“For asmuch as many have taken in hand to write the historie of those thynges, wherof we are fully certified, even as they declared them unto us, which from yebegynnyng saw them their selves, and were ministers at the doyng: It seemed good also to me (moste noble Theophilus) as sone as I had learned perfectly all thynges from the beginnyng, to wryte unto thee therof from poynt to poynt: That thou mightest acknowlage the trueth of those thinges where in thou hast bene broght up.”
“For asmuch as many have taken in hand to write the historie of those thynges, wherof we are fully certified, even as they declared them unto us, which from yebegynnyng saw them their selves, and were ministers at the doyng: It seemed good also to me (moste noble Theophilus) as sone as I had learned perfectly all thynges from the beginnyng, to wryte unto thee therof from poynt to poynt: That thou mightest acknowlage the trueth of those thinges where in thou hast bene broght up.”
In the version of 1560 the same passage is given thus:
“For as much as many have taken in hande to set foorth the storie of those thinges whereof we are fully persuaded. As they have delivered them unto us, which from the beginning saw them theirselves, and were ministers of the worde, It seemed good also to me (most noble Theophilus), as sone as I had searched out perfectly all things from the beginnyng, to write unto thee thereof from point to point, That thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of these things, whereof thou hast bene instructed.”
“For as much as many have taken in hande to set foorth the storie of those thinges whereof we are fully persuaded. As they have delivered them unto us, which from the beginning saw them theirselves, and were ministers of the worde, It seemed good also to me (most noble Theophilus), as sone as I had searched out perfectly all things from the beginnyng, to write unto thee thereof from point to point, That thou mightest acknowledge the certaintie of these things, whereof thou hast bene instructed.”
It will be seen that in this short passage the changes made from the earlier form of the work are as many as ten in number. As this, however, may be deemed a somewhat exceptional passage, let us take an ordinary chapter in the Gospels, presenting no special difficulty, as for instance Matt. xvii. A collation of the two versions will show that in this chapter of twenty-seven verses the revision of 1560 departs from Whittingham’searlier work in no fewer than forty places.[25]Thus persevering was the endeavour of these faithful men to do their very best, and with what success may to some extent be seen in the factthat of these forty changes twenty-six were confirmed in after years by the judgment of King James’ translators.
“So earnestly,” says Strype[26]in hisLife of Archbishop Parker, “did the people of the nation thirst in those days after the knowledge of the Scriptures, that that first impression was soon sold off.” So earnestly also did the translators seek to perfect their work, that about the beginning of March, 1565, they had finished a careful review and correction of their translation in preparing for a fresh issue.
Popular as was the Genevan Bible amongst the mass of the English people, the decidedly puritanic cast of its annotations stood in the way of its universal acceptance, while its manifest superiority as a translation to the Great Bible made it almost an impossibility that the latter could be maintained in its place of pre-eminence as the Bible appointed by authority to be read in churches. Steps were accordingly taken by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to prepare a Bible, by the aid of “diverse learned fellow-bishops,” that would accord with the ecclesiastical sympathies of the party to which he belonged.[27]Hedistributed portions to twelve of his episcopal brethren, and to other Church dignitaries;[28]one portion he took under his own charge. The completed work was presented to Elizabeth within a few weeks of the completion of the tenth year of her reign, October 5th, 1568.
