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But for fifteen centuries, copies were only multiplied by the long and laborious process of writing. A very high degree of accuracy, however, as well as elegance, was in general attained by the ancient copyists, as is evinced by the manuscripts extant in our day. The monks of the first and middle ages were not without their use in preserving and extending, amid violence and darkness, the lights of classic antiquity, and the immortal records of the Gospel. But the people were so sunk in ignorance, and the price of manuscripts was so high, that comparatively few owned the Scriptures. In the fourteenth century, a copy of Wickliffe's New Testament cost about eighty dollars.

When the art of printing was invented in the fifteenth century, one of the first publications was the Bible. Its extensive diffusion by this means powerfully accelerated the Reformation of Luther, and placed in his hands an engine by which he was more than a match for all the wealth and terrors of Rome. The ignorance of the times was so gross, however, that he was accused, in his active exertions with his fellowreformers to circulate the Scriptures, of being the author of a pernicious work, entitled the New Testament.

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The Sacred Books were not originally divided into chapters and verses, and agreeably to the ancient mode of writing, were destitute of any marks of punctuation. Cardinal Hugo, in the thirteenth century, arranged the Latin Vulgate in chapters, which have been essentially retained in our English Bibles. The division into verses was made by Robert Stephens of France, in an edition of the New Testament issued in 1551. performed the operation at leisure moments, while on a journey from Lyons to Paris, and therefore under circumstances precluding much reflection or accuracy. Yet his arrangement has been always adhered to, and the sense of Scripture has been not a little marred by its being printed, as if crumbled up into independent fragments, or consisting of unconnected propositions and maxims, instead of a continuous composition. In the present work, as in the Common Version conformed to the Standard Text of Griesbach by Dr. Palfrey, and as in the Bibles of Nourse and Coit, this evil has been shunned by throwing the verses into the side margin, and printing the page in a solid column, with paragraphs, divided according to the sense.

Early translations were made into the Saxon and English, as well as other languages. About A. D. 706, the Psalms were translated into Saxon by a bishop called Adelm. Bede, “the venerable," who flourished in the beginning of the eighth century, made a Saxon version of the whole Bible. One of the earliest efforts at an English translation was commenced in the latter part of the ninth century, by King Alfred the Great, the patron of learning and religion among his rude people, but he died in the

midst of the work. Others entered the same field; but the most successful step was taken by Wickliffe, who rendered the whole Bible into English, about 1380.* He was called, on account of his commanding influence at that benighted period, the Apostle of England, and the Morning Star of the Reformation. The opposition against him rose, however, to such a pitch, because he labored to enlighten the great mass of the people, that he was obliged to flee into foreign parts. But he finally returned and died in peace. Forty years after, the old papal hatred broke out afresh; his bones were dug up and burnt, and the ashes thrown into the nearest brook. The people were forbidden to read the Bible in English, and many were persecuted, and some were put to death, because they were guilty of doing it.

The translation of William Tyndale, the first New Testament in English ever printed, came out in 1525.† This possesses great merits. The author was martyred by the Romish power, near Brussels, in September, 1536. A fine, accurate edition of this work, enriched with "the essential variations of Coverdale's, Thomas Matthews' (supposed to be a fictitious name for John Rogers, the Smithfield Martyr), Cranmer's, the Genevan, and the Bishops' Bibles, as marginal readings,” has been issued in this country, by Mr. Dabney. In general, the versions just mentioned, which came out after Tyndale's, were of a high order, and contained some of the fruits of the best learning of their day.

In the commencement of the seventeenth century, James the First, king of England, committed the work of a new translation to fifty-four learned men of his kingdom, seven of whom died, or declined the labor. The result of their studies was published in London, in 1611, and constitutes our present received version of the Holy Scriptures. They followed, in many cases, their predecessors, above mentioned, and where they varied from them, they did not always vary for the better. Criticisms upon, and amendments of, their renderings have been made not unfrequently in the subsequent Notes. For, since the work was executed, the

"And Jhesus seynge the disciplis camen to him.

*A specimen of Wickliffe's Version. Matt. v. 1-5. people, went up into an hil; and whanne he was sett, his And he openyde his mouthe, and taughte hem; and seide, Blessid be pore men in spirit; for the kyngdom of hevenes is hereun. Blessid ben mylde men; for thei schulenweelde the erthe. Blessid ben thei that mournen; for thei schal be comfortid."

"When he sawe the people,

† A specimen of Tyndale's Version. Matt. v. 1-5 he went vp into a mountayne, and when he was set, his disciples cam vnto hym, and he openned his mought, and taught them saynge: Blessed are the povre in sprete: for theirs is the kyngdome off heven. Blessed are they that morne: for they shalbe comforted. Blessed are the meke; for they shall inheret the erth."

