Article II. The New English Version.

“Such is the time-honoured Version which we have been called upon to revise! We have had to study this great Version carefully and minutely, line by line; and the longer we have been engaged upon it the more we have learned to admire its simplicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression, its general accuracy, and we must not fail to add, the music of its cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm. To render a work that had reached this high standard of excellence, still more excellent; to increase its fidelity, without destroying its charm; was the task committed to us.”—Preface To the Revised Version.

“To pass from the one to the other, is, as it were, to alight from a well-built and well-hung carriage which glides easily over a macadamized road,—and to get into one which has bad springs or none at all, and in which you are jolted in ruts with aching bones over the stones of a newly-mended and rarely traversed road, like some of the roads in our North Lincolnshire villages.”—Bishop Wordsworth.382

“No Revision at the present day could hope to meet with an hour's acceptance if it failed to preserve the tone, rhythm, and diction of the present Authorized Version.”—Bishop Ellicott.383

“I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this Book,—If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book.

“And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, GOD shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book.”—Revelation xxii. 18, 19.

Whatever may be urged in favour of Biblical Revision, it is at least undeniable that the undertaking involves a tremendous risk. Our Authorized Version is the one religious link which at present binds together ninety millions of English-speaking men scattered over the earth's surface. Is it reasonable that so unutterably precious, so sacred a bond should be endangered, for the sake of representing certain words more accurately,—here and there translating a tense with greater precision,—getting rid of a few archaisms? It may be confidently assumed that no “Revision” of our Authorized Version, however judiciously executed, will ever occupy the place in public esteem which is actually enjoyed by the work of the Translators of 1611,—the noblest literary work in the Anglo-Saxon language. We shall in fact never have another “Authorized Version.” And this single consideration may be thought absolutely fatal to the project, except in a greatly modified form. To be brief,—As a companion in the study and for private edification: as a book of reference for critical purposes, especially in respect [pg 114] of difficult and controverted passages:—we hold that a revised edition of the Authorized Version of our English Bible, (if executed with consummate ability and learning,) would at any time be a work of inestimable value. The method of such a performance, whether by marginal Notes or in some other way, we forbear to determine. But certainly only as a handmaid is it to be desired. As something intended to supersede our present English Bible, we are thoroughly convinced that the project of a rival Translation is not to be entertained for a moment. For ourselves, we deprecate it entirely.

On the other hand, who could have possibly foreseen what has actually come to pass since the Convocation of the Southern Province (in Feb. 1870) declared itself favourable to “a Revision of the Authorized Version,” and appointed a Committee of Divines to undertake the work? Who was to suppose that the Instructions given to the Revisionists would be by them systematically disregarded? Who was to imagine that an utterly untrustworthy “new Greek Text,” constructed on mistaken principles,—(say rather, on no principles at all,)—would be the fatal result? To speak more truly,—Who could have anticipated that the opportunity would have been adroitly seized to inflict upon the Church the text of Drs. Westcott and Hort, in all its essential features,—a text which, as will be found elsewhere largely explained, we hold to be the most vicious Recension of the original Greek in existence? Above all,—Who was to foresee that instead of removing “plain and clear errors” from our Version, the Revisionists,—(besides systematically removing out of sight so many of the genuine utterances of the Spirit,)—would themselves introduce a countless number of blemishes, unknown to it before? Lastly, how was it to have been believed that the Revisionists would show themselves [pg 115] industrious in sowing broadcast over four continents doubts as to the Truth of Scripture, which it will never be in their power either to remove or to recal? Nescit vox missa reverti.

For, the ill-advised practice of recording, in the margin of an English Bible, certain of the blunders—(such things cannot by any stretch of courtesy be styled “Various Readings”)—which disfigure “some” or “many” “ancient authorities,” can only result in hopelessly unsettling the faith of millions. It cannot be defended on the plea of candour,—the candour which is determined that men shall “know the worst.” “The worst” has not been told: and it were dishonesty to insinuate that it has. If all the cases were faithfully exhibited where “a few,” “some,” or “many ancient authorities” read differently from what is exhibited in the actual Text, not only would the margin prove insufficient to contain the record, but the very page itself would not nearly suffice. Take a single instance (the first which comes to mind), of the thing referred to. Such illustrations might be multiplied to any extent:—

In S. Luke iii. 22, (in place of “Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased,”) the following authorities of the IInd, IIIrd and IVth centuries, read,—“this day have I begotten Thee:” viz.—codex d and the most ancient copies of the old Latin (a, b, c, ff-2, 1),—Justin Martyr in three places384 (a.d. 140),—Clemens Alex.385 (a.d. 190),—and Methodius386 (a.d. 290) among the Greeks. Lactantius387 (a.d. 300),—Hilary388 (a.d. 350),—Juvencus389 (a.d. 330),—Faustus390 (a.d. 400), [pg 116] and—Augustine391 amongst the Latins. The reading in question was doubtless derived from the Ebionite Gospel392 (IInd cent.). Now, we desire to have it explained to us why an exhibition of the Text supported by such an amount of first-rate primitive testimony as the preceding, obtains no notice whatever in our Revisionists' margin,—if indeed it was the object of their perpetually recurring marginal annotations, to put the unlearned reader on a level with the critical Scholar; to keep nothing back from him; and so forth?... It is the gross one-sidedness, the patent unfairness, in a critical point of view, of this work, (which professes to be nothing else but a Revision of the English Version of 1611,)—which chiefly shocks and offends us.

For, on the other hand, of what possible use can it be to encumber the margin of S. Luke x. 41, 42 (for example), with the announcement that “A few ancient authorities read Martha, Martha, thou art troubled: Mary hath chosen &c.” (the fact being, that d alone of MSS. omits “careful and ... about many things. But one thing is needful, and” ...)? With the record of this circumstance, is it reasonable (we ask) to choke up our English margin,—to create perplexity and to insinuate doubt? The author of the foregoing [pg 117] marginal Annotation was of course aware that the same “singular codex” (as Bp. Ellicott styles cod. d) omits, in S. Luke's Gospel alone, no less than 1552 words: and he will of course have ascertained (by counting) that the words in S. Luke's Gospel amount to 19,941. Why then did he not tell the whole truth; and instead of “&c.,” proceed as follows?—“But inasmuch as cod. d is so scandalously corrupt that about one word in thirteen is missing throughout, the absence of nine words in this place is of no manner of importance or significancy. The precious saying omitted is above suspicion, and the first half of the present Annotation might have been spared.”... We submit that a Note like that, although rather “singular” in style, really would have been to some extent helpful,—if not to the learned, at least to the unlearned reader.

In the meantime, unlearned and learned readers alike are competent to see that the foregoing perturbation of S. Luke x. 41, 42 rests on the same manuscript authority as the perturbation of ch. iii. 22, which immediately preceded it. The Patristic attestation, on the other hand, of the reading which has been promoted to the margin, is almost nil: whereas that of the neglected place has been shown to be considerable, very ancient, and of high respectability.

But in fact,—(let the Truth be plainly stated; for, when God's Word is at stake, circumlocution is contemptible, while concealment would be a crime;)—“Faithfulness” towards the public, a stern resolve that the English reader “shall know the worst,” and all that kind of thing,—such considerations have had nothing whatever to do with the matter. A vastly different principle has prevailed with the Revisionists. Themselves the dupes of an utterly mistaken Theory of Textual Criticism, their supreme solicitude has [pg 118] been to impose that same Theory,—(which is Westcott and Hort's,)—with all its bitter consequences, on the unlearned and unsuspicious public.

We shall of course be indignantly called upon to explain what we mean by so injurious—so damning—an imputation? For all reply, we are content to refer to the sample of our meaning which will be found below, in pp. 137-8. The exposure of what has there been shown to be the method of the Revisionists in respect of S. Mark vi. 11, might be repeated hundreds of times. It would in fact fill a volume. We shall therefore pass on, when we have asked the Revisionists in turn—How they have dared so effectually to blot out those many precious words from the Book of Life, that no mere English reader, depending on the Revised Version for his knowledge of the Gospels, can by possibility suspect their existence?... Supposing even that it was the calamitous result of their mistaken principles that they found themselves constrained on countless occasions, to omit from their Text precious sayings of our Lord and His Apostles,—what possible excuse will they offer for not having preserved a record of words so amply attested, at least in their margin?

Even so, however, the whole amount of the mischief which has been effected by our Revisionists has not been stated. For the Greek Text which they have invented proves to be so hopelessly depraved throughout, that if it were to be thrust upon the Church's acceptance, we should be a thousand times worse off than we were with the Text which Erasmus and the Complutensian,—Stephens, and Beza, and the Elzevirs,—bequeathed to us upwards of three centuries ago. On this part of the subject we have remarked at length already [pp. 1-110]: yet shall we be constrained to recur once and again to the underlying Greek Text of the Revisionists, [pg 119] inasmuch as it is impossible to stir in any direction with the task before us, without being painfully reminded of its existence. Not only do the familiar Parables, Miracles, Discourses of our Lord, trip us up at every step, but we cannot open the first page of the Gospel—no, nor indeed read the first line—without being brought to a standstill. Thus,

1. S. Matthew begins,—“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ” (ver. 1).—Good. But here the margin volunteers two pieces of information: first,—“Or, birth: as in ver. 18.” We refer to ver. 18, and read—“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.” Good again; but the margin says,—“Or, generation: as in ver. 1.” Are we then to understand that the same Greek word, diversely rendered in English, occurs in both places? We refer to the “new Greek Text:” and there it stands,—γένεσις in either verse. But if the word be the same, why (on the Revisers' theory) is it diversely rendered?

In the meantime, who knows not that there is all the difference in the world between S. Matthew's γέΝΕσις, in ver. 1,—and the same S. Matthew's γέΝΝΗσις, in ver. 18? The latter, the Evangelist's announcement of the circumstances of the human Nativity of Christ: the former, the Evangelist's unobtrusive way of recalling the Septuagintal rendering of Gen. ii. 4 and v. 1:393 the same Evangelist's calm method of guiding the devout and thoughtful student to discern in the Gospel the History of the “new Creation,”—by thus providing that when first the Gospel opens its lips, it shall syllable the name of the first book of the elder Covenant? We are pointing out that it more than startles—it supremely offends—one who is even slenderly acquainted [pg 120] with the treasures of wisdom hid in the very diction of the N. T. Scriptures, to discover that a deliberate effort has been made to get rid of the very foremost of those notes of Divine intelligence, by confounding two words which all down the ages have been carefully kept distinct; and that this effort is the result of an exaggerated estimate of a few codices which happen to be written in the uncial character, viz. two of the IVth century (b א); one of the Vth (c); two of the VIth (p z); one of the IXth (Δ); one of the Xth (s).

