The Scripture Guide, a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Bible [pp. 201-221]

1839.3 Critical Study of the English Bible.
knows nothing of the original, must be a false impression,
false in the general, and false, to a certain point, in its details.
And this false impression, as it may be corrected by continual comparison with the original, may likewise, in default
of such comparison, grow more and more remote from that
original. That which is merely incidental in the latter may
be rendered emphatic by unskilful version, while that which
is really emphatic becomes secondary and obscure. And
this false relation of the parts, by constant repetition, may
grow more and more distorted and grotesque. A similar
effect may be produced, but in another way. An unequivocal
expression may be rendered by one more or less ambiguous.
To many readers the inappropriate sense mnay first suggest
itself, and thus become associated with the context. In this
case, every repetition of the version, apart from the original,
renders the association stronger and more natural, until at
last it seems to be not only true but necessary. And yet the
meaning thus connected with the text may be entirely foreign from its real import. With all these faults is the Latin
Vulgate chargeable, and in all these ways it acted upon
the religion and theology of the middle ages. How many
Popish errors and corruptions may be more or less directly
traced to the exclusive use of this translation of the Bible, is
a curious question, into which we cannot, on this occasion,
enter. What has already been suggested will suffice to show
at least the possibility of such effects from such a cause. And
with these considerations in our eye. we cannot wonder that
at the first dawn of the Reformation, and before the great
Reformers had appeared as authors, the Greek and Hebrew
Scriptures were neglected, and the Vulgate version was
the exclusive standard of the universal church. There
are facts which would even seem to lead to the conclusion that the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures were forgotten,
and their very existence unknown to the men by whom
they should have been expounded. But how far this disgraceful depth of ignorance was common, cannot well be
ascertained, especially as nearly all our knowledge of the
fact is derived from the satirical and controversial writings
which grew out of the revival of letters. Let us charitably
hope that there were not many priests or monks, who
could have thought that the Hebrew Bible was forged by
Reuchlin and the Greek Testament by Luther.
At the Reformation a new era commences. That glorious
revolution had its origin ill the study of the Bible, and no
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