ARTICLE VII.

THE ARTICLE IN THE REVISED VERSION.

BY REV. WILLIAM S. TYLER, D.D., LL.D., PROFESSOR, ETC., AT AMHERST COLLEGE.

THE Canterbury Revision of the King James Version of the New Testament is doubtless a better translation of a better Greek text than the version which was revised,probably better than any version of the entire New Testament for popular use that has been made into any language in modern times. In other words, it is a more exact representation than has before been given to English readers of the original and true "New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." And so it is more truly an "authorized version" than the one which we are accustomed to call by that imposing name, whether we consider the authority of him whom alone Christians call Master and Lord, or the right and title and personal and representative influence of the revisers, or, indeed, any other authority which the Englishspeaking nations of our day are bound to respect. It is therefore entitled to be received and read in private and in public by the free choice and suffrage of individuals, families, and churches, equally with "the received version," so far forth as they may deem it equally or more adapted to their instruction and edification. Indeed, the reception which the new revision has already met wherever the English language is spoken awaited and watched for "more than they that watch for the morning," and circulated by thousands and millions in books and primers and newspapers, at prices varying from sixteen dollars to ten cents, as no other book, sacred or profane, was ever expected and circulated in ancient or modern times, this reception is one of the grandest and gladdest events of all the ages. And let it be welcomed, so

we say, by all means let it meet a cordial welcome from ministers and Christians of every name, even as some of the best scholars and representatives of almost every denomination of Christians in England and America have united in making it and giving it their sanction. Let the two versions lie side by side in our pulpits, let them be studied together in our Sunday-schools, let them stand together in loving fellowship in every Christian home, at least until, after fair trial, the one or the other, or if possible a better than either, shall at length be approved, authorized, and received by that general consensus of Christian minds and hearts from which there is no appeal, before which kings and scholars must alike bow, and committees and convocations must ultimately stand or fall.

But the new revision is not inspired any more than the old version was. The original Greek, as it came from the pens of the sacred writers (we too often forget this, and therefore we cannot be too often reminded of it), -that, and that only is the inspired word of God; and all versions are authorized and authoritative and entitled to be received just in proportion as they truly represent the meaning and reproduce the impression of that original "New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Nothing can be more preposterous than for any man or set of men to set themselves up, or set themselves down, upon any version, new or old, and defend it, as if that were the word of God and the very rock of ages.

The new revision is not perfect. No version has ever been perfect, and no revision ever will be. There is no such thing as a perfect translation. And the new revision does not profess or aspire to be a new translation. It claims to be only a revision, and is in fact a compromise between a revision and a translation. It is also a compromise between a revision by the Anglican committee and a revision by the American committee. And, like other compromises, it wants the freedom, it wants the consistency, it wants inevitably some of the merits of both the things between which the compromise was made.

We confess to some disappointment in the results of this compromise. We think the feeling is wide in Great Britain, and it is almost universal in this country, that the greater part of the changes which were proposed by the American committee and rejected by the Anglican committee should have been accepted, and that consistency, not less than the intrinsic merits of the proposed emendations, required their adoption.

On the other hand, we are disappointed, and the same disappointment is widely felt, at the great number of alterations which are needless, which make no difference whatever in the meaning of the Scripture, and whose only effect, with constant readers and lovers of our old English Bible, is to offend the ear and taste of scholars, and to disturb the sacred associations of the common people. Why, for example, should the fowls of the air" be changed to "the birds of the heaven"? Is the latter any more intelligible? Is there any difference in the meaning of the two phrases? Is the latter any more in conformity with the idiom and usage of the English language? Above all, how can this alteration. be reconciled with the first and second rules of the Anglican committee? 1. To introduce as few alterations as possible in the text of the Authorized Version, consistently with faithfulness. 2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the language of the authorized and earlier versions. Very good rules; but readers of the revision very generally complain-and justly, we think that the revisers have not better obeyed them.

Is it maintained that faithfulness required the alteration in question, and others of which this is a specimen? Faithfulness to what? Not to the meaning of the original; for there is no difference in the meaning of the two versions. Not to the words of the Greek text; for it is the business of the translator to translate the Greek into English; and when the meaning is the same the only question is, Which is the better, the more idiomatic, the more perspicuous and proper English? And to that question, in this case, there can be

It may, perhaps, be said, in defence of the revisers, that they intended to avoid the error of the translators, who avowed their purpose to vary the rendering of the same Greek words and phrases in different connections, for the sake of the variety; and so they the revisers - have taken pains to render the same Greek word by the same English word, so far as possible, wherever it occurs. Another good rule, if well, that is wisely, followed. But, in the first place, we cannot but feel, and we hear the same complaint from many others, that they have gone to the opposite extreme, and thus not only introduced unnecessary alterations, but made the revision sometimes obscure or affected or inelegant, and sometimes erroneous. And yet, in the second place, they have found it impossible to carry their principle through, and always render the same Greek words by the same English words. Thus, they have rendered ò oupavós the heaven (as in Matt. vi. 26," Behold the birds of the heaven," so also) in Matt. xvi. 2, 3, and thus given us the unidiomatic, unauthorized, Greek-English expression, "The heaven is red and lowering"; and yet they have rendered Toû ovpavoû heaven (without the article) in the verse which immediately precedes these, and ἐν οὐρανῷ (Matt. vi. 10), ἐν οὐρανοῖς (Matt. vi. 9), and ἐν τοῖς oupavois (Matt. vi. 1) all by the same English, viz. in heaven; thus illustrating the impossibility of rendering the same Greek always by the same English, or having the same English stand always for the same Greek, and the unwisdom of attempting to do so at the expense of our good mother tongue. Doubtless the revisers have improved on the translators in their effort to secure consistent renderings. Thus they have enabled the readers of their version, with a Concordance, to follow the same English word with a strong probability that the word will be found to be the same also in the different passages of the Greek. But they could not achieve impossibilities. To err is human; and they have doubtless erred, sometimes in the very direction which they have censured in the Authorized Version, but more frequently by going to the opposite extreme.

We have been disappointed most of all to find that the revisers have given us so much English that is not English, that is not authorized by good usage, and is therefore bad. Some of this may perhaps at length be hallowed by age; but too much of it will be Greek still, requiring a further translation, a translation of the idiom, and very likely a transposition of the words, to make it English. If English at all, it is such as no good writer or speaker would ever think of using in original discourse; such as is found only in translations and in the lessons of school-boys, and found there by good teachers only to be scourged and held up as a warning to others. It is the result, no doubt, of their strong desire to be true to the original and sacred Greek; but it is not for that reason any the less false to English idioms, and unfortunate in a version which is intended to be read by the masses in Great Britain and America, and to become, as the Authorized Version has been, the educator of all Englishspeaking peoples and nations. We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to the revisers for emendations in great numbers which are as felicitous in their English as they are faithful to the Greek, and so luminous that they seem to be like the word which brought light out of the primeval darkness. But aliquando dormitat bonus Homerus"; and, although it would be easy and far more pleasant to descant on the excellences of the revision, while to point out its defects is a thankless and perhaps offensive task; yet the former is needless and useless, while the latter may lead to some good result, since the only way to arrive at an approximately perfect version is by the frank criticism and patient elimination of remaining imperfections.

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In the present paper we shall confine ourselves to an examination of the manner in which the revisers have rendered into English the Greek article. And here we must. begin with acknowledging again our obligations for numerous alterations which shed light and life on the sacred page. Such, for instance, as the more frequent rendering of o Xplorós by the Christ, e.g. Matt. ii. 4, "Where the Christ