LECTURE VII. ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN 79   LECTURE VIII. THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO CENTURIES 91   LECTURE IX. THE REVISION OF 1881 105   APPENDIX. (A.) PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE. CH. XV. 129 (B.) TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES 137 (C.) COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535 160 (D.) PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 1560 172 (E.) PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 1568 177 (F.) PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611 199 (G.) THE REVISERS OF 1568 235 (H.) THE REVISERS OF 1611 237

 

 

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LECTURES ON BIBLE REVISION.

 

LECTURE I.

SUBSTANCE AND FORM.

There are probably devout persons not a few in whose minds the mere suggestion of a Revision of the Scriptures arouses a feeling of mingled pain and surprise. In that Bible which they received from their fathers in the trustful confidence of childhood, they have heard the voice of God speaking to their souls. Not from any testimony given to them by others, but from their own lengthened and varied experience of it, they know it to be the Father’s gift unto His children. It has quickened, guided, and strengthened them, as no human words had ever done, answering the deepest cravings of their nature, stimulating them to endeavours after a nobler life, and enkindling within them the confidence of a sure and blessed hope. That it is from heaven, and not from men, they know, not because of what has been told them, but from what they themselves have seen and learnt; and they need no further evidence of its inspiration than the fact that it has opened their eyes to a knowledge of themselves, and to a perception of the loveliness of Christ. That any should dare to meddle with a book so precious and so honoured, seems to them a sacrilegious act, and a Revision of the Holy Scriptures is to them a presumptuous attempt to improve upon the handiwork of God.

In this feeling there is much with which every Christian man will warmly sympathize; but there is in it also something that calls for correction and instruction. There is need here, as elsewhere, of careful thought and self-discipline, lest, by confounding things that differ, we transfer our reverence for what is God-given and divine to what is only human, and therefore fallible. A little consideration will suffice to show that, in such a matter as this, it is peculiarly important to distinguish between substance and form, between what is essential and permanent and what is accidental and variable. By the substance of the Bible we mean the statements which, in various ways and diverse manners, it presents to our thoughts; the precepts and the promises, the histories and the prophecies, the doctrines and the prayers, the truths about God and about man, through which our minds are instructed, our consciences enlightened, and our hearts established by grace. By the form of the Bible, we mean the signs or sounds by which the various statements contained in the Bible are presented to us, and which are, as it were, the channel through which the truths it teaches are conveyed to our minds. It will be obvious upon the least consideration, that the kind and degree of reverence which it is right to entertain towards the form of Scripture, is very different from that which it behoves us to cherish for the substance of Scripture. Respecting the latter, it is fitting to watch with all jealousy that no man add unto it or take from it; it is precious for its own sake. Not so, however, with the former; its worth is not in itself, but only in that which it enshrines. The two sentences—

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,”

“Gwir yw’r gair ac yn haeddu pob derbyniad, ddyfod Crist Iesu i’r byd i gadw pechaduriaid,”

are very different in form, whether judged