[250th Thousand.] Preface. Supplementary Contents. I. MATERIALS FOR BIBLE LESSONS :- 1. INTRODUCTION: the Bible as a whole-its Divisions and Connections... 2. SUMMARY and ANALYSIS of each Book of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT. Professor of Hebrew in King's College, London, &c., &c. (2.) Quoted and applied in the N. T., but not distinctly asserted to have been fulfilled in a (3.) Not quoted in the N.T., but which we see to have been exactly fulfilled.. (4.) Prophecies relating to the admission of the Gentiles to the Gospel covenant. 11. DESCRIPTION of the HOLY LAND-WILDERNESSES of the SOUTH-PENINSULA of SINAI. PALESTINE-its CLIMATE.-GEOLOGY.-WATER SYSTEM.-PORTS and CHIEF TOWNS, and 14. BIBLE CALENDAR.-THE DIVISIONS of TIME, and their PRINCIPLES.THE SEASONS. - THE JEWISH MONTHS.-THE WEATHER and STATE of the COUNTRY (monthly).—THE JEWISH FEASTS. THE WEEK, SABBATICAL YEAR, JUBILEE, &c.-DIVISIONS of DAY and NIGHT. 32 IV. POETRY of the BIBLE. CONTENTS continued. V. MUSIC of the BIBLE- (1.) Vocal Music of the Hebrews... (2.) Musical Instruments of the Bible. (i.) String-instruments... (ii.) Wind-instruments. (iii.) Instruments of Percussion... (iv.) List of passages in which musical instruments are mentioned in O.T. & N.T........ VL MONEY and WEIGHTS of the BIBLE..... VIL ETHNOLOGY of the BIBLE:- Linguistic and Geographical Introduction (2.) The period of the Davidic empire... (3.) The period of the Babylonish captivity. ..F. W. MADDEN, M.R.A.S. VIII. THE BIBLE and the MONUMENTS; or the Hebrews in their relations with the (1.) Historical and Political relations. (3.) Commercial relations (4.) Science, Literature, and Art. . REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A. IX. CHRONOLOGY. (1.) BASES of BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY.... 74 76 From the DEATH of SOLOMON to MALACHI, exhibiting the Hebrew KINGS & PROPHETS. 81 81 X. HISTORY. HISTORICAL EPITOME, OF CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT of the BIBLE:- PART I. THE OLD TESTAMENT....... PART II. BETWEEN the TESTAMENTS, or the Jews under the Persians, 96 JEWISH SECTS and ORDERS.. TABLE of the HERODIAN FAMILY.. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of GOSPEL HISTORY, and a HARMONY of the FOUR GOSPELS :- (i.) Events connected with the Birth and Childhood of our Lord. (ii.) Announcement and introduction of our Lord's public Ministry. (iii) From the 1st Passover, during our Lord's public Ministry, until the 2nd. (v.) From the 3rd Passover until our Lord arrives at Bethany, 6 days before-.. (vii.) Our Lord's Resurrection, His subsequent Appearances and Ascension.. HISTORICAL EPITOME, PART III. APOSTOLIC HISTORY, 112 Exhibiting the Travels and Epistles of St. Paul. REV. P. THOMSON, M.A. and Editor. A TABLE to find each PSALM by its FIRST LINE. By S. G. PRONUNCIATION XIV. INDEX to the PERSONS, PLACES, and SUBJECTS of the BIBLE (16,000 refs.) PREFACE. THE object of the notes in the present edition of the Bible is to put the reader in possession of the main facts relative to the text of the Authorised Version. They are designed not merely to correct some of the more important mistranslations, but to supply the means of estimating the authority by which the proposed corrections are supported. They appeal at once to the ordinary Bible reader, whose chief difficulties they endeavour to meet, and to the special or professional student, who will find, it is hoped, particularly in the Old Testament, a more careful selection of critical data and authorities than is elsewhere accessible. It is this two-fold character which constitutes the special feature of the present work, and distinguishes it from the larger revision now in progress at Westminster. The editors of the Old Testament particularly desire that the two undertakings may be understood to be quite independent. Although they have for some time past taken part in the larger revision, they have been careful to keep the two works distinct; indeed, they had practically finished much, if not most, of their preparation for this volume before becoming members of the Company of Revisers. The notes range themselves under two heads, Variations of Rendering, and Variations of Reading The former are those cases where the Authorised Version has been thought not to represent the original fairly-these are indicated by figures consecutive through the chapter as reference-marks; the latter, where the text which the Authorised Version translates has been supposed to be either incorrect or doubtful-these are specified by the earlier letters of the Greek alphabet in each verse. The reference-marks are placed before and (as a rule) after the words of the text that are referred to; the names of authorities immediately after the words in whose support they are quoted. No new rendering is introduced on the private authority of the editors. We must, however, except a few of the notes on passages where the Authorised Version is not strictly accurate in representing grammatical forms, or not literal in rendering the language of the original. But as a rule, if a Various Rendering has no name appended to it, it is to be understood that it has the general verdict of scholars in its favour. With regard to the English of the notes, it has been the endeavour of the editors to keep it as far as possible in harmony with that of our present Bible. An exception must, of course, be made in the case of matter introduced as paraphrase or explanation, where the language of the Authorised Version has become antiquated, or where (especially in the New Testament) it has seemed liable to be misunderstood. Completeness in the explanation of archaisms has, however, not been aimed at. It should likewise be mentioned that, where several authorities substantially agree, the editors have ventured to combine them by selecting some one English word which seemed fairly to express their meaning. (1) With regard to the Various Renderings, it was obviously necessary to limit them to those (or some of those) which appeared sensibly to affect the meaning. A very slight change in the English has sometimes been found sufficient. Where, for instance, the thought, or the colouring of the thought, was perceptibly modified by the presence or absence of the definite article, or where the distinctions of tenses seemed of great importance to the sense or consecutiveness of a passage, such points have been noticed. But alterations in these respects have not been made in the interest of mere grammatical accuracy. A great source of obscurity in the Authorised Version is the use of different English