its text should present the carefully chosen language of the period and not be confined to that of nearly three centuries ago, which may have passed into entire disuse and would then be meaningless to those of this generation. As a result of action taken on February 10, 1870, by the Southern Convocation (Canterbury) of the Established Church of England, there assembled in Westminster Abbey, June 22, 1870, a body of learned men, clerical and lay, constituting the English New Testament Company of revisers, having a total membership of twenty-seven. They represented widely different religious denominational preferences but were united in their desire to give to the world a correct and reliable English Bible. A similar company having a total membership of fifteen and representing eight religious denominations, was organized in America for consultation and coöperation. The origin of this American New Testament Company was as follows: The Rev. Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Sacred Literature in The Union Theological Seminary, New York, by invitation of the English New Testament Company "prepared a draft of rules for coöperation, and a list of names of biblical scholars who would probably best represent the different denominations and literary institutions in this movement. The suggestions were submitted to the British Committee and substantially approved" (Introduction by Dr. Schaff to The Revision of the English Version of the New Testament, 1872). When the English Company had completed the first revision of a portion of the Bible, it was sent to the American Company for consideration and advice. When received again by the English Company there was a second revision and a return to America for a final review. Then it was again reviewed and often re-reviewed and even re-rereviewed by the English Company before final adoption. On November 11, 1880, the English New Testament Company, at a special service. in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, united in thanksgiving that their labors were completed and the revised New Testament an accomplished fact. The Old Testament companies of England (twenty-five members) and of America (eleven members), similarly organized and coöperating in their labors, completed their work in 1885, so that the Revised Bible, Old and New Testament, was ready for distribution on May 5, 1885. The English New Testament and Old Testament companies were separately organized bodies and did not meet or work together. The English companies were not able to concur in all of the preferences expressed by the American companies and so when the English Revised. Bible was published it included by agreement a statement of all of the non-concurred-in American preferences, in consideration of which the American companies bound themselves not to print or encourage the issue of any other revised Bible until after the expiration of fourteen years from the date of the publication of the English Revised Bible. The English companies disbanded in 1885. Dr. Schaff (1872) calls attention in the following language to the fact that the initiative in this revision did not originate with the English Church as a whole, but only with the Southern Convocation: "The Convocation of York, owing mainly to the influence of the excellent Archbishop Thomson, did not fall in with the movement, and is therefore not represented in the Committee on Revision. But a favorable change is gradually taking place, and some of the most influential members of the Convocation, as Dean Howson, of Chester, are hearty supporters of revision." The American Standard Revised Version (1901-Protestant). The American companies maintained their organization following 1885 and preserved their records. When the fourteen years had expired the survivors believed there was need for an American revision, not only because of the expressed preferences of the American companies as stated in the English Revision but also because of the advance in scholarship since 1885 and the comments and suggestions called forth by the English Revision. They therefore decided to undertake the work of completing and publishing what is now known as the American Standard Revised Bible (1901)—the latest Bible contributed to English-speaking Protestant Christianity. While maintaining their organization their ranks were depleted by death and, as with few exceptions vacancies were not filled, the members remaining to edit the new revision when the time arrived for its publication were few in number. Of the New Testament Company there remained only three: the Rev. J. Henry Thayer, D.D., the Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., and the Rev. Matthew Brown Riddle, D.D., LL.D. In a useful little book, The Story of the Revised New Testament, American Standard Edition, Reverend Matthew Brown Riddle, D.D., LL.D., at this date (1910) the last survivor of the original members of the New Testament Company of American revisers, makes this interesting statement: "As Professor Thayer had full records of the earlier meetings, often including the suggestions of individual members, even when not adopted by the Company, it was possible to make a review of all the work previously done; and to base the new version upon the judgment of the entire Company as thus recorded. The three survivors really represented their co-laborers, and the results are in no sense merely the opinions of the trio that remained alive in 1897." Their arduous