Latest / History of the English Bible / 08 - History of the English Bible by John Brown
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter seven of the History of the English Bible by
- 0:03Speaker 1: John Brown. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
- 0:07Speaker 1: Read by Mirianne, Chapter seven. The revised version of eighteen
- 0:12Speaker 1: eighty one, the authorized version of sixteen eleven, whose history
- 0:18Speaker 1: we have followed, won its way gradually to national acceptance,
- 0:22Speaker 1: and did so not because invested with royal authority, but
- 0:25Speaker 1: by virtue of its own intrinsic excellence. Its one and
- 0:29Speaker 1: only competitor of influential sort was the Genevan version, which
- 0:33Speaker 1: is still in great favor with many. Indeed, the same
- 0:36Speaker 1: year in which the new revision appeared, two other editions
- 0:40Speaker 1: of the Genevan, a folio and a quarto, were published
- 0:43Speaker 1: by the King's Printer, and for five years more further
- 0:46Speaker 1: editions continued to be sent forth. Then too, even after
- 0:50Speaker 1: sixteen sixteen, when it ceased to be printed in England,
- 0:53Speaker 1: it continued to be printed abroad and sent over to
- 0:56Speaker 1: this country. But at length this competition came to an end.
- 1:00Speaker 1: The revision of sixteen eleven obtained wider acceptance and soon became,
- 1:04Speaker 1: without question the Bible of the English people. Still, as
- 1:08Speaker 1: the book became better known, the question of further revision
- 1:12Speaker 1: began to be discussed. There is no finality in human affairs,
- 1:16Speaker 1: and each generation has to take its own part and
- 1:19Speaker 1: place in the general advance. Deepening acquaintance led to deeper
- 1:23Speaker 1: certainty that, in spite of all the care which had
- 1:26Speaker 1: been taken, numerous errors, verbal and otherwise had been retained
- 1:31Speaker 1: in the version so recently revised, and others came to
- 1:34Speaker 1: be added from time to time as new editions edited
- 1:38Speaker 1: with insufficient care were sent forth into the world. For example,
- 1:42Speaker 1: the edition of sixteen thirty one acquired the name of
- 1:45Speaker 1: the Wicked Bible because it read thou shalt commit adultery
- 1:49Speaker 1: instead of thou shalt not. In the editions of sixteen
- 1:53Speaker 1: thirty eight, it was stated that the fire devoured twenty
- 1:56Speaker 1: thousand fifty men instead of two hundred and fifty. He
- 2:00Speaker 1: slew two lions like men instead of two lion like men,
- 2:05Speaker 1: taught by the people of men, for by the precept
- 2:08Speaker 1: of men. These are only a few examples out of many,
- 2:13Speaker 1: and the list was made longer by the importation of
- 2:15Speaker 1: Bibles from abroad. The printers of Amsterdam made the discovery
- 2:19Speaker 1: that Bible printing might be developed into a lucrative business,
- 2:23Speaker 1: and sent over considerable consignments to this country. It scarcely
- 2:27Speaker 1: needs to be pointed out that English Bibles set up
- 2:30Speaker 1: by Dutch compositors were not likely to be productions of
- 2:33Speaker 1: unfailing accuracy. The process went on so long and so
- 2:37Speaker 1: far that in sixteen forty three the Assembly of Divines
- 2:40Speaker 1: at Westminster found it necessary to make a report to
- 2:43Speaker 1: Parliament on the subject, giving instances of mistakes which had
- 2:47Speaker 1: been made, such as found the rulers for found the mules,
- 2:52Speaker 1: corruption for conception, condemnation for redemption. It was resolved in
- 2:57Speaker 1: consequence that foreign Bibles should not be sold until they
- 3:00Speaker 1: had been passed and allowed. It was stated in sixteen
- 3:03Speaker 1: forty six at Amsterdam that an English printer there had
- 3:07Speaker 1: sent out in five years forty thousand copies, that his
- 3:11Speaker 1: last edition consisted of twelve thousand copies, and that altogether
- 3:14Speaker 1: in that Dutch city one hundred and fifty thousand English
- 3:17Speaker 1: Bibles had been printed. In bibles produced in this country,
- 3:21Speaker 1: as well as in those sent from abroad, new errors
- 3:24Speaker 1: were made and old ones copied from one to another.
