THE BIBLE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 301, 4 December 1931, Page 9

THE BIBLE

AMERICANISED NOW. ITS NEW FORMAT. The flrs Americn Bible, simplified and modernised in pharseology, will soon be published by the University of Chicago Press. While it will not be the first Bible to be revised in speech, it is to be the first adapted to typical American usage, understandable by any one from eight years old up,!’ says the "New York Times.” It will likewise be the first instance where Hebraic and Greek scholars have collaborated to produce a tram scription from original manuscripts The Semitic translations have been been, mad© by a group under J. M. Powis Smith, of the university, while those of the Greek were prepared by Edgar J. Goodspead. All of the metrical passages of the King James versions have been so handled as to lose none of their sonorous poetical value, and the translators of the modern version have had the advantage of 8000 original manuscripts discovered since the King James version was compiled from the only six original papyri extant in 1611.. One of the most striking illustrations of the radical change in form is seen in the modern phrasing of Solomon’s “Song of Songs.” Both versions are given hero THE MAIDEN TO THE YOUTH. American Version. Kiss me with kisses from your mouth For your love is better than wine; The fragrance of your ointments is sweet; Your very self is precious ointment. Therefore do the maidens love you. Take me along with you, let us hasten. Bring me, O King, into your chamber Thtat wo may exalt and rejoice in you, That we may praise your Jove more than wine; Rightly are you loved. King James Version. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointment thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee Draw me, we will run after thee; the king Lath brought me unto his chambers; we will be glad and rejoice in thee; we will remember thy love more than wine; the upright love thee. Another departure from accepted Biblical form will be the modernising of the style of printing. The ordinary book format will bo adhered to in place of the double column style generally followed since its first printing.