DISSERTATION XII. AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT IS ATTEMPTED IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE GOSPELS, AND IN THE NOTES HERE OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC. THE things which will be treated in this Dissertation may, for the sake of order, be classed under the five following heads :The first comprehends all that concerns the essential qualities of the version; the second, what relates to the readings (where there is a diversity of reading in the original) which are here preferred; the third contains a few remarks on the particular dialect of our language employed in this version; the fourth, what regards the outward form in which it is exhibited; and the fifth, some account of the notes with which it is accompanied. PART I. THE ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF THE VERSION. THE three principal objects to be attended to, by every translator, were explained in a former Dissertation.* It is perhaps unnecessary to say, that to them I have endeavoured to give a constant attention. It is not however to be dissembled, that even those principal objects themselves sometimes interfere. And though an order, in respect of importance, when they are compared together, has been also laid down, which will in many cases determine the preference, it will not always determine it. I may find a word, for example, which hits the sense of the author precisely, but which, not being in familiar use, is obscure. Though, therefore, in itself a just expression of the sentiment, it may not clearly convey the sentiment to many readers, because they are unacquainted with it. It is, therefore, but ill fitted to represent the plain and familiar manner of the sacred writers, or, indeed, to answer the great end of translation, to convey distinctly to the reader the meaning of the original. Yet there may be a hazard, on the other hand, that a term more perspicuous, but less apposite, may convey somewhat of a different meaning-an error more to be avoided than the other. Recourse to circumlocution is sometimes necessary; for the terms of no two languages can be always made to correspond; but frequent recourse to this mode of rendering effaces the native simplicity found in the original, and in some measure disfigures the work. Diss. X. Part i Though, therefore, in general, an obscure is preferable to an unfaithful translation, there is a degree of precision in the correspondence of the terms, which an interpreter ought to dispense with, rather than involve his version in such darkness as will render it useless to the generality of readers. This shows sufficiently, that no rule will universally answer the translator's purpose, but that he must often carefully balance the degrees of perspicuity on one hand against those of precision on the other, and determine, from the circumstances of the case, concerning their comparative importance. I acknowledge, that in several instances the counterpoise may be so equal, that the most judicious interpreters may be divided in opinion; nay, the same interpreter may hesitate long in forming a decision, or even account it a matter of indifference to which side he inclines. 2. I shall only say in general, that, however much a word may be adapted to express the sense, it is a strong objection against the use of it, that it is too fine a word, too learned, or too modern. For though, in the import of the term, there should be a suitableness to the principal idea intended to be conveyed, there is an unsuitableness in the associated or secondary ideas which never fail to accompany such terms. These tend to fix on the evangelists the imputation of affecting elegance, depth in literature or science, or, at least, a modish and flowery phraseology; than which nothing can be more repugnant to the genuine character of their style-a style eminently natural, simple, and familiar. The sentiment of Jaques le Fevre d'Estaples, which shows at once his good taste and knowledge of the subject, is here entirely apposite: "What many think elegance is, in God's account, inelegance and painted words." 3. On the other hand, a bad effect is also produced by words which are too low and vulgar. The danger here is not indeed so great, provided there be nothing ludicrous in the expression, which is sometimes the case with terms of this denomination. When things themselves are of a kind which gives few occasions of introducing the mention of them into the conversation of the higher ranks, and still fewer of naming them in books, their names are considered as partaking in the meanness of the use, and of the things signified. But this sort of vulgarity seems not to have been regarded by the inspired authors: When there was a just occasion to speak of the thing, they appear never to have been ashamed to employ the name by which it was commonly distinguished. They did not recur, as modern delicacy prompts us to do, to periphrasis, unusual or figurative expressions, but always adopted such terms as most readily suggested themselves. There is nothing more indelicate than an unseasonable display of deli *An old French commentator, who published a version of the Gospels into French in 1523 His words are, "Ce que plusieurs estiment élégance, est inélégance et parole fardée devant Dieu." cacy; for which reason, the naked simplicity wherewith the sacred penmen express themselves on particular subjects, has much more modesty in it than the artificial, but transparent disguises, which on like occasions would be employed by modern writers.