Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-21
Revision of,he scrIptures.

TINS COUNTY, nave iDauc 10 uulte
with the convocatiOn of Canterbury, in England,
in a complete revision of the English Bible. The
names of the American gentlemen who have Or
ganized themselves into two committees, one on
the Old Testament and one on the New, are
sufficient guaranty that, so far as they are con-
cerned, the work will be carefully and reverent-
IL and scholarly done. Probably these gentle
men will not take the leading part in the work
of revision, since the English revisers were Or
ganized in 1910, and have been at work ever
since, and have already printed Professionally
for criticism two or three books of each Testa-
ment; but the fact that some of the most prom
inent cergymen in all the Protestant denomina-
lions are on the American committee, holds out
the hope that the revised translation, whether
mainly made in England or America, may be
accepted by all English speaking Protestants.
II would be a great point gained if the Catholics,
also, would be willing TO cooperate with the
others, that so there might be standard Eng
fish Bible for all Christians who read English;
and the differences between the Catholic version
of Douay and other English versions are so
slight that there would seem to be no insupera-
BILE difficulties in the way of reaching so desira-
BILE an end
The names of Dr. Conant and DR.. Hackett,
upon this committee, who have been the princi-
pal translators of the American Bible Union,
an organization which has been mainly sup
ported by the Baptist denomination, of which
these two gentlemen are eminent members,
may possibly imply that the work of that or.
gsnization may be brought into harmony with
the new revision, and so the immense labor
already bestowed upon that may be brought to
bear in wider field Of usefulness. We venture
to suggest, however, the hope that the idioms OF
the old translation from which DR.. Conant so
often departed may be preserved in the new re-
vision, as much of the popular reverence for
Scripture may be lost in changes into the ordi-
nary terms of speech of passages which have
certain antique dignity of expression, and have
hnpD 70, hpusahnlH words wi no
gratifying to many who know about the late
translation of the Scriptures into Arabic, ac-
complished under the direction of the veteran
missionary to Syria, Rev. DIR. Van Dyck, which
has been said to be the best translation of the
Bible ever made, that he is one of the Old Tes-
lament company, and that the revision conSe
quently will have all the light that can be cast
upon il by his Arabic erudition. DR.. Ezra Alb
bott Of Cambridge, who became the editor of the
late Professor Noyes's admirable translation of
the New Testament, is another name upon this
committee of revision with which is associated
the highest scholarship and catholic Christian
spirit.
1t is a common though not universal belief
that the time is ripe for thorough revision of
the English Bible. The word of God deserves
the best dress in which it can be clothed. How
ever excellent our common version may have
been, as estimated by the standards of two hun
dred and fifty years ago, there has been such
progress made in both Greek and Hebrew learn
ing since that time the more recent study Of the
other Semitic languages has thrown such clear
light upon the Hebrew, and geographical, arch
biological and general linguistic research have
been found so fully to illustrate every portion of
both testaments, that many scholars and
thoughtful readers think that with all these
helps a better version can be made, and ought to
be made now the books as they stand in our
common Bibles were translated by many differ
ent hands, at widely different times. Who the
translators were is in many cases entirely I'M
known. Their work has varying degrees of
merit; the same word in the original is rendered
in different books, and even in the same book,
by quite different English words, and the revi-
sion of the books by King James's transators,
appointed in 1906, was notsach as essentially to
reduce the want of uniformity and harmony.
The principle, too, upon which all the transla-
tors appear to have proceeded, of traDslating
word for word without any regard to the differ
ence OF idiom between the languages, IS princi-
pie that is rarely adopted in translatng other
books, and oughtneyer to be adopted at all.
The Hebrew prophets wrote in the idiom of
their own language, and the Apostles in Ara
malc Greek; what their readers want to get at
is the precise thought of the writer's so express
ed in English as best to convey it. Thefamous
John S9lden, contemporary Of the authorized
version says Of it in his Table Talk: "No
book in the world is translated as the Bible
is, word for word. This is well enough as
long as scholars have TO do with it, but when
it comes among the common people, Lord
what gear they do make of it," The worst
thing, however, about this method oftranslation
IS, that no attention is paid to the flow of
thought from paragraph to paragraph. The
particles of transition, if translated at all, are
translated as mere words, and are not treated
as the links that bind the whole discourse to-
gether. There care accordingly in our COM
mon version abrupt transitions, jolts and jerks,
fits and starts in the discourse, which do great
dscredit to the original and are 4 constant
stumbling block to the earnest reader who right
ly supposeS that scripture writer's, like all other
writers, follow the common association ofideas.
As an instance OF this, as well as of the great
fault of translating the same original word in
contiguous sentences by different English
words, we will cite passage in Johns gospel :
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he
taketh away; and every branch that beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. Now We are clean through the word
which | have spoken unto you" If violence
ever was done to beautiful passage it is done
in this translation, by rendering the same orig
inal word purge in one verse and "cean" in
the next, and by paying no attention to the
particle OF transition. Dr. Noyes renders the
passage elegantly and exactly thus; "Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away; and every branch that beareth fruitshe
cleanseth, that it bear more fruit. YeIare clean
already by reason of the word that have spo-
ken to YOU"
We venture TO express the hope that these re-
visers will arrange the biblical books, so far as
possible in chronological order, and thus be
able to give better reason for the arrangement
of the epistles; for example, than that Rome
was the largest city, and therefore that the
epistle to the Romans must come first; Coruth
the next largest, and hence the epistles to the
Corinthians must some next, and so on. We
hope also that the revisers will not be deferred
by any mere conservatism from making all
changes which the text and the sense really de-
mand. Any changes which they may deem
necessary u make will come before the public
under favorable auspices, since President Wool
sey OF New Haven is Chairman of the New Tes-
lament company, and Professor Green of Prince
ton is chairman of the other.-N. Y EUeniag
Post.