The rules laid down by Parker for the guidance of his colleagues were these: 1. “To follow the common English translation used in the churches, and not to recede from it but where it varieth manifestly from the Hebrew or Greek original. 2. To use sections and divisions in the texts as Pagnine[29]in his translation useth; and for the verity of the Hebrew, to follow the said Pagnine and Munster specially, and generally others learned in the tongues. 3. To make no bitter notes upon any text, or yet to set down any determination in places of controversy. 4. To note such chapters and places as contain matter of genealogies, or other such places not edifying, with some strike or note, that the reader may eschew them in his public reading. 5. That all such words as sound in the old translation to any offence of lightness or obscenity be expressed with more convenient terms and phrases.” From the first of these rules it is clear that the work then undertaken was intended to be a revision of the Great Bible. Some of the revisers seem to have observed this rule in a most rigid manner, and have followed the Great Bible so closely as to retain its words, even in places which had been more correctly rendered in the Genevan. There appears to have been no co-operative action on the part of the several revisers, and to this cause we may attribute much of the irregularity that attaches to the execution of their work. In many respects they laid themselves open to adverse criticism, and a paper was sent to Parker by Thomas Lawrence, HeadMaster of Shrewsbury School, and an eminent Greek scholar, entitled,Notes of Errors in the Translation of the New Testament out of the Greek.[30]He points out fifteen passages in which the words are not “aptlye translated,” eight in which “words and pieces of sentences” are “omytted,” two in which superfluous words are inserted, two in which, owing to mistranslation, an “error in doctrine” is involved, and two in which the moods and tenses of verbs are changed. These passages, except one from the Colossians, are all taken from the Gospels; and we may hence not unreasonably infer that the writer intended the passages named to be regarded, not as an exhaustive list, but as illustrations simply of the kind of defects which called for correction. Moved, as would seem, by these criticisms, Parker set on foot a revision of his former volume; and in 1572 this Bible was, as his biographer expresses it,[31]“a second time by his means” “printed with Corrections and Amendments and other improvements, more than the former Editions.”
Although this Bible received the sanction of Convocation, and every Archbishop and Bishop was ordered to have a copy in his hall or dining-room for the use of his servants and of strangers; and although some editions bear on their title-page the words, “Set forth by Aucthoritie” (meaning thereby the authority of Convocation), it never came into anything like general use, nor did it even establish itself as the Bible exclusively read in churches. The Genevan Bible was still used by many of the clergy in their sermons and in their published works; and in 1587, though nineteen years had then passed since its first publication, we find Archbishop Whitgift complaining that divers parish churches and chapels of ease had either no Bible at all, or those only which were not of the translation authorized by the Synods of Bishops. Between 1568,when this Bible was first published, and 1608, when the last New Testament of this version was issued, there were sent forth altogether twenty editions of the Bishops’ Bible and eleven of the New Testament. In the same period there were published seventy-nine editions of the Genevan Bible, and thirty of the Genevan New Testament.[32]
Besides the Genevan and the Bishops’, another Bible made its appearance (so far, at least, as the New Testament was concerned) in the reign of Elizabeth. In the year 1582 there was printed at Rheims a translation of the New Testament,[33]made by certain scholars connected with the English seminary for the training of Catholic priests, formerly established at Douai, in Flanders. The translators, in their preface, candidly confess that they did not publish from any conviction “that the Holy Scriptures should alwaies be in our mother tonge,” or that they ought “to be read indifferently of all,” but because they had compassion to see their “beloved countrie men with extreme danger of their soules, to use only such prophane translations;” viz., as the Protestant Bibles previously referred to, “and erroneous men’s mere phantasies, for the pure and beloved word of truth;” and because, also, they were “moved thereunto by the desires of many devout persons,” and whom they hoped to induce to lay aside the “impure versions” they had hitherto been compelledto employ. Quite apart from the polemical purpose thus distinctly avowed, this translation was a retrograde movement. It did not profess to translate the original texts, but only the “vulgar Latin;” and the translators justify their procedure by this plea, amongst others, that “the holy Council of Trent ... hath declared and defined this onely of al other Latin translations to be authentical, and so onely to be used and taken in publike lessons, disputations, preachings, and expositions, and that no man presume upon any pretence to reject or refuse the same.”
In the accomplishment of their work the Rhemish translators have very faithfully observed the rule which they laid down for themselves, to be “very precise and religious in folowing our copie, the old vulgar approved Latin; not only in sense ... but sometime in the very wordes also, and phrases;” that is to say, they have given a very literal and exact translation of the Vulgate, in many parts extremely Latinized in its diction. A considerable number of words they virtually left untranslated, boldly venturing to transfer the unfamiliar, and in many cases unintelligible, vocables into their English text. Some of these Latinized words have obtained a permanent place in our language, but the larger number have failed to commend themselves.[34]
Such then were the chief forms through which, at the close of the sixteenth century, the English Bible had passed. The devout and earnest scholars who from time to time sought to “open the Scriptures” to their fellow-countrymen were for the most part moved by a burning desire to give to God of theirvery best. They grudged no labour to render their work more complete. They allowed no spirit of self-satisfaction to blind them to a perception of defects. They were too humble and too well convinced of the greatness and manifoldness of their work to fancy that they had reached perfection, but were persevering and self-denying in their endeavours to attain unto it. And they have left behind them for us to follow a noble example of patient continuance in well doing.
