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of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, being imitations of Solomon's writings, and consisting of sentences, that are co-extensive with the present verses, I thought could not be printed in a better way, than in our common Bibles.

"The whole of the Bible, whether prose or metre, is divided in this Edition into sections, without any regard to the present chapters and verses. These sections are intended to conform to the divisions of the several subjects; and it is hoped, they will exhibit the whole of the Bible in an order, system, and coherence, which will throw new light upon every part of it. To make way for this sectional division I have been obliged to discard the arguments of the chapters; but I have done this with the less scruple, because they do not appear to me to be a part of the original work; for the translators, after they had completed the revision of the text, by the joint and several labours of the whole body, delegated to two only of their number the office of making arguments to the chapters. Later editions have, no doubt. observed this, and have for that reason taken liberties with these arguments, adding to thein, or diminishing them, according to their fancy; in some late editions from the Cambridge press the arguments of the chapters are reduced to a single line. With this history, and these examples before me, I felt less difficulty in rejecting the arguments entirely, and substituting for them the sectional heads, and the marginal abstracts; thinking that these will be found to do more than compensate for the loss.

"In planning this edition, I constantly kept in view the orignal work of the Translators, and the practice of the two Universities in their editions of it; and I have always endeavoured to adapt my designs so as to be justified either by one or the other. Wishing to give a plain text, to look like other English books, I was desirous of disincumbering the margin from the numerous parallel passages, that seem to load the page, while they contribute little, that is useful to the generality of readers. I found, that these parallel passages were very few in the first edition in King James's time, and that the present number had grown by gradual additions, derived from the industry of successive editors. The much greater part of them, therefore, might be discarded without interfering with the original work; and the Oxford and Cambridge editors have dismissed the whole of them, in some of their late octavo Bibles. This was authority enough for me to do the same; but, in this case, as in that of the arguments of the chapters, I have provided a substitute; for in the notes will be found all the references to parallel passages, which appeared to me necessary for explaining the text. Some might, indeed, be added, that would be of use; but for many of the others, they conduce more to a curious comparison of words and phrases, than to any true illustration of Scripture.

"The other branch of marginal matter appeared to me of a much more important nature; I mean the Hebrew and Greek renderings, as they are called. These are such translations of the original as give ano

ther, or a more literal, sense of a word or phrase in the original, which could not properly be introduced into the text itself; these were wisely placed in the margin by the translators, in order to afford additional light to the reader. I considered these, as a real part of the translation, no less than the text itself, and that no Bible was fairly given to the public, that was without them. I have, therefore, retained the whole of the Hebrew and Greek renderings in this edition; and I regret that there is any example of disregarding them in others, which, for that reason, I, cannot look upon as genuine editions, though coming from authority, Extricated as these renderings are, in this edition, from the heap of parallel passages, with which they are confounded in the quarto editions, they will, I hope, attract the reader's notice, and thus contribute their share towards conveying the true sense of the words and phrases of the original language.

"Such is the plan upon which I have exhibited the text of our Church Bible. For the text itself, I made choice of the Oxford Bible, which was adjusted with great care in the year 1769, and which the university has made the copy in all reprints, ever since. I directed the Printers to follow that copy implicitly; and if there is any deviation, even in the punctuation, it is from an error in the press, and not by design.*

"To the text of the Psalms I have added, in another column, that of the Psalms in the Common Prayer Book. These two texts are of different characters; the former is nearer the Hebrew, but the latter seems to have less difficulties; those will become still less by a comparison with the Bible text; and the two will reflect a light upon each other, that must make both better understood.†

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Although I persuaded myself, that the Bible was more likely to be read, and would be read with more interest, and intelligence, if the text was presented to the reader in the form in which it is disposed in this edition, yet it seemed to me necessary, that the text should be accompa

* «There is a peculiarity in this Oxford edition which I do not approve, and which, therefore, I am desirous should not be ascribed to me. The Edi. tor has united into one word what are elsewhere two words, or at most are joined by a hyphen, making such compounds, as shoelatchet, eveningtide, grapegatherers, bloodguiltiness, manservant, maidservant, and the like; all which are printed as two words in the original edition in King James's time, and are commonly so written in the present day. The printers were startled with these novelties, but I directed them to follow the copy. Having determined to reprint this text, I thought it proper to adhere to it, in every particular. This I observed so scrupulously, that when my sectional division happened, as it did more than once, to end where there was only a colon in the text, I would not allow them to change it to a full stop. So that this edition may be considered as an Oxford text, if reprinted correctly."

