(H.)
The Revisers of 1611
In the collection of Records appended to the Second Part of Bishop Burnet’s History of the Reformation of the Church of England, there is given a list of the Revisers of 1611, copied, as the writer tells us,150 from the paper of Bishop Ravis himself, one of the number. The list is thus given:151
Westminster (1). Mr. Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dean of Pauls, Mr. Doctor Saravia, Mr. Doctor Clark, Mr. Doctor Leifield, Mr. Doctor Teigh, Mr. Burleigh, Mr. King, Mr. Tompson, Mr. Beadwell.
Cambridge (1). Mr. Livelye, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Chatterton, Mr. Dillingham, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Spalding, Mr. Burge.
Oxford (1). Doctor Harding, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Holland, Dr. Kilbye, Mr. Smith, Mr. Brett, Mr. Fairclough.
Cambridge (2). Doctor Dewport, Dr. Branthwait, Dr. Radclife, Mr. Ward (Eman.), Mr. Downes, Mr. Boyes, Mr. Warde (Reg.).
Oxford (2). Mr. Dean of Christchurch, Mr. Dean of Winchester, Mr. Dean of Worcester, Mr. Dean of Windsor, Mr. Sairle, Dr. Perne, Dr. Ravens, Mr. Haviner.152
Westminster (2). Dean of Chester, Dr. Hutchinson, Dr. Spencer, Mr. Fenton, Mr. Rabbet, Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Dakins.
Some difference of opinion has existed in reference to the date of this document. Its date is determined within comparatively narrow limits by internal evidence.
The writer, Dr. Ravis, describes himself as Dean of Christ Church; it must therefore have been written before March 19, 1605, when he was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester. He also refers to the Dean of Worcester (Dr. Eedes), who died November, 1604, and hence he may be assumed to have written before that date also. The difficulty is that he describes Dr. Barlow, who is known to have taken part in the work, as Dean of Chester, and it must therefore have been written after Barlow’s appointment of this office. This appointment, as stated by Cardwell, took place in December, 1604;153 but the correctness of that date is open to some doubt.154
The names contained in the above given list have, with some few exceptions, been satisfactorily identified; namely, as follows:
FIRST WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
Dr. Launcelot Andrews, Dean of Westminster.155
Dr. John Overall, Dean of St. Paul’s.156
Dr. Adrian de Saravia.
Dr. Richard Clark, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
Dr. John Layfield, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Dr. Robert Tighe, Vicar of All Hallows, Barking.
[Dr. Francis Burley, Fellow of King James’s College, Chelsea.]
Mr. Geoffry King, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.157
Mr. Richard Thomson, Clare Hall, Cambridge.
Mr. William Bedwell, Vicar of Tottenham.
FIRST CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
Mr. Edward Lively,158 Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
Mr. John Richardson,159 Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Mr. Laurence Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Mr. F. Dillingham, Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
Mr. Thomas Harrison, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Mr. Roger Andrews.160
Mr. Robert Spalding,161 Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.
Mr. Andrew Byng, Fellow of Peter House.
FIRST OXFORD COMPANY.
Dr. John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and President of Magdalen.
Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College.
Dr. Thomas Holland,162 Regius Professor of Divinity.
Dr. Richard Kilbye, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Dr. Miles Smith,163 Brasenose College, Oxford.
Dr. Richard Brett, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Mr. Richard Fairclough, Fellow of New College, Oxford.
THE SECOND CAMBRIDGE COMPANY.
Dr. John Duport, Master of Jesus College.
Dr. William Branthwaite, Master of Caius College.
Dr. Jeremiah Radcliffe, Fellow of Trinity College.
Mr. Samuel Ward, Fellow of Emmanuel College.164
Mr. Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of Greek.
Mr. John Bois, Fellow of St. John’s, and Rector of Boxworth.
Mr. Ward, Fellow of King’s College.165
THE SECOND OXFORD COMPANY.
Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dean of Christ Church.166
Dr. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester.167
Dr. Richard Eedes, Dean of Worcester.168
Dr. Giles Thomson, Dean of Windsor.
Mr. Henry Saville,169 Warden of Merton and Provost of Eton.
Dr. John Perin, Fellow of St. John’s College.
[Dr. Ralph Ravens, Fellow of St. John’s College.]
Dr. John Harmer, Regius Professor of Greek.
To these, Wood, who does not mention the names of either Eedes or Ravens, in the list given in his History of the University of Oxford, adds the following two; they were probably appointed to take the places of some removed by death:
Dr. John Aglionby,170 Principal of Edmunds Hall.
Dr. Leonard Hutten,171 Canon of Christ Church.
THE SECOND WESTMINSTER COMPANY.
Dr. William Barlow, Dean of Chester.
Dr. Hutchinson. (?)
Dr. John Spenser, Chaplain to King James.172
Mr. Roger Fenton, Pembroke Hall, Oxford.
