Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-26
THE REVISION.
what Professor David Swing, OF
Chicago. Says About Kt.

4
fessor said he felt no hesitancy in saying
that the new work would be accepted by
the people.
Professor" asked the reporter, "what
is your opinion of the change in the eel
ebrated passage in the thirteenth chapter
of the First Corinthians; that is, the
substitution of the word love for
'charity'f"
81 think it perfectly proper and right.
Charity means the application of love
to the lower classes, to beggars, for in
stance. The Greek word from which it
was translated charity represents the
universal love of man for his neighbor.
That is the reason / approve of the
change. l think it gives it broader
and more significant meaning. less OBJ.
scure than we get from the word 'chari.
ty' 1t may not be as rhythmical. but l
think the people will soon get used to it. !"
There have been objections made to
the substitution of 'hades' for hell.
What is your opinion of that changer"
fWell, that is unimportant. like the
change, however, as 'hades' means death
or the grave-a meaning more appropri-
ate than we get from the word hell. !"
'tDo you think this revised edition will
be accepted by the church, Professor?"
''Yes; think it will, gradually. OF
course, some will object to Its accepta-
ton, but the opposition will be compare
lively small.
"What is your opinion regarding the
changes made as whole?"
81 think the work defective in points.
but very acceptable on the whole. 1t
was translated long ago. and was subject
to haste and errors. The information S
not so abundant or clear as in the new
version. The works of Shakespeare and
Dante have been revised, corrected aud
greatly improved, bringing out points
that had been obscure and meaningless
and l do not see why revision by compe-
tent men would not do the same thing
for the Bible"
do you think the revision of the Old
Testament will be as acceptable as this
work?"
Il think it will be more so, as | am
sure the greatest advantages will be
found in the Old Testament when the
meaning of the Psalms is made clear.
The significance Of some of the Psalms
is often sadly mistaken, and especially
is this the case in the nineteenth, which
is invariably misunderstood
"What changes do you think should
be made in the Old Testament, Profes-
sor2"
"Well, in the first place, l think it
should be condensed. A great deal of
indelicate and vulgar matter should be
thrown cut Many portions of IT are
inapplicable, as, for instance, the Mosaic
Laws. These Mosaic Laws have no
more to do with Christianity than have
the Blue Laws of Connecticut.
"What do you think will be the re-
suits of the revision of the Bible?"
IL do not think that any important
results are to be expected. The King
James Bible was compiled so long ago
from the manuscripts of the ancients
that l think this revision should have
been undertaken before. | do not mean
to say that the people have suffered on
account of errors IN the Bible, but we
need the best of everything, including q
Bible. The King James Bible is too
large and bulky. What the people need
is popular Bible, one that is portable,
is printed in large, clear type, and, to
make this possible, large portion of the
Old Testament should be omitted from
the editions of the future. !"
The following from an advance sheet
of to-day's Alliance gives more fully the
Professors views on the revision:
No very important results are to be
expected from the new translation of the
Bible. Such new study of the ancient
manuscripts, and of the meaning of the
writers who belong to period SO differ
ent in mental habits from the present,
should have been made long ago. not be-
cause the human race was suffering on
account of any error in the King James
Bible, but because all need the best of
anything, be it water or food, or clothes,
or government, or money, or Bible.
What is worth having at all,
is worth having well. 1t SO hap
pens, however, that all modern difficult
ties of any moment, in the direction of
the Holy Scriptures, are not difficulties
with a rendering, but with the subject
matter, however Interpreted. There
should be in the new versions elimina-
tions of whole chapters and whole books,
on the ground that they make the sacred
volume too large to be printed in good
type and still be portable. A small Bible
always means that the type is almost
microscopic. A popular Bible should be
at once portable and of far clear type,
and to make this possible large part of
the Old Testament should be omitted
from the editions of the future
Not only are the laws of the Mosaic
state repealed and dead, and therefore
unworthy of place in this guide of the
public, but they are the laws of a semi.
barbarous age, and cast no little of their
imperfection over upon the fair pages
of the New Testament. Not all readers,
young or old, are discriminating enough
to note at once that Mosaic law is not
10 be considered as a Christian law, but,
on the opposite, the law of association
leads many to imagine that the Church
of to-day looks upon Leviticus and Deu-
teronomy as being books of common
law for all who believe in inspiration.
The New Testament has suffered much
from thus being found in bad company.
Those treaties are valuable, as being a
part of the history of the Jewish state,
but not as being a part, much less valu-
able part. of Christianity,
Many of the Hebrew laws were 90 un-
just that their presence in the popular
Bible makes it essential that each
clergyman and each Sunday school
teacher shall spend much time in ex-
planning the relation of Mosaic things to
Christian affairs-an explanation to be
made easier by withdrawal of the
cause. The laws about women and
slaves are particularly unjust, and their
presence In the good book will always
complicate the inquiry: What is
insplration?" If, as almost all Chris
tian scholars admit, those laws were
the temporary statutes Of ma
ton, temporary compromises between a
horrid epoch and kinder one in COM
parison, that legal literature should have
lapsed into quietness along with the He
brew, and the AmoTite, and Jebusite, and
not be spread out to-day before our
youth. as forming some part of the d.
vine truths to be believed. Besides the
savage injustice in some of those laws.
there is much that offends against the
refinement of our more civilized times.
No minister, no family dares read aloud
all of the Old Testament, II came from
afar-off time and jars like a discord upon
the modeEa heart
Of course there are human beings who
will accuse the age Of having a false or
sham modestY, and who will say that
the Bible is all perfectly elegant, and
that only infdels can And in 1t indelicate
words ana statements, but the numbers