Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-06-02
Why IT WAS REVISED.
DR.. Schaf's Story Of the New Yer
sion Of the New Testament.
He Gives an Interesting Account
Of the Recent Work.

Pittsburg Post, May S0.l
A large audience, including many
ministers in attendance at the United
Presbyterian assembly and Reformed
Presbyterian synod, filled the First
Presbyterian church yesterday morn
ing. The high reputation of DIR:
Phillip Schaf as a biblical scholar and
his position as the chairman OF the
American section of the revision COM
mittee, made the occasion Of his first
address upon the revised New Testa-
ment one of unusual interest. DR..
Scovel conducted the opening services
and after giving out a number OF an
nouncements presented the speaker
saving simply "Dr. Schaff." The
white haired, gray whiskered GENTLE
man who came forward in response to
the introduction looked more like a
Scotch divine that a German pro-
lessor. He had bright sparkling eyes,
and a clear cut intelligent face. When
he spoke his pronunciation was slight
" favored with the German accent,
which became mere apparent as
he warmed with his subject. He
said:
II direct your attention to that por-
ton of the word Of God contained In
the Second Epistle of Paul to limo
thy, third chapter and sixteenth verse:
All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for devotion,
for reproOf, for correction, for instruc-
ton in righteousness; that the man OF
God may be perfect, thoroughly fur
nished unto all good works This
passage refers originally to the Old
Testament for the New Testament was
not then completed, but in a higher,
wider sense it applies even more to
the New Testament, which rises as
high above the old as the glory OF the
sun excels the dimmed light Of the
moon and stars. Taking the bible
therefore as a whole, inspired by God,
written by men, thus humane and
divine at once, like our Savior, | say
it is the most remarkable book that
was eve written or prin ted. 1t is
more than a book; it is an institution.
1t is one of the three fundamental
oillars of Christian society the
Church Of God, the Day of God and
the Book of Coda holy trinity upon
earth on which our civilization and
all that is pure and good and noble 10
our institutions, in our private, pub
lie and national life rests. To destroy
any of these would be to prepIre the
way for a lapse Of mankind into bar
bsrism and heathenism worse than
that out of which our forefathers
were brought by this three foldagency,
the Christian church, the Christian
Sabbath and the Holy Bible. How i'm.
portant, then, that this book should
be translated and retranslated into
every tongue and given to every peo
pie as it was originally given out In
the Hebrew and the Greek. Retrans-
lation must take place from time to
time whenever the exigenoies Of the
language and of biblical knowledge
make it desirable"
The reverend speaker then touched
briefly upon the different translations-
the partial Auglo-Saxon. one of the
venerable Bede; that by Wicklitft
from the Latin into the language new
" formed from the union of Anglo
! Saxon and the Norman French, which
being a translation Of a translation
was necessarily inaccurate In maDI
minor particulars; the invention o
printing paving the way to the Refor
/ nation and awakening a desire TO reaC
{ the word of God as it fell from tn
, lips of Christ and His apostles; tn
translation by Tyndal, the first iron
the original tongues which was burDei
by order Of King Henry and th'
Bishop of London, on the banks o
. Thames where the Foreign Bib
House now stands; the Coverdale
> Jranmer, Geneva Bishops and fnall.
the King james translation. eacl
] being more accurate than the proceed
|, ing as the knowledge Of Greek AM
Hebrew became fuller. He spoke o
!, the many excellencies Of the Kin
James translation, but said that 70
the past fifty years their had been
/ growing demand for a new transla
[ ton.
The reason for such a revision ar
especially two. First, the changes il
5 the language, AMI, second, the progress
, in biblical scholarship. Every liVinl
!, language changes from time to time
The language Of Bede changed TO tina
5 of Wyclife, that Of Wyclife to that 0
3 1yndall, that Of Tyndall to hal Of th
time Of King James, and there hav
been many changes since then. Ger
! tain words have changed their meaniD
to the direct opposite Of that formal
expressed By them. The speake
cited verses in which prevent"
= used in the sense Of precede" let
c for hinder" carriages" for bag
e gage, BY and by" for forthwith
e and Others Of like nature.
E The second and more importan
d reason however is the growth Of ever,
y branch Of knowledge. The forty
seven men who made the King Jane
translation had none Of them been il
/. Palestine and knew little Of biblica
geography they were thus liable t
= make mistakes and did make many
b Since then Egypt has given up he
treasures, Sinai explored, PalestiD
traversed, Babylon and NineYeh haT
risen from their graves 10 testif
! to the truth Of the bibl
!, and lend their manuscripts an
d inscriptions to the explanation Of som
, Of its passages. This gain in know
le edge should be used TO make a goo
B translation better, to bring the EBl
lish bible up 10 the standard Of Eng
as lish knowledge, TO substitute int.
ligible modern English words for Oh
at solete ones, and above all 10 trsnslat
ID from the purer older Greek and Ia