- 3:27Speaker 1: A considerable sheaf of mistakes, such as the following, came
- 3:31Speaker 1: to be gathered by observant readers shall glean, for shall
- 3:35Speaker 1: not glean in the throne of David. For in the
- 3:38Speaker 1: room of David, shined through darkness, for walked through darkness,
- 3:43Speaker 1: delighted herself, for defiled herself. And I praise you for
- 3:47Speaker 1: I praise you not. This kind of process went on
- 3:51Speaker 1: year after year, repeating itself and extending itself. When Doctor
- 3:55Speaker 1: Shrevener set about making the Cambridge Paragraph Bible of eighteen
- 3:59Speaker 1: seventy three as strictly accurate as possible, the changes, most
- 4:03Speaker 1: of them trivial, but many not trivial, which had to
- 4:06Speaker 1: be made to the text were to be counted by hundreds,
- 4:11Speaker 1: then two. As another reason for revision, Language itself undergoes change,
- 4:15Speaker 1: and words pass out of use or become unintelligible. So
- 4:19Speaker 1: again there are many words which, while still in use,
- 4:22Speaker 1: are understood in a different sense from that prevailing. In
- 4:25Speaker 1: sixteen eleven. The translators in writing attached to one meaning,
- 4:30Speaker 1: we in reading quite another, so that words which once
- 4:33Speaker 1: served as stepping stones to the reader become stumbling blocks
- 4:37Speaker 1: in his path. Instances of this may be found in
- 4:40Speaker 1: such cases as where carriage means baggage Acts Chapter twenty one,
- 4:45Speaker 1: Verse fifteen careful, anxious Philippians chapter four, verse six, liberal,
- 4:51Speaker 1: noble and curl crafty Isaiah chapter thirty two, verse five, delicately,
- 4:57Speaker 1: luxuriously Luke chapter seven, verse twenty, and publican a revenue officer.
- 5:04Speaker 1: Then again, as to the manuscripts of the Greek text
- 5:07Speaker 1: from which translations had to be made, it stands to
- 5:10Speaker 1: reason that in the manuscripts from which we translate, the
- 5:14Speaker 1: nearer we get to the time when the Gospels and
- 5:16Speaker 1: epistles were written, the more likely we are to get
- 5:19Speaker 1: to the actual words first written. Now it is well
- 5:23Speaker 1: known that what are regarded as the most authoritative manuscripts
- 5:26Speaker 1: of the Greek text of the New Testament have, with
- 5:29Speaker 1: two exceptions, come to light since the time of the
- 5:31Speaker 1: translators of sixteen eleven. Of the Uskiel manuscripts, the most
- 5:36Speaker 1: ancient and important are the Siniatic, written in the fourth
- 5:41Speaker 1: century and now deposited in the Imperial Library at Saint Petersburg.
- 5:45Speaker 1: The Vatican, also of the fourth century and preserved in
- 5:49Speaker 1: the Vatican Library at Rome, the Alexandrian of the fifth century,
- 5:53Speaker 1: now in the British Museum, the Ephrium Codecs of the
- 5:57Speaker 1: fifth century in the National Library, at Paris, Visa's Codex
- 6:01Speaker 1: of the sixth century in the University Library, Cambridge, and
- 6:06Speaker 1: the Claramontani, also of the sixth century, which formerly belonged
- 6:10Speaker 1: to Biza, but is now in the National Library at Paris.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Yet not one of these was available at the time
- 6:16Speaker 1: when King James's translation was made. The Vatican Manuscript, one
- 6:20Speaker 1: of the two oldest, though known to be in existence
- 6:23Speaker 1: as early as fifteen eighty seven, was so jealously guarded
- 6:26Speaker 1: at the Vatican so far as the New Testament was concerned,
- 6:29Speaker 1: that not till the first half of the last century
- 6:32Speaker 1: could its text be ascertained, and then only by a
- 6:35Speaker 1: comparison of three more or less imperfect collations, whereas now
- 6:40Speaker 1: we have a magnificent reproduction in photographic facsimile of the
- 6:43Speaker 1: entire manuscript. The Sinetic Manuscript, also of the fourth century,
- 6:50Speaker 1: was discovered by doctor Tischendorff as recently as February fourth,
- 6:54Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine. The Alexandrine was not brought to light
- 6:58Speaker 1: until sixteen twenty eight, when it was presented to Charles
- 7:01Speaker 1: the First by Cyril Luker, Patriarch of Constantinople. And although
- 7:05Speaker 1: the Ephrium Codex was brought to Europe in the early
- 7:08Speaker 1: part of the sixteenth century. It was not known to
- 7:11Speaker 1: contain a portion of the New Testament until towards the
- 7:14Speaker 1: close of the seventeenth century, and was not collated until
- 7:17Speaker 1: seventeen sixteen. Then, too, manuscripts are not our only source
- 7:21Speaker 1: of knowledge of the original texts of the scriptures. There
- 7:24Speaker 1: are ancient versions, such as the Old Latin, the Old Syriac,
- 7:29Speaker 1: and the two Egyptian versions, all of which came to
- 7:32Speaker 1: be accessible to the scholars of the nineteenth century as
- 7:35Speaker 1: they were not to the revisers of sixteen eleven, and
- 7:38Speaker 1: from their early date must have been made from the
- 7:41Speaker 1: earliest manuscripts, and were likely therefore to furnish, in the
- 7:44Speaker 1: case of disputed passages, valuable suggestions as to the actual
- 7:48Speaker 1: words employed at first. Thus, the possession of greatly improved
- 7:53Speaker 1: apparatus furnished an additional reason for undertaking a further revision.