[Mr. Michael Rabbett, Rector of St. Vedast, Foster Lane.]
[Mr. Thomas Sanderson, Rector of All Hallows.]
Mr. William Dakins, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
NOTE TO PAGE 117.
Dean Stanley (Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, p. 440) states generally that the Assembly of Divines removed from Henry VII.’s Chapel to the Jerusalem Chamber at the end of September. The exact date is, as stated in the text, October 2nd. In the Minutes of the Sessions of the Assembly, preserved in Dr. Williams’s Library, there occurs at the close of the sixty-fifth session the entry, “Adjourned to the Hierusalem Chamber on Monday, at ten o’clock,” and the following session, the sixty-sixth, is dated Monday, October 2nd. The permission to adjourn to the Jerusalem Chamber from Henry VII.’s Chapel, “on account of the coldness of the said chapel,” was granted by Parliament on September 21st, 1643.
Footnotes
1 From the Latin for seventy, this being the supposed number of the translators. It is referred to as the translation of the Seventy Elders so early as the middle of the second century. See Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, c. 68.
2 See Philo Judæus, Life of Moses, book ii. Josephus, Antiquities, xii. ii. 5, 11, 12, 14. Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., v. 8. Josephus states that the translation was made by seventy-two elders in seventy-two days. The story as given in Eusebius is, that the seventy elders were placed apart in seventy different cells, that each translated the entire Scriptures, and that the seventy translations when compared were found to agree to a word.
3 And this he gave, not by any formal enactment, but by using Jerome’s translation as the basis of his own Exposition of the Book of Job. (See Gregory’s Letter to Leander, forming the preface to that work.) The old version of the Psalms retained its ground apparently from its close connection with the music of the Church. From a like cause the old version of the English Psalms, which in fact was made from the Latin of the Vulgate, retains its place in the Psalter of the Prayer Book. It should however be noted that it is but the translation of the translation of a translation.
4 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 709.
5 “I have seen a book at Crowland Abbey, which is kept there for a relic. The book is called Saint Guthlake’s Psalter, and I weene verily that it is a copy of the same that the king did translate; for it is neither English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nor Dutch, but something sounding to our English; and as I have perceived since the time I was last there, being at Antwerp, the Saxon tongue doth sound likewise, and it is to ours partly agreeable.” The answer of John Lambert to the twenty-sixth of the Articles laid against him. (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vol. v. p. 213.)
6 The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, A.D. 699, and A.D. 714.
7 Many of the clergy were probably at this time unable to interpret the Latin Bibles used in the Church services. Several MSS. exist which have an English translation (gloss) inserted between the lines by writers of the ninth or tenth centuries. One of these, the “Lindisfarne Gospels,” now in the British Museum, is a most richly-adorned MS. It was written by one bishop of Lindisfarne, and ornamented by another, and was encased in jewelled covers. Over each Latin word is written its equivalent in English (Anglo-Saxon). This, as is explained by a note at the end, was done by one “Aldred, the priest,” and, as his handwriting shows, in the tenth century. It cannot be supposed that this was done for the benefit of ordinary readers. So valued a MS. would not be likely to come into any other hands than those of the clergy or the monks.
8 There is no direct evidence for the existence at an earlier date of any translation of the entire Scriptures into any form of English. In an interesting tract (commonly assigned to the earlier part of the fifteenth century, and printed by Foxe in the first edition of his Acts and Monuments, 1563), entitled, “A Compendious Old Treatise, showing how that we ought to have the Scripture in English.” It is stated, “Also a man of London, whose name was Wyring, had a Bible in English, of northern speech, which was seen of many men, and it seemed to be two hundred years old.” (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vol. iv. p. 674.) It cannot, however, be inferred from this statement that the volume referred to was a complete Bible.
9 See Appendix A.
10 As many as one hundred and fifty manuscripts, containing the whole or parts of Purvey’s Bible, are still in existence, and the majority of these were written within forty years from the time of its completion.—Forshall and Madden, Wycliffite Versions of the Holy Bible, Preface, p. xxxiii.
11 No portion of the Wycliffe Bible was printed until 1731, when the New Testament, in the later of its forms, was published by the Rev. John Lewis, of Margate. This was reprinted in 1810, under the editorship of the Rev. Henry Baber. The complete Bible was not printed till so recently as 1850, in the splendid volumes issued from the University press of Oxford, and edited by the Rev. J. Forshall and Rev. F. Madden.
12 The first work known to have been printed with moveable metal type is the Latin Bible, issued from the press of John Gutenberg at Maintz, 1450-55. This Bible is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible, from the accidental circumstance that a copy of it was found about the middle of last century in Cardinal Mazarin’s library at Paris. (Hallam, Literature of Europe, vol. i. p. 210.) With more propriety it may be called the Gutenberg Bible.
