(Vol. iv., pp. 57. 125. 193. 196.)
In the early ages, your correspondent H. WALTER assumes that the
primitive Christians knew "that their Scriptures said of marriage that
it was honourable in all" (Vol. iv., p. 193.). H. WALTER is under more
than one mistake with regard to the text of St. Paul (Heb. xiii. 4.) on
which he grounds his assertion. This whole chapter being full of
admonitions, the apostle, all through it, speaks mostly in the
imperative mood. He begins with, "Let brotherly love continue;" "Be not
forgetful," &c.; "Remember them that are in bonds," &c. Then he says:
[Greek: Timios ho gamos en pasi, kai he koite amiantos], that is: "Let
(the laws of) marriage be revered in all _things_, and the marriage bed
be undefiled;" and as a warning to those who might not heed such an
admonition, he adds, "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." H.
WALTER mistakes the adjective feminine [Greek: en pasi] as meaning "all
men," whereas it signifies here, "in all things;" according to which
sense St. Paul uses the same form of speech in 2 Corinthians xi. 6. True
it is, the authorised version translates thus: "Marriage _is_ honourable
in all;" but the _is_ is an insertion of the translators, and therefore
printed in Italics. Parkhurst, however, in his _Lexicon_, at the word
[Greek: Gamos], says: "Wolfius has justly remarked, the imperatives
preceding and following show that we should rather understand [Greek:
esto] than [Greek: esti]. See also Hammond and Macknight; and observe
that the Alexandrian and two other MSS., for [Greek: de] in the
following sentence read [Greek: gar], and the Vulgate translates by
_enim_, "for."
I cannot but think that the makers of the authorized version advisedly
inserted _is_ instead of _let_, to forward their own new doctrines, as
this their rendering would seem to countenance the marriage of priests.
Curiously enough, when they had no interest in putting in the indicative
instead of the imperative mood, those same translators have of
themselves inserted, in the verse following, the latter, thus: "_Let_
your conversation _be_ without covetousness," &c. Moreover, in
translating [Greek: en pasi], in another passage of St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi.
6., they render it, "in all things;" in which same sense it is to be
understood in the above place, Heb. xi. 4.