OLD TEXT.

7. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

NEW VERSION.

7. And God said unto Satan, You have been some time absent; where were you? And Satan answered, I have been at my country seat, and in different places visiting my friends.

8. And God said, Well, what think you of Lord Job? You see he is my best friend, a perfectly honest man, full of respect for

8. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fear-me, and avoiding everything that eth God and escheweth evil?

9. Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

10. Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

11. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

might offend me.

9. And Satan answered, Does your majesty imagine that his good conduct is the effect of personal attachment and affection?

10. Have you not protected him and heaped your benefits upon him, till he is grown enormously rich?

11. Try him; - only withdraw your favor, turn him out of his places, and withhold his pensions, and you will soon find him in the opposition.

Mr. McMaster, in his recent life of Franklin as a man of letters, says,1

1.

"In no book, it is safe to say, are the force and beauty of the English tongue so finely shown as in King James's Bible. But on Franklin that force and beauty were wholly lost. The language he pronounced obsolete. The style he thought not agreeable, and he was for a new rendering, in

1 MCMASTER, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: American Men of Letters Series, pp. 87, 88.

which the turn of phrase and manner of expression should be modern. That there might be no mistake as to his meaning, he gave a sample of how the work should be done; took some verses from the first chapter of Job, stripped them of every particle of grace, beauty, imagery, terseness, and strength, and wrote a paraphrase, which of all paraphrases of the Bible is surely the worst.

"The plan is beneath criticism. Were such a piece of folly ever begun there would remain but one other depth of folly to which it would be possible to go down. Franklin proposed to fit out the Kingdom of Heaven with lords, nobles, a ministry, and levee days. It would, on the same principle, be proper to make another version suitable for republics; a version from which every term and expression peculiar to a monarchy should be carefully kept out, and only such as are applicable to a republic be put in.".

In 1776 Kneeland & Adams of Boston printed a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew, made by the Rev. Samuel Mather, in which the Lord's Prayer has this curious rendering:

"Our Father, who art in the Heavens, sanctified be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, as in Heaven, so upon the Earth; Give us to-day that our bread, the supersubstantial; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive them who are our debtors; and introduce us not into afflictive trial, but deliver us from the Wicked One, because thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for the ages. Amen."

Lilly, Wait, Colman, & Holden of Boston printed in 1833 what claimed to be "A New and Corrected Version of the New Testament." It was edited by Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson, "Rector of St. Paul's Parish, District of Pendleton, South Carolina." The American Monthly Review for March, 1833, says, "Apart from its literary execution, this professed translation has no distinctive character; and as the author -in his preface places his chief reliance on the rhetorical embellishments with which he has adorned the sacred text, we are constrained to award a verdict of unqualified condemnation."

The reckless and freehanded nature of the translation may be judged by the quotations that follow:

John iii. 3. “Except a man be reproduced, he cannot realize the reign of God.

4. Nicodemus says to him, How can a man be produced when he is matured? Can he again pass into a state of embryo and be produced?"

Acts i. 18. "And (Judas) falling prostrate, a violent internal spasm ensued, and all his viscera were emitted." "Festus declared with a loud voice, Paul, you are insane! Multiplied research drives you to distraction."

xxvi. 24.

In 1852 Henry Oliphant, of Auburn, New York, printed a portion of the New Testament for Hezekiah Woodruff, who desired to render the words of Scripture after the language of our day. Here are a few examples of his efforts, with the original spellings:

St. Matthew iii. 4. "His food was small animals and vegitable honey.

6. Happy are they who hunger and thirst for correct

ness.

20. Unless your correctness should exceed the correctness of the clergy."

xxvi. 24. "The Son-of-man maketh his exit.

49. Immediately he [Judas] came to the Saviour and said, Your most obedient, Preceptor."

It is a relief to know that this book ended with the Gospel of St. Matthew.

At various times editions of the New Testament have appeared which were translated in the interests of certain sectarian bodies. In 1849 Joshua V. Himes of Boston published a "Millerite" New Testament. In 1850 a New Testament was printed by a New York firm, in which these words were placed upon the title

page, "Dictated by the Spirit." The editor was a Spiritualist.

A version of the New Testament was printed in Boston by Thomas D. Wait & Co., in 1809, to advance the views of Socinianism. The title-page contains this remarkable specimen of the English language: "No offence can justly be taken for this new labor; nothing prejudicing any other man's judgment by this doing; nor yet professing this so absolute a translation, as that hereafter might follow no other who might see that which as yet was not understood."

66

The title-pages of some early American Bibles contain curious expressions. What were known as Hieroglyphical Bibles" were common in those days. On the title-pages of several editions are these words, "For the instruction and amusement of children." John C. Riker of New York printed in 1833 an edition of the New Testament containing this line on the title-page, "With numerous engravings, and the sterling currency reduced to dollars and cents."

The editor of a Bible printed in Philadelphia