The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-09-20
The Bible-.-Its History and Translation

In the year 285 B. c. seventy Of
the wise men of Alexandria engaged
themselves in compiling and col)at-
ing the Hebrew Scriptures into their
present united form and further
simplifying the works by translat-
ing them into Greek for the benefit
of the Jews then in Egypt. The
results of their labors have since
been known collectively as the Sep
tuagint, from the fact that it was
the work of the seventy translators.
About four hundred years later, in
the Second century A. D., the books
of the New Testament were added
and the whole translated into Latin.
The Italia, or Latin version, soon
became the standard of the primi-
tive Christians, and was used to the
exclusion of both the Hebrew and
Greek versions for two centuries,
until the st. Jerome revision of A.
D. 4O5. After st. Jerome had fin
ished his crowning work, a great
deal of which he performed in the
village of Bethlehem, almost in
sight Of the birthplace Of Jesus, the
Dalmatian and Pannonian monks
hid away their old versions of the
Bible and would use no other ex-
cept the one which had been given
them by their patron Jerome HIM
self. The Jerome revision was as
superior to the work of the seventy
as their work was to the old semi
barbaric work which existed prior
to the translation of 285 B. c. The
most carefully written copies of the
Bible obtainable were consulted by
the scholarly saint and compared
with the Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac
versions, in all of which he made
emendations and corrections which
have stood the test of all subse-
quent time. The Herculean task
undertaken by st. Jerome will be
better understood when the reader
has been informed that over 200
versions of the Evangelists, each
differing from the other in many of
it's essential details, were presented
for the consideration of the sages
at the council of Nice in 325 A. D.
For hundreds of years copyists had
added to-and taken from the Scrip
lures to such an extent as to make
it extremely difficult for even the
most learned to decide what should
remain for the ediication of future
generations, or what should be elm
mated from the sacred pages as
apocryphal. The word Bible, D
meaning book, or as applied by the
early writer's, "the book" was first
used by Chrysostom as early as the
Fifth century, where he speaks oi
the sacred writings collectively as
the Biblia or "the Books" The in
finite variations which occurred in
the manuscripts written by the
early Christian fathers, have caused
great deal of contention among
churchmen, some admitting certain
books as canonical, which are re-
jected by others as apocryphal
This you can find illustrated by
comparing a Douay and King
James Bible of to-day; the former
! admits several books which the
King James translators would not
, The books as arranged and accepted
at present are the results Of years
of labor and of countless council;
and revision assemblages. For l.,
200 years after the Savior of Mer
ended His brief career on the rug
ged heights of Calvary, the touch
ing details of which are known tt
over seven hundred millions o
: people and in every land on tn
: globe, each book of the Bible wa
!. one continued story, undivided int
. chapters, paragraphs or verses
Prior to the time of the Spanish
> Rabbi, the Jews employed a system
;, of dividing the chapters into verse
in the Old Testament, a system
which had never been adopted b.
: : the Christian, and was discarde'
. for that of the learned Spaniard b,
:. the Jews themselves. The New Tes
y lament was not divided into verse
until after the invention of the ar
/, of printing, by the Robert Steven
- Greek edition in 1851. Of the earl
: translations of the Bible the mos
important, aside from the Septua
;; ! gint and the st. Jerome versions
= = are the threefold Egyptian transls
: tions Of the Fourth century (thi
remarkable work of the copyist wa
- in three languages and was intende
. for all parts of Egypt; The Versi
= Figurata, collected by Jacob 9
Odessa in the Eighth century thu
! ! of Paul, Bishop Of Tela, in GIT an
the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Gel
!, tury translations, made respectivel
!, = by Bede, Alfred and Elfric. Du
= ing the Dark Ages and on down I
8 the time that Luther gave his ma
~ terpiece to the world, several tran
~ ~ lations were made, including tn
- ~ of Notker- -Labeo, $50, A. D.; tn
:: prepared under the supervision
~ Petrus Waldus, 1170; the impo1
10 - ant work of Louis the Pious, 122.
ii that of Charles the Wise, 1880; Il