acknowledged, like our existing version, to be, on the whole, exceedingly good. What are some of these causes?

I. First Reason for a New Revision.—The first is the gradual change to which languages—at least most languages are subject. Old words drop out of use, or lose certain meanings, so as to puzzle many readers; or, by being used in new senses, they acquire a certain ambiguity, which needs to be removed, for the sake of the common reader. It is true that a well-executed version, like our English one, tends to preserve a language from a number of changes which would otherwise be inevitable; but it is true, also, that an ancient translation, preserved on account of the veneration which is felt towards it, may even do harm to religion by obscuring thoughts which would otherwise be clear.

Elevation of Biblical Style. We would here guard against a wrong inference which might be drawn from our remarks, as if in a translation for the nineteenth century, the words most in use in the century, and most familiar to the ears of the people, ought always to take the place of others less in use, which, however, retain their place in the language. This is far from being a safe rule. One of the most important impressions which the Word of God makes is made by its venerableness. The dignity and sanctity of the truth are supported by the elevation of the style, and woe be to the translator who should seek to vulgarize the Bible, on the plea of rendering it more intelligible. Understood it must be, and this must be provided for by removing the ambiguities and obscurities to which changes in society and changes in the expression of thought give rise. But as

long as the English is a living tongue, the style of the Scriptures must be majestic, and removed from all vulgarity. Indeed, it must be such as it is now, with those exceptions, few in number, which time brings with it, and most of which will hardly be noticed by the cursory reader.

II. Greek Manuscripts.-A second reason for a new revision of our authorized version is found in the scanty knowledge of the state of the original text which was accessible at the time when that version saw the light. The main object in attempting to discover what are the texts followed in manuscripts of the Scriptures, or by early Christian writers in their citations, or by the early translators into foreign tongues, is to ascertain, as far as possible, just what was written or dictated by the sacred writers. The scribes and other authorities to whom we owe our texts were subject to the same mistakes with any other copyists; and it is of the first importance that we should know what text, in any given case, is to be preferred to other readings. For the performance of this most laborious task there were, in the early part of the seventeenth century, no adequate materials accessible. The great accumulation of readings, and the new conviction of the importance of the critical art, in its application to the sacred text, began about the eighteenth century. Since then, above all, in the later times, multitudes of scholars have devoted themselves to the collation of manuscripts and of early versions. Numbers of manuscripts, and among them some of the most ancient, have been discovered, and the citations in the Fathers have been examined with care. The ages of manuscripts also, and the rules for estimating their comparative value, are fixed with

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greater precision. The skill of textual critics, and the means within their reach for determining the texts, are such as to assure us, in most cases, what was the original reading; and this important end has been reached by the zeal and labours of men who have lived long since 1611, when the first edition of our present English Bible was printed.

It may frighten some of our readers to be told that there are many thousand different readings in the New Testament, collected by the labours of scholars; but they ought to be assured that the text is more certain by far than if there had been only as many hundreds, and the mass of authorities for the text had been unconsulted.

III. Defects in King James's Version.-The third reason for a new revision, and the last which I shall mention, is that our translators of the seventeenth century, in a great many instances, misunderstood the sense. To make this as evident as it may be made we should need to write a volume. Such volumes have been written; among which Dr. Lightfoot's work on "A Fresh Revision of the English New Testament" may be commended as the best. In this brief paper we can only say that the main deficiency in our translation proceeds from want of exact knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages. Not only is the sense wholly misapprehended in a number of instances as could scarcely fail of being the case-but a perception of the finer rules of grammar and interpretation was wanting. In the use of the article, of the tenses and modes of verbs, and of participles, and in a great variety of other instances, the modern scholar by his revisions can repair and beautify the building reared by the older scholars. Thus, while no book

can be written more fitted in style and expression to do its work, more truly English, more harmonious, more simply majestic, than our authorized revision; new revisers of the text and the version may hope-by their salutary changes —to contribute to its preservation, in essentially the same form which it has always had, for generations yet to come.

THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES, AS COMPARED WITH

OUR PRESENT NEEDS.

BY G. EMLEN HARE, D.D., LL.D.,

Professor of Biblical Learning in the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia.

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THE current version of the Scriptures is commonly known as the "Authorized." The epithet may have originated in the fact that the book bears on its title-page the words Appointed to be read in churches." But that the appointment thus mentioned-that of the monarch reigning in England at the time of the publication-was not the source of the authority of the version, is manifest from the fact that the book did not come into general use in English churches for something like half a century after the time the appointment was made. The authority of the work came from its superiority to the translations previously in use and the general recognition which this superiority deserved and obtained.

years have intervened English Bible and the

Two hundred and sixty-eight between the publication of the present time. During this interval multitudes of words have changed their meaning. The phrases "by," "by and by,"