LII.]

1

structure of the Old Testament. The reading of the Authorized Version is that of the Genevan followed by the Bishops'. The last clause of iii, 11, is rendered "they shall not enter into my rest," and the reader is perplexed by the rendering of the same clause twice in iv, 3, 5, by these terms, "if they shall enter into my rest," and is apt to imagine there is some difference in the Greek. The rendering, "if they shall enter," is a literal translation of the Greek, which imitates the form of the original threatening in Num, xiv, 23, 30, repeated in Psalm xcv. The idiom, as an intense negation, is a form of solemn Hebrew oath, and needed not to have been followed in one place and abandoned in the other places. Tyndale does not use the conditional form, nor Coverdale, nor the Great Bible. In Num. xiv, 23, the Authorized Version has "surely they shall not see," and in Psalm xcv, 11, "that they should not enter." The Genevan introduced the literal and unidiomatic imitation, "if they shall enter." The Bishops' followed, and the Rheims reproduced the Latin. The verb rendered he hath made old" in the first clause of viii, 13, has its participle translated in the next clause "decayeth," dimming to the reader the connection between statement and inference. The word which in Acts is twice rendered "prince" is translated "captain" in ii, 10, and "author" in xii, 2.

No mere English reader could suppose that in James ii, 2, 3, "goodly apparel" and "gay clothing" represented the same Greek phrase, which is also rendered "bright clothing" in Acts x, 30, where, indeed, as it is the glittering robe of an angel that is described, neither "gay" nor "goodly" would have been a suitable epithet. The Authorized Version, in these places, only followed the example of its predecessors, the Rheims excepted.

The phrase in 1 Peter i, 7," at the appearing of Jesus Christ" passes into a truer version in verse 13, "at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

In 2 Pet. ii, 1, the genitive noun which appears in the epithet "damnable" in the first clause, reappears in the

1 εἰ εἰσελεύσονται.

2 · ἀπωλείας.

accusative in the last clause as "destruction," and again, in verse 3 as "damnation," the idea of retaliatory penalty being lost in the alteration. Our translators themselves seem to have introduced the variation; the Protestant versions have damnable," "damnation," and the Rheims has "perdition' in both places. According to the text which our translators preferred, the word again occurs in the first clause of the second verse, and they vary the rendering by using "pernicious," but add, in the margin, "lascivious ways, as some copies read."

In 1 John ii, 20, the noun translated "unction" becomes "anointing" twice in verse 27. "Unction was taken from the Rheims,-Wycliffe has “anoyntynge" in both places. In v, 9, the verb has one rendering and its noun another no less than three times, so that the idiomatic connection is destroyed. The clause might have been, "the witness of God which he hath witnessed concerning his Son."

In Rev. i, 15, the noun used twice in the same clause has two renderings-it should be "his voice as the voice of many waters." In iii, 17, the adjective rendered "rich" has its verb translated “increased with goods" in the next clause. In iv, 4, the same noun in the very same clause is rendered "throne" and then "seats"—"round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats." The change obscures the similarity of honour on the part of the redeemed to that of the Redeemer, according to his own promise in Matt. xix, 28, "when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones." The change of "throne into "seats," as if the honour were too godlike, was brought in by the Genevan, and followed by the Bishops'; Tyndale, Coverdale, the Great Bible, and the Genevan Testament of 1557 having "seat"-"seats," the Rheims having a strange variation, the reverse of the Authorized, "and round about the seate four-and-twentie seates, and upon the thrones fourand-twentie seniors sitting," following their Vulgate, the reading also of the Codex Amiatinus. Modern editions of the Rheims have been conformed to the Authorized, with "ancients" also for "elders." In xiii, 13, 14, the same noun.

LII.]

HOLD-CAGE.

415

is rendered “wonders" and then "miracles," both being mistranslations of a term which really denotes "signs." The term is inconsistently rendered "sign" in xv, i, "I saw another sign in heaven," that is, an additional sign, but to any previous sign the Authorized Version gives no clue. Two signs are indeed spoken of in xii, 1, 3, but in both the places the translation is "wonder," and therefore the reference in xv, 1, is really lost. In xviii, 2, in the one clause a noun is translated "hold," and in the next clause "cage," as if to bring it into harmony with "bird"; and there is an unwarranted variation in the use of the article," the hold," "a cage," the words being both indefinite in the original.

CHAPTER LIII.

།

ON

N the other hand, one English term represents several Greek words, and many important distinctions sink out of view. But it is at once to be conceded, that the English language has not such a wealth of vocables as to supply a distinct term for every Greek noun or verb. We are therefore forced to use the same translation for different words in the original.

4

Thus three Greek substantives are represented by the one rendering "net," meaning different shapes of the implement, and the distinction could only be brought out by the addition of some epithet.1 "care," "careth,"2 1 Pet. v, 7, stands for two Greek words; Matt. xiii, 17, "see" is the translation of two verbs; "reap" stands for two verbs in James v, 4, and "know" for two verbs in Acts xix, 15.5 Servant" represents seven Greek nouns, which, though distinguishable in meaning, have not each a distinct English equivalent. In Luke xvi, 2, 3, the same verb is rendered "said," in verse 5 another verb is rendered "said"; the first verb occurs twice in verse 6, and twice in verse 7, along with that used in verse 5. Sometimes, however, a distinction is made, and in this case it could not be avoided, Acts xxvi, 14, "a voice speaking unto me, saying." The same English pronoun represents two different Greek ones in 1 John iii, 3, "this hope in him," and "as he is pure"; and it would

DISTINCTIONS EFFACED.

417

be very difficult to preserve the distinction in English. Two words are rendered "purse," the one being a bag, Luke x, 4, the other the girdle, in the folds of which was the pouch, Matt. x, 9. "Received" stands for two Greek verbs in the same verse, 1 Thess. ii, 13, but the second might be rendered "accepted." "Money" 2 represents five Greek nouns, but the distinction could not be easily kept in all cases,-silver money, bronze money, small coin or change, money sanctioned or current money applied to the tribute, and money in the sense of "the useful." "Tribute" represents three nouns, but one might be given literally as half-shekel, Matt. xvii, 24, 27, the tax paid for the support of the temple, the piece of money found in the mouth of the fish, being a stater, sufficing therefore for both Peter and his Master. It is impossible to find any other than the one word for the heathen altar in Acts xvii, 23, and for the Jewish altar so often referred to. We have no word but "basket" to represent, first, one terin employed in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, and, second, another term employed in the miracle of feeding the four thousand, Matt. xiv, 20, xv, 37.3 The first term is a smaller vessel, like that which the people in Palestine still carry with them, and the second is a larger vessel. Nay, the two terms are put in contrast in Matt. xvi, 9, 10, and in Mark viii, 19, 20, in two successive clauses of the same interrogation, and "basket" does service for both. The second was like a “hamper” or “ pannier" which meant originally “breadbasket," "panarium," and we have in the Bishops' Bible, Job xxxix, 31, "canst thou fill the basket with his skinne? or the fish pannier with his head?" in our version with a very different rendering, Job xli, 7. The earlier versions do not attempt a distinction, but the Rheims has "maundes" for the second word, a term yet preserved in Maundy Thursday. A third noun, rendered "basket" in 2 Cor. xi, 33, means a receptacle formed of ropes.

1

"Brightness" represents three Greek nouns, the first of

βαλάντιον, ζώνη.

· ἀργύριον, χαλκός, κέρμα, νόμισ

4 απαύγασμα, λαμπρότης, ἐπιφάνεια.