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Title-page of the First Edition of King James' 
 Bible (the "Authorized Version"), i6ii. 
 
 Frontispiece, 
 
THE STORY OF 
 THE BIBLE 
 
 BY 
 
 EUGENE STOCK 
 
 NEW YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little book has been written at the 
 request of Dr. C. J. Ridgeway, Dean of 
 Carlisle, as one of a series for the use of 
 young people of Confirmation age. It does 
 not pretend to compete with several popular 
 books in which the history of the English 
 Bible is given more in detail. But it does 
 attempt to do what I think no other has 
 done, viz. to tell, in a brief form, and in 
 simple and colloquial language, the Story 
 of the Bible from the early ages in which 
 parts of the Old Testament were written 
 to the latest Missionary Versions in heathen 
 lands. And the last two chapters are de- 
 signed to confirm the faith of the young 
 reader in the Scriptures as in a very real 
 sense the Word of God, and to guide him 
 in his personal study of it. 
 
 I wish to say frankly that I write as one 
 who is not afraid of Biblical criticism. There 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 is no question that some popular ideas about 
 the Bible, or parts of it, have undergone 
 modification owing to the results of the 
 scientific study of its contents by scholars, 
 many of them devout Christians ; and it 
 would not at all surprise me if some of the 
 ideas we still hold should have to be corrected 
 by further research. The astronomers of 
 the 1 6th century and the geologists of the 
 19th have much enlarged our concep- 
 tions of God's creation ; and more recently, 
 the discoveries in Egypt and Assyria have 
 affected our systems of chronology. It may 
 well be that other branches of study will 
 show us more of our mistakes. But it is not 
 the Bible that will suffer in the long run. 
 Its influence in the world is greater to-day 
 than at any former period. Never was it so 
 widely and reverently studied. Never was 
 its divine power as God's instrument for the 
 conversion and edification of men so manifest. 
 Our puny theories may wither like the grass, 
 but the Word of God shall stand for ever. 
 
 I wish to thank the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society for the illustrations, the speci- 
 mens of type, &c., and the Religious Tract 
 Society for facsimiles of two Versions ; also 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 Mr. H. F. Moule, of the Bible Society, for 
 his kindness in reading the proofs. 
 
 I only hope the book may give half as 
 much pleasure to the young readers as the 
 preparation of it has given to myself; and I 
 humbly pray that, by the blessing of God, 
 it may help them to love and value those 
 " Sacred Writings *' w^hich are able to make 
 them wise unto salvation through faith which 
 is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 E. S. 
 
 Glencairn, Bickley, Kent, 
 August 1906. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. About the Book, and the Books i 
 
 II. About the Old Testament • 14 
 
 III, About the Old Testament : the 
 
 Canon and the Languages . 26 
 
 IV. About the New Testament Books : 
 
 the Writers and the Canon . 40 
 
 V. About the New Testament: the 
 
 Manuscripts and Versions . 58 
 
 VI. About Early English Versions . 73 
 
 VII. About the Middle Ages and the 
 
 Revival of Learning . . 85 
 
 VIII. About the Bibles of the English 
 
 Reformation . . . « 99 
 
 ix 
 
t CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP, PAGE 
 
 IX. About the Authorized and the 
 
 Revised Versions * . .116 
 
 X. About the Missionary Versions . 133 
 
 XI. About the Influence of the Bible 161 
 
 XII. About Reading the Bible . .184 
 
 Index of Proper Names . . 207 
 
BIBLIA 
 
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 Title-page of Coverdale's Bible, 1535, the 
 FIRST Bible printed in England. 
 
 To face p. i. 
 
The Story of the Bible 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ABOUT THE BOOK, AND THE BOOKS 
 
 I AM going to tell you the Story of the Bible. 
 Is the Bible, then, a story-book ? Well, it 
 does tell us hundreds of stories— true stories 
 too ! But I am not going to speak of these. 
 You can read them all for yourselves. My 
 story is the story of the Bible itself: how 
 it was written; how it was kept, and 
 copied, and translated, and circulated. And 
 a wonderful story it is ! 
 
 First of all, what does the word Bible 
 mean? The answer to this question is 
 very curious. In ancient times books were 
 written either on dried skins or on a part 
 of the stem of a reed called papyrus— th^ 
 "bulrush" of which the box or "ark" was 
 
 A 
 
2 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 made in which the infant Moses was put. 
 The outer coat or rind of this reed was 
 called biblos^ and from this the writing on it 
 came to be called biblos. So in the Greek 
 language biblos meant a book, and bib lion a 
 little book. If you open your New Testa- 
 ment, you will find that its first words are 
 " The book . . . ," and in the Greek, in 
 which the New Testament was written, the 
 first word is Biblos. Then if you turn to 
 the 4th chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, you 
 will find that when Jesus Christ stood up 
 in the synagogue at Nazareth to read, they 
 gave Him a book to read out of, and there 
 the Greek word is biblion. Now the plural 
 of biblion is biblia, " books " ; and in the 
 Early Church the Christians used to call 
 the ancient Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 " the Books," biblia. 
 
 By and by the Roman Christians, who 
 spoke the Latin language, used this word 
 biblia; but in Latin it would not sound like 
 a plural word, but like a singular one, and so 
 with them biblia came to mean " book," and 
 they used it of the whole Scriptures together 
 as one book — Biblia — "the Bible." 
 
 So in Greek the Bible means "Books," 
 
ABOUT THE BOOK 3 
 
 and in Latin it means "The Book." And 
 this is a very remarkable thing, because it 
 reminds us of the exact truth. Our Bible 
 is " books," and it is also " The Book." We 
 have it in one Volume, but the Volume 
 contains sixty-six separate books. Sixty-six 
 books ! That is quite a library, is it not ? 
 The word "library," too, comes from another 
 Latin word, liber^ a book. And indeed our 
 Bible really is a wonderful library of books. 
 A famous learned man in the Early Church, 
 Saint Jerome, who lived 350 years after 
 Christ, called it the Divine Library. And 
 yet it is in another sense all one, the One 
 Book of God. 
 
 When I was a little boy, I used to have 
 to learn a verse out of the Bible every day ; 
 and one of the first pieces that I learned in 
 that way was the Nineteenth Psalm. If you 
 will look at that Psalm, you will find that 
 God has spoken to men in two ways. First 
 we read that " the heavens declare the glory 
 of God " ; that " day unto day uttereth 
 speech," that " their words " are gone '* to 
 the end of the world." This means that the 
 beautiful sky and sun and stars, though they 
 have no voice for our ears, speak to our 
 
4 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 minds of the glory and greatness of God. 
 But then the Psalm goes on to tell of some- 
 thing else that God has given us, His " law," 
 " testimony," " precepts," " commandment " ; 
 and these we find in the Bible. So we have 
 the Book of Nature and the Book of Grace. 
 We may well call the Bible the Book of 
 Grace, because it tells us, not only, like the 
 Book of Nature, of God's greatness and 
 power, but also of His love and mercy and 
 grace to us all. 
 
 Let us now think a little what sort of 
 Book the Bible is. 
 
 If you went to Turkey, or to Egypt, or 
 to some parts of India, you would find that 
 the Mohammedans there have a book which 
 they think sacred, called the Koran. They 
 would tell you that it is God's book, that it 
 is His message to men, and that He sent it 
 straight down from heaven by an angel, just 
 as it is. Of course that is quite untrue. 
 But do you think that God sent the Bible 
 straight down from heaven like that, just as 
 it is ? Not at all. God's way of sending 
 His messages to men was quite different. 
 
 First, when men in the early ages of the 
 world had forsaken God, and were worship- 
 
ABOUT THE BOOK 5 
 
 ping false gods, and living in all kinds of sin, 
 God chose out a man to be His own special 
 servant, and told him that his descendants 
 should be a great nation, and that through 
 them all other nations should get great 
 blessings. That man v^as Abraham, and 
 his descendants were the people of Israel, 
 whom we now call Jews. Hundreds of 
 years passed away, and various books were 
 written by these Jews. Some wrote his- 
 tories of their nation ; some wrote songs 
 and hymns ; some, who were called pro- 
 phets, wrote down messages that God gave 
 them for the people ; some wrote accounts 
 of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, when He 
 had come into the world, and had been 
 crucified, and had risen again and gone to 
 heaven ; some wrote letters to the Chris- 
 tians in different countries and cities who 
 had learned to believe in Christ. Those 
 books, or at least some of them, God meant 
 by and by to be collected together to make 
 one Book which should be His great Mes- 
 sage or Revelation to men. Most of the 
 men who wrote the books did not know 
 that they were writing parts of God's great. 
 Book. They wrote histories, or songs, or 
 
6 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 letters, for the people of their own times. 
 But God was all the while guiding them 
 in their writing, so that what they wrote 
 should be suitable for His Messages. His 
 Holy Spirit kept them from writing what 
 was not true or not good, and taught them 
 to tell men rightly about God, about His 
 power. His holiness. His love ; about His 
 hatred of sin, and His way of saving men 
 from sin ; about life, and death, and eter- 
 nity. I think that some of them felt and 
 knew that the Holy Spirit was thus guid- 
 ing them ; but I am sure they had no idea 
 that what they were writing was to be 
 read and loved thousands of years afterwards 
 in all parts of the world. 
 
 We call this guidance of the Holy Spirit 
 Inspiration. St. Paul wrote to Timothy 
 about the Scripture that was " inspired of 
 God" (2 Tim. iii. 16); and in the Second 
 Epistle of Peter (i. 21) we read that the 
 prophets of old time were " moved by the 
 Holy Ghost." " Inspiration " means in- 
 breathing. We read in the 20th chapter 
 of St. John how the Lord Jesus, after His 
 resurrection, breathed on His disciples, and 
 said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." His 
 
ABOUT THE BOOK 7 
 
 breath was an outward and visible sign of 
 the Holy Spirit coming into their hearts 
 and minds ; and when we speak of a pro- 
 phet or an apostle being " inspired," we 
 mean that the Holy Spirit was guiding 
 his thoughts and feelings and words and 
 writings. 
 
 Perhaps you will ask why God did not 
 give us His messages in the form of a Creed, 
 or a Catechism, or a Sermon, or at all events 
 in one book, written under His direction by 
 one person, with all His teachings in order, 
 and complete. Would not that have been 
 better for us ? Why should He take a pretty 
 story about a foreign girl who gleaned in 
 a Jewish field (Ruth), and a sad song about 
 the captive Jews in Babylon (Ps. cxxxvii.), 
 and a letter about a runaway slave (Ep. to 
 Philemon), and long lists of names (i Chron.), 
 and make them parts of His Book ? Well, 
 but remember that God knows best I I 
 am quite sure of this, that the Bible is much 
 more interesting as it is. It has been read, 
 and thought about, and talked about, and 
 loved, far more than if it had come in some 
 other form. And therefore it has done the 
 work He meant it to do. In the Book of 
 
8 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Isaiah He says (Iv. 8), "My thoughts are 
 not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
 My ways"; and which do you think are 
 best, His or ours ? Let us thank God for 
 giving us His Word in His own way ; and 
 let us be sure that every part of it has some 
 message for us. We shall see this more 
 clearly by and by. 
 
 We now see how good it is that the 
 very name Bible should come from a word 
 which means " Books " and a word which 
 means " The Book." For we see that it is 
 both. It is a collection of Books, a Library. 
 Genesis is a Book. Judges is a Book. Pro- 
 verbs is a Book. Micah's Prophecy is a 
 Book. St. Luke's Gospel is a Book. St. 
 Paul's Epistle to Titus is a Book. The 
 Books are different in size. Isaiah has sixty- 
 six chapters ; Philemon has one chapter. 
 They were written at different times : parts 
 of Genesis perhaps two thousand years be- 
 fore Christ ; St. John's Gospel perhaps fifty 
 years after Christ. And yet all these Books 
 together make one Book, the Book of God, 
 the Book of Grace, the Book of Revelation. 
 
 What do I mean by Revelation ? I mean 
 that men cannot find out about God, and 
 
ABOUT THE BOOK 9 
 
 His Purposes, and His Redemption, and 
 His Heaven, by their own learning and skill, 
 just as they find out about Chemistry and 
 Astronomy and Medicine. God has to re- 
 veal it, to unveil it, to drav^ aside the curtain 
 that hides it all from our eyes. That is 
 Revelation. That is vv^hat the Bible does 
 for us. 
 
 Why is our Bible in two Parts ? and why 
 are they called the Old Testament and the 
 New ? You know that in Church we read 
 chapters in the Bible which are appointed 
 as Lessons for the day. The Jews have 
 always had Lessons too, only they are from 
 the Book which we call the Old Testament. 
 If you look at the Book of Acts (xiii. 15), 
 you will find that in the synagogue or place 
 of worship there was " the reading of the 
 law and the prophets" (see also Luke iv. 17 ; 
 Acts XV. 21). Now in St. Paul's Second 
 Epistle to the Corinthians (iii. 14) he speaks 
 of this, and calls what was read the '^old 
 testament " ; but the Greek word he uses 
 generally means " covenant," and St. Paul 
 means that the Books that were read tell 
 of the old covenant or agreement which 
 God made with men in the earlier ages, 
 
10 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 particularly with Abraham. In the same 
 chapter he calls himself a minister of a 
 "new testament," by which he means 
 God's new covenant, the Gospel which 
 he preached. And in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews vou will find both the covenants or 
 testaments mentioned in one verse (ix. 15). 
 So in the Early Church the two great divi- 
 sions of the Bible came to be called the Old 
 and New Covenants or Testaments. The 
 word Testament was used by the Romans, 
 and we got it from them. 
 
 One other question. Why is the Bible 
 called the Holy Scriptures ? " Scripture " 
 simply means Writing. The New Testa- 
 ment calls the Old Testament "the Writ- 
 ings" or "Scriptures," thus : — 
 
 " That the scriptures of the prophets might be 
 fulfilled," Matt. xxvi. 56. 
 
 " He expounded unto them in all the scriptures," 
 Luke xxiv. 27. 
 
 " That they might understand the scriptures," 
 Luke xxiv. 45. 
 
 " Paul . . . reasoned with them out of the 
 scriptures," Acts xvii. 2. 
 
 " They . . . searched the scriptures daily," 
 Acts xvii. 1 1 . 
 
 ** An eloquent man, and mighty in the scrip- 
 tures," Acts xviii. 24. 
 
ABOUT THE BOOK ii 
 
 ** Showing by the scriptures that Jesus was 
 
 Christ," Acts xviii. 28. 
 "That we through comfort of the scriptures 
 
 might have hope/' Rom. xv. 4. 
 ** Christ died for our sins according to the 
 
 scriptures," i Cor. xv. 3. 
 " Rose again . . . according to the scriptures," 
 
 I Cor. XV. 4. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Himself called the Old 
 Testament "the Scriptures." Thus, — 
 
 ** Did ye never read in the scriptures . . . ? " 
 Matt. xxi. 42. 
 
 ** Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures," 
 Matt. xxii. 29. 
 
 ** How then shall the scriptures be ful- 
 filled . . . ?" Matt. xxvi. 54. 
 
 " Search []or. Ye search, R.V.]] the scriptures," 
 John V. 39. 
 
 In these cases the whole Old Testament 
 is referred to. But sometimes Jesus, or one 
 of the Apostles or Evangelists, refers to one 
 particular passage in the Old Testament, 
 and thus the word used is " Scripture." 
 Thus, — 
 
 "This day is this scripture fulfilled," Luke 
 
 iv. 21. 
 " Hath not the scripture said . . . ? " John 
 
 vii. 42. 
 
12 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 " That the scripture might be fulfilled," John 
 xiii. 1 8, xvii. 12, xix. 24, 28, 36, 37. 
 
 *' They knew not the scripture, that He . . , " 
 John XX. 9. 
 
 **This scripture must needs have been fulfilled," 
 Acts i. 16. 
 
 ** The scripture which he read," Acts viii. 
 
 32» 35- 
 " What saith the scripture ? " Rom. iv. 3 ; 
 
 Gal. iy. 30. 
 *' The scripture saith," Rom. ix. 17, x. 11, 
 
 xi. 2 ; I Tim. v. 18 ; Jas. ii. 23, iv. 5. 
 " The royal law according to the scripture," 
 
 Jas. ii. 8. 
 
 Twice we find the words " Holy Scrip- 
 tures " : — 
 
 " Which He had promised afore by His prophets 
 in the holy scriptures," Rom, i. 2. 
 
 " From a child thou hast known the holy 
 scriptures," 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 But I must tell you that the Greek words 
 in these two verses are not the same. In 
 Romans the words are graphais hagiais^ but 
 in Timothy they are hiera grammata. It is 
 right that the difference in such important 
 words should be clear to us English readers, 
 so the Revised Version puts " holy scrip- 
 tures " in Romans, and " sacred writings '* 
 
ABOUT THE BOOK 13 
 
 in Timothy. The Greek word in Romans 
 is the same that is translated "scriptures" 
 everywhere else ; while the Greek word in 
 Timothy is the same as is in John v. 47, 
 where our Lord speaks of the "writings" 
 of Moses. 
 
 But after all, the meaning is really 
 the same. The " sacred writings " which 
 Timothy knew so well were the "holy 
 scriptures" of the Old Testament; and it 
 is a grand thing when one can look back 
 over past years and say, " Yes, I have 
 known and loved God's Library of Books, 
 the Sacred Writings He inspired, ever since 
 I was a child ! " 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 ABOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 Let us now look at some of the Books 
 
 of the Old Testament, and think of the 
 
 men who wrote them. 
 
 Look at the first page of your Bible. The 
 
 Book of Genesis : why is it called Genesis ? 
 
 The word is Greek, and means Beginning, 
 
 This is the Book of the Beginning. See 
 
 the first words: "In the Beginning God 
 
 created the heaven and the earth." Who 
 
 first wrote that ? Perhaps Moses did ; but 
 
 we are not told that he did. It mav have 
 
 been written long before his time; and it 
 
 may have been taken by him, or by some one 
 
 else after him, from a much older writing. 
 
 But whether Moses or some one else first 
 
 wrote it, or copied it, how did the first writer 
 
 know that God created heaven and earth ? 
 
 No one was there to see ! Most of the 
 
 »4 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 15 
 
 histories in the Bible men could find out for 
 themselves without God telling them ; but 
 how could any man tell what God did before 
 men were created r One thing is clear. 
 Either somebody guessed it, or else God told 
 it to him. 
 
 You know that there have been wonder- 
 ful discoveries in Eastern lands in the last 
 fifty years. Underneath the sand of the 
 deserts, and amid old ruins, men have found 
 thousands of very ancient bricks covered 
 with strange characters. These bricks are 
 the papers and letters and books of nations 
 that lived many centuries ago, and the way 
 to read them has also been discovered. Now 
 on some of these bricks has been found an 
 account of the Creation, which is rather 
 like the account in Genesis, though partly 
 very different. Did God tell the man who 
 wrote those bricks about it ? No, I think 
 not ; but God had very likely told it to 
 men before that time — perhaps to the very 
 first men who lived on the earth ; and while 
 some afterwards wrote it down badly, God 
 guided one man to write it properly, and 
 his writing we have in Genesis. We cannot 
 be sure of all this ; but one thing is certain , 
 
i6 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 that the First Chapter of Genesis is the 
 most wonderful narrative ever written, and 
 we may truly say ive know that it was not 
 invented by a man, but revealed by God. 
 
 Now about the rest of the Book of 
 Genesis. Do you know what an editor is ? 
 Every newspaper or magazine that is pub- 
 lished has an editor. Does he write the 
 newspaper or the magazine ? He may per- 
 haps write a little of it, but the greater part 
 is written by others, and he takes their 
 writings and puts them together in good 
 order. When you were younger and were 
 learning to read, you very likely used a 
 book called a Reader^ which had in it 
 stories and verses and other interesting things. 
 That book had an editor, who chose both 
 new pieces and pieces written long before, 
 and arranged them for you. Now learned 
 men who have examined the Book of Genesis 
 very closely tell us that it had an editor, 
 perhaps one editor after another. It was 
 not written or put together all at once. 
 Parts were written at different times and in 
 different places. Very likely Moses was 
 one of the editors ; very likely he wrote 
 parts himself, and put in other writings that 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 17 
 
 were written long before his time ; and 
 very likely other editors after him may have 
 added parts. It used to be said that the art 
 of writing was not known in those early 
 days ; but books and letters ruid papers have 
 now been actually discovered which were 
 then written, and they are now in our 
 museums. But the great thing is that God 
 guided the writers and the editors to prepare 
 what He wanted us all to know. 
 
 And so with the other Books which we 
 call the Books of Moses, — Exodus, Leviti- 
 cus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, — which with 
 Genesis make up what we call the Penta- 
 teuch, a Greek word meaning a five-volume 
 Book. They tell us a great deal about 
 Moses, what he said and did, and he must 
 have written much that is in them. His 
 writing down the things that happened, and 
 the words of God, is actually mentioned in 
 several places : thus, — 
 
 " The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a 
 memorial in a book ..." Exod. xvii. 
 14. 
 
 " Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. 
 . . . And he took the book of the 
 covenant, and read in the audience of the 
 people." Exod. xxiv. 4, 7. 
 
 B 
 
1 8 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 •' Moses wrote their goings out according to 
 
 their journeys." Numb, xxxiii. 2. 
 " When Moses had made an end of writing the 
 
 words of this law in a book ..." 
 
 Deut. xxxi. 24. 
 " Observe to do according to all the law which 
 
 Moses my servant commanded thee. . . . 
 
 This book of the law shall not depart out 
 
 of thy mouth." Josh. i. 7, 8 ; see also 
 
 xxiii. 6. 
 
 And the " book of Moses " mentioned 
 hundreds of years afterwards, in 2 Chron. 
 XXV. 4, xxxv. 12, Ezra vi. 18, Neh. xiii. i, 
 was certainly the Pentateuch. 
 
 But these books also had editors. We can 
 all see a little of this, because the last chapter 
 of Deuteronomy tells of the death of Moses, 
 and therefore must have been written after 
 him ; but learned men say that much more 
 than that was put together a long time after. 
 We do not know for certain about this ; 
 but it really makes no difference. We are 
 quite sure that whoever wrote or edited 
 these Books was guided by God to produce 
 what would be fit for His great Book and 
 profitable to all who would read it properly. 
 
 Then come what we call the Historical 
 Books, from Joshua to Esther. We do not 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 19 
 
 know who wrote any of them. But we find 
 in them many references to books written 
 before, which we have not got, such as the 
 Book of Jasher (Josh. x. 13), the Books of 
 Nathan and Gad (i Chron. xxix. 29), the 
 Book of the Acts of Solomon (i Kings xi. 
 41), the Books of the Chronicles of the 
 Kings of Israel and Judah, one or other of 
 which is referred to more than thirty times 
 (the " Chronicles " we have are quite dif- 
 ferent), and several others. So no doubt the 
 Books we have were put together by editors 
 who used writings which they had before. 
 And if you ask why these have been pre- 
 served through such long ages while so many 
 others were lost, I answer, These are the 
 Books whose writers and editors God had 
 guided, and which were by and by to be 
 part of his great Book of Scriptures. 
 
 Some of the Historical Books were no 
 doubt written long after the events which 
 they record. The two Books of Chronicles, 
 for instance, were written after the Captivity. 
 But this does not make them less valuable. 
 They may be more valuable, just as Green's 
 History of England is more valuable than 
 Hume's, though written a century later. 
 
20 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 In the Book of Psalms, there are 150 
 Psalms. Of these, 73, or nearly half, are 
 said to have been written by King David ; 
 27 by Asaph, Heman, the sons of Korah, and 
 other persons ; while 50 have no name to 
 them. We are not sure that David did 
 write all the 73, because the little titles to 
 the Psalms were added long after, and may 
 not all be correct. But yet the whole Book 
 came afterwards to be called "the Psalms 
 of David " ; and this shows us that a book 
 may sometimes have had one author's name 
 put to it even when he did not write it all. 
 It was so, for instance, with the Book of 
 Proverbs, often called the " Proverbs of Solo- 
 mon," although it includes some written by 
 other men. 
 
 In the Books of the Prophets, or at least in 
 most of them, we no doubt have the writings 
 of the men named. They both spoke and 
 wrote down God's messages to the people. 
 Yet there are chapters in some of these 
 Books which were written by others. For 
 instance, in Jeremiah there are several 
 chapters which tell us incidents in his life ; 
 and probably his friend Baruch may have 
 written these. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 21 
 
 I now want to give you an idea of the 
 kind of teaching we may get out of these 
 ancient books, even when at first sight 
 they do not seem to have much concern 
 with us. We shall thus see a little more 
 clearly why we may call the whole collec- 
 tion God's Word. 
 
 Here is a book — The Book of Judges — 
 which sometimes we are tempted to think 
 not very profitable. It is full of records of 
 sin of every kind, of violence and deceit 
 and wicked passions ; and there is much 
 that is very unpleasant reading. Why did 
 God let us have such a book in His Holy 
 Scriptures ? Well, for one thing, the his- 
 tories of Deborah and Gideon and Samson, 
 at all events, are not only very interesting, 
 but give us solemn lessons. But besides 
 these particular narratives, there is wonder- 
 ful teaching m the very structure of a 
 large part of the book. We find seven 
 narratives which (or at least six of them) 
 can be divided into four parts, which parts 
 we may call Sin, Suffering, Supplication, 
 Salvation. Look at the 3rd chapter, ver. 
 7, " The children of Israel did evil . . ." 
 — there is the Sin. Ver. 8, " Therefore the 
 
22 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, 
 and He sold them . . . and the children 
 of Israel served . . ." — there is the Suffer- 
 ing. Ver. 9, "The children of Israel cried 
 unto the Lord " — there is the Supplication. 
 Ver. 9 again, "The Lord raised up a de- 
 liverer . . ." — there is the Salvation. Now 
 exactly the same phrases occur again and 
 again. Look at chap. iii. 12-15 ; iv. 1-3, 
 15 ; vi. I, 6, 12 ; X. 6, 7, 10 ; xi. I ; xiii. I, 
 24, 25. Why, the Book of Judges is trans- 
 formed when we see this ! — and we thank 
 God for letting its sad history be recorded. 
 
 Again, some people do not often read 
 the Books of Chronicles ; and many learned 
 men say they are not so important as the 
 Books of Samuel and Kings, which con- 
 tain nearly the same history, but generally 
 fuller. Well, the Kings give us the ac- 
 counts of Elijah and EHsha, which the 
 Chronicles do not ; but the Chronicles tell 
 us much about David and Hezekiah which 
 we do not find anywhere else. And there 
 is a feature of Chronicles which is gener- 
 ally missed, just as the feature of Judges 
 mentioned above is missed. The Second 
 Book again and again describes in a word 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 23 
 
 or two the spiritual character of the king. 
 Rehoboam " prepared not (R.V. set not) 
 his heart to seek the Lord" (xii. 14). But 
 Jehoshaphat did (xix. 3), who also had his 
 heart " lifted up in the ways of the Lord *' 
 (xvii. 6). Asa had a " perfect heart " (xv. 
 17). Amaziah did right, but "not with a 
 perfect heart " (xxv. 2). Jotham " prepared 
 (R.V. ordered) his ways before the Lord" 
 (xxvii. 6). Uzziah, though he " sought 
 God" (xxvi. 5), had his heart "lifted up" 
 differently from Jehoshaphat, for it was 
 "to his destruction" (xxvi. 16). Hezekiah 
 served God " with all his heart, and pros- 
 pered " (xxxi. 21), and yet his heart, too, 
 was "lifted up" in a wrong way (xxxii. 
 25). Josiah's heart was "tender," and he 
 "declined not" from the right way (xxxiv. 
 2, 27). And the key of. the whole will be 
 found in chap. xvi. 9, where we read, 
 " The eyes of the Lord run to and fro 
 throughout the whole earth, to show Him- 
 self strong in the behalf of them whose 
 heart is perfect toward Him." Surely this 
 feature of itself gives a value to the Chron- 
 icles. The Books of Kings have only one 
 such notice (i K. xv. 3). 
 
24 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Once more, think of the Psalms. Is it not 
 a wonderful thing that these poetical prayers 
 and praises, written and sung two or three 
 thousand years ago, should still be sung — 
 all of them every month — in churches all 
 round the world ? But let us take one Psalm, 
 and think a little more about it. Take the 
 Fifty-first. The title of it says that King 
 David wrote it after his great sin. Some 
 learned men think that it was not David. It 
 really does not matter. Somebody wrote it ! 
 — some Jew who had deeply sinned, two or 
 three thousand years ago. Think of it ! 
 Did King David — or whoever it was — sit 
 down to write a psalm of penitence for other 
 people to sing, just as Toplady wrote "Rock 
 of Ages," or Mr. Stone " Weary of earth and 
 laden with my sin " ? Oh, no ! That Psalm 
 is the genuine outflow of a sinful but peni- 
 tent heart. Then how came he to write it 
 down at all ? When you kneel down and 
 confess to God (in your own words), you do 
 not presently get up and write down the 
 words you said to Him ! No one can say 
 why that sorrowful man did so, except that 
 God led him to do it ; and when he did, we 
 may be sure that he never dreamed that his 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 25 
 
 words would be read and sung now ! And 
 then, how came his words to be kept after 
 his death ? How came they to be copied ? 
 How came they into the collection of Psalms 
 made long afterwards ? Who can tell ? 
 
 Yet the day came when those touching 
 words of penitence were translated into other 
 languages ! — into Greek, into Syriac, into 
 Latin ; by and by into English ! — and now 
 into the languages of Africa and Asia and 
 the Islands of the Sea ! And if you at any 
 time have sinned, and go on your knees before 
 God in penitence, and do not know what to 
 say, you can tah that Psalm ; you can make 
 it your own ; you can say its words to God. 
 Many have done so I 
 
 Is not this proof enough that God inspired 
 it ? And we see a little of what inspiration 
 really was. Men wrote quite naturally what 
 they thought and felt and wanted to say at the 
 time, never thinking that they were writing 
 for God's great Book of Scripture. But He 
 knew ; He was guiding them ; He let book 
 after book and writing after writing be lost, 
 while He let these particular writings be copied 
 and preserved, that they might be for the 
 good of His people as long as the world lasts! 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ABOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT : THE 
 CANON AND THE LANGUAGES 
 
 We have seen how the Books of the Old 
 Testament came to be written. But how 
 came they to be collected together ? and how 
 was it known that these and no others were 
 God*s inspired Scriptures ? 
 
 It is believed that the first collection was 
 made by Ezra the Scribe ; and it was com- 
 pleted by other good men who followed 
 him. We may be quite sure that if God 
 guided the original writers of the Books, 
 He also guided those who collected them, 
 choosing some books and not choosing others 
 like the Books of Nathan and Gad, which 
 I mentioned in our last chapter. Long 
 before the time of our Lord, these Sacred 
 Scriptures were complete ; and the whole 
 collection was what we now call the Old 
 
 36 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 27 
 
 Testament. But the Jews did not arrange 
 the Books quite as we do now. They had 
 three divisions, which we find mentioned 
 in Luke xxiv. 44 — "the Law, and the 
 Prophets, and the Psalms." The " Law " 
 meant the Pentateuch. The "Prophets" 
 included all the Prophetical Books except 
 Daniel, and also the Historical Books from 
 Joshua to 2nd Kings (except Ruth). All 
 the rest were in the third division, which 
 the Jews simply called " Writings "" ; and 
 probably it was sometimes called " Psalms " 
 because the Psalms stood first in it. After- 
 wards this division came to be called " Sacred 
 Writings," in Greek Hagiographa. 
 
 The collection of Sacred Books was after- 
 wards called the Canon of Scripture. Canon 
 is a Greek word [kanon) which means a 
 measuring rod or line. A carpenter uses 
 his foot-rule, and a draper uses his yard- 
 measure ; and these the Greeks would call 
 canons. So rules for a school, or a society, 
 came to be called canons ; and when St. 
 Paul tells the Galatians to "walk by this 
 rule" (vi. 16), the word in the Greek is 
 kanon. (See also Phil. iii. 16 ; 2 Cor. x. 
 13, 16.) The Church of England has 
 
28 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 "canons," rules or directions made in King 
 James I.'s time ; and it has also men called 
 Canons, who belong to the cathedrals and 
 are supposed to observe certain rules of life. 
 So the " Canon of Scripture " means that 
 the Books have been fixed upon once for 
 all as ?narked off from all other books, and 
 they are called " canonical books." 
 
