I assume, also, that the erasure of the words "from God" and the substitution of the words "from nature" is in Lincoln's hand; though the two words are written at the very bottom of the page, with no support for the hand, and are not as well written as the signature, and their authenticity might be questioned. I am disposed to think that he wrote it, and this, evidently, was the opinion of Mr. Burton, as indicated by a note in the book in his handwriting.
It might be mentioned in passing that the word "God" is not in this verse in the New Testament, either Greek or English. It reads, "Ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father." Perhaps if Dr. Nielson had followed the text literally, Lincoln would not have troubled to amend it.
I accept it as a genuine document, and one of real interest; but the lack of a date makes it almost valueless as proof of Lincoln's settled belief. I place it, conjecturally, in the New Salem period of his life, though it may date from the beginning of his life in Springfield.
I have not read the entire book, nor compared the Greek throughout with the English, but I note that in this passage the English is not translated from the Greek, but the Greek is translated backward from the English, and that inexactly. I judge this to be not the effect of bad scholarship but the result of a desire to convey a lesson. For instance, the Greek of this passage is made into a personal confession by the change of person in the first part of the verse, without corresponding change in the second part, leaving the first verb without a direct object, so that a literal translation reads,—
"I love and believe that I came forth from God."
Dr. Nielson probably knew why he did it so, but Professor Anthon would have been likely to say that that was not very good Greek syntax. It served its purpose, however, as showing, what this section was intended to show, the various uses of the Greek conjunctions.
Lincoln, it may be presumed, got little if anything out of the Greek. I find no mark of his except on this and the facing page. There he found two admonitions which he boxed in, and made a note of them on the false-title:
4. Deliberate slowly, but execute
promptly, the things which
have appeared unto thee proper
to be done.
5. Love, not the immoderate
acquisition, but the moderate enjoyment,
of present good.