The Osceola times., 1881-05-14
THE REVISED BIBLE.
DIR. schan Explains What Became Of the
American ReoOmme ndation.
New York EYenlng %

Last week the New York O5serrer
printed a letter from the Rev. DR.. An
gus, one of the British revisers Of the
New Testament in which he says that
"the revised version was sent over to
Americain its final form, and the Amerl-
can brethren sent back in return list OF
passages in which they record their
preference for other renderings than
those adopted by the English company.
These, it is usually understood, will be
found at the end of the large edition of
the revised New Testament, TO be issued
bv the University presses. This letter
has been considered by some of the
American newspapers as indicating that
the American committee on revision has
been used simply as "a bobtail to the
British kite as one journal phrases 1t,
and it is asserted in some quarters that
if the revised version comes over here
with the work Of American scholars pin
ned on in foot-note or appendix fashion
America will have nothing to do with it.
An ErHing Post reporter called upon
the Rev. Dr. Philip SChaif yesterday with
reference to the matter "Dr. Angus is
perfectly correct in what he says" said
DIR. Schah, but wrong differences have
been drawn from his statement of the
facts in the case. One might suppose
that the American suggestions had been
rejected as a whole aud added 10 the
Ie-tlmeut as q concession to our feel.
ings. Such is not the case. The plan OF
making the revision was as follows: First
the American and English committees,
working separately, made list of the
changes which they thought advisable.
upon comparing this list it was found
that sixty per centum of the changes
proposed were suggested by both com
mittees. OF the remainder Of the sug-
gestons proposed by the American COM
mittee, and not by the English advisers
more than half were adopted after con-
slderation Of our arguments in their sup
port. The change which we suggested
and which the English committee
refused to sanction related chiefly -
archaic expressions which We desired TO
replace by modern forms. The English
committee, however, upon the ground
that it was essential 10 the success of the
work to make as few changes a. possible
in order that the new Bible might read
as nearly as possible like the old We
agreed with them, but nevertheless
thought that, especially in this country.
modern forms ofspeach, understood by
everyone were desirable. The English
have, of course, replaced a great many
obsolete words, but they have not in our
opinion gone far enough. For instance,
they retain the penny rs the price Of the
days work in the parable OF the vine
yard, which to the uneducated man
seems an absurdiy. The actual value OF
a penny in biblical DAYS was about six
teen cents, ami We are in faver of indicat-
ing this. But the English reyisers OBJ
iected. As we are In some sense
responsible to the American people for
accuracy and value of our work We IN
sisted rs a matter of wright 10 ourselves
that ogr suggestions should be incorpor-
ated in the American edition of the
Testament issued from the Oxford
presses. The appendix will not be a
long one, perhaps not more than dozen
pages, and Americans can choose for
themselves between the two texts
In reply TO other questions DR.. Schaii
said AT the end Of five years at the
latest | expect to see the new version
accepted by all but the most narrow
minded persons. An interesting and eX-
haustiye work, now in preparation in
England, will give an account Of the
debates Of the committees and the argu-
ments which were put forward in favor
and against the different changes adopt
ed. as well as information concerning
saanges suggested by different reyisers
and not adopted
~The New Testament will be sold in
England Scotland, Ireland, Australia
and the United States on the 20th OF
next May. The stories that large mum.
bers Of the books are now in this country
under lock and key are false, the reyis-
ers only having received copies. Only
subscribers will receive copies at first
and the price to the public will be ten
dollars. It is understood that within
forty-eight hours of the appearance Of
the English copies upon the market re-
prints vii appear from six New York
publishers, the price of some Of the
editions to be as low as fifteen cents.