-troubled them with some carriages; hereupon they raise up a tragedy, and
-wish in their heart the temple had never been built. So hard a thing it is
-to please all, even when we please God best, and do seek to approve
-ourselves to every one’s conscience.
-
-[Sidenote: The highest personages have been calumniated _C. Cæsar.
-Plutarch_.] If we will descend to latter times, we shall find many the
-like examples of such kind, or rather unkind, acceptance. The first Roman
-Emperor did never do a more pleasing deed to the learned, nor more
-profitable to posterity, for conserving the record of times in true
-supputation, than when he corrected the Calendar, and ordered the year
-according to the course of the sun: and yet this was imputed to him for
-novelty, and arrogancy, and procured to him great obloquy. [Sidenote:
-_Constantine._] So the first Christened Emperor (at the least wise, that
-openly professed the faith himself, and allowed others to do the like,)
-for strengthening the empire at his great charges, and providing for the
-Church, as he did, got for his labour the name _Pupillus_, as who would
-say, a wasteful Prince, that had need of a guardian or overseer.
-[Sidenote: _Aurel. Vict. Theodosius. Zosimus._] So the best Christened
-Emperor, for the love that he bare unto peace, thereby to enrich both
-himself and his subjects, and because he did not seek war, but find it,
-was judged to be no man at arms, (though indeed he excelled in feats of
-chivalry, and shewed so much when he was provoked,) and condemned for
-giving himself to his ease, and to his pleasure. [Sidenote: _Justinian._]
-To be short, the most learned Emperor of former times, (at the least the
-greatest politician,) what thanks had he for cutting off the superfluities
-of the laws, and digesting them into some order and method? This, that he
-hath been blotted by some to be an Epitomist, that is, one that
-extinguished worthy whole volumes, to bring his abridgements into request.
-This is the measure that hath been rendered to excellent Princes in former
-times, _cum bene facerent, male audire_, for their good deeds to be evil
-spoken of. Neither is there any likelihood that envy and malignity died
-and were buried with the ancient. No, no, the reproof of _Moses_ taketh
-hold of most ages, [Sidenote: Num. 32. 14. Eccles. 1. 9.] _You are risen
-up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men. What is that that
-hath been done? that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
-the sun_, saith the wise man. And St. _Stephen_, _As your fathers did, so
-do ye_. [Sidenote: Acts 7. 51. His Majesty’s constancy, notwithstanding
-calumniation, for the survey of the English translation. Αὐτὸς καὶ παῖδες,
-καὶ παίδων πάντοτε παῖδες.] This, and more to this purpose, his Majesty
-that now reigneth (and long, and long, may he reign, and his offspring for
-ever, _Himself, and children, and children’s children always_!) knew full
-well, according to the singular wisdom given unto him by God, and the rare
-learning and experience that he hath attained unto; namely, That whosoever
-attempteth any thing for the publick, (especially if it pertain to
-religion, and to the opening and clearing of the word of God,) the same
-setteth himself upon a stage to be glouted upon by every evil eye; yea, he
-casteth himself headlong upon pikes, to be gored by every sharp tongue.
-For he that meddleth with men’s religion in any part meddleth with their
-custom, nay, with their freehold; and though they find no content in that
-which they have, yet they cannot abide to hear of altering.
-Notwithstanding his royal heart was not daunted or discouraged for this or
-that colour, but stood resolute, _as a statue immovable, and an anvil not
-easy to be beaten into plates_, as one saith; [Sidenote: Ὣσπερ τις ἀνδρὰς
-ἀπερίτρεπτος] he knew who had chosen him to be a soldier, or rather a
-captain; and [Sidenote: καὶ ἄκμων ἀνήλατος, _Suidas_.] being assured that
-the course which he intended made much for the glory of God, and the
-building up of his Church, he would not suffer it to be broken off for
-whatsoever speeches or practices. It doth certainly belong unto kings,
-yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to have care of religion, yea, to
-know it aright, yea, to profess it zealously, yea, to promote it to the
-uttermost of their power. This is their glory before all nations which
-mean well, and this will bring unto them a far most excellent weight of
-glory in the day of the Lord Jesus. For the Scripture saith not in vain,
-[Sidenote: 1 Sam. 2. 30.] _Them that honour me I will honour_: neither was
-it a vain word that _Eusebius_ delivered long ago, [Sidenote: θεοσέβεια,
-_Eusebius, lib. 10. cap. 8_.] That piety toward God was the weapon, and
-the only weapon, that both preserved _Constantine’s_ person, and avenged
-him of his enemies.
-
-[Sidenote: The praise of the holy Scriptures.] But now what piety without
-truth? What truth, what saving truth, without the word of God? What word
-of God, whereof we may be sure, without the Scripture? The Scriptures we
-are commanded to search, _John_ v. 39. _Isaiah_ viii. 20. They are
-commended that searched and studied them, _Acts_ xvii. 11, and viii. 28,
-29. They are reproved that were unskilful in them, or slow to believe
-them, _Matth._ xxii. 29. _Luke_ xxiv. 25. They can make us wise unto
-salvation, _2 Tim._ iii. 15. If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if
-out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform
-us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us.
-[Sidenote: _St. August. Confess. lib. 8. cap. 12. St. August. De utilit.
-credendi, cap. 6._] _Tolle, lege; tolle, lege_; Take up and read, take up
-and read the Scriptures, (for unto them was the direction,) it was said
-unto St. _Augustine_ by a supernatural voice. _Whatsoever is in the
-Scriptures, believe me_, saith the same St. _Augustine_, _is high and
-divine; there is verily truth, and a doctrine most fit for the refreshing
-and renewing of men’s minds, and truly so tempered, that every one may
-draw from thence that which is sufficient for him, if he come to draw with
-a devout and pious mind, as true religion requireth_. Thus St.
-_Augustine_. And St. _Hierome_, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. ad Demetriad. St.
-Cyrill 7 contra Julian._] _Ama Scripturas, et amabit te sapientia_, &c.
-Love the Scriptures, and wisdom will love thee. And St. _Cyrill_ against
-_Julian_, _Even boys that are bred up in the Scriptures become most
-religious_, &c. But what mention we three or four uses of the Scripture,
-whereas whatsoever is to be believed, or practised, or hoped for, is
-contained in them? or three or four sentences of the Fathers, since
-whosoever is worthy the name of a Father, from Christ’s time downward,
-hath likewise written not only of the riches, but also of the perfection
-of the Scripture? [Sidenote: _Tertul. advers. Herm. Tertul. De carn.
-Christ._ Οἷόν τε, _Justin_. προτρεπτ. πρὸς Ἕλλην. Ὑπερηφανίας κατηγορία,
-_St. Basil_. περὶ πίστεως.] _I adore the fulness of the Scripture_, saith
-_Tertullian_ against _Hermogenes_. And again, to _Apelles_ an heretick of
-the like stamp he saith, _I do not admit that which thou bringest in_ (or
-concludest) _of thine own_ (head or store, _de tuo_) without Scripture. So
-St. _Justin Martyr_ before him; _We must know by all means_ (saith he)
-_that it is not lawful_ (or possible) _to learn_ (any thing) _of God or of
-right piety, save only out of the Prophets, who teach us by divine
-inspiration_. So St. _Basil_ after _Tertullian_, _It is a manifest falling
-away from the faith, and a fault of presumption, either to reject any of
-those things that are written, or to bring in_ (upon the head of them,
-ἐπεισαγεῖν) _any of those things that are not written_. We omit to cite to
-the same effect St. _Cyrill_ Bishop of _Jerusalem_ in his 4. _Catech._ St.
-_Hierome_ against _Helvidius_, St. _Augustine_ in his third book against
-the letters of _Petilian_, and in very many other places of his works.
-Also we forbear to descend to later Fathers, because we will not weary
-the reader. The Scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so
-perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study
-them? of curiosity, if we be not content with them? [Sidenote: Εἰρεσιώνη
-σῦκα φέρει, καὶ πίονας ἄρτους, καὶ μελι ἐν κοτύλῃ, καὶ ἔλαιον, &c. An
-olive bough wrapped about with wool, whereupon did hang figs, and bread,
-and honey in a pot, and oil.] Men talk much of εἰρεσιώνη, how many sweet
-and goodly things it had hanging on it; of the Philosopher’s stone, that
-it turneth copper into gold; of _Cornu-copia_, that it had all things
-necessary for food in it; of _Panaces_, the herb, that it was good for all
-diseases; of _Catholicon_ the drug, that it is instead of all purges; of
-_Vulcan’s_ armour, that it was an armour of proof against all thrusts and
-all blows, &c. Well, that which they falsely or vainly attributed to these
-things for bodily good, we may justly and with full measure ascribe unto
-the Scripture for spiritual. It is not only an armour, but also a whole
-armoury of weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save
-ourselves, and put the enemy to flight. It is not an herb, but a tree, or
-rather a whole paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every
-month, and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine. It
-is not a pot of _Manna_, or a cruse of oil, which were for memory only, or
-for a meal’s meat or two; but, as it were, a shower of heavenly bread
-sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great, and, as it were, a
-whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be
-provided for, and our debts discharged. In a word, it is a panary of
-wholesome food against fenowed traditions; [Sidenote: Κοινὸν ἰατρεῖον,
-_St. Basil in Psal. primum._] a physician’s shop (as St. _Basil_ calls it)
-of preservatives against poisoned heresies; a pandect of profitable laws
-against rebellious spirits; a treasury of most costly jewels against
-beggarly rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water springing up
-unto everlasting life. And what marvel? the original thereof being from
-heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the inditer, the
-Holy Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the penmen, such as
-were sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal portion of
-God’s Spirit; the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness; the form,
-God’s word, God’s testimony, God’s oracles, the word of truth, the word of
-salvation, &c.; the effects, light of understanding, stableness of
-persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life, holiness, peace,
-joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of the study thereof,
-fellowship with the saints, participation of the heavenly nature, fruition
-of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that never shall fade away.
-Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and thrice happy that
-meditateth in it day and night.
-
-[Sidenote: Translation necessary.] But how shall men meditate in that
-which they cannot understand? How shall they understand that which is kept
-close in an unknown tongue? as it is written, [Sidenote: 1 Cor. 14. 11.]
-_Except I know the power of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a
-barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian to me_. The Apostle
-excepteth no tongue; not _Hebrew_ the ancientest, not _Greek_ the most
-copious, not _Latin_ the finest. Nature taught a natural man to confess,
-that all of us in those tongues which we do not understand are plainly
-deaf; we may turn the deaf ear unto them. [Sidenote: _Clem. Alex. 1 Strom.
-St. Hieronym. Damaso. Michael, Theophili fil. 2 Tom. Concil. ex edit.
-Petri Crab._] The _Scythian_ counted the _Athenian_, whom he did not
-understand, barbarous: so the _Roman_ did the _Syrian_, and the _Jew_:
-(even St. _Hierome_ himself calleth the _Hebrew_ tongue barbarous; belike,
-because it was strange to so many:) so the Emperor of _Constantinople_
-calleth the _Latin_ tongue barbarous, though Pope _Nicolas_ do storm at
-it: [Sidenote: _Cicero 5. De Finibus._] so the _Jews_ long before _Christ_
-called all other nations _Lognasim_, which is little better than
-barbarous. Therefore as one complaineth that always in the Senate of
-_Rome_ there was one or other that called for an interpreter; so lest the
-Church be driven to the like exigent, it is necessary to have translations
-in a readiness. Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the
-light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth
-aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that
-removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water; [Sidenote:
-Gen. 29. 10.] even as _Jacob_ rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-well, by which means the flocks of _Laban_ were watered. Indeed without
-translation into the vulgar tongue, [Sidenote: John 4. 11.] the unlearned
-are but like children at _Jacob’s_ well (which was deep) without a bucket
-or something to draw with: [Sidenote: Isai. 29. 11.] or as that person
-mentioned by _Esay_, to whom when a sealed book was delivered with this
-motion, _Read this, I pray thee_; he was fain to make this answer, _I
-cannot, for it is sealed_.
-
-[Sidenote: The translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew into
-Greek. _See St. August. lib. 12. contra Faust. cap. 32._] While God would
-be known only in _Jacob_, and have his name great in _Israel_, and in none
-other place; while the dew lay on _Gideon’s_ fleece only, and all the
-earth besides was dry; then for one and the same people, which spake all
-of them the language of _Canaan_, that is, _Hebrew_, one and the same
-original in _Hebrew_ was sufficient. But when the fulness of time drew
-near, that the Sun of righteousness, the Son of God, should come into the
-world, whom God ordained to be a reconciliation through faith in his
-blood, not of the _Jew_ only, but also of the _Greek_, yea, of all them
-that were scattered abroad; then, lo, it pleased the Lord to stir up the
-spirit of a _Greek_ prince, (_Greek_ for descent and language,) even of
-_Ptolemy Philadelph_ king of _Egypt_, to procure the translating of the
-book of God out of _Hebrew_ into _Greek_. This is the translation of the
-_Seventy_ interpreters, commonly so called, which prepared the way for our
-Saviour among the _Gentiles_ by written preaching, as St. _John Baptist_
-did among the _Jews_ by vocal. For the _Grecians_, being desirous of
-learning, were not wont to suffer books of worth to lie moulding in kings’
-libraries, but had many of their servants, ready scribes, to copy them
-out, and so they were dispersed and made common. Again the _Greek_ tongue
-was well known and made familiar to most inhabitants in _Asia_ by reason
-of the conquests that there the _Grecians_ had made, as also by the
-colonies which thither they had sent. For the same causes also it was well
-understood in many places of _Europe_, yea, and of _Africk_ too. Therefore
-the word of God, being set forth in _Greek_, becometh hereby like a candle
-set upon a candlestick, which giveth light to all that are in the house;
-or like a proclamation sounded forth in the market place, which most men
-presently take knowledge of; and therefore that language was fittest to
-contain the Scriptures, both for the first preachers of the Gospel to
-appeal unto for witness, and for the learners also of those times to make
-search and trial by. It is certain, that that translation was not so sound
-and so perfect, but that it needed in many places correction; and who had
-been so sufficient for this work as the Apostles or apostolick men? Yet it
-seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to take that which they found,
-(the same being for the greatest part true and sufficient,) rather than by
-making a new, in that new world and green age of the Church, to expose
-themselves to many exceptions and cavillations, as though they made a
-translation to serve their own turn; and therefore hearing witness to
-themselves, their witness not to be regarded. This may be supposed to be
-some cause, why the translation of the _Seventy_ was allowed to pass for
-current. Notwithstanding, though it was commended generally, yet it did
-not fully content the learned, no not of the _Jews_. For not long after
-_Christ_, _Aquila_ fell in hand with a new translation, and after him
-_Theodotion_, and after him _Symmachus_; yea, there was a fifth, and a
-sixth edition, the authors whereof were not known. These with the
-_Seventy_ made up the _Hexapla_, and were worthily and to great purpose
-compiled together by _Origen_. Howbeit the edition of the _Seventy_ went
-away with the credit, and therefore not only was placed in the midst by
-_Origen_, (for the worth and excellency thereof above the rest, as
-_Epiphanius_ gathereth,) [Sidenote: _Epiphan. De mensuris et ponderib. St.
-August. 2. De doctrin. Christian. c. 15. Novel. diatax. 146._] but also
-was used by the _Greek_ Fathers for the ground and foundation of their
-commentaries. Yea, _Epiphanius_ abovenamed doth attribute so much unto it,
-that he holdeth the authors thereof not only for interpreters, [Sidenote:
-Προφητικῆς ὥσπερ χάριτος περιλαξμψάσης αὐτους.] but also for prophets in
-some respect: and _Justinian_ the Emperor, injoining the _Jews_ his
-subjects to use especially the translation of the _Seventy_, rendereth
-this reason thereof, Because they were, as it were, enlightened with
-prophetical grace. [Sidenote: Isai. 31. 3.] Yet for all that, as the
-_Egyptians_ are said of the Prophet to be men and not God, and their
-horses flesh and not spirit: so it is evident, (and St. _Hierome_
-affirmeth as much,) [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. de optimo genere interpret._]
-that the _Seventy_ were interpreters, they were not prophets. They did
-many things well, as learned men; but yet as men they stumbled and fell,
-one while through oversight, another while through ignorance; yea,
-sometimes they may be noted to add to the original, and sometimes to take
-from it: which made the Apostles to leave them many times, when they left
-the _Hebrew_, and to deliver the sense thereof according to the truth of
-the word, as the Spirit gave them utterance. This may suffice touching the
-_Greek_ translations of the Old Testament.
-
-[Sidenote: Translation out of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.] There were
-also within a few hundred years after _Christ_ translations many into the
-_Latin_ tongue: for this tongue also was very fit to convey the Law and
-the Gospel by, because in those times very many countries of the West, yea
-of the South, East, and North, spake or understood _Latin_, being made
-provinces to the _Romans_. But now the _Latin_ translations were too many
-to be all good: for they were infinite; (_Latini interpretes nullo modo
-numerari possunt_, saith St. _Augustine_.) [Sidenote: _St. August. de
-doctrin. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 11._] Again, they were not out of the
-_Hebrew_ fountain, (we speak of the _Latin_ translations of the Old
-Testament,) but out of the _Greek_ stream; therefore the _Greek_ being not
-altogether clear, the _Latin_ derived from it must needs be muddy. This
-moved St. _Hierome_, a most learned Father, and the best linguist without
-controversy of his age, or of any other that went before him, to undertake
-the translating of the Old Testament out of the very fountains themselves;
-which he performed with that evidence of great learning, judgment,
-industry, and faithfulness, that he hath for ever bound the Church unto
-him in a debt of special remembrance and thankfulness.
-
-[Sidenote: The translating of the Scripture into the vulgar tongues.] Now
-though the Church were thus furnished with _Greek_ and _Latin_
-translations, even before the faith of _Christ_ was generally embraced in
-the Empire: (for the learned know, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. Marcell.
-Zosim._] that even in St. _Hierome’s_ time the Consul of _Rome_ and his
-wife were both Ethnicks, and about the same time the greatest part of the
-Senate also:) yet for all that the godly learned were not content to have
-the Scriptures in the language which themselves understood, [Sidenote: 2
-Kin. 7. 9.] _Greek_ and _Latin_, (as the good lepers were not content to
-fare well themselves, but acquainted their neighbours with the store that
-God had sent, that they also might provide for themselves;) but also for
-the behoof and edifying of the unlearned, which hungered and thirsted
-after righteousness, and had souls to be saved as well as they, they
-provided translations into the vulgar for their countrymen, insomuch that
-most nations under heaven did shortly after their conversion hear _Christ_
-speaking unto them in their mother tongue, not by the voice of their
-minister only, but also by the written word translated. If any doubt
-hereof, he may be satisfied by examples enough, if enough will serve the
-turn. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. Præf. in 4. Evangel._] First, St. _Hierome_
-saith, _Multarum gentium linguis Scriptura ante translata docet falsa esse
-quæ addita sunt_, &c.; that is, _The Scripture being translated before in
-the languages of many nations doth shew that those things that were added_
-(by _Lucian_ or _Hesychius_) _are false_. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron.
-Sophronio._] So St. _Hierome_ in that place. The same _Hierome_ elsewhere
-affirmeth that he, the time was, had set forth the translation of the
-_Seventy_, _suæ lingæ hominibus_; that is, for his countrymen of
-_Dalmatia_. Which words not only _Erasmus_ doth understand to purport,
-that St. _Hierome_ translated the Scripture into the _Dalmatian_ tongue;
-[Sidenote: _Six. Sen. lib. 4. Alphon. a Castro, lib. 1. cap. 23. St.
-Chrysost. in Joann. cap. 1. hom. 1._] but also _Sixtus Senensis_, and
-_Alphonsus a Castro_, (that we speak of no more,) men not to be excepted
-against by them of _Rome_, do ingenuously confess as much. So St.
-_Chrysostome_, that lived in St. _Hierome’s_ time, giveth evidence with
-him: _The doctrine of St. John_ (saith he) _did not in such sort_ (as the
-Philosophers’ did) _vanish away: but the Syrians, Egyptians, Indians,
-Persians, Ethiopians, and infinite other nations, being barbarous people,
-translated it into their (mother) tongue, and have learned, to be (true)
-Philosophers_, he meaneth Christians. [Sidenote: _Theodor. 5. Therapeut._]
-To this may be added _Theodoret_, as next unto him both for antiquity, and
-for learning. His words be these, _Every country that is under the sun is
-full of these words_, (of the Apostles and Prophets;) _and the Hebrew
-tongue_ (he meaneth the Scriptures in the _Hebrew_ tongue) _is turned not
-only into the language of the Grecians, but also of the Romans, and
-Egyptians, and Persians, and Indians, and Armenians, and Scythians, and
-Sauromatians, and, briefly, into all the languages that any nation useth_.
-[Sidenote: _P. Diacon. lib. 12. Isid. in Chron. Goth. Sozom. lib. 6. cap.
-57. Vasseus in Chro. Hisp. Polydor. Virg. 5. hist. Anglorum testatur idem
-de Aluredo nostro. Aventin. lib. 4._] So he. In like manner _Ulpilas_ is
-reported by _Paulus Diaconus_ and _Isidore_, and before them by _Sozomen_,
-to have translated the Scriptures into the _Gothick_ tongue: _John_ Bishop
-of _Sevil_ by _Vasseus_, to have turned them into _Arabick_ about the Year
-of our Lord 717: _Beda_ by _Cistertiensis_, to have turned a great part of
-them into _Saxon_: _Efnard_ by _Trithemius_, to have abridged the French
-Psalter (as _Beda_ had done the _Hebrew_) about the year 800: King
-_Alured_ by the said _Cistertiensis_, to have turned the Psalter into
-_Saxon_: _Methodius_ by _Aventinus_ (printed at _Ingolstad_) to have
-turned the Scriptures into _Sclavonian_: _Valdo_[146] Bishop of _Frising_
-by _Beatus Rhenanus_, to have caused about that time the Gospels to be
-translated into _Dutch_ rhyme, yet extant in the library of _Corbinian_:
-_Valdus_ by divers, to have turned them himself, or to have gotten them
-turned, into _French_, about the Year 1160: _Charles_ the Fifth of that
-name, surnamed _The wise_, to have caused them to be turned into _French_
-about 200 years after _Valdus’_ time; of which translation there be many
-copies yet extant, as witnesseth _Beroaldus_. [Sidenote: _Beroald.
-Thuan._] Much about that time, even in our King _Richard_ the Second’s
-days, _John Trevisa_ translated them into _English_, and many _English_
-Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen with divers; translated, as it
-is very probable, in that age. So the _Syrian_ translation of the New
-Testament is in most learned men’s libraries, of _Widminstadius’_ setting
-forth; and the Psalter in _Arabick_ is with many, of _Augustinus
-Nebiensis’_ setting forth. So _Postel_ affirmeth, that in his travel he
-saw the Gospels in the _Ethiopian_ tongue: And _Ambrose Thesius_ alledgeth
-the Psalter of the _Indians_, which he testifieth to have been set forth
-by _Potken_ in _Syrian_ characters. So that to have the Scriptures in the
-mother tongue is not a quaint conceit lately taken up, either by the Lord
-_Cromwell_ in _England_, or by the Lord _Radevile_ in _Polony_, or by the
-Lord _Ungnadius_ in the Emperor’s dominion, but hath been thought upon,
-and put in practice of old, even from the first times of the conversion of
-any nation; no doubt, because it was esteemed most profitable to cause
-faith to grow in men’s hearts the sooner, and to make them to be able to
-say with the words of the Psalm, [Sidenote: Psal. 48. 8.] _As we have
-heard, so we have seen_.
-
-[Sidenote: The unwillingness of our chief adversaries that the Scriptures
-should be divulged in the mother tongue, &c. Δῶρον ἄδωρον κουκ ὀνήσιμον
-_Sophocl._] Now the church of _Rome_ would seem at the length to bear a
-motherly affection toward her children, and to allow them the Scriptures
-in the mother tongue: but indeed it is a gift, not deserving to be called
-a gift, an unprofitable gift: they must first get a licence in writing
-before they may use them; and to get that, they must approve themselves to
-their Confessor, that is, to be such as are, if not frozen in the dregs,
-yet soured with the leaven of their superstition. Howbeit it seemed too
-much to _Clement_ the Eighth, that there should be any licence granted to
-have them in the vulgar tongue, and therefore he overruleth and
-frustrateth the grant of _Pius_ the Fourth. [Sidenote: See the
-observation (set forth by Clement’s authority) upon the 4th rule of _Pius_
-the 4th’s making in the _Index lib. prohib. pag. 15. ver. 5. Tertull. de
-resur. carnis._] So much are they afraid of the light of the Scripture,
-(_Lucifugæ Scripturarum_, as _Tertullian_ speaketh,) that they will not
-trust the people with it, no not as it is set forth by their own sworn
-men, no not with the licence of their own Bishops and Inquisitors. Yea, so
-unwilling they are to communicate the Scriptures to the people’s
-understanding in any sort, that they are not ashamed to confess, that we
-forced them to translate it into _English_ against their wills. This
-seemeth to argue a bad cause, or a bad conscience, or both. Sure we are,
-that it is not he that hath good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the
-touch-stone, but he that hath the counterfeit; [Sidenote: John 3. 20.]
-neither is it the true man that shunneth the light, but the malefactor,
-lest his deeds should be reproved; neither is it the plaindealing merchant
-that is unwilling to have the weights, or the meteyard, brought in place,
-but he that useth deceit. But we will let them alone for this fault, and
-return to translation.
-
-[Sidenote: The speeches and reasons both of our brethren, and of
-adversaries, against this work.] Many men’s mouths have been opened a good
-while (and yet are not stopped) with speeches about the translation so
-long in hand, or rather perusals of translations made before: and ask what
-may be the reason, what the necessity, of the employment. Hath the Church
-been deceived, say they, all this while? Hath her sweet bread been mingled
-with leaven, her silver with dross, her wine with water, her milk with
-lime? (_lacte gypsum male miscetur_, saith St. _Irenee_.) [Sidenote: _St.
-Iren. lib. 3. cap. 19._] We hoped that we had been in the right way, that
-we had had the Oracles of God delivered unto us, and that though all the
-world had cause to be offended, and to complain, yet that we had none.
-Hath the nurse holden out the breast, and nothing but wind in it? Hath
-the bread been delivered by the Fathers of the Church, and the same proved
-to be _lapidosus_, as _Seneca_ speaketh? What is it to handle the word of
-God deceitfully, if this be not? Thus certain brethren. Also the
-adversaries of _Judah_ and _Jerusalem_, [Sidenote: Neh. 4. 2, 3.] like
-_Sanballat_ in _Nehemiah_, mock, as we hear, both at the work and workmen,
-saying, _What do these weak Jews, &c., will they make the stones whole
-again out of the heaps of dust which are burnt? although they build, yet
-if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stony wall_. Was their
-translation good before? Why do they now mend it? Was it not good? Why
-then was it obtruded to the people? Yea, why did the Catholicks (meaning
-Popish _Romanists_) always go in jeopardy for refusing to go to hear it?
-Nay, if it must be translated into _English_, Catholicks are fittest to do
-it. They have learning, and they know when a thing is well, they can
-_manum de tabula_. We will answer them both briefly: [Sidenote: _St.
-Hieron. Apolog. advers. Ruffin._] and the former, being brethren, thus
-with St. _Hierome_, _Damnamus veteres? Minime, sed post priorum studia in
-domo Domini quod possumus laboramus._ That is, _Do we condemn the ancient?
-In no case: but after the endeavours of them that were before us, we take
-the best pains we can in the house of God._ As if he said, Being provoked
-by the example of the learned that lived before my time, I have thought it
-my duty to assay, whether my talent in the knowledge of the tongues may be
-profitable in any measure to God’s Church, lest I should seem to have
-laboured in them in vain, and lest I should be thought to glory in men
-(although ancient) above that which was in them. Thus St. _Hierome_ may be
-thought to speak.
-
-[Sidenote: A satisfaction to our brethren.] And to the same effect say we,
-that we are so far off from condemning any of their labours that
-travelled before us in this kind, either in this land, or beyond sea,
-either in King _Henry’s_ time, or King _Edward’s_, (if there were any
-translation, or correction of a translation, in his time,) or Queen
-_Elizabeth’s_ of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have
-been raised up of God for the building and furnishing of his Church, and
-that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting
-remembrance. The judgment of _Aristotle_ is worthy and well known:
-[Sidenote: _Arist. 2. Metaphys. cap. 1._] _If Timotheus had not been, we
-had not had much sweet musick: But if Phrynis_ (_Timotheus’_ master) _had
-not been, we had not had Timotheus_. Therefore blessed be they, and most
-honoured be their name, that break the ice, and give the onset upon that
-which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can be more
-available thereto, than to deliver God’s book unto God’s people in a
-tongue which they understand? Since of an hidden treasure, and of a
-fountain that is sealed, there is no profit, as _Ptolemy Philadelph_ wrote
-to the Rabbins or masters of the _Jews_, as witnesseth _Epiphanius_:
-[Sidenote: _St. Epiphan. loco ante citato. St. August. lib. 19. De civit.
-Dei, cap. 7._] and as St. _Augustine_ saith, _A man had rather be with his
-dog than with a stranger_ (whose tongue is strange unto him.) Yet for all
-that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, and the latter
-thoughts are thought to be the wiser: so, if we building upon their
-foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, do
-endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are
-sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we persuade ourselves, if they were
-alive, would thank us. The vintage of _Abiezer_, that strake the stroke:
-yet the gleaning of grapes of _Ephraim_ was not to be despised. See
-_Judges_ viii. 2. [Sidenote: 2 Kin. 13. 18, 19.] _Joash_ the king of
-_Israel_ did not satisfy himself till he had smitten the ground three
-times; and yet he offended the Prophet for giving over then. _Aquila_, of
-whom we spake before, translated the Bible as carefully and as skilfully
-as he could; and yet he thought good to go over it again, and then it got
-the credit with the _Jews_, to be called κατ’ ἀκρίβειαν, that is,
-accurately done, as St. _Hierome_ witnesseth. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. in
-Ezech. cap. 3._] How many books of profane learning have been gone over
-again and again, by the same translators, by others? Of one and the same
-book of _Aristotle’s_ Ethicks there are extant not so few as six or seven
-several translations. Now if this cost may be bestowed upon the gourd,
-which affordeth us a little shade, and which to day flourisheth, but to
-morrow is cut down; what may we bestow, nay, what ought we not to bestow,
-upon the vine, the fruit whereof maketh glad the conscience of man, and
-the stem whereof abideth for ever? And this is the word of God, which we
-translate. [Sidenote: Jer. 23. 28.] _What is the chaff to the wheat? saith
-the Lord. Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum!_ (saith _Tertullian_.)
-[Sidenote: _Tertull. ad Martyr. Si tanti vilissimum vitrum, quanti
-preciosissimum margaritum! Hier. ad Salvin._] If a toy of glass be of that
-reckoning with us, how ought we to value the true pearl! Therefore let no
-man’s eye be evil, because his Majesty’s is good; neither let any be
-grieved, that we have a Prince that seeketh the increase of the spiritual
-wealth of _Israel_; (let _Sanballats_ and _Tobiahs_ do so, which therefore
-do bear their just reproof;) but let us rather bless God from the ground
-of our heart for working this religious care in him to have the
-translations of the Bible maturely considered of and examined. For by this
-means it cometh to pass, that whatsoever is sound already, (and all is
-sound for substance in one or other of our editions, and the worst of ours
-far better than their authentick vulgar) the same will shine as gold more
-brightly, being rubbed and polished; also, if any thing be halting, or
-superfluous, or not so agreeable to the original, the same may be
-corrected, and the truth set in place. And what can the King command to be
-done, that will bring him more true honour than this? And wherein could
-they that have been set a work approve their duty to the King, yea, their
-obedience to God, and love to his Saints, more, than by yielding their
-service, and all that is within them, for the furnishing of the work? But
-besides all this, they were the principal motives of it, and therefore
-ought least to quarrel it. For the very historical truth is, that upon the
-importunate petitions of the Puritanes at his Majesty’s coming to this
-crown, the conference at _Hampton-court_ having been appointed for hearing
-their complaints, when by force of reason they were put from all other
-grounds, they had recourse at the last to this shift, that they could not
-with good conscience subscribe to the communion book, since it maintained
-the Bible as it was there translated, which was, as they said, a most
-corrupted translation. And although this was judged to be but a very poor
-and empty shift, yet even hereupon did his Majesty begin to bethink
-himself of the good that might ensue by a new translation, and presently
-after gave order for this translation which is now presented unto thee.
-Thus much to satisfy our scrupulous brethren.
-
-[Sidenote: An answer to the imputations of our adversaries.] Now to the
-latter we answer, That we do not deny, nay, we affirm and avow, that the
-very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our
-profession, (for we have seen none of their’s of the whole Bible as yet)
-containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God: As the King’s speech
-which he uttered in Parliament, being translated into _French_, _Dutch_,
-_Italian_, and _Latin_, is still the King’s speech, though it be not
-interpreted by every translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so
-fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense, every where. For it is
-confessed, that things are to take their denomination of the greater part;
-[Sidenote: _Horace._] and a natural man could say, _Verum ubi multa nitent
-in carmine, non ego paucis offendor maculis, &c._ A man may be counted a
-virtuous man, though he have made many slips in his life, (else there were
-none virtuous, for _in many things we offend all_,) [Sidenote: Jam. 3. 2.]
-also a comely man and lovely, though he have some warts upon his hand;
-yea, not only freckles upon his face, but also scars. No cause therefore
-why the word translated should be denied to be the word, or forbidden to
-be current, notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be
-noted in the setting forth of it. For what ever was perfect under the sun,
-where Apostles or apostolick men, that is, men endued with an
-extraordinary measure of God’s Spirit, and privileged with the privilege
-of infallibility, had not their hand? The Romanists therefore in refusing
-to hear, and daring to burn the word translated, did no less than despite
-the Spirit of grace, from whom originally it proceeded, and whose sense
-and meaning, as well as man’s weakness would enable, it did express. Judge
-by an example or two.
-
-[Sidenote: _Plutarch in Camillo._] _Plutarch_ writeth, that after that
-_Rome_ had been burnt by the _Gauls_, they fell soon to build it again:
-but doing it in haste, they did not cast the streets, nor proportion the
-houses, in such comely fashion, as had been most sightly and convenient.
-Was _Catiline_ therefore an honest man, or a good patriot, that sought to
-bring it to a combustion? Or _Nero_ a good Prince, that did indeed set it
-on fire? So by the story of _Ezra_ and the prophecy of _Haggai_ it may be
-gathered, [Sidenote: Ezra 3. 12.] that the temple built by _Zerubbabel_
-after the return from _Babylon_ was by no means to be compared to the
-former built by _Solomon_: for they that remembered the former wept when
-they considered the latter. Notwithstanding might this latter either have
-been abhorred and forsaken by the _Jews_, or profaned by the _Greeks_? The
-like we are to think of translations. The translation of the _Seventy_
-dissenteth from the Original in many places, neither doth it come near it
-for perspicuity, gravity, majesty. Yet which of the Apostles did condemn
-it? Condemn it? Nay, they used it, (as it is apparent, and as St.
-_Hierome_ and most learned men do confess;) which they would not have
-done, nor by their example of using of it so grace and commend it to the
-Church, if it had been unworthy the appellation and name of the word of
-God. And whereas they urge for their second defence of their vilifying and
-abusing of the _English_ Bibles, or some pieces thereof, which they meet
-with, for that hereticks forsooth were the authors of the translations:
-(hereticks they call us by the same right that they call themselves
-catholicks, both being wrong:) we marvel what divinity taught them so. We
-are sure _Tertullian_ was of another mind: [Sidenote: _Tertull. de
-præscript. contra hæreses._] _Ex personis probamus fidem, an ex fide
-personas?_ Do we try men’s faith by their persons? We should try their
-persons by their faith. Also St. _Augustine_ was of another mind:
-[Sidenote: _St. August. 3. de doct. Christ. cap. 30._] for he, lighting
-upon certain rules made by _Tychonius_ a _Donatist_ for the better
-understanding of the word, was not ashamed to make use of them, yea, to
-insert them into his own book, with giving commendation to them so far
-forth as they were worthy to be commended, as is to be seen in St.
-_Augustine’s_ third book _De Doct. Christ_. To be short, _Origen_, and
-the whole Church of God for certain hundred years, were of another mind:
-for they were so far from treading under foot (much more from burning) the
-translation of _Aquila_ a proselyte, that is, one that had turned _Jew_,
-of _Symmachus_, and _Theodotion_, both _Ebionites_, that is, most vile
-hereticks, that they joined them together with the _Hebrew_ original, and
-the translation of the _Seventy_, (as hath been before signified out of
-_Epiphanius_,) and set them forth openly to be considered of and perused
-by all. But we weary the unlearned, who need not know so much; and trouble
-the learned, who know it already.
-
-Yet before we end, we must answer a third cavil and objection of their’s
-against us, for altering and amending our translations so oft; wherein
-truly they deal hardly and strangely with us. For to whom ever was it
-imputed for a fault, (by such as were wise,) to go over that which he had
-done, and to amend it where he saw cause? [Sidenote: _St. August. Epist.
-9. St. August. lib. Retract Video interdum vitia mea. St. August. Epist.
-8._] St. _Augustine_ was not afraid to exhort St. _Hierome_ to a
-_Palinodia_ or recantation. The same St. _Augustine_ was not ashamed to
-retractate, we might say, revoke, many things that had passed him, and
-doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities. If we will be sons of the
-truth, we must consider what it speaketh, and trample upon our own credit,
-yea, and upon other men’s too, if either be any way an hindrance to it.
-This to the cause. Then to the persons we say, that of all men they ought
-to be most silent in this case. For what varieties have they, and what
-alterations have they made, not only of their service books, portesses,
-and breviaries, but also of their _Latin_ translation? The service book
-supposed to be made by St. _Ambrose_, (_Officium Ambrosianum_,) was a
-great while in special use and request: but Pope _Adrian_, [Sidenote:
-_Durand. lib. 5. cap. 2._] calling a council with the aid of _Charles_ the
-Emperor, abolished it, yea, burnt it, and commanded the service book of
-St. _Gregory_ universally to be used. Well, _Officium Gregorianum_ gets by
-this means to be in credit; but doth it continue without change or
-altering? No, the very _Roman_ service was of two fashions; the new
-fashion, and the old, the one used in one Church, and the other in
-another; as is to be seen in _Pamelius_ a Romanist, his preface before
-_Micrologus_. The same _Pamelius_ reporteth out of _Radulphus de Rivo_,
-that about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope _Nicolas_ the Third removed out
-of the churches of _Rome_ the more ancient books (of service,) and brought
-into use the missals of the Friers Minorites, and commanded them to be
-observed there: insomuch that about an hundred years after, when the
-aboved named _Radulphus_ happened to be at Rome, he found all the books to
-be new, of the new stamp. Neither was there this chopping and changing in
-the more ancient times only, but also of late. _Pius Quintus_ himself
-confesseth, that every bishoprick almost had a peculiar kind of service,
-most unlike to that which others had; which moved him to abolish all other
-breviaries, though never so ancient, and privileged and published by
-Bishops in their Dioceses, and to establish and ratify that only which was
-of his own setting forth in the year 1568. Now when the Father of their
-Church, who gladly would heal the sore of the daughter of his people
-softly and slightly, and make the best of it, findeth so great fault with
-them for their odds and jarring; we hope the children have no great cause
-to vaunt of their uniformity. But the difference that appeareth between
-our translations, and our often correcting of them, is the thing that we
-are specially charged with; let us see therefore whether they themselves
-be without fault this way, (if it be to be counted a fault to correct,)
-and whether they be fit men to throw stones at us: _O tandem major parcas
-insane minori_: They that are less sound themselves ought not to object
-infirmities to others. If we should tell them, that _Valla_,
-_Stapulensis_, _Erasmus_, and _Vives_, found fault with their vulgar
-translation, and consequently wished the same to be mended, or a new one
-to be made; they would answer peradventure, that we produced their enemies
-for witnesses against them; albeit they were in no other sort enemies,
-than as St. _Paul_ was to the _Galatians_, [Sidenote: Gal. 4. 16.] for
-telling them the truth: and it were to be wished, that they had dared to
-tell it them plainlier and oftener. But what will they say to this, That
-Pope _Leo_ the Tenth allowed _Erasmus’_ translation of the New Testament,
-so much different from the vulgar, by his apostolick letter and bull?
-[Sidenote: _Sixtus Senens._] That the same _Leo_ exhorted _Pagnine_ to
-translate the whole Bible, and bare whatsoever charges was necessary for
-the work? Surely, as the apostle reasoneth to the _Hebrews_, [Sidenote:
-Heb. 7. 11. & 8. 7.] that _if the former Law and Testament had been
-sufficient, there had been no need of the latter_: so we may say, that if
-the old vulgar had been at all points allowable, to small purpose had
-labour and charges been undergone about framing of a new. If they say, it
-was one Pope’s private opinion, and that he consulted only himself; then
-we are able to go further with them, and to aver, that more of their chief
-men of all sorts, even their own _Trent_ champions, _Paiva_ and _Vega_,
-and their own inquisitor _Hieronymus ab Oleastro_, and their own Bishop
-_Isidorus Clarius_, and their own Cardinal _Thomas a vio Cajetan_, do
-either make new translations themselves, or follow new ones of other men’s
-making, or note the vulgar interpreter for halting, none of them fear to
-dissent from him, nor yet to except against him. And call they this an
-uniform tenor of text and judgment about the text, so many of their
-worthies disclaiming the now received conceit? Nay, we will yet come
-nearer the quick. [Sidenote: _Sixtus 5. Præf. fixa bibliis._] Doth not
-their _Paris_ edition differ from the _Lovain_, and _Hentenius’s_ from
-them both, and yet all of them allowed by authority? Nay, doth not _Sixtus
-Quintus_ confess, that certain Catholicks (he meaneth certain of his own
-side) were in such an humour of translating the Scriptures into _Latin_,
-that Satan taking occasion by them, though they thought of no such matter,
-did strive what he could, out of so uncertain and manifold a variety of
-translations, so to mingle all things, that nothing might seem to be left
-certain and firm in them, &c.? Nay further, did not the same _Sixtus_
-ordain by an inviolable decree, and that with the counsel and consent of
-his Cardinals, that the _Latin_ edition of the Old and New Testament,
-which the council of _Trent_ would have to be authentick, is the same
-without controversy which he then set forth, being diligently corrected
-and printed in the printinghouse of _Vatican_? Thus _Sixtus_ in his
-preface before his Bible. And yet _Clement_ the Eighth, his immediate
-successor to account of, publisheth another edition of the Bible,
-containing in it infinite differences from that of _Sixtus_, and many of
-them weighty and material; and yet this must be authentick by all means.
-What is to have the faith of our glorious Lord _Jesus Christ_ with yea and
-nay, if this be not? Again, what is sweet harmony and consent, if this be?
-Therefore, as _Demaratus_ of _Corinth_ advised a great King, before he
-talked of the dissensions among the _Grecians_, to compose his domestick
-broils; (for at that time his queen and his son and heir were at deadly
-feud with him) so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and
-so various editions themselves, and do jar so much about the worth and
-authority of them, they can with no shew of equity challenge us for
-changing and correcting.
-
-[Sidenote: The purpose of the Translators, with their number, furniture,
-care, &c.] But it is high time to leave them, and to shew in brief what we
-proposed to ourselves, and what course we held, in this our perusal and
-survey of the Bible. Truly, good Christian Reader, we never thought from
-the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to
-make of a bad one a good one: (for then the imputation of _Sixtus_ had
-been true in some sort, that our people had been fed with gall of dragons
-instead of wine, with wheal instead of milk;) but to make a good one
-better, or out of many good ones one principal good one, not justly to be
-excepted against; that hath been our endeavour, that our mark. To that
-purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other men’s eyes than
-in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise.
-Again, they came, or were thought to come, to the work, not _exercendi
-causa_, (as one saith,) but _exercitati_, that is, learned not to learn;
-for the chief overseer and ἐργοδιώκτης under his Majesty, to whom not only
-we, but also our whole Church was much bound, knew by his wisdom, which
-thing only _Nazianzen_ taught so long ago, [Sidenote: _Nazianz._ εἰς ρν’,
-ἐπισκ παρουσ. _Idem in Apologet._] that it is a preposterous order to
-teach first and to learn after; that τὸ ἐν πίθῳ κεραμίαν μανθάνειν to
-learn and practise together, is neither commendable for the workman, nor
-safe for the work. Therefore such were thought upon, as could say modestly
-with St. _Hierome_, _Et Hebræum sermonem ex parte didicimus, et in Latino
-pene ab ipsis incunabulis, &c., detriti sumus; Both we have learned the
-Hebrew tongue in part, and in the Latin we have been exercised almost from
-our very cradle._ St. _Hierome_ maketh no mention of the _Greek_ tongue,
-wherein yet he did excel; because he translated not the Old Testament out
-of _Greek_, but out of _Hebrew_. And in what sort did these assemble? In
-the trust of their own knowledge, or of their sharpness of wit, or
-deepness of judgment, as it were in an arm of flesh? At no hand. They
-trusted in him that hath the key of _David_, opening, and no man shutting;
-they prayed to the Lord, the Father of our Lord, to the effect that St.
-_Augustine_ did: [Sidenote: _St. August. lib. 11. Confess. cap. 2._] _O
-let thy Scriptures be my pure delight; let me not be deceived in them,
-neither let me deceive by them_. In this confidence, and with this
-devotion, did they assemble together; not too many, lest one should
-trouble another; and yet many, lest many things haply might escape them.
-If you ask what they had before them; truly it was the _Hebrew_ text of
-the Old Testament, the _Greek_ of the New. These are the two golden pipes,
-or rather conduits, wherethrough the olivebranches empty themselves into
-the gold. [Sidenote: _St. Aug. 3. De doctr. cap. 3., &c. St. Hieron. ad
-Suniam et Fretel. St. Hieron. ad Lucinium, Dist 9._ Ut veterum.] St.
-_Augustine_ calleth them precedent, or original, tongues; St. _Hierome_,
-fountains. The same St. _Hierome_ affirmeth, and _Gratian_ hath not spared
-to put it into his decree, That _as the credit of the old books_ (he
-meaneth of the Old Testament) _is to be tried by the Hebrew volumes; so of
-the new by the Greek tongue_, he meaneth by the original _Greek_. If truth
-be to be tried by these tongues, then whence should a translation be made,
-but out of them? These tongues therefore (the Scriptures, we say, in those
-tongues) we set before us to translate, being the tongues wherein God was
-pleased to speak to his Church by his Prophets and Apostles. [Sidenote:
-_Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12._] Neither did we run over the work with that
-posting haste that the _Septuagint_ did, if that be true which is reported
-of them, that they finished it in seventy-two days; neither were we barred
-or hindered from going over it again, having once done it, like St.
-_Hierome_, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. ad Pammach. pro lib. advers. Jovinian._
-πρωτόπειροι.] if that be true which himself reporteth, that he could no
-sooner write anything, but presently it was caught from him, and
-published, and he could not have leave to mend it; neither, to be short,
-were we the first that fell in hand with translating the Scripture into
-_English_, and consequently destitute of former helps, as it is written of
-_Origen_, that he was the first in a manner, that put his hand to write
-commentaries upon the Scriptures, and therefore no marvel if he overshot
-himself many times. None of these things: The work hath not been huddled
-up in seventy-two days, but hath cost the workmen, as light as it seemeth,
-the pains of twice seven times seventy-two days, and more. Matters of such
-weight and consequence are to be speeded with maturity: for in a business
-of moment a man feareth not the blame of convenient slackness. Neither did
-we think much to consult the translators or commentators, [Sidenote: Φιλεῖ
-γὰρ ὀκνεῖν πραγμ’ ἀνὴρ πράσσων μέγα, _Sophocl. in Elect._] _Chaldee_,
-_Hebrew_, _Syrian_, _Greek_, or _Latin_; no, nor the _Spanish_, _French_,
-_Italian_, or _Dutch_; neither did we disdain to revise that which we had
-done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered: but
-having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach
-for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at length,
-through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass
-that you see.
-
-[Sidenote: Reasons moving us to set diversity of senses in the margin,
-where there is great probability for each. πάντα τὰ ἀναγκαῖα δῆλα.] Some
-peradventure would have no variety of senses to be set in the margin,
-lest the authority of the Scriptures for deciding of controversies by that
-shew of uncertainty should somewhat be shaken. But we hold their judgment
-not to be so sound in this point. For though _whatsoever things are
-necessary are manifest_, as St. _Chrysostome_ saith; [Sidenote: _St.
-Chrysost. in 2 Thess. cap. 2. St. Aug. 2. De doctr. Christ, c. 9._] and,
-as St. _Augustine_, _in those things that are plainly set down in the
-Scriptures all such matters are found, that concern faith, hope, and
-charity_: Yet for all that it cannot be dissembled, that partly to
-exercise and whet our wits, partly to wean the curious from lothing of
-them for their every where plainness, partly also to stir up our devotion
-to crave the assistance of God’s Spirit by prayer, and lastly, that we
-might be forward to seek aid of our brethren by conference, and never
-scorn those that be not in all respects so complete as they should be,
-being to seek in many things, ourselves, it hath pleased God in his Divine
-Providence here and there to scatter words and sentences of that
-difficulty and doubtfulness, not in doctrinal points that concern
-salvation, (for in such it hath been vouched that the Scriptures are
-plain,) but in matters of less moment, that fearfulness would better
-beseem us than confidence, and if we will resolve, to resolve upon modesty
-with St. _Augustine_, [Sidenote: _St. August. lib. 8. De Gen. ad liter.
-cap. 5._] (though not in this same case altogether, yet upon the same
-ground,) _Melius est dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis_: It
-is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, than to strive
-about those things that are uncertain. [Sidenote: ἅπαξ λεγόμενα.] There be
-many words in the Scriptures, which be never found there but once, (having
-neither brother nor neighbour, as the _Hebrews_ speak,) so that we cannot
-be holpen by conference of places. Again, there be many rare names of
-certain birds, beasts, and precious stones, &c. concerning which the
-_Hebrews_ themselves are so divided among themselves for judgment, that
-they may seem to have defined this or that, rather because they would say
-something, than because they were sure of that which they said, [Sidenote:
-_Hier. in Ezek. cap. 3._] as St. _Hierome_ somewhere saith of the
-_Septuagint_. Now in such a case doth not a margin do well to admonish the
-Reader to seek further, and not to conclude or dogmatize upon this or that
-peremptorily? For as it is a fault of incredulity, to doubt of those
-things that are evident; so to determine of such things as the Spirit of
-God hath left (even in the judgment of the judicious) questionable, can be
-no less than presumption. [Sidenote: _St. Aug. 2. De doctr. Christ. c.
-1._] Therefore as St. _Augustine_ saith, that variety of translations is
-profitable for the finding out of the sense of the Scriptures: so
-diversity of signification and sense in the margin, where the text is not
-so clear, must needs do good; yea, is necessary, as we are persuaded.
-[Sidenote: _Sixtus 5. Præf. Bibl._] We know that _Sixtus Quintus_
-expressly forbiddeth that any variety of readings of their vulgar edition
-should be put in the margin; (which though it be not altogether the same
-thing to that we have in hand, yet it looketh that way;) but we think he
-hath not all of his own side his favourers for this conceit. They that are
-wise had rather have their judgments at liberty in differences of
-readings, than to be captivated to one, when it may be the other.
-[Sidenote: _Plat. in Paulo secundo._] If they were sure that their high
-priest had all laws shut up in his breast, as _Paul_ the Second bragged,
-and that he were as free from error by special privilege, as the dictators
-of _Rome_ were made by law inviolable, it were another matter; then his
-word were an oracle, his opinion a decision. [Sidenote: ὁμοιοπαφής Τρωτὸς
-γ’ ἡ χρώς ἐστι.] But the eyes of the world are now open, God be thanked,
-and have been a great while; they find that he is subject to the same
-affections and infirmities that others be, that his body is subject to
-wounds; and therefore so much as he proveth, not as much as he claimeth,
-they grant and embrace.
-
-[Sidenote: Reasons inducing us not to stand curiously upon an identity of
-phrasing.] Another thing we think good to admonish thee of, gentle Reader,
-that we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing, or to an
-identity of words, as some peradventure would wish that we had done,
-because they observe, that some learned men somewhere have been as exact
-as they could that way. Truly, that we might not vary from the sense of
-that which we had translated before, if the word signified the same thing
-in both places, [Sidenote: πολύσημα.] (for there be some words that be not
-of the same sense every where,) we were especially careful, and made a
-conscience, according to our duty. But that we should express the same
-notion in the same particular word; as for example, if we translate the
-_Hebrew_ or _Greek_ word once by _purpose_, never to call it _intent_; if
-one where _journeying_, never _travelling_; if one where _think_, never
-_suppose_; if one where _pain_, never _ache_; if one where _joy_, never
-_gladness_, &c. thus to mince the matter, we thought to savour more of
-curiosity than wisdom, and that rather it would breed scorn in the
-atheist, than bring profit to the godly reader. For is the kingdom of God
-become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them, if we may
-be free? use one precisely, when we may use another no less fit as
-commodiously? [Sidenote: Abed. _Niceph. Calist. lib. 8. cap. 42. St.
-Hieron. in 4 Jonæ. See St. Aug. Epist. 10._] A godly Father in the
-primitive time shewed himself greatly moved, that one of newfangledness
-called κραββάτον, σκίμπους, though the difference be little or none; and
-another reporteth, that he was much abused for turning _cucurbita_ (to
-which reading the people had been used) into _hedera_. Now if this happen
-in better times, and upon so small occasions, we might justly fear hard
-censure, if generally we should make verbal and unnecessary changings. We
-might also be charged (by scoffers) with some unequal dealing towards a
-great number of good _English_ words. For as it is written of a certain
-great Philosopher, that he should say, that those logs were happy that
-were made images to be worshipped; for their fellows, as good as they, lay
-for blocks behind the fire: so if we should say, as it were, unto certain
-words, Stand up higher, have a place in the Bible always; and to others of
-like quality, Get you hence, be banished for ever; we might be taxed
-peradventure with St. _James’s_ words, namely, _To be partial in
-ourselves, and judges of evil thoughts_. [Sidenote: λεπτολογία. ὰδολεοχία
-τὸ σπουδάζειν ἐπὶ ὀνόμασι. _See Euseb._ προπαρασκ. _lib. 2. ex Plat._] Add
-hereunto, that niceness in words was always counted the next step to
-trifling; and so was to be curious about names too: also that we cannot
-follow a better pattern for elocution than God himself; therefore he using
-divers words in his holy writ, and indifferently for one thing in nature:
-we, if we will not be superstitious, may use the same liberty in our
-_English_ versions out of _Hebrew_ and _Greek_, for that copy or store
-that he hath given us. Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the
-scrupulosity of the Puritanes, who leave the old Ecclesiastical words, and
-betake them to other, as when they put _washing_ for _baptism_, and
-_congregation_ instead of _Church_: as also on the other side we have
-shunned the obscurity of the Papists, in their _azymes_, _tunike_,
-_rational_, _holocausts_, _prepuce_, _pasche_, and a number of such like,
-whereof their late translation is full, and that of purpose to darken the
-sense, that since they must needs translate the Bible, yet by the language
-thereof it may be kept from being understood. But we desire that the
-Scripture may speak like itself, as in the language of _Canaan_, that it
-may be understood even of the very vulgar.
-
-Many other things we might give thee warning of, gentle Reader, if we had
-not exceeded the measure of a preface already. It remaineth that we
-commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to
-build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our
-eyes, the vail from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand
-his word, enlarging our hearts, yea, correcting our affections, that we
-may love it above gold and silver, yea, that we may love it to the end.
-[Sidenote: Gen. 26. 15.] Ye are brought unto fountains of living water
-which ye digged not; do not cast earth into them, with the Philistines,
-neither prefer broken pits before them, with the wicked Jews. [Sidenote:
-Jer. 2. 13.] Others have laboured, and you may enter into their labours. O
-receive not so great things in vain: O despise not so great salvation. Be
-not like swine to tread under foot so precious things, neither yet like
-dogs to tear and abuse holy things. Say not to our Saviour with the
-_Gergesites_, [Sidenote: Matt. 8. 35. Heb. 12. 16.] Depart out of our
-coasts; neither with _Esau_ sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. If
-light be come into the world, love not darkness more than light: if food,
-if clothing, be offered, go not naked, starve not yourselves. [Sidenote:
-_Nazianz._ περὶ ἁγ βαπτ. Δεινὸν πανήγυριν παρελφεῖν, καὶ τηνικαῦτα
-πραγματείαν ἐπιζητεῖν.] Remember the advice of _Nazianzene_, _It is a
-grievous thing_ (or dangerous) _to neglect a great fair, and to seek to
-make markets afterwards_: also the encouragement of St. _Chrysostome_, _It
-is altogether impossible, that he that is sober_ (and watchful) _should at
-any time be neglected_: lastly, the admonition and menancing of St.
-_Augustine_, _They that despise God’s will inviting them shall feel God’s
-will taking vengeance of them_. [Sidenote: _St. Chrysost. in Epist. ad
-Rom. c. 14._] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
-God; [Sidenote: _orat. 26. in_ ἠθικ. Ἀμήχανον, σφόδρα άμήχανον.] but a
-blessed thing it is, and will bring us to everlasting blessedness in the
-end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken; when he setteth his word
-before us, to read it; when he stretcheth out his hand and calleth, to
-answer, Here am I, here we are to do thy will, O God. [Sidenote: _St.
-August, ad artic. sibi falso object. Art. 16._ Heb. 10. 31.] The Lord work
-a care and conscience in us to know him and serve him, that we may be
-acknowledged of him at the appearing of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, to whom
-with the Holy Ghost be all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(G.)
-
-_THE REVISERS OF A.D. 1568._
-
-
-The twelve bishops who are mentioned as taking part with Archbishop Parker
-in this revision, are:
-
-    William Alley, Bishop of Exeter.
-
-    William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester.
-
-    Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
-
-    Nicholas Bullingham, Bishop of Lincoln.
-
-    Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely.
-
-    Richard Davies, Bishop of St. Davids (Menevensis).
-
-    Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.
-
-    Edmund Guest (or Geste), Bishop of Rochester.
-
-    Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester.
-
-    John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich.
-
-    Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Worcester.
-
-    Edmund Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough.
-
-The other church dignitaries who are mentioned are:
-
-    Andrew Pearson, Canon of Canterbury.
-
-    Andrew Perne, Prebendary of Ely.
-
-    Thomas Beacon, Prebendary of Canterbury.
-
-    Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster.
-
-At the end of sixteen of the books are placed initials, which are
-evidently those of the revisers. These, with more or less of certainty,
-have been identified with names given in the above list.[147] They are as
-follows, and in the following order:
-
-  Deuteronomy   W. E.      Bishop of Exeter.
-  2 Samuel      R. M.      Bishop of St. Davids.
-  2 Chronicles  E. W.      Bishop of Worcester.
-  Job           A. P. _C_  Andrew Pearson.
-  Psalms[148]   T. B.      Thomas Beacon.
-  Proverbs      A. P. _C_  Andrew Pearson.
-  Canticles     A. P. _E_  Andrew Perne.
-  Lamentations  R. W.      Bishop of Winchester.
-  Daniel        T. C.L.    Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
-  Malachi       E. L.      Bishop of London.
-  Wisdom        W. C.      Bishop of Chichester.
-  2 Maccabees   J. N.      Bishop of Norwich.
-  Acts          R. E.      Bishop of Ely.
-  Romans        R. E.      Bishop of Ely.
-  1 Corinthians G. G.      Gabriel Goodman.
-
-From a list of the revisers, enclosed in a letter from Parker to Cecil,
-dated October 5th, 1568, and now in the State Paper Office, we may further
-gather that the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse were revised by
-Bishop Bullingham, the Gospels of Luke and John by Bishop Scambler, and
-that the portions undertaken by Parker himself were Genesis, Exodus,
-Matthew, Mark, and the Epistles from 2 Corinthians to Hebrews
-inclusive.[149]
-
-
-
-
-(H.)
-
-_THE REVISERS OF 1611._
-
-
-In the collection of Records appended to the Second Part of Bishop
-Burnet’s _History of the Reformation of the Church of England_, there is
-given a list of the Revisers of 1611, copied, as the writer tells us,[150]
-from the paper of Bishop Ravis himself, one of the number. The list is
-thus given:[151]
-
-    WESTMINSTER (1). Mr. Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dean of Pauls, Mr.
-    Doctor Saravia, Mr. Doctor Clark, Mr. Doctor Leifield, Mr. Doctor
-    Teigh, Mr. Burleigh, Mr. King, Mr. Tompson, Mr. Beadwell.
-
-    CAMBRIDGE (1). Mr. Livelye, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Chatterton, Mr.
-    Dillingham, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Spalding, Mr. Burge.
-
-    OXFORD (1). Doctor Harding, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Holland, Dr. Kilbye, Mr.
-    Smith, Mr. Brett, Mr. Fairclough.
-
-    CAMBRIDGE (2). Doctor Dewport, Dr. Branthwait, Dr. Radclife, Mr. Ward
-    (Eman.), Mr. Downes, Mr. Boyes, Mr. Warde (Reg.).
-
-    OXFORD (2). Mr. Dean of Christchurch, Mr. Dean of Winchester, Mr. Dean
-    of Worcester, Mr. Dean of Windsor, Mr. Sairle, Dr. Perne, Dr. Ravens,
-    Mr. Haviner.[152]
-
-    WESTMINSTER (2). Dean of Chester, Dr. Hutchinson, Dr. Spencer, Mr.
-    Fenton, Mr. Rabbet, Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Dakins.
-
-Some difference of opinion has existed in reference to the date of this
-document. Its date is determined within comparatively narrow limits by
-internal evidence.
-
-The writer, Dr. Ravis, describes himself as Dean of Christ Church; it must
-therefore have been written _before_ March 19, 1605, when he was
-consecrated Bishop of Gloucester. He also refers to the Dean of Worcester
-(Dr. Eedes), who died November, 1604, and hence he may be assumed to have
-written before that date also. The difficulty is that he describes Dr.
-Barlow, who is known to have taken part in the work, as Dean of Chester,
-and it must therefore have been written _after_ Barlow’s appointment of
-this office. This appointment, as stated by Cardwell, took place in
-December, 1604;[153] but the correctness of that date is open to some
-doubt.[154]
-
-The names contained in the above given list have, with some few
-exceptions, been satisfactorily identified; namely, as follows:
-
-
-FIRST WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. Launcelot Andrews, Dean of Westminster.[155]
-
-    Dr. John Overall, Dean of St. Paul’s.[156]
-
-    Dr. Adrian de Saravia.
-
-    Dr. Richard Clark, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. John Layfield, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. Robert Tighe, Vicar of All Hallows, Barking.
-
-    [Dr. Francis Burley, Fellow of King James’s College, Chelsea.]
-
-    Mr. Geoffry King, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.[157]
-
-    Mr. Richard Thomson, Clare Hall, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. William Bedwell, Vicar of Tottenham.
-
-
-FIRST CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
-
-    Mr. Edward Lively,[158] Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. John Richardson,[159] Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Laurence Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. F. Dillingham, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Thomas Harrison, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Roger Andrews.[160]
-
-    Mr. Robert Spalding,[161] Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Andrew Byng, Fellow of Peter House.
-
-
-FIRST OXFORD COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and President of
-    Magdalen.
-
-    Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College.
-
-    Dr. Thomas Holland,[162] Regius Professor of Divinity.
-
-    Dr. Richard Kilbye, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. Miles Smith,[163] Brasenose College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. Richard Brett, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
-
-    Mr. Richard Fairclough, Fellow of New College, Oxford.
-
-
-THE SECOND CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. John Duport, Master of Jesus College.
-
-    Dr. William Branthwaite, Master of Caius College.
-
-    Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe, Fellow of Trinity College.
-
-    Mr. Samuel Ward, Fellow of Emmanuel College.[164]
-
-    Mr. Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of Greek.
-
-    Mr. John Bois, Fellow of St. John’s, and Rector of Boxworth.
-
-    Mr. Ward, Fellow of King’s College.[165]
-
-
-THE SECOND OXFORD COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dean of Christ Church.[166]
-
-    Dr. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester.[167]
-
-    Dr. Richard Eedes, Dean of Worcester.[168]
-
-    Dr. Giles Thomson, Dean of Windsor.
-
-    Mr. Henry Saville,[169] Warden of Merton and Provost of Eton.
-
-    Dr. John Perin, Fellow of St. John’s College.
-
-    [Dr. Ralph Ravens, Fellow of St. John’s College.]
-
-    Dr. John Harmer, Regius Professor of Greek.
-
-To these, Wood, who does not mention the names of either Eedes or Ravens,
-in the list given in his _History of the University of Oxford_, adds the
-following two; they were probably appointed to take the places of some
-removed by death:
-
-    Dr. John Aglionby,[170] Principal of Edmunds Hall.
-
-    Dr. Leonard Hutten,[171] Canon of Christ Church.
-
-
-THE SECOND WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. William Barlow, Dean of Chester.
-
-    Dr. Hutchinson. (?)
-
-    Dr. John Spenser, Chaplain to King James.[172]
-
-    Mr. Roger Fenton, Pembroke Hall, Oxford.
-
-    [Mr. Michael Rabbett, Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane.]
-
-    [Mr. Thomas Sanderson, Rector of All Hallows.]
-
-    Mr. William Dakins, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-
-
-
-NOTE TO PAGE 117.
-
-
-DEAN STANLEY (_Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, p. 440) states
-generally that the Assembly of Divines removed from Henry VII.’s Chapel to
-the Jerusalem Chamber at the end of September. The exact date is, as
-stated in the text, October 2nd. In the Minutes of the Sessions of the
-Assembly, preserved in Dr. Williams’s Library, there occurs at the close
-of the sixty-fifth session the entry, “Adjourned to the Hierusalem Chamber
-on Monday, at ten o’clock,” and the following session, the sixty-sixth, is
-dated Monday, October 2nd. The permission to adjourn to the Jerusalem
-Chamber from Henry VII.’s Chapel, “on account of the coldness of the said
-chapel,” was granted by Parliament on September 21st, 1643.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  A.
-
-  Abbot, Dr. Ezra, 115
-
-  Ælfric’s Heptateuch, 12, 13
-
-  Aiken, Dr. C. A., 115
-
-  Ainsworth, H., his Commentaries, 101
-
-  Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, 11
-
-  Alexander, Dr. W. L., 109
-
-  Alexandrine Manuscript, 83
-
-  Alford, Dean, 104, 107, 110, 112, 125
-
-  Alfred, King, 12
-
-  Allen, Archdeacon, 107
-
-  Andrews, Dr. Launcelot, 41
-
-  Anglo-Saxon Gospel, 12
-
-  Angus, Dr. Jos., 110, 125
-
-  Authorized Version, first suggestion of, 40
-
-  ---- ordered by King James, 41
-
-  ---- a revision, not a translation, 45
-
-  ---- rules followed by the revisers, 42-44
-
-  ---- misprints in, 54
-
-  ---- obsolete words in, 57-59
-
-  ---- imperfect renderings of, 62
-
-  ---- preface to, 199
-
-  ---- list of its revisors, 237
-
-
-  B.
-
-  Bancroft, Archbishop, 41, 45
-
-  Barrow, Dr. John, 104
-
-  Bede, 11
-
-  Bensley, Mr. R. N., 111
-
-  Bentley, Dr. Richard, his proposals for revised texts of the Greek New
-        Testament and of the Vulgate, 100
-
-  Beza’s Codex, 83
-
-  Beza, Theodore, his edition of the Greek New Testament, 84, 86
-
-  Biber, Dr. G. F., 103
-
-  Bible, earliest form of, 4
-
-  ---- Authorized Version of, 39
-
-  ---- Bishops’, 30, 37, 39
-
-  ---- Coverdale’s, 18, 36
-
-  ---- Douai, 33, 38
-
-  ---- Genevan, 26, 37, 39
-
-  ---- Great, 21, 36
-
-  ---- Matthew’s, 20
-
-  ---- Purvey’s, 15, 36
-
-  ---- Taverner’s, 22
-
-  ---- Wycliffe’s, 13, 14, 35
-
-  Bickersteth, Dean, 107, 110, 125
-
-  Bilson, Bishop, 49
-
-  Birrell, Rev. J., 111
-
-  Bishops’ Bible, 30, 37, 39
-
-  Bishops’ Bible, preface thereto, 177
-
-  ---- translators of, 235
-
-  Blakesley, Dean, 106_n_, 107, 110, 125
-
-  Bodley, John, bears the expenses of the Genevan Bible, 30_n_
-
-  Bois, John, 46, 49
-
-  Broughton, Hugh, 92
-
-  Brown, Dr. David, 112, 125
-
-  Browne, Dr. E. H. (Bishop of Winchester), 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-
-  C.
-
-  Chambers, Dr. T. W., 115
-
-  Chance, Dr. F., 111
-
-  Chenery, Professor, 109
-
-  Cheyne, Rev. T. K., 111
-
-  Claromontane Manuscript, 83
-
-  Clergymen, Five, their revision of the Gospel of John, 104
-
-  Collation of Manuscripts, 82
-
-  Complutensian Polyglot, 84
-
-  Conant, Dr. T. J., 114
-
-  Coverdale, first edition of his Bible, 18
-
-  ---- his Prologue thereto, 160
-
-  ---- prepares the Great Bible, 21
-
-  ---- issues a second and other editions of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  ---- a refugee at Geneva, 27
-
-  Cranmer, his opinion of Matthew’s Bible, 20_n_
-
-  ---- his Prologue to the second edition of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  Cromwell, Thomas, patron of Coverdale, 18
-
-  ---- promotes the preparation of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  Crooks, Dr. G. R., 115, 116
-
-
-  D.
-
-  Davidson, Dr. A. B., 109
-
-  Davies, Dr. B., 109
-
-  Day, Dr. G. E., 114
-
-  De Witt, Dr. J., 114
-
-  Dort, Synod of, 44, 49
-
-  Douglas, Dr. G., 111
-
-  Downes, A., 49
-
-  Driver, Mr. S. R., 111
-
-
-  E.
-
-  Eadie, Dr. J., 110, 112
-
-  Ellicott, Bishop, 104, 105, 110, 125
-
-  Elliott, Rev. C. J., 112
-
-  Ephraem Codex, 83
-
-  Erasmus, his editions of the Greek New Testament, 85
-
-
-  F.
-
-  Fairbairn, Dr. P., 109
-
-  Field, Dr. F., 109
-
-
-  G.
-
-  Geddes, Dr. A., his projected translation of the Bible, 98
-
-  Geden, Professor, 112
-
-  Gell, R., his essay upon the amendment of the Authorized Version, 93
-
-  Genevan Bible, 26-30, 37
-
-  ---- popularity of, 32, 52
-
-  ---- preface to, 172
-
-  Genevan Psalter, 27
-
-  Genevan New Testament, 28, 29
-
-  Ginsburg, Dr., 109
-
-  Gotch, Dr. F. W., 109
-
-  Green, Dr. W. H., 114
-
-  Gutenberg Bible, 17_n_
-
-  Guthlac of Croyland, 11, 12
-
-
-  H.
-
-  Hackett, Dr. H. B., 115, 116
-
-  Hadley, Dr. J., 115, 116
-
-  Hampton Court Conference, 40
-
-  Harding, Dr. J., 41
-
-  Hare, Dr. G. E., 114
-
-  Harrison, Archdeacon, 109
-
-  Harwood, E., his translation of the New Testament, 97_n_
-
-  Hereford, Nicholas de, 14
-
-  Hervey, Bishop, 107
-
-  Heywood, James, his motion in the House of Commons for a new revision,
-        103
-
-  Hodge, Dr. C., 115, 116
-
-  Holbein, his design for title-page of Great Bible, 22_n_
-
-  Hort, Dr. F. J. A., 110, 120, 125
-
-  Humphry, Prebendary, 104, 110, 125
-
-
-  I.
-
-  Itala, The, 9
-
-
-  J.
-
-  Jebb, Dr. J., 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Jerome, revises the old Latin version, 9
-
-  ---- translates Old Testament, 9
-
-  Jerusalem Chamber, 117, 127, 242
-
-  Jessey, Henry, his attempted revision of Authorized Version, 95
-
-  Johnson, Anthony, his Historical Account, 27_n_
-
-
-  K.
-
-  Kay, Dr. W., 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Kendrick, Dr. A. C., 115
-
-  Kennedy, Canon, 110, 125
-
-  Kennicott, Dr. B., 100
-
-  Kilbie, Dr. R., 47
-
-  Krauth, Dr. C. P., 115
-
-
-  L.
-
-  Latin Versions, 8, 9
-
-  Lawrence, T., his notes of errors in the Bishops’ Bible, 32
-
-  Leathes, Dr. S., 109
-
-  Lee, Archdeacon, 110, 125
-
-  Lee, Dr. A., 115
-
-  Lewis, Dr. T., 115
-
-  Lewis, John, his History of the English Bible, 41, 49_n_
-
-  Lightfoot, Dr. J., urges upon Parliament the revision of the English
-        Bible, 92
-
-  Lightfoot, Dr. J. B. (Bishop of Durham), 101, 110, 125
-
-  Lindisfarne Gospels, 12_n_
-
-  Lively, Ed., 41
-
-  Lumby, Rev. J. R., 112
-
-  Lyra, Nicholas de, 17
-
-
-  M.
-
-  Mace, W., his Greek and English New Testament, 96
-
-  Marsh, Bishop, on the Authorized Version, 102
-
-  Manuscripts of the New Testament, 80
-
-  Mazarin Bible, 17_n_
-
-  McGill, Professor, 109
-
-  Mead, Dr. C. M., 115
-
-  Merivale, Dean, 112, 125
-
-  Mill, Dr. J., 99
-
-  Milligan, Dr. W., 110, 125
-
-  Moberly, Bishop, 104, 110, 125
-
-  Moulton, Dr. W. F., 111, 125
-
-  Münster, Sebastian, 22, 31
-
-
-  N.
-
-  Newcome, Archbishop, his revised New Testament, 98
-
-  Newth, Dr., 111, 125
-
-
-  O.
-
-  Ollivant, Bishop, 105, 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Ormulum, The, 13
-
-  Osgood, Dr. H., 115
-
-
-  P.
-
-  Packard, Dr. J., 115
-
-  Pagninus, his Latin translation, 19, 31_n_
-
-  Palmer, Archdeacon, 112, 125
-
-  Parker, Archbishop, superintends the preparation of the Bishops’ Bible,
-        30-32
-
-  ---- his letter to Cecil, 30_n_
-
-  Payne Smith, Dean, 110
-
-  Penn, Grenville, his revised text and translation of New Testament, 99
-
-  Perowne, Dean, 110
-
-  Plumptre, Dr. E. H., 110
-
-  Printed Bible, the first, 17
-
-  Printing, invention of, 17
-
-  Psalter, Genevan, 27
-
-  ---- Guthlac’s, 11_n_
-
-  ---- Prayer Book, 9_n_, 39
-
-  ---- Rolle’s, 13
-
-  ---- Schorham’s, 13
-
-  Purver, A., his translation of the Bible, 97
-
-  Purvey, John, Wycliffe’s friend and fellow-labourer, 15
-
-
-  Q.
-
-  Quotations in early Christian Writings, 87-89
-
-
-  R.
-
-  Rainolds, Dr. J., moves for a new revision, 40
-
-  Rainolds, Dr. J., appointed one of King James’s revisers, 47
-
-  ---- works at the revision on his death-bed, 47
-
-  Revisers, the American, 114, 116
-
-  ---- of 1568, 235
-
-  ---- of 1611, 237
-
-  ---- of 1881, 109-112
-
-  Riddle, Dr. M. B., 115
-
-  Roberts, Dr. A., 111
-
-  Rogers, John, the probable editor of Matthew’s Bible, 20
-
-  Rolle, Richard, 13
-
-  Rose, Archdeacon, 106_n_, 107, 110
-
-  Rossi, J. B. de, 100
-
-
-  S.
-
-  Sayce, Rev. A. H., 112
-
-  Schaff, Dr. Philip, 114, 115
-
-  Scholefield, Professor, on an improved translation of the New Testament,
-        102
-
-  Schorham, W. de, 13
-
-  Scott, Dean, 111, 125
-
-  Scribes, primary function of, 3
-
-  Scrivener, Dr. F. H., 56, 100, 111, 120, 125
-
-  Selwyn, Canon, 103, 107, 110
-
-  Septuagint Version, 6
-
-  Short, Dr. C., 115
-
-  Sinaitic Manuscript, 82
-
-  Smith, Dr. G. Vance, 111, 125
-
-  Smith, Dr. H. B., 115, 116
-
-  Smith, Dr. J. Pye, his testimony in favour of revision, 101
-
-  Smith, Dr. Miles, 47, 49
-
-  Smith, Professor, W. R., 112
-
-  Stanley, Dean, 107, 111, 125
-
-  Stephen, Robert, his editions of the Greek New Testament, 85
-
-  Stephen, Henry, 86_n_
-
-  Stowe, Dr. C. E., 115
-
-  Strong, Dr. J., 115
-
-  Syriac Version, 8, 87
-
-
-  T.
-
-  Taverner, John, 22_n_
-
-  Taverner, Richard, 22
-
-  Testament, New, Genevan, 28
-
-  ---- Rheims, 33
-
-  ---- Tyndale’s, 18
-
-  ---- Whittingham’s, 25
-
-  ---- See “Bible”
-
-  Thayer, Dr. J. H., 115
-
-  Thirlwall, Bishop, 105, 106, 110
-
-  Tischendorf, Dr. C., 100
-
-  Transcription, errors of, 3
-
-  Tregelles, Dr. S. P., 100, 109_n_
-
-  Trench, Archbishop, 111, 125
-
-  Tyndale, W., his translations, 18
-
-  ---- his Prologue to New Testament, 137
-
-  ---- his Epistle to the Reader, 152
-
-  ---- his Preface to the Pentateuch, 154
-
-
-  U.
-
-  Ussher, A., his revised version, 94_n_
-
-
-  V.
-
-  Vatican Manuscript, 83
-
-  Van Dyke, Dr. C. V. A., 115
-
-  Vaughan, Dean, 111, 125
-
-  Version, Æthiopic, 87
-
-  ---- Armenian, 87
-
-  ---- Gothic, 87
-
-  ---- Italic, 8
-
-  ---- Memphitic, 87
-
-  ---- Old Latin, 8
-
-  ---- Septuagint, 6
-
-  ---- Syriac, 8
-
-  ---- Thebaic, 87
-
-  Vulgate, 9
-
-
-  W.
-
-  Wakefield, G., his translation of the New Testament, 98
-
-  Walker, Anthony, his Life of Bois, 46_n_, 49_n_
-
-  Walton’s Polyglot, 99
-
-  Ward, Dr. S., 44_n_
-
-  Ward, T., his Errata to the Protestant Bible, 33_n_, 93
-
-  Warren, Dr. W. F., 115, 116
-
-  Weir, Dr. D. H., 112
-
-  Wemyss, T., his Reasons in favour of a new translation, 102
-
-  Westcott, Canon, 22_n_, 41_n_, 111, 125
-
-  Whittingham’s New Testament, 25
-
-  ---- his version and the Genevan compared, 28, 29
-
-  Wicked Bible, 54_n_
-
-  Wilberforce, Bishop, 105, 106, 111, 125
-
-  Woolsey, Dr. T. D., 115
-
-  Wordsworth, Dr. Christopher (Bishop of Lincoln), 107, 110
-
-  Wordsworth, Dr. Charles (Bishop of St. Andrews), 112, 125
-
-  Worsley, J., his translation of the New Testament, 97
-
-  Wright, Dr. W., 109_n_, 112
-
-  Wright, Mr. W. A., 110, 113
-
-  Wycliffe, John, 13, 14
-
-  ---- his Bible, 16, 35
-
-  ---- preface to his Bible, 129
-
-
-  Z.
-
-  Zurich Bible, 19
-
-
-_W. Brendon and Son, Plymouth._
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] From the Latin for seventy, this being the supposed number of the
-translators. It is referred to as the translation of the Seventy Elders so
-early as the middle of the second century. See Justin Martyr, _Dialogue
-with Trypho_, c. 68.
-
-[2] See Philo Judæus, _Life of Moses_, book ii. Josephus, _Antiquities_,
-xii. ii. 5, 11, 12, 14. Eusebius, _Eccl. Hist._, v. 8. Josephus states
-that the translation was made by seventy-two elders in seventy-two days.
-The story as given in Eusebius is, that the seventy elders were placed
-apart in seventy different cells, that each translated the entire
-Scriptures, and that the seventy translations when compared were found to
-agree to a word.
-
-[3] And this he gave, not by any formal enactment, but by using Jerome’s
-translation as the basis of his own _Exposition of the Book of Job_. (See
-Gregory’s _Letter to Leander_, forming the preface to that work.) The old
-version of the Psalms retained its ground apparently from its close
-connection with the music of the Church. From a like cause the old version
-of the English Psalms, which in fact was made from the Latin of the
-Vulgate, retains its place in the Psalter of the Prayer Book. It should
-however be noted that it is but the translation of the translation of a
-translation.
-
-[4] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, A.D. 709.
-
-[5] “I have seen a book at Crowland Abbey, which is kept there for a
-relic. The book is called _Saint Guthlake’s Psalter_, and I weene verily
-that it is a copy of the same that the king did translate; for it is
-neither English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nor Dutch, but something sounding
-to our English; and as I have perceived since the time I was last there,
-being at Antwerp, the Saxon tongue doth sound likewise, and it is to ours
-partly agreeable.” The answer of John Lambert to the twenty-sixth of the
-Articles laid against him. (FOXE, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. v. p. 213.)
-
-[6] _The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester_, A.D. 699, and A.D. 714.
-
-[7] Many of the clergy were probably at this time unable to interpret the
-Latin Bibles used in the Church services. Several MSS. exist which have an
-English translation (gloss) inserted between the lines by writers of the
-ninth or tenth centuries. One of these, the “Lindisfarne Gospels,” now in
-the British Museum, is a most richly-adorned MS. It was written by one
-bishop of Lindisfarne, and ornamented by another, and was encased in
-jewelled covers. Over each Latin word is written its equivalent in English
-(Anglo-Saxon). This, as is explained by a note at the end, was done by one
-“Aldred, the priest,” and, as his handwriting shows, in the tenth century.
-It cannot be supposed that this was done for the benefit of ordinary
-readers. So valued a MS. would not be likely to come into any other hands
-than those of the clergy or the monks.
-
-[8] There is no direct evidence for the existence at an earlier date of
-any translation of the entire Scriptures into any form of English. In an
-interesting tract (commonly assigned to the earlier part of the fifteenth
-century, and printed by Foxe in the first edition of his _Acts and
-Monuments_, 1563), entitled, “A Compendious Old Treatise, showing how that
-we ought to have the Scripture in English.” It is stated, “Also a man of
-London, whose name was Wyring, had a Bible in English, of northern speech,
-which was seen of many men, and it seemed to be two hundred years old.”
-(FOXE, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. iv. p. 674.) It cannot, however, be
-inferred from this statement that the volume referred to was a complete
-Bible.
-
-[9] See Appendix A.
-
-[10] As many as one hundred and fifty manuscripts, containing the whole or
-parts of Purvey’s Bible, are still in existence, and the majority of these
-were written within forty years from the time of its completion.--FORSHALL
-and MADDEN, _Wycliffite Versions of the Holy Bible_, Preface, p. xxxiii.
-
-[11] No portion of the Wycliffe Bible was printed until 1731, when the New
-Testament, in the later of its forms, was published by the Rev. John
-Lewis, of Margate. This was reprinted in 1810, under the editorship of the
-Rev. Henry Baber. The complete Bible was not printed till so recently as
-1850, in the splendid volumes issued from the University press of Oxford,
-and edited by the Rev. J. Forshall and Rev. F. Madden.
-
-[12] The first work known to have been printed with moveable metal type is
-the Latin Bible, issued from the press of John Gutenberg at Maintz,
-1450-55. This Bible is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible, from
-the accidental circumstance that a copy of it was found about the middle
-of last century in Cardinal Mazarin’s library at Paris. (HALLAM,
-_Literature of Europe_, vol. i. p. 210.) With more propriety it may be
-called the Gutenberg Bible.
-
-[13] See Appendix C.
-
-[14] Mr. Blunt, in his article “English Bible,” in the _Encyclopædia
-Britannica_, maintains that Coverdale translated directly from the Hebrew
-and Greek. But in order to this he has, first, forcibly to set aside the
-statement on the title-page as “placed there by mistake,” and then to
-represent Coverdale as including the Hebrew and Greek originals in the
-same category as Latin, German, and English translations, and as
-describing them all as “five interpreters” from which he had translated.
-
-[15] This license seems to have been obtained from the king by Cromwell at
-Cranmer’s suggestion. (See Cranmer’s Letter to Cromwell, August 4th, 1537.
-_Remains and Letters_, p. 344. Parker Society.) In this letter Cranmer
-thus expresses his opinion of the book: “And as for the translation, as
-far as I have read thereof I like it better than any other translation
-heretofore made; yet not doubting but that there may be and will be found
-some fault therein, as you know no man ever did or can do so well, but it
-may be from time to time amended. And forasmuch as the book is dedicated
-unto the king’s grace, and also great pains and labour taken in setting
-forth of the same: I pray you, my lord, that you will exhibit the book
-unto the king’s highness, and to obtain of his grace, if you can, a
-license that the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger
-of any act, proclamation, or ordinance, heretofore granted to the
-contrary, until such time as we bishops shall set forth a better
-translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday.”
-
-[16] The full title is, “The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the
-content of all the holy scrypture, bothe of the olde and newe testament,
-truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes by y{e}
-dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde
-tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio
-ad imprimendum solum. 1539.”
-
-[17] This was more than compensated by the remarkable and interesting
-engraving, said to be designed by Hans Holbein, which formed the
-title-page. Herein the king is flattered to his heart’s content. On the
-top of the engraving the king on his knees and uncrowned is addressed by
-our Lord in the words, “I have found a man after mine own heart, who shall
-fulfil all my will.” Below this the king on his throne distributes books
-labelled “_Verbum Dei_,” the Word of God, to the clergy with his right
-hand, to Cromwell and others with the left. Lower down on the right of the
-page is the figure of Cromwell distributing the books to the laity, and on
-the left that of Cranmer distributing it to the clergy. At the bottom of
-the page is a crowd of people of all sorts and conditions, some crying out
-in Latin, “_Vivat Rex_” others in English, “God save the king.”
-
-[18] With the title, “The Most Sacred Bible, which is the Holy Scripture,
-conteyning the old & new testament translated into English, & newly
-recognised with great diligence after most faythful exemplars, by Rychard
-Taverner. Harken thou heuen, & thou earth gyve eare: for the Lorde
-speaketh. Esaie i. Printed at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the
-sonne by John Byddell, for Thomas Barthlet. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum
-solum M.D. XXXIX.”
-
-[19] In Fox, _Acts and Monuments_, v. 428, amongst the names of “godly
-brethren at Oxford” suspected of heresy, and compelled to do public
-penance, mention is made of “Taverner the musician,” of “Friswide College”
-(Frideswede, now Christ Church); and again, v. 423, Anthony Dalaber says,
-“I stode at the quier door and heard Master Taverner play.” Dr. EADIE,
-_The English Bible_, i. 343, assumes that the reference in this last
-passage is to Richard Taverner; but far more probably the reference is to
-John Taverner, who, according to WOOD, _Athenæ Oxoniensis_, i. 124, was
-“sometime organist of Cardinal College.” I find no other foundation than
-these doubtful passages for the statement made by WESTCOTT, _History of
-the English Bible_, ed. 2, p. 85, and by EADIE, _loc. cit._, that Richard
-Taverner was one of those who suffered persecution upon the first
-circulation of Tyndale’s New Testament.
-
-[20] See COTTON, _Editions of the English Bible_, p. 21.
-
-[21] From this circumstance the Great Bible is often, but improperly,
-called Cranmer’s Bible. “The Prologue or Preface made by Thomas Cranmer
-sometime Archbishop of Canterbury,” is prefixed to many Bibles, to some
-editions of the Genevan, and to the Bishops.
-
-[22] The dates of these editions, as given in the colophons, are, July,
-1540; November, 1540 (1541 on title-page); May, 1541; November, 1541;
-December, 1541.
-
-[23] He married Catherine, sister of John Calvin. An interesting account
-of “The Life and Death of Mr. William Whittingham, Deane of Durham, who
-departed this life A.D. 1579, June 10,” found amongst the papers of
-Anthony à Wood, preserved in the Bodleian Library, is given by DR.
-LORIMER, _John Knox and the Church of England_, pp. 303-317.
-
-[24] The dedication to the queen, prefixed to this volume, is dated
-Geneva, February 10th, 1559. After exhorting the queen to persevere in the
-reformation of religion, the writers state that “albeit they had begun
-more than a year ago to peruse the _English_ Translation of the Bible, and
-to bring it to the pure simplicity and true meaning of the Spirit of God,
-yet when they heard that Almighty God had miraculously preserved her to
-that most excellent dignity, with most joyful minds and great diligence
-they endeavoured themselves to set forth this most excellent Book of the
-Psalms unto her Grace as a special token of their service and goodwill
-till the rest of the Bible, which was in good readiness, should be
-accomplished and presented.” (ANTHONY JOHNSON, _Historical Account of the
-Several English Translations of the Bible_. Reprinted in WATSON’S
-_Collection of Theological Tracts_, vol. iii. p. 87.)
-
-[25]
-
-    _verse._   1557.                        1560.
-   1. out of the way                apart
-   3. they saw                      there appeared unto them
-   4. here is good beying for us    it is good for us to be here
-   5. that cloude                   the cloude
-      my deare sonne                my beloved sonne
-      in whom I delyte              in whom I am well pleased
-   6. were afrayed                  were sore afrayde
-   7. But Jesus                     Then Jesus
-   8. loked up                      lifted up their eyes
-   9. See that ye shewe             Shewe
-      be risen                      rise
-      death                         the dead
-  11. Jesus                         And Jesus
-  12. lusted                        would
-      In like wise                  likewise
-  14. people                        multitude
-  15. mercie                        pitie
-      oft                           ofttimes
-  17. Jesus                         Then Jesus
-      how long (_bis_).             how long now (_bis_)
-  18. came out                      went out
-      even that same                at that
-  19. secrectly                     apart
-  20. Jesus                         And Jesus
-      if ye had                     if ye have
-      ye should                     ye shall
-      it should                     it shall
-      neither could anything        and nothing shall
-      for you to do                 unto you
-  22. As they                       And as they
-      passed the time               abode
-      betraied                      delivered
-  23. and the thyrd                 but the third
-      sorowed greatly               were verie sorie
-  24. were wont to gather           received
-  25. spake first to him            prevented
-  27. thyne angle                   an angle
-      the fyshe that first          the first fish that
-      pay                           give it unto them
-
-[26] Strype also tells us that the expenses of publication were borne
-chiefly by John Bodley, father of Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the
-Bodleian Library at Oxford.--_Life of Parker_, p. 206.
-
-[27] It is very pleasant to read that, notwithstanding this, Parker joined
-with Grindal, Bishop of London, in pleading for an extension of the patent
-granted to Bodley, in order to enable him to publish the new edition of
-the Genevan referred to above. Writing, March 9th, 1565, to Cecil, the
-Queen’s Secretary, the Archbishop and Bishop say, “That they thought so
-well of the first Impression, and the Review of those who had since
-travelled therein, that they wisht it would please him to be a Means, that
-Twelve Years longer Term might be by Special Privilege granted him, in
-consideration of the Charges by him and his Associates in the first
-Impression, and the Review sithence sustained. And that tho’ one other
-special Bible for the Churches were meant by them to be set forth, as
-convenient Time and Leisure hereafter should permit, yet should it nothing
-hinder, but rather do much good, to have Diversity of Translations and
-Readings.”--STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, p. 207, Folio Edition.
-
-[28] See Appendix G.
-
-[29] Pagninus was a learned Dominican, who published at Lyons, in 1528, a
-new translation in Latin of the Old and New Testaments.
-
-[30] STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, Appendix, p. 139.
-
-[31] _Ibid_, p. 399.
-
-[32] In an attack made upon Protestant versions of the Scriptures by
-Thomas Ward, in the reign of James II., or three-quarters of a century
-after the publication of the Authorized Version, the writer selects his
-examples from Genevan Bibles of the years 1562, 1577, and 1579, and speaks
-of this Bible as “well known in England even to this day, as being yet in
-many men’s hands.”--_Errata to the Protestant Bible_, p. 19, ed. 1737.
-
-[33] The Old Testament was not published till long afterwards, when the
-College was once more settled at Douai. It is hence called the Douai
-Bible. The first volume was published in 1609, and the second in 1610. In
-the preface it is stated that the translation was made “about thirtie
-yeares since.”
-
-[34] Amongst the former are advent, allegory, anathema, assumption,
-calumniate, co-operate, evangelize, eunuch, gratis, holocaust, neophyte,
-paraclete, pentecost, victim. Amongst the latter are agnition, azymes,
-commessation, condigne, contristate, depositum, donaries, exinanited,
-parasceue, pasche, prefinition, loaves of proposition, repropitiate,
-superedified.
-
-[35] Compare the word “leasowes,” still used in some parts of the country
-for “meadows.”
-
-[36] “Of all the English versions, the Bishops’ Bible had probably the
-least success. It did not command the respect of scholars, and its size
-and cost were far from meeting the wants of the people. Its circulation
-appears to have been practically limited to the churches which were
-ordered to be supplied with it.”--Dr. PLUMPTRE, _Dictionary of the Bible_,
-vol. iii. p. 1,675.
-
-[37] His name is variously spelt Rainolds, Rainoldes, Reinolds, Reynolds.
-
-[38] See Dr. WILLIAM BARLOW’S _Sum and Substance of the Conference which
-it pleased his Excellent Majesty to have with the Lords Bishops, and
-others of his Clergy, in his Majesty’s Privy Chamber at Hampton Court,
-Jan. 1603_ (o.s.). Reprinted in _The Phenix: or a Revival of Scarce and
-Valuable Pieces_, p. 157. Lond. 1707.
-
-[39] Rendered in the Bishops’ and the Great Bible, “and bordereth upon the
-city which is now called Jerusalem,” instead of, “and answered to
-Jerusalem which now is.”
-
-[40] Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, “they were not
-obedient,” instead of, “they were not disobedient,” as in Genevan, or
-“they rebelled not,” as in our present Bibles.
-
-[41] Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, “and prayed,”
-instead of, “and executed judgment.”
-
-[42] See LEWIS, _History of the English Translations of the Bible_, p.
-313; or EADIE, _The English Bible_, vol. ii. p. 180; or WESTCOTT, _History
-of the English Bible_, p. 113. The king’s letter is given in full by
-CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England_, vol. ii.
-p. 65, ed. 1839.
-
-[43] For the names of the Revisers of 1611 see Appendix H.
-
-[44] That is, the Great Bible; called Whitchurch’s, from the name of one
-of the printers.
-
-[45] BURNET, _History of the Reformation_, part ii., Appendix, p. 368, ed.
-1681.
-
-[46] One of whom, Dr. Samuel Ward, had himself taken part in the English
-revision.
-
-[47] Tables of Genealogies and a description of the Holy Land are found
-prefixed to many early editions of King James’s Bible.
-
-[48] _Acta Synodi Dordrechti habitæ_, p. 19, ed. 1620.
-
-[49] CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals_, vol. ii. p. 68, ed. 1839.
-
-[50] See Appendix F.
-
-[51] For a list of the Revisers see Appendix H.
-
-[52] In some cases, however, this further subdivision of work seems to
-have taken place. Anthony Walker, in his _Life of John Bois_, p. 47
-(reprinted in PECK’S _Desiderata Curiosa_), says: “Sure I am that Part of
-the Apocrypha was allotted to him (for he hath showed me the very copy he
-translated by), but to my Grief I know not what part.” Bois was a member
-of the company to which the Apocrypha was assigned. Walker goes on to say,
-“All the time he was about his own Part, his Commons were given to him at
-St. Johns, where he abode all the week till Saturday night; and then he
-went home to discharge his Cure, returning thence on Monday morning. When
-he had finished his own part, at the earnest request of him to whom it was
-assigned he undertook a Second, and then he was to common in another
-College. But I forbear to name both the person and the House.”
-
-[53] The bare fact that the Oxford Revisers met in Rainolds’ lodgings is
-mentioned by WOOD, _Historia Univ. Oxon._, vol. i. p. 311, and is referred
-to by STOUGHTON, _Our English Bible_, p. 248.
-
-[54] FULLER’S _Abel Redivivus_, p. 487. In his _Church History_, book x.
-p. 48, Fuller says of Rainolds that he was a man deserving of the epitaph.
-“Incertum est utrum Doctior an Melior.” “We know not which was the
-greater, his learning or his goodness.”
-
-[55] PECK, _Desiderata Curiosa_, p. 47.
-
-[56] It is clear, from the words which immediately follow, that the writer
-uses the word “company” here for the entire number of translators
-belonging to any one of the three centres. In the written account
-presented to the Synod of Dort by the English delegates, it is said that
-_twelve_ persons, selected out of the companies, met together, and
-reviewed and corrected the entire work. Wood also (_Athenæ Oxon._, vol. i.
-p. 490) gives twelve as the number of the “selected,” and amongst them
-includes Bilson and Miles Smith.
-
-[57] The writer quaintly remarks in a parenthesis, “Though Mr. Downes
-would not go till he was either fetcht or threatened with the Pursuivant.”
-
-[58] Lewis (_History of the English Translations of the Bible_, p. 323) by
-a strange blunder turns these shillings into pounds.
-
-[59] Walker adds, “Whilst they were employed in this last business, he and
-he only took notes of their proceedings, which notes he kept till his
-dying day.” If these notes could be recovered they would throw much light
-upon many points of interest in connection with the Revision of 1611.
-
-[60] FULLER, _Church History_, book x. p. 57.
-
-[61] See Mr. HENRY STEVENS, _Printed Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition_, p.
-110. But if Mr. Stevens be right in this contention, the publisher can
-scarcely be held free from the charge of false suggestion, since the
-phrase occurs in earlier Bibles in the sense which it most naturally
-bears. In the edition of the Great Bible dated April, 1540, we have on the
-title-page: “This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the churches,” and
-the meaning of this is shown by the fuller form that appears in the
-title-page of the edition of November, 1540, “auctorysed and apoynted by
-the commaundement of oure moost redoubted Prynce and soveraygne Lorde
-Kynge Henrye the VIII. ... to be frequented and used in every churche
-within this his sayd realme.” An edition of the Bishops’ Bible dated 1585
-has the inscription, “Authorized and appointed to be read in Churches;”
-and King Charles II.’s _Declaration to all His Loving Subjects_, is
-“Appointed to to be Read in all Churches and Chapels within this kingdom.”
-
-[62] The latest quarto edition of the Genevan published in England bears
-the date 1615, the latest folio, 1616.
-
-[63] This edition has hence been described by Bible collectors as the
-“Wicked Bible.” The error was of course speedily discovered and the
-edition suppressed. Archbishop Laud fined the printer in the sum of £300,
-and with this he is said to have bought a fount of Greek type for the
-University of Oxford.
-
-[64] In the reign of Charles II. a silly report was set afloat that Field,
-the printer of what is known as the Pearl Bible of 1653, had received a
-present of £1,500 from the Independents to introduce this corruption into
-the text. See D’ISRAELI’S _Curiosities of Literature_, Art. Pearl Bible.
-Mr. D’Israeli must have been ignorant of the fact that this error occurs
-in Bibles printed fifteen years earlier than the Pearl Bible, and by the
-University Press, Cambridge.
-
-[65] This may possibly have been a change deliberately made by the editor,
-who either had a different Greek text or followed the Vulgate; but even in
-that case it would be a very awkward way of rendering the text before him.
-
-[66] This he has done, professedly, in the attempt to represent the
-version of 1611, “so far as may be, in the precise shape that it would
-have assumed if its venerable translators had shown themselves more exempt
-than they were from the failings incident to human infirmity; or if the
-same severe accuracy which is now demanded in carrying so important a
-volume through the press had been deemed requisite, or was at all usual in
-their age.”--Introduction to Cambridge Paragraph Bible, p. i.
-
-[67] The LXX. and Vulgate are here right; so also Wycliffe, who,
-translating from the Latin, renders, “Seven trompes, whos vse is in the
-iubile.”
-
-[68] Wycliffe, “Stronge men seseden in Yrael.”
-
-[69] Here again the LXX., Vulgate, and Wycliffe are right. Wycliffe
-renders, “of whom shulen be alle the best thingis of Yrael.”
-
-[70] The LXX., Vulgate, Wycliffe, the Great Bible, the Genevan, and the
-Bishops’, all give the true sense.
-
-[71] In their rendering of verse 3 the Revisers of 1611 have followed the
-Genevan. Of the older versions, the Great Bible best renders this verse,
-“All my delyte is upon the saynctes that are in the earth, and upon suche
-as excell in vertue.”
-
-[72] The Vulgate leads the way in this error.
-
-[73] Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan render correctly.
-
-[74] So the Rheims, “Why do you also trangresse the commaundement of God
-for your tradition?”
-
-[75] So Wycliffe, “for they ben feithful and loued, the whiche ben
-parceners of benefice;” and the Rheims, “because they be faithful and
-beloued which are partakers of the benefite.”
-
-[76] Here all the older versions go wrong.
-
-[77] The first four books of the _Annals of Tacitus_ are found only in a
-single MS. (the Medicean) of the eleventh century. The nine books of the
-_Letters of Pliny the Younger_ are found complete in one MS. only, of the
-tenth century; this also is in the Medicean Library.
-
-[78] From the Latin _uncia_, an inch.
-
-[79] In some MSS. called _palimpsests_, the more ancient, and to us the
-more valuable, writing has been partially washed away, in order that the
-vellum might be used again for some more recent work. In these cases it is
-exceedingly difficult to decipher, beneath the later and darker writing,
-the traces of the older writing; indeed, not unfrequently the characters
-are so faded that they cannot be read at all until revived by some
-chemical preparation. The Ephraem Codex is a MS. of this kind.
-
-[80] Commonly referred to under the symbol א, the Hebrew letter, _Aleph_.
-
-[81] Referred to as B.
-
-[82] Referred to as A.
-
-[83] Referred to as C.
-
-[84] Referred to as D of the Gospels.
-
-[85] Referred to as D of the Epistles.
-
-[86] The License for its publication was not granted until March 20, 1520.
-
-[87] Namely, his sole authority for the Apocalypse.
-
-[88] He had previously published two smaller editions (16mo), one in 1546,
-and another in 1549.
-
-[89] Now called the Codex Regius, and denoted by L.
-
-[90] The collation of the eight Parisian MSS. was done for him by his son
-Henry, then a youth of eighteen.
-
-[91] At Geneva, whither he had deemed it prudent to remove shortly after
-the publication of his celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament.
-
-[92] _Works_, vol. vi. p. 194.
-
-[93] The draft of this Bill is preserved in the State Paper Office
-(_Domestic Interreg._, Bundle 662, f. 12), and is given in full by Dr.
-STOUGHTON, _Church of the Commonwealth_, p. 543.
-
-[94] _Errata to the Protestant Bible_, Pref. p. 3., ed. 1737.
-
-[95] In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is a manuscript in
-three volumes of an English version of the Bible, by Ambrose Ussher,
-brother of Archbishop Ussher. The date assigned to it is about 1620. It
-does not, however, seem to be in any proper sense a revision of the
-version of 1611, but rather an independent revision based upon the earlier
-versions. In an “epistle dedicatorie” to James I. the writer describes
-himself as having “leisurelie and seasonablie dressed” and “served out
-this other dish” while His Majesty was “a doing on” the “seasonable sudden
-meale” which the translators had hastily prepared. He further states that
-he did not oppose “to our new translation old interpretationes alreadie
-waighed and reiected,” but “fresh and new that yeeld new consideration and
-that fight not onlie with our English Bible, but likelie with all
-translated bibles in what language soeuer and contrarieth them.” As far as
-can be gathered from the examination of a single chapter, the work seems
-chiefly based upon the Genevan. The version is incomplete. Vol. i.
-contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua
-(imperfect), Judges, Ruth, Samuel; vol. ii. contains Kings, Chronicles,
-Ezra, Nehemiah (imperfect), Esther, and a Latin version of part of Joshua;
-vol. iii. contains Job, Psalms (partly in Latin), Proverbs, Song of
-Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
-(partly in Latin), the Minor Prophets, the first chapter of St. John’s
-Gospel, Romans, Corinthians, Philemon, James, Peter, John, Apocalypse
-(partly in Latin), Jude.--Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
-_Fourth Report_, pp. 589-598.
-
-[96] _The Life and Death of Mr. Henry Jessey_, p. 47.
-
-[97] Mace’s rendering of James iii. 5, 6 is the passage most frequently
-quoted in illustration of his style. “So the tongue is but a small part of
-the body, yet how grand are its pretensions, a spark of fire! what
-quantities of timber will it blow into a flame? the tongue is a brand that
-sets the world in a combustion, it is but one of the numerous organs of
-the body, yet it can blast whole assemblies: tipped with infernal sulphur
-it sets the whole train of life in a blaze.” It is but right, however, to
-state that this is perhaps the very worst passage in the book. The
-following verses are a fair specimen of his ordinary style. Acts xix. 8,
-9: “At length Paul went to the synagogue, where he spoke with great
-freedom, and for three months he conferred with them to persuade them of
-the truth of the evangelical kingdom, but some of them being such obdurate
-infidels as to inveigh against the institution before the populace, he
-retired, and taking the disciples with him, he instructed them daily in
-the school of one Tyrannus.”
-
-A yet more offensive specimen of this style of translation was supplied by
-the New Testament published in 1768, by E. Harwood, and entitled, _A
-literal translation of the New Testament, being an attempt to translate
-the Sacred Writings with the same Freedom, Spirit, and Elegance with which
-other English Translations from the Greek Classics have lately been
-executed_; a work which, however faithfully it may represent the inflated
-and stilted style which then prevailed, can now be read only with
-astonishment and disgust.
-
-[98] Worsley died before the publication of the volume. It was edited by
-M. Bradshaw and S. Worsley.
-
-[99] In 3 vols., 8vo. A second edition in 2 vols., 8vo., was published in
-1795. _Memoirs of Gilbert Wakefield_, vol. i. p. 355; vol. ii. p. 468.
-
-[100] The work was intended to form eight vols. 4to.
-
-[101] SCRIVENER, _Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament_, p.
-397.
-
-[102] _Eclectic Review_, January, 1809, p. 31.
-
-[103] _Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible_, p. 297,
-ed. 1828. The italics are Dr. Marsh’s own.
-
-[104] The members of this first joint Committee were Dr. Wilberforce, Dr.
-Ellicott, Dr. Thirlwall, Dr. Ollivant, Dr. E. H. Browne (Bishop of Ely),
-Dr. Chr. Wordsworth (Bishop of Lincoln), and Dr. G. Moberly (Bishop of
-Salisbury); Dr. Bickersteth (the Prolocutor); Deans Alford, Jeremie, and
-Stanley; Archdeacons Rose, Freeman, and Grant; Chancellor Massingberd;
-Canons Blakesley, How, Selwyn, Swainson, and Woodgate; Dr. Kay, Dr. Jebb,
-and Mr. De Winton.
-
-[105] The Convocation of York declined to take part in the revision, on
-the ground that in their judgment the time was unfavourable for such a
-work.
-
-[106] Canon Selwyn had persistently advocated the claims of revision, and
-had brought it before the Notice of the Lower House of Convocation so
-early as March 1st, 1856. Notice of a renewed motion on the question had
-been given by him for the meeting of Convocation on February, 1870, and
-was only withdrawal when superseded by the proposal sent down on February
-11th from the Upper House.
-
-[107] Canon Cook, Dr. J. H. Newman, Canon Pusey, and Dr. W. Wright. Dr.
-Wright, however, subsequently joined the Old Testament Company.
-
-[108] Dr. S. P. Tregelles.
-
-[109] Now Bishop of Winchester.
-
-[110] Now Dean of Canterbury.
-
-[111] Now Dean of Peterborough.
-
-[112] Now D.D.
-
-[113] Now Bursar.
-
-[114] Now Dean of Lichfield.
-
-[115] Now Dean of Lincoln.
-
-[116] Now D.D. and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
-
-[117] Now Bishop of Durham.
-
-[118] Now D.D., and Master of the Leys School, Cambridge.
-
-[119] Now D.D., Principal of New College, London, and Lee Professor of
-Divinity.
-
-[120] Now Professor of Humanity, St. Andrews.
-
-[121] Now Dean of Rochester.
-
-[122] Now LL.D.
-
-[123] Now Principal of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen.
-
-[124] Now also Dean of Llandaff.
-
-[125] Now also Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
-
-[126] Now Lady Margaret Preacher, Cambridge.
-
-[127] Now Archdeacon of Oxford.
-
-[128] Corresponding Member.
-
-[129] These have been thus distributed:
-
-  Bishop of Gloucester     405
-  Dr. Scrivener            399
-  Mr. Humphry              385
-  Dr. Newth                373
-  Dr. Hort                 362
-  Dean of Lichfield        352
-  Dean of Rochester        337
-  Canon Westcott           304
-  Dean of Llandaff         302
-  Dean of Lincoln          297
-  Bishop of Durham         290
-  Archdeacon Lee           283
-  Dr. Moulton              271
-  Archdeacon Palmer        255
-  Dean of Westminster      253
-  Dr. Vance Smith          245
-  Dr. Brown                209
-  Dr. Angus                199
-  Dr. Milligan             182
-  Canon Kennedy            165
-  Dr. Eadie                135
-  Bishop of Salisbury      121
-  Bishop of St. Andrews    109
-  Dr. Roberts               94
-  Archbishop of Dublin      63
-  Dean Merivale             19
-  Dean Alford               16
-  Bishop Wilberforce         1
-
-[130] As the original would be very obscure to many of my readers, I have
-somewhat reluctantly decided to give the modern spelling and the modern
-equivalent for obsolete words.
-
-[131] Psalm lxxxvii. 6 is thus rendered in the Wycliffite versions, after
-the Vulgate and LXX. The LXX. here differs from the Hebrew.
-
-[132] The word Judah, from which “Jew” is derived, is from a Hebrew verb,
-meaning “to praise.” (See Gen. xxix. 35; xlix. 8.)
-
-[133] By “sentence” Purvey commonly means “sense,” or “meaning.”
-
-[134] That is, if he examine many copies, and especially those of recent
-date.
-
-[135] AUGUSTINE, _Christian Doctrine_, book ii., c. xi.
-
-[136] Bohemians.
-
-[137] AUGUSTINE, _Christian Doctrine_, b. ii. c. xii.
-
-[138] Wisdom, iv. 3.
-
-[139] This Prologue contains but little in the way of historical
-information. It has this especial interest, that it is the preface of the
-first printed portion of the English Bible.
-
-[140] Imitate.
-
-[141] Changed in later editions, first into “To the diligent and Christian
-Reader. Grace, mercie, and peace, through Christ Jesus,” and then “To the
-Christian Reader” simply.
-
-[142] Whittingham had previously done the same in his New Testament of
-1557. In his address “To the Reader” he says: “And because the Hebrewe and
-Greke phrases, which are strange to rendre in other tongues, and also
-short, shulde not be to hard, I haue sometyme interpreted them without any
-whit diminishing the grace of the sense, as our lāgage doth vse them, and
-sometyme have put to that worde which lacking made the sentence obscure,
-but haue set it in such letters as may easily be discerned from the cōmun
-text.”
-
-In some later editions of the Genevan Bible, printed in black letter, this
-clause is altered into “wee have put in the text between these two markes
-[ ] such worde or verbe as doth more properlie explane or manifest the
-text in our tongue.”
-
-[143] To the end that.
-
-[144] ἔξο βέλους
-
-[145] σεισάχθειαν
-
-[146] _Circa annum 900. B. Rhenan. rerum German lib. 2._
-
-[147] STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, b. iv. c. 20; JOHNSON, _Historical
-Account_, p. 87; BURNET, _History of the Reformation_, part ii. book iii.
-p. 406, ed. 1681.
-
-[148] The Psalms were in the first instance assigned to Guest, Bishop of
-Rochester. It is probable that the Archbishop was dissatisfied with
-Guest’s work, and on good grounds, for he despatched it very quickly, and
-forwarded it to the Archbishop with a letter, in which he thus sets forth
-his estimate of his duty as a translator: “I have not altered the
-Translation but where it giveth occasion of an error. As in the first
-Psalm, at the beginning I turn the preterperfect tense into the present
-tense; because the tense is too hard in the preterperfect tense. Where in
-the New Testament one piece of a Psalm is reported, I translate it in the
-Psalm according to the translation thereof in the New Testament, for the
-avoiding of the offence that may rise to the people upon diverse
-translations.” (STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, b. iii. c. 6; _Parker
-Correspondence_, PARKER, sec. ed. p. 250.)
-
-[149] _Parker Correspondence_, PARKER, sec. ed. p. 335.
-
-[150] _Hist. of Ref._, part ii. book iii. p. 406, ed. 1681.
-
-[151] _Collection of Records_, part ii. book iii. number 10.
-
-[152] Probably a misprint for Harmer.
-
-[153] CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals_, vol. ii. p. 110.
-
-[154] Barlow was present at the Hampton Court Conference in January, 1601,
-and all accounts describe him as then Dean of Chester; and his narrative
-of the Conference, published in 1604, is described as “contracted by
-William Barlow, Doctor of Divinity, and Dean of Chester.” Sir Peter
-Leycester, _Hist. Antiq. of Cheshire_, p. 169, states that Barlow was
-appointed Dean in 1603.
-
-[155] Bishop of Chichester, November 3rd, 1605; Bishop of Ely, 1609;
-Bishop of Winchester, 1619.
-
-[156] Bishop of Lichfield, April, 1614; Bishop of Norwich, 1618.
-
-[157] Subsequently Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
-
-[158] Lively died May, 1605, and hence could not have taken any active
-part in the Revision.
-
-[159] Afterwards D.D., and successively Master of Peterhouse and of
-Trinity College.
-
-[160] Succeeded Dr. Duport in the Mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge.
-
-[161] Succeeded Mr. Lively as Regius Professor of Hebrew.
-
-[162] Afterwards Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.
-
-[163] Afterwards Bishop of Gloucester.
-
-[164] Master of Sidney College, January, 1609; Archdeacon of Taunton,
-1615; Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge, 1620; Lady Margaret Professor of
-Divinity, 1621.
-
-[165] Afterwards D.D., Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop’s
-Waltham, Hants.
-
-[166] Bishop of Gloucester, March 19th, 1605; Bishop of London, May 18th,
-1607.
-
-[167] Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1609; Bishop of London, 1610.
-
-[168] Died November, 1604, and hence could have taken no part in the work
-of the Company. His name is not mentioned by Wood in the list given in
-_Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._, i. p. 311, ed. 1674.
-
-[169] Knighted at Windsor, September 21st, 1604.
-
-[170] WOOD, _Athenæ Oxoniensis_, i. 355.
-
-[171] _Ibid_, i. 570.
-
-[172] Subsequently, on the death of Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi
-College. Dr. WESTCOTT, _History of English Bible_, sec. ed. p. 117, and
-Dr. MOULTON, _History of English Bible_, p. 196, both have Dr. _T._
-Spencer, but his name, as inscribed on the monument in the Chapel of
-Corpus Christi College, is IOHANNES SPENSER, and is so given by Wood.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes:
-
-Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
-
-Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
-
-Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
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-
-Title: Lectures on Bible Revision
-
-Author: Samuel Newth
-
-Release Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #42514]
-
-Language: English
-
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION ***
-
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-
-Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
-  LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.
-
-  With an Appendix
-
-  CONTAINING THE PREFACES TO THE CHIEF HISTORICAL
-  EDITIONS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
-
-
-  BY SAMUEL NEWTH, M.A., D.D.,
-  PRINCIPAL, AND LEE PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, NEW COLLEGE, LONDON;
-  MEMBER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY OF REVISERS.
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
-  27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
-  MDCCCLXXXI.
-
-  [_All rights reserved._]
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-The following work is especially intended for Sunday-school and
-Bible-class teachers, and for such others as from any cause may be unable
-to consult many books or to read lengthened treatises. It has seemed to me
-to be of great importance that those who are engaged in the responsible
-service of teaching the young, and to whom the Bible is the constant
-source of appeal, should be able both to take up an intelligent position
-in regard to the new revision of the English Scriptures, and to meet the
-various enquiries that will be made respecting it by those about them. I
-have therefore endeavoured to provide for their use, in a compendious
-form, a survey of the general argument for revision, and of the facts
-which exhibit the present duty of Christian men in relation thereto. In
-the execution of this purpose it has been necessary to direct attention to
-the chief stages in the growth of the English Bible, but this has been
-done only so far as seemed to be requisite for the illustration of the
-main argument. Those who may desire to study this part of the subject more
-at length are referred to the full and interesting volumes of Dr. Eadie,
-or to the convenient manuals published by Dr. Moulton and by Dr.
-Stoughton. Such as may wish to investigate more minutely the internal
-history of the Authorized Version will find Dr. Westcott's _General View
-of the History of the English Bible_ a most trustworthy and invaluable
-guide.
-
-In the Appendix I have brought together the prologues or prefaces to the
-chief historical editions of the English Bible. Some of these are not of
-easy access to ordinary readers, while all are of deep and lasting
-interest. They will abundantly repay a careful perusal. The reader will
-thereby, more readily than in any other way, come into personal contact
-with the noble men to whose self-denying labours our country and the world
-are so deeply indebted; will learn what was the spirit which animated
-them, and what were the aims and methods of their toil; and, in addition
-to much wise instruction respecting the study of the word of God, will
-learn how the deepest love and reverence for the Bible are not only
-tolerant of changes in its outward form, but will indeed imperatively
-demand them whenever needed for the more faithful exhibition of the truth
-it enshrines.
-
-It has formed no part of my purpose either to exhibit or to justify the
-changes which have been made in the revision in which I have had the
-honour and the responsibility of sharing. The former will best be learnt
-from the perusal of the Revised Version itself; the latter it would be
-unbecoming in me to undertake. The ultimate decision respecting them must
-rest upon the concurrent judgment of the wisest and most learned; and they
-who are the most competent to judge will be the least hasty in giving
-judgment, for they best know how difficult and delicate is the
-translator's task, and how manifold, and sometimes how subtle, are the
-various considerations which determine his rendering. Nor indeed would any
-such attempt be possible within the limits I have here assigned to myself.
-To be properly done it would require an appeal to special learning which
-I have no right to assume in my readers, and to habits of scholarly
-investigation which I may not presuppose. To the bulk of my readers the
-one justification for the changes they will discover in the Revised New
-Testament must practically rest in the fact that those who have for more
-than ten years conscientiously and diligently laboured in this matter, and
-who have with such anxious care revised and re-revised their work, have
-been constrained to the conclusion that in this way they would most
-faithfully and clearly present the sense of the sacred Word. May He whose
-word it is graciously accept their service, and deign to use it for His
-glory.
-
-  NEW COLLEGE,
-  _April 26, 1881_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-                                                                      Page
-
-  LECTURE I. SUBSTANCE AND FORM                                          1
-
-  LECTURE II. THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE                           11
-
-  LECTURE III. THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE                  25
-
-  LECTURE IV. THE REVISION OF 1611. THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION    39
-
-  LECTURE V. REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY                             51
-
-  LECTURE VI. ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN
-              THE REVISION OF 1611                                      61
-
-  LECTURE VII. ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW
-               KNOWN                                                    79
-
-  LECTURE VIII. THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING
-                THE PAST TWO CENTURIES                                  91
-
-  LECTURE IX. THE REVISION OF 1881                                     105
-
-
-  APPENDIX.
-
-  (A.) PURVEY'S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE. CH. XV.              129
-
-  (B.) TYNDALE'S PROLOGUES                                             137
-
-  (C.) COVERDALE'S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535                       160
-
-  (D.) PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 1560                              172
-
-  (E.) PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS' BIBLE. 1568                             177
-
-  (F.) PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611                                 199
-
-  (G.) THE REVISERS OF 1568                                            235
-
-  (H.) THE REVISERS OF 1611                                            237
-
-
-
-
-LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE I.
-
-_SUBSTANCE AND FORM._
-
-
-There are probably devout persons not a few in whose minds the mere
-suggestion of a Revision of the Scriptures arouses a feeling of mingled
-pain and surprise. In that Bible which they received from their fathers in
-the trustful confidence of childhood, they have heard the voice of God
-speaking to their souls. Not from any testimony given to them by others,
-but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to
-be the Father's gift unto His children. It has quickened, guided, and
-strengthened them, as no human words had ever done, answering the deepest
-cravings of their nature, stimulating them to endeavours after a nobler
-life, and enkindling within them the confidence of a sure and blessed
-hope. That it is from heaven, and not from men, they know, not because of
-what has been told them, but from what they themselves have seen and
-learnt; and they need no further evidence of its inspiration than the fact
-that it has opened their eyes to a knowledge of themselves, and to a
-perception of the loveliness of Christ. That any should dare to meddle
-with a book so precious and so honoured, seems to them a sacrilegious act,
-and a Revision of the Holy Scriptures is to them a presumptuous attempt to
-improve upon the handiwork of God.