 Some years after our Lord's time there 
 lived a Jew named Josephus, who wrote 
 the history of his nation. He mentions 
 these Sacred Books of the Old Testament, 
 and says, " No one has dared either to 
 add anything to them, or to take anything 
 from them, or to alter anything. All Jews 
 regard them as the Teaching of God, and 
 abide by them, and would gladly die for 
 them." We read in the Gospels about the 
 Scribes, who so opposed our Lord, and whom 
 He called hypocrites, as indeed many of them 
 were. But the Scribes did one good thing. 
 They copied the old Sacred Books so care- 
 fully as scarcely ever to make a mistake ; 
 and our learned men believe that the Hebrew 
 Old Testament which we have now is really 
 the same in almost every line as that which 
 was first put together. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 29 
 
 Hebrew : yes, that was the language in 
 which the Books were written. The writers 
 were Hebrews, which is the oldest name of 
 the people we call Jews (see Gen. xiv. 13, 
 " Abram the Hebrew "), and they wrote in 
 their own tongue, which is called Hebrew. 
 But after the captivity in Babylon, their 
 language gradually changed, just as English 
 has changed since the time of King Alfred. 
 You could not read the books of King 
 Alfred's days ; and many Jews in the time 
 of Nehemiah did not well understand the 
 Hebrew of their own Scriptures. So when 
 the Scriptures were read to them in public 
 worship, the readers added explanations. We 
 find this in the Book of Nehemiah (viii. 8), 
 where we read, " They read in the book of 
 the law of God distinctly, and gave the 
 sense, and caused them to understand the 
 reading." These explanations would be in 
 the every-day language that was then spoken. 
 This was a small mixture of the real Hebrew 
 with a language widely spoken in Syria and 
 Chaldea, and it is usually called Aramaic. 
 It was the language spoken in Palestine 
 when our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, 
 and no doubt it was His mother-tongue. 
 
30 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 But though it was not the ancient Hebrew, 
 it was called Hebrew, and we find it called 
 so several times in the New Testament. 
 When Pontius Pilate wrote the words " This 
 is the King of the Jews,*' to put up on 
 the cross on which Jesus was crucified, in 
 " Hebrew and Greek and Latin " (John xix. 
 20), the " Hebrew " was this Aramaic ; and 
 when St. Paul spoke to the angry crowd 
 " in the Hebrew tongue " (Acts xxii. 2), it 
 was the Aramaic that he used. 
 
 When men learn Hebrew now, as most 
 clergymen and many others do, it is the old 
 Hebrew of the Sacred Books that they learn, 
 so that they may read the Old Testament 
 as it was first written. But they find in it 
 four bits of the Aramaic language. Two 
 are in the Book of Ezra (iv. 8 to vi. i8, 
 and vii. 12-26, mostly copied from official 
 records) ; one is a large part of the Book of 
 Daniel (ii. 4 to end of vii.) ; and one is a 
 verse in Jeremiah (x. 11), where God gives 
 the Jews some exact words which they are 
 to say to the heathen in the heathen tongue. 
 He says, " Thus shall ye say unto them, The 
 gods that have not ?nade the heavens and the 
 earthy even they shall perish from the earthy 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 31 
 
 and froyn under these heavens^ The words 
 from "the gods" to "heavens" are in the 
 foreign language. It is just as if you were 
 going to France to meet a French friend, 
 and I said to you, " When you meet him, 
 say, Bon jour ^ monsieur ^"^ 
 
 To this day the Jews in their synagogues 
 read the Scriptures in the old Hebrew. 
 They are not in books like ours, but in 
 large rolls, which have to be unrolled for 
 reading ; and they are not printed, but 
 written. The words, too, are curious, be- 
 cause there are no vowels, but only con- 
 sonants. For instance, Samuel would be 
 written SML, and David DVD. But if 
 you had to read DVD aloud, how would 
 you say it ? You would not know whether 
 the letters stood for Dovad, or Divudy or 
 Devody or David. Well, the scribes who 
 had to read the Books in ancient times 
 invented a way of showing how the words 
 should be read, by putting dots or " points " 
 over or under them. If we imitated this 
 in English, we might do it thus : — D^VjD. 
 How to do this was passed on from one to 
 another for hundreds of years, and at last, 
 about the year 800 a.d., some learned 
 
32 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Jews settled it once for all ; and as they 
 fixed what had been handed down^ that is 
 the tradition — the Hebrew word for which 
 is Massora — they were called Massoretes. 
 There is a copy of their Old Testament, 
 
 : r\v^^^r^ D^nisn zi^-' hdv ]s^v3 :ini 
 n-i-ii]; twvy\ vrn^A anD^^ '•^dS 3 
 
 SPECIMEN OF HEBREW BIBLE, WITH POINTS. 
 
 made by them (or a little later) in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 I mentioned just now the Aramaic lan- 
 guage, which the Jews in Palestine and the 
 East spoke after the Captivity, and in the 
 time of our Lord, and that the Hebrew 
 Scriptures had to be explained by the scribes 
 to the people in that language. Some of 
 these explanations were written down, and 
 called Targums, which means interpretations ; 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 33 
 
 and some of these Targums are still in 
 the hands of the Jews, and are very in- 
 teresting. 
 
 Another interesting fact is that the Sama- 
 ritans, the people living in that part of 
 Palestine called Samaria, whom the Jews 
 hated and despised (see John iv. 9), had a 
 copy of the Pentateuch of their own, very 
 like the old Hebrew. There is a little band 
 of Samaritans still living on Mount Gerizim, 
 and they regard their Pentateuch as a great 
 treasure, though it is not quite the same as 
 the original one. 
 
 In some of our Bibles, particularly in 
 large Bibles used in church, you will find 
 several Books between the Old and New 
 Testaments, which are not in the Bibles 
 that most of us use. These are old Jewish 
 books which were not put into the Canon 
 of Scripture, and which therefore we do 
 not believe to be part of the inspired Word 
 of God. Why, then, are they put in some 
 Bibles ? We shall see in another chapter 
 how this is. I only want to say now that 
 most of them are good books, and very 
 interesting. Two of them, the Books of 
 Maccabees, tell us much of the history of 
 
 c 
 
34 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the Jews between Old and New Testament 
 times ; and two of them, called " Wisdom '* 
 and " Ecclesiasticus," contain much that is 
 profitable for reading. One of them, called 
 "the Song of the Three Children," gives 
 us that beautiful hymn called Benedicite^ 
 which comes in our Prayer-Book just after 
 the Te Deuniy and is sometimes sung in 
 church. It was supposed to be sung by 
 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in Ne- 
 buchadnezzar''s fiery furnace at Babylon, as 
 we read in the 3rd chapter of Daniel. 
 These Books are called the Apocrypha^ which 
 properly means " hidden away," but the 
 word came to be used in another sense, 
 because the Books were supposed by some 
 to be part of Holy Scripture, and were not 
 really so. They were never in the Canon 
 as the ancient Jews made it up ; and the 
 Jewish historian Josephus, whom I mentioned 
 before, only refers to one of them, and 
 does not count it as one of the Sacred 
 Books. 
 
 Again, if you read the New Testament 
 carefully, you will find about two hundred and 
 eighty direct quotations from the Old Testa- 
 ment ; and these are taken from twenty- 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 35 
 
 eight of the thirty-nine Books.^ But there 
 is not one single clear quotation from the 
 Books of the Apocrypha.^ There is one 
 place, Heb. xi. 33-37, where some particulars 
 of the sufferings of God's people are derived 
 from the Books of Maccabees, but there is 
 no quotation of them as Scripture ; while 
 similar references to the canonical Books 
 are several hundred in number. Now we 
 cannot say that the Apostles and others who 
 wrote the New Testament were ignorant 
 of the Apocrypha. We shall see directly 
 that they must have known at least some 
 of it. So it is clear that they knew the 
 difference between it and the real Canon. 
 
 I want you now to think of the early 
 Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, 
 Greece, Italy, Egypt, and many other lands, 
 
 1 A list of the quotations, and of other allusions 
 to the O.T.J is given in the Oxford Helps to the 
 Sttidy of the Bible, p. 87. 
 
 2 There are three or four passages in the N.T. 
 which look like quotations, and which are not 
 found in the O.T. One or two of these have a 
 certain likeness to passages in the Apocrypha ; 
 but Westcott {Bible in the Church, pp. 46-49) 
 shows that they can scarcely be quoted from 
 those passages. 
 
36 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the converts of St. Paul and the other 
 Apostles. What " Bible " did they use ? Of 
 course they had at first only the Old Testa- 
 ment. But how could they read Hebrew 
 books ? Certainly many of them were Jews, 
 but, as I told you before, the old Hebrew 
 language was not spoken at that time even 
 in Palestine ; while these foreign Jews, and 
 their fathers and grandfathers, had for a 
 century or two been settled in the Heathen 
 countries just mentioned, and their languages 
 from childhood were the languages of these 
 countries. We have a little glimpse of this 
 in Acts ii. 8-11. Probably very few of 
 them could read Hebrew ; and of course 
 the Gentile Christians could not. But God 
 had done a wonderful thing. He had caused 
 the Greek language to spread gradually over 
 all these lands, in fact over the larger part 
 of the great Roman Empire ; so when the 
 New Testament Books came to be written, 
 they were written in Greek, and vast 
 numbers of Christians could understand 
 them. But this does not answer my 
 question. What about the Books of the 
 Old Testament ? How could they be 
 understood ? 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 37 
 
 Well, about 200 years before Christ, some 
 learned Jews who lived at the great city of 
 Alexandria, in Egypt, set to work to make 
 a Greek translation of their old Hebrew 
 Sacred Books. It is said that about seventy 
 men shared in the work, and so the Version 
 came to be known as the Septuagint, which 
 means "seventy." We usually write it, for 
 short, in the Roman numeral letters for 
 seventy, " LXX." When you see in any 
 book about the Bible those letters, LXX, 
 you will know that they stand for the Greek 
 Version of the Old Testament. 
 
 Now this was the Version used by vast 
 numbers of the early Christians. When 
 Timothy in his childhood studied the Holy 
 Scriptures (or " Sacred Writings "), we may 
 be sure that it was the Septuagint that was 
 in his hand. When we read in Acts xvii. 
 that the people of Berea "searched the 
 Scriptures daily," we may be sure that 
 it was the Greek Septuagint that they 
 searched. When St. Paul in his epistles, 
 which were of course in Greek, quotes 
 passages from the Old Testament, he gener- 
 ally uses the Septuagint Version word by 
 word, though sometimes he takes the old 
 
38 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Hebrew and gives his own Greek words 
 for it. 
 
 Now the Jews at Alexandria were not 
 so particular about the Canon as the Jews 
 in Palestine ; and they included in their 
 collection some of the Books which we call 
 the Apocrypha. But they did not translate 
 them ; for these Books were written, not in 
 the old Hebrew, but in Greek, so they were 
 all ready for use without further trouble. 
 No doubt the "Seventy" learned men 
 thought them useful — as indeed they are ; 
 and therefore they put them in with the 
 others which belonged to the true Canon. 
 Well, this being so, it is clear that St. Paul 
 and the other writers of the New Testament 
 knew those books, and might easily have 
 
 Let me try to illustrate this. Suppose in a 
 French book there were the words '''' IL fait froid 
 aujourd^huiP Suppose in an English translation 
 of that book these words were rendered, rather 
 freely, "We have got cold weather to-day." 
 Suppose that I in a letter said that in that French 
 book you would find the phrase, " It is cold to- 
 day." A scholar carefully examining my letter 
 would see at once that I quoted, not from the 
 English translation, but direct from the French 
 original. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 39 
 
 quoted from them good words which were 
 actually in the Scripture rolls used by the 
 converts. Yet they did not. Why not ? 
 Must it not have been because they knew 
 the difference between the Sacred Books 
 of the real Canon and those which the 
 " Seventy " at Alexandria had put in with 
 them ? 
 
 Now is it not wonderful how God watched 
 over and guided these Sacred Books, His Holy 
 Scriptures ? — the writers, the copyists, the 
 translators, the interpreters 1 Why did He r 
 Surely because those Holy Scriptures are able 
 to make us wise unto salvation, through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus ! 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ABOUT THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS: 
 THE WRITERS AND THE CANON 
 
 We have seen that the first Christians had a 
 " Bible," a collection of Sacred Books which 
 they called "the Scriptures," and that these 
 were the same which we now call the Old 
 Testament. They did not know there was 
 to be another collection. We are better off 
 than they were, because we have the other. 
 We have four Books which tell us about the 
 life of the Lord Jesus on earth, and one which 
 gives us some fragments of the earliest history 
 of the Church, and twenty-one letters of the 
 Apostles, and a wonderful book of vision 
 and prophecies ; and we call these the New 
 Testament. Let us see who wrote these 
 Books, and how they came to be written. 
 After the Lord Jesus had ascended to 
 
 heaven, and the Holy Spirit had come down 
 
 40 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 41 
 
 on the Day of Pentecost, what had the 
 Apostles, and other disciples who had been 
 with Jesus, got to do ? First, they had to 
 tell the Jews in Palestine that Jesus, the 
 Teacher from Nazareth whom Pilate the 
 Roman Governor had crucified, was the 
 Messiah, the Anointed King and Saviour 
 whom God had promised to send, and for 
 whom the pious people among the Jews had 
 been looking ; that He had risen from the 
 dead and gone back to heaven ; that His 
 death, although it had been such a wicked 
 thing to kill Him, was really part of God's 
 plan for redeeming sinful men ; that because 
 He had died for sinners, God could and 
 would forgive them, and that if they were 
 baptized, and joined the new company of 
 believers in Jesus (which came presently to 
 be called the Church), they too should have 
 the Holy Spirit to teach them and make them 
 holy. 
 
 This was the good news they had to tell ; 
 and it came to be called by a Greek word, 
 euaggelion (pronounced euangelllon)^ which 
 means " good tidings " or " good message." 
 This word becomes in Latin evangeliumy 
 and from this we get our English words 
 
42 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 "evangel," "evangelize," " evangelist," "evan- 
 gelical." But we commonly use an Anglo- 
 Saxon word, " Gospel," instead of the Latin 
 " evangel," and as " Gospel " is a short way 
 of saying " God's SpeW (that is, God's story), 
 we see that it means the same thing. So we 
 English people say that the Apostles ^^ preached 
 the Gospel:' 
 
 In the Acts we find that this was just 
 what they did preach, to the Jews, and to 
 those Gentiles or Heathen who had learned 
 from the Jews about the true God. I told 
 you in the last chapter how many Jews 
 lived far away from Palestine, in Greece and 
 other countries in the Roman Empire ; and 
 wherever they were, they had their syna- 
 gogues for worship, and many Heathen used 
 to come and hear the Books of the Old 
 Testament read. So we find in the Acts 
 that what St. Paul preached at foreign cities 
 like Antioch (in Pisidia), and Thessalonica, 
 and Berea, and Corinth, was much the 
 same as St. Peter preached to the Jews of 
 Jerusalem. When St. Paul went to places 
 where the Heathen did not know of the ex- 
 pected Messiah, as at Lystra and Athens, he 
 preached quite differently. But still, ail the 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 43 
 
 preaching and teaching came to this, that 
 Jesus was the true King and Saviour of men. 
 Even at Athens, where he talked to very 
 clever men who despised all Jews and cared 
 nothing for the old Sacred Books, he "preached 
 Jesus and the resurrection" (Acts xvii. 18). 
 All the teaching was built upon that, as a 
 house is built on its foundation. 
 
 In St. Paul's 1st Epistle to the Corinthians 
 (xv. 1-4), he tells us exactly what the 
 " Gospel " he preached was. It was that 
 " Christ," that is Jesus the Messiah, " died for 
 our sins," and was buried, and was raised 
 again the third day. Let us read his words : 
 "I declare unto you the Gospel which I 
 preached unto you. ... I delivered unto 
 you first of all that which I also received, 
 how that Christ died for our sins according 
 to the Scriptures ; and that He was buried, 
 and that He rose again the third day accord- 
 ing to the Scriptures." 
 
 Now when this Gospel was preached, the 
 hearers whose hearts were touched searched 
 in the old Sacred Books to see if it was true 
 that a King and Saviour like that had been 
 promised by God. See how they did this at 
 Berea (Acts xvii. 11). I do not suppose they 
 
44 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 had many copies. Perhaps there was only 
 one in Berea, a set of rolls with the old 
 Scriptures written on them, kept at the syna- 
 gogue ; and I fancy that the Bereans — some 
 of them Jews and some Gentiles who had 
 learned about the true God — came day by 
 day to the synagogue and listened while the 
 Jewish scribe read from the rolls what pas- 
 sages he could find that would confirm what 
 St. Paul had told them. But then they 
 would want to know rnore about Jesus, that 
 wonderful Person who (so St. Paul said) had 
 come from heaven, and died for sinners, and 
 risen again. Perhaps when St. Paul had left 
 Berea, his companion Silas, who stayed behind 
 (xvii. 14), would teach them a great deal 
 about the gracious words which Jesus had 
 spoken and the mighty things He had done. 
 Silas had come from Jerusalem, and perhaps 
 he had himself known Jesus. And I daresay 
 they would learn by heart much that he 
 taught them, and repeat it to each other after 
 he left. I think it would be so in all the 
 places where there were " Churches," little 
 companies of Christian converts ; for when 
 St. Paul wrote letters to them, he referred 
 to things about Jesus which they must have 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 45 
 
 learned in that way. These letters were the 
 first Christian writings they had ; and we 
 may be sure that they greatly valued all that 
 came from the Apostles. They used to read 
 the letters aloud when they met together for 
 worship, as well as the old Sacred Books ; 
 and such letters must have seemed to them, 
 even then, almost as much true messages 
 from God as the Sacred Books themselves. 
 
 Some of these Apostolic letters we have 
 now ; twenty-one of them, as I said before. 
 We call them the Epistles, which means 
 Letters. There are thirteen by St. Paul, 
 three by St. John, two by St. Peter, one by 
 St. James, and one by St. Jude ; and one 
 other, "To the Hebrews," was probably 
 written by one of St. Paul's friends and 
 companions, perhaps Luke, or Barnabas, or 
 Apollos. Did these holy men know that 
 their Letters would one day be part of God's 
 Holy Scriptures ? We cannot be sure about 
 this. I believe that when St. Paul sent kind 
 messages to many Christians at Rome by 
 name (Rom. xvi.), he was thinking of them 
 and not of us ; that when he told Timothy 
 to " take a little wine for his stomach's sake," 
 he meant it for Timothy and was not think- 
 
46 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ing of men not yet born ; that when he 
 wrote to Philemon about his runaway slave, 
 he did not know that the letter would be 
 read by slaves in Africa and America hun- 
 dreds of years after. But I believe that 
 when he told the Romans and Corinthians 
 and Ephesians wonderful things about God 
 and our Lord Jesus Christ, he knew that the 
 Holy Spirit was teaching him what to write. 
 And this also I am sure of, that all the while 
 God meant every line and every word to be 
 for us Christians now and in all ages. 
 
 But let us go back to those early Churches, 
 at Ephesus, and Philippi, and Rome, and 
 Corinth. How came they to know all about 
 our Lord's miracles and teachings ? No 
 doubt they heard much by word of mouth ; 
 but by and by little accounts of them were 
 made, and passed from one place to another. 
 St. Luke mentions this in the first sentence 
 of his Gospel. He says, " Many have taken 
 in hand to draw up a narrative " (R.V.), &c. 
 It is very likely that these were short and 
 scrappy, and perhaps written by men who 
 had not been with Jesus, and did not know 
 much. But at last the Churches began to 
 hear that something better could be had. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 47 
 
 Perhaps one day a Christian teacher came 
 to one of the Churches — suppose we say 
 Caesarea — and said, " Friends, look here ! I 
 have got a copy of an account of our Lord's 
 life and death and resurrection, which has 
 been written by Marcus, who was at one 
 time with Paul and then with Peter. You 
 know Peter was constantly with Jesus, and 
 he has told Marcus all about it, and Marcus 
 has written it down." Perhaps he would 
 add, " Some of you are Roman soldiers : 
 well, you will find that Marcus knew what 
 you would want, and wrote just what would 
 suit you ; he explains those strange Jewish 
 customs which you don't understand, and 
 he uses your own military terms." Now 
 just fancy how eagerly those Christians would 
 meet together, and how they would listen 
 (as we say) with all their ears as one of 
 their presbyters or deacons read out the 
 wonderful story ! Some of it they no doubt 
 knew before ; but a great deal would be new 
 to them. 
 
 This of course was what we call the 
 Gospel of St. Mark. It was not called a 
 "Gospel" then. The "Gospel" in those 
 days, the euagge/ion, was not a book. It was 
 
48 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the Message, the Glad Tidings, which had 
 been preached from the first, and which all 
 the Christians knew already. But I do not 
 wonder that in after years the Four Books 
 about the Life of the Son of God upon earth 
 came to be called "Gospels," because they 
 told all about Him whose Message it was. 
 
 St. Mark, as we have seen, wrote chiefly 
 for the Gentile converts ; and I think he 
 must have had Roman soldiers particularly 
 in his mind. He writes in such a vigorous 
 way. His narrative seems to march on swiftly 
 and steadily, not stopping to report long dis- 
 courses. One Greek word meaning " straight- 
 way *' or " immediately " he uses forty times. 
 And you will see another point presently. 
 
 Then St. Matthew's Gospel was written 
 especially for the Jews. It again and again 
 shows them how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies 
 of their old Sacred Books. Thus, — 
 
 Chap. i. 22. "Now all this was done, that it 
 might be fulfilled which was spoken of 
 the Lord by the prophet." 
 „ ii. 15. *'That it might be fulfilled which 
 was spoken of the Lord by the prophet." 
 „ ii. 17. "Then was fulfilled that which was 
 spoken by Jeremy the prophet." 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 49 
 
 Chap. ii. 23. "That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by the prophets." 
 ,f in. 3. " This is he that was spoken of by 
 
 the prophet Esaias." 
 „ iv. 14. "That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by Esaias the prophet." 
 „ viii. 17. "That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by Esaias the prophet." 
 „ xii. 17. "That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by Esaias the prophet." 
 „ xiii. 1 4. " In them is fulfilled the prophecy 
 
 of Esaias." 
 „ xiii. 35. "That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by the prophet." 
 „ xxi. 4. " That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by the prophet." 
 f, xxvi. 56. " All this was done, that the 
 
 scriptures of the prophets might be ful- 
 filled." 
 „ xxvii. 9. "Then was fulfilled that which 
 
 was spoken by Jeremy the prophet." 
 „ xxvii. 35. " That it might be fulfilled which 
 
 was spoken by the prophet." 
 
 But let us look at the Gospel which St. 
 Luke wrote. He, too, wrote for Gentiles ; 
 indeed, first of all, for one friend, a Greek 
 named Theophilus (i. 3). At the beginning 
 of his book he tells us how carefully he had 
 collected the very best information. He says 
 (R.V.) that he had "traced the course of 
 
 D 
 
50 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 all things accurately from the first." Parts 
 of his book are exactly like St. Mark's, and 
 it looks as if he used what Mark had written. 
 Sometimes he puts it in other words, for 
 Luke was a man of higher education and 
 wrote better Greek ; and being a doctor, 
 he always uses medical words when he speaks 
 of diseases. But other parts of his book are 
 like Matthew, and tell what Mark does not 
 tell ; so we think that both Luke and 
 Matthew took things from another book 
 written before, which has not been kept. 
 And then Luke has much which neither 
 Matthew nor Mark has, which he got from 
 other sources. There are more than sixty 
 incidents or discourses, parables or miracles, 
 in his Gospel which are not in the other 
 Gospels. Very likely when he was in 
 Palestine with St. Paul (Acts xxi. to xxvi.) 
 he met various people who could tell him 
 interesting things in the life of Christ. Par- 
 ticularly you ought to look at his first two 
 chapters (from verse 5 of chap, i.), for they 
 tell us much about the birth and infancy of 
 Jesus which is in no other Gospel. Perhaps 
 he got this from some of the women who 
 knew Mary well ; or from John, who took 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 51 
 
 care of Mary after Jesus was crucified ; or 
 from Mary herself. And it is written in 
 language different from the elegant Greek 
 which Luke usually wrote. Perhaps it was 
 first written down by some very simple 
 Jew or Jewess in the language of Palestine 
 (Aramaic), and then translated into Greek 
 and copied by Luke. But never forget that 
 the Holy Spirit was guiding him all the 
 while, that he might write what was one 
 day to be part of God's great Book of Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Afterwards St. Luke wrote another book, 
 which we call the Acts of the Apostles. If 
 you look at the first \'erse, you will see that 
 he wrote to the same friend, Theophilus, 
 and he mentions his " former treatise." In 
 this book he tells us what happened after 
 the Lord Jesus went back to heaven : how 
 the Holy Ghost came down ; how the 
 Apostles preached ; how the Gentiles were 
 brought into the Church as well as the Jews 
 — which must have been very cheering to 
 the converts in the heathen lands ; and par- 
 ticularly how St. Paul travelled from country 
 to country, Luke himself being often with 
 him, and at last came to Rome. How do 
 
52 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 we know that Luke was often with St. 
 Paul? If you look at the i6th chapter, 
 you will see that Luke writes " we " and 
 "us," showing that he and Paul were to- 
 gether; and so in the 20th, 2 1st, 27th, and 
 28th chapters. Perhaps Luke meant to write 
 a third volume, and if he had we should have 
 known more about St. Paul's later journeys, 
 and his last imprisonment and death ; for 
 in Paul's last letter (2 Tim. iv.) we find that 
 Luke was with him at the end. But perhaps 
 Luke was himself also put to death by the 
 Roman Emperor, and so could not do it. 
 Certainly we have got all that God intended 
 us to have. Let us be thankful for that. 
 
 It is not likely that the different Churches 
 very soon got copies of all the three 
 " Gospels." At first one Church would 
 have Mark, and another Matthew, and 
 another Luke ; but we may be sure that 
 copies were made very quickly and sent all 
 round. But very few of those early Chris- 
 tians ever had more than three. They 
 could not read about Nicodemus, and the 
 Woman of Samaria, and the Man born 
 Blind, and the Raising of Lazarus j for 
 none of these are mentioned in Matthew 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 53 
 
 or Mark or Luke. They had the Blessed 
 Comforter with them, but they had no 
 book telling them the beautiful words in 
 which their dear Lord had promised to 
 send the Comforter. But by and by, when 
 many of them were dead — some of them 
 killed for Christ's sake, — and when their 
 children were grown up, another wonderful 
 Book came out. This was what we call 
 the Gospel according to St. John. 
 
 St. John was a very old man when he 
 wrote it, very likely ninety or more. He 
 had lived for many years at Ephesus, long 
 after St. Paul's time there. He had been 
 in prison in the little rocky island of Patmos 
 — which you might see to-day if you went 
 in a steamer to Smyrna and Constantinople. 
 In Patmos God gave him those wonderful 
 visions which he wrote down iu the book 
 called the Apocalypse, or Revelation. And 
 now all the other Apostles were dead — ■ 
 killed for Christ's sake ; many other Chris- 
 tians had been put to death ; Jerusalem had 
 been destroyed by the Romans, as Jesus 
 had said (Luke xix. 41-44 ; xxi. 5, 6, 24) ; 
 although the Church was growing every- 
 where, it was not so pure in doctrine, for 
 
54 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 errors and heresies were already springing 
 up. The aged Apostle wrote a solemn and 
 loving letter to the Churches (ist Ep. 
 John), in which he warned them against 
 these errors ; and he also wrote his wonder- 
 ful " Gospel," the most beautiful of all the 
 Books which we have in our Bible. It 
 told the Christians a great deal that was 
 new to most of them about the Lord Jesus 
 and His teaching. They found that He 
 was the Word of God (chap, i.), and the 
 Bread of Life (chap, vi.), and the Light of 
 the World (chap, viii.), and the Good Shep- 
 herd (chap. X.), and the True Vine (chap. 
 XV.) ; they read His conversations with Nico- 
 demus (chap, iii.), and the Woman of Samaria 
 (chap, iv.), and many discourses at Jerusalem 
 (chaps, v., vii., viii., x., xii.), and those 
 beautiful farewell words to His disciples 
 the night before He died (chaps, xiv., xv., 
 xvi.), and much more besides. When a 
 copy of this Gospel was taken to some 
 distant city, how keen the converts there 
 would be to hear what had been written 
 by old John, the last of the Apostles, 
 whom they had never seen ! No doubt, 
 by and by, copies came over to Britain, 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 55 
 
 and were read by the British Christians at 
 London and Winchester and York ! 
 
 All these New Testament Books were 
 written in Greek, that wonderful language 
 which, as I said before, God had ordained 
 to be understood at that time by many 
 nations in many lands. There are, how- 
 ever, here and there, a few words borrowed 
 from other languages. For instance, we 
 sometimes find the very Aramaic words 
 which Jesus actually spoke, such as Talitha 
 cumiy and Ephphatha^ and Eloi lama sabach- 
 thani, which St. Mark, who gives us most 
 of these, " interprets " or translates for his 
 readers (see Mark v. 41, vii. 34, xv. 34). 
 St. Mark also uses more Latin words than 
 the others, which is one reason why we 
 think he wrote for the Romans ; thus he 
 calls the executioner who beheaded John 
 the Baptist, and the centurion who crucified 
 Jesus, by Latin words (vi. 27, xv. 39). 
 
 The Four Gospels, and the Acts, and the 
 Revelation, used to be read in the Churches, 
 just as I said the Epistles were ; and gradually 
 the Christians came to see that these were 
 really " Scriptures," books that should be added 
 to the old Jewish Scriptures as parts of God's 
 
56 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 inspired Word. The earliest case of this being 
 understood we find in one of the inspired 
 Letters themselves, in the 2nd Epistle of 
 Peter (iii. 15, 16), where St. Paul's Epistles 
 are called " Scriptures." ^ Afterwards we find 
 the good and learned men who lived after the 
 Apostles quoting in their writings a host of 
 passages from the Gospels and Epistles as 
 having the authority of inspired Scriptures. 
 There was Clement, who was an early 
 Bishop of Rome, and wrote an Epistle to the 
 Church of Corinth, which we still have ; 
 there were Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, and 
 Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and Justin, a 
 Greek who was martyred at Rome, and 
 Irenaeus of Lyons (the city which we now 
 know in France), and Origen of Alexandria, 
 and a great many others.^ It is Justin, in the 
 2nd century, who tells us of the accounts of 
 
 ^ The word " Scriptures " occurs fifty times in the 
 New Testament, and everywhere else means the 
 canonical Books of the Old Testament ; so it is 
 indisputable that 2 Peter iii. 16 intends to place 
 St. Paul's Epistles alongside them. This, however, 
 is one of the arguments used for a late date for 2nd 
 Peter. 
 
 2 There are conveniently arranged lists of the 
 Fathers and their quotations from the Gospels and 
 
NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 57 
 
 our Lord''s life on earth being called " Gospels." 
 These good men were not all quite sure 
 which of the beautiful writings they had were 
 really inspired "Scriptures." Some of them 
 wrote lists, and these lists are not all alike. 
 The Gospels and the Acts and most of St. 
 Paul's Epistles were quickly recognized, but 
 there were doubts for a long time about some 
 of the others. Moreover, there were other 
 writings which some thought might also be 
 " Scriptures " ; for instance, Clement's Epistle 
 which I mentioned just now, and a book by 
 Hermas called " The Shepherd." And it 
 was more than three hundred years before the 
 Canon of the New Testament, like the Canon 
 of the Old Testament which I told you of 
 in the last chapter, was finally settled. But 
 we are quite sure now that the Holy Spirit 
 guided the Church to choose rightly which 
 books to put into the Canon and which to 
 leave out ; and there has been no dispute for 
 more than fifteen centuries that our New 
 Testament is a true part of God's great Book 
 of Scriptures. 
 