- 7:59Speaker 1: By the time that the authorized version was forty years old,
- 8:02Speaker 1: men's thoughts began to be turned to the subject. As
- 8:05Speaker 1: early as sixteen fifty five, the Long Parliament made an
- 8:08Speaker 1: order that a bill should be brought in for a
- 8:10Speaker 1: new translation of the Bible, and four years later, the
- 8:13Speaker 1: House directed that it be referred to a committee to
- 8:15Speaker 1: send for and advise with Doctor Walton, Doctor Cudworth, and
- 8:19Speaker 1: others such as they should think fit, to consider of
- 8:23Speaker 1: the translations and impressions of the Bible, and to offer
- 8:26Speaker 1: their opinions therein. The committee met from time to time
- 8:30Speaker 1: at the House of Bolstrode Whitelock, but eventually the death
- 8:34Speaker 1: of Cromwell put an end to all further endeavors in
- 8:37Speaker 1: the way of revision. Nothing was done, as we might
- 8:40Speaker 1: expect after the coming of the Restoration, but in the
- 8:44Speaker 1: eighteenth century various tentative efforts were made, some of them
- 8:47Speaker 1: by able men. Revised translations of the New Testament were
- 8:51Speaker 1: made by Gilbert Wakefield in seventeen ninety five, by Archbishop
- 8:56Speaker 1: Newcombe in seventeen ninety six, and by Scarlett in seventeen
- 8:59Speaker 1: nine twenty eight. But then came the French Revolution and
- 9:03Speaker 1: frightened Englishman. In seventeen ninety six the note of alarm
- 9:07Speaker 1: was sounded in a letter to the Bishop of Eli and,
- 9:09Speaker 1: as doctor Plumptra has said, from that time, conservatism pure
- 9:13Speaker 1: and simple was in the ascendant, to suggest that the
- 9:16Speaker 1: authorized version might be inaccurate, was almost as bad as
- 9:20Speaker 1: holding French principles. When we pass into the nineteenth century,
- 9:24Speaker 1: the long defeated hope was revived by the appearance of
- 9:26Speaker 1: lectures in eighteen ten by the Lady Margaret, Professor of
- 9:30Speaker 1: Divinity at Cambridge, Doctor marsh afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. In
- 9:35Speaker 1: his first edition, he plainly said, it is probable that
- 9:38Speaker 1: our Authorized Version is as faithful a representation of the
- 9:41Speaker 1: Original Scriptures as could have been formed at that period.
- 9:46Speaker 1: But when we consider the immense ascension that has since
- 9:48Speaker 1: been made both to our critical and philological apparatus, when
- 9:53Speaker 1: we consider that the most important sources of intelligence for
- 9:56Speaker 1: interpretation of the Original Scriptures were likewise opened after that period,
- 10:00Speaker 1: we cannot possibly pretend that our Authorized Version does not
- 10:04Speaker 1: require amendment. The italics here given are the professor's own.
- 10:08Speaker 1: Forty six years later, the Reverend William Selwyn, another Lady Margaret,
- 10:13Speaker 1: professor of Divinity at Cambridge, spoke out to the same
- 10:16Speaker 1: effect in a work of his entitled Notes on the
- 10:20Speaker 1: Proposed Amendment of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures.