-
-In this feeling there is much with which every Christian man will warmly
-sympathize; but there is in it also something that calls for correction
-and instruction. There is need here, as elsewhere, of careful thought and
-self-discipline, lest, by confounding things that differ, we transfer our
-reverence for what is God-given and divine to what is only human, and
-therefore fallible. A little consideration will suffice to show that, in
-such a matter as this, it is peculiarly important to distinguish between
-substance and form, between what is essential and permanent and what is
-accidental and variable. By the substance of the Bible we mean the
-statements which, in various ways and diverse manners, it presents to our
-thoughts; the precepts and the promises, the histories and the prophecies,
-the doctrines and the prayers, the truths about God and about man, through
-which our minds are instructed, our consciences enlightened, and our
-hearts established by grace. By the form of the Bible, we mean the signs
-or sounds by which the various statements contained in the Bible are
-presented to us, and which are, as it were, the channel through which the
-truths it teaches are conveyed to our minds. It will be obvious upon the
-least consideration, that the kind and degree of reverence which it is
-right to entertain towards the form of Scripture, is very different from
-that which it behoves us to cherish for the substance of Scripture.
-Respecting the latter, it is fitting to watch with all jealousy that no
-man add unto it or take from it; it is precious for its own sake. Not so,
-however, with the former; its worth is not in itself, but only in that
-which it enshrines. The two sentences--
-
-"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
-Jesus came into the world to save sinners,"
-
-"Gwir yw'r gair ac yn haeddu pob derbyniad, ddyfod Crist Iesu i'r byd i
-gadw pechaduriaid,"
-
-are very different in form, whether judged by the eye or the ear, and yet
-the truth conveyed by the former to an Englishman, or by the latter to a
-Welshman, is essentially the same. And although one who had learnt to
-prize that truth under either of the forms here given would naturally
-cherish also the very words by which it had been taught him, his reverence
-for the truth would impel him to adopt the other form in preference
-whenever that might be the better instrument for conveying it to another.
-Changes, therefore, in the form of Scripture may be lawful and right.
-
-Moreover, as a matter of history, the form of Scripture has, from the very
-beginning, been passing through a continued succession of changes, and
-with this fact it is most important that the Bible student should
-familiarize himself. These changes may be arranged under two general
-classes.
-
-One class of changes has arisen out of the perishable nature of the
-documents, of which the Bible at the first consisted.
-
-It is scarcely needful to state that we do not now possess the original
-copies of any of the books of the Old or the New Testament. Even while
-these were still in existence it was necessary to transcribe them in order
-that many persons in many places might possess and read them. In the work
-of transcription, however careful the transcriber might have been, errors
-of various kinds necessarily arose; some from mistaking one letter for
-another; some from failure of memory, if the scribe were writing from
-dictation; and some from occasional oversight, if he were writing from a
-copy before him; some from momentary lapses of attention, when his hand
-wrote on without his guidance; and some from an attempt to correct a real
-or fancied error in the work of his predecessor. If any of my readers will
-make an experiment by copying a passage of some length from any printed
-book, and then hand over his manuscript to a friend with a request to copy
-it, and afterwards pass on the copy so made to a third, and so on in
-succession through a list of ten or a dozen persons, each copying the
-manuscript of the one before him in the list, he will, on comparing the
-last with the printed book, have a vivid and interesting illustration of
-the number and kind of variations that arise in the process of
-transcription. In the case, therefore, of even very early copies of any of
-the books of the Scriptures, some sort of revision would become necessary,
-and the deeper the reverence for the book, the more obligatory would the
-duty of making such a revision be felt to be, and the more earnestly and
-readily would it be undertaken. So long as the original copies were in
-existence and accessible this work of revision would be comparatively easy
-and simple. It would call only for the ability to make careful and patient
-comparison. But when the originals could no longer be appealed to, and
-when, moreover, successive transcription had gone on through many
-generations, the work would become much more complex and difficult,
-calling for much knowledge and much persevering research, for a mind
-skilled in the appreciation of evidence, and able to judge calmly between
-conflicting testimony. At the same time, the need for revision would to
-some extent be greater than before. I say to some extent, because the
-natural multiplication of errors arising from successive transcription
-through many centuries, has in the case of the Scriptures been very
-largely checked. The special reverence felt for this book beyond other
-books led to the exercise of special care in the preparation of Biblical
-manuscripts, and special precautions were taken to guard them as far as
-possible from any variation. Owing to these and other causes a larger
-measure of uniformity is found in the later than in the earlier
-manuscripts now extant.
-
-A second class of changes in the form of the Scriptures has arisen from
-the natural growth and development of language.
-
-The earliest Bible of which we have any historical knowledge was in the
-form of a roll, made probably of skins, containing the five books of
-Moses, and written in the Hebrew language. This was described as "the Book
-of the Law of the Lord given by Moses" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14); more briefly
-as "the Book of the Law of Moses" (Joshua viii. 31; 2 Kings xiv. 6; Neh.
-viii. 1), or as "the Book of the Law of God" (Neh. viii. 8); and more
-briefly still as "the Book of the Law" (2 Kings xxii. 8), or as "the Book
-of Moses." (Ezra vi. 18; Mark xii. 26.) Two other collections of sacred
-books were subsequently added, known respectively as the Prophets and the
-Holy Writings, the former comprising Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings,
-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets; the latter
-comprising the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, Ruth,
-Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. It is
-in this order, we may note in passing, that the books of the Old Testament
-are still arranged in our Hebrew Bibles.
-
-Before the completion of the canon of the Old Testament the language of
-the Jews began to exhibit evidences of change, and through their
-intercourse with the various peoples of Mesopotamia (or Aram) the later
-books show a distinct tendency towards Aramaic forms and idioms. This
-tendency, already apparent at the time of the return from the Captivity,
-was accelerated by the political events which followed. During the hundred
-and eighty years and more which intervened between the Restoration of the
-Temple, B.C. 516, and the overthrow of Darius Codomannus, B.C. 331, Jud�a
-was a portion of that province of the Persian empire, in which the Aramaic
-was the prevalent dialect. The ancient Hebrew gradually ceased to be the
-language of the Jews in common life, and, before the time of our Lord, had
-been supplanted by the language of their Eastern neighbours.
-
-With the decline of the Hebrew language there arose amongst the Jews the
-class of men known as Scribes, whose primary function was that of
-preparing copies of the Scriptures, and of guarding the sacred text from
-the intrusion of errors. Owing to their great zeal for the preservation of
-the letter of Scripture, and to their natural tendency to hold fast to the
-honour and influence which their special knowledge and skill gave to
-them, they did not, when Hebrew ceased to be intelligible to the common
-people, set themselves to the task of giving them the Bible in a form
-which they could understand; but, magnifying their office overmuch,
-assumed the position of authoritative teachers and expounders of the Law.
-Scholars might still study for themselves the ancient Bible, but for the
-people at large the form which the Scriptures now practically assumed was
-that of the spoken utterances of the Scribes.
-
-How imperfect and unsatisfactory this must have been is obvious; and the
-more so as these teachers did not content themselves with simply rendering
-the ancient text into a familiar form, but intermingled with it a mass of
-human traditions that obscured and sometimes contradicted its meaning. It
-would have been a great gain for the people of Jud�a if their regard for
-the outward form of their Scriptures had been less extreme and more
-enlightened, and if competent men amongst them had ventured so to revise
-the ancient books that their fellow countrymen might read in their own
-tongue the wonderful works and words of God.
-
-This wiser course was adopted in that larger Jud�a which lay outside of
-Palestine. The Jews scattered through Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and
-other parts of the empire of Alexander and his successors, were less
-rigidly conservative than were the residents of Jud�a, and for their use a
-translation into Greek was made in the latter part of the third century
-before Christ. This is the version known as the Septuagint.[1] It is
-probable, both on general grounds and from internal evidence, that the
-Pentateuch was the portion first translated, and that subsequently, though
-after no very long interval of time, the other portions were translated
-also. It is quite certain that the whole was in circulation in the middle
-of the second century before Christ. Various tales respecting the origin
-of this translation got spread abroad.[2] These are largely due to the
-vivid imagination of their authors. They may, however, be taken as
-evidence of the high esteem in which this version was held; and we shall
-probably not err in concluding from them that Alexandria was the city in
-which it originated. During, then, the two centuries that preceded the
-Advent, the Bible, as used by the great majority of its readers in various
-parts of the world, had assumed an entirely different form from that in
-which it at first appeared. It was in Greek, and not in Hebrew, and it
-included several additional works; those, namely, which are now called
-collectively the Apocrypha. The use of this translation amongst the
-extra-Palestinian Jews contributed largely to the spread of Christianity;
-and to many amongst the earliest Christian churches, and for many
-generations, it was still the form under which they studied the books of
-the Old Testament.
-
-At the time of our Lord and His Apostles, Greek was the language which
-most widely prevailed through the Roman Empire. It was the ordinary
-language of intercourse amongst all the peoples that had formerly been
-subjugated by Grecian arms, and was read and spoken by many in Rome
-itself. It was in this language, and not in the sacred language of the
-ancient Church, that the books of the New Testament were written; and the
-lesson was thereby emphatically taught us that the Bible was for man, and
-not man for the Bible; that the form was subordinate to the substance, and
-should be so modified, as occasions occur, that it may best minister to
-the spiritual wants of mankind.
-
-As years passed on Christianity spread into the rural parts of the
-districts already occupied, where Greek was but little known, and into new
-regions beyond, where that language had never prevailed. This called for
-further changes in the form of Scripture, and in the second century of our
-era both the Old and New Testaments were translated for the use of the
-numerous Christians in Northern and Eastern Syria into that form of
-Aramaic which is known as Syriac. This language--the Syro-Aramaic--differs
-by dialectic peculiarities from the Palestinian Aramaic. In its earliest
-forms, however, we have probably the nearest representation we can now
-hope to obtain of the native language of the people amongst whom our Lord
-lived and laboured.
-
-About the same time also the Scriptures began to be translated into Latin
-for the use of the Churches of North Africa, and there is good reason for
-believing that in the last quarter of the second century the entire
-Scriptures in Latin were largely circulated throughout that region. This
-was what is termed the Old Latin version. It was the Bible as possessed
-and used by Tertullian and Cyprian, and subsequently, in a revised form,
-by Augustine. In the Old Testament this version was made, not from Hebrew,
-but from the Greek of the Septuagint, and so was but the translation of a
-translation.
-
-From Africa this Bible passed into Italy. Here a certain rudeness of
-style, arising from its provincial origin, awakened ere long a desire to
-secure a version that should be at once more accurate and more grateful to
-Italian ears. Various attempts at a revision of the Latin were
-consequently made. One of these, known as the Itala, or the Italic
-version, is highly commended by Augustine. In the year A.D. 383, Damasus,
-the then Bishop of Rome, troubled by the manifold variations that existed
-between different copies of the Latin Scriptures then in circulation,
-used his influence with one of the greatest scholars of the age, Eusebius
-Hieronymus, to undertake the laborious and responsible task of a thorough
-revision of the Latin text. Hieronymus, or, as he is commonly termed,
-Jerome, at once set himself to the task, and his revised New Testament
-appeared in A.D. 385. He also once and again revised the Old Latin version
-of the Book of Psalms, and subsequently the remaining books of the Old
-Testament, carefully comparing them with the Greek of the Septuagint, from
-which they had been derived. In A.D. 389, when in his sixtieth year, he
-entered upon the further task of a new translation of the books of the Old
-Testament from the original Hebrew, and completed it in the year A.D. 404.
-Out of the various labours of Jerome arose the Bible which is commonly
-known as the Vulgate. Jerome's translation of the Old Testament from the
-Hebrew was not made at the instance of any ecclesiastical authority, and
-the old prejudice in favour of the Septuagint led many still to cling to
-the earlier version. Only very gradually did the new translation make its
-way; and not until the time of Gregory the Great, at the close of the
-sixth century, did it receive the explicit sanction of the head of the
-Roman Church.[3] In the case of the Psalter, the old translation was never
-superseded.
-
-The Vulgate is thus a composite work. It contains (1) Jerome's translation
-from the Hebrew of all the books of the Old Testament, except the Psalms;
-(2) Jerome's revision of the Old Latin version of the Psalms, that version
-being, as stated above, made from the Septuagint; (3) the Old Latin
-version of the Apocrypha unrevised, save in the books of Judith and
-Tobit; (4) Jerome's revised New Testament, which in the Gospels was very
-careful and complete, and might almost be termed a new translation, though
-he himself repudiated any such claim.
-
-During many centuries the Vulgate was the only form in which the Bible was
-accessible to the people of Western Europe, and it was the Bible from
-which in turn the earliest Bibles of our own and other countries were
-immediately derived. It will thus be seen that the history of the Bible
-has from the beginning been a history of revision. Only so could they who
-loved the Bible fulfil the trust committed to them; only so could the
-Bible be a Bible for mankind.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE II.
-
-_THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE._
-
-
-The English Bible, more than any other of the forms in which the
-Scriptures have been used by Christian men, has been a growth. It is not
-the production of one man, or of one epoch. It has come down to us through
-a long series of transformations, and it is the result of the continuous
-endeavours of a succession of earnest labourers to give to their
-fellow-countrymen a faithful representation of the word of God.
-
-At what date, and by whom, the Scriptures were first set forth in a form
-which was intelligible to the people of this country is not known. In the
-earliest period respecting which we have any clear information, the Latin
-Vulgate was the Bible of the clergy and of public worship. Some portions
-only were rendered into the language of the common people. Few of them
-probably were able to read, and this may explain why it was that the
-Psalms were especially selected for translation. They could be more
-readily committed to memory, and be more easily wedded to music. But
-whatever the reason, the Psalter is the earliest English Bible of which we
-have any definite knowledge. It was translated quite early in the eighth
-century, both by Aldhelm, sometime Abbot of Malmesbury, but at his death,
-in A.D. 709,[4] Bishop of Sherborne, and by Guthlac,[5] the hermit of
-Croyland, who died A.D. 714.[6] A few years later, A.D. 735, the Venerable
-Bede translated the gospel of John, dying, as related in the touching
-narrative of his disciple Cuthbert, in the very act of completing it. In
-the following century King Alfred greatly encouraged the work of
-translation, and it is to this period that we are probably to attribute
-those Anglo-Saxon gospels which have come down to us.[7] Towards the close
-of the tenth century, or early in the eleventh, the first seven books of
-the Old Testament were partly translated and partly epitomised by �lfric,
-Archbishop of Canterbury. A verse from each of these two last-mentioned
-works will show of what sort was the form of these early English Bibles,
-and will at the same time illustrate one of the causes which from time to
-time have rendered the task of revision an imperative duty.
-
-The Anglo-Saxon gospel presents Matthew v. 3 thus:
-
-"Eadige sind �a gastlican �earfan, for�am hyra ys heofena rice."
-
-And in �lfric's Heptateuch, Genesis xliii. 29 reads:
-
-"�a josep geseah his gemeddredan bro�or beniamin �a cwae� he, is �is se
-cnapa �e ge me foresaedon and eft he cwae� god gemilt sige �e sunu min."
-
-In the course of time our language gradually changed from the form
-exhibited in these quotations to that seen in the writings of Chaucer and
-Wycliffe. During the earlier part of this transition period the Old
-English (Anglo-Saxon) Scriptures continued in use; but towards the middle
-part they seem to have become partially unintelligible, and attempts were
-consequently made to give the Scriptures to the people in the new form of
-language then prevalent, and which is known as the Early English. It has
-been asserted that the entire Scriptures were issued in this form; but for
-this there is no satisfactory evidence. We have certain knowledge only of
-a poetical version of the Psalms (the "Ormulum"), written about the close
-of the twelfth century; of a poetical narration of the principal events
-recorded in Genesis and Exodus, written about the middle of the thirteenth
-century; and of two prose verses of the Psalms, both belonging to the
-early part of the fourteenth century, one by William de Schorham, vicar of
-Chart-Sutton, in Kent, and the other by Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near
-Doncaster. In the version of the former the first two verses of Psalm i.
-are thus given:
-
-"Blessed be the man that ghed nought in the counseil of wicked: ne stode
-nought in the waie of singheres, ne sat nought in fals jugement. Ac hijs
-wylle was in the wylle of oure Lord; and he schal thenche in hijs lawe
-both daghe and nyght."
-
-The year 1382 is the earliest date at which it can with any confidence be
-affirmed that the entire Scriptures existed in the English language.[8]
-During several years previous to this date Wycliffe and his associates
-had in various ways been working towards the accomplishment of this
-result. But it was with some measure of secrecy, as of men who apprehended
-danger from the attempt. This renders it difficult to determine with
-precision the date when the work was completed, and what was the part
-which each of the joint labourers had in the common task. It is beyond
-controversy that the chief place of honour is due to John Wycliffe. His
-name is so closely and constantly associated with this Bible by those who
-refer to it in the times immediately succeeding, as to put it beyond all
-doubt that it is to his influence our country is mainly indebted for this
-unspeakable boon. The translation of the New Testament was probably in
-whole or in large part the work of Wycliffe himself. That of the Old
-Testament, down to the twentieth verse of the third chapter of Baruch, is
-credibly assigned, upon the authority of a MS. in the Bodleian library, to
-Nicholas de Hereford, one of the leaders of the Lollard party in Oxford.
-It is probable that this Bible was somewhat hurriedly completed, and that
-either the translators were prevented by circumstances from reviewing
-their work before issuing it, or, with the natural eagerness of men
-engaged in a first attempt, they did not allow themselves time for doing
-so. Possibly also they may themselves have regarded it but as a sort of
-first draft of their work, and the variations they had found to exist in
-their copies of the Vulgate had revealed to them the need of further
-labour before they could satisfactorily complete the task they had
-undertaken.
-
-Wycliffe died in December, 1384; but either before his death, or shortly
-afterward, a revision of this work was commenced by one of his most
-intimate friends, John Purvey, who, having resided with Wycliffe during
-the latter part of his life, may be reasonably credited with acting herein
-under a full knowledge of the wishes and aims of his honoured teacher.
-
-The course pursued by Purvey, as described by himself in his prologue,[9]
-is interesting and instructive, setting forth, as it does, most distinctly
-the main lines upon which any work of Biblical revision must proceed. His
-first step was to collect old copies of the Vulgate, and the works of
-learned men who had expounded and translated the same; and then, by
-examination and comparison, to remove as far as he could the errors which
-in various ways had crept into the Latin text. His second step was to
-study afresh the text so revised, and endeavour to arrive at a correct
-apprehension of its general meaning. His third was to consult the best
-authorities within his reach for the explanation of obscure terms, and of
-specially difficult passages. His fourth was to translate as clearly as
-possible, and then submit the same to the joint correction of competent
-persons; or, to use his own words, "to translate as clearly as he could to
-the sentence, and to have many good fellows, and cunning, at the
-correcting of the translation." By the co-operation of this band of
-skilful helpers the work was completed about the year 1388, and copies of
-it were rapidly multiplied.[10] It became, in fact, the accepted form of
-the Wycliffite version.
-
-By a comparison of the two verses of Psalm i., given above, with the forms
-in which they appeared in the two Wycliffe Bibles, the reader will be able
-in some degree to estimate the growth of our language, and will also
-understand how painstaking and reverent was the care taken by these
-"faithful men" that in this sacred work they might offer of their very
-best.
-
-In the earlier Wycliffe version the verses read thus:
-
-"Blisful the man that went not awei in the counseil of unpitouse, and in
-the wei off sinful stod not, and in the chagher of pestilence sat not. But
-in the lawe of the Lord his wil; and in the lawe of hym he shal sweteli
-thenke dai and nyght."
-
-In Purvey's revised version they read:
-
-"Blessid _is_ the man that ghede not in the councel of wickid men; and
-stood not in the weie of synneris, and sat not in the chaier of
-pestilence. But his wille _is_ in the lawe of the Lord; and he schal
-bithenke in the lawe of hym dai and nyght."
-
-This Bible, so long as it remained in use as the Bible of English people,
-existed, it should be remembered, only in a manuscript form.[11] The chief
-point, however, to be noticed here is, that with all its excellences, and
-unspeakable as was its worth, it was but the translation of a translation.
-Neither Wycliffe nor his associates had access to the Hebrew original of
-the Old Testament; and although some copies of the Greek New Testament
-were then to be found in England, there is no reason to believe that
-Purvey or his friends were able to make any use of them. They were,
-indeed, aware that the Latin of the common text did not always faithfully
-represent the Hebrew; but their knowledge of this fact was second-hand,
-gathered chiefly from the commentaries of Nicholas de Lyra, a writer
-whose works were held in high repute by Bible students in that age. They
-did not, therefore, venture to correct these places, but contented
-themselves with noting in the margin, "What the Ebru hath, and how it is
-undurstondun." This, Purvey states, he has done most frequently in the
-Psalter, which "of alle oure bokis discordith most fro Ebru."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The third stage in the growth of the English Scriptures is brought before
-us by the interesting series of printed Bibles that issued from the
-printing press in the reign of Henry VIII.
-
-After the death of Wycliffe the efforts of the Popish party to crush the
-Lollards had increased in violence, and various enactments were passed
-proscribing the use of the Bible which bore his name. An act, passed in
-the second parliament of Henry V., went still further, and declared that
-all who read the Scriptures in their native tongue should forfeit land,
-cattle, life, and goods, they and their heirs for ever. Notwithstanding
-these repressive measures, copies of the Wycliffe Bible were still made
-and read in secret. This could be done only with great risk and
-difficulty, and none but persons of some wealth could afford the expense
-of a complete copy. Those in humbler positions deemed themselves happy if
-they could secure a single book, or even a few leaves. Moreover, through
-the growing changes of the language, many passages were becoming very
-obscure to ordinary readers. During the hundred years which followed after
-the issuing of the law just referred to, two important events had
-happened; namely, the invention of printing,[12] and the German
-Reformation. Both of these had a large influence in stimulating the
-friends of the Bible to new efforts in revising it for popular use.
-
-The leader of this movement in our own country was William Tyndale, who,
-in the year 1525, printed on the Continent, whither he had been driven by
-the opposition which beset him at home, the first edition of his New
-Testament, translated from the Greek. A second and revised edition,
-"dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke," was printed at
-Antwerp, and published in November, 1534; and a third and final edition
-was published in the early part of 1535, in the May of which year he was
-arrested and committed to the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Of other
-parts of the Scriptures Tyndale was able to publish only the Pentateuch
-(1530 or 1531) and the book of Jonah (1534). On the sixth day of October,
-1536, he was led to the stake. He was there strangled and his body burnt.
-
-Just twelve months before the martyrdom of Tyndale, the first printed
-edition of the entire Scriptures in the English language was issued from
-the press of Jacob van Meteren, at Antwerp. The privilege and honour of
-accomplishing this memorable work belongs to Miles Coverdale, at that time
-a poor scholar, dependent upon the patronage of Thomas Cromwell and
-others, though subsequently, for a short period in the reign of Edward
-VI., Bishop of Exeter. The first edition of his Bible was "prynted in the
-year of our Lord MDXXXV., and fynished the fourthe day of October."
-Coverdale had been moved to the undertaking by his own deep sense of the
-needs of his country, and by the earnest appeals addressed to him by
-others. Through his modesty of disposition, and his lowly estimate of his
-own abilities, he would have declined the task, but the urgency of his
-friends prevailed. The expenses also of the preparation and publication of
-the work were met by the liberality of some of them. In his prologue he
-says, "It was neither my labour nor desire to have this work put in my
-hand; nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should be more
-plenteously provided for with the Scripture in their mother tongue than
-we; therefore, when I was instantly required, though I could not do as
-well as I would, I thought it my duty to do my best, and that with a good
-will;"[13] and in the dedication to the king, prefixed to some of the
-copies, he says, "As the Holy Ghost moved other men to do the cost hereof,
-so was I boldened in God to labour in the same." According to the
-statement on the title-page this was not a translation made from the
-original texts,[14] but was faithfully and truly translated out of the
-"Douche and Latyn in to Englishe." In the dedication he states that he
-had, "with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of
-five sundry interpreters," and in his prologue he explains further, that
-to help him in his work he had used "sundry translations, not only in
-Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters;" and he is careful, further, to
-explain that he did not "set forth this special translation" "as a
-reprover and despiser of other men's translations," but "lowly and
-faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under correction."
-The five interpreters to whom Coverdale thus refers were probably the
-Vulgate, the Latin version of Pagninus, Luther's translation, the Zurich
-Bible, and Tyndale's New Testament and Pentateuch. Though the volume was
-dedicated to the king, and though Coverdale was backed by powerful
-patrons, this Bible was not published with a royal license. No direct
-attempt, however, was made to suppress it. In the following year (1536) it
-was virtually condemned by the members of Convocation, who prayed the king
-that he would "grant unto his subjects of the laity the reading of the
-Bible in the English tongue, and that a new translation of it be made for
-that end and purpose." But notwithstanding this two new editions of
-Coverdale's Bible were printed in London in 1537, and on the title-page of
-both of these there appeared the words, "Set forth with the kynge's moost
-gracious licence."
-
-In the same year, 1537, and probably in the earlier part of it, there was
-issued in London another Bible, which also bore upon its title-page the
-inscription, "Set forth with the kinge's most gracyous lycence."[15] This
-Bible, commonly known as Matthew's Bible, was, it is now generally
-believed, prepared for the press by John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom at
-Smithfield, under the Marian persecution. In the New Testament and
-Pentateuch he agrees substantially with Tyndale's version. Of the other
-books of the Old Testament, a portion is obviously taken from Coverdale,
-the remaining part, Joshua to Chronicles, has been thought with good
-reason to be the work of Tyndale. It is known that Tyndale, after the
-publication of his Pentateuch, continued to labour at the translation of
-the Old Testament. In a letter written during his imprisonment he prays to
-be allowed to have his Hebrew Bible, and his Hebrew grammar and
-dictionary; and it is by no means unlikely that the results of his
-studies were committed to the care of Rogers. If this surmise be correct,
-then this Bible may be viewed as a compilation, two-thirds of it being due
-to Tyndale, and one-third to Coverdale. A sufficient reason for the
-adoption of the assumed name of Thomas Matthew is thus supplied, since
-Rogers could not claim the work as his own, and Tyndale's name would have
-arrayed against it the opposition both of the king and of the Romish
-party.
-
-Both of the last mentioned Bibles were open to certain obvious objections.
-Coverdale's, in that it was derived from German and Latin versions; and
-Matthew's, in that it was in part only made from the original texts.
-Matthew's also was accompanied by a considerable number of critical and
-explanatory notes, many of which were of a decided anti-papal cast.
-Accordingly, at the instigation and under the patronage of Thomas
-Cromwell, Coverdale set himself to revise his former work with the aid of
-the valuable contribution supplied to him in Matthew's Bible. The printing
-of this new Bible was completed in April, 1539, and from the circumstance
-that it was printed in the largest folio then used, 15 inches by 9, it
-was, and is, commonly described as the Great Bible. In the title-page it
-is declared to be "truly translated, after the veryte of the Hebrue and
-Greke textes by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men,
-expert in the forsayde tonges."[16] By this, it is now tolerably certain,
-we are to understand, not that several living scholars took part with
-Coverdale in the preparation of the volume, but that he availed himself of
-the published writings of men skilled in the ancient languages, who had
-translated and expounded the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures. His
-chief guides were Sebastian Munster for the Old Testament, and Erasmus for
-the New. The Bible appeared without notes, and had no dedication.[17]
-
-In the same year (1539) there appeared also the Bible[18] edited by
-Richard Taverner, formerly of Cardinal College (now Christ Church),
-Oxford, afterwards of the Inner Temple, and more recently Clerk of the
-Signet to the King.[19] It may be briefly described as a revised edition
-of Matthew's Bible. Taverner had some reputation as a Greek scholar, but
-his work is very unequally executed, and before the formidable competition
-of the Great Bible it soon sank into obscurity. After its first year of
-issue this Bible seems to have been only once reprinted in its entirety;
-namely, in 1549.[20]
-
-Not content with what he had already done, Coverdale persevered in the
-revision and re-revision of his work. A second edition was issued in
-April, 1540, to which was prefixed a prologue by Cranmer,[21] and its
-title contained the words, "This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the
-churches." Two other editions appeared in the same year, and three in the
-following year.[22] (The edition of April, 1540, seems, however, to have
-been regarded as a sort of standard edition.) This Bible was the Bible
-read in churches in the reign of Edward VI., and in the early part of the
-reign of Elizabeth.
-
-Hence it will be seen that of the four principal Bibles published in the
-reign of Henry VIII., namely, Tyndale's New Testament and Pentateuch,
-Coverdale's Bible, Matthew's Bible, and the Great Bible, the last three
-form a group of closely related versions, of which Tyndale's is the common
-parent, and the rest successively derived therefrom. And it is very
-noteworthy that these Bibles are mainly the result of the patient and
-devoted labours of two men only. The work done by such men as Rogers and
-Taverner, however important, is altogether of a subordinate kind. William
-Tyndale and Miles Coverdale stand apart, and above all others, as the men
-who, in those days of religious awakening and of conflict with the papal
-tyranny, gave the Bible to our countrymen in a form that could reach at
-once their understanding and their heart. Remembering this, and
-remembering also in what difficult circumstances the work was done, the
-wonder is far less that room was left for improvement, and that further
-revision was felt by themselves and others to be an imperative duty, than
-that so much was accomplished, and so well, by the indomitable and
-self-denying labours of these noble men.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE III.
-
-_THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE._
-
-
-The accession of Elizabeth, November 17th, 1558, conveniently marks the
-date of a fourth stage in the growth of the English Bible. The former
-translations and revisions had been done in troublous times, in the midst
-of harassing opposition, and under circumstances which forbade the full
-use of such aids as the scholarship of the times could furnish. The
-versions now to be mentioned were carried on in open day, and with free
-access to all that was then available for the correction and explanation
-of the original texts.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Amongst the many earnest men driven into exile by the Marian persecution
-was William Whittingham, some time Fellow of All Souls', Oxford, and
-subsequently Dean of Durham.[23] Along with others he found a refuge,
-first at Frankfort, and afterwards at Geneva. On the 10th day of June,
-1557, there was published, in the last mentioned city, a small volume,
-16mo, entitled "The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Conferred
-diligently with the Greke, and best approved translations. With the
-arguments aswel before the chapters, as for every Boke and Epistle, also
-diversities of readings, and moste proffitable annotations of all harde
-places; whereunto is added a copious Table." This translation, there is
-reason to believe, was the work of Whittingham alone. It may be noted, in
-passing, that it was the first English New Testament which contained the
-now familiar division into verses, and the first also to indicate by
-_italics_ the words added by the translator in order to convey more fully
-or more clearly the sense of the original.
-
-Three years afterwards (1560) there was published in the same city, "The
-Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament.
-Translated according to the Ebrue and Greeke, and conferred with the best
-translations in divers languages. With moste profitable annotations upon
-all the hard places, and other things of great importance as may appeare
-in the epistle to the reader." This is the celebrated Genevan version,
-which for nearly a century onward was the form of Bible most largely
-circulated in this country. It differed in several respects from its
-predecessors. It was a convenient quarto instead of a cumbrous folio. It
-was printed in Roman letters instead of the heavy Gothic or black letters.
-It marked by a different type all words inserted for the completion of the
-sense, and the chapters were divided into verses. But what was of more
-importance, it was, as stated in the title, compared throughout with the
-original texts. Both in the Old and New Testaments it largely reproduces
-the words of Tyndale. Sometimes it gives a preference to the version of
-Coverdale; but often it departs from both in order to give a more exact
-rendering of the Hebrew or the Greek. It seems that several of the Genevan
-refugees consecrated their enforced leisure to "this great and wonderful
-work," as they justly term it, moved thereto by the twofold consideration
-that, owing to "imperfect knowledge of the tongues," the previous
-"translations required greatly to be perused and reformed," and that
-"great opportunities and occasions" for doing this work were presented to
-them in the "so many godly and learned men" into whose society they had
-now been brought.
-
-The names of Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, Thomas
-Sampson, William Cole, and William Whittingham are given as those who,
-with some others, joined in this undertaking. On the accession of
-Elizabeth most of the exiles returned home, conveying with them, for
-presentation to the Queen, the Book of Psalms as a specimen of the work on
-which they were engaged.[24]
-
-Wittingham only, with one or two others, remained behind for a year and a
-half in order to complete the work. According to the statement given in
-the address to the reader, the entire period spent upon the preparation of
-this version was a little more than two years. It will hence be seen that
-whatever may have been the part taken in the work by Coverdale and others,
-by far the chief share in it devolved upon Whittingham and the one or two
-referred to, who were probably Gilby and Sampson. How weighty was the
-obligation which in the view of these self-denying men rested upon them to
-give the word of God to their country in the form that would best and most
-truly present it, and with what reverent care they laboured to attain
-unto this, is shown by the fact that although Whittingham had so recently
-published his version of the New Testament, he is not content with a
-simple reproduction of this, but subjects it to a thorough and very
-careful revision. A comparison of the introduction to Luke's gospel as it
-appears in the Genevan Bible of 1560 with the same passage in
-Whittingham's version of 1557 will help our readers in some measure to
-realize the nature and extent of this revision.
-
-In the earlier version the passages read thus:
-
-    "For asmuch as many have taken in hand to write the historie of those
-    thynges, wherof we are fully certified, even as they declared them
-    unto us, which from y{e} begynnyng saw them their selves, and were
-    ministers at the doyng: It seemed good also to me (moste noble
-    Theophilus) as sone as I had learned perfectly all thynges from the
-    beginnyng, to wryte unto thee therof from poynt to poynt: That thou
-    mightest acknowlage the trueth of those thinges where in thou hast
-    bene broght up."
-
-In the version of 1560 the same passage is given thus:
-
-    "For as much as many have taken in hande to set foorth the storie of
-    those thinges whereof we are fully persuaded. As they have delivered
-    them unto us, which from the beginning saw them theirselves, and were
-    ministers of the worde, It seemed good also to me (most noble
-    Theophilus), as sone as I had searched out perfectly all things from
-    the beginnyng, to write unto thee thereof from point to point, That
-    thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of these things, whereof thou
-    hast bene instructed."
-
-It will be seen that in this short passage the changes made from the
-earlier form of the work are as many as ten in number. As this, however,
-may be deemed a somewhat exceptional passage, let us take an ordinary
-chapter in the Gospels, presenting no special difficulty, as for instance
-Matt. xvii. A collation of the two versions will show that in this chapter
-of twenty-seven verses the revision of 1560 departs from Whittingham's
-earlier work in no fewer than forty places.[25] Thus persevering was the
-endeavour of these faithful men to do their very best, and with what
-success may to some extent be seen in the fact that of these forty
-changes twenty-six were confirmed in after years by the judgment of King
-James' translators.
-
-"So earnestly," says Strype[26] in his _Life of Archbishop Parker_, "did
-the people of the nation thirst in those days after the knowledge of the
-Scriptures, that that first impression was soon sold off." So earnestly
-also did the translators seek to perfect their work, that about the
-beginning of March, 1565, they had finished a careful review and
-correction of their translation in preparing for a fresh issue.
-
-Popular as was the Genevan Bible amongst the mass of the English people,
-the decidedly puritanic cast of its annotations stood in the way of its
-universal acceptance, while its manifest superiority as a translation to
-the Great Bible made it almost an impossibility that the latter could be
-maintained in its place of pre-eminence as the Bible appointed by
-authority to be read in churches. Steps were accordingly taken by Matthew
-Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to prepare a Bible, by the aid of
-"diverse learned fellow-bishops," that would accord with the
-ecclesiastical sympathies of the party to which he belonged.[27] He
-distributed portions to twelve of his episcopal brethren, and to other
-Church dignitaries;[28] one portion he took under his own charge. The
-completed work was presented to Elizabeth within a few weeks of the
-completion of the tenth year of her reign, October 5th, 1568.
-
-The rules laid down by Parker for the guidance of his colleagues were
-these: 1. "To follow the common English translation used in the churches,
-and not to recede from it but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew
-or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the texts as
-Pagnine[29] in his translation useth; and for the verity of the Hebrew, to
-follow the said Pagnine and Munster specially, and generally others
-learned in the tongues. 3. To make no bitter notes upon any text, or yet
-to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such
-chapters and places as contain matter of genealogies, or other such places
-not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in
-his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation
-to any offence of lightness or obscenity be expressed with more convenient
-terms and phrases." From the first of these rules it is clear that the
-work then undertaken was intended to be a revision of the Great Bible.
-Some of the revisers seem to have observed this rule in a most rigid
-manner, and have followed the Great Bible so closely as to retain its
-words, even in places which had been more correctly rendered in the
-Genevan. There appears to have been no co-operative action on the part of
-the several revisers, and to this cause we may attribute much of the
-irregularity that attaches to the execution of their work. In many
-respects they laid themselves open to adverse criticism, and a paper was
-sent to Parker by Thomas Lawrence, Head Master of Shrewsbury School, and
-an eminent Greek scholar, entitled, _Notes of Errors in the Translation of
-the New Testament out of the Greek_.[30] He points out fifteen passages in
-which the words are not "aptlye translated," eight in which "words and
-pieces of sentences" are "omytted," two in which superfluous words are
-inserted, two in which, owing to mistranslation, an "error in doctrine" is
-involved, and two in which the moods and tenses of verbs are changed.
-These passages, except one from the Colossians, are all taken from the
-Gospels; and we may hence not unreasonably infer that the writer intended
-the passages named to be regarded, not as an exhaustive list, but as
-illustrations simply of the kind of defects which called for correction.
-Moved, as would seem, by these criticisms, Parker set on foot a revision
-of his former volume; and in 1572 this Bible was, as his biographer
-expresses it,[31] "a second time by his means" "printed with Corrections
-and Amendments and other improvements, more than the former Editions."
-
-Although this Bible received the sanction of Convocation, and every
-Archbishop and Bishop was ordered to have a copy in his hall or
-dining-room for the use of his servants and of strangers; and although
-some editions bear on their title-page the words, "Set forth by
-Aucthoritie" (meaning thereby the authority of Convocation), it never came
-into anything like general use, nor did it even establish itself as the
-Bible exclusively read in churches. The Genevan Bible was still used by
-many of the clergy in their sermons and in their published works; and in
-1587, though nineteen years had then passed since its first publication,
-we find Archbishop Whitgift complaining that divers parish churches and
-chapels of ease had either no Bible at all, or those only which were not
-of the translation authorized by the Synods of Bishops. Between 1568,
-when this Bible was first published, and 1608, when the last New Testament
-of this version was issued, there were sent forth altogether twenty
-editions of the Bishops' Bible and eleven of the New Testament. In the
-same period there were published seventy-nine editions of the Genevan
-Bible, and thirty of the Genevan New Testament.[32]
-
-Besides the Genevan and the Bishops', another Bible made its appearance
-(so far, at least, as the New Testament was concerned) in the reign of
-Elizabeth. In the year 1582 there was printed at Rheims a translation of
-the New Testament,[33] made by certain scholars connected with the English
-seminary for the training of Catholic priests, formerly established at
-Douai, in Flanders. The translators, in their preface, candidly confess
-that they did not publish from any conviction "that the Holy Scriptures
-should alwaies be in our mother tonge," or that they ought "to be read
-indifferently of all," but because they had compassion to see their
-"beloved countrie men with extreme danger of their soules, to use only
-such prophane translations;" viz., as the Protestant Bibles previously
-referred to, "and erroneous men's mere phantasies, for the pure and
-beloved word of truth;" and because, also, they were "moved thereunto by
-the desires of many devout persons," and whom they hoped to induce to lay
-aside the "impure versions" they had hitherto been compelled to employ.
-Quite apart from the polemical purpose thus distinctly avowed, this
-translation was a retrograde movement. It did not profess to translate the
-original texts, but only the "vulgar Latin;" and the translators justify
-their procedure by this plea, amongst others, that "the holy Council of
-Trent ... hath declared and defined this onely of al other Latin
-translations to be authentical, and so onely to be used and taken in
-publike lessons, disputations, preachings, and expositions, and that no
-man presume upon any pretence to reject or refuse the same."
-
-In the accomplishment of their work the Rhemish translators have very
-faithfully observed the rule which they laid down for themselves, to be
-"very precise and religious in folowing our copie, the old vulgar approved
-Latin; not only in sense ... but sometime in the very wordes also, and
-phrases;" that is to say, they have given a very literal and exact
-translation of the Vulgate, in many parts extremely Latinized in its
-diction. A considerable number of words they virtually left untranslated,
-boldly venturing to transfer the unfamiliar, and in many cases
-unintelligible, vocables into their English text. Some of these Latinized
-words have obtained a permanent place in our language, but the larger
-number have failed to commend themselves.[34]
-
-Such then were the chief forms through which, at the close of the
-sixteenth century, the English Bible had passed. The devout and earnest
-scholars who from time to time sought to "open the Scriptures" to their
-fellow-countrymen were for the most part moved by a burning desire to give
-to God of their very best. They grudged no labour to render their work
-more complete. They allowed no spirit of self-satisfaction to blind them
-to a perception of defects. They were too humble and too well convinced of
-the greatness and manifoldness of their work to fancy that they had
-reached perfection, but were persevering and self-denying in their
-endeavours to attain unto it. And they have left behind them for us to
-follow a noble example of patient continuance in well doing.
-
-How in their hands the English Bible has grown, from the first attempt to
-set it forth in the language of our country to the form in which we are
-most familiar with it, can be fully learnt only by a careful comparison of
-the successive revisions to which it has been subjected. To aid my readers
-in forming some approximate idea of it I append Psalm xxiii., as it
-appears in the principal Bibles which have been mentioned in this and the
-preceding lecture.
-
-
-1. WYCLIFFE'S, 1382. (?)
-
-The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing to me shal lacke; in the place of
-leswe[35] where he me ful sette. Ouer watir of fulfilling he nurshide me;
-my soule he conuertide. He broghte doun me upon the sties of
-rightwisnesse; for his name. For whi and if I shal go in the myddel of the
-shadewe of deth; I shal not dreden euelis, for thou art with me. Thi
-gherde and thi staf; tho han confortid me. Thou hast maad redi in thi
-sighte a bord; aghen hem that trublyn me. Thou hast myche fattid in oile
-myn hed; and my chalis makende ful drunken, hou right cler it is. And thi
-mercy shal vnderfolewe me; alle the daghis of my lif. And that I dwelle in
-the hous of the Lord; in to the lengthe of daghis.
-
-
-2. PURVEY'S, 1388. (?)
-
-The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing schal faile to me; in the place of
-pasture there he hath set me. He nurschide me on the watir of
-refreischyng; he conuertide my soule. He ledde me forth on the pathis of
-rightfulnesse; for his name. For whi though Y schal go in the myddis of
-schadewe of deeth; Y schal not drede yuels, for thou art with me. Thi
-gherde and thi staf; tho han coumfortid me. Thou hast maad redi a boord in
-my siyt; aghens hem that troblen me. Thou hast maad fat myn heed with
-oyle; and my cuppe, fillinge greetli, is ful cleer. And thi merci schal
-sue me; in alle the daies of my lijf. And that Y dwelle in the hows of the
-Lord; in to the lengthe of daies.
-
-
-3. COVERDALE'S, 1535.
-
-The Lorde is my shepherde, I can want nothinge. He fedeth me in a greene
-pasture; and ledeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soule, and
-bringeth me forth in the waye of rightuousness for his name's sake. Though
-I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no
-euell, for thou art with me; thy staffe and thy shepehoke comforte me.
-Thou preparest a table before me agaynst mine enemies; thou anoyntest my
-heade with oyle, and fyllest my cuppe full. Oh let thy louying kyndnes and
-mercy folowe me all the dayes off my life that I maye dwell in the house
-off the Lord for euer.
-
-
-4. GREAT BIBLE, 1539.
-
-The Lorde is my shepherde, therefore can I lacke nothing. He shal fede me
-in a grene pasture and lead me forth besyde the waters of coforte. He shal
-conuerte my soule and bring me forth in the pathes of righteousnes for his
-name's sake. Yea, though I walke thorow y{e} valleye of y{e} shadow of
-death, I wyl feare no euell, for thou art w{t} me: thy rod and thy staff
-confort me.
-
-Thou shalt prepare a table before me, agaynst them that trouble me: thou
-hast annointed my head w{t} oyle, and my cup shal be ful. But (_thy_)
-louing kyndnes and mercy shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe: and I
-wyll dwel in the house of the Lord for euer.
-
-
-5. GENEVAN, 1560.
-
-1. The Lord _is_ my shepheard, I shall not want.
-
-2. Hee maketh mee to rest in greene pasture, _and_ leadeth me by the still
-waters.
-
-3. He restoreth my soule, _and_ leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse
-for his Names sake.
-
-4. Yea, though I should walke through the valley of the shadow of death, I
-will feare no euill, for thou art with me: thy rodde and thy staffe, they
-comfort me.
-
-5. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine adversaries:
-thou doest anoynt mine head with oyle, _and_ my cup runneth over.
-
-6. Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my
-life, and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord.
-
-
-6. BISHOPS, 1568.
-
-1. God is my shephearde, therefore I can lacke nothyng: he wyll cause me
-to repose myselfe in pasture full of grasse, and he wyll leade me vnto
-calme waters.
-
-2. He wyll conuerte my soule; he wyll bring me foorth into the pathes of
-righteousnesse for his name sake.
-
-3. Yea, though I walke through the valley of the shadowe of death, I wyll
-feare no euyll; for thou art with me, thy rodde and thy staffe be the
-thynges that do comfort me.
-
-4. Thou wylt prepare a table before me in the presence of myne
-aduersaries; thou has annoynted my head with oyle, and my cup shalbe
-brymme full.
-
-5. Truely felicitie and mercie shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe:
-and I wyll dwell in the house of God for a long tyme.
-
-
-7. DOUAI, 1610.
-
-1. The Psalme of Dauid.
-
-2. Our Lord ruleth one, and nothing shal be wanting to me: in place of
-pasture there he hath placed me.
-
-3. Upon the water of refection he hath brought me vp: he hath conuerted my
-soule.
-
-He hath conducted me upon the pathes of iustice for his name.
-
-4. For, although I shal walke in the middes of the shadow of death, I will
-not feare euils: because thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staffe, they
-haue comforted me.
-
-5. Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that truble me.
-
-Thou hast fatted my head with oyle; and my chalice inebriating how goodlie
-is it!
-
-6. And thy mercie shal folow me al the dayes of my life; And that I may
-dwel in the house of our Lord, in longitude of dayes.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE IV.
-
-_THE REVISION OF 1611--THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION._
-
-
-At the accession of James I. the GENEVAN BIBLE and the BISHOPS' BIBLE
-were, as we have seen, the Bibles in current use, the latter being the
-Bible upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the former the favourite Bible
-of the people at large. The Book of Psalms also in the version of the
-Great Bible survived, as it still does, in the psalter of the Prayer Book,
-and probably in some few parish churches old and worn copies of the Great
-Bible still maintained their place.
-
-The state of religious parties at that date rendered it almost an
-impossibility that either of the two first-named versions should become
-universally accepted. The close connection of the Genevan Bible with the
-Puritan party, and the decidedly puritanic cast of some of its notes,
-created an insuperable prejudice against it in the minds of the more
-zealous advocates of Episcopal authority; while the inferiority[36] of the
-Bishops' Bible as a version effectually barred its claim to an exclusive
-use. The need, then, for a new version was obvious, and a desire for it
-was probably felt by many of all parties.
-
-Public expression was first given to this desire on the second day of the
-Hampton Court Conference, January 16, 1604, by Dr. John Rainolds,[37] the
-leading representative of the Puritans in that assembly. It was not
-brought forward as one of the matters which he had been deputed to lay
-before the Conference; it seems rather to have been mentioned by him
-incidentally in connection with certain suggested reforms in the Prayer
-Book. "He moved his Majesty that there might be a new translation of the
-Bible, because those which were allowed in the reign of King Henry VIII.
-and Edward VI. were corrupt, and not answerable to the Truth of the
-Original,"[38] referring in illustration to the renderings given of Gal.
-iv. 25,[39] Ps. cv. 28,[40] and Ps. cvi. 30.[41] It is somewhat curious
-that no direct reference was made to the Bishops' Bible; the reason,
-probably, was that this Bible was not one of those which had been
-"allowed" by royal authority. Of the three mistranslations quoted by
-Rainolds, the first only is found in the Bishops' Bible; the other two
-occur in the Prayer Book Psalter.
-
-The suggestion of Rainolds met with no opposition. The king himself
-expressed his approval of it, not, however, without an ignorant and
-disingenuous fling at the Genevan version; and "presently after," say the
-translators in their preface, the king "gave order for this translation"
-to be made. In the course of a few months a scheme for the execution of
-the work was matured, and in a letter to Dr. Richard Bancroft, then Bishop
-of London, the king informed him that he had appointed fifty-four learned
-men to undertake the translation. He even seems to have contemplated the
-possibility of securing the co-operation of all the biblical scholars of
-the country; and in a letter to Bancroft, dated July 22, 1604, directed
-him "to move the bishops to inform themselves of all such learned men
-within their several dioceses as, having especial skill in the Hebrew and
-Greek tongues, have taken pains in their private studies of the Scriptures
-for the clearing of any obscurities, either in the Hebrew or the Greek, or
-touching any difficulties, or mistakings in the former English
-translation, which we have now commanded to be thoroughly viewed and
-amended; and thereupon to write unto them, earnestly charging them, and
-signifying our pleasure therein, that they send such their observations to
-Mr. Lively, our Hebrew reader in Cambridge, or to Dr. Harding, our Hebrew
-reader in Oxford, or to Dr. Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, to be imparted
-to the rest of their several companies; that so our said intended
-translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned
-men within this our kingdom."[42] Directions to a similar effect were sent
-also to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who was empowered in the king's
-name to associate with those already appointed any "fitt men" he might be
-acquainted with; and we may infer that a corresponding communication was
-sent to Oxford.
-
-To what extent this comprehensive scheme was carried out we have no means
-of determining. The names of the fifty-four learned men referred to are
-not given, and we are consequently left in uncertainty whether those who
-ultimately engaged in the work[43] were all men included in that list, or
-whether other scholars, chosen by the universities or recommended by the
-bishops, formed part of the number.
-
-The rules laid down for the guidance of the translators were as follows:
-
-1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the Bishops'
-Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the Original
-will permit.
-
-2. The Names of the Prophets and the Holy Writers, with the other Names of
-the Text to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were
-vulgarly used.
-
-3. The old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept; viz., the word _Church_ not to
-be translated _Congregation_, &c.
-
-4. When a Word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been
-most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers, being agreeable to
-the Propriety of the Place, and the Analogy of the Faith.
-
-5. The division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as
-little as may be, if necessity so require.
-
-6. No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of
-the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so
-briefly and fitly be exprest in the Text.
-
-7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down, as shall serve for
-the fit reference of one Scripture to another.
-
-8. Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or
-Chapters, and having translated or amended them severally by himself,
-where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done,
-and agree for their parts what shall stand.
-
-9. As any one Company hath despatched any one Book in this manner, they
-shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously,
-for his Majesty is very careful in this point.
-
-10. If any Company, upon the review of the Book so sent, doubt or differ
-upon any Place, to send them word thereof; Note the place, and withal send
-the Reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded
-at the General Meeting, which is to be of the chief Persons of each
-Company at the end of the Work.
-
-11. When any Place of special obscurity is doubted of, Letters to be
-directed, by Authority, to send to any Learned Man in the Land, for his
-judgment of such a Place.
-
-12. Letters to be sent from every Bishop, to the rest of his Clergy,
-admonishing them of this Translation in hand; and to move and charge, as
-many as being skilful in the Tongues; and having taken pains in that kind,
-to send his particular Observations to the Company, either at Westminster,
-Cambridg, or Oxford.
-
-13. The Directors in each Company to be the Deans of Westminster and
-Chester for that place; and the King's Professors in the Hebrew or Greek
-in either University.
-
-14. These Translations to be used, when they agree better with the Text
-than the Bishops' Bible; viz., _Tindall's_, _Matthew's_, _Coverdale's_,
-_Whitchurch's_,[44] _Geneva_.
-
-15. Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most
-Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the Universities not employed in
-Translating, to be assigned by the Vice-Chancellor upon conference with
-the rest of the Heads, to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew
-as Greek, for the better observation of the 4th rule above specified.[45]
-
-Besides these rules, some others of a more definite nature seem to have
-been adopted by the translators themselves. At the Synod of Dort, held in
-the years 1618 and 1619, the question of preparing a new Dutch translation
-came under consideration, and for the guidance of its deliberations upon
-this point the English Delegates[46] were requested to give an account of
-the procedure observed in the translation recently made in England. In a
-matter of such grave importance the Delegates felt that they ought not to
-give any off-hand statement, and accordingly, after careful consideration,
-prepared a written account, which was presented to the Synod on its
-seventh Session, November 20th, 1618. In this account eight rules are
-given, the first three of which embody the substance of the first, sixth,
-and seventh of the rules given above. The others direct:
-
-That where the Hebrew or Greek admits of a twofold rendering, one is to be
-given in the text, and the other noted in the margin; and in like manner
-where an important various reading is found in approved authorities.
-
-That in the translation of the books of Tobit and Judith, where the text
-of the old Latin Vulgate greatly differs from that of the Greek, the
-latter text should be followed.
-
-That all words introduced for the purpose of completing the sense are to
-be distinguished by a difference of type.
-
-That new tables of contents should be prefixed to each book, and new
-summaries to each chapter.
-
-And lastly, that a complete list of Genealogies[47] and a description of
-the Holy Land should be added to the work.[48]
-
-From various causes, which cannot now be discovered, a period of three
-years elapsed before the revisers commenced their labours. One reason may
-have been that no provision was made for meeting the necessary costs of
-the undertaking. With a cheap liberality the king directed Bancroft to
-write to the bishops, asking them, as benefices became vacant, to give him
-the opportunity of bestowing them upon the translators as a reward for
-their service; and as to current expenses, the king, while professing with
-much effusiveness his readiness to bear them, cleverly evaded the
-responsibility by stating that some of "my lords, as things now go, did
-hold it inconvenient."[49]
-
-The revision was completed, as the revisers themselves tell us, in "twice
-seven times seventy-two days and more;" that is to say, in about two years
-and three-quarters; and if to this be added the nine months spent in a
-final revision and preparation for the press, we have then only a period
-of three years and a half. The new Bible was published in 1611; the work,
-therefore, could not have been commenced before 1607.
-
-Although the men who engaged in this important undertaking are called
-"translators," their work was essentially that of revision. This is
-clearly shown both by the rules laid down for their guidance, and by the
-statement of the translators themselves, who say in their preface, "Truly,
-good Christian reader, wee never thought from the beginning that wee
-should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good
-one," "but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one
-principall good one, not justly to bee excepted against; that hath beene
-our indeavour, that our marke."[50]
-
-Further, this revision was a more extensive and thorough revision than any
-which had been heretofore undertaken. In former revisions, either the work
-had been done by the solitary labours of one or two, or when a fair number
-of competent men were engaged in it no sufficient provision had been made
-for combined action, and but few opportunities had been given for mutual
-conference. In this revision a larger number of scholars were engaged than
-upon any former, and the arrangements were such as secured that upon no
-part of the Bible should the labour of fewer than seven persons be
-expended. The revisers were divided into six companies, two of which met
-at Westminster, two at Cambridge, and two at Oxford. The books of the Old
-Testament, from Genesis to 2 Kings inclusive, were assigned to the first
-Westminster company, consisting of ten members; from 1 Chronicles to Song
-of Solomon, to the first Cambridge company, consisting of eight members;
-and from Isaiah to Malachi, to the first Oxford company, consisting of
-seven members. The Apocryphal books were assigned to the second Cambridge
-company, which also consisted of seven members. Of the books of the New
-Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse were
-given to the second Oxford company, in which as many as ten members were
-at different times associated; the Epistles were entrusted to the seven
-scholars forming the second Westminster company.[51]
-
-The portions assigned to each company were not again subdivided amongst
-its members; but, in accordance with the eighth rule, "every particular
-man of each company" translated and amended by himself each successive
-portion, and the company met from time to time to confer upon what they
-had done, and to agree upon what should stand.[52] Of the mode of
-procedure followed at the meetings of the several companies, we have no
-other information than the brief statement given by Selden in his _Table
-Talk_--that "one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands
-some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian,
-&c. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on."
-
-One interesting and touching picture of the translators at work, which
-however seems to have escaped the notice[53] of all writers upon the
-history of the English Bible, is given us by Dr. Daniel Featley in his
-account of the _Life and Death of John Rainolds_, and which is probably
-the substance, if not the very words, of the oration delivered by him at
-the funeral of the latter, when, on account of the large number of
-mourners, "the Chapell being not capable of the fourth part of the
-Funerall troupe," a desk was set up in the quadrangle of Corpus Christi
-College, and a brief history of Rainolds' life, "with the manner of his
-death," was thence delivered to the assembled company. Dr. Rainolds was
-one of the Oxford scholars to whom the difficult task was assigned of
-revising the prophetical books of the Old Testament; and Featley tells us
-that "for his great skill in the originall Languages," the other members
-of the company, "Doctor Smith, afterward Bishop of Gloster; Doctor
-Harding, President of Magdalens; Doctor Kilbie, Rector of Lincolne
-Colledge; Dr. Bret, and others, imployed in that worke by his Majesty, had
-recourse" to him "once a weeke, and in his Lodgings perfected their
-Notes; and though in the midst of this Worke, the gout first tooke him,
-and after a consumption, of which he dyed; yet in a great part of his
-sicknesse the meeting held at his Lodging, and he lying on his Pallet,
-assisted them, and in a manner in the very translation of the booke of
-life, was translated to a better life."[54] Rainolds died May 21st, 1607.
-
-In the discharge of their responsible task the translators made use of all
-the aids accessible to them for the perfecting of their work. Not only did
-they bring to it a large amount of Hebrew and Greek scholarship, and the
-results of their personal study of the original Scriptures, they were
-careful to avail themselves also of the investigations of others who had
-laboured in the same field. Translations and commentaries in the Chaldee,
-Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch
-languages were laid under contribution. "Neither," they add, "did we
-disdaine to revise that which wee had done, and to bring back to the
-anvill that which wee had hammered; but having and using as great helpes
-as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coveting
-praise for expedition, wee have at length, through the good hand of the
-Lord upon us, brought the worke to that passe that you see."
-
-When the several companies had completed their labours there was needed
-some general supervision of the work before it finally issued from the
-press. There is no evidence that the six companies ever met in one body
-(though possibly the two companies in each of the three centres may have
-had some communication with each other); but having spent almost three
-years upon the revision, "at the end whereof," says the writer of the
-life of John Bois,[55] "the whole work being finished, and three copies of
-the whole Bible sent from Cambridge, Oxford, and Westminster to London, a
-new choice was to be made of six in all, two out of every company,[56] to
-review the whole work, and extract one copy out of all these to be
-committed to the press, for the dispatch of which business Mr. Downes and
-Mr. Bois were sent for up to London, where,[57] meeting their four
-fellow-labourers, they went daily to Stationers' Hall, and in
-three-quarters of a year fulfilled their task, all which time they had
-from the Company of Stationers thirty shillings[58] each per week duly
-paid them, though they had nothing before but the self-rewarding,
-ingenious industry."[59] "Last of all Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and
-Dr. Miles Smith, again reviewed the whole work, and prefixed arguments to
-the several books."
-
-And thus at length, as Thomas Fuller quaintly puts it, "after long
-expectation, and great desire, the new translation of the Bible (most
-beautifully printed) by a select and competent number of Divines appointed
-for the purpose, not being too many, lest one should trouble another,
-and yet many, lest in any things might haply escape them. Who, neither
-coveting praise for expedition, nor fearing reproach for slackness (seeing
-in a business of moment none deserve blame for convenient slowness), had
-expended almost three years in a work, not only examining the channels by
-the fountain, translations with the original, which was absolutely
-necessary, but also comparing channels with channels, which was abundantly
-useful." "These, with Jacob, rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-Well of Life, so that now Rachel's weak women may freely come, both to
-drink themselves, and to water the flocks of their families at the
-same."[60]
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE V.
-
-_REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY._
-
-
-On the title-page of the first edition of King James's Bible there
-appeared as now the legend, "Appointed to be read in Churches." Whence
-this originated is unknown; it is even uncertain what meaning is to be
-attached to the words. Some contend[61] that they mean nothing more than
-that the book contained the directions in accordance with which the
-Scriptures were "appointed" to be read in public worship, such as are now
-given in the Book of Common Prayer. But, however this may be, there is no
-evidence that this Bible was ever formally sanctioned, either by the king,
-or by Parliament, or by Convocation. The king, as we have seen, encouraged
-the making of the revision, but that the revision when made was, by any
-public act on his part, invested with any special authority, is a fancy
-altogether unsupported by fact. Its designation as the Authorized
-Version has been due simply to common parlance; the claim which that
-designation seems to assert is absolutely baseless.
-
-It was not in virtue of any privileges conferred upon it by those in
-authority, but by its intrinsic excellence, that this version made its way
-into general use, and at length supplanted all previous versions. Its
-chief, if not only, competitor was the Genevan. So strong was the
-attachment of many to the latter that two editions of it, one a folio and
-the other a quarto, were published by the king's printer in the very year
-in which the new version was issued, and during at least five years after
-that date[62] various other editions were issued from the same source.
-After 1616 the Genevan ceased to be printed in England, but the demand for
-it still continuing, various editions were printed on the Continent, and
-thence introduced into this country. A folio edition, printed at
-Amsterdam, bears so late a date as 1644. In 1649, in order to win the
-favour of those who still clung to their old favourite, an edition of the
-new version was issued with the Genevan notes. After this date the
-revision of 1611 may be said to have gained for itself universal
-recognition, and for more than 230 years it has been the accepted and
-cherished Bible of almost all English-speaking people.
-
-We should, however, form a very erroneous opinion both of the spirit and
-of the learning of King James's translators, if we were to suppose that
-they would have claimed finality for their work. They were too well
-acquainted with the state of the original texts not to know what need
-there was for further research after the most ancient and trustworthy
-authorities. They were too keenly sensitive to the difficulties of
-translation not to feel that they must often have failed to convey the
-exact meaning of the words they were attempting to render. They were too
-conscious of the merits of their predecessors, and of the extent to which
-they had profited by their labours, to hesitate to acknowledge that others
-might in like manner profit by what they themselves had done. And they
-were too loyal in their reverence for the Scriptures, and too devoutly
-anxious that every imperfection should be removed from the form in which
-they were given to their fellow-countrymen, to offer any discouragement to
-those who should seek to remove the blemishes that might still remain.
-They would strongly have deprecated any attempt to find in their labours a
-plea against further improvement; and they would have emphatically
-proclaimed that the best expression of thankfulness for their services,
-and of respect for themselves, was in the imitation of their example, and
-in the promotion of further efforts for the perfecting of the book they so
-profoundly loved.
-
-In the case of such a book as the Bible, however perfect the translation
-which may at any time be made, the duty of revision is one of recurring
-obligation. The necessity for it is inevitable, and this from two causes
-in constant operation. (1) By the imperfection that attaches to all kinds
-of human labour various departures from the standard form became gradually
-introduced in the process of reproduction; and (2) by the natural growth
-of language, and the attendant changes in the meaning of terms, that which
-at one time was a faithful rendering becomes at another obscure or
-incorrect.
-
-No long time elapsed before blemishes arose in the version of 1611 from
-the first of these causes, and, to use the language of the translators
-themselves, their translation needed "to be maturely considered and
-examined, that being rubbed and polished it might shine as gold more
-brightly." The invention of printing, although it has largely diminished
-the liability to error in the multiplication of copies, has not, as
-everyone knows who has had occasion to minutely examine printed works,
-altogether removed them. Various typographical errors soon made their
-appearance in the printed copies of the Bible, and these became repeated
-and multiplied in successive editions, until at length no inconsiderable
-number of variations, sometimes amounting to several thousands, could be
-traced between different copies. Most of these it is true were unimportant
-variations, but some of them were of a more serious nature. The following
-instances will serve to illustrate this. The dates attached are the dates
-of the editions in which the errors may be found:
-
-Exod. xx. 14. "Thou shalt commit adultery," _for_ "Thou shalt not." 1631,
-Lond., 8vo.[63]
-
-Numb. xxv. 18. "They vex you with their wives," _for_ "their wiles." 1638,
-Lond., 12mo.
-
-Numb. xxvi. 10. "The fire devoured two thousand and fifty men," _for_ "two
-hundred and fifty." 1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Deut. xxiv. 3. "If the latter husband ate her," _for_ "hate her." 1682,
-Lond.
-
-2 Sam. xxiii. 20. "He slew two lions like men," _for_ "two lion-like men."
-1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Job xxix. 3. "By his light I shined through darkness," _for_ "I walked
-through." 1613, Lond.
-
-Isaiah xxix. 13. "Their fear toward me is taught by the people of men,"
-_for_ "by the precept of men." 1638, Lond., 12mo.
-
-Jer. iv. 17. "Because she hath been religious against me," _for_ "hath
-been rebellious." 1637, Edin., 8vo.
-
-Jer. xviii. 21. "Deliver up their children to the swine," _for_ "to the
-famine." 1682, Lond.
-
-Ezek. xxiii. 7. "With all their idols she delighted herself," _for_ "she
-defiled herself." 1613, Lond.
-
-Matt. xxvi. 36. "Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called
-Gethsemane," _for_ "Then cometh Jesus." 1611, Lond.
-
-Acts vi. 3. "Look ye out among you seven men of honest report ... whom ye
-may appoint," _for_ "whom we may appoint." 1638, Camb. fo.[64]
-
-1 Cor. v. 1. "And such fornication as is not so much as not among the
-Gentiles," _for_ "not so much as named." 1629, Lond., fo.[65]
-
-1 Cor. vi. 9. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom
-of God?" _for_ "shall not inherit." 1653, Lond., 32mo.
-
-2 Tim. iv. 16. "I pray God that it may be laid to their charge," _for_
-"may not be laid." 1613, Lond.
-
-Titus i. 14. "Now giving heed to Jewish fables," _for_ "not giving heed."
-1636 Edin., 8vo.
-
-James v. 4. "The Lord of Sabbath," _for_ "Sabaoth." 1640, Lond., 8vo.
-
-1 John i. 4. "That our joy may be full," _for_ "that your joy." 1769, Oxf.
-
-These facts will serve to show how soon some kind of revision became
-needful, and that a true reverence for Scripture is shown, not by
-opposition to revision, but by a desire, and even demand, that it should
-be undertaken. This necessity became all the more imperative in the case
-of the revision of 1611, because there existed no standard copy to which
-appeal could in all cases be made as evidence of the conclusions reached
-by the translators. It is a curious and remarkable fact, that two
-editions, differing in several respects, were issued by the king's
-printer, Robert Barker, in 1611, and competent judges are not agreed as to
-which of these two priority in time belongs. Nor even if this point were
-satisfactorily settled, would it suffice to reproduce that one of the two
-texts which might be proved to be the earlier. For excellent as was the
-main work done by the translators, the final revision and the oversight of
-the sheets as they passed through the press were not so thorough as was to
-be desired. In the most carefully prepared edition of this revision that
-has ever been issued, viz., the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, edited by Dr.
-Scrivener, the learned and laborious editor has seen it right to depart
-from the printed text of 1611 in more than nine hundred places.[66] It
-will be manifest that such corrections, whenever called for, ought not to
-be made in any haphazard way, and that it is in the interest of all that
-careful revisions of the printed texts should from time to time be made,
-and that they should be made by men thoroughly competent for the task.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The second cause to which reference has been made is, of course, much
-slower in its operation, but though slow it is certain; and sooner or
-later every version, whensoever and by whomsoever made, must call for
-revision, because of the changes to which all language is subject. Words
-which were once in common use pass altogether out of currency, and are
-utterly unintelligible save to a learned few. Other words change their
-meaning, and give to the sentences in which they occur a different and
-sometimes an alien sense to that which they formerly conveyed. Others
-again, while retaining fundamentally their original sense, become limited
-in their range of application, and when used in other connections than
-those to which they are thus confined by custom, become grotesque and
-disturb the mind of the reader by the strange associations which they
-suggest.
-
-How many words found in our Bibles have, since 1611, passed out of general
-use the following list will show. Most of these are wholly without
-meaning, even to an educated reader; a few survive as local
-provincialisms, and a few also are still employed in the technical
-vocabulary of certain arts or professions. All are out of place in a book
-intended for universal use.
-
-    _Assay._ Deut. iv. 34; Job iv. 2; Acts ix. 26, &c.
-
-    _Attent._ 2 Chron. vi. 40.
-
-    _Bestead._ Isa. viii. 21.
-
-    _Blain._ Exod. ix. 9, 10.
-
-    _Bolled._ Exod. ix. 31.
-
-    [_Brickle._ Wisd. xv. 13.]
-
-    _Brigandine._ Jer. xlvi. 4; li. 3.
-
-    _Bruit._ Jer. x. 22; Nah. iii. 19.
-
-    _Calamus._ Exod. xxx. 23; Cant. iv. 14; Exek. xxvii. 19.
-
-    _Camphire._ Cant. i. 14; iv. 13.
-
-    _Causey._ 1 Chron. xxvi. 18.
-
-    _Chanel-bone._ Job xxxi. 22, _marg._
-
-    _Chapiter._ Exod. xxxvi. 38, &c.
-
-    _Chapman._ 2 Chron. ix. 14.
-
-    _Chaws._ Ezek. xxix. 4.
-
-    [_Cithern._ 1 Macc. iv. 54.]
-
-    _Cockatrice._ Isa. xi. 8, &c.
-
-    _Collops._ Job xv. 27.
-
-    _Confection._ Exod. xxx. 35.
-
-    _Coney._ Lev. xi. 5, &c.
-
-    _To Convent._ Jer. xlix. 19, _marg._
-
-    _Cotes._ 2 Chron. xxxii. 28.
-
-    _To Couch._ Dent, xxxiii. 13.
-
-    _Countervail._ Esth. vii. 4.
-
-    _Daysman._ Job ix. 33.
-
-    [_Dehort._ 1 Macc. ix. 9.]
-
-    _Delicates._ Jer. li. 34.
-
-    _Dredge._ Job xxiv. 6, _marg._
-
-    _Dure._ Matt. xiii. 21.
-
-    _Earing._ Gen. xlv. 6.
-
-    _Endirons._ Ezek. xl. 43, _marg._
-
-    _Flue-net._ Hab. i. 15, _marg._
-
-    _Gier eagle._ Lev. xi. 18.
-
-    _Gorget._ 1 Sam. xvii. 6, _marg._
-
-    _Habergeon._ Exod. xxviii. 32; xxxix. 23, &c.
-
-    _Helve._ Deut. xix. 5.
-
-    _Hough._ Josh. xi. 6, 9.
-
-    _Implead._ Acts xix. 38.
-
-    _Jewry._ Dan. v. 13; John vii. 1.
-
-    _Knop._ Exod. xxv. 31, &c.
-
-    _Leasing._ Ps. iv. 2; v. 6.
-
-    _Makebate._ 2 Tim. iii. 3, _marg._
-
-    _Muffler._ Isa. iii. 19.
-
-    _Neesing._ Job xli. 18.
-
-    _Ossifrage._ Lev. xi. 13.
-
-    _Ouches._ Exod. xxviii. 11, &c.
-
-    _Pilled._ Gen. xxx. 37.
-
-    _Prelation._ 1 Cor. xiii., _heading_.
-
-    _Purtenance._ Exod. xii. 9.
-
-    _Ravin._ Gen. xlix. 27.
-
-    _Rereward._ Num. x. 25, &c.
-
-    _Scall._ Lev. xiii. 30.
-
-    _Scrabble._ 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
-
-    _A Settle._ Ezek. xliii. 14, &c.
-
-    _Silverling._ Isa. vii. 23.
-
-    _Sith._ Ezek. xxxv. 6.
-
-    _Tabering._ Nah. ii. 7.
-
-    _Tache._ Exod. xxvi. 6.
-
-    _Throughaired._ Jer. xxii. 14, _marg._
-
-    _Thrum._ Isa. xxxviii. 12, _marg._
-
-    _Viol._ Isa. v. 12.
-
-    _Wimple._ Isa. iii. 22.
-
-A still larger number of words or phrases, though still finding a place in
-our current speech, have wholly or partially changed their meanings.
-Amongst these are the following:
-
-    _All to brake._ Judges ix. 5.
-
-    _Base._ 1 Cor. i. 28; 2 Cor. x. 1.
-
-    _Botch._ Exod. ix. 9.
-
-    _Bought of a sling._ 1 Sam. xxv. 29, _marg._
-
-    _Bravery._ Isa. iii. 18.
-
-    _Bray._ Prov. xxvii. 27.
-
-    _By and by._ Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9.
-
-    _Captivate._ 2 Chron. xxviii.; Jer. xxxix., _headings_.
-
-    _Careful._ Dan. iii. 16; Phil. iv. 6.
-
-    _Carriage._ Judges xviii. 21; Acts xxi. 15.
-
-    _Cast about._ Jer. xli. 14.
-
-    _Chafed._ 2 Sam. xvii. 8.
-
-    _Champaign._ Deut. xi. 30.
-
-    _Charger._ Matt. xiv. 8; Mark vi. 25.
-
-    _Charity._ 1 Cor. xiii. 1, &c.
-
-    _Churl._ Isa. xxxii. 5, 7.
-
-    _Cieling._ 1 Kings vi. 15.
-
-    _Clouted._ Josh. ix. 5.
-
-    _Cockle._ Job xxxi. 40.
-
-    _Comfort._ Job ix. 27.
-
-    _Confectionary._ 1 Sam. viii. 13.
-
-    _Contain._ 1 Cor. vii. 9.
-
-    _Conversation._ Gal. i. 18; Phil. iii. 20; Heb. xiii. 5.
-
-    _Convince._ Jno. viii. 48; Jas. ii. 9.
-
-    _Cunning._ Ps. cxxxvii. 5.
-
-    _Curious._ Exod. xxviii. 8; xxix. 5.
-
-    _Damnation._ 1 Cor. xi. 29.
-
-    _Delicately._ Lam. iv. 5; Luke vii. 25.
-
-    _Discover._ Ps. xxix. 9; Mic. i. 6; Hab. iii. 13.
-
-    _Doctrine._ Mark iv. 2.
-
-    _Duke._ Gen. xxxvi. 15.
-
-    _Ensign._ Num. ii. 2; Isa. v. 26.
-
-    _Fast._ Ruth ii. 8, 21.
-
-    _Fetch a compass._ Acts xxviii. 13.
-
-    _Flood._ Josh. xxiv. 2, 3, &c.
-
-    _Footman._ Jer. xii. 5.
-
-    _Fret._ Lev. xiii. 55.
-
-    _Grudge._ Ps. lix. 15.
-
-    _Hale._ Luke xii. 58; Acts viii. 3.
-
-    _Harness._ 1 Kings xx. 11; xxii. 34.
-
-    _Indite._ Ps. xlv. 1.
-
-    _Jangling._ 1 Tim. i. 6.
-
-    _Kerchief._ Ezek. xiii. 18, 21.
-
-    _Lace._ Exod. xxviii. 28.
-
-    _Latchet._ Isa. v. 27; Mark i. 7.
-
-    _Let._ Exod. v. 24; Isa. xliii. 13; Rom. i. 13; 2 Thess. ii. 7.
-
-    _Lewd._ Acts xvii. 5.
-
-    _Lewdness._ Acts xviii. 14.
-
-    _Man-of-War._ Exod. xv. 3, &c.
-
-    _Maul._ Prov. xxv. 18.
-
-    _Minister._ Josh. i. 1; 1 Kings x. 5; Luke iv. 20.
-
-    _Napkin._ Luke xix. 20; John xi. 44; xx. 7.
-
-    _Naughtiness._ 1 Sam. xvii. 28; Prov. xi. 6; James i. 21.
-
-    _Naughty._ Prov. vi. 12.
-
-    _Nephew._ Judges xii. 14; 1 Tim. v. 4.
-
-    _Observe._ Mark vi. 20.
-
-    _Occupy._ Exod. xxxviii. 24; Judg. xvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 9; Luke xix.
-    13.
-
-    _Painfulness._ 2 Cor. xi. 27.
-
-    _Palestine._ Exod. xv. 14; Isa. xiv. 29.
-
-    _Pap._ Luke xi. 27; Rev. i. 13.
-
-    _Parcel._ Gen. xxxix. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32; Ruth iv. 3; John iv. 5.
-
-    _Peep._ Isa. viii. 19; x. 14.
-
-    _Poll._ Num. i. 2, &c.
-
-    _Pommel._ 2 Chron. ix. 12.
-
-    _Port._ Neh. ii. 13.
-
-    _Prefer._ Esth. ii. 9; Dan. vi. 3; John i. 25.
-
-    _Presently._ Matt. xxvi. 53; Phil. ii. 23.
-
-    _Prevent._ Ps. lix. 10; cxix. 147; 1 Thess. iv. 15.
-
-    _Proper._ Acts i. 19; 1 Cor. vii. 7; Heb. xi. 32.
-
-    _Prophesy._ 1 Cor. xi. 5; xiv. 3, 4.
-
-    _Publican._ Matt. v. 46, &c.
-
-    _Purchase._ 1 Tim. iii. 13.
-
-    _Ranges._ Lev. xi. 35.
-
-    _Refrain._ Prov. x. 19.
-
-    _Riot._ Titus i. 6; 1 Peter iv. 4; 2 Peter ii. 13.
-
-    _Rioting._ Rom. xiii. 13.
-
-    _Riotous._ Prov. xxiii. 20; Luke xv. 13.
-
-    _Road._ 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.
-
-    _Scrip._ 1 Sam. xvii. 40; Matt. x. 10, &c.
-
-    _Secure._ Judges viii. 11; xviii. 7, 10; Job xi. 18; xii. 6; Matt.
-    xxviii. 14.
-
-    _Set to._ John iii. 32.
-
-    _Shroud._ Ezek. xxxi. 3.
-
-    _Sod._ Gen. xxv. 29.
-
-    _Sottish._ Jer. iv. 22.
-
-    _Table._ Hab. ii. 2; Luke i. 63; 2 Cor. iii. 3.
-
-    _Target._ 1 Sam. xvii. 6; 1 Kings x. 16.
-
-    _Tire._ Isa. iii. 18; Ezek. xxiv. 17, 23.
-
-    _Tired._ 2 Kings ix. 30.
-
-    _Turtle._ Cant. ii. 12.
-
-    _Vagabond._ Gen. iv. 12; Ps. cix. 10; Acts xix. 13.
-
-    _Venison._ Gen. xxv. 28.
-
-    _Wealth._ 2 Chron. i. 12; Ps. cxii. 3; 1 Cor. x. 24.
-
-    _Witty._ Prov. viii. 22.
-
-If, in reading these passages, we attach to the words here mentioned the
-meaning that they ordinarily bear, the resulting sense will in each case
-be very different from that intended to be conveyed by the translators. In
-some of the passages the sense thus given will be so manifestly
-inappropriate that the reader is necessarily driven to seek for some
-explanation; but in others of them no such feeling may be awakened, and
-the reader is undesignedly betrayed into error. Through no fault of the
-translators, but by the inevitable law of change in language, the words
-which once served as stepping-stones, by whose aid the reader could rise
-to a clearer perception of the truth of God, have become stumbling-blocks
-in his path, and cause him to wander from the way. Respect, therefore, for
-the translators, as well as loyalty to the Scripture, constrain the demand
-that these rough places be made plain.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VI.
-
-_ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF
-1611._
-
-
-The two reasons for further revision which were illustrated in the last
-lecture are, as will have been seen, of universal application, and must
-sooner or later apply to every version of the Scriptures, however perfect
-that version may have been when it was first made. But whatever the skill
-with which King James's translators fulfilled their labours (and it is
-universally acknowledged to be worthy of the highest praise), it would be
-a vain fancy to imagine that theirs was a perfect work. They themselves
-would never have claimed such an honour for it, and already in their own
-day some of their renderings were called in question by competent men.
-Even if they had never failed in applying the means at their command for
-the interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek originals, they knew that the
-knowledge then possessed of these ancient tongues was far from complete,
-and that by further study and advancing research it would be possible to
-attain to a more accurate and extensive acquaintance with them.
-
-The progress made in the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew during the last two
-centuries has, in fact, been such as the revisers of 1611 could have
-little anticipated. A long list might easily be drawn up of eminent
-scholars who have given themselves to the investigation of the grammar of
-the two sacred languages, and of others who have laboured in illustrating
-the meaning of their terms. In the case of Hebrew, large additions to our
-knowledge, both of its grammar and its vocabulary, have been won from a
-source almost entirely unexplored in former times; namely, the study of
-Arabic and other cognate languages; and in the case both of Hebrew and
-Greek, much has been gained by the labours of those who have given
-themselves to the investigation of the general principles of language, and
-to the study of the relations which different languages sustain to each
-other. The knowledge of Hebrew and Greek thus attained has been from time
-to time applied by a still larger number of eminent men to the elucidation
-of the several books of the Bible, and an immense amount of valuable
-material for their interpretation has thus been stored up. The meaning of
-obscure and difficult passages has been elaborately and independently
-discussed by men of different nationalities, and of different types of
-theological opinion, and in this way the sense of many passages formerly
-misunderstood has been satisfactorily determined. And such being the case,
-it is clearly the incumbent duty of all who truly reverence the Scriptures
-to desire that these imperfections and obscurities shall be removed, and
-the more so that some of these erroneous renderings have been used by the
-opponents of the Bible as their weapons of attack.
-
-That the reader may be able to form some definite judgment upon the matter
-here presented to him, his attention is called to the following selection
-of passages from different parts of the Bible, in which it will now be
-generally acknowledged by competent judges that the translators of 1611
-have failed to give a faithful representation of the meaning of the
-original texts:
-
-Gen. iv. 15 is rendered, in the version of 1611, as in previous versions:
-"And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him,"
-and no small amount of ingenuity has been wasted in the endeavour to
-decide what this supposed mark upon the body of Cain might be. The
-rendering moreover altogether misrepresented the import of the passage.
-The "mark" or "sign" was not something intended for the warning of others,
-but was given to remove the fears of Cain himself, expressed in verses 13,
-14: "The Lord set a sign for Cain [to assure him] that whoever found him
-would not kill him."
-
-Gen. xx. 16. Here Abimelech is made to say to Sarah, "Behold, I have given
-thy brother a thousand _pieces_ of silver; behold, he is to thee a
-covering of the eyes, with all that are with thee, and with all _other_;
-thus she was reproved," a statement which is both misleading and obscure.
-It was not Abraham, but the present of money, that was to be for Sarah a
-covering of the eyes, that is, a testimony to her virtue, and by this act
-of the king she was not reproved for her conduct, but was cleared in her
-character. The latter part should be rendered, "Behold, it shall be to
-thee a covering of the eyes ... and thus she was righted."
-
-Exod. xvi. 15. "And when the children of Israel saw _it_, they said one to
-another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was." To the ordinary
-reader this seems to involve a contradiction; but the stumbling-block is
-at once removed by the more faithful rendering, "They said one to another,
-What is it? for they wist not what it was." Further on, in verse 31, it is
-stated that from this cry, "What is it?" the bread from heaven thus given
-to them was called Manna, or more correctly Man (the Hebrew word for
-What?).
-
-Josh. vi. 4. "And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets
-of rams' horns." This is a very unfortunate rendering; for not only are
-rams' horns solid, and so also unsuitable for wind instruments, but also
-it is only by the merest fancy that any reference to rams can be brought
-in at all. The word rendered "rams" is "jubilee," the same as that given
-to the great Year of Release. It denotes either some kind of trumpet, and
-is so used Exod. xix. 13, or the sound or signal given by a trumpet. The
-Year of Release derives its name, the Year of Jubilee, from the solemn
-sounding of trumpets throughout the land with which it was inaugurated.
-The original term should here be kept, and the verse should read, "And
-seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of jubilee."[67]
-
-Judges v. 7. "_The inhabitants of_ the villages ceased, they ceased in
-Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." Here
-the translators first of all misunderstood the word which they have
-rendered "villages," and were then driven to introduce the words "the
-inhabitants of," for which, as the italics show, there was nothing in the
-Hebrew. The picture really drawn in the verse is not that of the
-depopulation of the country, but of the defenceless and disorganized
-condition of the people through the absence of judges or rulers. The
-Septuagint gives the true sense: "The rulers ceased, they ceased in
-Israel."[68]
-
-Judges xv. 19. "But God clave an hollow place that _was_ in the jaw, and
-there came water thereout." A strange misrepresentation of the meaning of
-the original. The hollow place was not in the jaw-bone with which Sampson
-had slain the Philistines, but in some cliff in the neighbourhood, and
-which derived its name, Ramath-lehi, or more briefly Lehi, from this
-memorable exploit. The words should be rendered, "But God clave the hollow
-place which is in Lehi."
-
-1 Sam. ix. 20. "And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set
-not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom _is_ all the desire
-of Israel? _Is it_ not on thee and on all thy father's house?" A needless
-difficulty is here created by suggesting that already the hearts of the
-people had been set upon Saul for their future king, whereas his future
-elevation to that office was as yet known to Samuel only. This is removed
-by the right rendering: "Whose are all the desirable things of Israel? Are
-they not for thee, and for thy father's house."[69]
-
-2 Sam. v. 6. "Except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not
-come in hither;" a statement to which the reader finds it difficult to
-attach any appropriate sense. The verse is correctly rendered by
-Coverdale, who reads, "Thou shalt not come hither, but the blynde and lame
-shall dryve thee awaie."
-
-2 Sam. xiv. 14. "For we must needs die, and _are_ as water spilt on the
-ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect _any_
-person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from
-him." The statement that God doth not respect _any_ person, however true
-in itself, has here no relation to the context. The natural meaning of the
-original words is very different, "God doth not take away life," that is,
-as shown by what immediately follows, does not at once and without mercy
-inflict punishment as soon as guilt is incurred, but "deviseth means," &c.
-
-2 Kings viii. 13. "And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that
-he should do this great thing?" Thus read, the words imply that Hazael
-shrank indignantly from the actions described in the preceding verse;
-whereas the sense of the passage is that he viewed himself as too
-insignificant a person to do what he clearly regarded as a great exploit.
-"But what is thy servant, the [or this] dog, that he should do this great
-thing?"
-
-1 Chron. xvi. 7. "Then on that day David delivered first _this psalm_ to
-thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren." This conveys the
-impression that the psalm which follows is the first psalm that David
-published, whereas the statement is that on this memorable day--the day
-on which David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom--he formally
-appointed Asaph and his brethren to the office of superintending the
-service of praise. (Compare verse 37.) "Then on that day David first gave
-the praising of the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren."[70]
-
-Job iv. 6. "Is not _this_ thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the
-uprightness of thy ways?" By the insertion of "_this_," a wrong complexion
-is given to the passage. Eliphaz, in reference to Job's fainting under his
-sufferings, calls attention to the confidence he had formerly professed on
-the ground of his fear of God and of the uprightness of his conduct; and
-so indirectly suggests that Job's piety and uprightness had been unreal.
-"Is not thy fear [_i.e._ thy fear of God, thy piety] thy confidence; and
-thy hope, _is it not_ even the integrity of thy ways?"
-
-Job xix. 26. "And _though_ after my skin _worms_ destroy this _body_, yet
-in my flesh shall I see God." As the italics show, the original contains
-nothing corresponding to the words "though," "worms," and "body." Their
-insertion does not indeed change radically the meaning of the verse, but
-they weaken its force, and in a measure alter its imagery. The picture
-presented by the original is a very vivid one. The patriarch, pointing to
-his body wasting away under disease, says, "After my skin is destroyed
-thus, yet from my flesh shall I see God."
-
-Job xxiv. 16. "In the dark they dig through houses, _which_ they had
-marked for themselves in the daytime; they know not the light." Here the
-meaning of the second clause has been altogether missed, and the whole
-passage is thereby greatly obscured. The writer is describing the deeds of
-those who rebel against the light and love the darkness: as with the
-murderer (_v._ 14) and the adulterer (_v._ 15), so is it with the robber.
-"In the dark they dig through houses; in the daytime they shut themselves
-up; they know not the light."
-
-Job xxxi. 35. "Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire _is_, _that_
-the Almighty would answer me, and _that_ mine adversary had written a
-book." Job, having asserted his innocence, expresses his strong desire
-that the charges against him might be brought for decision before the
-divine tribunal. He, on his part, is quite prepared for the trial; there,
-he says, is his statement, signed and sealed; let the adversary in like
-manner present his indictment; he would then be sure of a triumphant
-issue. "Oh that I had one who would hear me! Behold my mark! May the
-Almighty answer me, and that I had the accusation that my adversary had
-written. Surely, I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it as
-chaplets upon me."
-
-Ps. xvi. 2, 3. "_Thou art_ my Lord; my goodness _extendeth_ not to thee.
-_But_ to the saints that _are_ in the earth, and _to_ the excellent, in
-whom is all my delight." Every reader of this psalm must have felt how
-obscure, if not unintelligible, are these words. A more faithful rendering
-gives a clear and appropriate sense, "Thou art my Lord, I have no good
-above thee. As for the saints on the earth, and the excellent, in them is
-all my delight."[71]
-
-Ps. xlii. 4. "When I remember these _things_, I pour out my soul in me,
-for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God."
-The words of the Psalmist are not, as this rendering makes them to be, a
-mere statement of what happens whenever he remembers the sorrows of the
-past, and the mockery of his adversaries. They are a declaration of his
-purpose to remember, with lively emotion and gratitude, the privileges and
-mercies with which he had been blessed. "I will remember these things
-[_i.e._ the things he is about to mention], and I will pour out my soul
-within me, how I passed along with the multitude, how I went with them [or
-how I led them] to the house of God."
-
-Ps. xlix. 5. "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, _when_ the
-iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?" This, though seemingly an
-exact rendering of the Hebrew, wholly misleads the English reader. The
-phrase, "iniquity of my heels," can only suggest to him the iniquity which
-the man himself has committed, a sense which is altogether unsuited to the
-passage. The Psalmist would never say that his own personal transgressions
-were not to him a ground of fear. The word, which in Hebrew means "heel,"
-is that also which, by a slight modification, forms the name of the
-patriarch Jacob, the "Heeler," or supplanter of his brother. In the
-opinion of many scholars, the simple form here used admits of the same
-meaning, and they render, "when the iniquity of my supplanters [or the
-iniquity of those who plot against me] compasseth me about." Whatever be
-the true explanation of the Hebrew phrase, it is quite certain that it is
-the iniquity of others, and not of the speaker, which is referred to. Some
-change, therefore, in the rendering is clearly called for.
-
-Ps. xci. 9, 10. "Because thou hast made the Lord, _which is_ my refuge,
-_even_ the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,"
-&c. The earlier English translations, the Bishops', the Genevan, the Great
-Bible, and Wycliffe's, have all kept nearer to the original than this. The
-most ancient version of all, the Septuagint, renders it correctly. The
-psalm is one of those which are intended to be sung by two singers, or two
-companies of singers, responding one to the other, and hence arises the
-frequent change of person that occurs in it. In the first clause of this
-verse we have one of the singers chanting, "For thou, O Lord, art my
-refuge." In the second clause we have the response of the other singer,
-"Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall
-thee," &c., down to end of verse 13.
-
-Eccl. iv. 14. "For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas, also, _he
-that is_ born in his kingdom _becometh_ poor." The meaning attached by the
-Revisers of 1611 to the second clause seems to be, that the old and
-foolish king referred to in the previous verse, who was "born in his
-kingdom," that is, who succeeded to the kingly power by inheritance,
-becomes, through his obstinacy, a poor man. This sense can only be got
-from the words by much straining, and has led to the introduction of the
-word "becometh," which represents nothing in the original.[72] The correct
-rendering gives a plain and suitable sense: "For from the house of
-prisoners he goeth forth to reign, although in his kingdom [namely, the
-kingdom over which he now rules] he was born poor."
-
-Isa. lxiii. 19. "We are _thine_: thou never barest rule over them; they
-were not called by thy name." The sense of this passage is entirely
-changed by the introduction of the word "thine." The verse is the
-penitential acknowledgment of the depressed condition into which the
-nation had fallen in consequence of its sins. They are no longer as the
-chosen inheritance (v. 17), they are as an alien people. The Genevan
-translators give the true sense of the passage, "We have been [better, We
-are become] as they over whom thou never barest rule, and upon whom thy
-name was not called."
-
-Jer. iv. 1, 2. "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto
-me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then
-shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in
-judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in
-him, and in him shall they glory." This as it stands is hopelessly
-obscure. The passage is an emphatic announcement of the blessings that
-would come to the nations from the penitent return of Israel to its
-faithful allegiance. If Israel will return, will put away all its
-abominations, and no longer swearing by idols, as if they were the highest
-objects of reverence, should make in truth and uprightness their appeals
-to Jehovah, then the nations would share in the blessedness of the
-kingdom. "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, wilt return unto
-me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, and wilt
-not go astray, and wilt swear, 'The Lord liveth' in truth, in judgment,
-and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him," &c.
-
-Ezek. x. 14. "And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of
-a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the
-face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle." This conveys a wrong
-impression. The prophet is describing, not as he is here represented, the
-four faces of all the cherubim, but one face only of each. The Bishops'
-Bible gives the true sense by rendering, "Every one of them had four
-faces, so that the face of the first was the face of a cherub, and the
-face of the second was the face of a man, and of the third the face of a
-lion, and of the fourth the face of an eagle."
-
-Ezek. xxii. 15, 16. "And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and
-disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of
-thee. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the
-heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." The dark phrase, "thou
-shalt take thine inheritance in thyself," is commonly explained to mean,
-that whereas aforetime they were God's inheritance, they shall now be left
-to find their inheritance by themselves. A more lucid and more suitable
-meaning is given to the words by the rendering adopted by most modern
-commentators, "thou shalt be profaned through thyself in the sight of the
-nations."
-
-Dan. iii. 25. "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
-and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of
-God." It is clearly misleading to attribute to Nebuchadnezzar any such
-exalted conception as that which we attach to the phrase, "the Son of
-God," and so to render the clause misrepresents the original. The correct
-translation is "one like to a son of the gods." A similar error occurs in
-vii. 13, where "one like the Son of man," should be "one like a son of
-man."
-
-Hos. vi. 3. "Then shall we know, _if_ we follow on to know the Lord;" thus
-making the prophet to declare that the attainment of knowledge is
-dependent upon our perseverance in the search after it. This is an
-important truth, but is not the meaning of the verse, which is simply an
-emphatic exhortation to know God and to persevere in knowing Him. "Yea,
-let us know, let us follow on to know, the Lord."
-
-Hosea xiii. 14. "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy
-destruction." Though there is some difference of opinion respecting the
-right rendering of the earlier part of this verse, all are agreed that
-these should be rendered as they are quoted in 1 Cor. xv. 55, "Where are
-thy plagues, O death? Where is thy destruction, O grave?"
-
-Matt. vi. 16. The rendering "they disfigure their faces, that they may
-appear unto men to fast," misleads the reader by conveying the impression
-that the Pharisees were endeavouring to obtain credit under false
-pretences--were seeming to fast when not doing so in reality; whereas the
-conduct condemned is that of parading, and calling public attention to,
-their religious observances. "They disfigure their faces, that they may be
-seen of men that they are fasting."[73] So also in verse 18.
-
-Matt. xi. 2. "Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
-he sent two of his disciples." Here the true force of the passage is
-missed. "Christ," as used by us, is a proper name, designating the person,
-and not simply the office of our Lord. It was not because John had heard
-of certain works done by Jesus of Nazareth that he sent his disciples to
-Him, but because he recognized in the accounts which were brought to him
-deeds characteristic of the Christ, the promised Messiah. "When John heard
-in the prison the works of the Christ."
-
-Matt. xv. 3. "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
-tradition?" The commandment of God might indeed be transgressed by
-compliance with the traditions of men, but this is not the meaning of our
-Lord's words. The Pharisees had asked why the disciples did not observe
-the traditions of the elders respecting washing. Our Lord justifies them
-by calling attention to the wrong doing of those who so exalted these
-outward observations, in themselves mere matters of indifference, as on
-their account to make void the commandments of God. "Why do ye also
-transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?"[74]
-
-Mark vi. 20. "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an
-holy, and observed him." This erroneous rendering has come down through
-Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan, the last of these, however,
-giving it in the less obscure form, "and did him reverence." The passage
-is rightly given by Wycliffe, "and kept him;" _i.e._ kept him in safety.
-
-Luke i. 59. "And they called him Zacharias." The form employed in the
-Greek expresses that the action here spoken of was attempted only, not
-completed, "they would have called him Zacharias."
-
-Luke xxi. 19. "In your patience possess ye your souls," a translation
-which altogether misses the meaning. The clause is not an exhortation to
-the maintenance of a calm composure in trouble, but is an exhortation to
-the acquirement of a higher and nobler life through the brave endurance of
-suffering. "In your patience win ye your lives." In the better texts this
-is given in the form of an assurance: "In your patience ye shall win your
-lives."
-
-Luke xxiii. 15. "No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and lo, nothing
-worthy of death is done unto him." Words unto which an intelligible sense
-can be put only by straining them to mean that nothing had been done to
-our Lord to show that in the judgment of Herod He was worthy of death. All
-obscurity is removed by the more faithful rendering, "nothing worthy of
-death hath been done by him."
-
-John iv. 27. "And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he
-talked with the woman." The surprise of the disciples was not occasioned
-by the fact that our Lord was conversing with this particular woman; they
-were surprised that He should talk with any woman. The correct rendering
-is, as given by the Rheims, "and they marueiled that he talked with a
-woman."
-
-John v. 35. "He was a burning and a shining light." Though this, by
-frequent quotation, has passed into a sort of proverbial phrase, it is a
-most unfortunate rendering, and gives an entirely wrong impression of the
-meaning of the passage. As thus read it sets forth the pre-eminence of
-John, whereas its true import is to emphasize the subordinate nature of
-his office and work. Christ, as stated in the first chapter of this
-Gospel, was "the Light." In comparison with Him, John was only a lamp
-which, in order that it may give light, must first be kindled from some
-other source. "He was the lamp which is kindled and [so] shineth."
-
-John xv. 3. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
-you," thus representing the word to be the instrument through which the
-cleansing was wrought. But though this be true, it is not the truth here
-set forth. It was not "through," but "on account of" the word, _i.e._
-because of its virtue and its cleansing power, that they were clean.
-Here, again, Wycliffe is free from the error into which all the later
-translators (except the Rheims) have fallen. He renders, "Now ye ben clene
-for the word that I haue spokun to you."
-
-Acts ii. 23. "Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
-slain." The ordinary reader naturally takes the "wicked hands" to be the
-hands of the Jews, whereas the reference is to the Romans, through whose
-agency the Jews brought about the crucifixion of Christ, "and by the hands
-of lawless men, ye crucified and slew." Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, the
-Genevan, the Bishops, and the Rheims, all render this clause correctly.
-
-Acts xi. 17. "Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as _he did_
-unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ." This is incorrect, and
-suggests a false contrast between "us" and "them," as if the latter were
-not believers. Faith in Christ is the ground upon which, in the case of
-both parties, the gifts referred to were received. The verse is thus given
-by Tyndale: "For as moche then as God gave them lyke gyftes, as he dyd
-unto vs when we beleved on the Lorde Iesus Christ."
-
-Acts xxvi. 23. "That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first
-that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and
-to the Gentiles." This both needlessly suggests a difficulty to many
-readers, and altogether conceals one main point of the passage; namely,
-that the resurrection of Christ was the great source from which
-illumination would come both to Jews and to Gentiles, "and that He first
-by _His_ resurrection from the dead should proclaim light to the people
-and to the Gentiles."
-
-Rom. ix. 3. "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
-brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Such a wish it is impossible
-that the Apostle could have entertained. His words are the expression of
-his strong affection for his fellow-countrymen. "I could have wished,"
-&c.; _i.e._ if such a wish had been right or possible.
-
-Rom. xiii. 11. "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to
-awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
-believed." This is ambiguous English, and though a very careful reader
-might gather the true sense from this rendering, it is very liable to be
-taken as if meaning that our salvation is nearer than we anticipated; nor
-is the ambiguity removed by the Genevan, which reads, "nearer than when we
-believed it." The reference is to the time of their first exercise of
-faith in Christ, "nearer than when we _first_ believed."
-
-1 Cor. i. 21. "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
-knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
-that believe." This rendering has been a fertile source of error, as if
-preaching was in itself, or as viewed by the Corinthians, an inappropriate
-means for the diffusion of the Gospel, a thought altogether at variance
-with the tone of the context, and with the facts of history. The Greeks
-were, of all the peoples of antiquity, the least disposed to think lightly
-of oratory, and the whole tenor of the passage shows that their tendency
-was to overrate, not underrate, the power of speech. What was foolishness
-to them was not the act of preaching, but the doctrine preached--salvation
-through a crucified Christ. The Rheims here clearly enough gives the true
-sense, "it pleased God by the folishnes of the preaching to saue them that
-beleeue."
-
-1 Cor. ix. 5. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well
-as other apostles?" This mode of speech implies that some only of the
-other apostles were married. What the Greek states is that all or most of
-them were. Here again the Rheims correctly renders, "as also the rest of
-the Apostles."
-
-2 Cor. v. 14. "Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were
-all dead," thus seeming to imply that the death of Christ upon the cross
-is a proof that all men were in a state of spiritual death; whereas the
-conclusion which the Apostle draws from the death of Christ is, that all
-who truly believe in Him die to their old fleshly sinful life, "because
-we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died."
-
-Eph. iii 10. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
-heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."
-It would only be after much careful consideration that the reader of these
-words would discover that they cannot mean that the manifold wisdom of God
-is to be known _by_ the Church. What the Apostle really states is, that it
-was in the Divine purpose that through the Church the manifold wisdom of
-God was to be made known to the angelic powers. Of all the ancient
-versions the Rheims, though here, as usual, disfigured by its offensive
-Latinisms, most clearly expresses the sense of the verse; its rendering
-is, "that the manifold wisdom of God may be notified to the Princes and
-Potentates in the celestials by the Church."
-
-Phil. iv. 3. "And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women
-which laboured with me in the gospel." This leaves it quite uncertain who
-are the women referred to, whereas in the original it is plain that they
-are the two women previously referred to, Euodia, and Syntyche; and the
-reason why it is urged that assistance should be given to them, is that
-they had bravely shared with Paul in the toil and conflict of the
-Christian service. "Help them, for they have laboured with me in the
-gospel."
-
-1 Tim. iv. 15. "Meditate upon these things." This wholly fails to express
-the apostle's meaning. His exhortation goes beyond the region of thought;
-it passes into the sphere of active life, and he urges Timothy to give
-himself to the diligent practice of the several departments of labour
-previously referred to. Of the old translators, Tyndale gives it
-correctly, "These thynges exercyse."
-
-1 Tim. vi. 2. "And they that have believing masters, let them not despise
-_them_, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because
-they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." The last clause
-of this passage has, in all probability, grievously puzzled many a reader;
-but with the fuller knowledge of the Greek syntax now possessed, all
-obscurity passes away. No scholar would now hesitate in rendering, "do
-them service because they who partake of the benefit are faithful and
-beloved."[75]
-
-1 Tim. vi. 5. "Supposing that gain is godliness." Here again an
-unnecessary difficulty is introduced; for it is hard to see how any sane
-person could consider "gain" to be "godliness." On the other hand, it is
-unhappily no uncommon experience to meet with persons who treat religion
-as a means of worldly advantage, and it is to such the Apostle refers. The
-correct rendering is, "supposing that godliness is gain."[76]
-
-Heb. iv. 2. "For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them," a
-rendering which at once raises the objection that "the Gospel," in the
-sense which ordinary readers attach to the term, was not preached to the
-Israelites in the wilderness; nor does any reference to "the Gospel" occur
-in the immediate context, but simply to the promise of entering into a
-rest. The plain sense of the passage is, "unto us were good tidings
-preached as well as unto them."
-
-Heb. viii. 5. "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things."
-The introduction of the preposition "unto" almost entirely obliterates the
-meaning of the clause; namely, that the Mosaic priesthood were the
-ministers, not of the true sanctuary, but of that which is only its copy
-and shadow. The Rheims correctly renders, "that serve the examplar and
-shadow of heavenly things."
-
-Heb. xiii. 7, 8. "Whose faith follow, considering the end of their
-conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
-Here there is a double error; first, the connection of the last clause
-with the preceding, as if it were intended to affirm that Christ was the
-end of the conversation of their faithful pastors; and secondly, the wrong
-sense thus given to the word "end," which here denotes the "outcome" or
-issue. The Hebrew Christians are urged to imitate the faith of their
-pastors, considering the blessed issue of their Christian cause. Then
-follows, as an independent statement, the assertion of the
-unchangeableness of Christ, which, though not altogether disconnected in
-thought with what precedes, stands in still closer connection with what
-follows: "Considering the issue of their way of life, imitate their faith.
-Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
-
-Such are some of the passages from which it may be said, that through the
-emphatic unanimity of Biblical scholars all obscurity and doubt have been
-removed. Their true meaning may now be affirmed with a confidence that
-closely borders upon moral certainty. Through numerous commentaries and
-other expository works, these results of scholarship are made widely
-known, and they whose duty it is to expound these passages to others are
-constrained to point out the imperfection that attaches to the renderings
-given in the English Bible now ordinarily used. It is obviously a most
-undesirable thing that the teacher or preacher should be placed under such
-a necessity. It is not at all times easy so to discharge the duty as that
-he shall give no offence even to educated hearers; while the simple-minded
-and unlearned are painfully perplexed; and, unprepared as they are to
-estimate the limits of possible error, seem to themselves to be launched
-upon a boundless sea of uncertainty. Revision, therefore, becomes
-imperative, both for the sake of removing acknowledged blemishes, and also
-for reassuring the anxious that they are trusting to a faithful guide, and
-for showing to them how little, comparatively, there is in their beloved
-Book that needs to be changed.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VII.
-
-_ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS, AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN._
-
-
-Another, and distinct, class of reasons for the further revision of the
-English Bible, arises from the more abundant material now possessed for
-the determination of the original text of Scripture than was within the
-reach of the Revisers of 1611.
-
-Even if these honoured men had perfectly fulfilled their work, and had
-never erred in their interpretation of the sacred books, the result of
-their labours would still be open to correction because of the less
-perfect form of the texts which they set themselves to translate. The
-exact words used by the inspired writers are, as was stated in the first
-lecture, not now to be found in any one book or manuscript. They have to
-be gathered from varied sources, by long and careful labour, demanding
-much skill and learning. These sources, moreover, are so numerous that the
-investigation of them can be accomplished only by a large division of
-labour, no one life being long enough for the task, and no one scholar
-having knowledge enough to complete it alone. Nevertheless, it is well
-that our sources are thus extensive. Had one copy only of the books of the
-Old and New Testament come down to us, then, indeed, we should have been
-freed from the necessity of this manifold and laborious research, but
-unless this were the original copy itself, we should have had no means
-whereby to detect and to remove the errors which had crept in from the
-human imperfections of the transcribers. And though none of these errata
-might in any serious degree have affected the great truths which the Bible
-conveys to us, or have diminished our estimate of its surpassing worth,
-they would have been as blots upon its pages which our love and reverence
-for it would long to see removed. The greater the number and variety of
-our resources, the greater is our ability, by the examination and
-comparison of their differences, to remove these blemishes; and the
-greater also is the confidence we are able to feel in the absolute
-correctness of those far more numerous and extensive passages in which our
-authorities agree. And hence, though the toil imposed upon us is so
-largely multiplied thereby, we cannot but rejoice in the number and extent
-of our authorities, and we gather therefrom a fresh illustration of the
-saying, that "in all labour there is profit."
-
-The sources, whence our knowledge of the original texts is chiefly
-derived, are three in number: (1) Manuscripts containing one or more of
-the books of Scripture; (2) Ancient Versions of the Bible; and (3)
-Quotations of Scriptural passages found in the works of early Christian
-writers.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Respecting our Manuscript Authorities, the first fact claiming emphatic
-notice is, that while in the case of the classic poets, philosophers and
-historians, the extant manuscript copies are numbered by tens and
-sometimes even by units, those of the Scriptures are numbered by hundreds.
-Of the New Testament alone nearly eighteen hundred manuscripts have been
-catalogued and more or less carefully examined. Of these 685 are
-manuscripts of the Gospels, 248 contain the Acts and Catholic Epistles,
-298 the Pauline Epistles, and 110 the Apocalypse; 428 are Lectionaries or
-service books of the Greek church, 347 of which contain passages from the
-Gospels and 81 passages from the Acts and the Epistles. Thus while our
-knowledge of the interesting narratives of Herodotus is dependent upon
-five or six authorities only, and the history of Livy upon eight or nine
-only (and none of these contain the whole even of the portions
-extant),[77] our knowledge of the life and words of our Lord is drawn from
-over a thousand manuscript authorities, and of which the larger part
-contain the whole of the four Gospels.
-
-In antiquity again the manuscripts of the New Testament far surpass those
-of classical authors. Few, if any, of the latter are older than the ninth
-or tenth century, while of the former we have copies belonging to the
-fourth and fifth centuries. The oldest manuscripts are written in capital
-letters, and on this account are called uncial[78] manuscripts, or briefly
-uncials. Later manuscripts are written in a smaller character, and in a
-style approaching to what we call a running hand, and are hence named
-cursives. Of uncial manuscripts, containing portions of the New Testament,
-one hundred and fifty-eight have been examined and catalogued. Some of the
-most valuable of these have been published under the superintendence of
-careful editors. Others have been thoroughly examined, and their
-variations so faithfully noted and recorded, that a private student is,
-for most practical purposes, placed in the same position as the possessor
-of the manuscript itself. This work is technically described as
-_collation_, and the amount of painstaking labour spent upon the collation
-of Biblical manuscripts during the past two hundred years, and especially
-in the last forty or fifty years, is simply enormous. To one who has never
-examined a document written many centuries ago it is difficult to convey
-any adequate notion of the amount of time and labour involved in the
-collation even of a single manuscript. The unusual and varying forms of
-the letters, the indistinctness of the characters, the various
-contractions employed by the scribe, and, as is the case with our most
-ancient documents, the non-separation of word from word, and the absence
-of stops, render the mere task of deciphering the manuscript very
-difficult and painfully wearying to the eyes.[79] Much watchful attention
-is also demanded, as well as a good knowledge of the language, in making
-the proper separation of the words, and in judging aright of any
-peculiarities of spelling that may attach to the writer. In making the
-collation of any Biblical manuscript--say of the New Testament--the course
-generally pursued is as follows: The collator procures a printed copy of
-the Greek text, commonly of some well-known edition, and in the margin of
-this he marks all the variations of the manuscripts from the printed text
-before him, whether of omission, addition, or otherwise, including even
-variations in spelling. He also marks carefully where each line and page
-of the manuscript begins and ends, what corrections or alterations have
-been made in it, whether these were made by the original writer or by a
-later hand; and where several handwritings may be detected, he specifies
-and distinguishes these. All this is done with so much minuteness that it
-would be possible for the collator to reproduce the original manuscript in
-every respect save in the shape of the letters and the appearance of the
-parchment or paper.
-
-Of the uncial manuscripts of the New Testament, the most ancient and
-important are the SINAITIC,[80] written in the fourth century, and now
-deposited in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg; the VATICAN,[81]
-also of the fourth century, and preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome;
-the ALEXANDRINE,[82] of the fifth century, now in the British Museum; the
-EPHRAEM CODEX,[83] of the fifth century, in the National Library at Paris;
-BEZA'S CODEX,[84] of the sixth century, in the University Library,
-Cambridge; and the CLAROMONTANE,[85] also of the sixth century, which
-formerly belonged to Beza, but is now in the National Library at Paris. As
-will be seen presently, only two of these most ancient manuscripts were
-available for the preparation of the text from which the translators of
-1611 made their revision. The Alexandrine was not brought to light until
-1628, when it was presented to Charles I. by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of
-Constantinople. Although the Ephraem Codex was brought to Europe in the
-early part of the sixteenth century, it was not known to contain a portion
-of the New Testament until towards the close of the seventeenth century,
-and was not collated until the year 1716. The Sinaitic was discovered by
-Dr. Tischendorf, in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, so
-recently as February 4th, 1859. And the Vatican, though deposited in the
-Library at Rome in the fifteenth century, was, during a long time, so
-jealously guarded by the Roman authorities, that little use could be made
-of it. Now, however, all these six important manuscripts have been edited
-and published, some in the ordinary style of printing, and some in _quasi
-fac-simile_. At the present time, by the application of the processes of
-photography, an exact copy of the Alexandrine is in course of preparation,
-and the New Testament portion has been successfully completed.
-
-In these and other ways, by the laborious efforts of many English and
-Continental scholars, an immense amount of material for the determination
-of the sacred text has been gathered together and safely garnered; and
-knowledge which aforetime could be attained only by slow and wearisome
-effort, by many long journeys to distant places, and by much personal
-search amongst the books and papers stored away in national and other
-libraries, can now be attained with comparative ease by the solitary
-student in his study. At the time when King James's translators entered
-upon their work a small fraction only of this mass of material was
-available, and even that fraction was but imperfectly used. The means were
-not then possessed for correctly judging of the relative value of the
-several documents, nor had experience given the skill to discriminate
-wisely between varying testimony.
-
-The translators of 1611 have left on record no statement respecting the
-Greek text from which they translated, but as far as can be gathered from
-internal evidence they contented themselves with accepting the forms of it
-which they found ready at hand. Of these the two then held in highest
-repute were those connected with the names of Theodore Beza and Robert
-Stephen. These, in their turn, were based upon the two primary editions of
-the printed text, the Complutensian and Erasmus's, editions which were
-made quite independently of each other. The Complutensian was the first
-printed, though not the first published.[86] It formed the fifth volume of
-the splendid Polyglot prepared under the munificent patronage of Cardinal
-Ximenes, at Alcala, in Spain, from the Latin name of which city
-(Complutum) it derives its designation, and was completed January 10th,
-1514. It is not now known from what manuscripts the text of this edition
-was derived, but it may be confidently affirmed that none of our most
-ancient authorities were used. They were probably not many in number, and
-were all what in this connection is termed modern; that is to say, not
-earlier than the tenth century. The first _published_ edition of the
-Greek New Testament was that edited by the celebrated Erasmus, and sent
-forth from the press of Froben, in Basle, February 24th, 1516. This was
-derived from six manuscripts, five of which are now in the public library
-of Basle, and one[87] in the library of the Prince of
-Oettingen-Wallerstein. Of these one, and the most valuable, contained the
-whole of the New Testament except the Apocalypse, but of this Erasmus made
-but little use. Of the rest, one contained the Gospels only, two the Acts
-and the Epistles only, one the Epistles of Paul only, and one the
-Apocalypse only. It will thus be seen that in the Gospels the text given
-by Erasmus rested almost entirely upon the authority of a single
-manuscript; in the Acts and Catholic Epistles upon that of two only; in
-the Epistles of Paul upon three; and in the Apocalypse upon one only, and
-that an imperfect one. The last six verses were wanting, and these Erasmus
-supplied by translating them into Greek from the Latin of the Vulgate. The
-work too was hastily done. The proposal to undertake it was made to
-Erasmus April 17th, 1515, so that less than ten months were given to the
-preparation of the volume, and this, too, at a time when Erasmus was
-busied with other engagements; an unseemly haste that we may probably
-ascribe to the publishers' eager desire to get the start of the
-Complutensian. Revised editions were published in 1519 and 1522, in the
-preparation of which the aid of a few additional manuscripts was obtained.
-These, again, were further revised by the aid of the Complutensian, which
-then became available, in an edition which Erasmus published in 1527.
-
-The next stage in the history of the printed text of the Greek New
-Testament is marked by the publication at Paris, in 1550, of the handsome
-folio of the celebrated and learned printer, Robert Stephen.[88] He tells
-us in his preface that in the preparation of this edition he made use of
-the Complutensian and of fifteen manuscripts. Two of these were ancient,
-one that is now known as Beza's Codex, which had been collated for him by
-a friend in Italy, and another, a manuscript in the National Library of
-Paris, written in the eighth or ninth century, and containing the four
-Gospels;[89] the rest were modern, and all were but imperfectly
-collated.[90]
-
-After the death of Robert Stephen (1559)[91] the work of revision was
-carried on by Theodore Beza, who, like the former, had embraced the
-Protestant cause, and like him also had found a home in Geneva. His first
-edition was published in this city in 1565, a second in 1582, a third in
-1589, and a fourth in 1598. In the preparation of these he had in his
-possession the collations made for Robert Stephen, and, in addition, the
-ancient manuscript of the Gospels and Acts which now bears his name; and
-for the Pauline Epistles, the equally ancient Claromontane. Beza's
-strength, however, lay rather in the interpretation, than in the
-criticism, of the text, and he made but a slight use of the materials
-within his reach.
-
-It will thus be seen how small, comparatively, was the manuscript
-authority for the text used by King James's translators. In the main they
-follow the text of Beza; sometimes, however, they give the preference to
-Stephen's; in some few places they differ from both. By what principles
-they were guided in their choice we do not know. They do not appear to
-have set on foot any independent examination of authorities, and when they
-forsake their two guides they commonly follow in the wake of some of the
-earlier English versions.
-
-But, as already stated, manuscripts are not the only source whence we
-derive our knowledge of the original texts. Translations of the Scriptures
-were made at an early date; some at an earlier date than that of the
-oldest manuscripts now extant. Two of these were referred to in the first
-lecture; namely, the old Latin and the old Syriac, both of which belong to
-the second century, and give, therefore, most important testimony as to
-the words of Scripture at that early period. Next to these in point of age
-may be placed the two Egyptian versions, one in the language of Lower
-Egypt, and called the Memphitic (or Coptic), and the other in that of
-Upper Egypt, and called the Thebaic (or Sahidic). In the opinion of
-competent judges, some portions, at least, of the Scriptures must have
-been translated into these dialects before the close of the second
-century; in their completed form these versions may be referred to the
-earlier part of the third century. A Gothic version of the Scriptures was
-made in the fourth century by Ulphilas, who was Bishop of the Moeso-Goths
-348-388; and of this some valuable portions are still extant. Two other
-ancient versions, the Armenian (cent. 5), and the �thiopic (cents. 6 and
-7), though of inferior importance, are not without value. During recent
-years a large amount of labour has been spent, first, in securing as
-accurate a knowledge as possible of the text of these various versions,
-and then in investigating the evidence they supply respecting the original
-texts from which they were severally made. From this source much valuable
-material has been obtained supplementary to that furnished by Biblical
-manuscripts.
-
-The works of early Christian writers contain, as might be expected, large
-quotations of Scripture passages. Some of these works are elaborate
-expositions of various books of the Old and New Testament, and others are
-controversial writings in which there is a frequent necessity for
-appealing to Scriptural authorities. Although not a few of the writings of
-the earliest Christian authors have perished, we have still a
-considerable collection of writings belonging to the second and third
-centuries, whose pages supply us with valuable evidence concerning the
-text of the New Testament, of a date earlier than the oldest of our
-manuscripts. We have also a still larger collection of writings belonging
-to the same age as that of our most ancient manuscripts, and from them are
-able to gather a further mass of testimony in confirmation or correction
-of that given by these venerable documents.
-
-The writings of Iren�us, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen,
-belonging to the latter part of the second century, and the beginning of
-the third, contain a large body of quotations from the Gospels and
-Epistles. The works of Origen alone may, with scarcely any exaggeration,
-be said to be equivalent to an additional manuscript of the New Testament.
-He died about A.D. 253 or 254, and during his entire life gave himself
-with a most indomitable perseverance to Biblical studies. In addition to
-an elaborate revision of the Greek text of the Septuagint, upon which he
-spent eight and twenty years, but of which unhappily some fragments only
-have reached us, he composed expositions or homilies upon the larger part
-of the books of the Old and New Testaments. Of these some very
-considerable portions have come down to us, and as his expositions on the
-Old Testament abound in quotations from the New, the number of passages
-from the latter found in his writings is very large.
-
-Of writers belonging to the fourth century we have commentaries in Greek
-by Chrysostom and Didymus, and in Latin by Hilary of Rome, and Jerome;
-and, in addition, extensive theological treatises, involving numerous
-appeals to the Scriptures, by Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Epiphanius, and
-the two Gregorys.
-
-In the following century we have the Greek commentaries of Theodore of
-Mopsuestia and Theodoret; the commentary of Pelagius on the Epistles of
-Paul; and the voluminous writings of Augustine, including commentaries on
-the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, John's Gospel and Epistles, and
-Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, together with a large number
-of Homilies on various parts of Scripture. These numerous writings form a
-mine of wealth to the Biblical critic; but it is a mine that has only been
-diligently worked in comparatively recent years. Much wearisome toil has
-been necessary in bringing to light its treasures, and these were either
-overlooked or neglected by the earlier editors of the Greek New Testament.
-
-It may perhaps be thought that, inasmuch as the documents from which these
-Christian writings are obtained are themselves of a later date, the
-testimony they give to the text of Scripture is of no higher worth than
-that of Biblical manuscripts of the same age. The scribes, it may be said,
-would be influenced by the form of text then current, and in copying these
-writings would naturally, when Scripture quotations occurred, give them in
-the form with which they were familiar. To some extent this may have been
-the case, and the testimony of these writings is of less weight when they
-simply reflect the form of text which prevailed at the date when they were
-copied. But then, on the other hand, their testimony is for the same
-reason proportionally the stronger whenever they do not agree with the
-current form, but give a different reading. Moreover it must be remembered
-that in many cases the authors comment minutely upon the Scripture text,
-and that here their testimony is quite unaffected by any tendency on the
-part of the copyist to use a familiar form, the comment itself showing
-beyond all doubt what was the form of the text which the author was
-expounding. In all such places the testimony of these early writers is
-especially valuable.