13 See Appendix C.
14 Mr. Blunt, in his article “English Bible,” in the Encyclopædia Britannica, maintains that Coverdale translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek. But in order to this he has, first, forcibly to set aside the statement on the title-page as “placed there by mistake,” and then to represent Coverdale as including the Hebrew and Greek originals in the same category as Latin, German, and English translations, and as describing them all as “five interpreters” from which he had translated.
15 This license seems to have been obtained from the king by Cromwell at Cranmer’s suggestion. (See Cranmer’s Letter to Cromwell, August 4th, 1537. Remains and Letters, p. 344. Parker Society.) In this letter Cranmer thus expresses his opinion of the book: “And as for the translation, as far as I have read thereof I like it better than any other translation heretofore made; yet not doubting but that there may be and will be found some fault therein, as you know no man ever did or can do so well, but it may be from time to time amended. And forasmuch as the book is dedicated unto the king’s grace, and also great pains and labour taken in setting forth of the same: I pray you, my lord, that you will exhibit the book unto the king’s highness, and to obtain of his grace, if you can, a license that the same may be sold and read of every person, without danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance, heretofore granted to the contrary, until such time as we bishops shall set forth a better translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday.”
16 The full title is, “The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the content of all the holy scrypture, bothe of the olde and newe testament, truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tongues. Prynted by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum. 1539.”
17 This was more than compensated by the remarkable and interesting engraving, said to be designed by Hans Holbein, which formed the title-page. Herein the king is flattered to his heart’s content. On the top of the engraving the king on his knees and uncrowned is addressed by our Lord in the words, “I have found a man after mine own heart, who shall fulfil all my will.” Below this the king on his throne distributes books labelled “Verbum Dei,” the Word of God, to the clergy with his right hand, to Cromwell and others with the left. Lower down on the right of the page is the figure of Cromwell distributing the books to the laity, and on the left that of Cranmer distributing it to the clergy. At the bottom of the page is a crowd of people of all sorts and conditions, some crying out in Latin, “Vivat Rex” others in English, “God save the king.”
18 With the title, “The Most Sacred Bible, which is the Holy Scripture, conteyning the old & new testament translated into English, & newly recognised with great diligence after most faythful exemplars, by Rychard Taverner. Harken thou heuen, & thou earth gyve eare: for the Lorde speaketh. Esaie i. Printed at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the sonne by John Byddell, for Thomas Barthlet. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum M.D. XXXIX.”
19 In Fox, Acts and Monuments, v. 428, amongst the names of “godly brethren at Oxford” suspected of heresy, and compelled to do public penance, mention is made of “Taverner the musician,” of “Friswide College” (Frideswede, now Christ Church); and again, v. 423, Anthony Dalaber says, “I stode at the quier door and heard Master Taverner play.” Dr. Eadie, The English Bible, i. 343, assumes that the reference in this last passage is to Richard Taverner; but far more probably the reference is to John Taverner, who, according to Wood, Athenæ Oxoniensis, i. 124, was “sometime organist of Cardinal College.” I find no other foundation than these doubtful passages for the statement made by Westcott, History of the English Bible, ed. 2, p. 85, and by Eadie, loc. cit., that Richard Taverner was one of those who suffered persecution upon the first circulation of Tyndale’s New Testament.
20 See Cotton, Editions of the English Bible, p. 21.
21 From this circumstance the Great Bible is often, but improperly, called Cranmer’s Bible. “The Prologue or Preface made by Thomas Cranmer sometime Archbishop of Canterbury,” is prefixed to many Bibles, to some editions of the Genevan, and to the Bishops.
22 The dates of these editions, as given in the colophons, are, July, 1540; November, 1540 (1541 on title-page); May, 1541; November, 1541; December, 1541.
23 He married Catherine, sister of John Calvin. An interesting account of “The Life and Death of Mr. William Whittingham, Deane of Durham, who departed this life A.D. 1579, June 10,” found amongst the papers of Anthony à Wood, preserved in the Bodleian Library, is given by Dr. Lorimer, John Knox and the Church of England, pp. 303-317.
24 The dedication to the queen, prefixed to this volume, is dated Geneva, February 10th, 1559. After exhorting the queen to persevere in the reformation of religion, the writers state that “albeit they had begun more than a year ago to peruse the English Translation of the Bible, and to bring it to the pure simplicity and true meaning of the Spirit of God, yet when they heard that Almighty God had miraculously preserved her to that most excellent dignity, with most joyful minds and great diligence they endeavoured themselves to set forth this most excellent Book of the Psalms unto her Grace as a special token of their service and goodwill till the rest of the Bible, which was in good readiness, should be accomplished and presented.” (Anthony Johnson, Historical Account of the Several English Translations of the Bible. Reprinted in Watson’s Collection of Theological Tracts, vol. iii. p. 87.)
