John v. 35. “He was a burning and a shining light.” Though this, by frequent quotation, has passed into a sort of proverbial phrase, it is a most unfortunate rendering, and gives an entirely wrong impression of the meaning of the passage. As thus read it sets forth the pre-eminence of John, whereas its true import is to emphasize the subordinate nature of his office and work. Christ, as stated in the first chapter of this Gospel, was “the Light.” In comparison with Him, John was only a lamp which, in order that it may give light, must first be kindled from some other source. “He was the lamp which is kindled and [so] shineth.”
John xv. 3. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” thus representing the word to be the instrument through which the cleansing was wrought. But though this be true, it is not the truth here set forth. It was not “through,” but “on account of” the word, i.e. because of its virtue and its cleansing power, that they were clean. Here, again, Wycliffe is free from the error into which all the later translators (except the Rheims) have fallen. He renders, “Now ye ben clene for the word that I haue spokun to you.”
Acts ii. 23. “Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” The ordinary reader naturally takes the “wicked hands” to be the hands of the Jews, whereas the reference is to the Romans, through whose agency the Jews brought about the crucifixion of Christ, “and by the hands of lawless men, ye crucified and slew.” Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, the Genevan, the Bishops, and the Rheims, all render this clause correctly.
Acts xi. 17. “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is incorrect, and suggests a false contrast between “us” and “them,” as if the latter were not believers. Faith in Christ is the ground upon which, in the case of both parties, the gifts referred to were received. The verse is thus given by Tyndale: “For as moche then as God gave them lyke gyftes, as he dyd unto vs when we beleved on the Lorde Iesus Christ.”
Acts xxvi. 23. “That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.” This both needlessly suggests a difficulty to many readers, and altogether conceals one main point of the passage; namely, that the resurrection of Christ was the great source from which illumination would come both to Jews and to Gentiles, “and that He first by His resurrection from the dead should proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles.”
Rom. ix. 3. “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Such a wish it is impossible that the Apostle could have entertained. His words are the expression of his strong affection for his fellow-countrymen. “I could have wished,” &c.; i.e. if such a wish had been right or possible.
Rom. xiii. 11. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This is ambiguous English, and though a very careful reader might gather the true sense from this rendering, it is very liable to be taken as if meaning that our salvation is nearer than we anticipated; nor is the ambiguity removed by the Genevan, which reads, “nearer than when we believed it.” The reference is to the time of their first exercise of faith in Christ, “nearer than when we first believed.”
1 Cor. i. 21. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” This rendering has been a fertile source of error, as if preaching was in itself, or as viewed by the Corinthians, an inappropriate means for the diffusion of the Gospel, a thought altogether at variance with the tone of the context, and with the facts of history. The Greeks were, of all the peoples of antiquity, the least disposed to think lightly of oratory, and the whole tenor of the passage shows that their tendency was to overrate, not underrate, the power of speech. What was foolishness to them was not the act of preaching, but the doctrine preached—salvation through a crucified Christ. The Rheims here clearly enough gives the true sense, “it pleased God by the folishnes of the preaching to saue them that beleeue.”
1 Cor. ix. 5. “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles?” This mode of speech implies that some only of the other apostles were married. What the Greek states is that all or most of them were. Here again the Rheims correctly renders, “as also the rest of the Apostles.”
2 Cor. v. 14. “Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead,” thus seeming to imply that the death of Christ upon the cross is a proof that all men were in a state of spiritual death; whereas the conclusion which the Apostle draws from the death of Christ is, that all who truly believe in Him die to their old fleshly sinful life, “because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died.”