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Yet so characteristic and simple a term as this has received five different renderings, viz., "straightway," "immediately," "forthwith," "anon," "as soon as," while elsewhere in the New Testament it is also translated "by and by" and shortly." Still more numerous, and, if possible, more marked, are the words characteristic of John. Among them are the verbs to abide and to bear witness. Yet the former in our translation has seven different representatives, viz., abide, remain, continue, tarry, dwell, endure, be present— the first three being brought together in a single verse of the First Epistle (ii. 24); and the latter is translated witness, bear witness, bear record, testify, and (in the passive) have good report.

Paul's peculiarities as a writer are too salient not to stand out even in a translation which should take no pains to preserve them. The truthfulness of Paley's description of him, "off at a word," is so generally recognized that the phrase has become proverbial. "Use this world as not abusing it," (1 Cor. vii. 31), and other of his pointed sayings, have taken rank as popular maxims. His mental agility and adroitness in availing himself of the very language of opponents is now as piquant as a repartee, now as convincing as an argument. An oft-quoted instance, preserved by our translators, is that in Acts xxvi. 28, “Almost thou persuadest me," etc.; only it is to be regretted that they have chosen a translation which the Greek will not bear. But another instance, on the same occasion, they have seen fit to conceal. Paul's declaration, “I am not mad," is his dignified denial of the exact language of a charge which they have diluted into, "Thou art beside thyself" (Acts xxvi. 24). Still less felicitously have they re

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produced his retort to those at Athens who spoke of him as a setter forth of strange gods." His allusion to this disparaging term is hidden; and again, that to the inscription on the altar, "To an unknown god," is quite perverted by their rendering: "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."

V. But still more unfortunate is the translator's indifference to verbal agreements and variations when it affects matters of doctrine. Not often, probably, is a reader found so ignorant as to infer a difference of meaning from the change of rendering in Matt. xxv. 46, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." But the confusion occasioned by translating "Hades" and "Gehenna" identically in every instance but one is not so harmless. The uniform transfer of the quasiproper name "Devil," corresponding to the Hebrew "Satan," to those beings called "demons" by the original writers is also to be regretted. The unwarranted insertion of "should" in Acts ii. 47 (compare on the other hand, 1 Cor. i. 18; 2 Cor. ii. 15),—properly, "them that were being saved," has probably ceased to start false theological suggestions; but undoubtedly most readers understand the words of Christ to Bartimæus in Luke (xviii. 42), "Thy faith hath saved thee," to be of immeasurably higher import than the declaration in Mark (x. 52), "Thy faith hath made thee whole." That the original term, indeed, may refer to spiritual healing is by no means impossible. In the case of the 66 woman which was a sinner" (Luke vii. 50), it clearly covers the forgiveness of sins. So that if it were a translator's design to intimate that the expression is ambiguous in the Greek, the variation in rendering would

perhaps be allowable, provided in each case the alternate translation were given in the margin (as is actually done in Mark). In any event, however, the English reader should know that the language is the same in both Evangelists, and the same which is elsewhere (Matt. x. 22; Mark v. 34; Luke viii. 48) commonly rendered, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." A single additional illustration: every reader of Paul knows the importance he attaches to the doctrine that "faith" is "reckoned as righteousness." But the proof-text from the Old Testament (Gen. xv. 6) on which the doctrine rests is given differently by our translation every time Paul quotes it (Rom. iv. 3, compare ix. 22; Gal. iii. 6); and the verb itself, which may be called one of his technical theological terms, and which constitutes the very warp of his argument in Rom. iv. being used eleven times within the compass of twenty-two verses, receives there three different renderings.

Now, let it be repeated, that it is not always practicable to preserve identity of language in English where it exists in the original. Sense is more important than sound. The interests of the former, therefore, sometimes dictate the sacrifice of the latter. But it is evident that any fresh attempt at revision must proceed upon the opposite principle to that which was unfortunately adopted by King James's revisers.

ARCHAISMS, OR OBSOLETE AND UNUSUAL WORDS OR PHRASES, IN THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

BY REV. HOWARD CROSBY, D.D., LL.D.,

Chancellor of the University of New York.

THE literature of a language serves to check its changes, but not to stop them. A living language must grow, and in the growth new words not only supply new ideas, but become substitutes for old words. The English of the fourteenth century had to be read with a glossary in the sixteenth century; but the three hundred years that have elapsed since Queen Elizabeth have not so altered the language as the preceding two centuries had done. The abundant literature of the latter period accounts for this difference, our English Bible of 1611 having probably had the most influence in this result.

It is not the archaisms of our English Bible which constitute the most important reason for a revised translation. Erroneous or obscure renderings form a far more conspicuous argument. But yet it is very true that there are many words and phrases in the received version which the ordinary reader would be likely to misunderstand, the words themselves having become obsolete, or their significations

(or modes of spelling) having undergone a change. We append the following as specimens :

I. Change in Spelling. "The fats shall overflow with wine and oil" (Joel ii. 24), for "vats." "Lest he hale thee to the judge” (Luke xii. 58), for "haul," and "hoised up the mainsail to the wind" (Acts xxvii. 40), for "hoisted." "He overlaid their chapiters with gold" (Ex. xxxvi. 38), for "capitals." "And sat down astonied" (Ezra ix. 3), for "astonished." "Or ever the earth was" (Prov. viii. 23), for "ere." So we find bewray (betray), magnifical (magnificent), and delicates (delicacies). Many of these archaisms in spelling have been omitted in more modern editions of our version, as leese for, "lose," sith for "since," cloke for "cloak." The old plural "hosen," however, still remains, in Dan. iii. 21, for "hose."

II. Obsolete Words. "And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead" (Isa. viii. 21), for "served." "Besides that which chapmen and merchants brought" (2 Chron, ix. 14), for "market-men." "Old shoes and clouted upon their feet" (Josh. ix. 5); "took thence old cast clouts" (Jer. xxxviii. 11), for "patched" and "patches." "Neither is their any daysman betwixt us" (Job ix. 33), for "umpire." "Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold" (Ex. xxviii. 11), for "sockets." "Doves tabering upon their breasts" (Nahum ii. 7), for "drumming." "The lion filled his dens with ravin" (Nahum ii. 12), for "plunder." "He made fifty taches of gold" (Ex. xxxvi. 13), for "catches." So earing (ploughing), eschew (shun), habergeon (coat of mail), hough (hamstring), kine (cows), and leasing (lying).