* A certain correctness of taste, as well as acuteness of discernment, taught a late ingenious author (Rousseau) to remark this wonderful union of plainness and chastity in the language of the Bible, which a composer of these days, in any European tongue, would in vain attempt to imitate. Yet it is manifest, that it is not to justness of taste, but to purity of mind in the sacred authors, that this happy singularity in their writings ought to be ascribed. This, however, is an evidence, that they did not consider it as mean or unbecoming to call low or common things by their common names. But there are other sorts of vulgarisms in language with which they are never chargeable-the use of such terms as we call cant words, which belong peculiarly to particular professions or classes of men; and contemptuous or ludicrous expressions, such as are always accompanied with ideas of low mirth and ridicule. For 4. Of both the extremes in language above-mentioned I shall give examples from an anonymous English translator in 1729, whose version, upon the whole, is the most exceptionable of all I am acquainted with in any language; and yet it is but doing justice to the author to add, that in rendering some passages, he has been more fortunate than much better translators. brevity's sake I shall here only mention the words I think censurable, referring to the margin for the places. Of learned words the following is a specimen : verbose, † loquaciousness, † advent,‡ chasm, grumes,|| steril,¶ phenomena, ** consolated, †† investigate, innate, §§ saliva; concerning which, and some others of the same kind, his critical examiner, Mr. Twell, says justly, that they are unintelligible to the ignorant, and offensive to the knowing. His fine words and fashionable phrases, which on ++ I can scarcely give a better illustration of this remark than in the correction proposed by Dr. Delany, of the phrase "him that pisseth against the wall," which occurs sometimes in the Old Testament, and which, he thinks, should be changed into him that watereth against the wall. I am surprised that a correction like this should have the approbation of so excellent a writer as the Bishop of Waterford. (See the preface to his Version of the Minor Prophets.) To me the latter expression is much more exceptionable than the former. The former may be compared to the simplicity of a savage who goes naked without appearing to know it, or ever thinking of clothes; the other is like the awkward and unsuccessful attempt of an European to hide the nakedness of which, by the very attempt, he shows himself to be both conscious and ashamed. The same offensive idea is suggested by the word which Delany proposes, as is conveyed by the common term; but it is suggested in so affected a manner, as necessarily fixes a reader's attention upon it, and shows it to have been particularly thought of by the writer. Can any critic seriously think that more is necessary in this case than to say, Every male? + Matt. vi. 7. Luke i. 17. § Eph. iv. 18. VOL. I. Matt. xxiv. 27. ** Luke xii. 56. § Luke xvi. 26. tt Acts xv. 32. EE || Luke xxii. 44, # Acts xvii. 22. Ill John ix. 6. * account of their affinity I shall throw together, the following may serve to exemplify: detachment, foot-guards, † brigue, ‡ chicanery.§ Zacharias, we are told, || "vented his divine enthusiasm;" that is, when translated into common speech, prophesied. A later translator, or rather paraphrast, is not much happier in his expression, "he was seized with a divine afflatus," here spoken of as a disease. Zaccheus, for chief of the publicans, is made "collector-general of the customs." Simon Magus, in his hands, becomes "the plenipotentiary of God."** Jesus Christ is titled "guarantee of the alliance,"†† and the Lord of hosts, "the Lord of the celestial militia." + And, to avoid the flatness of plain prose, he sometimes gives a poetical turn to the expression: "Before the cock crow," becomes in his hands, "Before the cock proclaims the day."§§ ++ The foppery of these last expressions is, if possible, more unsufferable than the pedantry of the first. They are, besides, so far from conveying the sense of the author, that they all, less or more, misrepresent it. As to low and ludicrous terms, there is sometimes a greater coincidence in these with quaint and modish words, than one at first would imagine. It would not be easy to assign a motive for rendering ouкodεσTOTηs, yeoman, but it is still worse to translate όσοι την θαλασσαν εργαζονται, supercargoes, ¶¶ápraživ, raparees, *** which he explains in the margin to mean kidnappers, and μevovτwv, sots.