CNT-02 How Old is the English Bible?

Everything which passes through human hands is liable to be altered, corrupted, and vitiated; and sacred books form no exception to this rule. The integrity of a book may be impaired every time it is copied. In copying any writing, bad men might make alterations, careless men might make mistakes, and good men might seek to change and improve the things which they were copying; and so, in one way or another, the integrity of the document might be seriously impaired. This no intelligent person can deny.

Now it is well known that the New Testament is not a recent production. Skeptics and Christians agree that it has been in existence for a long time. Some affirm that it was compiled, in its present form, by the Council held at Nicea, AD 325; and according to this statement, currently made by various skeptical writers in infidel books, the New Testament is more than 1550 years old. But dur­ing the vicissitudes of 1550 years, many books have per­ished, and others have been purposely or accidentally corrupted. What certainty, then, have we of the authen­ticity and the integrity of the New Testament books; to say nothing of their truthfulness or inspiration? Is not the whole matter involved in too great doubt to com­mand the confidence and respect of prudent, intelligent, and thinking men? In examining this subject, let us commence with the facts which are nearest to us, and within our reach, and first let us inquire:

HOW OLD IS THE ENGLISH BIBLE? On the 17th of May, 1881, was issued, in London, the Revised New Testament, for which one London publisher had advance orders for more than a million copies; and of which their agent in New York, where it was issued May 20th, sold 365,000 copies before the end of the year. It was immediately reprinted in America, in some fifty editions, one of which had a circulation of 100,000 copies, and another a circulation of 65,000 copies, before January, 1882. Probably, within one year from the date of its is­sue, three million copies were bought in Great Britain and America. On comparing this book with King James’ translation, we find numerous changes, most of which are so unimport­ant that ordinary people wonder why they were made. In many instances, one word has been changed for an­other of exactly the same meaning. In some cases a deli­cate shade of difference can be detected; in other in­stances, the grammatical construction varies slightly; oc­casionally a sentence or word is omitted; but the ordinary reader, taking the book and reading it through, would detect few essential differences. No one, so far as we have been informed, has changed one article of his faith or one iota of his practice, and no sect has lost or gained a member, in consequence of the changes which have been made. The same facts are stated, and the same doctrines taught in both books. We have, therefore, substantially the same book that has been in circulation through­out the English-speaking world since 1611; the same book of which, during the present century, more than two hundred translations have been made,—thus placing it within the reach of the great majority of the inhabitants of the globe.

We may now go back further, and we find that this New Testament is, in all essential particulars, the same as that published by Tyndale in 1526, and substantially the same as the translation made by Wycliffe from the Latin in 1380. The difference between any of these copies does not affect the general integrity of the book; and what­ever variations there may be in them are mainly due to occasional misapprehensions of the meaning of certain passages by translators, or to changes in the meaning of English words, which render some of the old expressions obsolete and unintelligible to the present generation of English readers. Our language has changed, but the book is substantially the same.

We may then safely say that the English New Tes­tament has existed, with no essential variations, for the last five hundred years; manuscript copies of Wycliffe’s Testament of that age being still in existence; Wycliffe’s English New Testament not having been printed till it was more than four hundred years old. Of course there have been numerous typographical errors in the different printed editions of the New Testa­ment. We sometimes find a letter turned upside down, or a word misspelled. One edition of the Bible is called the “Vinegar Bible,” because in one instance the word “vinegar" is printed where it should be “vineyard.” Such variations as these are easily corrected, and mislead no one. Other more important, and in some cases inten­tional, errors have occurred, the authors of which have sometimes been severely punished; but these instances were few, and the more important the errors, the more sure they were to be speedily detected and corrected.