OLD ENGLISH BIBLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

OLD ENGLISH BIBLES.

BY CANON F. G. HARVIE.

VARIOUS VERSIONS.

The craze for "collecting" things is almost an instinct. Whether it be antique silver, or postage stamps, or tram tickets, the desire to acquire a collection, as representative as possible, of some particular object is very widespread and is a very common form of indoor hobby nowadays. A very harmless form of lunacy which once possessed the writer was to form as representative a collection as possible of the early-printed editions of the English Bible, and it is an extremely fascinating pursuit, though in a Dominion as young as New Zealand it is impossible to add very much to a collection of books which can only be formed in the country of their origin, many thousand miles away. In the 16th century, undei the influence of the Renaissance movement, and aided by the enthusiasm of Protestant reformers (who were able to make use of the newly-invented printing press), a large number of different English translations of the Scriptures were made; they were the predecessors of the Authorised Version, which was not published until the middle of James I's reign, in 1611. This latter was a careful revision, undertaken by a large body of scholars, of the various translations already in existence, and providentially was undertaken just at the moment when our mother tongue was at its best. It is the earlier attempts to produce a good English Version of the sacred literature that prove such an endless mine of interest; perfect copies of these old books are almost impossible to obtain, and of the first two editions of Tyndale's New Testament, both produced in 1525, only two copies and one small fragment are known to have survived the ravages of time and the fanaticism which greeted their original publication. Some Notable Editions. The best known, however, of Tyndale's New Testaments were not printed till after his death; one of them, a quarto of 1553, has a delightful woodcut representing the Devil with a wooden leg* sowing tares. Coverdale's Bible, published in 1555, was the first complete printed English Bible, and is of extreme rarity. The writer saw a very imperfect copy in London some 25 years ago being offered for sale at £6OO. Two years later appeared Matthew's Bible, which was published in five folio and two or three smaller editions between 1537 and 1551. This translation is some- j times known as the "bug and treacle , Bible; the sth verse of Psalm 90 reads thus; "So that thou shalt not nede to be afraied for eny bugges by night," while Jeremiah laments that "there is no more trealsle in Gihad." The rendering "Now Joseph was a lucky fellowe" (in the house of Potiphar) is certainly delightful, while to be told that Abirnelech met his death through a woman throwing a "tyle" at him which "al to (i.e., almost) brake his brayne panne" is good enough for Punch. The Great Bible of 1539 was a noble piece of printing! the title page is a large woodcut representing Henry Vni. distributing Bibles broadcast, while Archbishop Cranmer and Thomas Cfomwell the Vicargeneral are similarly occupied. The 4th edition (November, 1540) shows on this title page an ominous blank space where Cromwell's coat-of-arms ought to be; the unfortunate man had had his head cut off, and the printer left a blank space rather than incur the expense and delay of making a new woodcut! The Genevan Bible. The accession of Queen Mary in 1553 drove many notable Protestant reformers out of England and they contrived to produce a fresh translation, or revision, of the English Bible at Geneva. It was published (from 1560 onward) in enormous quantities and ran through scores of editions of all shapes and sizes Whereas h'therto the massive folios of the earlie. translations had been used almost exclusively in the churches, the attractive little quartos of the Genevan Bible became the treasure of every Christian home in Eng land. The British Museum catalogue enumerates 68 editions of this Bible and this number may probably be nearly doubled. A good many of th" smaller editions were bound up with the Prayer Book, and, in addition Sternhold and Hopkins' metrical version of the Psalms — the prototyp» of the better-known late and Brady. Queen Elizabeth disapproved of the Genevan Bible and ordered a fresh translation to be made under the supervision of Archbishop barker About 20 different ! editions appeared between 1063 and 1608. It was a disappointing piece of work, being a patchwork of varying merit. Following the translations already in existence, it calls Nebuchadnezzar's burning fiery furnace "a bote burning oven," and the "passover" is rendered the "feast of swete brende". while it is not the leopard, but "ye catte of ye mountayne" who cannot "change b°r spottes." Famous Misprints. There are several famous misprints in some of the early editions of the Authorised Version In 1632 1 the compositor omitted the word 'not" from the 7th commandment. A tiny edition of 1653 similarly omits the word "not" in another passage, which reads "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God ?" More noteworthy still, the word "ye" was printed instead of "we" in Acts vi., 3 —possibly intentionally, with the idea of obscuring the need of apostolic ordination. This remark able error is to be found in every edition printed between 1633 and 1682! The "Vinegar" Bible is so called from "vine gar" beint? printed instead of "vineyard" in the Oxford folio edition of 1717 An edition of 1701 was tbp first to print the now verv misleading dates of the events recorded in the Scriptures. A SPTfOOT MAGAZINE. CANNING AS A BOY. Once there was a schoolboy to whom a London publisher gave £SO for the copyright of a school magazine. This boy was George Canning, the great Bn tish statesman, the centenary of whose death fell a' few weeks ago. The school magazine in question was produced while be was at Eton. Canning was one of Pitt's "young men." He started public life as a Whig, and it is said that at the time of the French Revolution, the British Jacobins determ ined to make this "brilliant boy" their leader in the event of a similar upheaval in England. Their decision was commun icated to Canning, who decided he had better jump as far as he could in the onposite direction and do it at once. I This decision, a year or two later, brought i him into the Government, and he nltim j ately became Prime Minister in 1827, in which year also his death occurred. ,