The Versions394—(which are our oldest witnesses)—are perforce only partially helpful here. Note however, that the only one which favours γένεσις is the heretical Harkleian Syriac, executed in the VIIth century. The Peschito and Cureton's Syriac distinguish between γένεσις in ver. 1 and γέννησις in ver. 18: as do the Slavonic and the Arabian Versions. The Egyptian, Armenian, Æthiopic and Georgian, have only one word for both. Let no one suppose however that therefore their testimony is ambiguous. It is γέννησις (not γένεσις) which they exhibit, both in ver. 1 and in ver. 18.395 The Latin (“generatio”) is an equivocal rendering certainly: but the earliest Latin writer who quotes the two places, (viz. Tertullian) employs the word “genitura” in S. Matth. i. 1,—but “nativitas” in ver. 18,—which no one seems to have noticed.396 Now, Tertullian, (as one who sometimes [pg 121] wrote in Greek,) is known to have been conversant with the Greek copies of his day; and “his day,” be it remembered, is a.d. 190. He evidently recognized the parallelism between S. Matt. i. 1 and Gen. ii. 4,—where the old Latin exhibits “liber creaturæ” or “facturæ,” as the rendering of βίβλος γενέσεως. And so much for the testimony of the Versions.

But on reference to Manuscript and to Patristic authority397 we are encountered by an overwhelming amount of testimony for γέννησις in ver. 18: and this, considering the nature of the case, is an extraordinary circumstance. Quite plain is it that the Ancients were wide awake to the difference between spelling the word with one N or with two,—as the little dissertation of the heretic Nestorius398 in itself would be enough to prove. Γέννησις, in the meantime, is the word employed by Justin M.,399—by Clemens Alex.,400—by Athanasius,401—by Gregory of Nazianzus,402—by Cyril Alex.,403—by Nestorius,404—by Chrysostom,405—by Theodorus [pg 122] Mopsuest.,406—and by three other ancients.407 Even more deserving of attention is it that Irenæus408 (a.d. 170)—(whom Germanus409 copies at the end of 550 years)—calls attention to the difference between the spelling of ver. 1 and ver. 18. So does Didymus:410—so does Basil:411—so does Epiphanius.412—Origen413 (a.d. 210) is even eloquent on the subject.—Tertullian (a.d. 190) we have heard already.—It is a significant circumstance, that the only Patristic authorities discoverable on the other side are Eusebius, Theodoret, and the authors of an heretical Creed414—whom Athanasius holds up to scorn.415 ... Will the Revisionists still pretend to tell us that γέννησις in verse 18 is a “plain and clear error”?

2. This, however, is not all. Against the words “of Jesus Christ,” a further critical annotation is volunteered; to the effect that “Some ancient authorities read of the Christ.” In reply to which, we assert that not one single known MS. omits the word “Jesus:” whilst its presence is vouched for by ps.-Tatian,416—Irenæus,—Origen,—Eusebius,—Didymus,— Epiphanius,—Chrysostom,—Cyril,—in addition to every known Greek copy of the Gospels, and not a few of the Versions, including the Peschito and both the Egyptian. What else but nugatory therefore is such a piece of information as this?

3. And so much for the first, second, and third Critical annotations, with which the margin of the revised N. T. is [pg 123] disfigured. Hoping that the worst is now over, we read on till we reach ver. 25, where we encounter a statement which fairly trips us up: viz.,—“And knew her not till she had brought forth a son.” No intimation is afforded of what has been here effected; but in the meantime every one's memory supplies the epithet (“her first-born”) which has been ejected. Whether something very like indignation is not excited by the discovery that these important words have been surreptitiously withdrawn from their place, let others say. For ourselves, when we find that only א b z and two cursive copies can be produced for the omission, we are at a loss to understand of what the Revisionists can have been dreaming. Did they know417 that,—besides the Vulgate, the Peschito and Philoxenian Syriac, the Æthiopic, Armenian, Georgian, and Slavonian Versions,418—a whole torrent of Fathers are at hand to vouch for the genuineness of the epithet they were so unceremoniously excising? They are invited to refer to ps.-Tatian,419—to Athanasius,420—to Didymus,421—to Cyril of Jer.,422—to Basil,423—to Greg. Nyss.,424—to Ephraem Syr.,425—to Epiphanius,426—to Chrysostom,427—to Proclus,428—to Isidorus Pelus.,429—to John Damasc.,430—to Photius,431—to Nicetas:432—besides, of the Latins, Ambrose,433—the Opus imp.,—Augustine,—and not least to Jerome434—eighteen Fathers in all. And how is it possible, (we ask,) [pg 124] that two copies of the IVth century (b א) and one of the VIth (z)—all three without a character—backed by a few copies of the old Latin, should be supposed to be any counterpoise at all for such an array of first-rate contemporary evidence as the foregoing?

Enough has been offered by this time to prove that an authoritative Revision of the Greek Text will have to precede any future Revision of the English of the New Testament. Equally certain is it that for such an undertaking the time has not yet come. “It is my honest conviction,”—(remarks Bp. Ellicott, the Chairman of the Revisionists,)—“that for any authoritative Revision, we are not yet mature: either in Biblical learning or Hellenistic scholarship.”435 The same opinion precisely is found to have been cherished by Dr. Westcott till within about a year-and-a-half436 of the first assembling of the New Testament Company in the Jerusalem Chamber, 22nd June, 1870. True, that we enjoy access to—suppose from 1000 to 2000—more manuscripts than were available when the Textus Recept. was formed. But nineteen-twentieths of those documents, for any use which has been made of them, might just as well be still lying in the monastic libraries from which they were obtained.—True, that four out of our five oldest uncials have come to light since the year 1628; but, who knows how to use them?—True, that we have made acquaintance with certain ancient Versions, about which little or nothing was known 200 years ago: but,—(with the solitary exception of the Rev. Solomon Cæsar Malan, the learned Vicar of Broadwindsor,—who, by the way, is always ready to lend a torch to his benighted brethren,)—what living Englishman is able to tell [pg 125] us what they all contain? A smattering acquaintance with the languages of ancient Egypt,—the Gothic, Æthiopic, Armenian, Georgian and Slavonian Versions,—is of no manner of avail. In no department, probably, is “a little learning” more sure to prove “a dangerous thing.”—True, lastly, that the Fathers have been better edited within the last 250 years: during which period some fresh Patristic writings have also come to light. But, with the exception of Theodoret among the Greeks and Tertullian among the Latins, which of the Fathers has been satisfactorily indexed?

Even what precedes is not nearly all. The fundamental Principles of the Science of Textual Criticism are not yet apprehended. In proof of this assertion, we appeal to the new Greek Text of Drs. Westcott and Hort,—which, beyond all controversy, is more hopelessly remote from the inspired Original than any which has yet appeared. Let a generation of Students give themselves entirely up to this neglected branch of sacred Science. Let 500 more Copies of the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, be diligently collated. Let at least 100 of the ancient Lectionaries be very exactly collated also. Let the most important of the ancient Versions be edited afresh, and let the languages in which these are written be for the first time really mastered by Englishmen. Above all, let the Fathers he called upon to give up their precious secrets. Let their writings be ransacked and indexed, and (where needful) let the MSS. of their works be diligently inspected, in order that we may know what actually is the evidence which they afford. Only so will it ever be possible to obtain a Greek Text on which absolute reliance may be placed, and which may serve as the basis for a satisfactory Revision of our Authorized Version. Nay, let whatever unpublished works of the ancient Greek Fathers are anywhere known to exist,—(and not a few precious remains [pg 126] of theirs are lying hid in great national libraries, both at home and abroad,)—let these be printed. The men could easily be found: the money, far more easily.—When all this has been done,—not before—then in God's Name, let the Church address herself to the great undertaking. Do but revive the arrangements which were adopted in King James's days: and we venture to predict that less than a third part of ten years will be found abundantly to suffice for the work. How the coming men will smile at the picture Dr. Newth437 has drawn of what was the method of procedure in the reign of Queen Victoria! Will they not peruse with downright merriment Bp. Ellicott's jaunty proposal “simply to proceed onward with the work”—[to wit, of constructing a new Greek Text,]—“in fact, solvere ambulando,” [necnon in laqueum cadendo]?438

I. We cannot, it is presumed, act more fairly by the Revisers' work,439 than by following them over some of the ground which they claim to have made their own, and which, at the conclusion of their labours, their Right [pg 127] Reverend Chairman evidently surveys with self-complacency. First, he invites attention to the Principle and Rule for their guidance agreed to by the Committee of Convocation (25th May, 1870), viz. “To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the Authorized Version, consistently with faithfulness.” Words could not be more emphatic. “Plain and clear errors” were to be corrected. “Necessary emendations” were to be made. But (in the words of the Southern Convocation) “We do not contemplate any new Translation, or any alteration of the language, except where, in the judgment of the most competent Scholars, such change is necessary.” The watchword, therefore, given to the company of Revisionists was,—“Necessity.” Necessity was to determine whether they were to depart from the language of the Authorized Version, or not; for the alterations were to be as few as possible.

(a) Now it is idle to deny that this fundamental Principle has been utterly set at defiance. To such an extent is this the case, that even an unlettered Reader is competent to judge them. When we find “to” substituted for “unto” (passim):—“hereby” for “by this” (1 Jo. v. 2):—“all that are,” for “all that be” (Rom. i. 7):—“alway” for “always” (2 Thess. i. 3):—“we that,” “them that,” for “we which,” “them which” (1 Thess. iv. 15); and yet “every spirit which,” for “every spirit that” (1 Jo. iv. 3), and “he who is not of God,” for “he that is not of God” (ver. 6,—although “he that knoweth God” had preceded, in the same verse):—“my host” for “mine host” (Rom. xvi. 23); and “underneath” for “under” (Rev. vi. 9):—it becomes clear that the Revisers' notion of necessity is not that of the rest of mankind. But let the plain Truth be stated. Certain of them, when remonstrated with by their fellows for the manifest disregard they were showing to the Instructions subject to which they had undertaken the work [pg 128] of Revision, are reported to have even gloried in their shame. The majority, it is clear, have even ostentatiously set those Instructions at defiance.