 Epistles in Green's Revised Edition of Angus's 
 Bible Handbook, and of course a fuller account in 
 Westcott's New Testament Canon. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ABOUT THE NEW TESTAMENT: THE 
 MANUSCRIPTS AND VERSIONS 
 
 In our third chapter, I told you about the 
 way in which the Books of the Old Testa- 
 ment were copied, and copied again, and 
 copied again, by the Jewish Scribes ; and that 
 we have some copies about 900 years old. 
 Also about the Hebrew language in which 
 they were written, and the Aramaic language 
 afterwards used, and the Greek Version called 
 the Septuagint. Let us now see how the 
 Books of the New Testament, which were 
 all written in Greek, have come down to us. 
 Suppose we were to hear one day that St. 
 John's Gospel, in his own hand-writing, the 
 actual rolls of skin or paper on which he wrote 
 it, had been found in some cave near Ephesus ; 
 and suppose we heard that it was being 
 brought to England to be put in the British 
 
 Museum ; what a rush there would be to see 
 
 s8 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 59 
 
 it ! Such a thing is very unlikely 1 So far 
 as we know, there is not in the world even a 
 single copy made straight from his own writ- 
 ing. When the Roman Emperors persecuted 
 the Christians, they ordered all Christian 
 books to be destroyed ; and it was not easy 
 to save any. I do not think any of the rolls 
 of the Apostles' own writing were saved. 
 Do you ask why God did not preserve them 
 somehow ? Of course we do not know all 
 God's purposes : but I am sure that if they 
 had been preserved, foolish people would al- 
 most have worshipped them, and would have 
 thought they had power to heal sick people, 
 like the "relics of saints" which you may 
 now see in many churches in France and 
 Italy and Spain. 
 
 Of the copies made before the great per- 
 secution under the Emperor Diocletian (a.d. 
 303) a few little fragments have been lately 
 found in Egypt. A leaf of papyrus (the 
 paper I mentioned in our first chapter) is 
 now in the British Museum, which has on 
 it some verses from St. John's Gospel. But 
 when, a few years later, the Emperor Con- 
 stantine established Christianity in the Roman 
 Empire, men began to write copies on vellum, 
 
6o THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 which is made of calf-skin, fine and strong ; 
 and these were more easily kept than the 
 papyrus rolls. They were not rolls at all, 
 but made more like our books. Sometimes 
 people wrote on little wooden tablets, as 
 Zacharias did when he named his son John 
 (see Luke i. 63, where the R.V. changes 
 " table " into " tablet "). Such a tablet was 
 called a codex ^ and as the leaves of vellum were 
 square, and strung together on a cord, like 
 the tablets, a book written on vellum came to 
 be called a codex too. And of these codices 
 we have a great many. We usually call 
 them Manuscripts, a Latin word which means 
 "written by hand," as of course they all 
 were. For short, we write MS. for one, or 
 MSS. for more than one. 
 
 Of these Manuscripts there are two kinds. 
 The older of them, written all in large capital 
 Greek letters, are called "Uncial Manu- 
 scripts,'"* from a Latin word applied to large 
 letters in writing.^ Of these there are more 
 than a hundred, in different Libraries in 
 
 1 Unda=" mch.^^ ', also "ounce," which word 
 is derived from it. '''' Liter <z unciales^^ means 
 "letters an inch big." This use of the word is 
 derived from St. Jerome. 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 6i 
 
 Europe, but most of them contain only por- 
 tions of the New Testament. The later 
 ones, written also in Greek, but in what we 
 call a running hand like our letter-writing, 
 are called " Cursive Manuscripts," from a 
 Latin word which means running.^ Of 
 them there are some two thousand, and most 
 ot these also are only fragments. Of course 
 the oldest are the most valuable, because 
 every time a copy is made from an older 
 copy, there is more risk of mistakes. Learned 
 men can generally tell by the kind of writing 
 about what time a manuscript was written j 
 and we know that the oldest Uncial MSS. that 
 we still have were written about the fourth 
 century after Christ, and the oldest Cursive 
 MSS. about the ninth century after Christ. 
 
 Now there are three Uncial MSS. which are 
 older and more important than all the rest. 
 
 I. The Sinaitic MS. This is the most 
 valuable of all. Seventy years ago it had 
 never been heard of. Part of it was dis- 
 covered in 1844 in a convent at Mount 
 Sinai, by a learned German, Dr. Tischendorf. 
 He found it quite accidentally, in a basket 
 of old papers which the monks were going 
 ^ Curro = " I run." 
 
62 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 to use to light the fires with ! Fifteen years 
 later he managed to get the rest of it ; and 
 it now belongs to the Emperor of Russia, 
 and is kept in the Library at St. Petersburg. 
 It contains the Septuagint Version of the 
 Old Testament, and the whole New Testa- 
 ment ; and also two other early Christian 
 writings, which shows that it was made be- 
 fore the Church had finally settled the Canon 
 — of which I told you in the last chapter. 
 Here is a copy of a bit of the Sinaitic MS. 
 The verse given is Heb. xii. 27 : — 
 
 TO&.e GTI Stl KX^H>rt 
 
 THNTCDNCXKey 
 OM € M CD NTJ eTKOc 
 
 ciHCDcnenoiH 
 
 MeNOJNIWxHim 
 TKM H CKKCyO M € NK 
 Al O g XCI\€ I XN XCA 
 
 2. The Vatican MS. This belongs to 
 the Pope, and has been in the Vatican 
 Library at Rome for hundreds of years. It 
 is believed to be even a little older than the 
 Sinaitic MS., but it is not quite complete. 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 63 
 
 some leaves having been lost from both the 
 Old and the New Testaments. It has, how- 
 ever, no other book in it, as the Sinaitic has. 
 
 3. The Alexandrian MS. This was given 
 to King Charles I. by the Greek Patriarch 
 of Constantinople in 1627, ^'^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ 
 British Museum. It was probably written 
 a hundred years later than the other two, 
 but it is very valuable in many ways. It is 
 not quite complete, some leaves being missing. 
 It has at the end the Epistle of Clement, 
 which I mentioned in the last chapter. 
 Here is a bit of the Alexandrian MS. : the 
 first five verses of St. John's Gospel : — 
 
 MApX^MHNOAOrOCKAIOAonJCH 
 
 •nj»oCTONeT*'i<AiecMMOAoroc • 
 oy-roCHMeMAPKKnpocTONeN 
 TTXMTi^A. I xvrov€rer4 6Toi <MXuj' 
 re tc xYXOve re mgtoo v^^^ee m 
 O r e p o M 6 rsi e M AVfcu 5: cu i-i M tsj __ 
 
 |<A iTOcbcucet^Tri C fCOxa *.<+> Al 
 Me I KAIHCJCOTIAAVTOOVlvAXe 
 
 Learned men, to save time and space, 
 
64 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 usually speak and write of the principal 
 Uncial MSS. by letters of our alphabet. 
 The Alexandrian MS. is called "A," and 
 the Vatican MS. "B," and there are other 
 important MSS. called ** C," « D," «E," 
 and so on. When the Sinaitic MS. was 
 discovered, there was no letter for it, so 
 they agreed to name it by the first letter of 
 the Hebrew alphabet, "Aleph," which is 
 written J<. So if ever you see in some book 
 about the Bible " Codex i^" you will know the 
 Sinaitic MS. is meant ; and if you see " Codex 
 B," you will know it is the Vatican MS. 
 
 Some of the MSS. are in a very curious 
 condition. The parchment in these cases 
 has been written on twice. Somebody has 
 tried to rub out the first writing, and write 
 again on the top of it. A MS. like this is 
 called a palimpsest. There is one old and 
 important MS. of parts of the Septuagint 
 and New Testament, over which has been 
 written a copy of writings by a Syrian named 
 Ephraem. But it was rubbed over by some 
 chemical seventy years ago, and now the 
 original Scriptures can be read underneath.^ 
 
 1 The important palimpsest fragment known as 
 Codex Zacynthius is exhibited in one of the show- 
 cases in the Bible House Library. 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 65 
 
 You would find it difficult to read these 
 manuscripts, even those of you who know 
 Greek. For, first, the words are not sepa- 
 rated, but run into one another. Suppose 
 we printed the English New Testament 
 that way, then the first verse of the 6th 
 chapter of St. Matthew would look like this, 
 
 TAKEHEEDTHATYEDONOTYOUR, &C. Secondly, 
 
 abbreviations are used in the case of names 
 that occur frequently, as God and Jesus, 
 which (in English) would be written GD 
 and JS ; and also by cutting off M or N 
 at the end of a word, as if (in English) we 
 wrote KiNGDO and natio for " kingdom " 
 and " nation." Thirdly, the letters are some- 
 times made smaller at the end of a line, to 
 get them in, as if we wrote JUDGENOT- 
 THATYEBENOTJUdged. Fourthly, 
 
 sometimes the word at the end of a line is 
 curiously divided, and the rest of it put in the 
 next line (which we also do in some cases, 
 with a hyphen), thus, 
 
 ANDSEEINGTHEMU 
 LTITUDESHEWENTUP 
 
 So it has cost learned men much labour to 
 make out the MSS. ; but all the principal 
 ones are now well-known. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 You will understand that in copying 
 manuscripts it is very easy to make mistakes, 
 so that we might expect that the copies 
 we have would differ a good deal from one 
 another, and it would be difficult for us to 
 know which was correct. But the copyists 
 were so careful that although the differences 
 are many, most of them are not at all im- 
 portant. When we find the three great 
 MSS. which I have mentioned agreeing to- 
 gether, we may be pretty sure that they are 
 right, and we need not take any notice of 
 differences in the other MSS. And again, 
 v/hen the two we call Codex ^^ and Codex 
 B agree, that is the Sinaitic and the Vatican, 
 it is most likely that they are right ; though 
 if Codex A (the Alexandrian) differs from 
 them, the question has to be very carefully 
 considered. It is very wonderful that we 
 should be able to be quite sure that we 
 have in almost every case the very words 
 which the Apostles wrote. It shows how 
 the providence of God has preserved His 
 Word ; and we may be confident that He 
 had a wise purpose in letting us be uncertain 
 in a few passages. 
 
 You will generally find that our Revised 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 67 
 
 Version is more correct than the older Bible 
 which we call the Authorized Version. 
 Why this is so we shall see by and by in 
 another chapter. Let me tell you two cases. 
 In the fifth chapter of the First Epistle 
 of St. John you will find in the Authorized 
 Version these words, "There are three that 
 bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, 
 and the Holy Ghost, and these three are 
 one." The Revised Version leaves this sen- 
 tence out. It is not in any of the earliest 
 MSS., and we may be sure that it was not 
 in the Epistle as St. John wrote it. Very 
 likely, some good man wrote it as a note of 
 his own in the margin of his copy (as people 
 sometimes do in their Bibles now) ; and 
 some other good man, making another copy 
 from that one, supposed that the words had 
 been accidentally left out, and that the good 
 man who wrote them in the margin put 
 them there to make his copy correct ; so 
 then the second good man put into his new 
 copy what he believed ought to have been 
 in the other one. And then other men 
 who afterwards copied from the new one 
 naturally kept the words in. Of course the 
 words themselves say what is true. There 
 
68 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 are Three in Heaven, and these Three are 
 One ; and this doctrine of the Trinity is 
 plainly taught in the New Testament. But 
 although the words are true, they have no 
 business in St. John's Epistle if he did not 
 write them. How they came into our Bible 
 you will hear in another chapter. 
 
 Another case is the Angel's Song on the 
 night of the Birth of Jesus. We know 
 so well the words as they stand in our 
 Authorized Version : " Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to- 
 wards men." But the last four words are 
 different in the three great MSS. The 
 Greek words in those MSS. mean " among 
 men of goodwill." How comes this differ- 
 ence ? It is very curious. It only depends 
 upon whether there is a certain letter s in, 
 or not. The Greek word for " good will " 
 is eudokia. In those three MSS. the word 
 is, eudokias^ which is the genitive case, and 
 means " (j/' goodwill " or " of good pleasure " ; 
 and to get the sense right, the Revised 
 Version has "among men in whom he is 
 well pleased." But if you look in the R.V. 
 margin, you will find these words : " Many 
 ancient manuscripts read, good pleasure 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 69 
 
 among men " ; because there are many that 
 have eudokia without the 5, though not the 
 three great ones. And the R.V. generally 
 tells m the margin when there are differences 
 like this.i 
 
 All these manuscript copies of which I 
 have been speaking are of course in Greek. 
 But there are many other manuscript copies 
 of Versions in other languages. For transla- 
 tions began to be made of the Gospels and 
 Epistles in very early times. For example, 
 there were great numbers of Christians in 
 Syria and neighbouring lands who did not 
 know Greek, and for their use a Version was 
 made in the 2nd century in the Syriac 
 language which they spoke. At the same 
 time, a Syriac Version of the Old Testa- 
 ment was also made. This Syriac Bible 
 came to be called the PeshittOy which means 
 the " simple " or " correct " Version. It had 
 a wonderful career, for it seems to have been 
 read almost all over Asia I One of the 
 Churches of the East, called the Nestorian, 
 gradually sent missionaries into Persia and 
 
 Mn I John v.^ the R.V. margin has no entry 
 regarding- the "three in heaven," because the 
 words omitted are not in any of the oldest MSS. 
 
70 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 India and even to China ; and there is in 
 China to-day a very old slab of stone with 
 a long inscription engraven on it, which 
 has both Chinese and Syriac characters, and 
 which tells how the Christian Religion had 
 spread in China. The valuable MS. of that 
 same Syriac Bible which is now at Cambridge 
 actually came from India, where it was given 
 to Dr. Claudius Buchanan by the Bishop of 
 the Christian Church in South India which 
 has existed for hundreds of years as the 
 fruit of those ancient Missions. Here is a 
 specimen of the ancient Syriac writing. It 
 is St. John iii. i6 : — 
 
 iU^ oL tpoou PI . jdIj 11 oiQ 
 
 Then in North Africa, also, the Christians 
 generally did not know Greek, but spoke 
 Latin, the language of Rome ; and a Latin 
 Version was made for them. Other Versions 
 were made in the Armenian, Ethiopian, and 
 Coptic languages, in the next tv/o or three 
 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 71 
 
 centuries ; and one was made for the Goths 
 who invaded the Roman Empire, by a famous 
 Bishop named Ulphilas. There is a very 
 valuable MS. of portions of this Gothic 
 Version at Upsala in Sweden, with the 
 characters inscribed in silver on mulberry- 
 tinted vellum. It is called Codex Argenteus, 
 the Silver Book. 
 
 But the most interesting and important of 
 all these Versions was made by the learned 
 monk, Saint Jerome. The Latin Version of 
 the New Testament made in North Africa 
 was very imperfect, and Jerome revised it ; 
 and he also made a new Latin Version of the 
 Hebrew Old Testament. He took twenty- 
 one years to do it, toiling away in his cell at 
 Bethlehem ; and it was completed in a.d. 
 405. Jerome was the greatest scholar of 
 those days, and one would think that all 
 the Christians who usually spoke Latin — of 
 whom there were by that time hundreds 
 of thousands in Italy and Spain and Gaul 
 (France) and North Africa — would have 
 eagerly welcomed his great work. But they 
 did not ; they liked the old imperfect Version 
 they were used to better ; and they thought 
 a new Version was dangerous, and would 
 
72 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 lead people astray. However, in about a 
 hundred years ft became the one great Bible 
 of Western Europe, and remained so for a 
 thousand years, until the Reformation. It 
 came to be called Fersio Vulgata^ the " com- 
 monly received Version," from vulgus, a Latin 
 word signifying the common people. So we 
 usually call it " the Vulgate." There are a 
 great many manuscript copies of this Version, 
 and it is interesting that the most important 
 of them, which is now at Florence, is said 
 to have been written in England, in North- 
 umberland, about the end of the 7th cen- 
 tury. We shall hear more about the Vulgate 
 in future chapters. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ABOUT EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS 
 
 In our last chapter we saw that an important 
 manuscript of Saint Jerome's great Latin 
 Version of the Scriptures, which we call 
 the Vulgate, was written in Northumber- 
 land, towards the end of the 7th century. 
 No doubt there were copies in the British 
 Isles long before that. Although the Anglo- 
 Saxon invaders in the 5th and 6th centuries 
 had almost destroyed the ancient British 
 Church, the Church of Ireland which Saint 
 Patrick had founded was flourishing. It is 
 said that there were Versions of portions of 
 Scripture in Erse, the old Irish language, 
 which is very likely, for Ireland was then 
 known as the Island of Saints, and students 
 from other countries fled thither from the 
 
 turmoil and bloodshed of the Continent of 
 
 73 
 
74 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Europe, calling Armagh the University of the 
 West. From Ireland went Saint Columba 
 and other missionaries to Scotland. From 
 the island of lona, which became their head- 
 quarters, went Saint Aidan to Northumbria 
 (as it was then called). At Armagh, and at 
 lona, and at Lindisfarne off the Northum- 
 brian coast, and at Jarrow on the Tyne, and 
 at Whitby in Yorkshire, and at Bangor in 
 Wales, there were monasteries with libraries, 
 where the monks had Latin writings which 
 they could read. And when Saint Augustine 
 came from Rome to preach the Gospel to 
 the Saxons of the south, and became the 
 first Archbishop of Canterbury, a monastery 
 was established at that city, and there also 
 would no doubt be found Jerome's Latin 
 Version. 
 
 But there was no Bible for the people 
 in their own tongue ; and if there had been 
 one, they could not have read it. Even 
 kings and princes did not always learn to 
 read in those davs. Then arose the first 
 English poet, Casdmon, a monk at Whitby, 
 who put the Bible histories into Anglo-Saxon 
 verse ; and his verses, learned by heart and 
 constantly repeated, taught the people a good 
 
EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS 75 
 
 deal. Here are a few of his lines, with a 
 modern English translation : — 
 
 Ece dryhten The eternal Lord 
 
 ovrd onstealde. formed the beginning. 
 
 He aerest ge-sceop He first created 
 
 ylda bearnum for the children of men 
 
 heofon to hrofe, heaven as a roof, 
 
 halig scyppend ! the holy Creator ! 
 
 This was towards the end of the 7th century. 
 About the same time, good men here and 
 there were beginning to translate portions 
 of Scripture from Jerome's Latin into the 
 language of the people. One Anglo-Saxon 
 Version of the Four Gospels had a remark- 
 able history. It was written by Eadfrith, 
 a monk who afterwards became Bishop of 
 Lindisfarne. In King Alfred's time the 
 Danes attacked and plundered the monastery, 
 but the monks who escaped took this MS. in 
 its silver-gilt cover with them. While they 
 were trying unsuccessfully to sail over to 
 Ireland, it fell into the sea, to their great 
 grief ; but some days afterwards they actually 
 found it, washed up on the Solway sands. 
 Eventually it was stored at Durham, but 
 when after several centuries the valuable 
 collection of Sir R. Cotton, the great 
 
76 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 antiquary, became national property, this old 
 MS. was found in it. In 1731, a fire de- 
 stroyed many of the Cotton MSS., but this 
 one was saved, and it is now in the British 
 Museum. It is written with such good 
 ink that, after the lapse of centuries, the 
 writing is as black and clear as ever ; and 
 it is adorned with beautiful illustrations. 
 Dr. Hodgkin, who records this strange 
 history, quotes the 66th Psalm, " We went 
 through fiire and through water, but Thou 
 broughtest us out into a wealthy place." 
 
 An old monk at Jarrow, whom we call the 
 Venerable Bede, made further translations. 
 He was a very learned man, and had many 
 pupils from all parts. He wrote the Church 
 History of England up to that time ; and 
 almost all we know of it we get from him. 
 He was finishing his translation of St. John's 
 Gospel as he lay dying, and wished much to 
 complete it. It was Ascension Day, May 
 26th, 735. "Take up thy pen and write 
 quickly," he said to his scribe ; and he 
 dictated the last chapter of the Gospel. At 
 length, as his strength ebbed away and his 
 
 ^ In The Bible in the Worlds May 1906. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS 77 
 
 voice failed, the writer said, " Only one 
 verse more ! " The old man gave the trans- 
 lation, and gasped, " It is finished ! Glory 
 be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
 Holy Ghost ! " — and his spirit passed away. 
 It is his pupil Cuthbert, afterwards Bishop 
 of Lindisfarne, who tells us this. 
 
 Then came King Alfred, who wished all 
 his people to be able to read English. He 
 too translated some portions of Scripture, 
 and put the Ten Commandments at the 
 head of his code of laws. Here is the 
 Sixth — Ne ska thu^ " Slay not thou " ; and, 
 the Eighth — Ne stala thu^ " Steal not thou." 
 Other good men followed ; among them a 
 monk named Orme, who put the Gospels 
 into verse, and said, "/r^ hafe wenned inn- 
 till Ennglissh Goddspelless halighe lore " — " I 
 have turned into English the Gospel's holy 
 lore." 
 
 At last, in the reign of Edward III., 
 arose the first man to give the English 
 people the whole Bible — John WyclifFe. 
 He was Master of Balliol College, Oxford, 
 and the most famous scholar in the Uni- 
 versity J and afterwards Rector of Lutter- 
 worth in Leicestershire. At that time the 
 
78 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Church in England was very corrupt. 
 Bishops and clergy and monks lived in 
 luxury, and did little for the people. Even 
 the friars of the Franciscan Order, estab- 
 lished by Saint Francis of Assisi, vv^ho had 
 at first been earnest and self-denying mission- 
 aries, w^ere novv^ no better than the rest. 
 WyclifFe spoke and wrote strongly against 
 these disorders, and also against the efforts 
 of the Pope of Rome to direct all the 
 affairs of the English Church. But his 
 great work was his English Bible, trans- 
 lated from Jerome's Latin Version by him- 
 self and another learned man, and completed 
 in 1380. A revised edition was brought out 
 by a third scholar a few years later.i 
 
 WyclifFe's Bible shows us what sort of 
 English was spoken in the Middle Ages. 
 It looks very different, because our spelling 
 has changed so much ; but if you heard it 
 read aloud you would not notice the spell- 
 
 ^ This, of course, is merely a compendious state- 
 ment. It would not be consistent with the simple 
 plan of the book to give the details, WycHfte 
 translating the N.T., Herford the greater part of 
 the O.T., and Purvey revising both a few years 
 later. It is this revision that is commonly known 
 as Wycliffe's Bible, 
 
EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS 79 
 
 ing, and you would understand a great deal 
 of it. Here is the beginning of the 2nd 
 chapter of St. Matthew : — 
 
 "Therefore whanne Jhesus was borun in Beth- 
 leem of Juda, in the dayes of King Eroude : lo, 
 astronomyens camen fro the eest to Jerusalem, and 
 seiden, Where is he that is borun King of Jewis ? 
 for we han seen his steere in the eest, and we are 
 comen for to worschipe hym." 
 
 But there are many words which have 
 changed their meaning in the past five 
 hundred years, and these would have to be 
 explained. For example, when the Apostles 
 (in Acts iv.) are called " unlearned men," 
 Wycliffe puts " idiots " ; but he does not 
 mean idiot in our sense of the word. His 
 23rd Psalm begins, " The Lord gouerneth 
 me, and no thing to me shal lacke " ; and 
 by " gouerneth " he means " guide and tend 
 like a shepherd." Here is the 8th Psalm 
 in WyclifFe's Bible :— 
 
 PSALM VIII 
 
 Lord oure Lord ; hou myche merueilous is thi 
 name in al the erthe 
 
 For rerid vp is thi grete doing ouer heuenes. 
 Of the mouth of vnspekende childer ^nd sou- 
 
8o THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 kende thou performedist preising, for thin enemys ; 
 that thou destroze the enemy and the veniere. 
 
 For I shall see thin heuenes, the werkis of thi 
 fingris ; the mone and the sterris, that thou hast 
 foundid. 
 
 What is a man, that myndeful thou art of hym ; 
 or the son of man, for thou visitist hym ? 
 
 Thou lassedest hym a litii lasse fro aungelis; 
 with glorie and worshipe thou crounedest hym, and 
 settist hym ouer the werkis of thin hondys. 
 
 Alle thingus thou leidist vnder his feet, 
 
 Shep and oxen alle ; ferthermore and the bestis 
 of the feeld ; 
 
 the foulis of heuene, and the fishis of the se ; 
 that thurz gon the sties of the se. 
 
 Lord, oure Lord ; hou myche merueilous is thi 
 name in al erthe.^ 
 
 ^ If the above is read aloud it will be found 
 almost to correspond in sound with the familiar 
 words of the A.V., although to the eye it looks 
 so different. But in doing so, it is important to 
 observe the interchangeable use of u and v. In 
 the first verse, merudlous looks strange ; but if we 
 read the ti as v^ we hear a word almost the same 
 as "marvellous." In the next verse, if we read the 
 ti in " heuenes " as a v, we hear the word " heavens." 
 In the same verse we see an instance of the oppo- 
 site change ; vp is clearly " up." The " grete 
 doing " of God is " reared up " over the heavens. 
 In the next verse again, the vn in vnspekende 
 is clearly un. The "un-speaking child" is the 
 
EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS 8i 
 
 You must remember that the printing- 
 press at that time was not yet invented, and 
 all books were manuscripts, written out by 
 hand, so that copies were few, and in the 
 hands of only few people. But so great 
 was the interest taken in WyclifFe's enter- 
 prise, that quite a number of men accus- 
 tomed to copying correctly came forward 
 for the work, and laboured hard to produce 
 copies. Of course it was terrible toil to 
 write out the whole Bible, and took even 
 a skilful writer several months ; yet very 
 many copies were made, and were eagerly 
 purchased. Not for sixpence, as you may 
 pay for a Bible now ! The cost was so 
 great — it is said ^^50 and more — that only 
 wealthy people could afford a copy for 
 themselves. Even for a few loose pages a 
 large sum would be offered. People even 
 paid to be allowed to come to a house 
 where there was a copy, and to read it for 
 an hour a day. Some managed in this way 
 
 babe. We must remember that Wycliffe translated 
 from the Latin Vulgate. "Crete doing" is an 
 ultra-literal rendering of the Latin magtiificentia. 
 "Lassedest," in the 6th verse (5th in A.V.), which 
 means " madest him less," is a translation of the 
 Latin minuisti. 
 
 F 
 
82 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 to learn portions by heart, and then went 
 and repeated them to others. 
 
 But the chief authorities in the Church 
 were indignant that "the Gospel pearl," as 
 one said, was " cast abroad and trodden 
 underfoot of swine." The Archbishop of 
 York wrote to the Pope of "that pestilent 
 wretch, John WyclifFc, the son of the old 
 Serpent, the forerunner of Antichrist, who 
 had completed his iniquity by inventing a 
 new translation of the Scriptures." In 1378 
 there was a great Council held at the 
 monastery of the Black Friars in London, 
 consisting of eight bishops and many other 
 learned men, to consider the teachings of 
 Wycliffe. While they were debating, the 
 city was suddenly shaken by an earthquake, 
 and the terrified Council at first took it as 
 a judgment of God on their proceedings ; 
 but the Archbishop of Canterbury declared 
 that it was a sign of the earthquake in 
 men's minds that was needed to overthrow 
 Wycliffe's errors ; whereupon his teachings 
 were unanimously condemned. When the 
 new English Bible appeared, a bill was 
 brought into Parliament forbidding its circu- 
 lation, though not passed ; and Convocation 
 threatened to excommunicate any translator. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS 83 
 
 Persecution fell upon WyclifFe's followers, 
 whom their enemies called Lollards, from a 
 word meaning one who mumbles prayers and 
 hymns. If you stand on Westminster Bridge 
 and look up the River Thames, you will see 
 beyond St. Thomas's Hospital, on your left 
 hand, Lambeth Palace, which is the re- 
 sidence of the Archbishop of Canterbury ; 
 and the highest of its towers is called the 
 Lollards' Tower, because they were im- 
 prisoned there. You must not suppose that 
 these Lollards were all good men. On the 
 contrary, they became a large body of very 
 troublesome people, discontented and re- 
 bellious ; and the persecution was for the 
 most part not about religion. But among 
 them were earnest Christians who suffered 
 for the bad conduct of the rest. Some of 
 these were burnt alive at Smithfield. The 
 first of these was a godly priest whose crime 
 was that he had said, " I adore not the cross 
 on which Christ suffered, but I adore Christ 
 who suffered on it." Lady Jane Boughton 
 was burnt at eighty years of age, and Sir 
 John Oldcastle was roasted over a slow fire. 
 Some of the victims, it is said, were bound to 
 the stake with copies of parts of Wycliffe's 
 Bible tied round their necks. Efforts were 
 
84 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 afterwards made to destroy all the copies in 
 England, just as the early Greek manuscripts 
 had been destroyed by the Roman Emperors ; 
 but many were kept safe, and no less than 
 one hundred and seventy remain to this day. 
 They are much valued by those who possess 
 them ; and some time ago, when a copy 
 was for sale, the price asked was ^lOOO. 
 It is a curious thing to remember that 
 WyclifFe's Bible was printed for the first time 
 in the reign of George II., and, in a complete 
 form, in that of Queen Victoria. 
 
 WyclifFe himself died peacefully at Lutter- 
 worth. Thirteen years after his death, his 
 grave was opened, his bones were taken out 
 and burnt, and the ashes were cast into a 
 neighbouring brook, in token of his life's 
 work having — as it was hoped — come to 
 nought. But Thomas Fuller, a quaint 
 writer of Charles the First's time, says, " The 
 brook conveyed them into the Avon, the 
 Avon into the Severn, the Severn into the 
 narrow seas (Bristol Channel), and they into 
 the main ocean ; and thus the ashes of 
 Wycliffe were the emblem of his doctrine, 
 which is now dispersed all the world over." 
 

 airrpimuo a prc.i mitrdgoDf Ijua'^il^l 
 
 non rdncp niatetu nnuii fabts nbi 
 frO qS fjatwim" nb iumo : ut fiiligi 
 niuB fllntutru.fn^- c tamao :ut am 
 bulrni" Wm matera n°. l\ot raira f 
 iiianDadiiut qunuaDraoDii auDi&a 
 ab iiimo in ra ambfcnorqtu mulo fr 
 Diittorto mcmt imuDu q no roftraif 
 \iiAu mlKi miilTf iii canu.Biir I frCu.^^ -r 
 ^j.-if don anncnfluo.\3iQrtc uofiurapoB / " 
 •J^J|nt prWtio q opttan tflie : frO ut mtt'W- 
 '^iiDmi plena ampians . Lnmio q rttt' 1 
 jOu tt no pmanrt f Bodniia rnfJirDcu ■; 
 Tiflliabrr.CuiiJmanttflDttniiarijit ; 
 patrtrtfilmtabtrJjiq'BuritaDDoa : 
 tthaciJodnnaHO afirrnuolitt rrnpr^V 
 rttuiDonmrnrtaurnijitcnne.lDui ^ 
 mi Omt lUwurconuuutarnpnnbn" .j 
 tnalipi'j.iDliii-abatfQ uobiofaibr-- •- 
 rnuolm p cana n atttamrarii. &pcto v 
 rtrimrftimriiaiJuDuocirroaaDDD ' 
 loqiii:ut gniiOm ufiupimfi fit. Q-a-t^w 
 lutat tc filir forono tur rlrdti-ijfplmiW'tJ 
 rpin fcnmiiK loUfs Hpli ,* iinpir n'TIk 
 jTiiiiynituj ii rpiftiilBni trmnm . "^ 
 -'^^ ■■ ^'^fl.iu pirrano laufa tpol 
 br aiq; ut m ipfa pittatr 
 niaiuat trb32rat02:Dioirt • 
 prill mipittane tr.fugbit ' 
 sucgar : oniimia aiit bonil 
 III gbibct cum &ambue oni^' 
 .qilmt srgiim"fm.,Innp 
 piifpj H iL-.'.iic trr na. nipir pjinm 
 ItuDjrpia rflniri< 
 ino-qutrgoQilipy 
 in Dtnrarc . iTanlTi'j 
 mt-OcDirithjDrdnJ 
 onrai fann profpttf 
 rcttmgrrtiirtualf^< 
 fintagitaintua.ifiamP.' 
 funi ual'bc Qmimttofcambiia i tcfti;. 
 luoum gbibnuibuB pcntan tur;rimt v 
 
 »' "-WT^*; •''••'A*(« •tti'ky 
 
 tumumtattarab[a8.)rE 
 nn babra oraniq;, ut aniuamfilioa 
 nnoBinnrritatt ambiilatra.CanDi. 
 inr-fiDclita EansqmtqO optrano ia 
 ftattr9:i boc iptrgunoa-q ttftiraout 
 
 aim rtODittoit tatitaH tutm nralpflu 
 jcdrfitiquoo bcutfanraa titbunaftu 
 'gnt Dto.pco nomine mini tt'^Wi 
 funnmibil arapiitre a 5fnlibj.)Ro6 
 ngo CcbmmB iifcipm buiuthiDiii : 
 UT raopiataiOT fiuiue tmtanB.2)m» 
 pQCtui fbifuan miE&dtij le q araat 
 pmamni gitnt m tie Diotttpta-non 
 rtcipttnoD. iDmptbJcD nmtoiont 
 raonra nua opra qur facie iihia raa- 
 hgnia garnro m noo. J& qiioC no ti 
 iBaruffinam:ntqiipc fufnpitfeari 
 njeqiiifurnpiut.pbibft-^brtcdffia 
 nni.lEariffuiicnoliimitan raaUtm: 
 ftO qti botiu ttt. iDui bratfacit ti dro 
 tft:qui maltfant no uiDct Brii.iJmir- 
 too rtSimonhi ccbbif nb amtoi ab 
 ipa uraratcfr0 1 noB rcftunonmgct- 
 hib:iiui6:'} iinttiqiu tcQuHOiuiinmi 
 tctu c. llHulta tebiii nbi fttitetrftti no; 
 lui g atnamrru rt talaum ftnttrt nbi. 
 Ibpro aiic ptotinua it uitrctn OB ab 
 DB loqunuur. iBaj nbi. Isalutant it 
 flmin.&aluta aiuiroB pre noraiiti* 
 plinr rplfl trma ihis Rpli .^nnpif 
 flrifiiuittu'i qilmu brnn lun flpU' 
 
 tHbaa apa&oius-fratno tt amupiD' 
 nto uic uruans iia infmmatiut iivoi 
 mm tffc biffmtt oc Qibiugo frmtl rtu» 
 COB tuimnD-brauQ opna {Jua o&nie 
 UDUflrt lJtmUibuo.«jpUnr atsunit 
 niiii-ximpif rplabfan mCr npU . 
 (Hbas ibriii cnBi ftruuB fcaia: aut? 
 iacobi Jjiie qui funt in Dto pant bdl- 
 tha-1 cnfto ibr fu tcntcuana tt uota< 
 na. jIHifmcmDia uobio ct par rt ran- 
 abiinplfatur.£an[^upi omntiu 
 
 
 A Page of Gutenberg's Latin Bible, the earliest 
 
 PRINTED BOOK, ABOUT I455 A. D. (PARTS OF THE 2ND 
 
 AND 3RD Epistles of St. John). 
 
