The sun., 1883-12-30
BIBLE J'ERsrONa

hibk SHmbS - Dido fHseso tne SNDloct Ot Ner-
sons one Of peculiar in nsorcst. The history Of
versions begins with whist must DO allowed to
te religious myth with n truthful kernel.
Tho myth Is found in tSc cycloppdias; the
truth Is rs follows: coloay OF Jews Mt Alex
andria encouraged by the Ptoemies. under
tho influence Of Grecian culture. speedily
acquired Greek and lost the latle knowledge Of
Hebrew which they Possessed in Palestine.
where the Hebrew OF the Bible had already
coased to be living tongue. Necessity ccm-
PEELED tho employment OF Interpreters. who
translated orally the Scriptures when they
were road in tho Service. These oral trans-
lntons in COURSE Of time were succeeded by
written ones and oventuated in what 10 known
as tho Septuagnt. or tho translation Of tho
Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This transla-
tion was widely circulated. and ut tho time OF
our Lord universally used throughout Paies-
tine and Asia Minor. as woll as In the synn-
gogues found In the countries washed by the
Mediterranean.
Tho Apostles and first Christian missionaries
used the Crock version in planting the Church
Greek was tho language OF civilization and
understood especially by people OF higher
culture. At Rome and throughout Italy
the masses OF the people clung tena-
ciously to the Old Latin. In order to reach
the MASSES the necessity 'of n Latin version
was universally felt. and oral trans!atons OF
the Scriptures were speedily followed by writ
ten ones. the oldest Of which were made from
the Greek They multiplied so rapidly that in
| the fourth century 1t was affirmed by tho high
est authorities that there were almost as many
| vcrsions as copies. This was u great and cry
| ing evil. for not only were those versions worry
| faulty and corrupt. but they presented n text
which differed in almost every version. To
| remedy tho ovil Jerome undertook II revision.
| which proved generally acceptable. and speed
| lily entered into almost universal circulation.
| But that remarkable scholar was not satisfied
| with his revision. and engaged upon the Her.
| culean enterprise OF translnting the Scriptures
! from the original Hebrew into Latin
| This new version met with bitter opposition.
and could nc. displacc tho old version made
| from the Greek for centuries or. more correct
| ly. il never displaced 1t entirely for to this day
parts of tho old Latin version are embedded in
| tho official version OF the Roman Catholic
| Church known as tho Nulgate In course Of
| time. however. the unaucstionab!a superiori,y
| ofJerom"s version led to It's partial adoption
| with tho result that ii was either adapted TO the
old version or mixed M with It, and produced
nm uncertain text which. through careless
transcrbors or ignorant corroctors and omen-
dators. had become so corrupt ns To ncccsstato
II revision by Alcun. This Alcuin.un rcceu-
sion patroniacd by Charicmaano was the
best text in use during tho middle ages. and
| held its ground until the invention of printing.
and the time OF the Reformation Guttenberg's s
Bible. the first Bible aud first book printed with
movable type. presents that text which. with
hut fcw exceptions. has been copied in suhse-
quont editions of the Latin Bible. From thn,
teNt wcrc made numerous versions into the
vcrnaculaI tongues OF Europe bc'ors he Retor-
TiatiOIi.
Ccn'lninS the subject to only two languages
English and German wo meet tho instruct We
fact that while before the appearance 81
Luther's version Gcrmauy could point to not
less than fourteen printed editions OF tho Scrip
lures in German. England possessed only ths
Wiclillte versions in manuscript Before 1872.
there was no printed edition of tho Old or the
New Tcstamepts in English. Besides the sal,
fourteen German editions in High German
three editions of a version In Low German I'M,
npprured in 1929. Now nil tLcse versions war,
made from tn. Latin thew nrs slayishly Iiteral
in almost countless nnssnpes unint.lligibo
and vastly remoto from .hr ,ox, of th. ori,;n.