PART III. CHAPTER THE FIRST: OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE. THAT it was the practice, in the early ages of the Gospel, to translate the Scriptures into the language of every country in which they were received, is evident from a variety of testimonies; but the following passage in Theodoret, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century, may be considered as alone decisive: "We Christians are enabled to show the powers of apostolic and prophetic doctrines, which have filled all countries under heaven; for that which was formerly uttered in Hebrew is not only translated into the language of the Greeks, but also of the Romans, the Indians, Persians, Armenians, Scythians, Samaritans, Egyptians, and, in a word, into all the languages that are used by any nation (a)."-" For the sacred Writ being the foundation (a) Theod. ad. Græc. Infid. Serm. 5. Vide Euseb. Dem. Evan. lib. 3. cap. ult. and Usser Hist. Dogm. Both the Old and New Testaments were very accu VOL. II. B rately Christian religion, upon which new le system of their morality and in and which the Christians were obliged public and private, the several Dhe world could not be long without sas might be understood by It is impossible to ascertain the won't pine at which Christianity was introduced Island *; nor do we know how soon w was a translation of the Scriptures into the egge of its inhabitants. The earliest of which we have any account, is a translation of the Pabus into the Saxon tongue by Adhelm, the tist bishop of Sherborne, about the year 706. Egbert, bishop of Landisfern, who died in the year rately translated immediately from the Hebrew and Greek originals into the Syriac language, before the end of the first century. This antient version is held in very high esteem by the Learned, and is still used by many of the Christians in the East. In some of the villages near Mount Libanus, Syriac is still the vulgar tongue. There is another Syriac version of the Old Testament made from Origen's Hexapla, about 600 years after Christ, but that is not much esteemed. (b) Johnson's Hist. Account of the English Translations of the Bible. * I desire to refer the Reader to a work upon this subject, published by the Bishop of St. David's since the last edition of this book, in which he states strong reasons for the opinion that a Christian church was planted in Britain by the Apostle St. Paul. |