| verse. | 1557. | 1560. | |
| 1. | out of the way | apart | |
| 3. | they saw | there appeared unto them | |
| 4. | here is good beying for us | it is good for us to be here | |
| 5. | that cloude | the cloude | |
| my deare sonne | my beloved sonne | ||
| in whom I delyte | in whom I am well pleased | ||
| 6. | were afrayed | were sore afrayde | |
| 7. | But Jesus | Then Jesus | |
| 8. | loked up | lifted up their eyes | |
| 9. | See that ye shewe | Shewe | |
| be risen | rise | ||
| death | the dead | ||
| 11. | Jesus | And Jesus | |
| 12. | lusted | would | |
| In like wise | likewise | ||
| 14. | people | multitude | |
| 15. | mercie | pitie | |
| oft | ofttimes | ||
| 17. | Jesus | Then Jesus | |
| how long (bis). | how long now (bis) | ||
| 18. | came out | went out | |
| even that same | at that | ||
| 19. | secrectly | apart | |
| 20. | Jesus | And Jesus | |
| if ye had | if ye have | ||
| ye should | ye shall | ||
| it should | it shall | ||
| neither could anything | and nothing shall | ||
| for you to do | unto you | ||
| 22. | As they | And as they | |
| passed the time | abode | ||
| betraied | delivered | ||
| 23. | and the thyrd | but the third | |
| sorowed greatly | were verie sorie | ||
| 24. | were wont to gather | received | |
| 25. | spake first to him | prevented | |
| 27. | thyne angle | an angle | |
| the fyshe that first | the first fish that | ||
| pay | give it unto them |
26 Strype also tells us that the expenses of publication were borne chiefly by John Bodley, father of Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.—Life of Parker, p. 206.
27 It is very pleasant to read that, notwithstanding this, Parker joined with Grindal, Bishop of London, in pleading for an extension of the patent granted to Bodley, in order to enable him to publish the new edition of the Genevan referred to above. Writing, March 9th, 1565, to Cecil, the Queen’s Secretary, the Archbishop and Bishop say, “That they thought so well of the first Impression, and the Review of those who had since travelled therein, that they wisht it would please him to be a Means, that Twelve Years longer Term might be by Special Privilege granted him, in consideration of the Charges by him and his Associates in the first Impression, and the Review sithence sustained. And that tho’ one other special Bible for the Churches were meant by them to be set forth, as convenient Time and Leisure hereafter should permit, yet should it nothing hinder, but rather do much good, to have Diversity of Translations and Readings.”—Strype, Life of Parker, p. 207, Folio Edition.
28 See Appendix G.
29 Pagninus was a learned Dominican, who published at Lyons, in 1528, a new translation in Latin of the Old and New Testaments.
30 Strype, Life of Parker, Appendix, p. 139.
31 Ibid, p. 399.
32 In an attack made upon Protestant versions of the Scriptures by Thomas Ward, in the reign of James II., or three-quarters of a century after the publication of the Authorized Version, the writer selects his examples from Genevan Bibles of the years 1562, 1577, and 1579, and speaks of this Bible as “well known in England even to this day, as being yet in many men’s hands.”—Errata to the Protestant Bible, p. 19, ed. 1737.
33 The Old Testament was not published till long afterwards, when the College was once more settled at Douai. It is hence called the Douai Bible. The first volume was published in 1609, and the second in 1610. In the preface it is stated that the translation was made “about thirtie yeares since.”
34 Amongst the former are advent, allegory, anathema, assumption, calumniate, co-operate, evangelize, eunuch, gratis, holocaust, neophyte, paraclete, pentecost, victim. Amongst the latter are agnition, azymes, commessation, condigne, contristate, depositum, donaries, exinanited, parasceue, pasche, prefinition, loaves of proposition, repropitiate, superedified.
35 Compare the word “leasowes,” still used in some parts of the country for “meadows.”
36 “Of all the English versions, the Bishops’ Bible had probably the least success. It did not command the respect of scholars, and its size and cost were far from meeting the wants of the people. Its circulation appears to have been practically limited to the churches which were ordered to be supplied with it.”—Dr. Plumptre, Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii. p. 1,675.
37 His name is variously spelt Rainolds, Rainoldes, Reinolds, Reynolds.
38 See Dr. William Barlow’s Sum and Substance of the Conference which it pleased his Excellent Majesty to have with the Lords Bishops, and others of his Clergy, in his Majesty’s Privy Chamber at Hampton Court, Jan. 1603 (o.s.). Reprinted in The Phenix: or a Revival of Scarce and Valuable Pieces, p. 157. Lond. 1707.
39 Rendered in the Bishops’ and the Great Bible, “and bordereth upon the city which is now called Jerusalem,” instead of, “and answered to Jerusalem which now is.”
40 Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, “they were not obedient,” instead of, “they were not disobedient,” as in Genevan, or “they rebelled not,” as in our present Bibles.
