Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-03-25
The Old and the New Bible.

It was announced by telegraph a
few days ago, that the revised edition
of the New Testament would be pub
lished in May next. Already cop
ious extracts from the work destined
to supersede t?) the old familiar ver-
sion of the Bible have been pub
lished. Some extracts given by the
London Record from advance sheets
will serve to show the sort of inspir-
alton under which the revisors have
been laboring:
The present version of part of the
Lords prayer (Matthew vi, 9-13)
reads: "Thy will be done in earth
as ii is in Heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread. And forgive us
our debts as-we forgive our debtors,
and lead US not into temptation but
deliver us from evil" For this
terse, condensed, vigorous Ian
guage the revisors substitute the
following: "Thy will be done, as
in Heaven SO on earth. Give us this
day our daily bread. And forgive
US our debts as we also have forgiven
our debtors. And lead us not into
temptation but deliver us from the
evil one" "Thy will be done in
earth as it is in Heaven and Thy
will be done as in Heaven so on
earth," mean the same thing. but
how much weaker, more artificial
and un-English is the latter phrase!
"Forgive us our debts as we also
have forgiven our debtors" is bad
grammar. To what does "also" re-
fer9 Motto the forgiveness of our
debts; for that is not completed
ast-it is the object of the petition.
"The evil one" instead of "evil,"
may be interesting and important to
theologians as an acknowledgement
OF a personal devil; but the SYM
metry of the phrase of the present
version is spoiled by this amend
Dment, which is in no sense an i'm
provement.
Take St. Mark viii, 3637. The
present version reads: " For what
shall it profit man if he shall gain
sEhs whole world and lose his own
FIsou1? Or what shalf d man give Yn'
exchange for his own soul ?" In
stead OF these magnificent lines the
revised version gives US this tawdry
and nonsensical paraphrase: "For
what doth it profit man to gain
the whole world and lose his own
life? For what should man give
in exchange for his life" How can
a man gain the whole world if he be
dead? The question, " What should
a man give in exchange for his life ?"
becomes a silly conundrum, like
Why should the spirit of mortal
be proud ?" instead of the searching,
conscience -smiting query, What
shall a man give in exchange for his
soul ?"
In Luke xvi. 8-9 the alterations
are merely verbal; but they are
marked by the same weakness. The
present version reads: For the
children of this world are in their
generation wiser than the children Of
light. And I say unto you, Make to
yourselves friends of the mammon
of unrighteousness, that when ye
fail, they may receive you into ever
lasting habitations. The revised
version changes children" to
sons" "of the mammon" to
"by means of the mammon"; when
We fail" to "when it shall fail, and
everlasting habitations" to " "eter-
nal tabernacles. This is simply
watering the crisp old English lang
uage in a style worthy of o boarding
school mistress. The same remark
applies to Acts, ii. 81; "And the
Lord added to them daily such as
should be saved" This becomes:
"And the Lord added to them day
by day those that were being saved"
"Them" tor "the church. and
"day by day" for " daily" are obyi.
GUS weaknesses, while +" those that
were being saved" would not be con-
sidered as good English outside of
Boston. "That" for "who" in
such connection is not good English
anywhere.
"An excellent instance of this
senseless watering of the text may
be found in II. Corinthians, i.2O;
"For all the promises of God in
him" (that is, in Christi "are yea,
and in him Amen, unto the glory OF
God by u.s." This is transformed
into: "For how many soever be
the promises Of God, in him is the
yea; wherefore also through him is
the Amen, unto the glory of God
through u.s." This is the affectation
of revision; alteration for the sake
of alteration. So also, is IL. Corin-
thians, iv. 6: "For God, who com.
manded the light to shine out OF
darkness, hath shined in our hearts,
which is watered into: " Seeing it Is
God that said, light shall shine out
of darkness, who shined in our
hearts" The youngest schoolboy
can feel the superiority OF the pre-