 (^From the illujitinated copy in Lambeth Palace Library 
 By pcr:nission 0/ the Archbishop 0/ Canterbury.') 
 
 To face p. 85. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE 
 REVIVAL OF LEARNING 
 
 That wonderful Latin Version of Saint 
 Jerome's, called the Vulgate, was, as we 
 have seen, the Bible of Europe for a thousand 
 years. The best occupation of the monks 
 in their monasteries was making copies of 
 it, some of which were beautifully written, 
 and adorned with " illuminations," coloured 
 borders or small pictures or ornamental letters 
 at the beginning of chapters. In some 
 monasteries there was a room called the 
 Scriptorium, or writing-room, in which the 
 work was done ; but sometimes the monks 
 did it in their own cells. There were also 
 strict rules about reading the Bible. At the 
 great Abbey of Cluny, in France, the monks 
 read aloud in turn in the evening, the Book 
 of Genesis occupying a week, and the Epistle 
 
 85 
 
86 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 to the Romans two evenings. They also 
 had to know all the Psalms by heart. Some 
 of them wrote important books in Latin, 
 which we have in English, such as the 
 Imitation of Christy by Thomas a Kempis j 
 and beautiful hymns, such as "Jerusalem 
 the Golden," "All glory, laud, and power," 
 "Jesu, the very thought of Thee," "O 
 come all ye faithful," and many others. 
 
 But all this did little or nothing for the 
 people generally. If they went to church, 
 they heard the Lessons read in Jerome's 
 Latin Version, which they did not under- 
 stand ; and even if they had known, and 
 had learned to read, the bishops and clergy 
 did not think it right that they should read 
 the Scriptures. We saw in the last chapter 
 how it was discouraged in England ; and the 
 Council of Toulouse, in France, in 1229, 
 said, " We forbid the common people to 
 possess any of the Books of the Old and 
 New Testaments, except perhaps the Psalter, 
 or the Breviary, or the Hours of the Blessed 
 Virgin [these two being of course not Scrip- 
 tures], which some out of devotion wish to 
 have ; but having any of these translated 
 into the vulgar tongue we strictly forbid," 
 
ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES 87 
 
 What led to this decree was the discovery 
 that there were people in the valleys of the 
 Alps who had some parts of Scripture in 
 their own dialect, which was derived from 
 the Latin. Their forefathers had been 
 taught the pure Gospel by a Bishop of 
 Turin in the 9th century, a Spaniard named 
 Claude, who in that darkest of dark ages 
 condemned the adoration of images and relics 
 and other corrupt customs in the Church. 
 Then in the 12th century there was a good 
 merchant of Lyons, Peter Waldo, who be- 
 came a leader among them, and from whom 
 they have since been called Waldenses. It 
 is supposed that he, being a man of learning, 
 gave them the version of the Gospels in 
 their own tongue. Here is the first verse of 
 St. John in it : — " Lo filh era al comenexa- 
 menty e lo filh era enapres Dio^ e Dio era lo 
 filhr 
 
 Among other versions of parts of the 
 Bible made from time to time v/as the 
 Slavonic, for the Bulgarian and other Slav 
 races. This was the work of two brothers, 
 Greek monks from Thessalonica, Cyril and 
 Methodius, in the 9th century. It is from 
 the church which they founded that the 
 
88 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 modern Moravians (the " United Brethren "), 
 who have done such w^onderful missionary 
 v^rork, are descended. 
 
 After the time of these Versions, the most 
 important v^^ork was Wycliffe's in England, 
 of which we saw something in the last 
 chapter. That was in the 14th century. 
 But the next century, the 15th, was the 
 greatest epoch in the Story of the Bible, 
 the greatest at least since the Canon was 
 settled. For the 15th century saw two 
 great events. 
 
 I. One was the Revival of Greek Learning. 
 In the ages we have been looking at, even 
 learned men generally did not know Greek 
 or Hebrew, and could not read the Scriptures 
 in the languages in which they were written. 
 Two great men in England in the 13th 
 century knew Greek ; Roger Bacon, the 
 philosopher, and Grosteste, the good Bishop 
 of Lincoln ; but there were very few others, 
 The revival came from a great disaster. 
 The Turks, who had come from Central 
 Asia, captured Constantinople in 1453, and 
 set up a Mohammedan Empire in the city 
 where Greek Christian Emperors had reigned 
 for a thousand years, from the days of old 
 
ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES 89 
 
 Rome. Learned Greeks fled to Italy and 
 France and Germany, and brought with them 
 the wonderful books, histories and treatises 
 and poems, Thucydides and Plato and Homer 
 and Sophocles, which the ancient Greeks 
 had written long long ago, and some of 
 which English boys and girls now read at 
 school and college. They were received with 
 enthusiasm, and Greek study was eagerly 
 taken up at Florence and Paris and Oxford ; 
 while it was a German, John Reuchlin, who 
 did most to help the students by writing 
 grammars and dictionaries in both Greek and 
 Hebrew. One curious thing that followed 
 was that clever men took Greek names 
 instead of their own. For instance, there 
 was a Dutchman named Gerhard (which in 
 his language means " beloved "), and he took 
 the name of Erasmus (which means the 
 same in Greek) ; and a German named 
 Schwarzerd (" black earth ") translated his 
 name also into Greek, and called himself 
 Melanchthon, which means the same thing. 
 But the greatest fact of all is that the fugi- 
 tives from Constantinople brought also old 
 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament ; 
 and so it was said that ** Greece had risen 
 
90 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 from the dead with the New Testament in 
 her hand."i 
 
 2. The other event was the Invention 
 of Printing. It was a wonderful day indeed 
 when John Gutenberg, a German of May- 
 ence on the Rhine, hit on the idea that 
 movable types, letters cut in metal, and inked, 
 could be used to print books, and thus save 
 the enormous labour of writing out every 
 copy of every book by hand. Gutenberg 
 thought and thought and thought about it 
 for twenty years, and then let a goldsmith 
 named Fust into his secret ; and Fust pro- 
 vided the money to prepare the types and 
 the press-machine. Now the first complete 
 book printed by Gutenberg at Mayence 
 was the Bible, about 1455. It was of course 
 the Vulgate, the great Latin Version which 
 had been used ever since the time of St. 
 Jerome. Everybody was astonished ; here 
 was a book which no one had written with 
 a pen : how could it have been done ? In 
 after years Fust was accused of being in 
 league with the Devil, because he produced 
 
 * These words are often quoted, but the author 
 of them is rarely mentioned. It was Professor 
 GoldwJn Smith, in his Historical Lectures. 
 
ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES 91 
 
 the wonderful printed pages. But of course 
 the secret could not be kept long : and in a 
 few years there were printing-presses at various 
 German cities, and at Paris, and at Rome, and 
 in London. The first in England was set up 
 at Westminster Abbey by William Caxton in 
 1476. Before the end of the century, more 
 than a hundred editions of the Latin Vulgate 
 are said to have been printed ! 
 
 These were the two great events of the 
 15th century which had to do with the 
 Bible. And another was when the Scrip- 
 tures began to be printed in their original 
 languages. The Hebrew Old Testament 
 was the first. It was done by the Jews, 
 for use in their synagogues. The Christians 
 were satisfied with the Latin Vulgate, and 
 the Greek New Testament was not printed 
 until that century was over. A little frag- 
 ment of it, just the Songs of Mary and 
 Zacharias, from St. Luke's Gospel, — what 
 we call in our Prayer-book the Magnificat 
 and the Benedictus, — were put at the end 
 of a Greek Psalter (Book of Psalms) printed 
 at Venice in 1486;^ and that was the first 
 
 1 Or, appended to a Greek Psalter printed at 
 Milan in 1481. 
 
92 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 bit of the Greek Scriptures struck off from 
 the new types. But who was the first 
 person to order the printing of the whole 
 Greek New Testament ? It was a Roman 
 Cardinal ! He was a very great man, a 
 Spaniard named Ximenes, who became Arch- 
 bishop of Toledo and the chief statesman 
 in the kingdom when Spain was one of 
 the most powerful countries of Europe. 
 The book he got printed was an immense 
 one. It had in it the Hebrew Old 
 Testament, and the Jewish Targums or 
 Paraphrases on it (which I explained before), 
 and the Septuagint Greek Old Testament, 
 and the Greek New Testament, and the 
 Latin Vulgate : all these ! Fancy the labour 
 of compiling such a book ! It was begun 
 to be printed in 1502; the New Testament 
 was ready in 15 14; and the whole was 
 published in 1522.^ 
 
 But meanwhile, another Greek Testa- 
 ment, though not printed first, was published 
 first. This was prepared with great labour 
 by that learned Dutchman who had taken 
 
 ^ This noble work was called the Complutensian 
 Polyglot. The various texts were arranged in 
 parallel columns. Copies are still to be seen. 
 
ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES 93 
 
 the name of Erasmus. He was the most 
 brilliant scholar and writer of the period. 
 He was for some years in England, and 
 he studied at Oxford and lectured at Cam- 
 bridge. He wrote a great many books, in- 
 cluding " paraphrases " or expositions of the 
 Books of the New Testament. But his 
 great work was his edition of the Greek 
 Testament, first published in 15 16. He had 
 searched for old Greek manuscripts, such 
 as I spoke of in a previous chapter ; and he 
 carefully compared them, so as to get as 
 near as possible to the actual words of the 
 sacred writers. Do you remember how I 
 told you about that 7th verse in the 5th 
 chapter of St. John's First Epistle, that it 
 is not in any of the old MSS., and there- 
 fore has been left out of our Revised Version ? 
 Well, it has a curious history. Erasmus 
 could not find it in any of the MSS., so 
 he left it out of his Greek Testament. But 
 then as it was in the Latin Vulgate, other 
 learned men complained, and said, " You 
 have no right to leave out a verse of the 
 Bible!" Erasmus replied, "If you will 
 show me one Greek MS. which has that 
 verse in it, I will put it again in my edition." 
 
94 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 And they did find one ! — but it was not 
 an old MS. at all, and had only been copied 
 a few years before. Still, Erasmus kept his 
 promise, and when he had to print his third 
 edition, he put the verse in again. That 
 is how it has come down to us, although 
 we may be sure St. John never wrote it ! 
 
 After Erasmus, other learned men prepared 
 editions of the Greek Testament ; and the 
 most important of these was published at 
 Paris in 1550. The editors and printers 
 were Robert Etienne and his son Henry. 
 They were Frenchmen ; but the Latin form 
 of their names being Stephanus, they are often 
 called Stephens (or more correctly Stephen) 
 in English books. They compared the MSS. 
 they found in the Royal Library at Paris 
 with Erasmus's edition and with the one 
 printed in Spain by order of Cardinal Ximenes; 
 and in after years, when their work had been 
 revised again and again, it was beautifully 
 printed by some Dutch printers named Elzevir, 
 and was received everywhere as containing 
 the true w^ords of the inspired Scriptures. 
 These Dutch printers called it a text received 
 by all ; so it came to be called Textus ReceptuSy 
 the Received Text. We now know that it 
 
ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES 95 
 
 was not perfect, because the oldest and best 
 MSS. have been discovered since ; but it 
 is still very useful. It was Stephen who 
 first arranged the words in verses. The 
 chapter divisions had been first made, in 
 the Latin Vulgate, by a famous Archbishop 
 of Canterbury named Stephen Langton, in 
 the 13th century;^ and now the French 
 Stephen (Etienne) marked ofiF the verses. 
 
 But you will see that the work of Erasmus 
 and the others, after all, only helped learned 
 men. It was very good that they should 
 know that their familiar Bible, the Latin 
 Vulgate, was only a translation, and that 
 they should have the inspired writings of 
 St. Paul and St. John and St. Luke in the 
 Greek, nearly as they were written. Still, 
 this did not put the Word of God into the 
 hands of the people. But Erasmus did wish 
 the people to have the Bible. He said, "I 
 desire that even the weakest woman should 
 read the Gospels, and the Epistles of Paul. 
 I long that the husbandman should sing 
 portions of them to himself as he follows 
 
 1 The chapter divisions have always been attri- 
 buted to Cardinal Hugo, but it has lately been 
 ascertained that he took them from Langton. 
 
96 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the plough ; that the weaver should hum 
 them to the tune of his shuttle ; that the 
 traveller should beguile w^ith their stories the 
 tedium of his journey." Now^, then, what 
 was done to bring this about ? 
 
 Many translations of the Scriptures were 
 made into various European languages during 
 the next hundred years ; into English, French, 
 German, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Polish, 
 Spanish, Icelandic, Welsh, Hungarian, Dutch, 
 Italian. The most important of these were 
 the English and the German. Of the Eng- 
 lish we will hear in another chapter. The 
 new German Version was the work of 
 Luther. 
 
 Martin Luther was a German monk who 
 became a learned professor of theology, and 
 gave lectures at the University of Wittenberg 
 which were attended by large numbers of 
 students. He had studied the Bible well, 
 and had learned the truth of which St. Paul 
 says so much, that " the just shall live by 
 faith." At that time most of the bishops and 
 clergy of the Church taught many doctrines 
 v/hich are not the true teaching of Scripture ; 
 and there was much that was very sad in 
 their lives. Then came the Reformation, 
 
ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES 97 
 
 and Luther was the greatest of the Re- 
 formers, who all taught, among other things, 
 three grand truths : first, that we are saved, 
 not by our good deeds (for our good deeds 
 never can be good enough), but by faith in 
 Jesus Christ as our one and only Saviour ; 
 secondly, that we can go straight to our 
 Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, and 
 tell Him our sins, and He will forgive us for 
 Christ"'s sake ; thirdly, that God's messages 
 for us are in the Bible, and we must go to 
 the Bible to know His will and His truth. 
 
 So Luther determined to give the German 
 people the Scriptures afresh in their own 
 mother-tongue, translated direct from the 
 Hebrew and Greek ; ^ and while he was 
 shut up in a castle called the Wartburg (not 
 as a prisoner, but to protect him), he trans- 
 lated the whole Bible into German. The 
 New Testament was finished 1522 ; and the 
 whole was completed in 1534. It has been 
 an immense blessing to Germany ; and it 
 was largely used by the men who made 
 some of the Versions I mentioned before, 
 the Swedish, the Danish, and others. 
 
 1 There were German translations of the 
 Vulgate before Luther. 
 
 G 
 
98 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 If you have not read the life of Luther, 
 I hope you will do so. He was not a perfect 
 man, but he was a good one, and he did a 
 wonderful work. We must always thank 
 God for Martin Luther. 
 

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 pctceaucfe t^at tlity wct« note* , an* fo- 
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 (^att. 
 
 A Page from Coverdale's Bible, 1535. 
 
 To/ace^. 99. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ABOUT THE BIBLES OF THE ENGLISH 
 REFORMATION 
 
 Let us now come back to England, and see 
 how the English people came to have a 
 Bible in their mother-tongue. We have 
 seen how Wycliffe gave them one, and 
 how the histories and teachings of Scripture 
 gradually became better known to many. 
 But WyclifFe's Bible was only a translation 
 from Jerome's Latin Vulgate ; and copies of 
 it, being all written by hand, and very ex- 
 pensive, could not really get into the people's 
 hands ; besides which, a great many copies 
 had perished, as I told you before. The 
 man whom God raised up to make the 
 first English Version of the New Testament 
 from the original Greek, and to use the new 
 printing-press to produce copies, was William 
 Tyndale. 
 
 99 
 
100 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Tyndale was one of the students — he was 
 at both Oxford and Cambridge — who was 
 fascinated by the New Learning I told you 
 of in the last chapter, and learned Greek 
 thoroughly. At Cambridge he might hear 
 that learned Dutchman, Erasmus, lecturing 
 on the Greek classics. Now Erasmus had 
 just finished his edition of the Greek Testa- 
 ment, which also I mentioned in our last 
 chapter, and very likely Tyndale studied it 
 carefully. Like Erasmus, he wished the 
 Bible to be put into the hands of the people. 
 In reply to one man who thought that only 
 the clergy should read it, Tyndale, who was 
 a clergyman himself, said, "If God spare 
 my life, ere many years I will cause a boy 
 that driveth the plough shall know more of 
 the Scripture than thou dost ! " He came 
 to London in 1523, hoping that the Bishop, 
 a learned man named Tunstall, would en- 
 courage him to set about the work ; but he 
 was disappointed. Most of the bishops and 
 leading men in the Church were then against 
 anything of the kind. They were afraid 
 of what they called the new teachings of 
 Luther and the other Reformers. But if 
 those teachings were wrong, what could be 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES loi 
 
 better than to print the Bible, which would 
 show them to be wrong ? We know, how- 
 ever, that they were not wrong, and not 
 new, for they were the teachings of Jesus 
 Christ and His Apostles, which we learn 
 about in the Bible. Unhappily most of the 
 bishops and clergy did not preach the simple 
 teachings of our Lord and the Apostles ; 
 some did not even know them ; and at 
 that very time they were putting in prison 
 and putting to death people who believed 
 them. There was a good Dean of St. Paul's 
 named Colet, who had preached there so 
 earnestly as to startle London ; and he would 
 m-ost likely have been burnt alive if King 
 Henry VIII. had not rather liked him. So 
 now we see why the great change in the 
 Church of England was necessary which we 
 call the Reformation. 
 
 At last Tyndale left England and went 
 to Germany. He wrote, " I perceive that 
 not only in my lord of London's palace, 
 but in all England, there is no room for 
 translating the New Testament." He had 
 already begun the work, and he finished it 
 at Cologne. He took the Greek Testament 
 of Erasmus, and compared with it Jerome's 
 
102 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Latin Vulgate and Luther's new German 
 Bible, and made his own English Version. 
 Then he got 6000 copies printed, and in 
 1526 all were ready. But how was he to 
 get them into England ? King Henry and 
 Cardinal Wolsey had been warned by a man 
 who found out what was going on, and 
 orders were given to seize and burn any 
 of the books that might be brought over. 
 But many did come over, hidden in bales of 
 cloth and sacks of flour. Bishop Tunstall got 
 hold of one, took it into the open-air pulpit 
 outside St. Paul's Cathedral, declared that it 
 contained 3000 errors, — and flung it into a 
 fire burning close by. And so complete was 
 the gradual destruction of those 6000 first 
 copies that only two copies and a fragment 
 arc known to be still in existence. One of 
 them is in St. PauPs Cathedral, and reckoned 
 a great treasure. But Tyndale went on 
 printing new editions, carefully revised, and 
 also began the Old Testament and published 
 the Pentateuch. At length, however, he 
 was arrested and imprisoned under a decree 
 of Charles V., Emperor of Germany, and 
 was executed by strangling, and his body 
 burnt, at Vilvorde in Belgium in 1536. His 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES 103 
 
 last words were, " Lord, open the King of 
 England's eyes ! " 
 
 We have indeed cause to thank God 
 for Tyndale's unselfish and devoted labours. 
 To this day we are reading his words. 
 Although there have been several revisions 
 yet the greater part of our New Testament 
 is his. Look for instance at Matt, xviii. 
 19-27. In our Revised Version there are 
 in those nine verses 196 words. Of these, 
 162 are in Tyndale's Version. Or look at 
 the last five verses of the 2nd chapter of 
 Ephesians. In those verses there are 82 
 words, and 69 of these are in Tyndale. 
 
 Here are the five verses in Tyndale's 
 Version, with the words which our Bible 
 has altered in italics : — 
 
 18. For through him we both have an open way 
 in [A.V. access by] one Spirit unto the Father. 
 
 1 9. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and 
 foreigners, but citizens [A.V. fellow-citizens] with 
 the saints and of the household of God, 
 
 20. And are built upon the foundation of the 
 Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ [A.V. adds, 
 himself] being the head [A.V. chief] corner-stone. 
 
 21. To [A.V. In] whom every [A.V. all the] 
 building coupled [A.V. fitly framed] together 
 groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, 
 
104 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 22. In whom ye also are bti'tlt [A.V. builded] 
 together, and made [A,V. for] an habitation for 
 [A.V. of] God in [A.V. through] the Spirit. 
 
 But here and there we find curious things 
 in Tyndale's Bible. Thus, in Matt. vi. 7, 
 where our Lord tells us not to "use vain 
 repetitions " in prayer, Tyndale puts " bable 
 not moche " ; in Matt. xxvi. 30, where 
 Jesus and His disciples " sung an hymn," 
 Tyndale puts "said grace." In Gen. xxxix., 
 where our present Bible has "The Lord 
 was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous 
 man," Tyndale has " he was a luckie 
 felowe." It is a good thing for boys to 
 remember that the right way to be "lucky 
 fellows " is to have the Lord with them ! 
 
 Very quickly were " the King of Eng- 
 land's eyes opened," so far as the printing of 
 the Bible was concerned. Cardinal Wolsey 
 died, and Cranmer (who was afterwards 
 the chief English Reformer) soon became 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. Within a year 
 of Tyndale's death, King Henry licensed 
 the publication of the English Bible ! What 
 Bible was that ? First, a good man, though 
 not so learned as Tyndale, named Miles 
 Coverdale, had completed an English Version 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES 105 
 
 of the whole Bible, not from the Hebrew 
 and Greek, but partly translated from the 
 Latin Vulgate, partly from one of the 
 German versions, and partly borrowed from 
 Tyndale with alterations. This Version, 
 first printed in 1535, came to be called the 
 "Treacle Bible," because in Jer. viii. 22, 
 where we now have the words " balm in 
 Gilead," Coverdale wrote " triacle in Galaad." 
 Then came another Version which was 
 known as "Matthew's Bible," edited by a 
 good man, John Rogers, who was afterwards 
 burned alive at Smithfield under Queen 
 Mary, the first martyr of her reign. In it, 
 the Pentateuch and the New Testament 
 were reprinted from Tyndale, and a large 
 part of the Old Testament from Coverdale. 
 This edition was allowed by King Henry 
 to be dedicated to him. But then it was 
 found to contain notes which offended many 
 people; and another new Version was planned, 
 Coverdale was employed to make it, and his 
 work was a revision of Matthew's Bible. It 
 had an engraving on the title-page, said to 
 have been drawn by the great painter Holbein, 
 which represents the King handing Bibles 
 to Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell (who 
 
io6 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 was afterwards what we should now call 
 Prime Minister), which they distribute to 
 the people, and God in the clouds above 
 saying, " My word shall not return unto Me 
 void." It appeared in 1539, ^" large folio 
 size, and came to be called the Great Bible. 
 Orders were given to put a copy in every 
 church, the copies being chained up to pre- 
 vent their being stolen, and the clergy were 
 ordered to " expressly provoke, stir, and ex- 
 hort every person to read the same." And 
 whose name do you think was soon seen^ 
 on the title-page of this Bible, a large 
 part of which was Tyndale's, to give it 
 authority in the King's name ? Bishop 
 Tunstall's — the very man who had refused 
 to help Tyndale, and who had condemned 
 and burnt Tyndale's New Testament ! 
 
 The old English historian Strype says, 
 "It was wonderful to see with what joy this 
 Book of God was received . . . and with 
 what eagerness it was read, and what resort 
 to places where the teaching of it was. . . . 
 Even little boys flocked to hear portions of 
 the Holy Scripture read." It is beheved that 
 
 ^ It was not so in the first edition. 
 
Title-page to the "Great Bible," 1539. 
 
 To face p. io6. 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES 107 
 
 20,000 copies of the great folios were printed, 
 the prices being ten and twelve shillings, 
 which is equal to ^^6 or ^7 to-day. 
 
 Some of the words of the Great Bible 
 are very familiar to us. The Psalms in our 
 Prayer-book are taken from it, and we know 
 how often they read differently from the 
 Psalms in our Bible. For instance, in the 
 68th Psalm, we have in our Bible, " Ethiopia 
 shall soon (R.V., haste to) stretch out her 
 hands unto God " ; but in the Prayer-book it 
 is "The Morians' land shall . . ." This 
 means the land of the Moors, and Coverdale 
 took it from the German Version, which has 
 Mohrenland. Then again, we remember how 
 Miss Havergal wrote a missionary hymn on 
 the words of the 96th Psalm, "Tell it out 
 among the heathen that the Lord is King " ; 
 but you will not find that text in our Bible. 
 It is only in what we call the Prayer-book 
 Version, and comes from the Great Bible of 
 King Henry. The reason of this is simply 
 that our Prayer-book came out only a few 
 years after the Great Bible ; half a century 
 before our own Bible. When the Prayer- 
 book was revised in Charles II. 's time, the 
 Epistles and Gospels and the Lessons were 
 
io8 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 taken from the new Bible, but the Psalms 
 remained as they were.^ 
 
 Four more English Versions appeared after 
 this, before our own Bible was undertaken. 
 One was by a layman named Taverner ; and 
 another, some years later, by certain Bishops 
 and other learned men, under the super- 
 vision of Archbishop Parker, and this, in 
 Queen Elizabeth's reign, was the one 
 put in the churches. Another was made 
 during Queen Mary's reign, and as no such 
 work would then have been allowed in 
 England, it was done at Geneva, by some 
 of the English Protestants who had fled from 
 Mary's persecution. During that persecution 
 there was a great destruction of Bibles in 
 England ; but when Mary died, and Elizabeth 
 came to the throne, the fugitives returned, 
 and brought the new Version with them ; 
 and very soon it became extremely popular, 
 although it was the Bishops' Bible that was 
 put in the churches instead of the Great 
 
 • ^ The Comfortable Words in the Communion 
 Sei*vice are not from any Version. They are an 
 independent translation, probably (says Westcott) 
 made by Cranmer. The Benedictus, Magnificat, 
 and Nunc Dimittis, are also independent. 
 
Title-page to the New Testament in the 
 "Great Bible," 1539. 
 
 To face p. 108. 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES 109 
 
 Bible. It was a handy book in size ; it was 
 cheap in price ; it was not printed in the old 
 black letters, but in what we call " roman '^ 
 type — the type we generally use now ; it put 
 in " italics " the words necessary for the sense 
 though not in the original ; it was arranged 
 in verses, following the plan invented by 
 Stephen (as we saw in last chapter) ; and it 
 had useful notes and explanations. It was 
 widely circulated in England and Scotland, 
 and taught thousands the word of God. 
 Many also learned much from the Bishops' 
 Bibles which for safety were chained in the 
 churches. 
 
 The last of these various Versions was 
 made abroad, but for the English Roman 
 Catholics. The New Testament was printed 
 at Rheims, and the Old at Douay. It was 
 not made from the Greek and the Hebrew, 
 but from the Latin Vulgate, and therefore 
 could not be so accurate as some I have 
 been telling you of. And its language is 
 sometimes very strange. Thus in Heb. xiii. 
 16, where we read in our Bible, "To do 
 good and to communicate forget not, for 
 with such sacrifices God is well pleased," the 
 Rheims Version has " Beneficience and com- 
 
no THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 munication do not forget, for with such hosts 
 God is premerited." In i Tim. iv. St. Paul 
 describes some who would " depart from the 
 faith" as *' forbidding to marry." This is 
 exactly what the Roman Church has done, 
 forbidding the clergy to marry ; so it would 
 have been dangerous for a Roman Catholic 
 Version to use such words, and therefore 
 the Rheims New Testament translates thus, 
 "Disallowing the sacrament of marriage," 
 because the Protestants did not reckon mar- 
 riage as one of the sacraments. But we got 
 from it not a few very good expressions, par- 
 ticularly, " To me to live is Christ, and to 
 die is gain," St. Paul's beautiful words in 
 his Epistle to the Philippians. It also put 
 " charity " in i Cor. xiii., whereas Tyndale's 
 Version, and the Bishops' Bible, and the 
 Geneva Bible, and others, had " love " ; so our 
 ow^n Bible got " charity " from the Roman 
 Catholic Version. Here are some verses from 
 that beautiful chapter, as they appear in three 
 of the Versions I have mentioned : — 
 
 In Matthew^s Version {which copied Tyndale) 
 
 Love sufFereth long, and is courteous. Love 
 envieth not. Love doth not frowardly, swoUeth 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES in 
 
 not, dealeth not dishonestly, seeketh not her own, 
 is not provoked to anger, thinketh not evil, rejoiceth 
 not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; suffereth 
 all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
 endureth all things. Though that prophesying 
 fail, other tongues shall cease, or knowledge vanish 
 away, yet love falleth never away. 
 
 In the Geneva Versi 
 
 on 
 
 Love suffereth long : it is bountiful : love envieth 
 not; doth not boast itself; it is not puffed up; it 
 disdaineth not ; it seeketh not her own things ; it 
 is not provoked to anger, it thinketh not evil ; it 
 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. 
 It suffereth all things, it believeth all things, it 
 hopeth all things, it endureth ail things. Love 
 doth never fall away, though that prophesyings 
 be abolished, or the tongues cease, or knowledge 
 vanish away. 
 
 In the Rheims Fersion 
 
 Charity is patient, is benign ; charity envieth 
 not, dealeth not perversely : is not puffed up, is 
 not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not pro- 
 voked to anger, thinketh not evil ; rejoiceth not 
 upon iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth ; suf- 
 fereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
 things, beareth all things. Charity never falleth 
 away ; whether prophecies shall be made void, 
 or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be 
 destroyed. 
 
112 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 You will remember that when we talked 
 about the Books of the Old Testament, I 
 mentioned certain books which were written 
 by Jews before the time of our Lord, but 
 were not included in the Jewish " Canon " 
 of Scripture, and which are usually called 
 the Apocrypha. Now the English Versions 
 I have been mentioning included the Apo- 
 crypha. How was that ? 
 