Was the course they pursued,—(we ask the question respectfully,)—strictly honest? To decline the work entirely under the prescribed Conditions, was always in their power. But, first to accept the Conditions, and straightway to act in defiance of them,—this strikes us as a method of proceeding which it is difficult to reconcile with the high character of the occupants of the Jerusalem Chamber. To proceed however.

“Nevertheless” and “notwithstanding” have had a sad time of it. One or other of them has been turned out in favour of “howbeit” (S. Lu. x. 11, 20),—of “only” (Phil. iii. 16),—of “only that” (i. 18),—of “yet” (S. Matth. xi. 11),—of “but” (xvii. 27),—of “and yet” (James ii. 16).... We find “take heed” substituted for “beware” (Col. ii. 8):—“custom” for “manner” (S. Jo. xix. 40):—“he was amazed,” for “he was astonished:” (S. Lu. v. 9):—“Is it I, Lord?” for “Lord, is it I?” (S. Matth. xxvi. 22):—“straightway the cock crew,” for “immediately the cock crew” (S. Jo. xviii. 27):—“Then therefore he delivered Him,” for “Then delivered he Him therefore” (xix. 16):—“brought it to His mouth,” for “put it to His mouth” (ver. 29):—“He manifested Himself on this wise,” for “on this wise shewed He Himself” (xxi. 1):—“So when they got out upon the land,” for “As soon then as they were come to land” (ver. 9):—“the things concerning,” for “the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts i. 3):—“as God's steward,” for “as the steward of God” (Tit. i. 7): but “the belly of the whale” for “the whale's belly” (S. Matth. xii. 40), and “device of man” for “man's device” in Acts xvii. 29.—These, and hundreds of similar alterations have been evidently made out of the [pg 129] merest wantonness. After substituting “therefore” for “then” (as the rendering of οὖν) a score of times,—the Revisionists quite needlessly substitute “then” for “therefore” in S. Jo. xix. 42.—And why has the singularly beautiful greeting of “the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius,” been exchanged for “unto Gaius the beloved”? (3 John, ver. 1).

(b) We turn a few pages, and find “he that doeth sin,” substituted for “he that committeth sin;” and “To this end” put in the place of “For this purpose” (1 Jo. iii. 8):—“have beheld” and “bear witness,” for “have seen and do testify” (iv. 14):—“hereby” for “by this” (v. 2):—“Judas” for “Jude” (Jude ver. 1), although “Mark” was substituted for “Marcus” (in 1 Pet. v. 13), and “Timothy” for “Timotheus” (in Phil. i. 1):—“how that they said to you,” for “how that they told you” (Jude ver. 18).—But why go on? The substitution of “exceedingly” for “greatly” in Acts vi. 7:—“the birds” for “the fowls,” in Rev. xix. 21:—“Almighty” for “Omnipotent” in ver. 6:—“throw down” for “cast down,” in S. Luke iv. 29:—“inner chamber” for “closet,” in vi. 6:—these are not “necessary” changes.... We will give but three instances more:—In 1 S. Pet. v. 9, “whom resist, stedfast in the faith,” has been altered into “whom withstand.” But how is “withstand” a better rendering for ἀντίστητε, than “resist”? “Resist,” at all events, was the Revisionists' word in S. Matth. v. 39 and S. James iv. 7.—Why also substitute “the race” (for “the kindred”) “of Joseph” in Acts vii. 13, although γένος was rendered “kindred” in iv. 6?—Do the Revisionists think that “fastening their eyes on him” is a better rendering of ἀτενίσαντες εἰς αὐτόν (Acts vi. 15) than “looking stedfastly on him”? They certainly did not think so when they got to xxiii. 1. There, because they found “earnestly beholding the council,” they must needs alter the phrase into “looking stedfastly.” It is clear therefore that Caprice, not Necessity,—an [pg 130] itching impatience to introduce changes into the A. V., not the discovery of “plain and clear errors”—has determined the great bulk of the alterations which molest us in every part of the present unlearned and tasteless performance.

II. The next point to which the Revisionists direct our attention is their new Greek text,—“the necessary foundation of” their work. And here we must renew our protest against the wrong which has been done to English readers by the Revisionists' disregard of the IVth Rule laid down for their guidance, viz. that, whenever they adopted a new Textual reading, such alteration was to be “indicated in the margin.” This “proved inconvenient,” say the Revisionists. Yes, we reply: but only because you saw fit, in preference, to choke up your margin with a record of the preposterous readings you did not admit. Even so, however, the thing might to some extent have been done, if only by a system of signs in the margin wherever a change in the Text had been by yourselves effected. And, at whatever “inconvenience,” you were bound to do this,—partly because the Rule before you was express: but chiefly in fairness to the English Reader. How comes it to pass that you have never furnished him with the information you stood pledged to furnish; but have instead, volunteered in every page information, worthless in itself, which can only serve to unsettle the faith of unlettered millions, and to suggest unreasonable as well as miserable doubts to the minds of all?

For no one may for an instant imagine that the marginal statements of which we speak are a kind of equivalent for the Apparatus Criticus which is found in every principal edition of the Greek Testament—excepting always that of Drs. Westcott and Hort. So far are we from deprecating (with Daniel Whitby) the multiplication of “Various Readings,” [pg 131] that we rejoice in them exceedingly; knowing that they are the very foundation of our confidence and the secret of our strength. For this reason we consider Dr. Tischendorf's last (8th) edition to be furnished with not nearly enough of them, though he left all his predecessors (and himself in his 7th edition) far behind. Our quarrel with the Revisionists is not by any means that they have commemorated actual “alternative Readings” in their margin: but that, while they have given prominence throughout to patent Errors, they have unfairly excluded all mention of,—have not made the slightest allusion to,—hundreds of Readings which ought in fact rather to have stood in the Text.

The marginal readings, which our Revisers have been so ill-advised as to put prominently forward, and to introduce to the Reader's notice with the vague statement that they are sanctioned by “Some” (or by “Many”) “ancient authorities,”—are specimens arbitrarily selected out of an immense mass; are magisterially recommended to public attention and favour; seem to be invested with the sanction and authority of Convocation itself. And this becomes a very serious matter indeed. No hint is given which be the “ancient Authorities” so referred to:—nor what proportion they bear to the “ancient Authorities” producible on the opposite side:—nor whether they are the most “ancient Authorities” obtainable:—nor what amount of attention their testimony may reasonably claim. But in the meantime a fatal assertion is hazarded in the Preface (iii. 1.), to the effect that in cases where “it would not be safe to accept one Reading to the absolute exclusion of others,” “alternative Readings” have been given “in the margin.” So that the “Agony and bloody sweat” of the World's Redeemer (Lu. xxii. 43, 44),—and His Prayer for His murderers (xxiii. 34),—and much beside of transcendent importance and inestimable value, may, according to our Revisionists, prove to rest upon no foundation whatever. [pg 132] At all events, “it would not be safe,” (i.e. it is not safe) to place absolute reliance on them. Alas, how many a deadly blow at Revealed Truth hath been in this way aimed with fatal adroitness, which no amount of orthodox learning will ever be able hereafter to heal, much less to undo! Thus,—

(a) From the first verse of S. Mark's Gospel we are informed that “Some ancient authorities omit the Son of God.” Why are we not informed that every known uncial Copy except one of bad character,—every cursive but two,—every Version,—and the following Fathers,—all contain the precious clause: viz. Irenæus,—Porphyry,—Severianus of Gabala,—Cyril Alex.,—Victor Ant.,—and others,—besides Ambrose and Augustine among the Latins:—while the supposed adverse testimony of Serapion and Titus, Basil and Victorinus, Cyril of Jer. and Epiphanius, proves to be all a mistake? To speak plainly, since the clause is above suspicion, Why are we not rather told so?

(b) In the 3rd verse of the first chapter of S. John's Gospel, we are left to take our choice between,—“without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; and the life,” &c.,—and the following absurd alternative,—“Without him was not anything made. That which hath been made was life in him; and the life,” &c. But we are not informed that this latter monstrous figment is known to have been the importation of the Gnostic heretics in the IInd century, and to be as destitute of authority as it is of sense. Why is prominence given only to the lie?

(c) At S. John iii. 13, we are informed that the last clause of that famous verse (“No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man—which is in heaven”), is not found in “many ancient authorities.” [pg 133] But why, in the name of common fairness, are we not also reminded that this, (as will be found more fully explained in the note overleaf,) is a circumstance of no Textual significancy whatever?

Why, above all, are we not assured that the precious clause in question (ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ) is found in every MS. in the world, except five of bad character?—is recognized by all the Latin and all the Syriac versions; as well as by the Coptic,—Æthiopic,—Georgian,—and Armenian?440—is either quoted or insisted upon by Origen,441—Hippolytus,442—Athanasius,443—Didymus,444—Aphraates the Persian,445—Basil the Great,446—Epiphanius,447—Nonnus,—ps.-Dionysius Alex.,448—Eustathius;449—by Chrysostom,450—Theodoret,451—and Cyril,452 each 4 times;—by Paulus, Bishop of Emesa453 (in a sermon on Christmas Day, a.d. 431);—by Theodoras Mops.,454—Amphilochius,455—Severus,456—Theodorus Heracl.,457—Basilius Cil.,458—Cosmas,459—John Damascene, in 3 places,460—and 4 other ancient Greek writers;461—besides Ambrose,462—Novatian,463—Hilary,464—Lucifer,465—Victorinus,—Jerome,466—Cassian,—Vigilius,467—Zeno,468—Marius,469—Maximus Taur.,470—Capreolus,471—Augustine, &c.:—is acknowledged by Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf: in short, is quite above suspicion: why are we not told that? Those 10 Versions, [pg 134] those 38 Fathers, that host of Copies in the proportion of 995 to 5,—why, concerning all these is there not so much as a hint let fall that such a mass of counter-evidence exists?472... Shame,—yes, shame on the learning which comes abroad only to perplex the weak, and to unsettle the [pg 135] doubting, and to mislead the blind! Shame,—yes, shame on that two-thirds majority of well-intentioned but most incompetent men, who,—finding themselves (in an evil hour) appointed to correct “plain and clear errors” in the English “Authorized Version,”—occupied themselves instead with falsifying the inspired Greek Text in countless places, and branding with suspicion some of the most precious utterances of the Spirit! Shame,—yes, shame upon them!

