^ 
 
 W.G* Humphry 
 
 A Word on the 
 Revised Version 
 of the 
 New Testament 
 
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 A WORD 
 
 ON THE 
 
 L REVISED VERSION 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. W. G. HUMPHRY, B.D. 
 
 tJBLTSHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 
 
 SIXTH TIIOUSAXD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 OCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS; 
 
 43 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET; 48 PICCADILLY; 
 
 AND 135 NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. 
 
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 I \ 
 
A WORD \/At.. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 REVISED VERSION 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 BV THE 
 
 REV. W. G. HUMPHRY, B.D. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 
 
 [SIXTH THOUSAND.-\ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS ; 
 
 43 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET; 48 PICCADILLY; 
 
 AND 135 NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. 
 
PRELIMINARY NOTE. 
 
 These pages contain, with a few additions, the 
 substance of a paper read to the " Burlington 
 Conference " of clergy and laity, at their monthly 
 meeting under the presidency of the Rector of 
 St. James's, Piccadilly, on the 7th July, 1881. A 
 few of its colloquial phrases have been retained, 
 which may remind the reader of the occasion 
 for which it was composed, and may perhaps 
 induce him to view the more indulgently its 
 want of continuity and completeness. 
 
 W. G. H. 
 
 yuly 12, lS8l. 
 
 B 2 
 
A WORD 
 
 ON THE 
 
 REVISED VERSION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 The Authorised Version of the Holy Scriptures 
 in EngHsh, first published in the year i6ii, was 
 placed by the Convocation of Canterbury in the 
 hands of two Companies of Revisers, one for the 
 Old Testament and one for the New Testament, 
 in the year 1870. They were to receive it not 
 as a model for their imitation, but as the subject- 
 matter upon which they were to work, endea- 
 vouring sparingly and reverently to amend it, 
 and adapting their corrections as much as pos- 
 sible to its style, its diction, and its melody. 
 They accepted their great and honourable task 
 in the same spirit which guided a similar 
 endeavour many years ago, and which was ex- 
 pressed in words not, I think, unfit to be now 
 repeated: "From that Version, so laborious, so 
 
6 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 generally accurate, so close, so abhorrent of 
 paraphrase, so grave and weighty in word and 
 rhythm, so intimately bound up with the reli- 
 gious convictions of the English people, we have 
 never lightly departed. Never, indeed, we may 
 venture to affirm, have we done so without dis- 
 tinct, and as we believe, sufficient cause for the 
 departure." * 
 
 We have, however, been sensible that no 
 revision short of one that should thoroughly test 
 every word of the existing version, and of the 
 Greek text from which that version is translated, 
 would satisfy the scholars who are conversant 
 with the original, or would for any long time 
 content the people at large. A vague impression 
 had gone abroad that the English translation of 
 the Bible was full of errors, how numerous and 
 how serious no one could tell. How was this 
 disquieting idea to be dispelled ? Surely not 
 by the removal of half-a-dozen generally ac- 
 knowledged interpolations from the Greek text, 
 and of a few palpable mistranslations and 
 archaisms from the version ; even though such 
 a result might satisfy for a while the majority 
 of ordinary readers, who would regard the 
 
 * Preface to ' The Revised Version of the Gospel according 
 to St. John,' by Five Clergymen, 1857. 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. / 
 
 results of a closer scrutiny as the signs of 
 needless meddling and learned trifling. Would 
 it have been worth while for such a cause to 
 impanel the jury which has just now delivered 
 its verdict ? During the three centuries in which 
 the English Bible has widened and deepened its 
 hold on the affections of successive generations, 
 it has also been subjected to an investigation 
 which became more rigorous in every age, as 
 fresh textual authorities were brought to light, 
 and a more precise knowledge was gained of 
 the Greek language, and of that Hellenistic or 
 Hebraic form of it which is found in the New 
 Testament. All this has been urged again and 
 again : but the tone of some of the criticisms 
 which have appeared on the work of the Revision 
 seems to require that it should be said yet once 
 more. 
 
 What these ten years have been to me and my 
 colleagues you can imagine, though imperfectly, 
 yet better than I can describe ; what a call they 
 have given us to a close examination of the 
 thoughts and words of Scripture; how they 
 have exercised us in patience and self-restraint, 
 made us feel, by measuring ourselves with 
 others, some of our own intellectual and moral 
 weaknesses ; how" they have required of us the 
 
8 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 partial or even total relinquishment of pur- 
 suits and studies that were dear to us. I do 
 not know that so large a number of men (each 
 one, moreover, heavily charged with his own 
 private duties) ever spent so large a portion of 
 their lives together, in unbroken harmony, in 
 earnest consideration of God's Word. That this 
 has been so, we may truly say, " Dei gratia " ; 
 and if any good should come of it, according to 
 our hopes, we shall joyfully say, " Deo gloria." 
 
 The question whether it is desirable that the 
 Revised Version should be read in the public 
 service of the Church is one of great interest and 
 importance. I do not mean to inquire whether 
 it can at present legally be read — i. e. whether 
 the Lessons can be read from it. As regards 
 the Epistles and Gospels, it is clear they must 
 continue to be read from the Authorised Version. 
 But as to the legality of reading the Lessons 
 from the Revised Version, and the Lord Chan- 
 cellor's extra-judicial opinion thereon, it would be 
 mere presumption in me to offer any remarks. 
 
 Supposing there to be no legal obstacle, it may 
 still be an undue stretch of liberty for a clergy- 
 man to introduce into the Church a version 
 which has as yet received neither official sanction 
 nor public approval. 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 9 
 
 What I would have you consider is this, not 
 whether the public use of it is excluded by law, 
 or by custom which sometimes becomes a sort 
 of unwritten common law, but whether its merits 
 are such that we should desire it to be read. If 
 this question, after careful consideration, is an- 
 swered in the affirmative by those who are im- 
 partial and competent judges, we may be sure 
 that difficulties will make haste in one way or 
 other to disappear. 
 
 It was the belief of Erasmus, when he entered 
 on the Herculean labour of editing the Greek 
 Testament and revising the Latin Vulgate, that 
 the noisy controversies of his time would give 
 way to that quiet and careful study of the Holy 
 Scriptures, to which his work would be a 
 fresh and strong inducement. His experience 
 does not warrant us in entertaining any such 
 anticipations. But we may confidently hope 
 that there is nothing in what we have done that 
 can give rise to new divisions among Christians, 
 or widen those which now exist. There is pro- 
 bably in the minds of a few honest " irreconcil- 
 ables" a prejudice, resembling that by which one 
 of the Colleges of Cambridge was actuated, when 
 it passed a decree that the New Testament of 
 Erasmus should not be brought within the 
 
10 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 College precincts, " on shipboard or horseback, 
 by waggons or porters." * But even they, we 
 trust, will in time relax their frowns ; and others 
 there are, in high places of the Church, who, 
 though not adverse, have hitherto been cold and 
 unsympathetic, who will cease to " hesitate dis- 
 like," and begin to look favourably on our 
 work. 
 
