Mr. Cony beare's contributions to the work | thorized version.-I thank my God, I speak are of a different character. While Mr. in tongues more than you all.-Conybeare.Howson's most important labours are geo- I offer thanksgivings to God in private, graphical, those of his coadjutor are mainly speaking in tongues to Him more than you exegetical. They consist of a semi-par- all. There is no doubt that Mr. Conybeare aphrastic translation of the speeches and is right, though the reading λaλov (adopted Epistles, with brief notes and explanations. by Scholz and De Wette) rests on inferior The character of this translation we will de- MS. authority to that which supports λaλ☎. scribe in his own words. After declaring The latter is the reading of the Vatican and the necessity of altering positive errors in Cambridge, and other important MSS.; and the authorized version, and his own unwill- is preferred by Lachmann and Tischendorf. ingness to provoke a contrast between its But whichever we choose, the authorized matchless style and that of a modern transla- version must be wrong, for that evxapioT tor, by simply correcting such passages and refers generally to offering solemn thanks retaining the authorized translation where- giving to God, and is not a mere expression ever it is correct and clear, he adds:- of thankfulness for the power of speaking with tongues, is plain from the whole con"In order to give the true meaning of the text of the passage, and from the use of original, something of paraphrase is often abso- evλoyeiv and evxapioreiv in verses 16, 17. lutely required. St. Paul's style is extremely The addition, implying that St. Paul reelliptical, and the gaps must be filled up. And, moreover, the great difficulty in understanding served his gift of tongues for his own private his argument is to trace clearly the transitions use, instead of displaying it in the Church, by which he from one step to another. is justified by verse 28, "Let him keep For these reasons, the translation of the Epis- silence in the Church, and let him speak to tles adopted in this work is to a certain degree himself (Eavτy haheírw) and to God." paraphrastic. At the same time nothing has been added by way of paraphrase which was dè not virtually expressed in the original.”Vol. i. p. xiv. passes this life in the flesh shall be the fruit of my labour, and what I should choose, I know not." And he attempts to justify it by the following note :— Phil. i. 21. Ἐμοὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῆν Χριστὸς καὶ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν κέρδος· εἰ δὲ τὸ ζῆν ἐν σαρκί, τοῦτό μοι καρπὸς ἔργου· καὶ τί αἱρήσομαι, ov yvwpísw. This passage has long been a Although we object to some of the phra- crux to expositors, and we confess ourses used in the translation, (such as the un-selves dissatisfied with Mr. Conybeare's natural and useless substitution of Glad translation. It stands thus-"For to me tiding for Gospel,) yet the style in which life is Christ, and death is gain. But whether Mr. Cony beare has executed his task, if not always absolutely satisfactory, is such as no one should venture to criticise till he himself has tested the exceeding difficulty of such a work. No doubt scholars will differ occasionally from the exegesis of the translation and notes, yet for general readers they positively bring light out of darkness in very many places, and enable them to understand each Epistle as a connected whole, in a manner which, to the best of our knowledge, is done in no other existing work. We will not crowd our pages with instances where the authorized version has been corrected, or rendered intelligible by Mr. Cony beare, nor will we quote passages which have been ofton discussed before, but we will simply notice three or four passages, either for the novelty, the ingenuity, or the doubtfulness of his suggestions. 1 Cor. xiv. 18. εὐχαριστῶ τῷ Θεῷ μου, πάντων ὑμῶν μᾶλλον γλώσσῃ λαλῶ. Αυ "We punctuate this very difficult verse thusεἰ δὲ τὸ ζῆν ἐν σαρκὶ τοῦτό μοι καρπὸς ἔργου, καὶ τί αἱρήσομαι yvwpiw. Lit. But whether this life in the flesh compare To OvпTOV TOUTO, 1 Cor. xv. 54, and o vor Siv capri, Gal. ii. 20) be my labour's fruit, and what I shall choose I know not. The authorized version assumes an ellipsis after capkì, of poi poxeira, or something equivalent, and gives no intelligible meaning to Kapos you. On the other, De Wette's translation, if life in the flesh,-if know not, makes the kai redundant, (which is this be my labour's fruit, what I shall choose I not justified by the example which he quotes, 2 Cor. iv. 2, where Kai Tis is an emphatic ques tion, equivalent to quis tandem, who I pray,) &c." [The rest of the note refers to a difference between them of no great consequence.]Vol. ii. p. 438. The objections to the authorized version are reasonable enough, but we must prefer De Wette's to Mr. Conybeare's and think that the reference to 2 Cor. ii. 2, (ɛi yàp ἐγὼ λυπῶ ὑμᾶς, καὶ τίς ἐστιν ὁ εὐφραίνων stance of Copenhagen, not only from the accounts we have of the precision with which each ship let go her anchors astern as she arrived nearly opposite her appointed station, but because it is said that Nelson stated after the battle, that he had that morning been reading the 27th chapter of the Acts of thee;) is perfectly apposite. Kai is quite at Apostles."