- 10:23Speaker 1: He said, I do not hesitate to avow my firm
- 10:26Speaker 1: persuasion that there are at least one thousand passages of
- 10:30Speaker 1: the English Bible that might be amended without any change
- 10:33Speaker 1: in the general texture and justly reverenced language of the version.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Professor Selwyn also brought the subject of revision before the
- 10:40Speaker 1: Lower House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury, and
- 10:44Speaker 1: that same year eighteen fifty six, mister Heywood, MP for
- 10:48Speaker 1: North Lancashire, moved in the House of Commons an address
- 10:52Speaker 1: to the Crown praying that Her Majesty would appoint a
- 10:54Speaker 1: Royal Commission of learned men to consider of such amendments
- 10:57Speaker 1: of the Authorized version of the Bible has had then
- 11:00Speaker 1: already proposed, and to receive suggestions from all persons who
- 11:03Speaker 1: might be willing to offer them, and to report the
- 11:06Speaker 1: amendments which they might be prepared to recommend. About the
- 11:10Speaker 1: same time, also there was published a translation of the
- 11:12Speaker 1: Gospel of John, newly compared with the original Greek and
- 11:15Speaker 1: revised by five clergymen. The five clergymen were Doctor John Barrow,
- 11:20Speaker 1: George Moberly, D C. L. Henry Alford B D. W. G.
- 11:25Speaker 1: Humphrey b D. And Charles j Ellicott M A. Their
- 11:30Speaker 1: purpose being to show by example the kind of thing
- 11:33Speaker 1: in the way of revision many were desiring to see.
- 11:36Speaker 1: That same year, also doctor Trench, then Dean of Westminster,
- 11:40Speaker 1: published his work on the Authorized Version of the New Testament,
- 11:44Speaker 1: pleading for a movement in the same direction. The first
- 11:47Speaker 1: actual step was taken on February tenth, eighteen seventy, when
- 11:50Speaker 1: a resolution was moved in the Upper House of Convocation
- 11:54Speaker 1: by Bishop Wilberforce and seconded by Bishop Ellicott let a
- 11:58Speaker 1: committee of both houses be appointed to report upon the
- 12:00Speaker 1: desirableness of a revision of the Authorized Version of the
- 12:04Speaker 1: New Testament. On the motion of Bishop Olivant, seconded by
- 12:08Speaker 1: Bishop Thurwall, it was agreed to enlarge this resolution so
- 12:12Speaker 1: as to include the Old Testament also, and the resolution
- 12:15Speaker 1: so amended was ultimately adopted and communicated to the Lower
- 12:18Speaker 1: House the following day, where it was accepted without a division.
- 12:23Speaker 1: The committee thus appointed, consisting of seven bishops and fourteen
- 12:26Speaker 1: members of the Lower House, met on March twenty fourth
- 12:30Speaker 1: and agreed to report that it was desirable that a
- 12:33Speaker 1: revision be undertaken, that it should comprise both marginal readings
- 12:37Speaker 1: and such emendations in the text of the Authorized Version
- 12:40Speaker 1: as may be found necessary, That it should not contemplate
- 12:44Speaker 1: any new translation of the Bible or any alteration of
- 12:46Speaker 1: the language, except where, in the judgment of the most
- 12:49Speaker 1: competent scholars, such change is necessary, and that where such
- 12:53Speaker 1: change was made, the language of the existing version should
- 12:56Speaker 1: be closely followed. Finally, that it was desirable that Convocation
- 12:59Speaker 1: SHO should nominate a body of its own members to
- 13:02Speaker 1: undertake the work of revision, who shall be at liberty
- 13:05Speaker 1: to invite cooperation of any eminent for scholarship, to whatever
- 13:09Speaker 1: nation or religious body they may belong. This report was
- 13:14Speaker 1: presented to the Upper House on May third, where its
- 13:16Speaker 1: adoption was carried unanimously and a committee appointed to carry
- 13:20Speaker 1: it into effect. In the Lower House, an attempt was
- 13:22Speaker 1: made to confine the revision to scholars in communion with
- 13:25Speaker 1: the Church of England. This, however, was unsuccessful, and the
- 13:28Speaker 1: adoption of the report was carried with two dissentients only.