 The general result of the Revision in its bearing 
 upon doctrine has been that not any article of 
 the faith has been in the slightest degree invali- 
 dated or modified ; and we may hope the whole 
 fabric of the Church's teaching has consequently 
 gained additional strength and firmness from the 
 trial which both the original text of the New 
 Testament and the Version have undergone. If 
 there were any faithful but timid Christians who 
 feared a different result, they are, I trust, by this 
 time re-assured. The removal of the verse 
 I John V. 7, which speaks of the " heavenly wit- 
 nesses," makes it no longer possible for the sup- 
 porters of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity to 
 weaken the unimpeachable testimonies on which 
 it rests, by adducing one which has long been 
 known to be unsound. The translation of Titus 
 ii. 13, "Our great God and Saviour Jesus 
 
 • Brewer's ' English Studies,' ** Erasmus," p. 358. 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. II 
 
 Christ," is a more clear declaration of the God- 
 head of Christ than that which is now relegated 
 to the margin, "The great God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ." The much-disputed texts. Acts 
 XX. 28 and I Tim. iii. 16, in the former of which 
 we follow the received reading OeoO, and in the 
 latter we adopt 09 for ^eo?, are too uncertain to 
 be cited with any weight on either side. The 
 Godhead of Christ is also indirectly, if not 
 directly, affirmed in the following passages, 
 where a change has been made in the Greek 
 text : Acts xvi. 7 ; Col. ii. 2 ; i Pet. iii. 1 5. 
 
 The governing principle of our work required 
 us " to make as few changes as possible consis- 
 tently with faithfulness." Changes in the nature 
 of paraphrases or embellishment of style were 
 thus discouraged. But come what might of it, if 
 we were compelled to deprive the preacher of a 
 favourite text, to darken what before was clear, 
 to mar a familiar cadence, to bring in stiff and 
 awkward phrases, for want of any that would as 
 truly and more smoothly represent the original, 
 or harshly to express a thought which seems 
 harsh in the original, or so to alter the most 
 sacred words that what is put in their place 
 grates on the ear and appears intolerable ; if for 
 these things we should be held up as ruthless 
 
12 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 pedants, and our whole work pronounced a 
 failure, we had our principle clearly laid down foi 
 us, we had accepted it, and there was no appeal 
 from it. 
 
 I will only at present illustrate the application 
 of this principle by a few cases, some prominent 
 and important, others slight, but typical, on 
 which I may venture to offer a few words of 
 explanation, speaking entirely on my own 
 responsibility. 
 
 The alteration of the Greek text of the An- 
 gelic Song (Luke ii. 14) by the addition of a 
 single letter {evBoKLa<; for evBoKia) has rendered 
 necessary a material change in the version, dis- 
 turbing and rendering somewhat obscure one 
 of the most joyous passages in our Bibles. The 
 consolation must be, that the words are made to 
 represent more truly the joyful utterance of the 
 heavenly host, and are also brought into accord 
 with that form in which they have always been 
 current in the version and public service of the 
 Western Church : " And on earth peace among 
 men in whom he is well pleased," i. e. peace 
 among men, the objects of His good pleasure ; 
 peace among those to whom these glad tidings 
 shall come, all the elect people of God, all to 
 whom the right, the privilege is given to become 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 1 3 
 
 the children of God, mankind in general : " in 
 terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis" (Latin 
 Vulgate). 
 
 Luke xiv. lo: We read, "in the lowest place" 
 for " room " {roirov). " Place " was Wy clif's render- 
 ing, but " room " was brought in by Tyndale ; as at 
 Psalm xxxi. 8, " Thou hast set my feet in a large 
 room." The words "conversation" and ^'dam- 
 nation " also came in with Tyndale. Wyclif, 
 though translating from the Vulgate, used 
 the more familiar English words "living" and 
 " doom." 
 
 Luke xix. 13: *' Trade ye till I come" 
 {Trpay/uLarevaaade eo)? epxofMat), for " occupy till I 
 come." One of our critics, while approving of 
 " Trade ye," objects to *' till I come," that this 
 would represent eo)? av eXOco, and thinks he 
 has here found a singular oversight. But the 
 same construction and meaning of ew? with the 
 indicative occurs in John xxi. 22, 23, " Tarry 
 thou till I come," literally, " while I am coming ; " 
 and by the use of the indicative instead of the 
 indefinite eo)? av eXOco, the coming seems to be 
 treated as a certainty. So also St. Paul, in 
 I Tim. iv. 13, "Till I come, give heed" (eW 
 epxofiat), 
 
 Luke xxiii. 15 : "Nothing worthy of death 
 
14 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 hath been done by him," for " done to him " 
 (TreTrpay/juevov avrS); but at Matt. v. 21 (et seq.) 
 we render ippeOrj tol^ apxaioi^ by " it was said to 
 them of old time." The sense of this dative 
 case with the passive verb is in itself ambiguous, 
 and has to be determined from the context. 
 In each case the context decides against the 
 Auth. 
 
 John X. i6 : " One flock, one shepherd " {ijula 
 iroljjbvr]), for " one fold, one shepherd," which was 
 after the Vulgate umcm ovile, i. e. by implication, 
 the Church of Rome. Tyndale gave it correctly 
 "one flock"; Cranmer returned to Wyclif's "one 
 fold," and was followed by the Genevan. The 
 word for "fold" in the New Testament is not 
 TTOLfjLvr), but avXijy used only in this chapter, and 
 found in' this same verse. The whole passage 
 has received much additional light and beauty 
 from the changes that have been made in it. 
 
 Luke xvi. 9 : " Make to yourselves friends by 
 means of the mammon of unrighteousness ; that 
 when it shall fail, they may receive you into the 
 eternal tabernacles." Light has been thrown 
 into this passage, which is very obscure in the 
 Auth., by a change in the translation of the pre- 
 position 6K, out of, and by a change of the Greek 
 text from eKKiirTjTe to eKXcTrrj. In the previous 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 1 5 
 
 verse the translation of 6 Kvpio<;, "his lord," 
 removes the ambiguity which lies in the Auth., 
 "" the lord," that title being so frequently given 
 to Christ himself. 
 
 John i. 25 : " The Christ " for " that Christ " ; 
 Acts ix. 2: "of the way" for "of that way." 
 In many such cases the revisers of the Auth. 
 were misled by the laudable endeavour of the 
 Latin Vulgate to express the article through the 
 definite pronoun ilk, ilia ; in which, or rather in 
 fragments of which, the Romance languages 
 ultimately found for themselves an article. 
 