-
-From this mere outline of the manifold researches which scholars have made
-during the years that have passed since the Revision of 1611 was issued,
-some notion may be gathered of the extent to which our resources for the
-satisfactory determination of the sacred text have been multiplied. It
-will hence be seen how great is the confidence with which we are thereby
-enabled to affirm the verbal correctness of that far larger portion of the
-text in which our numerous and varied authorities are all agreed, and with
-what confidence also we can place our finger upon certain blemishes, and
-say that here an error has crept in through the inadvertence, or
-carelessness, or ignorance of the transcriber. If then there were no other
-reasons for the revision of the English Bible, this alone would be a
-sufficient ground for it. When it is in the power of any one to say that
-there are passages in our common Bibles which, as there given, are found
-in no Greek manuscript whatever, as is the case in Acts ix., the latter
-part of verse 5, and the beginning of verse 6; 1 Peter iii. 20; Heb. xi.
-13; and Rev. ii. 20; and when there are other passages, respecting which
-the evidence is greatly preponderating, that they ought to have no place
-in the text, as is the case with Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xvii. 21; Matt.
-xxiii. 35 (last clause); Mark xv. 28; Luke xi. 2, 4 (the last clause of
-each verse); John v. 3 (last clause), and 4; Acts viii. 37; Acts xv. 34;
-Acts xxviii. 29; Rom. xi. 6 (last clause); 1 Cor. vi. 20 (last clause); 1
-Cor. x. 28 (last clause); Gal. iii. 1 (second clause); Heb. xii. 20; and 1
-John v., from "in heaven," verse 7, to "in earth," verse 8. When these
-things can be said, and can be truly said, then all true lovers of the
-Bible will earnestly demand that they be forthwith removed.
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE VIII.
-
-_THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO
-CENTURIES._
-
-
-It has not been left to the present generation to be the first to
-recognize the force of the various considerations presented in the
-previous lectures. The duty of providing for a further revision of the
-English Bible has been handed down as a solemn trust from generation to
-generation. Every new discovery made of Biblical manuscripts, and every
-fresh field of research opened up, has at once made the need of revision
-more apparent, and given intensity to the desire that it should be
-undertaken; and, in their turn, this quickened desire and this increase of
-material have prompted to renewed efforts in obtaining all possible
-subsidiary helps. In this way it has come to pass that the whole period
-which has elapsed since the publication of the Revision of 1611 has been
-in effect a time of preparation for another and further revision, and
-here, as elsewhere, the divine law of human discipline has been verified,
-that every work accomplished is but the starting-point for fresh
-endeavours.
-
-In this work of preparation four distinct stages may be clearly traced:
-the first, that of unfriendly criticism; the second, that of premature
-attempts at correction; the third, that of diligent research and patient
-investigation; and the fourth, that of widespread conviction of the
-desirableness of further revision, and the discussion of the plans by
-which it may best be accomplished.
-
-From the very first the new version had to undergo an ordeal of
-criticism, springing sometimes from personal pique, sometimes from party
-prejudice, sometimes from a one-sided attachment to a favourite doctrine,
-the evidence for which seemed to be obscured by the rendering given to
-certain passages. Almost immediately upon the publication of the volume, a
-violent attack was made upon it by Hugh Broughton, who, though a man of
-immense erudition, and one of the best Hebraists of the day, was of so
-overbearing a temper that his offer to aid in the revision had been
-declined. Broughton declared that the version was so ill done that it bred
-in him a sadness which would grieve him whilst he breathed. "Tell his
-Majesty," he passionately said, "that I had rather be rent in pieces with
-wild horses than any such translation by my consent should be urged on
-poor churches."
-
-In the sharp controversies of the Commonwealth period the slight
-indications given by the version of a certain ecclesiastical bias were
-unduly exaggerated. Charges of a direct prelatic influence were freely
-made, and various rumours were circulated, as if upon good authority, that
-Archbishop Bancroft had taken upon himself to introduce alterations in
-opposition to the judgment, and even the protest of the translators.
-Influenced probably by the feeling thus awakened, though not sharing it,
-Dr. John Lightfoot, in a sermon preached before the Long Parliament on
-August 26th, 1645,[92] expressed the hope that they would find some time
-among their serious employments to think of a "review and survey of the
-translation of the Bible." "And certainly," he added, "it would not be the
-least advantage that you might do to the three nations, if they, by your
-care and means, might come to understand the proper and genuine reading of
-the Scriptures by an exact, vigorous, and lively translation."
-
-In 1653 the charge that the New Testament "had been looked over by some
-Prelates, to bring it to speak the Prelatical language," was formally
-repeated in the preamble of a Bill brought before the Long Parliament,
-which proposed the appointment of a committee "to search and observe
-wherein that last translation appears to be wronged by the Prelates or
-printers or others."[93] In 1659 a folio volume of 805 pages, entitled,
-"An Essay toward the Amendment of the Last English Translation of the
-Bible, or a Proof by many instances that the last Translation of the Bible
-into English may be improved," was published by Dr. Robert Gell, "Minister
-of the Parish of St. Mary, Alder-Mary, London." Dr. Gell was a man who
-stoutly maintained the doctrine that it is "possible and attainable
-through the grace of God and His Holy Spirit that men may be without sin,"
-and his book is an elaborate attempt to show that this doctrine "was
-frequently delivered in holy Scripture, though industriously obscured by
-our translators." An attack of another kind was made a quarter of a
-century later, by a Roman Catholic writer named Thomas Ward, who,
-repeating many of the charges made against the earlier English versions by
-Gregory Martin, one of the authors of the Rhemish version, charged the
-translators with corrupting the Holy Scriptures by false and partial
-translations, for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage in the
-controversy with the Church of Rome.[94]
-
-These hostile criticisms, though made in a spirit of partisanship and
-marred by much uncharitableness and unfairness, were nevertheless of
-service. They forced upon all, though in a rude and unpleasant way, the
-recognition of the fact that the new version, with all its excellences,
-was still the work of fallible men; and despite their passion and their
-hard words, they did undoubtedly hit some blots that here and there
-disfigured the sacred page. To this extent they served to prepare the way
-for further revision.
-
-A second stage in the process of preparation is seen in the various
-attempts which have been made to produce a version which should remove
-acknowledged blemishes, and more faithfully convey the meaning of the holy
-Word. Some of these have been based upon a well-conceived plan, and have
-sought to accomplish the desired end by the united efforts of a band of
-fellow-labourers; others have been the work of individual scholars, and
-were for the most part of a tentative character, intended simply to show
-what ought to be attempted, and how it might be done; others, again, have
-been the unwise labours of men who worked upon false principles, and with
-insufficient knowledge; but all have in their own way helped on the work,
-the former two classes by their felicitous renderings of some passages,
-and the light they have thrown upon the meaning of others, and the last
-mentioned class by their clear demonstration of what a translation of the
-Scriptures ought certainly not to be.
-
-The first[95] serious attempt at a further revision was made by the Rev.
-Henry Jessey, M.A., pastor of that greatly persecuted Congregational
-Church in Southwark, which had been gathered by Henry Jacob in 1616. In
-the time of the Commonwealth proposals were made by Jessey, that "godly
-and able men" should be appointed by "public authority" "to review and
-amend the defects in our translation." Pending their appointment, he set
-himself to secure the co-operation of a number of learned men, at home and
-abroad, writing to them in the following fashion: "There being a strange
-desire in many that love the truth, to have a more pure, proper
-translation of the originals than hitherto; and I being moved and inclined
-to it, and desirous to promote it with all possible speed and exactness,
-do make my request (now in my actual entrance on Genesis) that as you love
-the truth as it is in Jesus, and the edification of saints, you with
-others (in like manner solicited), will take share and do each a part in
-the work, which being finished will be fruit to your account." Of the
-names of his fellow-workers the only one recorded is that of Mr. John Row,
-Hebrew professor at Aberdeen, "who took exceeding pains herein," and who
-drew up the scheme in accordance with which the work was carried on.
-Jessey's proposal received at least so much of support from "public
-authority," that he was one of the committee whose appointment was
-recommended to the House of Commons in 1653. The result is thus quaintly
-told by Jessey's biographer:[96] "Thus thorow his perswasions many persons
-excelling in knowledge, integrity, and holiness, did buckle to this great
-Worke of bettering the Translation of the Bible, but their names are
-thought fit at present to be concealed to prevent undue Reflections upon
-their persons; but may come to light (if that work shall ever come to be
-made publick), and unto each of them was one particular book or more
-allotted, according as they had leisure, or as the bent of their Genius,
-advantages of Books or Studies lay, which when supervised by all the rest,
-dayes of assembling together were to have been set apart, to seek the Lord
-for His further direction, and for conference with each other touching the
-matter then under consideration. In process of time this whole work was
-almost compleated, and stayed for nothing but the appointment of
-Commissioners to examine it, and warrant its publication." The death of
-Cromwell, and the political events which followed, prevented the
-realization of Jessey's hopes. It had been with him the work of many years
-of his life, and his soul was so engaged in it that he frequently uttered
-the prayer, "O that I might see this done before I die."
-
-The ecclesiastical events arising out of the Act of Uniformity (1662) will
-sufficiently account for the absence of any efforts of revision during the
-latter part of the seventeenth century. In the earlier part of the
-following century there appeared one of those ill-advised attempts, whose
-chief use is to serve as a beacon of warning, in the Greek and English New
-Testament, published A.D. 1729, by W. Mace, M.D.[97] In his translation
-this author allowed himself to employ an unpleasantly free style of
-rendering, and deemed it fitting to substitute the colloquial style of the
-day for the dignified simplicity of the version he undertook to amend.
-
-Towards the latter part of the century a considerable number of well-meant
-endeavours at revision were made by devout and scholarly men.
-
-In 1764 "A new and literal Translation of the Old and New Testament, with
-notes, critical and explanatory," was published by Anthony Purver, a
-member of the Society of Friends.
-
-In 1770 there was issued "The New Testament, or New Covenant of our Lord
-and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from the Greek according to the
-present idiom of the English tongue, with notes and references," by John
-Worsley, of Hertford, whose aim, as stated in his preface, was to bring
-his translation nearer to the original, and "to make the present form of
-expression more suitable to our present language," adding, with a laudable
-desire to repudiate all sympathy with those who forced the Scripture to
-say what, according to their own fancies, it ought to say, "I have no
-design to countenance any particular opinions or sentiments. I have
-weighed, as it were, every word in a balance, even to the minutest
-particle, begging the gracious aid of the Divine Spirit to lead me into
-the true and proper meaning, that I might give a just and exact
-translation of this great and precious charter of man's salvation."[98]
-
-In 1781 Gilbert Wakefield, late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, but
-then classical tutor of the Warrington Academy, published "a new
-translation of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians,
-offered to the public as a specimen of an intended version of the whole
-New Testament, with a preface containing a brief account of the Author's
-plan." This was followed in 1782 by a new translation of the Gospel of
-Matthew, and in 1791 by a translation of the whole of the New
-Testament.[99]
-
-In 1786 a Roman Catholic clergyman (the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D.)
-issued a prospectus of "a New Translation of the Holy Bible from corrected
-texts of the originals, compared with the Ancient Versions." This
-prospectus was very favourably received by many of the leading Biblical
-scholars of the day, especially by the great Hebraist, Dr. Benjamin
-Kennicott, Canon of Christchurch, and by Dr. Robert Lowth, Bishop of
-London, and was followed in 1788 by formal proposals for printing the book
-by subscription. The first volume appeared in 1792, with the title "The
-Holy Bible, or the Books accounted sacred by Jews and Christians;
-otherwise called the Books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully
-translated from corrected texts of the Originals, with various readings,
-explanatory notes, and critical remarks." Two other volumes were
-afterwards published; but the death of the author, in 1801, prevented the
-completion of the work.[100]
-
-In 1796 Dr. William Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh, published "An attempt
-towards revising our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures, or the
-New Covenant of Jesus Christ; and towards illustrating the sense by
-philological and explanatory notes."
-
-Passing over some other works less worthy of notice, a scholarly attempt
-was made in 1836 by Grenville Penn to introduce into the English version
-some of the results which had then been attained by the critical
-examination of ancient authorities. This work bore the title, "The Book of
-the New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being a critical
-revision of the text and translation of the English version of the New
-Testament, with the aid of most ancient manuscripts, unknown to the age in
-which that version was last put forth by authority."
-
-It is not to be supposed that any of these translations were published
-with the expectation of securing so large a measure of favour as to
-supersede the current version. Their primary purpose was to aid the
-private study of the Bible; but they have been of great service also in
-keeping the general question of revision before the notice of thoughtful
-persons, and they have each in their measure contributed to a more exact
-knowledge of the Scriptures.
-
-The failure of the earlier of these attempts at revision arose in part
-from the imperfect state of the texts upon which they were based. This
-soon became obvious, and Biblical scholars saw that for some time to come
-their labours must be spent rather in laying the foundation for a future
-revision than in attempting it themselves, and this in three distinct
-departments. The first of these was the collection, as described in the
-last lecture, of the material supplied by ancient manuscripts, and by
-early versions and quotations. In this department a long succession of
-faithful men have laboured, amongst whom may be mentioned Brian Walton,
-who in 1657 published his famous Polyglot Bible in six folio volumes,
-giving in addition to the original Hebrew and Greek, the Samaritan
-Pentateuch, the Septuagint, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, �thiopic, and Persian
-versions; Dr. John Mill, whose New Testament was published in 1770, and of
-whom it has been justly said that "his services to Bible criticism surpass
-in extent and value those rendered by any other except one or two men yet
-living;"[101] Dr. Richard Bentley, who, having himself collated the
-Alexandrine and other ancient MSS., and by various agencies amassed a
-large store of critical material, published in 1720 his "Proposals for
-Printing" revised texts both of the Greek New Testament and the Latin
-Vulgate; Dr. Kennicott, who in 1760 aroused public attention to the
-importance of collating all Hebrew MSS. made before the invention of
-printing, and who personally, or through the aid of others, collated more
-than six hundred Hebrew MSS., and sixteen MSS. of the Samaritan
-Pentateuch; John Bernard de Rossi, professor of Oriental languages in the
-University of Parma, who in 1784-8 published the results of the collation
-of seven hundred and thirty-one MSS., and of three hundred editions of the
-Hebrew Scriptures; and, to come to more recent times, Dr. Constantine
-Tischendorf, Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and Dr. Frederick Henry
-Scrivener, whose names are to be held in the highest honour, as of men who
-have rendered invaluable service to their own and future generations in
-the exhausting and self-denying work of the collation of Biblical MSS.,
-and through whose care and accuracy the means of obtaining an exact
-knowledge of a large number of most precious documents have been placed
-within easy reach of all.
-
-The second department of labour is the application of the material thus
-collected to the correction of the text. Here again a vast amount of
-patient work has been done, and out of the successive labours of a long
-series of critics much valuable experience has been gained and the best
-methods gradually learnt. Amongst those who have thus laboured in the
-criticism of the text of the New Testament may be mentioned the names of
-Bengel, Wettstein, Griesbach, Scholz, Tischendorf, Lachmann, Alford,
-Tregelles, Westcott, and Hort; and of that of the Old Testament, Buxtorf,
-Leusden, Van der Hooght, Michaelis, Houbigant, Kennicott, and Jahn.
-
-The third department is that which is concerned with the investigation of
-the meaning of the sacred writers; and how much has been done in this will
-be manifest to any one who makes the attempt to reckon up the long series
-of commentaries, English and Continental, on the books of the Holy
-Scriptures, published since the Revision of 1611, commencing with the
-Annotations of the eminent Nonconformist, Henry Ainsworth, on the
-Pentateuch, Psalms, and Song of Solomon, 1627, down to the recent
-commentaries on Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, by Dr.
-J. B. Lightfoot, the present Bishop of Durham. The attempt to make this
-enumeration will deepen the desire that the light which has been shed upon
-the Bible by this long succession of its learned and earnest students
-should now be employed for the guidance and help of the ordinary readers
-of its pages.
-
-To such desire emphatic expression has been given in various ways through
-full two generations, with an ever increasing intensity, and by
-representative men amongst all Christian communities.
-
-So early in the present century as the year 1809, Dr. John Pye Smith,
-President of the Congregational College at Homerton, thus wrote: "That
-such blemishes should disfigure that translation of the best and most
-important of volumes, which has been and still is more read by thousands
-of the pious than any other version, ancient or modern; that they should
-be acknowledged by all competent judges to exist; that they should have
-been so long and often complained of; and yet that there has been no great
-public act, from high and unimpeachable authority, for removing them, we
-are constrained to view as a disgrace to our national literature. We do
-not wish to see our common version, now become venerable by age and
-prescription, superseded by another entirely _new_; every desirable
-purpose would be satisfactorily attained by a _faithful_ and
-_well-conducted revision_."[102]
-
-In the following year (1810) Dr. Herbert Marsh, then Margaret Professor of
-Divinity at Cambridge, and subsequently Bishop of Peterborough, in the
-first edition of his _Lectures_ wrote: "It is probable that our authorised
-version is as faithful a representation of the original Scriptures as
-_could_ have been formed at _that period_. But when we consider the
-immense accession that has _since_ been made, both to our critical and
-philological apparatus;" "when we consider that the most important sources
-of intelligence for the _interpretation_ of the original Scriptures were
-_likewise_ opened after that period, we cannot possibly pretend that our
-authorised version does not require _amendment_."[103]
-
-In 1816 Thomas Wemyss, a learned layman, who had devoted himself to
-Biblical studies, called attention, under the title of _Biblical
-Gleanings_, to a number of passages which were generally allowed to be
-mistranslated; and in 1819 Sir James Bland Burges published _Reasons in
-favour of a New Translation of the Scriptures_.
-
-During a few years after this, the subject remained in abeyance, but in
-1832 there was published, at Cambridge, a calm and scholarly pamphlet,
-entitled _Hints on an Improved Translation of the New Testament_, by the
-Rev. James Scholefield, A.M., Regius Professor of Greek in the University
-of Cambridge. A second edition was issued in 1836, and a third, with an
-appendix, in 1849.
-
-Through these and other publications a widely-spread conviction was
-produced that the work ought at length to be attempted, and in the years
-1855-57 the question was in a very emphatic form brought under public
-notice. In the _Edinburgh Review_ of October, 1855, in a notice of a
-certain Paragraph Bible then recently published, there appeared the
-following words: "Surely it is high time for a further revision. It is
-now almost 250 years since the last was made. During that long period
-neither the researches of the clergy nor the intelligence of the laity
-have remained stationary. We have become desirous of knowing more, and
-they have acquired more to teach us. Vast stores of Biblical information
-have been accumulating since the days of James I., by which, not merely
-the rendering of the Common Version, but the purity of the Sacred Text
-itself, might be improved. And it is essential to the interests of
-religion that that information should be fully, freely, and in an
-authoritative form, disseminated abroad by a careful correction of our
-received version of the Sacred Scriptures."
-
-In the following year, 1856, the Rev. William Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and
-Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, sent forth his _Notes on
-the proposed Amendment of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures_,
-in which he states: "I do not hesitate to avow my firm persuasion that
-there are at least one thousand passages of the English Bible that might
-be amended without any change in the general texture and justly reverenced
-language of the version."
-
-In July of the same year an address to the Crown was moved in the House of
-Commons by Mr. Heywood, member for North Lancashire, praying that Her
-Majesty would appoint a Royal Commission of learned men to consider of
-such amendments of the authorized version of the Bible as had been already
-proposed, and to receive suggestions from all persons who might be willing
-to offer them, and to report the amendments which they might be prepared
-to recommend.
-
-In the January of the following year a resolution in support of revision
-was proposed at the general meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian
-Knowledge, by the Rev. G. F. Biber, LL.D., who subsequently published the
-substance of his speech in support of this resolution, under the title, _A
-Plea for an Edition of the Authorized Version of Holy Scripture with
-explanatory and emendatory marginal readings_. Pamphlets also were
-published the same year by Dr. Beard and by Dr. Henry Burgess; but, what
-it is more important to note, in that year there was published the first
-of a series of works which were intended to show by example the kind of
-work which the wiser advocates of revision desired to see undertaken. This
-was _The Gospel according to John, after the Authorized Version, newly
-compared with the original Greek, and revised by five clergymen--John
-Barrow, D.D.; George Moberly, D.C.L.; Henry Alford, B.D.; William G.
-Humphry, B.D.; Charles J. Ellicott, M.A._ In that same year also Dr.
-Trench, then Dean of Westminster (now Archbishop of Dublin), published his
-work _On the Authorized Version of the New Testament_; and in 1863 Dr.
-Plumptre, in the _Dictionary of the Bible_, reiterated the statement, "The
-work ought not to be delayed much longer."
-
-In the spring of 1870 the desirableness of a fresh revision of the English
-Bible was advocated--by Dr. J. B. Lightfoot in a paper read before a
-meeting of clergy; by the writer of these lectures in a paper read before
-the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales; by
-the _British Quarterly Review_ in its January number; and, finally, by the
-_Quarterly Review_ in its April number.
-
-A weighty sentence from the last-mentioned writer will be a fitting
-conclusion to the present lecture. "It is positive unfaithfulness on the
-part of those who have ability and opportunity to decline the task. The
-Word of God, just because it is God's Word, ought to be presented to every
-reader in a state as pure and perfect as human learning, skill, and taste
-can make it. The higher our veneration for it the more anxious ought we to
-be to free it from every blemish, however small and unimportant. But
-nothing in truth can be unimportant which dims the light of Divine
-Revelation."
-
-
-
-
-LECTURE IX.
-
-_THE REVISION OF 1881._
-
-
-To the general consensus of opinion described in the last lecture
-practical expression was first given by the action of the Convocation of
-Canterbury, in the early part of 1870.
-
-On February 10, 1870, a resolution was moved in the Upper House of
-Convocation by Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, and seconded by Dr.
-Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, "That a Committee of both
-Houses be appointed, with power to confer with any committee that may be
-appointed by the Convocation of the Northern Province, to report upon the
-desirableness of a revision of the Authorized Version of the New
-Testament, whether by marginal notes or otherwise, in all those passages
-where plain and clear errors, whether in the Greek Text originally adopted
-by the translators, or in the translation made from the same, shall, on
-due investigation, be found to exist." On the motion of Dr. Ollivant,
-Bishop of Llandaff, seconded by Dr. Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids, it
-was agreed to enlarge this resolution so as to include the Old Testament
-also, and the resolution as so amended was ultimately adopted.
-
-This resolution was communicated to the Lower House on the following day
-(February 11), where it was accepted without a division.
-
-The joint Committee appointed in accordance with this resolution consisted
-of seven Bishops and fourteen Members of the Lower House.[104] This
-Committee met on March 24th, and agreed to the following report:[105]
-
-    I. "That it is desirable that a Revision of the Authorized Version of
-    the Holy Scriptures be undertaken."
-
-    II. "That the Revision be so conducted as to comprise both Marginal
-    renderings, and such emendations as it may be found necessary to
-    insert in the text of the Authorized Version."
-
-    III. "That in the above Resolutions we do not contemplate any new
-    translation of the Bible, or any alteration of the language except
-    where, in the judgment of the most competent Scholars, such change is
-    necessary."
-
-    IV. "That in such necessary changes, the style of the language
-    employed in the existing Version be closely followed."
-
-    V. "That it is desirable that Convocation should nominate a body of
-    its own Members to undertake the work of Revision, who shall be at
-    liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to
-    whatever nation or religious body they may belong."
-
-This Report was presented to the Upper House on May 3rd, where its
-adoption was moved by Bishop Wilberforce, and seconded by Bishop
-Thirlwall, and carried unanimously.
-
-Bishop Wilberforce then moved, and Bishop Thirlwall seconded, "That a
-Committee be now appointed to consider and Report to Convocation a scheme
-of revision on the principles laid down in the Report now adopted, and
-that the Bishops of Winchester, St. Davids, Llandaff, Gloucester and
-Bristol, Salisbury, Ely, Lincoln, and Bath and Wells, be members of the
-Committee. That the Committee be empowered to invite the co-operation of
-those whom they may judge fit from their Biblical Scholarship to aid them
-in their work." This also was carried unanimously.
-
-In the Lower House the above given Report of the joint Committee was
-presented on May 5th, when its adoption was moved by Canon Selwyn,[106]
-and seconded by Archdeacon Allen. In the discussion which followed two
-attempts were made to overthrow the principle embodied in the fifth
-resolution, and to confine the revision to Scholars in communion with the
-Church of England. Both of these were unsuccessful, and the adoption of
-the Report was carried, with two dissentients only. On the following day,
-May 6th, the House completed its action by agreeing to the suggestion of
-the Upper House, that on this occasion it should waive its privilege of
-appointing on joint Committees twice as many as were appointed by the
-Upper House, and should appoint eight Members only to co-operate with the
-eight Bishops mentioned above. The Members selected were Dr. Bickersteth
-the Prolocutor, Dean Alford, Dean Stanley, Canon Blakesley, Canon Selwyn,
-Archdeacon Rose, Dr. Jebb, and Dr. Kay.
-
-The first meeting of this second joint Committee was held on May 25th. It
-was then agreed that the Committee should separate into two Companies--one
-for the revision of the Old Testament, and one for that of the New. Of the
-Members of Committee belonging to the Upper House five were assigned to
-the former Company and three to the latter. The Members belonging to the
-Lower House were divided equally between the two Companies. At the same
-meeting the Committee selected the Scholars who should be invited to join
-the Companies, and also decided upon the general rules that should guide
-their procedure. These were:
-
-    1. "To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the
-    Authorized Version consistently with faithfulness."
-
-    2. "To limit as far as possible the expression of such alterations to
-    the language of the Authorized and earlier English versions."
-
-    3. "Each Company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once
-    provisionally, the second time finally, and on principles of voting as
-    hereinafter is provided."
-
-    4. "That the Text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is
-    decidedly preponderating; and that when the Text so adopted differs
-    from that from which the Authorized Version was made, the alteration
-    be indicated in the margin."
-
-    5. "To make or retain no change in the Text on the second and final
-    revision by each Company, except _two-thirds_ of those present approve
-    of the same, but on the first revision to decide by simple
-    majorities."
-
-    6. "In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to
-    discussion, to defer the voting thereupon till the next Meeting,
-    whensoever the same shall be required by one-third of those present at
-    the Meeting, such intended vote to be announced in the notice for the
-    next Meeting."
-
-    7. "To revise the headings of chapters, pages, paragraphs, italics,
-    and punctuation."
-
-    8. "To refer on the part of each Company, when considered desirable,
-    to Divines, Scholars, and Literary Men, whether at home or abroad, for
-    their opinions."
-
-To these it was added, that the work of each Company be communicated to
-the other as it is completed, in order that there may be as little
-deviation from uniformity in language as possible.
-
-Of the Scholars invited to join the Companies four[107] declined for
-various reasons, and one[108] was prevented by illness from taking part in
-the work. The two Companies when formed consisted of the following
-Members.
-
-
-THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. W. L. Alexander, Professor of Theology in the Congregational
-    Theological Hall, Edinburgh.
-
-    Dr. E. H. Browne, Bishop of Ely.[109]
-
-    Mr. O. T. Chenery, Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-    Edinburgh.
-
-    Dr. Benjamin Davies, Professor of Hebrew, Baptist College, Regent's
-    Park.
-
-    Dr. P. Fairbairn, Principal of Free Church College, Glasgow.
-
-    Dr. F. Field.
-
-    Dr. Ginsburg.
-
-    Dr. F. W. Gotch, Principal of the Baptist College, Bristol.
-
-    Rev. B. Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone.
-
-    Dr. A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
-
-    Dr. J. Jebb, Canon of Hereford.
-
-    Dr. W. Kay, late Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta.
-
-    Dr. Stanley Leathes, Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London.
-
-    Rev. J. McGill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St. Andrews.
-
-    Dr. A. Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff.
-
-    Dr. R Payne Smith, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford.[110]
-
-    Dr. J. J. S. Perowne, Professor of Hebrew, St. Davids College,
-    Lampeter.[111]
-
-    Rev. E. H. Plumptre,[112] Professor of New Testament Exegesis, King's
-    College, London.
-
-    Dr. H. J. Rose, Archdeacon of Bedford.
-
-    Dr. W. Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity,
-    Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids.
-
-    Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln.
-
-    Mr. W. A. Wright, Librarian[113] of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-
-THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. H. Alford, Dean of Canterbury.
-
-    Dr. J. Angus, Principal of the Baptist College, Regent's Park.
-
-    Dr. E. H. Bickersteth, Prolocutor of the Lower House of
-    Convocation.[114]
-
-    Dr. J. W. Blakesley, Canon of Canterbury.[115]
-
-    Dr. J. Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis to the
-    United Presbyterian Church, Scotland.
-
-    Dr. C. J. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
-
-    Rev. F. J. A. Hort.[116]
-
-    Rev. W. G. Humphry, Prebendary of St. Paul's.
-
-    Dr. B. H. Kennedy, Canon of Ely, and Regius Professor of Greek,
-    Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. W. Lee, Archdeacon of Dublin.
-
-    Dr. J. B. Lightfoot.[117]
-
-    Dr. W. Milligan, Professor of Divinity, Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. G. Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury.
-
-    Rev. W. F. Moulton, Professor of Classics, Wesleyan College,
-    Richmond.[118]
-
-    Rev. Samuel Newth, Professor of Classics, New College, London.[119]
-
-    Dr. A. Roberts.[120]
-
-    Dr. R. Scott, Master of Balliol College, Oxford.[121]
-
-    Rev. F. H. Scrivener.[122]
-
-    Dr. G. Vance Smith.[123]
-
-    Dr. A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster.
-
-    Dr. R. C. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin.
-
-    Dr. C. J. Vaughan, Master of the Temple.[124]
-
-    Dr. B. F. Westcott, Canon of Peterborough.[125]
-
-    Dr. S. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester.
-
-To these lists some changes have, from various causes, been made in the
-course of the last ten years, both in the way of addition, and in the way
-of removal.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-To the Old Testament Company thirteen members have been added--
-
-    Mr. R. N. Bensley, Hebrew Lecturer, Caius College, Cambridge.
-
-    Rev. J. Birrill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St Andrews,
-    Scotland.
-
-    Dr. F. Chance.
-
-    Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Hebrew Lecturer, Balliol College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. G. Douglas, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Glasgow.
-
-    Mr. S. R Driver, Tutor of New College, Oxford.
-
-    Rev. C. J. Elliott.
-
-    Rev. J. D. Geden, Professor of Hebrew, Wesleyan College, Didsbury.
-
-    Rev. J. R. Lumby, Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge.[126]
-
-    Rev. A. H. Sayce, Tutor of Queen's College, Oxford.
-
-    Rev. W. Robertson Smith, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-    Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. D. H. Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages, Glasgow.
-
-    Dr. W. Wright, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge.
-
-During the same period it has lost ten members, seven by death: Professor
-Davies, Professor Fairbairn, Professor McGill, Archdeacon Rose, Canon
-Selwyn, Bishop Thirlwall, Professor Weir; and three by resignation--Canon
-Jebb, Professor Plumptre, and Bishop Wordsworth.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The New Testament Company has undergone less change. Four members have
-been added--
-
-    Dr. David Brown, Professor of Divinity, Free Church College, Aberdeen.
-
-    Dr. C. Merivale, Dean of Ely.
-
-    Rev. Edwin Palmer, Professor of Latin, Oxford.[127]
-
-    Dr. Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews.
-
-Four also have been removed--Dean Alford, Dr. Eadie, and Bishop
-Wilberforce by death, Dean Merivale by resignation.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The first chairman of the Old Testament Company was Bishop Thirlwall. Upon
-his resignation of the office in 1871 Dr. Harold Browne, then Bishop of
-Ely, now Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to succeed him, and has
-continued to hold the office until now. Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of
-Gloucester and Bristol, has from the first presided over the New
-Testament Company.
-
-The Old Testament Company appointed one of their own number, Mr. Aldis
-Wright, to act as their secretary, taking the minutes of their
-proceedings, and conducting all needful correspondence. The New Testament
-Company deemed it better to assign this office to one who was not himself
-burthened with the responsibilities of the revision, and they were happily
-able to secure the efficient services of the Rev. John Troutbeck, M.A.,
-one of the Minor Canons of Westminster Abbey.
-
-It will be seen that of the sixty-five English scholars who have taken
-part in this work forty-one have been members of the Church of England,
-and twenty-four members of other churches. Of the latter number two
-represent the Episcopal Church of Ireland, one the Episcopal Church of
-Scotland, four the Baptists, three the Congregationalists, five the Free
-Church of Scotland, five the Established Church of Scotland, one the
-United Presbyterians, one the Unitarians, and two the Wesleyan Methodists.
-
-It is on many grounds a matter for thankfulness that they who took the
-initiative in the formation of the two Companies were able to secure so
-wide a representation of the various religious communities of our country,
-and men belonging to different schools of religious thought. For while no
-one can reasonably suppose that in the present day any body of Scholars
-would consciously allow themselves in the translation of the Scriptures to
-be swayed by any theological bias, there is, as all know, such a thing as
-unconscious bias; and it was greatly to be desired that no such suspicion
-should be raised against this Revision as for a long time obtained in
-reference to the Revision of 1611. It was also to be desired that no
-ground should exist that would give an excuse for any to say that through
-the bias of theological prepossessions the interpretations given by some
-to important passages of Scripture were unconsciously ignored, and that,
-had such interpretations been brought under the consideration of the
-Revisers, they must, as honest scholars, have accepted them. Such a ground
-of objection has happily been excluded by the constitution of the two
-Companies. The varieties of theological opinion found amongst the Revisers
-have been an efficient protection against any lapse of the kind referred
-to, and it may safely be affirmed that no interpretation of any important
-doctrinal passage for which any respectable amount of authority could be
-claimed has failed to come under notice, or to receive a careful
-examination.
-
-The advantage resulting from this varied representation in the membership
-of the two Companies has been still further extended by the arrangements
-which have secured the co-operation of a considerable number of American
-Scholars. Shortly after the formation of the two Companies steps were
-taken for enlisting such co-operation; and after some correspondence with
-representative men in America, the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, of New York,
-was requested to act on behalf of the English Companies in selecting and
-inviting American Scholars. In October, 1871, it was reported to the New
-Testament Company that Dr. Schaff had verbally informed the secretary that
-the American Revisers were prepared to enter upon their work. Various
-causes of delay, however, intervened, and it was not until July 17th,
-1872, that the communication was made that the American Companies were
-duly constituted. These Companies held their first meeting on the 4th of
-October in that year. The following is the list of their Members.
-
-
-THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Professor T. J. Conant, Baptist, Brooklyn, New York.
-
-    Professor G. E. Day, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-    Professor J. De Witt, Reformed Church, New Brunswick, N.J.
-
-    Professor W. H. Green, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Professor G. E. Hare, Episcopalian, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-    Professor C. P. Krauth, Lutheran, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-    Professor Joseph Packard, Episcopalian, Fairfax, Va.
-
-    Professor C. E. Stowe, Congregationalist, Cambridge, Mass.
-
-    Professor J. Strong, Methodist, Madison, N.J.
-
-    Professor C. V. Van Dyke,[128] Beir�t, Syria.
-
-    Professor T. Lewis, Reformed Church, Schenectady, N.J.
-
-In all eleven members.
-
-
-THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
-
-    Professor Ezra Abbot, Unitarian, Cambridge, Mass.
-
-    Dr. G. R. Crooks, Methodist, New York.
-
-    Professor H. B. Hackett, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-    Professor J. Hadley, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-    Professor C. Hodge, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Professor A. C. Kendrick, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-    Dr. Alfred Lee, Bishop of Delaware.
-
-    Professor M. B. Riddle, Reformed Church, Hartford, Conn.
-
-    Professor Philip Schaff, Presbyterian, New York.
-
-    Professor C. Short, Episcopalian, New York.
-
-    Professor H. B. Smith, Presbyterian, New York.
-
-    Professor J. H. Thayer, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.
-
-    Professor W. F. Warren, Methodist, Boston, Mass.
-
-    Dr. E. A. Washburn, Episcopalian, New York.
-
-    Dr. T. D. Woolsey, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-In all fifteen members.
-
-Four Members have since been added to the Old Testament Company; namely:
-
-    Professor C. A. Aiken, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.
-
-    Dr. T. W. Chambers, Reformed Church, New York.
-
-    Professor C. M. Mead, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.
-
-    Professor H. Osgood, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.
-
-One Member, Professor T. Lewis, has been removed by death.
-
-Four Members have been added to the New Testament Company:
-
-    Dr. J. K. Burr, Methodist, Trenton, N.Y.
-
-    Dr. T. Chase, Baptist, President of Haverford College, Pa.
-
-    Dr. H. Crosby, Baptist, Chancellor of New York University.
-
-    Professor Timothy Dwight, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.
-
-Four also have been removed by death, Dr. Hackett, Dr. Hadley, Dr. C.
-Hodge, Dr. H. B. Smith; and two by resignation, Dr. Crooks and Dr. Warren.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-It hence results that altogether ninety-nine Scholars have, to a greater
-or less extent, taken part in the work of this revision, forty-nine of
-whom have been members of the Episcopalian Churches of England, Scotland,
-Ireland, and America, and fifty members of other Christian Churches. This
-fact is in itself full of interest and significance. Upon no previous
-revision have so many Scholars been engaged. In no previous revision has
-the co-operation of those who were engaged upon it been so equally
-diffused over all the parts of the work. In no previous revision have
-those who took the lead in originating it, and carrying it forward, shown
-so large a measure of Christian confidence in Scholars who were outside of
-their own communion. In no previous revision have such effective
-precautions been created by the very composition of the body of Revisers,
-against accidental oversight, or against any lurking bias that might arise
-from natural tendencies or from ecclesiastical prepossessions. On these
-accounts alone, if on no other, this revision may be fairly said to
-possess peculiar claims upon the confidence of all thoughtful and devout
-readers of the Bible.
-
-The New Testament Company assembled for the first time on Wednesday, June
-22nd, 1870. They met in the Chapel of Henry VII., and there united in the
-celebration of the Lord's Supper. After this act of worship and holy
-communion they formally entered upon the task assigned to them. The Old
-Testament Company held their first meeting on June 30th.
-
-By the kindness of the Dean of Westminster, the New Testament Company was
-permitted to hold its meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber. This room,
-originally the parlour of the Abbot's Palace, is associated with many
-interesting events of English history. It was to this spot that Henry IV.
-was conveyed when seized with his last illness; and here, on March 20th,
-1413, he died. It was here, in the days of the Long Parliament, that the
-celebrated Assembly of Divines, driven by the cold from Henry VII.'s
-Chapel, held its sixty-sixth session, on Monday, October 2nd, 1643; and
-here thenceforward it continued to meet until its closing session (the
-1163rd), on February 22nd, 1649. Here were prepared the famed Westminster
-Confession of Faith, and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms so highly
-prized by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, and during many
-generations by the Independents of England. Here also, just fifty years
-later, assembled the memorable Commission appointed by William III., at
-the suggestion of the Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Tillotson), to devise a
-basis for a scheme of comprehension in a revision of the Prayer Book. In
-this room the New Testament Company have held the larger number of their
-sessions. Upon the few occasions on which it was not available the Company
-has most frequently met in the Dean of Westminster's library. Twice it has
-held its monthly session in the College Hall, twice in the Chapter
-Library, and once in Queen Anne's Bounty Office.
-
-The Jerusalem Chamber is an oblong room, somewhat narrow for its length,
-measuring about forty feet from north to south, and about twenty from east
-to west. Down the centre of the room there extends a long table; and on
-this table, in the middle of its eastern side, is placed the desk of the
-Chairman, Bishop Ellicott. Facing the Chairman, and on the opposite side
-of the room, is a small table for the use of the Secretary. The members
-of the Company took their places round the table without any
-pre-arrangement, but just as each might find a seat most ready at hand.
-The force of habit, however, soon prevailed, and most of the members sat
-constantly in the place which accident or choice had assigned to them. On
-the Chairman's right sat the Prolocutor, Dr. Bickersteth, and on his left,
-during the sixteen meetings he was spared to attend, sat the late Dean of
-Canterbury, Dr. Alford, who, to the great sorrow of the Company, was so
-early taken away from their midst. Between the Prolocutor and the northern
-end of the table were the places usually occupied by the Bishop of
-Salisbury, the Bishop of St. Andrews, Dean Blakesley, and Mr. Humphry.
-Between the Chairman and the southern end were the places of the
-Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Brown, Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Eadie, and Canon
-Westcott. Between the Secretary's table and the northern end of the long
-table were the seats of Canon Kennedy, Dr. Angus, Archdeacon Palmer, and
-Dr. Hort; and between the Secretary's table and the southern end were
-those of Dr. Vance Smith, Dr. Scrivener, Dr. Lightfoot, Dean Scott, and
-Dr. Newth. At the northern end of the table were the places of Archdeacon
-Lee and Dean Stanley; and at the southern end those of Dr. Moulton and Dr.
-Milligan.
-
-As the general rules under which the revision was to be carried out had
-been carefully prepared, no need existed for any lengthened discussion of
-preliminary arrangements, and the Company upon its first meeting was able
-to enter at once upon its work. The members of the Company had previously
-been supplied with sheets, each containing a column of the printed text of
-the Authorized Version, with a wide margin on either side for suggested
-emendations--the left hand margin being intended for changes in the Greek
-text, and the right hand margin for those which related to the English
-rendering. Upon these sheets each member had entered the result of his own
-private study of the prescribed portion, and thus came prepared with
-well-considered suggestions to submit for the judgment of the Company. The
-portion prescribed for the first session was Matt. i. to iv. This portion
-opening with the genealogy, the question of the spelling of proper names
-at once presented itself for decision. It was felt that, by the twofold
-forms so often given in the Authorized Version to the names of persons and
-places, a needless difficulty was set in the way of the simple reader of
-the Bible; and it was agreed that, while preserving in every case the
-familiar forms of names which had become thoroughly Englished, such as
-John, James, Timothy, Jacob, Solomon, &c., all Old Testament proper names
-quoted in the New should follow the Hebrew rather than the Greek or Latin,
-and so appear under the same form in both Testaments.
-
-This question being thus settled, the Company proceeded to the actual
-details of the revision, and in a surprisingly short time settled down to
-an established method of procedure. So little need arose for any change in
-this respect that the account of any one ordinary meeting will serve as a
-description of all. The Company assembles at eleven a.m. The meeting is
-opened by prayer, the Chairman reading three collects from the Prayer
-Book, and closing with the Lord's Prayer. The minutes of the last meeting
-are then read and confirmed. Any correspondence or other business that may
-require consideration is next dealt with. These matters being settled, the
-Chairman invites the Company to proceed with the revision, and reads a
-short passage as given in the Authorised Version. The question is then
-asked whether any _textual_ changes are proposed; that is, any readings
-that differ from the Greek text as presented in the edition published by
-Robert Stephen in 1550. If any change is proposed, the evidence for and
-against is briefly stated, and the proposal considered. The duty of
-stating this evidence is, by tacit consent, devolved upon two members of
-the Company, who, from their previous studies, are specially entitled to
-speak with authority upon such questions--Dr. Scrivener and Dr. Hort--and
-who come prepared to enumerate particularly the authorities on either
-side. Dr. Scrivener opens up the matter by stating the facts of the case,
-and by giving his judgment upon the bearing of the evidence. Dr. Hort
-follows, and mentions any additional matters that may call for notice, and
-if differing from Dr. Scrivener's estimate of the weight of the evidence,
-gives his reasons, and states his own view. After discussion, the vote of
-the Company is taken, and the proposed reading accepted or rejected. The
-text being thus settled, the Chairman asks for proposals on the rendering.
-Any member who has any suggestion on his paper then mentions it, and this
-is taken into consideration, unless some other member state that he has a
-proposal which refers to an earlier clause of the passage, in which case
-his proposal is taken first. The reasons for the proposed emendation are
-then stated; briefly, if it be an obvious correction, and one which it is
-likely that many members have noted down; if it be one less obvious, or
-less likely to commend itself at first sight, the grounds upon which it is
-based are stated more at length. Free discussion then follows, and after
-this the vote of the Company is taken. Succeeding suggestions are
-similarly dealt with, and then the passage, as amended, is read by the
-Chairman, or by the Secretary. The meeting lasts until six p.m., an
-interval of half-an-hour having been allowed for luncheon. The Company
-meets every month, excepting only in the months of August and September,
-for a session of four consecutive days.
-
-At a very early period of their labours it became clearly manifest to the
-Company that they could only do their work satisfactorily by doing it very
-thoroughly, and that no question in any way affecting the sense or the
-rendering could be passed over because of its seeming unimportance.
-Questions, whether of text or translation, which appeared, when regarded
-in relation only to the passage under review, to be too minute to be
-worthy of serious attention, became oftentimes invested with a grave
-importance when other, and especially parallel, passages were considered;
-and thus proposed changes, which might otherwise have been dismissed as
-unnecessary, claimed for themselves a careful examination. As a necessary
-result of this determination to make the revision as complete as might be
-in their power, the progress made in the work was but slow, and at the end
-of the ninth day of meeting not more than 153 verses had been revised, an
-average of only seventeen verses a day. Thereupon several members of the
-Company became alarmed at the probable length of time over which the
-revision would extend, and on the tenth day of meeting resolutions were
-submitted, that, "with a view to swifter progress, the Company be divided
-into two sections, of which one shall proceed with the Gospels and the
-other with the Epistles," and "that on the last day of each monthly series
-of meetings the whole Company meet together to review the work done by the
-two separate sections." To these resolutions a full consideration was
-given, and with the result of producing an almost unanimous conviction
-that such a division of the Company was undesirable. It was felt that the
-weight of authority attaching to this Revision, would, with many persons,
-be largely dependent upon the fact that it represented the united judgment
-of a considerable number of scholars, and that the proposed division of
-the Company would consequently tend to lessen the claims of the work to
-the confidence of the public. It was found, too, that it would not be
-possible to make any satisfactory division of the Company; and from the
-varied qualifications of the members, each felt that it would be a
-palpable loss to be deprived of the co-operation of any of the rest. It
-was also exceedingly doubtful whether any saving of time would be secured
-by the proposed arrangement. The review by the entire Company of the work
-done by the separate divisions would, in very many cases, reopen
-discussion; and questions which had been decided, perhaps unanimously,
-after lengthened debate, would be debated afresh, and that, too, by those
-who were less familiar with all the bearings of the question, and on
-whose account it would be necessary to give lengthened explanations, and
-sometimes to retrace other ground also. The resolutions were consequently
-withdrawn, and the conviction became general amongst the members of the
-Company that they had no other alternative than to face the probability of
-a much longer period of labour than any one amongst them had at first
-anticipated, and to accept the full responsibilities of the work which had
-been laid upon them.
-
-After this the work steadily proceeded, and various general questions
-having been decided as they arose, the rate of progress became more rapid;
-but even then the average did not rise above thirty-five verses a day.
-
-In accordance with the rules under which the Company was acting, all
-proposals made at the first revision were decided by simple majorities;
-but at the second revision no change from the Authorized Version could be
-accepted unless it were carried by a majority of two to one. Though here
-and there this rule stood in the way of a change which a decided majority
-of the Company were of opinion was right, its action upon the whole was
-very salutary.
-
-At the second revision also the suggestions of the American Revisers came
-to the help of the Company. From time to time, as each successive portion
-of the first revision was completed, it had been forwarded to America. The
-American Revisers subjected this to a careful scrutiny, and in their turn
-forwarded to England their criticisms thereupon. Where they approved the
-changes provisionally made nothing was said; where they differed they
-indicated their dissent, and submitted their own suggestions. In like
-manner, in passages where no change had been made, they either signified
-their assent by silence, or expressed their judgment by independent
-proposals.
-
-The first revision of the Gospel of Matthew was completed on the
-thirty-sixth day of meeting, May 24th, 1871; that of Mark on the
-fifty-third day, November 16th, 1871; that of Luke on the eighty-first
-day, June 22nd, 1872; and that of John on the one hundred and third day,
-February 19th, 1873. The first revision of the Acts and the Catholic
-Epistles was completed on the one hundred and fifty-second meeting, April
-23rd, 1874. Before proceeding to the first revision of the remaining books
-it was deemed desirable to undertake the second revision of the Gospels,
-and this was completed on the one hundred and eighty-fourth meeting,
-February 25th, 1875. The first revision of the Pauline Epistles was then
-commenced, and was completed on the two hundred and sixty-second meeting,
-February 27th, 1877. The first revision of the Apocalypse was completed on
-the two hundred and seventy-third meeting, April 20th, 1877.
-
-It will thus appear that the first revision engaged the Company during two
-hundred and forty-one meetings; that is to say, during sixty monthly
-sessions, or six years of labour. The attendance during this important
-period of the work maintained so high an average as 16�8.
-
-It had not been originally intended that at the second revision fresh
-proposals should be entertained; but as it was obviously necessary to do
-this with regard to the American suggestions, it was felt that we ought
-not to preclude our own members from bringing forward any new proposal
-that might seem worthy of consideration, and that we ought not, for the
-sake of gaining time, to fetter ourselves by any rigid rule. The second
-revision thus became a far more serious business than had been originally
-contemplated, and demanded a large measure of time and toil. It was
-completed on December 13th, 1878, having occupied on the whole ninety-six
-meetings, or about two years and a half. By rule 5 the "second" revision
-was to be regarded as "final," but the course of events rendered this an
-impossibility, and so far the rule had to be annulled.
-
-In due course the results of the second revision were forwarded to
-America, and while it indicated the extent to which the English Company
-had been able to adopt the American suggestions--or what was equivalent
-to this, some third suggestion that approved itself alike to the judgment
-of both Companies--it also necessarily invited a reply upon those points
-about which there was still a difference of opinion, and this, as
-necessarily, involved what was to some extent a third revision. The work
-of a further revision had, however, been previously imposed upon the
-Company by a resolution of its own, in which it was agreed that the
-members should privately read over the version as now revised, with the
-view of marking any roughnesses or other blemishes in the English
-phraseology; and that if it should appear to them that, without doing any
-violence to the Greek, the English might be amended, the emendations they
-proposed should be forwarded to the Secretary, and by him be duly arranged
-and printed. To the consideration of the various suggestions so forwarded,
-and of those contained in the further communications from America, the
-Company devoted thirty-six meetings, extending from February 11th, 1879,
-to January 27th, 1880, with portions of one or two subsequent meetings,
-being finally completed on March 17th, 1880.
-
-Although the Company had endeavoured throughout the whole course of its
-work to preserve, as far as the idiom of the English language permitted,
-uniformity in the rendering of the same Greek word, it had not been
-possible, when dealing with each passage separately, to keep in view all
-the other passages in which any particular word might be found. It was
-therefore felt to be desirable to reconsider the Revised Version with
-exclusive reference to this single point, and the pages of a Greek
-concordance were assigned in equal portions to different members of the
-Company, who each undertook to examine every passage in which the words
-falling to his share might occur, and to mark if in any case unnecessary
-variations in the English had either been introduced or retained. The
-passages so noted were brought before the notice of the assembled Company,
-and the question was in each case considered whether, without any injury
-to the sense, the rendering of the word under review might be harmonized
-with that found in other places. This work of harmonizing, together with
-the preparation of the preface, occupied the Company until November 11th,
-1880, on which day, at five o'clock in the afternoon, after ten years and
-five months of labour, the revision of the New Testament was brought to
-its close.
-
-On the evening of the same day, St. Martin's day, by the kind invitation
-of Prebendary Humphry, the Company assembled in the Church of St.
-Martin's-in-the-Fields, and there united in a special service of prayer
-and thanksgiving; of thanksgiving for the happy completion of their
-labours, for the spirit of harmony and brotherly affection that had
-throughout pervaded the meetings of the Company, and for the Divine
-goodness which had permitted so many with so little interruption to give
-themselves continuously to this work; of prayer that all that had been
-wrong in their spirit or action might be mercifully forgiven, and that He
-whose glory they had humbly striven to promote might graciously accept
-this their service, and deign to use it as an instrument for the good of
-man, and the honour of His holy name.
-
-The total number of meetings of the Company has been 407, and the total
-number of attendances 6,426,[129] or an average attendance at each meeting
-of 15�8 members.
-
-Upon one other point our readers will naturally look for some information.
-How have the necessary expenses of this undertaking been met? These, it
-will readily be seen, would necessarily be large. So many persons could
-not come together from various parts of the kingdom--some very distant,
-including the extreme north of Scotland, and the extreme west of
-Cornwall--and remain in London for a week in every month, without a
-considerable expenditure of money. It was also found necessary for the
-satisfactory execution of the work that each portion, from time to time as
-provisionally completed, should be set up in type, and in this way further
-expenses were entailed. The question of meeting these expenses was at an
-early period forced upon the attention of the Company; for some members
-before many months had elapsed had been put to serious costs, and while
-all willingly gave their time and labour, as far as they might be able,
-without reserve to this important work, it was felt to be impossible to
-allow this extra burden to rest upon any, and the more so as the pressure
-of it must needs be very unequally distributed. An appeal to the public
-for help having met with no adequate response, it was resolved to dispose
-of the copyright of the work, in the hope thereby of obtaining sufficient
-means of meeting the expenses of completing it. Several offers from
-different sources were made to the Companies; but ultimately, for various
-reasons, it was deemed best to accede to that made by the University
-Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, whereby, in return for the copyright of
-the Revised Version, the Chancellors, Masters, and Scholars of the two
-Universities agreed to provide a sum which it was hoped would suffice for
-the expenses that would be incurred in the prosecution and completion of
-the work, and to advance a certain portion of the same from time to time.
-A draft deed embodying these agreements having been submitted to the
-Companies was after some amendments accepted on December 10th, 1872.
-
-The agreement with the University Presses binds the two Companies to a
-revision of the Apocrypha, a work not contemplated in their original
-undertaking. The New Testament Company have made arrangements for taking a
-full share of this revision, and entered upon the work in April last.
-Until this is completed they will not be released from their
-responsibilities.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-
-
-(A.)
-
-_PURVEY'S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?)_
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-[130] For as much as Christ saith that the gospel shall be preached in all
-the world, and David saith of the Apostles and their preaching, "the sound
-of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the
-ends of the world;" and again David saith, "The Lord shall tell in the
-Scriptures of peoples and of these princes that were in it;"[131] that is,
-in holy Church, as Jerome saith on that verse, "Holy writ is the Scripture
-of peoples, for it is made that all peoples should know it;" and the
-princes of the Church that were therein be the apostles that had authority
-to write holy writ; for by that same that the Apostles wrote their
-Scriptures by authority and confirming of the Holy Ghost, it is holy
-Scripture and faith of Christian men, and this dignity hath no man after
-them, be he never so holy, never so cunning, as Jerome witnesseth on that
-verse. Also Christ saith of the Jews that cried Hosanna to Him in the
-temple, that though they were still stones should cry; and by stones He
-understandeth heathen men that worshipped stones for their gods. And we
-Englishmen be come of heathen men, therefore we be understood by these
-stones that should cry holy writ; and as Jews, interpreted
-acknowledging[132], signify clerks that should make acknowledgment to God
-by repentance of sins and by voice of God's praise, so our lewd (lay, or
-unlearned) men, suing (following) the corner-stone Christ, may be
-signified by stones that be hard and abiding in the foundation; for though
-covetous clerks be wood (wild, or mad), by simony, heresy, and many other
-sins, and despise and stop holy writ as much as they can, yet the lewd
-people cry after holy writ to ken it and keep it with great cost and peril
-of their life.
-
-For these reasons and other, with common charity to save all men in our
-realm which God would have saved, a simple creature hath translated the
-Bible out of Latin into English. First this simple creature had much
-travail, with divers fellows and helpers, to gather many old Bibles, and
-other doctors and common glosses, and to make one Latin Bible some deal
-true; and then to study it anew, the text with the gloss and other doctors
-as he might get, and especially Lyra on the Old Testament, that helped
-full much in this work; the third time to counsel with old grammarians and
-old divines of hard words and hard sentences, how they might best be
-understood and translated; the fourth time to translate as clearly as he
-could to the sentence,[133] and to have many good fellows and cunning at
-the correcting of the translation. First it is to know that the best
-translating out of Latin into English is to translate after the sentence,
-and not only after the words, so that the sentence be as open, either
-opener, in English as in Latin, and go not far from the letter; and if the
-letter may not be sued (followed) in the translating, let the sentence be
-ever whole and open, for the words ought to serve to the intent and
-sentence, and else the words be superfluous or false. In translating into
-English many resolutions may make the sentence open, as an ablative case
-absolute may be resolved into these three words, with convenable
-(suitable) verb, _the while_, _for if_, as grammarians say, as thus: _the
-master reading, I stand_, may be resolved thus, _while the master readeth
-I stand_, or, _if the master readeth, &c._, or, _for the master, &c._; and
-sometime it would accord well with the sentence to be resolved into _when_
-or into _afterward_, thus, _when the master read I stood_, or, _after the
-master read I stood_; and sometime it may well be resolved into a verb of
-the same tense as others be in the same clause, and into this word _et_;
-that is, _and_ in English, as thus, _arescentibus hominibus prae timore_;
-that is, _and men should wax dry for dread_. Also a participle of a
-present tense or preterite of active voice or passive may be resolved into
-a verb of the same tense and a conjunction copulative, as thus, _dicens_;
-that is, _saying_ may be resolved thus, _and saith_, or, _that saith_; and
-this will in many places make the sentence open, where to English it,
-after the verb, would be dark and doubtful. Also a relative, which may be
-resolved into his antecedent with a conjunction copulative, as thus,
-_which runneth_, _and he runneth_. Also when one word is once set in a
-clause it may be set forth as often as it is understood, or as often as
-reason and need ask. And this word _autem_, or _vero_, may stand for
-_forsooth_, or for _but_, and thus I use commonly; and sometime it may
-stand for _and_, as old grammarians say. Also when rightful construction
-is let (prevented) by relation, I resolve it openly; thus where this
-clause _Dominum formidabunt adversarii ejus_ should be Englished thus by
-the letter, _the Lord His adversaries shall dread_, I English it thus by
-resolution, _the adversaries of the Lord shall dread Him_; and so of other
-clauses that be like.
-
-At the beginning I purposed, with God's help, to make the sentence as true
-and open in English as it is in Latin, or more true and more open than it
-is in Latin; and I pray for charity and for common profit of Christian
-souls, that if any wise man find any default of the truth of translation,
-let him set in the true sentence and open of holy writ, but look that he
-examine truly his Latin Bible; for no doubt he shall find full many Bibles
-in Latin full false, if he look many, namely, new;[134] and the common
-Latin Bibles have more need to be corrected, as many as I have seen in my
-life than the English Bible late translated. And where the Hebrew, by
-witness of Jerome, of Lyra, and other expositors discordeth from our Latin
-Bibles, I have set in the margin, by manner of a gloss, what the Hebrew
-hath, and how it is understood in some place; and I did this most in the
-Psalter, that of all our books discordeth most from the Hebrew; for the
-church readeth not the Psalter by the last translation of Jerome, out of
-Hebrew into Latin, but another translation by other men, that had much
-less cunning and holiness than Jerome had; and in full few books the
-church readeth the translation of Jerome, as it may be proved by the
-proper originals of Jerome which he glossed. And where I have translated
-as openly or openlier in English as in Latin, let wise men deme (judge)
-that know well both languages, and know well the sentence of holy
-Scripture. And whether I have done thus or not, no doubt they that ken
-well the sentence of holy writ and English together, and will travail with
-God's grace thereabout, may make the Bible as true and as open, yea, and
-openlier, in English as in Latin. And no doubt to a simple man, with God's
-grace and great travail, men might expound much openlier and shortlier
-the Bible in English, than the old great doctors have expounded it in
-Latin, and much sharplier and groundlier than many late postillators, or
-expositors have done. But God of His great mercy, give us grace to live
-well, and to see the truth in convenable manner, and acceptable to God and
-His people, and to spell out our time, be it short, be it long, at God's
-ordinance.
-
-But some that seem wise and holy say thus, If men now were as holy as
-Jerome was, they might translate out of Latin into English, as he did out
-of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and else they should not translate
-now, so they think, for default of holiness and cunning. Though this
-replication seem colourable, it hath no good ground, neither reason,
-neither charity; for why, (because) this replication is more against Saint
-Jerome and against the first LXX. translators, and against holy church,
-than against simple men that translate now into English; for Saint Jerome
-was not so holy as the Apostles and Evangelists, whose books he translated
-into Latin, neither he had so high gifts of the Holy Ghost as they had;
-and much more the LXX. translators were not so holy as Moses and the
-Prophets, and specially David; neither they had so great gifts of God as
-Moses and the Prophets had. Furthermore, holy church approveth not only
-the true translation of mean Christian men, but also of open heretics,
-that did away mysteries of Jesus Christ by guileful translation, as Jerome
-witnesseth in one prologue on Job, and in the prologue of Daniel. Much
-more late the Church of England approve the true and whole translation of
-simple men, that would, for no good on earth, by their witting and power,
-put away the least truth, yea, the least letter or tittle of holy writ
-that beareth substance or charge. And dispute they not (let them not
-dispute) of the holiness of men now living in this deadly life; for they
-know not thereon, and it is reserved only to God's doom. If they know any
-notable default by the translators or their helps, let them blame the
-default by charity and mercy, and let them never damn a thing that may be
-done lawfully by God's law, as wearing a good cloth for a time, or riding
-on a horse for a great journey, when they wit not wherefore it is done;
-for such things may be done of simple men with as great charity and virtue
-as some that hold themselves great and wise, can ride in a gilt saddle, or
-use cushions and beds and cloths of gold and of silk, with other vanities
-of the world. God grant pity, mercy, and charity, and love of common
-profit, and put away such foolish dooms (judgment) that be against reason
-and charity. Yet worldly clerks ask greatly (grandly) what spirit maketh
-idiots (laymen) hardy to translate now the Bible into English, since the
-four great doctors durst never do this. This replication is so lewd
-(unlearned), that it needeth none answer but stillness or courteous scorn;
-for these great doctors were none English men, neither they were
-conversant among English men, neither they knew the language of English,
-but they ceased never till they had holy writ in the mother tongue of
-their own people. For Jerome, that was a Latin man of birth, translated
-the Bible, both out of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and expounded
-full much thereto; and Austin and many more Latins expounded the Bible,
-for many parts, in Latin, to Latin men among which they dwelt, and Latin
-was a common language to their people about Rome, and beyond and on this
-half (side), as English is common to our people, and yet (still) this day
-the common people in Italy speaketh Latin corrupt, as true men say that
-have been in Italy; and the number of translators out of Greek into Latin
-passeth man's knowing, as Austin witnesseth in the ij. book of _Christian
-Teaching_,[135] and saith thus: "The translators out of Hebrew into Greek
-may be numbered, but Latin translators, or they that translated into
-Latin, may not be numbered in any manner." For in the first times of
-faith, each man, as a Greek book came to him, and he seemed to himself to
-have some cunning of Greek and Latin, was hardy (bold) to translate, and
-this thing helped more than letted (hindered) understanding, if readers be
-not negligent, for why (because) the beholding of many books hath showed
-off or declared some darker sentences. This saith Austin here. Therefore
-Grosted (Grosseteste) saith that it was God's will that diverse men
-translate, and that diverse translations be in the church, where one said
-darkly, one other more said openly.
-
-Lord God, since at the beginning of faith so many men translated into
-Latin, and to great profit of Latin men, let one simple creature of God
-translate into English for profit of Englishmen; for if worldly clerks
-look well their chronicles and books they shall find that Bede translated
-the Bible, and expounded much in Saxon, that was English, or common
-language of this land, in his time; and not only Bede, but also King
-Alfred that founded Oxford, translated in his last days the beginning of
-the Psalter into Saxon, and would more if he had lived longer. Also
-Frenchmen, Beemers,[136] and Britons have the Bible and other books of
-devotion and of exposition translated in their mother language. Why should
-not Englishmen have the same in their mother language I cannot wit, no but
-(except) for falseness and negligence of clerks, or for (because) our
-people is not worthy to have so great grace and gift of God in pain
-(penalty) of their old sins. God for his mercy amend these evil causes,
-and make our people to have, and ken, and keep truly holy writ, to life
-and death.
-
-But in translating of words equivocal, that is, that have many
-significations under one letter, may lightly be peril (there may easily be
-a danger of mistake); for Austin saith in the ij. book of _Christian
-Teaching_ that if equivocal words be not translated into the sense or
-understanding of the author it is error,[137] as in that place of the
-psalm, _the feet of them be swift to shed out blood_. The Greek word is
-equivocal to _sharp_ and _swift_, and he that translated _sharp feet_
-erred, and a book that hath _sharp feet_ is false, and must be amended, as
-that sentence, _unkind young trees shall not give deep roots_, ought to be
-thus _plantings of adultery shall not give deep roots_.[138] Austin saith
-this there; therefore a translator hath great need to study well the
-sentence, both before and after, and look that such equivocal words accord
-with the sentence; and he hath need to live a clean life, and be full
-devout in prayers, and have not his wit occupied about worldly things,
-that the Holy Spirit, author of wisdom, and cunning, and truth, dress him
-in his work, and suffer him not for to err.
-
-Also this word _ex_ signifieth sometime _of_, and sometime it signifieth
-_by_, as Jerome saith; and this word _enim_ signifieth commonly
-_forsooth_, and, as Jerome saith, it signifieth, _cause thus_, _forwhy_.
-And this word _secundum_ is taken for _after_, as many men say, and
-commonly; but it signifieth well _by_ or _up_, thus _by your word_, or _up
-your word_. Many such adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions be set off
-one for another, and at free choice of authors sometime; and now they
-should be taken as it accordeth best to the sentence.
-
-By this manner, with good living and great travail, men may come to true
-and clear translating and true understanding of holy writ, seem it never
-so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and to
-keep well holy writ, and to suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last.
-Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(B.)
-
-_TYNDALE'S PROLOGUES._
-
-
-I. NEW TESTAMENT[139] 1525. 4TO.
-
-I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly
-beloved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritual edifying,
-consolation, and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are
-better seen in the tongues than I, and that have better gifts of grace to
-interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to
-consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness; and
-if they perceive in any places that I have not attained unto the very
-sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the
-right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering
-that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for
-ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the
-honouring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is
-the body of Christ.
-
-The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should
-imagine, than that I should rehearse them. Moreover I supposed it
-superfluous; for who is so blind as to ask why light should be showed to
-them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to
-stumble is the danger of eternal damnation; other so despiteful that he
-would envy any man (I speak not his brother) so necessary a thing; or so
-bedlam mad to affirm that good is the natural cause of evil, and darkness
-to proceed out of light, and that lying should be grounded in truth and
-verity, and not rather clean contrary, that light destroyeth darkness, and
-verity reproveth all manner of lying.
-
-After it had pleased GOD to put in my mind and also to give me grace to
-translate this fore-rehearsed New Testament into our English tongue,
-howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary to put you in
-remembrance of certain points, which are, that ye well understand what
-these words mean: the Old Testament, the New Testament; the law, the
-gospel; Moses, Christ; nature, grace; working and believing; deeds and
-faith; lest we ascribe to the one that which belongeth to the other, and
-make of Christ Moses, of the gospel the law, despise grace and rob faith;
-and fall from meek learning into idle dispicions; brawling and scolding
-about words.
-
-The Old Testament is a book wherein is written the law of God, and the
-deeds of them which fulfil them, and of them also which fulfil them not.
-
-The New Testament is a book wherein are contained the promises of God, and
-the deeds of them which believe them or believe them not.
-
-Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good,
-merry, glad, and joyful tidings, that maketh a man's heart glad, and
-maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy: as when David had killed Goliath
-the giant, came glad tidings unto the Jews, that their fearful and cruel
-enemy was slain, and they delivered out of all danger; for gladness
-whereof, they sung, danced, and were joyful. In like manner is the
-Evangelion of God (which we call gospel, and the New Testament) joyful
-tidings; and, as some say, a good hearing, published by the apostles
-throughout all the world, of Christ the right David, how that he hath
-fought with sin, with death, and the devil, and overcome them: whereby all
-men that were in bondage to sin, wounded with death, overcome of the
-devil, are, without their own merits or deservings, loosed, justified,
-restored to life and saved, brought to liberty and reconciled unto the
-favour of God, and set at one with him again; which tidings, as many as
-believe, laud, praise, and thank God; are glad, sing, and dance for joy.
-
-This Evangelion or gospel (that is to say, such joyful tidings) is called
-the New Testament; because that as a man, when he shall die, appointeth
-his goods to be dealt and distributed after his death among them which he
-nameth to be his heirs; even so Christ, before his death, commanded and
-appointed that such Evangelion, gospel, or tidings, should be declared
-throughout all the world, and therewith to give unto all that believe, all
-his goods; that is to say, his life, wherewith he swallowed and devoured
-up death; his righteousness, wherewith he banished sin; his salvation,
-wherewith he overcame eternal damnation. Now, can the wretched man, that
-[knoweth himself to be wrapped] in sin, and in danger to death and hell,
-hear no more joyous a thing than such glad and comfortable tidings of
-Christ; so that he cannot but be glad and laugh from the low bottom of his
-heart, if he believe that the tidings are true.
-
-To strength such faith withal, God promised this his Evangelion in the Old
-Testament by the prophets, as Paul saith (Rom. i.), how that he was chosen
-out to preach God's Evangelion, which he before had promised by the
-prophets in the Scriptures, that treat of his Son which was born of the
-seed of David. In Gen. iii. God saith to the serpent, "I will put hatred
-between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, that self seed
-shall tread thy head under foot." Christ is this woman's seed; he it is
-that hath trodden under foot the devil's head; that is to say, sin, death,
-hell, and all his power. For without this seed can no man avoid sin,
-death, hell, and everlasting damnation.
-
-Again (Gen. xxii.), God promised Abraham, saying, "In thy seed shall all
-the generations of the earth be blessed." Christ is that seed of Abraham,
-saith St. Paul. (Gal. iii.) He hath blessed all the world through the
-gospel. For where Christ is not, there remaineth the curse that fell on
-Adam as soon as he had sinned, so that they are in bondage under the
-condemnation of sin, death, and hell. Against this curse blesseth now the
-gospel all the world, inasmuch as it crieth openly, saying, Whosoever
-believeth on the Seed of Abraham shall be blessed, that is, he shall be
-delivered from sin, death, and hell, and shall henceforth continue
-righteous, living and saved for ever, as Christ himself saith, in the
-eleventh of John, "He that believeth on me shall never more die."
-
-"The law," saith the gospel of John in the first chapter, "was given by
-Moses: but grace and verity by Jesus Christ." The law, whose minister is
-Moses, was given to bring us unto the knowledge of ourselves, that we
-might thereby feel and perceive what we are of nature. The law condemneth
-us and all our deeds, and is called of Paul in 2 Cor. iii. the
-ministration of death. For it killeth our consciences and driveth us to
-desperation, inasmuch as it requireth of us that which is impossible for
-us to do. It requireth of us the deeds of a whole man. It requireth
-perfect love from the low bottom and ground of the heart, as well in all
-things which we suffer, as in the things which we do. But, saith John, in
-the same place, "grace and verity is given us in Christ," so that when the
-law hath passed upon us, and condemned us to death, which is its nature to
-do, then we have in Christ grace, that is to say, favour, promises of
-life, of mercy, of pardon, freely by the merits of Christ; and in Christ
-have we verity and truth, in that God fulfilleth all his promises to them
-that believe. Therefore is the gospel the ministration of life. Paul
-calleth it in the fore rehearsed place of 2 Cor. iii. the ministration of
-the Spirit and of righteousness.
-
-In the gospel, when we believe the promises, we receive the Spirit of
-life, and are justified in the blood of Christ from all things whereof the
-law condemned us. Of Christ it is written in the fore rehearsed John i.
-This is He of whose abundance, or fulness, all we have received, grace for
-grace, or favour for favour. That is to say, for the favour that God hath
-to his Son Christ he giveth unto us his favour and good will, as a father
-to his sons. As affirmeth Paul, saying, "Which loved us in his Beloved
-before the creation of the world." Christ is made Lord over all, and is
-called in scripture God's mercy-stool; whosoever therefore flieth to
-Christ can neither hear nor receive of God any other thing save mercy.
-
-In the Old Testament are many promises, which are nothing else but the
-Evangelion or gospel, to save those that believed them from the vengeance
-of the law. And in the New Testament is often made mention of the law, to
-condemn them which believe not the promises. Moreover the law and the
-gospel may never be separate; for the gospel and promises serve but for
-troubled consciences, which are brought to desperation, and feel the pains
-of hell and death under the law, and are in captivity and bondage under
-the law. In all my deeds I must have the law before me to condemn mine
-imperfectness. For all that I do, be I never so perfect, is yet damnable
-sin, when it is compared to the law, which requireth the ground and bottom
-of mine heart. I must therefore have always the law in my sight, that I
-may be meek in the spirit, and give God all the laud and praise, ascribing
-to him all righteousness, and to myself all unrighteousness and sin. I
-must also have the promises before mine eyes, that I despair not; in which
-promises I see the mercy, favour, and good will of God upon me, in the
-blood of his Son Christ, which hath made satisfaction for mine
-unperfectness, and fulfilled for me that which I could not do.
-
-Here may ye perceive that two manner of people are sore deceived. First,
-they which justify themselves with outward deeds, in that they abstain
-outwardly from that which the law forbiddeth, and do outwardly that which
-the law commandeth. They compare themselves to open sinners; and in
-respect of them justify themselves, condemning the open sinners. They set
-a veil on Moses' face, and see not how the law requireth love from the
-bottom of the heart. If they did they would not condemn their neighbours.
-"Love hideth the multitude of sins," saith St. Peter, in his first
-epistle. For whom I love from the deep bottom and ground of mine heart,
-him condemn I not, neither reckon his sins, but suffer his weakness and
-infirmity, as a mother the weakness of her son, until he grow up unto a
-perfect man.
-
-Those also are deceived which, without all fear of God, give themselves
-unto all manner vices with full consent, and full delectation, having no
-respect to the law of God (under whose vengeance they are locked up in
-captivity), but say, God is merciful and Christ died for us, supposing
-that such dreaming and imagination is that faith which is so greatly
-commended in holy scripture. Nay, that is not faith, but rather a foolish
-blind opinion springing of their own nature, and it is not given them of
-the Spirit of God; true faith is (as saith the apostle Paul) the gift of
-God, and is given to sinners after the law hath passed upon them, and hath
-brought their consciences unto the brink of desperation, and sorrows of
-hell.
-
-They that have this right faith, consent to the law that it is righteous,
-and good, and justify God which made the law, and have delectation in the
-law, notwithstanding that they cannot fulfil it, for their weakness; and
-they abhor whatsoever the law forbiddeth, though they cannot avoid it. And
-their great sorrow is, because they cannot fulfil the will of God in the
-law; and the spirit that is in them crieth to God night and day for
-strength and help, with tears (as saith Paul) that cannot be expressed
-with tongue. Of which things the belief of our popish (or of their)
-father, whom they so magnify for his strong faith, hath none experience at
-all.
-
-The first, that is to say, a justiciary, which justifieth himself with his
-outward deeds, consenteth not to the inward law, neither hath delectation
-therein: yea, he would rather that no such law were. So he justifieth not
-God, but hateth him as a tyrant, neither careth he for the promises, but
-will with his own strength be saviour of himself; no wise glorifieth he
-God, though he seem outward to do.
-
-The second, that is to say, the sensual person, as a voluptuous swine,
-neither feareth God in his law, neither is thankful to him for his
-promises and mercy, which is set forth in Christ to all them that believe.
-
-The right christian man consenteth to the law, that it is righteous, and
-justifieth God in the law; for he affirmeth that God is righteous and
-just, which is author of the law. He believeth the promises of God, and so
-justifieth God, judging him true, and believing that he will fulfil his
-promises. With the law he condemneth himself and all his deeds, and giveth
-all the praise to God. He believeth the promises, and ascribeth all truth
-to God: thus everywhere justifieth he God, and praiseth God.
-
-By nature, through the fall of Adam are we the children of wrath, heirs of
-the vengeance of God by birth, yea, and from our conception. And we have
-our fellowship with the devils under the power of darkness and rule of
-Satan, while we are yet in our mothers' wombs; and though we show not
-forth the fruits of sin, yet are we full of the natural poison whereof all
-sinful deeds spring, and cannot but sin outwardly, be we never so young,
-if occasion be given; for our nature is to do sin, as is the nature of a
-serpent to sting. And as a serpent yet young, or yet unbrought forth, is
-full of poison, and cannot afterward (when the time is come, and occasion
-given) but bring forth the fruits thereof; and as an adder, a toad, or a
-snake, is hated of man, not for the evil that it hath done, but for the
-poison that is in it and the hurt which it cannot but do; so are we hated
-of God for that natural poison which is conceived and born with us before
-we do any outward evil. And as the evil, which a venomous worm doeth,
-maketh it not a serpent; but because it is a venomous worm, therefore doth
-it evil and poisoneth; and as the fruit maketh not the tree evil, but
-because it is an evil tree, therefore it bringeth forth evil fruit, when
-the season of fruit is; even so do not our evil deeds make us evil; but
-because that of nature we are evil, therefore we both think and do evil,
-and are under vengeance under the law, convict to eternal damnation by the
-law, and are contrary to the will of God in all our will, and in all
-things consent to the will of the fiend.
-
-By grace, that is to say by favour, we are plucked out of Adam, the ground
-of all evil, and graffed in Christ the root of all goodness. In Christ,
-God loved us, his elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved
-us unto the knowledge of his Son and of his holy gospel; and when the
-gospel is preached to us, he openeth our hearts, and giveth us grace to
-believe, and putteth the Spirit of Christ in us, and we know him as our
-Father most merciful; and we consent to the law, and love it inwardly in
-our heart, and desire to fulfil it, and sorrow because we cannot; which
-will (sin we of frailty never so much) is sufficient till more strength be
-given us; the blood of Christ hath made satisfaction for the rest; the
-blood of Christ hath obtained all things for us of God. Christ is our
-satisfaction, Redeemer, Deliverer, Saviour, from vengeance and wrath.
-Observe and mark in Paul's, Peter's, and John's epistles, and in the
-gospel, what Christ is unto us.
-
-By faith are we saved only in believing the promises. And though faith be
-never without love and good works, yet is our saving imputed neither to
-love nor unto good works, but unto faith only. For love and works are
-under the law, which requireth perfection, and the ground and fountain of
-the heart, and damneth all imperfectness. Now is faith under the
-promises, which condemn not; but give all grace, mercy, favour, and
-whatsoever is contained in the promises.
-
-Righteousness is divers; blind reason imagines many manner of
-righteousness. There is, in like manner, the justifying of ceremonies,
-some imagine them their own selves, some counterfeit other, saying, in
-their blind reason, Such holy persons did thus and thus, and they were
-holy men, therefore if I do so likewise I shall please God; but they have
-no answer of God that that pleaseth. The Jews seek righteousness in their
-ceremonies; which God gave unto them, not to justify, but to describe and
-paint Christ unto them; of which Jews testifieth Paul, saying how that
-they have affection to God, but not after knowledge; for they go about to
-stablish their own justice, and are not obedient to the justice of
-righteousness that cometh of God. The cause is verily that except a man
-cast away his own imagination and reason, he cannot perceive God, and
-understand the virtue and power of the blood of Christ. There is the
-righteousness of works, as I said before, when the heart is away and
-feeleth not how the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the
-bottom of the heart, as the just ministration of all manner of laws, and
-the observing of them, and moral virtues wherein philosophers put their
-felicity and blessedness--which all are nothing in the sight of God. There
-is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled from the ground of the
-heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this life perfectly, but sighed
-after it. They were so far forth blessed in Christ, that they hungered and
-thirsted after it. Paul had this thirst; he consented to the law of God,
-that it ought so to be, but he found another lust in his members, contrary
-to the lust and desire of his mind, and therefore cried out, saying, "Oh,
-wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from this body of death?
-thanks be to God through Jesus Christ." The righteousness that before God
-is of value, is to believe the promises of God, after the law hath
-confounded the conscience: as when the temporal law ofttimes condemneth
-the thief or murderer, and bringeth him to execution, so that he seeth
-nothing before him but present death, and then cometh good tidings, a
-charter from the king, and delivereth him. Likewise when God's law hath
-brought the sinner into knowledge of himself, and hath confounded his
-conscience and opened unto him the wrath and vengeance of God; then cometh
-good tidings. The Evangelion showeth unto him the promises of God in
-Christ, and how Christ hath purchased pardon for him, hath satisfied the
-law for him, and appeased the wrath of God. And the poor sinner believeth,
-laudeth, and thanketh God through Christ, and breaketh out into exceeding
-inward joy and gladness, for that he hath escaped so great wrath, so heavy
-vengeance, so fearful and so everlasting a death. And he henceforth is an
-hungered and athirst after more righteousness, that he might fulfil the
-law; and mourneth continually, commending his weakness unto God in the
-blood of our Saviour, Christ Jesus.
-
-Here shall ye see compendiously and plainly set out, the order and
-practice of every thing before rehearsed.
-
-The fall of Adam hath made us heirs of the vengeance and wrath of God, and
-heirs of eternal damnation; and hath brought us into captivity and bondage
-under the devil. And the devil is our lord, and our ruler, our head, our
-governor, our prince, yea, and our god. And our will is locked and knit
-faster unto the will of the devil, than could a hundred thousand chains
-bind a man unto a post. Unto the devil's will consent we with all our
-hearts, with all our minds, with all our might, power, strength, will, and
-lusts. With what poison, deadly and venomous hate, hateth a man his enemy!
-With how great malice of mind, inwardly, do we slay and murder! With what
-violence and rage, yea, and with how fervent lust, commit we advoutry,
-fornication, and such like uncleanness! With what pleasure and delectation
-inwardly serveth a glutton his belly! With what diligence deceive we! How
-busily seek we the things of this world! Whatsoever we do, think, or
-imagine, is abominable in the sight of God. And we are as it were asleep
-in so deep blindness, that we can neither see nor feel what misery,
-thraldom, and wretchedness we are in, till Moses come and wake us, and
-publish the law. When we hear the law truly preached, how that we ought to
-love and honour God with all our strength and might, from the low bottom
-of the heart; and our neighbours, yea, our enemies, as ourselves,
-inwardly, from the ground of the heart, and do whatsoever God biddeth, and
-abstain from whatsoever God forbiddeth, with all love and meekness, with a
-fervent and a burning lust from the centre of the heart, then beginneth
-the conscience to rage against the law, and against God. No sea, be it
-ever so great a tempest, is so unquiet. For it is not possible for a
-natural man to consent to the law, that it should be good, or that God
-should be righteous which maketh the law; his wit, reason, and will being
-so fast glued, yea, nailed and chained unto the will of the devil. Neither
-can any creature loose the bonds, save the blood of Christ.
-
-This is the captivity and bondage whence Christ delivered us, redeemed,
-and loosed us. His blood, his death, his patience in suffering rebukes and
-wrongs, his prayers and fastings, his meekness and fulfilling of the
-uttermost point of the law, appeased the wrath of God, brought the favour
-of God to us again, obtained that God should love us first, and be our
-Father, and that a merciful Father, that will consider our infirmities and
-weakness, and will give us his Spirit again (which was taken away in the
-fall of Adam) to rule, govern, and strength us, and to break the bonds of
-Satan, wherein we were so straight bound. When Christ is thuswise
-preached, and the promises rehearsed which are contained in the prophets,
-in the psalms, and in divers places of the five books of Moses, then the
-hearts of them which are elect and chosen, begin to wax soft and melt at
-the bounteous mercy of God, and kindness shewed of Christ. For when the
-Evangelion is preached, the Spirit of God entereth into them whom God hath
-ordained and appointed unto eternal life, and openeth their inward eyes,
-and worketh such belief in them. When the woful consciences feel and taste
-how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is, and how merciful and
-loving God is through Christ's purchasing and merits, they begin to love
-again, and to consent to the law of God, that it is good and ought so to
-be, and that God is righteous which made it; and they desire to fulfil the
-law, even as the sick man desireth to be whole, and are an hungered and
-thirst after more righteousness and after more strength to fulfil the law
-more perfectly. And in all that they do, or omit and leave undone, they
-seek God's honour and his will with meekness, ever condemning the
-imperfectness of their deeds by the law.
-
-Now Christ standeth us in double stead, and us serveth in two manner wise:
-First, he is our Redeemer, Deliverer, Reconciler, Mediator, Intercessor,
-Advocate, Attorney, Solicitor, our Hope, Comfort, Shield, Protection,
-Defender, Strength, Health, Satisfaction, and Salvation. His blood, his
-death, all that he ever did, is ours. And Christ himself, with all that he
-is or can do, is ours. His blood-shedding and all that he did, doth me as
-good service as though I myself had done it. And God (as great as he is)
-is mine, with all that he hath, through Christ and his purchasing.
-
-Secondarily, after that we be overcome with love and kindness, and now
-seek to do the will of God, which is a christian man's nature, then have
-we Christ an example to counterfeit, as saith Christ himself in John, "I
-have given you an example." And in another evangelist he saith, "He that
-will be great among you, shall be your servant and minister, as the Son of
-man came to minister and not to be ministered unto." And Paul saith,
-"Counterfeit[140] Christ." And Peter saith, "Christ died for you, and
-left you an example to follow his steps." Whatsoever therefore faith hath
-received of God through Christ's blood and deserving, that same must love
-shed out every whit, and bestow it on our neighbours unto their profit,
-yea, and that though they be our enemies. By faith we receive of God, and
-by love we shed out again. And that must we do freely after the example of
-Christ, without any other respect, save our neighbour's wealth only, and
-neither look for reward in the earth, nor yet in heaven, for our deeds.
-But of pure love must we bestow ourselves, all that we have, and all that
-we are able to do, even on our enemies, to bring them to God, considering
-nothing but their wealth, as Christ did ours. Christ did not his deeds to
-obtain heaven thereby (that had been a madness), heaven was his already,
-he was heir thereof, it was his by inheritance; but did them freely for
-our sakes, considering nothing but our wealth, and to bring the favour of
-God to us again, and us to God. And no natural son that is his father's
-heir, doth his father's will because he would be heir; that he is already
-by birth, his father gave him that ere he was born, and is loather that he
-should go without it, than he himself hath wit to be; but out of pure love
-doth he that he doth. And ask him, Why he doth any thing that he doth? he
-answereth, My father bade, it is my father's will, it pleaseth my father.
-Bond servants work for hire, children for love: for their father with all
-he hath, is theirs already. So a Christian man doth freely all that he
-doth, considereth nothing but the will of God, and his neighbour's wealth
-only. If I live chaste, I do it not to obtain heaven thereby; for then
-should I do wrong to the blood of Christ; Christ's blood has obtained me
-that; Christ's merits have made me heir thereof; he is both door and way
-thitherwards: neither that I look for an higher room in heaven than they
-shall have which live in wedlock, other than a whore of the stews, if she
-repent; for that were the pride of Lucifer, but freely to wait on the
-evangelion; and to serve my brother withal; even as one hand helpeth
-another, or one member another, because one feeleth another's grief, and
-the pain of the one is the pain of the other. Whatsoever is done to the
-least of us (whether it be good or bad), it is done to Christ; and
-whatsoever is done to my brother, if I be a christian man, that same is
-done to me. Neither doth my brother's pain grieve me less than mine own:
-neither rejoice I less at his welfare than at mine own. If it were not so,
-how saith Paul? "Let him that rejoiceth, rejoice in the Lord," that is to
-say, Christ, which is Lord over all creatures. If my merits obtained me
-heaven, or a higher room there, then had I wherein I might rejoice besides
-the Lord.
-
-Here see ye the nature of the law, and the nature of the evangelion. How
-the law is the key that bindeth and damneth all men, and the evangelion
-looseth them again. The law goeth before, and the evangelion followeth.
-When a preacher preacheth the law, he bindeth all consciences; and when he
-preacheth the gospel, he looseth them again. These two salves (I mean the
-law and the gospel) useth God and his preacher to heal and cure sinners
-withal. The law driveth out the disease and maketh it appear, and is a
-sharp salve, and a fretting corosy, and killeth the dead flesh, and
-looseth and draweth the sores out by the roots, and all corruption. It
-pulleth from a man the trust and confidence that he hath in himself, and
-in his own works, merits, deservings, and ceremonies. It killeth him,
-sendeth him down to hell, and bringeth him to utter desperation, and
-prepareth the way of the Lord, as it is written of John the Baptist. For
-it is not possible that Christ should come to a man, as long as he
-trusteth in himself, or in any worldly thing. Then cometh the evangelion,
-a more gentle plaster, which suppleth and suageth the wounds of the
-conscience, and bringeth health. It bringeth the Spirit of God, which
-looseth the bonds of Satan, and uniteth us to God and his will, through
-strong faith and fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the
-world, or any creature to loose them. And the poor and wretched sinner
-feeleth so great mercy, love, and kindness in God, that he is sure in
-himself how that it is not possible that God should forsake him, or
-withdraw his mercy and love from him; and he boldly crieth out with Paul,
-saying, "Who shall separate us from the love that God loveth us withal?"
-That is to say, What shall make me believe that God loveth me not? Shall
-tribulation? anguish? persecution? Shall hunger? nakedness? Shall sword?
-Nay, "I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel, neither rule
-nor power, neither present things nor things to come, neither high nor
-low, neither any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God,
-which is in Christ Jesu our Lord." In all such tribulations, a christian
-man perceiveth that God is his Father, and loveth him even as he loved
-Christ when he shed his blood on the cross.
-
-Finally, as before, when I was bond to the devil and his will, I wrought
-all manner of evil and wickedness, not for hell's sake, which is the
-reward of sin, but because I was heir of hell by birth and bondage to the
-devil, did I evil (for I could none otherwise do; to do sin was my
-nature), even so now, since I am coupled to God by Christ's blood, do I
-well, not for heaven's sake, but because I am heir of heaven by grace and
-Christ's purchasing, and have the Spirit of God, I do good freely, for so
-is my nature: as a good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil tree
-evil fruit. By the fruits shall ye know what the tree is. A man's deeds
-declare what he is within, but make him neither good nor bad. We must
-first be evil ere we do evil, as a serpent is first poisonous ere he
-poison. We must be also good ere we do good, as the fire must be first hot
-ere it warm any thing. Take an example: As those blind which are cured in
-the evangelion could not see till Christ had given them sight, and deaf
-could not hear till Christ had given them hearing, and those sick could
-not do the deeds of an whole man till Christ had given them health; so can
-no man do good in his soul till Christ have loosed him out of the bonds
-of Satan, and have given him wherewith to do good; yea, and first have
-poured into him that self good thing which he sheddeth forth afterwards on
-other. Whatsoever is our own, is sin. Whatsoever is above that, is
-Christ's gift, purchase, doing, and working. He bought it of his Father
-dearly with his blood, yea, with his most bitter death, and gave his life
-for it. Whatsoever good thing is in us, that is given us freely, without
-our deserving or merits, for Christ's blood's sake. That we desire to
-follow the will of God it is the gift of Christ's blood. That we now hate
-the devil's will (whereunto we were so fast locked, and could not but love
-it) is also the gift of Christ's blood; unto whom belongeth the praise and
-honour of our good deeds, and not unto us.
-
-
-II. "THE EPISTLE TO THE READER" ATTACHED TO THE 8vo EDITION, 1525.
-
-Give diligence, reader, I exhort thee, that thou come with a pure mind,
-and, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health
-and of eternal life; by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are
-born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ,
-which blood crieth not for vengeance, as the blood of Abel, but hath
-purchased life, love, favour, grace, blessing, and whatsoever is promised
-in the Scriptures to them that believe and obey God, and standeth between
-us and wrath, vengeance, curse, and whatsoever the Scripture threateneth
-against the unbelievers and disobedient, which resist and consent not in
-their hearts to the law of God that it is right, holy, just, and ought so
-to be. Mark the plain and manifest places of the Scriptures, and in
-doubtful places see thou add no interpretation contrary to them, but as
-(Paul saith) let all be conformable and agreeing to the faith. Note the
-difference of the law and of the gospel. The one asketh and requireth,
-the other pardoneth and forgiveth; the one threateneth, the other
-promiseth all good things to them that set their trust in Christ only. The
-gospel signifieth glad tidings, and is nothing but the promises of good
-things. All is not gospel that is written in the gospel-book; for if the
-law were away thou couldest not know what the gospel meant, even as thou
-couldest not see pardon and grace, except the law rebuked thee and
-declared unto thee thy sin, misdeed, and trespass. Repent, and believe the
-gospel, as Christ saith in the first of Mark. Apply alway the law to thy
-deeds, whether thou find lust in thine heart to the law-ward; and so shalt
-thou no doubt repent and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief
-to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the
-law. Apply the gospel, that is to say the promises, unto the deserving of
-Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not
-despair, but shall feel God as a kind and merciful father. And his Spirit
-shall dwell in thee, and shall be strong in thee, and the promises shall
-be given thee at the last (though not by and by, lest thou shouldest
-forget thyself and be negligent), and all threatenings shall be forgiven
-thee for Christ's blood's sake, to whom commit thyself altogether, without
-respect either of thy good deeds or of thy bad.
-
-Them that are learned Christianly I beseech, forasmuch as I am sure, and
-my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and
-faithfully, I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of
-knowledge and understanding, that the rudeness of the work now at the
-first time offend them not; but that they consider how that I had no man
-to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had
-interpreted the same or such like thing in the Scripture beforetime.
-Moreover, even very necessity, and cumbrance (God is record) above
-strength, which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast
-ourselves, caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are
-required. Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but as it were
-born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished. In time
-to come (if God have appointed us thereunto) we will give it his full
-shape, and put out if ought be added superflously, and add to if ought be
-overseen through negligence, and will enforce to bring to compendiousness
-that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is
-required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a
-table to expound the words which are not commonly used, and show how the
-Scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common
-people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not
-another; and will endeavour ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better,
-and to make it more apt for the weak stomachs, desiring them that are
-learned and able to remember their duty, and to help them thereunto, and
-to bestow unto the edifying of Christ's body, which is the congregation of
-them that believe, those gifts which they have received of God for the
-same purpose.
-
-The grace that cometh of Christ be with them that love him. Amen.
-
-
-III. THE PREFACE TO THE PENTATEUCH, 1530.
-
-When I had translated the New Testament, I added an Epistle unto the
-latter end, in which I desired them that were learned to amend if aught
-were found amiss. But our malicious and wily hypocrites, which are so
-stubborn, and hard hearted in their wicked abominations, that it is not
-possible for them to amend any thing at all (as we see by daily
-experience, when both their livings and doings are rebuked with the truth)
-say, some of them, that it is impossible to translate the Scripture into
-English; some that it is not lawful for the lay people to have it in their
-mother tongue; some that it would make them all heretics; as it would no
-doubt from many things which they of long time have falsely taught; and
-that is the whole cause wherefore they forbid it, though they other
-cloaks pretend. And some, or rather every one, say that it would make them
-rise against the king, whom they themselves (unto their damnation) never
-yet obeyed. And lest the temporal rulers should see their falsehood, if
-the Scripture came to light, causeth them so to lie.
-
-And as for my translation, in which they affirm unto the lay people, (as I
-have heard say) to be I wot not how many thousand heresies, so that it
-cannot be mended or correct, they have yet taken so great pain to examine
-it, and to compare it unto that they would fain have it, and to their own
-imaginations and juggling terms, and to have somewhat to rail at, and
-under that cloak, to blaspheme the truth, that they might with as little
-labour (as I suppose) have translated the most part of the Bible. For they
-which in times past were wont to look on no more Scripture than they found
-in their _Duns_, or such like devilish doctrine, have yet now so narrowly
-looked on my Translation, that there is not so much as one _i_ therein, if
-it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto
-the ignorant people for an heresy. Finally, in this they be all
-agreed,--to drive you from the knowledge of the Scripture, and that ye
-shall not have the text thereof in the mother tongue; and to keep the
-world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the consciences
-of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine; to satisfy
-their filthy lusts, their proud ambition, and unsatiable covetousness; and
-to exalt their own honour above king and emperor, yea, and above God
-himself.
-
-A thousand books had they lever to be put forth against their abominable
-doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as
-long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with
-the mist of their sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or
-despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly
-similitudes and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wresting the
-Scripture unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order,
-and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with
-allegories; and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the
-unlearned lay people, (when it hath but one simple, literal sense, whose
-light the owls cannot abide) that though thou feel in thine heart, and art
-sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve
-their subtle riddles.
-
-Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had
-perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay
-people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their
-eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and
-meaning of the text: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these
-enemies of all truth quench it again, partly with the smoke of their
-bottomless pit, whereof thou readest in Apocalypse chap. ix. that is, with
-apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, founded
-without ground of Scripture, and partly in juggling with the text,
-expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text, if
-thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof.
-
-And even in the bishop of London's house I intended to have done it. For
-when I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer
-dwell there (the process whereof were too long here to rehearse), I this
-wise thought in myself--this I suffer because the priests of the country
-be unlearned; as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort which have
-seen no more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals,
-which yet many of them can scarcely read (except it be _Albertus de
-Secretis Mulierum_, in which yet, though they be never so sorrily learned,
-they pore day and night, and make notes therein, and all to teach the
-midwives as they say; and Linwode, a book of constitutions to gather
-tythes, mortuaries, offerings, customs, and other pillage which they call
-not theirs, but God's part, and the duty of holy church to discharge their
-consciences withal: for they are bound that they shall not diminish, but
-increase all things unto the uttermost of their powers), and, therefore
-(because they are thus unlearned, thought I), when they come together to
-the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings
-are heresy. And besides that, they add to of their own heads which I never
-spake, as the manner is, to prolong the tale to short the time withal, and
-accused me secretly to the chancellor, and other the bishop's officers.
-And, indeed, when I came before the chancellor, he threatened me
-grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog, and
-laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth (as
-their manner is not to bring forth the accuser), and yet all the priests
-of the country were the same day there.
-
-As I this thought, the bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom
-Erasmus (whose tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth
-up above the stars whosoever giveth him a little exhibition) praiseth
-exceedingly, among other in his Annotations on the New Testament, for his
-great learning. Then, thought I, if I might come to this man's service, I
-were happy. And so I gat me to London, and, through the acquaintance of my
-master, came to Sir Harry Gilford, the king's grace's comptroller, and
-brought him an _Oration of Isocrates_, which I had translated out of Greek
-into English, and desired him to speak unto my lord of London for me,
-which he also did as he shewed me, and willed me to write an epistle to my
-lord, and to go to him myself, which I also did, and delivered my epistle
-to a servant of his own, one William Hebilthwayte, a man of mine old
-acquaintance. But God (which knoweth what is within hypocrites) saw that I
-was beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way unto my purpose.
-And therefore he gat me no favour in my lord's sight.
-
-Whereupon my lord answered me, his house was full, he had more than he
-could well find, and advised me to seek in London, where he said I could
-not lack a service. And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the
-course of the world, and heard our praters (I would say our preachers),
-how they boasted themselves and their high authority; and beheld the pomp
-of our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet are, to set peace and
-unity in the world (though it be not possible for them that walk in
-darkness to continue long in peace, for they cannot but either stumble or
-dash themselves at one thing or another that shall clean unquiet all
-together) and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time, and
-understood at the last not only that there was no room in my lord of
-London's palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no
-place to do it in all England, as experience doth now openly declare.
-
-Under what manner, therefore, should I now submit this book to be
-corrected and amended of them, which can suffer nothing to be well? Or
-what protestation should I make in such a matter unto our prelates, those
-stubborn Nimrods which so mightily fight against God, and resist his Holy
-Spirit, enforcing with all craft and subtlety to quench the light of the
-everlasting Testament, promises, and appointment made between God and us?
-and heaping the fierce wrath of God upon all princes and rulers; mocking
-them with false feigned names of hypocrisy, and serving their lusts at all
-points, and dispensing with them even of the very laws of God, of which
-Christ himself testifieth, Matt. v. "That not so much as one tittle
-thereof may perish, or be broken." And of which the prophet saith, Psalm
-cxviii., "Thou hast commanded thy laws to be kept" _meod_, that is in
-Hebrew, exceedingly, with all diligence, might, and power; and have made
-them so mad with their juggling charms, and crafty persuasions, that they
-think it a full satisfaction for all their wicked lying to torment such as
-tell them truth, and to burn the word of their soul's health, and slay
-whosoever believe thereon.
-
-Notwithstanding, yet I submit this book, and all other that I have either
-made or translated, or shall in time to come, (if it be God's will that I
-shall further labour in his harvest,) unto all them that submit themselves
-unto the word of God, to be corrected of them; yea, and moreover to be
-disallowed and also burnt, if it seem worthy, when they have examined it
-with the Hebrew, so that they first put forth of their own translating
-another that is more correct.
-
-
-
-
-(C.)
-
-_COVERDALE'S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535._
-
-
-Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of
-scripture ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own
-insufficiency therein, and how weak I am to perform the office of a
-translator, I was the more loath to meddle with this work.
-Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it was that we should
-want it so long, and called to my remembrance the adversity of them which
-were not only of ripe knowledge, but would also with all their hearts have
-performed that they began, if they had not had impediment; considering, I
-say, that by reason of their adversity it could not so soon have been
-brought to an end, as our most prosperous nation would fain have had it;
-these and other reasonable causes considered, I was the more bold to take
-it in hand. And to help me herein, I have had sundry translations, not
-only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their
-singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more
-glad to follow for the most part, according as I was required. But, to say
-the truth before God, it was neither my labour nor desire to have this
-work put in my hand: nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should
-be more plenteously provided for with the scripture in their
-mother-tongue, than we: therefore, when I was instantly required, though I
-could not do so well as I would, I thought it yet my duty to do my best,
-and that with a good will.
-
-Whereas some men think now that many translations make division in the
-faith and in the people of God, that is not so: for it was never better
-with the congregation of God, than when every church almost had the Bible
-of a sundry translation. Among the Greeks had not Origen a special
-translation? Had not Vulgarius one peculiar, and likewise Chrysostom?
-Beside the seventy interpreters, is there not the translation of Aquila,
-of Theodotio, of Symmachus, and of sundry other? Again, among the Latin
-men, thou findest that every one almost used a special and sundry
-translation; for insomuch as every bishop had the knowledge of the
-tongues, he gave his diligence to have the Bible of his own translation.
-The doctors, as Hireneus, Cyprianus, Tertullian, St. Hierome, St.
-Augustine, Hilarius, and St. Ambrose, upon divers places of the scripture,
-read not the text all alike.
-
-Therefore ought it not to be taken as evil, that such men as have
-understanding now in our time, exercise themselves in the tongues, and
-give their diligence to translate out of one language into another. Yea,
-we ought rather to give God high thanks therefore, which through his
-Spirit stirreth up men's minds so to exercise themselves therein. Would
-God it had never been left off after the time of St. Augustine! then
-should we never have come into such blindness and ignorance, into such
-errors and delusions. For as soon as the Bible was cast aside, and no more
-put in exercise, then began every one of his own head to write whatsoever
-came into his brain, and that seemed to be good in his own eyes; and so
-grew the darkness of men's traditions. And this same is the cause that we
-have had so many writers, which seldom made mention of the scripture of
-the Bible; and though they sometime alleged it, yet was it done so far out
-of season, and so wide from the purpose, that a man may well perceive, how
-that they never saw the original.
-
-Seeing then that this diligent exercise of translating doth so much good
-and edifieth in other languages, why should it do evil in ours? Doubtless,
-like as all nations in the diversity of speeches may know one God in the
-unity of faith, and be one in love; even so may divers translations
-understand one another, and that in the head articles and ground of our
-most blessed faith, though they use sundry words. Wherefore methink we
-have great occasion to give thanks unto God, that he hath opened unto his
-church the gift of interpretation and of printing, and that there are now
-at this time so many, which with such diligence and faithfulness interpret
-the scripture, to the honour of God and edifying of his people: whereas,
-like as when many are shooting together, every one doth his best to be
-nighest the mark; and though they cannot all attain thereto, yet shooteth
-one nigher than another and hitteth it better than another; yea, one can
-do it better than another. Who is now then so unreasonable, so despiteful,
-or envious, as to abhor him that doth all his diligence to hit the prick,
-and to shoot nighest it, though he miss and come not nighest the mark?
-Ought not such one rather to be commended, and to be helped forward, that
-he may exercise himself the more therein?
-
-For the which cause, according as I was desired, I took the more upon me
-to set forth this special translation, not as a checker, not as a
-reprover, or despiser of other men's translations, (for among many as yet
-I have found none without occasion of great thanksgiving unto God;) but
-lowly and faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under
-correction; and though I have failed anywhere (as there is no man but he
-misseth in some thing), love shall construe all to the best, without any
-perverse judgment. There is no man living that can see all things, neither
-hath God given any man to know everything. One seeth more clearly than
-another, one hath more understanding than another, one can utter a thing
-better than another; but no man ought to envy or despise another. He that
-can do better than another, should not set him at nought that
-understandeth less. Yea, he that hath the more understanding ought to
-remember, that the same gift is not his, but God's, and that God hath
-given it him to teach and inform the ignorant. If thou hast knowledge
-therefore to judge where any fault is made, I doubt not but thou wilt
-help to amend it, if love be joined with thy knowledge. Howbeit,
-whereinsoever I can perceive by myself, or by the information of other,
-that I have failed (as it is no wonder), I shall now by the help of God
-overlook it better, and amend it.
-
-Now will I exhort thee, whosoever thou be that readest scripture, if thou
-find ought therein that thou understandest not, or that appeareth to be
-repugnant, give no temerarious nor hasty judgment thereof; but ascribe it
-to thine own ignorance, not to the scripture: think that thou
-understandest it not, or that it hath some other meaning, or that it is
-haply overseen of the interpreters, or wrong printed. Again, it shall
-greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is
-spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what
-time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what
-goeth before, and what followeth after. For there be some things which are
-done and written, to the intent that we should do likewise; as when
-Abraham believeth God, is obedient unto his word, and defendeth Loth his
-kinsman from violent wrong. There be some things also which are written,
-to the intent that we should eschew such like; as when David lieth with
-Uria's wife, and causeth him to be slain. Therefore, I say, when thou
-readest scripture, be wise and circumspect; and when thou comest to such
-strange manners of speaking and dark sentences, to such parables and
-similitudes, to such dreams or visions, as are hid from thy understanding,
-commit them unto God, or to the gift of his Holy Spirit in them that are
-better learned than thou.
-
-As for the commendation of God's holy scripture, I would fain magnify it,
-as it is worthy, but I am far unsufficient thereto: and therefore I
-thought it better for me to hold my tongue, than with few words to praise
-or commend it; exhorting thee, most dear reader, so to love it, so to
-cleave unto it, and so to follow it in thy daily conversation, that other
-men, seeing thy good works and the fruits of the Holy Ghost in thee, may
-praise the Father of heaven, and give his word a good report: for to live
-after the law of God, and to lead a virtuous conversation, is the greatest
-praise that thou canst give unto his doctrine.
-
-But as touching the evil report and dispraise that the good word of God
-hath by the corrupt and evil conversation of some that daily hear it and
-profess it outwardly with their mouths, I exhort thee, most dear reader,
-let not that offend thee, nor withdraw thy mind from the love of the
-truth, neither move thee to be partaker in like unthankfulness; but seeing
-the light is come into the world, love no more the works of darkness,
-receive not the grace of God in vain. Call to thy remembrance, how loving
-and merciful God is unto thee, how kindly and fatherly he helpeth thee in
-all trouble, teacheth thine ignorance, healeth thee in all thy sickness,
-forgiveth thee all thy sins, feedeth thee, giveth thee drink, helpeth thee
-out of prison, nourisheth thee in strange countries, careth for thee, and
-seeth that thou want nothing. Call this to mind, I say, and that
-earnestly, and consider how thou hast received of God all these benefits,
-yea, and many more than thou canst desire; how thou art bound likewise to
-shew thyself unto thy neighbour, as far as thou canst, to teach him, if he
-be ignorant, to help him in all his trouble, to heal his sickness, to
-forgive him his offences, and that heartily, to feed him, to cherish him,
-to care for him, and to see that he want nothing. And on this behalf I
-beseek thee, thou that hast the riches of this world, and lovest God with
-thy heart, to lift up thine eyes, and see how great a multitude of poor
-people run through every town; have pity on thine own flesh, help them
-with a good heart, and do with thy counsel all that ever thou canst, that
-this unshamefaced begging may be put down, that these idle folks may be
-set to labour, and that such as are not able to get their living may be
-provided for. At the least, thou that art of counsel with such as are in
-authority, give them some occasion to cast their heads together, and to
-make provision for the poor. Put them in remembrance of those noble cities
-in other countries, that by the authority of their princes have so richly
-and well provided for their poor people, to the great shame and dishonesty
-of us, if we likewise, receiving the word of God, shew not such like
-fruits thereof. Would God that those men, whose office is to maintain the
-commonwealth, were as diligent in this cause, as they are in other! Let us
-beware bytimes, for after unthankfulness there followeth ever a plague.
-The merciful hand of God be with us, and defend us, that we be not
-partakers thereof!
-
-Go to now, most dear reader, and sit thee down at the Lord's feet, and
-read his words, and, as Moses teacheth the Jews, take them into thine
-heart, and let thy talking and communication be of them, when thou sittest
-in thine house, or goest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou
-risest up. And, above all things, fashion thy life and conversation
-according to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost therein, that thou mayest be
-partaker of the good promises of God in the Bible, and be heir of his
-blessing in Christ: in whom if thou put thy trust, and be an unfeigned
-reader or hearer of his word with thy heart, thou shalt find sweetness
-therein, and spy wondrous things, to thy understanding, to the avoiding of
-all seditious sects, to the abhorring of thy old sinful life, and to the
-stablishing of thy godly conversation.
-
-In the first book of Moses, called Genesis, thou mayest learn to know the
-almighty power of God in creating all of nought, his infinite wisdom in
-ordering the same, his righteousness in punishing the ungodly, his love
-and fatherly mercy in comforting the righteous with his promise, &c.
-
-In the second book, called Exodus, we see the mighty arm of God in
-delivering his people from so great bondage out of Egypt, and what
-provision he maketh for them in the wilderness; how he teacheth them with
-his wholesome word, and how the tabernacle was made and set up.
-
-In the third book, called Leviticus, is declared, what sacrifices the
-priests and Levites used, and what their office and ministration was.
-
-In the fourth book, called Numerus, is declared, how the people are
-numbered and mustered, how the captains are chosen after the tribes and
-kindreds, how they went forth to the battle, how they pitched their tents,
-and how they brake up.
-
-The fifth book, called Deuteronomium, sheweth how that Moses, now being
-old, rehearseth the law of God unto the people, putteth them in
-remembrance again of all the wonders and benefices that God had shewed for
-them, and exhorteth them earnestly to love the Lord their God, to cleave
-unto him, to put their trust in him, and to hearken unto his voice.
-
-After the death of Moses doth Josua bring the people into the land of
-promise, where God doth wonderous things for his people by Josua, which
-distributeth the land unto them, unto every tribe their possession. But in
-their wealth they forgat the goodness of God, so that ofttimes he gave
-them over into the hand of their enemies. Nevertheless, whensoever they
-called faithfully upon him, and converted, he delivered them again, as the
-book of Judges declareth.
-
-In the books of the Kings is described the regiment of good and evil
-princes, and how the decay of all nations cometh by evil kings. For in
-Jeroboam thou seest what mischief, what idolatry, and such like
-abomination followeth, when the king is a maintainer of false doctrine,
-and causeth the people to sin against God; which falling away from God's
-word increased so sore among them, that it was the cause of all their
-sorrow and misery, and the very occasion why Israel first, and then Juda,
-were carried away into captivity. Again, in Josaphat, in Ezechias, and in
-Josias, thou seest the nature of a virtuous king. He putteth down the
-houses of idolatry, seeth that his priests teach nothing but the law of
-God, commandeth his lords to go with them, and to see that they teach the
-people. In these kings, I say, thou seest the condition of a true
-defender of the faith; for he spareth neither cost nor labour to maintain
-the Laws of God, to seek the wealth and prosperity of his people, and to
-root out the wicked. And where such a prince is, thou seest again, how God
-defendeth him and his people, though he have never so many enemies. Thus
-went it with them in the old time, and even after the same manner goeth it
-now with us. God be praised therefore, and grant us of his fatherly mercy
-that we be not unthankful; lest where he now giveth us a Josaphat, an
-Ezechias, yea, a very Josias, he send us a Pharao, a Jeroboam, or an
-Achab!
-
-In the two first books of Esdras, and in Hester, thou seest the
-deliverance of the people, which though they were but few, yet is it unto
-us all a special comfort; forsomuch as God is not forgetful of his
-promise, but bringeth them out of captivity, according as he had told them
-before.
-
-In the book of Job we learn comfort and patience, in that God not only
-punisheth the wicked, but proveth and trieth the just and righteous
-(howbeit there is no man innocent in his sight,) by divers troubles in
-this life; declaring thereby, that they are not his bastards, but his dear
-sons, and that he loveth them.
-
-In the Psalms we learn how to resort only unto God in all our troubles, to
-seek help at him, to call only upon him, to settle our minds by patience,
-and how we ought in prosperity to be thankful unto him.
-
-The Proverbs and the Preacher of Solomon teach us wisdom, to know God, our
-own selves, and the world, and how vain all things are, save only to
-cleave unto God.
-
-As for the doctrine of the Prophets, what is it else, but an earnest
-exhortation to eschew sin, and to turn unto God; a faithful promise of the
-mercy and pardon of God unto all them that turn unto him, and a
-threatening of his wrath to the ungodly? saving that here and there they
-prophesy also manifestly of Christ, of the expulsion of the Jews, and
-calling of the heathen.
-
-Thus much thought I to speak of the old Testament, wherein Almighty God
-openeth unto us his mighty power, his wisdom, his loving mercy and
-righteousness: for the which cause it ought of no man to be abhorred,
-despised, or lightly regarded, as though it were an old scripture that
-nothing belonged unto us, or that now were to be refused. For it is God's
-true scripture and testimony, which the Lord Jesus commandeth the Jews to
-search. Whosoever believeth not the scripture, believeth not Christ; and
-whoso refuseth it, refuseth God also.
-
-The new Testament, or Gospel, is a manifest and clear testimony of Christ,
-how God performeth his oath and promise made in the old Testament, how the
-new is declared and included in the old, and the old fulfilled and
-verified in the new.
-
-Now whereas the most famous interpreters of all give sundry judgments of
-the text; so far as it is done by the spirit of knowledge in the Holy
-Ghost, methink no man should be offended thereat, for they refer their
-doings in meekness to the spirit of truth in the congregation of God: and
-sure I am, that there cometh more knowledge and understanding of the
-scripture by their sundry translations, than by all the glosses of our
-sophistical doctors. For that one interpreteth something obscurely in one
-place, the same translateth another, or else he himself, more manifestly
-by a more plain vocable of the same meaning in another place. Be not thou
-offended, therefore, good reader, though one call a scribe that another
-calleth a lawyer; or elders, that another calleth father and mother; or
-repentance, that another calleth penance or amendment. For if thou be not
-deceived by men's traditions, thou shalt find no more diversity between
-these terms, than between fourpence and a groat. And this manner have I
-used in my translation, calling it in some place _penance_, that in
-another place I call _repentance_; and that not only because the
-interpreters have done so before me, but that the adversaries of the truth
-may see, how that we abhor not this word penance, as they untruly report
-of us, no more than the interpreters of Latin abhor _poenitere_, when they
-read _resipiscere_. Only our heart's desire unto God is, that his people
-be not blinded in their understanding, lest they believe penance to be
-ought save a very repentance, amendment, or conversion unto God, and to be
-an unfeigned new creature in Christ, and to live according to his law. For
-else shall they fall into the old blasphemy of Christ's blood, and believe
-that they themselves are able to make satisfaction unto God for their own
-sins: from the which error God of his mercy and plenteous goodness
-preserve all his!
-
-Now to conclude: forsomuch as all the scripture is written for thy
-doctrine and ensample, it shall be necessary for thee to take hold upon it
-while it is offered thee, yea, and with ten hands thankfully to receive
-it. And though it be not worthily ministered unto thee in this
-translation, by reason of my rudeness; yet if thou be fervent in thy
-prayer, God shall not only send it thee in a better shape by the
-ministration of other that began it afore, but shall also move the hearts
-of them which as yet meddled not withal, to take it in hand, and to bestow
-the gift of their understanding thereon, as well in our language, as other
-famous interpreters do in other languages. And I pray God, that through my
-poor ministration herein I may give them that can do better some occasion
-so to do; exhorting thee, most dear reader, in the mean while on God's
-behalf, if thou be a head, a judge, or ruler of the people, that thou let
-not the book of this law depart out of thy mouth, but exercise thyself
-therein both day and night, and be ever reading in it as long as thou
-livest: that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God, and not to turn
-aside from the commandment, neither to the right hand nor to the left;
-lest thou be a knower of persons in judgment, and wrest the right of the
-stranger, of the fatherless, or of the widow, and so the curse to come
-upon thee. But what office so ever thou hast, wait upon it, and execute it
-to the maintenance of peace, to the wealth of thy people, defending the
-laws of God and the lovers thereof, and to the destruction of the wicked.
-
-If thou be a preacher, and hast the oversight of the flock of Christ,
-awake and feed Christ's sheep with a good heart, and spare no labour to do
-them good: seek not thyself, and beware of filthy lucre; but be unto the
-flock an ensample in the word, in conversation, in love, in ferventness of
-the spirit, and be ever reading, exhorting, and teaching in God's word,
-that the people of God run not unto other doctrines, and lest thou
-thyself, when thou shouldest teach other, be found ignorant therein. And
-rather than thou wouldest teach the people any other thing than God's
-word, take the book in thine hand, and read the words, even as they stand
-therein; for it is no shame so to do, it is more shame to make a lie. This
-I say for such as are not yet expert in the scripture; for I reprove no
-preaching without the book, as long as they say the truth.
-
-If thou be a man that hast wife and children, first love thy wife,
-according to the ensample of the love wherewith Christ loved the
-congregation; and remember that so doing thou lovest even thyself: if thou
-hate her, thou hatest thine own flesh; if thou cherish her and make much
-of her, thou cherishest and makest much of thyself; for she is bone of thy
-bones, and flesh of thy flesh. And whosoever thou be that hast children,
-bring them up in the nurture and information of the Lord. And if thou be
-ignorant, or art otherwise occupied lawfully, that thou canst not teach
-them thyself, then be even as diligent to seek a good master for thy
-children, as thou wast to seek a mother to bear them; for there lieth as
-great weight in the one, as in the other. Yea, better it were for them to
-be unborn, than not to fear God, or to be evil brought up: which thing (I
-mean bringing up well of children) if it be diligently looked to, it is
-the upholding of all commonwealths; and the negligence of the same, the
-very decay of all realms.
-
-Finally, whosoever thou be, take these words of scripture into thy heart,
-and be not only an outward hearer, but a doer thereafter, and practise
-thyself therein; that thou mayest feel in thine heart the sweet promises
-thereof for thy consolation in all trouble, and for the sure stablishing
-of thy hope in Christ; and have ever an eye to the words of scripture,
-that if thou be a teacher of other, thou mayest be within the bounds of
-the truth; or at the least, though thou be but an hearer or reader of
-another man's doings, thou mayest yet have knowledge to judge all spirits,
-and be free from every error, to the utter destruction of all seditious
-sects and strange doctrines; that the holy scripture may have free
-passage, and be had in reputation, to the worship of the author thereof,
-which is even God himself; to whom for his most blessed word be glory and
-dominion now and ever! Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(D.)
-
-_PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE, 1560._
-
-
-  To our Beloved in the Lord,
-  The Brethren of England,
-  Scotland, Ireland, &c. Grace, mercie, and peace,
-  through Christ Jesus.[141]
-
-Besides the manifold and continuall benefits which Almightie God bestowed
-upon us, both corporall and spirituall, we are especially bound (deare
-brethren) to giue him thankes without ceasing for his great grace and
-vnspeakable mercies, in that it hath pleased him to call vs vnto this
-marueilous light of his Gospell, and mercifully to regarde vs after so
-horrible backesliding and falling away from Christ to Antichrist, from
-light to darknesse, from the liuing God to dumme and dead idoles, and that
-after so cruell murther of God's saints, as alas, hath bene among vs, wee
-are not altogether cast off, as were the Israelites, and many others for
-the like or not so manifest wickednesse, but receiued againe to grace with
-most evident signes and tokens of God's especiall loue and fauour. To the
-intent therefore that wee may not be vnmindfull of these great mercies,
-but seeke by all meanes (according to our duetie) to bee thankefull for
-the same, it behoueth vs so to walke in his feare and loue, that all the
-dayes of our life we may procure the glorie of his holy name.
-
-Nowe forasmuch as this thing chiefely is atteined by the knowledge and
-practising of the worde of God (which is the light to our paths, the keye
-of the kingdome of heauen, our comfort in affliction, our shielde and
-sworde against Satan, the schoole of all wisdome, the glasse wherein we
-beholde Gods face, the testimonie of his fauour, and the onely foode and
-nourishment of our soules), wee thought that wee coulde bestowe our
-labours and studie in nothing which coulde be more acceptable to God and
-comfortable to his Church then in the translating of the holy Scriptures
-into our natiue tongue: the which thing albeit that diuers heretofore haue
-endeuoured to atchieue; yet considering the infancie of those times and
-imperfect knowledge of the tongues in respect of this ripe age and cleere
-light which God hath now reueiled, y{e} translations required greatly to
-be perused and reformed. Not that we vendicate anything to our selues
-aboue the least of our brethren (for God knoweth with what feare and
-trembling we haue bene for the space of two yeeres and more day and night
-occupied herein), but being earnestly desired and by diuers, whose
-learning and godlinesse we reuerence, exhorted and also encouraged by the
-ready willes of such, whose hearts God likewise touched, not to spare any
-charges for the furtherance of such a benefite and fauour of God towarde
-his Church (though the time then was most dangerous, and the persecution
-sharpe and furious), we submitted our selues at length to their godly
-judgements, and seeing the great opportunitie and occasions, which God
-presented unto vs in his Church, by reason of so many godlie and learned
-men: and such diuersities of translations in diuers tongues, we vndertooke
-this great and wonderfull worke (with all reuerence, as in the presence of
-God, as intreating the word of God, whereunto we thinke our selues
-vnsufficient) which now God accepting according to his diuine prouidence
-and mercie hath directed to a most prosperous ende. And this we may with
-good conscience protest that we haue in euery point and worde, according
-to the measure of that knowledge which it pleased Almightie God to giue
-vs, faithfully rendred the text, and in all hard places most sincerely
-expounded the same. For God is our witnesse that we haue by all meanes
-indeuoured to set foorth the puritie of the word and the right sense of
-the holy Ghost for the edifying of the brethren in faith and charitie.
