or less extent, taken part in the work of this revision, forty-nine of
whom have been members of the Episcopalian Churches of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and America, and fifty members of other Christian Churches. This
fact is in itself full of interest and significance. Upon no previous
revision have so many Scholars been engaged. In no previous revision has
the co-operation of those who were engaged upon it been so equally
diffused over all the parts of the work. In no previous revision have
those who took the lead in originating it, and carrying it forward, shown
so large a measure of Christian confidence in Scholars who were outside of
their own communion. In no previous revision have such effective
precautions been created by the very composition of the body of Revisers,
against accidental oversight, or against any lurking bias that might arise
from natural tendencies or from ecclesiastical prepossessions. On these
accounts alone, if on no other, this revision may be fairly said to
possess peculiar claims upon the confidence of all thoughtful and devout
readers of the Bible.
The New Testament Company assembled for the first time on Wednesday, June
22nd, 1870. They met in the Chapel of Henry VII., and there united in the
celebration of the Lord’s Supper. After this act of worship and holy
communion they formally entered upon the task assigned to them. The Old
Testament Company held their first meeting on June 30th.
By the kindness of the Dean of Westminster, the New Testament Company was
permitted to hold its meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber. This room,
originally the parlour of the Abbot’s Palace, is associated with many
interesting events of English history. It was to this spot that Henry IV.
was conveyed when seized with his last illness; and here, on March 20th,
1413, he died. It was here, in the days of the Long Parliament, that the
celebrated Assembly of Divines, driven by the cold from Henry VII.’s
Chapel, held its sixty-sixth session, on Monday, October 2nd, 1643; and
here thenceforward it continued to meet until its closing session (the
1163rd), on February 22nd, 1649. Here were prepared the famed Westminster
Confession of Faith, and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms so highly
prized by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, and during many
generations by the Independents of England. Here also, just fifty years
later, assembled the memorable Commission appointed by William III., at
the suggestion of the Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Tillotson), to devise a
basis for a scheme of comprehension in a revision of the Prayer Book. In
this room the New Testament Company have held the larger number of their
sessions. Upon the few occasions on which it was not available the Company
has most frequently met in the Dean of Westminster’s library. Twice it has
held its monthly session in the College Hall, twice in the Chapter
Library, and once in Queen Anne’s Bounty Office.
The Jerusalem Chamber is an oblong room, somewhat narrow for its length,
measuring about forty feet from north to south, and about twenty from east
to west. Down the centre of the room there extends a long table; and on
this table, in the middle of its eastern side, is placed the desk of the
Chairman, Bishop Ellicott. Facing the Chairman, and on the opposite side
of the room, is a small table for the use of the Secretary. The members
of the Company took their places round the table without any
pre-arrangement, but just as each might find a seat most ready at hand.
The force of habit, however, soon prevailed, and most of the members sat
constantly in the place which accident or choice had assigned to them. On
the Chairman’s right sat the Prolocutor, Dr. Bickersteth, and on his left,
during the sixteen meetings he was spared to attend, sat the late Dean of
Canterbury, Dr. Alford, who, to the great sorrow of the Company, was so
early taken away from their midst. Between the Prolocutor and the northern
end of the table were the places usually occupied by the Bishop of
Salisbury, the Bishop of St. Andrews, Dean Blakesley, and Mr. Humphry.
Between the Chairman and the southern end were the places of the
Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Brown, Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Eadie, and Canon
Westcott. Between the Secretary’s table and the northern end of the long
table were the seats of Canon Kennedy, Dr. Angus, Archdeacon Palmer, and
Dr. Hort; and between the Secretary’s table and the southern end were
those of Dr. Vance Smith, Dr. Scrivener, Dr. Lightfoot, Dean Scott, and
Dr. Newth. At the northern end of the table were the places of Archdeacon
Lee and Dean Stanley; and at the southern end those of Dr. Moulton and Dr.
Milligan.
As the general rules under which the revision was to be carried out had
been carefully prepared, no need existed for any lengthened discussion of
preliminary arrangements, and the Company upon its first meeting was able
to enter at once upon its work. The members of the Company had previously
been supplied with sheets, each containing a column of the printed text of
the Authorized Version, with a wide margin on either side for suggested
emendations--the left hand margin being intended for changes in the Greek
text, and the right hand margin for those which related to the English
rendering. Upon these sheets each member had entered the result of his own
private study of the prescribed portion, and thus came prepared with
well-considered suggestions to submit for the judgment of the Company. The
portion prescribed for the first session was Matt. i. to iv. This portion
opening with the genealogy, the question of the spelling of proper names
at once presented itself for decision. It was felt that, by the twofold
forms so often given in the Authorized Version to the names of persons and
places, a needless difficulty was set in the way of the simple reader of
the Bible; and it was agreed that, while preserving in every case the
familiar forms of names which had become thoroughly Englished, such as
John, James, Timothy, Jacob, Solomon, &c., all Old Testament proper names
quoted in the New should follow the Hebrew rather than the Greek or Latin,
and so appear under the same form in both Testaments.
