Arizona republican., 1911-04-06
Three Hundred Years of the Bible.

Three Hundred Years of the Bible.
This year completes the third cen
fury since the "authorized"-or King
James-version of the Bible was SVEN
10 the world. The publication of that
great work was in 1911, but in what
month of that year is not settled by
historians. The American Bible So
ciety has suggested that the event be
celebrated as far as practicable by
colleges. universities and churches a
week from next Sunday-April %.
In England the celebration was be-
gun on Wednesday, March %, as our
dispatches related, with a vast meet
ing Of church people. statesmen and
scholars in Albert hall, London, which
was addressed by. the British premier,
Mr.. Asquith, and the American am
bassador, Mr.. Whitelaw Reid. At this
meeting a message from President
Taft was read by Mr.. Reid. in which
the president said:
This Book of Books has not only
reigned supreme in England for three
centuries but has bound together, as
nothing else could two great Anglo
Saxon nations, one in blood, in speech
and in a common religious life. Our
laws, our literature and our social life
owe whatever excellence they possess
largely to the influence of this our
chief classic. acknowledged as such
equally on both sides of the sea.
Americans must. therefore, with I'M
feigned satisfaction join in thanks
giving to the God of the Bible, who
has thus Joined together the old and
the new worlds by so precious a tie"
Not only is it true, as Mr.. Taft
says. that the Bible has had an i'm
mense influence upon our laws, litera-
ture, and social life, but it has done
more than everything else to form the
English language. AS Dean Swift has
said, If il were not for the Bible and
the book of common prayer in the
common tongue, We should hardly be
able to understand anything that was
written among us two centuries ago.
These books being perpetually read
i'm churches have proved a kind of
standard for language. especially to
the common people" Apart from all
questions Of creeds, the scholars of the
world have long been quite unanimous
in pronouncing the Bible the greatest
book in all literature. Perhaps no
body has better summed up the liter
airy greatness Of the Bible than Haz-
lit, who, after referring to the sub
Unity and simplicity of such stories
as those of Joseph, Rachel and Laban,
Ruth and Boaz. the captivity and de-
liverance of Israel, says:
There is in all these parts of the
Scripture, and numberless more of
the same kind, an originality, a vast
ness of conception, a depth and tender
ness of feeling and a touching SIM
plicity in the mode of narration which
he does not feel need be made of no
'penetrable stuff There are descrip-
tions in the Book of Job more prodi- |
gal of imagery, more intense in pas
sion, than anything in Homer, as that |
of the state of his prosperity and of
the vision that came upon him by |
night"
OF the two divisions of the Bible
the Old Testament being in Hebrew |
and the New in Greek-translations |
have been made into all the languages
of the world. Some missionaries
among savage tribes. in order to con-
vey the meaning of the teachings # !
Jesus and of the Gospels. have ac-
tually created written language from |
the rude speech of the savages. The
first example of this creation of a |
written language was. we believe, |
grammar of the Choctaw tongue, pre-
pared by an American missionary
AS early as the eighth century por-
tons of the Bible We're translated into
Saxon. The famous Wycliffe transla-
ton of the New Testament was com