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OXFORD:

PRINTED BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY,

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

3K Pond Bequest 112-11-39 5 V. add ed!

PREFACE.

THE Revision of the Authorised Version was undertaken in consequence of a Resolution passed by both houses of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury, as has been fully explained in the Preface to the Revised Version of the New Testament, which was first published in May 1881. When the two Companies were appointed for carrying out this work, the following General Principles, among others, were laid down by the Revision Committee of Convocation for their guidance :

'I. To introduce as few alterations as possible into the Text of the Authorised Version consistently with faithfulness.'

‘2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the language of the Authorised and earlier English Versions.'

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4. That the Text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is decidedly preponderating; and that when the Text so adopted differs from that from which the Authorised Version was made, the alteration be indicated in the margin,'

7. To revise the headings of chapters and pages, paragraphs, italics, and punctuation.'

In order to shew the manner in which the Old Testament Company have endeavoured to carry out their instructions, it will be convenient to treat the subjects mentioned in the foregoing rules in a somewhat different order.

It will be observed that in Rule 4 the word 'Text' is used

in a different sense from that in Rule 1, and in the case of the

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Old Testament denotes the Hebrew or Aramaic original of the several books. In this respect the task of the Revisers has been much simpler than that which the New Testament Company had before them. The Received, or, as it is commonly called, the Massoretic Text of the Old Testament Scriptures has come down to us in manuscripts which are of no very great antiquity, and which all belong to the same family or recension'. That other recensions were at one time in existence is probable from the variations in the Ancient Versions, the oldest of which, namely the Greek or Septuagint, was made, at least in part, some two centuries before the Christian era. But as the state of knowledge on the subject is not at present such as to justify any attempt at an entire reconstruction of the text on the authority of the Versions, the Revisers have thought it most prudent to adopt the Massoretic Text as the basis of their work, and to depart from it, as the Authorised Translators had done, only in exceptional cases. With regard to the variations in the Massoretic Text itself, the Revisers have endeavoured to translate what appeared to them to be the best reading in the text, and where the alternative reading seemed sufficiently probable or important they have placed it in the margin. In some few instances of extreme difficulty a reading has been adopted on the authority of the Ancient Versions, and the departure from the Massoretic Text recorded in the margin. In other cases, where the versions appeared to supply a very probable though not so necessary a correction of the text, the text has been left and the variation indicated in the margin only.

In endeavouring to carry out as fully as possible the spirit of Rules 1 and 2, the Revisers have borne in mind that it was their duty not to make a new translation but to revise one already existing, which for more than two centuries and a half had held

1 The earliest MS. of which the age is certainly known bears date A. D. 916.

2 See, for instance, 2 Sam. xvi. 12; 2 Chr. iii. 1, xxii. 6; Job xxxvii. 7; Ezek. xlvi. 10; Am. v. 26; Hag. i. 2.

the position of an English classic. They have therefore departed from it only in cases where they disagreed with the Translators of 1611 as to the meaning or construction of a word or sentence; or where it was necessary for the sake of uniformity to render such parallel passages as were identical in Hebrew by the same English words, so that an English reader might know at once by comparison that a difference in the translation corresponded to a difference in the original; or where the language of the Authorised Version was liable to be misunderstood by reason of its being archaic or obscure; or finally, where the rendering of an earlier English version seemed preferable, or where by an apparently slight change it was possible to bring out more fully the meaning of a passage of which the translation was already substantially accurate.

It has been thought advisable in regard to the word 'JEHOVAH' to follow the usage of the Authorised Version, and not to insert it uniformly in place of 'LORD' or 'GOD', which when printed in small capitals represent the words substituted by Jewish custom for the ineffable Name according to the vowel points by which it is distinguished. It will be found therefore that in this respect the Authorised Version has been departed from only in a few passages, in which the introduction of a proper name seemed to be required.

Terms of natural history have been changed only where it was certain that the Authorised Version was incorrect and where there was sufficient evidence for the substituted rendering. In cases of doubt the alternative rendering has been given in the margin; and even where no doubt existed, but where there was no familiar English equivalent for the original word, the Old Version has been allowed to remain', and the more accurate term has been placed in the margin.

In some words of very frequent occurrence, the Authorised

As for instance, 'coney' (Lev. xi. 5), 'fitches' (Is. xxviii. 25, 27), 'gourd' (Jon. iv. 6).

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Version being either inadequate or inconsistent, and sometimes misleading, changes have been introduced with as much uniformity as appeared practicable or desirable. For instance, 'the tabernacle of the congregation' has been everywhere changed to 'the tent of meeting', on account of Exodus xxv. 22, xxix. 42, 43, and also because 'the tabernacle of the congregation' conveys an entirely wrong sense. The words' tabernacle' and 'tent', as the renderings of two different Hebrew words, are in the Authorised Version frequently interchanged in such a manner as to lead to confusion; and the Revisers have endeavoured throughout the Pentateuch to preserve a consistent distinction between them. Their practice in regard to the words 'assembly' and 'congregation' has been the same in principle, although they have contented themselves with introducing greater consistency of rendering without aiming at absolute uniformity. In consequence of the changes which have taken place in the English language, the term 'meat offering' has become inappropriate to describe an offering of which flesh was no part; and by the alteration to 'meal offering' a sufficiently accurate representation of the original has been obtained with the least possible change of form.

As regards the use of words, there are only a few cases in which it has been found needful to deviate from the language employed in the Authorised Version. One of these deviations. occurs so frequently that it may be well to state briefly why it was adopted. The word 'peoples' was nowhere used by King James's Translators in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament it occurs only twice (Rev. x. 11, xvii. 15). The effect of this was to leave the rendering of numerous passages inadequate or obscure or even positively misleading. Thus in one of the best known Psalms (Ps. Ixvii.), where the Septuagint has Maoi and the Vulgate populi, the English had 'Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee'; leaving it at least doubtful whether the 'nations' of verse 4, or God's people, Israel, be referred to. And in Isaiah lv. 4, 'Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the

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