41 Rendered in the Great Bible and Prayer Book Psalter, “and prayed,” instead of, “and executed judgment.”
42 See Lewis, History of the English Translations of the Bible, p. 313; or Eadie, The English Bible, vol. ii. p. 180; or Westcott, History of the English Bible, p. 113. The king’s letter is given in full by Cardwell, Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England, vol. ii. p. 65, ed. 1839.
43 For the names of the Revisers of 1611 see Appendix H.
44 That is, the Great Bible; called Whitchurch’s, from the name of one of the printers.
45 Burnet, History of the Reformation, part ii., Appendix, p. 368, ed. 1681.
46 One of whom, Dr. Samuel Ward, had himself taken part in the English revision.
47 Tables of Genealogies and a description of the Holy Land are found prefixed to many early editions of King James’s Bible.
48 Acta Synodi Dordrechti habitæ, p. 19, ed. 1620.
49 Cardwell, Documentary Annals, vol. ii. p. 68, ed. 1839.
50 See Appendix F.
51 For a list of the Revisers see Appendix H.
52 In some cases, however, this further subdivision of work seems to have taken place. Anthony Walker, in his Life of John Bois, p. 47 (reprinted in Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa), says: “Sure I am that Part of the Apocrypha was allotted to him (for he hath showed me the very copy he translated by), but to my Grief I know not what part.” Bois was a member of the company to which the Apocrypha was assigned. Walker goes on to say, “All the time he was about his own Part, his Commons were given to him at St. Johns, where he abode all the week till Saturday night; and then he went home to discharge his Cure, returning thence on Monday morning. When he had finished his own part, at the earnest request of him to whom it was assigned he undertook a Second, and then he was to common in another College. But I forbear to name both the person and the House.”
53 The bare fact that the Oxford Revisers met in Rainolds’ lodgings is mentioned by Wood, Historia Univ. Oxon., vol. i. p. 311, and is referred to by Stoughton, Our English Bible, p. 248.
54 Fuller’s Abel Redivivus, p. 487. In his Church History, book x. p. 48, Fuller says of Rainolds that he was a man deserving of the epitaph. “Incertum est utrum Doctior an Melior.” “We know not which was the greater, his learning or his goodness.”
55 Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, p. 47.
56 It is clear, from the words which immediately follow, that the writer uses the word “company” here for the entire number of translators belonging to any one of the three centres. In the written account presented to the Synod of Dort by the English delegates, it is said that twelve persons, selected out of the companies, met together, and reviewed and corrected the entire work. Wood also (Athenæ Oxon., vol. i. p. 490) gives twelve as the number of the “selected,” and amongst them includes Bilson and Miles Smith.
57 The writer quaintly remarks in a parenthesis, “Though Mr. Downes would not go till he was either fetcht or threatened with the Pursuivant.”
58 Lewis (History of the English Translations of the Bible, p. 323) by a strange blunder turns these shillings into pounds.
59 Walker adds, “Whilst they were employed in this last business, he and he only took notes of their proceedings, which notes he kept till his dying day.” If these notes could be recovered they would throw much light upon many points of interest in connection with the Revision of 1611.
60 Fuller, Church History, book x. p. 57.
61 See Mr. Henry Stevens, Printed Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, p. 110. But if Mr. Stevens be right in this contention, the publisher can scarcely be held free from the charge of false suggestion, since the phrase occurs in earlier Bibles in the sense which it most naturally bears. In the edition of the Great Bible dated April, 1540, we have on the title-page: “This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the churches,” and the meaning of this is shown by the fuller form that appears in the title-page of the edition of November, 1540, “auctorysed and apoynted by the commaundement of oure moost redoubted Prynce and soveraygne Lorde Kynge Henrye the VIII.... to be frequented and used in every churche within this his sayd realme.” An edition of the Bishops’ Bible dated 1585 has the inscription, “Authorized and appointed to be read in Churches;” and King Charles II.’s Declaration to all His Loving Subjects, is “Appointed to to be Read in all Churches and Chapels within this kingdom.”
62 The latest quarto edition of the Genevan published in England bears the date 1615, the latest folio, 1616.
63 This edition has hence been described by Bible collectors as the “Wicked Bible.” The error was of course speedily discovered and the edition suppressed. Archbishop Laud fined the printer in the sum of £300, and with this he is said to have bought a fount of Greek type for the University of Oxford.
64 In the reign of Charles II. a silly report was set afloat that Field, the printer of what is known as the Pearl Bible of 1653, had received a present of £1,500 from the Independents to introduce this corruption into the text. See D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, Art. Pearl Bible. Mr. D’Israeli must have been ignorant of the fact that this error occurs in Bibles printed fifteen years earlier than the Pearl Bible, and by the University Press, Cambridge.