-Vol. ii. p. 345. home before τί αιρήσομαι. Each passage inexhaustible variety of Shakespeare's ex-old annotator than all other things taken pression whenever variety of expression is together. Putting aside the question of wanted. But in some cases repetition is taste, the new reading is nonsense. Where far more expressive and more natural than in Shakespeare or in any other writer, did any variety. And yet in the two passages Mr. Collier ever find the word boast used which Mr. Dyce compares we have variety for a mental emotion or impulse? The of expression too; it is only the thought, if very essence of its signification is the notion anything, which is the same in both. And of expression. To talk of a boaster being such repetition is in the highest degree dra- made to do something by his own boast matic and beautiful; it is the one thought, would be as absurd as to talk of a man being the one feeling, which fills the mind of Le- impelled to speak or to walk by his own ontes, and as such finds repeated utterance, speech or gait. If in this passage there could it matters little or nothing whether in the be any reasonable doubt (which we do not same or in different words every time. In think there can be) of beast being the true the very speech with which Mr. Dyce would word, there could be none whatever that confute the new reading, there stares us in boast is not. twice? the face, as the entire passage is exhibited. Our hypothesis may be stated in a few in his own page, an instance of the very words. It is substantially the same which repetition to which he objects; only four we have already suggested as accounting for lines after the words that have been already many of the errors in the First Folio, or quoted from it we have the same idea again rather it is a part of our former hypothesis, in the words "Standing like stone with or supposition of what the facts may prothee." Is it to be argued that Shakespeare's bably have been, applied to this other case. inexhaustible variety of expression permit- We believe that the old annotator must ted him to repeat himself once, but never have had access to a text of the plays superior in correctness and in authority to that What then shall we say? How are we of the printed copies, and that from that to account for and to reconcile the various source nearly all his new readings must and to same extent apparently contradictory have been drawn. It may have been the characteristics of this remarkable collection author's own manuscript, or some transcript of proposed alterations of the commonly re- from it in the possession of the players. It ceived text of our great dramatist? Upon may have been the very same from which what hypothesis can we explain how it mainly the First Folio had been printed, should have happened that the laborious perhaps thirty or forty years before. Even and painstaking person to whom we are then, as has been already suggested, the indebted for them, having the means, as he papers to whose custody so much precious seems to have had, of ascertaining the true poetry had been confined may have seen a reading in some instances, should not have good deal of service; the handwriting may been able to do so in all, but on the con- not have been at the best very distinct or trary should sometimes have manifestly mistaken it, and in other cases should have passed over passages which there can hardly be a doubt are corrupt without even an attempt to correct them? easy to be read, and matters may have been made worse by its having in some places faded, or got otherwise partially obliterated; that would account for many of the mistakes and corruptions which we find in the printed Some of the new readings which Mr. text. When, so long afterwards, the same Collier has not hesitated to produce, (and manuscripts come into the hands of the we do not know how many more of the corrector of Mr. Collier's Second Folio, they same kind may be kept back,) are certainly have possibly suffered still more from the inas bad as it is possible to conceive. Per-juries of time and neglect; they may be still haps the worst of them all is the conversion, farther defaced, or even rubbed or eaten in Lady Macbeth's famous exclamation, "What beast was't, then, That made you break this enterprize to me?" away; but he is not only, as is evident on any supposition, a person of superior intelligence and ingenuity, but one whose zeal for the restoration of the true Shakespearian of beast into boast, although it is an altera- text no amount of labour can daunt or tire; tion which Mr. Collier not only accepts, but so that making his way through his task lauds and parades, both in his Notes and in with all deliberation (he may have been his Preface, as almost of itself sufficient to years about it), he succeeds in deciphering command our acquiescence in every other aright many words which had baffled or proceeding from the same