Page:The Emphasised Bible - Vol 1.djvu/18

10 however it is, and one which can be substantiated just as conclusively as any law which governs language. The great point at present is that all this accession of force and guide to the sense is, in the Sacred Originals, secured simply by Idiom—order of words, fulness of expression, repetitions and the like—and is therefore both pervading and authoritative. It is "pervading": not, of course, as though all Scripture needed to be formally emphasised to the same degree—to imagine such a thing would be absurd; some styles of Sacred composition, instead of bristling with points, calmly flow on, keeping the even tenor of their way—but "pervading" in the satisfactory sense of being ever available when required. Whenever a point has to be made, a quiet contrast to be rather hinted at than expressed, a sharp and sudden home-thrust to be delivered. Idiom is at hand to accomplish it. From which, when the numberless living interests enshrined in the Bible are considered, it will be expected to follow—and follow it does—that a very large amount of indicated stress underlies almost every page of the Sacred Volume. And—does it need to be repeated?—Emphasis so conveyed is surely "authoritative": which is not the same thing as saying there is no room for misapprehension in this place or in that; nor is it the same as affirming that all scholars are absolutely agreed about every little point. But the emphasis is "authoritative," inasmuch as it is in the original—is a part of the original—is of the very spirit and essence of the original. And being in this way "authoritative," it is in all its main indications worthy of unspeakably more diligent heed in exposition than the most brilliant fancies of men who dream they may make what they please of Holy Writ. Sober students are bound by the laws of Grammar: they are equally bound by the laws of Emphasis.

5. It is one of the leading aims of to do justice to the emphatic Idioms of the original tongues, and thereby place all earnest Bible readers, for practical purposes, on the same footing as that occupied by such as are familiar with Hebrew and Greek.

6. Mainly by Idiom has this been attempted. So that if all the artificial signs of Emphasis used in this Bible were swept away, an amount of Emphatic Idiom would remain far surpassing that to be found in any other version known to the Translator. Although emphatic inversion, for instance, is not infrequently discovered in our Public Versions: yet far more frequently and—if the expression may be pardoned—far more consistently does it appear in this translation. Take two examples out of thousands:

The latter rendering reproduces the idiom of the Hebrew, and therewith also most naturally shows where the primary stress should be laid.

The Idiom, the Emphasis, is in the Greek. It would be endless to cite examples of all the various forms which the Original Idiom takes for the sake of conveying