- 13:33Speaker 1: The joint Committee held their first meeting on May twenty
- 13:35Speaker 1: fifth and agreed to separate into two companies, one for
- 13:38Speaker 1: the revision of the Old Testament and one for that
- 13:40Speaker 1: of the New They also selected the scholars who should
- 13:43Speaker 1: be invited to join the companies and decided upon the
- 13:45Speaker 1: general rules which should guide their procedure. The rules agreed
- 13:49Speaker 1: upon were to introduce as few alterations as possible consistent
- 13:53Speaker 1: with faithfulness, to keep as far as possible to the
- 13:56Speaker 1: language of the authorized in earlier versions. Each company to
- 13:59Speaker 1: go twice over the portion to be revised, the text
- 14:03Speaker 1: to be adopted to be that for which the evidence
- 14:06Speaker 1: is decidedly preponderating, to make or retain no change in
- 14:10Speaker 1: the text on the second and final revision by each
- 14:12Speaker 1: company except two thirds of those present, to prove the same,
- 14:17Speaker 1: To revise the headings of chapters, pages, paragraphs, italics, and punctuation,
- 14:22Speaker 1: And finally, to refer on the part of each company,
- 14:25Speaker 1: when considered desirable to divines, scholars and literary men, whether
- 14:29Speaker 1: at home or abroad, for their opinions. The Old Testament Company,
- 14:34Speaker 1: as at first constituted, consisted of twenty four members. An
- 14:38Speaker 1: equal number acted also for the New Testament. In the
- 14:41Speaker 1: course of the ten years they were at work, changes
- 14:44Speaker 1: from various causes had to be made, and ultimately the
- 14:46Speaker 1: revisers consisted of sixty five English scholars who took part
- 14:50Speaker 1: in the work. Of these, forty one were members of
- 14:53Speaker 1: the Church of England and twenty four members of other churches.
- 14:56Speaker 1: Of the latter number two represented the Episcopal Church of Ireland,
- 15:00Speaker 1: one the Episcopal Church of Scotland, four the Baptists, three
- 15:03Speaker 1: the Congregationalists, five the Free Church of Scotland, five the
- 15:07Speaker 1: Established Church of Scotland and one the United Presbyterians, one
- 15:12Speaker 1: the Unitarians and two the Wesleyan Methodists. Varied representation was
- 15:17Speaker 1: still further secured by the cooperation of a number of
- 15:20Speaker 1: American scholars selected and invited by the Reverend Doctor Schaff
- 15:23Speaker 1: of New York, acting on behalf of the English companies.
- 15:27Speaker 1: Various causes of delay, however, intervened, and it was not
- 15:30Speaker 1: until July seventeenth, eighteen seventy two, that the communication was
- 15:34Speaker 1: made that the American companies were duly constituted. It thus
- 15:38Speaker 1: came about that the English revisers of the Old Testament
- 15:40Speaker 1: had already made some progress, had in fact gone twice
- 15:44Speaker 1: through the Pentitok before they secured the cooperation of the
- 15:46Speaker 1: American Old Testament Revision Company. The English New Testament Company
- 15:51Speaker 1: assembled for the first time on Wednesday, June twenty second,
- 15:53Speaker 1: eighteen seventy They met in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh,
- 15:57Speaker 1: and there united in the celebration of the Lord Supper.
- 16:00Speaker 1: After this act of worship, they formerly entered upon the
- 16:03Speaker 1: task assigned them. Through the kind arrangement of Doctor Stanley,
- 16:07Speaker 1: then Dean of Westminster, the Jerusalem Chamber of the Abbey
- 16:11Speaker 1: was assigned as their place of meeting. This room, as
- 16:15Speaker 1: doctor Nuth, one of the revisers, reminded us, is one
- 16:18Speaker 1: of more than ordinary interest. Originally the parlor of the
- 16:22Speaker 1: Abbot's palace. It was here the assembly of divines of
- 16:25Speaker 1: Commonwealth days. Driven by the cold from Henry the Seventh
- 16:29Speaker 1: Chapel held its sixty sixth session on October second, sixteen
- 16:34Speaker 1: forty three, and there thenceforward continued to meet until its
- 16:38Speaker 1: closing session of February twenty second, sixteen forty nine. Here
- 16:43Speaker 1: were prepared the Westminster Confession of Faith and the longer
- 16:46Speaker 1: and Shorter Catechisms, which formerly played so conspicuous a part
- 16:49Speaker 1: in the religious education of the Presbyterians of Scotland and
- 16:53Speaker 1: the independence of England. And here also, just fifty years later,
- 16:58Speaker 1: assembled the Commission appointed by William the Third to devise
- 17:01Speaker 1: a basis for a scheme of comprehension in a revision
- 17:04Speaker 1: of the prayer book. It was in the same room
- 17:08Speaker 1: the New Testament Company held their meetings for ten years,
- 17:11Speaker 1: except on the few occasions when it was not available.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Doctor Nuth has further told us of the method of procedure.
