Part 8

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.

* * * * *