The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-06-15
Omr Contributors.
The Revised Version of the
New Testament.
BY REV. H. c. ALEXANDER, D. D.
No. 2.

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The idea of revision is almost coeval
with that of translation. The Septua-
gint Greek of the Old Testament was
again and again revised before the days
OF Origen, and the old Latin Version of
the entire Bible again and again revised
before the days of Jerome. The Vulgate,
in the Old Testament Except the Psalms),
Is direct translation by Jerome, in the
fourth century, out of the original He
brew. He had before, however, revised
great portion, if not the whole, of the
old Latin Version Of Africa. The Vul-
gate in the New Testament is nothing
but Jeromes revision of the old Latin
version from the original Greek.
The revision in the Gospels was
thorough, in the later books more and
more cursory, till at last. the old Latin is
left almost untouched by the hand of the
great scholar and critic. The Vulgate as
now found in the hands of Romanists is
very different book, though, from the
volume which proceeded from the learn
ing and diligence of Hieronymus. Even
before the dark ages it had suffered COR
ruption, and an attempted revision was
made in the days of Alcuin. When the
Council of Trent (1545-'6) authorita-
lively pronounced the Vulgate "authen-
tic, the question arose as to which form
OF the Vulgate wasintended by the decree.
This question was answered in two
contradictory ways by two successive
papal bulls, that Of Sixtus V, and that of
Clement VIII. The .Vulgate at present
sanctioned by the Church of Rome ac-
cords with the Clementine recension;
which although purer text than the
Sixtine and earlier forms, is greatly in
terior to the critical texts of such editors
as Sabatier and Lachmann-which were
based on excellent, and often nearly fault
less, manuscripts of the sixth century.
The earliest Chaldee Version, or Para
phrase, of the Old Testament was believed
by Emanuel Deutsch (perhaps the high
est Semitic authority of the age, certain
ly the highest in Great Britain or Amer
lca) to have assumed its present shape
only after successive. applications of the
hle and the pumice stone, during O.
period covering more than a century
The Syriac Peshito bears marks of sim.
liar treatment, and probably had very
similar history. There is eminent au-
thority for the opinion that the fragmen-
tary manuscript of the -Syriac Gospels
now IN the British Museum, which was
introduced to the notice of European
critics by the accomplished zeal and as
siduity of DR.. Cureton, is the ancient and
Palestinian form in which the Syriac text
appeared that was afterwards transformed
at Edessa into the guise now so Familiarity
known under the name of the Pesbito
The Philoxenian Syriac, slavishly lit
eral version Of later date, is now only ex-
tant in the shape given to it in the fol-
loving century by the pious labors of one
Thomas of Harkel. And now, to come
down at once to the English versions,
mat of Wyclif and those of Douay and
rheims, were from the Latin. All the
rest, after Tyndale's were Gas we said
last week. but revisions Of the work Of
tnat extraordinary man. Of all these
undertakings, as has been remarked al
ready, the authorized version of King
James was on the whole, and viewed in