, 1881-06-29

tneiOioio uO SulucIeuG IedSOu LOT aiCerlOE
a good word familiar to the ear, and in
no way misleading to the mind. But
this is the kind of trivial error, if it be,
as we think, an error, which the ~transla-
tors have %oftener had the strength of
mind to resist than the weakness to fall
into. Even where there was much more
excuse for a change than there was in
this case, they nave often had the good
seuse to avoid such changes, especially
where the change would have grated far
more both On the ear and on the mind,
than the substitution of " last" for /" ut
termost" does. For instance, they have
uniformly adhered to the translation
" MASTER though the minority of
the Company of Trauslators have
suggested 10 the margin the literal
meaning of the word, teacher. This
was very wise. Teacher has, unfor-
tunately, owing to its Sunday-school use
acquired such narrow and pedagogic
associations, that it would have been q
most disastrous change to cloud the Text
of the Revised Version by such an outrage
on those finer suggestions which are at
least as much of the essence of language
as the central idea. Nor have we, in our
study of this Version, as vet come on any
blunder OF this radical kidd, though there
must have been many opportunities for
falling into such blunders. So far as we
have been able to study this Version,
the most important of all the principles
laid down for the translntors,-that they
should not without o real difference in
meaning deviate from the language of the
Ia:l No.o> L. Looo Co:nlxx 1Tyoli
adhered to; and we confess that this has
relieved our mind of q great anxiety.
The utility OF the new Version might
have been utterly destroyed, if there had
been needless corrections of q petty kind,
not essential for the purposes of true
scholarship, and disastrous Tor the purposes
of true feeling.
But, notwithstanding our strong Wow
on this last subject, we are quite unable
to blame such alterations as that in the
Lords Prayer and the Sermon on the
Mount, where the personal expression
" the Evil One is substituted for the
abstract word " evil" Let your speech
be, Yea, yea nay, nay : and whatsoever
is more than these is of the Evil One"
says our Lord, according to the present
trapslators, 10 the Sermon on the Mount;
and SO in the Lords Prayer, " Deliver us
from the Evil One,' The ear, no
doubt,-perhaps even the mind,-object9
to the change in both cases, and in both
cases. too, there may be some room for
doubt whether the old Version be not
correct. But that is not the point in
question. What this Revised Version
was needed for was this,-to set plainly
before the ordinary English reader the
meaning attached by the best scholars to
the best text they could iud; and it is
by no means enough to say that there is
still room for doubt whether the old
Version be not the true one. The only
real question was Was the clear balance
OF scholarly neutrality-suspicious. and
heterodox aIike-in favour of the text
and translation now accepted, as compar-
ed with that of the Authorised Version?
We have no doubt in the world that in
this case it was so. We believe, indeed,
that Que of the main purposes for which q
new Version was demanded would have
been defeated, if, the judgment of scholars
being what it is, the English reader had
not been fairly informed Of the decided
balance of the judgment Of scholars in
favour of the personal language in these
passages. M~ostscholars unquestionably
~ Il I Ii. L H. ~11>-k