XXVIII.] COLLATION. 381 Why then is not the helthe of my people recouered?" 1540, Münster.1 Other examples may be quoted, Münster being guide: Erasmus was carefully studied for the New Testament, though several of the Erasmian renderings agree with the Vulgate. Thus— 1 Num resina non est in Gilead, non est recuperata sanitas filiæ po aut non est medicus ibi? quare igitur puli mei? Phil. i, 23, to be with Christ is moch to be with Christ which is In the Apocalypse there are several clauses inserted, as in x, 5 (And the erth and the thynges that therein are); xii, 10, For (the accuser of our brethren) is cast doune; xviii, 23 (and candell lyght shalbe no more burnynge in the): these clauses and readings not being found in the earlier Greek editions of Erasmus nor in the versions of Tyndale and Coverdale, and the translation of them is printed in smaller type. But Erasmus admitted them into his fourth edition of 1527; in fact he inserted ninety emendations of the text of the Apocalypse on the authority of the Complutensian Polyglott. Canon Westcott has brought to light a strange fact, that portions of the editions of November, 1540, and of May, 1541, do not follow that of April, 1540, but that of 1539. It is impossible to guess who suggested this retrogression, or for what reason the first revision was preferred. There were thus published, within a brief space, seven editions of the Great Bible-Crumwell's in 1539, and Cranmer's in April, July, and November, 1540, and in May, November, and December, 1541. These editions are very similar; the pointing hands are retained in the three first of them, and the + keeps its place in all of them. Five have sixty-two lines in a page, and two-November, 1540 and 1541-have sixty-five. At the beginning of some of the Books, in the volume of April, 1540, are large woodcut initials, which are peculiar to this edition. In the edition of November, 1540, there is only a flourished capital at the beginning of Genesis, and the pages of the New Testament are faulty in numeration. These editions have a strange XXVIII.] GREAT BIBLE STILL THE AUTHORIZED BIBLE. 383 misprint in the heading of Genesis xxxix, where it is said of Joseph, "Pharaoh's wife tempteth him." The Books of the Apocrypha are called Hagiographa, and the strange reason is given, "because they were wont to be read, not openly and in common, but as it were in secret and apart." The mistake perhaps arose from a false reading in Jerome's Preface to Tobit and Judith.1 But Martianay, Vallarsi, and other editors, have shown from manuscript authority that the true reading is Apocrypha, and that this, the proper reading, is in accordance with Jerome's own opinion on the Canon.2 Coverdale was in no way partial to his own work, but changed his earlier renderings without hesitation, though sometimes without sufficient reason. Thus, in Isaiah liii, he has made about twenty alterations on the edition of 1539;3 and in chapter xl of the same book there is on an average a change in each verse, resting, nearly every one of them, on Pagninus and Münster, and about a third of them on Münster alone. In fact, he has made most changes in the part of Matthew's Bible which was his own work, as if he had felt the insecurity of a version which was not taken directly from the original Hebrew. This Great Bible was the Authorized Version for twenty-eight years.* But though it was a double revision of Matthew's of 1537, the Great Bible is not only inferior as a translation, but has interspersed through it a great variety of paraphrastic and supplementary clauses from the Vulgate, some being preserved in the Bishops'. The following examples are taken almost at random, and similar instances may be found on almost every page. Genesis iv, 8, Cain spake with Abel hys brother [let us go furth]. xxxi, 31, But [whereas ye layest theft to my charge] wyth whome soeuer thou fyndest thy goddes let hym dye. 1 Apud Hebræos Judith quae inter Hagiographa legitur. Prolog. Gal. 2 Hieronymi Opera, tom. X, p. 2, ed. Vallarsi, Venet., 1771. 3 See p. 370. 4 In the strict sense it is the only authorized version still-for the Bishops' Bible and the present Bible never had the formal sanction of royal authority. Exodus ii, 22, [And she bare yet another sonne, whome he called Eliezer, sayinge: the God of my father is myne helper, & hath ryd me out of the handes of Pharao] after Coverdale and Matthew, the authority being some copies of the Septuagint, Vulgate, and other versions. The verse is taken from chapter xviii, 4. Numb. xiii, 30, Caleb stylled the [murmur that was raysed vp of] Deut. Joshua the people. xxii, 33, els yf she had turned from me [geuynge place to me i, 37, [wonderfull was that indignacyon agayn the people, iii, 13, the waters of Jordan [that are beneth, shall ronne iv, 3, twelve [of the most hardest] stones. ix, 9, we haue heard ye fame [of the power] of him. xxii, 25, Therfore we [toke better aduisement and] sayd. Judges ix, 49, so that [with smoke and fyre] all the men of the tower of Sichem were slayne. 2 Samuel i, 18, [And he sayde: Consyder O Israel, these that be deed and wounded upon the hye hilles.] 2 Kings vi. 12, [And there were with David seven sorts of dancers and calves for sacrifice.] xiv, 30, [and Joabs servauntes came with their garments rent, and sayde, Absaloms servauntes have burnte the piece of land with fyre.] iv, 8, corn and wine [and oyle]. xi, 25, For [the chaunce of warre is dyuerse and] the sworde deuoureth one as well as another. v, 17, And Naaman sayd [Euen as thou wylt, but I beseche thee].1 1 There is a peculiar addition or mistranslation in 2 Chron. xxxvi, 8"the carved images that were laid to his charge," after Matthew, Münster having "sculptæ impressiones." To the clause, "that which was found upon him," the Bishops' adds a note: "marks of idolatrie found printed in his bodie when he was dead." XXVIII.] Job Psalm ADDITIONS FROM THE VULGATE. 385 xiv, 6, he maye rest [a lytle] vntyll hys daye come. hyest.] xiv, 5, a great fear [even where no fear was]. xxix, Syng unto the Lorde, O ye mightie [brynge younge rammes unto the Lorde] ascrybe unto the Lorde xxxix, 11, like as it were a mothre [putting a garment]. cxi, [Prayse the Lorde for the returnyng agayne of Aggeus and Zachary the prophetes.] cxxxii, 4, nor myne eye lyddes to slomber [nether the temples of my heade to take anye rest]. cxxxvi, 26, [O give thankes unto the Lord of Lordes, for hys mercie endureth for ever.] There are more than seventy such additions in the Book of Psalms. Prov. iii, 9, [give unto the poor.] At the end of chap. v are two long verses. V, 2, [apply not thyself to the deceitfulness of a woman.] vi, 11, [But if thou be not slowthful, thy harvest shall come as a spryngynge well, and poverty shall flye farre from thee.] x, 4, [whoso regardeth leasynges fedeth the wynde, and doth but followe byrdes that have taken their flyght.] All these accretions are from the Vulgate, and they are found in both the earlier Wycliffite versions. Isaiah xl, 1, Comforte my people [O ye prophetes]. Luke x, 21, That same houre reioyced Jesus in [the holy] ghoste. xvi, 21, [and no man gave unto him.] xvii, 36, [Two in the felde, the one shall be receaved and the other forsaken.] xxiv. 36, Peace be vnto you. [It is I, feare not.] |