Omaha daily bee., 1905-01-22
MAKES MANY CHANGES IN THE TEX
claim Made that Kings English" is Used
for First Time.
TRANSLATION ALLEGED TO BE CLOSE
Several Familiar Quotations Are Found to
Be Departures from Fact.
SOME POPULAR IDEAS ARE OVERTHROW
Editor Discovers that AGrippa Was
Not "AImost Persuaded" and that
Felix Did Not Tremble
During Discourse.

LONDON, Jan. 2l.-(Specia: Cablegram to
The Bee 1.-THE demand for new versions
Of the scriptures appears to be almost in
satiable At a time when one new YER
sion alone, "The Twentieth Century is
stated to have attained the enormous sale
of 100000 copies. yet another entirely new
version has been completed, and prcpara-
tions are In progress for its early publica-
tion on both sides of the Atlantic.
The title of this new work. The Cor
rected English New Testament does not
convey the full extent Of the task which
its editors have set themselves. They
claim that the scriptures now appear in
the "King's English" for the first time
Bearing in mind that the New Testa-
ment writings have to religious readers
documentary as well as a literary aspect,
their aim has been to give throughout
close translation. But they claim also to
have taken greater pains than their prede-
cessors, working similar lines, to pro-
duce a work that shall be essentially Eng
lish, and not only everywhere ineligible
and unequivocal in meaning but also In
its literary form as attractive as possible
to the mass of readers.
The work is put forward in all reverence
for the spirit of the authorized version, of
which It is a revision, but regard for the
latter has nowhere deferred the trans
lators from correcting the many admitted
defects of that version a true repre-
sentation of the Greek original. New
Testament, so prepared and made as plain
and devoid of ambiguity in every sentence
as care can make it, has appeared to them
to be a serious need among the general
mass of Bible readers.
Work Meets with Approval.
% he
work is Mr.. Samuel Lloyd a life governor
of the British and Foreign Bible society,
and he is bringing out his version as an
illustration of what he considers should be
done by the society to this end.
Mr.. Lloyds association with the promo
tion Of Bible knowledge has been lifelong.
More than fifty years ago he emulated
George Borrows in smuggling Bibles into
spain,sa feat which he accomplished by
enclosing a large number of copies In the
hollow balance weights of some machinery
his firm was consigning there
The work has already won the approval
Of so high an authority as the bishop of
Durham, who has written a preface to It,
In which he says that 1t appears to remedy
in countless instances the serious lack OF
English felicity OF the revised version.
A tentative edition of the present work
was prepared some time ago by canon
Girdleston and circulated among scholars
some twenty or thirty of whom have vol
unfairly contributed suggestions. In the
final revision Mr. Lloyd has had the as
sistance of Rev. E. L. Cunningham and
Mr. W. b. Gurbutt, the latter of whom
gave out the following statement this
week:
I'VE have not striven after any purely
literary graces" he explained, "and any
literary merit will, of course, have to be
credited first to the original But we have
certainly studied euphony, and while hav-
ing always in mind the plain man and
woman, we have endeavored never to be
undignihed. We hope we have produced
testament which may be read in church
without shocking the most devout wor-
slippers and without sending any one to
sleep-one which may be mystic without
any unnecessary mystihcation.
''It Ia q curious fact that great many
OF the texts expressing popular pious feel
ing are instances of the inaccuracy of the
authorized version. 1t has panied us to
alter them, but truth is greater than sem
timent. Everybody knows Agrippa did not
say he was almost persuaded and that
Felix did not 'tremble, at all events phys
ically.
Some Important Changes.
again, il has not been pleasant to show
people that in talking of falling asleep in
Jesus they are not quoting the actual
words of the New Testament. Again, how
many thousands of persons have been
misled by the time-honored expression the
order of Melchisedic?' But scholars are
now agreed that there was no order of
priests in the modern sense.
ITO give some idea of the revision, the
word publican. which is misleading to
mir hapOmag 'C0llaCtOr
Lawyer is changed into teacher of the
law, and penny becomes shilling as
being nearer the real value. further
idea may be gained from the sentence in
the authorized version, The effectual fer
vent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much The revised version makes this,
The supplication of a righteous man avail
eth much in it's working, In the corrected
English version we say, Mighty in its
working is the prayer of a righteous man
"A noticeable feature of the book will
be the almost complete absence of italics,
with their temptation of undesirable en-
phasis. This has been effected largely by
the mere transposition OF the words. After
ALL why should the reader of the Bible be
compelled to resort 10 a commentary con-
tinually, when in most cases all that is
wanted is that the translator should give
'the right word and put II in the right
placer"
Few Comparisons
AUTHORIZED CORRECTED