Mohave County miner., 1891-01-10
IaE elsLs.
~,..... =, .hs rrsnsyst,eas of shs Bees
on Books

united form, says the bL. Lous
| ns.ncerat and further simplifying inc
.rorLs by translating them into creek
80 ,ks benefit OF the Jews tnen IN
Eaxnt Ths results OF their iaoors
III siucs been known collectively ss
the 6eptnagint, FROM the isct ina. ~
sss ~ work Of the seventy translat~
ors About 400 years later 10 the sec
c,d century. A. D., the books OF the
nsw Testament we're added and the
whale translated into Latin. Inc
Italia, or Latin version, soon oeSaln'
The standard of the primitive SDrs
tiaus. aud was used TO the exclusion "
hoth the Hebrew and Greek vetslops
sor two centuries, until the 81. jerome
..y,.ion of A. ID. 405. After et
Jerome rad finished bis crownlne
work. a great deal OF which ne per
sormed Ia the village Of Bethlehem.
almost In sight OF the birthplace OF
5s,us. the Dalmatian and Paunonian
monks hId away their old versions oi
tbs bibla and would Use no other ex"
cert IRE one which had been gwen
them Inv their patron jerome himself,
The Jerome revision was as superior
10 the work Of the seventy Us lheir
work was 10 the old semi-barparic
work which existed prior to the trans
latiou of 2S5 b. c. The most carefully
written copies Of the bible obtainable
we're consulted by the scholarly salnt
snd rompared with the Arabic, He-
brew and Syriac versions, In all OF
which he made cancellations and cor,
,ac,ion. which hays stood the test OF
all subsequent time.
The herculean task undertaken py
81. Jerome will be better understood
when the reader has been informed
that over 200 versions OF the evangel
lists. each differing from the other In
MANY OF its essential details, were pre-
sspted for the consideration OF the
sages at the council OF Nice in S25 A.
ID. For hundreds OF years copyists
have added to and taken from the
scriptures to such an extent as TO
make Il extremely difficult for even
the most learned TO decide what should
remain for the edificatiOn Of future
generations, or what would be elimi-
mated from the sacred pages as spo-
cryphal. The word "bible," meaning
book, or as applied by the early writers.
..the book" was first used by Chrysos-
tom as early as the fifth century, where
he speaks OF the sacred writings coli
lectively as the Biblia or 'the books. "
The infinite variations which occurred
in the manuscripts written by the
early Christian fathers have caused
great deal OF contention among church
men, some admitting certain books as
canonical, which are rejected by others
"a Apocryphal. This you can lind
illustrated by comparing a Douay and
a 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 councils aud re-
vision assemblages. For 200 years
after the savior Of men ended his brief
career on the rugged heights of CAL
vary. the touching details Of which are
known TO over 100, 900, 900 OF people
and In every land on the globe. each
book Of the bible was one continued
story, undivided into chapters. para
graphs or verses. Prior TO the time OF
the Spanish rabbi the Jews employed
a system of dividing the chapters into
verses in the old testament. system
which had never been adopted by the
Christians, and was discarded for that
of the learned SpaniRrd by the Jews
themselves.
The new testament was not divided
into verses until after the invention Of
the art Of printing. and then first by
the Robert Stevens Greek edition in
1851.
OF the early translations Of the bible
the most important, aside from the
Septuagint and the 81. Jerome ver-
sions, are the three-fold Egyptian
trsnslstions of the fourth century (this
remarkable work OF the copyist was IN
three languages and was intended for
all parts OF Egypt; the Versio Figu-
rata, collected by Jacob of Odessa in
the eighth century; that of Paul. bishop
Of Tela, in 6l7; and the eighth, ninth
aud tenth century translations, made
respectively by Bede. Alfred snd
Elfric. During the dark ages and on
down to the time that Luther gave his
masterpiece to the world, several trans
lations were made. including that OF
Notker-Labeo. $50 A d.; that pre-
pared under the supervision Of Petrus
Waldus, ll70; the important work Of
Louis the Pious, 1927; that Of Charles
the Wise. 1880; the Guyars version OF
1886; the thirteenth century version In
Spanish during the reign Of Alphonse
". and the two excellent works of
Wicklife and Huss, the latter for the
Bohemians and the former for the
English-speaking people. With the
invention of printing every person
who had ever laid claim TO literary
abilities seemed to think that he had
been specially commissioned from on
high to translate the word Of God, as
one would naturally infer from the
fact that not less than seventeen Ger
man tisnslations alone were given the
public between the time OF Gutenberg
and fs1st and that Of Martin Luther.
The WicklifIe (sometimes spelled
WycliGe) version Of 1884 was the first
English translation. John Wieklife.
the translator. was condemned TO be |
burned for presuming TO do such a |
thing without the consent of the cler-
gy, bat was finally allowed to die n |
natursl death. His bible was never
printedi however. there are MANY
manuscript copies Of il.
PaInIessneaa Of D..,I |