The immediate reception of the new version can hardly be said to have been altogether encouraging to its jiiomoters, for though there was little active opposition extended to it, and it speedily super- seded the Bishops' Bible as the oHicial version, it was not until the middle of the century that it ousted the Genevan Bible from the place of popu- lar favour, y That it deserved the place which it then attained does not admit of a moment's dis- pute ; and none have shown themselves more ready to admit its merits than those wlio in 1870 were appointed to revise it. ' We,' so they tell us, ' have liad to study this great Version carefully and minutely, line by line ; and the longer w<! have been engaged upon it the more wo have learned to admire its simiilicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of expression, its general accuracj', and, we must not fail to add, the music of its cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm ' (Prcf. toIiV of NT, 1881).
At the same time, great as the excellences of the AV undoubtedly are, it would be absurd to contend that it is not capable of imiirovement, or that the work of constant revision out of which it has been evolved cannot be applied to it in its turn. And indeed, as a matter of fact, what we still know as king James's version has been sub- jected throughout the course of its long histoiT to a larger amount of revision than many of'^ its
* A ti8cru1 reprint of this original edition woa iiiHucd from tlio Olford l'ri;K8 in 1S33.
t It liim been reprinted in Hepamte form by the S.I'.C.K.
t In tlie orit^inal edition of tlio A\', e.\ctu(ling ll)e ApoL'r,\jiha, over 7000 brief tnar^'inal noles were inserted, a number that liaa sintre been largely iiicreajied,
ti The original iiuuo references have, in some modeni editions, reached the cnonuous total of 00,000.
I Frora the words 'Appointed to be read in Churclies' on the tilTe-poge, it hoa sometimefl been thought thai the use of the new version was at once fonnally enjoined by the king, and thut from this it derived ita name of Authorized, But ' no evidi-nco litts ^'et been produced to show that the version was ever publicly sanctioned liy Convocation or by Parliainetit, or by the Privy Council, or by the king' (Westcott, Uintory'^, p. 12.S). It became the 'authorised' version simply because it was tits beet.
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VERSIONS. ENGLISH
VERSIONS, ENGLISH
readers are aware of. For not merely have the typographical and other imperfections inevitable in so larf;e an undertaking been corrected, but a large number of deliberate changes have from time to time been made in the text, ' introduced silently and without authority by men whose very name.s are often unknown.'* And, in addition to this unotticial and irresponsible work of revision, wo have abundant evidence of more ambitious proposals for amending the new version. Thus, in lt)45. Dr. John Lightfoot, preaching before the House of Commons, urged them ' to think of a '■eview and survey of the translation of the Bible,' and pleaded for ' an exact, vigorous, and lively translation.' And a few years later (1653) the Long Parliament actually made an order that a Bill should be brought in for a new translation. Nothing, however, came of this and similar scliemes which were proposed from time to time :t and it was left to the Southern Convocation of the Church of England to take the initial steps for providing as \vith what is now known as par excellence —
xi. The Revised Version. — The fact that it took its rise in Convocation marks off the RV from all otiier English versions. Tindale's Testament and Coverdale's Bible were the work of individuals ; the Great Bible and the Bishops' were Episcopal in their origin ; the Genevan and the Rheims and Douai Bibles were due to two bands of exiles, Protestant and Roman Catholic respectively ; but the idea of the RV was matured by representa- tives of the Church of England, antl carried through with the assistance of members of other Churclies.J
Over the steps leading up to the final decision we cannot linger. Enough that in May 1870 tlie report of a committee appointed in the preceding February was adopted, to the effect ' that Con- location should nominate a body of its ovm mem- bers to undertake the work of revision, who shall be at liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship to whatever nation or religious body they belong'; and that shortly afterwards, in terms of this resolution, two Com- panies for the revision of the Old and New Testa- ments respectively were appointed. Eight rules were laid down for the Revisers' guidance, the most important of which were to the following effect: — the alterations to be as few as possible consistently with faithfulness to the original, and to be made in the language of the Authorized and earlier English versions ; each Company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once pro- visionally, the second time finally; the lext adopted to be that for whicli the evidence is decidedly preponderating ; and no changes in the text to "be retained on tlie second final revision, unless approved by twu-thircU of those present.