The chief aim of the translators in preparing the national version of the Bible, now commonly called the Authorised Version, was to express without addition or diminishing the exact meaning of the original Scriptures. Selden wrote, "The English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best, but the Bible is translated into English words rather than into English phrases". On this latter point Selden was not the best judge.

The conspicuous merits of the "new version" of 1611 gradually gained recognition. It was not only pronounced more scholarly, but it was found to be more readable than any other English translation of the Scriptures. Many of the changes incorporated in the A.V. were not designed to give a new meaning to the Scriptures, but to express the old meaning in another way, for the sake of literary improvement. Changes were made to make the English agree better with the truth of the original, but far more were made for the sake of good, plain English, and pleasant cadence in reading. The translators introduced a sweeter, smoother and more stately diction into our English Bible, and this was a great gain.

Public reading

The English Bible is designed for public reading, and whatever makes it read more smoothly, and in a style of pathos or majesty more accordant with its subject matter, is a help to the reader and a benefit to the hearer. The statements of the Bible that bear on our conduct and comfort, on our salvation and sanctification, are meant to be remembered, so as to be present in our minds whenever temptations or afflictions come our way. Whatever choice or arrangement of words makes these statements of the Bible more striking or more impressive, more pleasant to the ear, or more fascinating to the imagination, makes them also more easily remembered, and more potent for good.

It is not enough that our English Bible be a mathematically correct translation from the original Scriptures, word for word, point for point. It should, both in its literary grace and in its Divine revelations, be a well-spring of spiritual life in the broadest and highest sense of the terms. We cannot be too grateful, therefore, that the framers of our Authorised Version were not only skilled in "the discernment of tongues", but were gifted with an ear for melody. This particular excellence of the A.V. was recognised even by Roman Catholic scholars who feared that it would make a deep impression upon the minds of many readers. Dr. Andrew Edgar quotes a famous Roman Catholic dignitary who declared, "Who will not say that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country? It lives on the ear like music that can never be forgotten. like the sound of church bells. Its felicities often seem to be things rather than words. It is part of the national mind, and the anchor of national seriousness". At the present time one might well inquire whether any such testimony could borne in praise of any of the numerous modern versions that are offered in its place.

Faithful and accurate

Each successive version which led up to the A.V. was an improvement in some respects on the one which it professed to revise. In version after version increased accuracy and increased felicity of expression are to be found. There are many clauses and sentences which, in their transition from one version to another, indicate growth and development at almost every stage. rn respect of the features which specially make a translation of the Scriptures precious to the common reader, the A.V. of the English Bible is a very great improvement on all preceding versions. The language is clearer and choicer, more impressive and more capable of making itself remembered, and the translation more faithful and accurate than any that went before. The improvement is everywhere perceptible to the judgment and to the ear. Both from a spiritual and from a literary point of view few things are more to be desired by a Christian community than a translation, as good as care and skill can make, of those Holy Scriptures which are the guide and the solace of life, and which make their readers wise unto salvation.

Deficiencies of the modern versions

There are no fewer than 5000 readings of the Greek New Testament. Many of the modern versions argue that changes were made on the ground of the weight of evidence from ancient manuscripts, and that the changes were reversions to the true original. In fact, the textual critics of the 19th century, and those who followed in their steps, were sadly misguided in their evaluation of the old manuscripts which came to light a hundred years ago. The well-worn cliche 'oldest and best manuscripts" embodies an assumption which cannot be sustained by evidence - the assumption that the "oldest" are necessarily the "best". Among the manuscripts there are some of very great antiquity which exhibit a very low standard of accuracy, and the "oldest" are in reality by no means representative of the "best".

In the 16th century it was alleged by Roman Catholic scholars that the Latin Vulgate was of higher authority than any Greek text of the New Testament known to be in existence. The question maybe asked, therefore, whether in textual changes adopted by the revisers of 1881 and in the present century, there is any considerable return to the readings of the Latin Vulgate favoured by the R.C. Church. There certainly are many changes of this kind. In the Gospel according to Matthew the revisers made 425 changes in the Greek Text based on their allegedly "oldest and best" manuscripts. The majority of these alterations have little significance and the more noticeable ones are no more than twenty-six in number. In nineteen of these twenty-six departures from the text underlying the Authorised Version the revisers have restored the reading of the Latin Vulgate; (e.g. the omission of the doxology from the Lord's Prayer; clauses omitted from 15.8; 20.7; 20.22-23; 23.19; 28.9; etc.