Why then, (it will of course be asked,) is the margin—(a) of S. Mark i. 1 and—(b) of S. John i. 3, and—(c) of S. John iii. 13, encumbered after this discreditable fashion? It is (we answer) only because the Text of Drs. Westcott and Hort is thus depraved in all three places. Those Scholars enjoy the unenviable distinction of having dared to expel from S. John iii. 13 the words ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, which Lachmann, Tregelles and Tischendorf were afraid to touch. Well may Dean Stanley have bestowed upon Dr. Hort the epithet of “fearless”!... If report speaks truly, it is by the merest accident that the clause in question still retains its place in the Revised Text.

(d) Only once more. And this time we will turn to the very end of the blessed volume. Against Rev. xiii. 18—

“Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the Beast; for it is the number of a Man: and his number is six hundred and sixty and six.”

Against this, we find noted,—“Some ancient authorities read six hundred and sixteen.”

But why is not the whole Truth told? viz. why are we not informed that only one corrupt uncial (c):—only one cursive copy (11):—only one Father (Tichonius): and not one ancient Version—advocates this reading?—which, on the contrary, [pg 136] Irenæus (a.d. 170) knew, but rejected; remarking that 666, which is “found in all the best and oldest copies and is attested by men who saw John face to face,” is unquestionably the true reading.473 Why is not the ordinary Reader further informed that the same number (666) is expressly vouched for by Origen,474—by Hippolytus,475—by Eusebius:476—as well as by Victorinus—and Primasius,—not to mention Andreas and Arethas? To come to the moderns, as a matter of fact the established reading is accepted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles,—even by Westcott and Hort. Why therefore—for what possible reason—at the end of 1700 years and upwards, is this, which is so clearly nothing else but an ancient slip of the pen, to be forced upon the attention of 90 millions of English-speaking people?

Will Bishop Ellicott and his friends venture to tell us that it has been done because “it would not be safe to accept” 666, “to the absolute exclusion of” 616?... “We have given alternative Readings in the margin,” (say they,) “wherever they seem to be of sufficient importance or interest to deserve notice.” Will they venture to claim either “interest” or “importance” for this? or pretend that it is an “alternative Reading” at all? Has it been rescued from oblivion and paraded before universal Christendom in order to perplex, mystify, and discourage “those that have understanding,” and would fain “count the number of the Beast,” if they were able? Or was the intention only to insinuate one more wretched doubt—one more miserable suspicion—into minds which have been taught (and rightly) to place absolute reliance in the textual accuracy of all the gravest utterances of the Spirit: minds which are utterly incapable [pg 137] of dealing with the subtleties of Textual Criticism; and, from a one-sided statement like the present, will carry away none but entirely mistaken inferences, and the most unreasonable distrust?... Or, lastly, was it only because, in their opinion, the margin of every Englishman's N. T. is the fittest place for reviving the memory of obsolete blunders, and ventilating forgotten perversions of the Truth?... We really pause for an answer.

(e) But serious as this is, more serious (if possible) is the unfair Suppression systematically practised throughout the work before us. “We have given alternative Readings in the margin,”—(says Bishop Ellicott on behalf of his brother-Revisionists,)—“wherever they seem to be of sufficient importance or interest to deserve notice.” [iii. 1.] From which statement, readers have a right to infer that whenever “alternative Readings” are not “given in the margin,” it is because such Readings do not “seem to be of sufficient importance or interest to deserve notice.” Will the Revisionists venture to tell us that,—(to take the first instance of unfair Suppression which presents itself,)—our Lord's saying in S. Mark vi. 11 is not “of sufficient importance or interest to deserve notice”? We allude to the famous words,—“Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city:”—words which are not only omitted from the “New English Version,” but are not suffered to leave so much as a trace of themselves in the margin. And yet, the saying in question is attested by the Peschito and the Philoxenian Syriac Versions: by the Old Latin: by the Coptic, Æthiopic and Gothic Versions:—by 11 uncials and by the whole bulk of the cursives:—by Irenæus and by Victor of Antioch. So that whether Antiquity, or Variety of Attestation is considered,—whether we look for Numbers or for Respectability,—the genuineness [pg 138] of the passage may be regarded as certain. Our complaint however is not that the Revisionists entertain a different opinion on this head from ourselves: but that they give the reader to understand that the state of the Evidence is such, that it is quite “safe to accept” the shorter reading,—“to the absolute exclusion of the other.”—So vast is the field before us, that this single specimen of what we venture to call “unfair Suppression,” must suffice. (Some will not hesitate to bestow upon it a harsher epithet.) It is in truth by far the most damaging feature of the work before us, that its Authors should have so largely and so seriously falsified the Deposit; and yet, (in clear violation of the IVth Principle or Rule laid down for their guidance at the outset,) have suffered no trace to survive in the margin of the deadly mischief which they have effected.

III. From the Text, the Revisionists pass on to the Translation; and surprise us by the avowal, that “the character of the Revision was determined for us from the outset by the first Rule,—‘to introduce as few alterations as possible, consistently with faithfulness.’ Our task was Revision, not Retranslation.” (This is naïve certainly.) They proceed,—

“If the meaning was fairly expressed by the word or phrase that was before us in the Authorized Version, we made no change, even where rigid adherence to the rule of Translating, as far as possible, the same Greek word by the same English word might have prescribed some modification.”—[iii. 2 init.] (The italics are our own.)

To the “rule” thus introduced to our notice, we shall recur by and by [pp. 152-4: also pp. 187-202]. We proceed to remark on each of the five principal Classes of alterations indicated by the Revisionists: and first,—“Alterations [pg 139] positively required by change of reading in the Greek Text” (Ibid.).

(1) Thus, in S. John xii. 7, we find “Suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying;” and in the margin (as an alternative), “Let her alone: it was that she might keep it.”—Instead of “as soon as Jesus heard the word,”—we are invited to choose between “not heeding,” and “overhearing the word” (S. Mk. v. 36): these being intended for renderings of παρακούσας,—an expression which S. Mark certainly never employed.—“On earth, peace among men in whom he is well pleased” (S. Lu. ii. 14): where the margin informs us that “many ancient authorities read, good pleasure among men.” (And why not “good will,”—the rendering adopted in Phil. i. 15?) ... Take some more of the alterations which have resulted from the adoption of a corrupt Text:—“Why askest thou me concerning that which is good?” (Matth. xix. 17,—an absurd fabrication).—“He would fain have been filled with the husks,” &c.... “and I perish here with hunger!” (χορτασθῆναι, borrowed from Lu. xvi. 21: and εγΩΔΕωδε, a transparent error: S. Luke xv. 16, 17).—“When it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles” (xvi. 9).——Elizabeth “lifted up her voice with a loud cry” (κραυγή—the private property of three bad MSS. and Origen: Lu. i. 42).—“And they stood still looking sad” (xxiv. 17,—a foolish transcriptional blunder).—“The multitude went up and began to ask him,” &c. (ἀναβάς for ἀναβοήσας, Mk. xv. 8).—“But is guilty of an eternal sin” (iii. 29).—“And the officers received Him with blows of their hands,”—marg. “or strokes of rods:” ΕΛΑΒΟΝ for ΕΒΑΛΟΝ (xiv. 65).—“Else, that which should fill it up taketh from it, the new from the old” (ii. 21): and “No man rendeth a piece from a new garment and putteth it upon an old garment; else he will rend the new,” &c. (Lu. v. 36).—“What is this? a new teaching!” (Mk. i. 27).—“Jesus saith unto him, If thou canst!” (Mk. ix. 23).—“Because of your little [pg 140] faith”(Matth. xvii. 20).—“We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day” (Jo. ix. 4).—“The man that is called Jesus made clay” (ver. 11).—“If ye shall ask Me anything in My name” (xiv. 14).—“The Father abiding in Me doeth His works” (xiv. 10).—“If ye shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in My name” (xvi. 23).—“I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do” (xvii. 4).—“Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me ... I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given me” (ver. 11, 12).—“She ... saith unto Him in Hebrew, Rabboni” (xx. 16).—“These things said Isaiah, because he saw his glory” (xii. 41,—ΟΤΙ for ΟΤΕ, a common itacism).—“In tables that are hearts of flesh” (ἐν πλαξὶ καρδίαις σαρκίναις, a “perfectly absurd reading,” as Scrivener remarks, p. 442: 2 Cor. iii. 3).—“Now if we put the horses' bridles [and pray, why not ‘the horses' bits’?] into their mouths” (ΕΙΔΕ, an ordinary itacism for ΙΔΕ, James iii. 3).—“Unto the sick were carried away from his body handkerchiefs,” &c. (Acts xix. 12).—“Ye know all things once for all” (Jude ver. 5).—“We love because he first loved us” (1 Jo. iv. 19).—“I have found no work of thine fulfilled before my God” (Rev. iii. 2).—“Seven Angels arrayed with [precious] stone” (xv. 6), instead of “clothed in linen,” λίθον for λίνον. (Fancy the Angels “clothed in stone”! “Precious” is an interpolation of the Revisers).—“Dwelling in the things which he hath seen:” for which the margin offers as an alternative, “taking his stand upon” (Colossians ii. 18). But ἐμβατεύων (the word here employed) clearly means neither the one nor the other. S. Paul is delivering a warning against unduly “prying into the things not seen.”477 A few MSS. of bad character omit the “not.” That is all!... These then are a handful of the less [pg 141] conspicuous instances of a change in the English “positively required by a change of reading in the Greek Text:” every one of them being either a pitiful blunder or else a gross fabrication.—Take only two more: “I neither know, nor understand: thou, what sayest thou?” (Mk. xiv. 68 margin):—“And whither I go, ye know the way” (Jo. xiv. 4).... The A. V. is better in every instance.

(2) and (3) Next, alterations made because the A. V. “appeared to be incorrect” or else “obscure.” They must needs be such as the following:—“He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet” (S. John xiii. 10).—“Lord, if he is fallen asleep he will recover” (σωθήσεται, xi. 12).—“Go ye therefore into the partings of the highways” (Matth. xxii. 9).—“Being grieved at the hardening of their heart” (Mk. iii. 5).—“Light a lamp and put it on the stand” (Matt. v. 15).—“Sitting at the place of toll” (ix. 9).—“The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working” (James v. 16).—“Awake up righteously” (1 Cor. xv. 34).—“Guarded through faith unto a salvation” (1 Pet. i. 5).—“Wandering in ... the holes of the earth” (Heb. xi. 38—very queer places certainly to be “wandering” in).—“She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you” (1 Pet. v. 13).—“Therefore do these powers work in Him” (Matth. xiv. 2).—“In danger of the hell of fire” (v. 22).—“Put out into the deep” (Luke v. 4).—“The tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver” (Acts vii. 16).