65 This may possibly have been a change deliberately made by the editor, who either had a different Greek text or followed the Vulgate; but even in that case it would be a very awkward way of rendering the text before him.
66 This he has done, professedly, in the attempt to represent the version of 1611, “so far as may be, in the precise shape that it would have assumed if its venerable translators had shown themselves more exempt than they were from the failings incident to human infirmity; or if the same severe accuracy which is now demanded in carrying so important a volume through the press had been deemed requisite, or was at all usual in their age.”—Introduction to Cambridge Paragraph Bible, p. i.
67 The LXX. and Vulgate are here right; so also Wycliffe, who, translating from the Latin, renders, “Seven trompes, whos vse is in the iubile.”
68 Wycliffe, “Stronge men seseden in Yrael.”
69 Here again the LXX., Vulgate, and Wycliffe are right. Wycliffe renders, “of whom shulen be alle the best thingis of Yrael.”
70 The LXX., Vulgate, Wycliffe, the Great Bible, the Genevan, and the Bishops’, all give the true sense.
71 In their rendering of verse 3 the Revisers of 1611 have followed the Genevan. Of the older versions, the Great Bible best renders this verse, “All my delyte is upon the saynctes that are in the earth, and upon suche as excell in vertue.”
72 The Vulgate leads the way in this error.
73 Tyndale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan render correctly.
74 So the Rheims, “Why do you also trangresse the commaundement of God for your tradition?”
75 So Wycliffe, “for they ben feithful and loued, the whiche ben parceners of benefice;” and the Rheims, “because they be faithful and beloued which are partakers of the benefite.”
76 Here all the older versions go wrong.
77 The first four books of the Annals of Tacitus are found only in a single MS. (the Medicean) of the eleventh century. The nine books of the Letters of Pliny the Younger are found complete in one MS. only, of the tenth century; this also is in the Medicean Library.
78 From the Latin uncia, an inch.
79 In some MSS. called palimpsests, the more ancient, and to us the more valuable, writing has been partially washed away, in order that the vellum might be used again for some more recent work. In these cases it is exceedingly difficult to decipher, beneath the later and darker writing, the traces of the older writing; indeed, not unfrequently the characters are so faded that they cannot be read at all until revived by some chemical preparation. The Ephraem Codex is a MS. of this kind.
80 Commonly referred to under the symbol א, the Hebrew letter, Aleph.
81 Referred to as B.
82 Referred to as A.
83 Referred to as C.
84 Referred to as D of the Gospels.
85 Referred to as D of the Epistles.
86 The License for its publication was not granted until March 20, 1520.
87 Namely, his sole authority for the Apocalypse.
88 He had previously published two smaller editions (16mo), one in 1546, and another in 1549.
89 Now called the Codex Regius, and denoted by L.
90 The collation of the eight Parisian MSS. was done for him by his son Henry, then a youth of eighteen.
91 At Geneva, whither he had deemed it prudent to remove shortly after the publication of his celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament.
92 Works, vol. vi. p. 194.
93 The draft of this Bill is preserved in the State Paper Office (Domestic Interreg., Bundle 662, f. 12), and is given in full by Dr. Stoughton, Church of the Commonwealth, p. 543.
95 In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is a manuscript in three volumes of an English version of the Bible, by Ambrose Ussher, brother of Archbishop Ussher. The date assigned to it is about 1620. It does not, however, seem to be in any proper sense a revision of the version of 1611, but rather an independent revision based upon the earlier versions. In an “epistle dedicatorie” to James I. the writer describes himself as having “leisurelie and seasonablie dressed” and “served out this other dish” while His Majesty was “a doing on” the “seasonable sudden meale” which the translators had hastily prepared. He further states that he did not oppose “to our new translation old interpretationes alreadie waighed and reiected,” but “fresh and new that yeeld new consideration and that fight not onlie with our English Bible, but likelie with all translated bibles in what language soeuer and contrarieth them.” As far as can be gathered from the examination of a single chapter, the work seems chiefly based upon the Genevan. The version is incomplete. Vol. i. contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua (imperfect), Judges, Ruth, Samuel; vol. ii. contains Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah (imperfect), Esther, and a Latin version of part of Joshua; vol. iii. contains Job, Psalms (partly in Latin), Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel (partly in Latin), the Minor Prophets, the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Romans, Corinthians, Philemon, James, Peter, John, Apocalypse (partly in Latin), Jude.—Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Fourth Report, pp. 589-598.
