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(6), and the remaining three are changes of expression (5, 10, 16). In this passage Tomson agrees with the Bible.

Chap. iii.
Internal
History.

(TYNDALE, 1534) 8 And unto the angel of the Rev. i. congregation of Smyrna write: These things saith he that is first and the last, which was dead and is alive.

9 I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich; and I know the blasphemy of them which call themselves Jews and are not, but are the congregation of Satan.

10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil shall cast of you into prison to tempt you, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto the death and I will give thee a crown of life.

II Let him that hath ears hear what the spirit saith to the congregations: He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

8 congregation of Smyrna: church of the Smyrnians Gt G. T. (Smyrnæorum B.) (1)

the: om. Gt G. T. (2)

9 call themselves Gt: say they are G. T. (se dicunt... esse B.) (3)

congregation: synagogue Gt G. T. (synagoga B.) (4) 10 the devil: it shall come to pass that the d. Gt G. T. (futurum est ut...B.) (5) of: some of (so Great Bible) to...you that ye may be tried remini B.) (7)

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Gt G. T. (6)

Gt G. T. (ut explo

Chap. iii.
Internal
History.

Examples
of right ren-
derings
taken from
Beza.

II ears: an ear Gt G. T. (aurem B.) (10)

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congregations: churches Gt G. T. (ecclesiis B.) (11)

In this passage again Tomson's text agrees with that of the Bible'. The Testament differs from it twice (3, 8), and in both cases the Bible agrees with Beza. The remaining nine changes are all, as far as the Latin can express them, in accordance with Beza, and one is evidently due to him (5).

It is of more importance to place in a clear light the real origin of the changes in the English Genevan New Testament because very many of them have passed from that into our own Bible, and it has been forgotten to whom the renderings are due. Thus Archbp. Trench quotes five passages to shew the very good and careful 'scholarship brought to bear upon this [the Genevan] 'revision,' in which it is the first to seize the exact

2.

meaning...which all the preceding versions had missed.' They are all derived from Beza. In one case the English translator has adopted his alternative rendering: in the four others he simply takes Beza's translation:

Luke xi. 17 one house shall (doth Great Bible) fall upon another (Tyndale G.B.)

domus adversus sese dissidens cadit (Beza).

a house divided against itself (an house G. T.) falleth (Gt).

Acts xxiii. 27 came I...and rescued him and perceived that he was a Roman (Tynd. G.B.)

superveniens...erui quum cognovissem Romanum esse (Beza).

1 An important example of his 2 On the Authorised Version, p. disagreement is given below, p. 238, 113, n.

n. I.

I came and rescued him, perceiving that he was

a Roman (Gt).

Acts xxvii. 9 because also that we (they G.B.) had over

long fasted (Tynd. G.B.)

quod jam etiam jejunium [tempus designat Lucas

ex more Judaici populi] præteriisset (Beza).
because also the time of (om. the time of G. T.)
the fast was now past (Gt).

James i. 13 God tempteth not (cannot tempt G.B.) unto

evil (Tynd. G.B.)

Deus tentari malis non potest (Beza).

God cannot be tempted with evil (Gt)1.
Mark xiv. 72 [he] began to weep (Tynd. G.B.)

Possit aliquis interpretari: Quum hoc animad-
vertisset, id est, re animadversâ. (Beza not.)
weighing that with himself he wept (Gt).

The credit of recognizing the right turning remains, but the Genevan translator can have no claim to original sagacity on this evidence.

To place the relation of the Genevan translators to Beza in a still clearer light it will be worth while, though it is an ungracious task, to quote an equal number of cases where under the same influence the Genevan version first goes wrong.

Chap. iii. Internal History.

Matt. i. II Josias begat Fakim, and Fakim begat Jecho- Examples

nias.

of false readings taken from

Luke ii. 22 When the time of Mary's purification...was Beza.

. come.

Luke iii. 36 (Sala) which was the son of Arphaxad... Rev. xi. I There was given me a reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood by saying...

1 This rendering (as we have seen, p. 205) is found in the Great Bible after the first edition.

Chap. iii.
Internal
History.

Beza's influence on the whole beneficial.

The notes of the Genevan Bible.

Hebr. x. 38 But if any withdraw himself...
Mark xvi. 2 When the sun was yet rising.

Of these which include four arbitrary corrections of the text the second and fourth and fifth have been incorporated in our present version: the first was abandoned by Beza in his third edition: the sixth is suggested in a note1 and has modified the received rendering.

A comparison of the two groups of passages will shew at once the strength and the weakness of Beza and so of the revisions which were moulded after him. In the interpretation of the text he was singularly clearsighted in the criticism of the text he was more rash than his contemporaries in proportion as his self-reliance was greater. But though it is a far more grievous matter to corrupt the text than to misinterpret it, the cases in which Beza has corrected the renderings of former translators are incomparably more numerous than those in which he has introduced false readings; and on the whole his version is far superior to those which had been made before, and so consequently the Genevan revisions which follow it2.

The notes of the Genevan Version contributed so greatly to its influence that one or two of them may be added which will be sufficient to shew the general character and scope of the commentary.

1 One still more surprising change 'ment...'['Genesis...Malachi.
has been adopted in A.V. though it
is not in 1557, áπоlavóvтos for άro-
Oavóvтes in Rom. vii. 6 (He being
dead in whom we were holden, T).

"The Books called Apocrypha. I Esdr. 2 Esdr.-1 Macc. 2 Macc.

2 The books of the Bible are thus arranged:

'The Names and order of all the 'Books of the Old and New Testa

'The Books of the New Testa'ment. Matthew... The Epistle of Paul to the Romans...Titus, Phile 'mon. To the Ebrewes. James... Revelation.'

'Jude.

Though we provoke God justly to anger yet he will never reject his.

'God repeateth this point, because the whole keeping of the law standeth in the true use of the Sabbath, which is to cease from our works and to obey the will of God.

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'For finding nothing in man that can deserve mercy, Ex. xxxiii. he will freely save his.

19.

Hereby it appeareth that Naomi by dwelling among Ruth i. 9. idolaters was waxen cold in the true zeal of God, which rather hath respect to the ease of the body than to the comfort of the soul.

xv. 16.

'Herein he shewed that he lacked zeal for she ought 2 Chron. 'to have died both by the covenant (v. 13) and by the 'law of God; but he gave place to foolish pity and 'would also seem.after a sort to satisfy the Law.

12.

'Tabor is a mountain westward from Jerusalem, and Ps. lxxxix. 'Hermon eastward; so the prophet signifieth that all parts and places of the world shall obey God's power 'for the deliverance of his Church.

'He speaketh this for two causes: the one because Is. vi. 5. 'he that was a mortal creature, and therefore had more 'need to glorify God than the angels, did it not: and the other because the more near that man approacheth 'to God the more doth he know his own sin and cor'ruption.

xxxi. 34.

'If the sun moon and stars cannot but give light Jerem. ' according to mine ordinance, so long as this world 'lasteth, so shall my church never fail, neither shall any'thing hinder it: and as sure as I will have a people so ' certain is it that I will leave them my word for ever to govern them with.

'He divided the law of nature corrupt into ungod-Rom. i. 18. 'liness and unrighteousness. Ungodliness containeth

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