HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. 



founded on the third edition by Stephens, made 

 any considerable progress in the critical treat- 

 ment of the text, and thus supplied a basis for 

 the present received text (textus receptus), which 

 was first printed by Stephens with the Vulgate 

 and critical annotations at Geneva, 1565 ; after- 

 wards was frequently reprinted by Elzevir (Leyden, 

 1624) and others. Other editors are Walton, Fell, 

 and Mill, in England in the I7th century ; the 

 Germans Bengel, Wetstein, Semler, and Griesbach, 

 in the i8th century ; and in this century, Scholz, 

 Rink, Lachmann, Buttman, and Tischendorf, in 

 Germany ; and in England, Tregelles, Scrivener, 

 and Westcott and Hort (in 1881). 



Among the manuscripts of the New Testament, 

 the oldest are not traced back further than the 4th 

 century, and are written in the so-called uncial 

 characters. The modern manuscripts, dating from 

 the loth century downwards, are distinguished by 

 the cursive characters in which they are written. 

 The most important manuscripts are the Codex 

 Sinaiticus (at St Petersburg), the C. Alexan- 

 drinus (in the British Museum), C. Vaticamis 

 (in the Vatican at Rome), C. Ephrcemi (in the 

 Imperial Library at Paris), and C. Cantabrigiensis, 

 or C. Bests (given by Beza to the university of 

 Cambridge). The best authorities refer the 

 Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus to the middle of 

 the 4th century ; Alexandrinus and Ephrtzmi to 

 the 5th century ; and Bezce to the 6th century. 

 The 7th century furnishes but a few fragments. 

 The MSS. of the 9th and loth centuries are as 

 numerous as all the earlier ones put together. 

 The cursive MSS. are about loco in number, and 

 date from the loth to the i6th centuries. 



BIBLE VERSIONS OR TRANSLATIONS. 



These may be divided into ancient and modern. 

 The ancient translations of the Old Testament 

 are noticed under the sections Septuagint, Old 

 Syriac Version, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. 

 As has been mentioned, the Peshitolcontains also 

 a Syriac translation of the Greek New Testament 

 The Old Latin version of the Old and New 

 Testament seems to have originated in Africa, 

 and seems probably to have comprised several 

 distinct translations, the Old Testament being 

 done from the LXX. Towards the close of the 

 4th century a revision was undertaken by St 

 Jerome, and finally the greater part of the Old 

 Testament was translated by him from the 

 Hebrew. This version became ultimately known 

 as the Vulgate, though its text was corrupted by 

 the influence of the older version. The Vulgate 

 was declared the authorised version of the 

 Catholic Church by the Council of Trent in 1546, 

 and its text was carefully revised in 1593 under 

 Pope Clement VIII. 



Modern Translations. During the middle ages 

 various poetical versions such as the Gospel 

 History by Otfried von Weissenburg, and the 

 version of Job and of the Psalms by Notker- 

 Labeo (980) served a very important object. 

 In 1170, Petrus Waldus caused the New Testa- 

 ment to be translated into the Provencal dialect 

 by Etienne d'Anse. There were translations 

 under Louis the Pious (1227) and Charles 

 the Wise (1380), the Bible Histories (Bible 

 ystorieus) by Guyars of Moulins (1286), the 

 Spanish version under Alfonso V. in the I3th 



century, the English by Wickliffe, and the 

 Bohemian version of John Huss. After the in- 

 vention of printing especially after the latter 

 part of the Uth century the harbingers of a new 

 ecclesiastical era appeared in numerous republi- 

 cations of the translated Bible the Bohemian 

 (Prague, 1448); the Italian, by the Benedictine 

 ; NIC. Malherbi (1471) ; the French, by Des 

 Moulins (1477-1546) ; the Dutch (Delf, 1477) ; the 

 Spanish (1478-1515) ; but, above all, in the seven- 

 teen German translations before Luther, of which 

 five were printed before 1477, and the remainder 

 during 1477-1518 (and three in Low-German). 



Luther's translation of the Bible is universally 

 esteemed by the best German scholars as a master- 

 piece of genial interpretation. The New Testa- 

 ment was finished in the Wartburg, and appeared 

 in September 1522. In the following year, the 

 five books of Moses appeared ; and, in 1534, the 

 remaining part of the Old Testament canon was 

 completed along with the Apocrypha. With 

 wonderful rapidity, this translation was circulated 

 throughout Germany. In the course of forty 

 years, one bookseller, Hans Luft of Wittenberg, 

 sold 100,000 copies an astonishing number, 

 when we consider the price of books in the i6th 

 century. It was reprinted thirty-eight times in 

 Germany before 1559, and meanwhile, the New 

 Testament had been separately printed in seventy- 

 two editions. Numerous other translations in 

 Dutch, Swedish, &c. were based upon the work 

 of Luther. 



English Translations of the Bible. The first 

 of modern English translators of the Bible was 

 William Tyndale, whose sympathy with the 

 opinions of the German reformers compelled him 

 to seek refuge on the continent Before 1526, he 

 had completed an English translation of the New 

 Testament, which appeared both in quarto and 

 duodecimo. In the beginning of 1 526, the volumes 

 were secretly conveyed into England. Of the 

 admirable character of his translation, we have a 

 sufficient testimony in this fact, that in our 

 present version a very large portion of the New 

 Testament is taken almost -verbatim from Tyn- 

 dale's Testament. In 1530, he published the 

 Pentateuch, and in the following year, the Book 

 of Jonah. The first English version of the 

 whole Bible was that published by Miles Cover- 

 dale, a friend of Tyndale. It is dated 1535, and 

 dedicated to Henry VIII., but where printed, is 

 unknown. The next English Bible issued was 

 called Matthevfs Bible, from the circumstance 

 that the editor assumed the name of Thomas 

 Matthew, but was simply Tyndale's version re- 

 vised by his friend John Rogers, who also trans- 

 lated those books in the Old Testament which 

 Tyndale had not been able to overtake. It was 

 finished in 1537, and Cranmer obtained for it the 

 patronage of Henry. In April 1539 appeared 

 the Great Bible, usually called Cranmer's, because 

 he wrote a preface to it. It was a large volume, 

 for use in churches. The text was Tyndale's 

 revised. In 1557 appeared the famous Geneva 

 Bible, so called because the translation was exe- 

 cuted there by several English divines, who had 

 fled from the persecutions of Mary. Among 

 these may be mentioned Gilby and Whitting- 

 ham. This edition the first printed in Roman 

 letter and divided into verses was accompanied 

 by notes, which shewed a strong leaning to the 



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