The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1881-06-08

imperfect Greek text in existence
at the time, or sometimes pothin e
but the Latin Vulgate, an inferior
Latin translation. And with ref.
erence to the translation they
were often extremely careless,
frequently translating the same
word when repeated even in the
samo sentence by two different
English words, without any ap-
parent reason whatever. And
had they been ever so able and so
willing, they were placed under
restrictions so severe and some of
them so unreasonable as to force
them to error; as for instance,
with reference 10 the translation
of the word church in which they
were commanded to follow blindly
: the errors of the Bishops Bible.
Besides they were all members Of
the church of England, committed
by their prejudices and the re-
striction on them to introduce
nothing that might seem to be
against the tenets Of their church,
while in the work of the present
revisers all denominations are
represented from America as we'll
as in England. So then, if oppor-
tunity means demand, and in a
matter of such importance it sure
ly does, there is demand on us'for
this work.
But there is another fact to
which aIlusion has already been
made which makos this demand
still moro apparent and pressing
and that is the changes in the use
and meaning of words and phrases
that have taken place in our lam
guage during these centuries.
Some words-and the wonder is
that there are not many more Of
them in the Bible have passed out
of the language altogether; and TO
many Bible readers who have not
the opportunity or the inclina-
tion to find out their meaning,
they have no meaning at all. In
Ezekiel we read, among the denun-
Citations Of the people by the pro-
phet, this sentence 'Sith thou hast
not hated blood, even blood shall
pursue thee One of our children
reading this would very likely con-
clude that Sith was the proper
name of some one whom the
prophet was addressing; but it is
only an old English word for
since Since thou hast not hated
blood, even blood shall pursue
thee In the same book, Assyria
is compared to a shroud ; not that
the Israelites were dead and the
Ass;rians were to bury them,
but the word shroud means there
shelter, and the Israelltes are
rebuked for making Assyria their
shelter or refuge. bave no
doubt many have read what Paul
says IN Corinthians about things
sold in the shambles and wondered
what shambles could mean, never
guessing that it was the old En-
glish for a meat market. | sus-
pect some boys have wondered
what Jacob did with the rods when
be 'pilled' them. They may have
guessed correctly from the resem-
blance of the word to the modern
one that be pealed them. | reck-
on older people have been puzzled
in that magnificent description in
Job of great water monster,
wherein it said, BY his neasings a
light doth shine The word meas
iLgs means breathings and the
monster is discussed in highly
fgurative language as throwing
out light with his breath. [ have
no doubt the 9th Psalm has been
read hundreds of times by people
who never knew that leasing
meant lying. And many of the
old preachers, who were so fond
of talking about the 'besom of de,
struction,' spoken of in Isaiah,
which God would use (. ,ainst his
foes, never learned 10 their dying
day, that the word means the
broom with which be would sweep
them off the face Of the earth.
Then there arc many words which
have changed their meaning anc
50 are apt to mislead: Us, road fol
raid, quick for alive, and quicken
to make alive, prevent for pre-
cede, let for hinder, meat for fooe
the meat offering of the Ole
Testament had no meat at all il
it-instantIy for earnestly, ea1