There to understand without the aid of others; or that many are satisfied with reading, or listening to, its obscurer portions without making any real effort to understand them. are numbers of English readers to whom the Gospels are perfectly familiar-so familiar that they can at will call up almost any scene in our blessed Saviour's life, or recall to mind any of the words He spake-and yet far the greater portion of them would be utterly at a loss, if they were called upon to sketch out the argument of any one of St. Paul's Epistles, or even to tell what the chief subject of many of them is. They turn to the Gospels with an interest that familiarity fails to abate, with a satisfaction that is ever growing stronger; but they turn to the Epistles, if so be that they turn there at all, for the most part as a duty-reverencing them indeed as parts of the Inspired Word, but also feeling, with somewhat of sadness, that such parts of the Inspired Word seem to have but little inspiration for them. They find them by no means so 'profitable for instruction in righteousness' as other passages, which anyone with earnestness and thought may understand. No one who believes that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and reverences it as one of God's choicest gifts to man, can contemplate such a state of things without sorrow. In ordinary life no books, except works of fiction, are read with such eagerness and interest, as those which contain the life and letters of any man who has had much force of character, or who has left a mark upon the world. The letters especially of such a person are full of interest, if those letters are of such a nature as to show clearly the character of the writer; in them we see for ourselves what he was far more clearly than the best-chosen words of another can enable us to do. Now, it may be said with truth that no one in his letters ever laid his inmost heart more bare than did St. Paul, or set in clearer light what his character was. His letters, though we take no note of their inspiration, must be of surpassing interest to all who can understand them. That his character was a noble one even those will readily allow who do not count him as a teacher from God; and letters more characteristio, fuller of fervour, and fuller of thought, the world has not seen. Why, then, is it that the readers of those letters may be counted by tens, while the readers of the Gospels are counted by thousands? Simply because, to our shame be it written, no translation of those letters into a 'tongue understanded of the people' exists. That it would be difficult to make such a translation is true; but it would be by no means impossible, neither would it be difficult to find scholars quite competent to undertake it. The Jewish mind. differs widely from the English, and the mind of St. Paul is so essentially the mind of a Jew that it is no easy task for us at times to follow his reasoning; but that difficulty is felt by a reader of the Greek as well as by the reader of a translation. And there are passages in his writings, as there are in Thucidydes and Æschylus, as to the interpretation of which those who have drunk most deeply into his spirit well may differ. But surely where his meaning is clear, that meaning may be without difficulty expressed in such a way as that even the unlearned may understand it. In reading the observations of those who have written upon the authorised version, or the amendments of it which they suggest, one cannot but be painfully struck with the thought, that they have either forgotten altogether that large mass of their fellow countrymen which must be ranked as unlearned, or else have no knowledge of the language it speaks, and which alone it can understand. The present writer's life has been spent in a parish where all but a few are without the advantages which education gives: it is a parish in a manufacturing district, where the intellect of the people is considered to be certainly not below that of other parts of the kingdom. A long experience has convinced him, that it is almost a hopeless task to get even the quickest of them to understand St. Paul's meaning in most of his Epistles, as the authorised version sets it forth. The long, involved sentences, the frequent and long parentheses, the constantly-recurring use of abstract terms to them so unintelligible, &c., all help to conceal from them the. meaning. There is but one plan he has ever found to answer: he has at times found it possible to set St. Paul's meaning before them independently of the English version; and then, when they have grasped his meaning clearly, to show them in some measure how that meaning may be reconciled with that version. In plain words-and it is time that someone dared to speak the truth openly on the matter-that version is con tinually a hindrance, rather than a help, to anyone who would explain to others what the mind of the Spirit as expressed in Scripture is. And yet we are bidden almost to fall down and worship that version by men whose words necessarily have great weight with all who do not test the value of the words they read. We are reminded of the great debt of gratitude which we owe to its translators, though there is a far greater debt, very apt to be forgotten, which we owe to some who preceded them. The very directions which were given to them must sorely have hampered them, and the six divisions to which the several portions were intrusted do not seem to have agreed beforehand on the general principles their translation was to follow; neither do the translations of the several portions appear to have been revised on a common principle afterwards. Anyone