In the Gospel according to John the revisers changed the Greek in 487 places, of which thirteen are particularly significant, and seven of these are reversions to the Latin Vulgate: (e.g. omissions in 5.16: 8.9: & 59.)

It is certainly a remarkable circumstance that so many of the Roman Catholic readings in the New Testament, which in Reformation and early post-Reformation times were denounced by Protestants as corruptions of the pure text of God's Word, should now be adopted by the revisers of our English Bible. Some of the watchmen of Zion may possibly see in this circumstance an indication of the re-ascendancy of popery in England, or possibly an evidence of concealed Jesuitism in the Protestant Churches. Others will try to assure the anxious that there is no cause for alarm and that the revisers have merely accepted the readings which they found best supported by the testimony of more recently discovered manuscripts of great antiquity.

The modern versions

Since 1881 most modern versions have had a number of common features, the most important of which has been the adoption of emendations of the Greek text based upon the unreliable testimony of a comparatively small group of ancient manuscripts entirely unrepresentative of the great mass of documentary evidence that has come to light in the last one hundred and fifty years. Perhaps the most dangerous characteristic of the modem versions is that in following an unreliable Greek text they present in a weaker form, or completely omit, some of the clearest New Testament declarations of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. The ancient manuscripts favoured by textual critics were copied during a period when the Church was disturbed by heresies relating to the Person of the Son of God.

Far from helping to establish the truth of the Divine revelation in a more ancient and more reliable text, the adoption of these documents as superior guides has helped to strengthen the position of those who hold a "humanitarian" view of the Lord Jesus Christ and deny flis essential and eternal deity. As a result of the general acceptance of a defective form of the Greek text, the translations sponsored by the Bible Societies in many parts of the world deprive the reader of some of the most solemn and Impressive intimations of the Divine Glory of the Redeemer.

A great task

For too long the evangelical churches and missions have been insufficiently aware of these tendencies, but there are increasing signs of a growing realisation of the problem in places as far a field as India and Japan, Africa and South America. In these places the evangelical churches and missions are faced with a challenging responsibility, not only to criticise and expose what is wrong in the unsoundly based revisions that are thrust upon them, but to apply their energy and experience to the production of something better. The Trinitarian Bible Society is in touch with a number of groups of Christian workers who are applying themselves to this great task in different parts of the world. The drift of the national Bible Societies into the "World Church" movement, and their increasing readiness to co-operate with the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, and "liberal" scholarship on the other, make it now more than ever necessary that those who esteem the Bible as the divinejy inspired, authoritative and inerrant Word of God, should stand together and labour together to preserve the purity of that Word and to propagate it throughout the world.

Inspiration: "Is God’s revealing of eternal truth to specific ordained men through the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, so that these men wrote God’s very words in their own vocabulary and background, as they were consciously or unconsciously being directed by God’s Spirit." Dr. Dennis McCain

IS ALL SCRIPTURE INSPIRED?

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3.16, 17).

Previous articles on the subject of modem translations have emphasized the prevalent tendency to question or deny the unique character and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. To those Biblical scholars who have encouraged their readers to regard the Bible as an interesting collection of folk-lore and legends, the Apostle's dogmatic affirmation of the divine inspiration of all Scripture must always been an annoying embarrassment. To the evangelical Christian knowing his respect and reverence or the Bible as the divine revelation, the same verse has always been a bulwark of his faith.

The Revised Version

It is therefore not surprising that this passage was completely robbed of its meaning and force in the Revised Version of 1881. The Revisers acknowledged in their preface the probability that there would be "blemishes and imperfections" in their revision. Their treatment of this vital text is one of the worst blemishes in a translation which fell lamentably short of the lofty standards of the Authorized Version which it was intended to displace. The Revised Version reads, "Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for doctrine", relegating the correct reading to the margin as a discredited alternative. The revised text now suggests that some Scriptures are inspired and therefore profitable, while other Scriptures are uninspired and therefore not profitable.