quarter. We been misread by the printers, and also in believe that this wonderful specimen has otherwise amending numerous passages done more to discredit the authority of the which had been disfigured in various ways by the inattention to minute accuracy with on this subject in an able inaugural lecture which the printing of all popular literature lately published, which we hope will inwas then executed. Nevertheless, there are cite the guides of Scottish theology to a still some passages in which the manuscript deeper sense of their responsibility in is irrecoverably gone, or deceives even his this matter. "The Scottish Presbyterian patient and practised eye; in such cases his Church," he remarks, "has for ages mainalterations may be unsatisfactory enough. tained a high character among the Churches He takes it into his head, for instance, that of Christendom, with very little assistance the word which has been printed beast is from Greek: a character for earnest assidureally boast; it is precisely the same mis- ity in the cure of souls, and an energetic take which, as we have seen, is made either power in the weekly demonstrations of pulby Mr. Collier himself or by his lithographer pit eloquence, which more erudite Churches in regard to the word which the one gives as may with good reason envy. But bleeding, the other as blooding. Or, now to the construction of the edifice, [of Chrisand then, he supplies a word or two of which tian theology,] next to profound personal no trace remains, or where perhaps he is piety and common sense, (an element in wrong in imagining that there is any thing this matter too often lost sight of,) is neceswanting, by mere conjecture; and there sary, above all things, a genuine sympathy again he is possibly not very happy. It is with the spirit of ancient literature, and a not necessary to suppose that he was gifted practical acquaintance with those canons of with much poetical faculty, or even that his interpretation, which are deduced from an critical discernment was of the highest order. accurate philology, a judicious criticism, and We certainly would entirely acquit him of a large human philosophy. I need offend no any such forgery as that which Mr. Dyce is one when I speak the plain truth, that such disposed to lay to his charge in the case of a theology, though imperatively demanded the linesby the present age, has not hitherto been very common in Scotland; and this, among other reasons, I believe, in a great measure from the want of Greek."* "Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already I am but dead, stone looking upon stone." This is, in its way, surely as Shakespearian as any thing in all Shakespeare. ART. II.-The Life and Epistles of St. Paul. By the Rev. W. J. CONYBEARE, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Rev. J. S. Howson, M.A., Prin. pal of the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool. 2 vols. London, 1852. progress On the other hand, it is equally true, that if Scottish Presbyterians have neglected their duty in this respect, the English Church and Universities, with their ample resources, have been by no means immaculate. For it is within a comparatively recent period that the Church of England has been roused to a consciousness of the extent to which the critical and exegetical study of the New Testament has generally been neglected. The evil began at the Universities. It is not too much to say, that till lately no attempt was made to enforce upon students any real acquaintance with the origin and design of the various books of Scripture, or SOME years ago we sketched the even the meaning of difficult or disputed of Biblical Literature in Scotland. The ap- passages. In the examination for the B.A. pearance of the book whose title is prefixed degree at Oxford, there has, indeed, long to this article inclines us to introduce it to been a somewhat rigorous inquiry into the the notice of our readers, in connexion with facts of the sacred history, but questions on a hasty survey of the recent course and prethe interpretation of the text are comparasent condition of this study in the Church of tively rare. Let any one look through the England. It can hardly be denied that less files of theological papers in the University has been done towards Biblical research on library at Cambridge, and he will find plenty the northern than on the southern bank of the of questions about points of archæology and Tweed. Classical scholarship has been no- doctrine; heretics are held up to reprobatoriously more encouraged in England than tion; the Jewish feasts, the seven deacons, in Scotland; and good scholarship is the the family history of Herod and Mariamne, foundation of good Biblical exegesis. Pro- the institution of Episcopacy, the first four fessor Blackie, of the University of Edinburgh, has made some instructive remarks *See North British Review for May 1845. Councils, types real or imaginary, the anti *Blackie's Inaugural Lecture.