§ 5. TAVERNER, pp. 215-219.

Merits of the revision of the New Testament
Note. Characteristic renderings of Taverner.

§ 6. THE GENEVAN BIBLE, pp. 220-240.

New Latin and other versions available

General character of the Version

Examination of 1 Kings iii. 5—10

Job xix. 23-28

Isai. ix. 2-7

Wisd. vii. 15-30 ·

General character of the revision

§ 8. THE RHEMES AND DOWAY BIBLE, pp. 256–267.

241

id.

245

247

249

251

254

256

260

261

262

263

264

265

id.

267

270, 280

id.

Versions

changes in I John

Note. Comparison of renderings in the Bishops' and Authorised

PAGES

279

281

283

284

286

288

290

I. Specimens of the earlier and later Wycliffite Versions

Chronological List of Bibles

II.

III.

IV.

V.

Collation of 1 John in the three texts of Tyndale

An examination of the sources of Coverdale's Notes.

Specimens of the notes of Tyndale and Matthew

VI. Specimens of the Latin-English Testaments of Coverdale

VII. Passages of the Pentateuch and Historical Books in Tyn-

dale, &c. .

VIII. The relation of the Wickliffite to the later Versions.

IX. The revision of the Authorised Version

X.

Phrases in the Psalms marked in the Psalter of the Great

Bible as additions from the Vulgate .

INTRODUCTION.

THEN the boy sprang up from his knees, and ran,
Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought,
And fetched the seventh plate of graven lead
Out of the secret chamber, found a place,
Pressing with finger on the deeper dints,
And spoke, as 'twere his mouth proclaiming first,
'I am the Resurrection and the Life.'

Whereat he opened his eyes wide at once,
And sat up of himself, and looked at us;
And thenceforth nobody pronounced a word:
Only, outside, the Bactrian cried his cry
Like the lone desert-bird that wears the ruff,
As signal he were safe, from time to time.

37

B

INTRODUCTION.

Introduction.

The History

of vernacu of Holy

lar versions

Scripture

the histor."",

of persona!

THERE is a famous saying, which dates from the times
of persecution, that 'the blood of Martyrs is the seed of
'the Church.' It may be added in the like spirit, that
the voice of Holy Scripture is the spring and measure
of individual faith. Both statements require to be
modified in their application; but it remains generally faith.
true that the society which is founded by human devo-
tion and labour, is quickened in its several members by
the influence of the Word. So it is that the history of
the vernacular Scriptures is in a great measure the
history of personal faith. A people which is without a
Bible in its mother tongue, or is restrained from using
it, or wilfully neglects it, is also imperfect, or degenerate,
or lifeless in its apprehension of Christian Truth, and
proportionately bereft of the strength which flows from a
living Creed.

In the first ages of the Church the translation of the Scriptures followed immediately on the introduction of Christianity to a nation of a new language. When the Gospel spread eastwards, a Syriac translation of the New Testament was one of the first monuments of its power. When it spread westwards, a Latin version preceded, as far as we know, all other literary efforts of the

ersions work in the early spread of Chris new nation..

the first

tianity to