PRINCIPLES GOVERNING BIBLE TRANSLATION. 



63 



China. It was therefore of the greatest possible service, and it 

 was understood by all scholars in Korea and Japan ; the Korean 

 scholar would read Classical Chinese, but would turn with scorn 

 from the Korean vulgar tongue. 



The Rev. Graham Barton had listened with the utmost pleasure 

 to a most informing paper. There were, however, three points 

 which he should have liked to have been emphasized. First, the 

 necessity of the Bible translation being impersonal. Next, that 

 ambiguous renderings should be avoided. Third, the danger of 

 giving a sectarian tendency to the translation. Reference had 

 already been made to Wycliffe and Tyndale ; Wycliffe systematically 

 used the word "penance," whereas Tyndale, being a Protestant 

 Reformer, used the word " repentance." 



AVas it possible that all thought could be reduced to the simple 

 language of the people 1 Some thoughts could only be rendered 

 by the thinker himself ; many idioms were untranslatable. 



The Lecturer, in reply, said that it was not often that a writer 

 could enjoy the privilege of hearing his work criticized (and that so 

 favourably) by men at whose feet he would be ready to sit as a 

 learner. 



Nevertheless, as the principles that he put forward had not been 

 attacked, he felt inclined to adhere to them, and, so far as that 

 adherence justified him, to remain " of the same opinion still." For 

 example, with all deference to the great authority of Professor 

 Margoliouth, he ventured to think that the introduction of the 

 word " torso " into a translation of Aristotle, if the idea was not 

 inherent in the Greek phrase translated, was not in accordance with 

 true principles of translation, and he felt certain that, even if the 

 Professor thought such a liberty permissible in a translation of 

 Aristotle, he would hesitate in taking it in a translation of the 

 Bible. 



To Dr. Kilgour, with his great authority as himself a translator of 

 the Bible, and completely conversant with the work of so many 

 other translators, he would not venture to reply, but would leave 

 what he had written to be judged in the light of Dr. Kilgour's 

 criticisms. 



AYith respect to Mr. Dick's comment, he would only say that he 

 thought the principle he had laid down met the case cited. If, to 

 those acquainted with Hebrew, the words "horn" and " mountain ;; 



