20. Competency of the Translators

A proof whereof, when a boy, I received from a hand-laboring man therein, which since hath convinced my judgment. 'We speak, I believe,' said he, 'as good English as any shire in England; because, though in the singing-Psalms some words are used to make the metre, unknown to us, yet the last translation of the Bible, which no doubt was done by those learned men in the best English, agreeth perfectly with the common speech of our county.'" Thus we came to have a version as easy of comprehension as the nature of the case will admit. It is the most precious boon possessed by the vast masses, to whom it speaks "in their own tongue the wonderful works of God." Well does the Translators' Preface speak of God's Sacred Word as "that inestimable treasure which excelleth all the riches of the earth." And well was it said of them by that same Thomas Fuller; "These, with Jacob, rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well of life; so that now even Rachels, weak women, may freely come, both to drink themselves, and water the flocks of their families at the same."

But were those ancient scholars competent to make their translation correct, as well as plain?

This is a question of the utmost importance in estimating the value of their work, and the degree of confidence to which it is entitled among readers who cannot examine for themselves the original tongues of the inspired writers. It is, therefore, the principal object of this little volume to present brief biographical sketches of our Translators. By showing who were the men, and what were their qualifications for their work, we shall best enable the common reader to decide for himself, how far he may depend upon their ability and fidelity. Considering the boundless circulation and unapproachable popularity of their work, it seems most strange that no person, up to this time,—not even in the mother-country,—has attempted to do this, except in the most slight and compendious manner.

As to the capability of those men, we may say again, that, by the good providence of God, their work was undertaken in a fortunate time. Not only had the English language, that singular compound, then ripened to its full perfection, but the study of Greek, and of the oriental tongues, and of rabbinical lore, had then been carried to a greater extent in England than ever before or since. This particular field of learning has never been so highly cultivated among English divines as it was at that day. To evince this fact, so far as necessary limits will admit, it will be requisite to sketch the characters and scholarship of those men, who have made all coming ages their debtors. When this pleasing task is done, it is confidently expected that the reader of these pages will yield to the conviction, that all the colleges of Great Britain and America, even in this proud day of boastings, could not bring together the same number of divines equally qualified by learning and piety for the great undertaking. Few indeed are the living names worthy to be enrolled with those mighty men. It would be impossible to convene out of any one Christian denomination, or out of all, a body of translators, on whom the whole Christian community would bestow such confidence as is reposed upon that illustrious company, or who would prove themselves as deserving of such confidence. Very many self-styled "improved versions" of the Bible, or of parts of it, have been paraded before the world, but the religious public has doomed them all, without exception, to utter neglect.

Not that absolute perfection is claimed for our common English Bible. But this blessed book is so far complete and exact, that the unlearned reader, being of ordinary intelligence, may enjoy the delightful assurance, that, if he study it in faith and prayer, and give himself up to its teachings, he shall not be confounded or misled as to any matter essential to his salvation and his spiritual good. It will as safely guide him into all the things needful for faith and practice, as would the original Scriptures, if he could read them, or if they could speak to him as erst they spake to the Hebrew in Jerusalem, or to the Greek in Corinth. Nor is this any disparagement of the benefits of a critical knowledge of the original tongues. For while a good translation is the best commentary on the original Scriptures, the originals themselves are the best commentary on the translation. Passages somewhat obscure in the translation often become very plain when we recur to the original, because we then distinctly see what it was that the translators meant to say.* To one who can readily

* Take an instance from Isai. v. 18. "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope." From the last member of this parallelism has arisen the absurd proverb for a high-handed transgressor,—"He sinned with a cart-rope!" On recurring to the Hebrew, we find that "sin" is not a verb but a noun, standing in apposition with "draw," as iniquity does in the preceding clause. So that the full expression of the last clause would be,—"and that draw sin as it were with a cart-rope,"—thus drudging in the harness of sin.

understand both, the original must, in the nature of the case, always be the easier of the two; just as it is easier for a man to walk by the sight of his own eyes, than by the guidance of another man's eyes. It is only maintained, that the common English reader enjoys, by the good providence of God, that which comes the nearest to the privilege of the classical scholar; and has a translation so exact, plain, and trustworthy, that he may follow it with implicit confidence as "a light to his feet and a lamp to his paths."

The King was for appointing fifty-four learned men to this great and good work; but the number actually employed upon it, in the first instance, was forty-seven. Order was also taken, that the bishops, in their several dioceses, should find what men of learning there were, who might be able to assist; and the bishops were to write to them, earnestly charging them, at the king's desire, to send in their suggestions and critical observations, that so, as his Majesty remarks, "our said intended translation may have the help and furtherance of all our principal learned men within this our kingdom."

Seventeen of the translators were to work at Westminster, fifteen at Cambridge, and as many at Oxford. Those who met at each place were divided into two companies; so that there were, in all, six distinct companies of translators.