The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1891-01-08
THE BIBLE.
History OF the TransIations OF the Book
of Books.

In the year 2S5 B. c. seventy of the
wise men of Alexandria engaged them
selves in compiling and collating the
Hebrew scriptures into their present
united form, says the st. Louis Globe
Democrat. and further simplifying the
works by translating them into Greek
for the benefit of the Jews then in
Egypt. The results of their labors
have since been known collectively as
the Septuagint, from the fact that it
was the work of the seventy translat-
ors. About 400 years later, in the Sec
ond 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 primitive Chris
tians, aud was used to the exclusion OF
both the Hebrew and Greek versions
for two centuries, until the ST. Jerome
revision of A. ID. 405. After ST.
jerome mad finished his browning
work, a great deal of which he per-
formed 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 bv their patron Jerome himself.
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 trans
lation of go B. c. The most carefully
written copies Of the bible obtainable
were consulted by the scholarly saint,
and, compared with the Arabic, He
brew and Syriac versions, in all of
which he made cancellations and cor
rections which have stood the test of
all subsequent time.
The herculean task undertaken by
St. 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-
scented for the consideration of the
sages at the council of Nice in 325 A
ID. For hundreds of years copySsts
have added to and taken from the
scriptures to such an extent as to
make it extremely difficult for even
the most learned to decide what should
remain for the edifcation of future
generations, or what would be elimi-
mated from the sacred pages as apo
crvphal. The word '.bible," meaning
book, or as applied by the early writer's.
1.-The book, was first used by Chrysos-
tom as early as the fifth century, where
be speaks of the sacred writings col
lectiyely as the Biblia or 1.-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
as apocryphal. This you can find
illustrated by comparing 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 and re-
vision assemblages. For 1900 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 100000 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, a system
which had never been adopted by the
Christians, and was discarded for that
of the learned Spaniard 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
155l.
OF the early TRANSACTIONS of the bible
the most important, aside from the
Septuagint and the St. jerome YER
sions are the three-foid Egyptian
transations of the fourth century (this
remarkable work of the copyist was in
three languages and was intended for
all parts of EgypD; the Versio Figu-
rata, collected by Jacob of Odessa in
the eighth century; that of Paul, bishop
of Tela, in G17; and the eighth, ninth
and tenth century translations. made
respectively by Bede, Alfred and
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 Pctrus
Waldus, ITO; 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
v. and the two excellent works of
Wicklif1c 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, rs
one would naturally infer from the
fact that not less than seventeen Ger
man TRANSACTIONS alone were given the
public between the time of Gutenberg
and Faust and that of Martin Luther.
The Wickliife sometimes spelled
Wycliffe) version of 1884 was the first
English translation. John Wickliffe,
the translator, was condemned to be
burned for presuming to do such
thing without the consent of the cler-
gy. but was finally allowed to die a
natural death. His bible was never
printed; however there are many
manuscript copies of it.
SnDlrn, IInraSt