AUTHORIZED VERSION
559
AUTHORIZED VERSION
reprinted in this country, and was for many years the popular version in England, having been only gradu- ally displaced by King James's translation, which ap- peared fifty-one years afterward. From the peculiar reading in Gen. iii, 7, the editions of the Geneva ver- sion have been commonly known hy the name of "Breeches Bibles;" but this reading, as we have al- ready seen, is as old as Wycliffe's time, and occurs in his translation. To some editions of the Geneva Bible is subjoined Beza's translation of the New Testament, Englished by L. Thomson. The following are speci- mens of the Geneva Bible — Gen. xli, 42, 43, and Matt, xiii, 19-:
And Pharaoh toke of his ring from his hand, and put vpon Ioseph's hand, and araied him in garments of fine linen and put a golden eheine about his necke. So he set him vpon the best charet that he had, sane one : & they cryed before hime Abrech, and placed him oner all the land of Egypt.
Whensoeur a man heareth the worde of the kingdome, and vnderstandeth it not, the euil one cometh, and catcheth away that which was sowen in his heart: and this is he which hathe receiued the sede by the way side.
The next version of the Bible was superintended by Archbishop Parker, hence sometimes called "Parker's Bible," and published in 15G8. This ver- sion was executed with great care by more than fif- teen learned men, the initials of whose names occur at the end of the portions executed by them. From the greater part of those who were engaged in its prepa- ration being bishops, this version is also called the "Bishops' Bible." This edition is adorned with one hundred and forty-three engravings, including por- traits and maps, which give it quite a pictorial appear- ance. The passages from the Vulgate, which had been introduced into Cranmer's Psalms, are omitted in this edition. This continued to be the version authorized to be read in the parish churches for forty-three years ; but in private use it never displaced the Geneva ver- sion. Though the Bishops' Bible was the avowed basis of our authorized version, this latter was ex- ecuted upon wholly different principles, and is very different in its general character. To this Bible was prefixed, among other things, the sum of Scrijrfwe, ta- bles of genealogy, and a preface written by Parker. In 1585, under Archbishop Whitgift, the seventeen readings from the Latin Vulgate were re-introduced, so as to harmonize with the Psalms in the Prayer- book. The edition of 1572 contains a double version of the Psalms, that of Cranmer's and that of the bish- ops'. The edition of 1595 has the Psalms according to Cranmer's Bible. The following is a specimen of this version— Mai. iii, 17 :
And they shal be to me, saith the I.orde of honstes, in that day wherein I shall do [iudgment], a rlocke : and I wyl spare them as a man spareth his owne sonne which serueth him.
In the year 1582 was published the Anglo-Rhemish version of the New Testament. The circumstances which led to the execution of this version are to be found in the history of the expulsion of Romanism from England in the reign of Elizabeth. The ver- sions of the New Testament previously executed, from that of Tyndale to the Bishops' Hible inclusively ■ — the English text of Coverdale's Diglott New Tes- tament excepted — had been made from the original Greek; but the Rhemish translators took for their basis the Latin Vulgate. One of the principal objects which the Rhemish translators had in view was evi- dently to circulate their doctrinal and controversial notes, together with the Scriptures translated by them. Though the translators desired anything rather than to give the rendering of the text simply and fairly, few passages show a really dishonest perversion ; yet very many passages exhibit a desire of expressing the sense obscurely, or at least in such a way that a com- mon reader may find not a little difficulty in gathering from the words a definite meaning. However, if we take the whole version, we shall find a very large por- tion well translated, and truly exhibiting the sense of the Latin Vulgate, such as they had it. Though the
Council of Trent had defined the Latin Vulgate to be the "authentic" version, as yet, when the Rhemish version was printed, there had been no decision as to what copy was to be regarded as such. The Rhemish translators, as may be supposed, do not exactly agree with either the Sixtine published in 1590, or the Clem- entine edition published in 1592. Sometimes they have the reading adopted afterward by the one, some- times that which is found in the other. This may be said to be a matter of comparatively small importance, so long as they used the best readings which were within their reach, in the absence of an authentic edi- tion of the Latin Vulgate. The following is a speci- men of this version — Heb. xi, 4 :
By faith Abel offered a greater hoste to God then Cain; by which he obtained testinionie that he was inst, God giving testimonie to his guifts, and by it, he being dead yet speak- eth.
The Romish translation of the Old Testament was published at Douay, in two volumes, in the years 1009 and 1610. The editors of this part of the version speak of it as having been executed many years before, but that the poor estate of the English Romanists, in their banishment, hindered its publication. They say that they have revised the version according to the Clem- entine edition of the Vulgate, that thus it might be full}' in accordance with "the authenticated Latin." The following is a specimen of this version — Gen. xlix,10: