Part 21
[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}.
End of Project Gutenberg's Lectures on Bible Revision, by Samuel Newth