This question being thus settled, the Company proceeded to the actual
details of the revision, and in a surprisingly short time settled down to
an established method of procedure. So little need arose for any change in
this respect that the account of any one ordinary meeting will serve as a
description of all. The Company assembles at eleven a.m. The meeting is
opened by prayer, the Chairman reading three collects from the Prayer
Book, and closing with the Lord’s Prayer. The minutes of the last meeting
are then read and confirmed. Any correspondence or other business that may
require consideration is next dealt with. These matters being settled, the
Chairman invites the Company to proceed with the revision, and reads a
short passage as given in the Authorised Version. The question is then
asked whether any _textual_ changes are proposed; that is, any readings
that differ from the Greek text as presented in the edition published by
Robert Stephen in 1550. If any change is proposed, the evidence for and
against is briefly stated, and the proposal considered. The duty of
stating this evidence is, by tacit consent, devolved upon two members of
the Company, who, from their previous studies, are specially entitled to
speak with authority upon such questions--Dr. Scrivener and Dr. Hort--and
who come prepared to enumerate particularly the authorities on either
side. Dr. Scrivener opens up the matter by stating the facts of the case,
and by giving his judgment upon the bearing of the evidence. Dr. Hort
follows, and mentions any additional matters that may call for notice, and
if differing from Dr. Scrivener’s estimate of the weight of the evidence,
gives his reasons, and states his own view. After discussion, the vote of
the Company is taken, and the proposed reading accepted or rejected. The
text being thus settled, the Chairman asks for proposals on the rendering.
Any member who has any suggestion on his paper then mentions it, and this
is taken into consideration, unless some other member state that he has a
proposal which refers to an earlier clause of the passage, in which case
his proposal is taken first. The reasons for the proposed emendation are
then stated; briefly, if it be an obvious correction, and one which it is
likely that many members have noted down; if it be one less obvious, or
less likely to commend itself at first sight, the grounds upon which it is
based are stated more at length. Free discussion then follows, and after
this the vote of the Company is taken. Succeeding suggestions are
similarly dealt with, and then the passage, as amended, is read by the
Chairman, or by the Secretary. The meeting lasts until six p.m., an
interval of half-an-hour having been allowed for luncheon. The Company
meets every month, excepting only in the months of August and September,
for a session of four consecutive days.
At a very early period of their labours it became clearly manifest to the
Company that they could only do their work satisfactorily by doing it very
thoroughly, and that no question in any way affecting the sense or the
rendering could be passed over because of its seeming unimportance.
Questions, whether of text or translation, which appeared, when regarded
in relation only to the passage under review, to be too minute to be
worthy of serious attention, became oftentimes invested with a grave
importance when other, and especially parallel, passages were considered;
and thus proposed changes, which might otherwise have been dismissed as
unnecessary, claimed for themselves a careful examination. As a necessary
result of this determination to make the revision as complete as might be
in their power, the progress made in the work was but slow, and at the end
of the ninth day of meeting not more than 153 verses had been revised, an
average of only seventeen verses a day. Thereupon several members of the
Company became alarmed at the probable length of time over which the
revision would extend, and on the tenth day of meeting resolutions were
submitted, that, “with a view to swifter progress, the Company be divided
into two sections, of which one shall proceed with the Gospels and the
other with the Epistles,” and “that on the last day of each monthly series
of meetings the whole Company meet together to review the work done by the
two separate sections.” To these resolutions a full consideration was
given, and with the result of producing an almost unanimous conviction
that such a division of the Company was undesirable. It was felt that the
weight of authority attaching to this Revision, would, with many persons,
be largely dependent upon the fact that it represented the united judgment
of a considerable number of scholars, and that the proposed division of
the Company would consequently tend to lessen the claims of the work to
the confidence of the public. It was found, too, that it would not be
possible to make any satisfactory division of the Company; and from the
varied qualifications of the members, each felt that it would be a
palpable loss to be deprived of the co-operation of any of the rest. It
was also exceedingly doubtful whether any saving of time would be secured
by the proposed arrangement. The review by the entire Company of the work
done by the separate divisions would, in very many cases, reopen
discussion; and questions which had been decided, perhaps unanimously,
after lengthened debate, would be debated afresh, and that, too, by those
who were less familiar with all the bearings of the question, and on
whose account it would be necessary to give lengthened explanations, and
sometimes to retrace other ground also. The resolutions were consequently
withdrawn, and the conviction became general amongst the members of the
Company that they had no other alternative than to face the probability of
a much longer period of labour than any one amongst them had at first
anticipated, and to accept the full responsibilities of the work which had
been laid upon them.
