TO do this work of translating the Bible, by “special command” of King James, the best scholars from Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster were chosen, and were divided into six companies, two of which were to sit at each of those places. The work was then divided among them, and it was arranged that “every particular man of each company do take the same chapter or chapters, and, having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinks good, all do meet together to confer (compare) what they have done, and agree for their part what shall stand.” This arrangement was carefully carried out. When the translators met together, we are told that “one of them read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, or Italian. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on.”
We must remember that at the time when this translation was made with so much care, the many ancient copies of the Gospels and Epistles which have been brought to light of late years were not known to be in existence. The translators worked faithfully, comparing the Greek text of the New Testament which they had with the various versions which had been already made from it, and with a Spanish Greek Testament. In their “Address to the reader” they disclaim any idea of making a new translation, “but to make a good one better; or, out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against; that hath been our endeavor, that our mark.” Then, after speaking of their dependence for the work they had undertaken, not on their own knowledge, or sharpness of wit, or deepness of judgment, but “on Him who hath the key of David, opening and no man shutting,” they add, “neither did we disdain to revise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered; but having and using as great helps as were needful, and fearing no reproach for slowness, nor coveting praise for expedition, we have at length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the work to that pass that you see.”
The address to the “gentle reader” thus concludes: “It remaineth that we commend thee to God, and to the spirit of His grace, which is able to build further than we can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our eyes, the veil from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand His word, enlarging our hearts—yea, correcting our affections, that we may love it above gold and silver—yea, that we may love it to the end. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; but a blessed thing it is, and will bring us to everlasting blessedness in the end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken; when He setteth His word before us, to read it; when He stretcheth out His hand and calleth, to answer, ‘Here am I; here we are to do Thy will, O God.’ The Lord work a care and conscience in us to know Him and serve Him, that we may be acknowledged of Him at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Holy Ghost, be all praise and thanksgiving. Amen.”
This Bible, which employed the translators during more than three years, and the printer two, was published in London in the year 1611, in a large black letter folio, with a very flattering dedication to King James. It took the place, by the king’s command, of the Bishops’ Bible in the churches, and soon became the only version in use. The whole cost of the printing was borne by one man, and the sole right of printing the Book remained to his family for a hundred years. Dr. Rainolds, at whose timely suggestion the work had been undertaken, did not live to see it completed.
Two hundred and seventy years intervened between the publishing of that version of the English Bible, the beautiful words of which have been familiar to us from our earliest childhood, and the publishing of that of which we are accustomed to speak as the “Revised Version” of the New Testament, a work which was intended to be, as its name explains, simply a revision of the Authorized Version of King James’s time. It was early in the year 1870 that it was resolved at a large meeting held at Canterbury that this work should be undertaken. The revisers were divided into two companies, one of which was to work upon the Old Testament, the other upon the New. Ten years passed before the revision of the New Testament was finished, and it was not published until 1881, for this was a work, in one way, much more laborious than any which had gone before it, because the revisers had so many copies of the Gospels and Epistles to compare with each other. That we may understand how this could be, we must remember that the Scriptures have not come down to us in the very form in which they were first written. Not one original writing by the very hand of an apostle is in existence, so that we can only now go back and try to find the oldest copies of the original writings. It is possible that you may have heard people speak of “ancient codices,” but may not have understood what was meant. The word “codex” has reference to the wooden tablets, smeared with wax, upon which historical records, poems, and laws were written in old times. The name was afterward given to writings which were not upon wood, and came to mean any manuscript copy. The earliest of the codices were written in capital letters, called “uncials,” from being about the breadth of a finger nail; the letters are arranged one after another, just as the letters of the alphabet would be, with no divisions to form words, and, of course, no stops.
The first of these old manuscripts of the New Testament which was brought to England goes by the name of “Codex A,” because it was thought to have been written at Alexandria, in Egypt; but nothing is known of its history, except its age. It is believed to have been written about the middle of the fifth century―a point of time which you will realize better if you remember that it was just when the Romans had left Britain, and the Picts and Scots were trying to get possession of the country. This interesting codex is now in the British Museum, but it was unknown to English scholars until it was given to our King Charles the First, several years after the translation made by order of the “high and mighty Prince James” was in use.
Another early manuscript, “Codex B,” is in the Vatican library at Rome, and was there at the time of the Reformation, but could be of no use, as it was guarded so jealously that it was not until the present century that a great German scholar, with very great difficulty, obtained access to it. Its early history is unknown, but learned men believe that it dates from the fourth century, and therefore is more ancient than “Codex A.”
Yet one more of these codices was brought to light by the same German scholar, who died not very long since. It is called the “Sinaitic,” from the strange fact that it was discovered by him during a visit which he paid to the convent of St. Catharine, on Mount Sinai. You may have seen a view of this lonely spot if you have ever been to a panorama of the East, for it is often shown, and you may see a visitor being pulled up the high wall in a basket, the only way by which strangers are allowed to enter. Some sheets of this manuscript were found by Tischendorf among the paper used at the convent for lighting the fires. He hurried away with his prize, and published it as a fragment. Finally, after much trouble, he obtained the rest, and the whole manuscript―which contained all the New Testament―was recovered and published in1862. This codex is believed to belong to the middle of the fourth century.
We see, then, that the revisers of our own day have had helps to their work of which it was not possible for any who went before them to avail themselves. These ancient manuscripts, containing three more or less complete copies of the New Testament, were never consulted by those of whose labors we have been reading; but we must not forget that for those who, in danger and difficulty, with imperfect knowledge and scanty materials, wrought at the great work of giving to their fellow men the word of God in their own tongue, there was the help and guidance for which they looked, and which can never fail those who look for it in simple confidence. Four hundred years lie between the early work of Wyclyff, when he sought to turn the Latin Vulgate into a tongue “understanded of the people,” and this latest work of our own day, of which we have all heard as the “Revised Version.” At the history of those four hundred years we have been looking, with a passing glance, indeed, but in the hope that we might learn something, even from this passing glance, of the faithfulness of God in thus preserving His word to us, and supporting His servants in their labors―lonely, indeed, but for His presence with them, and overwhelming in their difficulty and danger, save to those who relied neon a strength not their own. C. P.