How in their hands the English Bible has grown, from the first attempt to set it forth in the language of our country to the form in which we are most familiar with it, can be fully learnt only by a careful comparison of the successive revisions to which it has been subjected. To aid my readers in forming some approximate idea of it I append Psalm xxiii., as it appears in the principal Bibles which have been mentioned in this and the preceding lecture.
1. WYCLIFFE’S, 1382. (?)
The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing to me shal lacke; in the place of leswe[35]where he me ful sette. Ouer watir of fulfilling he nurshide me; my soule he conuertide. He broȝte doun me upon the sties of riȝtwisnesse; for his name. For whi and if I shal go in the myddel of the shadewe of deth; I shal not dreden euelis, for thou art with me. Thi ȝerde and thi staf; tho han confortid me. Thou hast maad redi in thi siȝte a bord; aȝen hem that trublyn me. Thou hast myche fattid in oile myn hed; and my chalis makende ful drunken, hou riȝt cler it is. And thi mercy shal vnderfolewe me; alle the daȝis of my lif. And that I dwelle in the hous of the Lord; in to the lengthe of daȝis.
2. PURVEY’S, 1388. (?)
The Lord gouerneth me, and no thing schal faile to me; in the place of pasture there he hath set me. He nurschide me on the watir of refreischyng; he conuertide my soule. He ledde me forth on the pathis of riȝtfulnesse; for his name. For whi thouȝ Y schal go in the myddis of schadewe of deeth; Y schal not drede yuels, for thou art with me. Thi ȝerde and thi staf; tho han coumfortid me. Thou hast maad redi a boord in my siyt; aȝens hem that troblen me. Thou hast maad fat myn heed with oyle; and my cuppe, fillinge greetli, is ful cleer. And thi merci schal sue me; in alle the daies of my lijf. And that Y dwelle in the hows of the Lord; in to the lengthe of daies.
3. COVERDALE’S, 1535.
The Lorde is my shepherde, I can want nothinge. He fedeth me in a greene pasture; and ledeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soule, and bringeth me forth in the waye of rightuousness for his name’s sake. Though I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no euell, for thou art with me; thy staffe and thy shepehoke comforte me. Thou preparest a table before me agaynst mine enemies; thou anoyntest my heade with oyle, and fyllest my cuppe full. Oh let thy louying kyndnes and mercy folowe me all the dayes off my life that I maye dwell in the house off the Lord for euer.
4. GREAT BIBLE, 1539.
The Lorde is my shepherde, therefore can I lacke nothing. He shal fede me in a grene pasture and lead me forth besyde the waters of cōforte. He shal conuerte my soule and bring me forth in the pathes of righteousnes for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walke thorow yevalleye of yeshadow of death, I wylfeare no euell, for thou art wtme: thy rod and thy staff confort me.
Thou shalt prepare a table before me, agaynst them that trouble me: thou hast annointed my head wtoyle, and my cup shal be ful. But (thy) louing kyndnes and mercy shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe: and I wyll dwel in the house of the Lord for euer.
5. GENEVAN, 1560.
1. The Lordismy shepheard, I shall not want.
2. Hee maketh mee to rest in greene pasture,andleadeth me by the still waters.
3. He restoreth my soule,andleadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse for his Names sake.
4. Yea, though I should walke through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feare no euill, for thou art with me: thy rodde and thy staffe, they comfort me.
5. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the sight of mine adversaries: thou doest anoynt mine head with oyle,andmy cup runneth over.
6. Doubtlesse kindnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my life, and I shall remaine a long season in the house of the Lord.
6. BISHOPS, 1568.
1. God is my shephearde, therefore I can lacke nothyng: he wyll cause me to repose myselfe in pasture full of grasse, and he wyll leade me vnto calme waters.
