54 



E. J. SEWELLj ESQ., ON THE 



expression in other languages is clue to the idiom of the language 

 in which their expression is required. And the device of 

 indicating such words by printing them in italic type has not 

 "been at all generally adopted, even in languages printed in 

 Ho man character in winch it is easily possible. 



In languages printed in other than Roman characters, how- 

 ever, such a device as this can seldom be adopted, and in most 

 Oriental languages any difference of type is impossible. The 

 printing of such words in brackets or in lighter type has, in 

 these languages, the result of calling special attention to them. 

 As they are usually decidedly unimportant words, that is 

 exactly the effect which it is not desired to produce. 



In the great majority of versions there is no indication at all 

 of the fact that words are, for this reason, inserted. This is of 

 no practical importance so long as the rule of only inserting 

 such words as are really inherent in the original is observed. 

 But many translators have given very considerable extension to 

 this rule, and as there is nothing at all in the text to show what 

 part absolutely and expressly represents the original, and what 

 is added for one reason or another, it seems very desirable to 

 have, if possible, some rule regulating such additions. 



One fertile source of such additions is the use of the genitive 

 case in Greek to indicate a great variety of relations between 

 the words so connected, contrasted with the very restricted use 

 of the same case in a great many languages. Thus the phrase — 

 the love of God — can both in Greek and in English be used 

 either for the love of God for man or for the love felt by man 

 for God. But there are very many languages in which neither 

 of these two ideas can be conveyed by the mere use of the geni- 

 tive : it is necessary to insert words showing clearlv which is 

 meant. 



Again, St. Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Romans ii, 16, of 

 <l my Gospel." There are many languages in which this must 

 be expanded into — the gospel which 1 preach or the gospel 

 which 1 teach — or some such phrase. In them the only mean- 

 ing of — my gospel — would be the Gospel which I own. Our 

 translators have usually acted on the supposition that the use of 

 our English genitive was as wide as that of the Greek genitive, 

 but it is doubtful whether they have always been justified in 

 the supposition. In the verse (Hebrews xiii, 20) : — " Now the 

 God of peace, that brought again from the dead Lord Jesus, 

 that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the 

 everlasting covenant . . if we were not so used to the words, 

 we should, I think, realize that the phrase — the blood of the 



