Latest / History of the English Bible / 07 - History of the English Bible by John Brown
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter six of the History of the English Bible by
- 0:04Speaker 1: John Brown. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Read by Marianne, Chapter six the Authorized Version of sixteen eleven.
- 0:14Speaker 1: When James the First came to the English throne in
- 0:17Speaker 1: sixteen o three, after the appearance of the Bishop's Bible
- 0:20Speaker 1: in fifteen sixty eight, there had been no further revision
- 0:23Speaker 1: of the scriptures for more than a generation. The Great
- 0:26Speaker 1: Bible of fifteen thirty nine, partly because it was heavy
- 0:29Speaker 1: and costly, and partly also because it had been superseded
- 0:33Speaker 1: by the Bishop's Bible had long ceased to be reprinted.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Old copies, no doubt, were still to be found here
- 0:39Speaker 1: in there, in village churches, but there were no new issues.
- 0:43Speaker 1: And yet that Bible by which it had been superseded
- 0:46Speaker 1: had not really taken firm and enduring hold of the
- 0:49Speaker 1: popular mind. Dean Plumptree said, and said truly that of
- 0:54Speaker 1: all the English versions, the Bishop's Bible had probably the
- 0:57Speaker 1: least success. It did not commit the respect of scholars,
- 1:01Speaker 1: and its size and cost were far from meeting the
- 1:03Speaker 1: wants of the people. Its circulation appears to have been
- 1:07Speaker 1: practically limited to the churches which were ordered to be
- 1:09Speaker 1: supplied with it. There were only six editions in quarto
- 1:13Speaker 1: and one in Octavo. The other thirteen were in folio.
- 1:16Speaker 1: On the other hand, the Genevan version retained its unrivaled popularity.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Between fifteen sixty eight and sixteen eleven there were no
- 1:24Speaker 1: fewer than sixteen editions in Octavo, fifty two in quarto,
- 1:27Speaker 1: and eighteen in folio. Thus, there seemed to be little
- 1:31Speaker 1: prospect of unity in the matter of Bible usage, for
- 1:34Speaker 1: the Genevan version was too pronouncedly puritan in its notes
- 1:38Speaker 1: and comments to be acceptable to the authorities of the Church,
- 1:41Speaker 1: while the version favored by the bishops had too many
- 1:43Speaker 1: drawbacks ever to win its way among the people at large.
- 1:47Speaker 1: So matters remained till the beginning of the reign of
- 1:49Speaker 1: King James the First, when, as one may say, in
- 1:53Speaker 1: an almost accidental way, a new version was projected and prepared,
- 1:57Speaker 1: that of the authorized version of sixteen eleven, which ultimately
- 2:00Speaker 1: had the happy effect of uniting the whole nation for
- 2:03Speaker 1: more than two centuries and a half in the use
- 2:05Speaker 1: of the same book as the household Bible of the
- 2:08Speaker 1: English people. James the First was proclaimed King on the
- 2:12Speaker 1: twenty fourth of March sixteen o three, and on the
- 2:14Speaker 1: seventh of the following May he entered London to take
- 2:16Speaker 1: possession of the throne. Between these two dates, and while
- 2:20Speaker 1: he was the guest of the Cromwells of Hitchenbrook, near Huntingdon,
- 2:24Speaker 1: he was approached by certain of the Puritan clergy, who
- 2:26Speaker 1: presented him with what is known as the Millinery petition.
- 2:31Speaker 1: This was a petition for the abolition of certain usages
- 2:34Speaker 1: in the Church, which they regarded as superstitious in savoring
- 2:37Speaker 1: of Rome, also against longsomeness of service, profanation of the
- 2:41Speaker 1: Lord's day, and against excommunication by such lay persons as
- 2:46Speaker 1: the Archdeacon's commissary. And without the consent of pastors. They
- 2:50Speaker 1: had some good conference with His Majesty and gave him
- 2:53Speaker 1: a book of reasons. Though no definite answer was given
- 2:56Speaker 1: to their plea at that time, it was not altogether fruitless.