who studies the several portions attentively must see that in point of merit there is great difference between them. 3. A good translation of any work must be free from serious mistakes. This again is a test which the authorised version is quite unable to stand. It abounds in mistakes of a serious nature. Very many of them indeed arise from the want of accuracy spoken of under the first head-such as arise from mistranslation of the article Bishop Middleton has pointed out these, and others that arise from ignorance of the true meaning of particles, or prepositions, or tenses, need not be dwelt upon here. But some mistranslations shall be set down which arise from none of these causes, most of them of an important nature. Others have pointed out the numerous mistakes, and still more numerous obscurities, that the translators have occasioned by their unfortunate habit of translating a word which occurs more than once in a passage by different English words, or a series of words which are cognate in Greek by English words which are not cognate; or by the opposite mistake of translating different words in the Greek by the same English word, and words that are not cognate in Greek by English words that are so. Again, others have pointed out the mistakes into which the English reader of the present day is led by words of which the meaning has changed since the authorised version was made. The present writer wishes to set down some of the mistakes which do not arise St. Matt. from any of the above causes. In his ordinary reading he i in the habit of marking in a pocket Greek Testament any passage which is mistranslated. Some such passages which have caught his eye in turning over its leaves are here set down: he has not troubled himself to search for others. 'Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever xvi. 25, 26. will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' Instead of Whosoever willeth to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever hath lost his life for my sake, shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he have gained the whole world and lost his own life? or what shall a man give as an exchange for his life? St. Matt. x. 40. 'To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to St. Mark give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.' Instead of—is not mine to give, save to those for whom it hath been prepared of my Father. Our Saviour does not deny that He had the gift to give, but simply asserts that He could only give it to those for whom His Father had prepared it. St Matt. 'Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in xxviii. 19. the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things,' &c. For—-Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, by baptizing them into the name of . . .; teaching them to observe The words translated teach,' and 'teaching,' are quite different: the tense of the first shows* that it refers to a single act commenced and completed at once: it could not be applied to such a process as that of teaching. If this verse had been rightly translated, it could never have been quoted, as it so often has been, by those who maintain that infant baptism is not scriptural. St. Luke xvii. 21. St. John iii. 36. "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.' For-is among you. Our Saviour could hardly mean to say that the Pharisees were subjected in heart to God. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and * Donaldson's Greek Grammar, p. 411. he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.' that believeth on the Son hath life eternal that obeyeth not the Son, shall not see life. For-He whereas, he 'I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am St. John known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I x. 14, 15. the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.' For I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 'The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be Acts ii. 47. saved.' For such as were being saved. The bearing of this mistranslation on the predestinarian controversy need scarcely be pointed out. Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are Acts xvii. too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devo- 22, 23. tions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.' Here the graceful courtesy of the Apostle is quite lost. Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in every way ye have greater reverence than others for the deities ye worship: for as I passed by and beheld the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription, To a God unknown. Whom therefore ye worship without knowing Him, Him declare I unto you. 6 The meaning of the whole passage in Romans v. 15-19, is materially weakened, not to say altered, by the mistake of translating of Toλλoí 'many,' instead of the multitude.' Whether or not the translators shrank from the doctrine which is plainly contained in the Greek, may admit of doubt; but it is certain that many earnest readers of Scripture now would consider that doctrine very unsound. St. Paul teaches plainly that, if owing to the offence of the one man the multitude died, much more did the grace of God . . . abound unto the multitude. He explains what he means by the multitude.' As by one offence judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by one righteous act the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. For as by the disobedience of the one man the multitude (i.e. all men) were made sinners, so by the obedience of the One the multitude (all men again surely, for if the words in the second clause 6 |