2. He wyll conuerte my soule; he wyll bring me foorth into the pathes of righteousnesse for his name sake.
3. Yea, though I walke through the valley of the shadowe of death, I wyll feare no euyll; for thou art with me, thy rodde and thy staffe be the thynges that do comfort me.
4. Thou wylt prepare a table before me in the presence of myne aduersaries; thou has annoynted my head with oyle, and my cup shalbe brymme full.
5. Truely felicitie and mercie shal folowe me all the dayes of my lyfe: and I wyll dwell in the house of God for a long tyme.
7. DOUAI, 1610.
1. The Psalme of Dauid.
2. Our Lord ruleth one, and nothing shal be wanting to me: in place of pasture there he hath placed me.
3. Upon the water of refection he hath brought me vp: he hath conuerted my soule.
He hath conducted me upon the pathes of iustice for his name.
4. For, although I shal walke in the middes of the shadow of death, I will not feare euils: because thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staffe, they haue comforted me.
5. Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that truble me.
Thou hast fatted my head with oyle; and my chalice inebriating how goodlie is it!
6. And thy mercie shal folow me al the dayes of my life; And that I may dwel in the house of our Lord, in longitude of dayes.
THE REVISION OF 1611—THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION.
At the accession of James I. theGenevan Bibleand theBishops’ Biblewere, as we have seen, the Bibles in current use, the latter being the Bible upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the former the favourite Bible of the people at large. The Book of Psalms also in the version of the Great Bible survived, as it still does, in the psalter of the Prayer Book, and probably in some few parish churches old and worn copies of the Great Bible still maintained their place.
The state of religious parties at that date rendered it almost an impossibility that either of the two first-named versions should become universally accepted. The close connection of the Genevan Bible with the Puritan party, and the decidedly puritanic cast of some of its notes, created an insuperable prejudice against it in the minds of the more zealous advocates of Episcopal authority; while the inferiority[36]of the Bishops’ Bible as a version effectually barred its claim to an exclusive use. The need, then, for a new version was obvious, and a desire for it was probably felt by many of all parties.
Public expression was first given to this desire on the second day of the Hampton Court Conference, January 16, 1604, by Dr. John Rainolds,[37]the leading representative of the Puritans in that assembly. It was not brought forward as one of the matters which he had been deputed to lay before the Conference; it seems rather to have been mentioned by him incidentally in connection with certain suggested reforms in the Prayer Book. “He moved his Majesty that there might be a new translation of the Bible, because those which were allowed in the reign of King Henry VIII. and Edward VI. were corrupt, and not answerable to the Truth of the Original,”[38]referring in illustration to the renderings given of Gal. iv. 25,[39]Ps. cv. 28,[40]and Ps. cvi. 30.[41]It is somewhat curious that no direct reference was made to the Bishops’ Bible; the reason, probably, was that this Bible was not one of those which had been “allowed” by royal authority. Of the three mistranslations quoted by Rainolds, the first only is found in the Bishops’ Bible; the other two occur in the Prayer Book Psalter.
The suggestion of Rainolds met with no opposition. The king himself expressed his approval of it, not, however, without an ignorant and disingenuous fling at the Genevan version; and “presently after,” say the translators in their preface, the king“gave order for this translation” to be made. In the course of a few months a scheme for the execution of the work was matured, and in a letter to Dr. Richard Bancroft, then Bishop of London, the king informed him that he had appointed fifty-four learned men to undertake the translation. He even seems to have contemplated the possibility of securing the co-operation of all the biblical scholars of the country; and in a letter to Bancroft, dated July 22, 1604, directed him “to move the bishops to inform themselves of all such learned men within their several dioceses as, having especial skill in the Hebrew and Greek tongues, have taken pains in their private studies of the Scriptures for the clearing of any obscurities, either in the Hebrew or the Greek, or touching any difficulties, or mistakings in the former English translation, which we have now commanded to be thoroughly viewed and amended; and thereupon to write unto them, earnestly charging them, and signifying our pleasure therein, that they send such their observations to Mr. Lively, our Hebrew reader in Cambridge, or to Dr. Harding, our Hebrew reader in Oxford, or to Dr. Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, to be imparted to the rest of their several companies; that so our said intended translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned men within this our kingdom.”[42]Directions to a similar effect were sent also to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who was empowered in the king’s name to associate with those already appointed any “fitt men” he might be acquainted with; and we may infer that a corresponding communication was sent to Oxford.