-
-Nowe as we have chiefely obserued the sence, and laboured allwayes to
-restore it to all integritie, so haue we most reuerently kept the
-proprietie of the wordes, considering that the Apostles who spake and
-wrote to the Gentiles in the Greeke tongue, rather constrained them to the
-liuely phrase of the Ebrew, then enterprised farre by mollifying their
-language to speake as the Gentiles did. And for this and other causes wee
-haue in many places reserued the Ebrew phrases, notwithstanding that they
-may seeme somewhat hard in their eares that are not well practised and
-also delite in the sweet sounding phrases of the holy Scriptures. Yet
-least eyther the simple should be discouraged, or the malicious haue any
-occasion of just cauilation, seeing some translations reade after one
-sort, and some after another, whereas all may serue to good purpose and
-edification, we haue in the margent noted that diuersitie of speech or
-reading which may also seeme agreeable to the minde of the holy Ghost, and
-proper for our language with this marke. [Symbol: ��]
-
-Againe, whereas the Ebrewe speache seemed hardly to agree with ours we
-haue noted it in the margent after this sort [Symbol: ++], vsing that
-which was more intelligible. And albeit that many of the Ebrewe names be
-altered from the olde text, and restored to the true writing and first
-originall, whereof they haue their signification, yet in the vsuall names
-litle is changed for feare of troubling the simple readers. Moreover,
-whereas the necessitie of the sentence required any thing to be added (for
-such is the grace and proprietie of the Ebrew and Greeke tongues that it
-cannot, but either by circumlocution, or by adding the verbe or some word,
-be understood of them that are not well practised therein) wee haue put
-in the text with an other kinde of letter that it may easily be discerned
-from the common letter.[142] As touching the diuision of the verses wee
-haue followed the Ebrewe examples, which haue so euen from the beginning
-distinguished them. Which thing as it is most profitable for memorie, so
-doeth it agree with the best translations, and is most easie to finde out
-both by the best Concordances, and also by the quotations which we haue
-diligently herein perused and set foorth by this *. Besides this the
-principall matters are noted by this marke �. Yea, and the arguments both
-for the booke and for the chapters with the number of the verse are added,
-that by all meanes the reader might be holpen. For the which cause also we
-haue set ouer the head of every page some notable worde or sentence which
-may greatly further as well for memorie as for the chiefe point of the
-page.
-
-And considering howe hard a thing it is to vnderstand the holy Scriptures,
-and what errors, sectes, and heresies growe dayly for lacke of the true
-knowledge thereof, and howe many are discouraged (as they pretend) because
-they cannot atteine to the true and simple meaning of the same, we haue
-also indeuoured both by the diligent reading of the best commentaries, and
-also by the conference with the godly and learned brethren, to gather
-briefe annotations upon all the hard places, as well for the
-vnderstanding of such wordes as are obscure, and for the declaration of
-the text, as for the application of the same, as may most appertaine to
-God's glory and the edification of his Church.
-
-Furthermore, whereas certaine places in the bookes of Moses, of the Kings,
-and Ezekiel, seemed so darke that by no description they could be made
-easie to the simple reader, wee have so set them foorth with figures and
-notes for the full declaration thereof, that they which cannot by
-judgement, being holpen by the letters a, b, c, &c., atteine thereunto,
-yet by the perspective and, as it were, by the eye, may sufficiently knowe
-the true meaning of all such places. Whereunto also wee haue added
-certaine maps of Cosmographie which necessarily serue for the perfect
-vnderstanding and memorie of diuers places and countries, partly described
-and partly by occasion touched both in the olde and newe Testament.
-
-Finally, that nothing might lacke which might be bought by labours, for
-the increase of knowledge and furtherance of God's glorie, we have
-adioyned two most profitable Tables, the one seruing for the
-interpretation of the Ebrew names, and the other conteining all the chiefe
-and principall matters of the whole Bible, so that nothing (as wee trust)
-that any could iustlie desire is omitted. Therefore as brethren that are
-partakers of the same hope and saluation with us, wee beseeche you that
-this rich pearle and inestimable treasure may not be offred in vaine, but
-as sent from God to the people of God, for the increase of his kingdome,
-the comfort of his Church, and discharge of our conscience, whom it hath
-pleased him to raise vp for this purpose, so you woulde willingly receive
-the worde of God, earnestly studie it, and in all your life practise it,
-that you may nowe appeare in deede to bee the people of God, not walking
-any more according to this worlde, but in the fruits of the Spirit, that
-God in vs may bee fully glorified through Christ Jesus our Lorde who
-liueth and reigneth for euer. Amen. From Geneva, 10th April, 1560.
-
-
-
-
-(E.)
-
-_THE PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS' BIBLE, 1568._
-
-
-  A Preface into the Byble
-  folowyng.
-
-Of all the sentences pronounced by our Sauiour Christe in his whole
-doctrine, none is more serious or more worthy to be borne in remembraunce,
-than that which he spake openly in his Gospell, saying: [Sidenote: John
-v.] Scrutamini scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam eternam habere,
-et ill� sunt qu� testimonium perhibent de me. Search ye the scriptures,
-for in them ye think to have eternall lyfe, and those they be which beare
-witnes of me. These wordes were first spoken vnto the Jewes by our
-Sauiour, but by hym in his doctrine ment to all: for they concerne all, of
-what nation, of what tongue, of what profession soeuer any man be. For to
-all belongeth it to be called vnto eternal life, so many as by the witnes
-of the scriptures desire to find eternall life. No man, woman, or chylde,
-is excluded from this saluation, and therefore to euery of them is this
-spoke proportionally yet, and in their degrees and ages, and as the reason
-and congruitie of their vocation may aske. For not so lyeth it in charge
-to the worldly artificer to searche, or to any other priuate man so
-exquisitely to studie, as it lyeth to the charge of the publike teacher to
-searche in the scriptures, to be the more able to walke in the house of
-God [Sidenote: 1 Tim. iii.] (which is the church of the lyuyng God, the
-pyller and ground of truth) to the establishing of the true doctrine of
-the same, and to the impugnyng of the false. And though whatsoever
-difference there may be betwixt the preacher in office, and the auditor in
-his vocation, yet to both it is said, =Search ye the scriptures=, whereby
-ye may fynde eternall lyfe, and gather witnesses of that saluation which
-is in =Christe Jesus= our Lorde. [Sidenote: Deut. xvii.] For although the
-prophete of God Moyses, byddeth the kyng when he is once set in the throne
-of his kingdome, to describe before his eyes the volume of God's lawe,
-according to the example whiche he shoulde receaue of the priestes of the
-liuiticall tribe, to haue it with him, and to reade it in all the dayes of
-his life, to thende[143] that he might learne to feare the Lorde his God,
-and to observe his lawes, that his heart be not aduanced in pryde ouer his
-brethren, not to swarue eyther on the ryght hande or on the left: yet the
-reason of this precept for that it concerneth all men, may reasonably be
-thought to be commanded to all men, and all men may take it to be spoken
-to them selfe in their degree. [Sidenote: Iosue i.] Though almightie God
-him selfe spake to his captayne Iosue in precise wordes, Non recedat
-volumen legis huius ab ore tuo sed meditaberis in eo diebus ac noctibus,
-&c. Let not the volume of this booke depart from thy mouth, but muse
-therein both dayes and nyghtes, that thou mayest kepe and perfourme all
-thinges which be written in it, that thou mayest direct well thy way and
-vnderstande the same: yet as well spake almightie God this precept to all
-his people in the directions of their wayes to himwarde, as he ment it to
-Iosue: [Sidenote: Peter v. Ephe. vi.] For that he hath care of all, he
-accepteth no man's person, his wyll is that all men should he saued,
-[Sidenote: 1 Tim. ii. Ioh xiiii.] his wyll is that all men should come to
-the way of trueth. Howe coulde this be more conueniently declared by God
-to man, then when Christe his welbeloued sonne our most louing sauiour,
-the way, the trueth, and the lyfe of vs all, dyd byd vs openly =Search the
-scriptures=, assuring vs herein to finde eternall life, to finde full
-testification of all his graces and benefites towardes vs in the treasure
-thereof. Therefore it is most conuenient that we shoulde all suppose that
-Christe spake to vs all in this his precept of searching the scriptures.
-If this celestiall doctour (so aucthorised by the father of heauen, and
-commaunded [Sidenote: Matt. xvii.] as his only sonne, to be hearde of vs
-all) biddeth vs busily to =Search the scriptures=: of what spirite can it
-proceede to forbid the reading and studying of the scriptures? If the
-grosse Iewes vsed to reade them, as some men thinke that our sauiour
-Christ dyd shew by such kynd of speaking, their vsage, with their opinion
-they had therin to finde eternall lyfe, and were not of Christe rebuked,
-or disproued, either for their searching, or for the opinion they had,
-howe superstitiously or superficially soeuer some of them vsed to expende
-the scriptures; How muche more vnaduisedly do suche as bost them selfe to
-be either Christe's vicars, or be of his garde, to lothe christen men from
-reading, by their couert slaunderous reproches of the scriptures, or in
-their aucthoritie by lawe or statute to contract this libertie of studiyng
-the worde of eternall saluation. Christe calleth them not onlye to the
-single readyng of scriptures (saith Chrisostome) but sendeth them to the
-exquisite searching of them, for in them is eternall lyfe to be founde,
-and they be (saith hym selfe) the witnesse of me: for they declare out his
-office, they commende his beneuolence towardes vs, they recorde his whole
-workes wrought for vs to our saluation. Antechriste therefore he must be,
-that vnder whatsoeuer colour woulde geue contrary precept or counsayle to
-that whiche Christe dyd geue vnto vs. Very litle do they resemble Christes
-louing spirite mouing vs to searche for our comfort, that wyll discourage
-vs from suche searching, or that woulde wishe ignoraunce and
-forgetfulnesse of his benefite to raigne in vs, so that they might by our
-ignoraunce raigne the more frankly in our consciences, to the danger of
-our saluation. Who can take the light from us in this miserable vale of
-blindnesse, and meane not to haue us stumble in the pathes of perdition to
-the ruine of our soules: who wyll enuie vs this bread of lyfe prepared and
-set on the table for our eternall sustenaunce, and meane not to famishe
-vs, or in steede thereof with their corrupt traditions and doctrines of
-men to infect vs: All the whole scripture, saith the holy apostle
-[Sidenote: ii. Tim. iii.] Saint Paul inspired from God aboue, is
-profitable to teache, to reproue, to refourme, to instruct in
-righteousnesse, that the man of God may be sounde and perfect, instructed
-to euery good worke.
-
-=Searche therefore=, good reader (on God's name), as Christe byddeth thee
-the holy scripture, wherein thou mayest find thy saluation: Let not the
-volume of this booke (by Gods owne warrant) depart from thee but occupie
-thy selfe therein in the whole journey of this [Sidenote: Psal. i.] thy
-wordly pilgrimage, to vnderstand thy way howe to walke ryghtly before hym
-all the dayes of thy lyfe. Remember that the prophete David pronounceth
-hym the blessed man whiche wyll muse in the lawe of God [Sidenote: Psal.
-cxix.] both day and night, remember that he calleth him blessed whiche
-walketh in the way of the Lorde, which wyll searche diligently his
-testimonies, and wyll in their whole heart seeke the same. Let not the
-couert suspicious insinuations of the adversaries driue thee from the
-searche of the holy scripture, either for the obscuritie whiche they say
-is in them, or for the inscrutable hidden misteries they talke to be
-comprised in them, or for the straungnes and homlynes of the phrases they
-would charge Gods booke with. Christe exhorteth thee therefore the rather
-for the difficultie of the same, to searche them diligently. [Sidenote:
-Hebr. v. 1 Cor. xiiii.] Saint Paul wylleth thee to haue thy senses
-exercised in them, and not to be a chylde in thy senses, but in malice.
-Though many thinges may be difficulte to thee to vnderstand, impute it
-rather to thy dull hearing and reading, then to thinke that the scriptures
-be insuperable, to them whiche with diligent searching labour to discern
-the evil from the good. [Sidenote: Math. vii.] Only searche with an humble
-spirite, aske in continuall prayer, seek with puritie of life, knocke with
-perpetuall perseueraunce, and crye to that good spirite of Christe the
-Comforter: and surely to euery suche asker it wyll be geuen, such
-searchers must nedes finde, to them it wylbe opened. Christ hym selfe wyll
-open the sense of the scriptures, [Sidenote: Math. xi. Esai. lxi.] not to
-the proude, or to the wyse of the worlde, but to the lowly and contrite in
-heart; [Sidenote: 1 Cor. xii.] for he hath the kay of Dauid, who openeth
-and no man shutteth, who shutteth and no man openeth. [Sidenote: Apoc.
-iii.] For as this spirite is a bening and liberall spirite, and wyll be
-easyly founde of them which wyll early in carefulnesse ryse to seeke hym,
-[Sidenote: Sapi i.] and as he promiseth he will be the comforter from
-aboue to teache vs, and to leade vs into all the wayes of truth,
-[Sidenote: Iob xiiii.] if that in humilitie we bowe vnto hym, deniyng our
-owne naturall senses, our carnall wittes and reasons: [Sidenote: Sapi i.]
-so is he the spirite of puritie and cleannes, and will receede from him,
-whose conscience is subiect to filthynesse of lyfe. Into suche a soule
-this heavenly wysdome wyll not enter, for all peruerse cogitations wyll
-separate vs from God: [Sidenote: Psal. lxviii.] and then howe busyly
-soeuer we searche this holy table of the scripture, yet will it then be a
-table to suche to their owne snare, a trap, a stumbling stocke, and a
-recompense to them selfe. We ought therefore to searche to finde out the
-trueth, not to oppresse it, we ought to seeke Christe, not as Herode did
-vnder the pretence of worshipping hym to destroy hym, or as the Pharisees
-searched the scriptures to disproue Christe, and to discredite him, and
-not to folowe him; but to embrace the saluation whiche we may learne by
-them. Nor yet is it inough so to acknowledge the scriptures as some of the
-Iewes dyd, of the holyest of them, who vsed such diligence, that they
-could number precisely, not only euery verse, but euery word and sillable,
-how oft euery letter of the alphabete was repeated in the whole
-scriptures: They had some of them suche reuerence to that booke, that they
-woulde not suffer in a greate heape of bookes, any other to lay over them,
-they woulde not suffer that booke to fall to the grounde as nye as they
-coulde, they woulde costly bynde the bookes of holy scriptures, and cause
-them to be exquisitely and ornately written. Whiche deuotion yet though it
-was not to be discommended, yet was it not for that intent, why Christe
-commended the scriptures, nor they therof alowed before God: For they did
-not call vpon God in a true fayth. they were not charitable to their
-neighbours, but in the middes of all this deuotion, they did steale, they
-were adulterers, they were slaunderers and backbiters, euen muche like
-many of our Christian men and women nowe a dayes, who glory muche that
-they reade the scriptures, that they searche them and loue them, that
-they frequente the publique sermons in an outwarde shewe of all honestie
-and perfection, yea they can pike out of the scriptures vertuous sentenses
-and godly preceptes to lay before other men. And though these maner of men
-do not muche erre for suche searching and studying, yet they see not the
-scope and the principall state of the scriptures, which is as Christe
-declareth it, to finde Christe as their Sauiour, to cleaue to his
-saluation and merites, and to be brought to the lowe repentaunce of their
-liues, and to amend them selfe, to rayse vp their fayth to our Sauiour
-Christe, so to thinke of him as the scriptures do testifie of hym. These
-be the principall causes why Christe did sende the Iewes to searche the
-scriptures: for to this ende were they wrytten, saith Saint Iohn, Hae
-scripta sunt ut credatis, et vt credentes vitam habeatis eternam. These
-were written to this intent, that ye shoulde beleue, [Sidenote: Iohn xx.]
-and that through your beliefe ye shoulde haue euerlasting life.
-
-And here good reader, great cause we have to extoll the wonderous wisdome
-of God, and with great thankes to prayse his prouidence, considering howe
-he hath preserued and renued from age to age by speciall [Sidenote: Hebr.
-v.] miracle, the incomparable treasure of his Churche. For first he did
-inspire Moyses, as Iohn Chrisostome doth testifie, to wryte the stonie
-tables, and kept him in the mountayne fourtie dayes to giue him his lawe:
-after him he sent the prophetes, but they suffred many thousande
-aduersities, for battayles did folowe, all were slayne, all were
-destroyed, bookes were brent vp. He then inspired agayne another man to
-repayre these miraculous scriptures, Esdras I meane, who of their leauings
-set them agayne together: after that he provided that the seuentie
-interpreters should take them in hande: at the laste came Christe him
-selfe, the Apostles did receaue them, and spread them throughout all
-nations, Christe wrought his miracles and wonders: and what followed?
-after these great volumes the Apostles also did wryte as Saint Paul doth
-say, [Sidenote: 1 Cor. x.] These be wrytten to the instruction of vs that
-be come into the ende of the worlde: [Sidenote: Math. xxii.] and Christe
-doth say, Ye therefore erre, because ye knowe not the scriptures nor the
-power of God: and Paul dyd say, [Sidenote: Colo. iii.] Let the worde of
-Christe be plentifull among you: and agayne saith Dauid, [Sidenote: Psal.
-cxix.] Oh howe sweete be thy wordes to my throte: he saide not to my
-hearing, but to my throte, aboue the hony or the hony combe to my mouth.
-Yea, Moyses saith, [Sidenote: Deut. xvi.] Thou shalt meditate in them
-evermore when thou risest, when thou sittest downe, when thou goest to
-sleepe, continue in them he saith: and a thousand places more. And yet
-after so many testimonies thus spoken, there be some persons that do not
-yet so much as knowe what the scriptures be: Wherevpon nothing is in good
-state amongst vs, nothing worthyly is done amongest vs: In this whiche
-pertayne to this lyfe, we make very great haste, but of spirituall goodes
-we have no regarde. Thus farre Iohn Chrisost. It must nedes signifie some
-great thing to our vnderstanding, that almightie God hath had such care to
-prescribe these bookes thus vnto vs: I say not prescribe them only, but to
-maintaine them and defende them against the malignitie of the deuill and
-his ministers, who alway went about to destroy them: and yet could these
-never be so destroyed, but that he woulde have them continue whole and
-perfect to this day, to our singular comfort and instruction, where other
-bookes of mortall wise men haue perished in great numbers. It is recorded
-that Ptolomeus Philadelphus kyng of Egypt, had gathered together in one
-librarie at Alexandria by his great coste and diligence, seuen hundred
-thousand bookes, wherof the principall were the bookes of Moyses, which
-reserued not much more, then by the space of two hundred yeres, were all
-brent and consumed, in that battayle when C�sar restored Cleopatra agayne
-after her expulsion. At Constantinople perished under Zenon by one common
-fire, a hundred and twentie thousande bookes. [Sidenote: _Iohannes
-Sarisberi. In Policratico, lib. 8, cap. 19. W. de regibus._] At Rome when
-Lucius Aurel Antonius dyd raigne, his notable librarie by a lightning from
-heauen was quite consumed: Yea it is recorded that Gregorie the first, dyd
-cause a librarie at Rome contayning only certaine Paynim's workes to be
-burned, to thintent the scriptures of God should be more read and studied.
-What other great libraries haue there ben cosumed but of late daies? And
-what libraries haue of olde throughout this realme almost in euery abbey
-of the same, ben destroyed at sundry ages, besides the losse of other
-men's private studies, it were to long to rehearse. Wherevpon seyng
-almightie God by his diuine prouidence, hath preserued these bookes of the
-scriptures safe and sounde, and that in their natiue languages they were
-first written, in the great ignoraunce that raigned in these tongues, and
-contrary to all other casualties, chaunced vpon all other bookes in mauger
-of all worldly wittes, who would so fayne haue had them destroyed, and yet
-he by his mightie hande, would haue them extant as witnesses and
-interpreters of his will toward mankind: we may soone see cause most
-reuerently to embrace these deuine testimonies of his will, to studie
-them, and to searche them, to instruct our blinde nature so sore corrupted
-and fallen from the knowledge in whiche first we were created. Yet hauing
-occasion geuen somewhat to recover our fall and to returne againe to that
-deuine nature wherein we were once made, and at the last to be inheritours
-in the celestiall habitation with God almightie, after the ende of our
-mortalitie here brought to his dust agayne: These bookes I say beyng of
-such estimation and aucthoritie, so much reuerenced of them who had any
-meane taste of them, coulde neuer be put out of the way, neither by the
-spyte of any tiraunt, as that [Sidenote: _Galfride mon_] tiraunt Maximian
-destroyed all the holy scriptures wheresoeuer they coulde be founde, and
-burnt them in the middes of the market, neither the hatred either of any
-Porphiran philosopher or Rhetoritian, neither by the enuie of the
-romanystes, and of such hypocrites who from tyme to time did euer barke
-against them, some of them not in open sort of condempnation: but more
-cunningly vnder suttle pretences, for that as they say, they were so harde
-to vnderstande, and specially for that they affirm it to be a perilous
-matter to translate the text of the holy scripture, and therefore it
-cannot be well translated. And here we may beholde the endeuour of some
-men's cauillation, who labour all they can to slaunder the translatours,
-to finde faulte in some wordes of the translation: but them selfe will
-neuer set pen to the booke, to set out any translation at al. They can in
-their constitutions prouinciall, [Sidenote: _Tho Arudel in concilio apud
-Oxon. An 1407 articlo 7._] vnder payne of excommunication, inhibite al
-other men to translate them without the ordinaries or the prouinciall
-counsayle agree therevnto. But they wyll be well ware neuer to agree or
-geue counsayle to set them out. Whiche their suttle compasse in effect,
-tendeth but to bewray what inwardly they meane, if they could bring it
-about, that is, vtterly to suppresse them: being in this their iudgement,
-farre vnlike the olde fathers in the primitiue church, who hath exhorted
-indifferently all persons, aswell men as women, to exercise them selues in
-the scriptures, which by Saint Hieroms aucthoritie be the scriptures of
-the people. Yea they be farre vnlike their olde forefathers that have
-ruled in this realme, who in their times, and in diuers ages did their
-diligence to translate the whole bookes of the scriptures to the erudition
-of the laytie, as yet at this day be to be seene diuers bookes translated
-into the vulgar tongue, some by kynges of the realme, some by bishoppes,
-some by abbotts, some by other deuout godly fathers: so desirous they were
-of olde tyme to have the lay sort edified in godlynes by reading in their
-vulgar tongue, that very many bookes be yet extant, though for the age of
-the speache and straungenesse of the charect of many of them almost worne
-out of knowledge. In whiche bookes may be seene euidently howe it was vsed
-among the Saxons, to haue in their churches read the foure gospels, so
-distributed and piked out in the body of the euangelistes bookes, that to
-euery Sunday and festiuall day in the yere, they were sorted out to the
-common ministers of the church in their common prayers to be read to their
-people. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Now as of the most auncient fathers the
-prophets, Saint Peter testifieth that these holy men of God had the
-impulsion of the holy Ghost, to speak out these deuine testimonies: so it
-is not to be doubted but that these latter holy fathers of the Englishe
-Church, had the impulsion of the holy Ghost to set out these sacred bookes
-in their vulgar language, to the edification of the people, [Sidenote:
-Acts xvii.] by the helpe whereof they might the better folowe the example
-of the godly Christians, in the beginning of the Churche, who not only
-receaued the worde withall readinesse of heart, but also did searche
-diligently in the scriptures, whether the doctrine of the Apostles were
-agreable to the same scripture. And these were not of the rascall sort
-(saith the deuine storie) but they were of the best and of most noble
-byrth among the Thessalonians, Birrhenses by name. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.]
-Yea the prophetes them selues in their dayes, writeth S. Peter, were
-diligent searchers to inquire out this saluation by Christe, searching
-when and at what article of time this grace of Christes dispensation
-shoulde appeare to the world. What ment the fathers of the Church in their
-writinges, but the advauncing of these holy bookes, where some do
-attribute no certaintie of vndoubted veritie, but to the canonicall
-scriptures: [Sidenote: _Aug. contra epistolam permemini Hieronimus
-Tertullian de doctrina Christiana Chrisost in Matt._ Ho. 47. _Basilius
-Hieronim._] Some do affirm it to be a foolishe rashe boldnesse to beleue
-hym, who proueth not by the scriptures that whiche he affirmeth in his
-worde. Some do accurse all that is deliuered by tradition, not found in
-the legall and evangelicall scriptures. Some say that our fayth must
-needes stagger, if it be not grounded vpon the aucthoritie of the
-scripture. Some testifieth that Christe and his Churche ought to be
-aduouched out of the scriptures, and do contende in disputation, that the
-true Church can not be knowen, but only by the holy scriptures: For all
-other thinges (saith the same aucthor) may be found among the heretikes.
-Some affirme it to be a sinfull tradition that is obtruded without the
-scripture. [Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Some playnely pronounce, that not to
-knowe the scriptures is not to know Christe. Wherefore let men extoll out
-the Churche practises as hyghly as they can, and let them set out their
-traditions and customes, their decisions in synodes and counsayles, with
-vaunting the presence of the holy Ghost among them really, as some doth
-affirme it in their writing, let their groundes and their demonstrations,
-their foundations be as stable and as strong as they blase them out:
-[Sidenote: 1 Pet. i.] Yet wyll we be bolde to say with Saint Peter,
-Habemus nos firmiorem sermonem propheticum. We have for our part a more
-stable grounde, the propheticall wordes (of the scriptures) and doubt not
-to be commended therefore of the same Saint Peter with these wordes: Cui
-dum attenditis ceu lucerne apparenti in obscuro loco, recte facitis donec
-dies illucescat &c. Wherevnto saith he, whyle ye do attende as to alight
-shining in a darke place, ye do well vntill the day light appeare, and
-till the bright starre do arise vnto our heartes, For this we know, that
-al the propheticall scripture standeth not in any priuate interpretation
-of vayne names, of severall Churches, of catholique vniuersall seas, of
-singuler and wylfull heades, whiche wyll chalenge custome all decision to
-pertayne to them only, who be working so muche for their vayne
-superioritie, that they be not ashamed now to be of that number,
-[Sidenote: Psal. xi.] Qui dixerunt linguam nostram magnificabimus, labia
-nostra a nobis sunt, quis noster dominus est: Which haue sayd with our
-tongue wyll we preuayle, we are they that ought to speake, who is Lord
-ouer vs. And whyle they shall contende for their straunge claymed
-aucthoritie, we will proceede in the reformation begun, and doubt no more
-by the helpe of Christe his grace, of the true vnity to Christes
-catholique Churche, [Sidenote: _Concilium braccar secundum._] and of the
-vprightnesse of our fayth in this prouince, then the Spanishe cleargie
-once gathered together in counsaile (only by the commaundement of their
-king, before whiche tyme the Pope was not so acknowledged in his
-aucthoritie which he now claymeth) I say as surely dare we trust, as they
-dyd trust of their faith and veritie. Yea no lesse confidence haue we to
-professe that, whiche the fathers of the vniuersall counsaile at Carthage
-in Affrike as they wryte them selfe did professe in their epistle written
-to Pope Celestine, laying before his face the foule corruption of him
-selfe (as two other of his predecessors did the like errour) in
-falsifiying the canons of Nicen counsayle, for his wrong chalenge of his
-newe claymed aucthoritie: Thus wrytyng. Prudentissime enim iustissimeque
-prouiderunt (Nicena et Affricana dicreta) quecunque negotia in suis locis
-(vbi orta sunt) finienda, nec vnicuiqui prouinci� gratiam sancti spiritus
-defuturam qua equitas a Christi sacerdotibus et prudenter videatur, et
-constantissime teneatur, maxime quia vnicuique concessum est, si iuditio
-offensus fuerit cognitorum, ad concilia suae prouinci� vel etiam
-vniuersale prouocare. That (the Nicen and Affrican decrees) haue most
-prudently and iustly prouided for all maner of matters to be ended in
-their teritories where they had their beginning, and they trusted that not
-to any one prouince shoulde want the grace of the holy Ghost, whereby both
-the truth or equitie might prudently be seene of the Christian prelates of
-Christe, and might be also by them most constantly defended, specially for
-that it is graunted to euery man (if he be greeued) by the iudgement of
-the cause once knowen to appeale to the counsayles of his owne prouince or
-els to the vniuersall. Except there be any man, whiche may beleue that our
-Lorde God woulde inspire the righteousnesse of examination, to any one
-singular person, and to denie the same to priestes gathered together into
-counsaile without number, &c. And there they do require the bishop of Rome
-to send none of his clarkes to execute such prouinciall causes, lest els
-say they, mought be brought in the vayne pride of the world into the
-Churche of Christe. In this antiquitie may we in this christian catholique
-Churche of Englande repose our selfe, knowyng by our owne annales of
-auncient recorde that Kyng Lucius whose conscience was much touched with
-the miracles whiche the seruauntes of Christe wrought in diuers nations,
-thervpon beyng in great loue with the true fayth, sent vnto Eleutherius
-then byshop of Rome requiring of hym the christian religion. [Sidenote:
-_Inter legis Edwardi._] But Eleutherius did redyly geue ouer that care to
-King Lucius in his epistle, for that the King as he wryteth, the vicar of
-God in his owne kingdome, and for that he had receiued the faith of
-Christe: And for that he had also both testamentes in his realme, he
-wylled hym to drawe out of them by the grace of God, and by the counsaile
-of his wisemen, his lawes, and by that lawe of God to gouerne his realme
-of Britanie, and not so much to desire the Romane and Emperour's lawes, in
-the whiche some defaulte might be founde saith he, but in the lawes of God
-nothing at all. [Sidenote: _Ex archiuis de statio landauensis ecclie in
-vita archiepiscopi dubritii, et in I. capgraue._] With which aunswere the
-Kinges legates, Eluanus and Medwinus sent as messengers by the King to the
-Pope, returned to Britanie agayne, Eluanus beyng made a byshop, and
-Medwine alowed a publique teacher: who for the eloquence and knowledge
-they had in the holy Scriptures, they repayred home agayne to Kyng Lucius,
-and by their holy preachings, Lucius and the noble men of the whole
-Britanie receiued their baptisme, &c. Thus farre in the storie. Nowe
-therefore knowing and beleuing with Saint Paul, Quod quecumque prescripta
-sunt, ad nostram doctrinam prescripta sunt vt per pacientiam et
-consolationem scripturarum spem habeamus: [Sidenote: Rom. xv.] Whatsoeuer
-is afore written, is written before for our instruction, [Sidenote: =And
-yet may it be true that W., of Malsberie, writeth that Phaganus and
-Dernuianus were sent after (as Coadiutours) with these learned men to the
-preaching of the Gospell, whiche was neuer extinguished in Britaine fro
-Joseph of Aramathia his time as to S. Austen, the first byshop of Canter,
-they do openly abouche.=] that we through the patience and comfort of
-scriptures might haue hope, the only suretie to our fayth and conscience,
-is to sticke to the scriptures. Wherevpon whyle this eternall worde of God
-be our rocke and anker to sticke vnto, we will haue pacience with all the
-vayne inuentions of men, who labour so highly to magnifie their tongues,
-to exalt them selues aboue al that is God. We wil take comfort by the holy
-scriptures against the maledictions of the aduersaries, and doubt not to
-nourishe our hope continually therewith so to liue and dye in this
-comfortable hope, and doubt not to pertayne to the elect number of
-Christes Churche, howe farre soeuer we be excommunicated out of the
-sinagogue of suche who suppose themselues to be the vniuersall lordes of
-all the world, Lordes of our fayth and consciences, at pleasure.
-
-Finally to commend further vnto thee good reader the cause in part before
-intreated, it shalbe the lesse needefull, hauing so nye folowing that
-learned preface, which sometime was set out by the diligence of that godly
-father Thomas Cranmer, late byshop in the sea of Canterburie, which he
-caused to be prefixed before the translation of that Byble that was then
-set out. And for that the copies thereof be so wasted, that very many
-Churches do want their conuenient Bybles, it was thought good to some well
-disposed men, to recognise the same Byble againe into this fourme as it is
-nowe come out, with some further diligence in the printing, and with some
-more light added, partly in the translation, and partly in the order of
-the text, not as condemning the former translation, whiche was folowed
-mostly of any other translation, excepting the originall text from whiche
-as litle variaunce was made as was thought meete to such as toke paynes
-therein: desiring thee good reader if ought be escaped, eyther by such as
-had the expending of the bookes, or by the ouersight of the printer, to
-correct the same in the spirite of charitie, calling to remembraunce what
-diuersitie hath ben seene in mens iudgementes in the translation of these
-bookes before these dayes, though all directed their labours to the glory
-of God, to the edification of the Churche, to the comfort of their
-christian brethren, and alwayes as God dyd further open vnto them, so euer
-more desirous they were to refourme their former humain ouersightes,
-rather then in a stubborne wylfulnesse to resist the gyft of the holy
-Ghost, who from tyme to tyme is resident as that heauenly teacher and
-leader into all trueth, by whose direction the Churche is ruled and
-gouerned. And let all men remember in them selfe howe errour and
-ignoraunce is created with our nature; [Sidenote: Eccle. xi. Sapi. ix.]
-let frayle man confesse with that great wise man, that the cogitations and
-inuentions of mortall man be very weake, and our opinions sone deceaued:
-For the body so subiect to corruption doth oppresse the soule, that it
-cannot aspire so hye as of dutie it ought. Men we be all, and that whiche
-we know, is not the thousand part of that we knowe not. Whereupon saith
-Saint Austen, otherwyse to iudge then the truth is, this temptation ryseth
-of the frailtie of man. [Sidenote: _De doctri Christia._] A man so to loue
-and sticke to his owne iudgement, or to enuie his brothers to the perill
-of dissoluing the christian communion, or to the perill of schisme, and of
-heresie, this is diabolicall presumption: but so to iudge in euery matter
-as the truth is, this belongeth onely to the angellicall perfection.
-Notwithstanding good reader, thou mayest be well assured nothing to be
-done in this translation eyther of malice or wylfull meaning in altering
-the text, eyther by putting more or lesse to the same, as of purpose to
-bring in any priuate iudgement by falsification of the wordes, as some
-certaine men hath ben ouer bold so to do, litle regarding the maiestie of
-God his scripture: but so to make it serue to their corrupt error, as in
-alleaging the sentence of Saint Paule to the Romaines the 6. One certaine
-wryter to proue his satisfaction, was bold to turne the worde of
-_Sanctificationem_ into the worde of _Satisfactionem_, thus, _Sicut
-exhibuimus antea membra nostra seruire immundicie et iniquitati ad
-iniquitatem ita deinceps exhibeamus membra nostra seruire iustitiae in
-satisfactionem_. [Sidenote: _Hosius in confessione catholic� fidi de sacro
-penitenti� Idem Hosius de spe. et oratione._] That is, as we have geuen
-our members to vncleannesse, from iniquitie to iniquitie: euen so from
-hencefoorth let vs geue our members to serue righteousnesse into
-satisfaction: where the true worde is into sanctification. Even so
-likewise for the auauntage of his cause, to proue that men may haue in
-their prayer fayth vpon saintes, corruptly alleageth Saint Paules text, Ad
-philemonem, thus, _Fidem quam habes in domino Iesu et in omnes sanctos_,
-leauing out the worde _charitatem_, which would have rightly ben
-distributed vnto _Omnes sanctos_. As _fidem_ vnto _in domino Iesu_. Where
-the text is _Audiens charitatem tuam et fidem quam habes in domino Iesu in
-omnes sanctos_, &c. It were to long to bryng in many examples, as may be
-openly founde in some mens wrytynges in these dayes, who would be counted
-the chiefe pillers of the Catholique fayth, or to note how corruptly they
-of purpose abuse the text to the comoditie of their cause. What maner of
-translation may men thinke to looke for at their handes, if they should
-translate the scriptures to the comfort of God's elect, whiche they neuer
-did, nor be not like to purpose it, but be rather studious only to seeke
-quarrels in other mens well doynges, to picke fault where none is: and
-where any is escaped through humaine negligence, there to crye out with
-their tragicall exclamations, but in no wyse to amende by the spirite of
-charitie and lenitie, that whiche might be more aptly set. Whervpon for
-frayle man (compassed hym selfe with infirmitie) it is most reasonable not
-to be to seuere in condemning his brothers knowledge or diligence where he
-doth erre, not of malice, but of simplicitie, and specially in handeling
-of these so deuine bookes so profounde in sense, so farre passing our
-naturall vnderstanding. And with charitie it standeth, the reader not to
-be offended with the diuersitie of translators, nor with the ambiguitie of
-translations: For as Saint Austen doth witnesse, [Sidenote: _De doctr.
-Christi. lib. 2. cap. 5._] by God's prouidence it is brought about, that
-the holy scriptures whiche be the salue for euery mans sore, though at the
-first they came from one language, and thereby might have ben spread to
-the whole worlde: nowe by diuersitie of manye languages, the translatours
-shoulde spreade the saluation (that is contayned in them) to all nations,
-by suche wordes of vtteraunce as the reader might perceaue the minde of
-the translatour, and so consequently to come to the knowledge of God his
-wyll and pleasure. And though many rashe readers be deceaued in the
-obscurities and ambiguities of their translations, whyle they take one
-thing for another, and whyle they vse muche labour to extricate them
-selues out of the obscurities of the same: yet I thinke (saith he) this is
-not wrought without the prouidence of God, both to tame the proude
-arrogancie of man by his suche labour of searching, as also to kepe his
-minde from lothsomnesse and contempt, where if the scriptures vniuersally
-were to easie, he woulde lesse regarde them. And though (saith he) in the
-primitive Churche the late interpreters whiche did translate the
-scriptures, be innumerable, yet wrought this rather an helpe, than an
-impediment to the readers, if they be not to negligent. For saith he,
-diuers translations haue made many tymes the harder and darker sentences,
-the more open and playne: so that of congruence, no offence can iustly be
-taken for this newe labour, nothing preiudicing any other mans iudgement
-by this doyng, nor yet hereby professing this to be so absolute a
-translation, as that hereafter might folowe no other that might see that
-whiche as yet was not vnderstanded. In this poynt it is conuenient to
-consider the iudgement that John, once byshop of Rochester was in, who
-thus wrote: [Sidenote: _Articulo, 17, contra Luth._] It is not vnknowen,
-but that many thinges hath ben more diligently discussed, and more
-clearely vnderstanded by the wittes of these latter dayes, as well
-concerning the gospels as other scriptures, then in olde tyme they were.
-The cause whereof is (saith he) for that to the olde men the yse was not
-broken, or for that their age was not sufficient exquisitely to expende
-the whole mayne sea of the scriptures, or els for that in this large field
-of the scriptures, a man may gather some eares vntouched, after the
-haruest men howe diligent soeuer they were. For there be yet (saith he) in
-the Gospels very many darke places, whiche without all doubt to the
-posteritie shalbe made muche more open. For why should we despayre herein,
-seing the Gospell (wryteth he) was deliuered to this intent, that it might
-be vtterly vnderstanded of vs, yea to the very inche. Wherefore, forasmuch
-as Christe showeth no lesse loue to his Churche now, then hitherto he hath
-done, the aucthoritie wherof is as yet no whit diminished, and forasmuch
-as that holy spirite the perpetuall Keper and Gardian of the same Church,
-whose gyftes and graces do flowe as continually and as aboundantly as from
-the beginning: who can doubt, but that such thinges as remayne yet
-unknowen in the Gospell, shalbe hereafter made open to the latter wittes
-of our posteritie, to their cleare vnderstanding. Only good readers let vs
-oft call vpon the holy spirite of God our heauenly father, by the
-mediation of our Lorde and Sauiour, with the wordes of the octonary psalme
-of Dauid, who did so importunately craue of God to haue the vnderstanding
-of his lawes and testament: [Sidenote: Psal. cxix.] Let vs humblye on our
-knees pray to almightie God, with that wyse [Sidenote: Sapi. ix.] Kyng
-Solomon in his very wordes saying thus--O God of my fathers, and Lorde of
-mercies (that thou hast made all thynges with thy worde, and didst ordain
-man through thy wisdome, that he shoulde haue dominion ouer thy creatures
-whiche thou hast made, and that he shoulde order the worlde according to
-holinesse and righteousnesse, and that he shoulde execute iudgement with a
-true heart) geue me wisdome whiche is euer about thy feate, and put me not
-out from among thy chyldren: For I thy seruant and sonne of thy handmayden
-am a feeble person, of a short time, and to weake to the vnderstanding of
-thy iudgementes and lawes. And though a man be neuer so perfect among the
-children of men, yet if thy wisdome be not with him, he shalbe of no
-value. O sende her out therefore from thy holy heauens, and from the
-throne of thy maiestie, that she may be with me, and labour with me, that
-I may know what is acceptable in thy sight: for she knoweth and
-vnderstandeth all thinges, and she shall lead me soberly in my workes, and
-preserue me in her power, So shall my workes be acceptable by Christe our
-Lorde, To whom with the father and the holy Ghost, be all honour and
-glorie, worlde without ende. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(F.)
-
-_THE PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611._
-
-
-[Sidenote: The best things have been calumniated.] Zeal to promote the
-common good, whether it be by devising any thing ourselves, or revising
-that which hath been laboured by others, deserveth certainly much respect
-and esteem, but yet findeth but cold entertainment in the world. It is
-welcomed with suspicion instead of love, and with emulation instead of
-thanks: and if there be any hole left for cavil to enter, (and cavil, if
-it do not find an hole, will make one) it is sure to be misconstrued, and
-in danger to be condemned. This will easily be granted by as many as know
-story, or have any experience. For was there ever any thing projected that
-savoured any way of newness or renewing, but the same endured many a storm
-of gainsaying or opposition? A man would think that civility, wholesome
-laws, learning and eloquence, Synods, and Churchmaintenance, (that we
-speak of no more things of this kind,) should be as safe as a Sanctuary,
-and[144] out of shot, as they say, that no man would lift up his heel, no,
-nor dog move his tongue against the motioners of them. For by the first we
-are distinguished from brute beasts led with sensuality: by the second we
-are bridled and restrained from outrageous behaviour, and from doing of
-injuries, whether by fraud or by violence: by the third we are enabled to
-inform and reform others by the light and feeling that we have attained
-unto ourselves: briefly, by the fourth, being brought together to a
-parley face to face, we sooner compose our differences, than by writings,
-which are endless: and lastly, that the Church be sufficiently provided
-for is so agreeable to good reason and conscience, that those mothers are
-holden to be less cruel, that kill their children as soon as they are
-born, than those nursing fathers and mothers (wheresoever they be) that
-withdraw from them who hang upon their breasts (and upon whose breasts
-again themselves do hang to receive the spiritual and sincere milk of the
-word) livelihood and support fit for their estates. Thus it is apparent,
-that these things which we speak of are of most necessary use, and
-therefore that none, either without absurdity can speak against them, or
-without note of wickedness can spurn against them.
-
-[Sidenote: _Anacharsis, with others._] Yet for all that, the learned know,
-that certain worthy men have been brought to untimely death for none other
-fault, but for seeking to reduce their countrymen to good order and
-discipline: [Sidenote: _In Athens: witness Libanius in Olynth. Demosth.
-Cato the elder._] And that in some Commonweals it was made a capital
-crime, once to motion the making of a new law for the abrogating of an
-old, though the same were most pernicious: And that certain, which would
-be counted pillars of the State, and patterns of virtue and prudence,
-could not be brought for a long time to give way to good letters and
-refined speech; but bare themselves as averse from them, as from rocks or
-boxes of poison: And fourthly, that he was no babe, but a great Clerk,
-[Sidenote: _Gregory the Divine._] that gave forth (and in writing to
-remain to posterity), in passion peradventure, but yet he gave forth, That
-he had not seen any profit to come by any synod or meeting of the Clergy,
-but rather the contrary: And lastly, against Churchmaintenance and
-allowance, in such sort as the Embassadors and messengers of the great
-King of kings should be furnished, it is not unknown what a fiction or
-fable (so it is esteemed, and for no better by the reporter himself,
-though superstitious) was devised: namely, [Sidenote: _Nauclerus._] That
-at such time as the professors and teachers of Christianity in the Church
-of Rome, then a true Church, were liberally endowed, a voice forsooth was
-heard from heaven, saying, Now is poison poured down into the Church, &c.
-Thus not only as oft as we speak, as one saith, but also as oft as we do
-any thing of note or consequence, we subject ourselves to every one's
-censure, and happy is he that is least tossed upon tongues; for utterly to
-escape the snatch of them it is impossible. If any man conceit, that this
-is the lot and portion of the meaner sort only, and that Princes are
-privileged by their high estate, he is deceived. [Sidenote: 2 Sam. 11.
-25.] As _the sword devoureth as well one as another_, as it is in
-_Samuel_; nay, as the great commander charged his soldiers in a certain
-battle to strike at no part of the enemy, but at the face; [Sidenote: 1
-Kin. 22. 31.] and as the king of _Syria_ commanded his chief captains _to
-fight neither with small nor great, save only against the king of Israel_:
-so it is too true, that envy striketh most spitefully at the fairest, and
-the chiefest. _David_ was a worthy prince, and no man to be compared to
-him for his first deeds; and yet for as worthy an act as ever he did, even
-for bringing back the ark of God in solemnity, he was scorned and scoffed
-at by his own wife. [Sidenote: 2 Sam. 6. 16.] _Solomon_ was greater than
-_David_, though not in virtue, yet in power; and by his power and wisdom
-he built a temple to the Lord, such an one as was the glory of the land of
-Israel, and the wonder of the whole world. But was that his magnificence
-liked of by all? We doubt of it. Otherwise why do they lay it in his son's
-dish, and call unto him for[145] easing of the burden? _Make_, say they,
-_the grievous servitude of thy father, and his sore yoke, lighter_.
-[Sidenote: 1 Kin. 12. 4.] Belike he had charged them with some levies, and
-troubled them with some carriages; hereupon they raise up a tragedy, and
-wish in their heart the temple had never been built. So hard a thing it is
-to please all, even when we please God best, and do seek to approve
-ourselves to every one's conscience.
-
-[Sidenote: The highest personages have been calumniated _C. C�sar.
-Plutarch_.] If we will descend to latter times, we shall find many the
-like examples of such kind, or rather unkind, acceptance. The first Roman
-Emperor did never do a more pleasing deed to the learned, nor more
-profitable to posterity, for conserving the record of times in true
-supputation, than when he corrected the Calendar, and ordered the year
-according to the course of the sun: and yet this was imputed to him for
-novelty, and arrogancy, and procured to him great obloquy. [Sidenote:
-_Constantine._] So the first Christened Emperor (at the least wise, that
-openly professed the faith himself, and allowed others to do the like,)
-for strengthening the empire at his great charges, and providing for the
-Church, as he did, got for his labour the name _Pupillus_, as who would
-say, a wasteful Prince, that had need of a guardian or overseer.
-[Sidenote: _Aurel. Vict. Theodosius. Zosimus._] So the best Christened
-Emperor, for the love that he bare unto peace, thereby to enrich both
-himself and his subjects, and because he did not seek war, but find it,
-was judged to be no man at arms, (though indeed he excelled in feats of
-chivalry, and shewed so much when he was provoked,) and condemned for
-giving himself to his ease, and to his pleasure. [Sidenote: _Justinian._]
-To be short, the most learned Emperor of former times, (at the least the
-greatest politician,) what thanks had he for cutting off the superfluities
-of the laws, and digesting them into some order and method? This, that he
-hath been blotted by some to be an Epitomist, that is, one that
-extinguished worthy whole volumes, to bring his abridgements into request.
-This is the measure that hath been rendered to excellent Princes in former
-times, _cum bene facerent, male audire_, for their good deeds to be evil
-spoken of. Neither is there any likelihood that envy and malignity died
-and were buried with the ancient. No, no, the reproof of _Moses_ taketh
-hold of most ages, [Sidenote: Num. 32. 14. Eccles. 1. 9.] _You are risen
-up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men. What is that that
-hath been done? that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
-the sun_, saith the wise man. And St. _Stephen_, _As your fathers did, so
-do ye_. [Sidenote: Acts 7. 51. His Majesty's constancy, notwithstanding
-calumniation, for the survey of the English translation. [Greek: Autos kai
-paides, kai paid�n pantote paides.]] This, and more to this purpose, his
-Majesty that now reigneth (and long, and long, may he reign, and his
-offspring for ever, _Himself, and children, and children's children
-always_!) knew full well, according to the singular wisdom given unto him
-by God, and the rare learning and experience that he hath attained unto;
-namely, That whosoever attempteth any thing for the publick, (especially
-if it pertain to religion, and to the opening and clearing of the word of
-God,) the same setteth himself upon a stage to be glouted upon by every
-evil eye; yea, he casteth himself headlong upon pikes, to be gored by
-every sharp tongue. For he that meddleth with men's religion in any part
-meddleth with their custom, nay, with their freehold; and though they find
-no content in that which they have, yet they cannot abide to hear of
-altering. Notwithstanding his royal heart was not daunted or discouraged
-for this or that colour, but stood resolute, _as a statue immovable, and
-an anvil not easy to be beaten into plates_, as one saith; [Sidenote:
-[Greek: Hosper tis andras aperitreptos]] he knew who had chosen him to be
-a soldier, or rather a captain; and [Sidenote: [Greek: kai akm�n
-an�latos], _Suidas_.] being assured that the course which he intended made
-much for the glory of God, and the building up of his Church, he would not
-suffer it to be broken off for whatsoever speeches or practices. It doth
-certainly belong unto kings, yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to
-have care of religion, yea, to know it aright, yea, to profess it
-zealously, yea, to promote it to the uttermost of their power. This is
-their glory before all nations which mean well, and this will bring unto
-them a far most excellent weight of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus.
-For the Scripture saith not in vain, [Sidenote: 1 Sam. 2. 30.] _Them that
-honour me I will honour_: neither was it a vain word that _Eusebius_
-delivered long ago, [Sidenote: [Greek: theosebeia], _Eusebius, lib. 10.
-cap. 8_.] That piety toward God was the weapon, and the only weapon, that
-both preserved _Constantine's_ person, and avenged him of his enemies.
-
-[Sidenote: The praise of the holy Scriptures.] But now what piety without
-truth? What truth, what saving truth, without the word of God? What word
-of God, whereof we may be sure, without the Scripture? The Scriptures we
-are commanded to search, _John_ v. 39. _Isaiah_ viii. 20. They are
-commended that searched and studied them, _Acts_ xvii. 11, and viii. 28,
-29. They are reproved that were unskilful in them, or slow to believe
-them, _Matth._ xxii. 29. _Luke_ xxiv. 25. They can make us wise unto
-salvation, _2 Tim._ iii. 15. If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if
-out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform
-us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us.
-[Sidenote: _St. August. Confess. lib. 8. cap. 12. St. August. De utilit.
-credendi, cap. 6._] _Tolle, lege; tolle, lege_; Take up and read, take up
-and read the Scriptures, (for unto them was the direction,) it was said
-unto St. _Augustine_ by a supernatural voice. _Whatsoever is in the
-Scriptures, believe me_, saith the same St. _Augustine_, _is high and
-divine; there is verily truth, and a doctrine most fit for the refreshing
-and renewing of men's minds, and truly so tempered, that every one may
-draw from thence that which is sufficient for him, if he come to draw with
-a devout and pious mind, as true religion requireth_. Thus St.
-_Augustine_. And St. _Hierome_, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. ad Demetriad. St.
-Cyrill 7 contra Julian._] _Ama Scripturas, et amabit te sapientia_, &c.
-Love the Scriptures, and wisdom will love thee. And St. _Cyrill_ against
-_Julian_, _Even boys that are bred up in the Scriptures become most
-religious_, &c. But what mention we three or four uses of the Scripture,
-whereas whatsoever is to be believed, or practised, or hoped for, is
-contained in them? or three or four sentences of the Fathers, since
-whosoever is worthy the name of a Father, from Christ's time downward,
-hath likewise written not only of the riches, but also of the perfection
-of the Scripture? [Sidenote: _Tertul. advers. Herm. Tertul. De carn.
-Christ._ [Greek: Oion te], _Justin_. [Greek: protrept. pros Hell�n.
-Huper�phanias kat�goria], _St. Basil_. [Greek: peri piste�s].] _I adore
-the fulness of the Scripture_, saith _Tertullian_ against _Hermogenes_.
-And again, to _Apelles_ an heretick of the like stamp he saith, _I do not
-admit that which thou bringest in_ (or concludest) _of thine own_ (head or
-store, _de tuo_) without Scripture. So St. _Justin Martyr_ before him; _We
-must know by all means_ (saith he) _that it is not lawful_ (or possible)
-_to learn_ (any thing) _of God or of right piety, save only out of the
-Prophets, who teach us by divine inspiration_. So St. _Basil_ after
-_Tertullian_, _It is a manifest falling away from the faith, and a fault
-of presumption, either to reject any of those things that are written, or
-to bring in_ (upon the head of them, [Greek: epeisagein]) _any of those
-things that are not written_. We omit to cite to the same effect St.
-_Cyrill_ Bishop of _Jerusalem_ in his 4. _Catech._ St. _Hierome_ against
-_Helvidius_, St. _Augustine_ in his third book against the letters of
-_Petilian_, and in very many other places of his works. Also we forbear
-to descend to later Fathers, because we will not weary the reader. The
-Scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can
-we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them? of curiosity,
-if we be not content with them? [Sidenote: [Greek: Eiresi�n� syka pherei,
-kai pionas artous, kai meli en kotul�, kai elaion], &c. An olive bough
-wrapped about with wool, whereupon did hang figs, and bread, and honey in
-a pot, and oil.] Men talk much of [Greek: eiresi�n�], how many sweet and
-goodly things it had hanging on it; of the Philosopher's stone, that it
-turneth copper into gold; of _Cornu-copia_, that it had all things
-necessary for food in it; of _Panaces_, the herb, that it was good for all
-diseases; of _Catholicon_ the drug, that it is instead of all purges; of
-_Vulcan's_ armour, that it was an armour of proof against all thrusts and
-all blows, &c. Well, that which they falsely or vainly attributed to these
-things for bodily good, we may justly and with full measure ascribe unto
-the Scripture for spiritual. It is not only an armour, but also a whole
-armoury of weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save
-ourselves, and put the enemy to flight. It is not an herb, but a tree, or
-rather a whole paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every
-month, and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine. It
-is not a pot of _Manna_, or a cruse of oil, which were for memory only, or
-for a meal's meat or two; but, as it were, a shower of heavenly bread
-sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great, and, as it were, a
-whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be
-provided for, and our debts discharged. In a word, it is a panary of
-wholesome food against fenowed traditions; [Sidenote: [Greek: Koinon
-iatreion], _St. Basil in Psal. primum._] a physician's shop (as St.
-_Basil_ calls it) of preservatives against poisoned heresies; a pandect of
-profitable laws against rebellious spirits; a treasury of most costly
-jewels against beggarly rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water
-springing up unto everlasting life. And what marvel? the original thereof
-being from heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the
-inditer, the Holy Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the
-penmen, such as were sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal
-portion of God's Spirit; the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness;
-the form, God's word, God's testimony, God's oracles, the word of truth,
-the word of salvation, &c.; the effects, light of understanding,
-stableness of persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life,
-holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of the
-study thereof, fellowship with the saints, participation of the heavenly
-nature, fruition of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that never
-shall fade away. Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and
-thrice happy that meditateth in it day and night.
-
-[Sidenote: Translation necessary.] But how shall men meditate in that
-which they cannot understand? How shall they understand that which is kept
-close in an unknown tongue? as it is written, [Sidenote: 1 Cor. 14. 11.]
-_Except I know the power of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a
-barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian to me_. The Apostle
-excepteth no tongue; not _Hebrew_ the ancientest, not _Greek_ the most
-copious, not _Latin_ the finest. Nature taught a natural man to confess,
-that all of us in those tongues which we do not understand are plainly
-deaf; we may turn the deaf ear unto them. [Sidenote: _Clem. Alex. 1 Strom.
-St. Hieronym. Damaso. Michael, Theophili fil. 2 Tom. Concil. ex edit.
-Petri Crab._] The _Scythian_ counted the _Athenian_, whom he did not
-understand, barbarous: so the _Roman_ did the _Syrian_, and the _Jew_:
-(even St. _Hierome_ himself calleth the _Hebrew_ tongue barbarous; belike,
-because it was strange to so many:) so the Emperor of _Constantinople_
-calleth the _Latin_ tongue barbarous, though Pope _Nicolas_ do storm at
-it: [Sidenote: _Cicero 5. De Finibus._] so the _Jews_ long before _Christ_
-called all other nations _Lognasim_, which is little better than
-barbarous. Therefore as one complaineth that always in the Senate of
-_Rome_ there was one or other that called for an interpreter; so lest the
-Church be driven to the like exigent, it is necessary to have translations
-in a readiness. Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the
-light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth
-aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that
-removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water; [Sidenote:
-Gen. 29. 10.] even as _Jacob_ rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-well, by which means the flocks of _Laban_ were watered. Indeed without
-translation into the vulgar tongue, [Sidenote: John 4. 11.] the unlearned
-are but like children at _Jacob's_ well (which was deep) without a bucket
-or something to draw with: [Sidenote: Isai. 29. 11.] or as that person
-mentioned by _Esay_, to whom when a sealed book was delivered with this
-motion, _Read this, I pray thee_; he was fain to make this answer, _I
-cannot, for it is sealed_.
-
-[Sidenote: The translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew into
-Greek. _See St. August. lib. 12. contra Faust. cap. 32._] While God would
-be known only in _Jacob_, and have his name great in _Israel_, and in none
-other place; while the dew lay on _Gideon's_ fleece only, and all the
-earth besides was dry; then for one and the same people, which spake all
-of them the language of _Canaan_, that is, _Hebrew_, one and the same
-original in _Hebrew_ was sufficient. But when the fulness of time drew
-near, that the Sun of righteousness, the Son of God, should come into the
-world, whom God ordained to be a reconciliation through faith in his
-blood, not of the _Jew_ only, but also of the _Greek_, yea, of all them
-that were scattered abroad; then, lo, it pleased the Lord to stir up the
-spirit of a _Greek_ prince, (_Greek_ for descent and language,) even of
-_Ptolemy Philadelph_ king of _Egypt_, to procure the translating of the
-book of God out of _Hebrew_ into _Greek_. This is the translation of the
-_Seventy_ interpreters, commonly so called, which prepared the way for our
-Saviour among the _Gentiles_ by written preaching, as St. _John Baptist_
-did among the _Jews_ by vocal. For the _Grecians_, being desirous of
-learning, were not wont to suffer books of worth to lie moulding in kings'
-libraries, but had many of their servants, ready scribes, to copy them
-out, and so they were dispersed and made common. Again the _Greek_ tongue
-was well known and made familiar to most inhabitants in _Asia_ by reason
-of the conquests that there the _Grecians_ had made, as also by the
-colonies which thither they had sent. For the same causes also it was well
-understood in many places of _Europe_, yea, and of _Africk_ too. Therefore
-the word of God, being set forth in _Greek_, becometh hereby like a candle
-set upon a candlestick, which giveth light to all that are in the house;
-or like a proclamation sounded forth in the market place, which most men
-presently take knowledge of; and therefore that language was fittest to
-contain the Scriptures, both for the first preachers of the Gospel to
-appeal unto for witness, and for the learners also of those times to make
-search and trial by. It is certain, that that translation was not so sound
-and so perfect, but that it needed in many places correction; and who had
-been so sufficient for this work as the Apostles or apostolick men? Yet it
-seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to take that which they found,
-(the same being for the greatest part true and sufficient,) rather than by
-making a new, in that new world and green age of the Church, to expose
-themselves to many exceptions and cavillations, as though they made a
-translation to serve their own turn; and therefore hearing witness to
-themselves, their witness not to be regarded. This may be supposed to be
-some cause, why the translation of the _Seventy_ was allowed to pass for
-current. Notwithstanding, though it was commended generally, yet it did
-not fully content the learned, no not of the _Jews_. For not long after
-_Christ_, _Aquila_ fell in hand with a new translation, and after him
-_Theodotion_, and after him _Symmachus_; yea, there was a fifth, and a
-sixth edition, the authors whereof were not known. These with the
-_Seventy_ made up the _Hexapla_, and were worthily and to great purpose
-compiled together by _Origen_. Howbeit the edition of the _Seventy_ went
-away with the credit, and therefore not only was placed in the midst by
-_Origen_, (for the worth and excellency thereof above the rest, as
-_Epiphanius_ gathereth,) [Sidenote: _Epiphan. De mensuris et ponderib. St.
-August. 2. De doctrin. Christian. c. 15. Novel. diatax. 146._] but also
-was used by the _Greek_ Fathers for the ground and foundation of their
-commentaries. Yea, _Epiphanius_ abovenamed doth attribute so much unto it,
-that he holdeth the authors thereof not only for interpreters, [Sidenote:
-[Greek: Proph�tik�s h�sper charitos perilampsas�s autous.]] but also for
-prophets in some respect: and _Justinian_ the Emperor, injoining the
-_Jews_ his subjects to use especially the translation of the _Seventy_,
-rendereth this reason thereof, Because they were, as it were, enlightened
-with prophetical grace. [Sidenote: Isai. 31. 3.] Yet for all that, as the
-_Egyptians_ are said of the Prophet to be men and not God, and their
-horses flesh and not spirit: so it is evident, (and St. _Hierome_
-affirmeth as much,) [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. de optimo genere interpret._]
-that the _Seventy_ were interpreters, they were not prophets. They did
-many things well, as learned men; but yet as men they stumbled and fell,
-one while through oversight, another while through ignorance; yea,
-sometimes they may be noted to add to the original, and sometimes to take
-from it: which made the Apostles to leave them many times, when they left
-the _Hebrew_, and to deliver the sense thereof according to the truth of
-the word, as the Spirit gave them utterance. This may suffice touching the
-_Greek_ translations of the Old Testament.
-
-[Sidenote: Translation out of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.] There were
-also within a few hundred years after _Christ_ translations many into the
-_Latin_ tongue: for this tongue also was very fit to convey the Law and
-the Gospel by, because in those times very many countries of the West, yea
-of the South, East, and North, spake or understood _Latin_, being made
-provinces to the _Romans_. But now the _Latin_ translations were too many
-to be all good: for they were infinite; (_Latini interpretes nullo modo
-numerari possunt_, saith St. _Augustine_.) [Sidenote: _St. August. de
-doctrin. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 11._] Again, they were not out of the
-_Hebrew_ fountain, (we speak of the _Latin_ translations of the Old
-Testament,) but out of the _Greek_ stream; therefore the _Greek_ being not
-altogether clear, the _Latin_ derived from it must needs be muddy. This
-moved St. _Hierome_, a most learned Father, and the best linguist without
-controversy of his age, or of any other that went before him, to undertake
-the translating of the Old Testament out of the very fountains themselves;
-which he performed with that evidence of great learning, judgment,
-industry, and faithfulness, that he hath for ever bound the Church unto
-him in a debt of special remembrance and thankfulness.
-
-[Sidenote: The translating of the Scripture into the vulgar tongues.] Now
-though the Church were thus furnished with _Greek_ and _Latin_
-translations, even before the faith of _Christ_ was generally embraced in
-the Empire: (for the learned know, [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. Marcell.
-Zosim._] that even in St. _Hierome's_ time the Consul of _Rome_ and his
-wife were both Ethnicks, and about the same time the greatest part of the
-Senate also:) yet for all that the godly learned were not content to have
-the Scriptures in the language which themselves understood, [Sidenote: 2
-Kin. 7. 9.] _Greek_ and _Latin_, (as the good lepers were not content to
-fare well themselves, but acquainted their neighbours with the store that
-God had sent, that they also might provide for themselves;) but also for
-the behoof and edifying of the unlearned, which hungered and thirsted
-after righteousness, and had souls to be saved as well as they, they
-provided translations into the vulgar for their countrymen, insomuch that
-most nations under heaven did shortly after their conversion hear _Christ_
-speaking unto them in their mother tongue, not by the voice of their
-minister only, but also by the written word translated. If any doubt
-hereof, he may be satisfied by examples enough, if enough will serve the
-turn. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. Pr�f. in 4. Evangel._] First, St. _Hierome_
-saith, _Multarum gentium linguis Scriptura ante translata docet falsa esse
-qu� addita sunt_, &c.; that is, _The Scripture being translated before in
-the languages of many nations doth shew that those things that were added_
-(by _Lucian_ or _Hesychius_) _are false_. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron.
-Sophronio._] So St. _Hierome_ in that place. The same _Hierome_ elsewhere
-affirmeth that he, the time was, had set forth the translation of the
-_Seventy_, _su� ling� hominibus_; that is, for his countrymen of
-_Dalmatia_. Which words not only _Erasmus_ doth understand to purport,
-that St. _Hierome_ translated the Scripture into the _Dalmatian_ tongue;
-[Sidenote: _Six. Sen. lib. 4. Alphon. a Castro, lib. 1. cap. 23. St.
-Chrysost. in Joann. cap. 1. hom. 1._] but also _Sixtus Senensis_, and
-_Alphonsus a Castro_, (that we speak of no more,) men not to be excepted
-against by them of _Rome_, do ingenuously confess as much. So St.
-_Chrysostome_, that lived in St. _Hierome's_ time, giveth evidence with
-him: _The doctrine of St. John_ (saith he) _did not in such sort_ (as the
-Philosophers' did) _vanish away: but the Syrians, Egyptians, Indians,
-Persians, Ethiopians, and infinite other nations, being barbarous people,
-translated it into their (mother) tongue, and have learned, to be (true)
-Philosophers_, he meaneth Christians. [Sidenote: _Theodor. 5. Therapeut._]
-To this may be added _Theodoret_, as next unto him both for antiquity, and
-for learning. His words be these, _Every country that is under the sun is
-full of these words_, (of the Apostles and Prophets;) _and the Hebrew
-tongue_ (he meaneth the Scriptures in the _Hebrew_ tongue) _is turned not
-only into the language of the Grecians, but also of the Romans, and
-Egyptians, and Persians, and Indians, and Armenians, and Scythians, and
-Sauromatians, and, briefly, into all the languages that any nation useth_.
-[Sidenote: _P. Diacon. lib. 12. Isid. in Chron. Goth. Sozom. lib. 6. cap.
-57. Vasseus in Chro. Hisp. Polydor. Virg. 5. hist. Anglorum testatur idem
-de Aluredo nostro. Aventin. lib. 4._] So he. In like manner _Ulpilas_ is
-reported by _Paulus Diaconus_ and _Isidore_, and before them by _Sozomen_,
-to have translated the Scriptures into the _Gothick_ tongue: _John_ Bishop
-of _Sevil_ by _Vasseus_, to have turned them into _Arabick_ about the Year
-of our Lord 717: _Beda_ by _Cistertiensis_, to have turned a great part of
-them into _Saxon_: _Efnard_ by _Trithemius_, to have abridged the French
-Psalter (as _Beda_ had done the _Hebrew_) about the year 800: King
-_Alured_ by the said _Cistertiensis_, to have turned the Psalter into
-_Saxon_: _Methodius_ by _Aventinus_ (printed at _Ingolstad_) to have
-turned the Scriptures into _Sclavonian_: _Valdo_[146] Bishop of _Frising_
-by _Beatus Rhenanus_, to have caused about that time the Gospels to be
-translated into _Dutch_ rhyme, yet extant in the library of _Corbinian_:
-_Valdus_ by divers, to have turned them himself, or to have gotten them
-turned, into _French_, about the Year 1160: _Charles_ the Fifth of that
-name, surnamed _The wise_, to have caused them to be turned into _French_
-about 200 years after _Valdus'_ time; of which translation there be many
-copies yet extant, as witnesseth _Beroaldus_. [Sidenote: _Beroald.
-Thuan._] Much about that time, even in our King _Richard_ the Second's
-days, _John Trevisa_ translated them into _English_, and many _English_
-Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen with divers; translated, as it
-is very probable, in that age. So the _Syrian_ translation of the New
-Testament is in most learned men's libraries, of _Widminstadius'_ setting
-forth; and the Psalter in _Arabick_ is with many, of _Augustinus
-Nebiensis'_ setting forth. So _Postel_ affirmeth, that in his travel he
-saw the Gospels in the _Ethiopian_ tongue: And _Ambrose Thesius_ alledgeth
-the Psalter of the _Indians_, which he testifieth to have been set forth
-by _Potken_ in _Syrian_ characters. So that to have the Scriptures in the
-mother tongue is not a quaint conceit lately taken up, either by the Lord
-_Cromwell_ in _England_, or by the Lord _Radevile_ in _Polony_, or by the
-Lord _Ungnadius_ in the Emperor's dominion, but hath been thought upon,
-and put in practice of old, even from the first times of the conversion of
-any nation; no doubt, because it was esteemed most profitable to cause
-faith to grow in men's hearts the sooner, and to make them to be able to
-say with the words of the Psalm, [Sidenote: Psal. 48. 8.] _As we have
-heard, so we have seen_.
-
-[Sidenote: The unwillingness of our chief adversaries that the Scriptures
-should be divulged in the mother tongue, &c. [Greek: D�ron ad�ron kouk
-on�simon] _Sophocl._] Now the church of _Rome_ would seem at the length to
-bear a motherly affection toward her children, and to allow them the
-Scriptures in the mother tongue: but indeed it is a gift, not deserving to
-be called a gift, an unprofitable gift: they must first get a licence in
-writing before they may use them; and to get that, they must approve
-themselves to their Confessor, that is, to be such as are, if not frozen
-in the dregs, yet soured with the leaven of their superstition. Howbeit it
-seemed too much to _Clement_ the Eighth, that there should be any licence
-granted to have them in the vulgar tongue, and therefore he overruleth and
-frustrateth the grant of _Pius_ the Fourth. [Sidenote: See the
-observation (set forth by Clement's authority) upon the 4th rule of _Pius_
-the 4th's making in the _Index lib. prohib. pag. 15. ver. 5. Tertull. de
-resur. carnis._] So much are they afraid of the light of the Scripture,
-(_Lucifug� Scripturarum_, as _Tertullian_ speaketh,) that they will not
-trust the people with it, no not as it is set forth by their own sworn
-men, no not with the licence of their own Bishops and Inquisitors. Yea, so
-unwilling they are to communicate the Scriptures to the people's
-understanding in any sort, that they are not ashamed to confess, that we
-forced them to translate it into _English_ against their wills. This
-seemeth to argue a bad cause, or a bad conscience, or both. Sure we are,
-that it is not he that hath good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the
-touch-stone, but he that hath the counterfeit; [Sidenote: John 3. 20.]
-neither is it the true man that shunneth the light, but the malefactor,
-lest his deeds should be reproved; neither is it the plaindealing merchant
-that is unwilling to have the weights, or the meteyard, brought in place,
-but he that useth deceit. But we will let them alone for this fault, and
-return to translation.
-
-[Sidenote: The speeches and reasons both of our brethren, and of
-adversaries, against this work.] Many men's mouths have been opened a good
-while (and yet are not stopped) with speeches about the translation so
-long in hand, or rather perusals of translations made before: and ask what
-may be the reason, what the necessity, of the employment. Hath the Church
-been deceived, say they, all this while? Hath her sweet bread been mingled
-with leaven, her silver with dross, her wine with water, her milk with
-lime? (_lacte gypsum male miscetur_, saith St. _Irenee_.) [Sidenote: _St.
-Iren. lib. 3. cap. 19._] We hoped that we had been in the right way, that
-we had had the Oracles of God delivered unto us, and that though all the
-world had cause to be offended, and to complain, yet that we had none.
-Hath the nurse holden out the breast, and nothing but wind in it? Hath
-the bread been delivered by the Fathers of the Church, and the same proved
-to be _lapidosus_, as _Seneca_ speaketh? What is it to handle the word of
-God deceitfully, if this be not? Thus certain brethren. Also the
-adversaries of _Judah_ and _Jerusalem_, [Sidenote: Neh. 4. 2, 3.] like
-_Sanballat_ in _Nehemiah_, mock, as we hear, both at the work and workmen,
-saying, _What do these weak Jews, &c., will they make the stones whole
-again out of the heaps of dust which are burnt? although they build, yet
-if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stony wall_. Was their
-translation good before? Why do they now mend it? Was it not good? Why
-then was it obtruded to the people? Yea, why did the Catholicks (meaning
-Popish _Romanists_) always go in jeopardy for refusing to go to hear it?
-Nay, if it must be translated into _English_, Catholicks are fittest to do
-it. They have learning, and they know when a thing is well, they can
-_manum de tabula_. We will answer them both briefly: [Sidenote: _St.
-Hieron. Apolog. advers. Ruffin._] and the former, being brethren, thus
-with St. _Hierome_, _Damnamus veteres? Minime, sed post priorum studia in
-domo Domini quod possumus laboramus._ That is, _Do we condemn the ancient?
-In no case: but after the endeavours of them that were before us, we take
-the best pains we can in the house of God._ As if he said, Being provoked
-by the example of the learned that lived before my time, I have thought it
-my duty to assay, whether my talent in the knowledge of the tongues may be
-profitable in any measure to God's Church, lest I should seem to have
-laboured in them in vain, and lest I should be thought to glory in men
-(although ancient) above that which was in them. Thus St. _Hierome_ may be
-thought to speak.
-
-[Sidenote: A satisfaction to our brethren.] And to the same effect say we,
-that we are so far off from condemning any of their labours that
-travelled before us in this kind, either in this land, or beyond sea,
-either in King _Henry's_ time, or King _Edward's_, (if there were any
-translation, or correction of a translation, in his time,) or Queen
-_Elizabeth's_ of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have
-been raised up of God for the building and furnishing of his Church, and
-that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting
-remembrance. The judgment of _Aristotle_ is worthy and well known:
-[Sidenote: _Arist. 2. Metaphys. cap. 1._] _If Timotheus had not been, we
-had not had much sweet musick: But if Phrynis_ (_Timotheus'_ master) _had
-not been, we had not had Timotheus_. Therefore blessed be they, and most
-honoured be their name, that break the ice, and give the onset upon that
-which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can be more
-available thereto, than to deliver God's book unto God's people in a
-tongue which they understand? Since of an hidden treasure, and of a
-fountain that is sealed, there is no profit, as _Ptolemy Philadelph_ wrote
-to the Rabbins or masters of the _Jews_, as witnesseth _Epiphanius_:
-[Sidenote: _St. Epiphan. loco ante citato. St. August. lib. 19. De civit.
-Dei, cap. 7._] and as St. _Augustine_ saith, _A man had rather be with his
-dog than with a stranger_ (whose tongue is strange unto him.) Yet for all
-that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, and the latter
-thoughts are thought to be the wiser: so, if we building upon their
-foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, do
-endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are
-sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we persuade ourselves, if they were
-alive, would thank us. The vintage of _Abiezer_, that strake the stroke:
-yet the gleaning of grapes of _Ephraim_ was not to be despised. See
-_Judges_ viii. 2. [Sidenote: 2 Kin. 13. 18, 19.] _Joash_ the king of
-_Israel_ did not satisfy himself till he had smitten the ground three
-times; and yet he offended the Prophet for giving over then. _Aquila_, of
-whom we spake before, translated the Bible as carefully and as skilfully
-as he could; and yet he thought good to go over it again, and then it got
-the credit with the _Jews_, to be called [Greek: kat' akribeian], that is,
-accurately done, as St. _Hierome_ witnesseth. [Sidenote: _St. Hieron. in
-Ezech. cap. 3._] How many books of profane learning have been gone over
-again and again, by the same translators, by others? Of one and the same
-book of _Aristotle's_ Ethicks there are extant not so few as six or seven
-several translations. Now if this cost may be bestowed upon the gourd,
-which affordeth us a little shade, and which to day flourisheth, but to
-morrow is cut down; what may we bestow, nay, what ought we not to bestow,
-upon the vine, the fruit whereof maketh glad the conscience of man, and
-the stem whereof abideth for ever? And this is the word of God, which we
-translate. [Sidenote: Jer. 23. 28.] _What is the chaff to the wheat? saith
-the Lord. Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum!_ (saith _Tertullian_.)
-[Sidenote: _Tertull. ad Martyr. Si tanti vilissimum vitrum, quanti
-preciosissimum margaritum! Hier. ad Salvin._] If a toy of glass be of that
-reckoning with us, how ought we to value the true pearl! Therefore let no
-man's eye be evil, because his Majesty's is good; neither let any be
-grieved, that we have a Prince that seeketh the increase of the spiritual
-wealth of _Israel_; (let _Sanballats_ and _Tobiahs_ do so, which therefore
-do bear their just reproof;) but let us rather bless God from the ground
-of our heart for working this religious care in him to have the
-translations of the Bible maturely considered of and examined. For by this
-means it cometh to pass, that whatsoever is sound already, (and all is
-sound for substance in one or other of our editions, and the worst of ours
-far better than their authentick vulgar) the same will shine as gold more
-brightly, being rubbed and polished; also, if any thing be halting, or
-superfluous, or not so agreeable to the original, the same may be
-corrected, and the truth set in place. And what can the King command to be
-done, that will bring him more true honour than this? And wherein could
-they that have been set a work approve their duty to the King, yea, their
-obedience to God, and love to his Saints, more, than by yielding their
-service, and all that is within them, for the furnishing of the work? But
-besides all this, they were the principal motives of it, and therefore
-ought least to quarrel it. For the very historical truth is, that upon the
-importunate petitions of the Puritanes at his Majesty's coming to this
-crown, the conference at _Hampton-court_ having been appointed for hearing
-their complaints, when by force of reason they were put from all other
-grounds, they had recourse at the last to this shift, that they could not
-with good conscience subscribe to the communion book, since it maintained
-the Bible as it was there translated, which was, as they said, a most
-corrupted translation. And although this was judged to be but a very poor
-and empty shift, yet even hereupon did his Majesty begin to bethink
-himself of the good that might ensue by a new translation, and presently
-after gave order for this translation which is now presented unto thee.
-Thus much to satisfy our scrupulous brethren.
-
-[Sidenote: An answer to the imputations of our adversaries.] Now to the
-latter we answer, That we do not deny, nay, we affirm and avow, that the
-very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our
-profession, (for we have seen none of their's of the whole Bible as yet)
-containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God: As the King's speech
-which he uttered in Parliament, being translated into _French_, _Dutch_,
-_Italian_, and _Latin_, is still the King's speech, though it be not
-interpreted by every translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so
-fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense, every where. For it is
-confessed, that things are to take their denomination of the greater part;
-[Sidenote: _Horace._] and a natural man could say, _Verum ubi multa nitent
-in carmine, non ego paucis offendor maculis, &c._ A man may be counted a
-virtuous man, though he have made many slips in his life, (else there were
-none virtuous, for _in many things we offend all_,) [Sidenote: Jam. 3. 2.]
-also a comely man and lovely, though he have some warts upon his hand;
-yea, not only freckles upon his face, but also scars. No cause therefore
-why the word translated should be denied to be the word, or forbidden to
-be current, notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be
-noted in the setting forth of it. For what ever was perfect under the sun,
-where Apostles or apostolick men, that is, men endued with an
-extraordinary measure of God's Spirit, and privileged with the privilege
-of infallibility, had not their hand? The Romanists therefore in refusing
-to hear, and daring to burn the word translated, did no less than despite
-the Spirit of grace, from whom originally it proceeded, and whose sense
-and meaning, as well as man's weakness would enable, it did express. Judge
-by an example or two.
-
-[Sidenote: _Plutarch in Camillo._] _Plutarch_ writeth, that after that
-_Rome_ had been burnt by the _Gauls_, they fell soon to build it again:
-but doing it in haste, they did not cast the streets, nor proportion the
-houses, in such comely fashion, as had been most sightly and convenient.
-Was _Catiline_ therefore an honest man, or a good patriot, that sought to
-bring it to a combustion? Or _Nero_ a good Prince, that did indeed set it
-on fire? So by the story of _Ezra_ and the prophecy of _Haggai_ it may be
-gathered, [Sidenote: Ezra 3. 12.] that the temple built by _Zerubbabel_
-after the return from _Babylon_ was by no means to be compared to the
-former built by _Solomon_: for they that remembered the former wept when
-they considered the latter. Notwithstanding might this latter either have
-been abhorred and forsaken by the _Jews_, or profaned by the _Greeks_? The
-like we are to think of translations. The translation of the _Seventy_
-dissenteth from the Original in many places, neither doth it come near it
-for perspicuity, gravity, majesty. Yet which of the Apostles did condemn
-it? Condemn it? Nay, they used it, (as it is apparent, and as St.
-_Hierome_ and most learned men do confess;) which they would not have
-done, nor by their example of using of it so grace and commend it to the
-Church, if it had been unworthy the appellation and name of the word of
-God. And whereas they urge for their second defence of their vilifying and
-abusing of the _English_ Bibles, or some pieces thereof, which they meet
-with, for that hereticks forsooth were the authors of the translations:
-(hereticks they call us by the same right that they call themselves
-catholicks, both being wrong:) we marvel what divinity taught them so. We
-are sure _Tertullian_ was of another mind: [Sidenote: _Tertull. de
-pr�script. contra h�reses._] _Ex personis probamus fidem, an ex fide
-personas?_ Do we try men's faith by their persons? We should try their
-persons by their faith. Also St. _Augustine_ was of another mind:
-[Sidenote: _St. August. 3. de doct. Christ. cap. 30._] for he, lighting
-upon certain rules made by _Tychonius_ a _Donatist_ for the better
-understanding of the word, was not ashamed to make use of them, yea, to
-insert them into his own book, with giving commendation to them so far
-forth as they were worthy to be commended, as is to be seen in St.
-_Augustine's_ third book _De Doct. Christ_. To be short, _Origen_, and
-the whole Church of God for certain hundred years, were of another mind:
-for they were so far from treading under foot (much more from burning) the
-translation of _Aquila_ a proselyte, that is, one that had turned _Jew_,
-of _Symmachus_, and _Theodotion_, both _Ebionites_, that is, most vile
-hereticks, that they joined them together with the _Hebrew_ original, and
-the translation of the _Seventy_, (as hath been before signified out of
-_Epiphanius_,) and set them forth openly to be considered of and perused
-by all. But we weary the unlearned, who need not know so much; and trouble
-the learned, who know it already.
-
-Yet before we end, we must answer a third cavil and objection of their's
-against us, for altering and amending our translations so oft; wherein
-truly they deal hardly and strangely with us. For to whom ever was it
-imputed for a fault, (by such as were wise,) to go over that which he had
-done, and to amend it where he saw cause? [Sidenote: _St. August. Epist.
-9. St. August. lib. Retract Video interdum vitia mea. St. August. Epist.
-8._] St. _Augustine_ was not afraid to exhort St. _Hierome_ to a
-_Palinodia_ or recantation. The same St. _Augustine_ was not ashamed to
-retractate, we might say, revoke, many things that had passed him, and
-doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities. If we will be sons of the
-truth, we must consider what it speaketh, and trample upon our own credit,
-yea, and upon other men's too, if either be any way an hindrance to it.
-This to the cause. Then to the persons we say, that of all men they ought
-to be most silent in this case. For what varieties have they, and what
-alterations have they made, not only of their service books, portesses,
-and breviaries, but also of their _Latin_ translation? The service book
-supposed to be made by St. _Ambrose_, (_Officium Ambrosianum_,) was a
-great while in special use and request: but Pope _Adrian_, [Sidenote:
-_Durand. lib. 5. cap. 2._] calling a council with the aid of _Charles_ the
-Emperor, abolished it, yea, burnt it, and commanded the service book of
-St. _Gregory_ universally to be used. Well, _Officium Gregorianum_ gets by
-this means to be in credit; but doth it continue without change or
-altering? No, the very _Roman_ service was of two fashions; the new
-fashion, and the old, the one used in one Church, and the other in
-another; as is to be seen in _Pamelius_ a Romanist, his preface before
-_Micrologus_. The same _Pamelius_ reporteth out of _Radulphus de Rivo_,
-that about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope _Nicolas_ the Third removed out
-of the churches of _Rome_ the more ancient books (of service,) and brought
-into use the missals of the Friers Minorites, and commanded them to be
-observed there: insomuch that about an hundred years after, when the
-aboved named _Radulphus_ happened to be at Rome, he found all the books to
-be new, of the new stamp. Neither was there this chopping and changing in
-the more ancient times only, but also of late. _Pius Quintus_ himself
-confesseth, that every bishoprick almost had a peculiar kind of service,
-most unlike to that which others had; which moved him to abolish all other
-breviaries, though never so ancient, and privileged and published by
-Bishops in their Dioceses, and to establish and ratify that only which was
-of his own setting forth in the year 1568. Now when the Father of their
-Church, who gladly would heal the sore of the daughter of his people
-softly and slightly, and make the best of it, findeth so great fault with
-them for their odds and jarring; we hope the children have no great cause
-to vaunt of their uniformity. But the difference that appeareth between
-our translations, and our often correcting of them, is the thing that we
-are specially charged with; let us see therefore whether they themselves
-be without fault this way, (if it be to be counted a fault to correct,)
-and whether they be fit men to throw stones at us: _O tandem major parcas
-insane minori_: They that are less sound themselves ought not to object
-infirmities to others. If we should tell them, that _Valla_,
-_Stapulensis_, _Erasmus_, and _Vives_, found fault with their vulgar
-translation, and consequently wished the same to be mended, or a new one
-to be made; they would answer peradventure, that we produced their enemies
-for witnesses against them; albeit they were in no other sort enemies,
-than as St. _Paul_ was to the _Galatians_, [Sidenote: Gal. 4. 16.] for
-telling them the truth: and it were to be wished, that they had dared to
-tell it them plainlier and oftener. But what will they say to this, That
-Pope _Leo_ the Tenth allowed _Erasmus'_ translation of the New Testament,
-so much different from the vulgar, by his apostolick letter and bull?
-[Sidenote: _Sixtus Senens._] That the same _Leo_ exhorted _Pagnine_ to
-translate the whole Bible, and bare whatsoever charges was necessary for
-the work? Surely, as the apostle reasoneth to the _Hebrews_, [Sidenote:
-Heb. 7. 11. & 8. 7.] that _if the former Law and Testament had been
-sufficient, there had been no need of the latter_: so we may say, that if
-the old vulgar had been at all points allowable, to small purpose had
-labour and charges been undergone about framing of a new. If they say, it
-was one Pope's private opinion, and that he consulted only himself; then
-we are able to go further with them, and to aver, that more of their chief
-men of all sorts, even their own _Trent_ champions, _Paiva_ and _Vega_,
-and their own inquisitor _Hieronymus ab Oleastro_, and their own Bishop
-_Isidorus Clarius_, and their own Cardinal _Thomas a vio Cajetan_, do
-either make new translations themselves, or follow new ones of other men's
-making, or note the vulgar interpreter for halting, none of them fear to
-dissent from him, nor yet to except against him. And call they this an
-uniform tenor of text and judgment about the text, so many of their
-worthies disclaiming the now received conceit? Nay, we will yet come
-nearer the quick. [Sidenote: _Sixtus 5. Pr�f. fixa bibliis._] Doth not
-their _Paris_ edition differ from the _Lovain_, and _Hentenius's_ from
-them both, and yet all of them allowed by authority? Nay, doth not _Sixtus
-Quintus_ confess, that certain Catholicks (he meaneth certain of his own
-side) were in such an humour of translating the Scriptures into _Latin_,
-that Satan taking occasion by them, though they thought of no such matter,
-did strive what he could, out of so uncertain and manifold a variety of
-translations, so to mingle all things, that nothing might seem to be left
-certain and firm in them, &c.? Nay further, did not the same _Sixtus_
-ordain by an inviolable decree, and that with the counsel and consent of
-his Cardinals, that the _Latin_ edition of the Old and New Testament,
-which the council of _Trent_ would have to be authentick, is the same
-without controversy which he then set forth, being diligently corrected
-and printed in the printinghouse of _Vatican_? Thus _Sixtus_ in his
-preface before his Bible. And yet _Clement_ the Eighth, his immediate
-successor to account of, publisheth another edition of the Bible,
-containing in it infinite differences from that of _Sixtus_, and many of
-them weighty and material; and yet this must be authentick by all means.
-What is to have the faith of our glorious Lord _Jesus Christ_ with yea and
-nay, if this be not? Again, what is sweet harmony and consent, if this be?
-Therefore, as _Demaratus_ of _Corinth_ advised a great King, before he
-talked of the dissensions among the _Grecians_, to compose his domestick
-broils; (for at that time his queen and his son and heir were at deadly
-feud with him) so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and
-so various editions themselves, and do jar so much about the worth and
-authority of them, they can with no shew of equity challenge us for
-changing and correcting.
-
-[Sidenote: The purpose of the Translators, with their number, furniture,
-care, &c.] But it is high time to leave them, and to shew in brief what we
-proposed to ourselves, and what course we held, in this our perusal and
-survey of the Bible. Truly, good Christian Reader, we never thought from
-the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to
-make of a bad one a good one: (for then the imputation of _Sixtus_ had
-been true in some sort, that our people had been fed with gall of dragons
-instead of wine, with wheal instead of milk;) but to make a good one
-better, or out of many good ones one principal good one, not justly to be
-excepted against; that hath been our endeavour, that our mark. To that
-purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other men's eyes than
-in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise.
-Again, they came, or were thought to come, to the work, not _exercendi
-causa_, (as one saith,) but _exercitati_, that is, learned not to learn;
-for the chief overseer and [Greek: ergodi�kt�s] under his Majesty, to whom
-not only we, but also our whole Church was much bound, knew by his wisdom,
-which thing only _Nazianzen_ taught so long ago, [Sidenote: _Nazianz._
-[Greek: eis rn. episk parous.] _Idem in Apologet._] that it is a
-preposterous order to teach first and to learn after; that [Greek: to en
-pith� keramian manthanein] to learn and practise together, is neither
-commendable for the workman, nor safe for the work. Therefore such were
-thought upon, as could say modestly with St. _Hierome_, _Et Hebr�um
-sermonem ex parte didicimus, et in Latino pene ab ipsis incunabulis, &c.,
-detriti sumus; Both we have learned the Hebrew tongue in part, and in the
-Latin we have been exercised almost from our very cradle._ St. _Hierome_
-maketh no mention of the _Greek_ tongue, wherein yet he did excel; because
-he translated not the Old Testament out of _Greek_, but out of _Hebrew_.
-And in what sort did these assemble? In the trust of their own knowledge,
-or of their sharpness of wit, or deepness of judgment, as it were in an
-arm of flesh? At no hand. They trusted in him that hath the key of
-_David_, opening, and no man shutting; they prayed to the Lord, the Father
-of our Lord, to the effect that St. _Augustine_ did: [Sidenote: _St.
-August. lib. 11. Confess. cap. 2._] _O let thy Scriptures be my pure
-delight; let me not be deceived in them, neither let me deceive by them_.
-In this confidence, and with this devotion, did they assemble together;
-not too many, lest one should trouble another; and yet many, lest many
-things haply might escape them. If you ask what they had before them;
-truly it was the _Hebrew_ text of the Old Testament, the _Greek_ of the
-New. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, wherethrough the
-olivebranches empty themselves into the gold. [Sidenote: _St. Aug. 3. De
-doctr. cap. 3., &c. St. Hieron. ad Suniam et Fretel. St. Hieron. ad
-Lucinium, Dist 9._ Ut veterum.] St. _Augustine_ calleth them precedent, or
-original, tongues; St. _Hierome_, fountains. The same St. _Hierome_
-affirmeth, and _Gratian_ hath not spared to put it into his decree, That
-_as the credit of the old books_ (he meaneth of the Old Testament) _is to
-be tried by the Hebrew volumes; so of the new by the Greek tongue_, he
-meaneth by the original _Greek_. If truth be to be tried by these tongues,
-then whence should a translation be made, but out of them? These tongues
-therefore (the Scriptures, we say, in those tongues) we set before us to
-translate, being the tongues wherein God was pleased to speak to his
-Church by his Prophets and Apostles. [Sidenote: _Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12._]
-Neither did we run over the work with that posting haste that the
-_Septuagint_ did, if that be true which is reported of them, that they
-finished it in seventy-two days; neither were we barred or hindered from
-going over it again, having once done it, like St. _Hierome_, [Sidenote:
-_St. Hieron. ad Pammach. pro lib. advers. Jovinian._ [Greek:
-pr�topeiroi.]] if that be true which himself reporteth, that he could no
-sooner write anything, but presently it was caught from him, and
-published, and he could not have leave to mend it; neither, to be short,
-were we the first that fell in hand with translating the Scripture into
-_English_, and consequently destitute of former helps, as it is written of
-_Origen_, that he was the first in a manner, that put his hand to write
-commentaries upon the Scriptures, and therefore no marvel if he overshot
-himself many times. None of these things: The work hath not been huddled
-up in seventy-two days, but hath cost the workmen, as light as it seemeth,
-the pains of twice seven times seventy-two days, and more. Matters of such
-weight and consequence are to be speeded with maturity: for in a business
-of moment a man feareth not the blame of convenient slackness. Neither did
-we think much to consult the translators or commentators, [Sidenote:
-[Greek: Philei gar oknein pragm' an�r prass�n mega], _Sophocl. in Elect._]
-_Chaldee_, _Hebrew_, _Syrian_, _Greek_, or _Latin_; no, nor the _Spanish_,
-_French_, _Italian_, or _Dutch_; neither did we disdain to revise that
-which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had
-hammered: but having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing
-no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at
-length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to
-that pass that you see.
-
-[Sidenote: Reasons moving us to set diversity of senses in the margin,
-where there is great probability for each. [Greek: panta ta, anagkaia
-d�la].] Some peradventure would have no variety of senses to be set in
-the margin, lest the authority of the Scriptures for deciding of
-controversies by that shew of uncertainty should somewhat be shaken. But
-we hold their judgment not to be so sound in this point. For though
-_whatsoever things are necessary are manifest_, as St. _Chrysostome_
-saith; [Sidenote: _St. Chrysost. in 2 Thess. cap. 2. St. Aug. 2. De doctr.
-Christ, c. 9._] and, as St. _Augustine_, _in those things that are plainly
-set down in the Scriptures all such matters are found, that concern faith,
-hope, and charity_: Yet for all that it cannot be dissembled, that partly
-to exercise and whet our wits, partly to wean the curious from lothing of
-them for their every where plainness, partly also to stir up our devotion
-to crave the assistance of God's Spirit by prayer, and lastly, that we
-might be forward to seek aid of our brethren by conference, and never
-scorn those that be not in all respects so complete as they should be,
-being to seek in many things, ourselves, it hath pleased God in his Divine
-Providence here and there to scatter words and sentences of that
-difficulty and doubtfulness, not in doctrinal points that concern
-salvation, (for in such it hath been vouched that the Scriptures are
-plain,) but in matters of less moment, that fearfulness would better
-beseem us than confidence, and if we will resolve, to resolve upon modesty
-with St. _Augustine_, [Sidenote: _St. August. lib. 8. De Gen. ad liter.
-cap. 5._] (though not in this same case altogether, yet upon the same
-ground,) _Melius est dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis_: It
-is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, than to strive
-about those things that are uncertain. [Sidenote: [Greek: hapax
-legomena].] There be many words in the Scriptures, which be never found
-there but once, (having neither brother nor neighbour, as the _Hebrews_
-speak,) so that we cannot be holpen by conference of places. Again, there
-be many rare names of certain birds, beasts, and precious stones, &c.
-concerning which the _Hebrews_ themselves are so divided among themselves
-for judgment, that they may seem to have defined this or that, rather
-because they would say something, than because they were sure of that
-which they said, [Sidenote: _Hier. in Ezek. cap. 3._] as St. _Hierome_
-somewhere saith of the _Septuagint_. Now in such a case doth not a margin
-do well to admonish the Reader to seek further, and not to conclude or
-dogmatize upon this or that peremptorily? For as it is a fault of
-incredulity, to doubt of those things that are evident; so to determine of
-such things as the Spirit of God hath left (even in the judgment of the
-judicious) questionable, can be no less than presumption. [Sidenote: _St.
-Aug. 2. De doctr. Christ. c. 1._] Therefore as St. _Augustine_ saith, that
-variety of translations is profitable for the finding out of the sense of
-the Scriptures: so diversity of signification and sense in the margin,
-where the text is not so clear, must needs do good; yea, is necessary, as
-we are persuaded. [Sidenote: _Sixtus 5. Pr�f. Bibl._] We know that _Sixtus
-Quintus_ expressly forbiddeth that any variety of readings of their vulgar
-edition should be put in the margin; (which though it be not altogether
-the same thing to that we have in hand, yet it looketh that way;) but we
-think he hath not all of his own side his favourers for this conceit. They
-that are wise had rather have their judgments at liberty in differences of
-readings, than to be captivated to one, when it may be the other.
-[Sidenote: _Plat. in Paulo secundo._] If they were sure that their high
-priest had all laws shut up in his breast, as _Paul_ the Second bragged,
-and that he were as free from error by special privilege, as the dictators
-of _Rome_ were made by law inviolable, it were another matter; then his
-word were an oracle, his opinion a decision. [Sidenote: [Greek:
-homoiopath�s Tr�tos g' h� chr�s esti.]] But the eyes of the world are now
-open, God be thanked, and have been a great while; they find that he is
-subject to the same affections and infirmities that others be, that his
-body is subject to wounds; and therefore so much as he proveth, not as
-much as he claimeth, they grant and embrace.
-
-[Sidenote: Reasons inducing us not to stand curiously upon an identity of
-phrasing.] Another thing we think good to admonish thee of, gentle Reader,
-that we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing, or to an
-identity of words, as some peradventure would wish that we had done,
-because they observe, that some learned men somewhere have been as exact
-as they could that way. Truly, that we might not vary from the sense of
-that which we had translated before, if the word signified the same thing
-in both places, [Sidenote: [Greek: polys�ma.]] (for there be some words
-that be not of the same sense every where,) we were especially careful,
-and made a conscience, according to our duty. But that we should express
-the same notion in the same particular word; as for example, if we
-translate the _Hebrew_ or _Greek_ word once by _purpose_, never to call it
-_intent_; if one where _journeying_, never _travelling_; if one where
-_think_, never _suppose_; if one where _pain_, never _ache_; if one where
-_joy_, never _gladness_, &c. thus to mince the matter, we thought to
-savour more of curiosity than wisdom, and that rather it would breed scorn
-in the atheist, than bring profit to the godly reader. For is the kingdom
-of God become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them, if
-we may be free? use one precisely, when we may use another no less fit as
-commodiously? [Sidenote: Abed. _Niceph. Calist. lib. 8. cap. 42. St.
-Hieron. in 4 Jon�. See St. Aug. Epist. 10._] A godly Father in the
-primitive time shewed himself greatly moved, that one of newfangledness
-called [Greek: krabbaton, skimpous], though the difference be little or
-none; and another reporteth, that he was much abused for turning
-_cucurbita_ (to which reading the people had been used) into _hedera_. Now
-if this happen in better times, and upon so small occasions, we might
-justly fear hard censure, if generally we should make verbal and
-unnecessary changings. We might also be charged (by scoffers) with some
-unequal dealing towards a great number of good _English_ words. For as it
-is written of a certain great Philosopher, that he should say, that those
-logs were happy that were made images to be worshipped; for their fellows,
-as good as they, lay for blocks behind the fire: so if we should say, as
-it were, unto certain words, Stand up higher, have a place in the Bible
-always; and to others of like quality, Get you hence, be banished for
-ever; we might be taxed peradventure with St. _James's_ words, namely, _To
-be partial in ourselves, and judges of evil thoughts_. [Sidenote: [Greek:
-leptologia. adoleschia to spoudazein epi onomasi.] _See Euseb._ [Greek:
-proparask.] _lib. 2. ex Plat._] Add hereunto, that niceness in words was
-always counted the next step to trifling; and so was to be curious about
-names too: also that we cannot follow a better pattern for elocution than
-God himself; therefore he using divers words in his holy writ, and
-indifferently for one thing in nature: we, if we will not be
-superstitious, may use the same liberty in our _English_ versions out of
-_Hebrew_ and _Greek_, for that copy or store that he hath given us.
-Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the scrupulosity of the Puritanes,
-who leave the old Ecclesiastical words, and betake them to other, as when
-they put _washing_ for _baptism_, and _congregation_ instead of _Church_:
-as also on the other side we have shunned the obscurity of the Papists, in
-their _azymes_, _tunike_, _rational_, _holocausts_, _prepuce_, _pasche_,
-and a number of such like, whereof their late translation is full, and
-that of purpose to darken the sense, that since they must needs translate
-the Bible, yet by the language thereof it may be kept from being
-understood. But we desire that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in
-the language of _Canaan_, that it may be understood even of the very
-vulgar.
-
-Many other things we might give thee warning of, gentle Reader, if we had
-not exceeded the measure of a preface already. It remaineth that we
-commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to
-build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our
-eyes, the vail from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand
-his word, enlarging our hearts, yea, correcting our affections, that we
-may love it above gold and silver, yea, that we may love it to the end.
-[Sidenote: Gen. 26. 15.] Ye are brought unto fountains of living water
-which ye digged not; do not cast earth into them, with the Philistines,
-neither prefer broken pits before them, with the wicked Jews. [Sidenote:
-Jer. 2. 13.] Others have laboured, and you may enter into their labours. O
-receive not so great things in vain: O despise not so great salvation. Be
-not like swine to tread under foot so precious things, neither yet like
-dogs to tear and abuse holy things. Say not to our Saviour with the
-_Gergesites_, [Sidenote: Matt. 8. 35. Heb. 12. 16.] Depart out of our
-coasts; neither with _Esau_ sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. If
-light be come into the world, love not darkness more than light: if food,
-if clothing, be offered, go not naked, starve not yourselves. [Sidenote:
-_Nazianz._ [Greek: peri hag bapt. Deinon pan�gyrin parelthein, kai
-t�nikauta pragmateian epiz�tein.]] Remember the advice of _Nazianzene_,
-_It is a grievous thing_ (or dangerous) _to neglect a great fair, and to
-seek to make markets afterwards_: also the encouragement of St.
-_Chrysostome_, _It is altogether impossible, that he that is sober_ (and
-watchful) _should at any time be neglected_: lastly, the admonition and
-menancing of St. _Augustine_, _They that despise God's will inviting them
-shall feel God's will taking vengeance of them_. [Sidenote: _St. Chrysost.
-in Epist. ad Rom. c. 14._] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
-the living God; [Sidenote: _orat. 26. in_ [Greek: �thik. Ham� chanon,
-sphodra am�chanon.]] but a blessed thing it is, and will bring us to
-everlasting blessedness in the end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken;
-when he setteth his word before us, to read it; when he stretcheth out his
-hand and calleth, to answer, Here am I, here we are to do thy will, O God.
-[Sidenote: _St. August, ad artic. sibi falso object. Art. 16._ Heb. 10.
-31.] The Lord work a care and conscience in us to know him and serve him,
-that we may be acknowledged of him at the appearing of our Lord JESUS
-CHRIST, to whom with the Holy Ghost be all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-(G.)
-
-_THE REVISERS OF A.D. 1568._
-
-
-The twelve bishops who are mentioned as taking part with Archbishop Parker
-in this revision, are:
-
-    William Alley, Bishop of Exeter.
-
-    William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester.
-
-    Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
-
-    Nicholas Bullingham, Bishop of Lincoln.
-
-    Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely.
-
-    Richard Davies, Bishop of St. Davids (Menevensis).
-
-    Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.
-
-    Edmund Guest (or Geste), Bishop of Rochester.
-
-    Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester.
-
-    John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich.
-
-    Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Worcester.
-
-    Edmund Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough.
-
-The other church dignitaries who are mentioned are:
-
-    Andrew Pearson, Canon of Canterbury.
-
-    Andrew Perne, Prebendary of Ely.
-
-    Thomas Beacon, Prebendary of Canterbury.
-
-    Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster.
-
-At the end of sixteen of the books are placed initials, which are
-evidently those of the revisers. These, with more or less of certainty,
-have been identified with names given in the above list.[147] They are as
-follows, and in the following order:
-
-  Deuteronomy   W. E.      Bishop of Exeter.
-  2 Samuel      R. M.      Bishop of St. Davids.
-  2 Chronicles  E. W.      Bishop of Worcester.
-  Job           A. P. _C_  Andrew Pearson.
-  Psalms[148]   T. B.      Thomas Beacon.
-  Proverbs      A. P. _C_  Andrew Pearson.
-  Canticles     A. P. _E_  Andrew Perne.
-  Lamentations  R. W.      Bishop of Winchester.
-  Daniel        T. C.L.    Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
-  Malachi       E. L.      Bishop of London.
-  Wisdom        W. C.      Bishop of Chichester.
-  2 Maccabees   J. N.      Bishop of Norwich.
-  Acts          R. E.      Bishop of Ely.
-  Romans        R. E.      Bishop of Ely.
-  1 Corinthians G. G.      Gabriel Goodman.
-
-From a list of the revisers, enclosed in a letter from Parker to Cecil,
-dated October 5th, 1568, and now in the State Paper Office, we may further
-gather that the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse were revised by
-Bishop Bullingham, the Gospels of Luke and John by Bishop Scambler, and
-that the portions undertaken by Parker himself were Genesis, Exodus,
-Matthew, Mark, and the Epistles from 2 Corinthians to Hebrews
-inclusive.[149]
-
-
-
-
-(H.)
-
-_THE REVISERS OF 1611._
-
-
-In the collection of Records appended to the Second Part of Bishop
-Burnet's _History of the Reformation of the Church of England_, there is
-given a list of the Revisers of 1611, copied, as the writer tells us,[150]
-from the paper of Bishop Ravis himself, one of the number. The list is
-thus given:[151]
-
-    WESTMINSTER (1). Mr. Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dean of Pauls, Mr.
-    Doctor Saravia, Mr. Doctor Clark, Mr. Doctor Leifield, Mr. Doctor
-    Teigh, Mr. Burleigh, Mr. King, Mr. Tompson, Mr. Beadwell.
-
-    CAMBRIDGE (1). Mr. Livelye, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Chatterton, Mr.
-    Dillingham, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Spalding, Mr. Burge.
-
-    OXFORD (1). Doctor Harding, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Holland, Dr. Kilbye, Mr.
-    Smith, Mr. Brett, Mr. Fairclough.
-
-    CAMBRIDGE (2). Doctor Dewport, Dr. Branthwait, Dr. Radclife, Mr. Ward
-    (Eman.), Mr. Downes, Mr. Boyes, Mr. Warde (Reg.).
-
-    OXFORD (2). Mr. Dean of Christchurch, Mr. Dean of Winchester, Mr. Dean
-    of Worcester, Mr. Dean of Windsor, Mr. Sairle, Dr. Perne, Dr. Ravens,
-    Mr. Haviner.[152]
-
-    WESTMINSTER (2). Dean of Chester, Dr. Hutchinson, Dr. Spencer, Mr.
-    Fenton, Mr. Rabbet, Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Dakins.
-
-Some difference of opinion has existed in reference to the date of this
-document. Its date is determined within comparatively narrow limits by
-internal evidence.
-
-The writer, Dr. Ravis, describes himself as Dean of Christ Church; it must
-therefore have been written _before_ March 19, 1605, when he was
-consecrated Bishop of Gloucester. He also refers to the Dean of Worcester
-(Dr. Eedes), who died November, 1604, and hence he may be assumed to have
-written before that date also. The difficulty is that he describes Dr.
-Barlow, who is known to have taken part in the work, as Dean of Chester,
-and it must therefore have been written _after_ Barlow's appointment of
-this office. This appointment, as stated by Cardwell, took place in
-December, 1604;[153] but the correctness of that date is open to some
-doubt.[154]
-
-The names contained in the above given list have, with some few
-exceptions, been satisfactorily identified; namely, as follows:
-
-
-FIRST WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. Launcelot Andrews, Dean of Westminster.[155]
-
-    Dr. John Overall, Dean of St. Paul's.[156]
-
-    Dr. Adrian de Saravia.
-
-    Dr. Richard Clark, Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. John Layfield, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-    Dr. Robert Tighe, Vicar of All Hallows, Barking.
-
-    [Dr. Francis Burley, Fellow of King James's College, Chelsea.]
-
-    Mr. Geoffry King, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.[157]
-
-    Mr. Richard Thomson, Clare Hall, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. William Bedwell, Vicar of Tottenham.
-
-
-FIRST CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
-
-    Mr. Edward Lively,[158] Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. John Richardson,[159] Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Laurence Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. F. Dillingham, Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Thomas Harrison, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Roger Andrews.[160]
-
-    Mr. Robert Spalding,[161] Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
-
-    Mr. Andrew Byng, Fellow of Peter House.
-
-
-FIRST OXFORD COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and President of
-    Magdalen.
-
-    Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College.
-
-    Dr. Thomas Holland,[162] Regius Professor of Divinity.
-
-    Dr. Richard Kilbye, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. Miles Smith,[163] Brasenose College, Oxford.
-
-    Dr. Richard Brett, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
-
-    Mr. Richard Fairclough, Fellow of New College, Oxford.
-
-
-THE SECOND CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. John Duport, Master of Jesus College.
-
-    Dr. William Branthwaite, Master of Caius College.
-
-    Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe, Fellow of Trinity College.
-
-    Mr. Samuel Ward, Fellow of Emmanuel College.[164]
-
-    Mr. Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of Greek.
-
-    Mr. John Bois, Fellow of St. John's, and Rector of Boxworth.
-
-    Mr. Ward, Fellow of King's College.[165]
-
-
-THE SECOND OXFORD COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dean of Christ Church.[166]
-
-    Dr. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester.[167]
-
-    Dr. Richard Eedes, Dean of Worcester.[168]
-
-    Dr. Giles Thomson, Dean of Windsor.
-
-    Mr. Henry Saville,[169] Warden of Merton and Provost of Eton.
-
-    Dr. John Perin, Fellow of St. John's College.
-
-    [Dr. Ralph Ravens, Fellow of St. John's College.]
-
-    Dr. John Harmer, Regius Professor of Greek.
-
-To these, Wood, who does not mention the names of either Eedes or Ravens,
-in the list given in his _History of the University of Oxford_, adds the
-following two; they were probably appointed to take the places of some
-removed by death:
-
-    Dr. John Aglionby,[170] Principal of Edmunds Hall.
-
-    Dr. Leonard Hutten,[171] Canon of Christ Church.
-
-
-THE SECOND WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
-
-    Dr. William Barlow, Dean of Chester.
-
-    Dr. Hutchinson. (?)
-
-    Dr. John Spenser, Chaplain to King James.[172]
-
-    Mr. Roger Fenton, Pembroke Hall, Oxford.
-
-    [Mr. Michael Rabbett, Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane.]
-
-    [Mr. Thomas Sanderson, Rector of All Hallows.]
-
-    Mr. William Dakins, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-
-
-
-
-NOTE TO PAGE 117.
-
-
-DEAN STANLEY (_Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, p. 440) states
-generally that the Assembly of Divines removed from Henry VII.'s Chapel to
-the Jerusalem Chamber at the end of September. The exact date is, as
-stated in the text, October 2nd. In the Minutes of the Sessions of the
-Assembly, preserved in Dr. Williams's Library, there occurs at the close
-of the sixty-fifth session the entry, "Adjourned to the Hierusalem Chamber
-on Monday, at ten o'clock," and the following session, the sixty-sixth, is
-dated Monday, October 2nd. The permission to adjourn to the Jerusalem
-Chamber from Henry VII.'s Chapel, "on account of the coldness of the said
-chapel," was granted by Parliament on September 21st, 1643.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  A.
-
-  Abbot, Dr. Ezra, 115
-
-  �lfric's Heptateuch, 12, 13
-
-  Aiken, Dr. C. A., 115
-
-  Ainsworth, H., his Commentaries, 101
-
-  Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, 11
-
-  Alexander, Dr. W. L., 109
-
-  Alexandrine Manuscript, 83
-
-  Alford, Dean, 104, 107, 110, 112, 125
-
-  Alfred, King, 12
-
-  Allen, Archdeacon, 107
-
-  Andrews, Dr. Launcelot, 41
-
-  Anglo-Saxon Gospel, 12
-
-  Angus, Dr. Jos., 110, 125
-
-  Authorized Version, first suggestion of, 40
-
-  ---- ordered by King James, 41
-
-  ---- a revision, not a translation, 45
-
-  ---- rules followed by the revisers, 42-44
-
-  ---- misprints in, 54
-
-  ---- obsolete words in, 57-59
-
-  ---- imperfect renderings of, 62
-
-  ---- preface to, 199
-
-  ---- list of its revisors, 237
-
-
-  B.
-
-  Bancroft, Archbishop, 41, 45
-
-  Barrow, Dr. John, 104
-
-  Bede, 11
-
-  Bensley, Mr. R. N., 111
-
-  Bentley, Dr. Richard, his proposals for revised texts of the Greek New
-        Testament and of the Vulgate, 100
-
-  Beza's Codex, 83
-
-  Beza, Theodore, his edition of the Greek New Testament, 84, 86
-
-  Biber, Dr. G. F., 103
-
-  Bible, earliest form of, 4
-
-  ---- Authorized Version of, 39
-
-  ---- Bishops', 30, 37, 39
-
-  ---- Coverdale's, 18, 36
-
-  ---- Douai, 33, 38
-
-  ---- Genevan, 26, 37, 39
-
-  ---- Great, 21, 36
-
-  ---- Matthew's, 20
-
-  ---- Purvey's, 15, 36
-
-  ---- Taverner's, 22
-
-  ---- Wycliffe's, 13, 14, 35
-
-  Bickersteth, Dean, 107, 110, 125
-
-  Bilson, Bishop, 49
-
-  Birrell, Rev. J., 111
-
-  Bishops' Bible, 30, 37, 39
-
-  Bishops' Bible, preface thereto, 177
-
-  ---- translators of, 235
-
-  Blakesley, Dean, 106_n_, 107, 110, 125
-
-  Bodley, John, bears the expenses of the Genevan Bible, 30_n_
-
-  Bois, John, 46, 49
-
-  Broughton, Hugh, 92
-
-  Brown, Dr. David, 112, 125
-
-  Browne, Dr. E. H. (Bishop of Winchester), 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-
-  C.
-
-  Chambers, Dr. T. W., 115
-
-  Chance, Dr. F., 111
-
-  Chenery, Professor, 109
-
-  Cheyne, Rev. T. K., 111
-
-  Claromontane Manuscript, 83
-
-  Clergymen, Five, their revision of the Gospel of John, 104
-
-  Collation of Manuscripts, 82
-
-  Complutensian Polyglot, 84
-
-  Conant, Dr. T. J., 114
-
-  Coverdale, first edition of his Bible, 18
-
-  ---- his Prologue thereto, 160
-
-  ---- prepares the Great Bible, 21
-
-  ---- issues a second and other editions of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  ---- a refugee at Geneva, 27
-
-  Cranmer, his opinion of Matthew's Bible, 20_n_
-
-  ---- his Prologue to the second edition of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  Cromwell, Thomas, patron of Coverdale, 18
-
-  ---- promotes the preparation of the Great Bible, 23
-
-  Crooks, Dr. G. R., 115, 116
-
-
-  D.
-
-  Davidson, Dr. A. B., 109
-
-  Davies, Dr. B., 109
-
-  Day, Dr. G. E., 114
-
-  De Witt, Dr. J., 114
-
-  Dort, Synod of, 44, 49
-
-  Douglas, Dr. G., 111
-
-  Downes, A., 49
-
-  Driver, Mr. S. R., 111
-
-
-  E.
-
-  Eadie, Dr. J., 110, 112
-
-  Ellicott, Bishop, 104, 105, 110, 125
-
-  Elliott, Rev. C. J., 112
-
-  Ephraem Codex, 83
-
-  Erasmus, his editions of the Greek New Testament, 85
-
-
-  F.
-
-  Fairbairn, Dr. P., 109
-
-  Field, Dr. F., 109
-
-
-  G.
-
-  Geddes, Dr. A., his projected translation of the Bible, 98
-
-  Geden, Professor, 112
-
-  Gell, R., his essay upon the amendment of the Authorized Version, 93
-
-  Genevan Bible, 26-30, 37
-
-  ---- popularity of, 32, 52
-
-  ---- preface to, 172
-
-  Genevan Psalter, 27
-
-  Genevan New Testament, 28, 29
-
-  Ginsburg, Dr., 109
-
-  Gotch, Dr. F. W., 109
-
-  Green, Dr. W. H., 114
-
-  Gutenberg Bible, 17_n_
-
-  Guthlac of Croyland, 11, 12
-
-
-  H.
-
-  Hackett, Dr. H. B., 115, 116
-
-  Hadley, Dr. J., 115, 116
-
-  Hampton Court Conference, 40
-
-  Harding, Dr. J., 41
-
-  Hare, Dr. G. E., 114
-
-  Harrison, Archdeacon, 109
-
-  Harwood, E., his translation of the New Testament, 97_n_
-
-  Hereford, Nicholas de, 14
-
-  Hervey, Bishop, 107
-
-  Heywood, James, his motion in the House of Commons for a new revision,
-        103
-
-  Hodge, Dr. C., 115, 116
-
-  Holbein, his design for title-page of Great Bible, 22_n_
-
-  Hort, Dr. F. J. A., 110, 120, 125
-
-  Humphry, Prebendary, 104, 110, 125
-
-
-  I.
-
-  Itala, The, 9
-
-
-  J.
-
-  Jebb, Dr. J., 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Jerome, revises the old Latin version, 9
-
-  ---- translates Old Testament, 9
-
-  Jerusalem Chamber, 117, 127, 242
-
-  Jessey, Henry, his attempted revision of Authorized Version, 95
-
-  Johnson, Anthony, his Historical Account, 27_n_
-
-
-  K.
-
-  Kay, Dr. W., 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Kendrick, Dr. A. C., 115
-
-  Kennedy, Canon, 110, 125
-
-  Kennicott, Dr. B., 100
-
-  Kilbie, Dr. R., 47
-
-  Krauth, Dr. C. P., 115
-
-
-  L.
-
-  Latin Versions, 8, 9
-
-  Lawrence, T., his notes of errors in the Bishops' Bible, 32
-
-  Leathes, Dr. S., 109
-
-  Lee, Archdeacon, 110, 125
-
-  Lee, Dr. A., 115
-
-  Lewis, Dr. T., 115
-
-  Lewis, John, his History of the English Bible, 41, 49_n_
-
-  Lightfoot, Dr. J., urges upon Parliament the revision of the English
-        Bible, 92
-
-  Lightfoot, Dr. J. B. (Bishop of Durham), 101, 110, 125
-
-  Lindisfarne Gospels, 12_n_
-
-  Lively, Ed., 41
-
-  Lumby, Rev. J. R., 112
-
-  Lyra, Nicholas de, 17
-
-
-  M.
-
-  Mace, W., his Greek and English New Testament, 96
-
-  Marsh, Bishop, on the Authorized Version, 102
-
-  Manuscripts of the New Testament, 80
-
-  Mazarin Bible, 17_n_
-
-  McGill, Professor, 109
-
-  Mead, Dr. C. M., 115
-
-  Merivale, Dean, 112, 125
-
-  Mill, Dr. J., 99
-
-  Milligan, Dr. W., 110, 125
-
-  Moberly, Bishop, 104, 110, 125
-
-  Moulton, Dr. W. F., 111, 125
-
-  M�nster, Sebastian, 22, 31
-
-
-  N.
-
-  Newcome, Archbishop, his revised New Testament, 98
-
-  Newth, Dr., 111, 125
-
-
-  O.
-
-  Ollivant, Bishop, 105, 106_n_, 107, 109
-
-  Ormulum, The, 13
-
-  Osgood, Dr. H., 115
-
-
-  P.
-
-  Packard, Dr. J., 115
-
-  Pagninus, his Latin translation, 19, 31_n_
-
-  Palmer, Archdeacon, 112, 125
-
-  Parker, Archbishop, superintends the preparation of the Bishops' Bible,
-        30-32
-
-  ---- his letter to Cecil, 30_n_
-
-  Payne Smith, Dean, 110
-
-  Penn, Grenville, his revised text and translation of New Testament, 99
-
-  Perowne, Dean, 110
-
-  Plumptre, Dr. E. H., 110
-
-  Printed Bible, the first, 17
-
-  Printing, invention of, 17
-
-  Psalter, Genevan, 27
-
-  ---- Guthlac's, 11_n_
-
-  ---- Prayer Book, 9_n_, 39
-
-  ---- Rolle's, 13
-
-  ---- Schorham's, 13
-
-  Purver, A., his translation of the Bible, 97
-
-  Purvey, John, Wycliffe's friend and fellow-labourer, 15
-
-
-  Q.
-
-  Quotations in early Christian Writings, 87-89
-
-
-  R.
-
-  Rainolds, Dr. J., moves for a new revision, 40
-
-  Rainolds, Dr. J., appointed one of King James's revisers, 47
-
-  ---- works at the revision on his death-bed, 47
-
-  Revisers, the American, 114, 116
-
-  ---- of 1568, 235
-
-  ---- of 1611, 237
-
-  ---- of 1881, 109-112
-
-  Riddle, Dr. M. B., 115
-
-  Roberts, Dr. A., 111
-
-  Rogers, John, the probable editor of Matthew's Bible, 20
-
-  Rolle, Richard, 13
-
-  Rose, Archdeacon, 106_n_, 107, 110
-
-  Rossi, J. B. de, 100
-
-
-  S.
