THE TERCENTENARY OF THE AUTHORISED VERSION.
[To MI EDITOR OF THZ "sPwn:TOa."] SIR,—Your readers generally will, I am sure, share with me admiration and thankfulness for the well-timed and brilliant article on the merits of the Authorised Version in your last issue, and its great superiority, as regards the New Testament, over the Revised. Surprising as it may appear, it may con- fidently be asserted that there is not one single page of the Revised Version which is not, to the regret and annoyance of general readers, disfigured by blemishes of either errors of scholarship or violation of English idiom. They may be counted by hundreds. Not a few of these are due to mis- apprehension of the usage of the Greek Middle Voice and of the Greek aorist tense. It is readily admitted that sundry corrections of obsolete meanings and a few more accurate renderings have been made by the Revisers as, e.g., in the stock passages (Matthew vi. 25 sqq.), " Be not anxious " for "Take no thought" ; but these are far outweighed by the serious and sometimes grossly misleading errors and blemishes presented to us as corrections. Of these I may be allowed, perhaps, briefly to mention the following, though, with several other passages, they have been fully dealt with by me else- where (Expositor, September, 1904, May, 1910)—Rom. iii. 9: "Are we in worse case?" instead of the Authorised Version, " Are we better? " (retained by American Revisers), reducing Paul's argument to utter absurdity. 2 Cor. ii. 14: "God who leadeth us in triumph," as prisoners, forsooth ! instead of the Authorised Version, " causeth us to triumph," as giving us the victory. Col. ii. 15 : the pedantic and nonsensical substi- tution of " having put off from himself " the principalities for the Authorised Version "having spoiled," stript of their power, &a., before "making a show of them" in his own triumph. I might add Col. ii. 18, where, apart from a false reading, a meaning, "dwelling in" (for Authorised Version, " intruding into "), is given to the Greek original which neither has nor could have any existence in the Greek language. For utterly needless alterations, involving moreover violation of English idioms, I will only adduce the "faithful sayings" passages of 1 Tim. i. 15, iii. 1, iv. 9, 2 Tim. ii. 11, Tit.
in all of which the correct Greek order IricrTbs 6 Ahor is rendered, without any increase of emphasis, by the incorrect English order, "Faithful is the saying," for the correct English order of Authorised Version, " It is a faithful saying." Of needlessly jarring changes much might be said. I will only add that, since the publication of the Revised Version, not a single commentary of note on the New Testament has appeared (e.g. volumes of the International Critical Com. and of the Century Bible) which does not again and again call attention to and correct its unsatisfactory renderings. Until there be a wiser and purer Revision, I ardently hope that the venerable Authorised Version will retain its place in Public Worship and in the closets of the worshippers.—I am, Sir, &o.,
JOHN B. M'CLEradar.
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