The Russellville Democrat., 1885-06-25
Letter, from the People
The Revised Bible.
of the Democrat.

Inasmuch as you allow all sub
 iects discussed. and owing to the great importance of the subject of Revision, feel impelled to say q few things regarding the matter. No person can be considered enlight- ened and intelligent who does not know something of the recent rev.s
 ion of the Bible. Every intelligent preacher will begin at once to use the Revision as help in the study of the Bible, will be constantly mak Ing references to it in his Biblical expositions in the pulpit, comparing it with the old, and it is therefore, indispensable that the people gener- ally know something about it. A little history of former trapslations may be in place as an introduction to history of the one under consid- eration. The first translation of the entire Scriptures into the English language was accomplished by John Wicliffe, which was completed In 1882. There was no printing press at that time, and the slow process of writing made it very difficult to null tiply copies of the Scriptures for CIT
 culation. The price of thls Bible was about $200. In 1925, Tyndale translated the New Testament, which was printed in part in Cologne, but, the secret of the publication being known, Tyndale flew up the Rhine to Worms, and there printed coco copies. In 1885, Mir. Tyndale was arrested on a charge of heresy, and the following year was strangled to death. The next English transla
 tion was known as "Coverdale's Bi
 ble." It was not translated out of the original languages. It was printed in Antwerp, in 1885. Two years later "Matthews Bible" was published. It was not translation, but revision. The next to appear, which was revision of former is- sues, was in l539, by Richard Tav
 erner. Other English versions of the Scriptures published in the six teenth century were "The Great Bi- ble," so called because of its size, the pages being nineteen inches by nine, larger than those of any other Bible. WiLtlngham's New Testa- ment; "The Geneva Bible," "The Bishops Bible" This last one out lived all the others and became a powerful rival of the King James translation which came out in 1911. It seems that printers have made their marks, and distinguished them selves by typographical manipula- tions in the Bible as we'll as in other publications. An edition of Mat thew's Bible, published Tn 1851, was called "The Bug Bible,' because the passage in Psalms xci., 5, which in our version reads, "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night" was rendered in that book, "So that thou shalt not need to be afraid for any bugs by night" An edition. of the Genevan. was called, "The Brooches Bible" because it rendered Gen. iii., z, "They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves brooches" Another was called, "The Resin Bible," because Jer. viii, P, was rendered; "Is there no resin in Gilead9' Another was called the "Vinegar Bible" because the Parable of the Vineyard, was rendered, "The parable of the Vinegar" Many oth- CTS were curiously nicknamed on ac- count of typographical errors. The Revision now under consideration was begun in 1870; the New Testa- ment appeared in 1880, and the Old in 1885. The move was set on foot by the leading scholars of Great Britain, to whom there seemed to be an ever growing demand for reyis- ion. This demand sprang out of the fact that our language is con stantly progressing, and that philo- logical science and comparative the