any account, is a version of the Gospel of St. John, executed by Bede, the monk of Jarrow. As we read the account of his death in the year 735, preserved by an eye-witness, we are transported, in imagination, to the monastery on the banks of the Tyne, where still, amidst clouds of smoke and noxious vapours, an old Saxon chancel may be seen in good preservation, connected with a now ruined monastery, and containing, near the communion table, a shattered high-backed seat, world-known as Bede's chair. There, in the monastery, we see the venerable ecclesiastic in his last hour, intently engaged in dictating to his amanuensis. "There remains now only one chapter; but it seems difficult for you to speak," exclaims the scribe, as his pen traces on the parchment the last verse of the 20th chapter of John. "It is easy," replied Bede: "take your pen, dip it in ink, and write as fast as you can.” Now, master," says the Jarrow scribe, after hastily penning down the sentences from his trembling lips, "now only one sentence is wanting." Bede repeated it. "It is finished," said the scribe. "It is finished," replied the dying saint. "Lift up 66 my head; let me sit in my cell, in the place where I have been accustomed to pray; and now glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." And with the utterance of these words his spirit fled. It was a noble distinction to die in the act of translating the Word of God. Bede is said to have acquired some acquaintance with Hebrew, and more with Greek, and to have had in his possession a codex of the Acts of the Apostles in the original, to the readings of which he refers in a commentary on that book.* He is thought by some to have translated the whole * Eadie's English Bible, i. 11. Bible. We should be glad to see an accredited Ms. of such a version, but nobody knows where it can be found. John Foxe, in 1571, printed the Gospels of the four evangelists, translated in the old Saxon time out of Latin into the vulgar tongue of the Saxons; but the worthy martyrologist was scarcely to be trusted as editor of such a work; and on examining it we discover that two-thirds only are composed of the version; the other third is made up by verses from the Bishops' Bible, which are sometimes made to harmonize with an earlier translation. It was conjectured by Marshall, who published another edition, on the basis of that by John Foxe, that the collection contained the supposed version by Bede; but this is mere conjecture, and the text of that version, if there ever was one, continues to be a desideratum. Foxe rejoiced much that he could appeal to antiquity in favour of vernacular versions, then viewed with so much jealousy by the Church of Rome; and the Reformers generally were fond of this argument, considerably overstating the facts of the case, as might be expected in an uncritical age, and amidst the heats of controversy. Archbishop Parker observes, in his preface to the Bishops' Bible: "Their old forefathers, that have ruled in this realme, who in their times and in diuers ages did their diligence to translate the whole bookes of the Scriptures to the erudition of the laytie, as yet at this day, to be seene diuers bookes translated into the vulgar tongue, some by kynges of the realme, some by bishoppes, some by abbottes, some by other deuout godly fathers; so desirous they were of old tyme to haue the lay sort edified in godlynes by reading in their vulgar tongue, that very many bookes be yet extant, though for the age of the speache, and straungeness of the charect of many of them almost worne out of knowledge. In whiche bookes may be seene euidently howe it was vsed among the Saxons, to haue in their Churches read the foure gospels so distributed and piked out in the body of the euangelistes' bookes, that to euery Sunday and festiuall day in the yere they were sorted out to the common ministers of the Churche in their common prayers to be read to their people." In fact, our knowledge of early Anglo-Saxon Gospels is altogether unsatisfactory; for we are told by Sir Frederick Madden, a great authority on this subject, that of several MSS. in existence, "none appear to give the version in its original purity."* IV. The last division to be noticed consists of AngloSaxon and Early English Psalters. The Psalms formed so important a part of the church service, and so powerfully touched the hearts of men, that we do not wonder more attention was paid to them by our forefathers than to any other portion of Holy Writ. It is very remarkable that the Psalms have in all ages drawn towards them the affections of devout minds, and have been a true cardiphonia to mankind in general; so that in this fact we have a satisfactory answer to objections brought against them in modern times. An Anglo-Saxon Psalter, of the ninth century, has been edited by Stevenson for the Surtees Society; and an AngloNorman version of the Psalms and canticles of the church exists, regarded as earlier than 1200.† The earliest prose translation of an entire book of Scripture is a Psalter by William de Schorham, vicar of Chart Sutton, near Leeds, in the county of Kent. It belongs to the fourteenth century * Preface to edition of Wycliffe's Bible, by Forshall and Madden, p. ii. |