-
-  Sayce, Rev. A. H., 112
-
-  Schaff, Dr. Philip, 114, 115
-
-  Scholefield, Professor, on an improved translation of the New Testament,
-        102
-
-  Schorham, W. de, 13
-
-  Scott, Dean, 111, 125
-
-  Scribes, primary function of, 3
-
-  Scrivener, Dr. F. H., 56, 100, 111, 120, 125
-
-  Selwyn, Canon, 103, 107, 110
-
-  Septuagint Version, 6
-
-  Short, Dr. C., 115
-
-  Sinaitic Manuscript, 82
-
-  Smith, Dr. G. Vance, 111, 125
-
-  Smith, Dr. H. B., 115, 116
-
-  Smith, Dr. J. Pye, his testimony in favour of revision, 101
-
-  Smith, Dr. Miles, 47, 49
-
-  Smith, Professor, W. R., 112
-
-  Stanley, Dean, 107, 111, 125
-
-  Stephen, Robert, his editions of the Greek New Testament, 85
-
-  Stephen, Henry, 86_n_
-
-  Stowe, Dr. C. E., 115
-
-  Strong, Dr. J., 115
-
-  Syriac Version, 8, 87
-
-
-  T.
-
-  Taverner, John, 22_n_
-
-  Taverner, Richard, 22
-
-  Testament, New, Genevan, 28
-
-  ---- Rheims, 33
-
-  ---- Tyndale's, 18
-
-  ---- Whittingham's, 25
-
-  ---- See "Bible"
-
-  Thayer, Dr. J. H., 115
-
-  Thirlwall, Bishop, 105, 106, 110
-
-  Tischendorf, Dr. C., 100
-
-  Transcription, errors of, 3
-
-  Tregelles, Dr. S. P., 100, 109_n_
-
-  Trench, Archbishop, 111, 125
-
-  Tyndale, W., his translations, 18
-
-  ---- his Prologue to New Testament, 137
-
-  ---- his Epistle to the Reader, 152
-
-  ---- his Preface to the Pentateuch, 154
-
-
-  U.
-
-  Ussher, A., his revised version, 94_n_
-
-
-  V.
-
-  Vatican Manuscript, 83
-
-  Van Dyke, Dr. C. V. A., 115
-
-  Vaughan, Dean, 111, 125
-
-  Version, �thiopic, 87
-
-  ---- Armenian, 87
-
-  ---- Gothic, 87
-
-  ---- Italic, 8
-
-  ---- Memphitic, 87
-
-  ---- Old Latin, 8
-
-  ---- Septuagint, 6
-
-  ---- Syriac, 8
-
-  ---- Thebaic, 87
-
-  Vulgate, 9
-
-
-  W.
-
-  Wakefield, G., his translation of the New Testament, 98
-
-  Walker, Anthony, his Life of Bois, 46_n_, 49_n_
-
-  Walton's Polyglot, 99
-
-  Ward, Dr. S., 44_n_
-
-  Ward, T., his Errata to the Protestant Bible, 33_n_, 93
-
-  Warren, Dr. W. F., 115, 116
-
-  Weir, Dr. D. H., 112
-
-  Wemyss, T., his Reasons in favour of a new translation, 102
-
-  Westcott, Canon, 22_n_, 41_n_, 111, 125
-
-  Whittingham's New Testament, 25
-
-  ---- his version and the Genevan compared, 28, 29
-
-  Wicked Bible, 54_n_
-
-  Wilberforce, Bishop, 105, 106, 111, 125
-
-  Woolsey, Dr. T. D., 115
-
-  Wordsworth, Dr. Christopher (Bishop of Lincoln), 107, 110
-
-  Wordsworth, Dr. Charles (Bishop of St. Andrews), 112, 125
-
-  Worsley, J., his translation of the New Testament, 97
-
-  Wright, Dr. W., 109_n_, 112
-
-  Wright, Mr. W. A., 110, 113
-
-  Wycliffe, John, 13, 14
-
-  ---- his Bible, 16, 35
-
-  ---- preface to his Bible, 129
-
-
-  Z.
-
-  Zurich Bible, 19
-
-
-_W. Brendon and Son, Plymouth._
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] From the Latin for seventy, this being the supposed number of the
-translators. It is referred to as the translation of the Seventy Elders so
-early as the middle of the second century. See Justin Martyr, _Dialogue
-with Trypho_, c. 68.
-
-[2] See Philo Jud�us, _Life of Moses_, book ii. Josephus, _Antiquities_,
-xii. ii. 5, 11, 12, 14. Eusebius, _Eccl. Hist._, v. 8. Josephus states
-that the translation was made by seventy-two elders in seventy-two days.
-The story as given in Eusebius is, that the seventy elders were placed
-apart in seventy different cells, that each translated the entire
-Scriptures, and that the seventy translations when compared were found to
-agree to a word.
-
-[3] And this he gave, not by any formal enactment, but by using Jerome's
-translation as the basis of his own _Exposition of the Book of Job_. (See
-Gregory's _Letter to Leander_, forming the preface to that work.) The old
-version of the Psalms retained its ground apparently from its close
-connection with the music of the Church. From a like cause the old version
-of the English Psalms, which in fact was made from the Latin of the
-Vulgate, retains its place in the Psalter of the Prayer Book. It should
-however be noted that it is but the translation of the translation of a
-translation.
-
-[4] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, A.D. 709.
-
-[5] "I have seen a book at Crowland Abbey, which is kept there for a
-relic. The book is called _Saint Guthlake's Psalter_, and I weene verily
-that it is a copy of the same that the king did translate; for it is
-neither English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nor Dutch, but something sounding
-to our English; and as I have perceived since the time I was last there,
-being at Antwerp, the Saxon tongue doth sound likewise, and it is to ours
-partly agreeable." The answer of John Lambert to the twenty-sixth of the
-Articles laid against him. (FOXE, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. v. p. 213.)
-
-[6] _The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester_, A.D. 699, and A.D. 714.
-
-[7] Many of the clergy were probably at this time unable to interpret the
-Latin Bibles used in the Church services. Several MSS. exist which have an
-English translation (gloss) inserted between the lines by writers of the
-ninth or tenth centuries. One of these, the "Lindisfarne Gospels," now in
-the British Museum, is a most richly-adorned MS. It was written by one
-bishop of Lindisfarne, and ornamented by another, and was encased in
-jewelled covers. Over each Latin word is written its equivalent in English
-(Anglo-Saxon). This, as is explained by a note at the end, was done by one
-"Aldred, the priest," and, as his handwriting shows, in the tenth century.
-It cannot be supposed that this was done for the benefit of ordinary
-readers. So valued a MS. would not be likely to come into any other hands
-than those of the clergy or the monks.
-
-[8] There is no direct evidence for the existence at an earlier date of
-any translation of the entire Scriptures into any form of English. In an
-interesting tract (commonly assigned to the earlier part of the fifteenth
-century, and printed by Foxe in the first edition of his _Acts and
-Monuments_, 1563), entitled, "A Compendious Old Treatise, showing how that
-we ought to have the Scripture in English." It is stated, "Also a man of
-London, whose name was Wyring, had a Bible in English, of northern speech,
-which was seen of many men, and it seemed to be two hundred years old."
-(FOXE, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. iv. p. 674.) It cannot, however, be
-inferred from this statement that the volume referred to was a complete
-Bible.
-
-[9] See Appendix A.
-
-[10] As many as one hundred and fifty manuscripts, containing the whole or
-parts of Purvey's Bible, are still in existence, and the majority of these
-were written within forty years from the time of its completion.--FORSHALL
-and MADDEN, _Wycliffite Versions of the Holy Bible_, Preface, p. xxxiii.
-
-[11] No portion of the Wycliffe Bible was printed until 1731, when the New
-Testament, in the later of its forms, was published by the Rev. John
-Lewis, of Margate. This was reprinted in 1810, under the editorship of the
-Rev. Henry Baber. The complete Bible was not printed till so recently as
-1850, in the splendid volumes issued from the University press of Oxford,
-and edited by the Rev. J. Forshall and Rev. F. Madden.
-
-[12] The first work known to have been printed with moveable metal type is
-the Latin Bible, issued from the press of John Gutenberg at Maintz,
-1450-55. This Bible is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible, from
-the accidental circumstance that a copy of it was found about the middle
-of last century in Cardinal Mazarin's library at Paris. (HALLAM,
-_Literature of Europe_, vol. i. p. 210.) With more propriety it may be
-called the Gutenberg Bible.
-
-[13] See Appendix C.
-
-[14] Mr. Blunt, in his article "English Bible," in the _Encyclop�dia
-Britannica_, maintains that Coverdale translated directly from the Hebrew
-and Greek. But in order to this he has, first, forcibly to set aside the
-statement on the title-page as "placed there by mistake," and then to
-represent Coverdale as including the Hebrew and Greek originals in the
-same category as Latin, German, and English translations, and as
-describing them all as "five interpreters" from which he had translated.
-
-[15] This license seems to have been obtained from the king by Cromwell at
-Cranmer's suggestion. (See Cranmer's Letter to Cromwell, August 4th, 1537.
-_Remains and Letters_, p. 344. Parker Society.) In this letter Cranmer
-thus expresses his opinion of the book: "And as for the translation, as
-far as I have read thereof I like it better than any other translation
-heretofore made; yet not doubting but that there may be and will be found
-some fault therein, as you know no man ever did or can do so well, but it
-may be from time to time amended. And forasmuch as the book is dedicated
-unto the king's grace, and also great pains and labour taken in setting
-forth of the same: I pray you, my lord, that you will exhibit the book
-unto the king's highness, and to obtain of his grace, if you can, a
-license that the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger
-of any act, proclamation, or ordinance, heretofore granted to the
-contrary, until such time as we bishops shall set forth a better
-translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday."
-
-[16] The full title is, "The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the
-content of all the holy scrypture, bothe of the olde and newe testament,
-truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes by y{e}
-dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde
-tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio
-ad imprimendum solum. 1539."
-
-[17] This was more than compensated by the remarkable and interesting
-engraving, said to be designed by Hans Holbein, which formed the
-title-page. Herein the king is flattered to his heart's content. On the
-top of the engraving the king on his knees and uncrowned is addressed by
-our Lord in the words, "I have found a man after mine own heart, who shall
-fulfil all my will." Below this the king on his throne distributes books
-labelled "_Verbum Dei_," the Word of God, to the clergy with his right
-hand, to Cromwell and others with the left. Lower down on the right of the
-page is the figure of Cromwell distributing the books to the laity, and on
-the left that of Cranmer distributing it to the clergy. At the bottom of
-the page is a crowd of people of all sorts and conditions, some crying out
-in Latin, "_Vivat Rex_" others in English, "God save the king."
-
-[18] With the title, "The Most Sacred Bible, which is the Holy Scripture,
-conteyning the old & new testament translated into English, & newly
-recognised with great diligence after most faythful exemplars, by Rychard
-Taverner. Harken thou heuen, & thou earth gyve eare: for the Lorde
-speaketh. Esaie i. Printed at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the
-sonne by John Byddell, for Thomas Barthlet. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum
-solum M.D. XXXIX."
-
-[19] In Fox, _Acts and Monuments_, v. 428, amongst the names of "godly
-brethren at Oxford" suspected of heresy, and compelled to do public
-penance, mention is made of "Taverner the musician," of "Friswide College"
-(Frideswede, now Christ Church); and again, v. 423, Anthony Dalaber says,
-"I stode at the quier door and heard Master Taverner play." Dr. EADIE,
-_The English Bible_, i. 343, assumes that the reference in this last
-passage is to Richard Taverner; but far more probably the reference is to
-John Taverner, who, according to WOOD, _Athen� Oxoniensis_, i. 124, was
-"sometime organist of Cardinal College." I find no other foundation than
-these doubtful passages for the statement made by WESTCOTT, _History of
-the English Bible_, ed. 2, p. 85, and by EADIE, _loc. cit._, that Richard
-Taverner was one of those who suffered persecution upon the first
-circulation of Tyndale's New Testament.
-
-[20] See COTTON, _Editions of the English Bible_, p. 21.
-
-[21] From this circumstance the Great Bible is often, but improperly,
-called Cranmer's Bible. "The Prologue or Preface made by Thomas Cranmer
-sometime Archbishop of Canterbury," is prefixed to many Bibles, to some
-editions of the Genevan, and to the Bishops.
-
-[22] The dates of these editions, as given in the colophons, are, July,
-1540; November, 1540 (1541 on title-page); May, 1541; November, 1541;
-December, 1541.
-
-[23] He married Catherine, sister of John Calvin. An interesting account
-of "The Life and Death of Mr. William Whittingham, Deane of Durham, who
-departed this life A.D. 1579, June 10," found amongst the papers of
-Anthony � Wood, preserved in the Bodleian Library, is given by DR.
-LORIMER, _John Knox and the Church of England_, pp. 303-317.
-
-[24] The dedication to the queen, prefixed to this volume, is dated
-Geneva, February 10th, 1559. After exhorting the queen to persevere in the
-reformation of religion, the writers state that "albeit they had begun
-more than a year ago to peruse the _English_ Translation of the Bible, and
-to bring it to the pure simplicity and true meaning of the Spirit of God,
-yet when they heard that Almighty God had miraculously preserved her to
-that most excellent dignity, with most joyful minds and great diligence
-they endeavoured themselves to set forth this most excellent Book of the
-Psalms unto her Grace as a special token of their service and goodwill
-till the rest of the Bible, which was in good readiness, should be
-accomplished and presented." (ANTHONY JOHNSON, _Historical Account of the
-Several English Translations of the Bible_. Reprinted in WATSON'S
-_Collection of Theological Tracts_, vol. iii. p. 87.)
-
-[25]
-
-    _verse._   1557.                        1560.
-   1. out of the way                apart
-   3. they saw                      there appeared unto them
-   4. here is good beying for us    it is good for us to be here
-   5. that cloude                   the cloude
-      my deare sonne                my beloved sonne
-      in whom I delyte              in whom I am well pleased
-   6. were afrayed                  were sore afrayde
-   7. But Jesus                     Then Jesus
-   8. loked up                      lifted up their eyes
-   9. See that ye shewe             Shewe
-      be risen                      rise
-      death                         the dead
-  11. Jesus                         And Jesus
-  12. lusted                        would
-      In like wise                  likewise
-  14. people                        multitude
-  15. mercie                        pitie
-      oft                           ofttimes
-  17. Jesus                         Then Jesus
-      how long (_bis_).             how long now (_bis_)
-  18. came out                      went out
-      even that same                at that
-  19. secrectly                     apart
-  20. Jesus                         And Jesus
-      if ye had                     if ye have
-      ye should                     ye shall
-      it should                     it shall
-      neither could anything        and nothing shall
-      for you to do                 unto you
-  22. As they                       And as they
-      passed the time               abode
-      betraied                      delivered
-  23. and the thyrd                 but the third
-      sorowed greatly               were verie sorie
-  24. were wont to gather           received
-  25. spake first to him            prevented
-  27. thyne angle                   an angle
-      the fyshe that first          the first fish that
-      pay                           give it unto them
-
-[26] Strype also tells us that the expenses of publication were borne
-chiefly by John Bodley, father of Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the
-Bodleian Library at Oxford.--_Life of Parker_, p. 206.
-
-[27] It is very pleasant to read that, notwithstanding this, Parker joined
-with Grindal, Bishop of London, in pleading for an extension of the patent
-granted to Bodley, in order to enable him to publish the new edition of
-the Genevan referred to above. Writing, March 9th, 1565, to Cecil, the
-Queen's Secretary, the Archbishop and Bishop say, "That they thought so
-well of the first Impression, and the Review of those who had since
-travelled therein, that they wisht it would please him to be a Means, that
-Twelve Years longer Term might be by Special Privilege granted him, in
-consideration of the Charges by him and his Associates in the first
-Impression, and the Review sithence sustained. And that tho' one other
-special Bible for the Churches were meant by them to be set forth, as
-convenient Time and Leisure hereafter should permit, yet should it nothing
-hinder, but rather do much good, to have Diversity of Translations and
-Readings."--STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, p. 207, Folio Edition.
-
-[28] See Appendix G.
-
-[29] Pagninus was a learned Dominican, who published at Lyons, in 1528, a
-new translation in Latin of the Old and New Testaments.
-
-[30] STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, Appendix, p. 139.
-
-[31] _Ibid_, p. 399.
-
-[32] In an attack made upon Protestant versions of the Scriptures by
-Thomas Ward, in the reign of James II., or three-quarters of a century
-after the publication of the Authorized Version, the writer selects his
-examples from Genevan Bibles of the years 1562, 1577, and 1579, and speaks
-of this Bible as "well known in England even to this day, as being yet in
-many men's hands."--_Errata to the Protestant Bible_, p. 19, ed. 1737.
-
-[33] The Old Testament was not published till long afterwards, when the
-College was once more settled at Douai. It is hence called the Douai
-Bible. The first volume was published in 1609, and the second in 1610. In
-the preface it is stated that the translation was made "about thirtie
-yeares since."
-
-[34] Amongst the former are advent, allegory, anathema, assumption,
-calumniate, co-operate, evangelize, eunuch, gratis, holocaust, neophyte,
-paraclete, pentecost, victim. Amongst the latter are agnition, azymes,
-commessation, condigne, contristate, depositum, donaries, exinanited,
-parasceue, pasche, prefinition, loaves of proposition, repropitiate,
-superedified.
-
-[35] Compare the word "leasowes," still used in some parts of the country
-for "meadows."
-
-[36] "Of all the English versions, the Bishops' Bible had probably the
-least success. It did not command the respect of scholars, and its size
-and cost were far from meeting the wants of the people. Its circulation
-appears to have been practically limited to the churches which were
-ordered to be supplied with it."--Dr. PLUMPTRE, _Dictionary of the Bible_,
-vol. iii. p. 1,675.
-
-[37] His name is variously spelt Rainolds, Rainoldes, Reinolds, Reynolds.
-
-[38] See Dr. WILLIAM BARLOW'S _Sum and Substance of the Conference which
-it pleased his Excellent Majesty to have with the Lords Bishops, and
-others of his Clergy, in his Majesty's Privy Chamber at Hampton Court,
-Jan. 1603_ (o.s.). Reprinted in _The Phenix: or a Revival of Scarce and
-Valuable Pieces_, p. 157. Lond. 1707.
-
-[39] Rendered in the Bishops' and the Great Bible, "and bordereth upon the
-city which is now called Jerusalem," instead of, "and answered to
-Jerusalem which now is."
-
-[40] Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, "they were not
-obedient," instead of, "they were not disobedient," as in Genevan, or
-"they rebelled not," as in our present Bibles.
-
-[41] Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, "and prayed,"
-instead of, "and executed judgment."
-
-[42] See LEWIS, _History of the English Translations of the Bible_, p.
-313; or EADIE, _The English Bible_, vol. ii. p. 180; or WESTCOTT, _History
-of the English Bible_, p. 113. The king's letter is given in full by
-CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England_, vol. ii.
-p. 65, ed. 1839.
-
-[43] For the names of the Revisers of 1611 see Appendix H.
-
-[44] That is, the Great Bible; called Whitchurch's, from the name of one
-of the printers.
-
-[45] BURNET, _History of the Reformation_, part ii., Appendix, p. 368, ed.
-1681.
-
-[46] One of whom, Dr. Samuel Ward, had himself taken part in the English
-revision.
-
-[47] Tables of Genealogies and a description of the Holy Land are found
-prefixed to many early editions of King James's Bible.
-
-[48] _Acta Synodi Dordrechti habit�_, p. 19, ed. 1620.
-
-[49] CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals_, vol. ii. p. 68, ed. 1839.
-
-[50] See Appendix F.
-
-[51] For a list of the Revisers see Appendix H.
-
-[52] In some cases, however, this further subdivision of work seems to
-have taken place. Anthony Walker, in his _Life of John Bois_, p. 47
-(reprinted in PECK'S _Desiderata Curiosa_), says: "Sure I am that Part of
-the Apocrypha was allotted to him (for he hath showed me the very copy he
-translated by), but to my Grief I know not what part." Bois was a member
-of the company to which the Apocrypha was assigned. Walker goes on to say,
-"All the time he was about his own Part, his Commons were given to him at
-St. Johns, where he abode all the week till Saturday night; and then he
-went home to discharge his Cure, returning thence on Monday morning. When
-he had finished his own part, at the earnest request of him to whom it was
-assigned he undertook a Second, and then he was to common in another
-College. But I forbear to name both the person and the House."
-
-[53] The bare fact that the Oxford Revisers met in Rainolds' lodgings is
-mentioned by WOOD, _Historia Univ. Oxon._, vol. i. p. 311, and is referred
-to by STOUGHTON, _Our English Bible_, p. 248.
-
-[54] FULLER'S _Abel Redivivus_, p. 487. In his _Church History_, book x.
-p. 48, Fuller says of Rainolds that he was a man deserving of the epitaph.
-"Incertum est utrum Doctior an Melior." "We know not which was the
-greater, his learning or his goodness."
-
-[55] PECK, _Desiderata Curiosa_, p. 47.
-
-[56] It is clear, from the words which immediately follow, that the writer
-uses the word "company" here for the entire number of translators
-belonging to any one of the three centres. In the written account
-presented to the Synod of Dort by the English delegates, it is said that
-_twelve_ persons, selected out of the companies, met together, and
-reviewed and corrected the entire work. Wood also (_Athen� Oxon._, vol. i.
-p. 490) gives twelve as the number of the "selected," and amongst them
-includes Bilson and Miles Smith.
-
-[57] The writer quaintly remarks in a parenthesis, "Though Mr. Downes
-would not go till he was either fetcht or threatened with the Pursuivant."
-
-[58] Lewis (_History of the English Translations of the Bible_, p. 323) by
-a strange blunder turns these shillings into pounds.
-
-[59] Walker adds, "Whilst they were employed in this last business, he and
-he only took notes of their proceedings, which notes he kept till his
-dying day." If these notes could be recovered they would throw much light
-upon many points of interest in connection with the Revision of 1611.
-
-[60] FULLER, _Church History_, book x. p. 57.
-
-[61] See Mr. HENRY STEVENS, _Printed Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition_, p.
-110. But if Mr. Stevens be right in this contention, the publisher can
-scarcely be held free from the charge of false suggestion, since the
-phrase occurs in earlier Bibles in the sense which it most naturally
-bears. In the edition of the Great Bible dated April, 1540, we have on the
-title-page: "This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the churches," and
-the meaning of this is shown by the fuller form that appears in the
-title-page of the edition of November, 1540, "auctorysed and apoynted by
-the commaundement of oure moost redoubted Prynce and soveraygne Lorde
-Kynge Henrye the VIII. ... to be frequented and used in every churche
-within this his sayd realme." An edition of the Bishops' Bible dated 1585
-has the inscription, "Authorized and appointed to be read in Churches;"
-and King Charles II.'s _Declaration to all His Loving Subjects_, is
-"Appointed to to be Read in all Churches and Chapels within this kingdom."
-
-[62] The latest quarto edition of the Genevan published in England bears
-the date 1615, the latest folio, 1616.
-
-[63] This edition has hence been described by Bible collectors as the
-"Wicked Bible." The error was of course speedily discovered and the
-edition suppressed. Archbishop Laud fined the printer in the sum of �300,
-and with this he is said to have bought a fount of Greek type for the
-University of Oxford.
-
-[64] In the reign of Charles II. a silly report was set afloat that Field,
-the printer of what is known as the Pearl Bible of 1653, had received a
-present of �1,500 from the Independents to introduce this corruption into
-the text. See D'ISRAELI'S _Curiosities of Literature_, Art. Pearl Bible.
-Mr. D'Israeli must have been ignorant of the fact that this error occurs
-in Bibles printed fifteen years earlier than the Pearl Bible, and by the
-University Press, Cambridge.
-
-[65] This may possibly have been a change deliberately made by the editor,
-who either had a different Greek text or followed the Vulgate; but even in
-that case it would be a very awkward way of rendering the text before him.
-
-[66] This he has done, professedly, in the attempt to represent the
-version of 1611, "so far as may be, in the precise shape that it would
-have assumed if its venerable translators had shown themselves more exempt
-than they were from the failings incident to human infirmity; or if the
-same severe accuracy which is now demanded in carrying so important a
-volume through the press had been deemed requisite, or was at all usual in
-their age."--Introduction to Cambridge Paragraph Bible, p. i.
-
-[67] The LXX. and Vulgate are here right; so also Wycliffe, who,
-translating from the Latin, renders, "Seven trompes, whos vse is in the
-iubile."
-
-[68] Wycliffe, "Stronge men seseden in Yrael."
-
-[69] Here again the LXX., Vulgate, and Wycliffe are right. Wycliffe
-renders, "of whom shulen be alle the best thingis of Yrael."
-
-[70] The LXX., Vulgate, Wycliffe, the Great Bible, the Genevan, and the
-Bishops', all give the true sense.
-
-[71] In their rendering of verse 3 the Revisers of 1611 have followed the
-Genevan. Of the older versions, the Great Bible best renders this verse,
-"All my delyte is upon the saynctes that are in the earth, and upon suche
-as excell in vertue."
-
-[72] The Vulgate leads the way in this error.
-
-[73] Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan render correctly.
-
-[74] So the Rheims, "Why do you also trangresse the commaundement of God
-for your tradition?"
-
-[75] So Wycliffe, "for they ben feithful and loued, the whiche ben
-parceners of benefice;" and the Rheims, "because they be faithful and
-beloued which are partakers of the benefite."
-
-[76] Here all the older versions go wrong.
-
-[77] The first four books of the _Annals of Tacitus_ are found only in a
-single MS. (the Medicean) of the eleventh century. The nine books of the
-_Letters of Pliny the Younger_ are found complete in one MS. only, of the
-tenth century; this also is in the Medicean Library.
-
-[78] From the Latin _uncia_, an inch.
-
-[79] In some MSS. called _palimpsests_, the more ancient, and to us the
-more valuable, writing has been partially washed away, in order that the
-vellum might be used again for some more recent work. In these cases it is
-exceedingly difficult to decipher, beneath the later and darker writing,
-the traces of the older writing; indeed, not unfrequently the characters
-are so faded that they cannot be read at all until revived by some
-chemical preparation. The Ephraem Codex is a MS. of this kind.
-
-[80] Commonly referred to under the symbol [Hebrew], the Hebrew letter,
-_Aleph_.
-
-[81] Referred to as B.
-
-[82] Referred to as A.
-
-[83] Referred to as C.
-
-[84] Referred to as D of the Gospels.
-
-[85] Referred to as D of the Epistles.
-
-[86] The License for its publication was not granted until March 20, 1520.
-
-[87] Namely, his sole authority for the Apocalypse.
-
-[88] He had previously published two smaller editions (16mo), one in 1546,
-and another in 1549.
-
-[89] Now called the Codex Regius, and denoted by L.
-
-[90] The collation of the eight Parisian MSS. was done for him by his son
-Henry, then a youth of eighteen.
-
-[91] At Geneva, whither he had deemed it prudent to remove shortly after
-the publication of his celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament.
-
-[92] _Works_, vol. vi. p. 194.
-
-[93] The draft of this Bill is preserved in the State Paper Office
-(_Domestic Interreg._, Bundle 662, f. 12), and is given in full by Dr.
-STOUGHTON, _Church of the Commonwealth_, p. 543.
-
-[94] _Errata to the Protestant Bible_, Pref. p. 3., ed. 1737.
-
-[95] In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is a manuscript in
-three volumes of an English version of the Bible, by Ambrose Ussher,
-brother of Archbishop Ussher. The date assigned to it is about 1620. It
-does not, however, seem to be in any proper sense a revision of the
-version of 1611, but rather an independent revision based upon the earlier
-versions. In an "epistle dedicatorie" to James I. the writer describes
-himself as having "leisurelie and seasonablie dressed" and "served out
-this other dish" while His Majesty was "a doing on" the "seasonable sudden
-meale" which the translators had hastily prepared. He further states that
-he did not oppose "to our new translation old interpretationes alreadie
-waighed and reiected," but "fresh and new that yeeld new consideration and
-that fight not onlie with our English Bible, but likelie with all
-translated bibles in what language soeuer and contrarieth them." As far as
-can be gathered from the examination of a single chapter, the work seems
-chiefly based upon the Genevan. The version is incomplete. Vol. i.
-contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua
-(imperfect), Judges, Ruth, Samuel; vol. ii. contains Kings, Chronicles,
-Ezra, Nehemiah (imperfect), Esther, and a Latin version of part of Joshua;
-vol. iii. contains Job, Psalms (partly in Latin), Proverbs, Song of
-Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
-(partly in Latin), the Minor Prophets, the first chapter of St. John's
-Gospel, Romans, Corinthians, Philemon, James, Peter, John, Apocalypse
-(partly in Latin), Jude.--Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
-_Fourth Report_, pp. 589-598.
-
-[96] _The Life and Death of Mr. Henry Jessey_, p. 47.
-
-[97] Mace's rendering of James iii. 5, 6 is the passage most frequently
-quoted in illustration of his style. "So the tongue is but a small part of
-the body, yet how grand are its pretensions, a spark of fire! what
-quantities of timber will it blow into a flame? the tongue is a brand that
-sets the world in a combustion, it is but one of the numerous organs of
-the body, yet it can blast whole assemblies: tipped with infernal sulphur
-it sets the whole train of life in a blaze." It is but right, however, to
-state that this is perhaps the very worst passage in the book. The
-following verses are a fair specimen of his ordinary style. Acts xix. 8,
-9: "At length Paul went to the synagogue, where he spoke with great
-freedom, and for three months he conferred with them to persuade them of
-the truth of the evangelical kingdom, but some of them being such obdurate
-infidels as to inveigh against the institution before the populace, he
-retired, and taking the disciples with him, he instructed them daily in
-the school of one Tyrannus."
-
-A yet more offensive specimen of this style of translation was supplied by
-the New Testament published in 1768, by E. Harwood, and entitled, _A
-literal translation of the New Testament, being an attempt to translate
-the Sacred Writings with the same Freedom, Spirit, and Elegance with which
-other English Translations from the Greek Classics have lately been
-executed_; a work which, however faithfully it may represent the inflated
-and stilted style which then prevailed, can now be read only with
-astonishment and disgust.
-
-[98] Worsley died before the publication of the volume. It was edited by
-M. Bradshaw and S. Worsley.
-
-[99] In 3 vols., 8vo. A second edition in 2 vols., 8vo., was published in
-1795. _Memoirs of Gilbert Wakefield_, vol. i. p. 355; vol. ii. p. 468.
-
-[100] The work was intended to form eight vols. 4to.
-
-[101] SCRIVENER, _Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament_, p.
-397.
-
-[102] _Eclectic Review_, January, 1809, p. 31.
-
-[103] _Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible_, p. 297,
-ed. 1828. The italics are Dr. Marsh's own.
-
-[104] The members of this first joint Committee were Dr. Wilberforce, Dr.
-Ellicott, Dr. Thirlwall, Dr. Ollivant, Dr. E. H. Browne (Bishop of Ely),
-Dr. Chr. Wordsworth (Bishop of Lincoln), and Dr. G. Moberly (Bishop of
-Salisbury); Dr. Bickersteth (the Prolocutor); Deans Alford, Jeremie, and
-Stanley; Archdeacons Rose, Freeman, and Grant; Chancellor Massingberd;
-Canons Blakesley, How, Selwyn, Swainson, and Woodgate; Dr. Kay, Dr. Jebb,
-and Mr. De Winton.
-
-[105] The Convocation of York declined to take part in the revision, on
-the ground that in their judgment the time was unfavourable for such a
-work.
-
-[106] Canon Selwyn had persistently advocated the claims of revision, and
-had brought it before the Notice of the Lower House of Convocation so
-early as March 1st, 1856. Notice of a renewed motion on the question had
-been given by him for the meeting of Convocation on February, 1870, and
-was only withdrawal when superseded by the proposal sent down on February
-11th from the Upper House.
-
-[107] Canon Cook, Dr. J. H. Newman, Canon Pusey, and Dr. W. Wright. Dr.
-Wright, however, subsequently joined the Old Testament Company.
-
-[108] Dr. S. P. Tregelles.
-
-[109] Now Bishop of Winchester.
-
-[110] Now Dean of Canterbury.
-
-[111] Now Dean of Peterborough.
-
-[112] Now D.D.
-
-[113] Now Bursar.
-
-[114] Now Dean of Lichfield.
-
-[115] Now Dean of Lincoln.
-
-[116] Now D.D. and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
-
-[117] Now Bishop of Durham.
-
-[118] Now D.D., and Master of the Leys School, Cambridge.
-
-[119] Now D.D., Principal of New College, London, and Lee Professor of
-Divinity.
-
-[120] Now Professor of Humanity, St. Andrews.
-
-[121] Now Dean of Rochester.
-
-[122] Now LL.D.
-
-[123] Now Principal of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen.
-
-[124] Now also Dean of Llandaff.
-
-[125] Now also Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
-
-[126] Now Lady Margaret Preacher, Cambridge.
-
-[127] Now Archdeacon of Oxford.
-
-[128] Corresponding Member.
-
-[129] These have been thus distributed:
-
-  Bishop of Gloucester     405
-  Dr. Scrivener            399
-  Mr. Humphry              385
-  Dr. Newth                373
-  Dr. Hort                 362
-  Dean of Lichfield        352
-  Dean of Rochester        337
-  Canon Westcott           304
-  Dean of Llandaff         302
-  Dean of Lincoln          297
-  Bishop of Durham         290
-  Archdeacon Lee           283
-  Dr. Moulton              271
-  Archdeacon Palmer        255
-  Dean of Westminster      253
-  Dr. Vance Smith          245
-  Dr. Brown                209
-  Dr. Angus                199
-  Dr. Milligan             182
-  Canon Kennedy            165
-  Dr. Eadie                135
-  Bishop of Salisbury      121
-  Bishop of St. Andrews    109
-  Dr. Roberts               94
-  Archbishop of Dublin      63
-  Dean Merivale             19
-  Dean Alford               16
-  Bishop Wilberforce         1
-
-[130] As the original would be very obscure to many of my readers, I have
-somewhat reluctantly decided to give the modern spelling and the modern
-equivalent for obsolete words.
-
-[131] Psalm lxxxvii. 6 is thus rendered in the Wycliffite versions, after
-the Vulgate and LXX. The LXX. here differs from the Hebrew.
-
-[132] The word Judah, from which "Jew" is derived, is from a Hebrew verb,
-meaning "to praise." (See Gen. xxix. 35; xlix. 8.)
-
-[133] By "sentence" Purvey commonly means "sense," or "meaning."
-
-[134] That is, if he examine many copies, and especially those of recent
-date.
-
-[135] AUGUSTINE, _Christian Doctrine_, book ii., c. xi.
-
-[136] Bohemians.
-
-[137] AUGUSTINE, _Christian Doctrine_, b. ii. c. xii.
-
-[138] Wisdom, iv. 3.
-
-[139] This Prologue contains but little in the way of historical
-information. It has this especial interest, that it is the preface of the
-first printed portion of the English Bible.
-
-[140] Imitate.
-
-[141] Changed in later editions, first into "To the diligent and Christian
-Reader. Grace, mercie, and peace, through Christ Jesus," and then "To the
-Christian Reader" simply.
-
-[142] Whittingham had previously done the same in his New Testament of
-1557. In his address "To the Reader" he says: "And because the Hebrewe and
-Greke phrases, which are strange to rendre in other tongues, and also
-short, shulde not be to hard, I haue sometyme interpreted them without any
-whit diminishing the grace of the sense, as our lagage doth vse them, and
-sometyme have put to that worde which lacking made the sentence obscure,
-but haue set it in such letters as may easily be discerned from the comun
-text."
-
-In some later editions of the Genevan Bible, printed in black letter, this
-clause is altered into "wee have put in the text between these two markes
-[ ] such worde or verbe as doth more properlie explane or manifest the
-text in our tongue."
-
-[143] To the end that.
-
-[144] [Greek: ex� belous]
-
-[145] [Greek: seisachtheian]
-
-[146] _Circa annum 900. B. Rhenan. rerum German lib. 2._
-
-[147] STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, b. iv. c. 20; JOHNSON, _Historical
-Account_, p. 87; BURNET, _History of the Reformation_, part ii. book iii.
-p. 406, ed. 1681.
-
-[148] The Psalms were in the first instance assigned to Guest, Bishop of
-Rochester. It is probable that the Archbishop was dissatisfied with
-Guest's work, and on good grounds, for he despatched it very quickly, and
-forwarded it to the Archbishop with a letter, in which he thus sets forth
-his estimate of his duty as a translator: "I have not altered the
-Translation but where it giveth occasion of an error. As in the first
-Psalm, at the beginning I turn the preterperfect tense into the present
-tense; because the tense is too hard in the preterperfect tense. Where in
-the New Testament one piece of a Psalm is reported, I translate it in the
-Psalm according to the translation thereof in the New Testament, for the
-avoiding of the offence that may rise to the people upon diverse
-translations." (STRYPE, _Life of Parker_, b. iii. c. 6; _Parker
-Correspondence_, PARKER, sec. ed. p. 250.)
-
-[149] _Parker Correspondence_, PARKER, sec. ed. p. 335.
-
-[150] _Hist. of Ref._, part ii. book iii. p. 406, ed. 1681.
-
-[151] _Collection of Records_, part ii. book iii. number 10.
-
-[152] Probably a misprint for Harmer.
-
-[153] CARDWELL, _Documentary Annals_, vol. ii. p. 110.
-
-[154] Barlow was present at the Hampton Court Conference in January, 1601,
-and all accounts describe him as then Dean of Chester; and his narrative
-of the Conference, published in 1604, is described as "contracted by
-William Barlow, Doctor of Divinity, and Dean of Chester." Sir Peter
-Leycester, _Hist. Antiq. of Cheshire_, p. 169, states that Barlow was
-appointed Dean in 1603.
-
-[155] Bishop of Chichester, November 3rd, 1605; Bishop of Ely, 1609;
-Bishop of Winchester, 1619.
-
-[156] Bishop of Lichfield, April, 1614; Bishop of Norwich, 1618.
-
-[157] Subsequently Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
-
-[158] Lively died May, 1605, and hence could not have taken any active
-part in the Revision.
-
-[159] Afterwards D.D., and successively Master of Peterhouse and of
-Trinity College.
-
-[160] Succeeded Dr. Duport in the Mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge.
-
-[161] Succeeded Mr. Lively as Regius Professor of Hebrew.
-
-[162] Afterwards Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.
-
-[163] Afterwards Bishop of Gloucester.
-
-[164] Master of Sidney College, January, 1609; Archdeacon of Taunton,
-1615; Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge, 1620; Lady Margaret Professor of
-Divinity, 1621.
-
-[165] Afterwards D.D., Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop's
-Waltham, Hants.
-
-[166] Bishop of Gloucester, March 19th, 1605; Bishop of London, May 18th,
-1607.
-
-[167] Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1609; Bishop of London, 1610.
-
-[168] Died November, 1604, and hence could have taken no part in the work
-of the Company. His name is not mentioned by Wood in the list given in
-_Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._, i. p. 311, ed. 1674.
-
-[169] Knighted at Windsor, September 21st, 1604.
-
-[170] WOOD, _Athen� Oxoniensis_, i. 355.
-
-[171] _Ibid_, i. 570.
-
-[172] Subsequently, on the death of Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi
-College. Dr. WESTCOTT, _History of English Bible_, sec. ed. p. 117, and
-Dr. MOULTON, _History of English Bible_, p. 196, both have Dr. _T._
-Spencer, but his name, as inscribed on the monument in the Chapel of
-Corpus Christi College, is IOHANNES SPENSER, and is so given by Wood.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes:
-
-Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
-
-Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
-
-Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
-
-The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not
-represented in this text version.
-
-The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with
-transliterations in this text version.
-
-The original text includes a Hebrew character that is represented as
-[Hebrew] in this text version.
-
-The original text includes various symbols that are represented as
-[Symbol: description] in this text version.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
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-Title: Lectures on Bible Revision
-
-Author: Samuel Newth
-
-Release Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #42514]
-
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-Character set encoding: UTF-8
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION ***
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-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
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-</pre>
-
-
-
-<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></p>
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<h1><small>LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.</small></h1>
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="giant">LECTURES</span><br />
-ON<br />
-<span class="huge">BIBLE REVISION.</span></p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">With an Appendix</p>
-<p class="center"><span class="large">CONTAINING THE PREFACES TO THE CHIEF HISTORICAL<br />
-EDITIONS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.</span></p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />
-<span class="large">SAMUEL NEWTH</span>, <span class="smcaplc">M.A.</span>, <span class="smcaplc">D.D.</span>,<br />
-<small>PRINCIPAL, AND LEE PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, NEW COLLEGE, LONDON;<br />
-MEMBER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY OF REVISERS.</small></p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">LONDON:<br />
-HODDER AND STOUGHTON,<br />
-27, PATERNOSTER ROW.<br />
-MDCCCLXXXI.</p>
-<p class="center">[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
-
-
-<p>The following work is especially intended for Sunday-school and
-Bible-class teachers, and for such others as from any cause may be unable
-to consult many books or to read lengthened treatises. It has seemed to me
-to be of great importance that those who are engaged in the responsible
-service of teaching the young, and to whom the Bible is the constant
-source of appeal, should be able both to take up an intelligent position
-in regard to the new revision of the English Scriptures, and to meet the
-various enquiries that will be made respecting it by those about them. I
-have therefore endeavoured to provide for their use, in a compendious
-form, a survey of the general argument for revision, and of the facts
-which exhibit the present duty of Christian men in relation thereto. In
-the execution of this purpose it has been necessary to direct attention to
-the chief stages in the growth of the English Bible, but this has been
-done only so far as seemed to be requisite for the illustration of the
-main argument. Those who may desire to study this part of the subject more
-at length are referred to the full and interesting volumes of Dr. Eadie,
-or to the convenient manuals published by Dr. Moulton and by Dr.
-Stoughton. Such as may wish to investigate more minutely the internal
-history of the Authorized Version will find Dr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> Westcott’s <i>General View
-of the History of the English Bible</i> a most trustworthy and invaluable
-guide.</p>
-
-<p>In the Appendix I have brought together the prologues or prefaces to the
-chief historical editions of the English Bible. Some of these are not of
-easy access to ordinary readers, while all are of deep and lasting
-interest. They will abundantly repay a careful perusal. The reader will
-thereby, more readily than in any other way, come into personal contact
-with the noble men to whose self-denying labours our country and the world
-are so deeply indebted; will learn what was the spirit which animated
-them, and what were the aims and methods of their toil; and, in addition
-to much wise instruction respecting the study of the word of God, will
-learn how the deepest love and reverence for the Bible are not only
-tolerant of changes in its outward form, but will indeed imperatively
-demand them whenever needed for the more faithful exhibition of the truth
-it enshrines.</p>
-
-<p>It has formed no part of my purpose either to exhibit or to justify the
-changes which have been made in the revision in which I have had the
-honour and the responsibility of sharing. The former will best be learnt
-from the perusal of the Revised Version itself; the latter it would be
-unbecoming in me to undertake. The ultimate decision respecting them must
-rest upon the concurrent judgment of the wisest and most learned; and they
-who are the most competent to judge will be the least hasty in giving
-judgment, for they best know how difficult and delicate is the
-translator’s task, and how manifold, and sometimes how subtle, are the
-various considerations which determine his rendering. Nor indeed would any
-such attempt be possible within the limits I have here assigned to myself.
-To be properly done it would require an appeal to special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> learning which
-I have no right to assume in my readers, and to habits of scholarly
-investigation which I may not presuppose. To the bulk of my readers the
-one justification for the changes they will discover in the Revised New
-Testament must practically rest in the fact that those who have for more
-than ten years conscientiously and diligently laboured in this matter, and
-who have with such anxious care revised and re-revised their work, have
-been constrained to the conclusion that in this way they would most
-faithfully and clearly present the sense of the sacred Word. May He whose
-word it is graciously accept their service, and deign to use it for His
-glory.</p>
-
-<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">New College</span>,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>April 26, 1881</i>.</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
-<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Page</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_I">LECTURE I.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>SUBSTANCE AND FORM</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_II">LECTURE II.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_III">LECTURE III.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_IV">LECTURE IV.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>THE REVISION OF 1611. THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_V">LECTURE V.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_VI">LECTURE VI.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF 1611</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_VII">LECTURE VII.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_VIII">LECTURE VIII.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO CENTURIES</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center"><a href="#LECTURE_IX">LECTURE IX.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>THE REVISION OF 1881</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="center">APPENDIX.</td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#A">(A.)</a> PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE. CH. XV.</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#B">(B.)</a> TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#C">(C.)</a> COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#D">(D.)</a> PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 1560</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#E">(E.)</a> PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 1568</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#F">(F.)</a> PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#G">(G.)</a> THE REVISERS OF 1568</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td><a href="#H">(H.)</a> THE REVISERS OF 1611</td>
-    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr></table>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
-<p class="center"><span class="large">LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.</span></p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_I" id="LECTURE_I"></a>LECTURE I.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>SUBSTANCE AND FORM.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>There are probably devout persons not a few in whose minds the mere
-suggestion of a Revision of the Scriptures arouses a feeling of mingled
-pain and surprise. In that Bible which they received from their fathers in
-the trustful confidence of childhood, they have heard the voice of God
-speaking to their souls. Not from any testimony given to them by others,
-but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to
-be the Father’s gift unto His children. It has quickened, guided, and
-strengthened them, as no human words had ever done, answering the deepest
-cravings of their nature, stimulating them to endeavours after a nobler
-life, and enkindling within them the confidence of a sure and blessed
-hope. That it is from heaven, and not from men, they know, not because of
-what has been told them, but from what they themselves have seen and
-learnt; and they need no further evidence of its inspiration than the fact
-that it has opened their eyes to a knowledge of themselves, and to a
-perception of the loveliness of Christ. That any should dare to meddle
-with a book so precious and so honoured, seems to them a sacrilegious act,
-and a Revision of the Holy Scriptures is to them a presumptuous attempt to
-improve upon the handiwork of God.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>In this feeling there is much with which every Christian man will warmly
-sympathize; but there is in it also something that calls for correction
-and instruction. There is need here, as elsewhere, of careful thought and
-self-discipline, lest, by confounding things that differ, we transfer our
-reverence for what is God-given and divine to what is only human, and
-therefore fallible. A little consideration will suffice to show that, in
-such a matter as this, it is peculiarly important to distinguish between
-substance and form, between what is essential and permanent and what is
-accidental and variable. By the substance of the Bible we mean the
-statements which, in various ways and diverse manners, it presents to our
-thoughts; the precepts and the promises, the histories and the prophecies,
-the doctrines and the prayers, the truths about God and about man, through
-which our minds are instructed, our consciences enlightened, and our
-hearts established by grace. By the form of the Bible, we mean the signs
-or sounds by which the various statements contained in the Bible are
-presented to us, and which are, as it were, the channel through which the
-truths it teaches are conveyed to our minds. It will be obvious upon the
-least consideration, that the kind and degree of reverence which it is
-right to entertain towards the form of Scripture, is very different from
-that which it behoves us to cherish for the substance of Scripture.
-Respecting the latter, it is fitting to watch with all jealousy that no
-man add unto it or take from it; it is precious for its own sake. Not so,
-however, with the former; its worth is not in itself, but only in that
-which it enshrines. The two sentences&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
-Jesus came into the world to save sinners,”</p>
-
-<p>“Gwir yw’r gair ac yn haeddu pob derbyniad, ddyfod Crist Iesu i’r byd i
-gadw pechaduriaid,”</p>
-
-<p>are very different in form, whether judged by the eye or the ear, and yet
-the truth conveyed by the former to an Englishman, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> by the latter to a
-Welshman, is essentially the same. And although one who had learnt to
-prize that truth under either of the forms here given would naturally
-cherish also the very words by which it had been taught him, his reverence
-for the truth would impel him to adopt the other form in preference
-whenever that might be the better instrument for conveying it to another.
-Changes, therefore, in the form of Scripture may be lawful and right.</p>
-
-<p>Moreover, as a matter of history, the form of Scripture has, from the very
-beginning, been passing through a continued succession of changes, and
-with this fact it is most important that the Bible student should
-familiarize himself. These changes may be arranged under two general
-classes.</p>
-
-<p>One class of changes has arisen out of the perishable nature of the
-documents, of which the Bible at the first consisted.</p>
-
-<p>It is scarcely needful to state that we do not now possess the original
-copies of any of the books of the Old or the New Testament. Even while
-these were still in existence it was necessary to transcribe them in order
-that many persons in many places might possess and read them. In the work
-of transcription, however careful the transcriber might have been, errors
-of various kinds necessarily arose; some from mistaking one letter for
-another; some from failure of memory, if the scribe were writing from
-dictation; and some from occasional oversight, if he were writing from a
-copy before him; some from momentary lapses of attention, when his hand
-wrote on without his guidance; and some from an attempt to correct a real
-or fancied error in the work of his predecessor. If any of my readers will
-make an experiment by copying a passage of some length from any printed
-book, and then hand over his manuscript to a friend with a request to copy
-it, and afterwards pass on the copy so made to a third, and so on in
-succession through a list of ten or a dozen persons, each copying the
-manuscript of the one before him in the list, he will, on comparing the
-last with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the printed book, have a vivid and interesting illustration of
-the number and kind of variations that arise in the process of
-transcription. In the case, therefore, of even very early copies of any of
-the books of the Scriptures, some sort of revision would become necessary,
-and the deeper the reverence for the book, the more obligatory would the
-duty of making such a revision be felt to be, and the more earnestly and
-readily would it be undertaken. So long as the original copies were in
-existence and accessible this work of revision would be comparatively easy
-and simple. It would call only for the ability to make careful and patient
-comparison. But when the originals could no longer be appealed to, and
-when, moreover, successive transcription had gone on through many
-generations, the work would become much more complex and difficult,
-calling for much knowledge and much persevering research, for a mind
-skilled in the appreciation of evidence, and able to judge calmly between
-conflicting testimony. At the same time, the need for revision would to
-some extent be greater than before. I say to some extent, because the
-natural multiplication of errors arising from successive transcription
-through many centuries, has in the case of the Scriptures been very
-largely checked. The special reverence felt for this book beyond other
-books led to the exercise of special care in the preparation of Biblical
-manuscripts, and special precautions were taken to guard them as far as
-possible from any variation. Owing to these and other causes a larger
-measure of uniformity is found in the later than in the earlier
-manuscripts now extant.</p>
-
-<p>A second class of changes in the form of the Scriptures has arisen from
-the natural growth and development of language.</p>
-
-<p>The earliest Bible of which we have any historical knowledge was in the
-form of a roll, made probably of skins, containing the five books of
-Moses, and written in the Hebrew language. This was described as “the Book
-of the Law of the Lord given by Moses” (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14); more briefly
-as “the Book of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> the Law of Moses” (Joshua viii. 31; 2 Kings xiv. 6; Neh.
-viii. 1), or as “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh. viii. 8); and more
-briefly still as “the Book of the Law” (2 Kings xxii. 8), or as “the Book
-of Moses.” (Ezra vi. 18; Mark xii. 26.) Two other collections of sacred
-books were subsequently added, known respectively as the Prophets and the
-Holy Writings, the former comprising Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings,
-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets; the latter
-comprising the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, Ruth,
-Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. It is
-in this order, we may note in passing, that the books of the Old Testament
-are still arranged in our Hebrew Bibles.</p>
-
-<p>Before the completion of the canon of the Old Testament the language of
-the Jews began to exhibit evidences of change, and through their
-intercourse with the various peoples of Mesopotamia (or Aram) the later
-books show a distinct tendency towards Aramaic forms and idioms. This
-tendency, already apparent at the time of the return from the Captivity,
-was accelerated by the political events which followed. During the hundred
-and eighty years and more which intervened between the Restoration of the
-Temple, <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span> 516, and the overthrow of Darius Codomannus, <span class="smcaplc">B.C.</span> 331, Judæa
-was a portion of that province of the Persian empire, in which the Aramaic
-was the prevalent dialect. The ancient Hebrew gradually ceased to be the
-language of the Jews in common life, and, before the time of our Lord, had
-been supplanted by the language of their Eastern neighbours.</p>
-
-<p>With the decline of the Hebrew language there arose amongst the Jews the
-class of men known as Scribes, whose primary function was that of
-preparing copies of the Scriptures, and of guarding the sacred text from
-the intrusion of errors. Owing to their great zeal for the preservation of
-the letter of Scripture, and to their natural tendency to hold fast to the
-honour and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> influence which their special knowledge and skill gave to
-them, they did not, when Hebrew ceased to be intelligible to the common
-people, set themselves to the task of giving them the Bible in a form
-which they could understand; but, magnifying their office overmuch,
-assumed the position of authoritative teachers and expounders of the Law.
-Scholars might still study for themselves the ancient Bible, but for the
-people at large the form which the Scriptures now practically assumed was
-that of the spoken utterances of the Scribes.</p>
-
-<p>How imperfect and unsatisfactory this must have been is obvious; and the
-more so as these teachers did not content themselves with simply rendering
-the ancient text into a familiar form, but intermingled with it a mass of
-human traditions that obscured and sometimes contradicted its meaning. It
-would have been a great gain for the people of Judæa if their regard for
-the outward form of their Scriptures had been less extreme and more
-enlightened, and if competent men amongst them had ventured so to revise
-the ancient books that their fellow countrymen might read in their own
-tongue the wonderful works and words of God.</p>
-
-<p>This wiser course was adopted in that larger Judæa which lay outside of
-Palestine. The Jews scattered through Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and
-other parts of the empire of Alexander and his successors, were less
-rigidly conservative than were the residents of Judæa, and for their use a
-translation into Greek was made in the latter part of the third century
-before Christ. This is the version known as the Septuagint.<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> It is
-probable, both on general grounds and from internal evidence, that the
-Pentateuch was the portion first translated, and that subsequently, though
-after no very long interval of time, the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> portions were translated
-also. It is quite certain that the whole was in circulation in the middle
-of the second century before Christ. Various tales respecting the origin
-of this translation got spread abroad.<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> These are largely due to the
-vivid imagination of their authors. They may, however, be taken as
-evidence of the high esteem in which this version was held; and we shall
-probably not err in concluding from them that Alexandria was the city in
-which it originated. During, then, the two centuries that preceded the
-Advent, the Bible, as used by the great majority of its readers in various
-parts of the world, had assumed an entirely different form from that in
-which it at first appeared. It was in Greek, and not in Hebrew, and it
-included several additional works; those, namely, which are now called
-collectively the Apocrypha. The use of this translation amongst the
-extra-Palestinian Jews contributed largely to the spread of Christianity;
-and to many amongst the earliest Christian churches, and for many
-generations, it was still the form under which they studied the books of
-the Old Testament.</p>
-
-<p>At the time of our Lord and His Apostles, Greek was the language which
-most widely prevailed through the Roman Empire. It was the ordinary
-language of intercourse amongst all the peoples that had formerly been
-subjugated by Grecian arms, and was read and spoken by many in Rome
-itself. It was in this language, and not in the sacred language of the
-ancient Church, that the books of the New Testament were written; and the
-lesson was thereby emphatically taught us that the Bible was for man, and
-not man for the Bible; that the form was subordinate to the substance, and
-should be so <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>modified, as occasions occur, that it may best minister to
-the spiritual wants of mankind.</p>
-
-<p>As years passed on Christianity spread into the rural parts of the
-districts already occupied, where Greek was but little known, and into new
-regions beyond, where that language had never prevailed. This called for
-further changes in the form of Scripture, and in the second century of our
-era both the Old and New Testaments were translated for the use of the
-numerous Christians in Northern and Eastern Syria into that form of
-Aramaic which is known as Syriac. This language&mdash;the Syro-Aramaic&mdash;differs
-by dialectic peculiarities from the Palestinian Aramaic. In its earliest
-forms, however, we have probably the nearest representation we can now
-hope to obtain of the native language of the people amongst whom our Lord
-lived and laboured.</p>
-
-<p>About the same time also the Scriptures began to be translated into Latin
-for the use of the Churches of North Africa, and there is good reason for
-believing that in the last quarter of the second century the entire
-Scriptures in Latin were largely circulated throughout that region. This
-was what is termed the Old Latin version. It was the Bible as possessed
-and used by Tertullian and Cyprian, and subsequently, in a revised form,
-by Augustine. In the Old Testament this version was made, not from Hebrew,
-but from the Greek of the Septuagint, and so was but the translation of a
-translation.</p>
-
-<p>From Africa this Bible passed into Italy. Here a certain rudeness of
-style, arising from its provincial origin, awakened ere long a desire to
-secure a version that should be at once more accurate and more grateful to
-Italian ears. Various attempts at a revision of the Latin were
-consequently made. One of these, known as the Itala, or the Italic
-version, is highly commended by Augustine. In the year <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 383, Damasus,
-the then Bishop of Rome, troubled by the manifold variations that existed
-between different copies of the Latin Scriptures then in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> circulation,
-used his influence with one of the greatest scholars of the age, Eusebius
-Hieronymus, to undertake the laborious and responsible task of a thorough
-revision of the Latin text. Hieronymus, or, as he is commonly termed,
-Jerome, at once set himself to the task, and his revised New Testament
-appeared in <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 385. He also once and again revised the Old Latin version
-of the Book of Psalms, and subsequently the remaining books of the Old
-Testament, carefully comparing them with the Greek of the Septuagint, from
-which they had been derived. In <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 389, when in his sixtieth year, he
-entered upon the further task of a new translation of the books of the Old
-Testament from the original Hebrew, and completed it in the year <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 404.
-Out of the various labours of Jerome arose the Bible which is commonly
-known as the Vulgate. Jerome’s translation of the Old Testament from the
-Hebrew was not made at the instance of any ecclesiastical authority, and
-the old prejudice in favour of the Septuagint led many still to cling to
-the earlier version. Only very gradually did the new translation make its
-way; and not until the time of Gregory the Great, at the close of the
-sixth century, did it receive the explicit sanction of the head of the
-Roman Church.<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> In the case of the Psalter, the old translation was never
-superseded.</p>
-
-<p>The Vulgate is thus a composite work. It contains (1) Jerome’s translation
-from the Hebrew of all the books of the Old Testament, except the Psalms;
-(2) Jerome’s revision of the Old Latin version of the Psalms, that version
-being, as stated above, made from the Septuagint; (3) the Old Latin
-version of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the Apocrypha unrevised, save in the books of Judith and
-Tobit; (4) Jerome’s revised New Testament, which in the Gospels was very
-careful and complete, and might almost be termed a new translation, though
-he himself repudiated any such claim.</p>
-
-<p>During many centuries the Vulgate was the only form in which the Bible was
-accessible to the people of Western Europe, and it was the Bible from
-which in turn the earliest Bibles of our own and other countries were
-immediately derived. It will thus be seen that the history of the Bible
-has from the beginning been a history of revision. Only so could they who
-loved the Bible fulfil the trust committed to them; only so could the
-Bible be a Bible for mankind.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_II" id="LECTURE_II"></a>LECTURE II.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>The English Bible, more than any other of the forms in which the
-Scriptures have been used by Christian men, has been a growth. It is not
-the production of one man, or of one epoch. It has come down to us through
-a long series of transformations, and it is the result of the continuous
-endeavours of a succession of earnest labourers to give to their
-fellow-countrymen a faithful representation of the word of God.</p>
-
-<p>At what date, and by whom, the Scriptures were first set forth in a form
-which was intelligible to the people of this country is not known. In the
-earliest period respecting which we have any clear information, the Latin
-Vulgate was the Bible of the clergy and of public worship. Some portions
-only were rendered into the language of the common people. Few of them
-probably were able to read, and this may explain why it was that the
-Psalms were especially selected for translation. They could be more
-readily committed to memory, and be more easily wedded to music. But
-whatever the reason, the Psalter is the earliest English Bible of which we
-have any definite knowledge. It was translated quite early in the eighth
-century, both by Aldhelm, sometime Abbot of Malmesbury, but at his death,
-in <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 709,<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> Bishop of Sherborne,
-and by Guthlac,<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> the hermit of
-Croyland, who died <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 714.<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a> A few years later, <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 735, the Venerable
-Bede translated the gospel of John, dying, as related in the touching
-narrative of his disciple Cuthbert, in the very act of completing it. In
-the following century King Alfred greatly encouraged the work of
-translation, and it is to this period that we are probably to attribute
-those Anglo-Saxon gospels which have come down to us.<a name='fna_7' id='fna_7' href='#f_7'><small>[7]</small></a> Towards the close
-of the tenth century, or early in the eleventh, the first seven books of
-the Old Testament were partly translated and partly epitomised by Ælfric,
-Archbishop of Canterbury. A verse from each of these two last-mentioned
-works will show of what sort was the form of these early English Bibles,
-and will at the same time illustrate one of the causes which from time to
-time have rendered the task of revision an imperative duty.</p>
-
-<p>The Anglo-Saxon gospel presents Matthew v. 3 thus:</p>
-
-<p>“Eadige sind ða gastlican þearfan, forðam hyra ys heofena rice.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>And in Ælfric’s Heptateuch, Genesis xliii. 29 reads:</p>
-
-<p>“Ða josep geseah his gemeddredan broþor beniamin þa cwaeþ he, is þis se
-cnapa þe ge me foresaedon and eft he cwaeþ god gemilt sige þe sunu min.”</p>
-
-<p>In the course of time our language gradually changed from the form
-exhibited in these quotations to that seen in the writings of Chaucer and
-Wycliffe. During the earlier part of this transition period the Old
-English (Anglo-Saxon) Scriptures continued in use; but towards the middle
-part they seem to have become partially unintelligible, and attempts were
-consequently made to give the Scriptures to the people in the new form of
-language then prevalent, and which is known as the Early English. It has
-been asserted that the entire Scriptures were issued in this form; but for
-this there is no satisfactory evidence. We have certain knowledge only of
-a poetical version of the Psalms (the “Ormulum”), written about the close
-of the twelfth century; of a poetical narration of the principal events
-recorded in Genesis and Exodus, written about the middle of the thirteenth
-century; and of two prose verses of the Psalms, both belonging to the
-early part of the fourteenth century, one by William de Schorham, vicar of
-Chart-Sutton, in Kent, and the other by Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near
-Doncaster. In the version of the former the first two verses of Psalm i.
-are thus given:</p>
-
-<p>“Blessed be the man that ȝed nouȝt in the counseil of wicked: ne
-stode nouȝt in the waie of sinȝeres, ne sat nouȝt in fals
-jugement. Ac hijs wylle was in the wylle of oure Lord; and he schal
-thenche in hijs lawe both daȝe and nyȝt.”</p>
-
-<p>The year 1382 is the earliest date at which it can with any confidence be
-affirmed that the entire Scriptures existed in the English language.<a name='fna_8' id='fna_8' href='#f_8'><small>[8]</small></a>
-During several years previous to this date<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> Wycliffe and his associates
-had in various ways been working towards the accomplishment of this
-result. But it was with some measure of secrecy, as of men who apprehended
-danger from the attempt. This renders it difficult to determine with
-precision the date when the work was completed, and what was the part
-which each of the joint labourers had in the common task. It is beyond
-controversy that the chief place of honour is due to John Wycliffe. His
-name is so closely and constantly associated with this Bible by those who
-refer to it in the times immediately succeeding, as to put it beyond all
-doubt that it is to his influence our country is mainly indebted for this
-unspeakable boon. The translation of the New Testament was probably in
-whole or in large part the work of Wycliffe himself. That of the Old
-Testament, down to the twentieth verse of the third chapter of Baruch, is
-credibly assigned, upon the authority of a MS. in the Bodleian library, to
-Nicholas de Hereford, one of the leaders of the Lollard party in Oxford.
-It is probable that this Bible was somewhat hurriedly completed, and that
-either the translators were prevented by circumstances from reviewing
-their work before issuing it, or, with the natural eagerness of men
-engaged in a first attempt, they did not allow themselves time for doing
-so. Possibly also they may themselves have regarded it but as a sort of
-first draft of their work, and the variations they had found to exist in
-their copies of the Vulgate had revealed to them the need of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> further
-labour before they could satisfactorily complete the task they had
-undertaken.</p>
-
-<p>Wycliffe died in December, 1384; but either before his death, or shortly
-afterward, a revision of this work was commenced by one of his most
-intimate friends, John Purvey, who, having resided with Wycliffe during
-the latter part of his life, may be reasonably credited with acting herein
-under a full knowledge of the wishes and aims of his honoured teacher.</p>
-
-<p>The course pursued by Purvey, as described by himself in his prologue,<a name='fna_9' id='fna_9' href='#f_9'><small>[9]</small></a>
-is interesting and instructive, setting forth, as it does, most distinctly
-the main lines upon which any work of Biblical revision must proceed. His
-first step was to collect old copies of the Vulgate, and the works of
-learned men who had expounded and translated the same; and then, by
-examination and comparison, to remove as far as he could the errors which
-in various ways had crept into the Latin text. His second step was to
-study afresh the text so revised, and endeavour to arrive at a correct
-apprehension of its general meaning. His third was to consult the best
-authorities within his reach for the explanation of obscure terms, and of
-specially difficult passages. His fourth was to translate as clearly as
-possible, and then submit the same to the joint correction of competent
-persons; or, to use his own words, “to translate as clearly as he could to
-the sentence, and to have many good fellows, and cunning, at the
-correcting of the translation.” By the co-operation of this band of
-skilful helpers the work was completed about the year 1388, and copies of
-it were rapidly multiplied.<a name='fna_10' id='fna_10' href='#f_10'><small>[10]</small></a> It became, in fact, the accepted form of
-the Wycliffite version.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>By a comparison of the two verses of Psalm i., given above, with the forms
-in which they appeared in the two Wycliffe Bibles, the reader will be able
-in some degree to estimate the growth of our language, and will also
-understand how painstaking and reverent was the care taken by these
-“faithful men” that in this sacred work they might offer of their very
-best.</p>
-
-<p>In the earlier Wycliffe version the verses read thus:</p>
-
-<p>“Blisful the man that went not awei in the counseil of unpitouse, and in
-the wei off sinful stod not, and in the chaȝer of pestilence sat not.
-But in the lawe of the Lord his wil; and in the lawe of hym he shal
-sweteli thenke dai and nyȝt.”</p>
-
-<p>In Purvey’s revised version they read:</p>
-
-<p>“Blessid <i>is</i> the man that ȝede not in the councel of wickid men; and
-stood not in the weie of synneris, and sat not in the chaier of
-pestilence. But his wille <i>is</i> in the lawe of the Lord; and he schal
-bithenke in the lawe of hym dai and nyȝt.”</p>
-
-<p>This Bible, so long as it remained in use as the Bible of English people,
-existed, it should be remembered, only in a manuscript form.<a name='fna_11' id='fna_11' href='#f_11'><small>[11]</small></a> The chief
-point, however, to be noticed here is, that with all its excellences, and
-unspeakable as was its worth, it was but the translation of a translation.
-Neither Wycliffe nor his associates had access to the Hebrew original of
-the Old Testament; and although some copies of the Greek New Testament
-were then to be found in England, there is no reason to believe that
-Purvey or his friends were able to make any use of them. They were,
-indeed, aware that the Latin of the common text did not always faithfully
-represent the Hebrew; but their knowledge of this fact was second-hand,
-gathered chiefly from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> the commentaries of Nicholas de Lyra, a writer
-whose works were held in high repute by Bible students in that age. They
-did not, therefore, venture to correct these places, but contented
-themselves with noting in the margin, “What the Ebru hath, and how it is
-undurstondun.” This, Purvey states, he has done most frequently in the
-Psalter, which “of alle oure bokis discordith most fro Ebru.”</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>The third stage in the growth of the English Scriptures is brought before
-us by the interesting series of printed Bibles that issued from the
-printing press in the reign of Henry VIII.</p>
-
-<p>After the death of Wycliffe the efforts of the Popish party to crush the
-Lollards had increased in violence, and various enactments were passed
-proscribing the use of the Bible which bore his name. An act, passed in
-the second parliament of Henry V., went still further, and declared that
-all who read the Scriptures in their native tongue should forfeit land,
-cattle, life, and goods, they and their heirs for ever. Notwithstanding
-these repressive measures, copies of the Wycliffe Bible were still made
-and read in secret. This could be done only with great risk and
-difficulty, and none but persons of some wealth could afford the expense
-of a complete copy. Those in humbler positions deemed themselves happy if
-they could secure a single book, or even a few leaves. Moreover, through
-the growing changes of the language, many passages were becoming very
-obscure to ordinary readers. During the hundred years which followed after
-the issuing of the law just referred to, two important events had
-happened; namely, the invention of printing,<a name='fna_12' id='fna_12' href='#f_12'><small>[12]</small></a> and the German
-Reformation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Both of these had a large influence in stimulating the
-friends of the Bible to new efforts in revising it for popular use.</p>
-
-<p>The leader of this movement in our own country was William Tyndale, who,
-in the year 1525, printed on the Continent, whither he had been driven by
-the opposition which beset him at home, the first edition of his New
-Testament, translated from the Greek. A second and revised edition,
-“dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke,” was printed at
-Antwerp, and published in November, 1534; and a third and final edition
-was published in the early part of 1535, in the May of which year he was
-arrested and committed to the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Of other
-parts of the Scriptures Tyndale was able to publish only the Pentateuch
-(1530 or 1531) and the book of Jonah (1534). On the sixth day of October,
-1536, he was led to the stake. He was there strangled and his body burnt.</p>
-
-<p>Just twelve months before the martyrdom of Tyndale, the first printed
-edition of the entire Scriptures in the English language was issued from
-the press of Jacob van Meteren, at Antwerp. The privilege and honour of
-accomplishing this memorable work belongs to Miles Coverdale, at that time
-a poor scholar, dependent upon the patronage of Thomas Cromwell and
-others, though subsequently, for a short period in the reign of Edward
-VI., Bishop of Exeter. The first edition of his Bible was “prynted in the
-year of our Lord MDXXXV., and fynished the fourthe day of October.”
-Coverdale had been moved to the undertaking by his own deep sense of the
-needs of his country, and by the earnest appeals addressed to him by
-others. Through his modesty of disposition, and his lowly estimate of his
-own abilities, he would have declined the task, but the urgency of his
-friends prevailed. The expenses also of the preparation and publication of
-the work were met by the liberality of some of them. In his prologue he
-says, “It was neither my labour nor desire to have this work put in my
-hand; nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should be more
-plenteously provided for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> with the Scripture in their mother tongue than
-we; therefore, when I was instantly required, though I could not do as
-well as I would, I thought it my duty to do my best, and that with a good
-will;”<a name='fna_13' id='fna_13' href='#f_13'><small>[13]</small></a> and in the dedication to the king, prefixed to some of the
-copies, he says, “As the Holy Ghost moved other men to do the cost hereof,
-so was I boldened in God to labour in the same.” According to the
-statement on the title-page this was not a translation made from the
-original texts,<a name='fna_14' id='fna_14' href='#f_14'><small>[14]</small></a> but was faithfully and truly translated out of the
-“Douche and Latyn in to Englishe.” In the dedication he states that he had,
-“with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of five
-sundry interpreters,” and in his prologue he explains further, that to
-help him in his work he had used “sundry translations, not only in Latin,
-but also of the Dutch interpreters;” and he is careful, further, to
-explain that he did not “set forth this special translation” “as a
-reprover and despiser of other men’s translations,” but “lowly and
-faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under correction.”
-The five interpreters to whom Coverdale thus refers were probably the
-Vulgate, the Latin version of Pagninus, Luther’s translation, the Zurich
-Bible, and Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch. Though the volume was
-dedicated to the king, and though Coverdale was backed by powerful
-patrons, this Bible was not published with a royal license. No direct
-attempt, however, was made to suppress it. In the following year (1536) it
-was virtually condemned by the members of Convocation, who prayed the king
-that he would “grant unto his subjects of the laity the reading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> of the
-Bible in the English tongue, and that a new translation of it be made for
-that end and purpose.” But notwithstanding this two new editions of
-Coverdale’s Bible were printed in London in 1537, and on the title-page of
-both of these there appeared the words, “Set forth with the kynge’s moost
-gracious licence.”</p>
-
-<p>In the same year, 1537, and probably in the earlier part of it, there was
-issued in London another Bible, which also bore upon its title-page the
-inscription, “Set forth with the kinge’s most gracyous lycence.”<a name='fna_15' id='fna_15' href='#f_15'><small>[15]</small></a> This
-Bible, commonly known as Matthew’s Bible, was, it is now generally
-believed, prepared for the press by John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom at
-Smithfield, under the Marian persecution. In the New Testament and
-Pentateuch he agrees substantially with Tyndale’s version. Of the other
-books of the Old Testament, a portion is obviously taken from Coverdale,
-the remaining part, Joshua to Chronicles, has been thought with good
-reason to be the work of Tyndale. It is known that Tyndale, after the
-publication of his Pentateuch, continued to labour at the translation of
-the Old Testament. In a letter written during his imprisonment he prays to
-be allowed to have his Hebrew Bible, and his Hebrew grammar and
-dictionary; and it is by no means unlikely that the results<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> of his
-studies were committed to the care of Rogers. If this surmise be correct,
-then this Bible may be viewed as a compilation, two-thirds of it being due
-to Tyndale, and one-third to Coverdale. A sufficient reason for the
-adoption of the assumed name of Thomas Matthew is thus supplied, since
-Rogers could not claim the work as his own, and Tyndale’s name would have
-arrayed against it the opposition both of the king and of the Romish
-party.</p>
-
-<p>Both of the last mentioned Bibles were open to certain obvious objections.
-Coverdale’s, in that it was derived from German and Latin versions; and
-Matthew’s, in that it was in part only made from the original texts.
-Matthew’s also was accompanied by a considerable number of critical and
-explanatory notes, many of which were of a decided anti-papal cast.
-Accordingly, at the instigation and under the patronage of Thomas
-Cromwell, Coverdale set himself to revise his former work with the aid of
-the valuable contribution supplied to him in Matthew’s Bible. The printing
-of this new Bible was completed in April, 1539, and from the circumstance
-that it was printed in the largest folio then used, 15 inches by 9, it
-was, and is, commonly described as the Great Bible. In the title-page it
-is declared to be “truly translated, after the veryte of the Hebrue and
-Greke textes by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men,
-expert in the forsayde tonges.”<a name='fna_16' id='fna_16' href='#f_16'><small>[16]</small></a> By this, it is now tolerably certain,
-we are to understand, not that several living scholars took part with
-Coverdale in the preparation of the volume, but that he availed himself of
-the published writings of men skilled in the ancient languages, who had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
-translated and expounded the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures. His
-chief guides were Sebastian Munster for the Old Testament, and Erasmus for
-the New. The Bible appeared without notes, and had no dedication.<a name='fna_17' id='fna_17' href='#f_17'><small>[17]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>In the same year (1539) there appeared also the Bible<a name='fna_18' id='fna_18' href='#f_18'><small>[18]</small></a> edited by
-Richard Taverner, formerly of Cardinal College (now Christ Church),
-Oxford, afterwards of the Inner Temple, and more recently Clerk of the
-Signet to the King.<a name='fna_19' id='fna_19' href='#f_19'><small>[19]</small></a> It may be briefly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> described as a revised edition
-of Matthew’s Bible. Taverner had some reputation as a Greek scholar, but
-his work is very unequally executed, and before the formidable competition
-of the Great Bible it soon sank into obscurity. After its first year of
-issue this Bible seems to have been only once reprinted in its entirety;
-namely, in 1549.<a name='fna_20' id='fna_20' href='#f_20'><small>[20]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Not content with what he had already done, Coverdale persevered in the
-revision and re-revision of his work. A second edition was issued in
-April, 1540, to which was prefixed a prologue by Cranmer,<a name='fna_21' id='fna_21' href='#f_21'><small>[21]</small></a> and its
-title contained the words, “This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the
-churches.” Two other editions appeared in the same year, and three in the
-following year.<a name='fna_22' id='fna_22' href='#f_22'><small>[22]</small></a> (The edition of April, 1540, seems, however, to have
-been regarded as a sort of standard edition.) This Bible was the Bible
-read in churches in the reign of Edward VI., and in the early part of the
-reign of Elizabeth.</p>
-
-<p>Hence it will be seen that of the four principal Bibles published in the
-reign of Henry VIII., namely, Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch,
-Coverdale’s Bible, Matthew’s Bible, and the Great Bible, the last three
-form a group of closely related versions, of which Tyndale’s is the common
-parent, and the rest successively derived therefrom. And it is very
-noteworthy that these Bibles are mainly the result of the patient and
-devoted labours of two men only. The work done by such men as Rogers and
-Taverner, however important, is altogether of a subordinate kind. William
-Tyndale and Miles Coverdale<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> stand apart, and above all others, as the men
-who, in those days of religious awakening and of conflict with the papal
-tyranny, gave the Bible to our countrymen in a form that could reach at
-once their understanding and their heart. Remembering this, and
-remembering also in what difficult circumstances the work was done, the
-wonder is far less that room was left for improvement, and that further
-revision was felt by themselves and others to be an imperative duty, than
-that so much was accomplished, and so well, by the indomitable and
-self-denying labours of these noble men.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_III" id="LECTURE_III"></a>LECTURE III.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>The accession of Elizabeth, November 17th, 1558, conveniently marks the
-date of a fourth stage in the growth of the English Bible. The former
-translations and revisions had been done in troublous times, in the midst
-of harassing opposition, and under circumstances which forbade the full
-use of such aids as the scholarship of the times could furnish. The
-versions now to be mentioned were carried on in open day, and with free
-access to all that was then available for the correction and explanation
-of the original texts.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>Amongst the many earnest men driven into exile by the Marian persecution
-was William Whittingham, some time Fellow of All Souls’, Oxford, and
-subsequently Dean of Durham.<a name='fna_23' id='fna_23' href='#f_23'><small>[23]</small></a> Along with others he found a refuge,
-first at Frankfort, and afterwards at Geneva. On the 10th day of June,
-1557, there was published, in the last mentioned city, a small volume,
-16mo, entitled “The Newe Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Conferred
-diligently with the Greke, and best approved translations. With the
-arguments aswel before the chapters, as for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> every Boke and Epistle, also
-diversities of readings, and moste proffitable annotations of all harde
-places; whereunto is added a copious Table.” This translation, there is
-reason to believe, was the work of Whittingham alone. It may be noted, in
-passing, that it was the first English New Testament which contained the
-now familiar division into verses, and the first also to indicate by
-<i>italics</i> the words added by the translator in order to convey more fully
-or more clearly the sense of the original.</p>
-
-<p>Three years afterwards (1560) there was published in the same city, “The
-Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament.
-Translated according to the Ebrue and Greeke, and conferred with the best
-translations in divers languages. With moste profitable annotations upon
-all the hard places, and other things of great importance as may appeare
-in the epistle to the reader.” This is the celebrated Genevan version,
-which for nearly a century onward was the form of Bible most largely
-circulated in this country. It differed in several respects from its
-predecessors. It was a convenient quarto instead of a cumbrous folio. It
-was printed in Roman letters instead of the heavy Gothic or black letters.
-It marked by a different type all words inserted for the completion of the
-sense, and the chapters were divided into verses. But what was of more
-importance, it was, as stated in the title, compared throughout with the
-original texts. Both in the Old and New Testaments it largely reproduces
-the words of Tyndale. Sometimes it gives a preference to the version of
-Coverdale; but often it departs from both in order to give a more exact
-rendering of the Hebrew or the Greek. It seems that several of the Genevan
-refugees consecrated their enforced leisure to “this great and wonderful
-work,” as they justly term it, moved thereto by the twofold consideration
-that, owing to “imperfect knowledge of the tongues,” the previous
-“translations required greatly to be perused and reformed,” and that
-“great <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>opportunities and occasions” for doing this work were presented to
-them in the “so many godly and learned men” into whose society they had
-now been brought.</p>
-
-<p>The names of Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, Thomas
-Sampson, William Cole, and William Whittingham are given as those who,
-with some others, joined in this undertaking. On the accession of
-Elizabeth most of the exiles returned home, conveying with them, for
-presentation to the Queen, the Book of Psalms as a specimen of the work on
-which they were engaged.<a name='fna_24' id='fna_24' href='#f_24'><small>[24]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Wittingham only, with one or two others, remained behind for a year and a
-half in order to complete the work. According to the statement given in
-the address to the reader, the entire period spent upon the preparation of
-this version was a little more than two years. It will hence be seen that
-whatever may have been the part taken in the work by Coverdale and others,
-by far the chief share in it devolved upon Whittingham and the one or two
-referred to, who were probably Gilby and Sampson. How weighty was the
-obligation which in the view of these self-denying men rested upon them to
-give the word of God to their country in the form that would best and most
-truly present it, and with what reverent care they laboured to attain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
-unto this, is shown by the fact that although Whittingham had so recently
-published his version of the New Testament, he is not content with a
-simple reproduction of this, but subjects it to a thorough and very
-careful revision. A comparison of the introduction to Luke’s gospel as it
-appears in the Genevan Bible of 1560 with the same passage in
-Whittingham’s version of 1557 will help our readers in some measure to
-realize the nature and extent of this revision.</p>
-
-<p>In the earlier version the passages read thus:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p>“For asmuch as many have taken in hand to write the historie of those
-thynges, wherof we are fully certified, even as they declared them
-unto us, which from y<sup>e</sup> begynnyng saw them their selves, and were
-ministers at the doyng: It seemed good also to me (moste noble
-Theophilus) as sone as I had learned perfectly all thynges from the
-beginnyng, to wryte unto thee therof from poynt to poynt: That thou
-mightest acknowlage the trueth of those thinges where in thou hast
-bene broght up.”</p></div>
-
-<p>In the version of 1560 the same passage is given thus:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p>“For as much as many have taken in hande to set foorth the storie of
-those thinges whereof we are fully persuaded. As they have delivered
-them unto us, which from the beginning saw them theirselves, and were
-ministers of the worde, It seemed good also to me (most noble
-Theophilus), as sone as I had searched out perfectly all things from
-the beginnyng, to write unto thee thereof from point to point, That
-thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of these things, whereof thou
-hast bene instructed.”</p></div>
-
-<p>It will be seen that in this short passage the changes made from the
-earlier form of the work are as many as ten in number. As this, however,
-may be deemed a somewhat exceptional passage, let us take an ordinary
-chapter in the Gospels, presenting no special difficulty, as for instance
-Matt. xvii. A collation of the two versions will show that in this chapter
-of twenty-seven verses the revision of 1560 departs from Whittingham’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
-earlier work in no fewer than forty places.<a name='fna_25' id='fna_25' href='#f_25'><small>[25]</small></a> Thus persevering was the
-endeavour of these faithful men to do their very best, and with what
-success may to some extent be seen in the fact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> that of these forty
-changes twenty-six were confirmed in after years by the judgment of King
-James’ translators.</p>
-
-<p>“So earnestly,” says Strype<a name='fna_26' id='fna_26' href='#f_26'><small>[26]</small></a> in his <i>Life of Archbishop Parker</i>, “did
-the people of the nation thirst in those days after the knowledge of the
-Scriptures, that that first impression was soon sold off.” So earnestly
-also did the translators seek to perfect their work, that about the
-beginning of March, 1565, they had finished a careful review and
-correction of their translation in preparing for a fresh issue.</p>
-
-<p>Popular as was the Genevan Bible amongst the mass of the English people,
-the decidedly puritanic cast of its annotations stood in the way of its
-universal acceptance, while its manifest superiority as a translation to
-the Great Bible made it almost an impossibility that the latter could be
-maintained in its place of pre-eminence as the Bible appointed by
-authority to be read in churches. Steps were accordingly taken by Matthew
-Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to prepare a Bible, by the aid of
-“diverse learned fellow-bishops,” that would accord with the
-ecclesiastical sympathies of the party to which he belonged.<a name='fna_27' id='fna_27' href='#f_27'><small>[27]</small></a> He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
-distributed portions to twelve of his episcopal brethren, and to other
-Church dignitaries;<a name='fna_28' id='fna_28' href='#f_28'><small>[28]</small></a> one portion he took under his own charge. The
-completed work was presented to Elizabeth within a few weeks of the
-completion of the tenth year of her reign, October 5th, 1568.</p>
-
-<p>The rules laid down by Parker for the guidance of his colleagues were
-these: 1. “To follow the common English translation used in the churches,
-and not to recede from it but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew
-or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the texts as
-Pagnine<a name='fna_29' id='fna_29' href='#f_29'><small>[29]</small></a> in his translation useth; and for the verity of the Hebrew, to
-follow the said Pagnine and Munster specially, and generally others
-learned in the tongues. 3. To make no bitter notes upon any text, or yet
-to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such
-chapters and places as contain matter of genealogies, or other such places
-not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in
-his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation
-to any offence of lightness or obscenity be expressed with more convenient
-terms and phrases.” From the first of these rules it is clear that the
-work then undertaken was intended to be a revision of the Great Bible.
-Some of the revisers seem to have observed this rule in a most rigid
-manner, and have followed the Great Bible so closely as to retain its
-words, even in places which had been more correctly rendered in the
-Genevan. There appears to have been no co-operative action on the part of
-the several revisers, and to this cause we may attribute much of the
-irregularity that attaches to the execution of their work. In many
-respects they laid themselves open to adverse criticism, and a paper was
-sent to Parker by Thomas Lawrence, Head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Master of Shrewsbury School, and
-an eminent Greek scholar, entitled, <i>Notes of Errors in the Translation of
-the New Testament out of the Greek</i>.<a name='fna_30' id='fna_30' href='#f_30'><small>[30]</small></a> He points out fifteen passages in
-which the words are not “aptlye translated,” eight in which “words and
-pieces of sentences” are “omytted,” two in which superfluous words are
-inserted, two in which, owing to mistranslation, an “error in doctrine” is
-involved, and two in which the moods and tenses of verbs are changed.
-These passages, except one from the Colossians, are all taken from the
-Gospels; and we may hence not unreasonably infer that the writer intended
-the passages named to be regarded, not as an exhaustive list, but as
-illustrations simply of the kind of defects which called for correction.
-Moved, as would seem, by these criticisms, Parker set on foot a revision
-of his former volume; and in 1572 this Bible was, as his biographer
-expresses it,<a name='fna_31' id='fna_31' href='#f_31'><small>[31]</small></a> “a second time by his means” “printed with Corrections
-and Amendments and other improvements, more than the former Editions.”</p>
-
-<p>Although this Bible received the sanction of Convocation, and every
-Archbishop and Bishop was ordered to have a copy in his hall or
-dining-room for the use of his servants and of strangers; and although
-some editions bear on their title-page the words, “Set forth by
-Aucthoritie” (meaning thereby the authority of Convocation), it never came
-into anything like general use, nor did it even establish itself as the
-Bible exclusively read in churches. The Genevan Bible was still used by
-many of the clergy in their sermons and in their published works; and in
-1587, though nineteen years had then passed since its first publication,
-we find Archbishop Whitgift complaining that divers parish churches and
-chapels of ease had either no Bible at all, or those only which were not
-of the translation authorized by the Synods of Bishops. Between 1568,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
-when this Bible was first published, and 1608, when the last New Testament
-of this version was issued, there were sent forth altogether twenty
-editions of the Bishops’ Bible and eleven of the New Testament. In the
-same period there were published seventy-nine editions of the Genevan
-Bible, and thirty of the Genevan New Testament.<a name='fna_32' id='fna_32' href='#f_32'><small>[32]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Besides the Genevan and the Bishops’, another Bible made its appearance
-(so far, at least, as the New Testament was concerned) in the reign of
-Elizabeth. In the year 1582 there was printed at Rheims a translation of
-the New Testament,<a name='fna_33' id='fna_33' href='#f_33'><small>[33]</small></a> made by certain scholars connected with the English
-seminary for the training of Catholic priests, formerly established at
-Douai, in Flanders. The translators, in their preface, candidly confess
-that they did not publish from any conviction “that the Holy Scriptures
-should alwaies be in our mother tonge,” or that they ought “to be read
-indifferently of all,” but because they had compassion to see their
-“beloved countrie men with extreme danger of their soules, to use only
-such prophane translations;” viz., as the Protestant Bibles previously
-referred to, “and erroneous men’s mere phantasies, for the pure and
-beloved word of truth;” and because, also, they were “moved thereunto by
-the desires of many devout persons,” and whom they hoped to induce to lay
-aside the “impure versions” they had hitherto been compelled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> to employ.
-Quite apart from the polemical purpose thus distinctly avowed, this
-translation was a retrograde movement. It did not profess to translate the
-original texts, but only the “vulgar Latin;” and the translators justify
-their procedure by this plea, amongst others, that “the holy Council of
-Trent ... hath declared and defined this onely of al other Latin
-translations to be authentical, and so onely to be used and taken in
-publike lessons, disputations, preachings, and expositions, and that no
-man presume upon any pretence to reject or refuse the same.”</p>
-
-<p>In the accomplishment of their work the Rhemish translators have very
-faithfully observed the rule which they laid down for themselves, to be
-“very precise and religious in folowing our copie, the old vulgar approved
-Latin; not only in sense ... but sometime in the very wordes also, and
-phrases;” that is to say, they have given a very literal and exact
-translation of the Vulgate, in many parts extremely Latinized in its
-diction. A considerable number of words they virtually left untranslated,
-boldly venturing to transfer the unfamiliar, and in many cases
-unintelligible, vocables into their English text. Some of these Latinized
-words have obtained a permanent place in our language, but the larger
-number have failed to commend themselves.<a name='fna_34' id='fna_34' href='#f_34'><small>[34]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Such then were the chief forms through which, at the close of the
-sixteenth century, the English Bible had passed. The devout and earnest
-scholars who from time to time sought to “open the Scriptures” to their
-fellow-countrymen were for the most part moved by a burning desire to give
-to God of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> very best. They grudged no labour to render their work
-more complete. They allowed no spirit of self-satisfaction to blind them
-to a perception of defects. They were too humble and too well convinced of
-the greatness and manifoldness of their work to fancy that they had
-reached perfection, but were persevering and self-denying in their
-endeavours to attain unto it. And they have left behind them for us to
-follow a noble example of patient continuance in well doing.</p>
-
-<p>How in their hands the English Bible has grown, from the first attempt to
-set it forth in the language of our country to the form in which we are
-most familiar with it, can be fully learnt only by a careful comparison of
-the successive revisions to which it has been subjected. To aid my readers
-in forming some approximate idea of it I append Psalm xxiii., as it
-appears in the principal Bibles which have been mentioned in this and the
-preceding lecture.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">1. WYCLIFFE’S, 1382. (?)</p>
-
-<p>The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing to me shal lacke; in the place of
-leswe<a name='fna_35' id='fna_35' href='#f_35'><small>[35]</small></a> where he me ful sette. Ouer watir of fulfilling he nurshide me;
-my soule he conuertide. He broȝte doun me upon the sties of
-riȝtwisnesse; for his name. For whi and if I shal go in the myddel of
-the shadewe of deth; I shal not dreden euelis, for thou art with me. Thi
-ȝerde and thi staf; tho han confortid me. Thou hast maad redi in thi
-siȝte a bord; aȝen hem that trublyn me. Thou hast myche fattid in
-oile myn hed; and my chalis makende ful drunken, hou riȝt cler it is.
-And thi mercy shal vnderfolewe me; alle the daȝis of my lif. And that I
-dwelle in the hous of the Lord; in to the lengthe of daȝis.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
-<p class="center">2. PURVEY’S, 1388. (?)</p>
-
-<p>The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing schal faile to me; in the place of
-pasture there he hath set me. He nurschide me on the watir of
-refreischyng; he conuertide my soule. He ledde me forth on the pathis of
-riȝtfulnesse; for his name. For whi thouȝ Y schal go in the myddis
-of schadewe of deeth; Y schal not drede yuels, for thou art with me. Thi
-ȝerde and thi staf; tho han coumfortid me. Thou hast maad redi a boord
-in my siyt; aȝens hem that troblen me. Thou hast maad fat myn heed with
-oyle; and my cuppe, fillinge greetli, is ful cleer. And thi merci schal
-sue me; in alle the daies of my lijf. And that Y dwelle in the hows of the
-Lord; in to the lengthe of daies.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">3. COVERDALE’S, 1535.</p>
-
-<p>The Lorde is my shepherde, I can want nothinge. He fedeth me in a greene
-pasture; and ledeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soule, and
-bringeth me forth in the waye of rightuousness for his name’s sake. Though
-I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no
-euell, for thou art with me; thy staffe and thy shepehoke comforte me.
-Thou preparest a table before me agaynst mine enemies; thou anoyntest my
-heade with oyle, and fyllest my cuppe full. Oh let thy louying kyndnes and
-mercy folowe me all the dayes off my life that I maye dwell in the house
-off the Lord for euer.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">4. GREAT BIBLE, 1539.</p>
-
-<p>The Lorde is my shepherde, therefore can I lacke nothing. He shal fede me
-in a grene pasture and lead me forth besyde the waters of cōforte. He
-shal conuerte my soule and bring me forth in the pathes of righteousnes
-for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walke thorow y<sup>e</sup> valleye of y<sup>e</sup>
-shadow of death, I wyl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> feare no euell, for thou art w<sup>t</sup> me: thy rod and
-thy staff confort me.</p>
-
-<p>Thou shalt prepare a table before me, agaynst them that trouble me: thou
-hast annointed my head w<sup>t</sup> oyle, and my cup shal be ful. But (<i>thy</i>)
-louing kyndnes and mercy shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe: and I
-wyll dwel in the house of the Lord for euer.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">5. GENEVAN, 1560.</p>
-
-<p>1. The Lord <i>is</i> my shepheard, I shall not want.</p>
-
-<p>2. Hee maketh mee to rest in greene pasture, <i>and</i> leadeth me by the still
-waters.</p>
-
-<p>3. He restoreth my soule, <i>and</i> leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse
-for his Names sake.</p>
-
-<p>4. Yea, though I should walke through the valley of the shadow of death, I
-will feare no euill, for thou art with me: thy rodde and thy staffe, they
-comfort me.</p>
-
-<p>5. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine adversaries:
-thou doest anoynt mine head with oyle, <i>and</i> my cup runneth over.</p>
-
-<p>6. Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my
-life, and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">6. BISHOPS, 1568.</p>
-
-<p>1. God is my shephearde, therefore I can lacke nothyng: he wyll cause me
-to repose myselfe in pasture full of grasse, and he wyll leade me vnto
-calme waters.</p>
-
-<p>2. He wyll conuerte my soule; he wyll bring me foorth into the pathes of
-righteousnesse for his name sake.</p>
-
-<p>3. Yea, though I walke through the valley of the shadowe of death, I wyll
-feare no euyll; for thou art with me, thy rodde and thy staffe be the
-thynges that do comfort me.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>4. Thou wylt prepare a table before me in the presence of myne
-aduersaries; thou has annoynted my head with oyle, and my cup shalbe
-brymme full.</p>
-
-<p>5. Truely felicitie and mercie shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe:
-and I wyll dwell in the house of God for a long tyme.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">7. DOUAI, 1610.</p>
-
-<p>1. The Psalme of Dauid.</p>
-
-<p>2. Our Lord ruleth one, and nothing shal be wanting to me: in place of
-pasture there he hath placed me.</p>
-
-<p>3. Upon the water of refection he hath brought me vp: he hath conuerted my
-soule.</p>
-
-<p>He hath conducted me upon the pathes of iustice for his name.</p>
-
-<p>4. For, although I shal walke in the middes of the shadow of death, I will
-not feare euils: because thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staffe, they
-haue comforted me.</p>
-
-<p>5. Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that truble me.</p>
-
-<p>Thou hast fatted my head with oyle; and my chalice inebriating how goodlie
-is it!</p>
-
-<p>6. And thy mercie shal folow me al the dayes of my life; And that I may
-dwel in the house of our Lord, in longitude of dayes.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_IV" id="LECTURE_IV"></a>LECTURE IV.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE REVISION OF 1611&mdash;THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>At the accession of James I. the <span class="smcap">Genevan Bible</span> and the <span class="smcap">Bishops’ Bible</span>
-were, as we have seen, the Bibles in current use, the latter being the
-Bible upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the former the favourite Bible
-of the people at large. The Book of Psalms also in the version of the
-Great Bible survived, as it still does, in the psalter of the Prayer Book,
-and probably in some few parish churches old and worn copies of the Great
-Bible still maintained their place.</p>
-
-<p>The state of religious parties at that date rendered it almost an
-impossibility that either of the two first-named versions should become
-universally accepted. The close connection of the Genevan Bible with the
-Puritan party, and the decidedly puritanic cast of some of its notes,
-created an insuperable prejudice against it in the minds of the more
-zealous advocates of Episcopal authority; while the inferiority<a name='fna_36' id='fna_36' href='#f_36'><small>[36]</small></a> of the
-Bishops’ Bible as a version effectually barred its claim to an exclusive
-use. The need, then, for a new version was obvious, and a desire for it
-was probably felt by many of all parties.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>Public expression was first given to this desire on the second day of the
-Hampton Court Conference, January 16, 1604, by Dr. John Rainolds,<a name='fna_37' id='fna_37' href='#f_37'><small>[37]</small></a> the
-leading representative of the Puritans in that assembly. It was not
-brought forward as one of the matters which he had been deputed to lay
-before the Conference; it seems rather to have been mentioned by him
-incidentally in connection with certain suggested reforms in the Prayer
-Book. “He moved his Majesty that there might be a new translation of the
-Bible, because those which were allowed in the reign of King Henry VIII.
-and Edward VI. were corrupt, and not answerable to the Truth of the
-Original,”<a name='fna_38' id='fna_38' href='#f_38'><small>[38]</small></a> referring in illustration to the renderings given of Gal.
-iv. 25,<a name='fna_39' id='fna_39' href='#f_39'><small>[39]</small></a> Ps. cv. 28,<a name='fna_40' id='fna_40' href='#f_40'><small>[40]</small></a> and Ps. cvi. 30.<a name='fna_41' id='fna_41' href='#f_41'><small>[41]</small></a> It is somewhat curious
-that no direct reference was made to the Bishops’ Bible; the reason,
-probably, was that this Bible was not one of those which had been
-“allowed” by royal authority. Of the three mistranslations quoted by
-Rainolds, the first only is found in the Bishops’ Bible; the other two
-occur in the Prayer Book Psalter.</p>
-
-<p>The suggestion of Rainolds met with no opposition. The king himself
-expressed his approval of it, not, however, without an ignorant and
-disingenuous fling at the Genevan version; and “presently after,” say the
-translators in their preface, the king<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> “gave order for this translation”
-to be made. In the course of a few months a scheme for the execution of
-the work was matured, and in a letter to Dr. Richard Bancroft, then Bishop
-of London, the king informed him that he had appointed fifty-four learned
-men to undertake the translation. He even seems to have contemplated the
-possibility of securing the co-operation of all the biblical scholars of
-the country; and in a letter to Bancroft, dated July 22, 1604, directed
-him “to move the bishops to inform themselves of all such learned men
-within their several dioceses as, having especial skill in the Hebrew and
-Greek tongues, have taken pains in their private studies of the Scriptures
-for the clearing of any obscurities, either in the Hebrew or the Greek, or
-touching any difficulties, or mistakings in the former English
-translation, which we have now commanded to be thoroughly viewed and
-amended; and thereupon to write unto them, earnestly charging them, and
-signifying our pleasure therein, that they send such their observations to
-Mr. Lively, our Hebrew reader in Cambridge, or to Dr. Harding, our Hebrew
-reader in Oxford, or to Dr. Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, to be imparted
-to the rest of their several companies; that so our said intended
-translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned
-men within this our kingdom.”<a name='fna_42' id='fna_42' href='#f_42'><small>[42]</small></a> Directions to a similar effect were sent
-also to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who was empowered in the king’s
-name to associate with those already appointed any “fitt men” he might be
-acquainted with; and we may infer that a corresponding communication was
-sent to Oxford.</p>
-
-<p>To what extent this comprehensive scheme was carried out we have no means
-of determining. The names of the fifty-four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> learned men referred to are
-not given, and we are consequently left in uncertainty whether those who
-ultimately engaged in the work<a name='fna_43' id='fna_43' href='#f_43'><small>[43]</small></a> were all men included in that list, or
-whether other scholars, chosen by the universities or recommended by the
-bishops, formed part of the number.</p>
-
-<p>The rules laid down for the guidance of the translators were as follows:</p>
-
-<p>1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the Bishops’
-Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the Original
-will permit.</p>
-
-<p>2. The Names of the Prophets and the Holy Writers, with the other Names of
-the Text to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were
-vulgarly used.</p>
-
-<p>3. The old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept; viz., the word <i>Church</i> not to
-be translated <i>Congregation</i>, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>4. When a Word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been
-most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers, being agreeable to
-the Propriety of the Place, and the Analogy of the Faith.</p>
-
-<p>5. The division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as
-little as may be, if necessity so require.</p>
-
-<p>6. No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of
-the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so
-briefly and fitly be exprest in the Text.</p>
-
-<p>7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down, as shall serve for
-the fit reference of one Scripture to another.</p>
-
-<p>8. Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or
-Chapters, and having translated or amended them severally by himself,
-where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done,
-and agree for their parts what shall stand.</p>
-
-<p>9. As any one Company hath despatched any one Book in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> this manner, they
-shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously,
-for his Majesty is very careful in this point.</p>
-
-<p>10. If any Company, upon the review of the Book so sent, doubt or differ
-upon any Place, to send them word thereof; Note the place, and withal send
-the Reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded
-at the General Meeting, which is to be of the chief Persons of each
-Company at the end of the Work.</p>
-
-<p>11. When any Place of special obscurity is doubted of, Letters to be
-directed, by Authority, to send to any Learned Man in the Land, for his
-judgment of such a Place.</p>
-
-<p>12. Letters to be sent from every Bishop, to the rest of his Clergy,
-admonishing them of this Translation in hand; and to move and charge, as
-many as being skilful in the Tongues; and having taken pains in that kind,
-to send his particular Observations to the Company, either at Westminster,
-Cambridg, or Oxford.</p>
-
-<p>13. The Directors in each Company to be the Deans of Westminster and
-Chester for that place; and the King’s Professors in the Hebrew or Greek
-in either University.</p>
-
-<p>14. These Translations to be used, when they agree better with the Text
-than the Bishops’ Bible; viz., <i>Tindall’s</i>, <i>Matthew’s</i>, <i>Coverdale’s</i>,
-<i>Whitchurch’s</i>,<a name='fna_44' id='fna_44' href='#f_44'><small>[44]</small></a> <i>Geneva</i>.</p>
-
-<p>15. Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most
-Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the Universities not employed in
-Translating, to be assigned by the Vice-Chancellor upon conference with
-the rest of the Heads, to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew
-as Greek, for the better observation of the 4th rule above specified.<a name='fna_45' id='fna_45' href='#f_45'><small>[45]</small></a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>Besides these rules, some others of a more definite nature seem to have
-been adopted by the translators themselves. At the Synod of Dort, held in
-the years 1618 and 1619, the question of preparing a new Dutch translation
-came under consideration, and for the guidance of its deliberations upon
-this point the English Delegates<a name='fna_46' id='fna_46' href='#f_46'><small>[46]</small></a> were requested to give an account of
-the procedure observed in the translation recently made in England. In a
-matter of such grave importance the Delegates felt that they ought not to
-give any off-hand statement, and accordingly, after careful consideration,
-prepared a written account, which was presented to the Synod on its
-seventh Session, November 20th, 1618. In this account eight rules are
-given, the first three of which embody the substance of the first, sixth,
-and seventh of the rules given above. The others direct:</p>
-
-<p>That where the Hebrew or Greek admits of a twofold rendering, one is to be
-given in the text, and the other noted in the margin; and in like manner
-where an important various reading is found in approved authorities.</p>
-
-<p>That in the translation of the books of Tobit and Judith, where the text
-of the old Latin Vulgate greatly differs from that of the Greek, the
-latter text should be followed.</p>
-
-<p>That all words introduced for the purpose of completing the sense are to
-be distinguished by a difference of type.</p>
-
-<p>That new tables of contents should be prefixed to each book, and new
-summaries to each chapter.</p>
-
-<p>And lastly, that a complete list of Genealogies<a name='fna_47' id='fna_47' href='#f_47'><small>[47]</small></a> and a description of
-the Holy Land should be added to the work.<a name='fna_48' id='fna_48' href='#f_48'><small>[48]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>From various causes, which cannot now be discovered, a period<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> of three
-years elapsed before the revisers commenced their labours. One reason may
-have been that no provision was made for meeting the necessary costs of
-the undertaking. With a cheap liberality the king directed Bancroft to
-write to the bishops, asking them, as benefices became vacant, to give him
-the opportunity of bestowing them upon the translators as a reward for
-their service; and as to current expenses, the king, while professing with
-much effusiveness his readiness to bear them, cleverly evaded the
-responsibility by stating that some of “my lords, as things now go, did
-hold it inconvenient.”<a name='fna_49' id='fna_49' href='#f_49'><small>[49]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>The revision was completed, as the revisers themselves tell us, in “twice
-seven times seventy-two days and more;” that is to say, in about two years
-and three-quarters; and if to this be added the nine months spent in a
-final revision and preparation for the press, we have then only a period
-of three years and a half. The new Bible was published in 1611; the work,
-therefore, could not have been commenced before 1607.</p>
-
-<p>Although the men who engaged in this important undertaking are called
-“translators,” their work was essentially that of revision. This is
-clearly shown both by the rules laid down for their guidance, and by the
-statement of the translators themselves, who say in their preface, “Truly,
-good Christian reader, wee never thought from the beginning that wee
-should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good
-one,” “but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one
-principall good one, not justly to bee excepted against; that hath beene
-our indeavour, that our marke.”<a name='fna_50' id='fna_50' href='#f_50'><small>[50]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Further, this revision was a more extensive and thorough revision than any
-which had been heretofore undertaken. In former revisions, either the work
-had been done by the solitary labours of one or two, or when a fair number
-of competent men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> were engaged in it no sufficient provision had been made
-for combined action, and but few opportunities had been given for mutual
-conference. In this revision a larger number of scholars were engaged than
-upon any former, and the arrangements were such as secured that upon no
-part of the Bible should the labour of fewer than seven persons be
-expended. The revisers were divided into six companies, two of which met
-at Westminster, two at Cambridge, and two at Oxford. The books of the Old
-Testament, from Genesis to 2 Kings inclusive, were assigned to the first
-Westminster company, consisting of ten members; from 1 Chronicles to Song
-of Solomon, to the first Cambridge company, consisting of eight members;
-and from Isaiah to Malachi, to the first Oxford company, consisting of
-seven members. The Apocryphal books were assigned to the second Cambridge
-company, which also consisted of seven members. Of the books of the New
-Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse were
-given to the second Oxford company, in which as many as ten members were
-at different times associated; the Epistles were entrusted to the seven
-scholars forming the second Westminster company.<a name='fna_51' id='fna_51' href='#f_51'><small>[51]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>The portions assigned to each company were not again subdivided amongst
-its members; but, in accordance with the eighth rule, “every particular
-man of each company” translated and amended by himself each successive
-portion, and the company met from time to time to confer upon what they
-had done, and to agree upon what should stand.<a name='fna_52' id='fna_52' href='#f_52'><small>[52]</small></a> Of the mode of
-procedure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> followed at the meetings of the several companies, we have no
-other information than the brief statement given by Selden in his <i>Table
-Talk</i>&mdash;that “one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands
-some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian,
-&amp;c. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on.”</p>
-
-<p>One interesting and touching picture of the translators at work, which
-however seems to have escaped the notice<a name='fna_53' id='fna_53' href='#f_53'><small>[53]</small></a> of all writers upon the
-history of the English Bible, is given us by Dr. Daniel Featley in his
-account of the <i>Life and Death of John Rainolds</i>, and which is probably
-the substance, if not the very words, of the oration delivered by him at
-the funeral of the latter, when, on account of the large number of
-mourners, “the Chapell being not capable of the fourth part of the
-Funerall troupe,” a desk was set up in the quadrangle of Corpus Christi
-College, and a brief history of Rainolds’ life, “with the manner of his
-death,” was thence delivered to the assembled company. Dr. Rainolds was
-one of the Oxford scholars to whom the difficult task was assigned of
-revising the prophetical books of the Old Testament; and Featley tells us
-that “for his great skill in the originall Languages,” the other members
-of the company, “Doctor Smith, afterward Bishop of Gloster; Doctor
-Harding, President of Magdalens; Doctor Kilbie, Rector of Lincolne
-Colledge; Dr. Bret, and others, imployed in that worke by his Majesty, had
-recourse” to him “once a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> weeke, and in his Lodgings perfected their
-Notes; and though in the midst of this Worke, the gout first tooke him,
-and after a consumption, of which he dyed; yet in a great part of his
-sicknesse the meeting held at his Lodging, and he lying on his Pallet,
-assisted them, and in a manner in the very translation of the booke of
-life, was translated to a better life.”<a name='fna_54' id='fna_54' href='#f_54'><small>[54]</small></a> Rainolds died May 21st, 1607.</p>
-
-<p>In the discharge of their responsible task the translators made use of all
-the aids accessible to them for the perfecting of their work. Not only did
-they bring to it a large amount of Hebrew and Greek scholarship, and the
-results of their personal study of the original Scriptures, they were
-careful to avail themselves also of the investigations of others who had
-laboured in the same field. Translations and commentaries in the Chaldee,
-Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch
-languages were laid under contribution. “Neither,” they add, “did we
-disdaine to revise that which wee had done, and to bring back to the
-anvill that which wee had hammered; but having and using as great helpes
-as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coveting
-praise for expedition, wee have at length, through the good hand of the
-Lord upon us, brought the worke to that passe that you see.”</p>
-
-<p>When the several companies had completed their labours there was needed
-some general supervision of the work before it finally issued from the
-press. There is no evidence that the six companies ever met in one body
-(though possibly the two companies in each of the three centres may have
-had some communication with each other); but having spent almost three
-years upon the revision, “at the end whereof,” says the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> writer of the
-life of John Bois,<a name='fna_55' id='fna_55' href='#f_55'><small>[55]</small></a> “the whole work being finished, and three copies of
-the whole Bible sent from Cambridge, Oxford, and Westminster to London, a
-new choice was to be made of six in all, two out of every company,<a name='fna_56' id='fna_56' href='#f_56'><small>[56]</small></a> to
-review the whole work, and extract one copy out of all these to be
-committed to the press, for the dispatch of which business Mr. Downes and
-Mr. Bois were sent for up to London, where,<a name='fna_57' id='fna_57' href='#f_57'><small>[57]</small></a> meeting their four
-fellow-labourers, they went daily to Stationers’ Hall, and in
-three-quarters of a year fulfilled their task, all which time they had
-from the Company of Stationers thirty shillings<a name='fna_58' id='fna_58' href='#f_58'><small>[58]</small></a> each per week duly
-paid them, though they had nothing before but the self-rewarding,
-ingenious industry.”<a name='fna_59' id='fna_59' href='#f_59'><small>[59]</small></a> “Last of all Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and
-Dr. Miles Smith, again reviewed the whole work, and prefixed arguments to
-the several books.”</p>
-
-<p>And thus at length, as Thomas Fuller quaintly puts it, “after long
-expectation, and great desire, the new translation of the Bible (most
-beautifully printed) by a select and competent number of Divines appointed
-for the purpose, not being too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> many, lest one should trouble another,
-and yet many, lest in any things might haply escape them. Who, neither
-coveting praise for expedition, nor fearing reproach for slackness (seeing
-in a business of moment none deserve blame for convenient slowness), had
-expended almost three years in a work, not only examining the channels by
-the fountain, translations with the original, which was absolutely
-necessary, but also comparing channels with channels, which was abundantly
-useful.” “These, with Jacob, rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-Well of Life, so that now Rachel’s weak women may freely come, both to
-drink themselves, and to water the flocks of their families at the
-same.”<a name='fna_60' id='fna_60' href='#f_60'><small>[60]</small></a></p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_V" id="LECTURE_V"></a>LECTURE V.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>On the title-page of the first edition of King James’s Bible there
-appeared as now the legend, “Appointed to be read in Churches.” Whence
-this originated is unknown; it is even uncertain what meaning is to be
-attached to the words. Some contend<a name='fna_61' id='fna_61' href='#f_61'><small>[61]</small></a> that they mean nothing more than
-that the book contained the directions in accordance with which the
-Scriptures were “appointed” to be read in public worship, such as are now
-given in the Book of Common Prayer. But, however this may be, there is no
-evidence that this Bible was ever formally sanctioned, either by the king,
-or by Parliament, or by Convocation. The king, as we have seen, encouraged
-the making of the revision, but that the revision when made was, by any
-public act on his part, invested with any special authority, is a fancy
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>altogether unsupported by fact. Its designation as the Authorized
-Version has been due simply to common parlance; the claim which that
-designation seems to assert is absolutely baseless.</p>
-
-<p>It was not in virtue of any privileges conferred upon it by those in
-authority, but by its intrinsic excellence, that this version made its way
-into general use, and at length supplanted all previous versions. Its
-chief, if not only, competitor was the Genevan. So strong was the
-attachment of many to the latter that two editions of it, one a folio and
-the other a quarto, were published by the king’s printer in the very year
-in which the new version was issued, and during at least five years after
-that date<a name='fna_62' id='fna_62' href='#f_62'><small>[62]</small></a> various other editions were issued from the same source.
-After 1616 the Genevan ceased to be printed in England, but the demand for
-it still continuing, various editions were printed on the Continent, and
-thence introduced into this country. A folio edition, printed at
-Amsterdam, bears so late a date as 1644. In 1649, in order to win the
-favour of those who still clung to their old favourite, an edition of the
-new version was issued with the Genevan notes. After this date the
-revision of 1611 may be said to have gained for itself universal
-recognition, and for more than 230 years it has been the accepted and
-cherished Bible of almost all English-speaking people.</p>
-
-<p>We should, however, form a very erroneous opinion both of the spirit and
-of the learning of King James’s translators, if we were to suppose that
-they would have claimed finality for their work. They were too well
-acquainted with the state of the original texts not to know what need
-there was for further research after the most ancient and trustworthy
-authorities. They were too keenly sensitive to the difficulties of
-translation not to feel that they must often have failed to convey the
-exact meaning of the words they were attempting to render. They were too
-conscious of the merits of their predecessors, and of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> extent to which
-they had profited by their labours, to hesitate to acknowledge that others
-might in like manner profit by what they themselves had done. And they
-were too loyal in their reverence for the Scriptures, and too devoutly
-anxious that every imperfection should be removed from the form in which
-they were given to their fellow-countrymen, to offer any discouragement to
-those who should seek to remove the blemishes that might still remain.
-They would strongly have deprecated any attempt to find in their labours a
-plea against further improvement; and they would have emphatically
-proclaimed that the best expression of thankfulness for their services,
-and of respect for themselves, was in the imitation of their example, and
-in the promotion of further efforts for the perfecting of the book they so
-profoundly loved.</p>
-
-<p>In the case of such a book as the Bible, however perfect the translation
-which may at any time be made, the duty of revision is one of recurring
-obligation. The necessity for it is inevitable, and this from two causes
-in constant operation. (1) By the imperfection that attaches to all kinds
-of human labour various departures from the standard form became gradually
-introduced in the process of reproduction; and (2) by the natural growth
-of language, and the attendant changes in the meaning of terms, that which
-at one time was a faithful rendering becomes at another obscure or
-incorrect.</p>
-
-<p>No long time elapsed before blemishes arose in the version of 1611 from
-the first of these causes, and, to use the language of the translators
-themselves, their translation needed “to be maturely considered and
-examined, that being rubbed and polished it might shine as gold more
-brightly.” The invention of printing, although it has largely diminished
-the liability to error in the multiplication of copies, has not, as
-everyone knows who has had occasion to minutely examine printed works,
-altogether removed them. Various typographical errors soon made their
-appearance in the printed copies of the Bible, and these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> became repeated
-and multiplied in successive editions, until at length no inconsiderable
-number of variations, sometimes amounting to several thousands, could be
-traced between different copies. Most of these it is true were unimportant
-variations, but some of them were of a more serious nature. The following
-instances will serve to illustrate this. The dates attached are the dates
-of the editions in which the errors may be found:</p>
-
-<p>Exod. xx. 14. “Thou shalt commit adultery,” <i>for</i> “Thou shalt not.” 1631,
-Lond., 8vo.<a name='fna_63' id='fna_63' href='#f_63'><small>[63]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Numb. xxv. 18. “They vex you with their wives,” <i>for</i> “their wiles.” 1638,
-Lond., 12mo.</p>
-
-<p>Numb. xxvi. 10. “The fire devoured two thousand and fifty men,” <i>for</i> “two
-hundred and fifty.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.</p>
-
-<p>Deut. xxiv. 3. “If the latter husband ate her,” <i>for</i> “hate her.” 1682,
-Lond.</p>
-
-<p>2 Sam. xxiii. 20. “He slew two lions like men,” <i>for</i> “two lion-like men.”
-1638, Lond., 12mo.</p>
-
-<p>Job xxix. 3. “By his light I shined through darkness,” <i>for</i> “I walked
-through.” 1613, Lond.</p>
-
-<p>Isaiah xxix. 13. “Their fear toward me is taught by the people of men,”
-<i>for</i> “by the precept of men.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.</p>
-
-<p>Jer. iv. 17. “Because she hath been religious against me,” <i>for</i> “hath
-been rebellious.” 1637, Edin., 8vo.</p>
-
-<p>Jer. xviii. 21. “Deliver up their children to the swine,” <i>for</i> “to the
-famine.” 1682, Lond.</p>
-
-<p>Ezek. xxiii. 7. “With all their idols she delighted herself,” <i>for</i> “she
-defiled herself.” 1613, Lond.</p>
-
-<p>Matt. xxvi. 36. “Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called
-Gethsemane,” <i>for</i> “Then cometh Jesus.” 1611, Lond.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>Acts vi. 3. “Look ye out among you seven men of honest report ... whom ye
-may appoint,” <i>for</i> “whom we may appoint.” 1638, Camb. fo.<a name='fna_64' id='fna_64' href='#f_64'><small>[64]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>1 Cor. v. 1. “And such fornication as is not so much as not among the
-Gentiles,” <i>for</i> “not so much as named.” 1629, Lond., fo.<a name='fna_65' id='fna_65' href='#f_65'><small>[65]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>1 Cor. vi. 9. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom
-of God?” <i>for</i> “shall not inherit.” 1653, Lond., 32mo.</p>
-
-<p>2 Tim. iv. 16. “I pray God that it may be laid to their charge,” <i>for</i>
-“may not be laid.” 1613, Lond.</p>
-
-<p>Titus i. 14. “Now giving heed to Jewish fables,” <i>for</i> “not giving heed.”
-1636 Edin., 8vo.</p>
-
-<p>James v. 4. “The Lord of Sabbath,” <i>for</i> “Sabaoth.” 1640, Lond., 8vo.</p>
-
-<p>1 John i. 4. “That our joy may be full,” <i>for</i> “that your joy.” 1769, Oxf.</p>
-
-<p>These facts will serve to show how soon some kind of revision became
-needful, and that a true reverence for Scripture is shown, not by
-opposition to revision, but by a desire, and even demand, that it should
-be undertaken. This necessity became all the more imperative in the case
-of the revision of 1611, because there existed no standard copy to which
-appeal could in all cases be made as evidence of the conclusions reached
-by the translators. It is a curious and remarkable fact, that two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
-editions, differing in several respects, were issued by the king’s
-printer, Robert Barker, in 1611, and competent judges are not agreed as to
-which of these two priority in time belongs. Nor even if this point were
-satisfactorily settled, would it suffice to reproduce that one of the two
-texts which might be proved to be the earlier. For excellent as was the
-main work done by the translators, the final revision and the oversight of
-the sheets as they passed through the press were not so thorough as was to
-be desired. In the most carefully prepared edition of this revision that
-has ever been issued, viz., the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, edited by Dr.