- 3:00Speaker 1: For the following October the King appointed a meeting to
- 3:02Speaker 1: be held in January sixteen o four for the hearing
- 3:06Speaker 1: and determining of things pretending to be amiss in the church.
- 3:09Speaker 1: This meeting has taken its place in history as the
- 3:12Speaker 1: Hampton Court Conference, and it is said that on the
- 3:15Speaker 1: second day of this conference, Doctor Reynolds, the leader of
- 3:18Speaker 1: the Puritans, moved his majesty that there might be a
- 3:21Speaker 1: new translation of the Bible, because those which were allowed
- 3:24Speaker 1: in the reign of King Henry the eighth and Edward
- 3:27Speaker 1: the sixth were corrupt and not answerable to the truth
- 3:30Speaker 1: of the original. Though this statement is made in doctor
- 3:33Speaker 1: Barlow's sum and Substance of the Conference at Hampton's Court,
- 3:37Speaker 1: there is reason to doubt whether it gives a quite
- 3:39Speaker 1: accurate account of what actually took place. The Puritans were
- 3:43Speaker 1: somewhat roughly handled at the conference, and were there only
- 3:45Speaker 1: to plead for concessions to their views, which they knew
- 3:49Speaker 1: the bishops were unwilling to grant, and that they should,
- 3:52Speaker 1: under such circumstances, have been the originators of the idea
- 3:56Speaker 1: of a new authorized version seem somewhat improbable. It is
- 4:01Speaker 1: at variance with what the translators of the version have
- 4:03Speaker 1: themselves told us in that preface of theirs prefixed version.
- 4:08Speaker 1: What is there said is as follows. The very historical
- 4:12Speaker 1: truth is the conference having been appointed for hearing the
- 4:15Speaker 1: complaints of the Puritans, and when by force of reason
- 4:18Speaker 1: they were put from all other grounds, they had recourse
- 4:21Speaker 1: at last to this shift, that they could not, with
- 4:23Speaker 1: good conscience subscribe to the Communion Book the Book of
- 4:27Speaker 1: Common Prayer, since it maintained the Bible as it was
- 4:30Speaker 1: there translated, which was, as they said, a most corrupted translation.
- 4:36Speaker 1: And although this was judged to be but a very
- 4:38Speaker 1: poor and empty shift, yet even hereupon did his Majesty
- 4:42Speaker 1: begin to bethink himself of the good that might ensue
- 4:45Speaker 1: by a new translation, and presently after gave order for
- 4:49Speaker 1: this translation which is now presented. This is a much
- 4:52Speaker 1: more probable account. It is the account given by the
- 4:55Speaker 1: translators themselves, and from it we are entitled to say
- 4:58Speaker 1: that the idea of the authorize version of King James
- 5:01Speaker 1: was really started by King James himself. It is clear
- 5:05Speaker 1: that the King was more in earnest about the matter
- 5:07Speaker 1: than than anyone else. Some of the bishops, at any rate,
- 5:10Speaker 1: looked coldly upon it. Bancroft, Bishop of London, said at
- 5:14Speaker 1: the same time that if every man's humor was to
- 5:17Speaker 1: be followed, there would be no end of translating. The
- 5:20Speaker 1: King thought otherwise, a thought that pains ought to be
- 5:23Speaker 1: taken to secure one uniform translation to be made by
- 5:26Speaker 1: the best learned in both the universities, reviewed by the bishops,
- 5:30Speaker 1: then presented to the Privy Council, and finally ratified by
- 5:33Speaker 1: his royal authority. And so this whole church is to
- 5:36Speaker 1: be bound unto it and none other. Thus, in this
- 5:40Speaker 1: unexpected and almost accidental way came about the first conception
- 5:44Speaker 1: of that authorized version whose Christen Teneri we are now
- 5:47Speaker 1: celebrating in nineteen eleven. In the practical carrying out of
- 5:51Speaker 1: that conception, again the King was most actively concerned. Convocation
- 5:56Speaker 1: met shortly after the conference, but not a word appears
- 5:59Speaker 1: to have been said there on the proposed revision. The King, however,
- 6:02Speaker 1: did not let the matter fall into forgetfulness. He must
- 6:06Speaker 1: have been already making inquiries at the universities as to
- 6:09Speaker 1: what learned men there were fit for the enterprise, for
- 6:13Speaker 1: on the twenty second of July sixteen o four he
- 6:15Speaker 1: wrote to the Bishop of London, telling him that he
- 6:18Speaker 1: had chosen fifty four translators to meet in various companies
- 6:21Speaker 1: at Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge, under the presidency of the
- 6:25Speaker 1: Hebrew professors of the two universities and the Dean of Westminster.
