Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/409

Rh ENGLISH HI 15 L E 389 particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chap ters ; and having translated or amended them severally by himself, where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree for their parts what shall stand. 9. As any one company hath dispatched any one book in this manner, they shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously ; for his majesty is very careful in this point. 10. If any company, upon the review of the book so sent, doubt or differ upon any place, to send them word thereof, note the place, and withal send the reasons ; to which if they consent not, the difference to be com pounded at the general meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company, at the end of the work. 11. When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters to be directed by authority, to send to any learned man in the land for his judgment of such a place. 12. Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest of his clergy, admonishing them of this translation in hand, and to move and charge as many as, being skilful in the tongues, and having taken pains in that kind, to send his particular observations to the company, either at Westminster, Cambridge, or Oxford, according as it was directed before in the king s letter to the archbishop. 13. The directors in each company to be the deans of Westminster and Chester for that place, and the king s professors in Hebrew and Greek in either university. 14. These translations to be used, when they agree better with the text than the Bishop s Bible, viz., Tyndal s, Mathew s, Coverdale s, Whitchurch s, Geneva. 15. Besides the said directors before mentioned, three or four of the most ancient and grave divines in either of our universities, not employed in translating, to be assigned by the vice-chancellor, upon conference with the rest of the heads, to be overseers of the translations, as well Hebrew as Greek, for the better observation of the fourth rule above specified.&quot; That the work was carried on in the spirit of these rules is shown by the quaint but instructive document which was appended to the Bible as a preface on its completion. It hath cost the workmen, as light as it seemeth, twice seven times seventy-two days and more : matters of such weight and consequence are to be speeded with maturity : for in a business of moment a man fearetli not the blame of convenient slackness. Neither did we think much to consult the translators or commentators, Chaldee, Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Latin, no nor the Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch. Neither did we disdain to revise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered; but having and using such great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass you see.&quot; That work occupied the six committees for four or five years, some parts being brought back to the anvil to be hammered as much as fourteen and some as much as seventeen times. But at length it passed into the hands of the printers, and came from the press of Robert Barker, the king s patentee, in two contemporary issues of folio volumes, separately composed and printed for the sake of speedy production, in the year 1611. Since that time many millions of this translation or revised translation have been printed, and the general acceptance of it by all English-speaking people of whatever denomination is a testimony to its excellency. One principal reason why the English Bible in this last form gives such general satisfaction to the English ear is thatit speaks inalanguage of its own which is conventionally received as a Biblical tongue a language which is thoroughly English, and which is yet separated by its archaic form from the colloquial English of every-day use on the one hand, and from the literary English of most other books on the other. This archaic language is not, however, that of Elizabethan and Jacobean times, as is sometimes alleged. Its genealogy is to be traced up in a direct line through every state of Biblical revision to the Latin Vulgate, and the common English ancestor of every such revision is the Wickliffite Bible of the 14th century. This may be seen clearly by placing a passage from the Wit-kliffite New Testament, in modern spelling but in no other way modernized, beside the same passage taken from the Bible in common use. LUKK Fourtemlh Century Version in Modern Spelling. There was a rich man, and was clothed in purple and white silk, and ate every day shiningly : and there was a beggar, Lazarus by name, that lay at his gate, full of boils, and coveted to be fulfilled of the crumbs that fallen down from the rich man s board : and no man gave to him ; but hounds came and Hcked his boils. And it was done that the beggar died, and was borne of angels into Abraham s bosom : And the rich man was dead also and was buried in hell. And he raised his eyes when lie was in torments, and saw Abraham afar, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he dip the end of his finger in water, to cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham said to him, Son, have mind, for thou hast received good thing in thy life, a,i;d Lazarus also evil thing-* : but he is now comforted, and thou art tor mented. And in all these things, a great dark place is established betwiit us and you; that they th:it would from hence pass to you may not ; neither from thence pass over hither. And he said, Then I pray thee, Father, that thou send him into the house of my father: for I have five brethren ; that he witness to them, lest also they come into this place of torments. And Abraham said to him, They have Moses und the prophets ; hear they them. And he said, Kay, Father Abraham, but if any (if dead men go to them, they sliall do penance. And he said to him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither if any of dead men rise again, they should believe to him. xvi. 19-11. Authorized Version now iit use. There was a certain rich man. hich was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared simiptu&amp;lt; nsly every day and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid t his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham s bosom : tho rich man also died and was buried ; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments and secth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedat thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: Lut now he is comforted, and thou art tor mented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed : fo that they which would pass from hence to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us which would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send him to my father s house : for I have five brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the deal], they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear n&amp;lt;-t Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. That this remarkable continuity of expression has great practical value is shown by the fact that the only other English Bible which has ever lived beyond one edition, that of the Roman Catholics, has been imperceptibly approxi mating to the Authorized Version at every revision that it has undergone, since the original publication of the New Testament at liheims in 1582, and the Old Testament at Douay in 1610. Nor, it is satisfactory to add, has the tender hand with which the Old English of the Bible has been touched in the course of revision led to any sacrifice of sound translation. Modern scholarship may be able to introduce some improvements making the version of still greater value, but upon the whole it already stands pre eminent for its accurate representation of the original Hebrew and Greek, and may challenge favourable compari son in this respect with the Septuagint, with the Latin Vulgate, or with any other version. The question of revision of the Authorized Version has Recent been frequently discussed, but it is only in very recent revision, times that anything has been done which appears to call for particular mention here. In February 1870 the con vocation of Canterbury, at the instigation of the bishop of Winchester, Dr Samuel Wilberforce, appointed a committee to consider the subject, which three months afterwards re ported in the following terms : &quot; 1. That it is desirable that a revision of the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures be undertaken. 2. That the revision be so conducted as to comprise both marginal renderings, and such emen dations as it may be found necessary to insert in the text of the Authorized Version. 3. That in the above resolutions we do not contemplate any new translation of the Bible, or any alteration of the language, except where, in the judgment of the most competent scholars such change is necessary. 4. That in such necessary