117 



BIBLE. 



BIBLE SOCIETIES. 



118 - 







there is a great Icauing to the system of Calvin and Beza, with whom 

 the exiles at Geneva were intimately acquainted. It scarcely deserves 

 to be mentioned that this edition is often called the ' Breeches Bible/ 

 un account of a rendering given in '.Genesis iii. 7. 



6. The Eighop's K'Me, or Parker's, so called from Matthew Parker, 

 archbishop of Canterbury, first appeared in a large folio in 1568. 

 Parker employed learned men to review the previous translations, and 

 compare them with the originals. This edition exhibits, in conse- 

 quence, some material variations. 



7. The Douay Bible, of which the New Testament was first printed 

 at Rheims in 1582, and the Old Testament at Douay in 1609-10. This 

 is the Roman Catholic version. Cardinal Allen is understood to have 

 had a principal share in this work. 



This brings us to the period of King James's translation. Early iu 

 the reign of King James I. there was a conference of divines of 

 different opinions at Hampton Court, for the settling the peace of the 

 Church. In this conference much was said concerning the imper- 

 fections of the existing translations of the Scriptures. The king him- 

 self, who was often present at these meetings, expressed a strong 

 opinion on that point of the debate. " I wish," said he, " some special 

 pains were taken for a uniform translation, which should be done by 

 the best learned in both universities, then reviewed by the bishops, 

 presented to the privy council, and, lastly, ratified by royal authority, 

 to be read in the whole church, and no other." Out of this speech 

 of the king's arose the present English Bible ; for the suggestion soon 

 ripened into a restitution. As this is the Bible which has now for 

 more than two centuries been the only Bible allowed to be read in the 

 English Church, and as it is also the Bible universally used in dissent- 

 ing communities, we may be expected to give a more extended notice 

 of it than of the former editions. Fifty-four of the persons in that age 

 most distinguished for that particular species of learning which such a 

 duty required, were selected for the work, according to the king's 

 suggestion : finally, forty-seven of them undertook it. They divided 

 themselves into six independent classes, to each of which a certain 

 portion of the work was assigned. Each person in the class was to 

 produce his own translation of the whole committed to them : these 

 several translations were to be revised at a general meeting of the class. 

 When the class had agreed upon their version, it was to be transmitted 

 to each of the other classes, so that no part was to come out without 

 the sanction of the whole body. 



Two of the classes sat at Westminster, two at Oxford, and two at 

 Cambridge. The instructions which they received from the kiug were, 

 that they should adhere to the Bishop's Bible, which was then ordi- 

 narily read in the churches, making as few deviations from it as 

 ile. They were, however, to use the other versions, and to con- 

 sult the translations which had been made into other modern languages; 

 and they were to keep in the old ecclesiastical words, such as church, 

 ivr. Whuii a word had divers significations, "that should be kept 

 which had been most commonly used by the ancient fathers, being 

 agreeable to the propriety of the place, and the analogy of faith." No 

 marginal notes were to be used, except for the further explication of 

 some Greek or Hebrew word. References to parallel passages might be 

 given. They were to call in the assistance of any learned man who 

 was known to have made the subject his study. 



They were employed upon the work for three years, namely, from 

 1007 to 1610; proceeding with that deliberation and care which so 

 y an undertaking required. The names of the divines engaged 

 in it (and the portions are known which were committed to each class) 

 aru preserved. If we say that there are few names among them which 

 squired a lasting celebrity, we are only saying of them what is 

 the usual fate of divines. The name of Bishop Andrews is the first in 

 place and first in celebrity. It is believed that Bancroft, then arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, though not one of the professed translators, had 

 much to do in the superintendence of the work. It came forth from 

 the press of Robert Barker in 1 'il 1 . 



This is then the great era in the history of the English Bible. 

 From that time to the present there has been no serious intention 

 entertained in the Church of any revision of this translation. It is 

 admitted universally that it is in the main an admirable translation, 

 lint many persons in the Church liave thought that, excellent as it con- 

 fessedly is, it is not the best possible translation ; and that it seems as if 

 the tiiiiu was arrived for revising the work of the divines of the days of 

 King James, especially since the general principles of translation seem 

 nnw to be better understood than heretofore, and the investigations of 

 "f learning in the manuscripts of both the Old and New Testa- 

 ment in the originals have led to the establishment of a text which 

 veil to make a nearer approach to the text as left by the original 

 writers, than that which was used by King James's translators. 



While, however, nothing has been done by authority, many persons 

 liavu produced new and, aw they presume, improved translations of 

 ilar books. Dr. Geddes, a Roman Catholic divine, but who 

 : attachment to his Church to influence him in his 

 bed a translation of the historical books of the Old 

 Testament ; and a translation of the Old Testament from the Septua- 

 gint v trj^the Vatican text, with various readings from 



. ; in i-npy, w:n 1'iiUi-lied in 1842, by Sir L. C. L. Brenton. 