With reference to every one of these places, (and they are but samples of what is to be met with in every page,) we venture to assert that they are either less intelligible, or else more inaccurate, than the expressions which they are severally intended to supersede; while, in some instances, they are both. Will any one seriously contend that “the hire of wrong-doing” [pg 142] is better than “the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Pet. ii. 15)? or, will he venture to deny that, “Come and dine”—“so when they had dined,”—is a hundred times better than “Come and break your fast”—“so when they had broken their fast” (Jo. xxi. 12, 15)?—expressions which are only introduced because the Revisionists were ashamed (as well they might be) to write “breakfast” and “breakfasted.” The seven had not been “fasting.” Then, why introduce so incongruous a notion here,—any more than into S. Luke xi. 37, 38, and xiv. 12?

Has the reader any appetite for more specimens of “incorrectness” remedied and “obscurity” removed? Rather, as it seems, have both been largely imported into a Translation which was singularly intelligible before. Why darken Rom. vii. 1 and xi. 2 by introducing the interrogative particle, and then, by mistranslating it “Or”?—Also, why translate γένος “race”? (“a man of Cyprus by race,” “a man of Pontus by race,” “an Alexandrian by race,” Acts iv. 36: xviii. 2, 24).—“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body,” say the Revisionists: “O death, where is thy victory? O death where is thy sting?” (Could they not let even 1 Cor. xv. 44 and 55 alone?)—Why alter “For the bread of God is He,” into “For the bread of God is that which cometh down from Heaven”? (Jo. vi. 33).—“As long as I am in the world,” was surely better than “When I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (ix. 5).—Is “He went forth out of their hand” supposed to be an improvement upon “He escaped out of their hand”? (x. 39): and is “They loved the glory of men more than the glory of GOD” an improvement upon “the praise”? (xii. 43).—“Judas saith unto Him, Lord, what is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us”? Is that supposed to be an improvement upon xiv. 22?—How is “If then” an improvement on “Forasmuch then” in Acts xi. 17?—or how is this endurable in Rom. vii. 15,—“For that which I do, I [pg 143] know not: for not what I would, that do I practise:”—or this, in xvi. 25, “The mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested,” &c.—“Thou therefore, my child,”—addressing the Bishop of Ephesus (2 Tim. ii. 1): and “Titus, my true child,”—addressing the Bishop of Crete (Tit. i. 4).

Are the following deemed improvements? “Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness: and sin is lawlessness” (1 Jo. iii. 4): “I will move thy candlestick out of its place” (Rev. ii. 5):—“a glassy sea” (iv. 6):—“a great voice” (v. 12):—“Verily, not of Angels doth He take hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham:”—“He took hold of the blind man by the hand:”—“They took hold of him and brought him unto the Areopagus” (Heb. ii. 16: S. Mk. viii. 23: Acts xvii. 19):—“wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God” (Acts xi. 16):—“Counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God” (Phil. ii. 6).—Why are we to substitute “court” for “palace” in Matth. xxvi. 3 and Lu. xi. 21? (Consider Matth. xii. 29 and Mk. iii. 27).—“Women received their dead by a resurrection” (Heb. xi. 35):—“If ye forgive not every one his brother from their hearts” (Matth. xviii. 35):—“If because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love” (Rom. xiv. 15):—“which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal; but in his own seasons manifested his word in the message” (Tit. i. 2, 3):—“Your pleasures [and why not ‘lusts’?] that war in your members” (James iv. 1):—“Behold how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!” (iii. 5).—Are these really supposed to be less “obscure” than the passages they are intended to supersede?

(a) Not a few of the mistaken renderings of the Revisionists can only be established by an amount of illustration which is at once inconvenient to the Reviewer and unwelcome probably [pg 144] to the general Reader. Thus, we take leave to point out that,—“And coming up at that very hour” (in Lu. ii. 38),—as well as “she came up to Him” (in Lu. x. 40), are inexact renderings of the original. The verb ἐφιστάναι, which etymologically signifies “to stand upon,” or “over,” or “by,”—(but which retains its literal signification on only four out of the eighteen occasions478 when the word occurs in the Gospels and Acts,)—is found almost invariably to denote the “coming suddenly upon” a person. Hence, it is observed to be used five times to denote the sudden appearance of friendly visitants from the unseen world:479 and seven times, the sudden hostile approach of what is formidable.480 On the two remaining occasions, which are those before us,—(namely, the sudden coming of Anna into the Temple481 and of Martha into the presence of our Lord,482)—“coming suddenly in” would probably represent S. Luke's ἐπιστᾶσα exactly. And yet, one would hesitate to import the word “suddenly” into the narrative. So that “coming in” would after all have to stand in the text, although the attentive student of Scripture would enjoy the knowledge that something more is implied. In other words,—the Revisionists would have done better if they had left both places alone.... These are many words; yet is it impossible to explain such matters at once satisfactorily and briefly.

(b) But more painful by far it is to discover that a morbid striving after etymological accuracy,—added to a [pg 145] calamitous preference for a depraved Text,—has proved the ruin of one of the most affecting scenes in S. John's Gospel. “Simon Peter beckoneth to him, and saith unto him, Tell us who it is of whom He speaketh” [a fabulous statement evidently; for Peter beckoned, because he might not speak]. “He leaning back, as he was,”—[a very bad rendering of οὕτως, by the way; and sure to recal inopportunely the rendering of ὡς ἦν in S. Mark iv. 36, instead of suggesting (as it obviously ought) the original of S. John iv. 6:]—“on Jesus' breast, saith unto Him, Lord who is it?” (S. John xiii. 24-5). Now, S. John's word concerning himself in this place is certainly ἐπιπεσών. He “just sank”—let his head “fall”—on his Master's breast, and whispered his question. For this, a few corrupt copies substitute ἀναπεσών. But ἀναπεσών never means “leaning back.” It is descriptive of the posture of one reclining at a meal (S. Jo. xiii. 12). Accordingly, it is 10 times rendered by the Revisionists to “sit down.” Why, in this place, and in chapter xxi. 20, a new meaning is thrust upon the word, it is for the Revisionists to explain. But they must explain the matter a vast deal better than Bp. Lightfoot has done in his interesting little work on Revision (pp. 72-3), or they will fail to persuade any,—except one another.

(c) Thus it happens that we never spend half-an-hour over the unfortunate production before us without exclaiming (with one in the Gospel), “The old is better.” Changes of any sort are unwelcome in such a book as the Bible; but the discovery that changes have been made for the worse, offends greatly. To take instances at random:—'Ὁ πλεῖστος ὄχλος (in Matth. xxi. 8) is rightly rendered in our A. V. “a very great multitude.”483 Why then has it been altered by the R. V. into [pg 146] “the most part of the multitude”?—Ὁ πολὺς ὄχλος (Mk. xii. 37), in like manner, is rightly rendered “the common people,” and ought not to have been glossed in the margin “the great multitude.”—In the R. V. of Acts x. 15, we find “Make thou not common,” introduced as an improvement on, “That call not thou common.” But “the old is better:” for, besides its idiomatic and helpful “That,”—the old alone states the case truly. Peter did not “make,” he only “called,” something “common.”—“All the male children,” as a translation of πάντας τοὺς παῖδας (in Matth. ii. 16) is an unauthorized statement. There is no reason for supposing that the female infants of Bethlehem were spared in the general massacre: and the Greek certainly conveys no such information.—“When he came into the house, Jesus spake first to him”—is really an incorrect rendering of Matth. xvii. 25: at least, it imports into the narrative a notion which is not found in the Greek, and does not exhibit faithfully what the Evangelist actually says. “Anticipated,” in modern English,—“prevented,” in ancient phraseology,—“was beforehand with him” in language neither new nor old,—conveys the sense of the original exactly.—In S. Lu. vi. 35, “Love your enemies, ... and lend, never despairing,” is simply a mistaken translation of ἀπελπίζοντες, as the context sufficiently proves. The old rendering is the true one.484 And so, learnedly, the Vulgate,—nihil inde sperantes. (Consider the use of ἀποβλέπειν [Heb. xi. 26]: ἀφορᾶν [Phil. ii. 23: Heb. xii. 2]: abutor, as used by Jerome for utor, &c.)—“Go with them making no distinction” is not the meaning of Acts xi. 12: which, however, was correctly translated before, viz. “nothing doubting.”—The mischievous change (“save” in place of “but”) in Gal. ii. 16 has been ably and faithfully exposed by Bp. Ollivant. In the words of the [pg 147] learned and pious Bp. of Lincoln, “it is illogical and erroneous, and contradicts the whole drift of S. Paul's Argument in that Epistle, and in the Epistle to the Romans.”

(d) We should be dealing insincerely with our Readers were we to conceal our grave dissatisfaction at not a few of the novel expressions which the Revisionists have sought to introduce into the English New Testament. That the malefactors between whom “the Lord of glory” was crucified were not ordinary “thieves” is obvious; yet would it have been wiser, we think, to leave the old designation undisturbed. We shall never learn to call them “robbers.”—“The king sent forth a soldier of his guard” is a gloss—not a translation of S. Mark vi. 27. “An executioner” surely is far preferable as the equivalent for σπεκουλάτωρ!485—“Assassins” (as the rendering of σικάριοι) is an objectionable substitute for “murderers.” A word which “belongs probably to a romantic chapter in the history of the Crusades”486 has no business in the N. T.—And what did these learned men suppose they should gain by substituting “the twin brothers” for “Castor and Pollux” in Acts xxviii. 11? The Greek (Διόσκουροι) is neither the one nor the other.—In the same spirit, instead of, “they that received tribute-money” (in S. Matth. xvii. 24), we are now presented with “they that received the half-shekel:” and in verse 27,—instead of “when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money,” we are favoured with “thou shalt find a shekel.” But why the change has been made, we fail to see. The margin is still obliged to explain that not one of these four words is found in the original: the Greek in the former place being τὰ δίδραχμα,—in the latter, στατήρ.—“Flute-players” [pg 148] (for “minstrels”) in S. Matthew ix. 23, is a mistake. An αὐλητής played the pipe (αὐλός, 1 Cor. xiv. 7),—hence “pipers” in Rev. xviii. 22; (where by the way μουσικοί [“musicians”] is perversely and less accurately rendered “minstrels”).—Once more. “Undressed cloth” (Mk. ii. 21), because it is an expression popularly understood only in certain districts of England, and a vox artis, ought not to have been introduced into the Gospels. “New” is preferable.—“Wine-skins” (Mtt. ix. 17: Mk. ii. 22: Lu. v. 37) is a term unintelligible to the generality; as the Revisionists confess, for they explain it by a note,—“That is, skins used as bottles.” What else is this but substituting a new difficulty for an old one?—“Silver,” now for the first time thrust into Acts viii. 20, is unreasonable. Like “argent” in French, ἀργύριον as much means “money,” here as in S. Matthew xxv. 18, 27, &c.—In S. James ii. 19, we should like to know what is gained by the introduction of the “shuddering” devils.—To take an example from a different class of words,—Who will say that “Thou mindest not the things of God” is a better rendering of οὐ φρονεῖς, than the old “Thou savourest not,”—which at least had no ambiguity about it?... A friend points out that Dr. Field (a “master in Israel”) has examined 104 of the changes made in the Revised Version; and finds 8 questionable: 13 unnecessary: 19 faulty (i.e. cases in which the A. V. required amendment, but which the R. V. has not succeeded in amending): 64 changes for the worse.487... This is surely a terrible indictment for such an one as Dr. Field to bring against the Revisers,—who were directed only to correct “plain and clear errors.”