After this the work steadily proceeded, and various general questions
having been decided as they arose, the rate of progress became more rapid;
but even then the average did not rise above thirty-five verses a day.
In accordance with the rules under which the Company was acting, all
proposals made at the first revision were decided by simple majorities;
but at the second revision no change from the Authorized Version could be
accepted unless it were carried by a majority of two to one. Though here
and there this rule stood in the way of a change which a decided majority
of the Company were of opinion was right, its action upon the whole was
very salutary.
At the second revision also the suggestions of the American Revisers came
to the help of the Company. From time to time, as each successive portion
of the first revision was completed, it had been forwarded to America. The
American Revisers subjected this to a careful scrutiny, and in their turn
forwarded to England their criticisms thereupon. Where they approved the
changes provisionally made nothing was said; where they differed they
indicated their dissent, and submitted their own suggestions. In like
manner, in passages where no change had been made, they either signified
their assent by silence, or expressed their judgment by independent
proposals.
The first revision of the Gospel of Matthew was completed on the
thirty-sixth day of meeting, May 24th, 1871; that of Mark on the
fifty-third day, November 16th, 1871; that of Luke on the eighty-first
day, June 22nd, 1872; and that of John on the one hundred and third day,
February 19th, 1873. The first revision of the Acts and the Catholic
Epistles was completed on the one hundred and fifty-second meeting, April
23rd, 1874. Before proceeding to the first revision of the remaining books
it was deemed desirable to undertake the second revision of the Gospels,
and this was completed on the one hundred and eighty-fourth meeting,
February 25th, 1875. The first revision of the Pauline Epistles was then
commenced, and was completed on the two hundred and sixty-second meeting,
February 27th, 1877. The first revision of the Apocalypse was completed on
the two hundred and seventy-third meeting, April 20th, 1877.
It will thus appear that the first revision engaged the Company during two
hundred and forty-one meetings; that is to say, during sixty monthly
sessions, or six years of labour. The attendance during this important
period of the work maintained so high an average as 16·8.
It had not been originally intended that at the second revision fresh
proposals should be entertained; but as it was obviously necessary to do
this with regard to the American suggestions, it was felt that we ought
not to preclude our own members from bringing forward any new proposal
that might seem worthy of consideration, and that we ought not, for the
sake of gaining time, to fetter ourselves by any rigid rule. The second
revision thus became a far more serious business than had been originally
contemplated, and demanded a large measure of time and toil. It was
completed on December 13th, 1878, having occupied on the whole ninety-six
meetings, or about two years and a half. By rule 5 the “second” revision
was to be regarded as “final,” but the course of events rendered this an
impossibility, and so far the rule had to be annulled.
In due course the results of the second revision were forwarded to
America, and while it indicated the extent to which the English Company
had been able to adopt the American suggestions--or what was equivalent
to this, some third suggestion that approved itself alike to the judgment
of both Companies--it also necessarily invited a reply upon those points
about which there was still a difference of opinion, and this, as
necessarily, involved what was to some extent a third revision. The work
of a further revision had, however, been previously imposed upon the
Company by a resolution of its own, in which it was agreed that the
members should privately read over the version as now revised, with the
view of marking any roughnesses or other blemishes in the English
phraseology; and that if it should appear to them that, without doing any
violence to the Greek, the English might be amended, the emendations they
proposed should be forwarded to the Secretary, and by him be duly arranged
and printed. To the consideration of the various suggestions so forwarded,
and of those contained in the further communications from America, the
Company devoted thirty-six meetings, extending from February 11th, 1879,
to January 27th, 1880, with portions of one or two subsequent meetings,
being finally completed on March 17th, 1880.