Principles of Revision violated

This diluted rendering has been circulated now for about one hundred years, but is entirely without warrant or authority. The Revisers mentioned five classes of alterations.

(1) Changes required by the adoption of a new reading in the Greek:

(2) Changes made in the Authorized Version were incorrect or had chosen the less probable renderings

(3) Alterations of obscure or ambiguous renderings; '(alterations of the Autborized Version in cases where it was inconsistent with itself in the rendering of similar or parallel passages

(4) Changes rendered necessary by consequence of changes already made.

None of these explanations is relevant to the verses in question. The Authorised Version was correct and had chosen the only admissible renderings. The passage is neither obscure nor ambiguous. The Authorised Version is entirely consistent with its rendering of many passages of almost identical construction. No other change in this passage could be pleaded to enforce the necessity of the complete alteration of the sense in the Revised Version.

The Translator's Problem

It will be noticed that in the Authorized Version the verb is twice supplied in italics, indicating that the Greek text did not contain this word. In Greek and in some other languages parts of the verb "to be" are commonly omitted, being clearly understood by speaker, hearer and reader alike. In one language it may be incorrect to include the verb in such a sentence. In another language it may be incorrect not to include it. To ensure that the English rendering is complete and grammatically correct, the words not required in the Greek must be supplied in the English, which would otherwise read, "All Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for doctrine..." An English sentence is not complete without a verb, and the Authorised Version translators correctly supplied the verb twice, understanding the passage to signify, "All Scriptures is inspired of God and is profitable." The same sense would be preserved if the verb were inserted once only, immediately after the subject.

Parallel Passages

There are eight similar passages, which the Authorized Version renders in the same manner, by supplying the verb immediately after the subject. Romans 7:12 "The commandment is holy and just." I Cor. 11:30 "Many are weak and sickly." 2 Cor. 10:10 "His letters are weighty and powerful." 1 Tim. 1:15 and 4:9 "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation." 1 Tim. 2:3 "This is good and acceptable." 1 Tim. 4:4 "Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused." Hebrews 4:13 "All things are naked and opened."

In the translation of these verses the Authorized Version is entirely consistent with itself, faithful to the original, accurate and unambiguous.

The Revised Version Inconsistent with itself

In eight of these passages the Revised Version follows the Authorized Version in supplying the verb "is or are immediately after the subject, and translating the Greek "kai" into English "and' It did not occur to the translators of the Revised Version to alter the Authorized Version to read, "Many weak are also sickly"; "The holy commandment is also just"; "His weighty letters are also powerful"; "The faithful saying is also worthy"; "This good thing is also acceptable"; "Every good creature of God is also nothing to be refused"; "all naked things are also opened .

In all of these verses the Revised Version admits that the Authorized Version is correct, but in spite of these eight good reasons for following the Autborized Version in 2 Timothy 3:16, the Revisers forsook the path of accuracy and consistency and robbed the passage of its vital force, adding part of the predicate to the subject, changing "and" to "also", and making the verse entirely ambiguous.

The Old is better

Several modern translations return to the Authorized Version rendering of this text, or a similar rendering. Moffatt, Phillips, and the American Revised Standard Version all read, "Every Scripture is inspired of God", and the Jerusalem Bible and the New Berkeley Version both have, "All Scripture is inspired by God." For three quarters of a century scholars alleged that the old version was wrong in this place. Any who contended that it was correct were likely to be regarded as rabid fundamentalists whose opinion was unworthy of serious consideration by competent scholars. It is now admitted by many that the Authorized Version was correct in the first place. There was never any valid reason for the alteration, but the change was made and widely accepted, no doubt on the perilous assumption that so many exalted scholars could not possibly agree to be mistaken on the same point.

The rendering in the New English Bible, "Every inspired Scripture has its use for teaching" repeats the error of the Revised Version, and is open to the same criticisms.