-" Classical Literature in its Relation to the Nineteenth Century and Scottish University Education." Edinburgh, 1852. وو quity and independence of the Church in Though little else resulted from the "DisBritain, all furnish matter for inquiry more senter Controversy," as it was styled, we or less pertinent to the Gospels and the consider that it bore important fruit in the Acts; but the accurate explanation of pas- attention which it roused to this subject. sages was till lately almost neglected. Un- Men began to ask whether an intelligent ac dergraduates were indeed desired to "re-quaintance with the New Testament might scue one text from the Papist, another not be expected from every graduate of a from the Presbyterian, a third from the University which pre-eminently claimed the Calvinist, a fourth from the Socinian ;* but name of Christian, and which shared with when translations and explanations were re- one sister only the privilege of supplying quired, they were generally of what were nearly all the ministers of the English irreverently denominated". cram pieces, Church. Additions were made to the divini.e., certain passages annually selected as ity examinations connected with the ordin tests of undergraduate orthodoxy, while no ary degree. The existence of the Epistles encouragement was given to the real inter- was recognised, and " one of the longer or pretation of the text on philological and two of the shorter were exacted from eveexegetical principles. Moreover, to these ry candidate, who was not considered to be papers in the Greek Testament no impor. elevated by the splendor of his mathematitance was attached, and they were generally cal attainments above the necessity of aclooked down upon by the distinguished quiring this small modicum of Christian scholars and mathematicians of the year. knowledge. Yet even the "honour-men" It was about twenty years ago that these were attacked by graces and syndicates, deficiencies were pressed upon public notice, and some people thought that a knowledge by the controversy which raged in the Uni- of the differential calculus would not be versity about the admission of Dissenters. less valuable if accompanied by a compreThose who were in residence at that time hension of those documents on which our still speak of the sensation excited among faith is founded. This part of the question the wondering undergraduates of Trinity has indeed resulted for the present in a College, when the present Bishop of St. scarcely credible absurdity, and leaves to David's made his appearance in hall without | Cambridge the distinction of sanctioning the the college cap, which is the distinctive grossest farce of the nineteenth century. mark of the tutorial office, having been requested by the then Master to resign, in consequence of his pamphlet on the great subject of the day. In that pamphlet, besides objecting to compulsory attendance at chapel, the Bishop, then Mr. Thirlwall, had asserted the absolute nullity of the theolological instruction given in the College at Cambridge. In his own it was proved that effective divinity lectures had only been delivered for about a year. Even on these attendance was voluntary; nor had the subjects extended beyond the Acts of the Apostles and White's Diatessaron, the substitution of that compendium for the original Gospels being a sufficient proof that all In some of the Colleges, especially in Trincritical inquiry into their contents was im-ity, other improvements have been intropossible. All candid men who read the duced. Prizes of considerable value are pamphlets which then covered Deighton's given for proficiency in the knowledge of counter will probably agree, that whatever the Greek Testament. Lectures are deliother objections might be found to Mr. vered on the Epistles. Last year those on Thirlwall's views and proposals, he was the Romans were given by one of the most completely successful in showing that the distinguished scholars among the assistant theological teaching at Cambridge was a mere "sham," and that points of history, chronology, and antiquities, formed the staple of the so-called divinity examinations. The attendance of candidates for honours is exacted during the theological part of the ordinary examination, but they are not required to answer any questions! After sitting for about half an hour without putting pen to paper they disperse to more attrac tive occupations. We quite admit that at the time of the mathematical examination it would be unfair to call on embryo wranglers to interpret difficult passages in St. Paul's Epistles; but why does not the University apply the obvious remedy of requir ing this important knowledge to be produced at some other period of an undergraduate's career? tutors. Every thing seems to indicate that the University is awake to the importance of Biblical studies, and we all know that when Cambridge has resolved on carrying out any particular work, she seldom does it by halves. At Oxford too, the Epistles of * See a Pamphlet by Dr. C. Wordsworth, " On St. Paul are formally sanctioned as a book the Admission of Dissenters," &c. 1834: p. 21. for examination in the altered school of Lit tera Humaniores, and even before the re- The consequences of the neglect which cent changes, there was at least