-Scrivener, the learned and laborious editor has seen it right to depart
-from the printed text of 1611 in more than nine hundred places.<a name='fna_66' id='fna_66' href='#f_66'><small>[66]</small></a> It
-will be manifest that such corrections, whenever called for, ought not to
-be made in any haphazard way, and that it is in the interest of all that
-careful revisions of the printed texts should from time to time be made,
-and that they should be made by men thoroughly competent for the task.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>The second cause to which reference has been made is, of course, much
-slower in its operation, but though slow it is certain; and sooner or
-later every version, whensoever and by whomsoever made, must call for
-revision, because of the changes to which all language is subject. Words
-which were once in common use pass altogether out of currency, and are
-utterly unintelligible save to a learned few. Other words change their
-meaning, and give to the sentences in which they occur a different and
-sometimes an alien sense to that which they formerly conveyed. Others
-again, while retaining <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>fundamentally their original sense, become limited
-in their range of application, and when used in other connections than
-those to which they are thus confined by custom, become grotesque and
-disturb the mind of the reader by the strange associations which they
-suggest.</p>
-
-<p>How many words found in our Bibles have, since 1611, passed out of general
-use the following list will show. Most of these are wholly without
-meaning, even to an educated reader; a few survive as local
-provincialisms, and a few also are still employed in the technical
-vocabulary of certain arts or professions. All are out of place in a book
-intended for universal use.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Assay.</i> Deut. iv. 34; Job iv. 2; Acts ix. 26, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Attent.</i> 2 Chron. vi. 40.</p>
-
-<p><i>Bestead.</i> Isa. viii. 21.</p>
-
-<p><i>Blain.</i> Exod. ix. 9, 10.</p>
-
-<p><i>Bolled.</i> Exod. ix. 31.</p>
-
-<p>[<i>Brickle.</i> Wisd. xv. 13.]</p>
-
-<p><i>Brigandine.</i> Jer. xlvi. 4; li. 3.</p>
-
-<p><i>Bruit.</i> Jer. x. 22; Nah. iii. 19.</p>
-
-<p><i>Calamus.</i> Exod. xxx. 23; Cant. iv. 14; Exek. xxvii. 19.</p>
-
-<p><i>Camphire.</i> Cant. i. 14; iv. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Causey.</i> 1 Chron. xxvi. 18.</p>
-
-<p><i>Chanel-bone.</i> Job xxxi. 22, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Chapiter.</i> Exod. xxxvi. 38, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Chapman.</i> 2 Chron. ix. 14.</p>
-
-<p><i>Chaws.</i> Ezek. xxix. 4.</p>
-
-<p>[<i>Cithern.</i> 1 Macc. iv. 54.]</p>
-
-<p><i>Cockatrice.</i> Isa. xi. 8, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Collops.</i> Job xv. 27.</p>
-
-<p><i>Confection.</i> Exod. xxx. 35.</p>
-
-<p><i>Coney.</i> Lev. xi. 5, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>To Convent.</i> Jer. xlix. 19, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Cotes.</i> 2 Chron. xxxii. 28.</p>
-
-<p><i>To Couch.</i> Dent, xxxiii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Countervail.</i> Esth. vii. 4.</p>
-
-<p><i>Daysman.</i> Job ix. 33.</p>
-
-<p>[<i>Dehort.</i> 1 Macc. ix. 9.]</p>
-
-<p><i>Delicates.</i> Jer. li. 34.</p>
-
-<p><i>Dredge.</i> Job xxiv. 6, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Dure.</i> Matt. xiii. 21.</p>
-
-<p><i>Earing.</i> Gen. xlv. 6.</p>
-
-<p><i>Endirons.</i> Ezek. xl. 43, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Flue-net.</i> Hab. i. 15, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Gier eagle.</i> Lev. xi. 18.</p>
-
-<p><i>Gorget.</i> 1 Sam. xvii. 6, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Habergeon.</i> Exod. xxviii. 32; xxxix. 23, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Helve.</i> Deut. xix. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Hough.</i> Josh. xi. 6, 9.</p>
-
-<p><i>Implead.</i> Acts xix. 38.</p>
-
-<p><i>Jewry.</i> Dan. v. 13; John vii. 1.</p>
-
-<p><i>Knop.</i> Exod. xxv. 31, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Leasing.</i> Ps. iv. 2; v. 6.</p>
-
-<p><i>Makebate.</i> 2 Tim. iii. 3, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Muffler.</i> Isa. iii. 19.</p>
-
-<p><i>Neesing.</i> Job xli. 18.</p>
-
-<p><i>Ossifrage.</i> Lev. xi. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Ouches.</i> Exod. xxviii. 11, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Pilled.</i> Gen. xxx. 37.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span><i>Prelation.</i> 1 Cor. xiii., <i>heading</i>.</p>
-
-<p><i>Purtenance.</i> Exod. xii. 9.</p>
-
-<p><i>Ravin.</i> Gen. xlix. 27.</p>
-
-<p><i>Rereward.</i> Num. x. 25, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Scall.</i> Lev. xiii. 30.</p>
-
-<p><i>Scrabble.</i> 1 Sam. xxi. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>A Settle.</i> Ezek. xliii. 14, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Silverling.</i> Isa. vii. 23.</p>
-
-<p><i>Sith.</i> Ezek. xxxv. 6.</p>
-
-<p><i>Tabering.</i> Nah. ii. 7.</p>
-
-<p><i>Tache.</i> Exod. xxvi. 6.</p>
-
-<p><i>Throughaired.</i> Jer. xxii. 14, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Thrum.</i> Isa. xxxviii. 12, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Viol.</i> Isa. v. 12.</p>
-
-<p><i>Wimple.</i> Isa. iii. 22.</p></div>
-
-<p>A still larger number of words or phrases, though still finding a place in
-our current speech, have wholly or partially changed their meanings.
-Amongst these are the following:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p><i>All to brake.</i> Judges ix. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Base.</i> 1 Cor. i. 28; 2 Cor. x. 1.</p>
-
-<p><i>Botch.</i> Exod. ix. 9.</p>
-
-<p><i>Bought of a sling.</i> 1 Sam. xxv. 29, <i>marg.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Bravery.</i> Isa. iii. 18.</p>
-
-<p><i>Bray.</i> Prov. xxvii. 27.</p>
-
-<p><i>By and by.</i> Matt. xiii. 21; Luke xxi. 9.</p>
-
-<p><i>Captivate.</i> 2 Chron. xxviii.; Jer. xxxix., <i>headings</i>.</p>
-
-<p><i>Careful.</i> Dan. iii. 16; Phil. iv. 6.</p>
-
-<p><i>Carriage.</i> Judges xviii. 21; Acts xxi. 15.</p>
-
-<p><i>Cast about.</i> Jer. xli. 14.</p>
-
-<p><i>Chafed.</i> 2 Sam. xvii. 8.</p>
-
-<p><i>Champaign.</i> Deut. xi. 30.</p>
-
-<p><i>Charger.</i> Matt. xiv. 8; Mark vi. 25.</p>
-
-<p><i>Charity.</i> 1 Cor. xiii. 1, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Churl.</i> Isa. xxxii. 5, 7.</p>
-
-<p><i>Cieling.</i> 1 Kings vi. 15.</p>
-
-<p><i>Clouted.</i> Josh. ix. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Cockle.</i> Job xxxi. 40.</p>
-
-<p><i>Comfort.</i> Job ix. 27.</p>
-
-<p><i>Confectionary.</i> 1 Sam. viii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Contain.</i> 1 Cor. vii. 9.</p>
-
-<p><i>Conversation.</i> Gal. i. 18; Phil. iii. 20; Heb. xiii. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Convince.</i> Jno. viii. 48; Jas. ii. 9.</p>
-
-<p><i>Cunning.</i> Ps. cxxxvii. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Curious.</i> Exod. xxviii. 8; xxix. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Damnation.</i> 1 Cor. xi. 29.</p>
-
-<p><i>Delicately.</i> Lam. iv. 5; Luke vii. 25.</p>
-
-<p><i>Discover.</i> Ps. xxix. 9; Mic. i. 6; Hab. iii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Doctrine.</i> Mark iv. 2.</p>
-
-<p><i>Duke.</i> Gen. xxxvi. 15.</p>
-
-<p><i>Ensign.</i> Num. ii. 2; Isa. v. 26.</p>
-
-<p><i>Fast.</i> Ruth ii. 8, 21.</p>
-
-<p><i>Fetch a compass.</i> Acts xxviii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Flood.</i> Josh. xxiv. 2, 3, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Footman.</i> Jer. xii. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Fret.</i> Lev. xiii. 55.</p>
-
-<p><i>Grudge.</i> Ps. lix. 15.</p>
-
-<p><i>Hale.</i> Luke xii. 58; Acts viii. 3.</p>
-
-<p><i>Harness.</i> 1 Kings xx. 11; xxii. 34.</p>
-
-<p><i>Indite.</i> Ps. xlv. 1.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span><i>Jangling.</i> 1 Tim. i. 6.</p>
-
-<p><i>Kerchief.</i> Ezek. xiii. 18, 21.</p>
-
-<p><i>Lace.</i> Exod. xxviii. 28.</p>
-
-<p><i>Latchet.</i> Isa. v. 27; Mark i. 7.</p>
-
-<p><i>Let.</i> Exod. v. 24; Isa. xliii. 13; Rom. i. 13; 2 Thess. ii. 7.</p>
-
-<p><i>Lewd.</i> Acts xvii. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Lewdness.</i> Acts xviii. 14.</p>
-
-<p><i>Man-of-War.</i> Exod. xv. 3, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Maul.</i> Prov. xxv. 18.</p>
-
-<p><i>Minister.</i> Josh. i. 1; 1 Kings x. 5; Luke iv. 20.</p>
-
-<p><i>Napkin.</i> Luke xix. 20; John xi. 44; xx. 7.</p>
-
-<p><i>Naughtiness.</i> 1 Sam. xvii. 28; Prov. xi. 6; James i. 21.</p>
-
-<p><i>Naughty.</i> Prov. vi. 12.</p>
-
-<p><i>Nephew.</i> Judges xii. 14; 1 Tim. v. 4.</p>
-
-<p><i>Observe.</i> Mark vi. 20.</p>
-
-<p><i>Occupy.</i> Exod. xxxviii. 24; Judg. xvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 9; Luke xix.
-13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Painfulness.</i> 2 Cor. xi. 27.</p>
-
-<p><i>Palestine.</i> Exod. xv. 14; Isa. xiv. 29.</p>
-
-<p><i>Pap.</i> Luke xi. 27; Rev. i. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Parcel.</i> Gen. xxxix. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32; Ruth iv. 3; John iv. 5.</p>
-
-<p><i>Peep.</i> Isa. viii. 19; x. 14.</p>
-
-<p><i>Poll.</i> Num. i. 2, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Pommel.</i> 2 Chron. ix. 12.</p>
-
-<p><i>Port.</i> Neh. ii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Prefer.</i> Esth. ii. 9; Dan. vi. 3; John i. 25.</p>
-
-<p><i>Presently.</i> Matt. xxvi. 53; Phil. ii. 23.</p>
-
-<p><i>Prevent.</i> Ps. lix. 10; cxix. 147; 1 Thess. iv. 15.</p>
-
-<p><i>Proper.</i> Acts i. 19; 1 Cor. vii. 7; Heb. xi. 32.</p>
-
-<p><i>Prophesy.</i> 1 Cor. xi. 5; xiv. 3, 4.</p>
-
-<p><i>Publican.</i> Matt. v. 46, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Purchase.</i> 1 Tim. iii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Ranges.</i> Lev. xi. 35.</p>
-
-<p><i>Refrain.</i> Prov. x. 19.</p>
-
-<p><i>Riot.</i> Titus i. 6; 1 Peter iv. 4; 2 Peter ii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Rioting.</i> Rom. xiii. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Riotous.</i> Prov. xxiii. 20; Luke xv. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Road.</i> 1 Sam. xxvii. 10.</p>
-
-<p><i>Scrip.</i> 1 Sam. xvii. 40; Matt. x. 10, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Secure.</i> Judges viii. 11; xviii. 7, 10; Job xi. 18; xii. 6; Matt.
-xxviii. 14.</p>
-
-<p><i>Set to.</i> John iii. 32.</p>
-
-<p><i>Shroud.</i> Ezek. xxxi. 3.</p>
-
-<p><i>Sod.</i> Gen. xxv. 29.</p>
-
-<p><i>Sottish.</i> Jer. iv. 22.</p>
-
-<p><i>Table.</i> Hab. ii. 2; Luke i. 63; 2 Cor. iii. 3.</p>
-
-<p><i>Target.</i> 1 Sam. xvii. 6; 1 Kings x. 16.</p>
-
-<p><i>Tire.</i> Isa. iii. 18; Ezek. xxiv. 17, 23.</p>
-
-<p><i>Tired.</i> 2 Kings ix. 30.</p>
-
-<p><i>Turtle.</i> Cant. ii. 12.</p>
-
-<p><i>Vagabond.</i> Gen. iv. 12; Ps. cix. 10; Acts xix. 13.</p>
-
-<p><i>Venison.</i> Gen. xxv. 28.</p>
-
-<p><i>Wealth.</i> 2 Chron. i. 12; Ps. cxii. 3; 1 Cor. x. 24.</p>
-
-<p><i>Witty.</i> Prov. viii. 22.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>If, in reading these passages, we attach to the words here mentioned the
-meaning that they ordinarily bear, the resulting sense will in each case
-be very different from that intended to be conveyed by the translators. In
-some of the passages the sense thus given will be so manifestly
-inappropriate that the reader is necessarily driven to seek for some
-explanation; but in others of them no such feeling may be awakened, and
-the reader is undesignedly betrayed into error. Through no fault of the
-translators, but by the inevitable law of change in language, the words
-which once served as stepping-stones, by whose aid the reader could rise
-to a clearer perception of the truth of God, have become stumbling-blocks
-in his path, and cause him to wander from the way. Respect, therefore, for
-the translators, as well as loyalty to the Scripture, constrain the demand
-that these rough places be made plain.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_VI" id="LECTURE_VI"></a>LECTURE VI.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF 1611.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>The two reasons for further revision which were illustrated in the last
-lecture are, as will have been seen, of universal application, and must
-sooner or later apply to every version of the Scriptures, however perfect
-that version may have been when it was first made. But whatever the skill
-with which King James’s translators fulfilled their labours (and it is
-universally acknowledged to be worthy of the highest praise), it would be
-a vain fancy to imagine that theirs was a perfect work. They themselves
-would never have claimed such an honour for it, and already in their own
-day some of their renderings were called in question by competent men.
-Even if they had never failed in applying the means at their command for
-the interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek originals, they knew that the
-knowledge then possessed of these ancient tongues was far from complete,
-and that by further study and advancing research it would be possible to
-attain to a more accurate and extensive acquaintance with them.</p>
-
-<p>The progress made in the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew during the last two
-centuries has, in fact, been such as the revisers of 1611 could have
-little anticipated. A long list might easily be drawn up of eminent
-scholars who have given themselves to the investigation of the grammar of
-the two sacred languages, and of others who have laboured in illustrating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
-the meaning of their terms. In the case of Hebrew, large additions to our
-knowledge, both of its grammar and its vocabulary, have been won from a
-source almost entirely unexplored in former times; namely, the study of
-Arabic and other cognate languages; and in the case both of Hebrew and
-Greek, much has been gained by the labours of those who have given
-themselves to the investigation of the general principles of language, and
-to the study of the relations which different languages sustain to each
-other. The knowledge of Hebrew and Greek thus attained has been from time
-to time applied by a still larger number of eminent men to the elucidation
-of the several books of the Bible, and an immense amount of valuable
-material for their interpretation has thus been stored up. The meaning of
-obscure and difficult passages has been elaborately and independently
-discussed by men of different nationalities, and of different types of
-theological opinion, and in this way the sense of many passages formerly
-misunderstood has been satisfactorily determined. And such being the case,
-it is clearly the incumbent duty of all who truly reverence the Scriptures
-to desire that these imperfections and obscurities shall be removed, and
-the more so that some of these erroneous renderings have been used by the
-opponents of the Bible as their weapons of attack.</p>
-
-<p>That the reader may be able to form some definite judgment upon the matter
-here presented to him, his attention is called to the following selection
-of passages from different parts of the Bible, in which it will now be
-generally acknowledged by competent judges that the translators of 1611
-have failed to give a faithful representation of the meaning of the
-original texts:</p>
-
-<p>Gen. iv. 15 is rendered, in the version of 1611, as in previous versions:
-“And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him,”
-and no small amount of ingenuity has been wasted in the endeavour to
-decide what this supposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> mark upon the body of Cain might be. The
-rendering moreover altogether misrepresented the import of the passage.
-The “mark” or “sign” was not something intended for the warning of others,
-but was given to remove the fears of Cain himself, expressed in verses 13,
-14: “The Lord set a sign for Cain [to assure him] that whoever found him
-would not kill him.”</p>
-
-<p>Gen. xx. 16. Here Abimelech is made to say to Sarah, “Behold, I have given
-thy brother a thousand <i>pieces</i> of silver; behold, he is to thee a
-covering of the eyes, with all that are with thee, and with all <i>other</i>;
-thus she was reproved,” a statement which is both misleading and obscure.
-It was not Abraham, but the present of money, that was to be for Sarah a
-covering of the eyes, that is, a testimony to her virtue, and by this act
-of the king she was not reproved for her conduct, but was cleared in her
-character. The latter part should be rendered, “Behold, it shall be to
-thee a covering of the eyes ... and thus she was righted.”</p>
-
-<p>Exod. xvi. 15. “And when the children of Israel saw <i>it</i>, they said one to
-another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was.” To the ordinary
-reader this seems to involve a contradiction; but the stumbling-block is
-at once removed by the more faithful rendering, “They said one to another,
-What is it? for they wist not what it was.” Further on, in verse 31, it is
-stated that from this cry, “What is it?” the bread from heaven thus given
-to them was called Manna, or more correctly Man (the Hebrew word for
-What?).</p>
-
-<p>Josh. vi. 4. “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets
-of rams’ horns.” This is a very unfortunate rendering; for not only are
-rams’ horns solid, and so also unsuitable for wind instruments, but also
-it is only by the merest fancy that any reference to rams can be brought
-in at all. The word rendered “rams” is “jubilee,” the same as that given
-to the great Year of Release. It denotes either some kind of trumpet, and
-is so used Exod. xix. 13, or the sound or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> signal given by a trumpet. The
-Year of Release derives its name, the Year of Jubilee, from the solemn
-sounding of trumpets throughout the land with which it was inaugurated.
-The original term should here be kept, and the verse should read, “And
-seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of jubilee.”<a name='fna_67' id='fna_67' href='#f_67'><small>[67]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Judges v. 7. “<i>The inhabitants of</i> the villages ceased, they ceased in
-Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.” Here
-the translators first of all misunderstood the word which they have
-rendered “villages,” and were then driven to introduce the words “the
-inhabitants of,” for which, as the italics show, there was nothing in the
-Hebrew. The picture really drawn in the verse is not that of the
-depopulation of the country, but of the defenceless and disorganized
-condition of the people through the absence of judges or rulers. The
-Septuagint gives the true sense: “The rulers ceased, they ceased in
-Israel.”<a name='fna_68' id='fna_68' href='#f_68'><small>[68]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Judges xv. 19. “But God clave an hollow place that <i>was</i> in the jaw, and
-there came water thereout.” A strange misrepresentation of the meaning of
-the original. The hollow place was not in the jaw-bone with which Sampson
-had slain the Philistines, but in some cliff in the neighbourhood, and
-which derived its name, Ramath-lehi, or more briefly Lehi, from this
-memorable exploit. The words should be rendered, “But God clave the hollow
-place which is in Lehi.”</p>
-
-<p>1 Sam. ix. 20. “And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set
-not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom <i>is</i> all the desire
-of Israel? <i>Is it</i> not on thee and on all thy father’s house?” A needless
-difficulty is here created by suggesting that already the hearts of the
-people had been set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> upon Saul for their future king, whereas his future
-elevation to that office was as yet known to Samuel only. This is removed
-by the right rendering: “Whose are all the desirable things of Israel? Are
-they not for thee, and for thy father’s house.”<a name='fna_69' id='fna_69' href='#f_69'><small>[69]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>2 Sam. v. 6. “Except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not
-come in hither;” a statement to which the reader finds it difficult to
-attach any appropriate sense. The verse is correctly rendered by
-Coverdale, who reads, “Thou shalt not come hither, but the blynde and lame
-shall dryve thee awaie.”</p>
-
-<p>2 Sam. xiv. 14. “For we must needs die, and <i>are</i> as water spilt on the
-ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect <i>any</i>
-person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from
-him.” The statement that God doth not respect <i>any</i> person, however true
-in itself, has here no relation to the context. The natural meaning of the
-original words is very different, “God doth not take away life,” that is,
-as shown by what immediately follows, does not at once and without mercy
-inflict punishment as soon as guilt is incurred, but “deviseth means,” &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>2 Kings viii. 13. “And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that
-he should do this great thing?” Thus read, the words imply that Hazael
-shrank indignantly from the actions described in the preceding verse;
-whereas the sense of the passage is that he viewed himself as too
-insignificant a person to do what he clearly regarded as a great exploit.
-“But what is thy servant, the [or this] dog, that he should do this great
-thing?”</p>
-
-<p>1 Chron. xvi. 7. “Then on that day David delivered first <i>this psalm</i> to
-thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.” This conveys the
-impression that the psalm which follows is the first psalm that David
-published, whereas the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> statement is that on this memorable day&mdash;the day
-on which David brought up the ark from the house of Obed-edom&mdash;he formally
-appointed Asaph and his brethren to the office of superintending the
-service of praise. (Compare verse 37.) “Then on that day David first gave
-the praising of the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.”<a name='fna_70' id='fna_70' href='#f_70'><small>[70]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Job iv. 6. “Is not <i>this</i> thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the
-uprightness of thy ways?” By the insertion of “<i>this</i>,” a wrong complexion
-is given to the passage. Eliphaz, in reference to Job’s fainting under his
-sufferings, calls attention to the confidence he had formerly professed on
-the ground of his fear of God and of the uprightness of his conduct; and
-so indirectly suggests that Job’s piety and uprightness had been unreal.
-“Is not thy fear [<i>i.e.</i> thy fear of God, thy piety] thy confidence; and
-thy hope, <i>is it not</i> even the integrity of thy ways?”</p>
-
-<p>Job xix. 26. “And <i>though</i> after my skin <i>worms</i> destroy this <i>body</i>, yet
-in my flesh shall I see God.” As the italics show, the original contains
-nothing corresponding to the words “though,” “worms,” and “body.” Their
-insertion does not indeed change radically the meaning of the verse, but
-they weaken its force, and in a measure alter its imagery. The picture
-presented by the original is a very vivid one. The patriarch, pointing to
-his body wasting away under disease, says, “After my skin is destroyed
-thus, yet from my flesh shall I see God.”</p>
-
-<p>Job xxiv. 16. “In the dark they dig through houses, <i>which</i> they had
-marked for themselves in the daytime; they know not the light.” Here the
-meaning of the second clause has been altogether missed, and the whole
-passage is thereby greatly obscured. The writer is describing the deeds of
-those who rebel against the light and love the darkness: as with the
-murderer (<i>v.</i> 14) and the adulterer (<i>v.</i> 15), so is it with the robber.
-“In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> the dark they dig through houses; in the daytime they shut themselves
-up; they know not the light.”</p>
-
-<p>Job xxxi. 35. “Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire <i>is</i>, <i>that</i> the
-Almighty would answer me, and <i>that</i> mine adversary had written a book.”
-Job, having asserted his innocence, expresses his strong desire that the
-charges against him might be brought for decision before the divine
-tribunal. He, on his part, is quite prepared for the trial; there, he
-says, is his statement, signed and sealed; let the adversary in like
-manner present his indictment; he would then be sure of a triumphant
-issue. “Oh that I had one who would hear me! Behold my mark! May the
-Almighty answer me, and that I had the accusation that my adversary had
-written. Surely, I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it as
-chaplets upon me.”</p>
-
-<p>Ps. xvi. 2, 3. “<i>Thou art</i> my Lord; my goodness <i>extendeth</i> not to thee.
-<i>But</i> to the saints that <i>are</i> in the earth, and <i>to</i> the excellent, in
-whom is all my delight.” Every reader of this psalm must have felt how
-obscure, if not unintelligible, are these words. A more faithful rendering
-gives a clear and appropriate sense, “Thou art my Lord, I have no good
-above thee. As for the saints on the earth, and the excellent, in them is
-all my delight.”<a name='fna_71' id='fna_71' href='#f_71'><small>[71]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Ps. xlii. 4. “When I remember these <i>things</i>, I pour out my soul in me,
-for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God.”
-The words of the Psalmist are not, as this rendering makes them to be, a
-mere statement of what happens whenever he remembers the sorrows of the
-past, and the mockery of his adversaries. They are a declaration of his
-purpose to remember, with lively emotion and gratitude, the privileges and
-mercies with which he had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> blessed. “I will remember these things
-[<i>i.e.</i> the things he is about to mention], and I will pour out my soul
-within me, how I passed along with the multitude, how I went with them [or
-how I led them] to the house of God.”</p>
-
-<p>Ps. xlix. 5. “Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, <i>when</i> the
-iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?” This, though seemingly an
-exact rendering of the Hebrew, wholly misleads the English reader. The
-phrase, “iniquity of my heels,” can only suggest to him the iniquity which
-the man himself has committed, a sense which is altogether unsuited to the
-passage. The Psalmist would never say that his own personal transgressions
-were not to him a ground of fear. The word, which in Hebrew means “heel,”
-is that also which, by a slight modification, forms the name of the
-patriarch Jacob, the “Heeler,” or supplanter of his brother. In the
-opinion of many scholars, the simple form here used admits of the same
-meaning, and they render, “when the iniquity of my supplanters [or the
-iniquity of those who plot against me] compasseth me about.” Whatever be
-the true explanation of the Hebrew phrase, it is quite certain that it is
-the iniquity of others, and not of the speaker, which is referred to. Some
-change, therefore, in the rendering is clearly called for.</p>
-
-<p>Ps. xci. 9, 10. “Because thou hast made the Lord, <i>which is</i> my refuge,
-<i>even</i> the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,”
-&amp;c. The earlier English translations, the Bishops’, the Genevan, the Great
-Bible, and Wycliffe’s, have all kept nearer to the original than this. The
-most ancient version of all, the Septuagint, renders it correctly. The
-psalm is one of those which are intended to be sung by two singers, or two
-companies of singers, responding one to the other, and hence arises the
-frequent change of person that occurs in it. In the first clause of this
-verse we have one of the singers chanting, “For thou, O Lord, art my
-refuge.” In the second clause we have the response of the other singer,
-“Thou hast made the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall
-thee,” &amp;c., down to end of verse 13.</p>
-
-<p>Eccl. iv. 14. “For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas, also, <i>he
-that is</i> born in his kingdom <i>becometh</i> poor.” The meaning attached by the
-Revisers of 1611 to the second clause seems to be, that the old and
-foolish king referred to in the previous verse, who was “born in his
-kingdom,” that is, who succeeded to the kingly power by inheritance,
-becomes, through his obstinacy, a poor man. This sense can only be got
-from the words by much straining, and has led to the introduction of the
-word “becometh,” which represents nothing in the original.<a name='fna_72' id='fna_72' href='#f_72'><small>[72]</small></a> The correct
-rendering gives a plain and suitable sense: “For from the house of
-prisoners he goeth forth to reign, although in his kingdom [namely, the
-kingdom over which he now rules] he was born poor.”</p>
-
-<p>Isa. lxiii. 19. “We are <i>thine</i>: thou never barest rule over them; they
-were not called by thy name.” The sense of this passage is entirely
-changed by the introduction of the word “thine.” The verse is the
-penitential acknowledgment of the depressed condition into which the
-nation had fallen in consequence of its sins. They are no longer as the
-chosen inheritance (v. 17), they are as an alien people. The Genevan
-translators give the true sense of the passage, “We have been [better, We
-are become] as they over whom thou never barest rule, and upon whom thy
-name was not called.”</p>
-
-<p>Jer. iv. 1, 2. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto
-me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then
-shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in
-judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in
-him, and in him shall they glory.” This as it stands is hopelessly
-obscure. The passage is an emphatic announcement of the blessings that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
-would come to the nations from the penitent return of Israel to its
-faithful allegiance. If Israel will return, will put away all its
-abominations, and no longer swearing by idols, as if they were the highest
-objects of reverence, should make in truth and uprightness their appeals
-to Jehovah, then the nations would share in the blessedness of the
-kingdom. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, wilt return unto
-me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, and wilt
-not go astray, and wilt swear, ‘The Lord liveth’ in truth, in judgment,
-and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him,” &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>Ezek. x. 14. “And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of
-a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the
-face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.” This conveys a wrong
-impression. The prophet is describing, not as he is here represented, the
-four faces of all the cherubim, but one face only of each. The Bishops’
-Bible gives the true sense by rendering, “Every one of them had four
-faces, so that the face of the first was the face of a cherub, and the
-face of the second was the face of a man, and of the third the face of a
-lion, and of the fourth the face of an eagle.”</p>
-
-<p>Ezek. xxii. 15, 16. “And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and
-disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of
-thee. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the
-heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.” The dark phrase, “thou
-shalt take thine inheritance in thyself,” is commonly explained to mean,
-that whereas aforetime they were God’s inheritance, they shall now be left
-to find their inheritance by themselves. A more lucid and more suitable
-meaning is given to the words by the rendering adopted by most modern
-commentators, “thou shalt be profaned through thyself in the sight of the
-nations.”</p>
-
-<p>Dan. iii. 25. “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
-and they have no hurt; and the form of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> fourth is like the Son of
-God.” It is clearly misleading to attribute to Nebuchadnezzar any such
-exalted conception as that which we attach to the phrase, “the Son of
-God,” and so to render the clause misrepresents the original. The correct
-translation is “one like to a son of the gods.” A similar error occurs in
-vii. 13, where “one like the Son of man,” should be “one like a son of
-man.”</p>
-
-<p>Hos. vi. 3. “Then shall we know, <i>if</i> we follow on to know the Lord;” thus
-making the prophet to declare that the attainment of knowledge is
-dependent upon our perseverance in the search after it. This is an
-important truth, but is not the meaning of the verse, which is simply an
-emphatic exhortation to know God and to persevere in knowing Him. “Yea,
-let us know, let us follow on to know, the Lord.”</p>
-
-<p>Hosea xiii. 14. “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy
-destruction.” Though there is some difference of opinion respecting the
-right rendering of the earlier part of this verse, all are agreed that
-these should be rendered as they are quoted in 1 Cor. xv. 55, “Where are
-thy plagues, O death? Where is thy destruction, O grave?”</p>
-
-<p>Matt. vi. 16. The rendering “they disfigure their faces, that they may
-appear unto men to fast,” misleads the reader by conveying the impression
-that the Pharisees were endeavouring to obtain credit under false
-pretences&mdash;were seeming to fast when not doing so in reality; whereas the
-conduct condemned is that of parading, and calling public attention to,
-their religious observances. “They disfigure their faces, that they may be
-seen of men that they are fasting.”<a name='fna_73' id='fna_73' href='#f_73'><small>[73]</small></a> So also in verse 18.</p>
-
-<p>Matt. xi. 2. “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
-he sent two of his disciples.” Here the true force of the passage is
-missed. “Christ,” as used by us, is a proper name, designating the person,
-and not simply the office of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> our Lord. It was not because John had heard
-of certain works done by Jesus of Nazareth that he sent his disciples to
-Him, but because he recognized in the accounts which were brought to him
-deeds characteristic of the Christ, the promised Messiah. “When John heard
-in the prison the works of the Christ.”</p>
-
-<p>Matt. xv. 3. “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
-tradition?” The commandment of God might indeed be transgressed by
-compliance with the traditions of men, but this is not the meaning of our
-Lord’s words. The Pharisees had asked why the disciples did not observe
-the traditions of the elders respecting washing. Our Lord justifies them
-by calling attention to the wrong doing of those who so exalted these
-outward observations, in themselves mere matters of indifference, as on
-their account to make void the commandments of God. “Why do ye also
-transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”<a name='fna_74' id='fna_74' href='#f_74'><small>[74]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Mark vi. 20. “For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an
-holy, and observed him.” This erroneous rendering has come down through
-Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan, the last of these, however,
-giving it in the less obscure form, “and did him reverence.” The passage
-is rightly given by Wycliffe, “and kept him;” <i>i.e.</i> kept him in safety.</p>
-
-<p>Luke i. 59. “And they called him Zacharias.” The form employed in the
-Greek expresses that the action here spoken of was attempted only, not
-completed, “they would have called him Zacharias.”</p>
-
-<p>Luke xxi. 19. “In your patience possess ye your souls,” a translation
-which altogether misses the meaning. The clause is not an exhortation to
-the maintenance of a calm composure in trouble, but is an exhortation to
-the acquirement of a higher and nobler life through the brave endurance of
-suffering. “In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> your patience win ye your lives.” In the better texts this
-is given in the form of an assurance: “In your patience ye shall win your
-lives.”</p>
-
-<p>Luke xxiii. 15. “No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and lo, nothing
-worthy of death is done unto him.” Words unto which an intelligible sense
-can be put only by straining them to mean that nothing had been done to
-our Lord to show that in the judgment of Herod He was worthy of death. All
-obscurity is removed by the more faithful rendering, “nothing worthy of
-death hath been done by him.”</p>
-
-<p>John iv. 27. “And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he
-talked with the woman.” The surprise of the disciples was not occasioned
-by the fact that our Lord was conversing with this particular woman; they
-were surprised that He should talk with any woman. The correct rendering
-is, as given by the Rheims, “and they marueiled that he talked with a
-woman.”</p>
-
-<p>John v. 35. “He was a burning and a shining light.” Though this, by
-frequent quotation, has passed into a sort of proverbial phrase, it is a
-most unfortunate rendering, and gives an entirely wrong impression of the
-meaning of the passage. As thus read it sets forth the pre-eminence of
-John, whereas its true import is to emphasize the subordinate nature of
-his office and work. Christ, as stated in the first chapter of this
-Gospel, was “the Light.” In comparison with Him, John was only a lamp
-which, in order that it may give light, must first be kindled from some
-other source. “He was the lamp which is kindled and [so] shineth.”</p>
-
-<p>John xv. 3. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
-you,” thus representing the word to be the instrument through which the
-cleansing was wrought. But though this be true, it is not the truth here
-set forth. It was not “through,” but “on account of” the word, <i>i.e.</i>
-because of its virtue and its cleansing power, that they were clean.
-Here,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> again, Wycliffe is free from the error into which all the later
-translators (except the Rheims) have fallen. He renders, “Now ye ben clene
-for the word that I haue spokun to you.”</p>
-
-<p>Acts ii. 23. “Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
-slain.” The ordinary reader naturally takes the “wicked hands” to be the
-hands of the Jews, whereas the reference is to the Romans, through whose
-agency the Jews brought about the crucifixion of Christ, “and by the hands
-of lawless men, ye crucified and slew.” Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, the
-Genevan, the Bishops, and the Rheims, all render this clause correctly.</p>
-
-<p>Acts xi. 17. “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as <i>he did</i>
-unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is incorrect, and
-suggests a false contrast between “us” and “them,” as if the latter were
-not believers. Faith in Christ is the ground upon which, in the case of
-both parties, the gifts referred to were received. The verse is thus given
-by Tyndale: “For as moche then as God gave them lyke gyftes, as he dyd
-unto vs when we beleved on the Lorde Iesus Christ.”</p>
-
-<p>Acts xxvi. 23. “That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first
-that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and
-to the Gentiles.” This both needlessly suggests a difficulty to many
-readers, and altogether conceals one main point of the passage; namely,
-that the resurrection of Christ was the great source from which
-illumination would come both to Jews and to Gentiles, “and that He first
-by <i>His</i> resurrection from the dead should proclaim light to the people
-and to the Gentiles.”</p>
-
-<p>Rom. ix. 3. “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
-brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Such a wish it is impossible
-that the Apostle could have entertained. His words are the expression of
-his strong affection for his fellow-countrymen. “I could have wished,”
-&amp;c.; <i>i.e.</i> if such a wish had been right or possible.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>Rom. xiii. 11. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to
-awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
-believed.” This is ambiguous English, and though a very careful reader
-might gather the true sense from this rendering, it is very liable to be
-taken as if meaning that our salvation is nearer than we anticipated; nor
-is the ambiguity removed by the Genevan, which reads, “nearer than when we
-believed it.” The reference is to the time of their first exercise of
-faith in Christ, “nearer than when we <i>first</i> believed.”</p>
-
-<p>1 Cor. i. 21. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
-knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
-that believe.” This rendering has been a fertile source of error, as if
-preaching was in itself, or as viewed by the Corinthians, an inappropriate
-means for the diffusion of the Gospel, a thought altogether at variance
-with the tone of the context, and with the facts of history. The Greeks
-were, of all the peoples of antiquity, the least disposed to think lightly
-of oratory, and the whole tenor of the passage shows that their tendency
-was to overrate, not underrate, the power of speech. What was foolishness
-to them was not the act of preaching, but the doctrine preached&mdash;salvation
-through a crucified Christ. The Rheims here clearly enough gives the true
-sense, “it pleased God by the folishnes of the preaching to saue them that
-beleeue.”</p>
-
-<p>1 Cor. ix. 5. “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well
-as other apostles?” This mode of speech implies that some only of the
-other apostles were married. What the Greek states is that all or most of
-them were. Here again the Rheims correctly renders, “as also the rest of
-the Apostles.”</p>
-
-<p>2 Cor. v. 14. “Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were
-all dead,” thus seeming to imply that the death of Christ upon the cross
-is a proof that all men were in a state of spiritual death; whereas the
-conclusion which the Apostle draws from the death of Christ is, that all
-who truly believe in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> Him die to their old fleshly sinful life, “because
-we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died.”</p>
-
-<p>Eph. iii 10. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
-heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”
-It would only be after much careful consideration that the reader of these
-words would discover that they cannot mean that the manifold wisdom of God
-is to be known <i>by</i> the Church. What the Apostle really states is, that it
-was in the Divine purpose that through the Church the manifold wisdom of
-God was to be made known to the angelic powers. Of all the ancient
-versions the Rheims, though here, as usual, disfigured by its offensive
-Latinisms, most clearly expresses the sense of the verse; its rendering
-is, “that the manifold wisdom of God may be notified to the Princes and
-Potentates in the celestials by the Church.”</p>
-
-<p>Phil. iv. 3. “And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women
-which laboured with me in the gospel.” This leaves it quite uncertain who
-are the women referred to, whereas in the original it is plain that they
-are the two women previously referred to, Euodia, and Syntyche; and the
-reason why it is urged that assistance should be given to them, is that
-they had bravely shared with Paul in the toil and conflict of the
-Christian service. “Help them, for they have laboured with me in the
-gospel.”</p>
-
-<p>1 Tim. iv. 15. “Meditate upon these things.” This wholly fails to express
-the apostle’s meaning. His exhortation goes beyond the region of thought;
-it passes into the sphere of active life, and he urges Timothy to give
-himself to the diligent practice of the several departments of labour
-previously referred to. Of the old translators, Tyndale gives it
-correctly, “These thynges exercyse.”</p>
-
-<p>1 Tim. vi. 2. “And they that have believing masters, let them not despise
-<i>them</i>, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because
-they are faithful and beloved, partakers of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> the benefit.” The last clause
-of this passage has, in all probability, grievously puzzled many a reader;
-but with the fuller knowledge of the Greek syntax now possessed, all
-obscurity passes away. No scholar would now hesitate in rendering, “do
-them service because they who partake of the benefit are faithful and
-beloved.”<a name='fna_75' id='fna_75' href='#f_75'><small>[75]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>1 Tim. vi. 5. “Supposing that gain is godliness.” Here again an
-unnecessary difficulty is introduced; for it is hard to see how any sane
-person could consider “gain” to be “godliness.” On the other hand, it is
-unhappily no uncommon experience to meet with persons who treat religion
-as a means of worldly advantage, and it is to such the Apostle refers. The
-correct rendering is, “supposing that godliness is gain.”<a name='fna_76' id='fna_76' href='#f_76'><small>[76]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Heb. iv. 2. “For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them,” a
-rendering which at once raises the objection that “the Gospel,” in the
-sense which ordinary readers attach to the term, was not preached to the
-Israelites in the wilderness; nor does any reference to “the Gospel” occur
-in the immediate context, but simply to the promise of entering into a
-rest. The plain sense of the passage is, “unto us were good tidings
-preached as well as unto them.”</p>
-
-<p>Heb. viii. 5. “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.”
-The introduction of the preposition “unto” almost entirely obliterates the
-meaning of the clause; namely, that the Mosaic priesthood were the
-ministers, not of the true sanctuary, but of that which is only its copy
-and shadow. The Rheims correctly renders, “that serve the examplar and
-shadow of heavenly things.”</p>
-
-<p>Heb. xiii. 7, 8. “Whose faith follow, considering the end of their
-conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> and for ever.”
-Here there is a double error; first, the connection of the last clause
-with the preceding, as if it were intended to affirm that Christ was the
-end of the conversation of their faithful pastors; and secondly, the wrong
-sense thus given to the word “end,” which here denotes the “outcome” or
-issue. The Hebrew Christians are urged to imitate the faith of their
-pastors, considering the blessed issue of their Christian cause. Then
-follows, as an independent statement, the assertion of the
-unchangeableness of Christ, which, though not altogether disconnected in
-thought with what precedes, stands in still closer connection with what
-follows: “Considering the issue of their way of life, imitate their faith.
-Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”</p>
-
-<p>Such are some of the passages from which it may be said, that through the
-emphatic unanimity of Biblical scholars all obscurity and doubt have been
-removed. Their true meaning may now be affirmed with a confidence that
-closely borders upon moral certainty. Through numerous commentaries and
-other expository works, these results of scholarship are made widely
-known, and they whose duty it is to expound these passages to others are
-constrained to point out the imperfection that attaches to the renderings
-given in the English Bible now ordinarily used. It is obviously a most
-undesirable thing that the teacher or preacher should be placed under such
-a necessity. It is not at all times easy so to discharge the duty as that
-he shall give no offence even to educated hearers; while the simple-minded
-and unlearned are painfully perplexed; and, unprepared as they are to
-estimate the limits of possible error, seem to themselves to be launched
-upon a boundless sea of uncertainty. Revision, therefore, becomes
-imperative, both for the sake of removing acknowledged blemishes, and also
-for reassuring the anxious that they are trusting to a faithful guide, and
-for showing to them how little, comparatively, there is in their beloved
-Book that needs to be changed.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_VII" id="LECTURE_VII"></a>LECTURE VII.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS, AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>Another, and distinct, class of reasons for the further revision of the
-English Bible, arises from the more abundant material now possessed for
-the determination of the original text of Scripture than was within the
-reach of the Revisers of 1611.</p>
-
-<p>Even if these honoured men had perfectly fulfilled their work, and had
-never erred in their interpretation of the sacred books, the result of
-their labours would still be open to correction because of the less
-perfect form of the texts which they set themselves to translate. The
-exact words used by the inspired writers are, as was stated in the first
-lecture, not now to be found in any one book or manuscript. They have to
-be gathered from varied sources, by long and careful labour, demanding
-much skill and learning. These sources, moreover, are so numerous that the
-investigation of them can be accomplished only by a large division of
-labour, no one life being long enough for the task, and no one scholar
-having knowledge enough to complete it alone. Nevertheless, it is well
-that our sources are thus extensive. Had one copy only of the books of the
-Old and New Testament come down to us, then, indeed, we should have been
-freed from the necessity of this manifold and laborious research, but
-unless this were the original copy itself, we should have had no means
-whereby to detect and to remove the errors which had crept in from the
-human imperfections<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of the transcribers. And though none of these errata
-might in any serious degree have affected the great truths which the Bible
-conveys to us, or have diminished our estimate of its surpassing worth,
-they would have been as blots upon its pages which our love and reverence
-for it would long to see removed. The greater the number and variety of
-our resources, the greater is our ability, by the examination and
-comparison of their differences, to remove these blemishes; and the
-greater also is the confidence we are able to feel in the absolute
-correctness of those far more numerous and extensive passages in which our
-authorities agree. And hence, though the toil imposed upon us is so
-largely multiplied thereby, we cannot but rejoice in the number and extent
-of our authorities, and we gather therefrom a fresh illustration of the
-saying, that “in all labour there is profit.”</p>
-
-<p>The sources, whence our knowledge of the original texts is chiefly
-derived, are three in number: (1) Manuscripts containing one or more of
-the books of Scripture; (2) Ancient Versions of the Bible; and (3)
-Quotations of Scriptural passages found in the works of early Christian
-writers.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>Respecting our Manuscript Authorities, the first fact claiming emphatic
-notice is, that while in the case of the classic poets, philosophers and
-historians, the extant manuscript copies are numbered by tens and
-sometimes even by units, those of the Scriptures are numbered by hundreds.
-Of the New Testament alone nearly eighteen hundred manuscripts have been
-catalogued and more or less carefully examined. Of these 685 are
-manuscripts of the Gospels, 248 contain the Acts and Catholic Epistles,
-298 the Pauline Epistles, and 110 the Apocalypse; 428 are Lectionaries or
-service books of the Greek church, 347 of which contain passages from the
-Gospels and 81 passages from the Acts and the Epistles. Thus while our
-knowledge of the interesting narratives of Herodotus is dependent upon
-five<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> or six authorities only, and the history of Livy upon eight or nine
-only (and none of these contain the whole even of the portions
-extant),<a name='fna_77' id='fna_77' href='#f_77'><small>[77]</small></a> our knowledge of the life and words of our Lord is drawn from
-over a thousand manuscript authorities, and of which the larger part
-contain the whole of the four Gospels.</p>
-
-<p>In antiquity again the manuscripts of the New Testament far surpass those
-of classical authors. Few, if any, of the latter are older than the ninth
-or tenth century, while of the former we have copies belonging to the
-fourth and fifth centuries. The oldest manuscripts are written in capital
-letters, and on this account are called uncial<a name='fna_78' id='fna_78' href='#f_78'><small>[78]</small></a> manuscripts, or briefly
-uncials. Later manuscripts are written in a smaller character, and in a
-style approaching to what we call a running hand, and are hence named
-cursives. Of uncial manuscripts, containing portions of the New Testament,
-one hundred and fifty-eight have been examined and catalogued. Some of the
-most valuable of these have been published under the superintendence of
-careful editors. Others have been thoroughly examined, and their
-variations so faithfully noted and recorded, that a private student is,
-for most practical purposes, placed in the same position as the possessor
-of the manuscript itself. This work is technically described as
-<i>collation</i>, and the amount of painstaking labour spent upon the collation
-of Biblical manuscripts during the past two hundred years, and especially
-in the last forty or fifty years, is simply enormous. To one who has never
-examined a document written many centuries ago it is difficult to convey
-any adequate notion of the amount of time and labour involved in the
-collation even of a single manuscript. The unusual and varying forms of
-the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> letters, the indistinctness of the characters, the various
-contractions employed by the scribe, and, as is the case with our most
-ancient documents, the non-separation of word from word, and the absence
-of stops, render the mere task of deciphering the manuscript very
-difficult and painfully wearying to the eyes.<a name='fna_79' id='fna_79' href='#f_79'><small>[79]</small></a> Much watchful attention
-is also demanded, as well as a good knowledge of the language, in making
-the proper separation of the words, and in judging aright of any
-peculiarities of spelling that may attach to the writer. In making the
-collation of any Biblical manuscript&mdash;say of the New Testament&mdash;the course
-generally pursued is as follows: The collator procures a printed copy of
-the Greek text, commonly of some well-known edition, and in the margin of
-this he marks all the variations of the manuscripts from the printed text
-before him, whether of omission, addition, or otherwise, including even
-variations in spelling. He also marks carefully where each line and page
-of the manuscript begins and ends, what corrections or alterations have
-been made in it, whether these were made by the original writer or by a
-later hand; and where several handwritings may be detected, he specifies
-and distinguishes these. All this is done with so much minuteness that it
-would be possible for the collator to reproduce the original manuscript in
-every respect save in the shape of the letters and the appearance of the
-parchment or paper.</p>
-
-<p>Of the uncial manuscripts of the New Testament, the most ancient and
-important are the <span class="smcap">Sinaitic</span>,<a name='fna_80' id='fna_80' href='#f_80'><small>[80]</small></a> written in the fourth century, and now
-deposited in the Imperial Library of St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
-Petersburg; the <span class="smcap">Vatican</span>,<a name='fna_81' id='fna_81' href='#f_81'><small>[81]</small></a>
-also of the fourth century, and preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome;
-the <span class="smcap">Alexandrine</span>,<a name='fna_82' id='fna_82' href='#f_82'><small>[82]</small></a> of the fifth century, now in the British Museum; the
-<span class="smcap">Ephraem Codex</span>,<a name='fna_83' id='fna_83' href='#f_83'><small>[83]</small></a> of the fifth century, in the National Library at Paris;
-<span class="smcap">Beza’s Codex</span>,<a name='fna_84' id='fna_84' href='#f_84'><small>[84]</small></a> of the sixth century, in the University Library,
-Cambridge; and the <span class="smcap">Claromontane</span>,<a name='fna_85' id='fna_85' href='#f_85'><small>[85]</small></a> also of the sixth century, which
-formerly belonged to Beza, but is now in the National Library at Paris. As
-will be seen presently, only two of these most ancient manuscripts were
-available for the preparation of the text from which the translators of
-1611 made their revision. The Alexandrine was not brought to light until
-1628, when it was presented to Charles I. by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of
-Constantinople. Although the Ephraem Codex was brought to Europe in the
-early part of the sixteenth century, it was not known to contain a portion
-of the New Testament until towards the close of the seventeenth century,
-and was not collated until the year 1716. The Sinaitic was discovered by
-Dr. Tischendorf, in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, so
-recently as February 4th, 1859. And the Vatican, though deposited in the
-Library at Rome in the fifteenth century, was, during a long time, so
-jealously guarded by the Roman authorities, that little use could be made
-of it. Now, however, all these six important manuscripts have been edited
-and published, some in the ordinary style of printing, and some in <i>quasi
-fac-simile</i>. At the present time, by the application of the processes of
-photography, an exact copy of the Alexandrine is in course of preparation,
-and the New Testament portion has been successfully completed.</p>
-
-<p>In these and other ways, by the laborious efforts of many English and
-Continental scholars, an immense amount of material for the determination
-of the sacred text has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> gathered together and safely garnered; and
-knowledge which aforetime could be attained only by slow and wearisome
-effort, by many long journeys to distant places, and by much personal
-search amongst the books and papers stored away in national and other
-libraries, can now be attained with comparative ease by the solitary
-student in his study. At the time when King James’s translators entered
-upon their work a small fraction only of this mass of material was
-available, and even that fraction was but imperfectly used. The means were
-not then possessed for correctly judging of the relative value of the
-several documents, nor had experience given the skill to discriminate
-wisely between varying testimony.</p>
-
-<p>The translators of 1611 have left on record no statement respecting the
-Greek text from which they translated, but as far as can be gathered from
-internal evidence they contented themselves with accepting the forms of it
-which they found ready at hand. Of these the two then held in highest
-repute were those connected with the names of Theodore Beza and Robert
-Stephen. These, in their turn, were based upon the two primary editions of
-the printed text, the Complutensian and Erasmus’s, editions which were
-made quite independently of each other. The Complutensian was the first
-printed, though not the first published.<a name='fna_86' id='fna_86' href='#f_86'><small>[86]</small></a> It formed the fifth volume of
-the splendid Polyglot prepared under the munificent patronage of Cardinal
-Ximenes, at Alcala, in Spain, from the Latin name of which city
-(Complutum) it derives its designation, and was completed January 10th,
-1514. It is not now known from what manuscripts the text of this edition
-was derived, but it may be confidently affirmed that none of our most
-ancient authorities were used. They were probably not many in number, and
-were all what in this connection is termed modern; that is to say, not
-earlier than the tenth century. The first <i>published</i> edition of the
-Greek<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> New Testament was that edited by the celebrated Erasmus, and sent
-forth from the press of Froben, in Basle, February 24th, 1516. This was
-derived from six manuscripts, five of which are now in the public library
-of Basle, and one<a name='fna_87' id='fna_87' href='#f_87'><small>[87]</small></a> in the library of the Prince of
-Oettingen-Wallerstein. Of these one, and the most valuable, contained the
-whole of the New Testament except the Apocalypse, but of this Erasmus made
-but little use. Of the rest, one contained the Gospels only, two the Acts
-and the Epistles only, one the Epistles of Paul only, and one the
-Apocalypse only. It will thus be seen that in the Gospels the text given
-by Erasmus rested almost entirely upon the authority of a single
-manuscript; in the Acts and Catholic Epistles upon that of two only; in
-the Epistles of Paul upon three; and in the Apocalypse upon one only, and
-that an imperfect one. The last six verses were wanting, and these Erasmus
-supplied by translating them into Greek from the Latin of the Vulgate. The
-work too was hastily done. The proposal to undertake it was made to
-Erasmus April 17th, 1515, so that less than ten months were given to the
-preparation of the volume, and this, too, at a time when Erasmus was
-busied with other engagements; an unseemly haste that we may probably
-ascribe to the publishers’ eager desire to get the start of the
-Complutensian. Revised editions were published in 1519 and 1522, in the
-preparation of which the aid of a few additional manuscripts was obtained.
-These, again, were further revised by the aid of the Complutensian, which
-then became available, in an edition which Erasmus published in 1527.</p>
-
-<p>The next stage in the history of the printed text of the Greek New
-Testament is marked by the publication at Paris, in 1550, of the handsome
-folio of the celebrated and learned printer, Robert Stephen.<a name='fna_88' id='fna_88' href='#f_88'><small>[88]</small></a> He tells
-us in his preface that in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> preparation of this edition he made use of
-the Complutensian and of fifteen manuscripts. Two of these were ancient,
-one that is now known as Beza’s Codex, which had been collated for him by
-a friend in Italy, and another, a manuscript in the National Library of
-Paris, written in the eighth or ninth century, and containing the four
-Gospels;<a name='fna_89' id='fna_89' href='#f_89'><small>[89]</small></a> the rest were modern, and all were but imperfectly
-collated.<a name='fna_90' id='fna_90' href='#f_90'><small>[90]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>After the death of Robert Stephen (1559)<a name='fna_91' id='fna_91' href='#f_91'><small>[91]</small></a> the work of revision was
-carried on by Theodore Beza, who, like the former, had embraced the
-Protestant cause, and like him also had found a home in Geneva. His first
-edition was published in this city in 1565, a second in 1582, a third in
-1589, and a fourth in 1598. In the preparation of these he had in his
-possession the collations made for Robert Stephen, and, in addition, the
-ancient manuscript of the Gospels and Acts which now bears his name; and
-for the Pauline Epistles, the equally ancient Claromontane. Beza’s
-strength, however, lay rather in the interpretation, than in the
-criticism, of the text, and he made but a slight use of the materials
-within his reach.</p>
-
-<p>It will thus be seen how small, comparatively, was the manuscript
-authority for the text used by King James’s translators. In the main they
-follow the text of Beza; sometimes, however, they give the preference to
-Stephen’s; in some few places they differ from both. By what principles
-they were guided in their choice we do not know. They do not appear to
-have set on foot any independent examination of authorities, and when they
-forsake their two guides they commonly follow in the wake of some of the
-earlier English versions.</p>
-
-<p>But, as already stated, manuscripts are not the only source<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> whence we
-derive our knowledge of the original texts. Translations of the Scriptures
-were made at an early date; some at an earlier date than that of the
-oldest manuscripts now extant. Two of these were referred to in the first
-lecture; namely, the old Latin and the old Syriac, both of which belong to
-the second century, and give, therefore, most important testimony as to
-the words of Scripture at that early period. Next to these in point of age
-may be placed the two Egyptian versions, one in the language of Lower
-Egypt, and called the Memphitic (or Coptic), and the other in that of
-Upper Egypt, and called the Thebaic (or Sahidic). In the opinion of
-competent judges, some portions, at least, of the Scriptures must have
-been translated into these dialects before the close of the second
-century; in their completed form these versions may be referred to the
-earlier part of the third century. A Gothic version of the Scriptures was
-made in the fourth century by Ulphilas, who was Bishop of the Moeso-Goths
-348-388; and of this some valuable portions are still extant. Two other
-ancient versions, the Armenian (cent. 5), and the Æthiopic (cents. 6 and
-7), though of inferior importance, are not without value. During recent
-years a large amount of labour has been spent, first, in securing as
-accurate a knowledge as possible of the text of these various versions,
-and then in investigating the evidence they supply respecting the original
-texts from which they were severally made. From this source much valuable
-material has been obtained supplementary to that furnished by Biblical
-manuscripts.</p>
-
-<p>The works of early Christian writers contain, as might be expected, large
-quotations of Scripture passages. Some of these works are elaborate
-expositions of various books of the Old and New Testament, and others are
-controversial writings in which there is a frequent necessity for
-appealing to Scriptural authorities. Although not a few of the writings of
-the earliest Christian authors have perished, we have still a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>considerable collection of writings belonging to the second and third
-centuries, whose pages supply us with valuable evidence concerning the
-text of the New Testament, of a date earlier than the oldest of our
-manuscripts. We have also a still larger collection of writings belonging
-to the same age as that of our most ancient manuscripts, and from them are
-able to gather a further mass of testimony in confirmation or correction
-of that given by these venerable documents.</p>
-
-<p>The writings of Irenæus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen,
-belonging to the latter part of the second century, and the beginning of
-the third, contain a large body of quotations from the Gospels and
-Epistles. The works of Origen alone may, with scarcely any exaggeration,
-be said to be equivalent to an additional manuscript of the New Testament.
-He died about <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 253 or 254, and during his entire life gave himself
-with a most indomitable perseverance to Biblical studies. In addition to
-an elaborate revision of the Greek text of the Septuagint, upon which he
-spent eight and twenty years, but of which unhappily some fragments only
-have reached us, he composed expositions or homilies upon the larger part
-of the books of the Old and New Testaments. Of these some very
-considerable portions have come down to us, and as his expositions on the
-Old Testament abound in quotations from the New, the number of passages
-from the latter found in his writings is very large.</p>
-
-<p>Of writers belonging to the fourth century we have commentaries in Greek
-by Chrysostom and Didymus, and in Latin by Hilary of Rome, and Jerome;
-and, in addition, extensive theological treatises, involving numerous
-appeals to the Scriptures, by Athanasius, Ambrose, Basil, Epiphanius, and
-the two Gregorys.</p>
-
-<p>In the following century we have the Greek commentaries of Theodore of
-Mopsuestia and Theodoret; the commentary of Pelagius on the Epistles of
-Paul; and the voluminous writings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> of Augustine, including commentaries on
-the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, John’s Gospel and Epistles, and
-Paul’s Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, together with a large number
-of Homilies on various parts of Scripture. These numerous writings form a
-mine of wealth to the Biblical critic; but it is a mine that has only been
-diligently worked in comparatively recent years. Much wearisome toil has
-been necessary in bringing to light its treasures, and these were either
-overlooked or neglected by the earlier editors of the Greek New Testament.</p>
-
-<p>It may perhaps be thought that, inasmuch as the documents from which these
-Christian writings are obtained are themselves of a later date, the
-testimony they give to the text of Scripture is of no higher worth than
-that of Biblical manuscripts of the same age. The scribes, it may be said,
-would be influenced by the form of text then current, and in copying these
-writings would naturally, when Scripture quotations occurred, give them in
-the form with which they were familiar. To some extent this may have been
-the case, and the testimony of these writings is of less weight when they
-simply reflect the form of text which prevailed at the date when they were
-copied. But then, on the other hand, their testimony is for the same
-reason proportionally the stronger whenever they do not agree with the
-current form, but give a different reading. Moreover it must be remembered
-that in many cases the authors comment minutely upon the Scripture text,
-and that here their testimony is quite unaffected by any tendency on the
-part of the copyist to use a familiar form, the comment itself showing
-beyond all doubt what was the form of the text which the author was
-expounding. In all such places the testimony of these early writers is
-especially valuable.</p>
-
-<p>From this mere outline of the manifold researches which scholars have made
-during the years that have passed since the Revision of 1611 was issued,
-some notion may be gathered of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> the extent to which our resources for the
-satisfactory determination of the sacred text have been multiplied. It
-will hence be seen how great is the confidence with which we are thereby
-enabled to affirm the verbal correctness of that far larger portion of the
-text in which our numerous and varied authorities are all agreed, and with
-what confidence also we can place our finger upon certain blemishes, and
-say that here an error has crept in through the inadvertence, or
-carelessness, or ignorance of the transcriber. If then there were no other
-reasons for the revision of the English Bible, this alone would be a
-sufficient ground for it. When it is in the power of any one to say that
-there are passages in our common Bibles which, as there given, are found
-in no Greek manuscript whatever, as is the case in Acts ix., the latter
-part of verse 5, and the beginning of verse 6; 1 Peter iii. 20; Heb. xi.
-13; and Rev. ii. 20; and when there are other passages, respecting which
-the evidence is greatly preponderating, that they ought to have no place
-in the text, as is the case with Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xvii. 21; Matt.
-xxiii. 35 (last clause); Mark xv. 28; Luke xi. 2, 4 (the last clause of
-each verse); John v. 3 (last clause), and 4; Acts viii. 37; Acts xv. 34;
-Acts xxviii. 29; Rom. xi. 6 (last clause); 1 Cor. vi. 20 (last clause); 1
-Cor. x. 28 (last clause); Gal. iii. 1 (second clause); Heb. xii. 20; and 1
-John v., from “in heaven,” verse 7, to “in earth,” verse 8. When these
-things can be said, and can be truly said, then all true lovers of the
-Bible will earnestly demand that they be forthwith removed.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_VIII" id="LECTURE_VIII"></a>LECTURE VIII.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO CENTURIES.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>It has not been left to the present generation to be the first to
-recognize the force of the various considerations presented in the
-previous lectures. The duty of providing for a further revision of the
-English Bible has been handed down as a solemn trust from generation to
-generation. Every new discovery made of Biblical manuscripts, and every
-fresh field of research opened up, has at once made the need of revision
-more apparent, and given intensity to the desire that it should be
-undertaken; and, in their turn, this quickened desire and this increase of
-material have prompted to renewed efforts in obtaining all possible
-subsidiary helps. In this way it has come to pass that the whole period
-which has elapsed since the publication of the Revision of 1611 has been
-in effect a time of preparation for another and further revision, and
-here, as elsewhere, the divine law of human discipline has been verified,
-that every work accomplished is but the starting-point for fresh
-endeavours.</p>
-
-<p>In this work of preparation four distinct stages may be clearly traced:
-the first, that of unfriendly criticism; the second, that of premature
-attempts at correction; the third, that of diligent research and patient
-investigation; and the fourth, that of widespread conviction of the
-desirableness of further revision, and the discussion of the plans by
-which it may best be accomplished.</p>
-
-<p>From the very first the new version had to undergo an ordeal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> of
-criticism, springing sometimes from personal pique, sometimes from party
-prejudice, sometimes from a one-sided attachment to a favourite doctrine,
-the evidence for which seemed to be obscured by the rendering given to
-certain passages. Almost immediately upon the publication of the volume, a
-violent attack was made upon it by Hugh Broughton, who, though a man of
-immense erudition, and one of the best Hebraists of the day, was of so
-overbearing a temper that his offer to aid in the revision had been
-declined. Broughton declared that the version was so ill done that it bred
-in him a sadness which would grieve him whilst he breathed. “Tell his
-Majesty,” he passionately said, “that I had rather be rent in pieces with
-wild horses than any such translation by my consent should be urged on
-poor churches.”</p>
-
-<p>In the sharp controversies of the Commonwealth period the slight
-indications given by the version of a certain ecclesiastical bias were
-unduly exaggerated. Charges of a direct prelatic influence were freely
-made, and various rumours were circulated, as if upon good authority, that
-Archbishop Bancroft had taken upon himself to introduce alterations in
-opposition to the judgment, and even the protest of the translators.
-Influenced probably by the feeling thus awakened, though not sharing it,
-Dr. John Lightfoot, in a sermon preached before the Long Parliament on
-August 26th, 1645,<a name='fna_92' id='fna_92' href='#f_92'><small>[92]</small></a> expressed the hope that they would find some time
-among their serious employments to think of a “review and survey of the
-translation of the Bible.” “And certainly,” he added, “it would not be the
-least advantage that you might do to the three nations, if they, by your
-care and means, might come to understand the proper and genuine reading of
-the Scriptures by an exact, vigorous, and lively translation.”</p>
-
-<p>In 1653 the charge that the New Testament “had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> looked over by some
-Prelates, to bring it to speak the Prelatical language,” was formally
-repeated in the preamble of a Bill brought before the Long Parliament,
-which proposed the appointment of a committee “to search and observe
-wherein that last translation appears to be wronged by the Prelates or
-printers or others.”<a name='fna_93' id='fna_93' href='#f_93'><small>[93]</small></a> In 1659 a folio volume of 805 pages, entitled,
-“An Essay toward the Amendment of the Last English Translation of the
-Bible, or a Proof by many instances that the last Translation of the Bible
-into English may be improved,” was published by Dr. Robert Gell, “Minister
-of the Parish of St. Mary, Alder-Mary, London.” Dr. Gell was a man who
-stoutly maintained the doctrine that it is “possible and attainable
-through the grace of God and His Holy Spirit that men may be without sin,”
-and his book is an elaborate attempt to show that this doctrine “was
-frequently delivered in holy Scripture, though industriously obscured by
-our translators.” An attack of another kind was made a quarter of a
-century later, by a Roman Catholic writer named Thomas Ward, who,
-repeating many of the charges made against the earlier English versions by
-Gregory Martin, one of the authors of the Rhemish version, charged the
-translators with corrupting the Holy Scriptures by false and partial
-translations, for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage in the
-controversy with the Church of Rome.<a name='fna_94' id='fna_94' href='#f_94'><small>[94]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>These hostile criticisms, though made in a spirit of partisanship and
-marred by much uncharitableness and unfairness, were nevertheless of
-service. They forced upon all, though in a rude and unpleasant way, the
-recognition of the fact that the new version, with all its excellences,
-was still the work of fallible men; and despite their passion and their
-hard words, they did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> undoubtedly hit some blots that here and there
-disfigured the sacred page. To this extent they served to prepare the way
-for further revision.</p>
-
-<p>A second stage in the process of preparation is seen in the various
-attempts which have been made to produce a version which should remove
-acknowledged blemishes, and more faithfully convey the meaning of the holy
-Word. Some of these have been based upon a well-conceived plan, and have
-sought to accomplish the desired end by the united efforts of a band of
-fellow-labourers; others have been the work of individual scholars, and
-were for the most part of a tentative character, intended simply to show
-what ought to be attempted, and how it might be done; others, again, have
-been the unwise labours of men who worked upon false principles, and with
-insufficient knowledge; but all have in their own way helped on the work,
-the former two classes by their felicitous renderings of some passages,
-and the light they have thrown upon the meaning of others, and the last
-mentioned class by their clear demonstration of what a translation of the
-Scriptures ought certainly not to be.</p>
-
-<p>The first<a name='fna_95' id='fna_95' href='#f_95'><small>[95]</small></a> serious attempt at a further revision was made by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> the Rev.
-Henry Jessey, <span class="smcaplc">M.A.</span>, pastor of that greatly persecuted Congregational
-Church in Southwark, which had been gathered by Henry Jacob in 1616. In
-the time of the Commonwealth proposals were made by Jessey, that “godly
-and able men” should be appointed by “public authority” “to review and
-amend the defects in our translation.” Pending their appointment, he set
-himself to secure the co-operation of a number of learned men, at home and
-abroad, writing to them in the following fashion: “There being a strange
-desire in many that love the truth, to have a more pure, proper
-translation of the originals than hitherto; and I being moved and inclined
-to it, and desirous to promote it with all possible speed and exactness,
-do make my request (now in my actual entrance on Genesis) that as you love
-the truth as it is in Jesus, and the edification of saints, you with
-others (in like manner solicited), will take share and do each a part in
-the work, which being finished will be fruit to your account.” Of the
-names of his fellow-workers the only one recorded is that of Mr. John Row,
-Hebrew professor at Aberdeen, “who took exceeding pains herein,” and who
-drew up the scheme in accordance with which the work was carried on.
-Jessey’s proposal received at least so much of support from “public
-authority,” that he was one of the committee whose appointment was
-recommended to the House of Commons in 1653. The result is thus quaintly
-told by Jessey’s biographer:<a name='fna_96' id='fna_96' href='#f_96'><small>[96]</small></a> “Thus thorow his perswasions many persons
-excelling in knowledge, integrity, and holiness, did buckle to this great
-Worke of bettering the Translation of the Bible, but their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> names are
-thought fit at present to be concealed to prevent undue Reflections upon
-their persons; but may come to light (if that work shall ever come to be
-made publick), and unto each of them was one particular book or more
-allotted, according as they had leisure, or as the bent of their Genius,
-advantages of Books or Studies lay, which when supervised by all the rest,
-dayes of assembling together were to have been set apart, to seek the Lord
-for His further direction, and for conference with each other touching the
-matter then under consideration. In process of time this whole work was
-almost compleated, and stayed for nothing but the appointment of
-Commissioners to examine it, and warrant its publication.” The death of
-Cromwell, and the political events which followed, prevented the
-realization of Jessey’s hopes. It had been with him the work of many years
-of his life, and his soul was so engaged in it that he frequently uttered
-the prayer, “O that I might see this done before I die.”</p>
-
-<p>The ecclesiastical events arising out of the Act of Uniformity (1662) will
-sufficiently account for the absence of any efforts of revision during the
-latter part of the seventeenth century. In the earlier part of the
-following century there appeared one of those ill-advised attempts, whose
-chief use is to serve as a beacon of warning, in the Greek and English New
-Testament, published <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 1729, by W. Mace, <span class="smcaplc">M.D.</span><a name='fna_97' id='fna_97' href='#f_97'><small>[97]</small></a>
-In his translation this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> author allowed himself to employ an unpleasantly free style of
-rendering, and deemed it fitting to substitute the colloquial style of the
-day for the dignified simplicity of the version he undertook to amend.</p>
-
-<p>Towards the latter part of the century a considerable number of well-meant
-endeavours at revision were made by devout and scholarly men.</p>
-
-<p>In 1764 “A new and literal Translation of the Old and New Testament, with
-notes, critical and explanatory,” was published by Anthony Purver, a
-member of the Society of Friends.</p>
-
-<p>In 1770 there was issued “The New Testament, or New Covenant of our Lord
-and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from the Greek according to the
-present idiom of the English tongue, with notes and references,” by John
-Worsley, of Hertford, whose aim, as stated in his preface, was to bring
-his translation nearer to the original, and “to make the present form of
-expression more suitable to our present language,” adding, with a laudable
-desire to repudiate all sympathy with those who forced the Scripture to
-say what, according to their own fancies, it ought to say, “I have no
-design to countenance any particular opinions or sentiments. I have
-weighed, as it were, every word in a balance, even to the minutest
-particle, begging the gracious aid of the Divine Spirit to lead me into
-the true and proper meaning, that I might give a just and exact
-translation of this great and precious charter of man’s salvation.”<a name='fna_98' id='fna_98' href='#f_98'><small>[98]</small></a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>In 1781 Gilbert Wakefield, late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, but
-then classical tutor of the Warrington Academy, published “a new
-translation of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians,
-offered to the public as a specimen of an intended version of the whole
-New Testament, with a preface containing a brief account of the Author’s
-plan.” This was followed in 1782 by a new translation of the Gospel of
-Matthew, and in 1791 by a translation of the whole of the New
-Testament.<a name='fna_99' id='fna_99' href='#f_99'><small>[99]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>In 1786 a Roman Catholic clergyman (the Rev. Alexander Geddes, <span class="smcaplc">LL.D.</span>)
-issued a prospectus of “a New Translation of the Holy Bible from corrected
-texts of the originals, compared with the Ancient Versions.” This
-prospectus was very favourably received by many of the leading Biblical
-scholars of the day, especially by the great Hebraist, Dr. Benjamin
-Kennicott, Canon of Christchurch, and by Dr. Robert Lowth, Bishop of
-London, and was followed in 1788 by formal proposals for printing the book
-by subscription. The first volume appeared in 1792, with the title “The
-Holy Bible, or the Books accounted sacred by Jews and Christians;
-otherwise called the Books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully
-translated from corrected texts of the Originals, with various readings,
-explanatory notes, and critical remarks.” Two other volumes were
-afterwards published; but the death of the author, in 1801, prevented the
-completion of the work.<a name='fna_100' id='fna_100' href='#f_100'><small>[100]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>In 1796 Dr. William Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh, published “An attempt
-towards revising our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures, or the
-New Covenant of Jesus Christ; and towards illustrating the sense by
-philological and explanatory notes.”</p>
-
-<p>Passing over some other works less worthy of notice, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> scholarly attempt
-was made in 1836 by Grenville Penn to introduce into the English version
-some of the results which had then been attained by the critical
-examination of ancient authorities. This work bore the title, “The Book of
-the New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being a critical
-revision of the text and translation of the English version of the New
-Testament, with the aid of most ancient manuscripts, unknown to the age in
-which that version was last put forth by authority.”</p>
-
-<p>It is not to be supposed that any of these translations were published
-with the expectation of securing so large a measure of favour as to
-supersede the current version. Their primary purpose was to aid the
-private study of the Bible; but they have been of great service also in
-keeping the general question of revision before the notice of thoughtful
-persons, and they have each in their measure contributed to a more exact
-knowledge of the Scriptures.</p>
-
-<p>The failure of the earlier of these attempts at revision arose in part
-from the imperfect state of the texts upon which they were based. This
-soon became obvious, and Biblical scholars saw that for some time to come
-their labours must be spent rather in laying the foundation for a future
-revision than in attempting it themselves, and this in three distinct
-departments. The first of these was the collection, as described in the
-last lecture, of the material supplied by ancient manuscripts, and by
-early versions and quotations. In this department a long succession of
-faithful men have laboured, amongst whom may be mentioned Brian Walton,
-who in 1657 published his famous Polyglot Bible in six folio volumes,
-giving in addition to the original Hebrew and Greek, the Samaritan
-Pentateuch, the Septuagint, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Æthiopic, and Persian
-versions; Dr. John Mill, whose New Testament was published in 1770, and of
-whom it has been justly said that “his services to Bible criticism surpass
-in extent and value those rendered by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> any other except one or two men yet
-living;”<a name='fna_101' id='fna_101' href='#f_101'><small>[101]</small></a> Dr. Richard Bentley, who, having himself collated the
-Alexandrine and other ancient MSS., and by various agencies amassed a
-large store of critical material, published in 1720 his “Proposals for
-Printing” revised texts both of the Greek New Testament and the Latin
-Vulgate; Dr. Kennicott, who in 1760 aroused public attention to the
-importance of collating all Hebrew MSS. made before the invention of
-printing, and who personally, or through the aid of others, collated more
-than six hundred Hebrew MSS., and sixteen MSS. of the Samaritan
-Pentateuch; John Bernard de Rossi, professor of Oriental languages in the
-University of Parma, who in 1784-8 published the results of the collation
-of seven hundred and thirty-one MSS., and of three hundred editions of the
-Hebrew Scriptures; and, to come to more recent times, Dr. Constantine
-Tischendorf, Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and Dr. Frederick Henry
-Scrivener, whose names are to be held in the highest honour, as of men who
-have rendered invaluable service to their own and future generations in
-the exhausting and self-denying work of the collation of Biblical MSS.,
-and through whose care and accuracy the means of obtaining an exact
-knowledge of a large number of most precious documents have been placed
-within easy reach of all.</p>
-
-<p>The second department of labour is the application of the material thus
-collected to the correction of the text. Here again a vast amount of
-patient work has been done, and out of the successive labours of a long
-series of critics much valuable experience has been gained and the best
-methods gradually learnt. Amongst those who have thus laboured in the
-criticism of the text of the New Testament may be mentioned the names of
-Bengel, Wettstein, Griesbach, Scholz, Tischendorf, Lachmann, Alford,
-Tregelles, Westcott, and Hort; and of that of the Old Testament, Buxtorf,
-Leusden, Van der Hooght, Michaelis, Houbigant, Kennicott, and Jahn.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>The third department is that which is concerned with the investigation of
-the meaning of the sacred writers; and how much has been done in this will
-be manifest to any one who makes the attempt to reckon up the long series
-of commentaries, English and Continental, on the books of the Holy
-Scriptures, published since the Revision of 1611, commencing with the
-Annotations of the eminent Nonconformist, Henry Ainsworth, on the
-Pentateuch, Psalms, and Song of Solomon, 1627, down to the recent
-commentaries on Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, by Dr.
-J. B. Lightfoot, the present Bishop of Durham. The attempt to make this
-enumeration will deepen the desire that the light which has been shed upon
-the Bible by this long succession of its learned and earnest students
-should now be employed for the guidance and help of the ordinary readers
-of its pages.</p>
-
-<p>To such desire emphatic expression has been given in various ways through
-full two generations, with an ever increasing intensity, and by
-representative men amongst all Christian communities.</p>
-
-<p>So early in the present century as the year 1809, Dr. John Pye Smith,
-President of the Congregational College at Homerton, thus wrote: “That
-such blemishes should disfigure that translation of the best and most
-important of volumes, which has been and still is more read by thousands
-of the pious than any other version, ancient or modern; that they should
-be acknowledged by all competent judges to exist; that they should have
-been so long and often complained of; and yet that there has been no great
-public act, from high and unimpeachable authority, for removing them, we
-are constrained to view as a disgrace to our national literature. We do
-not wish to see our common version, now become venerable by age and
-prescription, superseded by another entirely <i>new</i>; every desirable
-purpose would be satisfactorily attained by a <i>faithful</i> and
-<i>well-conducted revision</i>.”<a name='fna_102' id='fna_102' href='#f_102'><small>[102]</small></a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>In the following year (1810) Dr. Herbert Marsh, then Margaret Professor of
-Divinity at Cambridge, and subsequently Bishop of Peterborough, in the
-first edition of his <i>Lectures</i> wrote: “It is probable that our authorised
-version is as faithful a representation of the original Scriptures as
-<i>could</i> have been formed at <i>that period</i>. But when we consider the
-immense accession that has <i>since</i> been made, both to our critical and
-philological apparatus;” “when we consider that the most important sources
-of intelligence for the <i>interpretation</i> of the original Scriptures were
-<i>likewise</i> opened after that period, we cannot possibly pretend that our
-authorised version does not require <i>amendment</i>.”<a name='fna_103' id='fna_103' href='#f_103'><small>[103]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>In 1816 Thomas Wemyss, a learned layman, who had devoted himself to
-Biblical studies, called attention, under the title of <i>Biblical
-Gleanings</i>, to a number of passages which were generally allowed to be
-mistranslated; and in 1819 Sir James Bland Burges published <i>Reasons in
-favour of a New Translation of the Scriptures</i>.</p>
-
-<p>During a few years after this, the subject remained in abeyance, but in
-1832 there was published, at Cambridge, a calm and scholarly pamphlet,
-entitled <i>Hints on an Improved Translation of the New Testament</i>, by the
-Rev. James Scholefield, <span class="smcaplc">A.M.</span>, Regius Professor of Greek in the University
-of Cambridge. A second edition was issued in 1836, and a third, with an
-appendix, in 1849.</p>
-
-<p>Through these and other publications a widely-spread conviction was
-produced that the work ought at length to be attempted, and in the years
-1855-57 the question was in a very emphatic form brought under public
-notice. In the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> of October, 1855, in a notice of a
-certain Paragraph Bible then recently published, there appeared the
-following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> words: “Surely it is high time for a further revision. It is
-now almost 250 years since the last was made. During that long period
-neither the researches of the clergy nor the intelligence of the laity
-have remained stationary. We have become desirous of knowing more, and
-they have acquired more to teach us. Vast stores of Biblical information
-have been accumulating since the days of James I., by which, not merely
-the rendering of the Common Version, but the purity of the Sacred Text
-itself, might be improved. And it is essential to the interests of
-religion that that information should be fully, freely, and in an
-authoritative form, disseminated abroad by a careful correction of our
-received version of the Sacred Scriptures.”</p>
-
-<p>In the following year, 1856, the Rev. William Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and
-Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, sent forth his <i>Notes on
-the proposed Amendment of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures</i>,
-in which he states: “I do not hesitate to avow my firm persuasion that
-there are at least one thousand passages of the English Bible that might
-be amended without any change in the general texture and justly reverenced
-language of the version.”</p>
-
-<p>In July of the same year an address to the Crown was moved in the House of
-Commons by Mr. Heywood, member for North Lancashire, praying that Her
-Majesty would appoint a Royal Commission of learned men to consider of
-such amendments of the authorized version of the Bible as had been already
-proposed, and to receive suggestions from all persons who might be willing
-to offer them, and to report the amendments which they might be prepared
-to recommend.</p>
-
-<p>In the January of the following year a resolution in support of revision
-was proposed at the general meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian
-Knowledge, by the Rev. G. F. Biber, <span class="smcaplc">LL.D.</span>, who subsequently published the
-substance of his speech in support of this resolution, under the title, <i>A
-Plea for an Edition of the Authorized Version of Holy Scripture with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
-explanatory and emendatory marginal readings</i>. Pamphlets also were
-published the same year by Dr. Beard and by Dr. Henry Burgess; but, what
-it is more important to note, in that year there was published the first
-of a series of works which were intended to show by example the kind of
-work which the wiser advocates of revision desired to see undertaken. This
-was <i>The Gospel according to John, after the Authorized Version, newly
-compared with the original Greek, and revised by five clergymen&mdash;John
-Barrow, D.D.; George Moberly, D.C.L.; Henry Alford, B.D.; William G.
-Humphry, B.D.; Charles J. Ellicott, M.A.</i> In that same year also Dr.
-Trench, then Dean of Westminster (now Archbishop of Dublin), published his
-work <i>On the Authorized Version of the New Testament</i>; and in 1863 Dr.
-Plumptre, in the <i>Dictionary of the Bible</i>, reiterated the statement, “The
-work ought not to be delayed much longer.”</p>
-
-<p>In the spring of 1870 the desirableness of a fresh revision of the English
-Bible was advocated&mdash;by Dr. J. B. Lightfoot in a paper read before a
-meeting of clergy; by the writer of these lectures in a paper read before
-the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales; by
-the <i>British Quarterly Review</i> in its January number; and, finally, by the
-<i>Quarterly Review</i> in its April number.</p>
-
-<p>A weighty sentence from the last-mentioned writer will be a fitting
-conclusion to the present lecture. “It is positive unfaithfulness on the
-part of those who have ability and opportunity to decline the task. The
-Word of God, just because it is God’s Word, ought to be presented to every
-reader in a state as pure and perfect as human learning, skill, and taste
-can make it. The higher our veneration for it the more anxious ought we to
-be to free it from every blemish, however small and unimportant. But
-nothing in truth can be unimportant which dims the light of Divine
-Revelation.”</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="LECTURE_IX" id="LECTURE_IX"></a>LECTURE IX.</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE REVISION OF 1881.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>To the general consensus of opinion described in the last lecture
-practical expression was first given by the action of the Convocation of
-Canterbury, in the early part of 1870.</p>
-
-<p>On February 10, 1870, a resolution was moved in the Upper House of
-Convocation by Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, and seconded by Dr.
-Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, “That a Committee of both
-Houses be appointed, with power to confer with any committee that may be
-appointed by the Convocation of the Northern Province, to report upon the
-desirableness of a revision of the Authorized Version of the New
-Testament, whether by marginal notes or otherwise, in all those passages
-where plain and clear errors, whether in the Greek Text originally adopted
-by the translators, or in the translation made from the same, shall, on
-due investigation, be found to exist.” On the motion of Dr. Ollivant,
-Bishop of Llandaff, seconded by Dr. Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids, it
-was agreed to enlarge this resolution so as to include the Old Testament
-also, and the resolution as so amended was ultimately adopted.</p>
-
-<p>This resolution was communicated to the Lower House on the following day
-(February 11), where it was accepted without a division.</p>
-
-<p>The joint Committee appointed in accordance with this resolution consisted
-of seven Bishops and fourteen Members of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> Lower House.<a name='fna_104' id='fna_104' href='#f_104'><small>[104]</small></a> This
-Committee met on March 24th, and agreed to the following report:<a name='fna_105' id='fna_105' href='#f_105'><small>[105]</small></a></p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p>I. “That it is desirable that a Revision of the Authorized Version of
-the Holy Scriptures be undertaken.”</p>
-
-<p>II. “That the Revision be so conducted as to comprise both Marginal
-renderings, and such emendations as it may be found necessary to
-insert in the text of the Authorized Version.”</p>
-
-<p>III. “That in the above Resolutions we do not contemplate any new
-translation of the Bible, or any alteration of the language except
-where, in the judgment of the most competent Scholars, such change is
-necessary.”</p>
-
-<p>IV. “That in such necessary changes, the style of the language
-employed in the existing Version be closely followed.”</p>
-
-<p>V. “That it is desirable that Convocation should nominate a body of
-its own Members to undertake the work of Revision, who shall be at
-liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to
-whatever nation or religious body they may belong.”</p></div>
-
-<p>This Report was presented to the Upper House on May 3rd, where its
-adoption was moved by Bishop Wilberforce, and seconded by Bishop
-Thirlwall, and carried unanimously.</p>
-
-<p>Bishop Wilberforce then moved, and Bishop Thirlwall seconded, “That a
-Committee be now appointed to consider and Report to Convocation a scheme
-of revision on the principles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> laid down in the Report now adopted, and
-that the Bishops of Winchester, St. Davids, Llandaff, Gloucester and
-Bristol, Salisbury, Ely, Lincoln, and Bath and Wells, be members of the
-Committee. That the Committee be empowered to invite the co-operation of
-those whom they may judge fit from their Biblical Scholarship to aid them
-in their work.” This also was carried unanimously.</p>
-
-<p>In the Lower House the above given Report of the joint Committee was
-presented on May 5th, when its adoption was moved by Canon Selwyn,<a name='fna_106' id='fna_106' href='#f_106'><small>[106]</small></a>
-and seconded by Archdeacon Allen. In the discussion which followed two
-attempts were made to overthrow the principle embodied in the fifth
-resolution, and to confine the revision to Scholars in communion with the
-Church of England. Both of these were unsuccessful, and the adoption of
-the Report was carried, with two dissentients only. On the following day,
-May 6th, the House completed its action by agreeing to the suggestion of
-the Upper House, that on this occasion it should waive its privilege of
-appointing on joint Committees twice as many as were appointed by the
-Upper House, and should appoint eight Members only to co-operate with the
-eight Bishops mentioned above. The Members selected were Dr. Bickersteth
-the Prolocutor, Dean Alford, Dean Stanley, Canon Blakesley, Canon Selwyn,
-Archdeacon Rose, Dr. Jebb, and Dr. Kay.</p>
-
-<p>The first meeting of this second joint Committee was held on May 25th. It
-was then agreed that the Committee should separate into two Companies&mdash;one
-for the revision of the Old Testament, and one for that of the New. Of the
-Members of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> Committee belonging to the Upper House five were assigned to
-the former Company and three to the latter. The Members belonging to the
-Lower House were divided equally between the two Companies. At the same
-meeting the Committee selected the Scholars who should be invited to join
-the Companies, and also decided upon the general rules that should guide
-their procedure. These were:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p>1. “To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the
-Authorized Version consistently with faithfulness.”</p>
-
-<p>2. “To limit as far as possible the expression of such alterations to
-the language of the Authorized and earlier English versions.”</p>
-
-<p>3. “Each Company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once
-provisionally, the second time finally, and on principles of voting as
-hereinafter is provided.”</p>
-
-<p>4. “That the Text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is
-decidedly preponderating; and that when the Text so adopted differs
-from that from which the Authorized Version was made, the alteration
-be indicated in the margin.”</p>
-
-<p>5. “To make or retain no change in the Text on the second and final
-revision by each Company, except <i>two-thirds</i> of those present approve
-of the same, but on the first revision to decide by simple
-majorities.”</p>
-
-<p>6. “In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to
-discussion, to defer the voting thereupon till the next Meeting,
-whensoever the same shall be required by one-third of those present at
-the Meeting, such intended vote to be announced in the notice for the
-next Meeting.”</p>
-
-<p>7. “To revise the headings of chapters, pages, paragraphs, italics,
-and punctuation.”</p>
-
-<p>8. “To refer on the part of each Company, when considered desirable,
-to Divines, Scholars, and Literary Men, whether at home or abroad, for
-their opinions.”</p></div>
-
-<p>To these it was added, that the work of each Company be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> communicated to
-the other as it is completed, in order that there may be as little
-deviation from uniformity in language as possible.</p>
-
-<p>Of the Scholars invited to join the Companies four<a name='fna_107' id='fna_107' href='#f_107'><small>[107]</small></a> declined for
-various reasons, and one<a name='fna_108' id='fna_108' href='#f_108'><small>[108]</small></a> was prevented by illness from taking part in
-the work. The two Companies when formed consisted of the following
-Members.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. W. L. Alexander, Professor of Theology in the Congregational
-Theological Hall, Edinburgh.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. E. H. Browne, Bishop of Ely.<a name='fna_109' id='fna_109' href='#f_109'><small>[109]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. O. T. Chenery, Lord Almoner’s Professor of Arabic, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. A. B. Davidson, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-Edinburgh.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Benjamin Davies, Professor of Hebrew, Baptist College, Regent’s
-Park.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. P. Fairbairn, Principal of Free Church College, Glasgow.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. F. Field.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Ginsburg.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. F. W. Gotch, Principal of the Baptist College, Bristol.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. B. Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. J. Jebb, Canon of Hereford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. W. Kay, late Principal of Bishop’s College, Calcutta.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Stanley Leathes, Professor of Hebrew, King’s College, London.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. J. McGill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St. Andrews.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. A. Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. R Payne Smith, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford.<a name='fna_110' id='fna_110' href='#f_110'><small>[110]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. J. J. S. Perowne, Professor of Hebrew, St. Davids College,
-Lampeter.<a name='fna_111' id='fna_111' href='#f_111'><small>[111]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. E. H. Plumptre,<a name='fna_112' id='fna_112' href='#f_112'><small>[112]</small></a> Professor of New Testament Exegesis, King’s
-College, London.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. H. J. Rose, Archdeacon of Bedford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. W. Selwyn, Canon of Ely, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity,
-Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. Davids.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. W. A. Wright, Librarian<a name='fna_113' id='fna_113' href='#f_113'><small>[113]</small></a> of Trinity College, Cambridge.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. H. Alford, Dean of Canterbury.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. J. Angus, Principal of the Baptist College, Regent’s Park.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. E. H. Bickersteth, Prolocutor of the Lower House of
-Convocation.<a name='fna_114' id='fna_114' href='#f_114'><small>[114]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. J. W. Blakesley, Canon of Canterbury.<a name='fna_115' id='fna_115' href='#f_115'><small>[115]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. J. Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis to the
-United Presbyterian Church, Scotland.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. C. J. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. F. J. A. Hort.<a name='fna_116' id='fna_116' href='#f_116'><small>[116]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. W. G. Humphry, Prebendary of St. Paul’s.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. B. H. Kennedy, Canon of Ely, and Regius Professor of Greek,
-Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. W. Lee, Archdeacon of Dublin.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. J. B. Lightfoot.<a name='fna_117' id='fna_117' href='#f_117'><small>[117]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. W. Milligan, Professor of Divinity, Aberdeen.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. G. Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. W. F. Moulton, Professor of Classics, Wesleyan College,
-Richmond.<a name='fna_118' id='fna_118' href='#f_118'><small>[118]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. Samuel Newth, Professor of Classics, New College, London.<a name='fna_119' id='fna_119' href='#f_119'><small>[119]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. A. Roberts.<a name='fna_120' id='fna_120' href='#f_120'><small>[120]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. R. Scott, Master of Balliol College, Oxford.<a name='fna_121' id='fna_121' href='#f_121'><small>[121]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. F. H. Scrivener.<a name='fna_122' id='fna_122' href='#f_122'><small>[122]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. G. Vance Smith.<a name='fna_123' id='fna_123' href='#f_123'><small>[123]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. R. C. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. C. J. Vaughan, Master of the Temple.<a name='fna_124' id='fna_124' href='#f_124'><small>[124]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. B. F. Westcott, Canon of Peterborough.<a name='fna_125' id='fna_125' href='#f_125'><small>[125]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. S. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester.</p></div>
-
-<p>To these lists some changes have, from various causes, been made in the
-course of the last ten years, both in the way of addition, and in the way
-of removal.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>To the Old Testament Company thirteen members have been added&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Mr. R. N. Bensley, Hebrew Lecturer, Caius College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. J. Birrill, Professor of Oriental Languages, St Andrews,
-Scotland.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. F. Chance.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Hebrew Lecturer, Balliol College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. G. Douglas, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Glasgow.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. S. R Driver, Tutor of New College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. C. J. Elliott.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. J. D. Geden, Professor of Hebrew, Wesleyan College, Didsbury.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. J. R. Lumby, Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge.<a name='fna_126' id='fna_126' href='#f_126'><small>[126]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. A. H. Sayce, Tutor of Queen’s College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. W. Robertson Smith, Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College,
-Aberdeen.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. D. H. Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages, Glasgow.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. W. Wright, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge.</p></div>
-
-<p>During the same period it has lost ten members, seven by death: Professor
-Davies, Professor Fairbairn, Professor McGill, Archdeacon Rose, Canon
-Selwyn, Bishop Thirlwall, Professor Weir; and three by resignation&mdash;Canon
-Jebb, Professor Plumptre, and Bishop Wordsworth.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>The New Testament Company has undergone less change. Four members have
-been added&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. David Brown, Professor of Divinity, Free Church College, Aberdeen.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. C. Merivale, Dean of Ely.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Rev. Edwin Palmer, Professor of Latin, Oxford.<a name='fna_127' id='fna_127' href='#f_127'><small>[127]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews.</p></div>
-
-<p>Four also have been removed&mdash;Dean Alford, Dr. Eadie, and Bishop
-Wilberforce by death, Dean Merivale by resignation.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>The first chairman of the Old Testament Company was Bishop Thirlwall. Upon
-his resignation of the office in 1871 Dr. Harold Browne, then Bishop of
-Ely, now Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to succeed him, and has
-continued to hold the office until now. Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of
-Gloucester<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> and Bristol, has from the first presided over the New
-Testament Company.</p>
-
-<p>The Old Testament Company appointed one of their own number, Mr. Aldis
-Wright, to act as their secretary, taking the minutes of their
-proceedings, and conducting all needful correspondence. The New Testament
-Company deemed it better to assign this office to one who was not himself
-burthened with the responsibilities of the revision, and they were happily
-able to secure the efficient services of the Rev. John Troutbeck, <span class="smcaplc">M.A.</span>,
-one of the Minor Canons of Westminster Abbey.</p>
-
-<p>It will be seen that of the sixty-five English scholars who have taken
-part in this work forty-one have been members of the Church of England,
-and twenty-four members of other churches. Of the latter number two
-represent the Episcopal Church of Ireland, one the Episcopal Church of
-Scotland, four the Baptists, three the Congregationalists, five the Free
-Church of Scotland, five the Established Church of Scotland, one the
-United Presbyterians, one the Unitarians, and two the Wesleyan Methodists.</p>
-
-<p>It is on many grounds a matter for thankfulness that they who took the
-initiative in the formation of the two Companies were able to secure so
-wide a representation of the various religious communities of our country,
-and men belonging to different schools of religious thought. For while no
-one can reasonably suppose that in the present day any body of Scholars
-would consciously allow themselves in the translation of the Scriptures to
-be swayed by any theological bias, there is, as all know, such a thing as
-unconscious bias; and it was greatly to be desired that no such suspicion
-should be raised against this Revision as for a long time obtained in
-reference to the Revision of 1611. It was also to be desired that no
-ground should exist that would give an excuse for any to say that through
-the bias of theological prepossessions the interpretations given by some
-to important passages of Scripture were unconsciously ignored, and that,
-had such interpretations been brought under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> the consideration of the
-Revisers, they must, as honest scholars, have accepted them. Such a ground
-of objection has happily been excluded by the constitution of the two
-Companies. The varieties of theological opinion found amongst the Revisers
-have been an efficient protection against any lapse of the kind referred
-to, and it may safely be affirmed that no interpretation of any important
-doctrinal passage for which any respectable amount of authority could be
-claimed has failed to come under notice, or to receive a careful
-examination.</p>
-
-<p>The advantage resulting from this varied representation in the membership
-of the two Companies has been still further extended by the arrangements
-which have secured the co-operation of a considerable number of American
-Scholars. Shortly after the formation of the two Companies steps were
-taken for enlisting such co-operation; and after some correspondence with
-representative men in America, the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, of New York,
-was requested to act on behalf of the English Companies in selecting and
-inviting American Scholars. In October, 1871, it was reported to the New
-Testament Company that Dr. Schaff had verbally informed the secretary that
-the American Revisers were prepared to enter upon their work. Various
-causes of delay, however, intervened, and it was not until July 17th,
-1872, that the communication was made that the American Companies were
-duly constituted. These Companies held their first meeting on the 4th of
-October in that year. The following is the list of their Members.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">THE OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Professor T. J. Conant, Baptist, Brooklyn, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor G. E. Day, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor J. De Witt, Reformed Church, New Brunswick, N.J.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor W. H. Green, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor G. E. Hare, Episcopalian, Philadelphia, Pa.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor C. P. Krauth, Lutheran, Philadelphia, Pa.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor Joseph Packard, Episcopalian, Fairfax, Va.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor C. E. Stowe, Congregationalist, Cambridge, Mass.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor J. Strong, Methodist, Madison, N.J.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor C. V. Van Dyke,<a name='fna_128' id='fna_128' href='#f_128'><small>[128]</small></a> Beirût, Syria.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor T. Lewis, Reformed Church, Schenectady, N.J.</p></div>
-
-<p>In all eleven members.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Professor Ezra Abbot, Unitarian, Cambridge, Mass.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. G. R. Crooks, Methodist, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor H. B. Hackett, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor J. Hadley, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor C. Hodge, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor A. C. Kendrick, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Alfred Lee, Bishop of Delaware.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor M. B. Riddle, Reformed Church, Hartford, Conn.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor Philip Schaff, Presbyterian, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor C. Short, Episcopalian, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor H. B. Smith, Presbyterian, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor J. H. Thayer, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor W. F. Warren, Methodist, Boston, Mass.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. E. A. Washburn, Episcopalian, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. T. D. Woolsey, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.</p></div>
-
-<p>In all fifteen members.</p>
-
-<p>Four Members have since been added to the Old Testament Company; namely:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Professor C. A. Aiken, Presbyterian, Princeton, N.J.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. T. W. Chambers, Reformed Church, New York.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor C. M. Mead, Congregationalist, Andover, Mass.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor H. Osgood, Baptist, Rochester, N.Y.</p></div>
-
-<p>One Member, Professor T. Lewis, has been removed by death.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>Four Members have been added to the New Testament Company:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. J. K. Burr, Methodist, Trenton, N.Y.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. T. Chase, Baptist, President of Haverford College, Pa.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. H. Crosby, Baptist, Chancellor of New York University.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Professor Timothy Dwight, Congregationalist, New Haven, Conn.</p></div>
-
-<p>Four also have been removed by death, Dr. Hackett, Dr. Hadley, Dr. C.
-Hodge, Dr. H. B. Smith; and two by resignation, Dr. Crooks and Dr. Warren.</p>
-
-<hr style="width: 25%;" />
-
-<p>It hence results that altogether ninety-nine Scholars have, to a greater
-or less extent, taken part in the work of this revision, forty-nine of
-whom have been members of the Episcopalian Churches of England, Scotland,
-Ireland, and America, and fifty members of other Christian Churches. This
-fact is in itself full of interest and significance. Upon no previous
-revision have so many Scholars been engaged. In no previous revision has
-the co-operation of those who were engaged upon it been so equally
-diffused over all the parts of the work. In no previous revision have
-those who took the lead in originating it, and carrying it forward, shown
-so large a measure of Christian confidence in Scholars who were outside of
-their own communion. In no previous revision have such effective
-precautions been created by the very composition of the body of Revisers,
-against accidental oversight, or against any lurking bias that might arise
-from natural tendencies or from ecclesiastical prepossessions. On these
-accounts alone, if on no other, this revision may be fairly said to
-possess peculiar claims upon the confidence of all thoughtful and devout
-readers of the Bible.</p>
-
-<p>The New Testament Company assembled for the first time on Wednesday, June
-22nd, 1870. They met in the Chapel of Henry VII., and there united in the
-celebration of the Lord’s Supper. After this act of worship and holy
-communion they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> formally entered upon the task assigned to them. The Old
-Testament Company held their first meeting on June 30th.</p>
-
-<p>By the kindness of the Dean of Westminster, the New Testament Company was
-permitted to hold its meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber. This room,
-originally the parlour of the Abbot’s Palace, is associated with many
-interesting events of English history. It was to this spot that Henry IV.
-was conveyed when seized with his last illness; and here, on March 20th,
-1413, he died. It was here, in the days of the Long Parliament, that the
-celebrated Assembly of Divines, driven by the cold from Henry VII.’s
-Chapel, held its sixty-sixth session, on Monday, October 2nd, 1643; and
-here thenceforward it continued to meet until its closing session (the
-1163rd), on February 22nd, 1649. Here were prepared the famed Westminster
-Confession of Faith, and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms so highly
-prized by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, and during many
-generations by the Independents of England. Here also, just fifty years
-later, assembled the memorable Commission appointed by William III., at
-the suggestion of the Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Tillotson), to devise a
-basis for a scheme of comprehension in a revision of the Prayer Book. In
-this room the New Testament Company have held the larger number of their
-sessions. Upon the few occasions on which it was not available the Company
-has most frequently met in the Dean of Westminster’s library. Twice it has
-held its monthly session in the College Hall, twice in the Chapter
-Library, and once in Queen Anne’s Bounty Office.</p>
-
-<p>The Jerusalem Chamber is an oblong room, somewhat narrow for its length,
-measuring about forty feet from north to south, and about twenty from east
-to west. Down the centre of the room there extends a long table; and on
-this table, in the middle of its eastern side, is placed the desk of the
-Chairman, Bishop Ellicott. Facing the Chairman, and on the opposite side
-of the room, is a small table for the use of the Secretary. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> members
-of the Company took their places round the table without any
-pre-arrangement, but just as each might find a seat most ready at hand.
-The force of habit, however, soon prevailed, and most of the members sat
-constantly in the place which accident or choice had assigned to them. On
-the Chairman’s right sat the Prolocutor, Dr. Bickersteth, and on his left,
-during the sixteen meetings he was spared to attend, sat the late Dean of
-Canterbury, Dr. Alford, who, to the great sorrow of the Company, was so
-early taken away from their midst. Between the Prolocutor and the northern
-end of the table were the places usually occupied by the Bishop of
-Salisbury, the Bishop of St. Andrews, Dean Blakesley, and Mr. Humphry.
-Between the Chairman and the southern end were the places of the
-Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Brown, Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Eadie, and Canon
-Westcott. Between the Secretary’s table and the northern end of the long
-table were the seats of Canon Kennedy, Dr. Angus, Archdeacon Palmer, and
-Dr. Hort; and between the Secretary’s table and the southern end were
-those of Dr. Vance Smith, Dr. Scrivener, Dr. Lightfoot, Dean Scott, and
-Dr. Newth. At the northern end of the table were the places of Archdeacon
-Lee and Dean Stanley; and at the southern end those of Dr. Moulton and Dr.
-Milligan.</p>
-
-<p>As the general rules under which the revision was to be carried out had
-been carefully prepared, no need existed for any lengthened discussion of
-preliminary arrangements, and the Company upon its first meeting was able
-to enter at once upon its work. The members of the Company had previously
-been supplied with sheets, each containing a column of the printed text of
-the Authorized Version, with a wide margin on either side for suggested
-emendations&mdash;the left hand margin being intended for changes in the Greek
-text, and the right hand margin for those which related to the English
-rendering. Upon these sheets each member had entered the result of his own
-private study of the prescribed portion, and thus came prepared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> with
-well-considered suggestions to submit for the judgment of the Company. The
-portion prescribed for the first session was Matt. i. to iv. This portion
-opening with the genealogy, the question of the spelling of proper names
-at once presented itself for decision. It was felt that, by the twofold
-forms so often given in the Authorized Version to the names of persons and
-places, a needless difficulty was set in the way of the simple reader of
-the Bible; and it was agreed that, while preserving in every case the
-familiar forms of names which had become thoroughly Englished, such as
-John, James, Timothy, Jacob, Solomon, &amp;c., all Old Testament proper names
-quoted in the New should follow the Hebrew rather than the Greek or Latin,
-and so appear under the same form in both Testaments.</p>
-
-<p>This question being thus settled, the Company proceeded to the actual
-details of the revision, and in a surprisingly short time settled down to
-an established method of procedure. So little need arose for any change in
-this respect that the account of any one ordinary meeting will serve as a
-description of all. The Company assembles at eleven a.m. The meeting is
-opened by prayer, the Chairman reading three collects from the Prayer
-Book, and closing with the Lord’s Prayer. The minutes of the last meeting
-are then read and confirmed. Any correspondence or other business that may
-require consideration is next dealt with. These matters being settled, the
-Chairman invites the Company to proceed with the revision, and reads a
-short passage as given in the Authorised Version. The question is then
-asked whether any <i>textual</i> changes are proposed; that is, any readings
-that differ from the Greek text as presented in the edition published by
-Robert Stephen in 1550. If any change is proposed, the evidence for and
-against is briefly stated, and the proposal considered. The duty of
-stating this evidence is, by tacit consent, devolved upon two members of
-the Company, who, from their previous studies, are specially entitled to
-speak with authority upon such questions&mdash;Dr. Scrivener and Dr. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>Hort&mdash;and
-who come prepared to enumerate particularly the authorities on either
-side. Dr. Scrivener opens up the matter by stating the facts of the case,
-and by giving his judgment upon the bearing of the evidence. Dr. Hort
-follows, and mentions any additional matters that may call for notice, and
-if differing from Dr. Scrivener’s estimate of the weight of the evidence,
-gives his reasons, and states his own view. After discussion, the vote of
-the Company is taken, and the proposed reading accepted or rejected. The
-text being thus settled, the Chairman asks for proposals on the rendering.
-Any member who has any suggestion on his paper then mentions it, and this
-is taken into consideration, unless some other member state that he has a
-proposal which refers to an earlier clause of the passage, in which case
-his proposal is taken first. The reasons for the proposed emendation are
-then stated; briefly, if it be an obvious correction, and one which it is
-likely that many members have noted down; if it be one less obvious, or
-less likely to commend itself at first sight, the grounds upon which it is
-based are stated more at length. Free discussion then follows, and after
-this the vote of the Company is taken. Succeeding suggestions are
-similarly dealt with, and then the passage, as amended, is read by the
-Chairman, or by the Secretary. The meeting lasts until six p.m., an
-interval of half-an-hour having been allowed for luncheon. The Company
-meets every month, excepting only in the months of August and September,
-for a session of four consecutive days.</p>
-
-<p>At a very early period of their labours it became clearly manifest to the
-Company that they could only do their work satisfactorily by doing it very
-thoroughly, and that no question in any way affecting the sense or the
-rendering could be passed over because of its seeming unimportance.
-Questions, whether of text or translation, which appeared, when regarded
-in relation only to the passage under review, to be too minute to be
-worthy of serious attention, became oftentimes invested with a grave
-importance when other, and especially parallel, passages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> were considered;
-and thus proposed changes, which might otherwise have been dismissed as
-unnecessary, claimed for themselves a careful examination. As a necessary
-result of this determination to make the revision as complete as might be
-in their power, the progress made in the work was but slow, and at the end
-of the ninth day of meeting not more than 153 verses had been revised, an
-average of only seventeen verses a day. Thereupon several members of the
-Company became alarmed at the probable length of time over which the
-revision would extend, and on the tenth day of meeting resolutions were
-submitted, that, “with a view to swifter progress, the Company be divided
-into two sections, of which one shall proceed with the Gospels and the
-other with the Epistles,” and “that on the last day of each monthly series
-of meetings the whole Company meet together to review the work done by the
-two separate sections.” To these resolutions a full consideration was
-given, and with the result of producing an almost unanimous conviction
-that such a division of the Company was undesirable. It was felt that the
-weight of authority attaching to this Revision, would, with many persons,
-be largely dependent upon the fact that it represented the united judgment
-of a considerable number of scholars, and that the proposed division of
-the Company would consequently tend to lessen the claims of the work to
-the confidence of the public. It was found, too, that it would not be
-possible to make any satisfactory division of the Company; and from the
-varied qualifications of the members, each felt that it would be a
-palpable loss to be deprived of the co-operation of any of the rest. It
-was also exceedingly doubtful whether any saving of time would be secured
-by the proposed arrangement. The review by the entire Company of the work
-done by the separate divisions would, in very many cases, reopen
-discussion; and questions which had been decided, perhaps unanimously,
-after lengthened debate, would be debated afresh, and that, too, by those
-who were less familiar with all the bearings of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> question, and on
-whose account it would be necessary to give lengthened explanations, and
-sometimes to retrace other ground also. The resolutions were consequently
-withdrawn, and the conviction became general amongst the members of the
-Company that they had no other alternative than to face the probability of
-a much longer period of labour than any one amongst them had at first
-anticipated, and to accept the full responsibilities of the work which had
-been laid upon them.</p>
-
-<p>After this the work steadily proceeded, and various general questions
-having been decided as they arose, the rate of progress became more rapid;
-but even then the average did not rise above thirty-five verses a day.</p>
-
-<p>In accordance with the rules under which the Company was acting, all
-proposals made at the first revision were decided by simple majorities;
-but at the second revision no change from the Authorized Version could be
-accepted unless it were carried by a majority of two to one. Though here
-and there this rule stood in the way of a change which a decided majority
-of the Company were of opinion was right, its action upon the whole was
-very salutary.</p>
-
-<p>At the second revision also the suggestions of the American Revisers came
-to the help of the Company. From time to time, as each successive portion
-of the first revision was completed, it had been forwarded to America. The
-American Revisers subjected this to a careful scrutiny, and in their turn
-forwarded to England their criticisms thereupon. Where they approved the
-changes provisionally made nothing was said; where they differed they
-indicated their dissent, and submitted their own suggestions. In like
-manner, in passages where no change had been made, they either signified
-their assent by silence, or expressed their judgment by independent
-proposals.</p>
-
-<p>The first revision of the Gospel of Matthew was completed on the
-thirty-sixth day of meeting, May 24th, 1871; that of Mark on the
-fifty-third day, November 16th, 1871; that of Luke<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> on the eighty-first
-day, June 22nd, 1872; and that of John on the one hundred and third day,
-February 19th, 1873. The first revision of the Acts and the Catholic
-Epistles was completed on the one hundred and fifty-second meeting, April
-23rd, 1874. Before proceeding to the first revision of the remaining books
-it was deemed desirable to undertake the second revision of the Gospels,
-and this was completed on the one hundred and eighty-fourth meeting,
-February 25th, 1875. The first revision of the Pauline Epistles was then
-commenced, and was completed on the two hundred and sixty-second meeting,
-February 27th, 1877. The first revision of the Apocalypse was completed on
-the two hundred and seventy-third meeting, April 20th, 1877.</p>
-
-<p>It will thus appear that the first revision engaged the Company during two
-hundred and forty-one meetings; that is to say, during sixty monthly
-sessions, or six years of labour. The attendance during this important
-period of the work maintained so high an average as 16·8.</p>
-
-<p>It had not been originally intended that at the second revision fresh
-proposals should be entertained; but as it was obviously necessary to do
-this with regard to the American suggestions, it was felt that we ought
-not to preclude our own members from bringing forward any new proposal
-that might seem worthy of consideration, and that we ought not, for the
-sake of gaining time, to fetter ourselves by any rigid rule. The second
-revision thus became a far more serious business than had been originally
-contemplated, and demanded a large measure of time and toil. It was
-completed on December 13th, 1878, having occupied on the whole ninety-six
-meetings, or about two years and a half. By rule 5 the “second” revision
-was to be regarded as “final,” but the course of events rendered this an
-impossibility, and so far the rule had to be annulled.</p>
-
-<p>In due course the results of the second revision were forwarded to
-America, and while it indicated the extent to which the English Company
-had been able to adopt the American <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>suggestions&mdash;or what was equivalent
-to this, some third suggestion that approved itself alike to the judgment
-of both Companies&mdash;it also necessarily invited a reply upon those points
-about which there was still a difference of opinion, and this, as
-necessarily, involved what was to some extent a third revision. The work
-of a further revision had, however, been previously imposed upon the
-Company by a resolution of its own, in which it was agreed that the
-members should privately read over the version as now revised, with the
-view of marking any roughnesses or other blemishes in the English
-phraseology; and that if it should appear to them that, without doing any
-violence to the Greek, the English might be amended, the emendations they
-proposed should be forwarded to the Secretary, and by him be duly arranged
-and printed. To the consideration of the various suggestions so forwarded,
-and of those contained in the further communications from America, the
-Company devoted thirty-six meetings, extending from February 11th, 1879,
-to January 27th, 1880, with portions of one or two subsequent meetings,
-being finally completed on March 17th, 1880.</p>
-
-<p>Although the Company had endeavoured throughout the whole course of its
-work to preserve, as far as the idiom of the English language permitted,
-uniformity in the rendering of the same Greek word, it had not been
-possible, when dealing with each passage separately, to keep in view all
-the other passages in which any particular word might be found. It was
-therefore felt to be desirable to reconsider the Revised Version with
-exclusive reference to this single point, and the pages of a Greek
-concordance were assigned in equal portions to different members of the
-Company, who each undertook to examine every passage in which the words
-falling to his share might occur, and to mark if in any case unnecessary
-variations in the English had either been introduced or retained. The
-passages so noted were brought before the notice of the assembled Company,
-and the question was in each case considered whether, without any injury
-to the sense, the rendering of the word under review might be harmonized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
-with that found in other places. This work of harmonizing, together with
-the preparation of the preface, occupied the Company until November 11th,
-1880, on which day, at five o’clock in the afternoon, after ten years and
-five months of labour, the revision of the New Testament was brought to
-its close.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of the same day, St. Martin’s day, by the kind invitation
-of Prebendary Humphry, the Company assembled in the Church of St.
-Martin’s-in-the-Fields, and there united in a special service of prayer
-and thanksgiving; of thanksgiving for the happy completion of their
-labours, for the spirit of harmony and brotherly affection that had
-throughout pervaded the meetings of the Company, and for the Divine
-goodness which had permitted so many with so little interruption to give
-themselves continuously to this work; of prayer that all that had been
-wrong in their spirit or action might be mercifully forgiven, and that He
-whose glory they had humbly striven to promote might graciously accept
-this their service, and deign to use it as an instrument for the good of
-man, and the honour of His holy name.</p>
-
-<p>The total number of meetings of the Company has been 407, and the total
-number of attendances 6,426,<a name='fna_129' id='fna_129' href='#f_129'><small>[129]</small></a> or an average attendance at each meeting
-of 15·8 members.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>Upon one other point our readers will naturally look for some information.
-How have the necessary expenses of this undertaking been met? These, it
-will readily be seen, would necessarily be large. So many persons could
-not come together from various parts of the kingdom&mdash;some very distant,
-including the extreme north of Scotland, and the extreme west of
-Cornwall&mdash;and remain in London for a week in every month, without a
-considerable expenditure of money. It was also found necessary for the
-satisfactory execution of the work that each portion, from time to time as
-provisionally completed, should be set up in type, and in this way further
-expenses were entailed. The question of meeting these expenses was at an
-early period forced upon the attention of the Company; for some members
-before many months had elapsed had been put to serious costs, and while
-all willingly gave their time and labour, as far as they might be able,
-without reserve to this important work, it was felt to be impossible to
-allow this extra burden to rest upon any, and the more so as the pressure
-of it must needs be very unequally distributed. An appeal to the public
-for help having met with no adequate response, it was resolved to dispose
-of the copyright of the work, in the hope thereby of obtaining sufficient
-means of meeting the expenses of completing it. Several offers from
-different sources were made to the Companies; but ultimately, for various
-reasons, it was deemed best to accede to that made by the University
-Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, whereby, in return for the copyright of
-the Revised Version, the Chancellors, Masters, and Scholars of the two
-Universities agreed to provide a sum which it was hoped would suffice for
-the expenses that would be incurred in the prosecution and completion of
-the work, and to advance a certain portion of the same from time to time.
-A draft deed embodying these agreements having been submitted to the
-Companies was after some amendments accepted on December 10th, 1872.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>The agreement with the University Presses binds the two Companies to a
-revision of the Apocrypha, a work not contemplated in their original
-undertaking. The New Testament Company have made arrangements for taking a
-full share of this revision, and entered upon the work in April last.
-Until this is completed they will not be released from their
-responsibilities.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.</h2>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<h2><a name="A" id="A"></a>(A.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?)</i></p>
-
-
-<p class="center">CHAPTER XV.</p>
-
-<p><a name='fna_130' id='fna_130' href='#f_130'><small>[130]</small></a> For as much as Christ saith that the gospel shall be preached in all
-the world, and David saith of the Apostles and their preaching, “the sound
-of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the
-ends of the world;” and again David saith, “The Lord shall tell in the
-Scriptures of peoples and of these princes that were in it;”<a name='fna_131' id='fna_131' href='#f_131'><small>[131]</small></a> that is,
-in holy Church, as Jerome saith on that verse, “Holy writ is the Scripture
-of peoples, for it is made that all peoples should know it;” and the
-princes of the Church that were therein be the apostles that had authority
-to write holy writ; for by that same that the Apostles wrote their
-Scriptures by authority and confirming of the Holy Ghost, it is holy
-Scripture and faith of Christian men, and this dignity hath no man after
-them, be he never so holy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> never so cunning, as Jerome witnesseth on that
-verse. Also Christ saith of the Jews that cried Hosanna to Him in the
-temple, that though they were still stones should cry; and by stones He
-understandeth heathen men that worshipped stones for their gods. And we
-Englishmen be come of heathen men, therefore we be understood by these
-stones that should cry holy writ; and as Jews, interpreted
-acknowledging<a name='fna_132' id='fna_132' href='#f_132'><small>[132]</small></a>, signify clerks that should make acknowledgment to God
-by repentance of sins and by voice of God’s praise, so our lewd (lay, or
-unlearned) men, suing (following) the corner-stone Christ, may be
-signified by stones that be hard and abiding in the foundation; for though
-covetous clerks be wood (wild, or mad), by simony, heresy, and many other
-sins, and despise and stop holy writ as much as they can, yet the lewd
-people cry after holy writ to ken it and keep it with great cost and peril
-of their life.</p>
-
-<p>For these reasons and other, with common charity to save all men in our
-realm which God would have saved, a simple creature hath translated the
-Bible out of Latin into English. First this simple creature had much
-travail, with divers fellows and helpers, to gather many old Bibles, and
-other doctors and common glosses, and to make one Latin Bible some deal
-true; and then to study it anew, the text with the gloss and other doctors
-as he might get, and especially Lyra on the Old Testament, that helped
-full much in this work; the third time to counsel with old grammarians and
-old divines of hard words and hard sentences, how they might best be
-understood and translated; the fourth time to translate as clearly as he
-could to the sentence,<a name='fna_133' id='fna_133' href='#f_133'><small>[133]</small></a> and to have many good fellows and cunning at
-the correcting of the translation. First it is to know that the best
-translating out of Latin into English is to translate after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> the sentence,
-and not only after the words, so that the sentence be as open, either
-opener, in English as in Latin, and go not far from the letter; and if the
-letter may not be sued (followed) in the translating, let the sentence be
-ever whole and open, for the words ought to serve to the intent and
-sentence, and else the words be superfluous or false. In translating into
-English many resolutions may make the sentence open, as an ablative case
-absolute may be resolved into these three words, with convenable
-(suitable) verb, <i>the while</i>, <i>for if</i>, as grammarians say, as thus: <i>the
-master reading, I stand</i>, may be resolved thus, <i>while the master readeth
-I stand</i>, or, <i>if the master readeth, &amp;c.</i>, or, <i>for the master, &amp;c.</i>; and
-sometime it would accord well with the sentence to be resolved into <i>when</i>
-or into <i>afterward</i>, thus, <i>when the master read I stood</i>, or, <i>after the
-master read I stood</i>; and sometime it may well be resolved into a verb of
-the same tense as others be in the same clause, and into this word <i>et</i>;
-that is, <i>and</i> in English, as thus, <i>arescentibus hominibus prae timore</i>;
-that is, <i>and men should wax dry for dread</i>. Also a participle of a
-present tense or preterite of active voice or passive may be resolved into
-a verb of the same tense and a conjunction copulative, as thus, <i>dicens</i>;
-that is, <i>saying</i> may be resolved thus, <i>and saith</i>, or, <i>that saith</i>; and
-this will in many places make the sentence open, where to English it,
-after the verb, would be dark and doubtful. Also a relative, which may be
-resolved into his antecedent with a conjunction copulative, as thus,
-<i>which runneth</i>, <i>and he runneth</i>. Also when one word is once set in a
-clause it may be set forth as often as it is understood, or as often as
-reason and need ask. And this word <i>autem</i>, or <i>vero</i>, may stand for
-<i>forsooth</i>, or for <i>but</i>, and thus I use commonly; and sometime it may
-stand for <i>and</i>, as old grammarians say. Also when rightful construction
-is let (prevented) by relation, I resolve it openly; thus where this
-clause <i>Dominum formidabunt adversarii ejus</i> should be Englished thus by
-the letter, <i>the Lord His adversaries shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> dread</i>, I English it thus by
-resolution, <i>the adversaries of the Lord shall dread Him</i>; and so of other
-clauses that be like.</p>
-
-<p>At the beginning I purposed, with God’s help, to make the sentence as true
-and open in English as it is in Latin, or more true and more open than it
-is in Latin; and I pray for charity and for common profit of Christian
-souls, that if any wise man find any default of the truth of translation,
-let him set in the true sentence and open of holy writ, but look that he
-examine truly his Latin Bible; for no doubt he shall find full many Bibles
-in Latin full false, if he look many, namely, new;<a name='fna_134' id='fna_134' href='#f_134'><small>[134]</small></a> and the common
-Latin Bibles have more need to be corrected, as many as I have seen in my
-life than the English Bible late translated. And where the Hebrew, by
-witness of Jerome, of Lyra, and other expositors discordeth from our Latin
-Bibles, I have set in the margin, by manner of a gloss, what the Hebrew
-hath, and how it is understood in some place; and I did this most in the
-Psalter, that of all our books discordeth most from the Hebrew; for the
-church readeth not the Psalter by the last translation of Jerome, out of
-Hebrew into Latin, but another translation by other men, that had much
-less cunning and holiness than Jerome had; and in full few books the
-church readeth the translation of Jerome, as it may be proved by the
-proper originals of Jerome which he glossed. And where I have translated
-as openly or openlier in English as in Latin, let wise men deme (judge)
-that know well both languages, and know well the sentence of holy
-Scripture. And whether I have done thus or not, no doubt they that ken
-well the sentence of holy writ and English together, and will travail with
-God’s grace thereabout, may make the Bible as true and as open, yea, and
-openlier, in English as in Latin. And no doubt to a simple man, with God’s
-grace and great travail, men might expound much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> openlier and shortlier
-the Bible in English, than the old great doctors have expounded it in
-Latin, and much sharplier and groundlier than many late postillators, or
-expositors have done. But God of His great mercy, give us grace to live
-well, and to see the truth in convenable manner, and acceptable to God and
-His people, and to spell out our time, be it short, be it long, at God’s
-ordinance.</p>
-
-<p>But some that seem wise and holy say thus, If men now were as holy as
-Jerome was, they might translate out of Latin into English, as he did out
-of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and else they should not translate
-now, so they think, for default of holiness and cunning. Though this
-replication seem colourable, it hath no good ground, neither reason,
-neither charity; for why, (because) this replication is more against Saint
-Jerome and against the first LXX. translators, and against holy church,
-than against simple men that translate now into English; for Saint Jerome
-was not so holy as the Apostles and Evangelists, whose books he translated
-into Latin, neither he had so high gifts of the Holy Ghost as they had;
-and much more the LXX. translators were not so holy as Moses and the
-Prophets, and specially David; neither they had so great gifts of God as
-Moses and the Prophets had. Furthermore, holy church approveth not only
-the true translation of mean Christian men, but also of open heretics,
-that did away mysteries of Jesus Christ by guileful translation, as Jerome
-witnesseth in one prologue on Job, and in the prologue of Daniel. Much
-more late the Church of England approve the true and whole translation of
-simple men, that would, for no good on earth, by their witting and power,
-put away the least truth, yea, the least letter or tittle of holy writ
-that beareth substance or charge. And dispute they not (let them not
-dispute) of the holiness of men now living in this deadly life; for they
-know not thereon, and it is reserved only to God’s doom. If they know any
-notable default by the translators or their helps, let them blame<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the
-default by charity and mercy, and let them never damn a thing that may be
-done lawfully by God’s law, as wearing a good cloth for a time, or riding
-on a horse for a great journey, when they wit not wherefore it is done;
-for such things may be done of simple men with as great charity and virtue
-as some that hold themselves great and wise, can ride in a gilt saddle, or
-use cushions and beds and cloths of gold and of silk, with other vanities
-of the world. God grant pity, mercy, and charity, and love of common
-profit, and put away such foolish dooms (judgment) that be against reason
-and charity. Yet worldly clerks ask greatly (grandly) what spirit maketh
-idiots (laymen) hardy to translate now the Bible into English, since the
-four great doctors durst never do this. This replication is so lewd
-(unlearned), that it needeth none answer but stillness or courteous scorn;
-for these great doctors were none English men, neither they were
-conversant among English men, neither they knew the language of English,
-but they ceased never till they had holy writ in the mother tongue of
-their own people. For Jerome, that was a Latin man of birth, translated
-the Bible, both out of Hebrew and out of Greek into Latin, and expounded
-full much thereto; and Austin and many more Latins expounded the Bible,
-for many parts, in Latin, to Latin men among which they dwelt, and Latin
-was a common language to their people about Rome, and beyond and on this
-half (side), as English is common to our people, and yet (still) this day
-the common people in Italy speaketh Latin corrupt, as true men say that
-have been in Italy; and the number of translators out of Greek into Latin
-passeth man’s knowing, as Austin witnesseth in the ij. book of <i>Christian
-Teaching</i>,<a name='fna_135' id='fna_135' href='#f_135'><small>[135]</small></a> and saith thus: “The translators out of Hebrew into Greek
-may be numbered, but Latin translators, or they that translated into
-Latin, may not be numbered in any manner.” For in the first times of
-faith, each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> man, as a Greek book came to him, and he seemed to himself to
-have some cunning of Greek and Latin, was hardy (bold) to translate, and
-this thing helped more than letted (hindered) understanding, if readers be
-not negligent, for why (because) the beholding of many books hath showed
-off or declared some darker sentences. This saith Austin here. Therefore
-Grosted (Grosseteste) saith that it was God’s will that diverse men
-translate, and that diverse translations be in the church, where one said
-darkly, one other more said openly.</p>
-
-<p>Lord God, since at the beginning of faith so many men translated into
-Latin, and to great profit of Latin men, let one simple creature of God
-translate into English for profit of Englishmen; for if worldly clerks
-look well their chronicles and books they shall find that Bede translated
-the Bible, and expounded much in Saxon, that was English, or common
-language of this land, in his time; and not only Bede, but also King
-Alfred that founded Oxford, translated in his last days the beginning of
-the Psalter into Saxon, and would more if he had lived longer. Also
-Frenchmen, Beemers,<a name='fna_136' id='fna_136' href='#f_136'><small>[136]</small></a> and Britons have the Bible and other books of
-devotion and of exposition translated in their mother language. Why should
-not Englishmen have the same in their mother language I cannot wit, no but
-(except) for falseness and negligence of clerks, or for (because) our
-people is not worthy to have so great grace and gift of God in pain
-(penalty) of their old sins. God for his mercy amend these evil causes,
-and make our people to have, and ken, and keep truly holy writ, to life
-and death.</p>
-
-<p>But in translating of words equivocal, that is, that have many
-significations under one letter, may lightly be peril (there may easily be
-a danger of mistake); for Austin saith in the ij. book of <i>Christian
-Teaching</i> that if equivocal words be not translated into the sense or
-understanding of the author it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> is error,<a name='fna_137' id='fna_137' href='#f_137'><small>[137]</small></a> as in that place of the
-psalm, <i>the feet of them be swift to shed out blood</i>. The Greek word is
-equivocal to <i>sharp</i> and <i>swift</i>, and he that translated <i>sharp feet</i>
-erred, and a book that hath <i>sharp feet</i> is false, and must be amended, as
-that sentence, <i>unkind young trees shall not give deep roots</i>, ought to be
-thus <i>plantings of adultery shall not give deep roots</i>.<a name='fna_138' id='fna_138' href='#f_138'><small>[138]</small></a> Austin saith
-this there; therefore a translator hath great need to study well the
-sentence, both before and after, and look that such equivocal words accord
-with the sentence; and he hath need to live a clean life, and be full
-devout in prayers, and have not his wit occupied about worldly things,
-that the Holy Spirit, author of wisdom, and cunning, and truth, dress him
-in his work, and suffer him not for to err.</p>
-
-<p>Also this word <i>ex</i> signifieth sometime <i>of</i>, and sometime it signifieth
-<i>by</i>, as Jerome saith; and this word <i>enim</i> signifieth commonly
-<i>forsooth</i>, and, as Jerome saith, it signifieth, <i>cause thus</i>, <i>forwhy</i>.