 In the early days of the Church, before 
 it was finally settled which of the Christian 
 writings were to be in the Canon of the 
 New Testament, some of the books of the 
 Apocrypha, which v/ere (like the Christian 
 writings) written in Greek, used to be read 
 for instruction when the Christians met 
 for worship. But the most learned of the 
 Fathers always distinguished them carefully 
 from the really inspired Books of the Hebrew 
 Canon. Justin Martyr, who quotes much 
 from Scripture, never quotes from them. 
 Eusebius separates them from the rest. 
 Athanasius protests against their being reck- 
 oned with the others as " a device of heretics." 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Instructions for 
 young Christians, says, "I pray you read 
 nothing of the Apocryphal Books." Jerome 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES 113 
 
 did not include them in his great Latin 
 Bible, the Vulgate ; but they were added 
 afterwards, and during the Middle Ages no 
 distinction — or scarcely any — was made be- 
 tween the Canonical and the Apocryphal 
 books. When the great revival of Greek 
 learning came, men began to recognize the 
 difference ; and it is remarkable that some 
 of the strongest objections to the Apocrypha 
 being reckoned as Scripture came from dis- 
 tinguished divines of the Roman Church. 
 For instance, Cardinal Cajetan, who was 
 a great opponent of Luther, said, "The 
 whole Latin Church owes much to Saint 
 Jerome on account of his separation of the 
 canonical from the uncanonical books." ^ 
 Not vmtil 1 546 was there ever an official re- 
 cognition of the Apocrypha as inspired Scrip- 
 ture. It was then done by the Council of 
 Trent, a Council which fixed the Church of 
 Rome to several unscriptural doctrines. 
 
 The Reformers in their new Versions 
 did not drop these books out altogether, but 
 they separated them from the rest, just 
 as the early Fathers had done. And so it 
 
 ^ All this, and much more to the same effect, 
 will be found in Westcott's book on the Canon. 
 
 H 
 
114 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 came to pass that the large Bibles in our 
 churches include them, and a few of the 
 Daily Lessons in the month of November 
 are taken from them.^ The Sixth Article 
 of the Church of England gives a list of 
 the inspired Books of the Old Testament 
 according to the Jewish Canon, and then 
 adds, "And the other Books (as Hierome 
 saith) 2 the Church doth read for example 
 of life and instruction of manners ; but yet 
 doth it not apply them to establish any 
 doctrine." It is therefore best for these 
 Books — some of which are really profitable — 
 to be printed and bound separately, and for 
 our own Bibles to have those Books only 
 which the Church from the beginning has 
 accepted as Holy Scripture. 
 
 When Queen Elizabeth died, the English 
 people had three Bibles in use, the Great, the 
 Bishops', and the Geneva. King James I. 
 succeeded her, and very soon it was arranged 
 by him that a new Version should be 
 made, which all could use. About fifty 
 
 1 There were many more Lessons from the 
 Apocrypha in the Old Lectionary. The present 
 Lectionary dates from 1871. 
 
 2 " Hierome " is St. Jerome. 
 
REFORMATION BIBLES 115 
 
 learned men were chosen to do the work, 
 and they accomplished it in four years. 
 They compared many of the Versions, 
 ancient and modern, of which I have told 
 you : the Hebrew, Syriac, Latin Vulgate, 
 Spanish, French, Italian, German, and also 
 the various English ones. But Tyndale's 
 and Coverdale's Versions, after all, were the 
 real ancestors of King James's Bible. The 
 new Version, which appeared in 161 1, did 
 not win favour at first. One great scholar 
 at Cambridge sent a message to King James 
 that he " would rather be rent in pieces 
 with wild horses" than agree to its use in 
 churches. And generally the people pre- 
 ferred the Geneva. But gradually it came 
 to be the one Bible for the whole nation ; 
 and it continues so to this day. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ABOUT THE AUTHORIZED AND THE 
 REVISED VERSIONS 
 
 For more than two centuries the English 
 people had only one Bible. The older 
 Versions were not reprinted, and gradually- 
 ceased to be used ; and the Version made 
 under King James's direction remained the 
 one accepted edition. We call it the Autho- 
 rized Version, although it was never officially 
 "authorized" as the Great Bible of Henry 
 VIII. had been ; for the King's Printers and 
 the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 
 printed no other, and they alone have had the 
 right in England to print the Scriptures at all. 
 A great many editions of the Authorized Ver- 
 sion have been published by diiFerent Societies, 
 but they all have to go to Oxford, or to 
 Cambridge, or to the King's Printers, to 
 get them printed. This is what is called a 
 
 ii6 
 
Spiricnallgifrs, Chap.xii). C'^^r.r -nrailcdi 
 
 JI'iD tliri'c .ii'f f>.iu-rfu:co oiopr 
 rations, !)tu It <£.tlK fimcooo, uitnrti 
 
 lUOHiCtlMlhlKlll. 
 
 ; . 7 iiiittiU-m.w.fc(latioiiof tDcfp! 
 
 rit ,16 g.iuu to rucrv iiuii to p:oRt Until 
 .Ml. 
 
 s f o: to one is g;uc:iUv tlif fp.rit, 
 tlif lbo:Oof iDiftOoiiic , to ■iiiotticf the 
 n)o;OofUiionilcDgc,m'tiKf.iiticfjiir;t. 
 
 9 Co atiotlicc faitli, Dv tlic fiimc fp. 
 nc:toaiiotliortlictjifts ofliMlmg, liv 
 theCmicfptnt: 
 
 io Co aiiotlicrtlifHioiluiigofiicr.i 
 
 fits, tD.iiiotlicip;opl)ccit, to aiiotlKt 
 
 Oiftcriuiig of fpints , to aiiotlKi; -'■<"<■■<• 
 
 I utiiDCEof toiigxirs , to aiiotlicr rtic ui;; 
 
 tcrpict.woii oftongiits. ! 
 
 1 1 i5iit .111 tlirfc «io;lictli tli.M out 
 .iiiD the fcifc f.iiiif fpmt.tmuDing to cue 
 rriiuii fciirr.illi'as lie Hull. 
 j II .fo:.nstlicboD\MSont,.iut)li<itir 
 tii.iiiv members, ,1110 .111 tlit mciubrs of 
 tli.it out boDv, being iiiaui> ,arc one bo 
 Dic:ro.iliOi Clinll. j 
 
 15 Joj b)»oiicfpirit<irciwallbapti^ 
 'ito into one boDic , Uiljctiicr wcc bcc 
 
 :t&fr,rf,., 3ICll)CS02 togmlCS.UilietftCC v.e; bcc| 
 
 bouDo! ftcc: .inoD.iuc bccncalliiiaot 
 tobiinkemtooiicfpirit. 
 I 1+ Jroitljcbobvisnotoncmcmbct,; 
 I ibuttnanv. 
 
 I IS Jf the foot ni -.11 f.ir , 'oef.mff J 
 lamiiottDe 11.1110,3 iiiiiiiotoftljcboDp: 
 'islttJiercfojenotoftIicbo6v< ' 
 
 1 16 ^iiDiftliefaren).iiif<iv, Sttauft' 
 ji am not tlie eve , 31 iini not of tilt bo- 
 ot': !Sit tliccefo:e not of tlic booy; 
 
 17 3Ff tlic miiole boD)' votrc an c>'e, 
 lDl)ercl\)crttl)Cliearnig;5ftl)cUi|)olc 
 xont Ijcatmg , iDljcrc Wicre tijt finds 
 imgi 
 
 IS iSut iioUi !)atii COD fct tlic nittii' 
 brrs.eucn'oneof tliemmtfjcboD!', as 
 ittiattipleiifeDUini. | 
 
 ; 19 3liiDifttiev\bcrc.illontjncinbcr,l 
 Milicrciberetliebobv; j 
 
 10 2out noil) arc tlici' many nient^' 
 berS.vctbutoncboDv. i 
 
 : I StiD the eye e.iniiot f.w Unto tf)e 
 li.ino , J/ li.iHC no nee D of tike : no! a^ 
 g.imt,tlielie.iDtothefectr,'3 Ijiiuc no 
 neetirofvon. I 
 
 i ji /5.iv,imitIimojet!iofcmcnibctS| 
 of tlic boQit mintU fcciiic to bccniozc I 
 fccblcartntcciT.in'. j 
 
 25 auotliofc " v.- of ttiebooic,! 
 iW)ith\litt t;};iiUe to bee leCTc lionouca- 
 blc , Upon tliffc >Dc ' bcftolli iiioze abuti' : 
 oa!itl)onouc,aiiDoi;rbiKoinclj) parts 
 
 liaueinojcabiiiir . 
 t :.) fo; our coin.:. , , ,; r.o, 
 
 iieei):OiitCotiliatUtcmpcicou;a.oc.:fl 
 togetlif r li,in.nggiutniiiojraUiniii,v\i ; 
 I lionmir to fli.it part ifiliitlil.itliet): 
 I 2s uliattiiciTilmulDbcno ftlitfiiie, ; 
 ' the boDi' : but ili.u the nieiiil-cis llioiilu 
 liaiie the fame tare one foMiiother. 
 
 1', ?inD il)h.tlier one inniibcv fnf ' 
 fee, all the niemLiers fiiiTii iiuttiii : c; 
 one meniber be honoured, alt ilieiiieiii ; 
 bcrsreioiw Until It. i 
 
 17 .fioTOveearcthe boM'of Cii'ift.j 
 ano mcmbc re 111 partitn lar. ' 
 
 5S 3JnD OoD hati) fct fonic m tiie 
 Ciinith, ficd Jtpomcs, fefoiiD.irilr 
 02ophets,thiroii'Ceathers,afrerthat| 
 iiiir.uieE.thcii ff.ftsof healings, liclpcsii 
 ingoueviimcis. Diiierfities of tongues. 
 i9 31rcaU?lpofllesMreailp;ophetr;' 
 arc .111 iCeathersi areaii;iUio;lierGof 'o,., 
 miMtlcs; 
 
 50 iiimeaiitliegiftsoflicalingiDoc 
 allfpcaucUiul) tongues < Doe all intcr- 
 pjtti 
 
 5 1 2Sut tottctearnemj'tht bcft gifts : 
 anDvtt fl)cU) Jbutoyol!alllo^terfrl' 
 Icntlbap. 
 
 CHA1\ Xlll. 
 
 1 A'Igiiics, 2. 5 llo-.vcx.cll;:il(;>-rlI-.r,r!..no- 
 rliin^'.voulluiiliuuljijiiiiir. 4 TbcprailK 
 tiicroJUiid T! prcljtion b;lorchopcS:ljiih. 
 
 ci^onghjTfpeaficibitljthe 
 
 < tongues of mm f of Tin: 
 
 „J Bcls.aiioiianenottliann', 
 
 ^ II'inibeconu.iGrouiiOtim 
 
 r^ b;a- 
 
 «i(reo2atLiililmgt);nit.il 
 
 3111D though 3 h.itic the gift of 
 pjophcficaiii) butierftanD ,111 myttctiC0 
 .iiiD all huoUilebge: .iiiD though J 
 tKweall faith, fo iliatj coum tcmooiir 
 monntamcs, aiiD Ijauc no tlmntie, j 
 amnotlmig. 
 
 3 5lnD thougli 5 bcflollie all niv 
 gooDs to fecDe the poo:c,aiiD though j 
 giucmvboovtobeebiirucD, .iiiD Dane 
 notth.irme,itp2ofttctl)iiienot!i!ng. i 
 
 4. Clwritic fuffercth long,>inDis 
 ftmbe: cliannc ttiuietl) not : thantitl 
 1 Daimtnh not it fclfe,is not puff eo Dp, ; 
 
 5 Doethnotbelj.i«titfclfebnfecm 
 If, fecuethnothcroume, is not cafilv. 
 pionolieD.tliiii'.iethuocuilI, j 
 
 6 Kcioitrtli not in muiuitic,biitrc-| 
 loytethi'mtlietrnctli: 1 
 
 7 iSeareth all things, belrcnrtUalL 
 tl«ugs,Oopet!) all tijmgs , ciumtct!) am 
 tilings. 
 
 i3 S £1)34 
 
 Page from the First Edition of King James' 
 Bible (the "Authorized Version"), i6ii. 
 
 To face p. ii6. 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 117 
 
 " monopoly." It is a good law, because we 
 can be sure that those three presses will 
 print accurately ; and it is most important 
 that not a letter, nor a comma, in our 
 Bibles should be wrong. 
 
 This Authorized Version, as we still call 
 it for convenience, is the greatest book in 
 the English language. Its words are the 
 property of us all, and many of its expressions 
 are constantly used by people who care little 
 or nothing for it. If by some strange miracle 
 every copy of it in the world were suddenly 
 to disappear, almost the whole of it could 
 quickly be printed again ; for, first of all, 
 thousands of people, young and old, can 
 repeat many of the chapters, and secondly, 
 there are thousands of books in which pas- 
 sages are quoted — passages from every part 
 of it. For it is the most precious posses- 
 sion of English Christendom ; and precious 
 indeed to multitudes of individual souls. It 
 has been their comfort and strength through 
 life ; it has been their hope and stay in the 
 hour of death. 
 
 And yet it is not perfect. How could 
 any translation of a book be perfect ? Our 
 Bible, after all, is only a translation into 
 
ii8 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 English of the Hebrew and Greek sentences 
 which the writers of the Scriptures wrote 
 down ; and no two languages ever corre- 
 spond exactly. We are sure that God 
 graciously guided those good and learned 
 men in King James's time to do their very 
 best ; and wonderfully indeed has He blessed 
 their work. But in after years men began 
 to see the imperfections of the Version, and 
 to feel that it is our bounden duty to get 
 God's holy Word in our own language as 
 perfectly as possible ; and many editions 
 were published with notes and commen- 
 taries, which explained to the reader the 
 little changes that ought to be made here 
 and there. These were generally of three 
 kinds, (i) It was possible in many places 
 to translate the Hebrew and the Greek 
 better. (2) King James's translators had not 
 had what we now know to be the three 
 oldest Manuscripts, which I mentioned in 
 Chapter V. ; so they had not the Greek itself 
 quite correctly. (3) Some of the English 
 words used had come to have a different 
 meaning in the course of years ; as, for 
 example, ^^preventy^ which used to mean 
 " go before " — as in our Collect, " Prevent 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 119 
 
 us, O Lord, in all our doings," — but has come 
 to mean *^ hinder"; or again, "carriage," 
 which used to mean " baggage," and now 
 only means a vehicle. When David, in 
 I Sam. xvii. 22, "left his carriage," it only- 
 means perhaps a small bag and water-bottle ! 
 See also the case of St. Paul, Acts xxi. 15. 
 
 At last, in 1870, under Queen Victoria, 
 about 260 years after the first issue of King 
 James's Bible, it was resolved by our Bishops 
 and learned men to make a Revised Version. 
 Not altogether a new one. They were 
 anxious not to change, more than was neces- 
 sary, the words we had all come to love so 
 much. At the same time they were to 
 make corrections of the three kinds I have 
 just mentioned, in order to let everybody 
 understand more exactly what the original 
 Scriptures really say. Accordingly, thirty- 
 four very learned men were chosen, English 
 bishops and clergymen, and Nonconformist 
 ministers, and Scotch Presbyterians, nineteen 
 for the New Testament and fifteen for the 
 Old. Among them were men like Dr. 
 Westcott (afterwards Bishop of Durham) and 
 Dr. Hort and Dr. Scrivener, who knew 
 more about the Greek MSS. than anybody 
 
120 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 else ; and men who had written splendid 
 commentaries, like Dr. Lightfoot (also after- 
 wards Bishop of Durham) and Dr. Perowne 
 (afterwards Bishop of Worcester) and Dr. 
 Alford and Dr. Plumptre ; and among 
 others, Dr. Angus, a Baptist minister, who 
 had written the best of all Bible Handbooks.^ 
 The Bishop of Gloucester (Dr. Ellicott) was 
 chairman of the New Testament Company, 
 and the Bishop of Bath and Wells (Lord 
 Arthur Hervey) of the Old. At the same 
 time, another company of Revisers was 
 formed in America ; and they gave valuable 
 help. It was agreed that no change should 
 be adopted unless at least two-thirds of the 
 Revisers approved. Thus if twelve of the 
 nineteen New Testament Revisers wanted 
 to make a change, and seven did not, it 
 was not made; but if thirteen wished for 
 it and six did not, then it was made. This 
 was in order that no change should be made 
 unless there was strong reason for it. 
 
 The Revised New Testament appeared in 
 1881, and the Old in 1885. There was 
 
 1 An admirable new edition of Angus's Hand- 
 book, edited by Dr. S. G. Green, has been issued 
 by the Religious Tract Society. 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 121 
 
 immense excitement, both in England and 
 in America. One newspaper sent the whole 
 New Testament by telegraph from New York 
 to Chicago, in order to be the first to issue 
 it there ! Then, when people had examined 
 it a little, there was a great outcry. It was 
 a shame, many said, to alter the words of 
 their beloved Bible. One great scholar at 
 Oxford declared that almost all the correc- 
 tions were wrong. He, and some others, 
 were like the early Latin Christians who did 
 not like Jerome's Version (see Chap. V.), 
 and also were like the Cambridge scholar 
 of King James's day, of whom I told you 
 in our last chapter, who said he would rather 
 be torn asunder by wild horses than agree 
 to the use of the new Version — that very 
 Version which was now so old and had 
 become so precious ! But gradually, most 
 Bible-readers have come to value the Revised 
 Version, while they love their old Bible as 
 dearly as ever. 
 
 Let me now give you some illustrations 
 of the corrections made in the Revised 
 Version. 
 
 I. As regards changes which seemed neces- 
 sary because those three great MSS. — or 
 
122 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 two of them — showed that the original 
 Greek was not quite what had been sup- 
 posed, I told you of two important ones 
 when I was describing those MSS. in our 
 fifth chapter. These were the omission of 
 a verse in the ist Epistle of St. John, and 
 the change in the Angel's Song on the 
 night of our Lord's birth. Among others, 
 there is a verse omitted in the 5th chapter 
 of St. John's Gospel (ver. 4), and a verse 
 in Acts viii. (ver. 37). Both these were 
 very likely some good man's notes in the 
 margin, which a copyist put into the text. 
 There are several changes of words : for in- 
 stance, on the last page of the Bible, "they 
 that do His commandments" is changed 
 into "they that wash their robes" (Rev. 
 xxii. 14). And you will find the last 
 twelve verses of St. Mark's Gospel separated 
 from the rest, because, although they are no 
 doubt part of God's inspired Scripture, they 
 seem to have been added a little later. 
 
 2. As regards alterations necessary on 
 account of old English words having changed 
 their meaning, I have already mentioned 
 " prevent " and " carriage." Another is 
 " sometimes," which used to mean " once," 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 123 
 
 referring to past times. Thus, in Eph. ii. 13, 
 " Ye who sometimes were far off are made 
 nigh by the blood of Christ," the word 
 " sometimes " does not mean " occasionally *' 
 or "now and then." The meaning is, "ye 
 that once were far off," that is formerly ; 
 so the Revised Version puts " once." Tyn- 
 dale had "a while ago," which is good. 
 Another is " conversation." We usually by 
 that word mean talking^ but in King James's 
 time it meant our whole conduct or manner 
 of life, which is what the Greek word 
 means ; so the R.V. in several places has 
 changed it accordingly. Thus, in Gal. i. 13, 
 St. Paul says, " Ye have heard of my con- 
 versation," that is " manner of life," and so 
 also in Eph. iv. 22, i Tim. iv. 12, i Pet. i. 18, 
 iii. 16. In Heb. xiii. 7 the R.V., instead 
 of " end of their conversation," gives " issue 
 of their life." In Jas. iii. 13, for "good 
 conversation " it gives " good life." In 
 I Pet. ii. 12, iii. i, 2, it gives " behaviour." 
 In I Pet. i. 15, "manner of living." In 
 one place, Phil. iii. 20, the Greek word is 
 quite different, and the R.V. has correctly 
 put "citizenship"; "our citizenship is in 
 heaven." There are many other like cases. 
 
124 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 3. A much larger number of corrections 
 are in verses where there is no difference in 
 the Greek MSS., and no need for altering 
 an English word because it has a different 
 meaning from what it once had ; but where 
 for other reasons another translation would be 
 better. I will give you some examples of these. 
 
 (a) King James's learned men often trans- 
 lated the same Greek word by different 
 English words. They did so on purpose, 
 saying that they wished a great many English 
 words to have an honourable place in the 
 English Bible which might not have got in 
 otherwise. But our Revisers thought just 
 the other way. They said tliat as far as 
 possible a Greek word should always be trans- 
 lated by the same English word. This is 
 sometimes not possible, for various reasons ; 
 and sometimes not convenient, as you saw 
 just now about "conversation." And often 
 it does not in the least matter. But very 
 often it does matter. For example, you 
 know how the Gospels tell us about " two 
 thieves " crucified with Jesus. We mean by 
 a thief a man who steals secretly and un- 
 expectedly ; and when Judas Iscariot is 
 called a thief, the Greek word means 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 125 
 
 exactly that. But the two malefactors on the 
 crosses were not thieves in that sense. The 
 Greek word there means " robber," a man 
 who comes on you openly and violently. 
 They were in fact like Barabbas, who was 
 a " robber " ; and very likely they had been 
 with him in his insurrection, wanting to 
 turn out the Romans and " restore the 
 kingdom to Israel." So the penitent robber 
 begged to be remembered when Jesus came 
 "in His Kingdom." In the Parable of the 
 Good Samaritan, too, the traveller " fell 
 among robbers," not " thieves." Both the 
 words are used together when our Lord in 
 John X. speaks of " thieves and robbers." 
 The Revised Version puts them always in 
 the right place. Another case is that of a 
 word used forty times by St. Mark, as I 
 mentioned in our fourth chapter. In our 
 Bible it is translated by four English words, 
 " straightway," " immediately," " forthwith," 
 and "anon." But if you read St. Mark in 
 the R.V., you will always find "straightway," 
 and as you read it again and again you will 
 say, " Ah ! this would just suit Roman 
 soldiers" — whom I think (as I told you once 
 before) St. Mark often had in his mind when 
 
126 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 he was writing. Once more, in Rom. iv. 
 there is a Greek word used eleven times. 
 In our Bible it is sometimes " reckon," 
 sometimes " impute," sometimes " count." 
 The chapter is much easier to understand 
 in the R.V., which always puts " reckon." 
 
 {h) On the other hand, there are cases 
 where one English word was used by 
 King James's men to stand for two or 
 more Greek words, and where the Revised 
 Version tries to show the distinction. Thus, 
 in John x. i6 Jesus says, "Other sheep I 
 have which are not of this fold . . . there 
 shall be one fold and one shepherd " ; but 
 the second "fold" should be "flock," the 
 Greek word being different. Again, in the 
 last two verses of St. Matthew, our Bible 
 has " teach " twice : " teach all nations," 
 and " teaching them to observe." Now 
 the first " teach " does not mean " instruct," 
 but " make disciples " — " Go and m.ake dis- 
 ciples of all the nations." Once more, in 
 the Revelation we find a dreadful enemy 
 of God and man called " the beast," and 
 we also find " four beasts " in the sacred 
 company round the Throne ; but the Greek 
 words are quite different. The former 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 127 
 
 means a " wild beast,*' while the latter 
 only means a " living creature." In these 
 and many other cases like them, the R.V. 
 gives us the true meaning. 
 
 (t) Sometimes, however, it has not been 
 found possible, or thought well, to change 
 the words we are so used to. Thus, there 
 are three Greek words translated " world." 
 One does mean exactly what our English 
 word " world " means ; but another means 
 "age" or long period, and a third means 
 " inhabited earth." Thus the last verse of 
 St. Matthew's Gospel speaks of " the end 
 of the world," where the Greek means 
 " end of the age^'' The R.V. does not 
 take out the word "world," but it explains 
 the meaning in the margin. Again the 
 word " hell " stands in our New Testament 
 for two words in the Greek. The R.V. 
 only uses it for one of these, and even 
 there it puts the original word Gehenna in 
 the margin. For the other it puts the 
 original word, Hades^ into the text itself. 
 In the Old Testament there is only one 
 Hebrew word for " hell," Sheol, and the R.V. 
 puts it in the text just as it is, instead of trans- 
 lating it. Both Sheol and Hades mean the 
 
128 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 unseen world, in which both good and bad 
 spirits may be ; but Gehenna means a place 
 of punishment. Sometimes you will find 
 Sheol in the R.V., where our Bible has 
 " the grave," particularly in the Psalms ; 
 but the R.V. sometimes leaves "the grave" 
 in, as when Jacob speaks of his gray hairs 
 going down " with sorrow to the grave '* 
 [Sheol in the Hebrew). 
 
 [d) Some of the Old Testament names 
 appear in the New Testament in their Greek 
 form, as in Luke iv., where "Elias" and 
 "Eliseus" mean Elijah and Elisha. The 
 most important case is where "Jesus," the 
 Greek form, stands for Joshua. If you look 
 at Acts vii. 45 and Heb. iv. 8, you will see 
 the word "Jesus," where it is not Christ 
 that is referred to, but Joshua. In the pas- 
 sage in Acts, Stephen is telling how the 
 Israelites took the tabernacle into Canaan 
 when they conquered the land : " which our 
 fathers brought in with Jesus," that is, of 
 course, Joshua. And in Hebrews we read 
 also of the going into Canaan: "If Jesus 
 had given them rest," &c., where plainly 
 Joshua is meant. The R.V. puts this right, 
 and many other names too. 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 129 
 
 (e) In many places we can understand 
 much better what exactly is meant by look- 
 ing at the R.V. Thus, Herod did not 
 murder all the little children at Bethlehem, 
 but only the boys, the " male children " 
 (Matt. ii. 16). Again, people sometimes 
 think that Peter's address in the temple, in 
 Acts iii., brought 5000 persons fnore into the 
 Church, because our Bible (iv. 4) says " the 
 number of the men was about five thousand " ; 
 but the Greek is not " was," but " came to 
 be," meaning that the 3000 of chap. ii. had 
 grown to be 5000 altogether. In Acts xix. 
 37, " churches " is wrong, as the meaning 
 is heathen temples. 
 
 (/) Two beautiful changes are in Phil. iii. 
 21, where "our vile body" and "His glo- 
 rious body " are altered to " the body of our 
 humiliation " and " the body of His glory " ; 
 and another is in Col. i. 13, where "His dear 
 Son " becomes " the Son of His love." Look 
 also at Luke vii. 5, where "a synagogue" 
 becomes " our synagogue " — the particular 
 one in which they regularly met ; and Luke 
 xxii. 56, where the maid saw Peter "as he 
 sat in the light of the y?r^," the flames reveal- 
 ing his face. One very important change 
 
 I 
 
130 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 was not liked by many at first, "love" for 
 "charity" in that beautiful chapter the 13th 
 of I St Corinthians ; but most of us can now 
 see that it was right. As I told you before, 
 Tvndale*s Version and others had "love," 
 and King James's translators got " charity " 
 from the Roman Catholic Version. 
 
 (g) It is interesting to look at passages like 
 Mark xii. 38, 39, and Luke xx. 46, 47, which 
 record the same words of our Lord. You 
 will see that in our Bibles, although the 
 general sense is the same, many of the words 
 are quite different. But in the Greek they 
 are almost exactly alike ; and if you look 
 at the R.V., you will see the same thing, 
 there being only two very small differences. 
 Here is the passage : — 
 
 St. Mark— a. V. 
 
 Beware of the scribes, which love to go in 
 long clothing, and love salutations in the market- 
 places, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and 
 the uppermost rooms at feasts ; which devour 
 widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
 prayers ; these shall receive greater damnation. 
 
 St. Luke — A.V. 
 
 Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk 
 in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, 
 
A.V. AND R.V. 131 
 
 and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the 
 chief rooms at feasts ; which devour widows* 
 houses, and for a shew make long prayers ; the 
 same shall receive greater damnation. 
 
 St. Mark— R.V. 
 
 Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk 
 in long robes, and to have salutations in the 
 market-places, and chief seats in the synagogues, 
 and chief places at feasts : they which devour 
 widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
 prayers ; these shall receive greater condemnation. 
 
 St. Luke— R.V. 
 
 [Same as St. Mark, except giving "love saluta- 
 tions " instead of *' to have," and omitting " they " 
 before ** which devour." Both changes correspond 
 to differences in the Greek.] 
 
 (y) The illustrations I have now given 
 you are all (except one) from the New 
 Testament. There are not so many small 
 changes in the Old Testament ; but what have 
 been made are important. I will only mention 
 two. The Israelites did not " borrow " from 
 the Egyptians (Exod. xii. 35) ; they only 
 " asked " ; and the Egyptians gave to them 
 freely. In Isa. ix. 2 (one of our Christmas 
 Day Lessons) the sense is spoilt by the word 
 " not '* ; and the R.V. leaves it out. 
 
132 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 One thing more. The Revised Version 
 prints the Bible in paragraphs like other 
 books, except the Psalms and other poetry ; 
 but it puts the numbers of chapters and 
 verses in the margin to help us in looking 
 them out.i This helps you to understand 
 better in many places. Thus the first three 
 verses of Gen. ii. belong to chap. i. ; the 
 5th and 6th chapters of Joshua ought to 
 run on without break ; the great prophecy 
 of the suffering Messiah in Isaiah liii. really 
 begins at ver. 13 of the previous chapter; 
 the first verse of i Cor. vii. belongs to chap. 
 vi. ; and the first verse of Col. iv. to chap. iii. 
 
 The Revised Version is not perfect ; but 
 it is a splendid help to studying God's Word, 
 and we should thank God for it. 
 
 1 In some later editions of the R.V. the chapters 
 and verses are indicated in the text. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ABOUT THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 
 
 All the Versions of the Bible which we 
 
 have talked about so far were made for 
 
 Christian peoples and nations. But in these 
 
 latter years a great many have been made by 
 
 missionaries to non-Christian lands, Heathen 
 
 and Mohammedan. Let me now tell you 
 
 something about them. 
 
 The earliest of these Missionary Versions 
 
 was made for the people we call Red Indians. 
 
 When Columbus sailed across the Atlantic 
 
 Ocean, his hope was to find a way round 
 
 the Globe to India. Nobody then knew 
 
 that the great Continents of North and 
 
 South America blocked the way ! And so 
 
 when he and other navigators landed in the 
 
 New World, and found natives with a dark 
 
 reddish skin living in the dense forests that 
 
 then covered the country, they called them 
 
 133 
 
134 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Red Indians^ though they had really nothing 
 to do with India. Then, when English 
 people began to go over and settle there, 
 some good men among them tried to tell 
 these " Indians " about the true God and 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. One who did so 
 was named John Eliot, and he, in 1663, 
 translated the whole Bible into one of the 
 "Indian" languages, spoken in that part of 
 the country where the great city of Boston 
 and other modern towns now stand. These 
 languages have words of immense length, 
 which made his task a difficult one. Here 
 is one of the words, meaning a catechism : — 
 
 KummogokdonattGOttammoctiteaongannunnonash» 
 
 Those tribes have long since died out, and 
 the great American people dwelling in that 
 vast territory of course speak English ; and 
 no one now uses Eliot's Bible. But we 
 may be sure that God used it at the time. 
 