It is significant that the Revisers of 1881, who were prepared to give great weight to the Codex Vaticanus, could find an English precedent for their altered text only in the Douay (Roman Catholic) Version. Even there, the punctuation is so arranged to give the Apostle's words greater force than is allowed by the Revised Version. No new manuscript evidence has come to light to affect this passage. No triumphant "gains of recent lexical research" affect the issue. The change was indefensible and inconsistent. The correct reading is now again acknowledged and the Authorized Version vindicated.

Originally printed in Quarterly Record July - September 1960

The whole of the Bible is the Word of God. We do not have to search from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 in the hope that if we are fortunate we may find some scattered seeds of hidden truth. We have Divine truth from the beginning to the end, as the Scripture says, "Thy Word is truth." There will be found ultimately to be no intermediate path between receiving the whole Bible as the Word of God, or sweeping away the Bible and launching forth on a sea of skepticism, without a Bible, without a Savior, and, as the last step, without a God. The more I have studied the subject, the more firmly am I brought to the deliberate and fixed conviction that the whole Book, including words as well as thoughts, is to be received by the believer as the Word of God." Modified from Canon E. H. Hoare, "Great Principles of Divine Truth" - Trinitarian Bible Society in October, 1975

THE WONDER OF THE BOOK: The wonder of the Book grows upon us as our experience is enlarged, for the more deeply we search it, the more we feel that the Bible is not merely a book, but The Book. It alone is the universal Book; The eternal Book, the Book for all time. It is the voice of the Lord. It stands alone, unapproachable in its grandeur, as high above all other books as heaven is above earth, or as the Son of God is above the sons of men.

The Wonder of its Formation

One of the first things about this Book that evokes our wonder is the very fact of its existence, for there was never any order given to any man to plan the Bible, nor was there ever any concerted plan on the part of the men who wrote to write the Bible. The way in which the Bible grew is one of the mysteries of our time. Little by little, century after century, it came out in fragments, written by various men, without any concerted arrangement. One wrote a part in Arabia, another in Syria, a third in Palestine, another in Greece and Italy, and the first part was written hundreds of years before the man who wrote the last part was born.

Here is a Book that took at least fifteen hundred years to write, spanning sixty generations or this world's history. It enlarges our conceptions of God and gives us new ideas of His infinite patience as He watched the strain, and the restlessness of man across the feverish years, while slowly the great Book grew. Here a little, and there a little, history, prophecy, poetry and biography. It came forth before a needy world in its finished completeness.

There was no pre-arrangement by men. Matthew, Mark. Luke and John did not meet in committee and after solemn conference and seeking for the leading of the Spirit, Matthew undertook to write of Christ as the King, and Mark agreed to write of Him as the Servant, Luke undertaking to delineate Him as the Man, and John determining to crown it all by writing of Him as the Son of God.

It was not as if Paul and James met and after talking and praying about it agreed that Paul should write of the doctrinal and James of the practical aspects of the Christian faith. There is no trace of such a thing. They simply wrote as they were moved by the Spirit to meet the need, to teach some glorious truth, to express some earnest longing. and from the aggregation of their writings came this miraculous unit that we call the New Testament.

The Wonder of its Unification

The Bible, though regarded as one Book, is in fact a library of sixty-six volumes, written by approximately forty authors, in three languages, on totally different topics and in extraordinarily different circumstances. One wrote history, another biography. one wrote on theology, another poetry, another prophecy, others on philosophy, jurisprudence, genealogy, ethnology, and narratives of wonderful journeys.

Here in the Bible we have them all, in a Book that a child can read and carry in its hand. The strangest thing of ah is that, although the subjects art so diverse and difficult, and although it was impossible for the man who wrote the first pages to have the slightest knowledge what others would write 1500 years later, yet this collection of writings is not only unified by men in one Book, but so unified by God, the Author, that we can never think of it today as anything else but one Book! And one Book it is indeed - the miracle of all literary unity.

The Wonder of its Interest

Professor Dyson Hague asked the nurse what she was reading to his daughter and she replied." I am reading the story of Joseph in the Bible," and the child added. "And please do not stop her, father." She was listening with delighted interest to a story that had been written in Hebrew three thousand five hundred years before. Not far away from the same room where the child was listening, there sat one of the greatest of modern scientists, Sir William Dawson, reading with profound devotion and higher delight the pages of the same marvelous Book. Here is a phenomenon-one of the ablest of modern scientists delights in reading a Book which is the joy of a little child in the nursery.