-And this word <i>secundum</i> is taken for <i>after</i>, as many men say, and
-commonly; but it signifieth well <i>by</i> or <i>up</i>, thus <i>by your word</i>, or <i>up
-your word</i>. Many such adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions be set off
-one for another, and at free choice of authors sometime; and now they
-should be taken as it accordeth best to the sentence.</p>
-
-<p>By this manner, with good living and great travail, men may come to true
-and clear translating and true understanding of holy writ, seem it never
-so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and to
-keep well holy writ, and to suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last.
-Amen.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="B" id="B"></a>(B.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES.</i></p>
-
-
-<p class="center">I. NEW TESTAMENT<a name='fna_139' id='fna_139' href='#f_139'><small>[139]</small></a> 1525. 4<span class="smcaplc">TO.</span></p>
-
-<p>I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly
-beloved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritual edifying,
-consolation, and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are
-better seen in the tongues than I, and that have better gifts of grace to
-interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to
-consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness; and
-if they perceive in any places that I have not attained unto the very
-sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the
-right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering
-that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for
-ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the
-honouring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is
-the body of Christ.</p>
-
-<p>The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should
-imagine, than that I should rehearse them. Moreover I supposed it
-superfluous; for who is so blind as to ask why light should be showed to
-them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to
-stumble is the danger of eternal damnation; other so despiteful that he
-would envy any man (I speak not his brother) so necessary a thing;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> or so
-bedlam mad to affirm that good is the natural cause of evil, and darkness
-to proceed out of light, and that lying should be grounded in truth and
-verity, and not rather clean contrary, that light destroyeth darkness, and
-verity reproveth all manner of lying.</p>
-
-<p>After it had pleased <span class="smcap">God</span> to put in my mind and also to give me grace to
-translate this fore-rehearsed New Testament into our English tongue,
-howsoever we have done it, I supposed it very necessary to put you in
-remembrance of certain points, which are, that ye well understand what
-these words mean: the Old Testament, the New Testament; the law, the
-gospel; Moses, Christ; nature, grace; working and believing; deeds and
-faith; lest we ascribe to the one that which belongeth to the other, and
-make of Christ Moses, of the gospel the law, despise grace and rob faith;
-and fall from meek learning into idle dispicions; brawling and scolding
-about words.</p>
-
-<p>The Old Testament is a book wherein is written the law of God, and the
-deeds of them which fulfil them, and of them also which fulfil them not.</p>
-
-<p>The New Testament is a book wherein are contained the promises of God, and
-the deeds of them which believe them or believe them not.</p>
-
-<p>Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good,
-merry, glad, and joyful tidings, that maketh a man’s heart glad, and
-maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy: as when David had killed Goliath
-the giant, came glad tidings unto the Jews, that their fearful and cruel
-enemy was slain, and they delivered out of all danger; for gladness
-whereof, they sung, danced, and were joyful. In like manner is the
-Evangelion of God (which we call gospel, and the New Testament) joyful
-tidings; and, as some say, a good hearing, published by the apostles
-throughout all the world, of Christ the right David, how that he hath
-fought with sin, with death, and the devil, and overcome them: whereby all
-men that were in bondage to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> sin, wounded with death, overcome of the
-devil, are, without their own merits or deservings, loosed, justified,
-restored to life and saved, brought to liberty and reconciled unto the
-favour of God, and set at one with him again; which tidings, as many as
-believe, laud, praise, and thank God; are glad, sing, and dance for joy.</p>
-
-<p>This Evangelion or gospel (that is to say, such joyful tidings) is called
-the New Testament; because that as a man, when he shall die, appointeth
-his goods to be dealt and distributed after his death among them which he
-nameth to be his heirs; even so Christ, before his death, commanded and
-appointed that such Evangelion, gospel, or tidings, should be declared
-throughout all the world, and therewith to give unto all that believe, all
-his goods; that is to say, his life, wherewith he swallowed and devoured
-up death; his righteousness, wherewith he banished sin; his salvation,
-wherewith he overcame eternal damnation. Now, can the wretched man, that
-[knoweth himself to be wrapped] in sin, and in danger to death and hell,
-hear no more joyous a thing than such glad and comfortable tidings of
-Christ; so that he cannot but be glad and laugh from the low bottom of his
-heart, if he believe that the tidings are true.</p>
-
-<p>To strength such faith withal, God promised this his Evangelion in the Old
-Testament by the prophets, as Paul saith (Rom. i.), how that he was chosen
-out to preach God’s Evangelion, which he before had promised by the
-prophets in the Scriptures, that treat of his Son which was born of the
-seed of David. In Gen. iii. God saith to the serpent, “I will put hatred
-between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, that self seed
-shall tread thy head under foot.” Christ is this woman’s seed; he it is
-that hath trodden under foot the devil’s head; that is to say, sin, death,
-hell, and all his power. For without this seed can no man avoid sin,
-death, hell, and everlasting damnation.</p>
-
-<p>Again (Gen. xxii.), God promised Abraham, saying, “In thy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> seed shall all
-the generations of the earth be blessed.” Christ is that seed of Abraham,
-saith St. Paul. (Gal. iii.) He hath blessed all the world through the
-gospel. For where Christ is not, there remaineth the curse that fell on
-Adam as soon as he had sinned, so that they are in bondage under the
-condemnation of sin, death, and hell. Against this curse blesseth now the
-gospel all the world, inasmuch as it crieth openly, saying, Whosoever
-believeth on the Seed of Abraham shall be blessed, that is, he shall be
-delivered from sin, death, and hell, and shall henceforth continue
-righteous, living and saved for ever, as Christ himself saith, in the
-eleventh of John, “He that believeth on me shall never more die.”</p>
-
-<p>“The law,” saith the gospel of John in the first chapter, “was given by
-Moses: but grace and verity by Jesus Christ.” The law, whose minister is
-Moses, was given to bring us unto the knowledge of ourselves, that we
-might thereby feel and perceive what we are of nature. The law condemneth
-us and all our deeds, and is called of Paul in 2 Cor. iii. the
-ministration of death. For it killeth our consciences and driveth us to
-desperation, inasmuch as it requireth of us that which is impossible for
-us to do. It requireth of us the deeds of a whole man. It requireth
-perfect love from the low bottom and ground of the heart, as well in all
-things which we suffer, as in the things which we do. But, saith John, in
-the same place, “grace and verity is given us in Christ,” so that when the
-law hath passed upon us, and condemned us to death, which is its nature to
-do, then we have in Christ grace, that is to say, favour, promises of
-life, of mercy, of pardon, freely by the merits of Christ; and in Christ
-have we verity and truth, in that God fulfilleth all his promises to them
-that believe. Therefore is the gospel the ministration of life. Paul
-calleth it in the fore rehearsed place of 2 Cor. iii. the ministration of
-the Spirit and of righteousness.</p>
-
-<p>In the gospel, when we believe the promises, we receive the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> Spirit of
-life, and are justified in the blood of Christ from all things whereof the
-law condemned us. Of Christ it is written in the fore rehearsed John i.
-This is He of whose abundance, or fulness, all we have received, grace for
-grace, or favour for favour. That is to say, for the favour that God hath
-to his Son Christ he giveth unto us his favour and good will, as a father
-to his sons. As affirmeth Paul, saying, “Which loved us in his Beloved
-before the creation of the world.” Christ is made Lord over all, and is
-called in scripture God’s mercy-stool; whosoever therefore flieth to
-Christ can neither hear nor receive of God any other thing save mercy.</p>
-
-<p>In the Old Testament are many promises, which are nothing else but the
-Evangelion or gospel, to save those that believed them from the vengeance
-of the law. And in the New Testament is often made mention of the law, to
-condemn them which believe not the promises. Moreover the law and the
-gospel may never be separate; for the gospel and promises serve but for
-troubled consciences, which are brought to desperation, and feel the pains
-of hell and death under the law, and are in captivity and bondage under
-the law. In all my deeds I must have the law before me to condemn mine
-imperfectness. For all that I do, be I never so perfect, is yet damnable
-sin, when it is compared to the law, which requireth the ground and bottom
-of mine heart. I must therefore have always the law in my sight, that I
-may be meek in the spirit, and give God all the laud and praise, ascribing
-to him all righteousness, and to myself all unrighteousness and sin. I
-must also have the promises before mine eyes, that I despair not; in which
-promises I see the mercy, favour, and good will of God upon me, in the
-blood of his Son Christ, which hath made satisfaction for mine
-unperfectness, and fulfilled for me that which I could not do.</p>
-
-<p>Here may ye perceive that two manner of people are sore deceived. First,
-they which justify themselves with outward deeds, in that they abstain
-outwardly from that which the law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> forbiddeth, and do outwardly that which
-the law commandeth. They compare themselves to open sinners; and in
-respect of them justify themselves, condemning the open sinners. They set
-a veil on Moses’ face, and see not how the law requireth love from the
-bottom of the heart. If they did they would not condemn their neighbours.
-“Love hideth the multitude of sins,” saith St. Peter, in his first
-epistle. For whom I love from the deep bottom and ground of mine heart,
-him condemn I not, neither reckon his sins, but suffer his weakness and
-infirmity, as a mother the weakness of her son, until he grow up unto a
-perfect man.</p>
-
-<p>Those also are deceived which, without all fear of God, give themselves
-unto all manner vices with full consent, and full delectation, having no
-respect to the law of God (under whose vengeance they are locked up in
-captivity), but say, God is merciful and Christ died for us, supposing
-that such dreaming and imagination is that faith which is so greatly
-commended in holy scripture. Nay, that is not faith, but rather a foolish
-blind opinion springing of their own nature, and it is not given them of
-the Spirit of God; true faith is (as saith the apostle Paul) the gift of
-God, and is given to sinners after the law hath passed upon them, and hath
-brought their consciences unto the brink of desperation, and sorrows of
-hell.</p>
-
-<p>They that have this right faith, consent to the law that it is righteous,
-and good, and justify God which made the law, and have delectation in the
-law, notwithstanding that they cannot fulfil it, for their weakness; and
-they abhor whatsoever the law forbiddeth, though they cannot avoid it. And
-their great sorrow is, because they cannot fulfil the will of God in the
-law; and the spirit that is in them crieth to God night and day for
-strength and help, with tears (as saith Paul) that cannot be expressed
-with tongue. Of which things the belief of our popish (or of their)
-father, whom they so magnify for his strong faith, hath none experience at
-all.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>The first, that is to say, a justiciary, which justifieth himself with his
-outward deeds, consenteth not to the inward law, neither hath delectation
-therein: yea, he would rather that no such law were. So he justifieth not
-God, but hateth him as a tyrant, neither careth he for the promises, but
-will with his own strength be saviour of himself; no wise glorifieth he
-God, though he seem outward to do.</p>
-
-<p>The second, that is to say, the sensual person, as a voluptuous swine,
-neither feareth God in his law, neither is thankful to him for his
-promises and mercy, which is set forth in Christ to all them that believe.</p>
-
-<p>The right christian man consenteth to the law, that it is righteous, and
-justifieth God in the law; for he affirmeth that God is righteous and
-just, which is author of the law. He believeth the promises of God, and so
-justifieth God, judging him true, and believing that he will fulfil his
-promises. With the law he condemneth himself and all his deeds, and giveth
-all the praise to God. He believeth the promises, and ascribeth all truth
-to God: thus everywhere justifieth he God, and praiseth God.</p>
-
-<p>By nature, through the fall of Adam are we the children of wrath, heirs of
-the vengeance of God by birth, yea, and from our conception. And we have
-our fellowship with the devils under the power of darkness and rule of
-Satan, while we are yet in our mothers’ wombs; and though we show not
-forth the fruits of sin, yet are we full of the natural poison whereof all
-sinful deeds spring, and cannot but sin outwardly, be we never so young,
-if occasion be given; for our nature is to do sin, as is the nature of a
-serpent to sting. And as a serpent yet young, or yet unbrought forth, is
-full of poison, and cannot afterward (when the time is come, and occasion
-given) but bring forth the fruits thereof; and as an adder, a toad, or a
-snake, is hated of man, not for the evil that it hath done, but for the
-poison that is in it and the hurt which it cannot but do; so are we hated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
-of God for that natural poison which is conceived and born with us before
-we do any outward evil. And as the evil, which a venomous worm doeth,
-maketh it not a serpent; but because it is a venomous worm, therefore doth
-it evil and poisoneth; and as the fruit maketh not the tree evil, but
-because it is an evil tree, therefore it bringeth forth evil fruit, when
-the season of fruit is; even so do not our evil deeds make us evil; but
-because that of nature we are evil, therefore we both think and do evil,
-and are under vengeance under the law, convict to eternal damnation by the
-law, and are contrary to the will of God in all our will, and in all
-things consent to the will of the fiend.</p>
-
-<p>By grace, that is to say by favour, we are plucked out of Adam, the ground
-of all evil, and graffed in Christ the root of all goodness. In Christ,
-God loved us, his elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved
-us unto the knowledge of his Son and of his holy gospel; and when the
-gospel is preached to us, he openeth our hearts, and giveth us grace to
-believe, and putteth the Spirit of Christ in us, and we know him as our
-Father most merciful; and we consent to the law, and love it inwardly in
-our heart, and desire to fulfil it, and sorrow because we cannot; which
-will (sin we of frailty never so much) is sufficient till more strength be
-given us; the blood of Christ hath made satisfaction for the rest; the
-blood of Christ hath obtained all things for us of God. Christ is our
-satisfaction, Redeemer, Deliverer, Saviour, from vengeance and wrath.
-Observe and mark in Paul’s, Peter’s, and John’s epistles, and in the
-gospel, what Christ is unto us.</p>
-
-<p>By faith are we saved only in believing the promises. And though faith be
-never without love and good works, yet is our saving imputed neither to
-love nor unto good works, but unto faith only. For love and works are
-under the law, which requireth perfection, and the ground and fountain of
-the heart, and damneth all imperfectness. Now is faith under the
-promises,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> which condemn not; but give all grace, mercy, favour, and
-whatsoever is contained in the promises.</p>
-
-<p>Righteousness is divers; blind reason imagines many manner of
-righteousness. There is, in like manner, the justifying of ceremonies,
-some imagine them their own selves, some counterfeit other, saying, in
-their blind reason, Such holy persons did thus and thus, and they were
-holy men, therefore if I do so likewise I shall please God; but they have
-no answer of God that that pleaseth. The Jews seek righteousness in their
-ceremonies; which God gave unto them, not to justify, but to describe and
-paint Christ unto them; of which Jews testifieth Paul, saying how that
-they have affection to God, but not after knowledge; for they go about to
-stablish their own justice, and are not obedient to the justice of
-righteousness that cometh of God. The cause is verily that except a man
-cast away his own imagination and reason, he cannot perceive God, and
-understand the virtue and power of the blood of Christ. There is the
-righteousness of works, as I said before, when the heart is away and
-feeleth not how the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the
-bottom of the heart, as the just ministration of all manner of laws, and
-the observing of them, and moral virtues wherein philosophers put their
-felicity and blessedness&mdash;which all are nothing in the sight of God. There
-is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled from the ground of the
-heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this life perfectly, but sighed
-after it. They were so far forth blessed in Christ, that they hungered and
-thirsted after it. Paul had this thirst; he consented to the law of God,
-that it ought so to be, but he found another lust in his members, contrary
-to the lust and desire of his mind, and therefore cried out, saying, “Oh,
-wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from this body of death?
-thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” The righteousness that before God
-is of value, is to believe the promises of God, after the law hath
-confounded the conscience:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> as when the temporal law ofttimes condemneth
-the thief or murderer, and bringeth him to execution, so that he seeth
-nothing before him but present death, and then cometh good tidings, a
-charter from the king, and delivereth him. Likewise when God’s law hath
-brought the sinner into knowledge of himself, and hath confounded his
-conscience and opened unto him the wrath and vengeance of God; then cometh
-good tidings. The Evangelion showeth unto him the promises of God in
-Christ, and how Christ hath purchased pardon for him, hath satisfied the
-law for him, and appeased the wrath of God. And the poor sinner believeth,
-laudeth, and thanketh God through Christ, and breaketh out into exceeding
-inward joy and gladness, for that he hath escaped so great wrath, so heavy
-vengeance, so fearful and so everlasting a death. And he henceforth is an
-hungered and athirst after more righteousness, that he might fulfil the
-law; and mourneth continually, commending his weakness unto God in the
-blood of our Saviour, Christ Jesus.</p>
-
-<p>Here shall ye see compendiously and plainly set out, the order and
-practice of every thing before rehearsed.</p>
-
-<p>The fall of Adam hath made us heirs of the vengeance and wrath of God, and
-heirs of eternal damnation; and hath brought us into captivity and bondage
-under the devil. And the devil is our lord, and our ruler, our head, our
-governor, our prince, yea, and our god. And our will is locked and knit
-faster unto the will of the devil, than could a hundred thousand chains
-bind a man unto a post. Unto the devil’s will consent we with all our
-hearts, with all our minds, with all our might, power, strength, will, and
-lusts. With what poison, deadly and venomous hate, hateth a man his enemy!
-With how great malice of mind, inwardly, do we slay and murder! With what
-violence and rage, yea, and with how fervent lust, commit we advoutry,
-fornication, and such like uncleanness! With what pleasure and delectation
-inwardly serveth a glutton his belly! With what diligence deceive we! How
-busily seek<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> we the things of this world! Whatsoever we do, think, or
-imagine, is abominable in the sight of God. And we are as it were asleep
-in so deep blindness, that we can neither see nor feel what misery,
-thraldom, and wretchedness we are in, till Moses come and wake us, and
-publish the law. When we hear the law truly preached, how that we ought to
-love and honour God with all our strength and might, from the low bottom
-of the heart; and our neighbours, yea, our enemies, as ourselves,
-inwardly, from the ground of the heart, and do whatsoever God biddeth, and
-abstain from whatsoever God forbiddeth, with all love and meekness, with a
-fervent and a burning lust from the centre of the heart, then beginneth
-the conscience to rage against the law, and against God. No sea, be it
-ever so great a tempest, is so unquiet. For it is not possible for a
-natural man to consent to the law, that it should be good, or that God
-should be righteous which maketh the law; his wit, reason, and will being
-so fast glued, yea, nailed and chained unto the will of the devil. Neither
-can any creature loose the bonds, save the blood of Christ.</p>
-
-<p>This is the captivity and bondage whence Christ delivered us, redeemed,
-and loosed us. His blood, his death, his patience in suffering rebukes and
-wrongs, his prayers and fastings, his meekness and fulfilling of the
-uttermost point of the law, appeased the wrath of God, brought the favour
-of God to us again, obtained that God should love us first, and be our
-Father, and that a merciful Father, that will consider our infirmities and
-weakness, and will give us his Spirit again (which was taken away in the
-fall of Adam) to rule, govern, and strength us, and to break the bonds of
-Satan, wherein we were so straight bound. When Christ is thuswise
-preached, and the promises rehearsed which are contained in the prophets,
-in the psalms, and in divers places of the five books of Moses, then the
-hearts of them which are elect and chosen, begin to wax soft and melt at
-the bounteous mercy of God, and kindness shewed of Christ. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> when the
-Evangelion is preached, the Spirit of God entereth into them whom God hath
-ordained and appointed unto eternal life, and openeth their inward eyes,
-and worketh such belief in them. When the woful consciences feel and taste
-how sweet a thing the bitter death of Christ is, and how merciful and
-loving God is through Christ’s purchasing and merits, they begin to love
-again, and to consent to the law of God, that it is good and ought so to
-be, and that God is righteous which made it; and they desire to fulfil the
-law, even as the sick man desireth to be whole, and are an hungered and
-thirst after more righteousness and after more strength to fulfil the law
-more perfectly. And in all that they do, or omit and leave undone, they
-seek God’s honour and his will with meekness, ever condemning the
-imperfectness of their deeds by the law.</p>
-
-<p>Now Christ standeth us in double stead, and us serveth in two manner wise:
-First, he is our Redeemer, Deliverer, Reconciler, Mediator, Intercessor,
-Advocate, Attorney, Solicitor, our Hope, Comfort, Shield, Protection,
-Defender, Strength, Health, Satisfaction, and Salvation. His blood, his
-death, all that he ever did, is ours. And Christ himself, with all that he
-is or can do, is ours. His blood-shedding and all that he did, doth me as
-good service as though I myself had done it. And God (as great as he is)
-is mine, with all that he hath, through Christ and his purchasing.</p>
-
-<p>Secondarily, after that we be overcome with love and kindness, and now
-seek to do the will of God, which is a christian man’s nature, then have
-we Christ an example to counterfeit, as saith Christ himself in John, “I
-have given you an example.” And in another evangelist he saith, “He that
-will be great among you, shall be your servant and minister, as the Son of
-man came to minister and not to be ministered unto.” And Paul saith,
-“Counterfeit<a name='fna_140' id='fna_140' href='#f_140'><small>[140]</small></a> Christ.” And Peter saith, “Christ died for you,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> and
-left you an example to follow his steps.” Whatsoever therefore faith hath
-received of God through Christ’s blood and deserving, that same must love
-shed out every whit, and bestow it on our neighbours unto their profit,
-yea, and that though they be our enemies. By faith we receive of God, and
-by love we shed out again. And that must we do freely after the example of
-Christ, without any other respect, save our neighbour’s wealth only, and
-neither look for reward in the earth, nor yet in heaven, for our deeds.
-But of pure love must we bestow ourselves, all that we have, and all that
-we are able to do, even on our enemies, to bring them to God, considering
-nothing but their wealth, as Christ did ours. Christ did not his deeds to
-obtain heaven thereby (that had been a madness), heaven was his already,
-he was heir thereof, it was his by inheritance; but did them freely for
-our sakes, considering nothing but our wealth, and to bring the favour of
-God to us again, and us to God. And no natural son that is his father’s
-heir, doth his father’s will because he would be heir; that he is already
-by birth, his father gave him that ere he was born, and is loather that he
-should go without it, than he himself hath wit to be; but out of pure love
-doth he that he doth. And ask him, Why he doth any thing that he doth? he
-answereth, My father bade, it is my father’s will, it pleaseth my father.
-Bond servants work for hire, children for love: for their father with all
-he hath, is theirs already. So a Christian man doth freely all that he
-doth, considereth nothing but the will of God, and his neighbour’s wealth
-only. If I live chaste, I do it not to obtain heaven thereby; for then
-should I do wrong to the blood of Christ; Christ’s blood has obtained me
-that; Christ’s merits have made me heir thereof; he is both door and way
-thitherwards: neither that I look for an higher room in heaven than they
-shall have which live in wedlock, other than a whore of the stews, if she
-repent; for that were the pride of Lucifer, but freely to wait on the
-evangelion; and to serve my brother withal; even as one hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> helpeth
-another, or one member another, because one feeleth another’s grief, and
-the pain of the one is the pain of the other. Whatsoever is done to the
-least of us (whether it be good or bad), it is done to Christ; and
-whatsoever is done to my brother, if I be a christian man, that same is
-done to me. Neither doth my brother’s pain grieve me less than mine own:
-neither rejoice I less at his welfare than at mine own. If it were not so,
-how saith Paul? “Let him that rejoiceth, rejoice in the Lord,” that is to
-say, Christ, which is Lord over all creatures. If my merits obtained me
-heaven, or a higher room there, then had I wherein I might rejoice besides
-the Lord.</p>
-
-<p>Here see ye the nature of the law, and the nature of the evangelion. How
-the law is the key that bindeth and damneth all men, and the evangelion
-looseth them again. The law goeth before, and the evangelion followeth.
-When a preacher preacheth the law, he bindeth all consciences; and when he
-preacheth the gospel, he looseth them again. These two salves (I mean the
-law and the gospel) useth God and his preacher to heal and cure sinners
-withal. The law driveth out the disease and maketh it appear, and is a
-sharp salve, and a fretting corosy, and killeth the dead flesh, and
-looseth and draweth the sores out by the roots, and all corruption. It
-pulleth from a man the trust and confidence that he hath in himself, and
-in his own works, merits, deservings, and ceremonies. It killeth him,
-sendeth him down to hell, and bringeth him to utter desperation, and
-prepareth the way of the Lord, as it is written of John the Baptist. For
-it is not possible that Christ should come to a man, as long as he
-trusteth in himself, or in any worldly thing. Then cometh the evangelion,
-a more gentle plaster, which suppleth and suageth the wounds of the
-conscience, and bringeth health. It bringeth the Spirit of God, which
-looseth the bonds of Satan, and uniteth us to God and his will, through
-strong faith and fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the
-world, or any creature to loose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> them. And the poor and wretched sinner
-feeleth so great mercy, love, and kindness in God, that he is sure in
-himself how that it is not possible that God should forsake him, or
-withdraw his mercy and love from him; and he boldly crieth out with Paul,
-saying, “Who shall separate us from the love that God loveth us withal?”
-That is to say, What shall make me believe that God loveth me not? Shall
-tribulation? anguish? persecution? Shall hunger? nakedness? Shall sword?
-Nay, “I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel, neither rule
-nor power, neither present things nor things to come, neither high nor
-low, neither any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God,
-which is in Christ Jesu our Lord.” In all such tribulations, a christian
-man perceiveth that God is his Father, and loveth him even as he loved
-Christ when he shed his blood on the cross.</p>
-
-<p>Finally, as before, when I was bond to the devil and his will, I wrought
-all manner of evil and wickedness, not for hell’s sake, which is the
-reward of sin, but because I was heir of hell by birth and bondage to the
-devil, did I evil (for I could none otherwise do; to do sin was my
-nature), even so now, since I am coupled to God by Christ’s blood, do I
-well, not for heaven’s sake, but because I am heir of heaven by grace and
-Christ’s purchasing, and have the Spirit of God, I do good freely, for so
-is my nature: as a good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil tree
-evil fruit. By the fruits shall ye know what the tree is. A man’s deeds
-declare what he is within, but make him neither good nor bad. We must
-first be evil ere we do evil, as a serpent is first poisonous ere he
-poison. We must be also good ere we do good, as the fire must be first hot
-ere it warm any thing. Take an example: As those blind which are cured in
-the evangelion could not see till Christ had given them sight, and deaf
-could not hear till Christ had given them hearing, and those sick could
-not do the deeds of an whole man till Christ had given them health; so can
-no man do good in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> soul till Christ have loosed him out of the bonds
-of Satan, and have given him wherewith to do good; yea, and first have
-poured into him that self good thing which he sheddeth forth afterwards on
-other. Whatsoever is our own, is sin. Whatsoever is above that, is
-Christ’s gift, purchase, doing, and working. He bought it of his Father
-dearly with his blood, yea, with his most bitter death, and gave his life
-for it. Whatsoever good thing is in us, that is given us freely, without
-our deserving or merits, for Christ’s blood’s sake. That we desire to
-follow the will of God it is the gift of Christ’s blood. That we now hate
-the devil’s will (whereunto we were so fast locked, and could not but love
-it) is also the gift of Christ’s blood; unto whom belongeth the praise and
-honour of our good deeds, and not unto us.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">II. “THE EPISTLE TO THE READER” ATTACHED TO THE 8vo EDITION, 1525.</p>
-
-<p>Give diligence, reader, I exhort thee, that thou come with a pure mind,
-and, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health
-and of eternal life; by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are
-born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ,
-which blood crieth not for vengeance, as the blood of Abel, but hath
-purchased life, love, favour, grace, blessing, and whatsoever is promised
-in the Scriptures to them that believe and obey God, and standeth between
-us and wrath, vengeance, curse, and whatsoever the Scripture threateneth
-against the unbelievers and disobedient, which resist and consent not in
-their hearts to the law of God that it is right, holy, just, and ought so
-to be. Mark the plain and manifest places of the Scriptures, and in
-doubtful places see thou add no interpretation contrary to them, but as
-(Paul saith) let all be conformable and agreeing to the faith. Note the
-difference of the law and of the gospel. The one asketh and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> requireth,
-the other pardoneth and forgiveth; the one threateneth, the other
-promiseth all good things to them that set their trust in Christ only. The
-gospel signifieth glad tidings, and is nothing but the promises of good
-things. All is not gospel that is written in the gospel-book; for if the
-law were away thou couldest not know what the gospel meant, even as thou
-couldest not see pardon and grace, except the law rebuked thee and
-declared unto thee thy sin, misdeed, and trespass. Repent, and believe the
-gospel, as Christ saith in the first of Mark. Apply alway the law to thy
-deeds, whether thou find lust in thine heart to the law-ward; and so shalt
-thou no doubt repent and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief
-to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the
-law. Apply the gospel, that is to say the promises, unto the deserving of
-Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not
-despair, but shall feel God as a kind and merciful father. And his Spirit
-shall dwell in thee, and shall be strong in thee, and the promises shall
-be given thee at the last (though not by and by, lest thou shouldest
-forget thyself and be negligent), and all threatenings shall be forgiven
-thee for Christ’s blood’s sake, to whom commit thyself altogether, without
-respect either of thy good deeds or of thy bad.</p>
-
-<p>Them that are learned Christianly I beseech, forasmuch as I am sure, and
-my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and
-faithfully, I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of
-knowledge and understanding, that the rudeness of the work now at the
-first time offend them not; but that they consider how that I had no man
-to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had
-interpreted the same or such like thing in the Scripture beforetime.
-Moreover, even very necessity, and cumbrance (God is record) above
-strength, which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast
-ourselves, caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are
-required. Count it as a thing not having his full<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> shape, but as it were
-born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished. In time
-to come (if God have appointed us thereunto) we will give it his full
-shape, and put out if ought be added superflously, and add to if ought be
-overseen through negligence, and will enforce to bring to compendiousness
-that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is
-required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a
-table to expound the words which are not commonly used, and show how the
-Scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common
-people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not
-another; and will endeavour ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better,
-and to make it more apt for the weak stomachs, desiring them that are
-learned and able to remember their duty, and to help them thereunto, and
-to bestow unto the edifying of Christ’s body, which is the congregation of
-them that believe, those gifts which they have received of God for the
-same purpose.</p>
-
-<p>The grace that cometh of Christ be with them that love him. Amen.</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">III. THE PREFACE TO THE PENTATEUCH, 1530.</p>
-
-<p>When I had translated the New Testament, I added an Epistle unto the
-latter end, in which I desired them that were learned to amend if aught
-were found amiss. But our malicious and wily hypocrites, which are so
-stubborn, and hard hearted in their wicked abominations, that it is not
-possible for them to amend any thing at all (as we see by daily
-experience, when both their livings and doings are rebuked with the truth)
-say, some of them, that it is impossible to translate the Scripture into
-English; some that it is not lawful for the lay people to have it in their
-mother tongue; some that it would make them all heretics; as it would no
-doubt from many things which they of long time have falsely taught; and
-that is the whole cause<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> wherefore they forbid it, though they other
-cloaks pretend. And some, or rather every one, say that it would make them
-rise against the king, whom they themselves (unto their damnation) never
-yet obeyed. And lest the temporal rulers should see their falsehood, if
-the Scripture came to light, causeth them so to lie.</p>
-
-<p>And as for my translation, in which they affirm unto the lay people, (as I
-have heard say) to be I wot not how many thousand heresies, so that it
-cannot be mended or correct, they have yet taken so great pain to examine
-it, and to compare it unto that they would fain have it, and to their own
-imaginations and juggling terms, and to have somewhat to rail at, and
-under that cloak, to blaspheme the truth, that they might with as little
-labour (as I suppose) have translated the most part of the Bible. For they
-which in times past were wont to look on no more Scripture than they found
-in their <i>Duns</i>, or such like devilish doctrine, have yet now so narrowly
-looked on my Translation, that there is not so much as one <i>i</i> therein, if
-it lack a tittle over his head, but they have noted it, and number it unto
-the ignorant people for an heresy. Finally, in this they be all
-agreed,&mdash;to drive you from the knowledge of the Scripture, and that ye
-shall not have the text thereof in the mother tongue; and to keep the
-world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the consciences
-of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine; to satisfy
-their filthy lusts, their proud ambition, and unsatiable covetousness; and
-to exalt their own honour above king and emperor, yea, and above God
-himself.</p>
-
-<p>A thousand books had they lever to be put forth against their abominable
-doings and doctrine, than that the Scripture should come to light. For as
-long as they may keep that down, they will so darken the right way with
-the mist of their sophistry, and so tangle them that either rebuke or
-despise their abominations, with arguments of philosophy, and with worldly
-similitudes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> and apparent reasons of natural wisdom, and with wresting the
-Scripture unto their own purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order,
-and meaning of the text; and so delude them in descanting upon it with
-allegories; and amaze them, expounding it in many senses before the
-unlearned lay people, (when it hath but one simple, literal sense, whose
-light the owls cannot abide) that though thou feel in thine heart, and art
-sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve
-their subtle riddles.</p>
-
-<p>Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. Because I had
-perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay
-people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their
-eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and
-meaning of the text: for else, whatsoever truth is taught them, these
-enemies of all truth quench it again, partly with the smoke of their
-bottomless pit, whereof thou readest in Apocalypse chap. ix. that is, with
-apparent reasons of sophistry, and traditions of their own making, founded
-without ground of Scripture, and partly in juggling with the text,
-expounding it in such a sense as is impossible to gather of the text, if
-thou see the process, order, and meaning thereof.</p>
-
-<p>And even in the bishop of London’s house I intended to have done it. For
-when I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, that I could no longer
-dwell there (the process whereof were too long here to rehearse), I this
-wise thought in myself&mdash;this I suffer because the priests of the country
-be unlearned; as God knoweth, there are a full ignorant sort which have
-seen no more Latin than that they read in their Portesses and Missals,
-which yet many of them can scarcely read (except it be <i>Albertus de
-Secretis Mulierum</i>, in which yet, though they be never so sorrily learned,
-they pore day and night, and make notes therein, and all to teach the
-midwives as they say; and Linwode, a book of constitutions to gather
-tythes, mortuaries,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> offerings, customs, and other pillage which they call
-not theirs, but God’s part, and the duty of holy church to discharge their
-consciences withal: for they are bound that they shall not diminish, but
-increase all things unto the uttermost of their powers), and, therefore
-(because they are thus unlearned, thought I), when they come together to
-the ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings
-are heresy. And besides that, they add to of their own heads which I never
-spake, as the manner is, to prolong the tale to short the time withal, and
-accused me secretly to the chancellor, and other the bishop’s officers.
-And, indeed, when I came before the chancellor, he threatened me
-grievously, and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog, and
-laid to my charge whereof there could be none accuser brought forth (as
-their manner is not to bring forth the accuser), and yet all the priests
-of the country were the same day there.</p>
-
-<p>As I this thought, the bishop of London came to my remembrance, whom
-Erasmus (whose tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth
-up above the stars whosoever giveth him a little exhibition) praiseth
-exceedingly, among other in his Annotations on the New Testament, for his
-great learning. Then, thought I, if I might come to this man’s service, I
-were happy. And so I gat me to London, and, through the acquaintance of my
-master, came to Sir Harry Gilford, the king’s grace’s comptroller, and
-brought him an <i>Oration of Isocrates</i>, which I had translated out of Greek
-into English, and desired him to speak unto my lord of London for me,
-which he also did as he shewed me, and willed me to write an epistle to my
-lord, and to go to him myself, which I also did, and delivered my epistle
-to a servant of his own, one William Hebilthwayte, a man of mine old
-acquaintance. But God (which knoweth what is within hypocrites) saw that I
-was beguiled, and that that counsel was not the next way unto my purpose.
-And therefore he gat me no favour in my lord’s sight.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>Whereupon my lord answered me, his house was full, he had more than he
-could well find, and advised me to seek in London, where he said I could
-not lack a service. And so in London I abode almost a year, and marked the
-course of the world, and heard our praters (I would say our preachers),
-how they boasted themselves and their high authority; and beheld the pomp
-of our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet are, to set peace and
-unity in the world (though it be not possible for them that walk in
-darkness to continue long in peace, for they cannot but either stumble or
-dash themselves at one thing or another that shall clean unquiet all
-together) and saw things whereof I defer to speak at this time, and
-understood at the last not only that there was no room in my lord of
-London’s palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no
-place to do it in all England, as experience doth now openly declare.</p>
-
-<p>Under what manner, therefore, should I now submit this book to be
-corrected and amended of them, which can suffer nothing to be well? Or
-what protestation should I make in such a matter unto our prelates, those
-stubborn Nimrods which so mightily fight against God, and resist his Holy
-Spirit, enforcing with all craft and subtlety to quench the light of the
-everlasting Testament, promises, and appointment made between God and us?
-and heaping the fierce wrath of God upon all princes and rulers; mocking
-them with false feigned names of hypocrisy, and serving their lusts at all
-points, and dispensing with them even of the very laws of God, of which
-Christ himself testifieth, Matt. v. “That not so much as one tittle
-thereof may perish, or be broken.” And of which the prophet saith, Psalm
-cxviii., “Thou hast commanded thy laws to be kept” <i>meod</i>, that is in
-Hebrew, exceedingly, with all diligence, might, and power; and have made
-them so mad with their juggling charms, and crafty persuasions, that they
-think it a full satisfaction for all their wicked lying to torment such as
-tell them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> truth, and to burn the word of their soul’s health, and slay
-whosoever believe thereon.</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding, yet I submit this book, and all other that I have either
-made or translated, or shall in time to come, (if it be God’s will that I
-shall further labour in his harvest,) unto all them that submit themselves
-unto the word of God, to be corrected of them; yea, and moreover to be
-disallowed and also burnt, if it seem worthy, when they have examined it
-with the Hebrew, so that they first put forth of their own translating
-another that is more correct.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="C" id="C"></a>(C.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of
-scripture ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own
-insufficiency therein, and how weak I am to perform the office of a
-translator, I was the more loath to meddle with this work.
-Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it was that we should
-want it so long, and called to my remembrance the adversity of them which
-were not only of ripe knowledge, but would also with all their hearts have
-performed that they began, if they had not had impediment; considering, I
-say, that by reason of their adversity it could not so soon have been
-brought to an end, as our most prosperous nation would fain have had it;
-these and other reasonable causes considered, I was the more bold to take
-it in hand. And to help me herein, I have had sundry translations, not
-only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their
-singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more
-glad to follow for the most part, according as I was required. But, to say
-the truth before God, it was neither my labour nor desire to have this
-work put in my hand: nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should
-be more plenteously provided for with the scripture in their
-mother-tongue, than we: therefore, when I was instantly required, though I
-could not do so well as I would, I thought it yet my duty to do my best,
-and that with a good will.</p>
-
-<p>Whereas some men think now that many translations make division in the
-faith and in the people of God, that is not so: for it was never better
-with the congregation of God, than when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> every church almost had the Bible
-of a sundry translation. Among the Greeks had not Origen a special
-translation? Had not Vulgarius one peculiar, and likewise Chrysostom?
-Beside the seventy interpreters, is there not the translation of Aquila,
-of Theodotio, of Symmachus, and of sundry other? Again, among the Latin
-men, thou findest that every one almost used a special and sundry
-translation; for insomuch as every bishop had the knowledge of the
-tongues, he gave his diligence to have the Bible of his own translation.
-The doctors, as Hireneus, Cyprianus, Tertullian, St. Hierome, St.
-Augustine, Hilarius, and St. Ambrose, upon divers places of the scripture,
-read not the text all alike.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore ought it not to be taken as evil, that such men as have
-understanding now in our time, exercise themselves in the tongues, and
-give their diligence to translate out of one language into another. Yea,
-we ought rather to give God high thanks therefore, which through his
-Spirit stirreth up men’s minds so to exercise themselves therein. Would
-God it had never been left off after the time of St. Augustine! then
-should we never have come into such blindness and ignorance, into such
-errors and delusions. For as soon as the Bible was cast aside, and no more
-put in exercise, then began every one of his own head to write whatsoever
-came into his brain, and that seemed to be good in his own eyes; and so
-grew the darkness of men’s traditions. And this same is the cause that we
-have had so many writers, which seldom made mention of the scripture of
-the Bible; and though they sometime alleged it, yet was it done so far out
-of season, and so wide from the purpose, that a man may well perceive, how
-that they never saw the original.</p>
-
-<p>Seeing then that this diligent exercise of translating doth so much good
-and edifieth in other languages, why should it do evil in ours? Doubtless,
-like as all nations in the diversity of speeches may know one God in the
-unity of faith, and be one in love; even so may divers translations
-understand one another,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> and that in the head articles and ground of our
-most blessed faith, though they use sundry words. Wherefore methink we
-have great occasion to give thanks unto God, that he hath opened unto his
-church the gift of interpretation and of printing, and that there are now
-at this time so many, which with such diligence and faithfulness interpret
-the scripture, to the honour of God and edifying of his people: whereas,
-like as when many are shooting together, every one doth his best to be
-nighest the mark; and though they cannot all attain thereto, yet shooteth
-one nigher than another and hitteth it better than another; yea, one can
-do it better than another. Who is now then so unreasonable, so despiteful,
-or envious, as to abhor him that doth all his diligence to hit the prick,
-and to shoot nighest it, though he miss and come not nighest the mark?
-Ought not such one rather to be commended, and to be helped forward, that
-he may exercise himself the more therein?</p>
-
-<p>For the which cause, according as I was desired, I took the more upon me
-to set forth this special translation, not as a checker, not as a
-reprover, or despiser of other men’s translations, (for among many as yet
-I have found none without occasion of great thanksgiving unto God;) but
-lowly and faithfully have I followed mine interpreters, and that under
-correction; and though I have failed anywhere (as there is no man but he
-misseth in some thing), love shall construe all to the best, without any
-perverse judgment. There is no man living that can see all things, neither
-hath God given any man to know everything. One seeth more clearly than
-another, one hath more understanding than another, one can utter a thing
-better than another; but no man ought to envy or despise another. He that
-can do better than another, should not set him at nought that
-understandeth less. Yea, he that hath the more understanding ought to
-remember, that the same gift is not his, but God’s, and that God hath
-given it him to teach and inform the ignorant. If thou hast knowledge
-therefore to judge where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> any fault is made, I doubt not but thou wilt
-help to amend it, if love be joined with thy knowledge. Howbeit,
-whereinsoever I can perceive by myself, or by the information of other,
-that I have failed (as it is no wonder), I shall now by the help of God
-overlook it better, and amend it.</p>
-
-<p>Now will I exhort thee, whosoever thou be that readest scripture, if thou
-find ought therein that thou understandest not, or that appeareth to be
-repugnant, give no temerarious nor hasty judgment thereof; but ascribe it
-to thine own ignorance, not to the scripture: think that thou
-understandest it not, or that it hath some other meaning, or that it is
-haply overseen of the interpreters, or wrong printed. Again, it shall
-greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is
-spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what
-time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what
-goeth before, and what followeth after. For there be some things which are
-done and written, to the intent that we should do likewise; as when
-Abraham believeth God, is obedient unto his word, and defendeth Loth his
-kinsman from violent wrong. There be some things also which are written,
-to the intent that we should eschew such like; as when David lieth with
-Uria’s wife, and causeth him to be slain. Therefore, I say, when thou
-readest scripture, be wise and circumspect; and when thou comest to such
-strange manners of speaking and dark sentences, to such parables and
-similitudes, to such dreams or visions, as are hid from thy understanding,
-commit them unto God, or to the gift of his Holy Spirit in them that are
-better learned than thou.</p>
-
-<p>As for the commendation of God’s holy scripture, I would fain magnify it,
-as it is worthy, but I am far unsufficient thereto: and therefore I
-thought it better for me to hold my tongue, than with few words to praise
-or commend it; exhorting thee, most dear reader, so to love it, so to
-cleave unto it, and so to follow it in thy daily conversation, that other
-men, seeing thy good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> works and the fruits of the Holy Ghost in thee, may
-praise the Father of heaven, and give his word a good report: for to live
-after the law of God, and to lead a virtuous conversation, is the greatest
-praise that thou canst give unto his doctrine.</p>
-
-<p>But as touching the evil report and dispraise that the good word of God
-hath by the corrupt and evil conversation of some that daily hear it and
-profess it outwardly with their mouths, I exhort thee, most dear reader,
-let not that offend thee, nor withdraw thy mind from the love of the
-truth, neither move thee to be partaker in like unthankfulness; but seeing
-the light is come into the world, love no more the works of darkness,
-receive not the grace of God in vain. Call to thy remembrance, how loving
-and merciful God is unto thee, how kindly and fatherly he helpeth thee in
-
-all trouble, teacheth thine ignorance, healeth thee in all thy sickness,
-forgiveth thee all thy sins, feedeth thee, giveth thee drink, helpeth thee
-out of prison, nourisheth thee in strange countries, careth for thee, and
-seeth that thou want nothing. Call this to mind, I say, and that
-earnestly, and consider how thou hast received of God all these benefits,
-yea, and many more than thou canst desire; how thou art bound likewise to
-shew thyself unto thy neighbour, as far as thou canst, to teach him, if he
-be ignorant, to help him in all his trouble, to heal his sickness, to
-forgive him his offences, and that heartily, to feed him, to cherish him,
-to care for him, and to see that he want nothing. And on this behalf I
-beseek thee, thou that hast the riches of this world, and lovest God with
-thy heart, to lift up thine eyes, and see how great a multitude of poor
-people run through every town; have pity on thine own flesh, help them
-with a good heart, and do with thy counsel all that ever thou canst, that
-this unshamefaced begging may be put down, that these idle folks may be
-set to labour, and that such as are not able to get their living may be
-provided for. At the least, thou that art of counsel with such as are in
-authority, give them some occasion to cast their heads together, and to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
-make provision for the poor. Put them in remembrance of those noble cities
-in other countries, that by the authority of their princes have so richly
-and well provided for their poor people, to the great shame and dishonesty
-of us, if we likewise, receiving the word of God, shew not such like
-fruits thereof. Would God that those men, whose office is to maintain the
-commonwealth, were as diligent in this cause, as they are in other! Let us
-beware bytimes, for after unthankfulness there followeth ever a plague.
-The merciful hand of God be with us, and defend us, that we be not
-partakers thereof!</p>
-
-<p>Go to now, most dear reader, and sit thee down at the Lord’s feet, and
-read his words, and, as Moses teacheth the Jews, take them into thine
-heart, and let thy talking and communication be of them, when thou sittest
-in thine house, or goest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou
-risest up. And, above all things, fashion thy life and conversation
-according to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost therein, that thou mayest be
-partaker of the good promises of God in the Bible, and be heir of his
-blessing in Christ: in whom if thou put thy trust, and be an unfeigned
-reader or hearer of his word with thy heart, thou shalt find sweetness
-therein, and spy wondrous things, to thy understanding, to the avoiding of
-all seditious sects, to the abhorring of thy old sinful life, and to the
-stablishing of thy godly conversation.</p>
-
-<p>In the first book of Moses, called Genesis, thou mayest learn to know the
-almighty power of God in creating all of nought, his infinite wisdom in
-ordering the same, his righteousness in punishing the ungodly, his love
-and fatherly mercy in comforting the righteous with his promise, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>In the second book, called Exodus, we see the mighty arm of God in
-delivering his people from so great bondage out of Egypt, and what
-provision he maketh for them in the wilderness; how he teacheth them with
-his wholesome word, and how the tabernacle was made and set up.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>In the third book, called Leviticus, is declared, what sacrifices the
-priests and Levites used, and what their office and ministration was.</p>
-
-<p>In the fourth book, called Numerus, is declared, how the people are
-numbered and mustered, how the captains are chosen after the tribes and
-kindreds, how they went forth to the battle, how they pitched their tents,
-and how they brake up.</p>
-
-<p>The fifth book, called Deuteronomium, sheweth how that Moses, now being
-old, rehearseth the law of God unto the people, putteth them in
-remembrance again of all the wonders and benefices that God had shewed for
-them, and exhorteth them earnestly to love the Lord their God, to cleave
-unto him, to put their trust in him, and to hearken unto his voice.</p>
-
-<p>After the death of Moses doth Josua bring the people into the land of
-promise, where God doth wonderous things for his people by Josua, which
-distributeth the land unto them, unto every tribe their possession. But in
-their wealth they forgat the goodness of God, so that ofttimes he gave
-them over into the hand of their enemies. Nevertheless, whensoever they
-called faithfully upon him, and converted, he delivered them again, as the
-book of Judges declareth.</p>
-
-<p>In the books of the Kings is described the regiment of good and evil
-princes, and how the decay of all nations cometh by evil kings. For in
-Jeroboam thou seest what mischief, what idolatry, and such like
-abomination followeth, when the king is a maintainer of false doctrine,
-and causeth the people to sin against God; which falling away from God’s
-word increased so sore among them, that it was the cause of all their
-sorrow and misery, and the very occasion why Israel first, and then Juda,
-were carried away into captivity. Again, in Josaphat, in Ezechias, and in
-Josias, thou seest the nature of a virtuous king. He putteth down the
-houses of idolatry, seeth that his priests teach nothing but the law of
-God, commandeth his lords to go with them, and to see that they teach the
-people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> In these kings, I say, thou seest the condition of a true
-defender of the faith; for he spareth neither cost nor labour to maintain
-the Laws of God, to seek the wealth and prosperity of his people, and to
-root out the wicked. And where such a prince is, thou seest again, how God
-defendeth him and his people, though he have never so many enemies. Thus
-went it with them in the old time, and even after the same manner goeth it
-now with us. God be praised therefore, and grant us of his fatherly mercy
-that we be not unthankful; lest where he now giveth us a Josaphat, an
-Ezechias, yea, a very Josias, he send us a Pharao, a Jeroboam, or an
-Achab!</p>
-
-<p>In the two first books of Esdras, and in Hester, thou seest the
-deliverance of the people, which though they were but few, yet is it unto
-us all a special comfort; forsomuch as God is not forgetful of his
-promise, but bringeth them out of captivity, according as he had told them
-before.</p>
-
-<p>In the book of Job we learn comfort and patience, in that God not only
-punisheth the wicked, but proveth and trieth the just and righteous
-(howbeit there is no man innocent in his sight,) by divers troubles in
-this life; declaring thereby, that they are not his bastards, but his dear
-sons, and that he loveth them.</p>
-
-<p>In the Psalms we learn how to resort only unto God in all our troubles, to
-seek help at him, to call only upon him, to settle our minds by patience,
-and how we ought in prosperity to be thankful unto him.</p>
-
-<p>The Proverbs and the Preacher of Solomon teach us wisdom, to know God, our
-own selves, and the world, and how vain all things are, save only to
-cleave unto God.</p>
-
-<p>As for the doctrine of the Prophets, what is it else, but an earnest
-exhortation to eschew sin, and to turn unto God; a faithful promise of the
-mercy and pardon of God unto all them that turn unto him, and a
-threatening of his wrath to the ungodly? saving that here and there they
-prophesy also <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>manifestly of Christ, of the expulsion of the Jews, and
-calling of the heathen.</p>
-
-<p>Thus much thought I to speak of the old Testament, wherein Almighty God
-openeth unto us his mighty power, his wisdom, his loving mercy and
-righteousness: for the which cause it ought of no man to be abhorred,
-despised, or lightly regarded, as though it were an old scripture that
-nothing belonged unto us, or that now were to be refused. For it is God’s
-true scripture and testimony, which the Lord Jesus commandeth the Jews to
-search. Whosoever believeth not the scripture, believeth not Christ; and
-whoso refuseth it, refuseth God also.</p>
-
-<p>The new Testament, or Gospel, is a manifest and clear testimony of Christ,
-how God performeth his oath and promise made in the old Testament, how the
-new is declared and included in the old, and the old fulfilled and
-verified in the new.</p>
-
-<p>Now whereas the most famous interpreters of all give sundry judgments of
-the text; so far as it is done by the spirit of knowledge in the Holy
-Ghost, methink no man should be offended thereat, for they refer their
-doings in meekness to the spirit of truth in the congregation of God: and
-sure I am, that there cometh more knowledge and understanding of the
-scripture by their sundry translations, than by all the glosses of our
-sophistical doctors. For that one interpreteth something obscurely in one
-place, the same translateth another, or else he himself, more manifestly
-by a more plain vocable of the same meaning in another place. Be not thou
-offended, therefore, good reader, though one call a scribe that another
-calleth a lawyer; or elders, that another calleth father and mother; or
-repentance, that another calleth penance or amendment. For if thou be not
-deceived by men’s traditions, thou shalt find no more diversity between
-these terms, than between fourpence and a groat. And this manner have I
-used in my translation, calling it in some place <i>penance</i>, that in
-another place I call<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> <i>repentance</i>; and that not only because the
-interpreters have done so before me, but that the adversaries of the truth
-may see, how that we abhor not this word penance, as they untruly report
-of us, no more than the interpreters of Latin abhor <i>pœnitere</i>, when
-they read <i>resipiscere</i>. Only our heart’s desire unto God is, that his
-people be not blinded in their understanding, lest they believe penance to
-be ought save a very repentance, amendment, or conversion unto God, and to
-be an unfeigned new creature in Christ, and to live according to his law.
-For else shall they fall into the old blasphemy of Christ’s blood, and
-believe that they themselves are able to make satisfaction unto God for
-their own sins: from the which error God of his mercy and plenteous
-goodness preserve all his!</p>
-
-<p>Now to conclude: forsomuch as all the scripture is written for thy
-doctrine and ensample, it shall be necessary for thee to take hold upon it
-while it is offered thee, yea, and with ten hands thankfully to receive
-it. And though it be not worthily ministered unto thee in this
-translation, by reason of my rudeness; yet if thou be fervent in thy
-prayer, God shall not only send it thee in a better shape by the
-ministration of other that began it afore, but shall also move the hearts
-of them which as yet meddled not withal, to take it in hand, and to bestow
-the gift of their understanding thereon, as well in our language, as other
-famous interpreters do in other languages. And I pray God, that through my
-poor ministration herein I may give them that can do better some occasion
-so to do; exhorting thee, most dear reader, in the mean while on God’s
-behalf, if thou be a head, a judge, or ruler of the people, that thou let
-not the book of this law depart out of thy mouth, but exercise thyself
-therein both day and night, and be ever reading in it as long as thou
-livest: that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God, and not to turn
-aside from the commandment, neither to the right hand nor to the left;
-lest thou be a knower of persons in judgment, and wrest the right of the
-stranger, of the fatherless,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> or of the widow, and so the curse to come
-upon thee. But what office so ever thou hast, wait upon it, and execute it
-to the maintenance of peace, to the wealth of thy people, defending the
-laws of God and the lovers thereof, and to the destruction of the wicked.</p>
-
-<p>If thou be a preacher, and hast the oversight of the flock of Christ,
-awake and feed Christ’s sheep with a good heart, and spare no labour to do
-them good: seek not thyself, and beware of filthy lucre; but be unto the
-flock an ensample in the word, in conversation, in love, in ferventness of
-the spirit, and be ever reading, exhorting, and teaching in God’s word,
-that the people of God run not unto other doctrines, and lest thou
-thyself, when thou shouldest teach other, be found ignorant therein. And
-rather than thou wouldest teach the people any other thing than God’s
-word, take the book in thine hand, and read the words, even as they stand
-therein; for it is no shame so to do, it is more shame to make a lie. This
-I say for such as are not yet expert in the scripture; for I reprove no
-preaching without the book, as long as they say the truth.</p>
-
-<p>If thou be a man that hast wife and children, first love thy wife,
-according to the ensample of the love wherewith Christ loved the
-congregation; and remember that so doing thou lovest even thyself: if thou
-hate her, thou hatest thine own flesh; if thou cherish her and make much
-of her, thou cherishest and makest much of thyself; for she is bone of thy
-bones, and flesh of thy flesh. And whosoever thou be that hast children,
-bring them up in the nurture and information of the Lord. And if thou be
-ignorant, or art otherwise occupied lawfully, that thou canst not teach
-them thyself, then be even as diligent to seek a good master for thy
-children, as thou wast to seek a mother to bear them; for there lieth as
-great weight in the one, as in the other. Yea, better it were for them to
-be unborn, than not to fear God, or to be evil brought up: which thing (I
-mean bringing up well of children) if it be diligently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> looked to, it is
-the upholding of all commonwealths; and the negligence of the same, the
-very decay of all realms.</p>
-
-<p>Finally, whosoever thou be, take these words of scripture into thy heart,
-and be not only an outward hearer, but a doer thereafter, and practise
-thyself therein; that thou mayest feel in thine heart the sweet promises
-thereof for thy consolation in all trouble, and for the sure stablishing
-of thy hope in Christ; and have ever an eye to the words of scripture,
-that if thou be a teacher of other, thou mayest be within the bounds of
-the truth; or at the least, though thou be but an hearer or reader of
-another man’s doings, thou mayest yet have knowledge to judge all spirits,
-and be free from every error, to the utter destruction of all seditious
-sects and strange doctrines; that the holy scripture may have free
-passage, and be had in reputation, to the worship of the author thereof,
-which is even God himself; to whom for his most blessed word be glory and
-dominion now and ever! Amen.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="D" id="D"></a>(D.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE, 1560.</i></p>
-
-
-<p class="center">To our Beloved in the Lord,<br />
-The Brethren of England,<br />
-Scotland, Ireland, &amp;c. Grace, mercie, and peace,<br />
-through Christ Jesus.<a name='fna_141' id='fna_141' href='#f_141'><small>[141]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>Besides the manifold and continuall benefits which Almightie God bestowed
-upon us, both corporall and spirituall, we are especially bound (deare
-brethren) to giue him thankes without ceasing for his great grace and
-vnspeakable mercies, in that it hath pleased him to call vs vnto this
-marueilous light of his Gospell, and mercifully to regarde vs after so
-horrible backesliding and falling away from Christ to Antichrist, from
-light to darknesse, from the liuing God to dumme and dead idoles, and that
-after so cruell murther of God’s saints, as alas, hath bene among vs, wee
-are not altogether cast off, as were the Israelites, and many others for
-the like or not so manifest wickednesse, but receiued againe to grace with
-most evident signes and tokens of God’s especiall loue and fauour. To the
-intent therefore that wee may not be vnmindfull of these great mercies,
-but seeke by all meanes (according to our duetie) to bee thankefull for
-the same, it behoueth vs so to walke in his feare and loue, that all the
-dayes of our life we may procure the glorie of his holy name.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>Nowe forasmuch as this thing chiefely is atteined by the knowledge and
-practising of the worde of God (which is the light to our paths, the keye
-of the kingdome of heauen, our comfort in affliction, our shielde and
-sworde against Satan, the schoole of all wisdome, the glasse wherein we
-beholde Gods face, the testimonie of his fauour, and the onely foode and
-nourishment of our soules), wee thought that wee coulde bestowe our
-labours and studie in nothing which coulde be more acceptable to God and
-comfortable to his Church then in the translating of the holy Scriptures
-into our natiue tongue: the which thing albeit that diuers heretofore haue
-endeuoured to atchieue; yet considering the infancie of those times and
-imperfect knowledge of the tongues in respect of this ripe age and cleere
-light which God hath now reueiled, y<sup>e</sup> translations required greatly to
-be perused and reformed. Not that we vendicate anything to our selues
-aboue the least of our brethren (for God knoweth with what feare and
-trembling we haue bene for the space of two yeeres and more day and night
-occupied herein), but being earnestly desired and by diuers, whose
-learning and godlinesse we reuerence, exhorted and also encouraged by the
-ready willes of such, whose hearts God likewise touched, not to spare any
-charges for the furtherance of such a benefite and fauour of God towarde
-his Church (though the time then was most dangerous, and the persecution
-sharpe and furious), we submitted our selues at length to their godly
-judgements, and seeing the great opportunitie and occasions, which God
-presented unto vs in his Church, by reason of so many godlie and learned
-men: and such diuersities of translations in diuers tongues, we vndertooke
-this great and wonderfull worke (with all reuerence, as in the presence of
-God, as intreating the word of God, whereunto we thinke our selues
-vnsufficient) which now God accepting according to his diuine prouidence
-and mercie hath directed to a most prosperous ende. And this we may with
-good conscience protest that we haue in euery point and worde,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> according
-to the measure of that knowledge which it pleased Almightie God to giue
-vs, faithfully rendred the text, and in all hard places most sincerely
-expounded the same. For God is our witnesse that we haue by all meanes
-indeuoured to set foorth the puritie of the word and the right sense of
-the holy Ghost for the edifying of the brethren in faith and charitie.</p>
-
-<p>Nowe as we have chiefely obserued the sence, and laboured allwayes to
-restore it to all integritie, so haue we most reuerently kept the
-proprietie of the wordes, considering that the Apostles who spake and
-wrote to the Gentiles in the Greeke tongue, rather constrained them to the
-liuely phrase of the Ebrew, then enterprised farre by mollifying their
-language to speake as the Gentiles did. And for this and other causes wee
-haue in many places reserued the Ebrew phrases, notwithstanding that they
-may seeme somewhat hard in their eares that are not well practised and
-also delite in the sweet sounding phrases of the holy Scriptures. Yet
-least eyther the simple should be discouraged, or the malicious haue any
-occasion of just cauilation, seeing some translations reade after one
-sort, and some after another, whereas all may serue to good purpose and
-edification, we haue in the margent noted that diuersitie of speech or
-reading which may also seeme agreeable to the minde of the holy Ghost, and
-proper for our language with this marke. ∥</p>
-
-<p>Againe, whereas the Ebrewe speache seemed hardly to agree with ours we
-haue noted it in the margent after this sort ‡, vsing that
-which was more intelligible. And albeit that many of the Ebrewe names be
-altered from the olde text, and restored to the true writing and first
-originall, whereof they haue their signification, yet in the vsuall names
-litle is changed for feare of troubling the simple readers. Moreover,
-whereas the necessitie of the sentence required any thing to be added (for
-such is the grace and proprietie of the Ebrew and Greeke tongues that it
-cannot, but either by circumlocution, or by adding the verbe or some word,
-be understood of them that are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> not well practised therein) wee haue put
-in the text with an other kinde of letter that it may easily be discerned
-from the common letter.<a name='fna_142' id='fna_142' href='#f_142'><small>[142]</small></a> As touching the diuision of the verses wee
-haue followed the Ebrewe examples, which haue so euen from the beginning
-distinguished them. Which thing as it is most profitable for memorie, so
-doeth it agree with the best translations, and is most easie to finde out
-both by the best Concordances, and also by the quotations which we haue
-diligently herein perused and set foorth by this *. Besides this the
-principall matters are noted by this marke ¶. Yea, and the arguments both
-for the booke and for the chapters with the number of the verse are added,
-that by all meanes the reader might be holpen. For the which cause also we
-haue set ouer the head of every page some notable worde or sentence which
-may greatly further as well for memorie as for the chiefe point of the
-page.</p>
-
-<p>And considering howe hard a thing it is to vnderstand the holy Scriptures,
-and what errors, sectes, and heresies growe dayly for lacke of the true
-knowledge thereof, and howe many are discouraged (as they pretend) because
-they cannot atteine to the true and simple meaning of the same, we haue
-also indeuoured both by the diligent reading of the best commentaries, and
-also by the conference with the godly and learned brethren, to gather
-briefe annotations upon all the hard places, as well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> for the
-vnderstanding of such wordes as are obscure, and for the declaration of
-the text, as for the application of the same, as may most appertaine to
-God’s glory and the edification of his Church.</p>
-
-<p>Furthermore, whereas certaine places in the bookes of Moses, of the Kings,
-and Ezekiel, seemed so darke that by no description they could be made
-easie to the simple reader, wee have so set them foorth with figures and
-notes for the full declaration thereof, that they which cannot by
-judgement, being holpen by the letters a, b, c, &amp;c., atteine thereunto,
-yet by the perspective and, as it were, by the eye, may sufficiently knowe
-the true meaning of all such places. Whereunto also wee haue added
-certaine maps of Cosmographie which necessarily serue for the perfect
-vnderstanding and memorie of diuers places and countries, partly described
-and partly by occasion touched both in the olde and newe Testament.</p>
-
-<p>Finally, that nothing might lacke which might be bought by labours, for
-the increase of knowledge and furtherance of God’s glorie, we have
-adioyned two most profitable Tables, the one seruing for the
-interpretation of the Ebrew names, and the other conteining all the chiefe
-and principall matters of the whole Bible, so that nothing (as wee trust)
-that any could iustlie desire is omitted. Therefore as brethren that are
-partakers of the same hope and saluation with us, wee beseeche you that
-this rich pearle and inestimable treasure may not be offred in vaine, but
-as sent from God to the people of God, for the increase of his kingdome,
-the comfort of his Church, and discharge of our conscience, whom it hath
-pleased him to raise vp for this purpose, so you woulde willingly receive
-the worde of God, earnestly studie it, and in all your life practise it,
-that you may nowe appeare in deede to bee the people of God, not walking
-any more according to this worlde, but in the fruits of the Spirit, that
-God in vs may bee fully glorified through Christ Jesus our Lorde who
-liueth and reigneth for euer. Amen. From Geneva, 10th April, 1560.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="E" id="E"></a>(E.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE, 1568.</i></p>
-
-
-<p class="center">A Preface into the Byble<br />
-folowyng.</p>
-
-<p>Of all the sentences pronounced by our Sauiour Christe in his whole
-doctrine, none is more serious or more worthy to be borne in remembraunce,
-than that which he spake openly in his Gospell, saying: <span class="sidenote">John
-v.</span>Scrutamini scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam eternam habere,
-et illæ sunt quæ testimonium perhibent de me. Search ye the scriptures,
-for in them ye think to have eternall lyfe, and those they be which beare
-witnes of me. These wordes were first spoken vnto the Jewes by our
-Sauiour, but by hym in his doctrine ment to all: for they concerne all, of
-what nation, of what tongue, of what profession soeuer any man be. For to
-all belongeth it to be called vnto eternal life, so many as by the witnes
-of the scriptures desire to find eternall life. No man, woman, or chylde,
-is excluded from this saluation, and therefore to euery of them is this
-spoke proportionally yet, and in their degrees and ages, and as the reason
-and congruitie of their vocation may aske. For not so lyeth it in charge
-to the worldly artificer to searche, or to any other priuate man so
-exquisitely to studie, as it lyeth to the charge of the publike teacher to
-searche in the scriptures, to be the more able to walke in the house of
-God <span class="sidenote">1 Tim. iii.</span>(which is the church of the lyuyng God, the
-pyller<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> and ground of truth) to the establishing of the true doctrine of
-the same, and to the impugnyng of the false. And though whatsoever
-difference there may be betwixt the preacher in office, and the auditor in
-his vocation, yet to both it is said, <b>Search ye the scriptures</b>, whereby ye
-may fynde eternall lyfe, and gather witnesses of that saluation which is
-in <b>Christe Jesus</b> our Lorde. <span class="sidenote">Deut. xvii.</span>For although the
-prophete of God Moyses, byddeth the kyng when he is once set in the throne
-of his kingdome, to describe before his eyes the volume of God’s lawe,
-according to the example whiche he shoulde receaue of the priestes of the
-liuiticall tribe, to haue it with him, and to reade it in all the dayes of
-his life, to thende<a name='fna_143' id='fna_143' href='#f_143'><small>[143]</small></a> that he might learne to feare the Lorde his God,
-and to observe his lawes, that his heart be not aduanced in pryde ouer his
-brethren, not to swarue eyther on the ryght hande or on the left: yet the
-reason of this precept for that it concerneth all men, may reasonably be
-thought to be commanded to all men, and all men may take it to be spoken
-to them selfe in their degree. <span class="sidenote">Iosue i.</span>Though almightie God
-him selfe spake to his captayne Iosue in precise wordes, Non recedat
-volumen legis huius ab ore tuo sed meditaberis in eo diebus ac noctibus,
-&amp;c. Let not the volume of this booke depart from thy mouth, but muse
-therein both dayes and nyghtes, that thou mayest kepe and perfourme all
-thinges which be written in it, that thou mayest direct well thy way and
-vnderstande the same: yet as well spake almightie God this precept to all
-his people in the directions of their wayes to himwarde, as he ment it to
-Iosue: <span class="sidenote">Peter v.<br />Ephe. vi.<br />1 Tim. ii.<br />Ioh xiiii.</span>For that he hath care of all, he
-accepteth no man’s person, his wyll is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> that all men should he saued,
-his wyll is that all men should come to the way of trueth. Howe coulde this be more conueniently declared by God
-to man, then when Christe his welbeloued sonne our most louing sauiour,
-the way, the trueth, and the lyfe of vs all, dyd byd vs openly <b>Search the
-scriptures</b>, assuring vs herein to finde eternall life, to finde full
-testification of all his graces and benefites towardes vs in the treasure
-thereof. Therefore it is most conuenient that we shoulde all suppose that
-Christe spake to vs all in this his precept of searching the scriptures.
-If this celestiall doctour (so aucthorised by the father of heauen, and
-commaunded <span class="sidenote">Matt. xvii.</span>his only sonne, to be hearde of vs
-all) biddeth vs busily to <b>Search the scriptures</b>: of what spirite can it
-proceede to forbid the reading and studying of the scriptures? If the
-grosse Iewes vsed to reade them, as some men thinke that our sauiour
-Christ dyd shew by such kynd of speaking, their vsage, with their opinion
-they had therin to finde eternall lyfe, and were not of Christe rebuked,
-or disproued, either for their searching, or for the opinion they had,
-howe superstitiously or superficially soeuer some of them vsed to expende
-the scriptures; How muche more vnaduisedly do suche as bost them selfe to
-be either Christe’s vicars, or be of his garde, to lothe christen men from
-reading, by their couert slaunderous reproches of the scriptures, or in
-their aucthoritie by lawe or statute to contract this libertie of studiyng
-the worde of eternall saluation. Christe calleth them not onlye to the
-single readyng of scriptures (saith Chrisostome) but sendeth them to the
-exquisite searching of them, for in them is eternall lyfe to be founde,
-and they be (saith hym selfe) the witnesse of me: for they declare out his
-office, they commende his beneuolence towardes vs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> they recorde his whole
-workes wrought for vs to our saluation. Antechriste therefore he must be,
-that vnder whatsoeuer colour woulde geue contrary precept or counsayle to
-that whiche Christe dyd geue vnto vs. Very litle do they resemble Christes
-louing spirite mouing vs to searche for our comfort, that wyll discourage
-vs from suche searching, or that woulde wishe ignoraunce and
-forgetfulnesse of his benefite to raigne in vs, so that they might by our
-ignoraunce raigne the more frankly in our consciences, to the danger of
-our saluation. Who can take the light from us in this miserable vale of
-blindnesse, and meane not to haue us stumble in the pathes of perdition to
-the ruine of our soules: who wyll enuie vs this bread of lyfe prepared and
-set on the table for our eternall sustenaunce, and meane not to famishe
-vs, or in steede thereof with their corrupt traditions and doctrines of
-men to infect vs: All the whole scripture, saith the holy apostle
-<span class="sidenote">ii. Tim. iii.</span>Saint Paul inspired from God aboue, is
-profitable to teache, to reproue, to refourme, to instruct in
-righteousnesse, that the man of God may be sounde and perfect, instructed
-to euery good worke.</p>
-
-<p><b>Searche therefore</b>, good reader (on God’s name), as Christe byddeth thee
-the holy scripture, wherein thou mayest find thy saluation: Let not the
-volume of this booke (by Gods owne warrant) depart from thee but occupie
-thy selfe therein in the whole journey of this thy wordly pilgrimage,<span class="sidenote">Psal. i.</span>
-to vnderstand thy way howe to walke ryghtly before hym
-all the dayes of thy lyfe. Remember that the prophete David pronounceth
-hym the blessed man whiche wyll muse in the lawe of God <span class="sidenote">Psal.
-cxix.</span>both day and night, remember that he calleth him blessed whiche
-walketh in the way of the Lorde, which wyll searche diligently his
-testimonies, and wyll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> in their whole heart seeke the same. Let not the
-couert suspicious insinuations of the adversaries driue thee from the
-searche of the holy scripture, either for the obscuritie whiche they say
-is in them, or for the inscrutable hidden misteries they talke to be
-comprised in them, or for the straungnes and homlynes of the phrases they
-would charge Gods booke with. Christe exhorteth thee therefore the rather
-for the difficultie of the same, to searche them diligently. <span class="sidenote">Hebr. v.<br />1 Cor. xiiii.</span>Saint
-Paul wylleth thee to haue thy senses exercised in them, and not to be a chylde in thy senses, but in malice.
-Though many thinges may be difficulte to thee to vnderstand, impute it
-rather to thy dull hearing and reading, then to thinke that the scriptures
-be insuperable, to them whiche with diligent searching labour to discern
-the evil from the good. <span class="sidenote">Math. vii.</span>Only searche with an humble
-spirite, aske in continuall prayer, seek with puritie of life, knocke with
-perpetuall perseueraunce, and crye to that good spirite of Christe the
-Comforter: and surely to euery suche asker it wyll be geuen, such
-searchers must nedes finde, to them it wylbe opened. Christ hym selfe wyll
-open the sense of the scriptures,
-<span class="sidenote">Math. xi.<br />Esai. lxi.<br />1 Cor. xii.<br />Apoc. iii.<br />Sapi i.<br />Iob xiiii.<br />Sapi i.<br />Psal. lxviii.</span>not to
-the proude, or to the wyse of the worlde, but to the lowly and contrite in
-heart; for he hath the kay of Dauid, who openeth and no man shutteth,
-who shutteth and no man openeth. For as this spirite is a bening and liberall spirite, and wyll be
-easyly founde of them which wyll early in carefulnesse ryse to seeke hym,
-and as he promiseth he will be the comforter from
-aboue to teache vs, and to leade vs into all the wayes of truth,
-if that in humilitie we bowe vnto hym, deniyng our
-owne naturall senses, our carnall wittes and reasons: so is he the spirite of puritie and cleannes, and will receede from him,
-whose conscience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> is subiect to filthynesse of lyfe. Into suche a soule
-this heavenly wysdome wyll not enter, for all peruerse cogitations wyll
-separate vs from God: and then howe busyly soeuer we searche this holy table of the scripture, yet will it then be a
-table to suche to their owne snare, a trap, a stumbling stocke, and a
-recompense to them selfe. We ought therefore to searche to finde out the
-trueth, not to oppresse it, we ought to seeke Christe, not as Herode did
-vnder the pretence of worshipping hym to destroy hym, or as the Pharisees
-searched the scriptures to disproue Christe, and to discredite him, and
-not to folowe him; but to embrace the saluation whiche we may learne by
-them. Nor yet is it inough so to acknowledge the scriptures as some of the
-Iewes dyd, of the holyest of them, who vsed such diligence, that they
-could number precisely, not only euery verse, but euery word and sillable,
-how oft euery letter of the alphabete was repeated in the whole
-scriptures: They had some of them suche reuerence to that booke, that they
-woulde not suffer in a greate heape of bookes, any other to lay over them,
-they woulde not suffer that booke to fall to the grounde as nye as they
-coulde, they woulde costly bynde the bookes of holy scriptures, and cause
-them to be exquisitely and ornately written. Whiche deuotion yet though it
-was not to be discommended, yet was it not for that intent, why Christe
-commended the scriptures, nor they therof alowed before God: For they did
-not call vpon God in a true fayth. they were not charitable to their
-neighbours, but in the middes of all this deuotion, they did steale, they
-were adulterers, they were slaunderers and backbiters, euen muche like
-many of our Christian men and women nowe a dayes, who glory muche that
-they reade the scriptures, that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> searche them and loue them, that
-they frequente the publique sermons in an outwarde shewe of all honestie
-and perfection, yea they can pike out of the scriptures vertuous sentenses
-and godly preceptes to lay before other men. And though these maner of men
-do not muche erre for suche searching and studying, yet they see not the
-scope and the principall state of the scriptures, which is as Christe
-declareth it, to finde Christe as their Sauiour, to cleaue to his
-saluation and merites, and to be brought to the lowe repentaunce of their
-liues, and to amend them selfe, to rayse vp their fayth to our Sauiour
-Christe, so to thinke of him as the scriptures do testifie of hym. These
-be the principall causes why Christe did sende the Iewes to searche the
-scriptures: for to this ende were they wrytten, saith Saint Iohn, Hae
-scripta sunt ut credatis, et vt credentes vitam habeatis eternam. These
-were written to this intent, that ye shoulde beleue, <span class="sidenote">Iohn xx.</span>ane that through your beliefe ye shoulde haue euerlasting life.</p>
-
-<p>And here good reader, great cause we have to extoll the wonderous wisdome
-of God, and with great thankes to prayse his prouidence, considering howe
-he hath preserued and renued from age to age by speciall <span class="sidenote">Hebr.
-v.</span>miracle, the incomparable treasure of his Churche. For first he did
-inspire Moyses, as Iohn Chrisostome doth testifie, to wryte the stonie
-tables, and kept him in the mountayne fourtie dayes to giue him his lawe:
-after him he sent the prophetes, but they suffred many thousande
-aduersities, for battayles did folowe, all were slayne, all were
-destroyed, bookes were brent vp. He then inspired agayne another man to
-repayre these miraculous scriptures, Esdras I meane, who of their leauings
-set them agayne together: after that he provided that the seuentie
-interpreters should take them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> in hande: at the laste came Christe him
-selfe, the Apostles did receaue them, and spread them throughout all
-nations, Christe wrought his miracles and wonders: and what followed?
-after these great volumes the Apostles also did wryte as Saint Paul doth
-say, <span class="sidenote">1 Cor. x.<br />Math. xxii.<br />Colo. iii.<br />Psal. cxix.<br />Deut. xvi.</span>These be wrytten to the instruction of vs that
-be come into the ende of the worlde: and Christe
-doth say, Ye therefore erre, because ye knowe not the scriptures nor the
-power of God: and Paul dyd say, Let the worde of
-Christe be plentifull among you: and agayne saith Dauid, Oh howe sweete be thy wordes to my throte: he saide not to my
-hearing, but to my throte, aboue the hony or the hony combe to my mouth.
-Yea, Moyses saith, Thou shalt meditate in them
-evermore when thou risest, when thou sittest downe, when thou goest to
-sleepe, continue in them he saith: and a thousand places more. And yet
-after so many testimonies thus spoken, there be some persons that do not
-yet so much as knowe what the scriptures be: Wherevpon nothing is in good
-state amongst vs, nothing worthyly is done amongest vs: In this whiche
-pertayne to this lyfe, we make very great haste, but of spirituall goodes
-we have no regarde. Thus farre Iohn Chrisost. It must nedes signifie some
-great thing to our vnderstanding, that almightie God hath had such care to
-prescribe these bookes thus vnto vs: I say not prescribe them only, but to
-maintaine them and defende them against the malignitie of the deuill and
-his ministers, who alway went about to destroy them: and yet could these
-never be so destroyed, but that he woulde have them continue whole and
-perfect to this day, to our singular comfort and instruction, where other
-bookes of mortall wise men haue perished in great numbers. It is recorded
-that Ptolomeus <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>Philadelphus kyng of Egypt, had gathered together in one
-librarie at Alexandria by his great coste and diligence, seuen hundred
-thousand bookes, wherof the principall were the bookes of Moyses, which
-reserued not much more, then by the space of two hundred yeres, were all
-brent and consumed, in that battayle when Cæsar restored Cleopatra agayne
-after her expulsion. At Constantinople perished under Zenon by one common
-fire, a hundred and twentie thousande bookes. <span class="sidenote"><i>Iohannes
-Sarisberi. In Policratico, lib. 8, cap. 19.<br />W. de regibus.</i></span>At Rome when
-Lucius Aurel Antonius dyd raigne, his notable librarie by a lightning from
-heauen was quite consumed: Yea it is recorded that Gregorie the first, dyd
-cause a librarie at Rome contayning only certaine Paynim’s workes to be
-burned, to thintent the scriptures of God should be more read and studied.
-What other great libraries haue there ben cōsumed but of late daies?
-And what libraries haue of olde throughout this realme almost in euery
-abbey of the same, ben destroyed at sundry ages, besides the losse of
-other men’s private studies, it were to long to rehearse. Wherevpon seyng
-almightie God by his diuine prouidence, hath preserued these bookes of the
-scriptures safe and sounde, and that in their natiue languages they were
-first written, in the great ignoraunce that raigned in these tongues, and
-contrary to all other casualties, chaunced vpon all other bookes in mauger
-of all worldly wittes, who would so fayne haue had them destroyed, and yet
-he by his mightie hande, would haue them extant as witnesses and
-interpreters of his will toward mankind: we may soone see cause most
-reuerently to embrace these deuine testimonies of his will, to studie
-them, and to searche them, to instruct our blinde nature so sore corrupted
-and fallen from the knowledge in whiche first we were created. Yet hauing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
-occasion geuen somewhat to recover our fall and to returne againe to that
-deuine nature wherein we were once made, and at the last to be inheritours
-in the celestiall habitation with God almightie, after the ende of our
-mortalitie here brought to his dust agayne: These bookes I say beyng of
-such estimation and aucthoritie, so much reuerenced of them who had any
-meane taste of them, coulde neuer be put out of the way, neither by the
-spyte of any tiraunt, as that <span class="sidenote"><i>Galfride mon</i></span>tiraunt Maximian
-destroyed all the holy scriptures wheresoeuer they coulde be founde, and
-burnt them in the middes of the market, neither the hatred either of any
-Porphiran philosopher or Rhetoritian, neither by the enuie of the
-romanystes, and of such hypocrites who from tyme to time did euer barke
-against them, some of them not in open sort of condempnation: but more
-cunningly vnder suttle pretences, for that as they say, they were so harde
-to vnderstande, and specially for that they affirm it to be a perilous
-matter to translate the text of the holy scripture, and therefore it
-cannot be well translated. And here we may beholde the endeuour of some
-men’s cauillation, who labour all they can to slaunder the translatours,
-to finde faulte in some wordes of the translation: but them selfe will
-neuer set pen to the booke, to set out any translation at al. They can in
-their constitutions prouinciall, <span class="sidenote"><i>Tho Arūdel in concilio
-apud Oxon. An 1407 articlo 7.</i></span>vnder payne of excommunication, inhibite
-al other men to translate them without the ordinaries or the prouinciall
-counsayle agree therevnto. But they wyll be well ware neuer to agree or
-geue counsayle to set them out. Whiche their suttle compasse in effect,
-tendeth but to bewray what inwardly they meane, if they could bring it
-about, that is, vtterly to suppresse them: being in this their iudgement,
-farre vnlike the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> olde fathers in the primitiue church, who hath exhorted
-indifferently all persons, aswell men as women, to exercise them selues in
-the scriptures, which by Saint Hieroms aucthoritie be the scriptures of
-the people. Yea they be farre vnlike their olde forefathers that have
-ruled in this realme, who in their times, and in diuers ages did their
-diligence to translate the whole bookes of the scriptures to the erudition
-of the laytie, as yet at this day be to be seene diuers bookes translated
-into the vulgar tongue, some by kynges of the realme, some by bishoppes,
-some by abbotts, some by other deuout godly fathers: so desirous they were
-of olde tyme to have the lay sort edified in godlynes by reading in their
-vulgar tongue, that very many bookes be yet extant, though for the age of
-the speache and straungenesse of the charect of many of them almost worne
-out of knowledge. In whiche bookes may be seene euidently howe it was vsed
-among the Saxons, to haue in their churches read the foure gospels, so
-distributed and piked out in the body of the euangelistes bookes, that to
-euery Sunday and festiuall day in the yere, they were sorted out to the
-common ministers of the church in their common prayers to be read to their
-people. <span class="sidenote">1 Pet. i.</span>Now as of the most auncient fathers the
-prophets, Saint Peter testifieth that these holy men of God had the
-impulsion of the holy Ghost, to speak out these deuine testimonies: so it
-is not to be doubted but that these latter holy fathers of the Englishe
-Church, had the impulsion of the holy Ghost to set out these sacred bookes
-in their vulgar language, to the edification of the people, <span class="sidenote">Acts xvii.</span>by the helpe whereof they might the better folowe the example
-of the godly Christians, in the beginning of the Churche, who not only
-receaued the worde withall readinesse of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> heart, but also did searche
-diligently in the scriptures, whether the doctrine of the Apostles were
-agreable to the same scripture. And these were not of the rascall sort
-(saith the deuine storie) but they were of the best and of most noble
-byrth among the Thessalonians, Birrhenses by name. <span class="sidenote">1 Pet. i.</span>Yea the prophetes them selues in their dayes, writeth S. Peter, were
-diligent searchers to inquire out this saluation by Christe, searching
-when and at what article of time this grace of Christes dispensation
-shoulde appeare to the world. What ment the fathers of the Church in their
-writinges, but the advauncing of these holy bookes, where some do
-attribute no certaintie of vndoubted veritie, but to the canonicall
-scriptures: <span class="sidenote"><i>Aug. contra epistolam permemini Hieronimus
-Tertullian de doctrina Christiana Chrisost in Matt.</i> Ho. 47. <i>Basilius
-Hieronim.</i><br /><br />1 Pet. i.</span>Some do affirm it to be a foolishe rashe boldnesse to beleue
-hym, who proueth not by the scriptures that whiche he affirmeth in his
-worde. Some do accurse all that is deliuered by tradition, not found in
-the legall and evangelicall scriptures. Some say that our fayth must
-needes stagger, if it be not grounded vpon the aucthoritie of the
-scripture. Some testifieth that Christe and his Churche ought to be
-aduouched out of the scriptures, and do contende in disputation, that the
-true Church can not be knowen, but only by the holy scriptures: For all
-other thinges (saith the same aucthor) may be found among the heretikes.
-Some affirme it to be a sinfull tradition that is obtruded without the
-scripture. Some playnely pronounce, that not to
-knowe the scriptures is not to know Christe. Wherefore let men extoll out
-the Churche practises as hyghly as they can, and let them set out their
-traditions and customes, their decisions in synodes and counsayles, with
-vaunting the presence of the holy Ghost among them really, as some doth
-affirme it in their writing, let their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> groundes and their demonstrations,
-their foundations be as stable and as strong as they blase them out:
-<span class="sidenote">1 Pet. i.</span>Yet wyll we be bolde to say with Saint Peter,
-Habemus nos firmiorem sermonem propheticum. We have for our part a more
-stable grounde, the propheticall wordes (of the scriptures) and doubt not
-to be commended therefore of the same Saint Peter with these wordes: Cui
-dum attenditis ceu lucerne apparenti in obscuro loco, recte facitis donec
-dies illucescat &amp;c. Wherevnto saith he, whyle ye do attende as to alight
-shining in a darke place, ye do well vntill the day light appeare, and
-till the bright starre do arise vnto our heartes, For this we know, that
-al the propheticall scripture standeth not in any priuate interpretation
-of vayne names, of severall Churches, of catholique vniuersall seas, of
-singuler and wylfull heades, whiche wyll chalenge custome all decision to
-pertayne to them only, who be working so muche for their vayne
-superioritie, that they be not ashamed now to be of that number,
-<span class="sidenote">Psal. xi.</span>Qui dixerunt linguam nostram magnificabimus, labia
-nostra a nobis sunt, quis noster dominus est: Which haue sayd with our
-tongue wyll we preuayle, we are they that ought to speake, who is Lord
-ouer vs. And whyle they shall contende for their straunge claymed
-aucthoritie, we will proceede in the reformation begun, and doubt no more
-by the helpe of Christe his grace, of the true vnity to Christes
-catholique Churche, <span class="sidenote"><i>Concilium braccar secundum.</i></span>and of the
-vprightnesse of our fayth in this prouince, then the Spanishe cleargie
-once gathered together in counsaile (only by the commaundement of their
-king, before whiche tyme the Pope was not so acknowledged in his
-aucthoritie which he now claymeth) I say as surely dare we trust, as they
-dyd trust of their faith and veritie. Yea no lesse confidence haue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> we to
-professe that, whiche the fathers of the vniuersall counsaile at Carthage
-in Affrike as they wryte them selfe did professe in their epistle written
-to Pope Celestine, laying before his face the foule corruption of him
-selfe (as two other of his predecessors did the like errour) in
-falsifiying the canons of Nicen counsayle, for his wrong chalenge of his
-newe claymed aucthoritie: Thus wrytyng. Prudentissime enim iustissimeque
-prouiderunt (Nicena et Affricana dicreta) quecunque negotia in suis locis
-(vbi orta sunt) finienda, nec vnicuiqui prouinciæ gratiam sancti spiritus
-defuturam qua equitas a Christi sacerdotibus et prudenter videatur, et
-constantissime teneatur, maxime quia vnicuique concessum est, si iuditio
-offensus fuerit cognitorum, ad concilia suae prouinciæ vel etiam
-vniuersale prouocare. That (the Nicen and Affrican decrees) haue most
-prudently and iustly prouided for all maner of matters to be ended in
-their teritories where they had their beginning, and they trusted that not
-to any one prouince shoulde want the grace of the holy Ghost, whereby both
-the truth or equitie might prudently be seene of the Christian prelates of
-Christe, and might be also by them most constantly defended, specially for
-that it is graunted to euery man (if he be greeued) by the iudgement of
-the cause once knowen to appeale to the counsayles of his owne prouince or
-els to the vniuersall. Except there be any man, whiche may beleue that our
-Lorde God woulde inspire the righteousnesse of examination, to any one
-singular person, and to denie the same to priestes gathered together into
-counsaile without number, &amp;c. And there they do require the bishop of Rome
-to send none of his clarkes to execute such prouinciall causes, lest els
-say they, mought be brought in the vayne<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> pride of the world into the
-Churche of Christe. In this antiquitie may we in this christian catholique
-Churche of Englande repose our selfe, knowyng by our owne annales of
-auncient recorde that Kyng Lucius whose conscience was much touched with
-the miracles whiche the seruauntes of Christe wrought in diuers nations,
-thervpon beyng in great loue with the true fayth, sent vnto Eleutherius
-then byshop of Rome requiring of hym the christian religion. <span class="sidenote"><i>Inter legis Edwardi.</i></span>But
-Eleutherius did redyly geue ouer that care to King Lucius in his epistle, for that the King as he wryteth, the vicar of
-God in his owne kingdome, and for that he had receiued the faith of
-Christe: And for that he had also both testamentes in his realme, he
-wylled hym to drawe out of them by the grace of God, and by the counsaile
-of his wisemen, his lawes, and by that lawe of God to gouerne his realme
-of Britanie, and not so much to desire the Romane and Emperour’s lawes, in
-the whiche some defaulte might be founde saith he, but in the lawes of God nothing at all.
-<span class="sidenote"><i>Ex archiuis de statio landauensis ecclie in vita archiepiscopi dubritii, et in I. capgraue.</i><br /><br />Rom. xv.<br /><br /><b>And
-yet may it be true that W., of Malsberie, writeth that Phaganus and Dernuianus were sent after (as Coadiutours) with these learned men to the
-preaching of the Gospell, whiche was neuer extinguished in Britaine frō Joseph of Aramathia his time as to S. Austen, the first byshop
-of Canter, they do openly abouche.</b><br /><br />Eccle. xi.<br />Sapi. ix.<br /><br /><i>De doctri Christia.</i></span>
-With which aunswere the Kinges legates, Eluanus and Medwinus sent as messengers by the King to the
-Pope, returned to Britanie agayne, Eluanus beyng made a byshop, and
-Medwine alowed a publique teacher: who for the eloquence and knowledge
-they had in the holy Scriptures, they repayred home agayne to Kyng Lucius,
-and by their holy preachings, Lucius and the noble men of the whole
-Britanie receiued their baptisme, &amp;c. Thus farre in the storie. Nowe
-therefore knowing and beleuing with Saint Paul, Quod quecumque prescripta
-sunt, ad nostram doctrinam prescripta sunt vt per pacientiam et
-consolationem scripturarum spem habeamus: Whatsoeuer is afore written, is written before
-for our instruction, that we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> through the patience and comfort of
-scriptures might haue hope, the only suretie to our fayth and conscience,
-is to sticke to the scriptures. Wherevpon whyle this eternall worde of God
-be our rocke and anker to sticke vnto, we will haue pacience with all the
-vayne inuentions of men, who labour so highly to magnifie their tongues,
-to exalt them selues aboue al that is God. We wil take comfort by the holy
-scriptures against the maledictions of the aduersaries, and doubt not to
-nourishe our hope continually therewith so to liue and dye in this
-comfortable hope, and doubt not to pertayne to the elect number of
-Christes Churche, howe farre soeuer we be excommunicated out of the
-sinagogue of suche who suppose themselues to be the vniuersall lordes of
-all the world, Lordes of our fayth and consciences, at pleasure.</p>
-
-<p>Finally to commend further vnto thee good reader the cause in part before
-intreated, it shalbe the lesse needefull, hauing so nye folowing that
-learned preface, which sometime was set out by the diligence of that godly
-father Thomas Cranmer, late byshop in the sea of Canterburie, which he
-caused to be prefixed before the translation of that Byble that was then
-set out. And for that the copies thereof be so wasted, that very many
-Churches do want their conuenient Bybles, it was thought good to some well
-disposed men, to recognise the same Byble againe into this fourme as it is
-nowe come out, with some further diligence in the printing, and with some
-more light added, partly in the translation, and partly in the order of
-the text, not as condemning the former translation, whiche was folowed
-mostly of any other translation, excepting the originall text from whiche
-as litle variaunce was made as was thought meete to such as toke paynes
-therein:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> desiring thee good reader if ought be escaped, eyther by such as
-had the expending of the bookes, or by the ouersight of the printer, to
-correct the same in the spirite of charitie, calling to remembraunce what
-diuersitie hath ben seene in mens iudgementes in the translation of these
-bookes before these dayes, though all directed their labours to the glory
-of God, to the edification of the Churche, to the comfort of their
-christian brethren, and alwayes as God dyd further open vnto them, so euer
-more desirous they were to refourme their former humain ouersightes,
-rather then in a stubborne wylfulnesse to resist the gyft of the holy
-Ghost, who from tyme to tyme is resident as that heauenly teacher and
-leader into all trueth, by whose direction the Churche is ruled and
-gouerned. And let all men remember in them selfe howe errour and
-ignoraunce is created with our nature; let frayle man confesse with that great wise man, that the cogitations and
-inuentions of mortall man be very weake, and our opinions sone deceaued:
-For the body so subiect to corruption doth oppresse the soule, that it
-cannot aspire so hye as of dutie it ought. Men we be all, and that whiche
-we know, is not the thousand part of that we knowe not. Whereupon saith
-Saint Austen, otherwyse to iudge then the truth is, this temptation ryseth
-of the frailtie of man. A man so to loue and sticke to his owne iudgement, or to enuie his brothers to the perill
-of dissoluing the christian communion, or to the perill of schisme, and of
-heresie, this is diabolicall presumption: but so to iudge in euery matter
-as the truth is, this belongeth onely to the angellicall perfection.
-Notwithstanding good reader, thou mayest be well assured nothing to be
-done in this translation eyther of malice or wylfull meaning in altering
-the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> text, eyther by putting more or lesse to the same, as of purpose to
-bring in any priuate iudgement by falsification of the wordes, as some
-certaine men hath ben ouer bold so to do, litle regarding the maiestie of
-God his scripture: but so to make it serue to their corrupt error, as in
-alleaging the sentence of Saint Paule to the Romaines the 6. One certaine
-wryter to proue his satisfaction, was bold to turne the worde of
-<i>Sanctificationem</i> into the worde of <i>Satisfactionem</i>, thus, <i>Sicut
-exhibuimus antea membra nostra seruire immundicie et iniquitati ad
-iniquitatem ita deinceps exhibeamus membra nostra seruire iustitiae in
-satisfactionem</i>. <span class="sidenote"><i>Hosius in confessione catholicæ fidi de
-sacrō penitentiæ Idem Hosius de spe. et oratione.</i></span>That is, as we have
-geuen our members to vncleannesse, from iniquitie to iniquitie: euen so
-from hencefoorth let vs geue our members to serue righteousnesse into
-satisfaction: where the true worde is into sanctification. Even so
-likewise for the auauntage of his cause, to proue that men may haue in
-their prayer fayth vpon saintes, corruptly alleageth Saint Paules text, Ad
-philemonem, thus, <i>Fidem quam habes in domino Iesu et in omnes sanctos</i>,
-leauing out the worde <i>charitatem</i>, which would have rightly ben
-distributed vnto <i>Omnes sanctos</i>. As <i>fidem</i> vnto <i>in domino Iesu</i>. Where
-the text is <i>Audiens charitatem tuam et fidem quam habes in domino Iesu in
-omnes sanctos</i>, &amp;c. It were to long to bryng in many examples, as may be
-openly founde in some mens wrytynges in these dayes, who would be counted
-the chiefe pillers of the Catholique fayth, or to note how corruptly they
-of purpose abuse the text to the comoditie of their cause. What maner of
-translation may men thinke to looke for at their handes, if they should
-translate the scriptures to the comfort of God’s elect, whiche they neuer
-did, nor be not like to purpose it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> but be rather studious only to seeke
-quarrels in other mens well doynges, to picke fault where none is: and
-where any is escaped through humaine negligence, there to crye out with
-their tragicall exclamations, but in no wyse to amende by the spirite of
-charitie and lenitie, that whiche might be more aptly set. Whervpon for
-frayle man (compassed hym selfe with infirmitie) it is most reasonable not
-to be to seuere in condemning his brothers knowledge or diligence where he
-doth erre, not of malice, but of simplicitie, and specially in handeling
-of these so deuine bookes so profounde in sense, so farre passing our
-naturall vnderstanding. And with charitie it standeth, the reader not to
-be offended with the diuersitie of translators, nor with the ambiguitie of
-translations: For as Saint Austen doth witnesse, <span class="sidenote"><i>De doctr.
-Christi. lib. 2. cap. 5.</i></span>by God’s prouidence it is brought about,
-that the holy scriptures whiche be the salue for euery mans sore, though
-at the first they came from one language, and thereby might have ben
-spread to the whole worlde: nowe by diuersitie of manye languages, the
-translatours shoulde spreade the saluation (that is contayned in them) to
-all nations, by suche wordes of vtteraunce as the reader might perceaue
-the minde of the translatour, and so consequently to come to the knowledge
-of God his wyll and pleasure. And though many rashe readers be deceaued in
-the obscurities and ambiguities of their translations, whyle they take one
-thing for another, and whyle they vse muche labour to extricate them
-selues out of the obscurities of the same: yet I thinke (saith he) this is
-not wrought without the prouidence of God, both to tame the proude
-arrogancie of man by his suche labour of searching, as also to kepe his
-minde from lothsomnesse and contempt, where if the scriptures vniuersally
-were to easie, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> woulde lesse regarde them. And though (saith he) in the
-primitive Churche the late interpreters whiche did translate the
-scriptures, be innumerable, yet wrought this rather an helpe, than an
-impediment to the readers, if they be not to negligent. For saith he,
-diuers translations haue made many tymes the harder and darker sentences,
-the more open and playne: so that of congruence, no offence can iustly be
-taken for this newe labour, nothing preiudicing any other mans iudgement
-by this doyng, nor yet hereby professing this to be so absolute a
-translation, as that hereafter might folowe no other that might see that
-whiche as yet was not vnderstanded. In this poynt it is conuenient to
-consider the iudgement that John, once byshop of Rochester was in, who
-thus wrote: <span class="sidenote"><i>Articulo, 17, contra Luth.</i></span>It is not vnknowen,
-but that many thinges hath ben more diligently discussed, and more
-clearely vnderstanded by the wittes of these latter dayes, as well
-concerning the gospels as other scriptures, then in olde tyme they were.
-The cause whereof is (saith he) for that to the olde men the yse was not
-broken, or for that their age was not sufficient exquisitely to expende
-the whole mayne sea of the scriptures, or els for that in this large field
-of the scriptures, a man may gather some eares vntouched, after the
-haruest men howe diligent soeuer they were. For there be yet (saith he) in
-the Gospels very many darke places, whiche without all doubt to the
-posteritie shalbe made muche more open. For why should we despayre herein,
-seing the Gospell (wryteth he) was deliuered to this intent, that it might
-be vtterly vnderstanded of vs, yea to the very inche. Wherefore, forasmuch
-as Christe showeth no lesse loue to his Churche now, then hitherto he hath
-done, the aucthoritie wherof is as yet no whit diminished, and forasmuch
-as that holy spirite the perpetuall Keper and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> Gardian of the same Church,
-whose gyftes and graces do flowe as continually and as aboundantly as from
-the beginning: who can doubt, but that such thinges as remayne yet
-unknowen in the Gospell, shalbe hereafter made open to the latter wittes
-of our posteritie, to their cleare vnderstanding. Only good readers let vs
-oft call vpon the holy spirite of God our heauenly father, by the
-mediation of our Lorde and Sauiour, with the wordes of the octonary psalme
-of Dauid, who did so importunately craue of God to haue the vnderstanding
-of his lawes and testament: <span class="sidenote">Psal. cxix.</span>Let vs humblye on our
-knees pray to almightie God, with that wyse <span class="sidenote">Sapi. ix.</span>Kyng
-Solomon in his very wordes saying thus&mdash;O God of my fathers, and Lorde of
-mercies (that thou hast made all thynges with thy worde, and didst ordain
-man through thy wisdome, that he shoulde haue dominion ouer thy creatures
-whiche thou hast made, and that he shoulde order the worlde according to
-holinesse and righteousnesse, and that he shoulde execute iudgement with a
-true heart) geue me wisdome whiche is euer about thy feate, and put me not
-out from among thy chyldren: For I thy seruant and sonne of thy handmayden
-am a feeble person, of a short time, and to weake to the vnderstanding of
-thy iudgementes and lawes. And though a man be neuer so perfect among the
-children of men, yet if thy wisdome be not with him, he shalbe of no
-value. O sende her out therefore from thy holy heauens, and from the
-throne of thy maiestie, that she may be with me, and labour with me, that
-I may know what is acceptable in thy sight: for she knoweth and
-vnderstandeth all thinges, and she shall lead me soberly in my workes, and
-pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>serue me in her power, So shall my workes be acceptable by Christe our
-Lorde, To whom with the father and the holy Ghost, be all honour and
-glorie, worlde without ende. Amen.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="F" id="F"></a>(F.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611.</i></p>
-
-
-<p><span class="sidenote">The best things have been calumniated.</span>Zeal to promote the
-common good, whether it be by devising any thing ourselves, or revising
-that which hath been laboured by others, deserveth certainly much respect
-and esteem, but yet findeth but cold entertainment in the world. It is
-welcomed with suspicion instead of love, and with emulation instead of
-thanks: and if there be any hole left for cavil to enter, (and cavil, if
-it do not find an hole, will make one) it is sure to be misconstrued, and
-in danger to be condemned. This will easily be granted by as many as know
-story, or have any experience. For was there ever any thing projected that
-savoured any way of newness or renewing, but the same endured many a storm
-of gainsaying or opposition? A man would think that civility, wholesome
-laws, learning and eloquence, Synods, and Churchmaintenance, (that we
-speak of no more things of this kind,) should be as safe as a Sanctuary,
-and<a name='fna_144' id='fna_144' href='#f_144'><small>[144]</small></a> out of shot, as they say, that no man would lift up his heel, no,
-nor dog move his tongue against the motioners of them. For by the first we
-are distinguished from brute beasts led with sensuality: by the second we
-are bridled and restrained from outrageous behaviour, and from doing of
-injuries, whether by fraud or by violence: by the third we are enabled to
-inform and reform others by the light and feeling that we have attained
-unto ourselves: briefly, by the fourth, being brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> together to a
-parley face to face, we sooner compose our differences, than by writings,
-which are endless: and lastly, that the Church be sufficiently provided
-for is so agreeable to good reason and conscience, that those mothers are
-holden to be less cruel, that kill their children as soon as they are
-born, than those nursing fathers and mothers (wheresoever they be) that
-withdraw from them who hang upon their breasts (and upon whose breasts
-again themselves do hang to receive the spiritual and sincere milk of the
-word) livelihood and support fit for their estates. Thus it is apparent,
-that these things which we speak of are of most necessary use, and
-therefore that none, either without absurdity can speak against them, or
-without note of wickedness can spurn against them.</p>
-
-<p><span class="sidenote"><i>Anacharsis, with others.</i><br /><br /><i>In Athens: witness Libanius in Olynth. Demosth.
-Cato the elder.</i><br /><br /><i>Gregory the Divine.</i><br /><br /><i>Nauclerus.</i></span>Yet for all that, the learned know,
-that certain worthy men have been brought to untimely death for none other
-fault, but for seeking to reduce their countrymen to good order and
-discipline: And that in some Commonweals it was made a capital
-crime, once to motion the making of a new law for the abrogating of an
-old, though the same were most pernicious: And that certain, which would
-be counted pillars of the State, and patterns of virtue and prudence,
-could not be brought for a long time to give way to good letters and
-refined speech; but bare themselves as averse from them, as from rocks or
-boxes of poison: And fourthly, that he was no babe, but a great Clerk, that gave forth (and in writing to
-remain to posterity), in passion peradventure, but yet he gave forth, That
-he had not seen any profit to come by any synod or meeting of the Clergy,
-but rather the contrary: And lastly, against Churchmaintenance and
-allowance, in such sort as the Embassadors and messengers of the great
-King of kings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> should be furnished, it is not unknown what a fiction or
-fable (so it is esteemed, and for no better by the reporter himself,
-though superstitious) was devised: namely, That
-at such time as the professors and teachers of Christianity in the Church
-of Rome, then a true Church, were liberally endowed, a voice forsooth was
-heard from heaven, saying, Now is poison poured down into the Church, &amp;c.
-Thus not only as oft as we speak, as one saith, but also as oft as we do
-any thing of note or consequence, we subject ourselves to every one’s
-censure, and happy is he that is least tossed upon tongues; for utterly to
-escape the snatch of them it is impossible. If any man conceit, that this
-is the lot and portion of the meaner sort only, and that Princes are
-privileged by their high estate, he is deceived. <span class="sidenote">2 Sam. 11.
-25.</span>As <i>the sword devoureth as well one as another</i>, as it is in
-<i>Samuel</i>; nay, as the great commander charged his soldiers in a certain
-battle to strike at no part of the enemy, but at the face; <span class="sidenote">1
-Kin. 22. 31.</span>and as the king of <i>Syria</i> commanded his chief captains <i>to
-fight neither with small nor great, save only against the king of Israel</i>:
-so it is too true, that envy striketh most spitefully at the fairest, and
-the chiefest. <i>David</i> was a worthy prince, and no man to be compared to
-him for his first deeds; and yet for as worthy an act as ever he did, even
-for bringing back the ark of God in solemnity, he was scorned and scoffed
-at by his own wife. <span class="sidenote">2 Sam. 6. 16.</span><i>Solomon</i> was greater than
-<i>David</i>, though not in virtue, yet in power; and by his power and wisdom
-he built a temple to the Lord, such an one as was the glory of the land of
-Israel, and the wonder of the whole world. But was that his magnificence
-liked of by all? We doubt of it. Otherwise why do they lay it in his son’s
-dish, and call unto him for<a name='fna_145' id='fna_145' href='#f_145'><small>[145]</small></a>
-easing of the burden?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> <i>Make</i>, say they,
-<i>the grievous servitude of thy father, and his sore yoke, lighter</i>.
-<span class="sidenote">1 Kin. 12. 4.</span>Belike he had charged them with some levies, and
-troubled them with some carriages; hereupon they raise up a tragedy, and
-wish in their heart the temple had never been built. So hard a thing it is
-to please all, even when we please God best, and do seek to approve
-ourselves to every one’s conscience.</p>
-
-<p><span class="sidenote">The highest personages have been calumniated<br /><i>C. Cæsar.
-Plutarch</i>.<br /><br /><i>Constantine.</i></span>If we will descend to latter times, we shall find many the
-like examples of such kind, or rather unkind, acceptance. The first Roman
-Emperor did never do a more pleasing deed to the learned, nor more
-profitable to posterity, for conserving the record of times in true
-supputation, than when he corrected the Calendar, and ordered the year
-according to the course of the sun: and yet this was imputed to him for
-novelty, and arrogancy, and procured to him great obloquy. So the first Christened Emperor (at the least wise, that
-openly professed the faith himself, and allowed others to do the like,)
-for strengthening the empire at his great charges, and providing for the
-Church, as he did, got for his labour the name <i>Pupillus</i>, as who would
-say, a wasteful Prince, that had need of a guardian or overseer.
-<span class="sidenote"><i>Aurel. Vict. Theodosius. Zosimus.</i><br /><br /><i>Justinian.</i></span>So the best Christened
-Emperor, for the love that he bare unto peace, thereby to enrich both
-himself and his subjects, and because he did not seek war, but find it,
-was judged to be no man at arms, (though indeed he excelled in feats of
-chivalry, and shewed so much when he was provoked,) and condemned for
-giving himself to his ease, and to his pleasure. To be short, the most learned Emperor of former times, (at the least the
-greatest politician,) what thanks had he for cutting off the superfluities
-of the laws, and digesting them into some order and method? This, that he
-hath been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> blotted by some to be an Epitomist, that is, one that
-extinguished worthy whole volumes, to bring his abridgements into request.
-This is the measure that hath been rendered to excellent Princes in former
-times, <i>cum bene facerent, male audire</i>, for their good deeds to be evil
-spoken of. Neither is there any likelihood that envy and malignity died
-and were buried with the ancient. No, no, the reproof of <i>Moses</i> taketh
-hold of most ages, <span class="sidenote">Num. 32. 14.<br />Eccles. 1. 9.</span><i>You are risen
-up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men. What is that that
-hath been done? that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
-the sun</i>, saith the wise man. And St. <i>Stephen</i>, <i>As your fathers did, so
-do ye</i>. <span class="sidenote">Acts 7. 51.<br />His Majesty’s constancy, notwithstanding
-calumniation, for the survey of the English translation.<br />Αὐτὸς καὶ παῖδες,
-καὶ παίδων πάντοτε παῖδες.<br /><br />Ὣσπερ τις ἀνδρὰς ἀπερίτρεπτος καὶ ἄκμων ἀνήλατος, <i>Suidas</i>.<br /><br />1 Sam. 2. 30.<br /><br />
-θεοσέβεια, <i>Eusebius, lib. 10. cap. 8</i>.<br /><br />The praise of the holy Scriptures.<br /><br /><i>St. August. Confess. lib. 8. cap. 12. St. August. De utilit.
-credendi, cap. 6.</i><br /><br /><i>St. Hieron. ad Demetriad. St. Cyrill 7 contra Julian.</i><br /><br /><i>Tertul. advers. Herm. Tertul. De carn.
-Christ.</i> Οἷόν τε, <i>Justin</i>. προτρεπτ. πρὸς Ἕλλην. Ὑπερηφανίας κατηγορία, <i>St. Basil</i>. περὶ πίστεως.<br /><br />Εἰρεσιώνη σῦκα φέρει, καὶ πίονας ἄρτους,
-καὶ μελι ἐν κοτύλῃ, καὶ ἔλαιον, &amp;c.<br />An olive bough wrapped about with wool, whereupon did hang figs, and bread, and honey in a pot, and oil.<br /><br />
-Κοινὸν ἰατρεῖον, <i>St. Basil in Psal. primum.</i><br /><br />Translation necessary.<br /><br />1 Cor. 14. 11.<br /><br /><i>Clem. Alex. 1 Strom.
-St. Hieronym. Damaso. Michael, Theophili fil. 2 Tom. Concil. ex edit. Petri Crab.</i><br /><br /><i>Cicero 5.<br />De Finibus.</i><br /><br />
-Gen. 29. 10.<br /><br />John 4. 11.<br /><br />Isai. 29. 11.<br /><br />The translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew into Greek.<br /><i>See St.
-August. lib. 12. contra Faust. cap. 32.</i></span>
-This, and more to this purpose, his Majesty that now reigneth (and long, and long, may he reign, and his offspring for
-ever, <i>Himself, and children, and children’s children always</i>!) knew full
-well, according to the singular wisdom given unto him by God, and the rare
-learning and experience that he hath attained unto; namely, That whosoever
-attempteth any thing for the publick, (especially if it pertain to
-religion, and to the opening and clearing of the word of God,) the same
-setteth himself upon a stage to be glouted upon by every evil eye; yea, he
-casteth himself headlong upon pikes, to be gored by every sharp tongue.
-For he that meddleth with men’s religion in any part meddleth with their
-custom, nay, with their freehold; and though they find no content in that
-which they have, yet they cannot abide to hear of altering.
-Notwithstanding his royal heart was not daunted or discouraged for this or
-that colour, but stood resolute, <i>as a statue immovable, and an anvil not
-easy to be beaten into plates</i>, as one saith; he knew who had chosen him to be a soldier, or rather a
-captain; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> being assured that
-the course which he intended made much for the glory of God, and the
-building up of his Church, he would not suffer it to be broken off for
-whatsoever speeches or practices. It doth certainly belong unto kings,
-yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to have care of religion, yea, to
-know it aright, yea, to profess it zealously, yea, to promote it to the
-uttermost of their power. This is their glory before all nations which
-mean well, and this will bring unto them a far most excellent weight of
-glory in the day of the Lord Jesus. For the Scripture saith not in vain,
-<i>Them that honour me I will honour</i>: neither was
-it a vain word that <i>Eusebius</i> delivered long ago, That piety toward God was the weapon, and
-the only weapon, that both preserved <i>Constantine’s</i> person, and avenged
-him of his enemies.</p>
-
-<p>But now what piety without truth? What truth, what saving truth, without the word of God? What word
-of God, whereof we may be sure, without the Scripture? The Scriptures we
-are commanded to search, <i>John</i> v. 39. <i>Isaiah</i> viii. 20. They are
-commended that searched and studied them, <i>Acts</i> xvii. 11, and viii. 28,
-29. They are reproved that were unskilful in them, or slow to believe
-them, <i>Matth.</i> xxii. 29. <i>Luke</i> xxiv. 25. They can make us wise unto
-salvation, <i>2 Tim.</i> iii. 15. If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if
-out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform
-us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us.
-<i>Tolle, lege; tolle, lege</i>; Take up and read, take
-up and read the Scriptures, (for unto them was the direction,) it was said
-unto St. <i>Augustine</i> by a supernatural voice. <i>Whatsoever is in the
-Scriptures, believe me</i>, saith the same St. <i>Augustine</i>, <i>is high and
-divine; there is verily <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>truth, and a doctrine most fit for the refreshing
-and renewing of men’s minds, and truly so tempered, that every one may
-draw from thence that which is sufficient for him, if he come to draw with
-a devout and pious mind, as true religion requireth</i>. Thus St.
-<i>Augustine</i>. And St. <i>Hierome</i>, <i>Ama Scripturas, et amabit te sapientia</i>, &amp;c.
-Love the Scriptures, and wisdom will love thee. And St. <i>Cyrill</i> against
-<i>Julian</i>, <i>Even boys that are bred up in the Scriptures become most
-religious</i>, &amp;c. But what mention we three or four uses of the Scripture,
-whereas whatsoever is to be believed, or practised, or hoped for, is
-contained in them? or three or four sentences of the Fathers, since
-whosoever is worthy the name of a Father, from Christ’s time downward,
-hath likewise written not only of the riches, but also of the perfection
-of the Scripture? <i>I adore the fulness of the Scripture</i>, saith
-<i>Tertullian</i> against <i>Hermogenes</i>. And again, to <i>Apelles</i> an heretick of
-the like stamp he saith, <i>I do not admit that which thou bringest in</i> (or
-concludest) <i>of thine own</i> (head or store, <i>de tuo</i>) without Scripture. So
-St. <i>Justin Martyr</i> before him; <i>We must know by all means</i> (saith he)
-<i>that it is not lawful</i> (or possible) <i>to learn</i> (any thing) <i>of God or of
-right piety, save only out of the Prophets, who teach us by divine
-inspiration</i>. So St. <i>Basil</i> after <i>Tertullian</i>, <i>It is a manifest falling
-away from the faith, and a fault of presumption, either to reject any of
-those things that are written, or to bring in</i> (upon the head of them,
-ἐπεισαγεῖν) <i>any of those things that are not written</i>. We omit to cite to
-the same effect St. <i>Cyrill</i> Bishop of <i>Jerusalem</i> in his 4. <i>Catech.</i> St.