- 6:29Speaker 1: He further asked him to move the bishops to inform
- 6:32Speaker 1: themselves of all such learned men within their several dioceses
- 6:35Speaker 1: as had a special skill in the Hebrew or Greek tongues,
- 6:38Speaker 1: and to write to them, urging them to send any
- 6:40Speaker 1: observations they had made on previous translations to mister Lively,
- 6:44Speaker 1: the Hebrew Reader in Cambridge, or to Doctor Harding, the
- 6:48Speaker 1: Hebrew Reader in Oxford, or to Doctor Andrews, Dean of Westminster,
- 6:52Speaker 1: to be by them imparted to their several companies. It
- 6:56Speaker 1: is somewhat surprising to find that the scheme so promptly
- 6:58Speaker 1: outlined hung fire for the next three years, nothing further
- 7:02Speaker 1: being done so far as we know, till sixteen oh seven.
- 7:06Speaker 1: From that point, however, the work proceeded with vigor. The
- 7:09Speaker 1: fifty four learned men mentioned by the King, but afterwards
- 7:12Speaker 1: possibly by death, reduced to forty seven, were divided into
- 7:16Speaker 1: six companies, four for the Old Testament and Apocrypha, and
- 7:19Speaker 1: two for the New Testament. The company, meeting at Westminster,
- 7:22Speaker 1: under the presidency of the Dean, the saintly Launcelot Andrews,
- 7:26Speaker 1: and consisting of ten persons, were to undertake the revision
- 7:29Speaker 1: of Genesis on to Second King's inclusive. The company meeting
- 7:33Speaker 1: at Cambridge and consisting of eight persons were to take
- 7:36Speaker 1: from First Chronicles to Ecclesiastes inclusive. The company meeting at Oxford,
- 7:41Speaker 1: consisting of seven persons, were to make themselves responsible for
- 7:44Speaker 1: the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi. A separate company, also
- 7:48Speaker 1: meeting at Cambridge, were to undertake the Apocrypha. Then as
- 7:53Speaker 1: to the New Testament, a second company meeting at Oxford
- 7:56Speaker 1: were charged with the revision of the Four Gospels, the
- 7:58Speaker 1: Acts and the apocas billets, a second Westminster company taking
- 8:03Speaker 1: from Romans to jude inclusive. Rules for the guidance of
- 8:08Speaker 1: these different companies were elaborately drawn up beforehand. They were
- 8:11Speaker 1: to take the Bishop's Bible as their basis, altering it
- 8:14Speaker 1: as little as the truth of the original would permit.
- 8:17Speaker 1: The names of the prophets and writers, and also other
- 8:20Speaker 1: names in the text were to be given as commonly used,
- 8:23Speaker 1: and the old ecclesiastical words to be kept, as for example,
- 8:27Speaker 1: the word church was not to be translated congregation. The
- 8:31Speaker 1: translations by Tyndale Matthews Coverdale and those of the Great
- 8:34Speaker 1: Bible and the Genevan version were to be used when
- 8:37Speaker 1: agreeing better with the text than the bishop's Bible. Each
- 8:41Speaker 1: separate translator was first to go over the part assigned
- 8:44Speaker 1: to him by himself alone. Then all were to meet together,
- 8:47Speaker 1: confer as to what they had done, and agree as
- 8:50Speaker 1: to what should stand. Selden, in his table talk, tells
- 8:54Speaker 1: us further as to their method of procedure. They took,
- 8:57Speaker 1: says he, an excellent way. That part of the Bible
- 9:01Speaker 1: was given to him who was most excellent in such tongue.