Although the Company had endeavoured throughout the whole course of its
work to preserve, as far as the idiom of the English language permitted,
uniformity in the rendering of the same Greek word, it had not been
possible, when dealing with each passage separately, to keep in view all
the other passages in which any particular word might be found. It was
therefore felt to be desirable to reconsider the Revised Version with
exclusive reference to this single point, and the pages of a Greek
concordance were assigned in equal portions to different members of the
Company, who each undertook to examine every passage in which the words
falling to his share might occur, and to mark if in any case unnecessary
variations in the English had either been introduced or retained. The
passages so noted were brought before the notice of the assembled Company,
and the question was in each case considered whether, without any injury
to the sense, the rendering of the word under review might be harmonized
with that found in other places. This work of harmonizing, together with
the preparation of the preface, occupied the Company until November 11th,
1880, on which day, at five o’clock in the afternoon, after ten years and
five months of labour, the revision of the New Testament was brought to
its close.
On the evening of the same day, St. Martin’s day, by the kind invitation
of Prebendary Humphry, the Company assembled in the Church of St.
Martin’s-in-the-Fields, and there united in a special service of prayer
and thanksgiving; of thanksgiving for the happy completion of their
labours, for the spirit of harmony and brotherly affection that had
throughout pervaded the meetings of the Company, and for the Divine
goodness which had permitted so many with so little interruption to give
themselves continuously to this work; of prayer that all that had been
wrong in their spirit or action might be mercifully forgiven, and that He
whose glory they had humbly striven to promote might graciously accept
this their service, and deign to use it as an instrument for the good of
man, and the honour of His holy name.
The total number of meetings of the Company has been 407, and the total
number of attendances 6,426,[129] or an average attendance at each meeting
of 15·8 members.
Upon one other point our readers will naturally look for some information.
How have the necessary expenses of this undertaking been met? These, it
will readily be seen, would necessarily be large. So many persons could
not come together from various parts of the kingdom--some very distant,
including the extreme north of Scotland, and the extreme west of
Cornwall--and remain in London for a week in every month, without a
considerable expenditure of money. It was also found necessary for the
satisfactory execution of the work that each portion, from time to time as
provisionally completed, should be set up in type, and in this way further
expenses were entailed. The question of meeting these expenses was at an
early period forced upon the attention of the Company; for some members
before many months had elapsed had been put to serious costs, and while
all willingly gave their time and labour, as far as they might be able,
without reserve to this important work, it was felt to be impossible to
allow this extra burden to rest upon any, and the more so as the pressure
of it must needs be very unequally distributed. An appeal to the public
for help having met with no adequate response, it was resolved to dispose
of the copyright of the work, in the hope thereby of obtaining sufficient
means of meeting the expenses of completing it. Several offers from
different sources were made to the Companies; but ultimately, for various
reasons, it was deemed best to accede to that made by the University
Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, whereby, in return for the copyright of
the Revised Version, the Chancellors, Masters, and Scholars of the two
Universities agreed to provide a sum which it was hoped would suffice for
the expenses that would be incurred in the prosecution and completion of
the work, and to advance a certain portion of the same from time to time.
A draft deed embodying these agreements having been submitted to the
Companies was after some amendments accepted on December 10th, 1872.
The agreement with the University Presses binds the two Companies to a
revision of the Apocrypha, a work not contemplated in their original
undertaking. The New Testament Company have made arrangements for taking a
full share of this revision, and entered upon the work in April last.
Until this is completed they will not be released from their
responsibilities.
APPENDIX.
(A.)
_PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?)_
CHAPTER XV.
[130] For as much as Christ saith that the gospel shall be preached in all
the world, and David saith of the Apostles and their preaching, “the sound
of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the
ends of the world;” and again David saith, “The Lord shall tell in the
Scriptures of peoples and of these princes that were in it;”[131] that is,
in holy Church, as Jerome saith on that verse, “Holy writ is the Scripture
of peoples, for it is made that all peoples should know it;” and the
princes of the Church that were therein be the apostles that had authority
to write holy writ; for by that same that the Apostles wrote their
Scriptures by authority and confirming of the Holy Ghost, it is holy
Scripture and faith of Christian men, and this dignity hath no man after
them, be he never so holy, never so cunning, as Jerome witnesseth on that
verse. Also Christ saith of the Jews that cried Hosanna to Him in the
temple, that though they were still stones should cry; and by stones He
understandeth heathen men that worshipped stones for their gods. And we
Englishmen be come of heathen men, therefore we be understood by these
stones that should cry holy writ; and as Jews, interpreted
acknowledging[132], signify clerks that should make acknowledgment to God
by repentance of sins and by voice of God’s praise, so our lewd (lay, or
unlearned) men, suing (following) the corner-stone Christ, may be
signified by stones that be hard and abiding in the foundation; for though
covetous clerks be wood (wild, or mad), by simony, heresy, and many other
sins, and despise and stop holy writ as much as they can, yet the lewd
people cry after holy writ to ken it and keep it with great cost and peril
of their life.