The Life & the duae: una, vetus : altera, Theodori Bezae, etc. 1565, il dit is title 1576, 1582, 1589, 1598. The best edition of his me them Annotations is that printed at Cambridge in 1642,

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fol.

Beza claims attention and respect as an editor, a translator, and a commentator. As an editor of the New Testament, his riment inter advantages were considerable. He was both learned and acute : he enjoyed the aid of all the editions formerly printed, of a numchember of MSS., and of a collection of various readings made by Hen

ry Stephens. The editions published by himself differ consiunderably from one another, and in about five hundred places from

m

the editions of Stephens. He altered many places arbitrarily, or at least without sufficient reason; often adopting the reading of only one MS., or of the Syriac or Vulgate version, or his own conjecture. Such is the substance of Griesbach's account of his editorial labours. Michaelis asserts, without sufficient proof, we pull annethat he inserted in the text many of the marginal readings which wit, etiam were favourable to his own opinions. As a translator, he seems dinel beds to be more justly accused of this impropriety. Dr. Campbell, in se he consired his tenth Preliminary Dissertation, furnishes some proofs of this, and remarks very strongly, that " It requires but a very little of a critical eye to discover in him a constant effort to accommodate Kilent Wit 1598 the style of the sacred writers to that of his sect. Nay, what used the he has done in this way, is done so openly, I might have said I o accurate avowedly, that it is astonishing it has not more discredited his work." Some abatement must be made from this language, on and pub to the account of Campbell's Anti-Calvinistic prejudices. He allows, after all, the merits of Beza as a scholar, and acknowledges, that" in general, he is neither servilely literal, barbarous, and unintelligible with Montanus; nor does he appear ashamed of the unadorned simplicity of the original with Castalio.” Dr. Doddridge's opinion of Beza is just the opposite of Campbell's, and probably errs on the other side. Beza,” he says, “ is undoubtedly the best critic on the Greek language of any commentator we have. There is no translation that I know of equal to his; and his remarks on Erasmus and the vulgar Latin are wrought up to the utmost degree of exactness.” His annota

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The sou

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tions contain much valuable matter, both in a critical and theological view; and, with Doddridge, I hesitate not to say," they are an invaluable treasure, and deserve to be read with the utmost attention." The testimony of the learned author of the Synopsis is highly honourable to Beza: "Vir non Graeca tantum, sed et omnigena, literatura imbutus, quam etiam singulari acumine et judicio ad interpretationem plurimorum locorum feliciter adhibuit." Not less decided is the testimony of Ernesti : "Beza certainly had not his equal before Grotius; and he set the first example of the proper mode of using the Septuagint and the Oriental languages to explain and illustrate the phraseology of the New Testament." Chamier and Rivet unite in their commendations; Bois, Walton, and Mill, speak rather disrespectfully.

BIBLE, ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE.

In this article I shall notice the principal public versions of the Scriptures in our own language, in the chronological order of their publication. The object is not so much to give a history of editions, as to notice the critical value of the several versions.

WICLIF'S BIBLE. 1380.

The version of the Scriptures made into English by this extraordinary man, was produced before, or about 1380. No part of it was ever printed till 1731, when the Rev. John Lewis of Margate, in Kent, published the New Testament in folio. Only 140 copies were printed, and the number of subscribers was upwards of 90, besides some subscribed for more than one copy. Of this edition of the New Testament, a splendid reprint in quarto was published in 1810, by the Rev. Henry Baber, of the British Museum. It is entitled

"The New Testament, translated from the Latin, in the year 1380, by John Wiclif, D.D. To which are prefixed, Memoirs of the Life, Opinions, and Writings of Dr. Wiclif; and an Historical Account of the Saxon and English versions of the Scriptures, previous to the Opening of the Fifteenth Century. London, 1810."

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The text of Mr. Lewis's edition, of which the above is an accurate reprint, was taken from two manuscripts, one of which was his own, and the other the property of Sir Edward Dering. From the former, he transcribed for the press the Four Gospels; from the latter, the Epistles, the Dedis of the Apostles, and the Apocalips. The transcript was collated by the learned Dr. Waterland, Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, with ten manuscripts deposited in different libraries at Cambridge, and afterwards compared by Mr. Lewis with specimens purposely selected, of six of the most curious manuscripts in the University of Oxford. The points most important to remark on Wiclif's version are, that it is the first translation of the New Testament into English, of which we have satisfactory evidence; (no translation of the Old Testament by him being ever printed, although MSS. of it exist both at Oxford and elsewhere ;) that it was made, not from the Greek, of which Wiclif probably knew nothing, but from the Latin Vulgate; (at least it is so said, though this is by no means established ;) that, accordingly, it ascertains what were the readings of the Latin manuscripts at that period, in some important passages; and that, lastly, it affords us an interesting specimen of the state of the English language, and of the theology of the country at the time.

