Arkansas true Democrat., 1858-05-25
For the True Democrat

MR. EDIToR-I am at such distance from you that ask your indulgence. I will present you extract from our publications and arguments as l think will satisfy all candid men of the importance of our movement, and must beg you to publish it in as as many numbers as you can afford space for
 In all article dated yesterday the whole ques- ton of the competency of King James transla- ton is discussed
 " Competent judges in every denomination have borne unequivoca! testimony to the i'm perlectons of our common version aud to the des1rableness of removing them. These testi- monies have frequently been given, and in such numbers, thatit would be easy to fill a vo- lume with them. Let me give two or three of them as specimens only.
 The learned editor of Bagsters English Hex apla, though an ardent admirer of the common version says of it: "There are few who will not admit that it has many in accuraces, which need correction. The obscuritv of some pas. sages especially in the Old Testament; the in felicity and almost ludicrous effect of certain of the modes ot expression employed and the Strlklng lndellcacy of others; the arbitrary rem derng of certan terms, and the unnecessary introduction in some instances of the words dis tnsulShed by italics, are blemishes that have been so frequently pointed out, as to require here TO further nosice. Ii had been strange in- deed, II Tn an age when Biblical criticism was 70 lts infancy a work had been produced in which the keen eye of modern scholarship could detect no mperfections or mistakes, and which conld receive no improvement from the rich treasures of learning amassed during the last two centuries. As a specimen of English style he adds, this Bible has received enthu- slastlc praise; but here perhaps admiration for Us sacred contents, and the delightful associa- ton with Its very phraSeoIogy which piety and devotion cannot fail to form, may warp our judgment on the question of its literary merits" LBa3Nter's Eng. ileXapla. P. no
 Dr. Samuel Davidson. coufessedly one of the very first Biblical scholars of this age, says " A revision Of 1t (thc common version) Is now wanted, or rather a new translation, from the Hebrew and Greek based upon it. Siuce it was made criticism has brought to light great mass of materials, and elevated itself in the esteem Of the fundamental theologian as an important science We require in consequence ne'0 Eigtj&h Uersion, suited to the present state of sacred literature. It need scarcely be stated that King James translators have failed to apprehend the true meaningin in many passages. Ot the merits attached to their version, con siderable share belongs to Tvndae. Parker's Cor the Bishop's) Bible was the profcssed basis, aud that was a revision of Cranmer's. Cran- mers was chiefly correction of Mathews, or in other words, of Tyndale, as far as Tvndale had translated Thus, King ames' translation resolves itself at last, in no small measure, into Tyndale's" See Kitto's Cyclop. of Biblical Literature, vol. 2, ?. 9l9.]
 Cony beare and 1owson, two eminent schol- ars of the English Episcopal Church, in their introduction to their very valuable work, " The Life and Epistles of St. Paul." say, "The ins- perfect knoWlege existing at the time when our Bible was translated made it inevitable, that the tranaatorS should occasionally render the original incorrectly; and the same cause has made their version oi many of the argumenta- tive portions of the epistles perplexed and ob- scure." Page 13.l
 Professor Selwyn, also of the English Eps- cal Church, and Professor of Divinity in the University at Cambridge, in his " Notes on the Proposed Amendment of the Authorized Yer son," quotes the testimony of several eminent professors and dignitaries of the English Church iu favor of revision, and urges the importance and duty of this in an earnest and convincing manner. Quoting from one of these, he says: When we consider the immense accession which has since Qhe late of the common yer sion been made, both to our critical and philo- logical apparatus, we cannot possibly pretend that our authorized version does not require amendment" And, quoting from another he says: II do not hesitate to avow my firm per. suas;on, that there at least one Mousand passages of the English Bible that might be amended, without any change in the general texture and justly reverenced language of the version.- Some of them Che adds) touch on questions of the gravest doctrinal importance. Who shals say Che continues) that the golden rule of the Cos pei does not bind us to render every version of the sacred original as pertect as possible. Who is there who does not greve to see these errors perpetuated and disseminated" "Let us no longer be deterred from this good work by va que fears of unknown difficulties; they cannot be so great now as they were in 1611" Pages 33-43
 Similar views have recently been urged by the leading British Reviews, such as the Edin- burgh, the North British, and the Westminster, and by many others, of the best journals and scholars of the age, and throughout the world.
 But the substance of all is so concisely, con- prehensively, and forcibly presented by the learned and gifted authoress of "The Popular History of English Bible Translations," that cannot better conclude this branch of the sub- ject than by recalling her words. "Our com- mon version" she says, was the last great ef- fort of the intant period of Biblical science in England. With the second quarter of the se- venteenth century there dawned new era of sacred learning. The constellation of Chris tan scholars which then rose on England, il- lumed all Christeudom; and the epoch thus commenced reaches down to, and embraces our own day. All over Europe was witnessed a simultaneous advance, both in the materials of Biblical science and in the genius and ardor of the minds devoted to 1t. From the middle of the nineteenth century we look back on the ac. | cumulated results of more than two hundred years of the most profound and brilliant scho- iarship the world has known; and not one ray Q, this has get been auotoed to shine through Ea- glish Bible.
 "We are assured that much of the seeming obscurity of the Scriptures belongs not to the