- 9:04Speaker 1: And then they met together, and one read the translation,
- 9:07Speaker 1: the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of
- 9:10Speaker 1: the learned tongues or French, Spanish, Italian, et cetera. If
- 9:14Speaker 1: they found any fault, they spoke. If not, he read on.
- 9:18Speaker 1: When the several companies had completed the portions assigned to them,
- 9:22Speaker 1: there would still be a necessity for general supervision. So
- 9:25Speaker 1: far as we know, the six companies never met as
- 9:27Speaker 1: one body. But when three years had been spent in revision,
- 9:30Speaker 1: the writer of the Life of John Boys tells us
- 9:34Speaker 1: arrangements were made for a general supervision. The whole work
- 9:37Speaker 1: being finished, and three copies of the whole sent from Cambridge,
- 9:40Speaker 1: Oxford and Westminster to London. A new choice was to
- 9:44Speaker 1: be made of six in all, two out of every company,
- 9:47Speaker 1: to review the whole work and extract one copy of
- 9:50Speaker 1: all these to be committed to the press for the
- 9:53Speaker 1: dispatch of which business. Mister Downs and mister Boys were
- 9:56Speaker 1: sent up to London, where, meeting their fellow laborers, they
- 10:00Speaker 1: went daily to Stationer's Hall, and in three quarters of
- 10:03Speaker 1: a year fulfilled their task, all which time they had
- 10:06Speaker 1: from the company of Stationer's thirty shillings each per week
- 10:09Speaker 1: duly paid them. Last of all, Bilson, Bishop of Winchester,
- 10:13Speaker 1: and doctor Miles Smith again reviewed the whole work and
- 10:17Speaker 1: prefixed arguments to the several books. The three years of slow,
- 10:21Speaker 1: impatient scholarship spent on the authorized version were not completed
- 10:25Speaker 1: without a certain touch of pathos. It has been often
- 10:29Speaker 1: told how the venerable Bede completed the translation of John's
- 10:32Speaker 1: Gospel in the closing hours of life. It is completed now,
- 10:36Speaker 1: said the boy scribe thou hast said the truth, replied
- 10:39Speaker 1: the dying man. All is ended. Take my head in
- 10:43Speaker 1: thy hands. I would sit in the holy place in
- 10:45Speaker 1: which I was wont to pray, And seated there while
- 10:49Speaker 1: he chanted the gloria, his soul passed away. A kindred
- 10:52Speaker 1: story has come down to us concerning doctor Reynolds, one
- 10:55Speaker 1: of the translators of the version of sixteen eleven, of
- 10:58Speaker 1: whom Thomas Fuller says, you could never tell which was
- 11:01Speaker 1: greater his learning or his goodness. He was one of
- 11:04Speaker 1: the company engaged upon the books of the Prophets, but
- 11:07Speaker 1: in the course of the work he was seized with
- 11:09Speaker 1: consumption and slowly faded out of life. Yet, as Featleigh
- 11:13Speaker 1: tells us, for his great skill in the original languages,
- 11:16Speaker 1: the other members of the company had recourse to him
- 11:18Speaker 1: once a week, and in his lodgings perfected their notes
- 11:23Speaker 1: in a great part of the sickness of which he died.
