Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-20
THE REVISED BIBLE.


CnEavoroblo Comments on 1t BY London
Crltaf.
The London Standard has an important
editorial on the revised version of the New
Testament. The article is the first really
striking opinion published rs yet, and is
scholarly. The following are the main
points.
The writer of the article asserts that,
whatever scholars may think OF the
labOrs of the revisers, the impression pro-
duced upon the public mind is one Of dis
appointment and dissatisfaction. 1t is
deeply to be regretted that the revisers,
judging by the work just published, have
apparently forgotten the conditions under
which the task was intrusted to them. 1t
is obvious that great many OF the alter
atiOns adopted have been approved for
reasons of mere literary criticism, which
make us rather skeptical as to the infalli ,
bility or even good taste of the revisers,
"Where no material change in sense or
substance of the authorized version has
been shown to be required by the revisers,
for the proper construction of the original,
they have nevertheless thought themselves
justified in mending the English and
improving the grammar of passages which
have struck deep root in the hearts and
memories Of the English people. One
word has been substituted for another at
the whim of the New Testament company !;
moods and lenses have been shifted about
to satisfy some pedantic scheme of syn
tactical symmetry; sentence treasured
up in the popular mind and enriched be-
yond description by the pathetic assOcia-
tiOns of hundreds of years has been tor
tured and crucified into precise grammat-
ical accord with the latest refinements of
critical labor upon comparison Of early
manuscript texts, and thus been robbed Of
all its true value.
"The system upon which the revisers
appear to have acted, in our Judgment,
is altogether erroneous and deplorable." "
The writer then proceeds in some beauti-
fully expressed passages to pOint out the
position held by the scriptures among
English speaking peoples. ''They have
been known by them and loved by them
for centuries" he says, land it is rasl,
| and reckless to shake this noble growth of
centuries by attempting to harmonize it
with the corrcctness|Of self-opiniated scho!-
arship or to regulate it by the doubtful
standared of taste accepted by mot
| ley combination of theOlOgians and prOfes-
sors. Even the Lords Prayer which every
English-speaking child learns to lisp at its
mothers knee, has not been spared. The
revisers have handled it as bold cOmmcn-
tator might handle q notoriously corrupt
chorus in the 'Eumenides' or the Vac.
cha.' St. Paurs praise of charity, un-
equallcd in its own kind for ringing and
rhythmical elOquence in the old version, is
mansled and made irrecognizable by the
senseless substitution of the word love for
Charity The meaning is really Obscured
rather than elucidated by this change,
while the music of the sentence is ire.
trievably lost. Alterations Of the diction
of the old version, involving no gain in
sense or a scarcely perceptible one, swarm
in the revised edition, aid in almost every
instance it is impossible not to feel that
the original translatiOns, however inferior
to those of the present revisers in precise
and exhaustive scholarship, textual OF
general, were infinitely their superiOrs iu
the rare and precious art of writing mu-
sical and masculine English prose.
"Had they pursed the sacred text OF
the errors which had crept into it, and
placed, where it was necessary, the carlo.
rum readings in the margin, they would
have performed useful and acceptable
work. But in the effort to attain dry and
merely mechanical accuracy of expression
they have SO revised the nOblest book
in the English language rs to deprive it OF
much Of its beauty, and they have DC
stroyed many of it's historical associa
tions." In conclusion the Standard
writer says that it remains now for tho nc.
viscrs to re-revise the text they have pro-
duced. If this new version is ever to he
generally used and to supersede the au-
thorized version many of tho alterations
that have been made must be discarded.