William Tyndale was the author of the first translation of the New Testament subsequently to the Lutheran Reformation. It was first printed abroad in 1526, in small octavo. Of this edition the only copy known to be in existence is in the library of the Baptist Academy at Bristol. It has no title. It originally belonged to Harley, Earl of Orford, who settled L.20 per annum on a person of the name of Murray, who procured it for him. It was afterwards put into Osborne's Catalogue of Lord Orford's Library at 15s. from which it was bought by Mr. Ames in 1743. At the sale of his books, in 1760, it was purchased for twenty guineas by Dr. Gifford, by whom it was bequeathed to the Bristol Academy in 1776. A paper inserted in it by Mr. Ames, ascertains that it is a copy of the first edition. No copy of this edition appears to have been seen by Lewis.

The se

cond genuine edition, though the sixth in number, a copy of which, in the possession of Dr. Charles Stuart, I have examined, was published in 1534, 12mo. with the following title

"The Newe Testament diligently corrected and printed in the year of our Lord M.CCCCC. et XXXIIII. in November, printed at Antwerp, by Martin Emperour."

No doubt can be entertained that Tyndale understood Greek ; though it is probable that his first translation was not made directly from the original text; for in the preface to the above edition he speaks only of having "compared it unto the Greek." Bishop Marsh thinks he was greatly indebted to Luther's German version; as Tyndale passed some time with Luther at Wittemberg, and the books which he selected for translation into English were always those which Luther had already translated into German. This conclusion, the Bishop says, is farther confirmed by the Germanisms which it contains, some of which are still preserved in our authorized version. Tyndale's version is excellent vernacular English, a good literal transla tion; and, in many places preferable in its renderings to the version now in use. For " charity" he always gives "love," for "church," "congregation." "It is astonishing," says Dr. Geddes," how little obsolete the language is, even at this day; and, in point of perspicuity, and noble simplicity, propriety of idiom, and purity of style, no English version has yet surpassed it.”

Besides the New Testament, Tyndale translated from the He brew, the five books of Moses, and the prophecy of Jonah; the former he printed in 1530, the latter in 1531; the entire Scriptures in English were the joint labour of Tyndale and Bishop Coverdale. This edition is commonly called

COVERDALE'S BIBLE. 1535.

It is probable that, besides the New Testament and the Pentateuch, the whole of the historical books of the Old Testament were translated by Tyndale-the rest were the work of Bishop Coverdale. The translation was approved by royal authority, the first English Bible which obtained this honour. The remarks made on the style and character of Tyndale's New Testament, are substantially applicable to this.

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BIBLE.

THE GENEVA BIBLE.

1557-1560.

Between the publication of Tyndale and Coverdale's Bible, various editions of the English Scriptures appeared, each corrected and altered more or less from the former; but this is the next new version, which is of much critical value. The New Testament of it appeared first, at Geneva, in 1557, and the whole Bible in 1560. The translators were Bishop Coverdale, Anthony Gilby, William Whitingham, Christopher Goodman, Thomas Sampson, and Thomas Cole. It went through about fifty editions in the course of thirty years. It is the first edition of the English Scriptures in which the verses are distinguished by numeral figures; being the first that was printed after Robert Stephens so distinguished them in his edition of the Greek and Latin New Testament, 1551. The translators avow that they made their version from the originals, though doubtless the former translation was the basis of the new work; and on the title of the New Testament they speak only of having "conferred it diligently with the Greek." It is considerably more literal than the former translation; a very free use is made of Italic supplements: and on the whole, the improvement on the former is not so great as might have been expected.

THE BISHOPS BIBLE. 1568.

This edition is so called, because the majority of the translators were bishops under the direction of Archbishop Parker. It was not a new translation, but a revision of the former, or as it was then called, Cranmer's Bible. It, as well as the Geneva Bible, corrected the preceding chiefly in the way of more literal rendering. The Greek version of the Old Testament seems to have been followed sometimes rather than the Hebrew text. Viewed as a whole, I consider it decidedly inferior to the Geneva version, though occasionally its renderings are preferable. Most of the editions of this version were published in folio; and are few compared with the editions of the Geneva translation.

This important version was undertaken by the express orders, and under the special directions of the king.

"Whatever were the motives which led to it, the design it