- 11:25Speaker 1: The meeting was held in his rooms at Corpus Christie
- 11:27Speaker 1: in Oxford, and he, lying on his pallet, assisted them,
- 11:31Speaker 1: and in a manner in the very translation of the
- 11:34Speaker 1: books of life was translated to a better life. The
- 11:39Speaker 1: striking document, which all the revisers adopted as their preface
- 11:42Speaker 1: to the new version, was drawn up by doctor Miles Smith,
- 11:45Speaker 1: afterwards Bishop of Gloucester. As serious minded men they felt,
- 11:49Speaker 1: they said the importance of the work they had taken
- 11:52Speaker 1: in hand, there was need of translation. For translation, it
- 11:56Speaker 1: is that openeth the window to let in the light,
- 11:59Speaker 1: that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel,
- 12:02Speaker 1: that put it aside the curtain, that we may look
- 12:05Speaker 1: into the most holy places. By doing the work they
- 12:08Speaker 1: had done, they had no thought of disparaging those who
- 12:10Speaker 1: had been in the field before them. Rather, they acknowledged
- 12:13Speaker 1: them as having been raised up of God for the
- 12:15Speaker 1: building and furnishing of His church, and deserve to be
- 12:18Speaker 1: had of posterity and everlasting remembrance. If they, building upon
- 12:23Speaker 1: their foundation, and being helped by their labors, are only
- 12:27Speaker 1: trying to make that better which they left so good,
- 12:30Speaker 1: no man would have cause to mislike them. Indeed, their predecessors,
- 12:34Speaker 1: if they were alive, would thank them when they took
- 12:37Speaker 1: up the work. At first, it was no thought of
- 12:40Speaker 1: theirs that they had to make a new translation, nor
- 12:43Speaker 1: yet to make a bad one a good one, but
- 12:45Speaker 1: to make a good one better, or out of many
- 12:48Speaker 1: good ones, one principal good one not justly to be
- 12:51Speaker 1: accepted against. They felt they had to tread a difficult path,
- 12:56Speaker 1: for it is hard to please all, even when we
- 12:58Speaker 1: please God best, For he that meddleth with men's religion
- 13:02Speaker 1: in any part, meddleth with their custom, nay, with their freehold. Yet,
- 13:07Speaker 1: though difficult, how important the work. For What is piety
- 13:11Speaker 1: without truth? What truth? What saving truth? Without the word
- 13:14Speaker 1: of God? What word of God? Whereof we may be
- 13:17Speaker 1: sure without the scriptures. If we are ignorant, they will
- 13:21Speaker 1: instruct us. If out of the way, they will bring
- 13:23Speaker 1: us home. If in heaviness they will comfort us. If
- 13:27Speaker 1: doll quickens us, or cold inflame us. The Bible is
- 13:30Speaker 1: not only an armor, but also a whole armory of weapons,
- 13:34Speaker 1: both offensive and defensive. It is not merely a tree,
- 13:38Speaker 1: but a whole paradise of trees of life. It is
- 13:41Speaker 1: a treasury of most costly jewels, a fountain of most
- 13:44Speaker 1: pure water, springing up to everlasting life. With wise thoughts
- 13:48Speaker 1: like these thus briefly summarize the translators commend their readers
- 13:52Speaker 1: to God and to the spirit of His grace, which
- 13:55Speaker 1: is able to build further than we can ask or think.
- 13:59Speaker 1: In six teen eleven, the book upon which they had
- 14:01Speaker 1: labored so faithfully appeared from the press of Robert Barker,
- 14:05Speaker 1: printer to the King's most excellent majesty. The title occupies
- 14:09Speaker 1: the center of an engraving, on the right and left
- 14:11Speaker 1: of which are the figures of Moses and Aaron, with
- 14:14Speaker 1: the four Evangelists of the corners. At the top in
- 14:17Speaker 1: Hebrew characters is the second name of God, with the
- 14:20Speaker 1: Holy Dove beneath. The New Testament has a separate title
- 14:24Speaker 1: within a woodcut border, representing along one side the badges
- 14:27Speaker 1: of the twelve tribes of Israel and along the other
- 14:30Speaker 1: the twelve apostles, the emblems of the four Evangelists being
- 14:33Speaker 1: at the corners. The book was issued in folio size, and,
- 14:37Speaker 1: being well printed in fine black Gothic letter, presented a
- 14:41Speaker 1: handsome appearance. There seems to be no authority for calling
- 14:44Speaker 1: it the authorized version, since, so far as is known,
- 14:47Speaker 1: there was no edict of Convocation or act of Parliament,
- 14:51Speaker 1: or decision of Privy Council or royal proclamation giving it authority.
