68. Opinions of Critics
It will be a vast undertaking, affecting the dearest interests of ages of time, and millions upon millions of immortals.
Meanwhile, it may help our contentment with the Bible as we have it, to notice what opinions have been expressed as to its merits by the ablest judges of a performance of this nature. These testimonials might be swelled to the size of a volume, but a few will be sufficient for the present occasion. George Hakewills, D. D., Archdeacon of Surrey, thus speaks to the point.—
"Of all the auncient Fathers but only two, (among the Latines St. Hierome, and Origen among the Grecians,) are found to have excelled in the orientall languages; this last centenary having afforded more skilfull men that way than the other fifteene since Christ.*" The famous John Selden, in his Table-talk, thus utters his opinion,—"The English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best." Dr. Brian Walton, the learned editor of a Bible, in nine different languages, and six tall-folios, assigns the first rank among European translations to the common English version. Dr. Edward Pococke, that
* An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God. 1627.
profound Orientalist, in the Preface to his Commentary on Micah, speaks of our translation as "being such, and so agreeable to the original, as that we might well choose among others to follow it, were it not our own, and established by authority among us." Dr. Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta, and for ever famous for his work on the Greek Article, says,—"The style of our present version is incomparably superior to any thing which might be expected from the finical and perverted taste of our own age. It is simple, it is harmonious, it is energetic; and, which is of no small importance, use has made it familiar, and time has rendered it sacred."*
One Bellamy having made a blind and rabid attack on our version, in crying up some opposition-wares of his own, he was thus chastised in the London Quarterly;—"He has no relish or perception of the exquisite simplicity of the Original, no touch of that fine feeling, that pious awe, which led his venerable predecessors to infuse into their version as much of the Hebrew idiom as was consistent with the perfect purity of our own; a taste and feeling which have given perennial beauty and majesty to the English
* Doctrine of the Greek Article, page 328.
tongue."* Dr. White, Professor of Arabic at Oxford, to other strong commendations adds;—
"Upon the whole, the national churches of Europe will have abundant reason to be satisfied, when their versions of Scripture shall approach in point of accuracy, purity, and sublimity, to the acknowledged excellence of our English translation." Dr. John Taylor, of Norwich, a very learned man, but unhappily an Arian, thus delivers his testimony;—"You may rest fully satisfied, that as our English translation is, in itself, by far the most excellent book in our language, so it is a pure and plentiful fountain of divine knowledge, giving a true, clear, and full account of the divine dispensations, and of the gospel of our salvation; insomuch that whoever studieth the Bible, the English Bible, is sure of gaining that knowledge and faith, which, if duly applied to the heart and conversation, will infallibly guide him to eternal life."† To this testimony let there be added that of Dr. Alexander Geddes, a learned minister of the Church of Rome, who himself also attempted a re-translation of the Bible into English;—"The highest eulogiums have been
* London Quarterly Review, No. XXXVIII. p. 455.
† Scheme, &c., Chap. XI. In Watson's Collection of Theological Tracts. Vol. I. p. 188.
made on the translation of James the First, both by our own writers and by foreigners. And, indeed, if accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions, must, in general, be accounted the most excellent. Every sentence, every word, every syllable, every letter and point, seem to have been weighed with the nicest exactitude; and expressed, either in the text, or margin, with the greatest precision. Pagninus himself is hardly more literal; and it was well remarked by Robertson, above a hundred years ago, that it may serve as a Lexicon of the Hebrew language, as well as for a translation."†
Dr. Adam Clarke, the Wesleyan, in the General Preface to his Commentary on the Bible, having spoken of the common version as superior in accuracy and fidelity to the other European versions, adds the following declaration;—"Nor is this its only praise; the translators have seized the very spirit and soul of the original, and expressed this almost every where with pathos and energy. Besides, our translators have not only
† Prospectus of a New Translation, &c. Page 92. The hint of Robertson has since been realized by Bagster's Englishman's Hebrew and Greek Concordance to the Holy Bible.
made a standard translation, but they have made their translation the standard of our language."
The late Professor Stuart, whose mind was so constituted that he neither clung to antiquity, nor shrank from novelty, thus gives his opinion;—
"Ours is, on the whole, a most noble production for the time in which it was made. The divines of that day were very different Hebrew scholars from what most of their successors have been, in England or Scotland. With the exception of Bishop Lowth's classic work upon Isaiah, no other effort at translating, among the English divines, will compare, either with respect to taste, judgment, or sound understanding of the Hebrew, with the authorized version."* Not to crowd the court with witnesses in superfluous numbers, let us close the taking of testimony on this point with the words of the grave and judicious Thomas Hartwell Horne, in his invaluable Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures;—"We cannot but call to mind with gratitude and admiration, the integrity, wisdom, fidelity, and learning of the venerable translators, of whose pious labors we are now reaping
* Dissertation on Studying the Original Languages of the Bible, Page 61.
the benefit; who, while their reverence for the Holy Scriptures induced them to be as literal as they could, to avoid obscurity have been extremely happy in the simplicity and dignity of their expressions; and who, by their adherence to the Hebrew idiom, have at once enriched and adorned our language."
We may well be satisfied and devoutly thankful for an English Bible whose sufficiency and excellence has such ample vouchers. And if we were not content, it is almost frightful to think of the immense multitude of printed copies which must be superseded, before any new version can be generally adopted. Since the present century began, the Bible Societies in Great Britain and America have published some thirty-seven millions of copies of the present version; and according to the laborious computations of Anderson, a still greater number have been issued on private sale. This vast amount is increasing more rapidly than ever. No book is so abundantly sold, or so freely given away. Doubtless, allowing largely for wear and tear, there are at least twenty-five millions of these copies now in actual use and service. The notion of displacing all these by copies of another, and especially if it be a very different translation, seems to be rather visionary, to say the least.
It ought to be considered, too, that the language of the current version is thoroughly blended with the whole religious literature of the English tongue. It also pervades the religious experience, and expresses the devotional feelings, of all the Christians who speak that tongue. Truly, the introduction of a very different translation,—and if not very different, there could be no reason sufficient to justify such a sweeping change,—must have a very disconcerting effect upon the public mind, and give rise to an infinity of vexations. The present translation has been, and is, the text-book for millions of Sabbath-School pupils, and religious inquirers; and is hallowed by associations so tender and sacred, that the attempt to discard it will seem to multitudes of devout men and women but little better than sacrilege. It was sufficient, they will say, for the salvation of our godly parents and others of our sainted friends,—and, with the blessing of their God and our God, it shall suffice for ours.
Especially objectionable must be the attempt to furnish translations for the use of the various Christian sects.
Our common version, though prepared by members of the Church of England, was prepared before dissent from that Church had became so very extensive and earnest.