PRINCIPLES GOVERNING BIBLE TRANSLATION. 45 



The second statement that the Bible should be dealt with 

 exactly as other books are deal! with is, in my opinion, a 

 fallacy. The Bible should only be dealt with like other books it' 

 it is like other books, and this it is not. The books of which 

 it is composed are the work of men who claim that they spoke 

 under the special guidance and control of the Holy Spirit. 

 This is the lowest statement of their claim: many would go much 

 further in describing it, but even so stated it is sufficient to 

 make the Bible unique and not like other books. For it must 

 be borne in mind that the great majority of those who desire 

 and use translations of the Bible either accept, or at least do 

 not reject, this claim on its behalf, and that the Bible therefore 

 possesses for them an authority which rules out many freedoms 

 in translating quite admissible in ordinary cases. A translation 

 in which such freedoms are used cannot but contain much of 

 the opinion of the particular translator as to the meaning of 

 many passages and, in so far as it does that, it is vitiated as a 

 representative of the authoritative character of the work. Now, 

 a translation of the Bible which is made upon general lines 

 which render it unacceptable to the great majority of Christian 

 readers may be an interesting experiment, a literary curiosity, 

 or a work valuable for suggesting and stimulating thought, but 

 it can take no permanent place as a solution of the problem of 

 Bible translation. 



The two points just considered are general considerations and 

 are applicable to all translations of the Bible. The next case 

 to be dealt with is that of versions like Luther's German Bible 

 or our Authorized Version. Both these have become classics in 

 the literature of Germany and England respectively, and their 

 language has, in the centuries during which they have been 

 current, been thoroughly incorporated in the thought and 

 literature of their respective countries. Many words and 

 phrases taken from our English Bible have become embedded 

 in poetry, sermons, speeches, and devotional literature, and 

 have taken a permanent place in the English language. To this 

 must be added the hold which the well-known language of the 

 English Bible has obtained in the hearts of all religious men 

 and women by its constant use in public worship and private 

 devotion until a proposal to change it seems almost sacrilegious. 



This state of affairs must necessarily exercise an enormous 

 influence on any proposal for a fresh translation or even for any 

 further revision of the Authorized Version. The Be vised 

 Version took many years to complete : it was the work of all the 

 chief Biblical scholars of the time when it was made ; it corrects 