To what extent this comprehensive scheme was carried out we have no means of determining. The names of the fifty-fourlearned men referred to are not given, and we are consequently left in uncertainty whether those who ultimately engaged in the work[43]were all men included in that list, or whether other scholars, chosen by the universities or recommended by the bishops, formed part of the number.
The rules laid down for the guidance of the translators were as follows:
1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the Bishops’ Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the Original will permit.
2. The Names of the Prophets and the Holy Writers, with the other Names of the Text to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were vulgarly used.
3. The old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept; viz., the wordChurchnot to be translatedCongregation, &c.
4. When a Word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers, being agreeable to the Propriety of the Place, and the Analogy of the Faith.
5. The division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as little as may be, if necessity so require.
6. No Marginal Notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek Words, which cannot without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be exprest in the Text.
7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down, as shall serve for the fit reference of one Scripture to another.
8. Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or Chapters, 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 despatched any one Book inthis 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 compounded 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, Cambridg, or Oxford.
13. The Directors in each Company to be the Deans of Westminster and Chester for that place; and the King’s Professors in the Hebrew or Greek in either University.
14. These Translations to be used, when they agree better with the Text than the Bishops’ Bible; viz.,Tindall’s,Matthew’s,Coverdale’s,Whitchurch’s,[44]Geneva.
15. Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the 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 4th rule above specified.[45]
Besides these rules, some others of a more definite nature seem to have been adopted by the translators themselves. At the Synod of Dort, held in the years 1618 and 1619, the question of preparing a new Dutch translation came under consideration, and for the guidance of its deliberations upon this point the English Delegates[46]were requested to give an account of the procedure observed in the translation recently made in England. In a matter of such grave importance the Delegates felt that they ought not to give any off-hand statement, and accordingly, after careful consideration, prepared a written account, which was presented to the Synod on its seventh Session, November 20th, 1618. In this account eight rules are given, the first three of which embody the substance of the first, sixth, and seventh of the rules given above. The others direct:
That where the Hebrew or Greek admits of a twofold rendering, one is to be given in the text, and the other noted in the margin; and in like manner where an important various reading is found in approved authorities.
That in the translation of the books of Tobit and Judith, where the text of the old Latin Vulgate greatly differs from that of the Greek, the latter text should be followed.
That all words introduced for the purpose of completing the sense are to be distinguished by a difference of type.
That new tables of contents should be prefixed to each book, and new summaries to each chapter.
And lastly, that a complete list of Genealogies[47]and a description of the Holy Land should be added to the work.[48]
From various causes, which cannot now be discovered, a periodof three years elapsed before the revisers commenced their labours. One reason may have been that no provision was made for meeting the necessary costs of the undertaking. With a cheap liberality the king directed Bancroft to write to the bishops, asking them, as benefices became vacant, to give him the opportunity of bestowing them upon the translators as a reward for their service; and as to current expenses, the king, while professing with much effusiveness his readiness to bear them, cleverly evaded the responsibility by stating that some of “my lords, as things now go, did hold it inconvenient.”[49]
The revision was completed, as the revisers themselves tell us, in “twice seven times seventy-two days and more;” that is to say, in about two years and three-quarters; and if to this be added the nine months spent in a final revision and preparation for the press, we have then only a period of three years and a half. The new Bible was published in 1611; the work, therefore, could not have been commenced before 1607.
