(e) Then further, (to dismiss the subject and pass on,)—There are occasions where the Greek perfect exacts the sign of the present at the hands of the English translator: as when Martha says,—“Yea Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ” (S. Jo. xi. 27).[508] What else but the veriest pedantry is it to thrust in there “I have believed,” as the English equivalent for πεπίστευκα?—Just as intolerable is the officiousness which would thrust into the Lord's prayer (Matt. vi. 12), “as we also have forgiven (ἀφήκαμεν) our debtors.”[509]—On the other hand, there are Greek presents (whatever the Revisionists may think) which are just as peremptory in requiring the sign of the future, at the hands of the idiomatic translator into English. Three such cases are found in S. Jo. xvi. 16, 17, 19. Surely, the future is inherent in the present ἔρχομαι! In Jo. xiv. 18 (and many similar places), who can endure, “I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you”?
(f) But instances abound. How does it happen that the inaccurate rendering of ἐκκόπτεται—ἐκβάλλεται—has been retained in S. Matth. iii. 10, S. Lu. iii. 9?
V. Next, concerning the definite Article; in the case of which, (say the Revisionists,)
“many changes have been made.” “We have been careful to observe the use of the Article wherever it seemed to be idiomatically possible: where it did not seem to be possible, we have yielded to necessity.”—(Preface, iii. 2,—ad fin.)
In reply, instead of offering counter-statements of our own we content ourselves with submitting a few specimens to the Reader's judgment; and invite him to decide between the Reviewer and the Reviewed ... “The sower went forth to sow” (Matth. xiii. 3).—“It is greater than the herbs” (ver. 32).—“Let him be to thee as the Gentile and the publican” (xviii. 17).—“The unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man” (xii. 43).—“Did I not choose you the twelve?” (Jo. vi. 70).—“If I then, the Lord and the master” (xiii. 14).—“For the joy that a man is born into the world” (xvi. 21).—“But as touching Apollos the brother” (1 Cor. xvi. 12).—“The Bishop must be blameless ... able to exhort in the sound doctrine” (Titus i. 7, 9).—“The lust when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown” &c. (James i. 15).—“Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?” (iii. 11).—“Speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine” (Titus ii. 1).—“The time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine” (2 Tim. iv. 3).—“We had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us” (Heb. xii. 9).—“Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification” (ver. 14).—“Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 Jo. ii. 22).—“Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood” (v. 6).—“He that hath the Son, hath the life: he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (ver. 12).
To rejoin, as if it were a sufficient answer, that the definite Article is found in all these places in the original Greek,—is preposterous. In French also we say “Telle est la vie:” but, in translating from the French, we do not therefore say “Such is the life.” May we, without offence, suggest the study of Middleton On the Doctrine of the Greek Article to those members of the Revisionists' body who have favoured us with the foregoing crop of mistaken renderings?
So, in respect of the indefinite article, we are presented with,—“An eternal” (for “the everlasting”) “gospel to proclaim” (Rev. xiv. 6):—and “one like unto a son of man,” for “one like unto the Son of Man” in ver. 14.—Why “a Saviour” in Phil. iii. 20? There is but one! (Acts iv. 12).—On the other hand, Κρανίον is rendered “The skull” in S. Lu. xxiii. 33. It is hard to see why.—These instances taken at random must suffice. They might be multiplied to any extent. If the Reader considers that the idiomatic use of the English Article is understood by the authors of these specimen cases, we shall be surprised, and sorry—for him.
VI. The Revisionists announce that they “have been particularly careful” as to the Pronouns [iii. 2 ad fin.] We recal with regret that this is also a particular wherein we have been specially annoyed and offended. Annoyed—at their practice of repeating the nominative (e.g. in Mk. i. 13: Jo. xx. 12) to an extent unknown, abhorrent even, to our language, except indeed when a fresh substantive statement is made: offended—at their license of translation, when it suits them to be licentious.—Thus, (as the Bp. of S. Andrews has well pointed out,) “it is He that” is an incorrect translation of αὐτός in S. Matth. i. 21,—a famous passage. Even worse, because it is unfair, is “He who” as the rendering of ὅς in 1 Tim. iii. 16,—another famous passage, which we have discussed elsewhere.[510]
VII. 'In the case of the Particles' (say the Revisionists),
“we have been able to maintain a reasonable amount of consistency. The Particles in the Greek Testament are, as is well known, comparatively few, and they are commonly used with precision. It has therefore been the more necessary here to preserve a general uniformity of rendering.”—(iii. 2 ad fin.)