Arizona republican., 1903-12-21

Bible scholars have to trace out the origin of the present day versions of the Scriptures, either Protestant CT Roman Catholic, are manuscripts and fragmentary writings which fail to reach back to the days of Christ, or even of his apostles. The manuscripts upon which scholars have based most of their versions Of the Bible date back no further than the fourth century. The oldest of these manuscripts are at the Vatican and in St. Petersburg. Copies of the Vatican manuscripts are to be exhibited along with other Vati- can treasures at the St. Louis fair.
 The chief difference between the or igins of the Protestant and the Roman Catholic versions in use is that the Douai Bible is a translation from the Vulgate of the fourth century. whereas the King James Bible drew not only on the Vulgate, but also on ancient Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.
 By going to the Vulgate, the Rheims and Douai scholars went back to the days of Jerome, who in SS3 undertook his great task of translating the Bible. There were various Latin versions even in this time, and these he studied with great thoroughness. For the purpose of obtaining a new and more faithful translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew he spent fourteen years in Bethlehem, and travellers at the pres ent time will find crypt under the Church of the Nativity which is called the Chapel of St. Jerome.
 The work of Jerome was called the Vulgata, because it was intended to be read universally by Latin-speaking peoples. At first the book met with bitter criticism and disapprobation, and it wen it's way slowly.
 The Bible of the Roman Catholics takes it's name from a town in France, where there was established, in the reign Of Queen Elizabeth, a Roman Catholic college for English refugees Through Q Huguenot riot, the college in 157S was moved to Rheims. Here a few exiled Oxford men undertook the task Of translating into English the Latin Bible Of their church. Several versions of English Bibles had been printed, and widely circulated in Eng land. which were the work of Protes- tants. Accordingly, when the New Testament was published at Rheims, in 1882 it contained these words, among others, on its frontispiece:
 flor the discCverie of the cCrruptions of divers of late translations and for cleering the Controversies in religion of these daies.'
 The Old Testament was published in 1869, at Dcuai, to which the college had returned from Rheims. To the eye of the modern English scholar. the chief peculiarity of the original text of the Bible is the printing of ''vv'' for wv. The French printers had no "w'' in their fonts, as they did not need 1t for their own alphabet.
 The reason that the Catholic trans lators at Rheims and Douai chose the Vulgate as their text was because the Council Of Trent. in 1546, had made the Vulgate of Jerome the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic church. The council decreed what books were to be received as canonical, and pronounced the Latin text as authentic.
 The errors which crept into the ori- ginal text Of Jerome were caused by the laborious copying by hand of one manuscript from another. in the days prior to the printing press. It was for this reason that Pope Sixtus V issued a revised edition Of the Vulgate text thorized edition. Clement VIII. had still another edition of the Latin text prepared, which was issued in 1893, and which is still the standard Roman is a translation of a revision of Je- romes translation from ancient He brew, Greek and Latin manuscripts.
 Modern editions of the Douai version differ widely from the original text issued from the printing presses at Rheims and Douai. ITO call the Ro- man Catholic version now in use the versicn of Douai and Rheims" says Cardinal Wiseman, lis an abuse Of terms. It has been altered and modi- fled till scarcely any verse remains as it was originally published"
 Tn the preparation of the King James Bible. the forty-seven scholars who were engaged in the work went direct to the Hebrew, Greek and Latin manu- scripts, besides consulting English Bibles already in existence, the latest of which was the Bishops Bible. Lit tie is known of the methods which were employed by these translators, except that they deviated from former versions in many instances where they considered these to be at fault. The work was divided between several committees. "One read the transla- tion," says John Selden, in his account of the proceedings, "the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues CT French, Spanish, Italian, and so forth. If they found any fault. they spoke; if not, he read