VARIETY OF RENDERINGS 119 of curiosity than wisdom, and that rather it would breed scorn in the atheist, than bring profit to the godly reader. For is the kingdom of God become words or 'syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them, 'if we may be free? use one precisely, when we may use another no less fit as commodiously?' This has been held by many to be the outstanding defect of the Authorized Version, and the Revised Version at once joins issue here. Yet there are two sides even to this question, and it might have been well had the Revisers given heed to the weighty words addressed to them by Dr. A. B. Davidson, himself a member of the Old Testament company, and a consummate student and scholar. He pointed out that the practice of the Authorized Version has greatly con'tributed to make the English Bible what it is, and to give it much of the hold on men's imaginations 'which it has. Its pathos and music and charming variety are largely due to this; its beauty, in a word, is greatly owing to it. And religion very willingly 'allies itself with what is beautiful and uses it for its own furtherance. And any change here will, without doubt, be a loss to religion. And how great a loss it will also be to the cause of literature, and the interests ' of the English tongue! The English Bible has been 'to us what the Q'oran has been to the dweller in the desert, the source both of our intellectual and 'religious life, and the instrument for expressing our 'highest thought.' After pointing out that he thought the men of 1611 had carried their introduction of variety, too far, as when they give four renderings-count, account, reckon, and impute-for a Greek word, which if not technical is used in a special sense, Dr. Davidson adds: There is certainly now rising, and indeed run'ning very strongly, a current of opposition to this 'method of rendering-a current, I fear, which will be 'found to work as much havoc as the opposite one. 'The maxim of this new method is to render the same Greek or Hebrew word always by the same English Under this new principle, all variety will disapHe then refers to the well-known fact that one. pear.' 'the genius of one language differs from that of another; 'that sameness and exactness characterize the Greek, variety and looseness the English; that the Hebrew 'language is poor in its vocabulary, while the English is copious; that even where a word corresponds in general to another, the addition of an epithet may destroy the correspondence, and render the use of ' another term necessary; that not only meaning, but rhythm, flow, and sound make up language.' The translators further tell that in regard to the old ecclesiastical words they had shunned the 'scrupulosity of the Puritans' and the obscurity of the Papists,' and kept the important fact before them that the Scriptures should speak so as to be understood by plain and unlearned folk, the wayfaring man or the man in the street. Lastly, we have on the one side avoided the scrupu'losity of the Puritanes, who leave the old Ecclesiastical words, and betake them to other, as when they put washing for baptism, and congregation instead of 'Church: as also on the other side we have shunned 'the obscurity of the Papists, in their azymes, tunike, rational, holocausts, prepuce, pasche, and a number of 'such like, whereof their late translation is full, and that of purpose to darken the sense, that since they must needs translate the Bible, yet by the language thereof 'it may be kept from being understood. But we desire 'that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in the language of Canaan, that it may be understood even of the very vulgar.' But while the middle course may usually be the safest and is often the best, it can hardly be adopted as a wise working principle in connection with translation or etymology. If washing' means 'washing,' there does not seem to be any good reason for rendering it as 'baptism,' especially in a version which so manifestly seeks to trust the people; and it is not easy to see why, if a word means congregation,' and not 'church,' it should not be so rendered. But their instructions on this point were very definite, and probably they worked out for peace in the end and did no great harm. A DIVINE INHERITANCE 121 Then, finally, the Preface deals with the grand result of their work, that great inheritance which they did so much to hand on even to our day, enriched as it had never been before. It is a Divine inheritance, for it was God who opened up the fountains of living waters; but it is also an inheritance from men, for many others have laboured in this holy cause. 'Ye are brought 'unto fountains of living water which ye digged not; do not cast earth into them, with the Philistines, neither prefer broken pits before them, with the wicked Jews. Others have laboured, and you may enter into their 'labours. O receive not so great things in vain: 0 despise not so great salvation.' The great desire of these men of God to whom we owe so much was that the Scriptures should be loved and read, and the appeal with which they closed their message to their own generation is still resounding down through the ages: the prayer of all who wish well to our land must be that it will be heard anew in these days, when their great service to humanity and the cause of God is being freshly brought before the English-speaking peoples in many lands. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 'living God; but a blessed thing it is, and will bring 'us to everlasting blessedness in the end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken; when He setteth His 'Word before us, to read it; when He stretcheth out 'His hand and calleth, to answer, Here am I, here we are to do Thy will, O God. The Lord work a care and conscience in us to know Him and serve Him, that we may be acknowledged of Him at the appearing of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, to Whom with the Holy 'Ghost be all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.' 6 |