 1 Tim. vi. 5 : " Supposing that godliness is a 
 way of gain " for " supposing that gain is godli- 
 ness," an error arising from a servile following of 
 the Greek order, vofic^ovrcov iropLo-fiov elvau ttjv 
 
 2 Cor. v. 14: ''One died for all, therefore all 
 died," ol 7rdvT€<; aireOavov. A new sense is 
 given to this and very many passages by 
 careful attention to the aorist, a matter not here 
 admitting of doubt, but sometimes leading to 
 much variety of opinion. 
 
 When the Bible was translated, "hell" was 
 a most suitable translation of Hades, the " place 
 unseen"; but having like "damn," "damnation," 
 acquired now a much sterner meaning, it has 
 
1 6 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSTON 
 
 become inappropriate and misleading; and as 
 Hades is now untranslatable, though in some 
 places "the grave" is sufficiently near to it, 
 we have left it as a proper name. It does not 
 follow, as some of our critics suggest, that 
 " Gehenna " should have been treated in the 
 same way, for "hell" conveys to us the same 
 notion of horror which Gehenna did to the Jews ; 
 and " the hell of fire," Matt. v. 22, though it may 
 not have any advantage in sense over the familiar 
 phrase " hell fire," is more true to the Greek. 
 
 Acts viii. 9, II, 13: "Amazed the people," 
 "was amazed," is a more correct translation of 
 the Greek i^io-TCJv, e^icrTarOy than either of the 
 words " bewitched," " wondered," which are used 
 in the Authorised Version ; and the uniform 
 rendering suggests the thought, which is pro- 
 bably latent, though not expressed in the 
 original, that Simon, who had amazed others, 
 was now in his turn amazed himself. This kind 
 of reference to what has gone before may several 
 times be traced in St. Luke's writings ; as rov? 
 aco^ofjuevov^, "those who were being saved," at 
 the end of chap, ii., seems to refer to aco^eaOe, 
 "save yourselves," said by St. Peter at ver. 42 
 of that chapter ; and the publican's prayer in 
 Luke xviii. 13, "Be merciful to me a sinner," rm 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 1 7 
 
 ajjLapTwKw, seems to glance at the self-righteous- 
 ness of the Pharisee. 
 
 Phil. iii. 21 : There is here a change which 
 surely must give comfort to us all, inasmuch as 
 it does away with the reproach of vileness which 
 has clung to this poor natural body of ours from 
 the appearance of Tyndale's version until now. 
 The Auth. has "who shall change our vile 
 body that it may be fashioned like unto his 
 glorious body " — 09 fieTa(T')(7}/jLaTi(T€i, to aSifxa rrj(; 
 Tairetvcoa-eco'; rjfjucov crvfji/jLopcpov rco crcofjuari Ti]<; S6^rj<i 
 avTov. The Revision has preserved the Hebra- 
 ism of the original, and rendered it thus : " who 
 shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, 
 that it may be conformed to the body of his 
 glory." Thus there is not even a seeming con- 
 tradiction between this passage and the declara- 
 tion of the same Apostle that our body is " a 
 temple of the Holy Ghost." (i Cor. vi. 19.) 
 
 It would have been little short of a desecration 
 to modernise in any sensible degree the style of 
 the English Bible, which is so characteristic of 
 the age of the Reformation, the golden age, as 
 many think, of our language ; that archaic style 
 which, by separating our Version from all the 
 literature of later times, gives it a solemnity and 
 a dignity of its own. For this reason we resisted 
 
 C 
 
1 8 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 the urgent request of the American Committee 
 that " who " should be substituted for " which " 
 wherever " which " is used as a personal relative. 
 This use of " which " in the Lord's Prayer would 
 have been almost in itself sufficient to protect it 
 elsewhere; and this one change, if uniformly 
 carried out, must have had a material effect on 
 the antique beauty of the version. It has been 
 conceded in a few places only, where there was a 
 possible ambiguity. Here and there also a word 
 or phrase has been removed which has become 
 obscure or misleading from its having acquired a 
 new meaning, superadded to or superseding that 
 which it had three centuries ago. Thus we read 
 " precede " for " prevent," " hinder " for '' let,'* 
 " baggage " for " carriage," " manner of life " for 
 " conversation," " place " for " room," " set his 
 seal to this " instead of " set to his seal," '* against 
 myself" instead of "by myself," "pursue it" for 
 " ensue it," " convicteth " for " convinceth me of 
 sin." The "charger" on which the head of 
 St. John Baptist was brought in (Matt. xiv. 8),. 
 has been spared in consideration of its use in 
 Numbers vii., where it is likely to be retained : 
 nor indeed was any thoroughly eligible substi- 
 tute forthcoming. 
 
 There is another and a still more venerable 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 1 9 
 
 family of archaisms, representing the Hebrew 
 idioms which largely pervade the Greek of the 
 LXX. and the New Testament. Many of these 
 have happily been preserved in the Authorised 
 Version, such as " Blessing I will bless thee '* 
 (Heb. vi. 14); "sons of disobedience" (Eph. 
 v. 6) ; " deceivableness (Rev., *' deceit ") of un- 
 righteousness " ; the various uses of alcov, " age," 
 yevea, " generation," K\7)povo/jbia, " inheritance," 
 &c. These have generally been retained in the 
 Revision, with some few added to them, such 
 as ''the footstool of his feet" (Matt. v. 23), 
 vTTOTroBtov Twv ttoBmv avTov ; " the body of our 
 humiliation," as already noticed, Phil. iii. 21. 
 
 But a new building is to be judged, not by the 
 quantity of good materials which it contains, 
 but by the absence of flaws and unskilful work- 
 manship. I shall better employ the little time 
 which remains to me in dealing with objections 
 than in producing samples of good work, con- 
 cerning which it may be said, "Quis vitu- 
 peravit ? " The tendency of most of the reviews 
 which have come under my notice is to lay 
 greater stress on the faults, than on the good 
 points of the Revision. This is, probably, the 
 natural bias of the critical mind ; there being 
 more scope for ingenuity, and more piquancy, in 
 
 C 2 
 
20 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 censure than in commendation. One or two of 
 the critics, after making considerable allowance 
 for the merits of the work, pronounce the faults 
 to be such as must ensure its condemna- 
 tion, or at least prevent it from superseding 
 the Authorised Version in popular and public 
 use. This description, however, by no means 
 applies to the latest and fullest of those which 
 I have seen, appearing in the Contemporary 
 Reviezv of this month, from the pen of Dr. 
 Perowne, Dean of Peterborough. He is cordial in 
 his general approval of the work ; and, as might- 
 be expected of one who is himself engaged in 
 the revision of the Old Testament, he is kindly 
 and sympathetic. His review contains much 
 acute and careful criticism; deals gently with 
 what he notes as our errors, faults chiefly of 
 over-translation, and inharmonious English; 
 but even he is not above the amiable weak- 
 ness (as I hope to show) of preferring an old 
 familiar cadence to a new and harsh, yet true 
 rendering. 
 