(e) We really fail to understand how it has come to pass that, notwithstanding the amount of scholarship which [pg 149] sometimes sat in the Jerusalem Chamber, so many novelties are found in the present Revision which betoken a want of familiarity with the refinements of the Greek language on the one hand; and (what is even more inexcusable) only a slender acquaintance with the resources and proprieties of English speech, on the other. A fair average instance of this occurs in Acts xxi. 37, where (instead of “Canst thou speak Greek?”) Ἑλληνιστὶ γινώσκεις? is rendered “Dost thou know Greek?” That γινώσκειν means “to know” (and not “to speak”) is undeniable: and yet, in the account of all, except the driest and stupidest of pedagogues, Ἑλληνιστὶ γινώσκεις; must be translated “Canst thou speak Greek?” For (as every schoolboy is aware) Ἑλληνιστί is an adverb, and signifies “in Greek fashion:” so that something has to be supplied: and the full expression, if it must needs be given, would be, “Dost thou know [how to talk] in Greek?” But then, this condensation of phrase proves to be the established idiom of the language:488 so that the rejection of the learned rendering of Tyndale, Cranmer, the Geneva, the Rheims, and the Translators of 1611 (“Canst thou speak Greek?”)—the rejection of this, at the end of 270 years, in favour of “Dost thou know Greek?” really betrays ignorance. It is worse than bad Taste. It is a stupid and deliberate blunder.

(f) The substitution of “they weighed unto him” (in place of “they covenanted with him for”) “thirty pieces of silver” (S. Matth. xxvi. 15) is another of those plausible mistakes, into which a little learning (proverbially “a dangerous thing”) is for ever conducting its unfortunate possessor; but from which it was to have been expected that the undoubted [pg 150] attainments of some who frequented the Jerusalem Chamber would have effectually preserved the Revisionists. That ἔστησαν is intended to recal Zech. xi. 12, is obvious; as well as that there it refers to the ancient practice of weighing uncoined money. It does not, however, by any means follow, that it was customary to weigh shekels in the days of the Gospel. Coined money, in fact, was never weighed, but always counted; and these were shekels, i.e. didrachms (Matth. xvii. 24). The truth (it lies on the surface) is, that there exists a happy ambiguity about the word ἔστησαν, of which the Evangelist has not been slow to avail himself. In the particular case before us, it is expressly recorded that in the first instance money did not pass,—only a bargain was made, and a certain sum promised. S. Mark's record is that the chief priests were glad at the proposal of Judas, “and promised to give him money” (xiv. 11): S. Luke's, that “they covenanted” to do so (xxii. 5, 6). And with this, the statement of the first Evangelist is found to be in strictest agreement. The chief Priests “set” or “appointed”489 him a certain sum. The perfectly accurate rendering of S. Matth. xxvi. 15, therefore, exhibited by our Authorized Version, has been set aside to make way for a misrepresentation of the Evangelist's meaning. “In the judgment of the most competent scholars,” was “such change necessary”?

(g) We respectfully think that it would have been more becoming in such a company as that which assembled in the Jerusalem Chamber, as well as more consistent with their Instructions, if in doubtful cases they had abstained from touching the Authorized Version, but had recorded their own conjectural emendations in the margin. How rash and infelicitous, [pg 151] for example, is the following rendering of the famous words in Acts xxvi. 28, 29, which we find thrust upon us without apology or explanation; without, in fact, any marginal note at all:—“And Agrippa said unto Paul, With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that whether with little or with much,” &c. Now this is indefensible. For, in the first place, to get any such meaning out of the words, our Revisionists have been obliged to substitute the fabricated ποιῆσαι (the peculiar property of א a b and a few cursives) for γενέσθαι in ver. 28. Moreover, even so, the words do not yield the required sense. We venture to point out, that this is precisely one of the occasions where the opinion of a first-rate Greek Father is of paramount importance. The moderns confess themselves unable to discover a single instance of the phrase ἐν ὀλίγῳ in the sense of “within a little.” Cyril of Jerusalem (a.d. 350) and Chrysostom (a.d. 400), on the contrary, evidently considered that here the expression can mean nothing else; and they were competent judges, seeing that Greek was their native language: far better judges (be it remarked in passing) on a point of this kind than the whole body of Revisionists put together. “Such an amount of victorious grace and wisdom did Paul derive from the Holy Spirit” (says Cyril), “that even King Agrippa at last exclaimed,”490 &c. From which it is evident that Cyril regarded Agrippa's words as an avowal that he was well-nigh overcome by the Apostle's argument. And so Chrysostom,491 who says plainly that ἐν ὀλίγῳ means “within a little,”492 and assumes that “within a little” S. Paul had [pg 152] persuaded his judge.493 He even puts παρ᾽ ὀλίγον into Agrippa's mouth.494 So also, in effect, Theodoret.495 From all which it is reasonable, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, to infer that our A. V. reflects faithfully what was the Church's traditionary interpretation of Acts xxvi. 28 in the first half of the fourth century. Let it only be added that a better judge of such matters than any who frequented the Jerusalem Chamber—the late President of Magdalen, Dr. Routh,—writes: “Vertendum esse sequentia suadent, Me fere Christianum fieri suades. Interp. Vulgata habet, In modico suades me Christianum fieri.”496 Yes, the Apostle's rejoinder fixes the meaning of what Agrippa had said before.—And this shall suffice. We pass on, only repeating our devout wish that what the Revisionists failed to understand, or were unable materially and certainly to improve, they would have been so obliging as to let alone. In the present instance the A. V. is probably right; the R. V., probably wrong. No one, at all events, can pretend that the rendering with which we are all familiar is “a plain and clear error.” And confessedly, unless it was, it should have been left unmolested. But to proceed.

(4) and (5) There can be no question as to the absolute duty of rendering identical expressions in strictly parallel places of the Gospels by strictly identical language. So far we are wholly at one with the Revisionists. But “alterations [supposed to be] rendered necessary by consequence” (Preface, iii. 2.), are quite a different matter: and we venture to think that it is precisely in their pursuit of a mechanical uniformity of rendering, that our Revisionists have most often as well as most grievously lost their way. We differ from them in fact in limine. “When a particular word” (say they) “is found to [pg 153] recur with characteristic frequency in any one of the Sacred Writers, it is obviously desirable to adopt for it some uniform rendering” (iii. 2). “Desirable”! Yes, but in what sense? It is much to be desired, no doubt, that the English language always contained the exact counterparts of Greek words: and of course, if it did, it would be in the highest degree “desirable” that a Translator should always employ those words and no other. But then it happens unfortunately that precisely equivalent words do not exist. Τέκνον, nine times out of ten signifies nothing else but “child.” On the tenth occasion, however, (e.g. where Abraham is addressing the rich man in Hades,) it would be absurd so to render it. We translate “Son.” We are in fact without choice.—Take another ordinary Greek term, σπλάγχνα, which occurs 11 times in the N. T., and which the A. V. uniformly renders “bowels.” Well, and “bowels” confessedly σπλάγχνα are. Yet have our Revisionists felt themselves under the “necessity” of rendering the word “heart,” in Col. iii. 12,—“very heart,” in Philemon, ver. 12,—“affections” in 2 Cor. vi. 12,—“inward affection,” in vii. 15,—“tender mercies” in Phil. i. 8,—“compassion” in 1 Jo. iii. 17,—“bowels” only in Acts i. 18.—These learned men, however, put forward in illustration of their own principle of translation, the word εὐθέως,—which occurs about 80 times in the N. T.: nearly half the instances being found in S. Mark's Gospel. We accept their challenge; and assert that it is tasteless barbarism to seek to impose upon εὐθέως,—no matter what the context in which it stands,—the sense of “straightway,”—only because εὐθύς, the adjective, generally (not always) means “straight.” Where a miracle of healing is described (as in S. Matth. viii. 3: xx. 34. S. Lu. v. 13), since the benefit was no doubt instantaneous, it is surely the mere instinct of “faithfulness” to translate εὐθέως “immediately.” So, in respect of the sudden act which saved Peter from sinking (S. Matth. xiv. 31); and that punctual cock-crow [pg 154] (xxvi. 74), which (S. Luke says) did not so much follow, as accompany his denial (xxii. 60). But surely not so, when the growth of a seed is the thing spoken of (Matth. xiii. 5)! Acts again, which must needs have occupied some little time in the doing, reasonably suggest some such rendering as “forthwith” or “straightway,”—(e.g. S. Matth. xiv. 22: xxi. 2: and S. John vi. 21): while, in 3 John ver. 14, the meaning (as the Revisionists confess) can only be “shortly.”... So plain a matter really ought not to require so many words. We repeat, that the Revisionists set out with a mistaken Principle. They clearly do not understand their Trade.

They invite our attention to their rendering of certain of the Greek Tenses, and of the definite Article. We regret to discover that, in both respects, their work is disfigured throughout by changes which convict a majority of their body alike of an imperfect acquaintance with the genius of the Greek language, and of scarcely a moderate appreciation of the idiomatic proprieties of their own. Such a charge must of necessity, when it has been substantiated, press heavily upon such a work as the present; for it is not as when a solitary error has been detected, which may be rectified. A vicious system of rendering Tenses, and representing the Greek Article, is sure to crop up in every part of the undertaking, and must occasionally be attended by consequences of a serious nature.

