The Russellville Democrat., 1881-04-28
THE REVISED BIBLE.
Dr. Schaff Explains What Became of the
 Amergcan Recommendation.
New York Evening Pos

New York Evening Post
 Last week the New York Obsereer l printed letter iron. the gsoy. Dr. An
 gus, one of the British reyisers of the
 New Testament, in which he says that
 "the revised version was sent over to
 Americasn it's final form, and the Ameri-
 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
 by 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 it,
 and it is asserted in some quarters that
 if the revised version comes over here
 with the work of ofAmerican scholars pin
 ned on in foot-note or appendix fashion
 America will have nothing to do with it.
 An Euening Post reporter called upon
 the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff yesterday with
 reference to the matter. "Dr. Angus is
 perfectly correct in what he says," said
 Dr. Schaff, but wrong inferences have
 DcCu dTdW lIOIjl uIb 5tdltIIltIll OI Lu6
 facts in the case. One might suppose rejected as whole and added to the Testament as 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- gestions proposed by the American com mittee, and not by the English advisers, more than half were adopted after con- sideration of our arguments in their SUD- port. The change which we suggested, and which the English committee refused to sanction related chiefly to archaic expressions which we desired to replace by modern forms. The English committee, however, upon the ground that it was essential to the success of the work to make as few changes as possible i'll 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 of speach, understood by everyone were desirable. The English have, of course, replaced great many obsolete words, but they have not in our opinion gone far enough. For instance. they retain the penny as the price of the days work in the parable of the vine- yard, which to the uneducated man seems an absurdity. The actual value ot penny in biblical days was about six teen cents, and ye are in faver of indicat- ing this. But the English revisers ob- jected. As we are in some sense responsible to the American people for accuracy and value of our work we in- sisted as matter of wright to ourselves that our suggestions should be incorpor- ated in the American edition of the 1 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. Schaff | said: "At the end of five years at the l latest 1 expect to see the new version | accepted by all but the most narrow minded persons. An interesting and ex- | haustive 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 | changes suggested by different revisers | and not adopted
 The New Testament will be sold in England Scotland, Ireland, Australia and the United States on the 2Oth of next May. The stories that large num- bers of the books are now in this country under lock and key are false, the revis- CTS only having received copies. Only 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 will appear from six New York the price of some of the editions to be as low as fifteen cents.