The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-10-10
the REVISED BIBLE.
Character Of the Changes Made In the Old
Testament.

'-. UAA H
Character Of the Changes Made In the Old
Testament.
The labors of the committees on the
Anglo-American revision of the Old
Testament are ended, and the work is
now in the hands of the printers. It
will probably be issued from the Uni
versity presses of Oxford and Cam
bridge in the fall. This great work
originated in the Convocation of Can
terbury, May 6, 1870, by the appoint
ment Of a committee of eminent Biblical
scholars and dignitaries of the Church
of England, with power to revise the
authorized version of 1911, and to asso-
ciate with them representative Biblical
scholars of other denominations. 1t
was decided to make the work interna-
tional as we'll as interdenominational.
Accordingly the American committee
was organized by invitation and with
the approval of the British revisers, and
began active work in October, 1872.
These committees have worked in
dependently of each other. The Ameri-
can committee has held monthly meet
ing in New York, where, after q COM
parison of views, it would vote on a
proposed change. A majority vote
would be sufficient to carry the subject
gel to the next meeting, when a two
thirds vote would be necessary to Sc
cure its adoption. A change thus voted
would be communicated to the English
committee. The latter committee,
working in much the same manner and
holding its meetings in London, would
promptly send the results of its labors
to the American brethren. Thus q
constant correspondence has been kept
up between the committees. 1t is by
means of this correspondence that the
revision has been completed. No joint
meeting of representatives, of the COM
mittee has been held. Both commit
tees have gone owe all the books Of the
Old Testament, and no change will be
Incorporated that has not met the APP
proval of both bodies. In some instan-
ces the British r~evisers have been more
conservative than the Americans, and
where the latter think their point of
sufficient Importance it will appear in
the appendix, as was done in the case
of the revision at the New Testament.
Changes in the text of the Old Testa-
ment will be less marked than in the
revised edition of the New. In the re-
vision of the latter the translators were
aided by a comparison of authentic
manuscripts discovered since the trans
lation in 1911. They were thus led to
correct the Greek text, and consequent
ly to make alterations in the text of the
English revision. That they might
render the original with greater liberal
ness, they sometimes sacrificed beauties
of phrase, even when the meaning was
not affected.
In the work now in press there will
be little Or no occasion for complaint in
this regard. The difference between
Hebrew and English idioms is such
that it is not possible to render with
such verbal accuracy from the Hebrew
as can bedone from the Greek. Where,
therefore, n phrase expresses the
true meaning, no change occurs. Then,
too. the public wish, especially in Eng
land, has pronounced against all avoid
able changes in the old version.
Another powerful reason why radical
changes were impossible is the fact that
the original text Of the Old Testament
remains substantially the same as that
used by King James translators. With
the New Testament the case was differ
ent. The mission of the r~evisers of the
Old Testament has been not so much to
ascertain the correct text as to find out
I tho fr,,o mooptnr &c &ha @1I @a.4 A.
origin of which is lost in antiquity. In
this work they have been assistel by the
great advance made in the knowledge
of the Hebrew language since King
James time. In many instances the old
translators wholly mistook the mean
ing of words, and they we're ignorant of
much of the Hebrew grammar that is
now the common property of scholars.
Thus the children of Israel did not, as
stated in Exodus, XII, q, by divine di-
~rection borrow" of the Egyptians what
they e. intended to return, but they
asked" for and received gifts. In other
cases the tenses of verbs are confused
and the sequence of thought contained
In the text is lost in the translation.
Possessive pronouns are sometimes mis-
- mn rora1,a at,a,1a aih ho ~, -, GoI
Galyn ne 'uouiu 70 my meiciiui
ooa
nuuen nsne mas aiso peen snea on Inc
n4e eah ~ Moius IN sne .eSe Dy 1lle
ssuuy - s cAoa anu o1nei oenlltic IAN
even, the study of these languages has
male great progress.
"Some improvements in orr transla-
t;on nov oax,oo+od dc, 49, D.:
~ ny 10 eeHgeoUeu "'eo' says resi-
dent Cnase OF Harvard, OF the revl-
Sers of the New Testament, 'from the
greatly incraasad knowladoo IN raooni