LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION. With an Appendix CONTAINING THE PREFACES TO THE CHIEF HISTORICAL EDITIONS OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. BY SAMUEL NEWTH , M.A. , D.D. , PRINCIPAL, AND LEE PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, NEW COLLEGE, LONDON; MEMBER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY OF REVISERS. LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXI. [ All rights reserved. ]...

The following work is especially intended for Sunday-school and Bible-class teachers, and for such others as from any cause may be unable to consult many books or to read lengthened treatises. It has seemed to me to be of great importance that those who are engaged in the responsible service of teaching the young, and to whom the Bible is the constant source of appeal, should be able both to take up an intelligent position in regard to the new revision of the English Scriptures, and to meet the

SUBSTANCE AND FORM. There are probably devout persons not a few in whose minds the mere suggestion of a Revision of the Scriptures arouses a feeling of mingled pain and surprise. In that Bible which they received from their fathers in the trustful confidence of childhood, they have heard the voice of God speaking to their souls. Not from any testimony given to them by others, but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to be the Father’s gift unto His children. It has

THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. The English Bible, more than any other of the forms in which the Scriptures have been used by Christian men, has been a growth. It is not the production of one man, or of one epoch. It has come down to us through a long series of transformations, and it is the result of the continuous endeavours of a succession of earnest labourers to give to their fellow-countrymen a faithful representation of the word of God. At what date, and by whom, the Scriptures were first

THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. The accession of Elizabeth, November 17th, 1558, conveniently marks the date of a fourth stage in the growth of the English Bible. The former translations and revisions had been done in troublous times, in the midst of harassing opposition, and under circumstances which forbade the full use of such aids as the scholarship of the times could furnish. The versions now to be mentioned were carried on in open day, and with free access to all that was then ava

THE REVISION OF 1611—THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION. At the accession of James I. the Genevan Bible and the Bishops’ Bible were, as we have seen, the Bibles in current use, the latter being the Bible upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the former the favourite Bible of the people at large. The Book of Psalms also in the version of the Great Bible survived, as it still does, in the psalter of the Prayer Book, and probably in some few parish churches old and worn copies of the Great Bible still

REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY. On the title-page of the first edition of King James’s Bible there appeared as now the legend, “Appointed to be read in Churches.” Whence this originated is unknown; it is even uncertain what meaning is to be attached to the words. Some contend [61] that they mean nothing more than that the book contained the directions in accordance with which the Scriptures were “appointed” to be read in public worship, such as are now given in the Book of Common Prayer. But, ho

ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF 1611. The two reasons for further revision which were illustrated in the last lecture are, as will have been seen, of universal application, and must sooner or later apply to every version of the Scriptures, however perfect that version may have been when it was first made. But whatever the skill with which King James’s translators fulfilled their labours (and it is universally acknowledged to be worthy of the highest praise),

ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS, AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN. Another, and distinct, class of reasons for the further revision of the English Bible, arises from the more abundant material now possessed for the determination of the original text of Scripture than was within the reach of the Revisers of 1611. Even if these honoured men had perfectly fulfilled their work, and had never erred in their interpretation of the sacred books, the result of their labours would still be open to correction beca

THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO CENTURIES. It has not been left to the present generation to be the first to recognize the force of the various considerations presented in the previous lectures. The duty of providing for a further revision of the English Bible has been handed down as a solemn trust from generation to generation. Every new discovery made of Biblical manuscripts, and every fresh field of research opened up, has at once made the need of revision more

THE REVISION OF 1881. To the general consensus of opinion described in the last lecture practical expression was first given by the action of the Convocation of Canterbury, in the early part of 1870. On February 10, 1870, a resolution was moved in the Upper House of Convocation by Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, and seconded by Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, “That a Committee of both Houses be appointed, with power to confer with any committee that may be appointed by the

PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?) CHAPTER XV. [130] For as much as Christ saith that the gospel shall be preached in all the world, and David saith of the Apostles and their preaching, “the sound of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the ends of the world;” and again David saith, “The Lord shall tell in the Scriptures of peoples and of these princes that were in it;” [131] that is, in holy Church, as Jerome saith on that verse, “Holy writ is the Scr

TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES. I. NEW TESTAMENT [139] 1525. 4 TO. I have here translated, brethren and sisters, most dear and tenderly beloved in Christ, the New Testament, for your spiritual edifying, consolation, and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are better seen in the tongues than I, and that have better gifts of grace to interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness; and if they perc

COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535. Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of scripture ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own insufficiency therein, and how weak I am to perform the office of a translator, I was the more loath to meddle with this work. Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it was that we should want it so long, and called to my remembrance the adversity of them which were not only of ripe knowledge, but would also w

PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE, 1560. To our Beloved in the Lord, The Brethren of England, Scotland, Ireland, &c. Grace, mercie, and peace, through Christ Jesus. [141] Besides the manifold and continuall benefits which Almightie God bestowed upon us, both corporall and spirituall, we are especially bound (deare brethren) to giue him thankes without ceasing for his great grace and vnspeakable mercies, in that it hath pleased him to call vs vnto this marueilous light of his Gospell, and merc

THE PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE, 1568. A Preface into the Byble folowyng. Of all the sentences pronounced by our Sauiour Christe in his whole doctrine, none is more serious or more worthy to be borne in remembraunce, than that which he spake openly in his Gospell, saying: John v. Scrutamini scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam eternam habere, et illæ sunt quæ testimonium perhibent de me. Search ye the scriptures, for in them ye think to have eternall lyfe, and those they be which beare

THE PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611. The best things have been calumniated. Zeal to promote the common good, whether it be by devising any thing ourselves, or revising that which hath been laboured by others, deserveth certainly much respect and esteem, but yet findeth but cold entertainment in the world. It is welcomed with suspicion instead of love, and with emulation instead of thanks: and if there be any hole left for cavil to enter, (and cavil, if it do not find an hole, will make one) it i

THE REVISERS OF A.D. 1568. The twelve bishops who are mentioned as taking part with Archbishop Parker in this revision, are: William Alley, Bishop of Exeter. William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester. Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. Nicholas Bullingham, Bishop of Lincoln. Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely. Richard Davies, Bishop of St. Davids (Menevensis). Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London. Edmund Guest (or Geste), Bishop of Rochester. Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester. John Parkhurst, Bis

THE REVISERS OF 1611. In the collection of Records appended to the Second Part of Bishop Burnet’s History of the Reformation of the Church of England , there is given a list of the Revisers of 1611, copied, as the writer tells us, [150] from the paper of Bishop Ravis himself, one of the number. The list is thus given: [151] Westminster (1). Mr. Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dean of Pauls, Mr. Doctor Saravia, Mr. Doctor Clark, Mr. Doctor Leifield, Mr. Doctor Teigh, Mr. Burleigh, Mr. King, Mr. Tompson,