Although the men who engaged in this important undertaking are called “translators,” their work was essentially that of revision. This is clearly shown both by the rules laid down for their guidance, and by the statement of the translators themselves, who say in their preface, “Truly, good Christian reader, wee never thought from the beginning that wee should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one,” “but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principall good one, not justly to bee excepted against; that hath beene our indeavour, that our marke.”[50]
Further, this revision was a more extensive and thorough revision than any which had been heretofore undertaken. In former revisions, either the work had been done by the solitary labours of one or two, or when a fair number of competent menwere engaged in it no sufficient provision had been made for combined action, and but few opportunities had been given for mutual conference. In this revision a larger number of scholars were engaged than upon any former, and the arrangements were such as secured that upon no part of the Bible should the labour of fewer than seven persons be expended. The revisers were divided into six companies, two of which met at Westminster, two at Cambridge, and two at Oxford. The books of the Old Testament, from Genesis to 2 Kings inclusive, were assigned to the first Westminster company, consisting of ten members; from 1 Chronicles to Song of Solomon, to the first Cambridge company, consisting of eight members; and from Isaiah to Malachi, to the first Oxford company, consisting of seven members. The Apocryphal books were assigned to the second Cambridge company, which also consisted of seven members. Of the books of the New Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse were given to the second Oxford company, in which as many as ten members were at different times associated; the Epistles were entrusted to the seven scholars forming the second Westminster company.[51]
The portions assigned to each company were not again subdivided amongst its members; but, in accordance with the eighth rule, “every particular man of each company” translated and amended by himself each successive portion, and the company met from time to time to confer upon what they had done, and to agree upon what should stand.[52]Of the mode of procedurefollowed at the meetings of the several companies, we have no other information than the brief statement given by Selden in hisTable Talk—that “one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian, &c. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on.”
One interesting and touching picture of the translators at work, which however seems to have escaped the notice[53]of all writers upon the history of the English Bible, is given us by Dr. Daniel Featley in his account of theLife and Death of John Rainolds, and which is probably the substance, if not the very words, of the oration delivered by him at the funeral of the latter, when, on account of the large number of mourners, “the Chapell being not capable of the fourth part of the Funerall troupe,” a desk was set up in the quadrangle of Corpus Christi College, and a brief history of Rainolds’ life, “with the manner of his death,” was thence delivered to the assembled company. Dr. Rainolds was one of the Oxford scholars to whom the difficult task was assigned of revising the prophetical books of the Old Testament; and Featley tells us that “for his great skill in the originall Languages,” the other members of the company, “Doctor Smith, afterward Bishop of Gloster; Doctor Harding, President of Magdalens; Doctor Kilbie, Rector of Lincolne Colledge; Dr. Bret, and others, imployed in that worke by his Majesty, had recourse” to him “once aweeke, and in his Lodgings perfected their Notes; and though in the midst of this Worke, the gout first tooke him, and after a consumption, of which he dyed; yet in a great part of his sicknesse the meeting held at his Lodging, and he lying on his Pallet, assisted them, and in a manner in the very translation of the booke of life, was translated to a better life.”[54]Rainolds died May 21st, 1607.
In the discharge of their responsible task the translators made use of all the aids accessible to them for the perfecting of their work. Not only did they bring to it a large amount of Hebrew and Greek scholarship, and the results of their personal study of the original Scriptures, they were careful to avail themselves also of the investigations of others who had laboured in the same field. Translations and commentaries in the Chaldee, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch languages were laid under contribution. “Neither,” they add, “did we disdaine to revise that which wee had done, and to bring back to the anvill that which wee had hammered; but having and using as great helpes as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coveting praise for expedition, wee have at length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the worke to that passe that you see.”
When the several companies had completed their labours there was needed some general supervision of the work before it finally issued from the press. There is no evidence that the six companies ever met in one body (though possibly the two companies in each of the three centres may have had some communication with each other); but having spent almost three years upon the revision, “at the end whereof,” says thewriter of the life of John Bois,[55]“the whole work being finished, and three copies of the whole Bible sent from Cambridge, Oxford, and Westminster to London, a new choice was to be made of six in all, two out of every company,[56]to review the whole work, and extract one copy out of all these to be committed to the press, for the dispatch of which business Mr. Downes and Mr. Bois were sent for up to London, where,[57]meeting their four fellow-labourers, they went daily to Stationers’ Hall, and in three-quarters of a year fulfilled their task, all which time they had from the Company of Stationers thirty shillings[58]each per week duly paid them, though they had nothing before but the self-rewarding, ingenious industry.”[59]“Last of all Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Miles Smith, again reviewed the whole work, and prefixed arguments to the several books.”