one instance we have described were in many respects of a first class candidate presenting it as disastrous. The least of them, perhaps, is part of his work. The exegetical professor- the gross misinterpretation of passages ship, the last and greatest of Dean Ireland's which we occasionally hear in sermons. benefactions to his University, will, we hope, Such is the monstrous application of the some day be worthily and efficiently used passage, (Rom. xiv. 23,) Whatever is not of for the great end of its foundation, though faith, is sin, (meaning that any action of such an expectation can hardly be enter- whose lawfulness we are not fully convinced, tained during the incumbency of the present is in our case sinful,) to prove the 13th Arprofessor. In each of the Reports from her ticle of the English Church that works done Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into before justification have the nature of sin. the state of the Universities, the importance But this habit of detaching passages from of systematizing and extending the study their context, and quoting them without any of theology is fully recognised, and several definite principles of interpretation, has proimprovements are suggested, which will, we duced far wider evils than this. It has been hope, if carried out, have a great and lasting a fruitful source of profitless disputation and effect on the welfare of the Church at large. serious theological error. Take, for examFor let no one think that the ignorance of ple, one of the most essential points of Christhe Greek Testament which was permitted tian belief, the doctrine concerning our Lord's at the Universities was afterwards remedied person. To argue on this by isolated texts elsewhere. No attempt, for instance, was and quotations is a useless labour, for any of made to supply it by the knowledge requir- those on which the Trinitarian most relies, ed in the Episcopal examinations for orders. may be met by others, which when taken In these perhaps there was less archæology alone, seem favorable to the Unitarian creed. and more doctrine, but such books as Pear- But let a man read with intelligence and son on the Creed, Burnet on the Articles, honesty, and with the necessary explanain some cases Tomline's wretched compila- tions, the whole gospel of St. John, or one tions, received far more attention than the of St. Paul's Epistles, such as that to the Epistles of St. Paul. Many Bishops did Colossians; let him study the circumstances not even expect a knowledge of the great under which they were written, and the Apostle's writings from candidates for the meaning of the language which they emdiaconate; apparently considering that the ploy, and it will be impossible for him to duty of preaching and the whole care of a maintain that St. Paul or St. John believed parish might be properly entrusted to a per- in the mere humanity of Christ. This is son whose study of the Bible had stopped remarkably illustrated by the case of Colewith the last chapter of the Acts. At the ridge, who in his youth held Socinian opinexamination for priest's orders indeed, the ions, not because he imagined that these candidate was generally required to con- two Apostles countenanced them, which he strue a passage from an Epistle vivâ voce, clearly saw that they did not, but because but little more was expected than that he he denied their authority, and considered should remember the English version, and them mistaken. And so in many other take the words in their grammatical connex- cases, when Scripture is fairly studied and ion. But here again important improve-interpreted, we cannot doubt that among ments are now going on. Candidates from those at least who accept it as the rule of Cambridge are almost always required to faith, there will be far closer agreement than pass the so called Voluntary Theological- there is now. We may hope, too, that some voluntary as far as the University is con- who now seek in the Romish Church an incerned, but compulsory on the side of the fallible interpreter of matters which seem to Bishops. For this examination, we rejoice them obscure and contradictory, will find to see that the whole of the Greek Testa- that Scripture itself, when read with the orment is the very first requisite. Some Bi- dinary care which we bestow on any book shops go farther than this, and inquire them- of merely human authority, becomes its selves with considerable care into the candi- own expositor; that as God's Holy Spirit date's acquaintance with this foundation of often guides men, in spite of much intellecall theological study. No one who remem-tual error, to the perception of what is esbers Mr. Lee's Greek Testament lessons at sential in the Christian religion, so also an Rugby or Birmingham, can think without honest use of the faculties and means of exsome sympathy of the sufferings of a would-position which God has given them, will be deacon, when examined vivâ voce in an epistle of St. Paul by the Bishop of Manchester. save them from that intellectual error which now dims even their spiritual vision. They will find that they can understand the doc |