RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1824, 9 August 1913, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

ROMAN CATHOLICS AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM. A NEW TRANSLATION OP THE BIBLE. Moi=ra. Longmans aro about to begin the publication in'parts of -a new Roman Catholic 'translation of tlio Bible, entitled "Tho Westminster Version"-of tlio Sawed Scriptures." It is not intended as a .substitute for tho familiar "Douay" version, which, being based upon the Vulgate, must still bo used when tho Epistles and Gospels aro read in clmrch, until tho final revision of tlio Vulgate makes a new version imperative. Tho "Westminster Version" is undertaken, it is announced, in retsponso to "a widespread feeling, itself duo to increased interest in Biblical studi.es, that tho great advances made in textual criticism, tho light thrown upon New Testament Greek by tho Egyptian papyri, and the existence of many needless oljscuritios and faults in tlio ourreiut version, all demand a more ULCCurato translation, if tlio exhortations of tlio IMy Sco to a moro frequent and fruitful i>ernsal of tho sacred Scri]>tures aro to ineot with general acceptance." Tlio work has the approval of Cardinal Bourne and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and will be uadcT the general editorship of tho Rev. Outhbort Lattey, S.J., Professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Ben no's College, North Wales, and the Riev, Joseph Keating, S.J. Tho collaboration has been secured, as editors of separate sections, of Dr. jf'lntyre, Bishop of Lamas; llgr. B. Ward, President of St. Et'/iiuud's; tho Rev. J. P. Arendzen; Professor of Sacred Soripturo at St. Edmund's; Fattier Hugh Pope, 0.P., of tho Collegio Angolico, Rome; Father Joseph Ricluiby, S.J., of Oxford; and many other distinguished scholars. It is proposed to issue the work continuously in separate fasciculi of the samo format, varying' in the number of pases and price, but so arranged- as to bo capable of being ultimately bound—in the easa of the New Testament,_ with which the enterprise will begin—in four volumes. The Old Testament will bo undertaken later. The Epistles of St.:. Paul will bo issued first, "because by universal consent tliey stand most in n«?d of being translated afresh.' July 4 was fixed for tho publication of the first, part —"The First and Second Epistles to tho 'Uhe-saloniansj" newly translated from tho original text, with introduction, critical and explanatory notes, ane.ndioes • and map, by tlio ReV. Cnthbert Lattoy.--"Tlio Times." v