- 17:18Speaker 1: The company assembled at eleven a m. And continued in
- 17:21Speaker 1: session till six p m. With an interval of a
- 17:24Speaker 1: half hour, prayer being offered and preliminary matters of correspondence
- 17:27Speaker 1: disposed of. The chairman read a short passage as given
- 17:31Speaker 1: in the authorized version. The question was then asked first
- 17:35Speaker 1: as to textual changes that being settled, The chairman asked
- 17:38Speaker 1: for proposals of rendering, and free discussion having followed, the
- 17:42Speaker 1: vote of the company was taken. They resolved the work
- 17:45Speaker 1: should be thoroughly done, but eventually grew alarmed at the
- 17:48Speaker 1: probable length of the time the revision would take. At
- 17:51Speaker 1: the end of the ninth day of meeting, not more
- 17:53Speaker 1: than one hundred and fifty three verses had been revised,
- 17:56Speaker 1: an average of only seventeen verses a day. By and by, however,
- 18:00Speaker 1: for progress became more rapid, but even then the average
- 18:03Speaker 1: did not rise above thirty five verses a day. The
- 18:06Speaker 1: first revision of The Gospel of Matthew was completed on
- 18:09Speaker 1: the thirty sixth day of meeting May twenty fourth, eighteen
- 18:12Speaker 1: seventy one, and that of John on the one hundred
- 18:14Speaker 1: and third day February nineteenth, eighteen seventy three. The first
- 18:18Speaker 1: revision of the Apocalypse the final Book, was completed on
- 18:22Speaker 1: the two hundred and seventy third meeting August twentieth, eighteen
- 18:25Speaker 1: seventy seven. The meetings were held monthly for a session
- 18:29Speaker 1: of four consecutive days, excepting only August and September. Thus,
- 18:34Speaker 1: the first revision required two hundred and forty one meetings
- 18:36Speaker 1: during sixty monthly sessions. The second revision was completed on
- 18:40Speaker 1: December thirteenth, eighteen seventy eight, having occupied on the whole
- 18:44Speaker 1: ninety six meetings, or about two years and a half.
- 18:47Speaker 1: Then came the suggestions of the American Company for consideration,
- 18:51Speaker 1: and these, together with the preparation of the preface, occupied
- 18:54Speaker 1: the company until November eleventh, eighteen eighty, on which day,
- 18:57Speaker 1: at five o'clock in the afternoon, after ten years five
- 19:00Speaker 1: months of labor, the revision of the New Testament was
- 19:03Speaker 1: brought to its close on the evening of that same day.
- 19:06Speaker 1: Being Saint Martin's day, the company assembled in the Church
- 19:10Speaker 1: of Saint Martin's in the Fields, and there united in
- 19:12Speaker 1: a special service of prayer and thanksgiving, thanksgiving for the
- 19:16Speaker 1: happy completion of their labors, for the spirit of harmony
- 19:19Speaker 1: and brotherly affection that had pervaded their meetings, and for
- 19:23Speaker 1: the divine goodness which had permitted so many to give
- 19:25Speaker 1: themselves continuously to this work, and prayer that He whose
- 19:30Speaker 1: glory they had humbly striven to promote, might graciously accept
- 19:33Speaker 1: this their service, and deigned to use it as an
- 19:36Speaker 1: instrument for the good of man and the honor of
- 19:38Speaker 1: His Holy name. The New Testament was published on May seventeenth,
- 19:42Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, and that same day was also presented
- 19:45Speaker 1: to the Queen. The revision of the Old Testament, being
- 19:49Speaker 1: of a much larger book, took longer time than that
- 19:52Speaker 1: of the New, but in one important respect, the work
- 19:55Speaker 1: was much simpler than that which the New Testament company
- 19:57Speaker 1: had before them. They had no dab difficulty in determining
- 20:01Speaker 1: the original text from which to translate, whereas in the
- 20:04Speaker 1: case of the New Testament that was often a matter
- 20:06Speaker 1: for anxious and prolonged consideration. The received, or as it
- 20:11Speaker 1: is commonly called, the massoretic text of the Old Testament scriptures,
- 20:15Speaker 1: has come down to us in manuscripts which are of
- 20:18Speaker 1: no great antiquity. The earliest of which the age is