1. Now, that we may not be misunderstood, we admit at once that, in teaching boys how to turn Greek into English, we insist that every tense shall be marked by its own appropriate sign. There is no telling how helpful it will prove in the end, that every word shall at first have been rendered with painful accuracy. Let the Article be [mis-]represented—the Prepositions caricatured—the Particles magnified,—let [pg 155] the very order of the words at first, (however impossible,) be religiously retained. Merciless accuracy having been in this way acquired, a youth has to be untaught these servile habits. He has to be reminded of the requirements of the English idiom, and speedily becomes aware that the idiomatic rendering of a Greek author into English, is a higher achievement by far, than his former slavish endeavour always to render the same word and tense in the same slavish way.

2. But what supremely annoys us in the work just now under review is, that the schoolboy method of translation already noticed is therein exhibited in constant operation throughout. It becomes oppressive. We are never permitted to believe that we are in the company of Scholars who are altogether masters of their own language. Their solicitude ever seems to be twofold:—(1) To exhibit a singular indifference to the proprieties of English speech, while they maintain a servile adherence (etymological or idiomatic, as the case may be) to the Greek:—(2) Right or wrong, to part company from William Tyndale and the giants who gave us our “Authorized Version.”

Take a few illustrations of what precedes from the second chapter of S. Matthew's Gospel:—

(1.) Thus, in ver. 2, the correct English rendering “we have seen” is made to give place to the incorrect “we saw his star in the east.”—In ver. 9, the idiomatic “when they had heard the king, they departed,” is rejected for the unidiomatic “And they, having heard the king, went their way.”—In ver. 15, we are treated to “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call my son.” And yet who sees not, that in both instances the old rendering is better? Important [pg 156] as it may be, in the lecture-room, to insist on what is implied by τὸ ῥηθὲν ὙΠῸ τοῦ κυρίου ΔΙᾺ τοῦ προφήτου, it is simply preposterous to come abroad with such refinements. It is to stultify oneself and to render one's author unintelligible. Moreover, the attempt to be so wondrous literal is safe to break down at the end of a few verses. Thus, if διά is “through” in verse 15,—why not in verse 17 and in verse 23?

(2.) Note how infelicitously, in S. Matth. ii. 1, “there came wise men from the east” is changed into “wise men from the east came.”—In ver. 4, the accurate, “And when [Herod] had gathered together” (συναγαγών) &c., is displaced for the inaccurate, “And gathering together” &c.—In ver. 6, we are presented with the unintelligible, “And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah:” while in ver. 7, “Then Herod privily called the wise men, and learned of them carefully,” is improperly put in the place of “Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently” (ἠκρίβωσε παρ᾽ αὐτῶν).—In ver. 11, the familiar “And when they were come into the house, they saw” &c., is needlessly changed into “They came into the house, and saw:” while “and when they had opened (ἀνοίξαντες) their treasures,” is also needlessly altered into “and opening their treasures.”—In ver. 12, the R. V. is careful to print “of God” in italics, where italics are not necessary: seeing that χρηματισθέντες implies “being warned of God” (as the translators of 1611 were well aware497): whereas in countless other places the same Revisionists reject the use of italics where italics are absolutely required.—Their “until I tell thee” (in ver. 13) is a most unworthy substitute for “until I bring thee word.”—And will they pretend that they have improved the rendering of the [pg 157] concluding words of the chapter? If Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται does not mean “He shall be called a Nazarene,” what in the world does it mean? The ὅτι of quotation they elsewhere omit. Then why, here,—“That it might be fulfilled ... that”?—Surely, every one of these is an alteration made for alteration's sake, and in every instance for the worse.

We began by surveying the Greek of the first chapter of S. Matthew's Gospel. We have now surveyed the English of the second chapter. What does the Reader think of the result?

IV. Next, the Revisionists invite attention to certain points of detail: and first, to their rendering of the Tenses of the Verb. They begin with the Greek Aorist,—(in their account) “perhaps the most important” detail of all:—

“We have not attempted to violate the idiom of our language by forms of expression which it would not bear. But we have often ventured to represent the Greek aorist by the English preterite, even when the reader may find some passing difficulty in such a rendering, because we have felt convinced that the true meaning of the original was obscured by the presence of the familiar auxiliary. A remarkable illustration may be found in the seventeenth chapter of S. John's Gospel.”—Preface, iii. 2,—(latter part).

(a) We turn to the place indicated, and are constrained to assure these well-intentioned men, that the phenomenon we there witness is absolutely fatal to their pretensions as “Revisers” of our Authorized Version. Were it only “some passing difficulty” which their method occasions us, we might have hoped that time would enable us to overcome it. But since it is the genius of the English language to which we find they have offered violence; the fixed and universally-understood idiom of our native tongue which they have systematically set at defiance; the matter is absolutely without remedy. The difference between the A. V. and the R. V. seems to ourselves to be simply this,—that [pg 158] the renderings in the former are the idiomatic English representations of certain well-understood Greek tenses: while the proposed substitutes are nothing else but the pedantic efforts of mere grammarians to reproduce in another language idioms which it abhors. But the Reader shall judge for himself: for this at least is a point on which every educated Englishman is fully competent to pass sentence.

When our Divine Lord, at the close of His Ministry,—(He had in fact reached the very last night of His earthly life, and it wanted but a few hours of His Passion,)—when He, at such a moment, addressing the Eternal Father, says, ἐγώ σε ἐδόξασα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; τὸ ἔργον ἐτελείωσα ... ἐφανέρωσά σου τὸ ὄνομα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, &c. [Jo. xvii. 4, 6], there can be no doubt whatever that, had He pronounced those words in English, He would have said (with our A. V.) “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work:” “I have manifested Thy Name.” The pedantry which (on the plea that the Evangelist employs the aorist, not the perfect tense,) would twist all this into the indefinite past,—“I glorified” ... “I finished” ... “I manifested,”—we pronounce altogether insufferable. We absolutely refuse it a hearing. Presently (in ver. 14) He says,—“I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them.” And in ver. 25,—“O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me.” Who would consent to substitute for these expressions,—“the world hated them:” and “the world knew Thee not, but I knew Thee; and these knew that Thou didst send Me”?—Or turn to another Gospel. Which is better,—“Some one hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me,” (S. Lu. viii. 46):—or,—“Some one did touch Me: for I perceived that power had gone forth from Me”?

[pg 159]

When the reference is to an act so extremely recent, who is not aware that the second of these renderings is abhorrent to the genius of the English language? As for ἔγνων, it is (like novi in Latin) present in sense though past in form,—here as in S. Lu. xvi. 3.—But turn to yet another Gospel. Which is better in S. Matth. xvi. 7:—“we took no bread,” or “It is because we have taken no bread”?—Again. When Simon Peter (in reply to the command that he should thrust out into deep water and let down his net for a draught,) is heard to exclaim,—“Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net” (Lu. v. 5),—who would tolerate the proposal to put in the place of it,—“Master, we toiled all night, and took nothing: but at Thy word,” &c. It is not too much to declare that the idiom of the English language refuses peremptorily to submit to such handling. Quite in vain is it to encounter us with reminder that κοπιάσαντες and ἐλάβομεν are aorists. The answer is,—We know it: but we deny that it follows that the words are to be rendered “we toiled all night, and took nothing.” There are laws of English Idiom as well as laws of Greek Grammar: and when these clash in what is meant to be a translation into English out of Greek, the latter must perforce give way to the former,—or we make ourselves ridiculous, and misrepresent what we propose to translate.

All this is so undeniable that it ought not to require to be insisted upon. But in fact our Revisionists by their occasional practice show that they fully admit the Principle we are contending for. Thus, ἧραν (in S. Jo. xx. 2 and 13) is by them translated “they have taken:”—ἱνατί με ἐγκατέλιπες; (S. Matt. xxvii. 46) “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”498:—ἔδειξα [pg 160] (S. Jo. x. 32) “have I showed:”—ἀπέστειλε (vi. 29) “He hath sent:”—ἠτιμάσατε (James ii. 6) “ye have dishonoured:”—ἐκαθάρισε (Acts x. 15) “hath cleansed:”—ἔστησεν (xvii. 31) “He hath appointed.” But indeed instances abound everywhere. In fact, the requirements of the case are often observed to force them to be idiomatic. Τί ἐποίησας; (in Jo. xviii. 35), they rightly render “What hast thou done?”:—and ἔγραψα (in 1 Jo. ii. 14, 21), “I have written;”—and ἤκουσα (in Acts ix. 13), “I have heard.”—On the other hand, by translating οὐκ εἴασεν (in Acts xxviii. 4), “hath not suffered,” they may be thought to have overshot the mark. They seem to have overlooked the fact that, when once S. Paul had been bitten by the viper, “the barbarians” looked upon him as a dead man; and therefore discoursed about what Justice “did not suffer,” as about an entirely past transaction.

But now, Who sees not that the admission, once and again deliberately made, that sometimes it is not only lawful, but even necessary, to accommodate the Greek aorist (when translated into English) with the sign of the perfect,—reduces the whole matter (of the signs of the tenses) to a mere question of Taste? In view of such instances as the foregoing, where severe logical necessity has compelled the Revisionists to abandon their position and fly, it is plain that their contention is at an end,—so far as right and wrong are concerned. They virtually admit that they have been all along unjustly forcing on an independent language an alien yoke.499 Henceforth, it simply becomes a question to be repeated, as every fresh emergency arises,—Which then is the more idiomatic of these two English renderings?... Conversely, twice at least (Heb. xi. 17 and 28), the Revisionists [pg 161] have represented the Greek perfect by the English indefinite preterite.

(b) Besides this offensive pedantry in respect of the Aorist, we are often annoyed by an unidiomatic rendering of the Imperfect. True enough it is that “the servants and the officers were standing ... and were warming themselves:” Peter also “was standing with them and was warming himself” (S. Jo. xviii. 18). But we do not so express ourselves in English, unless we are about to add something which shall account for our particularity and precision. Any one, for example, desirous of stating what had been for years his daily practice, would say—“I left my house.” Only when he wanted to explain that, on leaving it for the 1000th time, he met a friend coming up the steps to pay him a visit, would an Englishman think of saying, “I was leaving the house.” A Greek writer, on the other hand, would not trust this to the imperfect. He would use the present participle in the dative case, (“To me, leaving my house,”500 &c.). One is astonished to have to explain such things.... “If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar” (Matt. v. 23), may seem to some a clever translation. To ourselves, it reads like a senseless exaggeration of the original.501 It sounds (and is) as unnatural as to say (in S. Lu. ii. 33) “And His father [a depravation of the text] and His mother were marvelling at the things which were spoken concerning Him:”—or (in Heb. xi. 17) “yea, he that had received the promises was offering up his only-begotten son:”—or, of the cripple at Lystra (Acts xiv. 9), “the same heard Paul speaking.”