 Nothing as yet has appeared in England so 
 useful and interesting to ordinary readers, for 
 instance to intelligent and well-educated women, 
 as the series of articles giving a rationale of the 
 whole work, which appeared in the Stmday 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 21 
 
 School Times of Philadelphia in the four weeks 
 immediately succeeding the publication of the 
 Revised Version. These articles set forth in 
 order, and in a popular style, with explanations 
 and comments generally appreciative, the more 
 important changes, both in text and translation, 
 that have been made throughout the New Testa- 
 ment. The same thing will, I hope, be done in 
 England: but meanwhile, here is another in- 
 stance of our being outstripped by our American 
 cousins. 
 
 You will readily believe that neither I nor any 
 of my colleagues is able to stand up for the 
 Revision as the product of absolute wisdom. 
 Each of us, times without number, has been out- 
 voted by a "tyrant majority." There is no 
 sentence in our preface which had our more 
 hearty approval than that which confesses to the 
 existence of blemishes, imperfections, failures ; 
 though if each of us had made out a list of such 
 blots, no two of the lists, probably, would have 
 been found to agree. It cannot be otherwise 
 where many minds are discussing the multi- 
 farious details of a long and difficult work, 
 though the advantages arising from their joint 
 counsel greatly outweigh the drawbacks. To 
 what extent, then, do the faults attributed to 
 
22 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 the Revised Version affect it as a book to be 
 read in church ? 
 
 The most usual and the most sweeping objec- 
 tion which has been taken to the work amounts 
 to this, that a great number of needless changes 
 have been made, which do not perceptibly affect 
 the meaning, and only irritate the hearer or 
 reader, by " disturbing immemorial and hallowed 
 associations," betraying pedantry, which, " how- 
 ever conscientious, has produced results highly 
 offensive to the English ear." 
 
 Several, and some of the most able, of the 
 reviews appeared in the daily newspapers within 
 a day or two, and almost all that have as yet 
 appeared within a fortnight, after the publica- 
 tion of the work; and it is no wonder if the 
 writers had not been able in so short a time, 
 with all their practised readiness of apprehen- 
 sion, to see the reasons, which often lie beneath 
 the surface, for the various alterations which 
 we have made. It was one thing to seize 
 on the salient features of the book by a rapid 
 perusal, another, and a far more difficult task, 
 to ascertain what necessity there was for each 
 particular change or class of changes, what light 
 had been thrown on the interpretation of the 
 New Testament generally by careful, systematic 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 23 
 
 attention to the minute as well as to the more 
 prominent points of scholarship. If by such 
 attention given to articles, particles, prepositions, 
 tenses, many obscurities have been removed in 
 the Epistles of St. Paul, as I believe is generally 
 admitted, were we not bound to show consistency 
 in such matters, even where there did not appear 
 any need of change, and where the sense would 
 not be perceptibly affected ? And what right 
 have we to say that any change is insignificant 
 which brings the version more close to the sacred 
 original ? Possibly the individuality of the several 
 writers, or the characteristics of their style, may 
 thus be more strongly brought out, or additional 
 evidence may be furnished of the veracity of 
 the narrative. If an abrupt exclamation, or a 
 broken construction, or a certain mode of linking 
 sentence with sentence, is found in the Greek of 
 St. Mark, or a tendency to participial construction 
 in some passages of St. Matthew, or a remark- 
 able use of the aorist in the Gospel of St. John, 
 or an unfamiliar word or phrase or arrangement 
 of words in other places, is nothing corresponding 
 thereto to be admitted in the English, for fear of 
 breaking hallowed associations ? Was St. Paul's 
 characteristic iteration of the same word or 
 phrase, making it as it were the key-note of a 
 
24 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 passage, to be lost sight of, as it is in the Auth. 
 of I Cor. xii. 4; XV. 27, for the sake of the 
 elegant variety of diction which was so studied 
 by the Revisers of 161 1 ? I am not quite 
 sure that some of these disagreeable irritants 
 may not be found wholesome stimulants, lead- 
 ing those, on whose ears they fall so harshly, to 
 think and inquire, and to learn many things that 
 may be of interest, and some that it may be 
 profitable for them to know. I am not prepared 
 to stand up for every one of those changes. 
 Some of them I thought at the time unnecessary, 
 and opposed without success. But not one of 
 them, I believe, has as yet been shown to be 
 wrong ; and supposing that even a great number 
 of them are needless (which I do not admit), 
 may they not be tolerated by the most sensitive 
 ear, in consideration of what is gained in other 
 passages from the more manifest corrections ^ 
 My belief is that these are sufficiently numerous 
 to make the reading aloud of the New Testament 
 more delightful, because more instructive, to all 
 who in the true meaning of the Saviour's words, 
 " have ears to hear." 
 
 But let me turn to two or three of the more 
 grave objections, and begin with that which 
 naturally occurs to us all. The new reading of 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 2$ 
 
 the petition "Deliver us from the evil one" has 
 given a greater shock to hallowed associations 
 than any other that has been made. I have 
 found it so with myself, though I have become 
 reconciled to it, now that I am persuaded it is 
 right. I resisted it as long as I could. When it 
 was carried by a large majority at the first revi- 
 sion, I still hoped that the Company, on second 
 thoughts, would see grounds for restoring the old 
 words, " Deliver us from evil." But in the mean- 
 while a paper was circulated amongst us by one 
 of our body, ably setting forth the arguments on 
 both sides. It appeared that our Lord un- 
 questionably Himself used 6 irovrjpo^ of "the 
 evil one" in Matt. xiii. 19, and probably in 
 other places, as in the chapter immediately 
 preceding this of St. Matthew, and that it is 
 clearly so used several times by St. John, and 
 that airo rod Trovrjpov in the Lord's Prayer was so 
 understood by the early Greek fathers, and by 
 the earliest of the Latins ; while the strongest 
 argument on the other side appeared to be the 
 interpretation of the Latin fathers, from St 
 Augustine inclusive, that "Libera nos a malo" 
 speaks of evil in general, not of evil as a person. 
 The conjecture that our Lord, in delivering the 
 prayer, used a certain Aramaic word which cor- 
 
26 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 responds to evil, or wickedness, does not seem to 
 be of much weight ; even if it were not probable 
 that our Lord spoke Greek, and that we have 
 His ipsissima verba in His public discourses, 
 and especially in addressing such a mixed 
 assemblage as was gathered about Him when 
 He delivered the Sermon on the Mount. After 
 considering the preponderance of evidence and 
 testimony in favour of the masculine rendering, 
 I very reluctantly joined the large majority in its 
 favour. It is right I should add, that I am not 
 shaken by Canon Cook's able pleading for the 
 neuter, though I look with much interest for the 
 answer to it which the Bishop of Durham is 
 understood to have in preparation. 
 