"The notes are upon the Bible text only; for notes upon the other text, I must refer to the new edition of my Common Prayer Book.

nied with some explanatory notes, before it could be said to be upon a footing of equal advantage with other ancient writings. In order, therefore, to make the work as complete as I could, I resolved to compile some short notes both to the Old Testament and the New; I did not feel courage to bestow the same pains on the Apocrypha.* The rule I had laid down to myself for framing these notes was this; that they should be very numerous, and very short; so that nothing might be passed over that appeared in the least to need annotation; and that no annotation should digress from the text; but, on the contrary, that every note should keep the text closely in view, and should bring the reader back to it, as soon as it had served the purpose of explaining the difficulty that occasioned it. Further, 1 resolved to keep out of these notes every thing that was learned, or curious, or novel. Formed upon this principie, they aim at nothing, but to give a plain interpretation of Scripture, such as has been known and well received for many years; and, as they are intended for English readers of every class, so both learned and unlearned, I should think, may find something in them that will be useful.

"In giving this new form to the English Bible, I claim little merit to myself beyond that of the labour and expense; the authorship is of a ve y humble sort ; it is that of bringing forward the works of others, and placing them in a situation, where they may be more useful to the public. The substance of every thing, that may be thought valuable in this edition, is to be found in books a century old; little of it is mine, but the selecting, adapting, and wording. If there has not always been judgment in the choice, nor every where success in the execution; if I have done too much in one place, and too little in another; I hope allowance will be made for such inequalities, considering that the work is long, and varicus, and the attempt new.

"I beg leave here to repeat, what I have said on a former occasion,‡ by way of apology for presuming to meddle with the Bible and Prayer Book, as Editor or Commentator, that I desire in these publications to be considered as acting only officially, and more in the character of a printer, than an author. It is the performance of a suit and service, which I thought due for my share in the office to which I belong. While my copatentees were carrying on the ordinary business of the King's press for the present, conformably to an agreement between us, I was unwilling to be wholly idle in the station wherein I was placed. The Bible and Prayer Book are connected with some of my former studies, and I re

* "For the reasons see the preface to the Apocrypha.

"The ground work of this edition may be seen in Well's Paraphrase of the Old and New Testament; and the notes may be considered as containing what seems most necessary in the voluminous commentaries of Patrick, Lowth, and Whitby, not to mention others.

"In the Prefatory Epistle to my Collation of the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Psalms."

solved to try, whether any thing new could be devised for providing the public with better editions of those books. Hence arose the present edi tion of the Bible, as well as that of the Common Prayer Book. I have in contemplation some other biblical works; but I shall pause for the present, till what I have already done, shall be received in a manner, that will justify me in pursuing, any further, my notions of improvement."

Having given the Editor's Preface at length, wherein is fully shown what he has proposed in this publication of the Bible, we now come to consider the execution of his plan; and we shall endeavour to make this as plain to our readers as he himself has his design, by exhibiting such extracts from different parts of the work as will be specimens of the method he has followed in printing the whole of it.

The manner in which he has disposed the text, without regard to the obstacles from the divisions into chapter and verse, and the assistance which is derived to the text from marginal abstracts of the contents of each paragraph, may be seen in the following passage.

An angel appears to Joshua.

The ark is car

"13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? 14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 15 And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. CHAP. VI. Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. 3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. 4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and, the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priest shall blow with the trumpets. 5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

"6 And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and ried round Je- said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let richo on the seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD. 7 And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.

first day.

8 And it came to

pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them." &c. &c. &c.

This passage is selected from Joshua, ch. v. 13. as a specimen of the good sense and utility in Mr. R.'s divisions, because (as he tells us in a note on ch. vi. 2.) those who read this passage in our common Bibles, by chapters, would suppose" the Lord" mentioned in ch. vi. 2. was "the Lord," that usually spoke from the sanctuary, and not the angel, who spoke to Joshua in the latter part of ch. v. In the present new form, it appears, as it really is, namely the continuation of a story, that was mutilated by being divided into another chapter.

The next prominent circumstance in this new manner of printing the text of the Bible, consists in the distinction made between the prose parts, and those that are metrical. Thus the Song of Moses is introduced, and distinguished in the following manner. "CHAP. XV. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel The song of this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying,

"I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

"2 The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and i will exalt him.

"3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

"4 Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.

"5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.

"6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." &c. &c. &c.

Moses and the
Israelites.

The chorus of Miriam and the women is introduced thus;

"20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took

a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after

her with timbrels and with dances.

"21 And Miriam answered them.

"Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumph

ed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he
thrown into the sea."

The prophecies of Balaam are distinguished as metrical, as may

be seen in the following extract from Numbers, ch. xxii. 41.

"41 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.

Balaam blesses the Israelites the first time.

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