labors necessitated by the revision were performed gratuitously. The Douay Version (Rheims, N.T., 1582; Douai, O.T., 1609-10Roman Catholic). This version takes its name from Douai, department of Nord, France, where Roman Catholic divines from the University of Oxford, England, established a college for the education of English youths, in connection with the University of Douai he establishment of this university was authorized by a bull from Pope. Paul IV, confirmed by Pius IV, January 6, 1560. It was inaugurated October 5, 1562, and its purpose was stated to be "the preservation of the purity of the Catholic Faith from the errors of the Reformation." The university thus established at Douai was removed to Rheims in 1578 and there a translation of the New Testament was made into English from the Latin Vulgate of Jerome. The New Testament was published at Rheims in 1582. The university was moved back to Douai in 1593, where the Old Testament was published in 1609-10. This completed what is known as the original Douay Bible. There are said to have been two revisions of the Douay Old Testament and eight of the Douay New Testament, representing such an extent of verbal alterations and modernized spelling that a Roman Catholic authority says, "The version now in use has been so seriously altered that it can be scarcely considered identical with that which first went by the name of the Douay Bible," and further that "it never had any episcopal imprimatur, much less any papal approbation." Dr. Richard Challoner, coadjutor to the Vicar Apostolic of London, in his revision of the Rheims and Douai text made so many changes that his work is said to have represented a practically new translation. He published several editions between 1750 and 1781, in which latter year he died in the ninetieth year of his age. The Catholic Encyclopedia says: Although the Bibles in use at the present day by the Catholics of England and Ireland are popularly styled the Douay Version, they are most improperly so called; they are founded, with more or less alteration, on a series of revisions undertaken by Bishop. Challoner in 1749-52. His object was to meet the practical want felt by the Catholics of his day of a Bible moderate in size and price, in readable English, and with notes more suitable to the time. . . . The changes introduced by him were so considerable that, according to Cardinal Newman, they "almost amounted to a new translation." So also, Cardinal Wiseman wrote, “To call it any longer the Douay or Rhemish Version is an abuse of terms. It has been altered and modified until scarcely any verse remains as it was originally published." The Douay or Roman Catholic Bible from which the Gospel text herein used has been taken, is said to be based upon the Clementine (Pope Clement VIII) Version which is now the standard of the Roman Catholic Church, and it bears the following approval by Cardinal Gibbons: "We hereby approve of the publication of the Catholic Bible, which is an accurate reprint of the Rheims and Douay edition with Dr. Challoner's notes. The sacred volume is printed in an attractive style. J. Card. Gibbons, Baltimore, Sept. 1, 1899." Comment on Bible Versions. The law of Bible development appears to require hat the individual work, which always comes first, shall be reviewed d revised, re-reviewed and re-revised as knowledge. and sta adards of holarship advance, the constant effort being to more nearly comprehe nd rightly express the divine message to the generations of mer ey come and go. THE HOLY GOSPEL· COMPARATIVE TEXT EXPLANATORY NOTES NOTE I. The Authorized Version has been placed in the first column and made the basis of the Gospel subject-index because it is the oldest English Bible in general use by Protestant Christendom, and the dominant Christian faith of the United States, and among English speaking people generally, is Protestant. Christian Unity in Effort gives as the number of communicants and adherents in the important religious denominations in the United States, based upon a census estimate as of December 31, 1908, Protestant communicants 21,887,812 and adherents 65,600,000; while the Catholic totals were 12,394,731 communicants and 14,600,000 adherents. NOTE 2. In the Douay Version the numbers of verses in several of the chapters differ from the numbers in the same chapters in the other versions; for example, the Douay Version consolidates Matthew 17: 14, 15 of the other versions into Matthew 17: 14, making twenty-six verses in the Douay, there being twenty-seven verses in each of the other versions. NOTE 3. The English and the American Revision companies respectively responsible for the English Revised and the American Standard Revised versions, decided that the evidence before them required the omission of the following verses which appear in the Authorized Version and in the Douay Version; namely, Matthew 17:21; 18: 11; 23: 14; Mark 7:16; 9:44; 9:46; 11:26; 15:28; Luke 17: 36; 23: 17; John 5: 4. In addition to the omissions in the Holy Gospel as specifically noted, other similar omissions occur in the remaining books of the New Testament. NOTE 4. Titles and publishers of the Bibles from which the Gospel text has been taken: The Holy Bible (King James or Authorized Version) Oxford University Press, American Branch, New York The Holy Bible (English Revised Veron) Oxford University Press, American Branch, New York The Holy Bible (American Standard Version) a Thomas Nelson & Sons, New Y It |