 It has been observed truly by those who sup- 
 port the masculine rendering that, according to 
 St. Matthew, the prayer was delivered by our 
 Lord shortly after He had Himself been led into 
 temptation, and had been in conflict with "the 
 evil one"; not that very much stress is to be 
 laid on this : but I think we of the Church are in 
 some degree prepared to receive this change 
 by the paraphrase in the Catechism, which 
 includes both the neuter and the masculine in its 
 enumeration : *' From all sin and wickedness and 
 from our ghostly enemy," &c. I say nothing of 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 2/ 
 
 the omission of the Doxology in St. Matthew, 
 rendered necessary by the textual evidence. 
 
 Our Church has not used the Lord's Prayer 
 exactly as it appears either in St. Matthew's 
 Gospel or in St. Luke's, having taken instead of 
 ** debts" {(x^eikrjiJLaTa) or "sins" (dfjuapriaL) the 
 word "trespasses" {TrapaTrrcofiara), which was 
 used by the Lord in His subsequent exposition 
 of the petition for forgiveness. Far be it from 
 me to breathe a wish that it were otherwise. I 
 can feel with a child of whom I have heard, 
 who was reading the Sermon on the Mount 
 to her mother in the Revised Version, and 
 after reading the Lord's Prayer in a tone 
 expressive of surprise and dislike, she said, 
 *' Mother, if I am obliged to say this new Lord's 
 Prayer, I shall always say to myself the dear old 
 Lord's Prayer after it." But surely it was in- 
 cumbent upon us, in this most sacred form of 
 words, to set forth faithfully and fearlessly as 
 nearly as possible the language and the thought 
 of our Blessed Lord. This observation applies to 
 other changes in the prayer, which even to some 
 who have accepted the greater change, the camel, 
 have been as the gnat which must be strained 
 out ; two of which I must mention, as they are 
 typical examples of changes which, somewhat 
 
2S A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 hastily, have been pronounced unnecessary — one 
 made in conformity to the order of the original, 
 the other for verbal literalness. 
 
 1. '* As in heaven, so on earth," oo? eV ovpavS, 
 Kol €7rl <yrj(;. The removal of this petition from 
 St. Luke (chap, xi.) is consequent on its omission 
 in the Greek text. It has there been familiar to 
 us in the order which it now has in St. Matthew. 
 The Greek order makes "so on earth" the 
 emphatic words : the English (Auth.) lays the 
 stress on " as it is in heaven," and suggests this 
 meaning : " May Thy will be done on earth as 
 perfectly as it is done in heaven." This is 
 indeed a good prayer, but not that of the 
 original, which is simply this : "May Thy will, 
 which is done in heaven, be done on earth also." 
 
 2. "Bring us not into temptation." The 
 word is firj ela-eveyKT]^ both in St. Matthew and 
 St. Luke; ela^epco, in the six other places of 
 the New Testament in which it occurs, and 
 in classical Greek, is to bring or carry, not to 
 lead. When said of a person it would imply 
 that he was made to go, if not against his will, 
 without his consent. To lead rather implies a 
 consenting will. Of our Lord it is said, both by 
 St. Matthew and St. Luke, that He was led up, 
 avrix^Vy /^4 ^7eTo, by the Spirit into the wilder- 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 29 
 
 ness, to be tempted of the devil. He was led ; 
 His will then, as always, going along with the 
 Divine will. This we cannot say of ourselves at 
 the moment when we are deprecating exposure 
 to temptation ; and so the word which the Lord 
 would have us use is elo-eveyKj}^, not elo-ajr]^ — 
 "bring," not "lead." Compare the petition in 
 the Litany : " That it may please Thee to bring 
 into the way of truth all such as," &c. 
 
 Another place in which uniformity of render- 
 ing seemed to be required, and a change has 
 consequently been made, is Matt, xxvii. 38, 
 where we have put "robbers" for "thieves." 
 Here, it is said, in a most sacred passage, the 
 attention is arrested painfully, and without suffi- 
 cient reason ; the distinction between " robber " 
 and "thief" being not worthy of notice. But 
 if faithfulness was to be our principle, how 
 could we avoid maintaining the distinction, which 
 is already made in the narrative of the Passion, 
 both in the Greek and in the Authorised Version > 
 Barabbas is described as XrjcrTrj^, a robber (John 
 xviii. 49) ; and Judas Iscariot as a thief, /cXeTrr?;? 
 (John xii. 6). Surely the ear will not long rebel 
 against such a change as this ? 
 
 A writer in the Guardian of July 6th, who 
 usually has shown careful scholarship, exclaims, 
 
30 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 ** What conceivable reason was there for writing 
 * yielded up his spirit' in St. Matt, xxvii. 50, 
 and *gave up his spirit' in St. John xix. 30, 
 while in St. Mark and St. Luke they have kept 
 the solemn old English phrase, " gave up the 
 ghost ' ? " The reason, whether it be a good one 
 or not, is not only conceivable but plain, to any 
 one who will take the trouble to look at and 
 consider the Greek text. The words in Matt, 
 xxvii. 50 and John xix. 30 are d(f>7]Ke to irveviia, 
 irapeScoKe to Trvevfjua, whereas in Mark xv. 37 and 
 Luke xxiii. 46 the single word e^iirveva-e is used. 
 In the former cases the accurate translation is 
 " he yielded up, he gave up, his spirit," the spirit 
 which was part of his human nature (compare 
 Luke xxiii. 46) ; in the other cases it is simply 
 " he expired," and the solemn old English phrase 
 is retained, " he gave up the ghost." 
 
