Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1854-12-06
NEW vrRs1oy OF THE BIBLE.

/ A NEW VERSION OF THE BIBLE.
An article under this caption appeared IN
the virginan of the 3oth ult.. credited to the
! Baltimore American" in which it is said that
the subject Of a new version of the Bible, has
! of late attracted considerable attention in the
religious world:" and in confirmation of the
fact that there is a general interest felt on the
subject of a anew version" it is announced that
learned Committee of the American Bible
Society have reported "thdt tAe received rersion
of the Bible published by King James, con-
toius errors no less than t,centyjour thousand
in number" dc. -s
To the Committee or the American Bible
Soc;etv. above named. was referred in l847
the "subject of cotlqting the editions Of the
English Bible published by the society, ucaA
those issued in Great Britain" The idea of
"nesc rersion" of the Bible was neither sug-
gested or entertained by the Society or its
Hlearned committee The Report of the Com
mittee was published in 1852; and on the 3lst
page we find the statement which originated
the false impression, shat "a, 900 errors" were
found in one received versionl 1t is expressly
stated, shat the number of rariations recorded
by the collator, solely in the text and punetua'
ton of the sir copies compared, falls 6ut hHte
short of t,centy four thousand. learned eIer-
gyman of the city having investigated th- sub
iect, infotms us that Of aHttis great number,
there is not one ,chich mars the integrity Of the
terf, or effects any doctrine or preeept Of the
Bible"
1t will be observed that "sir editions" we're
compared, an0 in all six, that number of vari--
atoms found; and yet of all this number not one;
which seriously affected any doctrine precept,
or married the integrity of the text These SO
called "e,Tors,r were such as theseviz: in tcord,
spelling, capital letters, italics, punctuation,
parentheses, brackets, &C., &C., in all of which
any candid mind will see no ground for the
apprehension which has been felt in view of
the report of the committee.
This number of variations will cease to ex-,
cite our wonder, when we take into account,
that the printing of Bibles is carried onin Great
Britain at four different places. and in this
country entirely dd libitHm; and that each copy
contains on an average more than thousand
closely printed pages. 1t seems to be beyond
the power of all human skill, even with the aid
of stereotype plates, to prevent the occasional
occurrence of minor errors and variations, ar
rising sometimes from accident and sometimes
from the inadvertence of proof readers. And
yer, we have the testimony of The COMMITTEE"
a. .,
tegrity Of the text, dc. But the Baltimore
American" proceeds to illustrate the character
of these so called "errors," bv reference to Vol
talres commentary upon Proverbs %, 81
"When the wine giveth its color to the glass;
from which Voltaire concludes that the book of
proverbs was written t Alexandria, and subse-
quent to the Christian Era because drinking
glasses were of late invention. Doubtless Vol
taire qnoted from the French Translation of
the Latin Tugate, which is the "Roman Cath
olic Version Of the Bible" and uses 'vitro,-
glass. as above quoted; but what has this to do
with the receired Trrsion ofhe Bible p,,blis7led
By King james. Our good old English Billie
translates the original Hebrew word. Soup"
and no glass: Thus Prov. %: 81 Look not
npon the wine when it is red, when it giveth
his color in the cnp," &e.; not denoting the
material, of which the cupis composed
As the article published by us, and copied BY
other papers was calculated to produce effect,
we have deemed it proper to give these expla-
notions anil corrections, kind, furnished by
one of orr Ministers. i [vnchburg Virginian.