- 14:55Speaker 1: The words appointed to be read in the churches need
- 14:59Speaker 1: not authorize, but as explained on a page in the
- 15:02Speaker 1: Preliminary Matter, how the scriptures were arranged for public reading,
- 15:06Speaker 1: in many editions these words were omitted. Possibly it was
- 15:09Speaker 1: described as authorized as taking the place and consequently assuming
- 15:13Speaker 1: the privileges of the Bishop's Bible by which it was preceded.
- 15:18Speaker 1: There seems to have been two impressions of the first
- 15:20Speaker 1: edition of sixteen eleven, probably due to the impossibility of
- 15:24Speaker 1: one printing office being able to supply in the time
- 15:27Speaker 1: allotted the twenty thousand copies required. The pair are distinct
- 15:31Speaker 1: throughout every leaf, and are the parents of millions of
- 15:34Speaker 1: our Bibles. They are distinguished by calling the first the
- 15:38Speaker 1: Great he Bible and the other the Great she Bible,
- 15:41Speaker 1: from their respective readings of Ruth chapter three, verse fifteen,
- 15:45Speaker 1: one reading he measured six measures of barley and laid
- 15:48Speaker 1: it on her, and he went into the city. The
- 15:52Speaker 1: other has and she went into the city. These two editions,
- 15:56Speaker 1: both standard but varying in many places, seem to have
- 15:59Speaker 1: been visited in two different printing houses. As standard copy
- 16:03Speaker 1: for the subsequent editions in Quarto and Octavo run in
- 16:06Speaker 1: pairs he and She, and as a rule, the faults
- 16:09Speaker 1: of each follow those of its own office copy. The
- 16:13Speaker 1: She Bible has a yet more distinctive mark in translating
- 16:16Speaker 1: Matthew chapter twenty six, verse thirty six, than cometh Judas
- 16:21Speaker 1: instead of Jesus unto the place called Cassemine. The he
- 16:25Speaker 1: Bible is by some regarded as the true first edition
- 16:29Speaker 1: and as giving the true reading, and on this point
- 16:31Speaker 1: is sustained by the revised version of eighteen eighty one.
- 16:35Speaker 1: On the other hand, the she Bible is in accord
- 16:37Speaker 1: with almost every other edition. In sixteen twelve, the original
- 16:41Speaker 1: folio was followed by a quarto edition in Roman type,
- 16:45Speaker 1: and also by one in octavo, resembling in appearance the
- 16:48Speaker 1: octavo copies of the Genevan version. In that year also
- 16:52Speaker 1: appeared the first Quarto New Testament. It was not, however,
- 16:56Speaker 1: the first separate New Testament of King James's version, for
- 16:59Speaker 1: a due oudecimo edition had been published in sixteen eleven.
- 17:04Speaker 1: The two Ancient universities, which in so enterprising a manner
- 17:08Speaker 1: produced the most recent revised version of eighteen eighty one,
- 17:12Speaker 1: rendered important service also in reprints of the authorized version
- 17:15Speaker 1: by which it was preceded. In sixteen twenty nine there
- 17:19Speaker 1: appeared the first complete edition of King James's version ever
- 17:22Speaker 1: printed at Cambridge. A separate New Testament in thirty two
- 17:26Speaker 1: mo was, however, printed there the previous year. The sixteen
- 17:30Speaker 1: twenty nine edition had undergone very careful revision. Great care
- 17:34Speaker 1: also had been exercised in the manner of punctuation and
- 17:37Speaker 1: as to the words to be printed in italics. In
- 17:40Speaker 1: sixteen thirty eight appeared the first folio edition of the
- 17:43Speaker 1: authorized version, printed at Cambridge. This again gave evidence of
- 17:47Speaker 1: careful and extensive revision of the text italics and marginal readings,
- 17:52Speaker 1: and it remained the standard text until the publication of
- 17:54Speaker 1: the Cambridge Edition of seventeen sixty two. In this edition, however,
- 17:59Speaker 1: in spite of all the care appeared the reading in
- 18:01Speaker 1: Acts Chapter six, verse three, whom ye may appoint it
- 18:05Speaker 1: instead of whom we et cetera. As this reading gave
- 18:10Speaker 1: power of appointment of officers to the people rather than