 "Is it I, Lord.?" for "Lord, is it I?" Matt. 
 xxvi. 22. Another instance, it is said, of servile 
 conformity to the Greek order, ^yitl iyco elfit, 
 Kvpie; without perceptible gain to the sense. 
 Before answering this charge, it is worth while 
 to notice the many fluctuations of the previous 
 versions : Vulgate, " Numquid ego sum, Rabbi ? " 
 Wycl., " Lord, whether I am ? " Tynd., " Is it I, 
 Master ? " Rhemish, " Is it I, Lord ? " Authorised 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 3I 
 
 Version, " Lord, is it I ? " The disciples, horror- 
 struck at what their Master has said, exclaim 
 with one voice, " Is it I ? " (or more exactly, in a 
 form of deprecation, " It is not I, is it ? "). They 
 put their question abruptly, and then add the 
 word of respectful address, with which they 
 would usually commence. This would seem the 
 natural sequence of thought and word in such a 
 case ; and if so, the vividness of the exclamation 
 is best preserved in English by following the 
 Greek order, not by deviating from it. It re- 
 minds one a little of Virgil's " Me, me, adsum qui 
 feci." St. Mark, in relating the question " Is it 
 I?" omits "Lord." Compare Matt. xvi. 22, 
 where, after our Lord has spoken of His ap- 
 proaching death, St. Peter says, ''X\em o-ot, 
 /cupte," which is well rendered, " This be far from 
 thee, Lord." (Auth.) Compare Acts ix. 5, x. 4. 
 Mark xiii. 28: ''Now from the fig-tree learn 
 her parable." The order of the words in the 
 Greek throws an emphasis on those which we 
 have likewise emphasised in translating them, 
 airo Se t?}? ctv/ct}?. Our Lord was sitting on the 
 Mount of Olives, in passing over which on 
 another occasion he sought fruit on the barren 
 fig-tree (Mark xi. 13). It is not unlikely, there- 
 fore, that he now had in view a tree of the same 
 
32 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 kind, and that while discoursing of the things 
 unseen, He illustrates them by a sudden transi- 
 tion, preserved in the vivid narrative of St. Mark, 
 to one of the objects within sight of Himself 
 and His hearers. 
 
 John i. 15: "is become before me," for " is 
 preferred before me," efiirpoaOev fiov ^e^yovev. This 
 has been declared " intolerable." The Authorised 
 Version is misleading, inasmuch as preference 
 (in the sense in which " to prefer " is now used), 
 is not implied in the original. We have returned 
 to this passage again and again with the desire 
 to find an adequate and idiomatic translation 
 for it ; at length the literal rendering was 
 adopted as giving the true sense, though awk- 
 wardly, more faithfully than any other that 
 occurred to us. "He hath place before me, for 
 He was (in time) before me." 
 
 Acts ii. 47 : " Those that were being saved,** 
 for " such as should be saved," rom aQ)^ofievov<;. 
 The future sense there given to the present 
 participle is generally allowed to be erroneous, 
 like " he that should come," o ep;^oyu,ew9, Matt, 
 xi. 3 ; and here it has led to a doctrinal interpre- 
 tation in favour of predestinarian views, for 
 which the passage affords no ground whatever. 
 Our rendering, "those that were being saved,'* 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 33 
 
 besides preserving the reference which evidently 
 there is in the original tou? crajfo/^eVou? to the ''save 
 yourselves," a-co^eaOe, at verse 42, appeared to be 
 the most exact mode of conveying the sense of 
 the passive participle. But it is objected to by 
 Dean Perowne as "bad nineteenth century 
 English,'"' which ought on no account to have 
 been admitted, " a jealous regard to purity of 
 style being in such a work a paramount duty ; " 
 and he suggests instead ^ it, " those that were 
 in the way of salvation." But how would he 
 deal with the similar expression in 2 Cor. ii. 15? 
 The form which we have adopted is certainly 
 familiar, if not elegant. I am not sure that it 
 violates the genius of our language ; it is almost 
 a necessity when a progressive state has to be 
 expressed in the passive voice; and if the 
 nineteenth century is half ashamed to own its 
 progeny, I doubt not the twentieth will receive it 
 without demur. 
 
 Our translation of the difficult passage at the 
 end of Acts xxvi. has met with less objection 
 than might have been anticipated, considering 
 how it does away with a highly valued and 
 valuable text for sermons. "With but little 
 persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Chris- 
 tian," iv 6\iy(p fie ireldec^ ')(^pL(TTLavov iroLrjaaL, 
 
 D 
 
34 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 One thing is certain, that ev oXiyo) does not 
 mean " almost." I have always thought St. 
 Chiysostom's view a probable one, that Agrippa 
 meant the words in one sense, and St. Paul took 
 them in another, " both in little and in much," 
 and to this opinion the American Committee 
 give their adhesion. 
 
 I may observe in passing that the nautical 
 details of Acts xxvii. have been revised with the 
 kind assistance of two naval officers, who pos- 
 sessed the double advantage of practical expe- 
 rience and an acquaintance with the highly 
 interesting dissertation of the late Mr. Smith of 
 Jordan Hill on the voyage and shipwreck of 
 St. Paul. By their help we trust proper English 
 terms have been found, corresponding as far as 
 was possible with the technical terms of the 
 original ; and the narrative has been rendered 
 more intelligible both to professional and unpro- 
 fessional readers. 
 
 It has been said that by retaining both the 
 names " the Holy Ghost " and " the Holy 
 Spirit," we have broken our rule of uniformity, 
 which would require that ajLov Jlvev/jia should 
 everywhere be translated by the same words. 
 Why have we not followed the example of Dean 
 Alford, one of our Company at the time of his 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 35 
 
 death, who in his revised version of the New- 
 Testament substituted " Holy Spirit " for " Holy- 
 Ghost " in the ninety places in which the latter 
 name appears ? Why could we not in this 
 important matter agree with the American Com- 
 mittee, who desired the change ? We do not, for 
 we need not answer, that whatever America may 
 say, England would have risen up and protested 
 against the loss of that most holy Name. We 
 can reply that our rule happily did not make 
 it imperative upon us to remove either of those 
 hallowed names ; the two are perfectly inter- 
 changeable, absolutely identical in meaning ; the 
 one derived from the Anglo-Saxon, the other (in 
 part) from the Latin element of our language. 
 This identity exists as regards the names them- 
 selves, not as regards their component parts. The 
 single word " ghost " is not, and probably never 
 was, an exact equivalent of ''spirit," and is, I 
 think, never used of the Spirit of God ; conse- 
 quently, where in the course of our revision the 
 Greek text has been changed from Uvevfjia dyiov 
 to TJvevfMa, as in Acts vi. 3, there we now read 
 '''the Spirit" and not "the Ghost," and not, as 
 Auth., " the Holy Ghost." In a few places, where 
 both the names are used in the Auth. in close 
 juxtaposition, it was thought advisable to use 
 
 D 2 
 
36 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 one and the same, to prevent the thought 
 occurring to an ordinary English reader that 
 there is a variation in the Greek. 
 
 A protest has been raised against the removal 
 of the word " charity"; and many, myself among 
 the number, regret the change, while they 
 acknowledge its necessity. If the two words 
 " love " and " charity," used in the Auth. as 
 translations of the same Greek ar/aTrrj, had 
 been precisely equivalent, they might have con- 
 tinued to refresh the ear by their variety of 
 sound, without any danger of the mind being 
 confused by their diversity of sense. But of 
 "charity" it has been truly said that it is 
 not the same word that it was three hundred 
 years ago : even then it was not co-extensive, 
 nor co-intensive (if I may venture on such a 
 word) with "love"; and since that time it has 
 gathered to itself associations which then were 
 foreign to it. 
 
