THE NEW TESTAMENT. NEWLY TRANSLATED [FROM THE GREEK TEXT OF TREGELLES] AND CRITICALLY EMPHASISED. WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND OCCASIONAL NOTES. BY JOSEPH B. ROTHERHAM. TWELFTH EDITION, REVISED. FOURTEENTH THOUSAND. $33 Multæ terricolis linguæ, cœlestibus una. NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY & SONS. LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED. 1896. THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY H65.729 March 7, 1942 ROBERT DRUMMOND, ELECTROTYPER AND PRINTER, NEW YORK. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. THE special features of this New Testament may best be understood from a short statement of the design with which it was originally executed and is now again sent forth. The translator had been favoured to become acquainted with a class of Bible readers who were anxious above all things to get as near as possible to the simple, Apostolic (as distinguished from the mediæval or modern) point of view from which to study the Christian Scriptures; and who were able, he believed, to use with thoughtfulness and care some more suitable means to this end than any public version, however excellent, could in the nature of things be. His purpose was to aid such readers as these. It naturally grew out of this design, to translate from a purer Greek Text than the so-called Received; and further to adopt a style of Translation closer and less traditional than would otherwise have been proper. The fact that the now lamented Dr. S. P. Tregelles had devoted a life-time of faithful toil to the establishment of a Greek Text upon ancient authorities alone, led to the selection of his Text, in preference to that of Scholz, Tischendorf, or any other scholar, as being wholly congenial with the special object the translator had in view; and, having made this choice, it was the plainest dictate of respect for the judgment of this distinguished scholar to follow his guidance implicitly in all matters affecting the exact wording of the Sacred Original. It is important, however, to bear well in mind the clear distinction between Greek readings and English renderings. It is one thing to determine what Greek ought to be preferred, and manifestly quite another to settle and apply the principles on which, when chosen, it shall for any given purpose be represented in English. This distinction precisely indicates where relative responsibility begins and ends. In the present case, the translator was glad to feel no responsibility whatever as to the Greek Text, beyond that of deciding what Editor to follow; but, on the other hand, the entire responsibility of conceiving and executing this version rests on the translator alone. It would be unjust to allow it to be supposed that either Dr. Tregelles or his friends were in any way concerned in the production of this work, especially seeing that, while extremely literal, it departs considerably from the beaten track. It is true that some of the most striking results discoverable in the following pages are directly owing to variations in the original; but, more often than not, it is the reverse, and the difference is due to the individual judgment of the translator in dealing with the text before him and resorting for the sake of exactness to unwonted forms of rendering. This last statement reminds the translator of the weight of his own |