The first revision of the entire NT occupied six years of labour ; the second, about two years and a half. What was to some extent a third revision, together with various necessary details, prolonged the task of the English Company till Noy. 11th, 1880, ‘on which day, at five o’clock in the after- noon, after ten years and five months of labour, the revision of the NT was brought to a close.’ * The Preface bears that date. But further causes of delay intervened ; and it was not till Tuesday, May 17th, 1881, for London, and Friday, May 20th, for New York, that the actual publication took place. The scene in each city on both those days— the congestion of streets in the booksellers’ quarter, the stoppage of all other traffic, the night-and-day labours of the work-people employed—will not soon be forgotten by those who witnessed them. Dr. Schaff computes that at least three million copies of the Revised NT were sold, in this country and the United States together, within the first year of its publication.
Meantime the revision of the OT was advancing, on similar lines, but more slowly, from the greater extent of ground to be covered. The Revisers in this case were more conservative than their fellow- workers on the NT, and their version differs less in proportion from the Authorized than does the other. The Preface, dated July 10th, 1884, speaks of the revision of the OT as completed in eighty- five sessions, ending on June 20th, 1884, having occupied 792 days, usually of six hours each. The day of actual publication, May 19th, 1885, was marked by little of the excitement which attended the publication of the NT four years before. The Revised Bible, in its complete form, bore the title:—‘The| Holy Bible } containing the | Old and New Testaments | Translated out of the Original Tongues | Being the Version set forth A.D. 1611 | Compared with the most ancient Authorities and Revised. | Printed for the Uni- versities of | Oxford and Cambridge | Oxford [or Cambridge] | At the University Press | 1885.’
No mention has thus far been made of any revision of the Apocrypha. Such an extension of the work does not appear to have been con- templated by Convocation. That it was finally included in the scheme was a result of the negotiations about copyright. In the course of 1872 an agreement was entered into between the Committee of Convocation and the representatives of the University Presses of Oxford and Cam- bridge, by which the latter, on condition of acquiring the copyright of the RV, when com- pleted, agreed to provide a sum sufficient to cover the bare cost of production, including the travelling expenses of members of the Companies; whose labour, in other respects, was a labour of love.+ It was then for the first time stipulated by the University printers, that the Apocrypha should be included in the scheme of revision. This was assented to,
In pursuance of the compact thus made, it was arranged between the two English Companies of Revisers (the Americans not joining in this part of the work), that, as soon as the NT Company should have finished its task, it should resolve itself into three committees for the purpose of beginning the revision of the Apocrypha.t These were to be called, in imitation of their predecessors of 1611 the London, Westminster, and Cambridge Com.
* Newth, as before, p. 125. t Westcott, Hnglish Bible, pp. 846, 34’.
{ Preface to the Apocrypha in the RV, fro hi at the particulars immediately following are fares Be gd
mittees. The first of the three had assigned to it the Book of Sirach; the second had 1 Mac., to which were afterwards added Tobit and Judith ; the third was to take Wisdom and 2 Maccabees. The London Committee began work on May 11th, 1881, and finished the second and final revision of Sirach on May 25th, 1883. The Westminster Committee completed their second revision of 1 Mac. on Noy. 3rd, 1881, and the remainder of their task on Oct. 11th, 1882. The work of the Cambridge Committee lasted from the spring of 1881 to the summer of 1892. During this com- paratively long interval space was found for giving the difficult Book of Wisdom a third revision.
The OT Revision Company having in the mean- time (July 1884) come to the end of their own proper labours, passed a resolution, appointing six of their number a committee for revising the remaining books of the Apocrypha. Of these six, two were unable to take any part in the work; and Dr. Field, one of the OT Company, whose co-operation had been invited for the settle- ment of the text, died in April 1885. A small committee of four members—Professor Lumby, Professor Robertson Smith, Mr. Bensly, and Mr. W. Aldis Wright—had thus the task of revising what remained of the Apocrypha, comprising 1 and 2 Esdras, Ad. Esther, Baruch, Song of the Three Children, the History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and the Prayer of Manasses. For one of these books (2 Esdras) they had the benefit of Bensly’s careful reconstruction of the text, and were thus able to give a translation of the ‘ miss- ing fragment’ (7°*1%), In the other instances no critical settlement of the existing text was at- tempted. The revised Apocrypha was published early in 1895. It bore the title: ‘The | Apocrypha| Translated out of the | Greek and Latin tongues | Being the Version set forth A.D. 1611 | Compared with the most ancient Authorities and | Revised A.D. 1894 ee for the Universities of | Oxford and Cambridge | Oxford [or Cambridge] | At the University Press | 1895.’