- 20:21Speaker 1: known is as late as eighty nine sixteen, and they
- 20:24Speaker 1: all belong to the same family or recension. That there
- 20:28Speaker 1: were other recessions at one time, as probable from the
- 20:30Speaker 1: fact that there are variations in the ancient versions, the
- 20:34Speaker 1: oldest of which the Greek Septuagant was in part at
- 20:38Speaker 1: least made over two centuries before the Christian era. But
- 20:42Speaker 1: as the state of our knowledge on the subject is
- 20:44Speaker 1: not at present such as to justify any attempt at
- 20:47Speaker 1: an entire reconstruction of the text on the authority of
- 20:49Speaker 1: these versions, the revisers felt it most prudent, as they
- 20:54Speaker 1: tell us, simply to adopt the massoretic text as the
- 20:58Speaker 1: basis of their work, and, following the example of the
- 21:01Speaker 1: translators of the Authorized Version, to depart from it only
- 21:04Speaker 1: in exceptional cases. The revision of the Old Testament was
- 21:08Speaker 1: commenced on the thirtieth of June eighteen seventy, and was
- 21:11Speaker 1: completed in eighty five sessions, occupying seven hundred and ninety
- 21:15Speaker 1: two days and ending on twentieth June eighteen eighty four.
- 21:19Speaker 1: The greater part of the sessions were for ten days
- 21:22Speaker 1: each and each day the company generally sat for six hours.
- 21:26Speaker 1: The labor therefore was great but ungrudgingly rendered, and the revisers,
- 21:31Speaker 1: like their brethren of the New Testament Company, brought their
- 21:34Speaker 1: long task to a close with a feeling of deep
- 21:37Speaker 1: thankfulness to Almighty God and the earnest hope that their
- 21:40Speaker 1: endeavors might, with His blessing, tend to a clearer knowledge
- 21:44Speaker 1: of the Old Testament scriptures. The revision of the authorized
- 21:48Speaker 1: version of the Apocrypha was included in the arrangement between
- 21:51Speaker 1: the companies and the representatives of the presses of Oxford
- 21:55Speaker 1: and Cambridge, the publishers and proprietors of the new version,
- 22:01Speaker 1: but this last portion of the work was not to
- 22:03Speaker 1: be undertaken until the other and greater portions of the
- 22:05Speaker 1: work were concluded. As early However, as March twenty first,
- 22:09Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, it was resolved that after such conclusion,
- 22:12Speaker 1: the company should be divided into three committees, to be
- 22:15Speaker 1: called the London, Westminster and Cambridge Committees, whose work should
- 22:19Speaker 1: be the revision of the Apocrypha. Also this was done,
- 22:23Speaker 1: and thus in eighteen ninety five was completed. The work
- 22:26Speaker 1: begun in hope and prayer no less than five and
- 22:28Speaker 1: twenty years before. This work, in its completed form, as
- 22:33Speaker 1: a revision of the great version of sixteen eleven, has
- 22:36Speaker 1: been spreading more and more widely among the Christian people
- 22:39Speaker 1: of the land. It has not escaped criticism. No work
- 22:42Speaker 1: of man's hand can hope to do that. In many
- 22:45Speaker 1: ways it is open to criticism. But it has made
- 22:49Speaker 1: a new Bible for many, and made plainer to them
- 22:52Speaker 1: the revelation of the mind of God. What does this
- 22:56Speaker 1: renders effectual service to humanity? The Bible is the greater
- 23:00Speaker 1: of all books. There are many echoes in the world,
- 23:03Speaker 1: said Gutta, but few voices. This book is a living voice,
- 23:07Speaker 1: carrying its own authority with it, as the Confession of
- 23:10Speaker 1: Faith of the Scottish Church declared. Amongst the arguments whereby
- 23:14Speaker 1: the Holy Scriptures doth abundantly evidence itself to be the
- 23:18Speaker 1: Word of God are the heavenliness of the matter, the
- 23:21Speaker 1: efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the
- 23:25Speaker 1: consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole
- 23:30Speaker 1: end of Chapter seven and and of the history of
- 23:34Speaker 1: the English Bible by John Brown, recorded for the Brivox
- 23:38Speaker 1: by Marianne Spiegel in July two thousand and sixteen.