And thus at length, as Thomas Fuller quaintly puts it, “after long expectation, and great desire, the new translation of the Bible (most beautifully printed) by a select and competent number of Divines appointed for the purpose, not being toomany, lest one should trouble another, and yet many, lest in any things might haply escape them. Who, neither coveting praise for expedition, nor fearing reproach for slackness (seeing in a business of moment none deserve blame for convenient slowness), had expended almost three years in a work, not only examining the channels by the fountain, translations with the original, which was absolutely necessary, but also comparing channels with channels, which was abundantly useful.” “These, with Jacob, rolled away the stone from the mouth of the Well of Life, so that now Rachel’s weak women may freely come, both to drink themselves, and to water the flocks of their families at the same.”[60]
REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY.
On the title-page of the first edition of King James’s Bible there appeared as now the legend, “Appointed to be read in Churches.” Whence this originated is unknown; it is even uncertain what meaning is to be attached to the words. Some contend[61]that they mean nothing more than that the book contained the directions in accordance with which the Scriptures were “appointed” to be read in public worship, such as are now given in the Book of Common Prayer. But, however this may be, there is no evidence that this Bible was ever formally sanctioned, either by the king, or by Parliament, or by Convocation. The king, as we have seen, encouraged the making of the revision, but that the revision when made was, by any public act on his part, invested with any special authority, is a fancyaltogether unsupported by fact. Its designation as the Authorized Version has been due simply to common parlance; the claim which that designation seems to assert is absolutely baseless.
It was not in virtue of any privileges conferred upon it by those in authority, but by its intrinsic excellence, that this version made its way into general use, and at length supplanted all previous versions. Its chief, if not only, competitor was the Genevan. So strong was the attachment of many to the latter that two editions of it, one a folio and the other a quarto, were published by the king’s printer in the very year in which the new version was issued, and during at least five years after that date[62]various other editions were issued from the same source. After 1616 the Genevan ceased to be printed in England, but the demand for it still continuing, various editions were printed on the Continent, and thence introduced into this country. A folio edition, printed at Amsterdam, bears so late a date as 1644. In 1649, in order to win the favour of those who still clung to their old favourite, an edition of the new version was issued with the Genevan notes. After this date the revision of 1611 may be said to have gained for itself universal recognition, and for more than 230 years it has been the accepted and cherished Bible of almost all English-speaking people.
We should, however, form a very erroneous opinion both of the spirit and of the learning of King James’s translators, if we were to suppose that they would have claimed finality for their work. They were too well acquainted with the state of the original texts not to know what need there was for further research after the most ancient and trustworthy authorities. They were too keenly sensitive to the difficulties of translation not to feel that they must often have failed to convey the exact meaning of the words they were attempting to render. They were too conscious of the merits of their predecessors, and of theextent to which they had profited by their labours, to hesitate to acknowledge that others might in like manner profit by what they themselves had done. And they were too loyal in their reverence for the Scriptures, and too devoutly anxious that every imperfection should be removed from the form in which they were given to their fellow-countrymen, to offer any discouragement to those who should seek to remove the blemishes that might still remain. They would strongly have deprecated any attempt to find in their labours a plea against further improvement; and they would have emphatically proclaimed that the best expression of thankfulness for their services, and of respect for themselves, was in the imitation of their example, and in the promotion of further efforts for the perfecting of the book they so profoundly loved.
In the case of such a book as the Bible, however perfect the translation which may at any time be made, the duty of revision is one of recurring obligation. The necessity for it is inevitable, and this from two causes in constant operation. (1) By the imperfection that attaches to all kinds of human labour various departures from the standard form became gradually introduced in the process of reproduction; and (2) by the natural growth of language, and the attendant changes in the meaning of terms, that which at one time was a faithful rendering becomes at another obscure or incorrect.
No long time elapsed before blemishes arose in the version of 1611 from the first of these causes, and, to use the language of the translators themselves, their translation needed “to be maturely considered and examined, that being rubbed and polished it might shine as gold more brightly.” The invention of printing, although it has largely diminished the liability to error in the multiplication of copies, has not, as everyone knows who has had occasion to minutely examine printed works, altogether removed them. Various typographical errors soon made their appearance in the printed copies of the Bible, and thesebecame repeated and multiplied in successive editions, until at length no inconsiderable number of variations, sometimes amounting to several thousands, could be traced between different copies. Most of these it is true were unimportant variations, but some of them were of a more serious nature. The following instances will serve to illustrate this. The dates attached are the dates of the editions in which the errors may be found:
Exod. xx. 14. “Thou shalt commit adultery,”for“Thou shalt not.” 1631, Lond., 8vo.[63]
Numb. xxv. 18. “They vex you with their wives,”for“their wiles.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.
