St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-16
THE OLD TESTAMENT.
It's Revising Completed, and the Results
Given to a Waiting
Public.
Changes in the Text Which Will Shock a
Good Many Bible
Readers,
Although the Effort Has Been to Pre-
serve the Original Lines
When Possible.
The Harmonious Manner in Which
the American and English Com.
mttteeS Worked.

Lie haEuOulOuS lduueT III w Il1Cu
the American and English Com
mtttees Worked.
The Revised Edition.
LONDON, May 15.-Copies of the revised
version of the Old Testament were given to
the newspapers at midnight last night All
the papers this morning contained copies
of extracts from the work. In the following
paragraph is presented the substance Of
a semi-Official article prepared for the Lon
don Times, in which some account OF the
work OF revision with particular reference
to the American part of it is given.
Finally an international work of fourteen
years has come to close. The revised YER
sion of the New Testament was issued in
May, 1881, and now the revised Old Tesla
ment will soon be published in all parts of
the EngliSh-speaking world. This revision is
the most important event in the history of
the English Bible since the publication Of
the King James translation in 1911. The
success of the Old Testament may not be as
great as that of the New, of which more
than million copies were sold On the day
of publication and more than three millions
of copies before the close of the year, but
it will probably be more favorably received
and less severely criticised for it involves
NO CHANGES OF THE HEBREW TEXT.
no older manuscripts than the Masoretic
having been discovered and the edition of
the authorized version is most carefully
preserved out of regard for the conservative
feeling of the church in its attachment for
the language of the old version. All errors
of translation, however, have been re-
moved and the revision will be pronounced
by every competent Bible reader to be
very great improvement. 1t presents the
results of the combined labor of large
number of the best Hebrasts and Biblical
scholars of England and the United States,
most Of them professors OF Hebrew in uni
versities and seminaries. 1t has moreover
the advantage of the vast adj
vances of the last fifty years
in Oriental philology, Biblical geography,
history and antiquities, all of which were
but imperfectly understood by the forty
seven translators of King James, although
it freely admitted that they did the very
best possible in their day. The new YER
sion is not good version in the place of
bad one, but good improvement of good
version. The movement for the present
version was inaug1rated by the Convocation
VI Canterbury, t1lc VI
Saxon Christendom, May "a, 1870.
STEPS TOWARDS THE FORMATION
Of an American committee Of revision
were taken almost Immediately after the
organization of the English committee. The
first meeting Of the New Testament COM
mittee in England was held June 49, 1870.
On the 18th of July following the two houses
of the convocatiOn voted to invite the CO.
A Il i,-;,,
correspondence was opened with Dr.. Schoff
and other American scholars, who
would be regarded as authorities in biblical
learning by the American public. So much
time elapsed in preliminary communications
between America and England that final
arrangements for the American committee
were not made until the summer OF 1872.
These arrangements were concluded by Dr..
Schoff, who visited England that summer
for the purpose, and on his return in
autumn the committee began its work.
Though nearly two years later than the
English companies in beginning the work.
they pressed forward with such activity
that they were enabled to complete it con-
temporaneously with their English brethren.
THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE.
The list of American committee as
finally constituted is as follows: Including
both those who participated in the organi-
cation of the body and Others who were
added to the membership by election at
some of their meetings. The membership
was necessarily limited to scholars whose
residence was not so remote from New Ork
as to make their attendance at monthly
meetings of commissioners impossible.
General officers of committee: Phillip
Schoff, d. d. LII. D., president; George
E. Day, D. D., secretary First Old Tesla
ment company; Prof. William Henry
Green, D. ID. LII. D., chairman, theologi-
cal seminary, Princeton; Prof George E.
Day, D. D., secretary, divinity school of
Yale college, New Haven, Conn; Prof.
Charles A. Aiken, d. D., theol-
ogy seminary, Princeton, N. Y;
Il. w. Chambers, D. D., collegiate Reformed
Dutch church, New York; Prof. Thomas
J. COnant, d. D., Brooklyn, n. Y; Prof.
John Dewitt, D. D., theological seminary,
New Brunswick, n. j.; Prof. George En-
lie n Hare, D. D., LII. D., divinity school,
Philadelphia; Prof. Charles H. Krauth,
D. D., LII D., vice provost of University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Prof. Tay-
lor Lewis, LII. D., Union school,
Schenectady, n. Y; Prof. Chrrles NJ.
Mead, D. D., theological seminary, An
dover, Mass; Prof. Howard Osgood, D. d.
LII. D.. theological seminary, Rochester,
N. Y; Prof. Joseph Packard, D. D., theo-
logical seminary, Alexandria, Va; Prof.
Calvin Ellis Shaw, D. D., Hartford, Conn.,:
Prof. James Strong, S. 7. d., theological
seminary, Madison. n. j., Prof Rev. c. V.
A Van Dyke, D. D., NJ. D., theological
seminary, Beyrut, Syria, advisory member
on question of Arabic.
THE MEETINGS
of the two American committees were held
every month from September to May in
elusive in each year in New York. Another
meeting was held in the month of July,
usually at New Haven. The summer meet
ings continued for week, the other meet
ings for two days. The members sat around
common table and freely and fully dis
cusSed such passages or chapters as had
been previously assigned for the particular
meeting, each member having already eX-
amined and investigated them for himself.
In this way the whole of the New Tesla
ment and of the Old was infinitely considered
and discussed. The work was reviewed in
this careful manner twice from beginning to
end in the first revision, and changes in the
authorized version were recorded for fur
ther consideration in case they were favored
by majority of votes, but in the second
series the rule demanded vote of two
thirds, in order to adopt the proposed
changes. Finally all passages were
EXAMINED A THIRD TIME,
in which unreconciled difference still re-
manned between the review of the English
and American committees. A large proper
ton of the suggestions of the American
committee were adopted and embodied
in the revised version. Many others not
adopted in their exact words were in
serted in a modified form, which