Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1857-07-22
fyrom ,bo sIilIsnnIal uarblnter.l


BtRLE USIoS MovENENTs.-A Mem TrdRsLG-
fian aud a Rerision.-ln looking over the Frank
fort Commonwealth, of KY, saw notice of n
speech delivered by Bishop Smith, of LeXing-
ton, Ky, in London, Eugland, in which he says,
speaking, suppose, of the Bible Union, 'in
America a movement for neio trGnskatiOH of
the Bible" Again he says, ~ was asked what
thought of rcRs'ced translation of the Bible !"
"But mark, think your great mistake has been
that you propose something more; you propose
Il nGic fruRSLation,' "What we want Is not
a new translation, but a revised translation. y
/. II Bishop Smith meant that the Bible Union
proposes to make u new translation of the
Scriptures into the English language, he Is
n4jstiken. Rule I'd of the Bible Union says
"Whercver there is version in common
use it shall be made the basis of revision,
and all unnecessary interference with the es-
tablished phTaseology, shall be avoided; and
only such alterations shall be made MS the exact
meaning of the inspired text md the existing
state of the language may require. . We do not
propose 10 make new translation into the Eng
fish tongue, for the simple reason that we have
one called King James translation. We only
want what Bishop Smith says he SsHnts, revis-
ion Of the one we have. A revision means
correction, an amendment, re-eXaminatiOn, a
re-inspcction, n review of King James version,
and not Re,o translation. Atranslation of the
Scriptures means to give the ideas of one Ian
guagc in the words of another language. The
Bible Union proposes to retain all the beauties
and eXcellencies of the common version, and to
remove the obscurites from it, and the OBJ
Solete words and phrases, and to translate the
untrnnslated words in thepresent version.
Again Bishop Smith has fallen into two other
HdoR mjstnkcs, when he says,-''the main mo-
tive which animateS them, (the Bible Union) is
to render il that were possible, absolutely per-
feet that which is so nearly perfect already. -
The Bible Union nersr promised to render the
present version absolutely perfect. The
Bible Union expects to make the present YER
sion more perfect than IL is but not absolute
7 ~ perfect Again Bishop Smith says of the
common vcrSion,--"that which is so nearly
perfect alreadY'' Bishop South of theEpis-
copal Church, an eminent Hebrew scholar,
speaking of the common version, says the inn
prOvements of which i; is capable are great and
nWabsrleSS Benz. Kennicott, D. d., says of the
present verSion,-"1re1t Improvements might
now be made, because the Hebrew ard Greek
languages have been much cultivated, and far
better understood since the year 1000. Prof.
SvmOndS, ID. D., also of the Episcopal Church,
saws whoever examines our version IN present
use, will find that it Is ambiguous and incorrect
in matters OF the highest Importance Arch
bishop Newcome, ID. D., says that "1adRy mas
! takes and ObScuritiea may be removed from the
present version" We shall leave it to Bishop
Smith to reconcile the statements of these four
Learned dignitarieS of the Episcopal Church,
(and we hal e m my more of altParties) with his
statement that the present version is $50 nearly
Z perfect al ca ~" Here arc four Of his own
witnesses against him, and presume any one
/ Of them is equal TO Bishop Smith IN learning,
dignity and reputation. hope that the papers
both in Europe and America, both secular and
religious which have copied Bishop Smiths
speech, will have the justice TO copy this reply.
JAcoB CRRATH,
Agent for the Bible Revision Association.