(c) On the other hand, there are occasions confessedly when the Greek Aorist absolutely demands to be rendered [pg 162] into English by the sign of the Pluperfect. An instance meets us while we write: ὡς δὲ ἐπαύσατο λαλῶν (S. Lu. v. 4),—where our Revisionists are found to retain the idiomatic rendering of our Authorized Version,—“When He had left speaking.” Of what possible avail could it be, on such an occasion, to insist that, because ἐπαύσατο is not in the pluperfect tense, it may not be accommodated with the sign of the pluperfect when it is being translated into English?—The R. V. has shown less consideration in S. Jo. xviii. 24,—where “Now Annas had sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest,” is right, and wanted no revision.—Such places as Matth. xxvii. 60, Jo. xxi. 15, Acts xii. 17, and Heb. iv. 8, on the other hand, simply defy the Revisionists. For perforce Joseph “had hewn out” (ἐλατόμησε) the new tomb which became our Lord's: and the seven Apostles, confessedly, “had dined” (ἠρίστησαν): and S. Peter, of course, “declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison” (ἐξήγαγεν): and it is impossible to substitute anything for “If Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest” (κατέπαυσεν).—Then of course there are occasions, (not a few,) where the Aorist (often an indefinite present in Greek) claims to be Englished by the sign of the present tense: as where S. John says (Rev. xix. 6), “The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth” (ἐβασίλευσε). There is no striving against such instances. They insist on being rendered according to the genius of the language into which it is proposed to render them:—as when ἔκειτο (in S. Jo. xx. 12) exacts for its rendering “had lain.”

(d) It shall only be pointed out here in addition, for the student's benefit, that there is one highly interesting place (viz. S. Matth. xxviii. 2), which in every age has misled Critics and Divines (as Origen and Eusebius); Poets (as Rogers); Painters (as West);—yes, and will continue to mislead readers for many a year to come:—and all because men [pg 163] have failed to perceive that the aorist is used there for the pluperfect. Translate,—“There had been a great earthquake:” [and so (1611-1881) our margin,—until in short “the Revisionists” interfered:] “for the Angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, and come and rolled away (ἀπεκύλισε) the stone from the door, and sat upon it.” Strange, that for 1800 years Commentators should have failed to perceive that the Evangelist is describing what terrified “the keepers.” “The women” saw no Angel sitting upon the stone!—though Origen,502—Dionysius of Alexandria,503—Eusebius,504—ps.-Gregory Naz.,505—Cyril Alex.,506—Hesychius,507—and so many others—have taken it for granted that they did.

(e) Then further, (to dismiss the subject and pass on,)—There are occasions where the Greek perfect exacts the sign of the present at the hands of the English translator: as when Martha says,—“Yea Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ” (S. Jo. xi. 27).508 What else but the veriest pedantry is it to thrust in there “I have believed,” as the English equivalent for πεπίστευκα?—Just as intolerable is the officiousness which would thrust into the Lord's prayer (Matt. vi. 12), “as we also have forgiven (ἀφήκαμεν) our debtors.”509—On the other hand, there are Greek presents (whatever the Revisionists may think) which are just as peremptory in requiring the sign of the future, at the hands of the idiomatic translator into English. Three such cases are found in S. Jo. xvi. 16, 17, 19. Surely, the future is inherent in the present ἔρχομαι! In Jo. xiv. 18 (and many similar places), who can endure, “I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you”?

[pg 164]

(f) But instances abound. How does it happen that the inaccurate rendering of ἐκκόπτεται—ἐκβάλλεται—has been retained in S. Matth. iii. 10, S. Lu. iii. 9?

V. Next, concerning the definite Article; in the case of which, (say the Revisionists,)

“many changes have been made.” “We have been careful to observe the use of the Article wherever it seemed to be idiomatically possible: where it did not seem to be possible, we have yielded to necessity.”—(Preface, iii. 2,—ad fin.)

In reply, instead of offering counter-statements of our own we content ourselves with submitting a few specimens to the Reader's judgment; and invite him to decide between the Reviewer and the Reviewed ... “The sower went forth to sow” (Matth. xiii. 3).—“It is greater than the herbs” (ver. 32).—“Let him be to thee as the Gentile and the publican” (xviii. 17).—“The unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man” (xii. 43).—“Did I not choose you the twelve?” (Jo. vi. 70).—“If I then, the Lord and the master” (xiii. 14).—“For the joy that a man is born into the world” (xvi. 21).—“But as touching Apollos the brother” (1 Cor. xvi. 12).—“The Bishop must be blameless ... able to exhort in the sound doctrine” (Titus i. 7, 9).—“The lust when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown” &c. (James i. 15).—“Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?” (iii. 11).—“Speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine” (Titus ii. 1).—“The time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine” (2 Tim. iv. 3).—“We had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us” (Heb. xii. 9).—“Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification” (ver. 14).—“Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 Jo. ii. 22).—“Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood” (v. 6).—“He that hath the Son, hath the life: he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (ver. 12).

[pg 165]

To rejoin, as if it were a sufficient answer, that the definite Article is found in all these places in the original Greek,—is preposterous. In French also we say “Telle est la vie:” but, in translating from the French, we do not therefore say “Such is the life.” May we, without offence, suggest the study of Middleton On the Doctrine of the Greek Article to those members of the Revisionists' body who have favoured us with the foregoing crop of mistaken renderings?

So, in respect of the indefinite article, we are presented with,—“An eternal” (for “the everlasting”) “gospel to proclaim” (Rev. xiv. 6):—and “one like unto a son of man,” for “one like unto the Son of Man” in ver. 14.—Why “a Saviour” in Phil. iii. 20? There is but one! (Acts iv. 12).—On the other hand, Κρανίον is rendered “The skull” in S. Lu. xxiii. 33. It is hard to see why.—These instances taken at random must suffice. They might be multiplied to any extent. If the Reader considers that the idiomatic use of the English Article is understood by the authors of these specimen cases, we shall be surprised, and sorry—for him.

VI. The Revisionists announce that they “have been particularly careful” as to the Pronouns [iii. 2 ad fin.] We recal with regret that this is also a particular wherein we have been specially annoyed and offended. Annoyed—at their practice of repeating the nominative (e.g. in Mk. i. 13: Jo. xx. 12) to an extent unknown, abhorrent even, to our language, except indeed when a fresh substantive statement is made: offended—at their license of translation, when it suits them to be licentious.—Thus, (as the Bp. of S. Andrews has well pointed out,) “it is He that” is an incorrect translation of αὐτός in S. Matth. i. 21,—a famous passage. Even worse, because it is unfair, is “He who” as the rendering of ὅς in 1 Tim. iii. 16,—another famous passage, which we have discussed elsewhere.510

[pg 166]

VII. 'In the case of the Particles' (say the Revisionists),

“we have been able to maintain a reasonable amount of consistency. The Particles in the Greek Testament are, as is well known, comparatively few, and they are commonly used with precision. It has therefore been the more necessary here to preserve a general uniformity of rendering.”—(iii. 2 ad fin.)

Such an announcement, we submit, is calculated to occasion nothing so much as uneasiness and astonishment. Of all the parts of speech, the Greek Particles,—(especially throughout the period when the Language was in its decadence,)—are the least capable of being drilled into “a general uniformity of rendering;” and he who tries the experiment ought to be the first to be aware of the fact. The refinement and delicacy which they impart to a narrative or a sentiment, are not to be told. But then, from the very nature of the case, “uniformity of rendering” is precisely the thing they will not submit to. They take their colour from their context: often mean two quite different things in the course of two successive verses: sometimes are best rendered by a long and formidable word;511 sometimes cannot (without a certain amount of impropriety or inconvenience) be rendered at all.512 Let us illustrate what we have been saying by actual appeals to Scripture.

(1) And first, we will derive our proofs from the use which the sacred Writers make of the particle of most [pg 167] frequent recurrence—δέ. It is said to be employed in the N. T. 3115 times. As for its meaning, we have the unimpeachable authority of the Revisionists themselves for saying that it may be represented by any of the following words:—“but,”—“and,”513—“yea,”514—“what,”515—“now,”516—“and that”,517—“howbeit,”518—“even,”519—“therefore,”520—“I say,”521—“also,”522—“yet,”523—“for.”524 To which 12 renderings, King James's translators (mostly following Tyndale) are observed to add at least these other 12:—“wherefore,”525—“so,”526—“moreover,”527—“yea and,”528—“furthermore,”529—“nevertheless,”530—“notwithstanding,”531—“yet but,”532—“truly,”533—“or,”534—“as for,”535—“then,”536—“and yet.”537 It shall suffice to add that, by the pitiful substitution of “but” or “and” on most of the foregoing occasions, the freshness and freedom of almost every passage has been made to disappear: the plain fact being that the men of 1611—above all, that William Tyndale 77 years before them—produced a work of real genius; seizing with generous warmth the meaning and intention of the sacred Writers, and perpetually varying the phrase, as they felt, or fancied that Evangelists and Apostles would have varied it, had they had to express themselves in English: whereas the men of 1881 have fulfilled their task in what can only be described as a spirit of servile pedantry. The Grammarian (pure and simple) crops up everywhere. We seem never to rise above the atmosphere of the lecture-room,—the startling fact that μέν means “indeed,” and δέ “but.”

[pg 168]

We subjoin a single specimen of the countless changes introduced in the rendering of Particles, and then hasten on. In 1 Cor. xii. 20, for three centuries and a half, Englishmen have been contented to read (with William Tyndale), “But now are they many members, yet but one body.” Our Revisionists, (overcome by the knowledge that δέ means “but,” and yielding to the supposed “necessity for preserving a general uniformity of rendering,”) substitute,—“But now they are many members, but one body.” Comment ought to be superfluous. We neither overlook the fact that δέ occurs here twice, nor deny that it is fairly represented by “but” in the first instance. We assert nevertheless that, on the second occasion, “yet but” ought to have been let alone. And this is a fair sample of the changes which have been effected many times in every page. To proceed however.