 |  |
prominent Unitarian, and others self-confessed sacerdotalists, we feel the necessity of
using the results of their labours with care and discretion. We therefore make it clear at
the outset that, while we draw the reader's attention to the value of the R.V., we most
certainly do not advocate its general use. With all its faults, the A.V. is to be preferred
for general reading and public ministry. The place for the R.V. is on the desk, one
volume of many which the student consults in his examination of the sacred text and its
translations. We hope to place the reader in possession of enough material to enable him,
dispassionately, to arrive at a sound conclusion.
The revision of the Authorized Version of the New Testament was undertaken in
consequence of a resolution passed by both Houses of the Convocation of the Province of
Canterbury, and the new version was first published in May, 1881. We propose in this
article to give the reader some idea of the task of the Revisers and the rules under which
they worked.
The foundation of the A.V. must be sought in the work of William Tyndale; the
versions of the English Bible that followed were reproductions or revisions of Tyndale's
efforts. Authoritative revision is divided into three stages: the Great Bible of 1539-41,
the Bishops' Bible of 1568 & 1572, and the King's Bible of 1611. The last of these
came to be known as the Authorized Version. The revision of 1881, though following
after a greater lapse of time than that that intervened between the earlier revisions, must
not be considered an innovation.
The compilers of the A.V. used the Greek text that was to hand; the manuscripts were
of late date and few in number. The main principles governing the production of the
A.V. will give a general idea of its character:--
(1) The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops' Bible, to be
followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit.
(2) When a word has diverse significations, that to be kept which hath been most
commonly used by most ancient fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place
and the analogy of the faith.
(3) No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew and
Greek words which cannot without some circumlocution so briefly and fitly be
expressed in the text.
The comment of the Revisers upon the A.V. is worth quoting:--
"We have had to study this great Version carefully and minutely, line by line; and the
longer we have been engaged upon it the more we have learned to admire its simplicity,
its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression, its general accuracy, and the felicities
of its rhythm. To render a work that had reached this high standard of excellence still
more excellent, to increase its fidelity without destroying its charm, was the task
committed to us."
The fundamental rules adopted by the Convocation of Canterbury on the third and
fifth days of May, 1870, were as follows:--