 A few years later, in 1698, a Society was 
 formed in England called the Society for Pro- 
 moting Christian Knowledge (usually called 
 by its initials "S.P.C.K."); and one of its 
 objects was to print and circulate the Bible, 
 both in English and in other languages. 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 135 
 
 This Society took a great interest in India, 
 long before that great country became part 
 of the British dominions. The first mission- 
 aries to go there were two Germans, Ziegen- 
 balg and Plutscho, sent by the King of 
 Denmark in 1706, when the S.P.C.K. was 
 eight years old ; but presently Denmark 
 asked England to help the Mission, and it 
 was the S.P.C.K. that did so. Hearing that 
 Ziegenbalg had translated the New Testa- 
 ment into Tamil, one of the great Indian 
 languages, the S.P.C.K. very wisely sent him 
 a printing-press to print it. Afterwards the 
 Society took over a large part of the Mission, 
 and for many years supported the mission- 
 aries ; and one of them, Schultze, who was 
 also a German, completed the Tamil Bible. 
 Like other Versions (as we have seen), this 
 Version needed to be revised ; and various 
 editions have been brought out since then. 
 It is now used by many Missions in South 
 India and Ceylon working among the Tamil 
 people : the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel (S.P.G.), the Church Missionary 
 Society (C.M.S.), and several other societies, 
 English Nonconformist, American, and Ger- 
 man. It has told thousands and thousands 
 
136 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of idol -worshipping Heathen about the true 
 God, and helped to bring them to Jesus 
 Christ. It is now read in hundreds of Tamil 
 churches and thousands of Tamil homes. 
 The Tamil character is curious, as you will 
 see : — 
 
 vpsuek ersiQ^ ^sueisr Q^lLQu QunsfruiS) S^.^u.)(^e^'ceet 
 
 Another language in which the S.P.C.K. 
 did much to circulate the Scriptures was 
 Arabic. This is one of the most important 
 languages in the world. It is spoken, not 
 only in Arabia, but in Syria and Palestine 
 and Egypt and other Bible lands, and in a 
 large part of North Africa ; and as the 
 Koran, the book which teaches the Moham- 
 medan religion, is in Arabic, all educated 
 Mohammedans learn it. An Arabic Version 
 of the Bible was made just about the time 
 when the S.P.C.K. was established ; and 
 the Society printed 10,000 copies of the 
 New Testament of this Version in 1727, 
 most of which went to Russia, to be cir- 
 culated amona: the Mohammedans of Central 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 137 
 
 Asia. Since then, other Versions have been 
 made and printed, the American Missionaries 
 in Syria having done most valuable vv^ork in 
 this vv^ay. Here is St. John iii. 16 in the 
 Arabic character : — 
 
 J^l ja*;Jl u^l JIj ^^ puJI »-Ul ,.,^1 ljX» »j^ 
 
 But nearly a hundred years passed away, 
 after the S.P.C.K., and also the S.P.G., began 
 their great work, before Christian people in 
 England really thought and cared much about 
 the Heathen in far-ofF lands who knew not 
 God, or remembered how Jesus Christ had 
 commanded His Church to go and teach all 
 nations. One of the first men whose mind 
 and heart became full of this great duty was 
 a very humble person, a cobbler at a North- 
 amptonshire village, named William Carey. 
 He went to India as a missionary in 1793, 
 and became in time a very learned man, with 
 great influence. He, and others with him, 
 started a printing-press at Serampore in 
 Bengal, expressly to print the Bible. Now 
 India is a large country, and many languages 
 
138 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 are spoken in difFerent parts ; and Carey 
 and his brethren learned several of them, and 
 made versions in them of parts of the Bible. 
 Another who worked hard in the same way- 
 was a very different man, a good scholar 
 from Cambridge, named Henry Martyn. 
 After a few years in India, where he trans- 
 lated the New Testament into Hindustani, 
 he went also to Persia, and made a version 
 in the Persian language. He died on his 
 way home, while still a young man ; but 
 his letters and journals were published, and 
 very many people have been led by reading 
 them to devote themselves to God's service. 
 I hope you will all read the Life of Henry 
 Martyn. 
 
 It was soon after Carey went to India, 
 and before Martyn went, that the Church 
 Missionary Society was founded (1799), by 
 a number of good clergymen and laymen 
 who thought much of the Heathen nations 
 in Africa and Asia and the Islands of the 
 Sea, to whom nobody had yet gone to preach 
 the Gospel. This Society was five years old 
 before it had any missionaries to send out ; 
 it could not find fit persons willing to go ; 
 but the good men who directed it knew the 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 139 
 
 importance of getting on with the preparation 
 of Versions of the Scriptures, and they began 
 their work meanwhile in that way. In after 
 years its missionaries in different parts of the 
 world had a large share in translating the 
 Bible ; and it educated, and employed for 
 some years in linguistic work, a remarkable 
 young man named Samuel Lee, originally a 
 carpenter at Shrewsbury. He was called 
 "the Society's Orientalist," because he 
 worked much in Oriental (Eastern) lan- 
 guages ; and he afterwards became Professor 
 of Arabic at Cambridge University. 
 
 But the greatest step towards making the 
 Bible a book for all people at home and all 
 nations abroad was taken in 1804, when 
 good men of both the Church of England and 
 various Protestant denominations united to 
 form the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 Its very first publication was St. John's Gospel 
 in Mohawk, one of the Red Indian languages. 
 But its earlier years were much occupied 
 with printing and circulating the English 
 Bible; for in those days Bibles were still dear, 
 and in thousands of homes no copy was to be 
 found, notwithstanding all the good work of 
 the S.P.C.K. for over a hundred years. Also 
 
140 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 it was printing the Scriptures in the Welsh 
 language, and in Gaelic for the Scotch High- 
 landers, and in Erse for the poorer Irish ; 
 but the Scotch and Irish work was soon 
 taken up by other Societies established at 
 Edinburgh and Dublin. Also the Bible 
 Society was doing much to provide the 
 Scriptures for the Continent of Europe, 
 printing them in French and German and 
 Russian and many other languages. So 
 while all this was being done, there was 
 not much time or money for Heathen and 
 Mohammedan countries ; and for some years 
 the Missionary Societies went on with the 
 Bible work which they had begun. For 
 instance, the Church Missionary Society set 
 up a printing-press at Malta, which was 
 managed by John Kitto, who afterwards 
 wrote many useful books to help us in study- 
 ing the Bible ; and he and a learned German 
 named Schlienz printed hundreds of thousands 
 of portions of Scripture in Arabic and Turkish 
 and other Eastern languages. But gradually 
 it came to pass that the Bible Society took 
 over almost the whole of the work, and the 
 Missionary Societies have been glad indeed 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 141 
 
 to be thus relieved and helped. There is in 
 fact a kind of partnership between them. 
 It is the missionaries who make the Versions, 
 or revise them ; but when the Version is 
 written out, it is sent to the Bible Society, 
 and the Bible Society prints it, and then 
 supplies the copies. Moreover, the Bible 
 Society sometimes supports the missionaries 
 during the time they are engaged in such a 
 work, and pays other expenses incurred. 
 Certainly it is a true saying that the 
 Missionary Societies cannot do without the 
 Bible Society ; and it is equally true that 
 the Bible Society cannot do without the 
 Missionary Societies. 
 
 One of the early Foreign Versions 
 printed by the Bible Society has a curious 
 history. In Abyssinia there is an ancient 
 Christian Church ; and one of the Versions 
 made in ancient times was in Ethiopic, the 
 language of that country. But in after ages 
 the mother-tongue of the people came to be 
 Amharic, and Ethiopic was only known by 
 those who learned it, like Latin and Greek 
 with us ; so in modern times the people 
 could not read their own Scriptures. Now 
 
142 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 about a hundred years ago there was in 
 Egypt an old Abyssinian monk named Abu 
 Rumi, whose life had been saved by the 
 French Consul there, who I suppose was a 
 Roman Catholic. That Consul employed 
 the old man to make a translation of the 
 ancient Ethiopic Version into the Amharic, 
 spoken by the Abyssinian people. Every 
 week for ten years they sat together for 
 two days at the work, comparing with the 
 Ethiopic Version the original Hebrew, and 
 the Syriac, and the Arabic ; and the Amharic 
 Version they produced occupied 9539 pages ! 
 — all written out by the old monk. Just at 
 that time the Church Missionary Society had 
 sent to the East a clergyman named Jowett, 
 a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 He saw how important this new Version 
 might be for Abyssinia; and he, in 1820, 
 purchased Abu Rumi's manuscript for ^1250, 
 for the Bible Society. A great many copies 
 were sold in Abyssinia by C.M.S. missionaries 
 there. One of these was Samuel Gobat, who 
 was afterwards Bishop of the Church of 
 England at Jerusalem ; and another was 
 Johann Ludwig Krapf, the first great mis- 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 143 
 
 sionary traveller in Eastern Africa. Sixty 
 years later, that same Krapf, in his old 
 age, was employed by the Bible Society to 
 revise the Version ; and it was completed in 
 1879 at a missionary press at St. Chrischona, 
 near Basle, in Switzerland. Here is St. John 
 iii. 16 in the Amharic character : — 
 
 JOOI . u^tf : Xl^^imct : PHAA9<» 
 
 But of course the Versions for the great 
 Asiatic nations were more important than 
 this one. Carey and his Baptist brethren 
 at Serampore in Bengal made the first Ver- 
 sions for India (except the Tamil one be- 
 fore mentioned). Then Bible Societies were 
 established at Calcutta, Madras, and other 
 great Indian cities, which were helped by 
 large grants of money from the Bible 
 Society at home, and produced many edi- 
 tions, both new and revised, in various 
 Indian languages. China had had the Scrip- 
 tures ages ago, from missionaries sent by 
 
144 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the Church in Syria; but the Version had 
 perished. So also had a Mongolian Version 
 of the New Testament made in the Middle 
 Ages by a famous Roman Catholic missionary 
 named John de Monte Corvino. But just 
 about the time that the Church Missionary 
 Society was founded, a manuscript was 
 found in the British Museum which had 
 been brought from China, and contained 
 a Chinese Version of parts of the New 
 Testament. When another Society, the 
 London Missionary Society, sent out the 
 first English missionary to China, Robert 
 Morrison, he took a copy of this Version 
 with him ; and it helped him in preparing 
 the Chinese Bible, which, after ten years 
 of hard study and labour, he and his friend 
 Milne produced. It was Milne who said 
 that to learn Chinese required " bodies of 
 brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands 
 of spring-steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of 
 apostles, memories of angels, and lives of 
 Methuselah " ! 
 
 There are many languages and dialects 
 spoken in China, but there is only one 
 written language. If the Emperor publishes 
 a proclamation, it can be posted up all 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 145 
 
 over China and be understood by all the 
 people who can read ; yet if two men 
 from different provinces read it aloud, 
 neither will understand the other. Does this 
 seem strange ? Well, think of our figures 
 in arithmetic, which we call " Arabic nume- 
 rals," I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. They are under- 
 stood all over Europe by those whose eyes 
 see them ; but different nations express them 
 differently to the ear. An Englishman says 
 " one, two, three, four " ; a Frenchman, 
 " un, deux, trois, quatre " ; a German, " ein, 
 zwei, drei, vier." Well, the written lan- 
 guage in China is something like those 
 Arabic figures : men from different pro- 
 vinces can all read it, and it means the 
 same thing to them all ; but when they 
 speak their words are different. Parts of 
 the Bible are now provided in many of 
 the local dialects, printed in our " roman *' 
 letters, which are really easier for the poorer 
 Chinese to learn than their own characters ; 
 and a remarkable Scotchman named Murray 
 has invented a system which blind men in 
 China — there are a great many of them ! 
 — can learn easily and then read to others. 
 Here is St. John iii. 16 in the Foochow 
 
 K 
 
146 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 dialect, both in Chinese characters and in 
 roman letters : — 
 
 fi ff m. m 
 
 i^> p m m ± 
 
 # s itt, 1^ f* 
 
 M IK i>x m m 
 
 ^, m B ^ ^ 
 
 % )i ^ ^ 
 
 In roman letters 
 
 Ing Siong-Da gik tiang sie-gang, seu duk-seng 
 gi Cu gaung-sie, T-de huing neng seng I a 
 mieng ting-lung, daik ing-seng. 
 
 I told you before of that strange Red 
 Indian language with the long words. Al- 
 though all the tribes scattered over North 
 America would scarcely people one large 
 Chinese city, they have many languages and 
 dialects ; and it has been a hard task to give 
 them the Scriptures in so many Versions. 
 Yet some of them have the whole Bible, 
 and others have large parts of it. Even 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 147 
 
 among the Eskimo people, on the shores 
 of the Arctic Ocean, many have learned to 
 read, and have the Word of God in their 
 own language in their hands. For some 
 of these tribes a kind of alphabet (a " syl- 
 labic" system) w^as invented, u^hich they 
 can learn in a few days ; and large parts 
 of Scripture have been printed in those 
 simple characters. Here is St. John iii. 16 
 in Eskimo, in both the syllabic character and 
 in roman letters : ^ — 
 
 )crj)j, Aj,<i.n'> o\Ab3- (:<^j^L <Vc>c/a.r^ 
 
 In roman letters 
 
 Taimik Gudib sillaksoarmiut nssgligiveit, 
 Ernetuane tunnilugo, illunatik okpertut tap- 
 somunga, assiokonnagit nungusuitomigle in- 
 nogutekarkovlugit. 
 
 It has also cost great labour to supply 
 the many tribes of the South Sea Islands, in 
 Polynesia, and Melanesia, and New Zealand. 
 
 ^ The syllabic character is used for the Eskimo 
 of Baffin's land. For the Eskimo of Greenland 
 and Labrador the roman type is used. 
 
148 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 And then there is the great Dark Conti- 
 nent of Africa ! The whole Bible is pub- 
 lished in fourteen African languages besides 
 the Amharic and Arabic which I mentioned 
 before, and the New Testament in twenty- 
 six more ; and smaller portions in over eighty 
 others. What a work it has been ! In 
 South Africa the great missionary, Robert 
 MofFat, translated the whole Bible into the 
 language of the Bechuana people. I once 
 heard that fine old veteran speak at a great 
 meeting in London, and I remember how 
 in the middle of his speech he stopped short 
 and seemed unable to get on. Presently 
 he said, " Dear friends, do forgive me ; I 
 am thinking in Bechuana^ and translating my 
 thoughts into English as I go along ; and I 
 cannot remember what the English word 
 is for a Bechuana word which I have in 
 my mind ! " You see he had been so long 
 in Africa (over fifty years) that the language 
 he had learned to speak there had become 
 almost a mother-tongue to him. In West 
 Africa a large part of the translation of the 
 Bible into the Yoruba language was done 
 by Bishop Samuel Crowther, the Negro who 
 had been a slave-boy, and who afterwards 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 149 
 
 became the first black Bishop. Here is St. 
 John iii. 16 in Yoruba : — 
 
 Nitori ti Olorun fe araiye tobe ge, ti o fi Omo 
 bibi re nikansoso fun ni pe, enikeni ti o ba 
 gba a gbd ki yio segbe, sugbon yio ni lye ti 
 ko nipekun. 
 
 In East Africa it was an English Bishop, 
 Dr. Steere, who made the Version in Swahili, 
 the most important language on that coast ; 
 and in Uganda, one of the latest and most 
 fruitful mission-fields, it was chiefly done by 
 two laymen. Alexander Mackay, a clever 
 young Scotchman, made the first attempt to 
 put St. Matthew's Gospel into Luganda (as 
 the language is called), and printed it on the 
 spot with his own hands ; and the greater 
 part of the whole Bible was done by George 
 Pilkington, a classical scholar from Cambridge. 
 Here is St. John iii. 16 in Luganda : — 
 
 Kubanga Katonda bweyayagala ensi bwati, 
 nokuwayo nawayo Omwanawe eyazalibwa 
 omu yeka, buli munlu zena amukirisa alemc 
 okubula, naye abere nobulamu obutagwawo. 
 
 These Versions, and many other African 
 ones, are printed and supplied by the Bible 
 Society. 
 
150 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 While the British and Foreign Bible Society 
 has had the largest share in supplying the 
 Word of God in many languages, the S.P.C.K. 
 and the Scotch Society have continued their 
 good work. The American Bible Society 
 also has rendered noble service. It has been 
 the chief agent for Bible revision and cir- 
 culation in the Turkish Empire ; it has 
 taken its part in the Chinese Versions; 
 it has been the leader in producing the 
 Japanese Bible. Of the three authors of the 
 Japanese Version, Hepburn, Verbeck, and 
 Fyson, the first tv\^o v^^ere distinguished 
 American missionaries, while the third (now 
 one of the Bishops in Japan) belongs to the 
 C.M.S. The work occupied sixteen years, 
 and the complete Version was solemnly pre- 
 sented, " from the whole Church of Christ 
 in America and England to the Japanese 
 nation," at a great public meeting at Tokyo 
 in 1888. In 1898 the Japanese Christians 
 united to present a splendidly bound copy 
 to the Emperor. 
 
 Altogether, the Holy Scriptures, in whole 
 or in part, have been translated into about 
 500 languages. Of these Versions, about 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 151 
 
 120 are of the whole Bible, and about 130 
 more of the whole New Testament (with 
 parts of the Old). What an amount of 
 patient and prayerful labour must have been 
 expended to achieve such a result ! 
 
 I want you now to consider the exceed- 
 ing difficulty of much of this work of Bible 
 translation. It is not easy even when the 
 languages are well known, spoken by civi- 
 lized peoples, and written down long ago, so 
 that there are grammars and dictionaries ; 
 such as Arabic, Persian, Chinese, and the 
 greater languages of India, like Hindi and 
 Bengali and Tamil. But the difficulty is far 
 greater in uncivilized countries, where the 
 languages, though spoken, have never been 
 written down, and the people have no 
 written letters or characters at all, and there 
 are of course no grammars or dictionaries. 
 You learn French and German easily enough ; 
 but what would you do if you were put 
 down in a French village, without any 
 French book or help of any kind, and told 
 to learn French ? Many missionaries have 
 been in positions like that. They have had 
 to pick up the language gradually by the 
 
152 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ear only. But just think what it must be ! 
 You h'sten to a native speaking ; he seems 
 to jabber very fast ; you can't tell where one 
 word ends and another begins ; and even 
 when you can separate them, how are you 
 to tell which is a noun and which an adjec- 
 tive and which a verb and which a preposi- 
 tion ? No doubt in time you will manage 
 to catch simple words like " man " and 
 " woman," and " sleep " and " wake," and 
 "day" and "night," and "sun" and "sea," 
 and "go" and "come," and "eat" and 
 "drink." But that goes a very little way 
 towards being able to teach the Gospel, and 
 still more to translate the Bible ! And yet 
 it has been done, in hundreds of cases ! 
 
 Where the missionaries find no written 
 languages, and have to put a language into 
 writing for the first time, they generally use 
 our roman letters, as we have already seen. 
 But where there are settled written languages, 
 as in India and China, the Bible is printed in 
 the letters or characters already used. Some 
 of these also I have shown you as we went 
 along. Here are some others. Hindi is the 
 language of a large part of North India. Its 
 character is that of the ancient Sanskrit, and 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 153 
 
 is used in other Indian languages also derived 
 from Sanskrit : — 
 
 '^rif^lt t^^ 3mcT% ^ WTT f^ 
 
 wn i=rc^ ^^^ 3fV^ Tn% I 
 
 Urdu or Hindustani (there is a difference 
 which I need not go into) is a language 
 largely spoken by the Mohammedans in 
 India, but is used by many Hindus also. It 
 is not written in the Sanskrit character, but 
 in the Persian character. Here it is, and 
 the same Urdu words printed also in our 
 Roman letters : — 
 
 hi roman letters 
 
 Kyunki Khuda ne dunya se aisi mahabbat 
 rakhi, ki us ne apna iklauta Beta bakhsh 
 diya, taki jo koi us par iman lae, halak na ho, 
 balki hamesha ki zlndagi pae. 
 
154 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Here is the language of the Afghans, called 
 Pushtu or Pashto. The Mohammedans are 
 fond of decorating their books with beautiful 
 illuminations ; so the Pushtu Bible imitates 
 them in this respect, and on a separate page 
 I give you the title-page of the Books of 
 Kings in this Version. Pages like that help 
 to commend it to the Afghans : — 
 
 ^'. i/r ^ ^^ ^jj^j J^^ '"^ 'H ^ *!;*/* '^^-i/J l/ 
 
 Burmese is the language of Burmah. Its 
 character, an ancient one called Pali, is 
 curious : — 
 
 ccoo3ijc^<5:n cj)n58:(gS:o^ occpoSi oooo 
 
 ooolsoopS'oi ojOc'cooo ooo:gco5o^i g^. 
 gqo5<^od^c^6qsqo£i gJ'^^^'^^^S 
 
^-^ "^-ji^^-j^--^-,;iP"-^-j^%-^-^ jf^^ 
 
 Title-page to the Books of Kings 
 IN Pashtu. 
 
 To face f>, 154. 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 155 
 
 Still more curious is the character of the 
 Macassar language, spoken in the Island of 
 Celebes : — 
 
 *C '"is ^ // vy N^ ^^ /v A^ >« '^ /> <^ ** , 
 ^\€>^ ^ *'^ ^v A< »c /^ % /s*N *. /^ /: ^v*?* 
 
 • • • 
 
 But now think a little of the difficulties 
 of translation. There are nations in the 
 world that have never seen a sheep. How 
 are we to make them understand the words 
 of Jesus Christ about the Good Shepherd, 
 leading His sheep out, seeking the lost sheep, 
 laying down His life for the sheep ? How 
 are we to teach them the 23rd Psalm, " The 
 Lord is my Shepherd . . . He maketh me 
 to lie down in green pastures, and leadeth 
 me beside the still waters " ? How can we 
 explain " the Lamb of God, which taketh 
 away the sin of the world " ? Let me 
 tell you what the missionaries do in the 
 Melanesian Islands, and in New Guinea. 
 There are no sheep there, but there are 
 pigs ; so the missionary shows a picture of 
 
156 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 a sheep, tells them it is about the same size 
 as a pig, and makes them learn the English 
 word sheep. Then they understand a little. 
 Sometimes the pigs wander away, and are 
 lost ; and the people go and search for them, 
 and when they find them they bring them 
 home on their shoulders, or carry the little 
 ones in their arms. So they soon understand 
 how a shepherd in the country where Jesus 
 lived on earth would do the same with his 
 sheep ; and then they can be taught that the 
 Lord's care for His people is like that. So 
 when they hear the Bible words about the 
 shepherd and the sheep read, or when they 
 learn to read them, they understand what the 
 words shepherd and sheep mean. 
 
 There are tribes in Asia, between India 
 and China, who have no word for " father," 
 nor for " son,'* nor for " hand," nor for 
 "legs." That seems extraordinary, does it 
 not r Yes, but they have words for " my 
 father " and " your father " and " his father " ; 
 for " my hand " and " your hand " and " his 
 hand." They say that every father must 
 be somebody's father, and every hand some- 
 body's hand, so it is natural for them to say 
 whose father or whose hand they are speaking 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 157 
 
 of. But then how do we put into their 
 language the words " God the Father " and 
 " God the Son " ? It is an English gentle- 
 man under the Government of India ^ who 
 tells us this ; and he also mentions how with 
 some tribes the only idea of feasting and 
 being merry is getting drunk, so that it was 
 hard to translate into their language the 
 Parable of the Prodigal Son. And how 
 could we explain to them " the Feast of the 
 Passover " ? 
 
 The same writer once came across a tribe 
 in India who thought the Christians' God 
 was light blue in colour, which seemed to 
 them natural, as they say their own god 
 Krishna is dark blue. How came they to 
 think so ? Because when the missionaries 
 translated the words " Heavenly Father " 
 into their language, the word for " heavenly " 
 was one which they commonly use for " sky- 
 blue," the colour of the heavens or sky ! 
 
 But how much more difficult must it be 
 to put into the languages of barbarous and 
 ignorant people such words as " regene- 
 ration," '* justification," " sanctification " ! 
 
 1 Dr. Grierson. See No. 5 of the Bible Society's 
 Centenary Tracts. 
 
158 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The present Bishop of St. Albans (Dr. 
 Jacob), at a Bible Meeting, spoke of the 
 difficulty of translating the first verse of 
 Romans v. — " Therefore being justified by- 
 faith, we have peace vs^ith God." Cannibal 
 tribes that are always fighting could only 
 think of " peace " as an agreement not to 
 fight for a little while ; " faith " would be a 
 strange idea to them, for they never trust 
 one another or anybody : " therefore " is the 
 sort of word connecting one sentence with 
 another, which they would never use ; and 
 as for "justified," the Bishop said "it would 
 drive a translator to despair ! " 
 
 Even with the ancient languages of 
 civilized people, languages in which many 
 books have been written, it is not easy to 
 make correct translations. We saw the 
 difficulty with our own English, when we 
 compared the Authorized and Revised Ver- 
 sions ; and the missionaries who have made 
 versions in the languages of India, Persia, 
 China, &c., find that they must revise again 
 and again. A learned missionary in India, 
 Dr. Hooper, was several years engaged in 
 revising the Hindi Version of the old Testa- 
 ment. Let us see one or two of his puzzles. 
 
THE MISSIONARY VERSIONS 159 
 
 Here is one : We read of God " hiding His 
 face" in holy displeasure; but the people of 
 North India never hide their faces in anger, 
 but only when they are ashamed, so it would 
 never do to speak to them of God hiding 
 His face ; and the impression " turn away 
 the face" had to be used instead. Here is 
 another : In Gen. xlvi. 4 God promises 
 Jacob that Joseph should put his hand on 
 his (Jacob's) eyes, which means that Joseph 
 should be with Jacob when Jacob died, 
 and close his eyes. Well, a learned Hindu 
 came to Dr. Hooper and said he could not 
 understand this : were Jacob and Joseph to 
 have a stand-up fight, and would the son hit 
 the old father on the eye so hard as to close it ? 
 Once more : In Isa. xxxiii. 15, the righteous 
 man is described as one who " shaketh his 
 hands from holding of bribes." You know 
 that in Eastern countries there is much 
 bribery ; for instance, a man who ought to 
 be punished for a crime will sometimes 
 privately pay the judge to let him off, and 
 the judge takes the money and acquits him ; 
 so the verse in Isaiah is an important one. 
 Well, a learned Hindu pointed out to Dr. 
 Hooper that the Hindi word which was 
 
i6o THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 going to be put into the translation might 
 mean that the righteous man cast away the 
 bribe because it was not large enough ! 
 
 So you see how important it is to revise 
 all the Versions very carefully ; and great 
 pains are taken to do so. In a new edition 
 for the Loyalty Islands, in the South Seas, 
 no less than 52,310 corrections were made. 
 Let us always sympathize with the mission- 
 aries who have this and other literary work 
 to do. Let us pray for them, and thank 
 God for them. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 
 
 When I was a boy, I read a story which 
 showed me the different ways in which we 
 can be sure that this great Library of Sacred 
 Books, which we call the Bible, is really 
 the Word of God, His Revelation to man- 
 kind. The writer of the story had been 
 explaining three different kinds of evidence^ 
 the Historical, the Internal, and the Experi- 
 mental. Then he told how he once sent 
 a boy to the chemist's to get some phos- 
 phorus. The boy brought back a little 
 packet ; was it phosphorus ? The boy re- 
 ported that he went to the shop and asked 
 for phosphorus ; that the chemist went to 
 his shelves, took some kind of stuff from a 
 jar, put it in the little packet, and gave it 
 to him ; and that he had brought it straight 
 back. That was the historical evidence that 
 
 l6l T 
 
1 62 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the packet had phosphorus in it. Then the 
 gentleman opened the packet : the substance 
 inside looked like phosphorus and smelt like 
 phosphorus. That was the internal evidence. 
 Then he put a light to it — " see how it 
 burns ! " — that was the experimental evidence. 
 
 Now we have historical evidence showing 
 how the Bible we now have truly represents 
 the Sacred Books written long ago. This 
 we have been tracing out in some of these 
 chapters. Then, if we read the Bible, we 
 find in it wonderful and gracious words that 
 are worthy of God. That is the internal 
 evidence that He inspired it. And now in 
 this chapter I want to show you a little of 
 the experimental evidence of its being indeed 
 His Word. 
 
 First of all, think how the Bible stands 
 alone among books. No other has ever 
 been read so much ; no other has ever been 
 written about so much. There are a great 
 many English books about the classics which 
 some of you have studied at school, such 
 as Homer and Virgil ; many about the great 
 Italian poet Dante ; very many about Shake- 
 speare. But all these put together would 
 not be nearly equal to the thousands and 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 163 
 
 tens of thousands of books written to explain 
 the Bible and impress its teachings on our 
 minds and hearts. And we have never done ! 
 Hosts of learned men to-day are examining, 
 searching, studying, discussing all parts of 
 the Bible. Hosts of teachers are teaching 
 it to young folk. Hosts of preachers are 
 preaching on Bible texts w^hich have been 
 preached on a thousand times before. And 
 yet it is never exhausted. There is always 
 more to say about it. How wonderful it 
 all is ! and how unique ! 
 
 When our King Edward was crowned in 
 Westminster Abbey, one of the most im- 
 portant ceremonies was the presentation to 
 him of a splendid copy of the Bible, the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury saying, as he gave 
 it to His Majesty, " This Holy Bible is the 
 most valuable thing that this world affords." 
 Those words have been spoken, with the 
 same ceremony, at many previous conse- 
 crations. 
 
 We all like to sin " God save the King." 
 Do you know that these very words come 
 from the Bible ? Look at i Sam. x. 24 ; 
 I Kings i. 39; 2 Kings xi. 12. And 
 when we sing the last verse (which is often 
 
i64 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 missed), " O Lord our God arise, Scatter 
 his enemies . , . ," we are only quoting 
 the 1st verse of the 68th Psalm; and that 
 Psalm quotes from words spoken by Moses 
 hundreds of years before (Numb. x. 35) — 
 " Rise up. Lord, and let Thine enemies be 
 scattered." 
 
 If you go to the Royal Exchange in the 
 City of London, which was opened by Queen 
 Victoria in 1844, you will see an inscription 
 over the great front portico — " The earth 
 is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof," from 
 the I St verse of the 24th Psalm. And the 
 University of Oxford has for its motto the 
 first words of the 27th Psalm in Latin, 
 Dominus tlluminatio mea. No words for such 
 purposes like Bible words I 
 
 And no books are so constantly quoted 
 in other books as the Books of the Bible. 
 If you read Shakspeare, for instance, you 
 will find many passages which you cannot 
 understand if you do not know the Bible ; 
 and so with all the great English writers, 
 down to Carlyle and Ruskin and Tennyson, 
 and even great novelists like Dickens and 
 Thackeray. 
 
 In Parliament men do not quote from 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 165 
 
 the Bible ; and why ? Because they feel 
 that it is not like other books, and they have 
 a kind of reverence for it. Even those who 
 do not believe it would be afraid to use its 
 words for fear of offending others. But 
 now and then some great man has ventured 
 to quote a text solemnly. Once Mr. John 
 Bright, in one of his powerful speeches, 
 appealed to the two leaders, Conservative 
 and Liberal, to put their heads together 
 and seek out a way to deal with a very 
 perplexing matter ; and suddenly, with great 
 solemnity he said, " Unto the upright there 
 ariseth light in the darkness " ; and the 
 crowded House almost held its breath, so 
 deep was the impression made. Where did 
 he get these words ? From Shakspeare or 
 Lord Bacon or Burke ? No, but from a 
 short song written two or three thousand 
 years ago by an unknown Jew ! — from the 
 1 1 2th Psalm! Another great statesman 
 used constantly to find strength and comfort 
 in the Bible, particularly the Psalms — Mr. 
 Gladstone. He wrote in 1854, — "On most 
 occasions of very sharp pressure or trial, some 
 word of Scripture has come home to me 
 as if borne on angels' wings. The Psalms 
 
1 66 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 are the great storehouse." When he was 
 going to make his first Budget speech, in 
 1853, this verse came to him: — "O turn 
 Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me : 
 give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and 
 help the son of Thy handmaid." Other 
 godly statesmen, like Lord Cairns and Lord 
 Selborne, had the same experience. 
 
 More than any other part of the Bible, the 
 Psalms have been a precious treasure to mul- 
 titudes of men for two thousand years. You 
 will remember that in our second chapter 
 I showed you how wonderful it is that the 
 51st Psalm was written at all, and has been 
 preserved all these ages, and that even to-day, 
 when we want to confess our sins, or when a 
 Frenchman or a Russian or a Hindu or a 
 Chinaman or a Negro wants to confess his 
 sins, there are no better words to use than 
 the words of that old Psalm. And you will 
 remember my telling you in our seventh 
 chapter how in many monasteries in the 
 Middle Ages the monks learned the whole 
 150 Psalms by heart. But learning Psalms 
 began long before that. It was common 
 among the Jews. Let us remember, with 
 deep reverence, that our Lord Jesus Christ 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 167 
 
 Himself used two ancient Psalms while He 
 was dying on the Cross. When the burden 
 of the sin of the world was pressing heavily 
 on His soul, His agony burst forth in the 
 words of the 22nd Psalm — "My God, My 
 God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " And 
 His very last words were from the 31st Psalm, 
 " Into Thy hands I commend My spirit." 
 