 The history of the introduction of " charity " 
 into the English Version appears to be as fol- 
 lows : — " Love " was, I believe, the uniform 
 rendering of ayaiTT] in Tyndale's version, and he 
 defended it in the acrimonious controversy 
 which he had on the subject with Sir Thomas 
 More; so it was in the versions of his succes- 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 37 
 
 sors, with the exception of two passages of the 
 Genevan Version, Jude 12, "in thy brotherly 
 feasts of charity," and Rev. ii. 19, " I know thy 
 works and thy charity " ; and to these it may be 
 added that Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan 
 all have " charitably " for Kar a'yairrjv in Rom. 
 xiv. 15. The Auth., in substituting " charity " for 
 "love" about twenty times in the Epistles of 
 St. Paul and St. Peter, and once in the 3rd 
 Epistle of St. John, followed very sparingly the 
 example of the Latinising Rhemish Version 
 of 1582, which was itself, of course, following 
 Wyclif 's translation of the Latin Vulgate : but 
 in the vast majority of passages *'love" is the 
 word of the Auth. in all the Epistles ; and there 
 is no exception in the Gospels. 
 
 Notwithstanding the sweet associations by 
 which "charity" is endeared to us, we have 
 been constrained to remove it from the page 
 of Holy Scripture, and so to make it apparent, 
 beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the grace 
 which St. Paul describes in i Cor. xiii. is the same 
 of which he says, Rom. xiii. 10, that it is "the 
 fulfilling of the law " ; the same of which St. 
 John discourses in his first epistle ; the same of 
 which our Lord was speaking when He declared 
 which is the great commandment of the law, and 
 
38 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 said that the second is " like unto it" — *' Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God," " Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbour as thyself." 
 
 I come now to the opening of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, the only passage of several 
 consecutive verses which the Dean of Peter- 
 borough has discussed in his review, and 
 for our way of dealing with which we have 
 incurred his severest censure. This passage in 
 the Authorised Version, he says, is in "the 
 splendour of its sweep quite unrivalled." 
 " Here, if anywhere, the Revisers should have 
 stayed their hand, putting in the margin the 
 literal rendering where the present version did 
 not give it." He enumerates the principal 
 changes, and says none of them touches the 
 essential meaning of the passage. And then, 
 using a ready antithesis which, if I mistake not, 
 has already by another critic been applied to 
 another of our misdeeds, he adds, " By these 
 changes the English reader gains nothing and 
 loses much." 
 
 In asking you to accompany me through this 
 passage, I shall not be thought to have picked 
 my ground, nor to have selected a place where 
 I can expect to have things all my own way. It 
 follows here, as it stands in the Authorised 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 39 
 
 Version, and as it is according to the Re- 
 vision. 
 
 " God, who at sundry times 
 and in divers manners spake 
 in time past unto the fathers 
 by the prophets, hath in 
 these last days spoken unto us 
 by his Son, whom he hath 
 appointed heir of all things, 
 by whom also he made the 
 worlds ; who being the bright- 
 ness of Jiis glory, and the 
 express image of his person, 
 and upholding all things by 
 the word of his power, when 
 he had by himself purged our 
 sins, sat down on the right 
 hand of the Majesty on high ; 
 being made so much better 
 than the angels, as he hath by 
 inheritance obtained a more 
 excellent name than they." 
 
 " God, having of old time 
 spoken unto the fathers in 
 the prophets by divers por- 
 tions and in divers manners, 
 hath at the end of these days 
 spoken unto us in his Son, 
 whom he appointed heir of all 
 things, through whom also he 
 made the worlds ; who being 
 the effulgence of his glory, and 
 the very image of his sub- 
 stance, and upholding all 
 things by the word of his 
 power, when he had made puri- 
 fication of sins, sat down on 
 the right hand of the Majesty 
 on high ; having become by so 
 much better than the angels, 
 as he hath inherited a more 
 excellent name than they." 
 
 The first word TroXvytte/jw? in the Greek, I 
 need not say, has no reference to time; that 
 reference is contained in irakaiy which we 
 translate " of old time," instead of " in time 
 past" as the Auth. no\f//,epw9, referring to 
 the revelation made by little and little, "by 
 parcels," as it might have been said in the time 
 of Shakspeare and the Auth., we render "by 
 divers portions." " God having spoken " is the 
 literal rendering of 6 ^€09 XaX^Jo-a? (" God who 
 
40 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 spake " would have been in Greek 6eo<; 6 \aX7]a-a<;) ; 
 and I submit that by departing from the order 
 of the Greek, which does not seem here pecu- 
 liarly emphatic, we have made our participial 
 rendering inoffensive to the English reader: "God 
 having of old time spoken unto the fathers." 
 
 *' In the prophets, m his son " : the prepo- 
 sition here is iv; not Bed, as in Matt. i. 22, Blo, 
 rov Trpo^rjTov, and in verse 2, it is said God made 
 the worlds throtigh the Son, Zid', but I doubt 
 if it is anywhere said that He spake through 
 the Son : and it cannot safely be assumed that 
 there is nothing essential in this distinction. 
 
 " At the end of these days," i. e. at the end of 
 this age of partial revelations, eV ia'^drov icov 
 r)/jb€pcov TovTcov. The Auth. follows the read- 
 ing icrxdrcov, and thus conveys the meaning 
 (which is given in i John ii. 18 by ia')(cuT7] a>pa 
 iariv ' " it is the last time "), that the age of the 
 Gospel is the last age. It may be noticed that 
 we have kept kat/i spoken for e\a\n]o-€Vy an 
 instance of our not being inflexible in our mode 
 of dealing with the aorist. 
 
 Verse 3 : Effulgence, aTravyaaiia. Auth., 
 " brightness," which is a quality inherent in the 
 glory, whereas dirav^acryua denotes the shining 
 forth of the glory. Christ is the shining forth 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 4 1 
 
 or effulgence of the Father's glory, as He is the 
 \6yo^, the word or utterance of the Father's 
 wisdom and will. And so in Rev. xxi. 23, 
 we have " the lamp thereof is the Lamb," instead 
 of "the Lamb is the li^/it thereof" (as in Auth.), 
 the Greek being Xu;^z/o9, not <^W9 — strongly 
 objected to by the Dean because of the un- 
 pleasant assonance, and because " the poverty of 
 the expression in English is intolerable." We 
 have left the Scripture to speak for itself, and 
 justify itself: we dare not disguise the meaning 
 because, when rendered in English, it might not 
 seem in keeping with the solemnity of the subject. 
 It is of primaiy importance to show in the 
 English of both these passages what is manifest 
 in the Greek, that the ^lory, the /ig/if, is said to 
 be derived from the Father to the Son : as He 
 himself says, " I can of myself do nothing." 
 (John v. 30.) He is, as the Creed says, " Light 
 of light," </)W9 eK <^ft)T09. 
 