- 18:13Speaker 1: to the apostles. The alteration has often been ascribed to
- 18:16Speaker 1: the Puritans, and was reputed to have cost Cromwell a
- 18:19Speaker 1: bribe of one thousand pounds. Yet here it was in
- 18:23Speaker 1: sixteen thirty eight, and before long parliament days. The standard edition,
- 18:28Speaker 1: as it has been called, of seventeen sixty two, prepared
- 18:31Speaker 1: by doctor Thomas Paris of Trinity College, Cambridge, was issued
- 18:35Speaker 1: from the University Press in four volumes folio. In this
- 18:39Speaker 1: again a further serious attempt was made to correct the
- 18:42Speaker 1: text by amending the spelling and punctuation, regulating the use
- 18:46Speaker 1: of italics, and removing printer's errors. Marginal notes also were
- 18:51Speaker 1: received into the place that they have since occupied, and
- 18:54Speaker 1: were much extended. The greater part of this impression of
- 18:57Speaker 1: seventeen sixty two was destroyed by fire at Dodd's. The
- 19:01Speaker 1: booksellers to pass by intervening editions. A high place for
- 19:05Speaker 1: care and laborious exactness must be assigned to the Cambridge
- 19:08Speaker 1: Paragraph Bible in three parts eighteen seventy seventy three, edited
- 19:13Speaker 1: by doctor Shrivener. This has ever since been regarded as
- 19:17Speaker 1: for correctness the standard text of the authorized version. Within
- 19:22Speaker 1: the last few years nineteen oh three to nineteen oh five,
- 19:25Speaker 1: also doctor Shruvener has published an edition of five volumes
- 19:29Speaker 1: Folio of King James's Version, with the text revised by
- 19:34Speaker 1: a coalation of its early and other principal editions. This
- 19:37Speaker 1: work deserves special mention for several reasons, and certainly not
- 19:40Speaker 1: least for this that it is a superb piece of topography.
- 19:45Speaker 1: It was edited for the Syndics of the University Press, Cambridge,
- 19:50Speaker 1: and was printed at the press founded by mister Cobden
- 19:53Speaker 1: Sanderson at Hammersmith. The type was designed by mister Emery Walker,
- 19:59Speaker 1: in imitation of the beautiful fount of type used by Jensen,
- 20:03Speaker 1: the famous Venetian printer in fourteen seventy two. The book
- 20:07Speaker 1: has been well described as one of the most beautiful
- 20:10Speaker 1: Bibles ever printed. Mention may also be made to the
- 20:13Speaker 1: fact that, by way of celebrating the tercentenary of the
- 20:16Speaker 1: authorized version, Doctor Aldace Wright, vice Master of Trinity College, Cambridge,
- 20:21Speaker 1: has issued an edition in five volumes, giving an absolute
- 20:25Speaker 1: faithful reproduction of the original text, the text reprinted being
- 20:29Speaker 1: that of the first of the two issues of sixteen eleven.
- 20:33Speaker 1: It was not till sixteen seventy five that the Sister
- 20:36Speaker 1: University of Oxford entered upon the work of Bible publication.
- 20:40Speaker 1: In that year appeared in Quarto The Holy Bible, printed
- 20:43Speaker 1: at the Theatre, Oxford. A second edition from the same
- 20:46Speaker 1: press came out in sixteen seventy nine, and among the
- 20:49Speaker 1: bookseller's names on the title page is that of Thomas
- 20:52Speaker 1: Guy at the corner of Little Lombard Street, who had
- 20:56Speaker 1: grown rich by the trade in Bibles, had increased his
- 20:59Speaker 1: wealth by successful speculation in south Sea stock and before
- 21:04Speaker 1: his death in seventeen twenty four, founded the great hospital
- 21:07Speaker 1: known by his name. Three years later, the Oxford Press
- 21:12Speaker 1: sent forth its first folio reprint of the authorized version,
- 21:15Speaker 1: this being followed by an imperial folio copy printed at
- 21:18Speaker 1: the same press by John Basket. The latter was a
- 21:22Speaker 1: magnificent edition, printed in large type and illustrated by many
- 21:25Speaker 1: plates engraved on steel. It came, however, to be nicknamed
- 21:30Speaker 1: the Vinegar Bible, because the headline of Luke Chapter twenty
- 21:33Speaker 1: two reads of the Parable of the Vinegar instead of
- 21:37Speaker 1: the Vineyard of this most sumptuous of all the Oxford Bibles.
