Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-06-25
REVISION HEvHEwED.
Hkev. DIR. J. Va. Wright, Pastor OF
tulip street Methodist Church,
Loctures on the Revised
New Testament.

e Hkev. DIR. J. VI. WrIghs. Pastor q
1 Tulip street Methodist Church,
Lectures on the Revised
) New Testament.
/ Nashville Banner.
At the Tulip-street Methods
church Sunday night the learne
pastor, Rev. DIR. j. M. Wright, dc
Iivered an able and highly interest
ing lecture on the recent revision q
the New Testament. A large audi
ence gave attentive hearing to tn
lecture, a brief synopsis of which i
presented to the readers of the Ban
ner. The learned speaker said tina
A it pleased God to make His revela
tion to man in languages that wer,
soon to cease to be spoken. Tht
Old Testament Scriptures were Civ
en- in the Hebrew, while the New
Testament was given in the elegant
Greek. The word of God is now
as it were, stereotyped in these two
dead languages.
But the people must have the Bi-
Bile in their own language. This
necessitated a translation into Latin
which was done early, but not well,
Jerome undertook to give the
church a better, but he met with
opposition from all quarters and
though his version is now accepted
by the ROmish church as more au-
| thoritative than the originals, it
took it long to attain such q posi-
| ton.
After a while the English lam
guage sprang into existence, and
the people needed an English trans
latiOn and God raised up Wycliffe,
who translated the word of God.
But English grew very rapidly and
soon another translation was need
ed and Wm. Tyndale was found ca
pable of the task. His book under
went many revisions. Coverdale's
Bible, Matthew's Bible. Cranmer's
Bible, The Bishops Bible We're but
revisions of Tyndale's Bible.
When King James gave orders
for a revision, he named the Bish-
ops Bible as basis of the new book.
So the beauties of Tyndale were
passed on in each revision until
they reached the magnificent ver-
sion of 1911.
The text of this version must be
looked at. When printing was in
vented, the Bible, as well as other
books existed only in manuscript,
and such manuscripts were scarce
and costly. Erasmus published the
first Greek Testament, FIVE editions
in all. He ha very few manu-
scripts. His chief edition was in
1927. Robt. Stephens took this as
the base of his edition and so his
chief edition of 1850 was based on
Erasmus work. Stephens had a
few manuscripts, but did not make
much use of them. Beza then put
out five editions of the Greek TeS.
lament, basing his editions on the
edition of Stephens, of 1850. His
edition of 1889 became the base OF
King James version. This Greek
text of the New Testament, we see
was formed with the aid of very
few manuscripts; only about twen-
ty, and all of recent date.
The church now possesses more
than seventeen hundred manu-
scripts. These are of two kinds.
The first written in capital letters,
the second in cursive hand. Tho
first, called Uncials, are the most
ancient.
The Alexandrine manuscript,
now i'm the British Museum, be-
longs to the fifth century. The
Vatican manuscript, in the Vatican
library at Rome, belongs to the
middle of the fourth century. The |
Sinaitic manuscript, discovered by |
In the Convent of st. |
Catharne in 1874, was brought by |
him in. 1859 to st. Petersburg, as a
present to the Gar. 1t belongs to |
the middle of the fourth century. |
The manuscript OF st. Ephraim,
belongs to the Royal Library of
Paris. 1t is of the fifth century. |
The manuscript presented by Beza
to the University Library at Cam
bridge is very ancient, being assign
ed by some critics to date earlier
than the fourth century.
Now with these ancient docu-
ments and hundreds of others,
Christian scholars have goneto work
10 purify the sacred text. In this
ield labored Griesbach, Lachmann,
Tregelles and other
devoted lovers of Gods word. |
Their work has been to rid the
New Testament of all passages not
written by the inspired penmen.
rextual criticism has as its object
he restoration of the Divine records
S they stood in the sacred auto
.raphs. f Ln'in
This work the reyisers found al
eady done by these able, Christian
chOlars. This is the main feature
t their work, and the Revised
lew Testament leaves out u num-
er OF passages that we have been
eading as genuinely inspired.
1t is not new translation, but {
in which the beauties of s
ling James version are retained, J
,llerever it can be done consistent
=, with correct translation.