P064 A Short History of the English Bible.
P064 A Short History of the English Bible. for any Bugges by night." Dore suggests(1) that the translator may have meant bogies, which, perhaps, is a little nearer than bugs to the idea of terror, though there might be a difference of opinion on that subject. Coverdale and Taverner’s Bibles likewise have the word bugs. The Breeches Bible. The Genevan Bible, 1560, renders Gen. iii, 7, "They sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves breeches."
Wycliffe, 1382, had the same; so there was a "Breeches Bible" before the Genevan. The Golden Legend, 1483, also made the same rendering. The Treacle Bible. This is the Bishops’ Bible, 1568. It has, in Jer. viii, 22, "Is there no tryacle in Gilead?" The Rosin Bible. The Douay Version, 1610, has, in Jer. viii, 22, "Is there no rosin in Gilead?" An Improved Version. In 1754 there was published in London, Genesis, the first Chapter by way of Essay towards an Interpretation of the whole Pentateuch, Cotton(2) quotes from the "Gentleman’s Magazine" for August, 1754, the following as a specimen: 1. "Ælohim, beginning, created lucide and illucide matter. 2. And the illucide, void of co-adjunct cohesion, was unmodified, and distinguishableness was nowhere upon the face of the chaos: And the Ruach of ÆLOHIM emanated over the periphery of the fluctuation. 3, Until Ælohim said that Æther should coallesce to the production of light.
4. And Ælohim saw the light was good, when it was become a separation from obscurity. 5. And Ælohim deemed this daylight, and the obscurity was yet as night, which was light, and obscuration the consummation of the first day." This is truly a very "lucide" rendering. The Knave Bible. —A popular writer,(2) who has brought to light many hidden literary treasures, says, "In an old version of the Bible we read, ’Paul, a knave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,’ etc., Rom. i, 1." This statement has been made by various writers at different times for two hundred years at least, but no one has yet found the "old version." The Duke of Lauderdale, a prominent nobleman in the days of Charles II., had heard the story, and offered a reward for a copy of the book. A certain Captain Thornton, famous for knavish tricks, took a copy of Matthew’s Bible of the date of 1537, and pasted a piece of paper over the words "the servant" in the text named.
------------ (FN1)"Old Bibles," p.86.
(FN2)"Editions," etc., p. 94, note.
(FN3)Dr. Brewer, "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," s. v. Knave.
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