Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1881-05-25
The New Translation,

/ The New Translation.
The Rev. joseph H. ksa occurred from
/ The pulpit Of St. Marks Episcopal Church,
| Nav Iosk, on Sunday, making his diecour Sc
| dlScassioo of the reasons for 8 revision OF tho
! Bibla and Including history of the old manu-
| scripts upoo which the revi5ors are based. Ir
| leading up to the historical part of lis address
| he said: "lrcl9entH!y shall suswer a question
Whicl mauy plain people are askiug Just now,
| How is 1t tnat there Is 90 much C.[ncuity anu
| trouble IN getting al and glVlug us that which
Gods Book Was really meant to ssy2 Now il
I Gay seem v1ry inaoosut thing to say, but for
some persous it msy be really peectul 10 say
| that the autographs OF the evapgellsis and apos
| ties OF tho mat uscripts which they sotuslIy
| wrote. have lCng sluce peri;hsd atd al that
! students and teachers lave had to depend rplu
| Tor vey maty c.nlures are cories ot the orlai-
nal Url lDes II Cutis.'s fist followers, with two
other su u-hOrtles OF the came nalure-viz an
cleDt Versions OF ttauelIllobs of The or pals,
with mauy passages or portions of the uo'y
Word, qu,ted by the fathers of the Church and
founu IL their writings which survive. Th, 81
| are the mattrists W lich We tavc out of which
30 gather End BY Com pariaon of which 10 decide
what Jesus Christ and HIS apostles really said
and 1rore.
Il will name those suihorilies 10 the order Of
their impprtaIc1. First, lhe mabu clipis of
the New Testament. these Gre divided oT d.
vide themselves Toto two classes, Gcc ':dipR 10
the style or The Wtlung en ,oyed. The Old IS.
style WAS IN very large capital5 Exclusively aud
without punctuetion exc pt at tne end Ct s,u-
terc 8 but later Iu.ulog hand was used
| something liko ths. nos used The first was
he moro alc.nt Of them Thcrl exist ebout
Que hundred sod thirty, oil written probably
between the fourth and tenth centuries, while
OF tina others there arc some tiltero hundcei
written after the touth century. But of the
Very Olj aud vtry valuable ma.uscripts ne havD
| only atout FIVE. OF lh&se, q lew words The
| irSt named is tho Altxandrian manuscrip! or
CodeX 80 cNled because the Bsnop OF Con
| stsptlnople who sont il as present to Charles
| l., of England, brought il from Alexandria. 1t
is nlw in the British museum. Nothing is
| knoWn of its origin bus it is probably ! 400
years old, being usully assigutd TO to the mid.
| die of the fifth century. Ii has suffered
| from the raVsgas OF time. moro than
| tweD'y'four chapters of the FIST gospel bsipg
msslg sith two chapters out of tho fourth
gospel snd some eight out of the First Epis.l .lo
/ to the Curintbisns. O.ncrRis ii is ccln p!etu
The next Is 10 the Vatican where lt has been
for four huadred yeas. Tuis has been SO j9al.
| ousy guarded, except while Napoleon l. Gar
| rled 1t to Paris, hat no outsider has been al
| lowed to baVo more than glimpse of it, Ia
1865 very foe and perfect fac simile of it Vas
\ issued. mujh TO the delight of s biblicll scho.
srs. Ii is referred to the fourth century. lho
| third great Ms. is prcser0ed in the National
Library Ut Paris 1t was brought to France by
Uathstlne de Mcdlci. 1t it assigned to tho
| early part of the fifth c.utury. and con:aios
| about two t5ird5 of the New lesament Be-
| sides these thoro is lho CodrX Bega, beIoneing
| to the property Of the class of manuscripts CT
| greatest weight once the crest refrrmer whose
| name it bears.
Up 10 very recent period these four were
| the eldest ead most reliable manuscripts of the
New Testament known to scholars, but few
years ago discovery vas make of treasure of
| this sort of more esteem than ell the rest. Ia
| 1874 Professor Tisch9ndorf the great German
| oritlo. was travelling 10 tie East and iu the
| convent of St. Catharins on Mount Siusi one
| day got hold of few old volium leaves which
| were about to be used tor lighting stove. He
examined them, aad soon perceived that they
contained psrts OF the versions of the Old Tes
| lament, that is. of the traD5la.ion of The He.
| brew Scripture iuto Geek 300 years before
| Christ for tho bsse6t of the Greek spesking
/ Jews in Egypt. The monks. learning thst the
| vel!um leaves were valuable, refused 10 let the
| Professor see ary moro, but he carried the
precious fragment back with him TO Europe
! and published them. In 1853 ne returned to
| the Sinsis ic Convent aud made irquest after
! tho remain der, but Jailed 60 fad it But 10
1859 he was agaio with the morks Of St.
| Catherine, and this time prevailed upon them
to let liz copy the whole work. The oldest
1 date assigned TO this work is the fGudh GEN.
No6o -, IL
I il thus as old Or older thsa III, Vatican Ms.
| and has the great advantage over alt the o.her
| great MSS. in that il o2nsns the New Tesla
mont plete. Sue. il the manuscript wealth
1 ut the Oldest aud highest suth0lily svalable
to day.
Nav, it is very remarkable fact that none
Of these great manuscripts we're kuoWo 10 or
cintuted by tuose who prepared cur vsriCu
| Engsh versions. 1t is not to be forgotten,
| however, that there We're many other though
Inferior authorities in x slence aud accessible
to the sbtl ira OF that time. There wero scor
Of cursive manuscripts 10 existence apd dig Dty
consulted, DO doubt, while the Latin vuIgate
was always accessible tor whsttver gbi il
| might have shed in constructing trustworthy
| Greek te1t There were very cd versions Of
the New Testament that were tr,.ps sted into
| vsrious languages. Among them SyIi,n YER.
sion known as the Pe=hite or simple. 1t existed
ss essly as the secoad century. 1t would be Of
high authority hsd it Come down to u. in ls
putty. 1t contains such interpretations SIS the
do1o!oRy to the Lords prayer. Other later Sy-
riac versions are known to scnolars bu. must
PASS these and come 10 version which h.e eS-
ervised 8 Vast Influence in the religious world
! refer 10 the OLD Latin version MADE IN Nurtha
ern Africa and aecribed to the second Century
1t WAS revised By jerome o VHr5 the close Of the
fourth century, snG honce Inc Latin vulgste SO
dear to the Bon 81 Church 1t must be borne
in mind that it IS q uaGslston made within 8
very few years, probably OF the death of ST.
John. Tners are several other aacient versions
of the Scriptures Also Of glsal value. several
Egy ptian veIsionr, Gothic yers!on Of the fourth
century. an Armenian version OF the fifth CEN