 When we read of the sufferings and mar- 
 tyrdoms of the early Christians, we constantly 
 find that they chanted verses from the Psalms 
 under torture and in face of death. For ex- 
 ample, two brothers who gave up an hon- 
 ourable position to make shoes for the poor, 
 Crispin and Crispinian, found comfort during 
 frightful tortures by chanting part of the 79th 
 Psalm — " Help us, O God of our salvation, 
 for the glory of Thy Name . . . Wherefore 
 should the heathen say. Where is their God ? " 
 A young soldier named Theodore sang the 
 34th Psalm — " I will bless the Lord at all 
 times ; His praise shall continually be in my 
 mouth." And it was not only in times of 
 suffering that the Psalms were sung, but in 
 everyday life too. Ploughmen and reapers 
 and vine-dressers chanted them at their work. 
 Sidonius Apollinaris, who was Governor of 
 
i68 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Rome in the 5th century and afterwards a 
 bishop, describes the boatmen on the rivers 
 making the river-banks echo with their 
 hallelujahs. Saint Ambrose says, " Any one 
 possessed of his five wits should blush with 
 shame if he did not begin the day with a 
 Psalm, since even the tiniest birds open and 
 close the day with sweet songs of holy 
 devotion." Saint Augustine's conversion was 
 not through a Psalm, but through reading 
 the last verse or two of Rom. xiii. ; but his 
 wonderful book of Confessions is full of the 
 Psalms, and his other great book, The City 
 of Gody was named from the words of the 
 87th Psalm which are its motto, "Glorious 
 things are spoken of thee, thou city of 
 God/' 1 
 
 The 5t:h verse of Psalm xxxi. which our 
 Lord Himself specially consecrated by using 
 it as His dying words, has been used by 
 hundreds of His servants as they yielded up 
 their spirits in death ; and even by not a few 
 whom we perhaps do not think of as engaged 
 in His work, but who looked to Him in the 
 
 ^ The illustrations in this paragraph, and some 
 of those that follow, are from that delightful book, 
 Prothero's Psalms in Human Life. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 169 
 
 last hour. The words, " Into Thy hand I 
 commend my spirit," are recorded as uttered 
 by Saint Augustine, and Archbishop Becket 
 of Canterbury, and Sir Thomas More, and 
 Christopher Columbus, and Luther, and 
 Melanchthon, and Lady Jane Grey, and 
 Mary Queen of Scots, and Robert Southwell 
 the Jesuit (who was cruelly executed under 
 Queen Elizabeth) ; and, actually while 
 burning at the stake, by the Bohemian 
 Reformers, John Hus and Jerome of Prague, 
 and the English Reformers, Hooper and 
 Ridley. Sir Thomas More and Lady Jane 
 Grey also repeated the 51st Psalm on the 
 scaffold ; and so did Saint Theresa, the holiest 
 of Spanish women, as she lay dying. Saint 
 Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary, 
 died with the first verse of the 31st Psalm on 
 his lips, the verse with which our Te Deum 
 ends, " O Lord, in Thee have I trusted ; 
 let me never be confounded." 
 
 Coming down to later times, we find John 
 Wesley faintly repeating again and again on 
 his death-bed the 7th verse of Psalm xlvi., 
 "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God 
 of Jacob is our refuge " ; William Wilber- 
 force, the brilliant statesman who got the 
 
170 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 slave-trade abolished and India opened to the 
 Gospel, repeating the 119th Psalm as he 
 walked in Hyde Park ; Henry Martyn, the 
 missionary, amid the trials and sufferings of 
 his last journey through Armenia, beguiling 
 the weary hours by repeating Psalms and 
 translating them into Persian ; Dr. Arnold 
 of Rugby as he lay dying, turning to that 
 51st Psalm which I have mentioned before, 
 and saying the 12th verse in the Prayer-book 
 Version — " O give me the comfort of Thy 
 help again, and stablish me with Thy free 
 Spirit " ; Captain Allen Gardiner, dying of 
 starvation in Patagonia, painting, on a rock 
 near the cave in which he lay, just the 
 reference " Ps. Ixii. 5-8," with a hand 
 pointing towards the cave, so that he or his 
 dead body might be found ; John Ruskin, 
 disliking the long 119th Psalm when he 
 learnt it as a child, yet afterwards adopting 
 it as the key-note of his writings ; Living- 
 stone, sustaining himself day by day, both in 
 Africa and in England, with the 5th verse 
 of the 37th Psalm — "Commit thy way unto 
 the Lord ; trust also in Him, and He shall 
 bring it to pass " ; and Bishop Hannington, 
 in the miserable shed in which he was kept 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 171 
 
 for a week pending the king''s orders, 
 writing on October 28th, " Comforted by 
 Psalm xxvii.," and again, " Much comforted 
 by Psalm xxviii., and next day, " Held up by 
 Psalm XXX., which came with great power " 
 — his last entry in that little diary which was 
 so wonderfully preserved and recovered. 
 
 In our eighth chapter I told you how the 
 Reformation gave us our English Bible. 
 But multitudes of people could not read, 
 and even if they could read they could not 
 afford to buv a book which cost so much to 
 produce. Then the Psalms were particularly 
 valuable, because they were easily learned 
 by heart. But in order to make this easier 
 still, they were put into English verse. The 
 first version of this kind was begun in Edward 
 VI. 's time, by a " groom of the king's 
 robes'* named Sternhold, and completed by 
 other writers ; and another version was 
 afterwards made by Tate and Brady, and a 
 third in Scotland. These poetical versions 
 became widely known, and taught the people 
 much. The Scotch Psalms are sung to this 
 day, and are greatly beloved by the High- 
 landers especially. When I was a boy, the 
 hymn-books we now use did not exist ; and 
 
172 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 most Prayer-books had Tate and Brady's 
 poetical Psalms bound up with them. Some 
 of their verses were very poor, and we might 
 be tempted to laugh at them now ; but 
 they did good service in their dav, and we 
 still sing some of them. What we call 
 "the Old Hundredth," "All people that on 
 earth do dwell," is a version of the looth 
 Psalm made by W. Kethe and published in 
 Sternhold's edition ; and that beautiful hymn, 
 " Through all the changing scenes of life," 
 is part of Tate and Brady's version of Ps. 
 xxxiv. And when other poets began to write 
 hymns, they generally made them from the 
 Psalms. Milton wrote "Let us with a glad- 
 some mind" on the 136th Psalm; Addison 
 wrote " The spacious firmament on high " 
 on the 19th, and "The Lord my pasture 
 shall prepare " on the 23rd ; and Dr. Watts 
 wrote " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun " 
 on the 72nd, and " O God our help in ages 
 past" on the 90th. 
 
 But we must not think only of the Psalms, 
 precious as they are. We are tracing the 
 influence of the whole Bible and of the 
 various parts of it. Thousands of men who, 
 though born and baptized in Christian lands, 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 173 
 
 cared nothing about God, have been brought 
 to repentance and faith and an entirely- 
 changed hfe, simply through reading the 
 Bible ; while Jews and Mohammedans and 
 Pagans have learned from its sacred pages 
 the one way of salvation through Jesus 
 Christ. In the 17th chapter of the Acts 
 we read of both Jews and Greeks at Berea 
 "searching the Scriptures daily" to see 
 whether the wonderful news which St. Paul 
 had brought them was true ; and those 
 Scriptures were the Old Testament, as I 
 showed you in our fourth chapter. What 
 came of this ? We are told, " Therefore 
 many of them believed." It was because 
 they searched the Scriptures that they came 
 to believe ; and so it always is, if there is 
 a real desire to know the truth. From that 
 day to this, those who have read the Scrip- 
 tures as the Bereans did have found that 
 God's Sacred Writings were "able to make 
 them wise unto salvation through faith in 
 Christ Jesus." I will give two or three 
 instances. 
 
 There was an Italian soldier forty years 
 ago who picked up in the street of the 
 city of Perugia a leaf of the Italian New 
 
174 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Testament. In those days the Bible was 
 not allowed to be read in that part of Italy, 
 and the soldier did not know what the leaf 
 was. But he read it, and was struck by 
 its beautiful words (I wish I knew which 
 they were) ; and finding that the book from 
 which the leaf came could be got at Turin 
 (where it was not forbidden), he sent and 
 got a copy and read it. It at once opened 
 his eyes, and taught him the true doctrine 
 of Jesus Christ. Soon after that, Italy be- 
 came a free and united kingdom, as it is now, 
 and immediately the Bible began to be sold 
 in Rome. After that soldier, having been 
 wounded, left the army, he gave his whole 
 time to going from regiment to regiment 
 telling his fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ ; 
 and in a few years there were in most of 
 the cities bands of soldiers who read the 
 Bible and prayed together. The Roman 
 priests did not like this, but so much good 
 was done to the men in making them obe- 
 dient and trustworthy, that the King of 
 Italy made him a knight, and he was known 
 as the Cavaliere Capellini. I myself once 
 met a number of Capellini's men on a Sunday 
 evening in Rome, and addressed them ; and 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 175 
 
 I thought, " This all comes from that single 
 leaf of the New Testament ! " 
 
 In our Missions abroad we have found 
 that nothing does so much to bring the 
 well-educated Heathen and Mohammedans 
 to Christ as the reading of the Bible. Pro- 
 fessor Ram Chandra, a learned Hindu who 
 wrote mathematical books, and became head 
 of a government school at Delhi, and after- 
 wards Director of Public Instruction in the 
 State of Patiala, was converted through read- 
 ing the New Testament, without any human 
 teaching. The Rev. Dr. Imad-ud-din, a 
 Mohammedan who was so highly revered 
 that pilgrims came hundreds of miles to kiss 
 his feet and receive his blessing, was turned 
 to the Lord through reading St. Matthew's 
 Gospel. He became a clergyman, and was 
 a faithful preacher and teacher and writer 
 for over thirty years. Safdar Ali, another 
 Mohammedan gentleman who became an 
 Education Commissioner under the British 
 Government, spent three years comparing 
 the Bible and the Koran, without inter- 
 course with missionaries, and in the third 
 year, helped by a learned Hindu who had 
 become a Christian, Nehemiah Nilkanth, he 
 
176 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 came out and was baptized. Satthianadhan 
 was a boy in Tinnevelly who objected to 
 read the Christian Bible ; but having to 
 read it in his class, he was gradually led by 
 it to believe in Christ. He became an able 
 and faithful clergyman at Madras ; and he 
 was the father of Christian sons and daughters 
 who have done excellent service. 
 
 Uncivilized people also have been brought 
 out of darkness into light by reading pas- 
 sages from God's Word. Here is one case. 
 Seventy years ago, in New Zealand, a Maori 
 who had learned to read picked up a torn 
 copy of St. Luke"'s Gospel in the Maori 
 language, which had belonged to a little 
 Maori girl, a Christian, who had been killed 
 by her tribe. Two young chiefs asked him 
 to read it to them. He said No, it was a bad 
 book, as those who read it would not fight or 
 drink rum or take two wives. However he 
 did read it to them ; and it so impressed 
 them that they started off to a distant part of 
 New Zealand where the English missionaries 
 were, and begged for a teacher. A new man 
 who had just come from England (1838), 
 named Hadfield, was sent. Just at the same 
 time, another young chief picked up a stray 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 177 
 
 leaf of the Church Catechism in Maori, 
 which contained the Ten Commandments ; 
 and, without any one to teach them, he and 
 his people had cast away their idols and 
 were worshipping the One God, keeping 
 the seventh day, and obeying the other Com- 
 mandments. In the part of New Zealand 
 where these two incidents occurred, there 
 were in after years thousands of Maori 
 Christians, and the Bishop over them was 
 the Mr. Hadfield who had been sent there 
 long before. 
 
 One more case, from Japan. A young 
 Japanese named Niisima, forty years ago, 
 was struck by the first sentence in a book 
 of geography in the Chinese language (which 
 he knew), written by an American missionary. 
 These were the words : "In the beginning 
 God created the heaven and the earth,'* 
 which of course had been taken from the 
 first chapter of Genesis. " What God can 
 that be ? " he thought ; and he actually 
 went to China, and then to America, " to 
 find the God that made heaven and earth." 
 He did truly find Him, at Boston ; and by 
 and by he went back to his own country 
 as a Christian missionary, and started a 
 
 M 
 
178 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 great college which has taught hundreds of 
 Japanese about Jesus Christ. 
 
 And so it is everywhere. There was the 
 remarkable Chinaman, Pastor Hsi, to whom 
 Mr. Hill, the Wesleyan missionary, lent a 
 New Testament, leaving him alone while 
 he read it. There was the learned Jew 
 in Hungary, Alfred Edersheim, converted 
 to Christ by the same means, who afterwards 
 wrote a valuable Life of Christ. A few 
 vears ago, the son of the Japanese Minister 
 at the Chinese Court, and three Secretaries 
 of the Japanese Legation, went to the wife 
 of the Rev. Timothy Richard, saying that 
 in reading English books they found many 
 references to the Bible and the Christian 
 religion which they could not understand, 
 and asked her what they should do. " Read 
 the New Testament," she replied. So they 
 did ; and before they had been reading a 
 fortnight they were so full of it that they 
 could read nothing else. All four were 
 baptized at Peking. 
 
 And then there is the general influence 
 of the Bible, in enlightening, in guiding, 
 in comforting. Think what it has done 
 for Uganda, teaching a whole nation to 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 179 
 
 understand right and wrong, and revealing 
 the power to do the right and avoid the 
 wrong. Think of the Red Indians in British 
 Columbia, who told Bishop Ridley when 
 he read St. Matthew to them in their own 
 tongue, " We saw before through a narrow 
 slit ; now the door is wide open." Think 
 of the Japanese soldiers starting for the seat 
 of war with Russia, begging for little Gospels 
 to carry with them, because they were sure 
 the God of the Christians could give them 
 peace in death. Think of the Chinese 
 Christians massacred in the Boxer riots, who 
 hid their Bibles and portions of Scripture 
 in the earth, and in rocky caves, that they 
 might be ready for those that should come 
 after ; and of the little Chinese girl who was 
 tortured to death because she would not 
 tell the tormentors where the precious books 
 were hidden. Think of the British sailors 
 shipwrecked on a South Sea Island, and afraid 
 that the people might be cannibals, suddenly 
 cheered by one sailor peeping into a hut 
 and crying out, '' I say, Jack ! it's all right ! 
 here's a Bible ! " 
 
 And then remember that the Bible is 
 itself a missionary. It can go where the 
 
i8o THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 missionary cannot go. For instance, no 
 missionary can get into Afghanistan. If 
 one tried to cross the Indian Frontier, the 
 British officers would arrest him and send 
 him back. For the Afghans are bigoted 
 Mohammedans, who think nothing of mur- 
 der, and our Government will not let an 
 Englishman run any risk. But during the 
 last Afghan War, in 1879-80, missionaries 
 from the great frontier city of Peshawar, 
 where our troops are, went up into Afghan- 
 istan behind the British Army ; and what 
 did they find ? They found in the Afghan 
 cities chiefs and merchants reading the 
 Scriptures. How had those Afghans got 
 them ? Why, in time of peace they had 
 sometimes visited Peshawar, and received 
 the books from the missionaries there. In 
 the last chapter (p. 154) I showed you a 
 specimen of the Afghan Scriptures, and a 
 picture of one of the title-pages. 
 
 So now you have seen some of the Ex- 
 perhnental Evidence that the Bible, though 
 composed of so many books written by 
 many men, is really God's own Sacred 
 Book. For what other book could have 
 done all the wonderful things I have told 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE i8i 
 
 you in this chapter ? And they are the 
 more wonderful because one would scarcely 
 expect them. There is a great deal in the 
 Bible which is very difficult to understand. 
 There is not a single Book in it which is 
 really simple. A vast number of books 
 have been written to help us to understand 
 it ; and sermons and lessons are constantly 
 being given to make it clearer to us. And 
 yet we take this great Volume, with all 
 its difficulties, and translate it the best way 
 we can into the languages of people all 
 over the world (as I showed you in the 
 last chapter), and we put it just as it is 
 into their hands. One would think this 
 was a very foolish thing to do, and likely 
 to do harm ! But the Experimental Evi- 
 dence shows us that we have done a wise 
 thing, and that nothing but good has come 
 of it ! Why is that ? There can be only 
 one reason, and that is that after all it is 
 God's Book, and He takes care of it and 
 uses it ! And so His own promise comes 
 true (Isa. Iv. ii), "It shall accomplish that 
 which I please, and prosper in the thing 
 whereto I sent it." 
 
 About twenty years ago, some learned 
 
1 82 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 men who did not believe in our God and 
 Saviour v^^rote books against the Bible, try- 
 ing to show that it was not a Divine Book. 
 Men had often done that before, and very 
 likely there will be always some who will 
 do so ; but the Bible goes on just the same, 
 accomplishing what God pleases and pros- 
 pering in the thing whereto He sends it. 
 Now just at the time I am thinking of, three 
 little packets came to London from three 
 different parts of the world. One came 
 from the northernmost island of Japan, and 
 was written in the language of that strange 
 wild people, the " Hairy Ainu." The 
 second came from the Far West of Canada, 
 from an island off the shores of British 
 Columbia, where a tribe called the Kwa- 
 gutl people live. The third came from 
 Uganda, in the heart of Africa. The 
 three little packets all contained the same 
 thing, St. Matthew's Gospel, one in Ainu, 
 one in Kwa-gutl, and one in Luganda. It 
 was in each case the first attempt to give 
 the people a little bit of God's Book in 
 their own language ; yes, and the first at- 
 tempt to write out anything in the language 
 at all, for not one of those three languages 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE 183 
 
 had ever been written down before. Well, 
 all three versions of St. Matthew were 
 printed in England by the Bible Society, 
 and copies sent out to those three distant 
 countries ; and those three peoples received 
 them joyfully, and learned to read them, 
 and found in them the messages of God's 
 great love. So while men were attacking 
 the Bible, the Bible just went on and did 
 its own work ! 
 
 Do you want to defend the Bible when it 
 is attacked ? Mr. Spurgeon once said, " If a 
 lion in a cage were attacked, how would you 
 defend it? Yoii would just let it out!'''' 
 So do with the Bible. Let it out ! — all over 
 the world ! 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 
 
 I HAVE finished my Story of the Bible. I 
 have told you how the books that make up 
 that v^^onderful Sacred Library came to be 
 written, and how they were preserved through 
 the ages, and how different English and 
 foreign Versions came to be made, and what 
 a great work the Bible is doing to-day. Let 
 me now talk a little about your own reading 
 of the Bible. 
 
 Of course you all do read it. But do you 
 like it .f* Does it interest you ? Do you 
 enjoy it ? Is it as nice as other books ? And 
 does it really help you to love God, and serve 
 Him, and please Him .? Numbers of people 
 read it because it is the proper thing to do, 
 but they don't care for it, and are glad when 
 
 the reading is done. I am not surprised at 
 
 184 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 185 
 
 this. Every book is dry until you under- 
 stand something about it. A book about 
 gardening, for instance — how dry it is if you 
 know nothing about flowers, or don't care 
 about them ! Boys like to read a book about 
 cricket ; but suppose you knew nothing of 
 the game, suppose you did not know the 
 difference between a ball and a bail, between 
 an on-drive and a leg-hit, would it interest 
 you then ? Well, I want to show you in 
 this chapter how you may be really interested 
 in the Bible. 
 
 No doubt it is good to read the Bible, even 
 if you only do it as a duty, for if you do, you 
 may come presently to love it. But it is 
 better to read it because it interests you. 
 And it is best of all to read it as a Letter 
 from our Father in Heaven. When you are 
 away from home, you value a letter from 
 your father or your mother. Perhaps there 
 are things in it which you do not understand. 
 Perhaps the very hand-writing is hard to 
 make out. But it is a letter from home, a 
 letter from those you love at home, and you 
 are delighted to get and read it. There are 
 many people who love the Bible in the same 
 
i86 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 way ; and I hope you will all learn to love it 
 like that. 
 
 First of all, if you want really to under- 
 stand the Bible, there are certain helps which 
 you ought to have. You should use a Refer- 
 ence Bible, and when you are really studying 
 a passage you should carefully look out all the 
 references as you read it verse by verse, 
 though this need not be done in ordinary 
 reading. You should have a Concordance, 
 and often look out in it the leading words 
 in a passage, that you may know where else 
 they are used.^ You should have either the 
 Oxford or Cambridge Helps or the King"'s 
 Printers" Aids^ which will give you all sorts 
 of necessary information. You should have 
 both the Authorized and the Revised Versions 
 before you, and note the changes made in 
 the latter. These will enable you to study 
 the Bible properly, and make you really 
 interested in it. And then it would be well 
 
 ^ Of course the ordinary Concordance only serves 
 for tracing the English words. Young's Analytical 
 Concordance should be obtained if possible, as it 
 enables readers who are not Greek or Hebrew 
 scholars to see how an English word stands for 
 several in the original. 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 187 
 
 also to have a Commentary, to explain the 
 difficult passages.^ 
 
 Now suppose you have these helps by you, 
 or some of them, what is the best way of 
 choosing what you shall read ? 
 
 1. The Bible is not a collection of pretty 
 texts. It is very nice to use a book like 
 Daily Light^ which gives you every morning 
 and evening a number of beautifully-chosen 
 verses to think about. I use it myself, and 
 I value it. It is sure to bring a message 
 from God to your soul, if you are ready to 
 receive it. But mind ! — that is not reading 
 the Bible, and must not be put in the place 
 of reading the Bible. 
 
 2. You must read all the Bible ! If it 
 pleases God to give us His revelations in the 
 form of histories and biographies and genea- 
 logies and laws and songs and proverbs and 
 prophecies and letters, who are we that we 
 should complain ? He knows best ! Of 
 
 ^ The S.P.C.K. Commentary, or the Cambridge 
 Bible for Schools, or the R.T.S. Annotated 
 Paragraph Bible, can be recommended for short 
 notes. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 
 (Cassell) is the best on a larger scale, though 
 unequal in the Old Testament. 
 
1 88 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 course some parts are more profitable than 
 others, and may be read oftener ; and some 
 parts are not suitable for reading aloud. But 
 no part is to be put aside altogether. 
 
 3. It is good to follow the Church Cal- 
 endar ; only if you do, you must do it 
 thoroughly. If you read only the Morning 
 Lessons, for instance, and not the Evening 
 Lessons, you will be skipping every other 
 chapter, and lose the connection. Or you 
 can join one of the Scripture Unions, which 
 carefully select shorter passages. The Chil- 
 dren's Scripture Union is excellent, and many 
 grown-up people belong to it as well as 
 children. 
 
 4. But for real Bible study, it is not good 
 to go steadily through from Genesis to Revela- 
 tion. Canon Girdlestone, who has written 
 a capital little book on the subject,^ says, 
 "Imagine an Early English chronicle, part 
 of the Domesday Book, some of Chaucer's 
 Tales, a play of Shakspeare, an essay of 
 Milton, a sermon by South, some of Lord 
 
 1 How to Study the English Bible; R.T.S. 
 Another useful book for young students is Syste- 
 matic Scripture Study ^ by the Rev. D. H. D. 
 Wilkinson ; C.M.S. 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 189 
 
 Chesterfield's Letters, and a sketch by 
 Macaulay, put together into one book, and 
 translated into one of the South Sea Island 
 languages for the benefit of the islanders 
 2000 years hence, and all divided up into 
 chapters and verses ! " Why, what would 
 the unfortunate islanders make of such a 
 book if they read it straight through, a 
 chapter at a time r Yet this is how many 
 people read the Bible. They go on from 
 the last chapter of Daniel to the first chapter 
 of Hosea, without thinking or knowing that 
 Hosea has to do with a period 250 years 
 older than the period of Daniel ; or from 
 Acts xxviii., when St. Paul was at Rome, 
 to Rom. i., written some years before he 
 went there. And yet they do get good 
 out of it ; and the reason is that after all, 
 notwithstanding the different writers of the 
 books, and the different people they were 
 written for, and the different periods when 
 they were written, it is all God's Sacred 
 Book, and it " prospers in the tiling whereto 
 He sent it." It fact you may read it any- 
 where, and in any order, and it will be pro- 
 fitable to the seeking soul. 
 
 5. But if you really want to understand 
 
190 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the Bible and become interested in it, you 
 must take one Book at a time ; and generally 
 it is well to read it through (unless it is very 
 long) at one sitting, and then go back and 
 read it again more slowly and carefully. If 
 it is one of the Epistles, you will want to 
 know who wrote it, and to whom it was 
 written, and why it was written. And you 
 will compare any other parts of Scripture 
 which have to do with the same place and 
 time. For instance, the two Epistles to 
 the Thessalonians can scarcely be understood 
 without reading the 17th and i8th chapters 
 of the Acts ; and the Prophecy of Haggai 
 throws great light on the Book of Ezra. In 
 cases like these, your Reference Bible will 
 be a great help.^ 
 
 6. In reading the Four Gospels, which are 
 the most important of all the Books, and 
 which all four relate to one subject, there 
 are two ways of studying them, {a) It is 
 good to read any one of them entirely by 
 itself, without referring to the others. St. 
 Mark, for instance, which is the shortest, 
 
 * In Mr. Wilkinson's Systematic Scripture Study ^ 
 there are excellent examples of this kind of reading, 
 the illustrations being Galatians and Hebrews. 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 191 
 
 can be read right through aloud in an hour 
 or two, and is wonderfully interesting as a 
 picture of our Lord's active ministry, [i?) 
 But it is necessary also to read them all four 
 together ; and although St. John is very 
 different from the other three, yet it often 
 gives us just the information we want to 
 make the others clear. Numbers of people, 
 learned and unlearned, have done this, and 
 have been perfectly fascinated by the study. 
 The more they look into the Gospels, the 
 more they find in them. 
 
 7. But although the true way to under- 
 stand the Bible is to read a Book at a time, 
 there are other ways that are also interesting 
 and profitable. You might take a period, 
 such as the Reign of Ahab, or the Captivity 
 in Babylon, which would require you to look 
 at more books than one ; for instance, on the 
 Captivity, besides Kings and Chronicles and 
 Ezra, you must look at Jeremiah and Ezekiel 
 and Daniel. It is good also to trace out the 
 lives of the great men ; and sometimes, in 
 order to do this, you must skip chapters here 
 and there, and also turn from book to book. 
 For instance, to work out the Life of King 
 David vou must look at the Books of Samuel 
 
192 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 and Kings and Chronicles and some of the 
 Psalms. For the Life of Isaiah you must 
 compare the Book of his Prophecies with 
 Kings and Chronicles. The Life of St. 
 Peter is particularly interesting when you 
 put together all the scattered notices of him 
 in the Gospels and Acts and the Epistle to 
 the Galatians and his own Epistles. And 
 for the Life of St. Paul you must begin with 
 certain passages in Philippians and Galatians 
 before you go to the Acts. Then again, 
 you may take particular topics, and find out 
 all that the Bible says about them. For 
 example, Pride and Humility, for which the 
 Book of Proverbs, and the reference columns 
 there, will be your chief guide ; or Faith, 
 starting from Heb. xi. ; or Angels ; or 
 Children ; or the Palm-tree and the Olive- 
 tree ; or Sowing and Reaping. Another 
 very interesting study is to find out in the 
 New Testament the quotations from the 
 Old Testament, about which I spoke in our 
 third chapter. Out of 66 chapters in the 
 Book of Isaiah, 50 are quoted in the New 
 Testament ; and more than half of the 
 Psalms. And some passages are quoted 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 193 
 
 more than once ; one, Isa. vi. 9, 10, six 
 times. It is curious to find that half of the 
 9th verse of the 69th Psalm is quoted by St. 
 John, and the other half by St. Paul. You 
 might look these out. 
 
 Now whatever plan of reading the Bible 
 you may choose, there are several things you 
 must remember, in order to avoid falling 
 into mistakes. I am going to tell you some 
 of these. 
 
 1. Many Bibles have what are called head- 
 lines — sentences at the top of the pages in- 
 dicating the subjects of the pages ; and some 
 have a summary of contents in small type at 
 the head of each chapter. Remember that 
 these are not Holy Scripture ; they were 
 done by men in these later times who pre- 
 pared the Bible for the printers. Sometimes 
 they are useful ; sometimes they are mis- 
 leading ; but any way they are not part of 
 God's Book. 
 
 2. Remember that the Books of the Bible 
 were not written in chapters and verses. I 
 told you before how these divisions came to 
 be made. They are very useful to refer to ; 
 but you should often read from a Paragraph 
 
 N 
 
194 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 Bible, in order to understand the real 
 meaning better.^ 
 
 3. Observe what the italic-type used for 
 some of the words means. If you see italic 
 letters in any other book, or in a newspaper 
 or magazine, you know that the words so 
 printed are specially important, and that 
 the writer lays particular stress on them. 
 But in the Bible the meaning is the oppo- 
 site of this. The words in italics stand for 
 words not in the original Hebrew or Greek, 
 and are added in the English Version to 
 make the sense clearer. Thus, if you look 
 at the ist chapter of St. Luke, you find in 
 verse 12 the words "Zacharias saw /?/w," 
 with " htm " in italics ; which shows that 
 the Greek is simply *^ saw " ; but it is evident 
 that " him " is meant, so it is added in this 
 way. And in ver. 25 of the same chapter 
 we find the words " looked on me^^^ with 
 " me " in italics, showing that the Greek is 
 simply " looked on " ; but evidently " me " 
 
 ^ The Revised Version is of course printed in 
 paragraphs. But there were Paragraph Bibles 
 long before that. A beautiful pocket Bible in para- 
 graphs, published by the R.T.S., was given to me 
 as far back as 1852. 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 195 
 
 is meant, and is therefore added in the 
 English. 
 
 4. Many Bibles have dates at the top of 
 the page, showing when the events recorded 
 on that page took place, or when the page is 
 supposed to have been written. These dates 
 were settled by a learned Irish Archbishop, 
 Dr. Ussher, in the days of Charles I. and 
 Cromwell. In the New Testament, and in 
 the later part of the Old Testament, you may 
 generally rely on them ; but not in the earlier 
 part of the Old Testament, as discoveries 
 made since Ussher's time have shown that the 
 dates of Abraham and Moses are uncertain, 
 and it is probable that the Deluge, and the 
 events before the Deluge, are very much 
 older than he reckoned. 
 
 5. People often make curious mistakes in 
 quoting Scripture. It is often said that since 
 Adam's Fall, men have had to get their living 
 "by the sweat of their brow," but these 
 words are not in the Bible at all. The 
 expression in Gen. iii. is " the sweat of thy 
 face." Again, it is often said that God is 
 "able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
 that we can ask or think." This may be 
 true, but it is not in the Bible. In Eph. iii. 
 
196 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 20 there is no " can." It is " all that we ask 
 or think," that is, all that we do ask or think. 
 Again, some words in Phil. ii. 13 are often 
 quoted as if they meant that our salvation is 
 to be worked out by ourselves ; but people 
 who do so leave out the first part of the 
 verse. St. Paul is telling the Philippians that 
 they need not trouble because he is absent 
 from them. Whatever " working out " they 
 could do in his presence they could do equally 
 well in his absence, became God was working 
 in them I 
 
 6. In reading the Old Testament, you 
 must remember that in those old days men 
 did not know all that we know. Things 
 seemed right to them which we now know 
 are not right. We are not to condemn them, 
 for God did not. He dealt with them as we 
 sometimes deal with children. Even young 
 children know something about right and 
 wrong, but they do not understand all that 
 their fathers and mothers understand ; and in 
 some ways the people of the earlier ages of 
 the world were like children. For example, 
 Jacob had four wives, and David had a great 
 many ; and you read about this without any 
 word in the Old Testament to tell you it 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 197 
 
 was wrong. Jesus Christ and His Apostles 
 made it clear to us. In Matt. v. you will 
 find Christ referring to some of the old laws 
 and customs, and then saying, " But I say 
 unto you . . ." — something different. There 
 are a few verses in some of the Psalms which 
 we always wish we had not got to sing, 
 where the Psalmist hopes that great calamities 
 will fall on his enemies. We must not be 
 hard on him : he did not know the wonder- 
 ful law of love and forgiveness which Christ 
 and His Apostles taught ; and we should 
 remember, too, that he looked on his enemies 
 as God's enemies, and therefore desired and 
 rejoiced in their destruction. It is remarkable 
 that one of the hardest Psalms, the 69th, is 
 quoted as Scripture in the New Testament. 
 I mentioned its 9th verse only a page or two 
 back. 
 
