574th ORDINARY GEN Eli AL MEETING. 



HELD IN COMMITTEE EOOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, JANUARY 17th, 1916, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



A. W. Oke, Esq., B.A., LL.M., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the preceding Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The Secretary announced the election of Mr. Benjamin Akhurst, 

 the Rev. John William Fairhurst, the Rev. Matthew Butterworth Moor- 

 house, and the Rev. P. Rose, as Associates of the Institute, and of the 

 Rev. Isaac Levinson as Missionary Associate. 



The Chairman asked Mr. E. J. Sewell to address the Meeting on the 

 subject of " The Principles governing Bible Translation." 



THE PRINCIPLES GOVERNING BIBLE TRANS- 

 LATION By E. J. Sewell, Esq. 



TRANSLATION" of the Bible is a special case of the problem 

 of translation from one language into another ; it would be 

 quite logical, therefore, to begin by setting out the general 

 principles of translation and then discussing the limitations or 

 qualifications of these general principles required when they are 

 applied to translations of the Bible. The writer proposes almost 

 to reverse this order, for it appears to him that by so doing not 

 only will the paper be shortened but we shall come at once to 

 close quarters with the really crucial questions which are raised 

 when we come to consider the character of the Bible and the 

 purposes for which translations of it are required. 



It is usual to begin discussions either of the interpretation 

 or translation of the Bible by the statement that the Bible 

 is a book and must be dealt with like other books. To 

 the writer this sentence seems to contain a serious mis- 

 statement and a fallacy. The Bible is not a book: The 

 Old Testament is itself a literature — nearly all that is left 

 of ancient Hebrew literature — and even the New Testament 

 contains, beside straightforward narrative, hymns, parables, 

 closely reasoned argument, passionate pleading, and the poetical 

 and highly imaginative prose of the Apocalypse ; all these are 



