The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-24
SOME ODD FACTS
 ABOUT THE BIBLE Queer Feature In Origin and
 History MOST WIDELY READ BOOK 1t Is, However Least Understood. The septuaglnt Translation. Why Michael Angelo Put
 Horns on Moses.
MOST WIDELY READ BOOK

New York, August 23,-Flfty years ago circulation of 25,OOO for a popular book was considered phenomenah Today some one of the six best sellers may pass the half-million mark, But no book has ever had such tremendous sale as the Bible, and curiously enough while 1t Is the most universally and widely read piece of literature, scholars who have studied 1t most carefully assert that 1t Is at the same time the least understood. Prl- marily this may be due to the fact that the most familiar English edition of this strangest of books, is, according to one of New Yorlxs most eminent dlvines, n version of a version which Is a transla ton of translation, handed down In a language entirely without vowels."
 Indeed, the history of the Bible is one of the most curious and interesting stories which science has ever illuminated. To the average reader. however, 1t is un- known--the famous. .Lxx, or the Miracle of the Seventy" as it is more often called, is as little known as the mean ing of the term Apochypha. or the date of the beginning of the Bible.
 "The notion loosely floating about" says the Rev Charles r. Aked, who dis cusses this question of the Bible in Ap- pleton's magazine, lis that the Bible came down from Heaven. cieanly print ed, nicely bound in Morocco and gilt edged with book marker against that text which has been erroneously made to declare that every scripture Is in- spired of God" As matter of fact, whether this be an extreme definition or not, few persons realize the manner in which the worlds most popular book was handed down in early days, or how in those stages it resembled very closely the transmission of the legends of our own American Indians by sign and word of mouth.
 The earliest version of the Bible, &C., cording to the best authorities, goes back to the second century, B. c. The earliest Hebrew copy of the Old Testament of undisputed date, however, goes back only to the tenth century, A. D. Between these two date lines lies the wonderful story of the lone best seller' with the miracle of the Lxx, the denomination of the Apochryphal books and a thousand other interesting details.
 The various stages which have led up to the present edition of the Bible, known as that of King James, are defined by Dr. Aked in his Appleton article as follows: ''The Revised Version is based on the Authorized verson, which is an improved edition of the Bishops Bible, which was bad copy of Cranmer's Bible which was based on Covordale's translatons of Dutch and Latin translations and Rog- CTS version of Tindall's Bible" Truly a complicated pedigree. Yet even this covers only the later period.
 The very name of the Bible in itself indicates something of Its remarkable his- tory. While it is treated as a singular noun 1t really comes from two Greek words-ta Biblia-meaning simply "the books" and indicating that these sacred writings are in reality a collection of books. The reason that we speak today of the Old and New Testament is due to a misunderstood translation. Actually 1t should be Old and New Covenant since in its pre-Christian stage the religion of revelation Is represented as the result of a covenant. Later, when a new dispen- sation was spoken of 1t was referred to as a new covenant. But the Greek word for covenant, among Latin-spealSng Christians, was often enormously rem dered as Testament. As a result western Christendom uses the terms Old and New Testament while in other parts of the world the two parts of the Bible are re- ferred to as the Old and New Covenant.
 In early days of the Christian era there was a continual struggle between religion which was primarily spiritual and that which was essentially political and unspiritual. When the prophetic predic- tions of judgment on national sin were Judah, political religion became an ab- surdity.
 During those years in which the struc- ture of the present day Bible was talk ing form, it drew. it's substance from two sources, the historical and the pro- phetical. In the earliest days the matter which now constitutes various books was handed down by word of mouth; later by means of vowelless writing. The difficulties and opportunities for subse- quent difficulty are summed up by pr Aked.
 Tn perfectly marvellous way" he says "the Jews contrived to preserve Il literature without having vowel in their language. The very thought of 1t stag gers one. Let any man write a column of todays newspaper emitting every VOW el as he writes and then try to write out from the copy he has made a fair copy back again into English''
 That this criticism set up by Dr. Aked is in no way extreme is conclusivelv shown by one of the most surprising orc. ations in the world of art; nothing less than Michael Angelo's great statue of Moses. The head of this heroic statue as many readers will remember, is adorn, ed by two horns Many persons may have wondered Just where the great scun- tor got the reason for this strange de- piction As a matter of fact, however it was due to misconeeption-an error in the retranslation which Dr. Aked dis cusses. The Latin words for feature or countenance and horns are similar Through misunderstanding of the vul- turned, Michael Angelo read in a certain passage, "The horns of Moses sbone -, Of course the proper translation ia that the countenance of Moses shone. but having read it horns the sculptor nro- ceeded to endow his statue with two nice little horns.
 Of the various books which constitute the Bible as we have it the time ora