- 21:41Speaker 1: Three copies at least were printed on vellum. Unfortunately, its
- 21:45Speaker 1: fine appearance was discounted by so many misprints that it
- 21:49Speaker 1: acquired another nickname and came to be called from its
- 21:52Speaker 1: printer a basket full of printer's heirs. In seventeen sixty
- 21:57Speaker 1: nine there came out another folio copy, known as the
- 22:00Speaker 1: Oxford Standard Edition, edited and revised by doctor Benjamin Blaney
- 22:05Speaker 1: of Hertford College, who followed the lines of doctor Parris's
- 22:08Speaker 1: Cambridge edition of seventeen sixty two. This and the Quarto Edition,
- 22:13Speaker 1: commonly called doctor Blaney's editions were adopted as standards by
- 22:17Speaker 1: the University Press Oxford in seventeen sixty nine and are
- 22:21Speaker 1: still the Oxford Standard. In eighteen thirty three, when Samuel
- 22:25Speaker 1: Collingwood and Company were the university printers, they were sent
- 22:28Speaker 1: forth in quarto an edition with the title The Holy Bible.
- 22:32Speaker 1: An exact reprint page for page of the authorized version
- 22:35Speaker 1: published in the year sixteen eleven, and now in this
- 22:39Speaker 1: tresentenary year, there has again been issued a reproduction in
- 22:43Speaker 1: Roman type page for page of King James's Bible, as
- 22:46Speaker 1: published in sixteen eleven, with a biographical introduction by mister A. W. Pollard.
- 22:53Speaker 1: Turning back to the past for a moment, we find
- 22:55Speaker 1: that in sixteen thirty three there was printed in Scotland
- 22:58Speaker 1: by Robert Young a London, the first edition of King
- 23:01Speaker 1: James's version, which then began to supplant the Genevan version
- 23:05Speaker 1: in the North. In seventeen fourteen, the earliest edition of
- 23:09Speaker 1: the same version was printed in Ireland, and in seventeen
- 23:12Speaker 1: eighty two a duodecimo edition of the earliest English Bible
- 23:17Speaker 1: avowedly printed in America came from the press of R.
- 23:21Speaker 1: Atkin in Philadelphia. This was followed in seventeen ninety three
- 23:25Speaker 1: by one printed in Worcester, Massachusetts, by Isaiah Thomas, whom
- 23:29Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin called the Basquerville of America. Beyond such details
- 23:34Speaker 1: as these just given, it is not possible to follow
- 23:37Speaker 1: all the fortunes of the Great Version of sixteen eleven.
- 23:40Speaker 1: The catalog of the Library of the British and Foreign
- 23:42Speaker 1: Bible Society enumerates nearly a thousand separate editions of the
- 23:46Speaker 1: English Bible, or some part of it, published before the
- 23:49Speaker 1: close of the eighteenth century, and this one society has,
- 23:52Speaker 1: since its foundation in eighteen oh four, sent out in
- 23:55Speaker 1: English alone no fewer than seventy two millions of copies.
- 23:59Speaker 1: The appearance of this version, therefore, is one of the
- 24:02Speaker 1: great facts in the history of the world. What it
- 24:05Speaker 1: has been in personal life and character in the family,
- 24:08Speaker 1: in the history of churches and nations can only be
- 24:11Speaker 1: known when the great day of final revelation shall come.
- 24:15Speaker 1: End of Chapter six