words for one word of the original, even in the same context. In such cases, one uniform rendering has frequently been adopted, with the result, not merely of clearing up the context, but of suggesting an unexpected parallelism between different parts of the Bible. (2) With regard to the Various Readings, it is necessary to remind the reader that the text from which the Authorised Version of the New Testament is translated is substantially identical with that of the first edition of the Greek text published by Erasmus in 1516, an edition based upon not more than five MSS., and those chosen almost at random without any regard to their intrinsic value. The discovery of some of the most ancient and valuable MSS. of the New Testament, and the systematic use of others, both ancient and valuable, which, though known in Western Europe in the 16th century, were scarcely used, and, in general, a more comprehensive study of MSS. and ancient Versions, has shewn that this "Received Text," as it is called, labours under manifold corruptions. Most students will probably allow the superior authority of Lachmann, and (especially) of his successors Tischendorf, Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort, and accept the judgment of these editors, where they agree, as decisive. The Hebrew text of the Old Testament stands upon a somewhat different footing. The form in which it appears in the printed Bibles is that in which it has been fixed by the Jews themselves for centuries. But a close examination reveals the fact that, jealously guarded as it thus has been, there must have been an earlier period in its transmission, during which errors and alterations crept in. The existence of such errors may be easily shewn, without passing beyond the limits of the Hebrew text itself, by a comparison of the corresponding chapters in the Books of Samuel and Kings on the one hand, and in the Chronicles on the other. Of the MSS. which have as yet been examined, but few date back as far as the 10th century A.D., and these few contain only portions of the Bible. But the ancient Versions at once carry us back to a period from 500 to 1000 years anterior to this: they thus reflect, with more or less exactness, a text far older than that represented by the earliest Hebrew MSS. Certainly to classify and account for all the divergences which they exhibit is a problem of extreme complexity, and perhaps insoluble: but, if used with tact and sobriety, the ancient Versions afford invaluable aid in restoring order and sequence where the Hebrew, as we possess it, appears involved in much confusion. Cases, however, occur in which a suspicion of corruption attaches to the text, which even a comparison of the Versions does not avail to remove. Here, then, nothing remains but to make a temperate use of critical emendation. However reluctant we may be to admit the principle of conjecture, an exceptional application of it is justified in the case of the Old Testament (1) by the long interval which elapsed between the composition of most of the books and the earliest date to which we can trace them, and (2) by the nature of the Hebrew characters, which, in every phase through which the alphabet has passed, are very liable to be confounded. Purely arbitrary emendations are, of course, inadmissible; but there are many passages which become at once intelligible on a slight alteration in the form of one or two of the letters. Changes of the vowel-points are also occasionally of service, but these do not in the same sense fall under the head of conjecture, for the vowel-points merely represent a valuable, but still post-Christian, exegetical tradition. The editors of the New Testament have been permitted (and they desire to record their grateful sense of the kindness) to collate throughout the edition of the Greek Testament, as yet unpublished, by Canon Westcott and the Rev. Dr. Hort. It is the result of more than twenty years' labour, during which the whole mass of evidence has been carefully sifted and weighed upon principles determined by an independent study of the authorities, their relation to one another, and the history of the transmission of the text. The opportunity of the present re-issue of the work as a reference Bible has been taken to make some additions and corrections: especially in the New Testament portion, in which the editors have been helped by several criticisms, public and private; their acknowledgments are especially due to Mr. S. Bloxsidge, formerly of Exeter College, Oxford. The Various Readings of the Greek text have been still more carefully examined, and it is hoped that few variations of importance will have escaped notice. Some additional MSS. have been quoted —notably ≈, which is of so much importance for the first part of St. Luke, and, to a greater extent than before, Z in St. Matthew. The readings of the principal Versions have been sparingly introduced, and also in some cases those of the most eminent Fathers. Among modern authorities, collations have been made of the text of McClellan for the four Gospels, and of Weiss for the first three; also of the text of Westcott and Hort for Acts to Revelation. Account has also been taken of the readings of Lightfoot and Ellicott on the Epistles upon which they have commented. As Dr. McClellan, and in a qualified sense Bishop Ellicott, represent different principles of criticism from those now generally in the ascendant, additional confidence may be felt where they are in agreement with the other editors. It should be remembered also that the text of Tregelles for the Gospels, and that of Lachmann for the whole of the New Testament, was formed before the discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus, so that the balance of evidence since their time has been somewhat altered. For the Various Renderings, the following have also been collated: McClellan on the Gospels, Vaughan, Rückert, and Van Hengel on Romans, Lightfoot on Galatians, Van Hengel on Philippians, Moulton on Hebrews, and Jelf on 1 St. John. The editors were also fortunate enough to be able to introduce at the last moment a collation of Dr. Westcott on the Gospel of St. John. Canon Farrar's St. Luke, which they would gladly have included, appeared too late. By the method of notation adopted, the number of passages in each chapter for which new readings or new translations are proposed, as well as their places, can be readily ascertained without reading through the text. It only remains to invite the reader's careful attention to the pages in which the abbreviations and other points of detail are explained. |
