Autas'as (AiJratVu), one of the Levites who ex- pounded the law as read by Ezra (1 Esdr. ix, 48) ; ev- idently a corruption for the Hodijah (q. v.) of the true text (Neh. viii, 7).
Autenrieth, Ix Hen. Fred, vox, M.D., was born at Stuttgart, 20th October, 1772, and died 2d May, 1835, at Tubingen, where he was professor of medicine. He was the author of a treatise, Ueber das Buck Hiob (Tub. 1823), and of an essay, I'ihn- den Ursprung der Beschneldung bei wilden und haUnoilden Volkern mit Bezkhung an f die Besch. d. Israeliten (Tub. 1829) — Kitto. Cyelopmlia, s. v.
Authenticity, a term frequently used in refer- ence to the literary history of the Holy Scriptures. (1 .) In a broad and loose sense, by the authenticity of j the canonical books is meant that they were really I written by the authors whose names they bear ; that those which are. anonymous were written at the time I in which they profess that they were written ; and ' that their contents are credible. (2.) In careful and scientific language, authenticity implies authority; an authentic account is truthful, and therefore credible. A genuine book, on the other hand, is one written by the person whose name it bears, whether it be truthful or not. Thus, for instance, Alison's History of Europe is genuine, because it was written by Alison ; but it is not authentic, because it looks at facts with partisan eyes. — Home, Introduction, ii, 1.
Authority, (1.) in matters religious and ecclesias- tical, an assumed right of dictation, attributed to cer- tain fathers, councils, or church courts. On this sub- ject Bishop Hoadley writes: "Authority is the great- est and most irreconcilable enemy to truth and argu- ment that this world ever furnished. All the sophis- try—all the color of plausibility— all the artifice and cunning of the subtlest disputer in the world may be j laid open and turned to the advantage of that very : truth which they are designed to hide ; but against 1 authority there is no defence." He shows that it was authority which crushed the noble sentiments of Soc- rates and others , and that by authority the Jews and heathens combated the truth of the Gospel; and that, when Christians increased into a majority, and came to think the same method to be the only proper one for the advantage of their cause which had been the enemy and destroyer of it, then it was the authority of Christians, which, by degrees, not only laid waste the honor of Christianity, but well-nigh extinguished it among men. It was authority which would have pre- vented all reformation where it is, and which has put a barrier against it wherever it is not. The remark of Charles II. is worthy of notice — that those of the established faith make much of the authority of the church in their disputes with dissenters, but that they take it all away when they deal with papists.— Buck, Tluol. Dirt. s. v.
(2.) In a proper sense, by the "authority of the church" is meant either the power residing generally in the whole body of the faithful to execute the trust committed by Christ to his church, or the particular
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power residing in certain official members of that body. The first-named authority is vested in the clergy and laity jointly , the latter in the clergy alone. In the interpretation of Scripture for any particular church, that church's authority does not belong to all divines or " distinguished theologians" who may be members of the church, but only to the authorized formularies. Single writers of every age are to be taken as express- ing only their individual opinions. The agreement of these (.pinions at any one period, or for any lengthened space of time, may and must be used as proof to our- selves, privately, as to the predominant sentiments of the church at that time , but no opinions can be quoted as deciding authoritatively any disputed question. The universal church deserves deference in all contro- versies of faith ; and every particular church has a right to decree such rights and ceremonies as are not contrary to God's written word ; but no church has a right to enforce any thing as necessary for salvation, unless it can be shown so to be by the express declara- tion of Holy Scripture. See the XXth and XXXIVth Articles of the Church of England, and the Vth and XXIId of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Eden, Tkeol. Diet. s. v. See Rule of Eaith ; Tradition.
Authorized (ENGLISH) Version of the Holy Scriptures. As this was not a strictly new or original translation, it will be necessary to consider briefly those earlier English versions upon which it was founded, and it will enable the reader better to appreciate its value and character if we prefix some account of the still earlier Anglo-Saxon versions which led the way to these. (See Mrs. Conant's Hist, of Engl. llibh' Translation, N. Y. 185G.) See Versions (of the Bible).
I. Anglo-Saxon Translations. — Though our Anglo- Saxon ancestors earty possessed translations, chiefly from the Latin, of at least portions of _the Scriptures, the first attempt with which we are acquainted is the rude but interesting poem ascribed to C.edmon, a monk of Whitby, in the seventh century. It contains the leading events of Old-Testament history, and ren- ders several passages with tolerable fidelity; but the epic and legendary character of the composition pre- clude it from being ranked among the versions of Holy Writ. The first portion of it, entitled The Fall of Man, has been translated into verse by Bosanquct (Lond. I860, 8vo). This work was succeeded in the follow- ing century by the Anglo-Saxon Psalter, said to have been translated by Aldiieui, bishop of Sherborn, who died in 7n0; the first fifty Psalms are in prose, the Others in verse. About the same period, Guthlac, the first Saxon anchorite, is reported to have transla- ted the Psalms. The next laborer in the field was the Venerable Bede, who turned the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer into Anglo-Saxon. He also trans- lated the Gospel of John, and completed it just as death put an end to his learned labors, in the monas- tery of Jarrow, on the south bank of the Tyne, A.D. 73"). The dose of the next century probably produced the celebrated Durham Booh, containing the four Gos- pels in Anglo-Saxon, written between the lines of an earlier Latin copy, by Aldred, a priest. The follow- ing is the Lord's Prayer from this version— Matt, vi, 9-13: