Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-08-15
THE BIBLE REVISION.
Completing the Work-An Interview
with DR.. Crosby,
New York Graphic

city. Knowing that the allotted time
was fast drawing to a close, a reporter
Of the Graphic called yesterday on DIR.
Howard Crosby, to inquire how near
the satisfactory completion was.
DR.. Crosby replied that the work
moved on slowly, but still satisfac-
torily. at will, however, certainly con-
sumo three years more" he continued,
You must remember now important
the work is, and the amount of time alb
sorbed in the two committees exchang-
ing confidential copies and harmonizing
the same when there are differences"
"But supposing they cannot be made
to agree ?"
Then the disputed point will be re-
ferred to committee of conference
which will be appointed, and, if very
serious, will De indicated in preface or
an index"
"What are the most important re-
visions made so far, Doctor?"
''Ah !" said the gentleman, smiling;
that is what great many people would
like to know, but in the beginning
stipulation was made that no informa-
ton on the subject should be given to
the public until the work was placed in
its hands. The contrary course would
give rise to endless misunderstanding
and criticisms. l can say, though, that
We aim to give the best version possible
in the nineteenth century, as King
James was in the seventeenth. The
aim is not to give a new version, but
conservative revision of the present
version"
"What are the principles of the re.
vision? ~
"To introduce AS few alterations as
possible consistent with faithfulness to
the original. Bishop Ellicott thinks the
total amount of change will not exceed
five per cent, or more than five words
in a hundred Ia large proportion of
which is due to grammatical correc-
tlons), which, as it is $50 years since
the last version was made, is not an
alarming amount. These changes also
include words obsolete in their spelling
and Specification. Obscurities and in.
constituencies will be removed. The
headings of chapters, pages and para
graphs will be carefully revised, the
text will be divided in sections, and the
parallelism in the peotical books will be
shown by printing in verse form"
Are there many mistakes III the
New TESTAMENT
Professor Abbot says there are hun
dreds of errors which affect the trans
lation in our New Testament, and ia
some cases whole verses are spurious, a
fact that alone iustifes the demand for
a revision"
The present resources for settling
the text are what? ?"
" A great quantity Of manuscript ma
terial ranging from the fourth to the
tenth century and almost priceless in
value; the transations OF the New les
lament which date one or two centuries
earlier than our Oldest manuscripts and
critical editions of the Greek Testament,
published by such scholars as Cries
bach, Lachmann, Tisehedorf and Freq
Giles, who have done much to restore
the text to its original purity. We have
body of eighty-two men qualified for
the work and including such scholars
as Professor Westcott and Dir. Host, of
England, each of whom has given more
than twenty years study to the Greek
Testament, and Professor Lightfoot,
Dean Stanley, DIR. Scivener, DR.. Schaff
and host ofothers. "
"How will this revision count in the
number made n
Gas the tenth, not including II num-
Der OF individual translations made
since that of King James. In 1880 ii
will be just 500 years since John
Wyclitfe finished the first complete re-
vision of the Holy Scriptures IN the
English language, for which work, thr-
teen years after his death, his very
bones were dishonored; then came
William Tyndale, who in 1884 completed
his translation and was burned in 1886;
in 1885 Coverdale dedicated new
translation to the King. In 1887 APP
peared the Matthews Bible, sort OF
combination of the others; in 1889 was
published the Great Bible, edited by
Coverdale. In 1910 the Cramer Bible.
q revision of the Grand Bible,
was published; in 1867 trans
lltion of the New Testament
was brought out at Geneva, and was the
work of Nottingham, whose wife was
Calvin's sister. In 1860 number of
refugees labored together and brought
out the Whole Bible; in 1872 the Gram
mer Bible was revised.
"When James V, assembled the throne
DR.. Reynolds, leader among the Puri-
tans, asked for new version of the
Bible. The request was granted, the
King appointed fifty-four learned men,
including the greatest scholars of that
time, to make the translation, which
under many stringent regulations, they
did, giving us the best authorized YER
sion there is-one that consumed seven
years of steady work-and which was
issued in 1911, and has been in general
use ever SINCE"