 7. Do not be surprised if you cannot 
 understand everything. There is enough 
 simple teaching in the Bible for all our need, 
 but there is a great deal that learned men 
 are always studying and yet never feeling 
 that they have learned everything. There 
 are difficult passages which a Commentary 
 will explain ; and there arc some which you 
 
198 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 might feel you do not fully understand if you 
 had looked at a dozen commentaries. But 
 really we ought not to expect to understand 
 all about God. How could we ? God has 
 given us wonderful minds, to understand 
 wonderful things ; but the Almighty Creator 
 and Preserver and King — how can we under- 
 stand all about Him ? Never be ashamed or 
 afraid to say, " 1 don't know." It is easy to 
 ask hard questions about things in the Bible 
 which no one can answer. But God has 
 graciously condescended to picture Himself 
 to us as if He were a man^ so that we may 
 understand a little. We read of His Face, 
 His Eyes, His Ears, His Arm, His Hand, His 
 Feet ; of His coming, and going, and walk- 
 ing, and laughing, and looking to see ; of His 
 " smelling a sweet savour " ; of His " repent- 
 ing " ; of His swearing solemn oaths. We 
 are not to take these expressions literally : 
 they are pictures or representations, to give 
 us some little idea of what the great God is 
 like. They are called " anthropomorphisms," 
 from Greek words meaning " in the form of 
 a rnan." 
 
 8. There are also a great many other illus- 
 trations or figures or similitudes in the Bible. 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 199 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Word, 
 the Sun, the Rock, the Vine ; and the Holy 
 Spirit is likened to the wind, the fire, the 
 dew, the living water. This is what is called 
 figurative language, and you must be careful 
 how you explain it. A particular figure, for 
 instance, does not always mean the same 
 thing. Thus, leaven sometimes stands for 
 what is evil, as in Luke xii. i and i Cor. 
 V. 8 ; and some people have therefore sup- 
 posed that the Parable of the Leaven, in 
 Matt, xiii., must refer to the spread of evil. 
 But that does not follow. Satan is also called 
 a lion (i Pet. v. 8), but that does not prove 
 that a lion is always a figure of what is 
 dangerous, for our Lord Himself is called a 
 Lion (Rev. v. 5). In particular, you must 
 not build a doctrine upon a figure. Some 
 have spoken of man's heart being a vessel, 
 and the blood of Jesus Christ as a stream 
 flowing through it and cleansing it ; there- 
 fore, said they, there can be no sin left in 
 the heart. But there is no literal vessel, 
 and no literal stream. These are figures. 
 The precious blood of Christ does atone for 
 our sin, and then we love Him and turn 
 from sin, so we are doubly cleansed ; but 
 
200 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 sinful tendencies are in all hearts still, and 
 will be till we die. 
 
 9. You must not fall into the mistake of 
 quoting every word in the Bible as the Word 
 of God. The whole Bible is in a true sense 
 the Word of God, because the whole Bible 
 contains His revelations and messages. But, 
 as you know, the Bible records many things 
 said by bad men ; and of course they are not 
 God's words. Pharaoh said, "Who is the 
 Lord r I know not the Lord." The Phari- 
 sees said of Jesus, " This man blasphemeth." 
 Of course you would not think of these as 
 God's words. But there are other places 
 where you might make mistakes. In the 
 Book of Job there are long speeches by Job's 
 friends. Some things they said are right, 
 and some are wrong ; but neither the right 
 nor the wrong are God's words. Do you 
 say it would have been better if all the 
 Bible had been good words from God Him- 
 self ? But, as I have said before, God knows 
 best, and it is our business to take His blessed 
 Book in the form in which He has been 
 pleased to give it to us. So it is important, 
 when a verse of Scripture is quoted, to ask. 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 201 
 
 Who said that ? Suppose a man said to 
 you, " The Bible says, There is no God " ; 
 you would be indignant, and contradict him. 
 Yet it is true ; those words are in the Bible. 
 But look at the 14th Psalm, where they 
 occur, and you will see how necessary it is 
 to quote the whole of a text, and not only 
 part of it. So again, I have heard it said 
 that the Bible tells us that " money is the 
 root of all evil." Well, the words are there, 
 in I Tim. vi. 10 ; but if you look at that 
 verse you will find it is " The love of money 
 is the root of all evil" (in R.V., "a root of 
 all kinds of evil "). 
 
 10. In reading the Prophets, remember 
 that most of what we call their " prophecies " 
 were reaWy preachings addressed to the people 
 among whom they lived ; and you should 
 try and make out what they meant to say 
 to those people. There are some very cheer- 
 ing words in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, which 
 perhaps you have heard sung to beautiful 
 music by Handel-— " Comfort ye, comfort ye 
 My people," &c. Now these words, and 
 those that follow, were meant to comfort and 
 cheer the people of Israel when in captivity 
 
202 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 in Babylon ; and you should read the pas- 
 sage thinking how sorely they needed such a 
 message, and how it would encourage them. 
 But I do not mean that we are not to take it 
 also for our own comfort. Certainly we are. 
 God inspired the prophets to speak His words 
 to the Jews of that day, and yet words which 
 would be a blessing to all His people in after 
 ages. Sometimes the prophets knew that 
 they were speaking and writing what would 
 be more fully understood in after times. See 
 what St. Peter tells us of this in his ist 
 Epistle (i. 10-12). 
 
 II. Once more: you will sometimes find 
 passages of Scripture which seem to contra- 
 dict other passages. Be quite sure that they 
 never do really ! — but often it requires careful 
 study to see how they fit in, and in some 
 cases it has not pleased God to show us clearly 
 how they do fit in. Thus, in John vi. 37 
 the Lord Jesus says, " Him that cometh to 
 Me I will in no wise cast out," which is a 
 gracious word for everybody. In the same 
 verse He says what seems to limit the pro- 
 mise as if it were only for some ; while in the 
 chapter next before He says most solemnly 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 203 
 
 that if men do not come to Him it is the 
 fault of their own will (v. 40). Do not 
 puzzle about this : you never can explain the 
 difference fully ; nobody can ; but be sure 
 you " come to Him " yourselves. Then 
 again, many people are troubled because they 
 think St. James contradicts St. Paul about 
 faith, and even say that he wrote on purpose 
 to correct what St. Paul had said. Now it 
 is almost certain that St. James wrote his 
 Epistle some years before St. Paul wrote to 
 the Romans and the Galatians 1 — and the 
 "faith" which St. James says is no use is 
 not the true faith which St. Paul tells us 
 " worketh by love " (Gal. v. 6). One other 
 case : — It is very important to remember that 
 the words " salvation " and " saved " are used 
 in Scripture in three senses. Thus St. Paul 
 tells the Ephesians that they " have been 
 saved" (Eph. ii. 5, 8, R.V.), and, writing to 
 Timothy, he says God "saved us" (i Tim. 
 i. 9). But he also speaks of " salvation " as 
 a thing going on (i Cor. xv. 2 ; Phil. ii. 12), 
 and also of its being something yet to come 
 (Rom. V. 9, xiii. 11 ; Phil. i. 19). So we 
 have past, present, and future salvation ; and 
 
204 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 it is quite right to say " We are saved," and 
 "We are being saved," and "We shall be 
 saved." 
 
 I want you to learn, and remember, the 
 words of the Sixth Article of our Church of 
 England : — " Holy Scripture containeth all 
 things necessary to salvation ; so that what- 
 soever is not read therein, nor may be proved 
 thereby, is not to be required of any man, 
 that it should be believed as an article of the 
 Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to 
 salvation." 
 
 And now I have come to the end of my 
 book. I do hope that it may teach you 
 to love the Bible, and praise God for it. 
 Perhaps you may not be able to study it 
 thoroughly in the ways I have been suggest- 
 ing in this last chapter. Well, never mind. 
 Do what you can, and the Lord will be 
 pleased. But even if you arc quite unable, 
 for any reason, to study it at all properly, 
 be sure and read it, day by day, regularly, 
 reverently, humbly, teachably, asking your 
 Heavenly Father to "open your eyes," that 
 
ABOUT READING THE BIBLE 205 
 
 you may " behold wondrous things " in its 
 sacred pages. If you cannot always stop to 
 find out what Moses meant for the Israelites 
 in the wilderness, or what Isaiah meant for 
 the Jews in Hezekiah's day, or what St. Paul 
 meant for the Corinthians or the Thessa- 
 lonians, you can always bow your head and 
 ask. What does my God and Father mean 
 me to learn by this passage ? Then you will 
 find that although you read much which you 
 cannot understand you will love the Bible 
 more and more. You will in your heart sing 
 the old children's hymn, — 
 
 Holy Bible ! Book Divine ! 
 Precious treasure, thou art mine ! 
 
 You will realize the truth of another 
 hymn, — 
 
 Lord, Thy Word abideth, 
 And our footsteps guideth ; 
 Who its truth believeth 
 Light and joy receiveth. 
 
 And you will love to pray the familiar 
 prayer, — 
 
 Blessed Lord, Who hast caused all Holy 
 Scriptures to be written for our learning ; 
 
2o6 THE STORY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 grant that we may in such wise hear them, 
 read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, 
 that by patience, and comfort of Thy holy 
 Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast 
 the blessed hope of everlasting life, which 
 Thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. Amen. 
 
Index of Proper Names 
 
 Abkdnego, 34 
 
 Abraham, 5, 10, 29 
 
 Abu Rumi, 142 
 
 Abyssinia, 141, 142 
 
 Acts, Book of, 9, 10, II, 12, 36, 
 
 37. 42, 43. 51. 55. 57. 79- 
 
 119, 122, 128, 129, 173, 189, 
 
 190, 192 
 Acts of Solomon, Book of, ig 
 Adam, 195 
 Addison, 172 
 Afghans, 154, 180 
 Africa, 25, 46, 70, 71, 136, 
 
 138, 148 
 Ahab, 191 
 Aidan, St., 74 
 Ainu, 182 
 
 A Kempis, Thomas, 86 
 Alexandria, 37, 38, 39, 56 
 Alexandrian MS., 63, 64, 65 
 Alford, Dean, 120 
 Alfred, King, 29, 75, 77 
 Amaziah, 23 
 Ambrose, St., 168 
 America, North, 46, 120, 133, 
 
 146, 177 
 America, South, 133 
 American Missions, 137 
 Amharic language, 142, 143 
 Anglo-Saxon, 42, 73, 74, 75, 
 
 n 
 
 Angus, Dr., 57, 120 
 
 Antioch (in Pisidia), 42 
 
 Antioch (in Syria), 56 
 
 Apocrypha, 34, 35, 38, 112-114 
 
 ApoUos, 45 
 
 Arabia, 136 
 
 Arabic language, 136, 137, 
 
 139, 140, 142, 145 
 Aramaic language, 29, 30, 32, 
 
 SI. 55. 58 
 Armagh, 74 
 Armenian language, 70 
 Arnold, Dr., 170 
 Asa, 23, 137 
 Asaph, 20 
 
 Asia, 25, 69, 143, 156 
 Asia Minor, 35, 138 
 Athanasius, St., 31-112 
 Athens, 42, 43 
 Augustine, St. (Hippo), 168, 
 
 169 
 Augustine, St. (Canterbury), 
 
 74 
 
 Babylon, 7, 29, 34, 191 
 Bacon, Roger, 88 
 Bacon, Lord, 165 
 Balliol College, 77 
 Bangor, 74 
 Barabbas, 125 
 Bainabas, 45 
 Baruch, 20 
 Bechuana, 148 
 
 207 
 
2o8 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 
 
 Recket, T. k, 169 
 
 Bede, Ven., 76 
 
 Benedicite, 34 
 
 Benedict-US, 91, 108 
 
 Bengal, 137, 143 
 
 Berea, Bereans, 37, 42, 43, 
 
 44, 173 
 Bethlehem, 71, 129 
 Bible Society, B, and F., 139- 
 
 160 
 Bible Society, American, 150 
 Bible Societies, Scotch and 
 
 Irish, 140, 150 
 Bishops' Bible, 108-110 
 Boston, 134, 177 
 Boughton, Lady J., 83 
 Boxer riots, 179 
 Brady (Tate and), 171 
 Bright, John, 165 
 Britain, 54, 73 
 British Columbia, 179, 182 
 Buchanan, Dr. C, 70 
 Bulgarian, 87 
 Burke, E,, 165 
 Burmah, 154 
 
 CiEDMON, 74 
 
 Caesarea, 47 
 
 Cairns, Earl, 166 
 
 Cajetan, Cardinal, 113 
 
 Calcutta, 143 
 
 Cambridge, 93, 100, 116, 138, 
 
 139, 142, 149, 186 
 Canon, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 38, 
 
 39, 57, 112, 113 
 Canterbury, Archbishops of, 
 
 74, 82, 83, 95, 104, 163 
 Capellini, 174 
 
 Carey, William, 137, 138, 143 
 Carlyle, T. ,164 
 Caxton, 91 
 Celebes, 155 
 Ceylon, 135 
 Chaldasa, 29 
 Charles I., 63, 84, 195 
 
 Charles II., 107 
 
 Charles V. , 102 
 
 Chaucer, 188 
 
 Chesterfield, Lord, 189 
 
 Chicago, 121 
 
 China, 70, 143, 144, 178, 179 
 
 Chinese language, 144, 145 
 
 Chrischona, St., 143 
 
 Chronicles, Books of, 7, 18, 
 
 19, 22, 23, 191, 192 
 Church Nlissionary Society, 
 
 135, 138, 140, 142, 150, 188 
 Claude, Bp., 87 
 Clement, St., 56, 57, 63 
 Cluny Monastery, 85 
 Colet, Dean, loi 
 Cologne, loi 
 
 Colossians, Ep. to, 129, 132 
 Columba, St., 74 
 Columbus, 133, 169 
 Complutensian Polyglot, 92 
 Constant! ne, 59 
 Constantinople, 53, 63, 88, 89 
 Coptic language, 70 
 Corinth, 42, 46, 56 
 Corinthians, Ep. to, 9, 11, 
 
 27, 43, 46, no, 130, 132, 
 
 199, 203 
 Cotton, Sir R., 76 
 Coverdale, Miles, 104, 105, 
 
 107, IIS 
 Cranmer, Abp., 104, 105, io8 
 Crispin and Crispinian, 167 
 Cromwell, Thos. , 105 
 Crowther, Bp. , 148 
 Cuthbert, St., 77 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, 112 
 Cyril (Thessalonica), 87 
 
 Danes, Danish, 75, 96, 07, 
 
 135 
 Daniel, Book of, 27, 30, 34, 
 
 189, 191 
 Dante, 162 
 
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 209 
 
 David, 20, 22, 24, 31, 119, 
 
 191, 196 
 Deborah, 21 
 Delhi, 175 
 Deluge, 195 
 Denmark, see Danes 
 Deuteronomy, 17, 18 
 Dickens, C., 164 
 Diocletian, 59 
 Domesday Book, 188 
 Douay Version, 109 
 Dublin, 140 
 Durham, 75 
 Dutch, 8g, 92, 94, 96 
 
 Eadfrith, 75 
 
 Ecclesiasticus, Book of, 34 
 
 Edersheim, Dr. A., 178 
 
 Edinburgh, 140 
 
 Edward III., 'J^ 
 
 Edward VI., 171 
 
 Edward VII., 163 
 
 Egypt, 4. 35. 59. 136 
 
 Elijah, 22, 128 
 
 Eliot, John, 134 
 
 Elisha, 22, 128 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 108, 114, 
 
 169 
 EUicott, Bp. , 120, 187 
 Elzevir, 94 
 English language, 25, 29, 31, 
 
 41, 42, 65, 96, 99 
 Ephesus, 46, S3, 58 
 Ephesians, Ep. to, 46, 103, 
 
 123, 195, 203 
 Ephraem, 64 
 Erasmus, 89, 93, 94, 95, 100, 
 
 lOI 
 
 Erse language, 73, 140 
 
 Eskimo, 147 
 
 ^sther. Book of, 18 
 
 Etienne, 94, 95 
 
 Ethiopia language, 70, 141, 
 
 142 
 Eusebius, 112 
 
 Exodus, 17, 131 
 
 Ezekiel, 191 
 
 Ezra, 18, 36, 30, 190, 191 
 
 Florence, 72, 89 
 Foochow dialect, 146 
 France, French, 31, 38, 59, 
 
 71. 89, 94, 96, 140, 145. 151 
 Francis, St., of Assisi, 78 
 Fuller, T., 84 
 Fust, 90 
 Fyson, Bp., 150 
 
 Gad, Book of, 19, 26 
 
 Gaelic, 140 
 
 Galatians, Ep. to, 12, 27, 123, 
 
 192, 203 
 Gaidiner, Capt. A., 170 
 Gaul, 71 
 Gehenna, 127 
 Genesis, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 85, 
 
 104, 132, 159, 195 
 Geneva, io8, no, in, 114 
 George II., 84 
 Gerhard, 89 
 Gerizim, Mt., 33 
 German language, 89, 96, 97, 
 
 107, 140 
 Germans, Germany, 89, 91, 
 
 loi, 102, 13s, 140, 14s 
 Gideon, 21 
 
 Girdlestone, Canon, 188 
 Gladstone, Mr., 165 
 Gobat, Bp. , 142 
 Goldwin Smith, Prof., 90 
 Gospel, 42, 43, 47, 48 
 Gospels, Four, 28, 40, 48, 52, 
 
 55. 57. 75' 190. 192 
 
 Goths, 71 
 
 Great Bible, 106-108 
 
 Greece, 35, 42, 89 
 
 Greek language, 2, 9, 13, 17, 
 25, 27, 30, 36, 37, 38, 41, 
 48. 50. 51. 55. 58, 61, 68, 
 69, 88, 89, 92, 122-131 
 
 O 
 
210 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 
 
 Green, Dr. S. G. , 57, 120 
 Green's History, 19 
 Grey, Lady Jane, 169 
 Grierson, Dr., 157 
 Grosteste, Bp. , 88 
 Gutenberg, 90 
 
 Hades, 127 
 Hadfield, Bp. , 176, 177 
 Haggai, 190 
 Handel, 201 
 Hannington, Bp. , 170 
 Havergal, F. R. , 107 
 Hebrew language, 28, 29, 30, 
 
 31. 32. 33. 36, 38, 58. 64, 88, 
 
 89, 91, 142 
 Hebrews, Ep. to, 10, 35, 45, 
 
 62, 109, 123, 128, 192 
 Heman, 20 
 Henry VHI., loi, 102, 104, 
 
 105 
 Hepburn, Dr., 150 
 
 Herford, 78 
 
 Hermas, Shepherd of, 57 
 
 Hervey, Bp. Lord A., 120 
 
 Hezekiah, 22, 23 
 
 Hill, D., 178 
 
 Hindi language, 153, 158 
 
 Hindustani language, 153 
 
 Hodgkin, Dr. , 76 
 
 Holbein, 105 
 
 Holy Spirit, 6, 7, 40, 41, 
 
 46, SI. 57 
 Homer, 89, 162 
 Hooper, Bp. , 169 
 Hooper, Dr., 158 
 Hort, Dr., 119 
 Hosea, 189 
 Hsi, Pastor, 178 
 Hugo, Cardinal, 95 
 Hume's History, 19 
 Hungarian language, 96 
 Hus, John, 169 
 
 Icelandic language, 96 
 Ignatius, St., 56 
 Imad-ud-din, Dr., 175 
 India, 4, 70, 133, 135, 137, 
 
 143, 152, 157 
 Indians, Red, 133, 134, 139, 
 
 146, 147, 179 
 lona, 74 
 
 Ireland, 73, 74, 140 
 Irenseus, St., 56 
 Isaiah, 8, 131, 132, 159, 192, 
 
 193, 201 
 Italy, 35, 59, 71. 89, 173. ^74 
 Italian language, 96 
 
 Jacob, 159, 196 
 Jacob, Bp., 158 
 James, Ep. of, 12, 45, 123, 
 
 203 
 James I., 28, 114, 115, ii6, 
 
 123 
 Japan, Japanese, 150, 177, 
 
 178, 179, 182 
 Jarrow, 74, 76 
 Jasher, Book of, 19 
 Jehoshaphat, 23 
 Jeremiah, 20, 30, 191 
 Jerome, St., 3, 60, 71, 73, 74, 
 
 112, 113, 114, 121 
 
 Jerome of Prague, 169 
 
 Jerusalem, 42, 44, 53 
 
 Jesus Christ, 2, 5, 6, 11, 
 
 29, 30, 40, 43, 44, 46, 54, 
 
 55. 166 
 Jews, 5, 7. 9. 27. 29. 30. 31. 
 
 32. 33. 34. 36. 37. 38, 41. 
 
 42, 43, 44, 48, 51, 91 
 Job, 200 
 John, St., 50, 53 
 John, Gospel of, 6, 8, ii, 12, 
 
 13. 33. 53. 54. 58, 59. 63, 
 70, 76, 87, 122, 125, 126, 
 
 137. 139. 146, 147. 149. 19I1 
 
 202 
 
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 211 
 
 John, Eps. of, 45, 54, 67, 69, 
 
 93- 122 
 John the Baptist, 60 
 Joseph, 104. 159 
 Josephus, 28, 34 
 Joshua, 128 
 Joshua, Book of, 18, ig, 27, 
 
 132 
 Josiah, 23 
 Jotham, 23 
 Jowett, W., 142 
 Judas Iscariot, 124 
 Jude, St., Ep. of, 45 
 Judges, Book of, 8, 21, 22 
 Justin Martyr, 56, 112 
 
 Kethe, 172 
 
 Kings, Books of, 22, 23, 27, 
 
 154, 163, 191, 192 
 King's printers, 116, 186 
 Kitto, John, 140 
 Korah, Sons of, 20 
 Koran, 4, 136, 175 
 Krapf, Dr., 142 
 Krishna, 157 
 Kwa-gutl language, 182 
 
 Lambeth Palace, 83 
 Langton, Archbp. S., 95 
 Latin language, 2, 3, 25, 30, 
 
 41, 42, 55, 60, 61, 70, 71, 
 
 86 
 Lazarus, 52 
 Lee, Prof. S. , 139 
 Leviticus, 17 
 Lightfoot, Bp. , 120 
 Lindisfarne, 74, 75, 77 
 Livingstone, Dr., 170 
 Lollards, 85 
 London, 55, 91 
 London Missionary Society, 
 
 144 
 Loyalty Islands, i6o 
 Luganda language, 149, 182 
 
 Luke, St., 2, 8, 9, 10, II, 27, 
 
 45.46,49. 50. 51. 52, 53. 60. 
 
 91, 129, 130, 176, 194, 199 
 Luther, Martin, 96-98, 100. 
 
 113, 169 
 Lutterworth, 77, 84 
 Lyons, 56, 87 
 Lystra, 42 
 
 Macassar language, 155 
 Macaulay, Lord, 189 
 Maccabees, 33, 35 
 Mackay, A., 149 
 Madras, 143, 176 
 Magnificat, 91, 108 
 Malta, 140 
 Manuscripts, 60-69, 89, 93, 94, 
 
 121 
 Maori (N.Z.), 176 
 Mark, St., 47, 48, 50, 52, 55, 
 
 122, 125, 130, 190 
 Martyn, H. , 138, 170 
 Mary, Virgin, 50, 51, 91 
 Mary, Queen, 105, 108 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 169 
 Massoretes, 32 
 Matthew, St., 10, 11, 48, 50, 
 
 52, 79, 104, 126, 127, 149, 
 
 175, 179, 182, 197 
 Matthew's Bible, 105, no 
 Mayence, 90 
 Melanchthon, 89, 169 
 Melanesia, 147, 155 
 Meshach, 34 
 Methodius, 87 
 Micah, 8 
 Milan, 91 
 Milne, Dr., 144 
 Milton, John, 172, 188 
 Moffat, R., 148 
 Mohammedans, 4, 88, 136, 
 
 153. 154 
 Mohawk, 139 
 Mongolian language, 144 
 Monte Corvino, John de, 144 
 
212 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 
 
 Moravians, 87 
 More, Sir T. , 169 
 Morrison, R., 144 
 Moses, 2, 13, 14, 16, 18, 164 
 Murray, W., 145 
 
 Nathan, Book of, 19, 26 
 Nazareth, 2, 41 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 34 
 Nehemiah, Book of, 18, 29 
 Nestorians, 69 
 New Testament, 2, 10, 30, 33, 
 
 34. 35. 36, 40-72, 89, gi, 
 
 93, 94, loi, 103, 105, 109, 
 
 120-131 
 New Guinea, 155 
 New York, 121 
 New Zealand, 147, 176 
 Nicodemus, 52 
 Niisima, 177 
 Nilkanth, N. , 175 
 Northumberland, 72, 73, 74 
 Nunc Dimittis, 108 
 Numbers, Book of, 17, 18, 
 
 164 
 
 Oldcastle, Sir J., 83 
 
 Old Testament, 2, 9, 10, 11, 
 
 13. 14-39. 40. 42, 56- 57. 58, 
 62, 63, 91, 92, 102, 105, 109, 
 
 131 
 
 Origen, 56 
 
 Orme, 77 
 
 Oxford. 77, 89, 93, 100, 116, 
 
 121, 164 
 Oxford Helps, 35, 186 
 
 Palestine, 29, 32, 33, 36, 
 
 38, 41, 42, 50, 51, 136 
 Pali, 154 
 Paris, 89, 91, 94 
 Parker, Abp. , 108 
 Patagonia, 170 
 Patmos, 53 
 Patrick, St., 73 
 
 Paul, St., 6, 8, 9, 27, 30, 36, 
 
 37. 42. 43. 44. 45. 47. 5°. 
 
 SI. 52, 53.56, 57, 119, 123, 
 
 189, 192, 203 
 Paul's, St., Cathedral, 102 
 Peking, 178 
 Pentateuch, 17, 18, 27, 33, 
 
 102, 105 
 Perowne, Bp. , 120 
 Persia, 69, 138 
 Penigia, 173 
 Peshawar, 180 
 Peshitto Version, 69 
 Peter, St., 42, 45, 47, 56, 129, 
 
 192 
 Peter, St., Eps. of, 6, 56, 123, 
 
 192, 199, 202 
 Petersburg, St. , 62 
 Pharaoh, 200 
 Pharisees, 200 
 Philemon, Ep. to, 7, 8, 46 
 Philippians, Ep. to, 46, no, 
 
 123, 129, 192, 195, 203 
 Pilate, Pontius, 30, 41 
 Pilkington, G. , 149 
 Plato, 89 
 
 Plumptre, Dean, 120 
 Plutscho, 135 
 Polish language, 96 
 Polycarp, St. , 56 
 Polynesia, 147 
 Pro'thero, 168 
 
 Proverbs, Book of, 8, 20, 192 
 Psalms, The, 3, 4, 20, 24, 25, 
 
 27, 76, 79, 86, 107, 164-172, 
 
 192, 193, 197, 201 
 Pushtu language, 154 
 Purvey, 78 
 
 Ram Chandra, Prof., 175 
 
 Rehoboam, 23 
 
 Religious Tract Society, 120, 
 
 187, 188, 194 
 Reuchlin, John, 89 
 
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 213 
 
 Revelation, Book of, 53, 55, 
 
 122, 126, 199 
 Rheims Version, 109 
 Richard, Timothy, 178 
 Ridley, Bp. N., 169 
 Ridley, Bp. W., 179 
 Rogers, John, 105 
 Rome, 46, 51, 62, 91, 174 
 Roman Empire, 36, 41, 42, 52, 
 
 Roman Christians, 2, 10, 45, 
 
 47, 48, 55, 121, 125 
 Roman Church, 56, 92, 109, 
 
 no, 113, 174 
 Roman type, 37, 146, 147, 149, 
 
 153 
 Romans, Ep. to, 11, 12, 13, 
 
 46, 86, 126, 158, 168, 189, 
 
 203 
 Ruskin, John, 164, 170 
 Russia, 62, 96, 136, 140 
 Ruth, Book of, 7, 27 
 
 Safdar Ali, 175 
 Samaritans, 33, 52 
 Samson, 21 
 Samuel, Books of, 22, 31, 119, 
 
 163, 191 
 Sanskrit language, 152 
 Satan, 199 
 
 Satthianadhan, W. T. , 176 
 Schlienz, 140 
 Schulze, 135 
 Schwarzerd, 89 
 Scotland, Scotch, 74, 119, 145, 
 
 171 
 Scripture Unions, 188 
 Scrivener, Dr., 119 
 Selborne, Earl of, 166 
 Septuagint Version, 37, 58, 62, 
 
 92 
 Serampore, 137, 143 
 Shadrach, 34 
 Shakspeare, 162, 164, 165, 
 
 188 
 
 Sheol, 127 
 
 Shepherd of Hermas, 57 
 
 Sidonius ApoUinaris, 167 
 
 Silas, 44 
 
 Sinai, Mt., 61 
 
 Sinaitic MS., 61, 64, 65 
 
 Slavonic language, 87 
 
 Smithfield, 83, 105 
 
 Smyrna, 53, 56 
 
 S.P.C.K., 134-137. 139. 150 
 
 187 
 S.P.G.,135, 137 
 Solomon, 20 
 Solway, 75 
 Sophocles, 89 
 South, Dr., 188 
 South Sea Islands, 138, 147 
 
 155, 160, 179, 189 
 Southwell, R., 169 
 Spain, 59, 71, 92, 94 
 Spanish language, 96 
 Spurgeon, C. H., 183 
 Steere, Bp., 149 
 Stephen, St.,, 128 
 Stephens (Etienne), 94, 95 
 
 109 
 Sternhold, 171, 172 
 Stone, S. J., 24 
 Strype, 106 
 Swahili language, 149 
 Sweden, 71 
 
 Swedish language, 96, 97 
 Syria, 29, 69, 136, 137 
 Syriac language, 25, 69, 70 
 
 142 
 
 Tamil language, 135, 136 
 Targums, 32, 33, 92 
 Tate, Nahum, 171, 172 
 Taverner, 108 
 Te Deum, 34 
 Tennyson, A. , 164 
 Thackeray, W. M. , 164 
 Theodore, 167 
 1 Theophilus, 49, 51 
 
214 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 
 
 Theresa, vSt. , 169 
 Thessalonians, Ep. to, 190 
 Thessalonica, 42, 87 
 Thucydides, 89 
 Timothy, 6, 12, 37, 45 
 Timothy, Ep, to, 6, 12, 13, 52, 
 
 no, 123, 201, 203 
 Tinnevelly, 176 
 Tischendorf, 51 
 Titus, Ep. to, 8 
 Tokyo, 150 
 Toledo, 92 
 Toplady, 24 
 Toulouse, 86 
 Treacle Bible, 105 
 Trent, Council of, 113 
 Tunstall, Bp. , 100, 102, 106 
 Turin, 87, 174 
 Turkey, Turks, 4, 88, 150 
 Turkish language, 140 
 Tyndale, William, 99-106, 
 
 no, 115, 123, 130 
 
 Uganda, 149, 178, 182 
 Ulphilas, 71 
 Upsala, 71 
 Urdu language, 153 
 Ussher, Abp. , 195 
 Uzziah, 23 
 
 Vatican MS., 62, 64, 65 
 
 Venice, 91 
 
 Verbeck, 150 
 
 Versions — 
 
 Septuagint, 37, 58, 62, 92 
 Early Christian, 69-71 
 Vulgate, 71, 72, 73, 81, 84, 
 
 86, 90,92, 93, 95, 99 
 Early English, 73-84 
 Reformation, 96-115 
 
 Versions, continxied — 
 
 Douay and Rheims, 109, 
 
 no. III 
 Missionary, 133-160 
 A. v., 67, 68, 80, 81, 115, 
 
 T 16-132 
 R.V. , 46, 49, 60, 67, 68, 93, 
 103, 1 16-132, 194, 201 
 Victoria, Queen, 84, 119, 164 
 Vilvorde, 102 
 Virgil, 162 
 Vulgate, see Versions 
 
 Waldo, P., 87 
 Wartburg Castle, 97 
 Watts, Dr., 172 
 Welsh language, 96, 140 
 Wesley, John, 169 
 Westcott, Bp., 35, 57, 108, 
 
 113. "9 
 Westminster Abbey and 
 
 Bridge, 83, 91, 163 
 Whitby, 74 
 
 Wilberforce, William, 169 
 Wilkinson, D. H. D., 188 
 Winchester, 55 
 Wisdom, Book of, 34 
 Wittenberg, 96 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 102, 104 
 Wycliffe, John, 77-84, 99 
 
 Xavier, Francis, i6g 
 Ximenes, Cardinal, 92, 94 
 
 York, 55, 82 
 
 Yoruba language, 148, 149 
 
 Young's Concordance, 186 
 
 Zacharias, 60, 91, 194 
 Zacynthius, 64 
 Ziegenbalg, 135 
 
 Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson dr» Co. 
 Edinburgh <5r> London. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 CAVLORO 
 
 I ^ftlNTEOINl 
 
BS450 .S86 
 
 The story of the Bible 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Speer Library 
 
 C