Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-02-13

~ VEN DOOA Dut bAS NS9NA ~
- tive critics" believe that it was
wise King Solomon who said;
''Of making many books there Is
no enc, and much study is
WEAKNESS of the flesh" Even the
critics will agree that, If not King Sol
ONION. some other very wise person
said it a long time ago.
But whether the saying be King Sol
omon's or that of some ANONYMOUS
writer of "the wisdom literature ito
adopt the affected phrase of some OF
the critics. it is a true saying and far
more pertinent TO present-day condi-
tions than to ancient times. The earth
is flooded with books, and most OF
them are not worth the paper upon
which they are printed. An acknowl-
edged authority has justly declared
that nine-tenths of our current lit
erature has no other end but TO in
veigle a thaler or two out of the
public pocket" 81
One of the fads of book-making, by
which the public pocket is now being
picked, is the making of revised ver-
sions of the Holy Scriptures. The thing
began in this country as far back as
1854, and it has now come to be a
sort of mania. We are not only in
NlLeQ TO Duy new tidllSlAliOAlSs NielAAAA-
ing to be more accurate than all
that have gone before, but a species of
paraphrasing is offered in the market,
protesting to express the Scriptural
ideas in language quite ''up-to date"
az the word goes
The book stores offer some half doz-
en- or more of these modernized Bibles,
written, as is said in the language of
the people. and yet all differing from
each other in important particulars.
The manufacturers of these pseudo
versions set up an unexpressed but
emphatically implied claim of unpre-
cedented ability to- reconstruct the
original Greek and Hebrew texts, and
then to, render those texts in English
of unexampled excellency.
Their performances, as soon as
printed are forthwith paraded and
praised by all the buffers of puffer-
dom, and pious people sincerely desir-
ing to get at the most perfect under
standing of Gods Word hasten to pur-
chase the products of these pulled
prigs, under the misrepresentation that
they are little less than modern proph-
cts. 1t seems to me high time this in
fated pretentiousness were pricked and
that plain people were assured that
there IS not i'm even the best of the va
rious f'Revised Bibles" enough real
Improvement on the old King James
version to make an exchange worth
while. This is practically the unani-
nous verdict of the English-speaking
world. as is evinced by the fact that
what has come to be called distinct
lively THE Revised Version" par ex-
cellence, has made no perceptible i'm
preston on the public and private use
of the King James version. An affected
pulpiter here and there over the land
affects to believe it is very wonderful
and uses IL In HIS pulpit But except
Ing these few sapient parsons most
well informed people agree that the
English of the recent reviseTs is really
upon the whole not nearly so good as
that Of the King James translators.
When we get away from the Re-
vised Version to the consideration of
some of the more recently and hastily
prepared publications. the case be-
comes far worse. often the alleged
improvements are positively ridieu-
lous. Let us take some samples from
what IS known as The Twentieth Cen
fury New Testament title, by the
way, which smacks of an irrevent
freshness like that Of the biography of
the late president Mckinley announce
ed on the next morning after he died
The King James version of Matthew
v: IL. reads: "A city that Is set on a
hill can not be hid.Y, The Twentieth
Century New Testament" substitutes,
1T is impossible for a town that
stands on a hill to escape notice" But
If the strong. simple words Of the
King James version must give place
TO stilted English, this up-to-date
writer striding through the Scriptures
on Tom walkers, might have said with
just as much propriety: AN urban
settlement located upon conspicuous
eminence will command the observa-
tior of all who pass by beyond the pos
slbility of concealment."
In another place we read in the King
James version of a poor sick woman
who in order that she might 'be healed
came behind Jesus and touched the
hem of his garment" But the aes-
thetic twentieth-eenturite renders 1T
that she touched the tassel of his
cloak The next one who gets out
version will perhaps go further ana
read, "she touched button on his
Raglan
Another remarkable feature Of the