1st. The authorized version was meant to be a standard of authority and ultimate appeal in controversy; hence it could not venture to depart, as an ordinary translation would do, from the exact words of the original, even where some amplification was absolutely required to complete the sense. It was to be the version unanimously accepted by all parties, and therefore must simply represent the Greek text word for word. This it does most faithfully so far as the critical knowledge of the sixteenth 1 century permitted. But the result of this method is sometimes to produce a translation unintelligible to the English reader." Also if the text admit of two interpretations, our version endeavours, if possible, to preserve the same ambiguity, and effects this often with admirable skill; but such indecision, although a merit in an authoritative version, would be a fault in a translation which had a different object.

2d. The imperfect knowledge existing at the time when our Bible was translated, made it inevitable that the translators should occasionally render the original incorrectly; and the same cause has made their version of many of the argumentative portions of the Epistles perplexed and obscure.

3d. Such passages as are affected by the above-mentioned objections might, it is true, have been recast, and the authorized translation retained in all cases where it is correct and clear; but if this had been done, a patchwork effect would have been produced like that of new cloth upon old garments; moreover the devotional associations of the reader would have been offended, and it would have been a rash experiment to provoke such a contrast between the matchless style of the authorized version and that of the modern translator, thus placed side by side.

4th. The style adopted for the present purpose should not be antiquated; for St. Paul was writing in the language used by his Hellenistic readers in every day life.

5th. In order to give the true meaning of the original, something of paraphrase is often absolutely required. St. Paul's style is extremely elliptical, and the gaps must be filled up. And moreover the great difficulty in understanding his argument is to trace clearly the transitions by which he passes from one step to an

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1 Being executed at the very beginning of the seventeenth.

' Yet had any other course been adopted, every sect would have had its own Bible; as it is, this one translation has been all but unanimously received for three centuries. 3 In the translation of the Epistles given in the present work it has been the especial

other. For this purpose something must be supplied beyond the mere literal rendering of the words.

For these reasons the translation of the Epistles adopted in this work is to a certain degree paraphrastic. At the same time nothing has been added by way of paraphrase which was not virtually expressed in the original.

It has not been thought necessary to interrupt the reader by a note, in every instance where the translation varies from the Authorised Version. It has been assumed that the readers of the notes will have sufficient knowledge to understand the reason of such variations in the more obvious cases. But it is hoped that no passage of real difficulty has been passed over without explanation.

The authorities consulted upon the chronology of St. Paul's life, the reasons for the views taken of disputed points in it, and for the dates of the Epistles, are stated (so far as seems needful) in the body of the work or in the Appendix, and need not be further referred to here.

In conclusion, the authors would express their hope that this biography may, in its measure, be useful in strengthening the hearts of some against the peculiar form of unbelief most current at the present day. The more faithfully we can represent to ourselves the life, outward and inward, of St. Paul, in all its fulness, the more unreasonable must appear the theory that Christianity had a mythical origin; and the stronger must be our ground for believing his testimony to the divine nature and miraculous history of our Redeemer. No reasonable man can learn to know and love the Apostle of the Gentiles without asking himself the question "What was the principle by which through such a life he was animated? What was the strength in which he laboured with such immense results?" Nor can the most sceptical inquirer doubt for one moment the full sincerity of St. Paul's belief that "the life which he lived in the flesh he lived by the faith of the Son of God, who died and gave Himself for him." "To believe in Christ crucified and risen, to serve Him aim of the translator to represent these transitions correctly. They very often depend upon a word, which suggests a new thought, and are quite lost by a want of attention to the verbal coincidence. Thus, for instance, in Rom. x. 16, 17. Tis ¿nisevσe Tñ ἀκτῇ ἡμῶν ; Αρα ἡ πίςις ἐξ ἀκοῆς. "Who hath given faith to our telling? So then faith cometh by telling," how completely is the connection destroyed by such inattention in the authorized version: "Who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing." 1 Gal. ii. 20.

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on earth, to be with Him hereafter;-these, if we may trust the account of his own motives by any human writer whatever, were the chief if not the only thoughts which sustained Paul of Tarsus through all the troubles and sorrows of his twenty years' conflict. His sagacity, his cheerfulness, his forethought, his impartial and clear-judging reason, all the natural elements of his strong character are not indeed to be overlooked: but the more highly we exalt these in our estimate of his work, the larger share we attribute to them in the performance of his mission, the more are we compelled to believe that he spoke the words of truth and soberness when he told the Corinthians that last of all Christ was seen of him also,' that by the grace of God he was what he was,' that 'whilst he laboured more abundantly than all, it was not he, but the grace of God that was in him.'

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P. S.-It may be well to add, that while Mr. Conybeare and Mr. Howson have undertaken the joint revision of the whole work, the translation of the Epistles and Speeches of St. Paul is contributed by the former, and the Historical and Geographical portion of the work principally by the latter; Mr. Howson having written Chapters I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIV., XVI., XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII., XXIV., with the exception of the Epistles and Speeches therein contained; and Mr. Conybeare having written the Introduction and Appendix, and Chapters XIII., XV., XVII., XVIII., XIX, XXV., XXVI., XXVII., XXVIII.

1 1 Cor. xv. 10.

* Stanley's Sermons, p. 186.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

THE Publisher, in presenting "THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL," by the Rev. W. J. CONYBEARE and Rev. J. S. Howson, needs no apology. During the short interval since its publication in England it has commanded the admiration of scholars and intelligent readers of the Bible both in this country and Europe, and has passed through the ordeal of criticism in the leading Quarterlies and Journals of both countries and received the highest commendation. The expense of the English edition, however, is such as necessarily to limit its circulation in this country, and the desire has been repeatedly expressed that the work should be published in a form and at a price which would bring it within the reach of ministers, students, and intelligent readers generally. The present edition, it is believed, will meet the existing want. Though offered at one half of the cost of the London copy, the work has in no way suffered from bridgment, but has been preserved complete in every respect. The notes, coins, maps, plans, and wood engravings generally have been retained, and yet the size of the work has been reduced from the unwieldy quarto to a convenient octavo form.

The steel engravings, which appear in the English edition simply as embellishments, which are familiar to most readers, and which are in no way essential to the text or to the value of the work, have been omitted-since the expense of reproducing them here would be such as greatly to increase the cost of the work, and yet add nothing to its usefulness.

The North British Review for February, 1854, after a highly commendatory criticism of this work, makes the following remarks:

"We commend the book to that numerous class, increasing every day, whose early culture has necessarily been defective, but whose intelligence and thirst for knowledge is continually sharpened by the general diffusion of thought and education. Such persons, if they are already Christians by conviction, are naturally more and more dissatisfied with the popular commentaries on the Bible; and if they are sceptical and irreligious, this great evil is probably caused by the undeniable existence of difficulties which such commentaries shrink from fairly meeting. They will find in the work before us a valuable help towards understanding the New Testament. The Greek and Latin quotations are almost entirely confined to the notes: any unlearned reader may study the text with ease and profit. And it is from a sense of the great value of the book in this respect, that we would earnestly entreat the publishers to supply it in a cheaper and more convenient form. In these days a quarto book, except for reference, is a monster, feræ naturæ.”