The Bible is the one "best seller" throughout the world. Last
year Bible societies printed and circulated 11,378,854
Bibles. The Bible is now printed in four hundred languages.
Last year the British and Foreign Bible Society printed
6,620,024 copies, or an increase of 685,000 copies over the
previous year. Even China last year bought 428,000 Bibles.
The first English translation of the Bible which had a great
vogue was what is known as the Authorized Version issued in
the reign of King James I. For centuries after the Christian
Era the Bible appeared only in the Latin Version, called the
Vulgate. As early as the seventh century English churchmen
made translations of the Psalter, and the Venerable Bede made
an Anglo-Saxon version of St. John's gospel. Toward the close
of the fourteenth century appeared Wyclif's Bible, which
gained such general circulation that there are still extant
no less than one hundred and fifty manuscript copies of this
version.
Then came Tyndale, whose ambition was to make a translation
that any one could understand. He said: "If God spare me
life, ere many years I will cause the boy that driveth the
plough to know more of the Scriptures than you priests do."
His version of a few books of the Bible was published first
at Cologne, but its acceptance in England was greatly
hindered by the translator's polemical notes. Tyndale was
burned at the stake in Belgium for the crime of having
translated the Bible into the speech of the common people. He
will always be remembered as the pioneer who prepared the way
for the Authorized Version.
After Tyndale came Rogers, who carried on his work as far as
Isaiah. He was followed by Coverdale who wrote fine sonorous
English prose, but was weak in scholarship. His translation
was superseded by the Geneva Version, made in 1568 by English
refugees in the Swiss city. The Geneva translation is
noteworthy as the first to appear in Roman type, all the
others being in black letter.
The King James Bible was first proposed at the Hampden
Conference in 1604. The Bishops opposed the scheme, but the
King was greatly taken with it, and in his usual arbitrary
way he appointed himself director of the work and issued
instructions to the fifty-four scholars chosen. One-third of
these were from Oxford, one-third from Cambridge and the
remainder from Westminster. They worked three years at the
task and produced what is known as the Authorized Version.
There seems to be a strong prejudice against King James
because of his eccentricities, and most writers on the Bible
declare that this version was never authorized by King, Privy
Council, Convocation or Parliament. This is wrong, for King
James authorized the book, and it owed its existence directly
to him. Anglicans and Puritans in this famous Conference were
bitterly hostile to each other, and if they had had their way
we should never have had this fine version of the Bible. The
King was president of the Conference, but the two factions
were ready to fly at each other's throats over such questions
as the baptism of infants, the authority of the Bishop of
Rome and others. The King, however, brushed all these
questions aside. He said that the Geneva Bible taught
sedition and disobedience, and by royal mandate he ordered
Bishop Reynolds and his associates to make the best version
in their power. So the credit which the King received by
having his name joined to the Bible was well deserved.
The King James Bible or the Authorized Version has had
greater influence on the style of English authors than any
other work, and it remains today a model of the simplest and
best English, with few obsolete words. Out of the small
number of 6,000 words used in the Bible, as against 25,000 in
Shakespeare, not more than 250 words are now out of every-day
use.
The best short essay on the Authorized Version is by Albert
S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and Literature in
Yale University (N. Y., G. P. Putnam's, 1910). This was
originally contributed to the Cambridge History of English
Literature, but in book form it contains some matter not
printed in the History. Professor Cook shows that the King
James Bible today contains fewer obsolete or archaic words
than Shakespeare, and that this version put into the speech
of the common people a score of phrases that now are scarcely
thought of as purely Biblical, so completely have they passed
into every-day speech. Among these are "highways and hedges,"
"clear as crystal," "hip and thigh," "arose as one man,"
"lick the dust," "a thorn in the flesh," "a broken reed,"
"root of all evil," "sweat of his brow," "heap coals of
fire," "a law unto themselves," "the fat of the land," "a
soft answer," "a word in season," "weighed in the balance and
found wanting," and so forth.
Between the Authorized Version and the New Revised Version a
number of individual translations appeared. The Long
Parliament made an order in 1653 for a new translation of the
Bible, and three years later a committee was appointed, but
as Parliament was dissolved shortly after, the project fell
through. The individual versions for a hundred years are not
noteworthy, but in 1851 the American Bible Society issued a
"Standard" Bible which it circulated for five years. It was
simply the King James Bible free from errors and
discrepancies. Another important revision was made by the
American Bible Union in 1860 and a second revision followed
in 1866. Its salient feature was the adoption of the
paragraph form.
In 1870 a new revised version of the Bible, which should
receive the benefit of the labors of modern scholars, was
decided on. The Upper House of Convocation of Canterbury
appointed a committee to report on revision. A joint
committee from both houses a few months later was elected and
was empowered to begin the work. Two committees were
established, one for the Old and one for the New Testament.
Work was begun June 22, 1870, but in July it was decided to
ask the cooperation of American divines. An American
Committee of thirty members was organized, and began work
October 4, 1872. The English Committees sent their revision
to the American Committee, which returned it with suggestions
and emendations. Five revisions were made in this way before
the work was completed. Special care was taken in the
translation of the Greek text of the New Testament.
In 1881 the Revised New Testament appeared. Orders for three
million copies came from all parts of the English-speaking
world. The Revised Old Testament appeared in 1885. The
preferences of the American Committee were placed in a
special appendix in both books. In 1901 the American
Committee issued the American Standard Revised Version, which
is in general circulation in this country.
The tercentenary of the King James Version was celebrated in
March, 1911, and it brought out many interesting facts in
regard to the book that has been one of the chief educational
forces in England and in all English-speaking countries since
it was issued.
Among the famous Bibles are the Gutenberg Bible, which was
the first to be printed from movable types; the "Vinegar"
Bible, because of the printer's misprint of vinegar for
vineyard; the "Treacle" Bible, which owed its name to the
phrase "treacle in Gilead" for "balm in Gilead"; the "Wicked"
Bible, so called because the printers omitted the "not" in
the Seventh Commandment.
Of famous manuscript Bibles may be named the Codex
Alexandrinus, presented by the Sultan of Turkey to Charles
II of England, and the Codex Sinaiticus, discovered in a
monastery on Mount Sinai by the great Hebrew scholar,
Tischendorf.
Dr. Grenfell, who has made an international reputation by his
work among the fishermen of Labrador and by his books on the
Bible, suggests that the Scriptures should not be brought out
with any distinctive binding. He believes the Bible would
gain many more readers if it were bound like an ordinary
secular book, so that one could read it on trains or boats
without exciting comment. His suggestion is a good one and it
is to be hoped it will be acted on by Bible publishers.
Anything that will help to make people read the Bible
regularly deserves encouragement.
One of the best Bibles for ordinary use is _The Modern
Reader's Bible_, edited with introduction and notes by
Richard G. Moulton, Professor of Literary Theory and
Interpretation in the University of Chicago. The editor has
abolished the paragraph form and he has printed all the
poetry in verse form, which is a great convenience to the
reader. It makes a volume of 1733 pages, printed on thin but
opaque paper. (New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $2.00
net.)
_The Soul of the Bible_ (Boston: American Unitarian
Association) is the very best condensation of the Scriptures.
It is arranged by Ulysses G. B. Pierce and consists of
selections from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha.
The editor has brought together parts of the Bible which
explain and supplement each other. The result is that in five
hundred and twenty pages one gets the very soul of the Bible.
Nothing could be better than this book as an introduction to
the careful reading and systematic study of the Bible, which
is the best means of culture of spirit and mind that the
world affords.