The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1882-01-22
TEsE NEW VERSION.
should Ii ESe Received Or Re.
JecteG By The Christian
World?
ARTICLE no. 5.-REv. B. A. RoeF

under their sanction to see the world
Hooded with books claiming to contain
1t, into which they are aware that even
minor errors have crept, through either
the carelessness or the ignorance of their
own servants and agents in transmitting
1t to the world. 1t is hard to conceive
under what excuses they can shelter
themselves for allowing the Bible to 90
to the world with one single verse of
proven human or spurious origin in it;
with acknowledged erroneous render
ngs and spurious passages scattered
here and there; with the sources of their
correction at hand, and with learning at
their command equal TO the task, how
dare they allow it to stand as though of
complete divine authority; yet open to
constant effective attack because Of its
errors, rather than to openly and hon
estly acknowledge that they exist and
settO work to eliminate them
Under conviction of the truth of the
unhappy circumstances surrounding the
whole course of its transmission from the
first centuries and out of the original
tongues, that | have portrayed in my
former papers, such had come to be the
settled inquiry of a very respectable
number of earnest and faithful christian
men more than a dozen years ago, and
unfortunately the circumstances already
given were not all. Added to the facts
that unauthorized texts had crept IN,
and that the translators of the King
James version had made Il point of using
what to them seemed to be Synonymous
words lbut that often failed to be so)
rather than to repeat the exact words as
repeated III the original, II Is also true
that by the careless substitution of
one mood or tense for another, rs well
as by the inversion of sentences, not
only were exact and delicate shades
of meaning not unireqUeu ly obscured,
but sometimes the entire sense was per
verted or lost. Added to these again
was confusion OF terms and mis-
translation OF important wOrdS-llke the |
rendering Of hadcs and gehenna alike |
by hell, by which error not only has the !
doctrine Of the middle state nearly lost |
its hold upon all dissenting bodies Of
Christians, but authority has been given !
70 the preaching Of sweeping doctrine
OF damnatIon utterly uniustItied by the
word of God. 1t was under the pressure
OF all these circumstances that the work
Of the new version was begun more than
ten years ago and of the necessity Of the
be- ginning It seems TO me every chris
tiau person ought to be convinced.
And now as to the initiation of the
work: Some of our church papers were I
at one time loaded down with complaints
that il had not come from some supreme
authUrlty-that mere province like
Canterbury had assumed to take the first
steps. Bat where Is that supreme au-
tharity? Are there anv genera! couu- |
els If the church, Has christianity
now any such embodiment as allows of
supreme authoritative action? IL re-
vision was ever to be, II had to be begun
in some part and by some part Of TIE I
christian world. Why not as well in /
England and by the cunvocaton of |
Canterbury as anywhere and by any
body else? IN fact, if prestige OF loca- !
non or organization Is of auy value, is |
not England the place and the couvoca- |
ton Of Canterbury the body, above all |
others. from which revision Of the
English Bible should originate? Eng
land Is the mother Of the language and !
Canterbury has the prlmacv IL the
English church.
Araip There has been perSisteut oh |
lection from high quarters that the work |
wa, not dome alone bv tl,. Church Of |
England and tlB~t. III communion with /
her, and the Churchman. of November |
II. saws: "All the claims Il he revision has /
10 the cl,urch's. special attention comes |
from the fact that the revisers were to
some extent acting under chr,cn au-
thority." To nv mind another more
birotcd claim never came from apy re- |
spectacle source.
The church OF England is not the |
author of the revealed word of God. Ii
was not qiven to orfor her alone, nor has |
she any exclusive ownership in it. More
still, she has not monopoly of the |
learning necessary TO its faithful |
revision; nor Of that tender affection for
il that renders its purity to others as
to her the one thing most desirable. 1t |
is the bible. speakinr in English inst
what it spoke In the original, that both /
the church ana the world are entitled to |
possess. and they may thank the love
and the learning of ANYBODY that hitherto |
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