96 The Life and Death of Mr. Henry Jessey, p. 47.
97 Mace’s rendering of James iii. 5, 6 is the passage most frequently quoted in illustration of his style. “So the tongue is but a small part of the body, yet how grand are its pretensions, a spark of fire! what quantities of timber will it blow into a flame? the tongue is a brand that sets the world in a combustion, it is but one of the numerous organs of the body, yet it can blast whole assemblies: tipped with infernal sulphur it sets the whole train of life in a blaze.” It is but right, however, to state that this is perhaps the very worst passage in the book. The following verses are a fair specimen of his ordinary style. Acts xix. 8, 9: “At length Paul went to the synagogue, where he spoke with great freedom, and for three months he conferred with them to persuade them of the truth of the evangelical kingdom, but some of them being such obdurate infidels as to inveigh against the institution before the populace, he retired, and taking the disciples with him, he instructed them daily in the school of one Tyrannus.”
A yet more offensive specimen of this style of translation was supplied by the New Testament published in 1768, by E. Harwood, and entitled, A literal translation of the New Testament, being an attempt to translate the Sacred Writings with the same Freedom, Spirit, and Elegance with which other English Translations from the Greek Classics have lately been executed; a work which, however faithfully it may represent the inflated and stilted style which then prevailed, can now be read only with astonishment and disgust.
98 Worsley died before the publication of the volume. It was edited by M. Bradshaw and S. Worsley.
99 In 3 vols., 8vo. A second edition in 2 vols., 8vo., was published in 1795. Memoirs of Gilbert Wakefield, vol. i. p. 355; vol. ii. p. 468.
100 The work was intended to form eight vols. 4to.
101 Scrivener, Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, p. 397.
102 Eclectic Review, January, 1809, p. 31.
103 Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible, p. 297, ed. 1828. The italics are Dr. Marsh’s own.
104 The members of this first joint Committee were Dr. Wilberforce, Dr. Ellicott, Dr. Thirlwall, Dr. Ollivant, Dr. E. H. Browne (Bishop of Ely), Dr. Chr. Wordsworth (Bishop of Lincoln), and Dr. G. Moberly (Bishop of Salisbury); Dr. Bickersteth (the Prolocutor); Deans Alford, Jeremie, and Stanley; Archdeacons Rose, Freeman, and Grant; Chancellor Massingberd; Canons Blakesley, How, Selwyn, Swainson, and Woodgate; Dr. Kay, Dr. Jebb, and Mr. De Winton.
105 The Convocation of York declined to take part in the revision, on the ground that in their judgment the time was unfavourable for such a work.
106 Canon Selwyn had persistently advocated the claims of revision, and had brought it before the Notice of the Lower House of Convocation so early as March 1st, 1856. Notice of a renewed motion on the question had been given by him for the meeting of Convocation on February, 1870, and was only withdrawal when superseded by the proposal sent down on February 11th from the Upper House.
107 Canon Cook, Dr. J. H. Newman, Canon Pusey, and Dr. W. Wright. Dr. Wright, however, subsequently joined the Old Testament Company.
108 Dr. S. P. Tregelles.
109 Now Bishop of Winchester.
110 Now Dean of Canterbury.
111 Now Dean of Peterborough.
112 Now D.D.
113 Now Bursar.
114 Now Dean of Lichfield.
115 Now Dean of Lincoln.
116 Now D.D. and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
117 Now Bishop of Durham.
118 Now D.D., and Master of the Leys School, Cambridge.
119 Now D.D., Principal of New College, London, and Lee Professor of Divinity.
120 Now Professor of Humanity, St. Andrews.
121 Now Dean of Rochester.
122 Now LL.D.
123 Now Principal of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen.
124 Now also Dean of Llandaff.
125 Now also Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
126 Now Lady Margaret Preacher, Cambridge.
127 Now Archdeacon of Oxford.
128 Corresponding Member.
129 These have been thus distributed:
| Bishop of Gloucester | 405 | |
| Dr. Scrivener | 399 | |
| Mr. Humphry | 385 | |
| Dr. Newth | 373 | |
| Dr. Hort | 362 | |
| Dean of Lichfield | 352 | |
| Dean of Rochester | 337 | |
| Canon Westcott | 304 | |
| Dean of Llandaff | 302 | |
| Dean of Lincoln | 297 | |
| Bishop of Durham | 290 | |
| Archdeacon Lee | 283 | |
| Dr. Moulton | 271 | |
| Archdeacon Palmer | 255 | |
| Dean of Westminster | 253 | |
| Dr. Vance Smith | 245 | |
| Dr. Brown | 209 | |
| Dr. Angus | 199 | |
| Dr. Milligan | 182 | |
| Canon Kennedy | 165 | |
| Dr. Eadie | 135 | |
| Bishop of Salisbury | 121 | |
| Bishop of St. Andrews | 109 | |
| Dr. Roberts | 94 | |
| Archbishop of Dublin | 63 | |
| Dean Merivale | 19 | |
| Dean Alford | 16 | |
| Bishop Wilberforce | 1 |
130 As the original would be very obscure to many of my readers, I have somewhat reluctantly decided to give the modern spelling and the modern equivalent for obsolete words.