-<i>Hierome</i> against <i>Helvidius</i>, St. <i>Augustine</i> in his third book against
-the letters of <i>Petilian</i>, and in very many other places of his works.
-Also we forbear to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> descend to later Fathers, because we will not weary
-the reader. The Scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so
-perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study
-them? of curiosity, if we be not content with them? Men talk much of εἰρεσιώνη, how many sweet and goodly
-things it had hanging on it; of the Philosopher’s stone, that it turneth
-copper into gold; of <i>Cornu-copia</i>, that it had all things necessary for
-food in it; of <i>Panaces</i>, the herb, that it was good for all diseases; of
-<i>Catholicon</i> the drug, that it is instead of all purges; of <i>Vulcan’s</i>
-armour, that it was an armour of proof against all thrusts and all blows,
-&amp;c. Well, that which they falsely or vainly attributed to these things for
-bodily good, we may justly and with full measure ascribe unto the
-Scripture for spiritual. It is not only an armour, but also a whole
-armoury of weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save
-ourselves, and put the enemy to flight. It is not an herb, but a tree, or
-rather a whole paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every
-month, and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine. It
-is not a pot of <i>Manna</i>, or a cruse of oil, which were for memory only, or
-for a meal’s meat or two; but, as it were, a shower of heavenly bread
-sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great, and, as it were, a
-whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be
-provided for, and our debts discharged. In a word, it is a panary of
-wholesome food against fenowed traditions; a physician’s shop (as St. <i>Basil</i> calls it)
-of preservatives against poisoned heresies; a pandect of profitable laws
-against rebellious spirits; a treasury of most costly jewels against
-beggarly rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water springing up
-unto <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>everlasting life. And what marvel? the original thereof being from
-heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the inditer, the
-Holy Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the penmen, such as
-were sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal portion of
-God’s Spirit; the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness; the form,
-God’s word, God’s testimony, God’s oracles, the word of truth, the word of
-salvation, &amp;c.; the effects, light of understanding, stableness of
-persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life, holiness, peace,
-joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of the study thereof,
-fellowship with the saints, participation of the heavenly nature, fruition
-of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that never shall fade away.
-Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and thrice happy that
-meditateth in it day and night.</p>
-
-<p>But how shall men meditate in that which they cannot understand? How shall they understand that which is kept
-close in an unknown tongue? as it is written, <i>Except I know the power of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a
-barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian to me</i>. The Apostle
-excepteth no tongue; not <i>Hebrew</i> the ancientest, not <i>Greek</i> the most
-copious, not <i>Latin</i> the finest. Nature taught a natural man to confess,
-that all of us in those tongues which we do not understand are plainly
-deaf; we may turn the deaf ear unto them. The <i>Scythian</i> counted the <i>Athenian</i>, whom he did not
-understand, barbarous: so the <i>Roman</i> did the <i>Syrian</i>, and the <i>Jew</i>:
-(even St. <i>Hierome</i> himself calleth the <i>Hebrew</i> tongue barbarous; belike,
-because it was strange to so many:) so the Emperor of <i>Constantinople</i>
-calleth the <i>Latin</i> tongue barbarous, though Pope <i>Nicolas</i> do storm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> at
-it: so the <i>Jews</i> long before <i>Christ</i> called all other nations <i>Lognasim</i>, which is little better than
-barbarous. Therefore as one complaineth that always in the Senate of
-<i>Rome</i> there was one or other that called for an interpreter; so lest the
-Church be driven to the like exigent, it is necessary to have translations
-in a readiness. Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the
-light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth
-aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that
-removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water; even as <i>Jacob</i> rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
-well, by which means the flocks of <i>Laban</i> were watered. Indeed without
-translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at <i>Jacob’s</i> well (which was deep) without a bucket
-or something to draw with: or as that person mentioned by <i>Esay</i>, to whom when a sealed book was delivered with this
-motion, <i>Read this, I pray thee</i>; he was fain to make this answer, <i>I cannot, for it is sealed</i>.</p>
-
-<p>While God would be known only in <i>Jacob</i>, and have his name great in <i>Israel</i>, and in none
-other place; while the dew lay on <i>Gideon’s</i> fleece only, and all the
-earth besides was dry; then for one and the same people, which spake all
-of them the language of <i>Canaan</i>, that is, <i>Hebrew</i>, one and the same
-original in <i>Hebrew</i> was sufficient. But when the fulness of time drew
-near, that the Sun of righteousness, the Son of God, should come into the
-world, whom God ordained to be a reconciliation through faith in his
-blood, not of the <i>Jew</i> only, but also of the <i>Greek</i>, yea, of all them
-that were scattered abroad; then, lo, it pleased the Lord to stir up the
-spirit of a <i>Greek</i> prince, (<i>Greek</i> for descent and language,) even of
-<i>Ptolemy Philadelph</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> king of <i>Egypt</i>, to procure the translating of the
-book of God out of <i>Hebrew</i> into <i>Greek</i>. This is the translation of the
-<i>Seventy</i> interpreters, commonly so called, which prepared the way for our
-Saviour among the <i>Gentiles</i> by written preaching, as St. <i>John Baptist</i>
-did among the <i>Jews</i> by vocal. For the <i>Grecians</i>, being desirous of
-learning, were not wont to suffer books of worth to lie moulding in kings’
-libraries, but had many of their servants, ready scribes, to copy them
-out, and so they were dispersed and made common. Again the <i>Greek</i> tongue
-was well known and made familiar to most inhabitants in <i>Asia</i> by reason
-of the conquests that there the <i>Grecians</i> had made, as also by the
-colonies which thither they had sent. For the same causes also it was well
-understood in many places of <i>Europe</i>, yea, and of <i>Africk</i> too. Therefore
-the word of God, being set forth in <i>Greek</i>, becometh hereby like a candle
-set upon a candlestick, which giveth light to all that are in the house;
-or like a proclamation sounded forth in the market place, which most men
-presently take knowledge of; and therefore that language was fittest to
-contain the Scriptures, both for the first preachers of the Gospel to
-appeal unto for witness, and for the learners also of those times to make
-search and trial by. It is certain, that that translation was not so sound
-and so perfect, but that it needed in many places correction; and who had
-been so sufficient for this work as the Apostles or apostolick men? Yet it
-seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to take that which they found,
-(the same being for the greatest part true and sufficient,) rather than by
-making a new, in that new world and green age of the Church, to expose
-themselves to many exceptions and cavillations, as though they made a
-translation to serve their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> turn; and therefore hearing witness to
-themselves, their witness not to be regarded. This may be supposed to be
-some cause, why the translation of the <i>Seventy</i> was allowed to pass for
-current. Notwithstanding, though it was commended generally, yet it did
-not fully content the learned, no not of the <i>Jews</i>. For not long after
-<i>Christ</i>, <i>Aquila</i> fell in hand with a new translation, and after him
-<i>Theodotion</i>, and after him <i>Symmachus</i>; yea, there was a fifth, and a
-sixth edition, the authors whereof were not known. These with the
-<i>Seventy</i> made up the <i>Hexapla</i>, and were worthily and to great purpose
-compiled together by <i>Origen</i>. Howbeit the edition of the <i>Seventy</i> went
-away with the credit, and therefore not only was placed in the midst by
-<i>Origen</i>, (for the worth and excellency thereof above the rest, as <i>Epiphanius</i> gathereth,)
-<span class="sidenote"><i>Epiphan. De mensuris et ponderib. St. August. 2. De doctrin. Christian. c. 15. Novel. diatax. 146.</i><br />Προφητικῆς ὥσπερ
-χάριτος περιλαξμψάσης αὐτους.<br />Isai. 31. 3.<br /><i>St. Hieron. de optimo genere interpret.</i><br /><br />Translation out of Hebrew and Greek into Latin.<br /><br />
-<i>St. August. de doctrin. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 11.</i><br /><br />The translating of the Scripture into the vulgar tongues.<br />
-<i>St. Hieron. Marcell. Zosim.</i><br /><br />2 Kin. 7. 9.<br /><br /><i>St. Hieron. Præf. in 4. Evangel.</i><br /><br /><i>St. Hieron. Sophronio.</i><br /><br />
-<i>Six. Sen. lib. 4. Alphon. a Castro, lib. 1. cap. 23.<br />St. Chrysost. in Joann. cap. 1. hom. 1.</i><br /><br /><i>Theodor. 5. Therapeut.</i><br /><br /><i>P. Diacon.
-lib. 12. Isid. in Chron. Goth. Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 57.<br />Vasseus in Chro. Hisp. Polydor. Virg. 5. hist. Anglorum testatur idem de Aluredo nostro. Aventin. lib.
-4.</i><br /><br /> <i>Beroald. Thuan.</i><br /><br />Psal. 48. 8.<br /><br />The unwillingness of our chief adversaries that the Scriptures should be divulged in the mother
-tongue, &amp;c.<br />Δῶρον ἄδωρον κουκ ὀνήσιμον <i>Sophocl.</i><br /><br />See the observation (set forth by Clement’s authority) upon the 4th rule of <i>Pius</i> the 4th’s making
-in the <i>Index lib. prohib. pag. 15. ver. 5. Tertull. de resur. carnis.</i><br /><br />John 3. 20.<br /><br />The speeches and reasons both of our brethren, and of
-adversaries, against this work.<br /><br /><i>St. Iren. lib. 3. cap. 19.</i><br /><br />Neh. 4. 2, 3.<br /><br /><i>St. Hieron. Apolog. advers. Ruffin.</i><br /><br />
-A satisfaction to our brethren.<br /><br /><i>Arist. 2. Metaphys. cap. 1.</i><br /><br /><i>St. Epiphan. loco ante citato. St. August. lib. 19. De civit.
-Dei, cap. 7.</i><br /><br />2 Kin. 13. 18, 19.<br /><br /><i>St. Hieron. in Ezech. cap. 3.</i><br /><br />Jer. 23. 28.<br /><br /><i>Tertull. ad Martyr. Si tanti
-vilissimum vitrum, quanti preciosissimum margaritum! Hier. ad Salvin.</i></span>
-but also was used by the <i>Greek</i> Fathers for the ground and foundation of their
-commentaries. Yea, <i>Epiphanius</i> abovenamed doth attribute so much unto it,
-that he holdeth the authors thereof not only for interpreters, but also for prophets in
-some respect: and <i>Justinian</i> the Emperor, injoining the <i>Jews</i> his
-subjects to use especially the translation of the <i>Seventy</i>, rendereth
-this reason thereof, Because they were, as it were, enlightened with
-prophetical grace. Yet for all that, as the <i>Egyptians</i> are said of the Prophet to be men and not God, and their
-horses flesh and not spirit: so it is evident, (and St. <i>Hierome</i>
-affirmeth as much,) that the <i>Seventy</i> were interpreters, they were not prophets. They did
-many things well, as learned men; but yet as men they stumbled and fell,
-one while through oversight, another while through ignorance; yea,
-sometimes they may be noted to add to the original, and sometimes to take
-from it: which made the Apostles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> to leave them many times, when they left
-the <i>Hebrew</i>, and to deliver the sense thereof according to the truth of
-the word, as the Spirit gave them utterance. This may suffice touching the
-<i>Greek</i> translations of the Old Testament.</p>
-
-<p>There were also within a few hundred years after <i>Christ</i> translations many into the
-<i>Latin</i> tongue: for this tongue also was very fit to convey the Law and
-the Gospel by, because in those times very many countries of the West, yea
-of the South, East, and North, spake or understood <i>Latin</i>, being made
-provinces to the <i>Romans</i>. But now the <i>Latin</i> translations were too many
-to be all good: for they were infinite; (<i>Latini interpretes nullo modo
-numerari possunt</i>, saith St. <i>Augustine</i>.) Again, they were not out of the
-<i>Hebrew</i> fountain, (we speak of the <i>Latin</i> translations of the Old
-Testament,) but out of the <i>Greek</i> stream; therefore the <i>Greek</i> being not
-altogether clear, the <i>Latin</i> derived from it must needs be muddy. This
-moved St. <i>Hierome</i>, a most learned Father, and the best linguist without
-controversy of his age, or of any other that went before him, to undertake
-the translating of the Old Testament out of the very fountains themselves;
-which he performed with that evidence of great learning, judgment,
-industry, and faithfulness, that he hath for ever bound the Church unto
-him in a debt of special remembrance and thankfulness.</p>
-
-<p>Now though the Church were thus furnished with <i>Greek</i> and <i>Latin</i>
-translations, even before the faith of <i>Christ</i> was generally embraced in
-the Empire: (for the learned know, that even in St. <i>Hierome’s</i> time the Consul of <i>Rome</i> and his
-wife were both Ethnicks, and about the same time the greatest part of the
-Senate also:) yet for all that the godly learned were not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>content to have
-the Scriptures in the language which themselves understood, <i>Greek</i> and <i>Latin</i>, (as the good lepers were not content to
-fare well themselves, but acquainted their neighbours with the store that
-God had sent, that they also might provide for themselves;) but also for
-the behoof and edifying of the unlearned, which hungered and thirsted
-after righteousness, and had souls to be saved as well as they, they
-provided translations into the vulgar for their countrymen, insomuch that
-most nations under heaven did shortly after their conversion hear <i>Christ</i>
-speaking unto them in their mother tongue, not by the voice of their
-minister only, but also by the written word translated. If any doubt
-hereof, he may be satisfied by examples enough, if enough will serve the
-turn. First, St. <i>Hierome</i> saith, <i>Multarum gentium linguis Scriptura ante translata docet falsa esse
-quæ addita sunt</i>, &amp;c.; that is, <i>The Scripture being translated before in
-the languages of many nations doth shew that those things that were added</i>
-(by <i>Lucian</i> or <i>Hesychius</i>) <i>are false</i>. So St. <i>Hierome</i> in that place. The same <i>Hierome</i> elsewhere
-affirmeth that he, the time was, had set forth the translation of the
-<i>Seventy</i>, <i>suæ lingæ hominibus</i>; that is, for his countrymen of <i>Dalmatia</i>.
-Which words not only <i>Erasmus</i> doth understand to purport, that St.
-<i>Hierome</i> translated the Scripture into the <i>Dalmatian</i> tongue;
-but also <i>Sixtus Senensis</i>, and <i>Alphonsus a Castro</i>, (that we speak of no more,) men not to be excepted against by
-them of <i>Rome</i>, do ingenuously confess as much. So St. <i>Chrysostome</i>, that
-lived in St. <i>Hierome’s</i> time, giveth evidence with him: <i>The doctrine of
-St. John</i> (saith he) <i>did not in such sort</i> (as the Philosophers’ did)
-<i>vanish away: but the Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Ethiopians,
-and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> infinite other nations, being barbarous people, translated it into
-their (mother) tongue, and have learned, to be (true) Philosophers</i>, he
-meaneth Christians. To this may be added <i>Theodoret</i>, as next unto him both for antiquity, and for learning.
-His words be these, <i>Every country that is under the sun is full of these
-words</i>, (of the Apostles and Prophets;) <i>and the Hebrew tongue</i> (he
-meaneth the Scriptures in the <i>Hebrew</i> tongue) <i>is turned not only into
-the language of the Grecians, but also of the Romans, and Egyptians, and
-Persians, and Indians, and Armenians, and Scythians, and Sauromatians,
-and, briefly, into all the languages that any nation useth</i>. So he. In like manner <i>Ulpilas</i> is reported by
-<i>Paulus Diaconus</i> and <i>Isidore</i>, and before them by <i>Sozomen</i>, to have
-translated the Scriptures into the <i>Gothick</i> tongue: <i>John</i> Bishop of
-<i>Sevil</i> by <i>Vasseus</i>, to have turned them into <i>Arabick</i> about the Year of
-our Lord 717: <i>Beda</i> by <i>Cistertiensis</i>, to have turned a great part of
-them into <i>Saxon</i>: <i>Efnard</i> by <i>Trithemius</i>, to have abridged the French
-Psalter (as <i>Beda</i> had done the <i>Hebrew</i>) about the year 800: King
-<i>Alured</i> by the said <i>Cistertiensis</i>, to have turned the Psalter into
-<i>Saxon</i>: <i>Methodius</i> by <i>Aventinus</i> (printed at <i>Ingolstad</i>) to have
-turned the Scriptures into <i>Sclavonian</i>: <i>Valdo</i><a name='fna_146' id='fna_146' href='#f_146'><small>[146]</small></a> Bishop of <i>Frising</i>
-by <i>Beatus Rhenanus</i>, to have caused about that time the Gospels to be
-translated into <i>Dutch</i> rhyme, yet extant in the library of <i>Corbinian</i>:
-<i>Valdus</i> by divers, to have turned them himself, or to have gotten them
-turned, into <i>French</i>, about the Year 1160: <i>Charles</i> the Fifth of that
-name, surnamed <i>The wise</i>, to have caused them to be turned into <i>French</i>
-about 200 years after <i>Valdus’</i> time; of which translation there be many
-copies yet extant, as witnesseth <i>Beroaldus</i>. Much about that time, even
-in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> our King <i>Richard</i> the Second’s
-days, <i>John Trevisa</i> translated them into <i>English</i>, and many <i>English</i>
-Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen with divers; translated, as it
-is very probable, in that age. So the <i>Syrian</i> translation of the New
-Testament is in most learned men’s libraries, of <i>Widminstadius’</i> setting
-forth; and the Psalter in <i>Arabick</i> is with many, of <i>Augustinus
-Nebiensis’</i> setting forth. So <i>Postel</i> affirmeth, that in his travel he
-saw the Gospels in the <i>Ethiopian</i> tongue: And <i>Ambrose Thesius</i> alledgeth
-the Psalter of the <i>Indians</i>, which he testifieth to have been set forth
-by <i>Potken</i> in <i>Syrian</i> characters. So that to have the Scriptures in the
-mother tongue is not a quaint conceit lately taken up, either by the Lord
-<i>Cromwell</i> in <i>England</i>, or by the Lord <i>Radevile</i> in <i>Polony</i>, or by the
-Lord <i>Ungnadius</i> in the Emperor’s dominion, but hath been thought upon,
-and put in practice of old, even from the first times of the conversion of
-any nation; no doubt, because it was esteemed most profitable to cause
-faith to grow in men’s hearts the sooner, and to make them to be able to
-say with the words of the Psalm, <i>As we have heard, so we have seen</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Now the church of <i>Rome</i> would seem at the length to bear a
-motherly affection toward her children, and to allow them the Scriptures
-in the mother tongue: but indeed it is a gift, not deserving to be called
-a gift, an unprofitable gift: they must first get a licence in writing
-before they may use them; and to get that, they must approve themselves to
-their Confessor, that is, to be such as are, if not frozen in the dregs,
-yet soured with the leaven of their superstition. Howbeit it seemed too
-much to <i>Clement</i> the Eighth, that there should be any licence granted to
-have them in the vulgar tongue, and therefore he overruleth and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>frustrateth the grant of <i>Pius</i> the Fourth.
-So much are they afraid of the light of the Scripture,
-(<i>Lucifugæ Scripturarum</i>, as <i>Tertullian</i> speaketh,) that they will not
-trust the people with it, no not as it is set forth by their own sworn
-men, no not with the licence of their own Bishops and Inquisitors. Yea, so
-unwilling they are to communicate the Scriptures to the people’s
-understanding in any sort, that they are not ashamed to confess, that we
-forced them to translate it into <i>English</i> against their wills. This
-seemeth to argue a bad cause, or a bad conscience, or both. Sure we are,
-that it is not he that hath good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the
-touch-stone, but he that hath the counterfeit; neither is it the true man that shunneth the light, but the malefactor,
-lest his deeds should be reproved; neither is it the plaindealing merchant
-that is unwilling to have the weights, or the meteyard, brought in place,
-but he that useth deceit. But we will let them alone for this fault, and
-return to translation.</p>
-
-<p>Many men’s mouths have been opened a good while (and yet are not stopped) with speeches about the translation so
-long in hand, or rather perusals of translations made before: and ask what
-may be the reason, what the necessity, of the employment. Hath the Church
-been deceived, say they, all this while? Hath her sweet bread been mingled
-with leaven, her silver with dross, her wine with water, her milk with
-lime? (<i>lacte gypsum male miscetur</i>, saith St. <i>Irenee</i>.) We hoped that we had been in the right way, that
-we had had the Oracles of God delivered unto us, and that though all the
-world had cause to be offended, and to complain, yet that we had none.
-Hath the nurse holden out the breast, and nothing but wind in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> it? Hath
-the bread been delivered by the Fathers of the Church, and the same proved
-to be <i>lapidosus</i>, as <i>Seneca</i> speaketh? What is it to handle the word of
-God deceitfully, if this be not? Thus certain brethren. Also the
-adversaries of <i>Judah</i> and <i>Jerusalem</i>, like
-<i>Sanballat</i> in <i>Nehemiah</i>, mock, as we hear, both at the work and workmen,
-saying, <i>What do these weak Jews, &amp;c., will they make the stones whole
-again out of the heaps of dust which are burnt? although they build, yet
-if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stony wall</i>. Was their
-translation good before? Why do they now mend it? Was it not good? Why
-then was it obtruded to the people? Yea, why did the Catholicks (meaning
-Popish <i>Romanists</i>) always go in jeopardy for refusing to go to hear it?
-Nay, if it must be translated into <i>English</i>, Catholicks are fittest to do
-it. They have learning, and they know when a thing is well, they can
-<i>manum de tabula</i>. We will answer them both briefly: and the former, being brethren, thus
-with St. <i>Hierome</i>, <i>Damnamus veteres? Minime, sed post priorum studia in
-domo Domini quod possumus laboramus.</i> That is, <i>Do we condemn the ancient?
-In no case: but after the endeavours of them that were before us, we take
-the best pains we can in the house of God.</i> As if he said, Being provoked
-by the example of the learned that lived before my time, I have thought it
-my duty to assay, whether my talent in the knowledge of the tongues may be
-profitable in any measure to God’s Church, lest I should seem to have
-laboured in them in vain, and lest I should be thought to glory in men
-(although ancient) above that which was in them. Thus St. <i>Hierome</i> may be
-thought to speak.</p>
-
-<p>And to the same effect say we, that we are so far off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> from
-condemning any of their labours that travelled before us in this kind, either in this land, or beyond sea,
-either in King <i>Henry’s</i> time, or King <i>Edward’s</i>, (if there were any
-translation, or correction of a translation, in his time,) or Queen
-<i>Elizabeth’s</i> of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have
-been raised up of God for the building and furnishing of his Church, and
-that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting
-remembrance. The judgment of <i>Aristotle</i> is worthy and well known:
-<i>If Timotheus had not been, we had not had much sweet musick: But if Phrynis</i> (<i>Timotheus’</i> master) <i>had
-not been, we had not had Timotheus</i>. Therefore blessed be they, and most
-honoured be their name, that break the ice, and give the onset upon that
-which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can be more
-available thereto, than to deliver God’s book unto God’s people in a
-tongue which they understand? Since of an hidden treasure, and of a
-fountain that is sealed, there is no profit, as <i>Ptolemy Philadelph</i> wrote
-to the Rabbins or masters of the <i>Jews</i>, as witnesseth <i>Epiphanius</i>:
-and as St. <i>Augustine</i> saith, <i>A man had rather be with his
-dog than with a stranger</i> (whose tongue is strange unto him.) Yet for all
-that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, and the latter
-thoughts are thought to be the wiser: so, if we building upon their
-foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, do
-endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are
-sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we persuade ourselves, if they were
-alive, would thank us. The vintage of <i>Abiezer</i>, that strake the stroke:
-yet the gleaning of grapes of <i>Ephraim</i> was not to be despised. See
-<i>Judges</i> viii. 2. <i>Joash</i> the king of
-<i>Israel</i> did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> satisfy himself till he had smitten the ground three
-times; and yet he offended the Prophet for giving over then. <i>Aquila</i>, of
-whom we spake before, translated the Bible as carefully and as skilfully
-as he could; and yet he thought good to go over it again, and then it got
-the credit with the <i>Jews</i>, to be called κατ’ ἀκρίβειαν, that is,
-accurately done, as St. <i>Hierome</i> witnesseth. How many books of profane learning have been gone over
-again and again, by the same translators, by others? Of one and the same
-book of <i>Aristotle’s</i> Ethicks there are extant not so few as six or seven
-several translations. Now if this cost may be bestowed upon the gourd,
-which affordeth us a little shade, and which to day flourisheth, but to
-morrow is cut down; what may we bestow, nay, what ought we not to bestow,
-upon the vine, the fruit whereof maketh glad the conscience of man, and
-the stem whereof abideth for ever? And this is the word of God, which we
-translate. <i>What is the chaff to the wheat? saith
-the Lord. Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum!</i> (saith <i>Tertullian</i>.)
-If a toy of glass be of that reckoning with us, how ought we to value the true pearl! Therefore let no
-man’s eye be evil, because his Majesty’s is good; neither let any be
-grieved, that we have a Prince that seeketh the increase of the spiritual
-wealth of <i>Israel</i>; (let <i>Sanballats</i> and <i>Tobiahs</i> do so, which therefore
-do bear their just reproof;) but let us rather bless God from the ground
-of our heart for working this religious care in him to have the
-translations of the Bible maturely considered of and examined. For by this
-means it cometh to pass, that whatsoever is sound already, (and all is
-sound for substance in one or other of our editions, and the worst of ours
-far better than their authentick vulgar) the same will shine as gold more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
-brightly, being rubbed and polished; also, if any thing be halting, or
-superfluous, or not so agreeable to the original, the same may be
-corrected, and the truth set in place. And what can the King command to be
-done, that will bring him more true honour than this? And wherein could
-they that have been set a work approve their duty to the King, yea, their
-obedience to God, and love to his Saints, more, than by yielding their
-service, and all that is within them, for the furnishing of the work? But
-besides all this, they were the principal motives of it, and therefore
-ought least to quarrel it. For the very historical truth is, that upon the
-importunate petitions of the Puritanes at his Majesty’s coming to this
-crown, the conference at <i>Hampton-court</i> having been appointed for hearing
-their complaints, when by force of reason they were put from all other
-grounds, they had recourse at the last to this shift, that they could not
-with good conscience subscribe to the communion book, since it maintained
-the Bible as it was there translated, which was, as they said, a most
-corrupted translation. And although this was judged to be but a very poor
-and empty shift, yet even hereupon did his Majesty begin to bethink
-himself of the good that might ensue by a new translation, and presently
-after gave order for this translation which is now presented unto thee.
-Thus much to satisfy our scrupulous brethren.</p>
-
-<p><span class="sidenote">An answer to the imputations of our adversaries.</span>Now to the
-latter we answer, That we do not deny, nay, we affirm and avow, that the
-very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our
-profession, (for we have seen none of their’s of the whole Bible as yet)
-containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God: As the King’s speech
-which he uttered in Parliament, being translated into <i>French</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> <i>Dutch</i>,
-<i>Italian</i>, and <i>Latin</i>, is still the King’s speech, though it be not
-interpreted by every translator with the like grace, nor peradventure so
-fitly for phrase, nor so expressly for sense, every where. For it is
-confessed, that things are to take their denomination of the greater part;
-<span class="sidenote"><i>Horace.</i></span>and a natural man could say, <i>Verum ubi multa nitent
-in carmine, non ego paucis offendor maculis, &amp;c.</i> A man may be counted a
-virtuous man, though he have made many slips in his life, (else there were
-none virtuous, for <i>in many things we offend all</i>,) <span class="sidenote">Jam. 3. 2.</span>also a comely man and lovely, though he have some warts upon his hand;
-yea, not only freckles upon his face, but also scars. No cause therefore
-why the word translated should be denied to be the word, or forbidden to
-be current, notwithstanding that some imperfections and blemishes may be
-noted in the setting forth of it. For what ever was perfect under the sun,
-where Apostles or apostolick men, that is, men endued with an
-extraordinary measure of God’s Spirit, and privileged with the privilege
-of infallibility, had not their hand? The Romanists therefore in refusing
-to hear, and daring to burn the word translated, did no less than despite
-the Spirit of grace, from whom originally it proceeded, and whose sense
-and meaning, as well as man’s weakness would enable, it did express. Judge
-by an example or two.</p>
-
-<p><span class="sidenote"><i>Plutarch in Camillo.</i></span><i>Plutarch</i> writeth, that after that
-<i>Rome</i> had been burnt by the <i>Gauls</i>, they fell soon to build it again:
-but doing it in haste, they did not cast the streets, nor proportion the
-houses, in such comely fashion, as had been most sightly and convenient.
-Was <i>Catiline</i> therefore an honest man, or a good patriot, that sought to
-bring it to a combustion? Or <i>Nero</i> a good Prince, that did indeed set it
-on fire? So by the story of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> <i>Ezra</i> and the prophecy of <i>Haggai</i> it may be
-gathered, <span class="sidenote">Ezra 3. 12.</span>that the temple built by <i>Zerubbabel</i>
-after the return from <i>Babylon</i> was by no means to be compared to the
-former built by <i>Solomon</i>: for they that remembered the former wept when
-they considered the latter. Notwithstanding might this latter either have
-been abhorred and forsaken by the <i>Jews</i>, or profaned by the <i>Greeks</i>? The
-like we are to think of translations. The translation of the <i>Seventy</i>
-dissenteth from the Original in many places, neither doth it come near it
-for perspicuity, gravity, majesty. Yet which of the Apostles did condemn
-it? Condemn it? Nay, they used it, (as it is apparent, and as St.
-<i>Hierome</i> and most learned men do confess;) which they would not have
-done, nor by their example of using of it so grace and commend it to the
-Church, if it had been unworthy the appellation and name of the word of
-God. And whereas they urge for their second defence of their vilifying and
-abusing of the <i>English</i> Bibles, or some pieces thereof, which they meet
-with, for that hereticks forsooth were the authors of the translations:
-(hereticks they call us by the same right that they call themselves
-catholicks, both being wrong:) we marvel what divinity taught them so. We
-are sure <i>Tertullian</i> was of another mind: <span class="sidenote"><i>Tertull. de
-præscript. contra hæreses.</i><br /><br /><i>St. August. 3. de doct. Christ. cap. 30.</i></span><i>Ex personis probamus fidem, an ex fide
-personas?</i> Do we try men’s faith by their persons? We should try their
-persons by their faith. Also St. <i>Augustine</i> was of another mind:
-for he, lighting upon certain rules made by <i>Tychonius</i> a <i>Donatist</i> for the better
-understanding of the word, was not ashamed to make use of them, yea, to
-insert them into his own book, with giving commendation to them so far
-forth as they were worthy to be commended, as is to be seen in St.
-<i>Augustine’s</i> third book<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> <i>De Doct. Christ</i>. To be short, <i>Origen</i>, and
-the whole Church of God for certain hundred years, were of another mind:
-for they were so far from treading under foot (much more from burning) the
-translation of <i>Aquila</i> a proselyte, that is, one that had turned <i>Jew</i>,
-of <i>Symmachus</i>, and <i>Theodotion</i>, both <i>Ebionites</i>, that is, most vile
-hereticks, that they joined them together with the <i>Hebrew</i> original, and
-the translation of the <i>Seventy</i>, (as hath been before signified out of
-<i>Epiphanius</i>,) and set them forth openly to be considered of and perused
-by all. But we weary the unlearned, who need not know so much; and trouble
-the learned, who know it already.</p>
-
-<p>Yet before we end, we must answer a third cavil and objection of their’s
-against us, for altering and amending our translations so oft; wherein
-truly they deal hardly and strangely with us. For to whom ever was it
-imputed for a fault, (by such as were wise,) to go over that which he had
-done, and to amend it where he saw cause? <span class="sidenote"><i>St. August. Epist.
-9. St. August. lib. Retract Video interdum vitia mea.<br />St. August. Epist.
-8.</i></span>St. <i>Augustine</i> was not afraid to exhort St. <i>Hierome</i> to a
-<i>Palinodia</i> or recantation. The same St. <i>Augustine</i> was not ashamed to
-retractate, we might say, revoke, many things that had passed him, and
-doth even glory that he seeth his infirmities. If we will be sons of the
-truth, we must consider what it speaketh, and trample upon our own credit,
-yea, and upon other men’s too, if either be any way an hindrance to it.
-This to the cause. Then to the persons we say, that of all men they ought
-to be most silent in this case. For what varieties have they, and what
-alterations have they made, not only of their service books, portesses,
-and breviaries, but also of their <i>Latin</i> translation? The service book
-supposed to be made by St. <i>Ambrose</i>, (<i>Officium Ambrosianum</i>,)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> was a
-great while in special use and request: but Pope <i>Adrian</i>, <span class="sidenote"><i>Durand.
-lib. 5. cap. 2.</i></span>calling a council with the aid of <i>Charles</i> the
-Emperor, abolished it, yea, burnt it, and commanded the service book of
-St. <i>Gregory</i> universally to be used. Well, <i>Officium Gregorianum</i> gets by
-this means to be in credit; but doth it continue without change or
-altering? No, the very <i>Roman</i> service was of two fashions; the new
-fashion, and the old, the one used in one Church, and the other in
-another; as is to be seen in <i>Pamelius</i> a Romanist, his preface before
-<i>Micrologus</i>. The same <i>Pamelius</i> reporteth out of <i>Radulphus de Rivo</i>,
-that about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope <i>Nicolas</i> the Third removed out
-of the churches of <i>Rome</i> the more ancient books (of service,) and brought
-into use the missals of the Friers Minorites, and commanded them to be
-observed there: insomuch that about an hundred years after, when the
-aboved named <i>Radulphus</i> happened to be at Rome, he found all the books to
-be new, of the new stamp. Neither was there this chopping and changing in
-the more ancient times only, but also of late. <i>Pius Quintus</i> himself
-confesseth, that every bishoprick almost had a peculiar kind of service,
-most unlike to that which others had; which moved him to abolish all other
-breviaries, though never so ancient, and privileged and published by
-Bishops in their Dioceses, and to establish and ratify that only which was
-of his own setting forth in the year 1568. Now when the Father of their
-Church, who gladly would heal the sore of the daughter of his people
-softly and slightly, and make the best of it, findeth so great fault with
-them for their odds and jarring; we hope the children have no great cause
-to vaunt of their uniformity. But the difference that appeareth between
-our translations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> and our often correcting of them, is the thing that we
-are specially charged with; let us see therefore whether they themselves
-be without fault this way, (if it be to be counted a fault to correct,)
-and whether they be fit men to throw stones at us: <i>O tandem major parcas
-insane minori</i>: They that are less sound themselves ought not to object
-infirmities to others. If we should tell them, that <i>Valla</i>,
-<i>Stapulensis</i>, <i>Erasmus</i>, and <i>Vives</i>, found fault with their vulgar
-translation, and consequently wished the same to be mended, or a new one
-to be made; they would answer peradventure, that we produced their enemies
-for witnesses against them; albeit they were in no other sort enemies,
-than as St. <i>Paul</i> was to the <i>Galatians</i>, <span class="sidenote">Gal. 4. 16.</span>for
-telling them the truth: and it were to be wished, that they had dared to
-tell it them plainlier and oftener. But what will they say to this, That
-Pope <i>Leo</i> the Tenth allowed <i>Erasmus’</i> translation of the New Testament,
-so much different from the vulgar, by his apostolick letter and bull?
-<span class="sidenote"><i>Sixtus Senens.</i></span>That the same <i>Leo</i> exhorted <i>Pagnine</i> to
-translate the whole Bible, and bare whatsoever charges was necessary for
-the work? Surely, as the apostle reasoneth to the <i>Hebrews</i>, <span class="sidenote">Heb.
-7. 11. &amp; 8. 7.</span>that <i>if the former Law and Testament had been
-sufficient, there had been no need of the latter</i>: so we may say, that if
-the old vulgar had been at all points allowable, to small purpose had
-labour and charges been undergone about framing of a new. If they say, it
-was one Pope’s private opinion, and that he consulted only himself; then
-we are able to go further with them, and to aver, that more of their chief
-men of all sorts, even their own <i>Trent</i> champions, <i>Paiva</i> and <i>Vega</i>,
-and their own inquisitor <i>Hieronymus ab Oleastro</i>, and their own Bishop
-<i>Isidorus Clarius</i>, and their own Cardinal <i>Thomas a vio Cajetan</i>, do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
-either make new translations themselves, or follow new ones of other men’s
-making, or note the vulgar interpreter for halting, none of them fear to
-dissent from him, nor yet to except against him. And call they this an
-uniform tenor of text and judgment about the text, so many of their
-worthies disclaiming the now received conceit? Nay, we will yet come
-nearer the quick. <span class="sidenote"><i>Sixtus 5. Præf. fixa bibliis.</i></span>Doth not
-their <i>Paris</i> edition differ from the <i>Lovain</i>, and <i>Hentenius’s</i> from
-them both, and yet all of them allowed by authority? Nay, doth not <i>Sixtus
-Quintus</i> confess, that certain Catholicks (he meaneth certain of his own
-side) were in such an humour of translating the Scriptures into <i>Latin</i>,
-that Satan taking occasion by them, though they thought of no such matter,
-did strive what he could, out of so uncertain and manifold a variety of
-translations, so to mingle all things, that nothing might seem to be left
-certain and firm in them, &amp;c.? Nay further, did not the same <i>Sixtus</i>
-ordain by an inviolable decree, and that with the counsel and consent of
-his Cardinals, that the <i>Latin</i> edition of the Old and New Testament,
-which the council of <i>Trent</i> would have to be authentick, is the same
-without controversy which he then set forth, being diligently corrected
-and printed in the printinghouse of <i>Vatican</i>? Thus <i>Sixtus</i> in his
-preface before his Bible. And yet <i>Clement</i> the Eighth, his immediate
-successor to account of, publisheth another edition of the Bible,
-containing in it infinite differences from that of <i>Sixtus</i>, and many of
-them weighty and material; and yet this must be authentick by all means.
-What is to have the faith of our glorious Lord <i>Jesus Christ</i> with yea and
-nay, if this be not? Again, what is sweet harmony and consent, if this be?
-Therefore, as <i>Demaratus</i> of <i>Corinth</i> advised a great King, before he
-talked of the dissensions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> among the <i>Grecians</i>, to compose his domestick
-broils; (for at that time his queen and his son and heir were at deadly
-feud with him) so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and
-so various editions themselves, and do jar so much about the worth and
-authority of them, they can with no shew of equity challenge us for
-changing and correcting.</p>
-
-<p><span class="sidenote">The purpose of the Translators, with their number, furniture,
-care, &amp;c.</span>But it is high time to leave them, and to shew in brief what we
-proposed to ourselves, and what course we held, in this our perusal and
-survey of the Bible. Truly, good Christian Reader, we never thought from
-the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to
-make of a bad one a good one: (for then the imputation of <i>Sixtus</i> had
-been true in some sort, that our people had been fed with gall of dragons
-instead of wine, with wheal instead of milk;) but to make a good one
-better, or out of many good ones one principal good one, not justly to be
-excepted against; that hath been our endeavour, that our mark. To that
-purpose there were many chosen, that were greater in other men’s eyes than
-in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise.
-Again, they came, or were thought to come, to the work, not <i>exercendi
-causa</i>, (as one saith,) but <i>exercitati</i>, that is, learned not to learn;
-for the chief overseer and ἐργοδιώκτης under his Majesty, to whom not only
-we, but also our whole Church was much bound, knew by his wisdom, which
-thing only <i>Nazianzen</i> taught so long ago, <span class="sidenote"><i>Nazianz.</i> εἰς ρν’,
-ἐπισκ παρουσ.<br /><i>Idem in Apologet.</i></span> that it is a preposterous order to
-teach first and to learn after; that τὸ ἐν πίθῳ κεραμίαν μανθάνειν to
-learn and practise together, is neither commendable for the workman, nor
-safe for the work. Therefore such were thought upon, as could say modestly
-with St. <i>Hierome</i>, <i>Et Hebræum sermonem ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> parte didicimus, et in Latino
-pene ab ipsis incunabulis, &amp;c., detriti sumus; Both we have learned the
-Hebrew tongue in part, and in the Latin we have been exercised almost from
-our very cradle.</i> St. <i>Hierome</i> maketh no mention of the <i>Greek</i> tongue,
-wherein yet he did excel; because he translated not the Old Testament out
-of <i>Greek</i>, but out of <i>Hebrew</i>. And in what sort did these assemble? In
-the trust of their own knowledge, or of their sharpness of wit, or
-deepness of judgment, as it were in an arm of flesh? At no hand. They
-trusted in him that hath the key of <i>David</i>, opening, and no man shutting;
-they prayed to the Lord, the Father of our Lord, to the effect that St.
-<i>Augustine</i> did: <span class="sidenote"><i>St. August. lib. 11. Confess. cap. 2.</i></span><i>O
-let thy Scriptures be my pure delight; let me not be deceived in them,
-neither let me deceive by them</i>. In this confidence, and with this
-devotion, did they assemble together; not too many, lest one should
-trouble another; and yet many, lest many things haply might escape them.
-If you ask what they had before them; truly it was the <i>Hebrew</i> text of
-the Old Testament, the <i>Greek</i> of the New. These are the two golden pipes,
-or rather conduits, wherethrough the olivebranches empty themselves into
-the gold. <span class="sidenote"><i>St. Aug. 3. De doctr. cap. 3., &amp;c. St. Hieron. ad
-Suniam et Fretel. St. Hieron. ad Lucinium, Dist 9.</i> Ut veterum.<br /><br /><i>Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12.</i><br /><br />
-<i>St. Hieron. ad Pammach. pro lib. advers. Jovinian.</i><br />πρωτόπειροι.<br /><br />Φιλεῖ γὰρ ὀκνεῖν πραγμ’ ἀνὴρ πράσσων μέγα, <i>Sophocl. in Elect.</i><br /><br />
-Reasons moving us to set diversity of senses in the margin, where there is great probability for each.<br />πάντα τὰ ἀναγκαῖα δῆλα.<br />
-<i>St. Chrysost. in 2 Thess. cap. 2. St. Aug. 2. De doctr. Christ, c. 9.</i><br /><br /><i>St. August. lib. 8. De Gen. ad liter. cap. 5.</i><br /><br />
-ἅπαξ λεγόμενα.<br /><br /><i>Hier. in Ezek. cap. 3.</i><br /><br /><i>St. Aug. 2. De doctr. Christ. c. 1.</i><br /><br /><i>Sixtus 5. Præf. Bibl.</i><br /><br />
-<i>Plat. in Paulo secundo.</i><br /><br />ὁμοιοπαφής Τρωτὸς γ’ ἡ χρώς ἐστι.<br /><br />Reasons inducing us not to stand curiously upon an identity of phrasing.<br /><br />
-πολύσημα.<br /><br />Abed. <i>Niceph. Calist. lib. 8. cap. 42. St. Hieron. in 4 Jonæ.<br />See St. Aug. Epist. 10.</i><br /><br />λεπτολογία. ὰδολεοχία τὸ σπουδάζειν ἐπὶ
-ὀνόμασι.<br /><i>See Euseb.</i> προπαρασκ. <i>lib. 2. ex Plat.</i></span>
-St. <i>Augustine</i> calleth them precedent, or original, tongues; St. <i>Hierome</i>,
-fountains. The same St. <i>Hierome</i> affirmeth, and <i>Gratian</i> hath not spared
-to put it into his decree, That <i>as the credit of the old books</i> (he
-meaneth of the Old Testament) <i>is to be tried by the Hebrew volumes; so of
-the new by the Greek tongue</i>, he meaneth by the original <i>Greek</i>. If truth
-be to be tried by these tongues, then whence should a translation be made,
-but out of them? These tongues therefore (the Scriptures, we say, in those
-tongues) we set before us to translate, being the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> tongues wherein God was
-pleased to speak to his Church by his Prophets and Apostles. Neither did we run over the work with that
-posting haste that the <i>Septuagint</i> did, if that be true which is reported
-of them, that they finished it in seventy-two days; neither were we barred
-or hindered from going over it again, having once done it, like St.
-<i>Hierome</i>, if that be true which himself reporteth, that he could no
-sooner write anything, but presently it was caught from him, and
-published, and he could not have leave to mend it; neither, to be short,
-were we the first that fell in hand with translating the Scripture into
-<i>English</i>, and consequently destitute of former helps, as it is written of
-<i>Origen</i>, that he was the first in a manner, that put his hand to write
-commentaries upon the Scriptures, and therefore no marvel if he overshot
-himself many times. None of these things: The work hath not been huddled
-up in seventy-two days, but hath cost the workmen, as light as it seemeth,
-the pains of twice seven times seventy-two days, and more. Matters of such
-weight and consequence are to be speeded with maturity: for in a business
-of moment a man feareth not the blame of convenient slackness. Neither did
-we think much to consult the translators or commentators, <i>Chaldee</i>,
-<i>Hebrew</i>, <i>Syrian</i>, <i>Greek</i>, or <i>Latin</i>; no, nor the <i>Spanish</i>, <i>French</i>,
-<i>Italian</i>, or <i>Dutch</i>; neither did we disdain to revise that which we had
-done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered: but
-having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach
-for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at length,
-through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass
-that you see.</p>
-
-<p>Some peradventure would have no variety of senses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> to be set in the margin,
-lest the authority of the Scriptures for deciding of controversies by that
-shew of uncertainty should somewhat be shaken. But we hold their judgment
-not to be so sound in this point. For though <i>whatsoever things are
-necessary are manifest</i>, as St. <i>Chrysostome</i> saith; and,
-as St. <i>Augustine</i>, <i>in those things that are plainly set down in the
-Scriptures all such matters are found, that concern faith, hope, and
-charity</i>: Yet for all that it cannot be dissembled, that partly to
-exercise and whet our wits, partly to wean the curious from lothing of
-them for their every where plainness, partly also to stir up our devotion
-to crave the assistance of God’s Spirit by prayer, and lastly, that we
-might be forward to seek aid of our brethren by conference, and never
-scorn those that be not in all respects so complete as they should be,
-being to seek in many things, ourselves, it hath pleased God in his Divine
-Providence here and there to scatter words and sentences of that
-difficulty and doubtfulness, not in doctrinal points that concern
-salvation, (for in such it hath been vouched that the Scriptures are
-plain,) but in matters of less moment, that fearfulness would better
-beseem us than confidence, and if we will resolve, to resolve upon modesty
-with St. <i>Augustine</i>, (though not in this same case altogether, yet upon the same
-ground,) <i>Melius est dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis</i>: It
-is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, than to strive
-about those things that are uncertain. There be
-many words in the Scriptures, which be never found there but once, (having
-neither brother nor neighbour, as the <i>Hebrews</i> speak,) so that we cannot
-be holpen by conference of places. Again, there be many rare names of
-certain birds, beasts, and precious stones, &amp;c. concerning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> which the
-<i>Hebrews</i> themselves are so divided among themselves for judgment, that
-they may seem to have defined this or that, rather because they would say
-something, than because they were sure of that which they said, as St. <i>Hierome</i> somewhere saith of the
-<i>Septuagint</i>. Now in such a case doth not a margin do well to admonish the
-Reader to seek further, and not to conclude or dogmatize upon this or that
-peremptorily? For as it is a fault of incredulity, to doubt of those
-things that are evident; so to determine of such things as the Spirit of
-God hath left (even in the judgment of the judicious) questionable, can be
-no less than presumption. Therefore as St. <i>Augustine</i> saith, that variety of translations is
-profitable for the finding out of the sense of the Scriptures: so
-diversity of signification and sense in the margin, where the text is not
-so clear, must needs do good; yea, is necessary, as we are persuaded.
-We know that <i>Sixtus Quintus</i> expressly forbiddeth that any variety of readings of their vulgar edition
-should be put in the margin; (which though it be not altogether the same
-thing to that we have in hand, yet it looketh that way;) but we think he
-hath not all of his own side his favourers for this conceit. They that are
-wise had rather have their judgments at liberty in differences of
-readings, than to be captivated to one, when it may be the other.
-If they were sure that their high priest had all laws shut up in his breast, as <i>Paul</i> the Second bragged,
-and that he were as free from error by special privilege, as the dictators
-of <i>Rome</i> were made by law inviolable, it were another matter; then his
-word were an oracle, his opinion a decision. But the eyes of the world are now open, God be thanked,
-and have been a great while; they find that he is subject to the same
-affections and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> infirmities that others be, that his body is subject to
-wounds; and therefore so much as he proveth, not as much as he claimeth,
-they grant and embrace.</p>
-
-<p>Another thing we think good to admonish thee of, gentle Reader,
-that we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing, or to an
-identity of words, as some peradventure would wish that we had done,
-because they observe, that some learned men somewhere have been as exact
-as they could that way. Truly, that we might not vary from the sense of
-that which we had translated before, if the word signified the same thing
-in both places, (for there be some words that be not of the same sense every where,) we were especially careful,
-and made a conscience, according to our duty. But that we should express
-the same notion in the same particular word; as for example, if we
-translate the <i>Hebrew</i> or <i>Greek</i> word once by <i>purpose</i>, never to call it
-<i>intent</i>; if one where <i>journeying</i>, never <i>travelling</i>; if one where
-<i>think</i>, never <i>suppose</i>; if one where <i>pain</i>, never <i>ache</i>; if one where
-<i>joy</i>, never <i>gladness</i>, &amp;c. thus to mince the matter, we thought to
-savour more of curiosity than wisdom, and that rather it would breed scorn
-in the atheist, than bring profit to the godly reader. For is the kingdom
-of God become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them, if
-we may be free? use one precisely, when we may use another no less fit as
-commodiously? A godly Father in the primitive time shewed himself greatly moved, that one of newfangledness
-called κραββάτον, σκίμπους, though the difference be little or
-none; and another reporteth, that he was much abused for turning
-<i>cucurbita</i> (to which reading the people had been used) into <i>hedera</i>. Now
-if this happen in better times, and upon so small occasions, we might
-justly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> fear hard censure, if generally we should make verbal and
-unnecessary changings. We might also be charged (by scoffers) with some
-unequal dealing towards a great number of good <i>English</i> words. For as it
-is written of a certain great Philosopher, that he should say, that those
-logs were happy that were made images to be worshipped; for their fellows,
-as good as they, lay for blocks behind the fire: so if we should say, as
-it were, unto certain words, Stand up higher, have a place in the Bible
-always; and to others of like quality, Get you hence, be banished for
-ever; we might be taxed peradventure with St. <i>James’s</i> words, namely, <i>To
-be partial in ourselves, and judges of evil thoughts</i>. Add hereunto, that niceness in words was always
-counted the next step to trifling; and so was to be curious about names
-too: also that we cannot follow a better pattern for elocution than God
-himself; therefore he using divers words in his holy writ, and
-indifferently for one thing in nature: we, if we will not be
-superstitious, may use the same liberty in our <i>English</i> versions out of
-<i>Hebrew</i> and <i>Greek</i>, for that copy or store that he hath given us.
-Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the scrupulosity of the Puritanes,
-who leave the old Ecclesiastical words, and betake them to other, as when
-they put <i>washing</i> for <i>baptism</i>, and <i>congregation</i> instead of <i>Church</i>:
-as also on the other side we have shunned the obscurity of the Papists, in
-their <i>azymes</i>, <i>tunike</i>, <i>rational</i>, <i>holocausts</i>, <i>prepuce</i>, <i>pasche</i>,
-and a number of such like, whereof their late translation is full, and
-that of purpose to darken the sense, that since they must needs translate
-the Bible, yet by the language thereof it may be kept from being
-understood. But we desire that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in
-the language of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> <i>Canaan</i>, that it may be understood even of the very
-vulgar.</p>
-
-<p>Many other things we might give thee warning of, gentle Reader, if we had
-not exceeded the measure of a preface already. It remaineth that we
-commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of his grace, which is able to
-build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our
-eyes, the vail from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand
-his word, enlarging our hearts, yea, correcting our affections, that we
-may love it above gold and silver, yea, that we may love it to the end.
-<span class="sidenote">Gen. 26. 15.</span>Ye are brought unto fountains of living water
-which ye digged not; do not cast earth into them, with the Philistines,
-neither prefer broken pits before them, with the wicked Jews. <span class="sidenote">Jer.
- 2. 13.</span>Others have laboured, and you may enter into their labours. O
-receive not so great things in vain: O despise not so great salvation. Be
-not like swine to tread under foot so precious things, neither yet like
-dogs to tear and abuse holy things. Say not to our Saviour with the
-<i>Gergesites</i>, <span class="sidenote">Matt. 8. 35.<br />Heb. 12. 16.<br /><br /><i>Nazianz.</i>
-περὶ ἁγ βαπτ. Δεινὸν πανήγυριν παρελφεῖν, καὶ τηνικαῦτα πραγματείαν ἐπιζητεῖν.<br /><br /><i>St. Chrysost. in Epist. ad
-Rom. c. 14.</i><br /><br /><i>orat. 26. in</i> ἠθικ. Ἀμήχανον, σφόδρα άμήχανον.<br /><br /><i>St.
-August, ad artic. sibi falso object. Art. 16.</i> Heb. 10. 31.</span>Depart out of our
-coasts; neither with <i>Esau</i> sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. If
-light be come into the world, love not darkness more than light: if food,
-if clothing, be offered, go not naked, starve not yourselves. Remember the advice of <i>Nazianzene</i>, <i>It is a
-grievous thing</i> (or dangerous) <i>to neglect a great fair, and to seek to
-make markets afterwards</i>: also the encouragement of St. <i>Chrysostome</i>, <i>It
-is altogether impossible, that he that is sober</i> (and watchful) <i>should at
-any time be neglected</i>: lastly, the admonition and menancing of St.
-<i>Augustine</i>, <i>They that despise God’s will inviting them shall feel God’s
-will taking vengeance of them</i>. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
-God; but a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
-blessed thing it is, and will bring us to everlasting blessedness in the
-end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken; when he setteth his word
-before us, to read it; when he stretcheth out his hand and calleth, to
-answer, Here am I, here we are to do thy will, O God. The Lord work
-a care and conscience in us to know him and serve him, that we may be
-acknowledged of him at the appearing of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, to whom
-with the Holy Ghost be all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="G" id="G"></a>(G.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE REVISERS OF A.D. 1568.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>The twelve bishops who are mentioned as taking part with Archbishop Parker
-in this revision, are:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">William Alley, Bishop of Exeter.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Nicholas Bullingham, Bishop of Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Richard Davies, Bishop of St. Davids (Menevensis).</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Edmund Guest (or Geste), Bishop of Rochester.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Worcester.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Edmund Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough.</p></div>
-
-<p>The other church dignitaries who are mentioned are:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Andrew Pearson, Canon of Canterbury.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Andrew Perne, Prebendary of Ely.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Thomas Beacon, Prebendary of Canterbury.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster.</p></div>
-
-<p>At the end of sixteen of the books are placed initials, which are
-evidently those of the revisers. These, with more or less of certainty,
-have been identified with names given in the above list.<a name='fna_147' id='fna_147' href='#f_147'><small>[147]</small></a> They are as
-follows, and in the following order:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
-
-<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
-<tr><td>Deuteronomy</td>
-    <td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td>
-    <td>W. E.</td>
-    <td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td>
-    <td>Bishop of Exeter.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>2 Samuel</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>R. M.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of St. Davids.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>2 Chronicles</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>E. W.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Worcester.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Job</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>A. P. <i>C</i></td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Andrew Pearson.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Psalms<a name='fna_148' id='fna_148' href='#f_148'><small>[148]</small></a></td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>T. B.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Thomas Beacon.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Proverbs</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>A. P. <i>C</i></td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Andrew Pearson.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Canticles</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>A. P. <i>E</i></td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Andrew Perne.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Lamentations</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>R. W.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Winchester.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Daniel</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>T. C.L.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Malachi</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>E. L.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of London.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Wisdom</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>W. C.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Chichester.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>2 Maccabees</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>J. N.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Norwich.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Acts</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>R. E.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Ely.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Romans</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>R. E.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Bishop of Ely.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>1 Corinthians</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>G. G.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Gabriel Goodman.</td></tr></table>
-
-<p>From a list of the revisers, enclosed in a letter from Parker to Cecil,
-dated October 5th, 1568, and now in the State Paper Office, we may further
-gather that the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse were revised by
-Bishop Bullingham, the Gospels of Luke and John by Bishop Scambler, and
-that the portions undertaken by Parker himself were Genesis, Exodus,
-Matthew, Mark, and the Epistles from 2 Corinthians to Hebrews
-inclusive.<a name='fna_149' id='fna_149' href='#f_149'><small>[149]</small></a></p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="H" id="H"></a>(H.)</h2>
-<p class="title"><i>THE REVISERS OF 1611.</i></p>
-
-
-<p>In the collection of Records appended to the Second Part of Bishop
-Burnet’s <i>History of the Reformation of the Church of England</i>, there is
-given a list of the Revisers of 1611, copied, as the writer tells us,<a name='fna_150' id='fna_150' href='#f_150'><small>[150]</small></a>
-from the paper of Bishop Ravis himself, one of the number. The list is
-thus given:<a name='fna_151' id='fna_151' href='#f_151'><small>[151]</small></a></p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Westminster</span> (1). Mr. Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dean of Pauls, Mr.
-Doctor Saravia, Mr. Doctor Clark, Mr. Doctor Leifield, Mr. Doctor
-Teigh, Mr. Burleigh, Mr. King, Mr. Tompson, Mr. Beadwell.</p>
-
-<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Cambridge</span> (1). Mr. Livelye, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Chatterton, Mr.
-Dillingham, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Spalding, Mr. Burge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Oxford</span> (1). Doctor Harding, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Holland, Dr. Kilbye, Mr.
-Smith, Mr. Brett, Mr. Fairclough.</p>
-
-<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Cambridge</span> (2). Doctor Dewport, Dr. Branthwait, Dr. Radclife, Mr. Ward
-(Eman.), Mr. Downes, Mr. Boyes, Mr. Warde (Reg.).</p>
-
-<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Oxford</span> (2). Mr. Dean of Christchurch, Mr. Dean of Winchester, Mr. Dean
-of Worcester, Mr. Dean of Windsor, Mr. Sairle, Dr. Perne, Dr. Ravens,
-Mr. Haviner.<a name='fna_152' id='fna_152' href='#f_152'><small>[152]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Westminster</span> (2). Dean of Chester, Dr. Hutchinson, Dr. Spencer, Mr.
-Fenton, Mr. Rabbet, Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Dakins.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>Some difference of opinion has existed in reference to the date of this
-document. Its date is determined within comparatively narrow limits by
-internal evidence.</p>
-
-<p>The writer, Dr. Ravis, describes himself as Dean of Christ Church; it must
-therefore have been written <i>before</i> March 19, 1605, when he was
-consecrated Bishop of Gloucester. He also refers to the Dean of Worcester
-(Dr. Eedes), who died November, 1604, and hence he may be assumed to have
-written before that date also. The difficulty is that he describes Dr.
-Barlow, who is known to have taken part in the work, as Dean of Chester,
-and it must therefore have been written <i>after</i> Barlow’s appointment of
-this office. This appointment, as stated by Cardwell, took place in
-December, 1604;<a name='fna_153' id='fna_153' href='#f_153'><small>[153]</small></a> but the correctness of that date is open to some
-doubt.<a name='fna_154' id='fna_154' href='#f_154'><small>[154]</small></a></p>
-
-<p>The names contained in the above given list have, with some few
-exceptions, been satisfactorily identified; namely, as follows:</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">FIRST WESTMINSTER COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. Launcelot Andrews, Dean of Westminster.<a name='fna_155' id='fna_155' href='#f_155'><small>[155]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. John Overall, Dean of St. Paul’s.<a name='fna_156' id='fna_156' href='#f_156'><small>[156]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Adrian de Saravia.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Richard Clark, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. John Layfield, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Robert Tighe, Vicar of All Hallows, Barking.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="hang">[Dr. Francis Burley, Fellow of King James’s College, Chelsea.]</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Geoffry King, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.<a name='fna_157' id='fna_157' href='#f_157'><small>[157]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Richard Thomson, Clare Hall, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. William Bedwell, Vicar of Tottenham.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">FIRST CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Mr. Edward Lively,<a name='fna_158' id='fna_158' href='#f_158'><small>[158]</small></a> Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. John Richardson,<a name='fna_159' id='fna_159' href='#f_159'><small>[159]</small></a> Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Laurence Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. F. Dillingham, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Thomas Harrison, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Roger Andrews.<a name='fna_160' id='fna_160' href='#f_160'><small>[160]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Robert Spalding,<a name='fna_161' id='fna_161' href='#f_161'><small>[161]</small></a> Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Andrew Byng, Fellow of Peter House.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">FIRST OXFORD COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and President of
-Magdalen.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Thomas Holland,<a name='fna_162' id='fna_162' href='#f_162'><small>[162]</small></a> Regius Professor of Divinity.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Richard Kilbye, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Miles Smith,<a name='fna_163' id='fna_163' href='#f_163'><small>[163]</small></a> Brasenose College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Richard Brett, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Richard Fairclough, Fellow of New College, Oxford.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
-<p class="center">THE SECOND CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. John Duport, Master of Jesus College.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. William Branthwaite, Master of Caius College.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe, Fellow of Trinity College.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Samuel Ward, Fellow of Emmanuel College.<a name='fna_164' id='fna_164' href='#f_164'><small>[164]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of Greek.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. John Bois, Fellow of St. John’s, and Rector of Boxworth.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Ward, Fellow of King’s College.<a name='fna_165' id='fna_165' href='#f_165'><small>[165]</small></a></p></div>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">THE SECOND OXFORD COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dean of Christ Church.<a name='fna_166' id='fna_166' href='#f_166'><small>[166]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester.<a name='fna_167' id='fna_167' href='#f_167'><small>[167]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Richard Eedes, Dean of Worcester.<a name='fna_168' id='fna_168' href='#f_168'><small>[168]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Giles Thomson, Dean of Windsor.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Henry Saville,<a name='fna_169' id='fna_169' href='#f_169'><small>[169]</small></a> Warden of Merton and Provost of Eton.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. John Perin, Fellow of St. John’s College.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">[Dr. Ralph Ravens, Fellow of St. John’s College.]</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. John Harmer, Regius Professor of Greek.</p></div>
-
-<p>To these, Wood, who does not mention the names of either Eedes or Ravens,
-in the list given in his <i>History of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>University of Oxford</i>, adds the
-following two; they were probably appointed to take the places of some
-removed by death:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. John Aglionby,<a name='fna_170' id='fna_170' href='#f_170'><small>[170]</small></a> Principal of Edmunds Hall.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Leonard Hutten,<a name='fna_171' id='fna_171' href='#f_171'><small>[171]</small></a> Canon of Christ Church.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center">THE SECOND WESTMINSTER COMPANY.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dr. William Barlow, Dean of Chester.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. Hutchinson. (?)</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Dr. John Spenser, Chaplain to King James.<a name='fna_172' id='fna_172' href='#f_172'><small>[172]</small></a></p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. Roger Fenton, Pembroke Hall, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class="hang">[Mr. Michael Rabbett, Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane.]</p>
-
-<p class="hang">[Mr. Thomas Sanderson, Rector of All Hallows.]</p>
-
-<p class="hang">Mr. William Dakins, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.</p></div>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
-<p class="center">NOTE TO <a href="#Page_117">PAGE 117</a>.</p>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dean Stanley</span> (<i>Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey</i>, p. 440) states
-generally that the Assembly of Divines removed from Henry VII.’s Chapel to
-the Jerusalem Chamber at the end of September. The exact date is, as
-stated in the text, October 2nd. In the Minutes of the Sessions of the
-Assembly, preserved in Dr. Williams’s Library, there occurs at the close
-of the sixty-fifth session the entry, “Adjourned to the Hierusalem Chamber
-on Monday, at ten o’clock,” and the following session, the sixty-sixth, is
-dated Monday, October 2nd. The permission to adjourn to the Jerusalem
-Chamber from Henry VII.’s Chapel, “on account of the coldness of the said
-chapel,” was granted by Parliament on September 21st, 1643.</p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
-<h2>INDEX.</h2>
-
-
-<p>
-<span class="large">A.</span><br />
-<br />
-Abbot, Dr. Ezra, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Ælfric’s Heptateuch, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-<br />
-Aiken, Dr. C. A., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Ainsworth, H., his Commentaries, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-<br />
-Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
-<br />
-Alexander, Dr. W. L., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Alexandrine Manuscript, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-<br />
-Alford, Dean, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Alfred, King, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-<br />
-Allen, Archdeacon, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
-<br />
-Andrews, Dr. Launcelot, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-<br />
-Anglo-Saxon Gospel, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-<br />
-Angus, Dr. Jos., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Authorized Version, first suggestion of, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; ordered by King James, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; a revision, not a translation, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; rules followed by the revisers, <a href="#Page_42">42-44</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; misprints in, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; obsolete words in, <a href="#Page_57">57-59</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; imperfect renderings of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; preface to, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; list of its revisors, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">B.</span><br />
-<br />
-Bancroft, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
-<br />
-Barrow, Dr. John, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
-<br />
-Bede, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
-<br />
-Bensley, Mr. R. N., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-Bentley, Dr. Richard, his proposals for revised texts of the Greek New Testament and of the Vulgate, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
-<br />
-Beza’s Codex, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-<br />
-Beza, Theodore, his edition of the Greek New Testament, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br />
-<br />
-Biber, Dr. G. F., <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br />
-<br /><a name="bible" id="bible"></a>
-Bible, earliest form of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Authorized Version of, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Bishops’, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Coverdale’s, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Douai, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Genevan, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Great, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Matthew’s, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Purvey’s, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Taverner’s, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Wycliffe’s, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
-<br />
-Bickersteth, Dean, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Bilson, Bishop, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-<br />
-Birrell, Rev. J., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-Bishops’ Bible, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span><br />
-Bishops’ Bible, preface thereto, <a href="#Page_177">177</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; translators of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br />
-<br />
-Blakesley, Dean, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Bodley, John, bears the expenses of the Genevan Bible, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Bois, John, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-<br />
-Broughton, Hugh, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
-<br />
-Brown, Dr. David, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Browne, Dr. E. H. (Bishop of Winchester), <a href="#Page_106">106</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">C.</span><br />
-<br />
-Chambers, Dr. T. W., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Chance, Dr. F., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-Chenery, Professor, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Cheyne, Rev. T. K., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-Claromontane Manuscript, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-<br />
-Clergymen, Five, their revision of the Gospel of John, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
-<br />
-Collation of Manuscripts, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
-<br />
-Complutensian Polyglot, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
-<br />
-Conant, Dr. T. J., <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
-<br />
-Coverdale, first edition of his Bible, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his Prologue thereto, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; prepares the Great Bible, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; issues a second and other editions of the Great Bible, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; a refugee at Geneva, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
-<br />
-Cranmer, his opinion of Matthew’s Bible, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his Prologue to the second edition of the Great Bible, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
-<br />
-Cromwell, Thomas, patron of Coverdale, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; promotes the preparation of the Great Bible, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
-<br />
-Crooks, Dr. G. R., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">D.</span><br />
-<br />
-Davidson, Dr. A. B., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Davies, Dr. B., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Day, Dr. G. E., <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
-<br />
-De Witt, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
-<br />
-Dort, Synod of, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-<br />
-Douglas, Dr. G., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-Downes, A., <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-<br />
-Driver, Mr. S. R., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">E.</span><br />
-<br />
-Eadie, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Ellicott, Bishop, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Elliott, Rev. C. J., <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Ephraem Codex, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-<br />
-Erasmus, his editions of the Greek New Testament, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">F.</span><br />
-<br />
-Fairbairn, Dr. P., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Field, Dr. F., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">G.</span><br />
-<br />
-Geddes, Dr. A., his projected translation of the Bible, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
-<br />
-Geden, Professor, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Gell, R., his essay upon the amendment of the Authorized Version, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
-<br />
-Genevan Bible, <a href="#Page_26">26-30</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; popularity of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; preface to, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
-<br />
-Genevan Psalter, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
-<br />
-Genevan New Testament, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-<br />
-Ginsburg, Dr., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Gotch, Dr. F. W., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Green, Dr. W. H., <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
-<br />
-Gutenberg Bible, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Guthlac of Croyland, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">H.</span><br />
-<br />
-Hackett, Dr. H. B., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-Hadley, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-Hampton Court Conference, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br />
-<br />
-Harding, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-<br />
-Hare, Dr. G. E., <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
-<br />
-Harrison, Archdeacon, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Harwood, E., his translation of the New Testament, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Hereford, Nicholas de, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
-<br />
-Hervey, Bishop, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
-<br />
-Heywood, James, his motion in the House of Commons for a new revision, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br />
-<br />
-Hodge, Dr. C., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-Holbein, his design for title-page of Great Bible, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Hort, Dr. F. J. A., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Humphry, Prebendary, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">I.</span><br />
-<br />
-Itala, The, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">J.</span><br />
-<br />
-Jebb, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_106">106</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Jerome, revises the old Latin version, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; translates Old Testament, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-<br />
-Jerusalem Chamber, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br />
-<br />
-Jessey, Henry, his attempted revision of Authorized Version, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
-<br />
-Johnson, Anthony, his Historical Account, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">K.</span><br />
-<br />
-Kay, Dr. W., <a href="#Page_106">106</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Kendrick, Dr. A. C., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Kennedy, Canon, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Kennicott, Dr. B., <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
-<br />
-Kilbie, Dr. R., <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
-<br />
-Krauth, Dr. C. P., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">L.</span><br />
-<br />
-Latin Versions, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-<br />
-Lawrence, T., his notes of errors in the Bishops’ Bible, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br />
-<br />
-Leathes, Dr. S., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Lee, Archdeacon, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Lee, Dr. A., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Lewis, Dr. T., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Lewis, John, his History of the English Bible, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Lightfoot, Dr. J., urges upon Parliament the revision of the English Bible, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
-<br />
-Lightfoot, Dr. J. B. (Bishop of Durham), <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Lindisfarne Gospels, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Lively, Ed., <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
-<br />
-Lumby, Rev. J. R., <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Lyra, Nicholas de, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">M.</span><br />
-<br />
-Mace, W., his Greek and English New Testament, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
-<br />
-Marsh, Bishop, on the Authorized Version, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-<br />
-Manuscripts of the New Testament, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
-<br />
-Mazarin Bible, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-McGill, Professor, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Mead, Dr. C. M., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Merivale, Dean, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Mill, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-<br />
-Milligan, Dr. W., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Moberly, Bishop, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Moulton, Dr. W. F., <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Münster, Sebastian, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">N.</span><br />
-<br />
-Newcome, Archbishop, his revised New Testament, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
-<br />
-Newth, Dr., <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">O.</span><br />
-<br />
-Ollivant, Bishop, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
-<br />
-Ormulum, The, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-<br />
-Osgood, Dr. H., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">P.</span><br />
-<br />
-Packard, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Pagninus, his Latin translation, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Palmer, Archdeacon, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Parker, Archbishop, superintends the preparation of the Bishops’ Bible, <a href="#Page_30">30-32</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his letter to Cecil, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Payne Smith, Dean, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Penn, Grenville, his revised text and translation of New Testament, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-<br />
-Perowne, Dean, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Plumptre, Dr. E. H., <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Printed Bible, the first, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
-<br />
-Printing, invention of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
-<br />
-Psalter, Genevan, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Guthlac’s, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Prayer Book, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Rolle’s, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Schorham’s, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-<br />
-Purver, A., his translation of the Bible, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
-<br />
-Purvey, John, Wycliffe’s friend and fellow-labourer, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">Q.</span><br />
-<br />
-Quotations in early Christian Writings, <a href="#Page_87">87-89</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">R.</span><br />
-<br />
-Rainolds, Dr. J., moves for a new revision, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br />
-<br />
-Rainolds, Dr. J., appointed one of King James’s revisers, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; works at the revision on his death-bed, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
-<br />
-Revisers, the American, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; of 1568, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; of 1611, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; of 1881, <a href="#Page_109">109-112</a><br />
-<br />
-Riddle, Dr. M. B., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Roberts, Dr. A., <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
-<br />
-Rogers, John, the probable editor of Matthew’s Bible, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
-<br />
-Rolle, Richard, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-<br />
-Rose, Archdeacon, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Rossi, J. B. de, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">S.</span><br />
-<br />
-Sayce, Rev. A. H., <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Schaff, Dr. Philip, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Scholefield, Professor, on an improved translation of the New Testament, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-<br />
-Schorham, W. de, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
-<br />
-Scott, Dean, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Scribes, primary function of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
-<br />
-Scrivener, Dr. F. H., <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Selwyn, Canon, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Septuagint Version, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
-<br />
-Short, Dr. C., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Sinaitic Manuscript, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
-<br />
-Smith, Dr. G. Vance, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Smith, Dr. H. B., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-Smith, Dr. J. Pye, his testimony in favour of revision, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
-<br />
-Smith, Dr. Miles, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
-<br />
-Smith, Professor, W. R., <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Stanley, Dean, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Stephen, Robert, his editions of the Greek New Testament, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
-<br />
-Stephen, Henry, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><i>n</i><br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span><br />
-Stowe, Dr. C. E., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Strong, Dr. J., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Syriac Version, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">T.</span><br />
-<br />
-Taverner, John, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Taverner, Richard, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br />
-<br />
-Testament, New, Genevan, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Rheims, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Tyndale’s, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Whittingham’s, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; See <a href="#bible">“Bible”</a><br />
-<br />
-Thayer, Dr. J. H., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Thirlwall, Bishop, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Tischendorf, Dr. C., <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
-<br />
-Transcription, errors of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
-<br />
-Tregelles, Dr. S. P., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Trench, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Tyndale, W., his translations, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his Prologue to New Testament, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his Epistle to the Reader, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his Preface to the Pentateuch, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">U.</span><br />
-<br />
-Ussher, A., his revised version, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">V.</span><br />
-<br />
-Vatican Manuscript, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
-<br />
-Van Dyke, Dr. C. V. A., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Vaughan, Dean, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Version, Æthiopic, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Armenian, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Gothic, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Italic, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Memphitic, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Old Latin, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Septuagint, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Syriac, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; Thebaic, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
-<br />
-Vulgate, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">W.</span><br />
-<br />
-Wakefield, G., his translation of the New Testament, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
-<br />
-Walker, Anthony, his Life of Bois, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Walton’s Polyglot, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
-<br />
-Ward, Dr. S., <a href="#Page_44">44</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Ward, T., his Errata to the Protestant Bible, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
-<br />
-Warren, Dr. W. F., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
-<br />
-Weir, Dr. D. H., <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Wemyss, T., his Reasons in favour of a new translation, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br />
-<br />
-Westcott, Canon, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Whittingham’s New Testament, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his version and the Genevan compared, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
-<br />
-Wicked Bible, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><i>n</i><br />
-<br />
-Wilberforce, Bishop, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Woolsey, Dr. T. D., <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
-<br />
-Wordsworth, Dr. Christopher (Bishop of Lincoln), <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
-<br />
-Wordsworth, Dr. Charles (Bishop of St. Andrews), <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
-<br />
-Worsley, J., his translation of the New Testament, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
-<br />
-Wright, Dr. W., <a href="#Page_109">109</a><i>n</i>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br />
-<br />
-Wright, Mr. W. A., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br />
-<br />
-Wycliffe, John, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; his Bible, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
-<br />
-&mdash;&mdash; preface to his Bible, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br />
-<br />
-<br />
-<span class="large">Z.</span><br />
-<br />
-Zurich Bible, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
-</p>
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p class="center"><i>W. Brendon and Son, Plymouth.</i></p>
-
-
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr style="width: 50%;" />
-<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
-
-<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> From the Latin for seventy, this being the supposed number of the
-translators. It is referred to as the translation of the Seventy Elders so
-early as the middle of the second century. See Justin Martyr, <i>Dialogue
-with Trypho</i>, c. 68.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> See Philo Judæus, <i>Life of Moses</i>, book ii. Josephus, <i>Antiquities</i>,
-xii. ii. 5, 11, 12, 14. Eusebius, <i>Eccl. Hist.</i>, v. 8. Josephus states
-that the translation was made by seventy-two elders in seventy-two days.
-The story as given in Eusebius is, that the seventy elders were placed
-apart in seventy different cells, that each translated the entire
-Scriptures, and that the seventy translations when compared were found to
-agree to a word.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> And this he gave, not by any formal enactment, but by using Jerome’s
-translation as the basis of his own <i>Exposition of the Book of Job</i>. (See
-Gregory’s <i>Letter to Leander</i>, forming the preface to that work.) The old
-version of the Psalms retained its ground apparently from its close
-connection with the music of the Church. From a like cause the old version
-of the English Psalms, which in fact was made from the Latin of the
-Vulgate, retains its place in the Psalter of the Prayer Book. It should
-however be noted that it is but the translation of the translation of a
-translation.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> <i>Anglo-Saxon Chronicle</i>, <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 709.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> “I have seen a book at Crowland Abbey, which is kept there for a
-relic. The book is called <i>Saint Guthlake’s Psalter</i>, and I weene verily
-that it is a copy of the same that the king did translate; for it is
-neither English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nor Dutch, but something sounding
-to our English; and as I have perceived since the time I was last there,
-being at Antwerp, the Saxon tongue doth sound likewise, and it is to ours
-partly agreeable.” The answer of John Lambert to the twenty-sixth of the
-Articles laid against him. (<span class="smcap">Foxe</span>, <i>Acts and Monuments</i>, vol. v. p. 213.)</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> <i>The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester</i>, <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 699, and <span class="smcaplc">A.D.</span> 714.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_7' id='f_7' href='#fna_7'>[7]</a> Many of the clergy were probably at this time unable to interpret the
-Latin Bibles used in the Church services. Several MSS. exist which have an
-English translation (gloss) inserted between the lines by writers of the
-ninth or tenth centuries. One of these, the “Lindisfarne Gospels,” now in
-the British Museum, is a most richly-adorned MS. It was written by one
-bishop of Lindisfarne, and ornamented by another, and was encased in
-jewelled covers. Over each Latin word is written its equivalent in English
-(Anglo-Saxon). This, as is explained by a note at the end, was done by one
-“Aldred, the priest,” and, as his handwriting shows, in the tenth century.
-It cannot be supposed that this was done for the benefit of ordinary
-readers. So valued a MS. would not be likely to come into any other hands
-than those of the clergy or the monks.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_8' id='f_8' href='#fna_8'>[8]</a> There is no direct evidence for the existence at an earlier date of
-any translation of the entire Scriptures into any form of English. In an
-interesting tract (commonly assigned to the earlier part of the fifteenth
-century, and printed by Foxe in the first edition of his <i>Acts and
-Monuments</i>, 1563), entitled, “A Compendious Old Treatise, showing how that
-we ought to have the Scripture in English.” It is stated, “Also a man of
-London, whose name was Wyring, had a Bible in English, of northern speech,
-which was seen of many men, and it seemed to be two hundred years old.”
-(<span class="smcap">Foxe</span>, <i>Acts and Monuments</i>, vol. iv. p. 674.) It cannot, however, be
-inferred from this statement that the volume referred to was a complete
-Bible.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_9' id='f_9' href='#fna_9'>[9]</a> See <a href="#A">Appendix A</a>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_10' id='f_10' href='#fna_10'>[10]</a> As many as one hundred and fifty manuscripts, containing the whole or
-parts of Purvey’s Bible, are still in existence, and the majority of these
-were written within forty years from the time of its completion.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Forshall</span>
-and <span class="smcap">Madden</span>, <i>Wycliffite Versions of the Holy Bible</i>, Preface, p. xxxiii.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_11' id='f_11' href='#fna_11'>[11]</a> No portion of the Wycliffe Bible was printed until 1731, when the New
-Testament, in the later of its forms, was published by the Rev. John
-Lewis, of Margate. This was reprinted in 1810, under the editorship of the
-Rev. Henry Baber. The complete Bible was not printed till so recently as
-1850, in the splendid volumes issued from the University press of Oxford,
-and edited by the Rev. J. Forshall and Rev. F. Madden.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_12' id='f_12' href='#fna_12'>[12]</a> The first work known to have been printed with moveable metal type is
-the Latin Bible, issued from the press of John Gutenberg at Maintz,
-1450-55. This Bible is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible, from
-the accidental circumstance that a copy of it was found about the middle
-of last century in Cardinal Mazarin’s library at Paris. (<span class="smcap">Hallam</span>,
-<i>Literature of Europe</i>, vol. i. p. 210.) With more propriety it may be
-called the Gutenberg Bible.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_13' id='f_13' href='#fna_13'>[13]</a> See <a href="#C">Appendix C</a>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_14' id='f_14' href='#fna_14'>[14]</a> Mr. Blunt, in his article “English Bible,” in the <i>Encyclopædia
-Britannica</i>, maintains that Coverdale translated directly from the Hebrew
-and Greek. But in order to this he has, first, forcibly to set aside the
-statement on the title-page as “placed there by mistake,” and then to
-represent Coverdale as including the Hebrew and Greek originals in the
-same category as Latin, German, and English translations, and as
-describing them all as “five interpreters” from which he had translated.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_15' id='f_15' href='#fna_15'>[15]</a> This license seems to have been obtained from the king by Cromwell at
-Cranmer’s suggestion. (See Cranmer’s Letter to Cromwell, August 4th, 1537.
-<i>Remains and Letters</i>, p. 344. Parker Society.) In this letter Cranmer
-thus expresses his opinion of the book: “And as for the translation, as
-far as I have read thereof I like it better than any other translation
-heretofore made; yet not doubting but that there may be and will be found
-some fault therein, as you know no man ever did or can do so well, but it
-may be from time to time amended. And forasmuch as the book is dedicated
-unto the king’s grace, and also great pains and labour taken in setting
-forth of the same: I pray you, my lord, that you will exhibit the book
-unto the king’s highness, and to obtain of his grace, if you can, a
-license that the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger
-of any act, proclamation, or ordinance, heretofore granted to the
-contrary, until such time as we bishops shall set forth a better
-translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_16' id='f_16' href='#fna_16'>[16]</a> The full title is, “The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the
-content of all the holy scrypture, bothe of the olde and newe testament,
-truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes by y<sup>e</sup>
-dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde
-tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio
-ad imprimendum solum. 1539.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_17' id='f_17' href='#fna_17'>[17]</a> This was more than compensated by the remarkable and interesting
-engraving, said to be designed by Hans Holbein, which formed the
-title-page. Herein the king is flattered to his heart’s content. On the
-top of the engraving the king on his knees and uncrowned is addressed by
-our Lord in the words, “I have found a man after mine own heart, who shall
-fulfil all my will.” Below this the king on his throne distributes books
-labelled “<i>Verbum Dei</i>,” the Word of God, to the clergy with his right
-hand, to Cromwell and others with the left. Lower down on the right of the
-page is the figure of Cromwell distributing the books to the laity, and on
-the left that of Cranmer distributing it to the clergy. At the bottom of
-the page is a crowd of people of all sorts and conditions, some crying out
-in Latin, “<i>Vivat Rex</i>” others in English, “God save the king.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_18' id='f_18' href='#fna_18'>[18]</a> With the title, “The Most Sacred Bible, which is the Holy Scripture,
-conteyning the old &amp; new testament translated into English, &amp; newly
-recognised with great diligence after most faythful exemplars, by Rychard
-Taverner. Harken thou heuen, &amp; thou earth gyve eare: for the Lorde
-speaketh. Esaie i. Printed at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the
-sonne by John Byddell, for Thomas Barthlet. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum
-solum M.D. XXXIX.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_19' id='f_19' href='#fna_19'>[19]</a> In Fox, <i>Acts and Monuments</i>, v. 428, amongst the names of “godly
-brethren at Oxford” suspected of heresy, and compelled to do public
-penance, mention is made of “Taverner the musician,” of “Friswide College”
-(Frideswede, now Christ Church); and again, v. 423, Anthony Dalaber says,
-“I stode at the quier door and heard Master Taverner play.” Dr. <span class="smcap">Eadie</span>,
-<i>The English Bible</i>, i. 343, assumes that the reference in this last
-passage is to Richard Taverner; but far more probably the reference is to
-John Taverner, who, according to <span class="smcap">Wood</span>, <i>Athenæ Oxoniensis</i>, i. 124, was
-“sometime organist of Cardinal College.” I find no other foundation than
-these doubtful passages for the statement made by <span class="smcap">Westcott</span>, <i>History of
-the English Bible</i>, ed. 2, p. 85, and by <span class="smcap">Eadie</span>, <i>loc. cit.</i>, that Richard
-Taverner was one of those who suffered persecution upon the first
-circulation of Tyndale’s New Testament.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_20' id='f_20' href='#fna_20'>[20]</a> See <span class="smcap">Cotton</span>, <i>Editions of the English Bible</i>, p. 21.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_21' id='f_21' href='#fna_21'>[21]</a> From this circumstance the Great Bible is often, but improperly,
-called Cranmer’s Bible. “The Prologue or Preface made by Thomas Cranmer
-sometime Archbishop of Canterbury,” is prefixed to many Bibles, to some
-editions of the Genevan, and to the Bishops.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_22' id='f_22' href='#fna_22'>[22]</a> The dates of these editions, as given in the colophons, are, July,
-1540; November, 1540 (1541 on title-page); May, 1541; November, 1541;
-December, 1541.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_23' id='f_23' href='#fna_23'>[23]</a> He married Catherine, sister of John Calvin. An interesting account
-of “The Life and Death of Mr. William Whittingham, Deane of Durham, who
-departed this life A.D. 1579, June 10,” found amongst the papers of
-Anthony à Wood, preserved in the Bodleian Library, is given by <span class="smcap">Dr.
-Lorimer</span>, <i>John Knox and the Church of England</i>, pp. 303-317.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_24' id='f_24' href='#fna_24'>[24]</a> The dedication to the queen, prefixed to this volume, is dated
-Geneva, February 10th, 1559. After exhorting the queen to persevere in the
-reformation of religion, the writers state that “albeit they had begun
-more than a year ago to peruse the <i>English</i> Translation of the Bible, and
-to bring it to the pure simplicity and true meaning of the Spirit of God,
-yet when they heard that Almighty God had miraculously preserved her to
-that most excellent dignity, with most joyful minds and great diligence
-they endeavoured themselves to set forth this most excellent Book of the
-Psalms unto her Grace as a special token of their service and goodwill
-till the rest of the Bible, which was in good readiness, should be
-accomplished and presented.” (<span class="smcap">Anthony Johnson</span>, <i>Historical Account of the
-Several English Translations of the Bible</i>. Reprinted in <span class="smcap">Watson’s</span>
-<i>Collection of Theological Tracts</i>, vol. iii. p. 87.)</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_25' id='f_25' href='#fna_25'>[25]</a></p>
-
-<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
-<tr><td><small><i>verse.</i></small></td>
-    <td align="center">1557.</td>
-    <td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td>
-    <td align="center">1560.</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">1.</td>
-    <td>out of the way</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>apart</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">3.</td>
-    <td>they saw</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>there appeared unto them</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">4.</td>
-    <td>here is good beying for us</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>it is good for us to be here</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">5.</td>
-    <td>that cloude</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>the cloude</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>my deare sonne</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>my beloved sonne</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>in whom I delyte</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>in whom I am well pleased</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">6.</td>
-    <td>were afrayed</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>were sore afrayde</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">7.</td>
-    <td>But Jesus</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Then Jesus</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">8.</td>
-    <td>loked up</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>lifted up their eyes</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">9.</td>
-    <td>See that ye shewe</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Shewe</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>be risen</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>rise</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>death</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>the dead</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">11.</td>
-    <td>Jesus</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>And Jesus</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">12.</td>
-    <td>lusted</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>would</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>In like wise</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>likewise</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">14.</td>
-    <td>people</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>multitude</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">15.</td>
-    <td>mercie</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>pitie</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>oft</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>ofttimes</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">17.</td>
-    <td>Jesus</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>Then Jesus</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>how long (<i>bis</i>).</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>how long now (<i>bis</i>)</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">18.</td>
-    <td>came out</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>went out</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>even that same</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>at that</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">19.</td>
-    <td>secrectly</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>apart</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">20.</td>
-    <td>Jesus</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>And Jesus</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>if ye had</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>if ye have</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>ye should</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>ye shall</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>it should</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>it shall</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>neither could anything</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>and nothing shall</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>for you to do</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>unto you</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">22.</td>
-    <td>As they</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>And as they</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>passed the time</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>abode</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>betraied</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>delivered</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">23.</td>
-    <td>and the thyrd</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>but the third</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>sorowed greatly</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>were verie sorie</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">24.</td>
-    <td>were wont to gather</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>received</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">25.</td>
-    <td>spake first to him</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>prevented</td></tr>
-<tr><td align="right">27.</td>
-    <td>thyne angle</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>an angle</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>the fyshe that first</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>the first fish that</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>pay</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>give it unto them</td></tr></table>
-
-<p><a name='f_26' id='f_26' href='#fna_26'>[26]</a> Strype also tells us that the expenses of publication were borne
-chiefly by John Bodley, father of Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the
-Bodleian Library at Oxford.&mdash;<i>Life of Parker</i>, p. 206.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_27' id='f_27' href='#fna_27'>[27]</a> It is very pleasant to read that, notwithstanding this, Parker joined
-with Grindal, Bishop of London, in pleading for an extension of the patent
-granted to Bodley, in order to enable him to publish the new edition of
-the Genevan referred to above. Writing, March 9th, 1565, to Cecil, the
-Queen’s Secretary, the Archbishop and Bishop say, “That they thought so
-well of the first Impression, and the Review of those who had since
-travelled therein, that they wisht it would please him to be a Means, that
-Twelve Years longer Term might be by Special Privilege granted him, in
-consideration of the Charges by him and his Associates in the first
-Impression, and the Review sithence sustained. And that tho’ one other
-special Bible for the Churches were meant by them to be set forth, as
-convenient Time and Leisure hereafter should permit, yet should it nothing
-hinder, but rather do much good, to have Diversity of Translations and
-Readings.”&mdash;<span class="smcap">Strype</span>, <i>Life of Parker</i>, p. 207, Folio Edition.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_28' id='f_28' href='#fna_28'>[28]</a> See <a href="#G">Appendix G</a>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_29' id='f_29' href='#fna_29'>[29]</a> Pagninus was a learned Dominican, who published at Lyons, in 1528, a
-new translation in Latin of the Old and New Testaments.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_30' id='f_30' href='#fna_30'>[30]</a> <span class="smcap">Strype</span>, <i>Life of Parker</i>, Appendix, p. 139.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_31' id='f_31' href='#fna_31'>[31]</a> <i>Ibid</i>, p. 399.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_32' id='f_32' href='#fna_32'>[32]</a> In an attack made upon Protestant versions of the Scriptures by
-Thomas Ward, in the reign of James II., or three-quarters of a century
-after the publication of the Authorized Version, the writer selects his
-examples from Genevan Bibles of the years 1562, 1577, and 1579, and speaks
-of this Bible as “well known in England even to this day, as being yet in
-many men’s hands.”&mdash;<i>Errata to the Protestant Bible</i>, p. 19, ed. 1737.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_33' id='f_33' href='#fna_33'>[33]</a> The Old Testament was not published till long afterwards, when the
-College was once more settled at Douai. It is hence called the Douai
-Bible. The first volume was published in 1609, and the second in 1610. In
-the preface it is stated that the translation was made “about thirtie
-yeares since.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_34' id='f_34' href='#fna_34'>[34]</a> Amongst the former are advent, allegory, anathema, assumption,
-calumniate, co-operate, evangelize, eunuch, gratis, holocaust, neophyte,
-paraclete, pentecost, victim. Amongst the latter are agnition, azymes,
-commessation, condigne, contristate, depositum, donaries, exinanited,
-parasceue, pasche, prefinition, loaves of proposition, repropitiate,
-superedified.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_35' id='f_35' href='#fna_35'>[35]</a> Compare the word “leasowes,” still used in some parts of the country
-for “meadows.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_36' id='f_36' href='#fna_36'>[36]</a> “Of all the English versions, the Bishops’ Bible had probably the
-least success. It did not command the respect of scholars, and its size
-and cost were far from meeting the wants of the people. Its circulation
-appears to have been practically limited to the churches which were
-ordered to be supplied with it.”&mdash;Dr. <span class="smcap">Plumptre</span>, <i>Dictionary of the Bible</i>,
-vol. iii. p. 1,675.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_37' id='f_37' href='#fna_37'>[37]</a> His name is variously spelt Rainolds, Rainoldes, Reinolds, Reynolds.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_38' id='f_38' href='#fna_38'>[38]</a> See Dr. <span class="smcap">William Barlow’s</span> <i>Sum and Substance of the Conference which
-it pleased his Excellent Majesty to have with the Lords Bishops, and
-others of his Clergy, in his Majesty’s Privy Chamber at Hampton Court,
-Jan. 1603</i> (o.s.). Reprinted in <i>The Phenix: or a Revival of Scarce and
-Valuable Pieces</i>, p. 157. Lond. 1707.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_39' id='f_39' href='#fna_39'>[39]</a> Rendered in the Bishops’ and the Great Bible, “and bordereth upon the
-city which is now called Jerusalem,” instead of, “and answered to
-Jerusalem which now is.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_40' id='f_40' href='#fna_40'>[40]</a> Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, “they were not
-obedient,” instead of, “they were not disobedient,” as in Genevan, or
-“they rebelled not,” as in our present Bibles.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_41' id='f_41' href='#fna_41'>[41]</a> Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, “and prayed,”
-instead of, “and executed judgment.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_42' id='f_42' href='#fna_42'>[42]</a> See <span class="smcap">Lewis</span>, <i>History of the English Translations of the Bible</i>, p.
-313; or <span class="smcap">Eadie</span>, <i>The English Bible</i>, vol. ii. p. 180; or <span class="smcap">Westcott</span>, <i>History
-of the English Bible</i>, p. 113. The king’s letter is given in full by
-<span class="smcap">Cardwell</span>, <i>Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England</i>, vol. ii.
-p. 65, ed. 1839.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_43' id='f_43' href='#fna_43'>[43]</a> For the names of the Revisers of 1611 see <a href="#H">Appendix H</a>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_44' id='f_44' href='#fna_44'>[44]</a> That is, the Great Bible; called Whitchurch’s, from the name of one
-of the printers.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_45' id='f_45' href='#fna_45'>[45]</a> <span class="smcap">Burnet</span>, <i>History of the Reformation</i>, part ii., Appendix, p. 368, ed.
-1681.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_46' id='f_46' href='#fna_46'>[46]</a> One of whom, Dr. Samuel Ward, had himself taken part in the English
-revision.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_47' id='f_47' href='#fna_47'>[47]</a> Tables of Genealogies and a description of the Holy Land are found
-prefixed to many early editions of King James’s Bible.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_48' id='f_48' href='#fna_48'>[48]</a> <i>Acta Synodi Dordrechti habitæ</i>, p. 19, ed. 1620.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_49' id='f_49' href='#fna_49'>[49]</a> <span class="smcap">Cardwell</span>, <i>Documentary Annals</i>, vol. ii. p. 68, ed. 1839.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_50' id='f_50' href='#fna_50'>[50]</a> See <a href="#F">Appendix F</a>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_51' id='f_51' href='#fna_51'>[51]</a> For a list of the Revisers see <a href="#H">Appendix H</a>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_52' id='f_52' href='#fna_52'>[52]</a> In some cases, however, this further subdivision of work seems to
-have taken place. Anthony Walker, in his <i>Life of John Bois</i>, p. 47
-(reprinted in <span class="smcap">Peck’s</span> <i>Desiderata Curiosa</i>), says: “Sure I am that Part of
-the Apocrypha was allotted to him (for he hath showed me the very copy he
-translated by), but to my Grief I know not what part.” Bois was a member
-of the company to which the Apocrypha was assigned. Walker goes on to say,
-“All the time he was about his own Part, his Commons were given to him at
-St. Johns, where he abode all the week till Saturday night; and then he
-went home to discharge his Cure, returning thence on Monday morning. When
-he had finished his own part, at the earnest request of him to whom it was
-assigned he undertook a Second, and then he was to common in another
-College. But I forbear to name both the person and the House.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_53' id='f_53' href='#fna_53'>[53]</a> The bare fact that the Oxford Revisers met in Rainolds’ lodgings is
-mentioned by <span class="smcap">Wood</span>, <i>Historia Univ. Oxon.</i>, vol. i. p. 311, and is referred
-to by <span class="smcap">Stoughton</span>, <i>Our English Bible</i>, p. 248.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_54' id='f_54' href='#fna_54'>[54]</a> <span class="smcap">Fuller’s</span> <i>Abel Redivivus</i>, p. 487. In his <i>Church History</i>, book x.
-p. 48, Fuller says of Rainolds that he was a man deserving of the epitaph.
-“Incertum est utrum Doctior an Melior.” “We know not which was the
-greater, his learning or his goodness.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_55' id='f_55' href='#fna_55'>[55]</a> <span class="smcap">Peck</span>, <i>Desiderata Curiosa</i>, p. 47.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_56' id='f_56' href='#fna_56'>[56]</a> It is clear, from the words which immediately follow, that the writer
-uses the word “company” here for the entire number of translators
-belonging to any one of the three centres. In the written account
-presented to the Synod of Dort by the English delegates, it is said that
-<i>twelve</i> persons, selected out of the companies, met together, and
-reviewed and corrected the entire work. Wood also (<i>Athenæ Oxon.</i>, vol. i.
-p. 490) gives twelve as the number of the “selected,” and amongst them
-includes Bilson and Miles Smith.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_57' id='f_57' href='#fna_57'>[57]</a> The writer quaintly remarks in a parenthesis, “Though Mr. Downes
-would not go till he was either fetcht or threatened with the Pursuivant.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_58' id='f_58' href='#fna_58'>[58]</a> Lewis (<i>History of the English Translations of the Bible</i>, p. 323) by
-a strange blunder turns these shillings into pounds.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_59' id='f_59' href='#fna_59'>[59]</a> Walker adds, “Whilst they were employed in this last business, he and
-he only took notes of their proceedings, which notes he kept till his
-dying day.” If these notes could be recovered they would throw much light
-upon many points of interest in connection with the Revision of 1611.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_60' id='f_60' href='#fna_60'>[60]</a> <span class="smcap">Fuller</span>, <i>Church History</i>, book x. p. 57.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_61' id='f_61' href='#fna_61'>[61]</a> See Mr. <span class="smcap">Henry Stevens</span>, <i>Printed Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition</i>, p.
-110. But if Mr. Stevens be right in this contention, the publisher can
-scarcely be held free from the charge of false suggestion, since the
-phrase occurs in earlier Bibles in the sense which it most naturally
-bears. In the edition of the Great Bible dated April, 1540, we have on the
-title-page: “This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the churches,” and
-the meaning of this is shown by the fuller form that appears in the
-title-page of the edition of November, 1540, “auctorysed and apoynted by
-the commaundement of oure moost redoubted Prynce and soveraygne Lorde
-Kynge Henrye the VIII. ... to be frequented and used in every churche
-within this his sayd realme.” An edition of the Bishops’ Bible dated 1585
-has the inscription, “Authorized and appointed to be read in Churches;”
-and King Charles II.’s <i>Declaration to all His Loving Subjects</i>, is
-“Appointed to to be Read in all Churches and Chapels within this kingdom.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_62' id='f_62' href='#fna_62'>[62]</a> The latest quarto edition of the Genevan published in England bears
-the date 1615, the latest folio, 1616.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_63' id='f_63' href='#fna_63'>[63]</a> This edition has hence been described by Bible collectors as the
-“Wicked Bible.” The error was of course speedily discovered and the
-edition suppressed. Archbishop Laud fined the printer in the sum of £300,
-and with this he is said to have bought a fount of Greek type for the
-University of Oxford.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_64' id='f_64' href='#fna_64'>[64]</a> In the reign of Charles II. a silly report was set afloat that Field,
-the printer of what is known as the Pearl Bible of 1653, had received a
-present of £1,500 from the Independents to introduce this corruption into
-the text. See <span class="smcap">D’Israeli’s</span> <i>Curiosities of Literature</i>, Art. Pearl Bible.
-Mr. D’Israeli must have been ignorant of the fact that this error occurs
-in Bibles printed fifteen years earlier than the Pearl Bible, and by the
-University Press, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_65' id='f_65' href='#fna_65'>[65]</a> This may possibly have been a change deliberately made by the editor,
-who either had a different Greek text or followed the Vulgate; but even in
-that case it would be a very awkward way of rendering the text before him.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_66' id='f_66' href='#fna_66'>[66]</a> This he has done, professedly, in the attempt to represent the
-version of 1611, “so far as may be, in the precise shape that it would
-have assumed if its venerable translators had shown themselves more exempt
-than they were from the failings incident to human infirmity; or if the
-same severe accuracy which is now demanded in carrying so important a
-volume through the press had been deemed requisite, or was at all usual in
-their age.”&mdash;Introduction to Cambridge Paragraph Bible, p. i.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_67' id='f_67' href='#fna_67'>[67]</a> The LXX. and Vulgate are here right; so also Wycliffe, who,
-translating from the Latin, renders, “Seven trompes, whos vse is in the
-iubile.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_68' id='f_68' href='#fna_68'>[68]</a> Wycliffe, “Stronge men seseden in Yrael.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_69' id='f_69' href='#fna_69'>[69]</a> Here again the LXX., Vulgate, and Wycliffe are right. Wycliffe
-renders, “of whom shulen be alle the best thingis of Yrael.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_70' id='f_70' href='#fna_70'>[70]</a> The LXX., Vulgate, Wycliffe, the Great Bible, the Genevan, and the
-Bishops’, all give the true sense.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_71' id='f_71' href='#fna_71'>[71]</a> In their rendering of verse 3 the Revisers of 1611 have followed the
-Genevan. Of the older versions, the Great Bible best renders this verse,
-“All my delyte is upon the saynctes that are in the earth, and upon suche
-as excell in vertue.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_72' id='f_72' href='#fna_72'>[72]</a> The Vulgate leads the way in this error.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_73' id='f_73' href='#fna_73'>[73]</a> Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan render correctly.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_74' id='f_74' href='#fna_74'>[74]</a> So the Rheims, “Why do you also trangresse the commaundement of God
-for your tradition?”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_75' id='f_75' href='#fna_75'>[75]</a> So Wycliffe, “for they ben feithful and loued, the whiche ben
-parceners of benefice;” and the Rheims, “because they be faithful and
-beloued which are partakers of the benefite.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_76' id='f_76' href='#fna_76'>[76]</a> Here all the older versions go wrong.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_77' id='f_77' href='#fna_77'>[77]</a> The first four books of the <i>Annals of Tacitus</i> are found only in a
-single MS. (the Medicean) of the eleventh century. The nine books of the
-<i>Letters of Pliny the Younger</i> are found complete in one MS. only, of the
-tenth century; this also is in the Medicean Library.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_78' id='f_78' href='#fna_78'>[78]</a> From the Latin <i>uncia</i>, an inch.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_79' id='f_79' href='#fna_79'>[79]</a> In some MSS. called <i>palimpsests</i>, the more ancient, and to us the
-more valuable, writing has been partially washed away, in order that the
-vellum might be used again for some more recent work. In these cases it is
-exceedingly difficult to decipher, beneath the later and darker writing,
-the traces of the older writing; indeed, not unfrequently the characters
-are so faded that they cannot be read at all until revived by some
-chemical preparation. The Ephraem Codex is a MS. of this kind.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_80' id='f_80' href='#fna_80'>[80]</a> Commonly referred to under the symbol א, the Hebrew letter,
-<i>Aleph</i>.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_81' id='f_81' href='#fna_81'>[81]</a> Referred to as B.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_82' id='f_82' href='#fna_82'>[82]</a> Referred to as A.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_83' id='f_83' href='#fna_83'>[83]</a> Referred to as C.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_84' id='f_84' href='#fna_84'>[84]</a> Referred to as D of the Gospels.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_85' id='f_85' href='#fna_85'>[85]</a> Referred to as D of the Epistles.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_86' id='f_86' href='#fna_86'>[86]</a> The License for its publication was not granted until March 20, 1520.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_87' id='f_87' href='#fna_87'>[87]</a> Namely, his sole authority for the Apocalypse.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_88' id='f_88' href='#fna_88'>[88]</a> He had previously published two smaller editions (16mo), one in 1546,
-and another in 1549.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_89' id='f_89' href='#fna_89'>[89]</a> Now called the Codex Regius, and denoted by L.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_90' id='f_90' href='#fna_90'>[90]</a> The collation of the eight Parisian MSS. was done for him by his son
-Henry, then a youth of eighteen.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_91' id='f_91' href='#fna_91'>[91]</a> At Geneva, whither he had deemed it prudent to remove shortly after
-the publication of his celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_92' id='f_92' href='#fna_92'>[92]</a> <i>Works</i>, vol. vi. p. 194.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_93' id='f_93' href='#fna_93'>[93]</a> The draft of this Bill is preserved in the State Paper Office
-(<i>Domestic Interreg.</i>, Bundle 662, f. 12), and is given in full by Dr.
-<span class="smcap">Stoughton</span>, <i>Church of the Commonwealth</i>, p. 543.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_94' id='f_94' href='#fna_94'>[94]</a> <i>Errata to the Protestant Bible</i>, Pref. p. 3., ed. 1737.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_95' id='f_95' href='#fna_95'>[95]</a> In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is a manuscript in
-three volumes of an English version of the Bible, by Ambrose Ussher,
-brother of Archbishop Ussher. The date assigned to it is about 1620. It
-does not, however, seem to be in any proper sense a revision of the
-version of 1611, but rather an independent revision based upon the earlier
-versions. In an “epistle dedicatorie” to James I. the writer describes
-himself as having “leisurelie and seasonablie dressed” and “served out
-this other dish” while His Majesty was “a doing on” the “seasonable sudden
-meale” which the translators had hastily prepared. He further states that
-he did not oppose “to our new translation old interpretationes alreadie
-waighed and reiected,” but “fresh and new that yeeld new consideration and
-that fight not onlie with our English Bible, but likelie with all
-translated bibles in what language soeuer and contrarieth them.” As far as
-can be gathered from the examination of a single chapter, the work seems
-chiefly based upon the Genevan. The version is incomplete. Vol. i.
-contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua
-(imperfect), Judges, Ruth, Samuel; vol. ii. contains Kings, Chronicles,
-Ezra, Nehemiah (imperfect), Esther, and a Latin version of part of Joshua;
-vol. iii. contains Job, Psalms (partly in Latin), Proverbs, Song of
-Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
-(partly in Latin), the Minor Prophets, the first chapter of St. John’s
-Gospel, Romans, Corinthians, Philemon, James, Peter, John, Apocalypse
-(partly in Latin), Jude.&mdash;Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
-<i>Fourth Report</i>, pp. 589-598.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_96' id='f_96' href='#fna_96'>[96]</a> <i>The Life and Death of Mr. Henry Jessey</i>, p. 47.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_97' id='f_97' href='#fna_97'>[97]</a> Mace’s rendering of James iii. 5, 6 is the passage most frequently
-quoted in illustration of his style. “So the tongue is but a small part of
-the body, yet how grand are its pretensions, a spark of fire! what
-quantities of timber will it blow into a flame? the tongue is a brand that
-sets the world in a combustion, it is but one of the numerous organs of
-the body, yet it can blast whole assemblies: tipped with infernal sulphur
-it sets the whole train of life in a blaze.” It is but right, however, to
-state that this is perhaps the very worst passage in the book. The
-following verses are a fair specimen of his ordinary style. Acts xix. 8,
-9: “At length Paul went to the synagogue, where he spoke with great
-freedom, and for three months he conferred with them to persuade them of
-the truth of the evangelical kingdom, but some of them being such obdurate
-infidels as to inveigh against the institution before the populace, he
-retired, and taking the disciples with him, he instructed them daily in
-the school of one Tyrannus.”</p>
-
-<p>A yet more offensive specimen of this style of translation was supplied by
-the New Testament published in 1768, by E. Harwood, and entitled, <i>A
-literal translation of the New Testament, being an attempt to translate
-the Sacred Writings with the same Freedom, Spirit, and Elegance with which
-other English Translations from the Greek Classics have lately been
-executed</i>; a work which, however faithfully it may represent the inflated
-and stilted style which then prevailed, can now be read only with
-astonishment and disgust.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_98' id='f_98' href='#fna_98'>[98]</a> Worsley died before the publication of the volume. It was edited by
-M. Bradshaw and S. Worsley.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_99' id='f_99' href='#fna_99'>[99]</a> In 3 vols., 8vo. A second edition in 2 vols., 8vo., was published in
-1795. <i>Memoirs of Gilbert Wakefield</i>, vol. i. p. 355; vol. ii. p. 468.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_100' id='f_100' href='#fna_100'>[100]</a> The work was intended to form eight vols. 4to.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_101' id='f_101' href='#fna_101'>[101]</a> <span class="smcap">Scrivener</span>, <i>Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament</i>, p.
-397.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_102' id='f_102' href='#fna_102'>[102]</a> <i>Eclectic Review</i>, January, 1809, p. 31.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_103' id='f_103' href='#fna_103'>[103]</a> <i>Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible</i>, p. 297,
-ed. 1828. The italics are Dr. Marsh’s own.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_104' id='f_104' href='#fna_104'>[104]</a> The members of this first joint Committee were Dr. Wilberforce, Dr.
-Ellicott, Dr. Thirlwall, Dr. Ollivant, Dr. E. H. Browne (Bishop of Ely),
-Dr. Chr. Wordsworth (Bishop of Lincoln), and Dr. G. Moberly (Bishop of
-Salisbury); Dr. Bickersteth (the Prolocutor); Deans Alford, Jeremie, and
-Stanley; Archdeacons Rose, Freeman, and Grant; Chancellor Massingberd;
-Canons Blakesley, How, Selwyn, Swainson, and Woodgate; Dr. Kay, Dr. Jebb,
-and Mr. De Winton.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_105' id='f_105' href='#fna_105'>[105]</a> The Convocation of York declined to take part in the revision, on
-the ground that in their judgment the time was unfavourable for such a
-work.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_106' id='f_106' href='#fna_106'>[106]</a> Canon Selwyn had persistently advocated the claims of revision, and
-had brought it before the Notice of the Lower House of Convocation so
-early as March 1st, 1856. Notice of a renewed motion on the question had
-been given by him for the meeting of Convocation on February, 1870, and
-was only withdrawal when superseded by the proposal sent down on February
-11th from the Upper House.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_107' id='f_107' href='#fna_107'>[107]</a> Canon Cook, Dr. J. H. Newman, Canon Pusey, and Dr. W. Wright. Dr.
-Wright, however, subsequently joined the Old Testament Company.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_108' id='f_108' href='#fna_108'>[108]</a> Dr. S. P. Tregelles.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_109' id='f_109' href='#fna_109'>[109]</a> Now Bishop of Winchester.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_110' id='f_110' href='#fna_110'>[110]</a> Now Dean of Canterbury.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_111' id='f_111' href='#fna_111'>[111]</a> Now Dean of Peterborough.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_112' id='f_112' href='#fna_112'>[112]</a> Now D.D.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_113' id='f_113' href='#fna_113'>[113]</a> Now Bursar.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_114' id='f_114' href='#fna_114'>[114]</a> Now Dean of Lichfield.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_115' id='f_115' href='#fna_115'>[115]</a> Now Dean of Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_116' id='f_116' href='#fna_116'>[116]</a> Now D.D. and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_117' id='f_117' href='#fna_117'>[117]</a> Now Bishop of Durham.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_118' id='f_118' href='#fna_118'>[118]</a> Now D.D., and Master of the Leys School, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_119' id='f_119' href='#fna_119'>[119]</a> Now D.D., Principal of New College, London, and Lee Professor of
-Divinity.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_120' id='f_120' href='#fna_120'>[120]</a> Now Professor of Humanity, St. Andrews.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_121' id='f_121' href='#fna_121'>[121]</a> Now Dean of Rochester.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_122' id='f_122' href='#fna_122'>[122]</a> Now LL.D.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_123' id='f_123' href='#fna_123'>[123]</a> Now Principal of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_124' id='f_124' href='#fna_124'>[124]</a> Now also Dean of Llandaff.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_125' id='f_125' href='#fna_125'>[125]</a> Now also Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_126' id='f_126' href='#fna_126'>[126]</a> Now Lady Margaret Preacher, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_127' id='f_127' href='#fna_127'>[127]</a> Now Archdeacon of Oxford.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_128' id='f_128' href='#fna_128'>[128]</a> Corresponding Member.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_129' id='f_129' href='#fna_129'>[129]</a> These have been thus distributed:</p>
-
-<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
-<tr><td>Bishop of Gloucester</td>
-    <td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td>
-    <td align="right">405</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Scrivener</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">399</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Mr. Humphry</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">385</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Newth</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">373</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Hort</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">362</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean of Lichfield</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">352</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean of Rochester</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">337</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Canon Westcott</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">304</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean of Llandaff</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">302</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean of Lincoln</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">297</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Bishop of Durham</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">290</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Archdeacon Lee</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">283</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Moulton</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">271</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Archdeacon Palmer</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">255</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean of Westminster</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">253</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Vance Smith</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">245</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Brown</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">209</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Angus</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">199</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Milligan</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">182</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Canon Kennedy</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">165</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Eadie</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">135</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Bishop of Salisbury</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">121</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Bishop of St. Andrews</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">109</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dr. Roberts</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">94</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Archbishop of Dublin</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">63</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean Merivale</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">19</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Dean Alford</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">16</td></tr>
-<tr><td>Bishop Wilberforce</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-    <td align="right">1</td></tr></table>
-
-<p><a name='f_130' id='f_130' href='#fna_130'>[130]</a> As the original would be very obscure to many of my readers, I have
-somewhat reluctantly decided to give the modern spelling and the modern
-equivalent for obsolete words.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_131' id='f_131' href='#fna_131'>[131]</a> Psalm lxxxvii. 6 is thus rendered in the Wycliffite versions, after
-the Vulgate and LXX. The LXX. here differs from the Hebrew.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_132' id='f_132' href='#fna_132'>[132]</a> The word Judah, from which “Jew” is derived, is from a Hebrew verb,
-meaning “to praise.” (See Gen. xxix. 35; xlix. 8.)</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_133' id='f_133' href='#fna_133'>[133]</a> By “sentence” Purvey commonly means “sense,” or “meaning.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_134' id='f_134' href='#fna_134'>[134]</a> That is, if he examine many copies, and especially those of recent
-date.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_135' id='f_135' href='#fna_135'>[135]</a> <span class="smcap">Augustine</span>, <i>Christian Doctrine</i>, book ii., c. xi.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_136' id='f_136' href='#fna_136'>[136]</a> Bohemians.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_137' id='f_137' href='#fna_137'>[137]</a> <span class="smcap">Augustine</span>, <i>Christian Doctrine</i>, b. ii. c. xii.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_138' id='f_138' href='#fna_138'>[138]</a> Wisdom, iv. 3.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_139' id='f_139' href='#fna_139'>[139]</a> This Prologue contains but little in the way of historical
-information. It has this especial interest, that it is the preface of the
-first printed portion of the English Bible.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_140' id='f_140' href='#fna_140'>[140]</a> Imitate.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_141' id='f_141' href='#fna_141'>[141]</a> Changed in later editions, first into “To the diligent and Christian
-Reader. Grace, mercie, and peace, through Christ Jesus,” and then “To the
-Christian Reader” simply.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_142' id='f_142' href='#fna_142'>[142]</a> Whittingham had previously done the same in his New Testament of
-1557. In his address “To the Reader” he says: “And because the Hebrewe and
-Greke phrases, which are strange to rendre in other tongues, and also
-short, shulde not be to hard, I haue sometyme interpreted them without any
-whit diminishing the grace of the sense, as our lāgage doth vse them,
-and sometyme have put to that worde which lacking made the sentence
-obscure, but haue set it in such letters as may easily be discerned from
-the cōmun text.”</p>
-
-<p>In some later editions of the Genevan Bible, printed in black letter, this
-clause is altered into “wee have put in the text between these two markes
-[ ] such worde or verbe as doth more properlie explane or manifest the
-text in our tongue.”</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_143' id='f_143' href='#fna_143'>[143]</a> To the end that.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_144' id='f_144' href='#fna_144'>[144]</a> ἔξο βέλους</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_145' id='f_145' href='#fna_145'>[145]</a> σεισάχθειαν</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_146' id='f_146' href='#fna_146'>[146]</a> <i>Circa annum 900. B. Rhenan. rerum German lib. 2.</i></p>
-
-<p><a name='f_147' id='f_147' href='#fna_147'>[147]</a> <span class="smcap">Strype</span>, <i>Life of Parker</i>, b. iv. c. 20; <span class="smcap">Johnson</span>, <i>Historical
-Account</i>, p. 87; <span class="smcap">Burnet</span>, <i>History of the Reformation</i>, part ii. book iii.
-p. 406, ed. 1681.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_148' id='f_148' href='#fna_148'>[148]</a> The Psalms were in the first instance assigned to Guest, Bishop of
-Rochester. It is probable that the Archbishop was dissatisfied with
-Guest’s work, and on good grounds, for he despatched it very quickly, and
-forwarded it to the Archbishop with a letter, in which he thus sets forth
-his estimate of his duty as a translator: “I have not altered the
-Translation but where it giveth occasion of an error. As in the first
-Psalm, at the beginning I turn the preterperfect tense into the present
-tense; because the tense is too hard in the preterperfect tense. Where in
-the New Testament one piece of a Psalm is reported, I translate it in the
-Psalm according to the translation thereof in the New Testament, for the
-avoiding of the offence that may rise to the people upon diverse
-translations.” (<span class="smcap">Strype</span>, <i>Life of Parker</i>, b. iii. c. 6; <i>Parker
-Correspondence</i>, <span class="smcap">Parker</span>, sec. ed. p. 250.)</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_149' id='f_149' href='#fna_149'>[149]</a> <i>Parker Correspondence</i>, <span class="smcap">Parker</span>, sec. ed. p. 335.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_150' id='f_150' href='#fna_150'>[150]</a> <i>Hist. of Ref.</i>, part ii. book iii. p. 406, ed. 1681.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_151' id='f_151' href='#fna_151'>[151]</a> <i>Collection of Records</i>, part ii. book iii. number 10.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_152' id='f_152' href='#fna_152'>[152]</a> Probably a misprint for Harmer.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_153' id='f_153' href='#fna_153'>[153]</a> <span class="smcap">Cardwell</span>, <i>Documentary Annals</i>, vol. ii. p. 110.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_154' id='f_154' href='#fna_154'>[154]</a> Barlow was present at the Hampton Court Conference in January, 1601,
-and all accounts describe him as then Dean of Chester; and his narrative
-of the Conference, published in 1604, is described as “contracted by
-William Barlow, Doctor of Divinity, and Dean of Chester.” Sir Peter
-Leycester, <i>Hist. Antiq. of Cheshire</i>, p. 169, states that Barlow was
-appointed Dean in 1603.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_155' id='f_155' href='#fna_155'>[155]</a> Bishop of Chichester, November 3rd, 1605; Bishop of Ely, 1609;
-Bishop of Winchester, 1619.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_156' id='f_156' href='#fna_156'>[156]</a> Bishop of Lichfield, April, 1614; Bishop of Norwich, 1618.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_157' id='f_157' href='#fna_157'>[157]</a> Subsequently Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_158' id='f_158' href='#fna_158'>[158]</a> Lively died May, 1605, and hence could not have taken any active
-part in the Revision.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_159' id='f_159' href='#fna_159'>[159]</a> Afterwards D.D., and successively Master of Peterhouse and of
-Trinity College.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_160' id='f_160' href='#fna_160'>[160]</a> Succeeded Dr. Duport in the Mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_161' id='f_161' href='#fna_161'>[161]</a> Succeeded Mr. Lively as Regius Professor of Hebrew.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_162' id='f_162' href='#fna_162'>[162]</a> Afterwards Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_163' id='f_163' href='#fna_163'>[163]</a> Afterwards Bishop of Gloucester.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_164' id='f_164' href='#fna_164'>[164]</a> Master of Sidney College, January, 1609; Archdeacon of Taunton,
-1615; Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge, 1620; Lady Margaret Professor of
-Divinity, 1621.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_165' id='f_165' href='#fna_165'>[165]</a> Afterwards D.D., Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop’s
-Waltham, Hants.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_166' id='f_166' href='#fna_166'>[166]</a> Bishop of Gloucester, March 19th, 1605; Bishop of London, May 18th,
-1607.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_167' id='f_167' href='#fna_167'>[167]</a> Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1609; Bishop of London, 1610.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_168' id='f_168' href='#fna_168'>[168]</a> Died November, 1604, and hence could have taken no part in the work
-of the Company. His name is not mentioned by Wood in the list given in
-<i>Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon.</i>, i. p. 311, ed. 1674.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_169' id='f_169' href='#fna_169'>[169]</a> Knighted at Windsor, September 21st, 1604.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_170' id='f_170' href='#fna_170'>[170]</a> <span class="smcap">Wood</span>, <i>Athenæ Oxoniensis</i>, i. 355.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_171' id='f_171' href='#fna_171'>[171]</a> <i>Ibid</i>, i. 570.</p>
-
-<p><a name='f_172' id='f_172' href='#fna_172'>[172]</a> Subsequently, on the death of Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi
-College. Dr. <span class="smcap">Westcott</span>, <i>History of English Bible</i>, sec. ed. p. 117, and
-Dr. <span class="smcap">Moulton</span>, <i>History of English Bible</i>, p. 196, both have Dr. <i>T.</i>
-Spencer, but his name, as inscribed on the monument in the Chapel of
-Corpus Christi College, is IOHANNES SPENSER, and is so given by Wood.</p>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth
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