THE NEW TESTAMENT IN A NEW DRESS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 10

THE NEW TESTAMENT IN A NEW DRESS

At its meeting in April. last,. the Anglican General Synod of New Zealand declared its belief that “the time has come when it is advisable to cease publication of the . Authorised, Version of the Bible in its present form and to adopt a format more in keeping with tne best modern book production.” Archdeacon Gavin, of .New Plymouth, was responsible for raising the question and wording Synod s resolution.-, He and many thousands more of Christian people in thi--> country will be attracted to the New Testament in four volumes which Messrs. J. M. Dent and Sons are producing under the typographical supervision of Mr. Eric Gill. . . The first volume; embracing the- Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, is in the bookshops now. The second, to contain the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, the Johanhine epistles, Peter, . and Jude, is to follow shortly; and in the spring will come volumes three (Acts and Revelation) and four (the Pauline epistles). It will be noticed that this order involves a rearrangement of the books of the New Testament. But that is all: there is no departure from the text of the Authorised Version. The only .difference is that -it. is presented in normal book form; the page is five inches.by seven and a half, and the type runs the full width, except for margins, as in any other book. The type itself, of Mr. Gill’s own designing, is large, clear and delightfully easy fo read. Chapters are indicated by bold initial letters, but there are no chapter headings, and even the numbering of chapters and verses is reduced to an indication a,t the top of each page of the verses included on the page. The paragraphing is new. The first paragraph, for example, iconsists of the. first verse of Matthew; the second paragraph includes the'second, third, fourth and fifth verses, and part of the sixth. For ease of reading this is an undoubted advantage, as well as giving in Some places a clearer picture of the meaning. Poetry is printed-.as poetry, and quotations from the Old Testament are indicated by indentation and the use of single quotation marljs, thus: . . .-' that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, . : * ‘They parted my 'garments among them, • And Upon my vesture did they cast lots.’ Direct speech d° es not carry quotation marks, as might Trave been expected, but is indicated by an initial capital letter following a comma. So: . . . and said unto them, Suffer the, little children to come unto me; and forbid them not’. . : Marginal' references - have been dropped; however, an appendix compiled by Dr. M. R-. James, 0.M., Provost of Eton, and Miss Delia Lyttelton, which is related to the text by page and line, references, sets out what are believed in the light of later research to be faulty translations in. the Authorised Version. ’ -

There is also a sketch map of Palestine, two woodcuts by Mr. Gill (with a promise of two more in each of the other three volumes) and for binding a choice of red cloth and red leather. Artistic skill and scholarship,- as Dr. James says in an introduction, have come together in the service of the Scriptures. The new New Testament, he adds, “seeks to delight the eye by the comeliness of its opened page and to guide the mind as by a voice which says’, ‘ I his is the wav, walk yc in it.’, To divest the Bible of its ancient flavour and of the halo of old associations which surrounds it is impossible, even if it were desirable .. . . Hut to present it with added beauty of form, and relieved of incumbrances that have proved vexatious, may have the effect which we earnestly desire, of leading a generation which is inclined to take it’as read to discard that attitude, and find out for themselves how he who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in old times to our fathers by the prophets 'has in these latter days spoken unto us by His Son.”