131 Psalm lxxxvii. 6 is thus rendered in the Wycliffite versions, after the Vulgate and LXX. The LXX. here differs from the Hebrew.
132 The word Judah, from which “Jew” is derived, is from a Hebrew verb, meaning “to praise.” (See Gen. xxix. 35; xlix. 8.)
133 By “sentence” Purvey commonly means “sense,” or “meaning.”
134 That is, if he examine many copies, and especially those of recent date.
135 Augustine, Christian Doctrine, book ii., c. xi.
136 Bohemians.
137 Augustine, Christian Doctrine, b. ii. c. xii.
138 Wisdom, iv. 3.
139 This Prologue contains but little in the way of historical information. It has this especial interest, that it is the preface of the first printed portion of the English Bible.
140 Imitate.
141 Changed in later editions, first into “To the diligent and Christian Reader. Grace, mercie, and peace, through Christ Jesus,” and then “To the Christian Reader” simply.
142 Whittingham had previously done the same in his New Testament of 1557. In his address “To the Reader” he says: “And because the Hebrewe and Greke phrases, which are strange to rendre in other tongues, and also short, shulde not be to hard, I haue sometyme interpreted them without any whit diminishing the grace of the sense, as our lāgage doth vse them, and sometyme have put to that worde which lacking made the sentence obscure, but haue set it in such letters as may easily be discerned from the cōmun text.”
In some later editions of the Genevan Bible, printed in black letter, this clause is altered into “wee have put in the text between these two markes such worde or verbe as doth more properlie explane or manifest the text in our tongue.”
143 To the end that.
144 ἔξο βέλους
145 σεισάχθειαν
146 Circa annum 900. B. Rhenan. rerum German lib. 2.
147 Strype, Life of Parker, b. iv. c. 20; Johnson, Historical Account, p. 87; Burnet, History of the Reformation, part ii. book iii. p. 406, ed. 1681.
148 The Psalms were in the first instance assigned to Guest, Bishop of Rochester. It is probable that the Archbishop was dissatisfied with Guest’s work, and on good grounds, for he despatched it very quickly, and forwarded it to the Archbishop with a letter, in which he thus sets forth his estimate of his duty as a translator: “I have not altered the Translation but where it giveth occasion of an error. As in the first Psalm, at the beginning I turn the preterperfect tense into the present tense; because the tense is too hard in the preterperfect tense. Where in the New Testament one piece of a Psalm is reported, I translate it in the Psalm according to the translation thereof in the New Testament, for the avoiding of the offence that may rise to the people upon diverse translations.” (Strype, Life of Parker, b. iii. c. 6; Parker Correspondence, Parker, sec. ed. p. 250.)
149 Parker Correspondence, Parker, sec. ed. p. 335.
150 Hist. of Ref., part ii. book iii. p. 406, ed. 1681.
151 Collection of Records, part ii. book iii. number 10.
152 Probably a misprint for Harmer.
153 Cardwell, Documentary Annals, vol. ii. p. 110.
154 Barlow was present at the Hampton Court Conference in January, 1601, and all accounts describe him as then Dean of Chester; and his narrative of the Conference, published in 1604, is described as “contracted by William Barlow, Doctor of Divinity, and Dean of Chester.” Sir Peter Leycester, Hist. Antiq. of Cheshire, p. 169, states that Barlow was appointed Dean in 1603.
155 Bishop of Chichester, November 3rd, 1605; Bishop of Ely, 1609; Bishop of Winchester, 1619.
156 Bishop of Lichfield, April, 1614; Bishop of Norwich, 1618.
157 Subsequently Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge.
158 Lively died May, 1605, and hence could not have taken any active part in the Revision.
159 Afterwards D.D., and successively Master of Peterhouse and of Trinity College.
160 Succeeded Dr. Duport in the Mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge.
161 Succeeded Mr. Lively as Regius Professor of Hebrew.
162 Afterwards Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.
163 Afterwards Bishop of Gloucester.
164 Master of Sidney College, January, 1609; Archdeacon of Taunton, 1615; Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge, 1620; Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, 1621.
165 Afterwards D.D., Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop’s Waltham, Hants.
166 Bishop of Gloucester, March 19th, 1605; Bishop of London, May 18th, 1607.
167 Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1609; Bishop of London, 1610.
168 Died November, 1604, and hence could have taken no part in the work of the Company. His name is not mentioned by Wood in the list given in Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon., i. p. 311, ed. 1674.
169 Knighted at Windsor, September 21st, 1604.
170 Wood, Athenæ Oxoniensis, i. 355.
171 Ibid, i. 570.
172 Subsequently, on the death of Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College. Dr. Westcott, History of English Bible, sec. ed. p. 117, and Dr. Moulton, History of English Bible, p. 196, both have Dr. T. Spencer, but his name, as inscribed on the monument in the Chapel of Corpus Christi College, is IOHANNES SPENSER, and is so given by Wood.