THE REVISED BIBLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue XV, 25 November 1880, Page 4

THE REVISED BIBLE.

A London letter says: — The new revision of the New Testament issued from the University press will at first shock the Protestant world. It is not recognisable as a Bible. The chapters and verses are gone; the running headlines are gone ; verses are missing, changed, pared ; familiar texts that have become graven on the minds of Church people for generations have dieappeared, and in their places are words foreign to the eye and strange to the ear. Verbal and grammatical cbaDges may be counted by the (ens of thousands. The first general idea that will strike the scholar, however, is the faith-

fulness with which the Greek text has been reproduced for tbe English reader. Tbe narrative is unbroken by disfigurement of chapter and verse, but the capitals, punoluafion, and paragraphs, lacking in the original are, of course, supplied, and for convenience of reference to tbe present version, tbe present divisions are marked parenthetically. The misleading head-lines disappear finally, without a sign to denote their improper intrusion. The is striking and a marked improvement. The sequence of the Gospel narratives, the logic of St Paul, take on a new appearance and force that is not all owing to the improvement in grammatical construction of the te^U although in a first reading it is difficult to distinguish how much is owing to the one and how much to the other. Take this illustration (Heb. iv.,6-7), which is a fair example of this point. OLD STYLE. fcEW STYLE. 6. Seeing therefore Since therefore it it remaineth that some remaiaeth that some one must enter therein, enter therein, and and they to whom it they who formerly waß firat preached cn> received the glad tered not in because promise entered not of unbelief. in because of dis7. Agaiuhslimitetli obedience, lie again a certain day, saying flxeth a certain day, to Da?id, To-day, to-day, Baying so loDg after so long a time; a time afterward in and it is said, To-day, David (as hath been 'if "you will Hear hi 3 said before), To-day, voice, harden not your if ye shall hear hit hearts. voice, harden not your. hearts. OMISSIONS FBOM THE TEXT. The fourth gospel suffers most at the hands of revisers, the synoptics even less, than the Kevelation, and the. Catholic epistles least of all. The longest excision is from the fifty-third verse of the seventh chapter to the eleventh verse of the" next inclusive.

The following verse (12), in which Jesus declares himself the light of the world, is joined up'on^and is a reply to, the scoff of the Pharisees in the preceding chapter, that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. The next deletion of importance is the angelic coloring of the description ot the poolßethesda, in the fifth chapter. The following passage is omitted by the reviewers :— "3. . . . "Waiting for the moving of the water. -" For the angel went down at a certain Beason unlo the pool and troubled the water } whosoever first after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." The famous text of the three heavenly witnesses (I. John v> 7-8) is, bfcourae, thrown out,: the following words being expunged i— f 7. ... In Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; these three are one. "8. And there ate three that bear witness in earth . * . }> Another notable omission of the revisers is to be found in the conversion of Paul as recorded in Acts ix., 5-6. The words expunged are : — «-5. ... It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. { And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? Aad the .Lord said unto him >» There are many. : other familiar passages that have disappeared : " M any becalled but few chosen," from Matthew xxxii., 14 ; "If any man has ears to hear let him hear," from Mark vii. 16.

Some of the happiest changes are of a single word^ as " alive" for " quick." *' They had swallowed us up alive" has a very different sense than *' swallowed us up quick*' Again, * He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet,'* becomes much more simple when rendered— 4 ' fle that has taken a bath needeth not save to wash his feet.'' "Darkness over till the earth," and "over all the land" (Palestine), are very different things. In every change the revisers leeseh the strain upon faith. Minor changes haVe been hinted it. It,would take too long to sort out, afcraiige, and classify them. Here are a few that come haphazard— " As we have 'forgiven" instead of "iorgive," "our debtdTs." '" The pinnacle of the

temple," instead of "a pinnacle" (there was but one). " The first fruits of them that are sleeping," instead of " slept.'* "If one died for all, then were all dead/ instead of " then did all die/ £aul did not pray the Lord to avenge him on Alexander. He said— " The Lord 'will reward him according to his woik," not " the Lord rewarded him." " Supposing that godlirctsve gain," instead of " gain is godliness." "The world became (instead of was made) flesh." " Born^of woman," inI stead of " made of a woman.'* "For we saw his star," not "have seen" it. Such changes as these are to te found in every verse.