English tongue has undergone some changes, and words then current are now obsolete. The ancient languages and sacred antiquities have been more profoundly investigated, and the light of new researches and discoveries has since their day been shed upon the pages of inspiration. Strongly bound as they were to a peculiar, and, as is believed, now waning system of theology, they occasionally let their doctrinal biases appear in the work. There is also a want of uniformity in the phraseology of different portions, attributable to the employment of many translators. But, consecrated as this version has been by the antiquity of its use, its acknowledged excellence on the whole, and the unanimity of its adoption by all sects of Christians, it has commanded a respect but little short of that paid to infallibility and inspiration. Its rhetorical merits are undoubtedly great, and no book has been a richer or purer repository of the sound old Saxon virtues of our tongue. But the imperfect Greek text on which it was grounded, together with the reasons above stated, obviously suggests the need of its revision, or of a totally new translation in its stead, if we would possess the Word of God in its greatest uncorruptness and simplicity.

For, since King James' day, besides the invaluable results of philology, sacred antiquities, and history, as explanatory of the Scriptures, the most fruitful and important critical researches have been carried on by Mill, Bengel, Wetstein, Matthäi, Alter, Birch, and especially by the celebrated Griesbach. But while their patient collation of manuscripts, versions, and fathers, has yielded many thousands of various readings of the Greek original, yet, as almost all of them are of minor consequence, they have materially strengthened the pillars of our faith in the Christian Scriptures. They have demonstrated that the sacred records have been preserved with an uncommon freedom from gross corruptions, more so than the classic works of antiquity, and in a purity, indicating that the providence of God, through the instrumentality of man, has watched over their preservation under the most disastrous circumstances, and brought out of dark and distant ages this great light of truth, to shine with undimmed splendor, and to spread over all coming generations.

CALENDAR OF OUR LORD'S MINISTRY.

BY LANT CARPENTER, LL. D.

[The precise dates are of course conjectural, but the general outlines of the table are based upon historical facts. N. B. The Jewish Sabbaths are marked §.]

A. D. 29.

Jan. 20. BAPTISM OF JESUS: after this, he retires to the Desert, for forty

days.

Feb. 28. The Priests and Levites come to John from the Sanhedrim.
Mar. 1. Christ returns to the Baptist, and receives his testimony.

2. John, Andrew, and Peter follow Jesus.

3. Philip and Nathanael become disciples of Jesus.

7. FIRST MIRACLE, at Cana.

8. Our Lord goes to Capernaum, which was thenceforward his ordinary residence.

19. The FIRST PASSOVER begins: during the festival, our Lord drives the traders from the Temple, and converses with Nicodemus.

27. Christ exercises his ministry in the country of Judea.

Apr. 22. Conference with the Samaritan woman at Sychar.

- 27. Jesus, while at Cana, heals the youth lying ill at Capernaum. May 8. The PENTECOST begins.

--

June.

July.

14.

The cure of the infirm man at Bethesda.

15. Christ departs for Galilee, where he remains till the FEAST OF

TABERNACLES.

21. § The walk through the cornfields.

28.

August.

Christ rejected at Nazareth.

During these months, our Lord appears to have been occupied in preparatory instruction in the synagogues of Galilee ; occasionally employing his miraculous powers; but awaiting the fit season, and the signal given by the imprisonment of John, to commence the public announcement, and the series of wonderful works, which immediately afterwards ensued.

XX

CALENDAR OF OUR LORD'S MINISTRY.

Sep. 13. The FEAST OF TABERNACLES begins. A little before this, probably, the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas.

16. Our Lord reaches Jerusalem.

19. "The last day, the great day of the feast."

20. Our Lord gives sight to the blind man. He then goes to Galilee.
23. CHRIST BEGINS HIS PUBLIC PREACHING. Call of Peter, &c.

24. § Cure of the demoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum.
25. FIRST PROGRESS through Galilee.

Oct. 16. Our Lord delivers the Sermon on the Mount, heals the leaper, &c.

17. The widow's son at Nain raised from the dead.

20. The tempest stilled, in crossing the Lake, and the demoniacs
restored to sanity, on the eastern shore, in the district of
Gadara.

21. Cure of the paralytic at Capernaum, and call of Matthew.
23. The day of Matthew's feast. (The 22d was a Sabbath.)

24. Christ selects the Twelve, and begins his SECOND PROGRESS
through Galilee.

Nov. 20. MISSION OF THE TWELVE into Galilee.

Dec.

Jan.

21. The disciples of John come to Jesus. The visit to Simon the

Pharisee.

22. MISSION OF THE SEVENTY into the Peræa.

25. The visit to Martha and Mary at Bethany.

26. § Conference with the Jews near the close of the FEAST OF DEDICATION.

27. Jesus withdraws to Bethabara, east of the Jordan.

A. D. 30.

Jesus exercises his ministry in the Peræa; and there probably many of the Seventy rejoin him, as also some of the Twelve.

Jan. 20. The RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS, at Bethany.

22. The Sanhedrim resolve to kill Jesus, and he withdraws to Ephraim, in Samaria, till the death of the Baptist.

Feb. 15. Jesus leaves Ephraim, to return to Galilee, on the death of John 18. Cure of the man with the withered hand.

19. Cure of the dumb demoniac. The Day of Parables.

Feb. 25.

Last visit at Nazareth, after which our Lord teaches in the neighboring villages, and the rest of the apostles collect together to him.

Mar. 4. The infirm woman healed in the synagogue, on the Sabbath. 5. MIRACLE OF THE FIVE THOUSAND, near Bethsaida Philippi. 6. Discourse, the day following, in the synagogue at Capernaum.

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