Numb. xxvi. 10. “The fire devoured two thousand and fifty men,”for“two hundred and fifty.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.
Deut. xxiv. 3. “If the latter husband ate her,”for“hate her.” 1682, Lond.
2 Sam. xxiii. 20. “He slew two lions like men,”for“two lion-like men.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.
Job xxix. 3. “By his light I shined through darkness,”for“I walked through.” 1613, Lond.
Isaiah xxix. 13. “Their fear toward me is taught by the people of men,”for“by the precept of men.” 1638, Lond., 12mo.
Jer. iv. 17. “Because she hath been religious against me,”for“hath been rebellious.” 1637, Edin., 8vo.
Jer. xviii. 21. “Deliver up their children to the swine,”for“to the famine.” 1682, Lond.
Ezek. xxiii. 7. “With all their idols she delighted herself,”for“she defiled herself.” 1613, Lond.
Matt. xxvi. 36. “Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called Gethsemane,”for“Then cometh Jesus.” 1611, Lond.
Acts vi. 3. “Look ye out among you seven men of honest report ... whom ye may appoint,”for“whom we may appoint.” 1638, Camb. fo.[64]
1 Cor. v. 1. “And such fornication as is not so much as not among the Gentiles,”for“not so much as named.” 1629, Lond., fo.[65]
1 Cor. vi. 9. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?”for“shall not inherit.” 1653, Lond., 32mo.
2 Tim. iv. 16. “I pray God that it may be laid to their charge,”for“may not be laid.” 1613, Lond.
Titus i. 14. “Now giving heed to Jewish fables,”for“not giving heed.” 1636 Edin., 8vo.
James v. 4. “The Lord of Sabbath,”for“Sabaoth.” 1640, Lond., 8vo.
1 John i. 4. “That our joy may be full,”for“that your joy.” 1769, Oxf.
These facts will serve to show how soon some kind of revision became needful, and that a true reverence for Scripture is shown, not by opposition to revision, but by a desire, and even demand, that it should be undertaken. This necessity became all the more imperative in the case of the revision of 1611, because there existed no standard copy to which appeal could in all cases be made as evidence of the conclusions reached by the translators. It is a curious and remarkable fact, that twoeditions, differing in several respects, were issued by the king’s printer, Robert Barker, in 1611, and competent judges are not agreed as to which of these two priority in time belongs. Nor even if this point were satisfactorily settled, would it suffice to reproduce that one of the two texts which might be proved to be the earlier. For excellent as was the main work done by the translators, the final revision and the oversight of the sheets as they passed through the press were not so thorough as was to be desired. In the most carefully prepared edition of this revision that has ever been issued, viz., the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, edited by Dr. Scrivener, the learned and laborious editor has seen it right to depart from the printed text of 1611 in more than nine hundred places.[66]It will be manifest that such corrections, whenever called for, ought not to be made in any haphazard way, and that it is in the interest of all that careful revisions of the printed texts should from time to time be made, and that they should be made by men thoroughly competent for the task.
The second cause to which reference has been made is, of course, much slower in its operation, but though slow it is certain; and sooner or later every version, whensoever and by whomsoever made, must call for revision, because of the changes to which all language is subject. Words which were once in common use pass altogether out of currency, and are utterly unintelligible save to a learned few. Other words change their meaning, and give to the sentences in which they occur a different and sometimes an alien sense to that which they formerly conveyed. Others again, while retainingfundamentally their original sense, become limited in their range of application, and when used in other connections than those to which they are thus confined by custom, become grotesque and disturb the mind of the reader by the strange associations which they suggest.
How many words found in our Bibles have, since 1611, passed out of general use the following list will show. Most of these are wholly without meaning, even to an educated reader; a few survive as local provincialisms, and a few also are still employed in the technical vocabulary of certain arts or professions. All are out of place in a book intended for universal use.