How a good man like you can revive the memory of these many painful incidents without anguish, is to me unintelligible. That no blessing from Him, “sine Quo nihil validum, nihil sanctum,” could be expected to attend an undertaking commenced under such auspices,—was but too plain. The Revision was a foredoomed thing—in the account of many besides myself—from the outset.
(3) The probable Future of the Revision of 1881.
Not unaware am I that it has nevertheless been once and again confidently predicted in public Addresses, Lectures, Pamphlets, that ultimate success is in store for the Revision of 1881. I cannot but regard it as a suspicious circumstance that these vaticinations have hitherto invariably proceeded from members of the Revising body.
It would ill become such an one as myself to pretend to skill in forecasting the future. But of this at least I feel certain:—that if, in an evil hour, (quod absit!), the Church of England shall ever be induced to commit herself to the adoption of the present Revision, she will by so doing expose herself to the ridicule of the rest of Christendom, as well as incur irreparable harm and loss. And such a proceeding on her part will be inexcusable, for she has been at least faithfully forewarned. Moreover, in the end, she will most certainly have to retrace her steps with sorrow and confusion.
Those persons evidently overlook the facts of the problem, who refer to what happened in the case of the Authorized Version when it originally appeared, some 270 years ago; and argue that as the Revision of 1611 at first encountered opposition, which yet it ultimately overcame, so must it fare in the end with the present Revised Version also. Those who so reason forget that the cases are essentially dissimilar.
If the difference between the Authorized Version of 1611 and the Revision of 1881 were only this.—That the latter is characterized by a mechanical, unidiomatic, and even repulsive method of rendering; which was not only unattempted, but repudiated by the Authors of the earlier work;—there would have been something to urge on behalf of the later performance. The plea of zeal for God's Word,—a determination at all hazards to represent with even servile precision the ipsissima verba of Evangelists and Apostles,—this plea might have been plausibly put forward: and, to some extent, it must have been allowed,—although a grave diversity of opinion might reasonably have been entertained as to what constitutes “accuracy” and “fidelity” of translation.
But when once it has been made plain that the underlying Greek of the Revision of 1881 is an entirely new thing,—is a manufactured article throughout,—all must see that the contention has entirely changed its character. The question immediately arises, (and it is the only question which remains to be asked,)—Were then the Authors of this “New Greek Text” competent to undertake so perilous an enterprise? And when, in the words of the distinguished Chairman of the Revising body—(words quoted above, at page [369],)—“To this question, we venture to answer very unhesitatingly in the negative,”—What remains but, with blank astonishment, not unmingled with disgust, to close the volume? Your own ingenuous admission,—(volunteered by yourself a few days before you and your allies “proceeded to the actual details of the Revision,”)—that “we have certainly not acquired sufficient Critical Judgment for any body of Revisers hopefully to undertake such a work as this,”—is decisive on the subject.
The gravity of the issue thus raised, it is impossible to over-estimate. We find ourselves at once and entirely [pg 510] lifted out of the region originally proposed for investigation. It is no longer a question of the degree of skill which has been exhibited in translating the title-deeds of our heavenly inheritance out of Greek into English. Those title-deeds themselves have been empirically submitted to a process which, rightly or wrongly, seriously affects their integrity. Not only has a fringe of most unreasonable textual mistrust been tacked on to the margin of every inspired page, (as from S. Luke x. 41 to xi. 11):—not only has many a grand doctrinal statement been evacuated of its authority, (as, by the shameful mis-statement found in the margin against S. John iii. 13,[1135] and the vile Socinian gloss which disfigures the margin of Rom. ix. 5[1136]):—but we entirely miss many a solemn utterance of the Spirit,—as when we are assured that verses 44 and 46 of S. Mark ix. are omitted by “the best ancient authorities,” (whereas, on the contrary, the MSS. referred to are the worst). Let the thing complained of be illustrated by a few actual examples. Only five shall be subjoined. The words in the first column represent what you are pleased to designate as among “the most certain conclusions of modern Textual Criticism” (p. 78),—but what I assert to be nothing else but mutilated exhibitions of the inspired Text. The second column contains the indubitable Truth of Scripture,—the words which have been read by our Fathers' Fathers for the last 500 years, and which we propose, (God helping us,) to hand on unimpaired to our Children, and to our Children's Children, for many a century to come:—
| Revised (1881). | Authorized (1611). |
| “And come, follow me.” | “And come, take up the cross and follow me.”[1137] |
| “And they blindfolded him, and asked him, saying, Prophesy.” | “And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy.”[1138] |
| “And there was also a superscription over him, This is the King of the Jews.” | “And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This is the King of the Jews.”[1139] |
| “And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish.” | “And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.”[1140] |
But the next (S. Luke ix. 54-6,) is a far more serious loss:—