Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-05-13
The New Old Testament.

The New Old Testament.
PROF. DAY, ONE OF THE REvIsERs, BELIEVES
1T WILL TAKE THE PLACE OF THE OLD YER
SION.
Yale college. which furnished from its fac
ulty the president of the board OF revsers OF
the Bible, the Rev. DIR. Geo. E. Day, the emf
nent Hebrew scholar, IS much Interested in the
appearance of the revised version of the Old
Testament, which is promised to Americans on
the 10Th instant. Prot. Day is enthusiastic over
the volume, and believe. that Ii viii take the
place of the old or King James version
II do not, he said, expect the present gen.
Grafton, and more especially elderly people, to
give up their old Bibles. To them it would seem
u sacrilege perhaps and while they would have
nothing to unlearn, the new book might never
seem natural TO them. But it is the coming gen.
Grafton which will adopt the revised version.
Our young ministers will 90 out from Yale and
from AndOver thoroughly yersed in and GOV
erned by IL. and its dissemination throughout
hence the new Bible will seem as old to the aver
age persons as the King James version does now.
Inc new version, complete as II Will be pre-
sented with the New Testament is. hold, one
of the marked events in the history of our
world
Prof Day then spoke of the labors of the un-
dertaIing, which, he said, had been done by
eminent bibiiOphiles free of charge. because
1t had been said that the gospel should be tree.
As to the cause which led To the revision, he
said that in the go years which have elapsed
since the former revision OF the Bible known
as the King James version, much additional
light has been gained, and manuscript evil
dence has been multiplied many fold. On the
other hand. the editors OF the King James YER
sion possessed only a small number of inferior
and comparatively modern manuscripts. and
those imperfectly conatcd. II was by reason of
this increased knowledge that the revision has
been made and consequently on May &. 1870,
the ConvocatiOn of Canterbury appointed q
committee of Biblical scholars of the Church
authorized version of the Bible Civ
Ing the committee power to associate with
them scholars of other denominations
In 1871, by invitation OF the English revsers,
a similar American committee was formed.
composed of distinguished scholars of all the
Evangelical denominations. L nd divided like
the English committee into two companies
one for the Old Testament and one FOR the New.
On the American side were such men as Prof
Day, Il. ID. W OOlSey, Chancellor Howard Crosby
ID. d., the Rev. DIR. Chambers of New York
Profs. krauth and Hare OF Philadelphia, Profs.
Greene and Aiken OF Princeton, and Prof. w
Henry Green, ID. D., LID. The two interna-
tional committees have been engaged in one
and the same work. The labOrs OF the English
committee have been submitted to the Amer
lean committee, and vice versa. No changes
have been made, except by a two-thirds vote.
have numbered fifty-two, OF the American
committee twenty-seven.
Prot. Day emphasized the point that, as the
new Bible was the outcome of researches of the
very highest knowledge i'll restoring the Scrip
lures to their textual purity. to the unlearned
even more than TO the learned will the new ver-
sion be profitable The meaning of the Word
would be made clearer, and sIlepticsm will be-
come disarmed: The changes made are not
fundamental. They touch nothing which is
essential to Christianity. II IL IL new revision,
and not a new translation. In concluding, Prof
Day said that another point which could not be
brought out too strongly that the Bible
reading public. while IL might nlsS some OF the
beautifully flowing and faCorite passages of the
old English version i'll the revised version.
should recoliect that all rhetorical cOnsidera-
tionS should be put st~ide FOR the one thing of
fmp9rtanee-that of having the truth and the
whole truth. He did not know whether the
clergy OF New Haven used The revised New
Testament. but he did no. tbLnk one of them
burst preach contrary to the sense Of the text of
that volume. He was sure they used it for refer
3Qce constantly