[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—While grateful for the
support you give to the use of a revised Psalter, may I be allowed to dissent from your animad- versions upon the revised New Testament ? Surely true - "spiritual and moral guidance" must depend upon true text and true translation. What is the value of a comfort or guidance that is derived only from soothing sonority or- stately rhythm ? Bonus textuarius bonus theologus is equally applicable to original text and to accurate translation. . And the same must be true of the Psalms. For beauty of rhythm Coverdale cannot be matched ; but consider how far
from the meaning of the original he strays—e.g. 1 in Psalm lxviii. 13f: "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove that is covered with silver wings and her feathers like gold." This misrendering may very well suggest the picture of a Job scratching himself upon an ashpit, with the promise of an eventual cure and an elaborate cuticle reparation and decoration. The real contrast is that between the yellow flocks on the mountain slopes and the pallid corpses of the defeated armies, lying thick as snow.—' am, Sir, &c., T. HERBERT BINDLEY. Denton, Harleston, Norfolk.
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