Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-30
The revived new Testament.
Extracts. from a Sermon by Rev. DIR.
Todd.

GAG1ACSe AEOAAA - SOA AAAvAA W &s0N' DHs
Todd.
The Rev Dr. Todd preached yesterday /
morning at the Church of the Redeemer a |
discourse upon the New Testament revision.
He said that the theory of supreme impor-
lance with reference to the word of God is |
that we should know, as nearly as possible, |
precisely what was said. IF we cannot un- |
derstand the exact words in which he has |
spoken to u.s. we want the nearest possible |
equivalent, free from all unauthorized addi- |
! tons and omissions and alterations Moth |
ing can take the place Of this. No matter |
. how beautiful or musical, or familiar, or
sacred from association sentence may be, |
if it does not as nearly as possible express a |
| divine utterance. we do not want it in the |
Bible, for it is not in any sense the word of |
God, or given by his inspiration Truth |
above all things.
gave you last Sunday some account of the |
principal TRANSACTIONS and versions of the |
scriptures through which our Bible has come
to us and of the manner in which out of
these was formed the noble version which
has been the Bible of English speaking peo-
pie for more than quarter of millennium,
and deservedly 50 on account of it's great ex-
cellences.
Let me now lay before you as well as can
in the compass of sermon some of the rea-
sons which have existed for a revision of this
version and some idea of the extent to which
the revision which has Just appeared satisfies
this need.
One thing which has called imperatively
for new revision has been the uncertainty
and doubt in the public mind respecting the
trustworthiness of the old revision. So much
has been said in the pulpit and out of it
about mistranslations that the minds of men
have become disturbed and unsettled. The
humble reader of the Bible has come to be
uncertain whether anything that he reads in
the scripture rs correct, or whether the
promise on which he feeds to-day will not be
completely swept away by some exposition
from the pulpit next Sunday. This state of
things was not produced by the movement
for revision; it began long before, and was
one of the chief things which led to the max
ing of revision.
Now that great company of the best
scholars of England aud America have spent |
ten years in studying and correcting the New |
Testament, and the result is testament pre-
cisely like the old one in all essential things, |
differing for the most part only in forms of |
expression, changing no doctrine, not even
disturbing the language of most of the more |
precious promises and more important proof |
texts, and giving In all doubtful passages the
only possible alternate renderings,-an this |
uncertainty as to what the word of God real |
~ is will pass away. Mems minds will be re |
ieved, and it will not be possible to disturb |
them with talking about mistranslation. This, |
of itself, even if the new revision should not |
find acceptance and should pass away, would |
amply compensate for the labor and expense
of making it. There was need of a revision, |
for we want the word of God to be as accu-
rate as possible, even in the smallest partic-
ulars we want to know precisely what he
said.
There are three principal sources of error
in the scriptures. The first is the process of
copying. For the first fourteen hundred
years of Christianity the art of printing was
unknown and all books were laboriously pro-
duced by the pen. Anyone who has done
any copying, or has had any. copying DONE
knows how frequently mistakes occur. But
before the 10th century all writing was in
capital letters, which were arranged in rows
and without any space mark whatever be
tween the words or sentences and to save
labor, there were great many authorizations
and signs in use. Anyone can see how
greatly the danger of mistake was increased |
by all this.
And then there were other difficulties.
Sometimes the letters were carelessly or |
rudely formed, and then the next copyist |
mistook them. After awhile some Greek |
words or expressions came to be obscure to |
/, an ignorant copyist, and then be conjectured |
that some other word must have been meant |
sometimes a copyist wrote explanatory |
word or clause on the margin, which the |
next copyist incorporated in the body of the |
| text. From such causes as these Greek man |
uscripts became very full of errors in the |
course Of repeated copyings for some hun |
dreds of years.
At the time when our King James version |
was made only a few Greek manuscripts of |
the New Testament were known to be in |
existence. OF tn Sc only one was very an
Gent, and this was but little referred to. AS |
an actual fact, the Greek which was en- |
ployed in making the translation was obtained |
from two or three manuscripts which were
not older than the twelfth or thirteenth CEN
fury. And as these were here and there defec- |
tive the missing portions were supplied by |
translating into Greek the verses as found in |
the Latin Vulgate |
Since that time five great manuscripts, all |
of them as ancient as the fourth or fifth CEN |
tury, have been discovered and given to the. |
world, and more than thousand other Greek |
manuscripts have been found and carefully |
| compared by men of great learning in Ger |
| many and England, who have devoted their |
lives to the work.
The result is that among these manuscripts |
| there have been found more than 150, 900 !
differences, the great bulk of them being va
rieties in spelling or punctuation, or the |
order of the words or the use of small words, |
or terms substantially the same. But in this
work of comparison it has been found posi- /
BILE to disco er, in most cases, precisely
where mistakes were made and what was the
original reading. It is asked how far our
King James version was affected by the i'm
perfection of the manuscripts from which 1t
was translated The answer is that the errors
from this source are surprisingly few, consid-
ering the facts in the case. Yet there are
few verses and parts of verses in
not seem to belong there and few
passages wanting which were contained in
the original scriptures. Not unfrequently
also there is single word or letter added or
wanting which obscures or changes the
meaning The correction of these errors
gives new meaning, and often new power and
beauty to many passages.
The second source of error in the scrip
lures is the process of translation. The
speaker under this head referred to the great
advance in scholarship made since the days
of King James. third source of error in |
our King James version of the scriptures has
been the changes in the English language in
the time which has elapsed since that version
was made. These the speaker alluded to
very instructively For these reasons the
speaker felt that the revision was amply de-
Tended He thought that the revisers should
have gone still further yet in correcting the
revision; but very likely they had gone as
far as the feelings of the public would allow,
if not too far, and that the work of making
version perfectly true to the original, that is
as true as the genius of the English language
would allow, must be left to another and
perhaps distant generation With but the
spare time of single week to examine the
new revision, the speaker had been more and
more impressed with the accuracy of scholar
ship, immense carefulness and reverent treat
ment which it exhibits. To distrust the
learning or wisdom of such body of
men were almost presumptuous. Under
the two-thirds rule as regards changes, many
things in the new version may represent
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