 Lowth, bishop of London, and Dodson a learned layman, both pub- 

 lished translation-! "f t!i '.f Isaiah; Blayni'y, a translation of 



the minor prophets ; Stock, an Irish bishop, of the book of Job. Other 

 translations of other books of the Old Testament have appeared, nor 

 have there been wanting those who have attempted the too arduous 

 task of translating the whole of these books. Numerous translations 

 have been published of the New Testament, of which we may mention 

 that by Gilbert Wakefield, and that by Newcome, the archbishop of 

 Armagh. A new edition of the Greek text, with valuable notes, was 

 published in 1854 by the Rev. H. Alford, who has since published 

 translations of the Gospel according to St. John and Paul's Epistle 

 to the Romans. 



Still more numerous have been the editions of the English Bible in 

 the version of King James, with notes, paraphrases, and practical 

 expositions. Our limits will not allow of our entering upon an enume- 

 ration of these works. We must, however, name as works which are 

 highly esteemed, Matthew Henry's ' Exposition of the Old and New 

 Testament,' which originally appeared in 5 vols. folio, and has been 

 often reprinted ; the Family Bible, prepared by the Rev. Thomas Scott, 

 rector of Aston-Saudford, in Buckinghamshire, a clergyman of what are 

 called evangelical sentiments ; the Commentary on the Bible by Adam 

 Clarke, LL.D., a leading minister among the Wesleyan Methodists; 

 the Family Bible of the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, of York, a Presby- 

 terian minister of Unitarian sentiments ; and the ' Pictorial Bible,' with 

 the commentary and illustrations by Dr. Kitto. 



Modern translations into a vast variety of languages have been made, 

 either of parts or the whole of the Old and New Testaments, which 

 will be noticed under BIBLE SOCIETIES, by the exertions of which they 

 have been chiefly effected. 



BIBLE SOCIETIES. Associations, supported by voluntary con- 

 tributions, for the general circulation of copies of the Sacred Scrip- 

 tures, may be regarded as belonging peculiarly to the present century. 

 Whatever had previously been done, either by societies or individuals, 

 in the way of translating or printing the Bible, is insignificant when 

 compared with what has been done since 1804. Previous to the 

 formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the associations in 

 Great Britain which included among their objects the circulation of 

 the Bible were : 



1. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, 

 originally incorporated by an ordinance of parliament in 164S, and 

 re-incorporated in 1661, after the Restoration. The missionary Eliot, 

 known as the Apostle of the American Indians, after labouring to 

 reduce the language of the tribes then surrounding the infant colony 

 to writing, effected a translation of the Bible into it, which was 

 printed in 1663 at the expense of the corporation. This edition of the 

 Bible, which is dedicated to Charles II., contains the Psalms of David, 

 attempted to be done into Indian metre, which Cotton Mather tells us 

 were used in the congregations of the converted natives. 



2. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, established in 

 1698. It had caused an edition of the New Testament to be printed 

 in Arabic, the whole of the Scriptures in Manx, and four editions of 

 the Scriptures in the Welsh language. 



3. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 

 established 1701. This and the preceding institutions were under the 

 entire management of members of the Established Church. 



4. The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, 

 incorporated in 1709. It distributed the Scriptures in Gaelic. 



5. The Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the 

 Poor, established 1750. The subscribers were entitled once in two 

 years to copies of the Scriptures or other works published by the 

 society, at a reduced charge. 



6. The Bible Society, established in 1780, for the purpose of circu- 

 lating the Scriptures among soldiers and sailors exclusively. In about 

 twenty years it had distributed about 30,000 copies. 



7. The Society for the Support and Encouragement of Sunday 

 Schools, established in 1785. It provided the Sunday schools with 

 copies of the Bible and Testament, and with spelling-books. 



8. The French Bible Society, established in London in 1792, for the 

 purpose of distributing copies of the Scriptures in France. This 

 institution had made arrangements with a printer for an edition of the 

 Scriptures in the French language, when its operations were entirely 

 stopped by the Revolution. At the peace of Amiens it was discovered 

 that the printer with whom the contract had been made, and who had 

 received a sum of money on the society's account, had been ruined in 

 the interval, and was unable to complete his engagements. 



Such were the means in existence previous to the close of the last 

 century for ensuring the general circulation of the Scriptures. 



The most important of the above associations, in fact the only one 

 which could attempt the circulation of the Bible on a large scale, was 

 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Its efforts, however, 

 do not appear to have been commensurate with the increasing demand. 

 The following statement attributes to a tardiness in its operations the 

 formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society : 



In 1787 a clergyman in London, who had been applied to for Bibles 

 by a brother clergyman in Wales, wrote to the latter, stating that he 

 had received twenty-five copies from the society for distributing 

 Bibles among the soldiers and sailors; and that he was collecting 

 money to send more, which he bought of the Society for Promoting 

 Christian Knowledge, " who alone in London have got any Welsh 

 Bibles." A year afterwards the same individual wrote to his corre- 