††† I am surprised he has not found a place for sharpers, gamblers, and swindlers, fit company in every sense for his sots and raparees. Γλωσσοκομον is distended into a bank, ‡‡‡ and KλETTns dwindles into a pilferer; Tnv Xараν тоν кνρtov σov is degraded into thy master's diversions, §§§ and avoç is swollen into a concert of praise.||||||| The laudable and successful importunity of the two blind men, who, notwithstanding the checks they received from the multitude, persisted in their application to Jesus for relief, is contemptuously denoted bawling out. ¶¶¶ When we are told that our Lord silenced, puuwoe, the Sadducees, this author acquaints us that he dumbfounded them.**** In short, what by magnifying, what by diminishing, what by distorting and disfiguring, he has in many places burlesqued the original. For answering this bad purpose, the extremes of cant and bombast are equally well adapted. The excess in the instances now given is so manifest, as entirely to supersede both argument and illustration. 5. But, in regard to the use of what may be called learned words, it must be owned, after all, that it is not easy in every case to fix the boundaries. We sometimes find classed under * Matt. ii. 16. || Luke i. 67. ‡‡ James v. 4. *** 1 Cor. v. 10. Matt. xxi. 16. + Matt. xxvii. 27. § Luke xxii. 34. 1 Thess. v. 13. § 1 Tim. vi. 4. + Heb. vii. 22. ¶¶¶ Rev. xviii. 17. SSS Matt. xxv. 21. **** Matt. xxii. 34. that denomination, all the words of Greek and Latin etymology which are not current among the inferior orders of the people. Yet I acknowledge, that, if we were rigidly to exclude all such terms, we should be too often obliged, either to adopt circumlocution, or to express the sentiment weakly and improperly. There are other disadvantages, to be remarked afterwards, which might result from the exclusion of every term that may be comprehended in the definition above given. The common translation, if we except the consecrated terms, as some call them, which are not many, is universally admitted to be written in a style that is not only natural, but easily understood by the people; yet, in the common translation, there are many words which can hardly be supposed ever to have been quite familiar among the lower ranks. There is, however, one advantage possessed by that version over every other book composed at that period, which is, that from the universality of its use, and (we may now add) its long continuance, it must have greatly contributed to give a currency to those words which are frequently employed in it. Now, it would be absurd in an interpreter of this age to expect a similar effect from any private version. A new translation, even though it were authorized by the public, would not have the same advantage at present, when our language is in a more advanced stage. 6. I should not be surprised that a reader, not accustomed narrowly to attend to these matters, were disposed at first hearing to question the fact, that there are many words in the vulgar translation which were not in common use at the time among the lower orders. But I am persuaded that a little reflection must soon convince him of it. Abstracting from those terms which have been transferred from the original languages, because there were no corresponding names in our tongue, such as phylactery, tetrarch, synagogue, proselyte, centurion, quaternion, legion, there are many in the English Bible which cannot be considered as having been at that time level to the meanest capacities. They are scarcely so yet, notwithstanding all the advantage which their occurring in that translation has given them. Of such words I shall give a pretty large specimen in the margin.* First, of nouns: Scribe, disciple, parable, epistle, infidel, matrix, lunatic, exile, exorcist, suppliant, residue, genealogy, appetite, audience, pollution, perdition, partition, potentate, progenitor, liberality, occurrent, immutability, pre-eminence, remission, diversity, fragment, abjects, frontier, tradition, importunity, concupiscence, redemption, intercession, superscription, inquisition, insurrection, communion, instructor, mediator, exactor, intercessor, benefactor, malefactor, prognosticator, ambassador, ambassage, ambushment, meditation, ministration, administration, abomination, consummation, convocation, constellation, consolation, consultation, acceptation, communication, disputation, cogitation, estimation, operation, divination, vocation, desolation, tribulation, regeneration, propitiation, justification, sanctification, salutation, interpretation, supplication, exaction, unction. Second, of adjectives: Barbed, circumspect, conversant, extinct, vigilant, inordinate, delectable, tributary, impotent, magnifical, immutable, innumerable, celestial, incorruptible, terrestrial, omnipotent, |