The Wonder of its Language

The Book was not written in the seats of learning, either at Athens in Greece or at Alexandria in Egypt, but in Palestine. Some of the writers were not distinguished for their scholarship. Some did not speak even their own language properly. Peter was betrayed by his Galilean dialect, and he and John were described in Acts 4.13 as "ignorant and unlearned men." Many of the men who wrote the Bible were of that character. One was a farm-hand, another a shepherd, others were fishermen. They were men of no literary reputation, and yet by the mysterious power of God the Book has become the standard of language of the most literary nations of the world.

The Wonder of its Preservation

The Bible has withstood ages of ferocious and incessant persecution. Century after century men have tried to burn it and to bury it and to extirpate it, Kings of the earth set themselves and rulers of the church have taken counsel together to destroy it. Diocletian the Roman Emperor inaugurated in AD 303 a terrific onslaught upon the Book. Bibles were destroyed. Christians were slain, and the Emperor boasted that the very name of the Christians was blotted out, and yet after a few years. In AD 325 Constantine enthroned the Bible as the Infallible Judge of Truth in the great council of the Church held in that year. Later the Church of Rome denied the Scriptures to the people and for ages the Bible was practically an unknown book. Maitin Luther was a grown man when he said that he had never seen a Bible in his life. No jailor ever kept a prisoner closer than the Church of Rome kept the Bible from the people.

The worst opposition of all has been during the last two hundred years, with rationalism and modernism seeking to undermine the authority, inspiration and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures. It was Voltaire's boast that within one hundred years of his death not a Bible would be found save as an antiquarian curiosity. Many more than one hundred years have passed. and other pens and other voices have joined in the attack. but the Bible remains and is being more widely distributed and used than ever before.

It cannot be improved

We do not gild gold. We do not paint rubies. We cannot brighten diamonds. Neither can any artist add any final touch to this finished Word of God. It stands as the sun in the sky and this proud age can add nothing to it. It has the glory of God and any attempt to improve it can but disfigure it. It speaks with authority and breaks upon you as the Voice from heaven. Five hundred times in the Pentateuch, three hundred times in the following books and twelve hundred times in the prophets, the declarations are prefaced or concluded with such cxpressions as "Hear the Word of the Lord", or "Thus saith the Lord." No other hook dares thus to address itself to the universal conscience. No other speaks with such a binding claim or presumes to command the obedience of all mankind. The Book speaks to the inner conscience with the authority of God Himself.

It is living and powerful

Men think of the Bible as a Book that was inspired, and this is true, but it is also true that it still comes sweeping into the hearts of men today, and the same breath of God that gave it life makes it living and spiritually energizing today. This is a most remarkable and unique feature of the Bible - I feel that it is mine. Its promises are mine.

It reveals Christ

It changes men's lives and alters their destinies. It inaugurates world-wide movements. A single text transformed Luther and launched the greatest of modern epochs. It comes today into communities of unrighteousness as a regenerating force. The supreme wonder of the Book is Christ, Who is its fullness,

its center, its great subject. Of the whole Book it may be said, "The glory of God does lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." As long as men live upon the face of the globe, the Book that tells of Christ the Revealer, Redeemer, the Risen, Reigning, Returning Lord will draw men's hearts like a magnet, and men will stand by it, and live for it, and die for it.

Do not think that we ought to read this Book as we read any other book, and study and analyze it just as we do any text book in literature or science. No! When you come to this Book, come to it with reverence. Read it with a plea for the Spirit's help. "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Other books are of the earth. This is from heaven, it is the living Word of the Living God, supernatural in origin. divine in authorship. regenerative in power, infallible in authority. personal in application, inspired in its every part. (Summarized and selected from "The Wonder of the Book" by Prof. Dyson Hague.M.A.)

(Summarized and selected from "The Wonder of the Book" by Prof. Dyson Hague. M.A.)