adopted it on the suggestion and under the advice of my good friend the Publisher. The List of Authorities consulted may appear to many to be meagre. I am the Rector of a country parish, living at a distance from libraries. My references are therefore necessarily limited to the volumes in my own modest library. The rearranging of the Authorities from No. 117 to the end of the list in alphabetical order would have involved the alteration of the reference numbers while the Manual was passing through the press. This again would have largely increased the risk of erroneous references in the Text. To avoid this risk I have preferred to let the various works and their numbers from the point named stand in the list as they now appear. Rosendale, N. Y., September, 1907. H. B. Preface Introductory Foreword Chapter. I. 2. What the Bible Is A Short Statement as to the Sixty-six Books of Holy Script- Section 1. The Thirty-nine Books of the Old Testament.. 3. The Fourteen Books of the Apocrypha 4. Manuscripts and Versions 5. The Septuagint 6. The Oldest Existing Bible 7. The Vulgate 8. Quotations from Early Christian Writers 9. Our Hebrew Manuscripts of the Old Testament II. 12. PAGE i. I I 17. The Authorized Version of 1611 18. The Need of Further Revision 19. Further Revision of the Greek Text of the New Testament. 21. 22. Printers' Errors 23. The American Standard Edition of the Revised Version. The First English Bible Revision of the Greek Text of the New Testament 13. Early Printed English Bibles 14. The Council of Trent and the Authorized Bible of the 15. Later English Bibles of the Sixteenth Century 16. The Popular English Bible of the Roman Church The English Bible-Printing Monopoly. The King's Printer, 3. List of Authorities Consulted The References by Number in the Manual [thus "No. —"] 6 327 THE STUDENT'S HANDBOOK TO ENGLISH BIBLE VERSIONS. T INTRODUCTORY FOREWORD. HIS Handbook is written for people who are interested in Bible matters, who have no knowledge of Hebrew, Greek or Latin, and who know little, or nothing, of the history of the English Bible. The writer has no wish, or intention of entering into controversy; he is content, in the main, to record history, and to state facts. I. WHAT THE BIBLE IS. The Bible is the Word of God to man. A revelation from the Creator of all to the entire human race, and, therefore, to be given to each nation in its own language. We have this revelation in what we are accustomed to call one book-the Bible. It is not one book—it is a library. The library (subject to what is said later as to certain additional books called "The Apocrypha") consists of sixty-six books, arranged in two volumes. My copy of the Vulgate (No. 5) is described on its title page as "Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis" or "The Sacred Books of the Vulgate Edition." Cf. No. 75, page 1, under the title "The Bible." In the thirteenth century, the neuter plural 'Biblia' came to be regarded as a feminine singular, and 'The Books' became by common consent "The Book' ('Biblia,' sing.). This gradually was adopted into our lan guage in the form 'Bible.'' Cf. Bishop Westcott, No. 112, pages 5, 6. The name "The Bible" seems to have come about in this way: In the Greek language, the name is stated in the plural form as "Ta Biblia," which means "The Books." In the Latin language the Bible is often called "Biblia Sacra," which is plural again, and means "The Sacred Books." When Greek and Latin were not understood and studied, as they now are, some people read, or heard this word "Biblia," as a word ending in “a," and took it for granted that it was a word meaning one thing (singular number and) of feminine gender, and so the title of "The Books" became in English "The Book" or "The Bible" or "The Holy Bible." We have a similar instance in connection with the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha is generally or popularly regarded as a singular noun, referring to one book of that name, whereas it is a plural noun referring to all the fourteen separate books united under that title. The writing of the entire library in its two volumes extended through a period of about 1600 years. Here we make two points: (a) Neither the entire library, nor either of its volumes came into the world with note or sign, "This is the Word of God," or to that effect. (b) No Church ever decided by any order or decree or Council what books should form the Bible. When these two points are understood, the question naturally arises: How then, do we know the Bible (the library of sixty-six books) to be the Word of God? We must understand that there have been, or are, two historic sections of the Church of God in the world. 1. The Jewish Church-the Church of the Old Testament. 2. The Christian Church-the Church of the New Testament. |