 With these two passages in mind, if you turn 
 to John V. 35, where our Lord is speaking of His 
 forerunner John Baptist, you will see there is 
 a similar gain to the sense by translating o 
 XvXvo^ in that place not, as Auth., "a light," 
 but "the lamp." The full significance of the 
 saying would be still more apparent, if the 
 
42 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION 
 
 passive participle which follows, o KaLofievof; 
 could be, without paraphrase, more precisely 
 rendered : " He was the lamp that [not having 
 light in itself] is made to burn, and shineth." 
 
 " The very image " for " the express image/ 
 which is a somewhat indistinct rendering. Xa- 
 poLKTTjpy properly the impress, was thought to be 
 rendered with sufficient exactness by " the vei^y 
 image." 
 
 " Of his substance," for " of his person." 'Ttto- 
 o-Tao-6ft)9 had not the meaning of " person " at this 
 time, nor for several centuries. I think the Dean 
 would admit this to be a necessary change, 
 •' touching the essential meaning of the passage." 
 
 *' When he had made purification of sins," for 
 " when he had purged our sins," KaOapLcrfibv rrroiv- 
 ad[jLevo^. Our rendering, he says, " should have 
 found refuge in the margin," being, as he implies, 
 unfit for the text : but how is it less fit for the 
 text or less correct than KaOapio-fjuov iroiT^adiJbevo^ 
 in the original } Why are we to be fearful and 
 of little faith when we meet with what we think 
 an anomaly in the sacred text 1 Can there not 
 be a purification of sins, as well as a purification 
 of leprosy, which is a Scriptural expression ? 
 Matt. viii. 3 : " His leprosy was cleansed." 
 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 43 
 
 Verse 4 : '' Having become " for " being made," 
 yevofjievo^;, a word which, when relating to the 
 Son of God, surely ought to be translated as 
 literally as possible. 
 
 "Hath inherited" for "hath by inheritance 
 obtained." The paraphrase here resorted to by 
 the Auth. for the single word KeKXTjpovofiTjKev 
 seems unnecessary, even if it be not suggestive 
 to the English reader of a false meaning. 
 
 Though you may not concur in all that I have 
 said of this passage, you will probably think 
 with me, that when the Dean wished we had 
 spared the Authorised Version of it, because of 
 the " splendour of its sweep," he had in mind his 
 own principle, and did not intend a literal mean- 
 ing to be given to his words. 
 
 Let me say, in conclusion, that though there 
 are some things in this Revised Version which 
 might have been better done, and some things 
 which might better have been left undone, yet I 
 do desire and greatly long to read it, just as it is, 
 to my people in church : being confident that with 
 all its imperfections, it will set before them no 
 serious error; that it will give them much new 
 light and knowledge ; that many things in it 
 which may at first be strange and startling, and 
 
44 A WORD ON THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 jarring to their ears, will by-and-by become 
 familiar to them; that it will often suggest to 
 them new matter for thought and inquiry ; and 
 that hearing it read aloud in church they will 
 read and study it with a deeper interest and more 
 edification in their own homes. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1878. By the Eev. W. Boyd 
 Carpenter, M.A. Post 8vo Clothhoards 1 6 
 
 Thoughts on the First Principles of the Positive 
 
 Philosophy, considered in Relation to the Human 
 Mind. By the late Benjamin Shaw, M.A., late Fellow 
 of Trinity College, Camb. Post 8vo Limp cloth 8 
 
 Thoug/its on the Bible. 
 
 By the late Eev. W. Gresley, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield. 
 
 Post 8vo Clothloards 1 6 
 
 The Reasonableness of Prayer. 
 
 By the Eev. p. Onslow, M.A. Post 8vo Paper cover 8 
 
 Paley's Evidences of Christianity. 
 
 A New Edition, with Notes, Appendix, and Preface. By 
 
 the Eev. E. A. Litton, M.A. Post 8vo Clothhoards 4 
 
 Paley's Natural Theology. 
 
 Eevised to harmonize with Modem fledence. By Mr. F. le 
 Gros Clark, P.E.S., President of the Boyal College of 
 Surgeon s of England, &c. Post 8vo Cloth boards 4 
 
 Paley's Horce Paulince. 
 
 A new Edition, with Notes, Appendix, and Preface. By 
 
 J. S. Howson, D.D., Dean of Chester. Post 8vo. Cloth hoards 3 
 
 The Story of Creation as told by Theology 
 
 AND Science. By the Eev. T. S. Ackland, M.A. Post 8vo. 
 
 Cloth boards 1 6 
 
 Man's Accountableness for his Religious Belief. 
 
 A Lecture delivered at the Hall of Science, on Tuesday, 
 April 2nd, 1872. By the Eev. Daniel Moore. M.A., Holy 
 Trinity, Paddington. Post8vo Papercover 3 
 
 The Theory of Prayer; with Special Reference 
 
 TO Modern Thought. By the Eev. W. H. Karslake, 
 M.A., Assistant Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, Vicar of 
 Westcott, Dorking. Post 8vo Limp cloth 1 
 
4 Publications on the Christian Evidences, 
 
 Price. 
 
 The Credibility of Mysteries. s. a. 
 
 A Lecture delivered at St. George's Hall, Langham Place. 
 
 By the Rev. Daniel Moore, M.A. Post 8vo Paper cover 3 
 
 Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, 
 
 TO THE Constitution and Course of Nature : to which 
 are added, Two Brief Dissertations. By Bishop Butler. 
 New Edition. PostSvo Clothboards 2 6 
 
 Christian Evidences : 
 
 intended chiefly for the young. By the Most Reverend 
 Richard Whately, D.D. 12rao Paper cover 4 
 
 The Efficacy of Prayer. 
 
 By the Rev. "W. H. Karslake, M.A., Assistant Preacher 
 
 at Lincoln's Inn, &c. &c. Post 8vo Limp cloth 6 
 
 Science and the Bible ; a Lecture by the Right 
 
 Rev. Bishop Perry, D.D. 18mo. Paper cover idi.^ or Limp cloth 6 
 
 A Lecture on the Bible. By the Very Rev. 
 
 E. M. Goulhurn, D.D., Dean of Norwich. ISmo. Paper cover 2 
 
 The Bible : Its Evidences, Characteristics, and 
 
 Effects. A Lecture by the Right Rev. Bishop Perry, D.D. 
 ISmo Paper cover i 
 
 The Origin of the World according to 
 
 Revelation and Science. A Lecture by Harvey 
 Goodwin, M.A., Bishop of Carlisle. PostSvo.. ..Cio<A6oarc?5 4 
 
 *»* For List of TPA CTS on Vie Christian Evidences, see the Society'. 
 Catalogue B. 
 
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