THE BIBLE. 



397 



and the citations of the earliest fathers. The idea 

 was fruitful, though the material employed was 

 too scanty. Since Lachmann published his edi- 

 tion, our knowledge of the most ancient authori- 

 ties has been greatly increased. New MSS. have 

 been added, notably Tischendorf's N; and the 

 MSS. formerly known have be enedited or col- 

 lated with much greater accuracy. The most dis- 

 tinguished laborers in this work were Tischendorf 

 and Tregelles. In addition to numerous editions 

 and collations of ancient copies, Teschendorf put 

 forth a series of critical editions, of which the 

 eighth (Leipsic, 1865-1872) contains the com- 

 pletest critical commentary yet published. The 

 great edition of Tregelles (1857-1872) rests exclu- 

 sively on the most ancient authority, resembling 

 Lachmann's work in conception, though using 

 much more copious materials. This edition, as 

 well as Tischendorf's VIII., lacks the prolegome- 

 na, both editors having been struck down by pa- 

 ralysis before their work was complete. 



The recent versions, subsequent to the inven- 

 tion of printing and the revived study of the 

 original tongues, demand a word in conclusion. 

 New Latin versions naturally accompanied many 

 of the early editions of the original text. Thus 

 Erasmus gave many corrections of the Vulgate 

 in his Greek Testament, the " Complutensian " 

 gives an interlinear version of the LXX., the Gen- 

 oa "Polyglot Psalter" of 1516 gives renderings 

 both of the Hebrew and of the Chaldee. Even 

 such works as these, designed as they were for 

 scholars, gave offense from their appearance of 

 undermining the authority of the Vulgate; and 

 it was tUe Reformation, in its revolt against mere 

 human authority, that first demanded open circu- 

 lation of vernacular versions from the original 

 tongues. From the time of Luther's version 

 (New Testament, 1522; complete Bible, 1534) 

 we may distinguish four classes of versions: 



1. Versions adopted by Protestant countries 

 or churches. Such are Luther's Bible in Germa- 

 ny ; the Dutch Bible of the Commission of the 

 Synod of Dort, 1637 ; the English Authorized 

 Version of 1611 ; the Genevan French Bible, 

 formed by successive revisions of Olivetan's ver- 

 sion of 1535 ; the Danish of 1550, based on Lu- 

 ther, revised in 1607, 1647; -the Swedish, 1541. 

 Most of these national Bibles were preceded by 

 earlier Protestant versions, which they supersede. 

 Revisions of the national versions have of late 

 years been undertaken in Norway, Holland, and 

 Germany, as well as in England. 



2. Versions which never held any other place 

 than that of private contributions to Biblical exe- 



gesis. Such are — among older works — the Latin 

 Old Testament of Junius and Tremellius, and the 

 New Testament of Beza. These versions belong 

 to the history of exegesis. 



3. Missionary versions. 



4. Roman Catholic versions. The Council of 

 Trent declared the Vulgate version authentic, 

 and forbade interpretations of Scripture not in 

 conformity with the consent of the lathers. Ver- 

 nacular versions subject to these restrictions were 

 published as the antidote to Protestant Bibles. 

 Such are the Rhemish and Douay versions in 

 English. Other Roman Catholic versions owe 

 their origin to evangelical tendencies within the 

 Church. Jansenism, in particular, produced the 

 French version of De Sacy (Mons, 1667), and 

 otherwise stimulated the study of Scripture. 



Literature. — Full discussion of some of the 

 topics glanced at in this article must be sought 

 in treatises on individual books or critical prob- 

 lems of the Old and New Testaments. But on 

 most points it will be sufficient to refer to works 

 on Biblical Introduction. The history of this 

 branch of theology, with lists of the principal 

 older books — some of which, including the writ- 

 ings of R. Simon, Carpzov, and Eichhorn, are still 

 of value — is given in most recent works on the 

 subject. Of these it may be sufficient to mention 

 for the Old Testament — De Wette's " Einleitung," 

 rewritten by Schrader (Berlin, 1869), full of con- 

 densed information ; Bleek's posthumous " Ein- 

 leitung" (third edition, 1870), less complete in 

 detail and now rather behind date, but very clear 

 and instructive; Keil's "Einleitung" (third edi- 

 tion, 1873), which is strictly conservative. The 

 last two are translated. Kuenen's " Historisch- 

 kritisch Onderzoek," of which there is a French 

 translation, is very full, but the author has con- 

 siderably changed his views in the " History of 

 the Religion of Israel " (Haarlem, 1869-'70), of 

 which there is an English translation. Ewald's 

 " History of Israel " is important, and is also ac- 

 cessible to the English reader ; with it must be 

 taken his books on the " Prophets " and " Poets 

 of the Old Covenant." Recent English literature 

 on the Old Testament is not very remarkable, 

 but Dr. S. Davidson's "Introduction" gives a 

 full account of foreign investigations. The his- 

 tory of the Old Testament in the Christian Church 

 has been written by L. Diestel (" Geschichte des 

 alten Testamentes," u. s. w., Jena, 1S69). For 

 the New Testament, De Wette, Bleek, and David- 

 son, may again be consulted. A very instructive 

 book is Reuss's " Geschichte der Heiligen Schrif- 

 tenNeueu Testaments " (fifth edition, Brunswick, 



