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

Cr}itical Sttdy of the Einglish Bible. [APRIL
" worm Jacob" mentioned in the verse preceding, that is, to
Israel, or the ancient church. A similar inspection of the
Hebrew will detect anbther error also arising from the ambiguous version of this text. We have known preachers to
explain it, or allude to it, even in print, as if "I will make
thee a new sharp threshing instrument" meant "I will make
one for thee," whereas the original can only mean "I will
make thee to become one." These are innocent mistakes,
and in themselves not worth recital; but they serve to illustrate the particular sort of error into which we are apt to be
betrayed by the exclusive use of versions. There are, howvever, errors far more serious, arising not from the mere ambiguity of our translation, but from its unauthorized additions
to the text. To give a single example: in Acts 13: 33, the
gratuitous insertion of the word " again" puts a false meaning not only on the sentence, but on the prophecy which is
quoted in it, by making both refer to the resurrection, to
which there is in fact no reference whatever in the thirty
third verse. Against such unintentional perversions of the
Scripture how can the mere English reader be upon his
guard?
Another evil, produced by the same cause, is a tendency
to lose sight of the nexus between passages, and consequently
of their general scope. This is especially the case in the obscurer parts of Scripture, as, for instance, in the prophecies,
and the more difficult of Paul's epistles. Why the exclusive
use of versions should have this effect is easily explained.
However paradoxical it may appear to others, those familiar
with philology are well aware, that some parts of speech
which, in the grammar, appear most insignificant, are, in the
actual combinations of the language, very often most important. Connective particles and phrases, for example, though
they cannot of themselves convey a definite idea, nor determine the meaning of an independent sentence, may powerfully influence the whole scope of a passage by determining
the sequence and relation of its parts. How much may depend upon the presence or the absence of an interrogation;
how much on the conversion of an and into a but, or of an
if into a for; how much on the precise mode of supplying an
ellipsis, which certainly exists, but may be variously filled.
Even where the original exhibits no obscurity in these points,
the translator, by an error of judgment or a simple inadvertence, with respect to something which he thinks of no importance, may distort the meaning of a proposition or the
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