A GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. BY BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D. SECOND EDITION: revised. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1872. [All Rights reserved.] PREFACE. IN the following Essay I have endeavoured to cal attention to some points in the history of the English Bible which have been strangely neglected. The history of our Bible is indeed a type of the history of our Church, and both histories have suffered the same fate. The writers who have laboured most successfully upon them have in the main confined themselves to outward facts without tracing the facts back to their ultimate sources, or noticing the variety of elements which go to form the final result. As far as I know no systematic inquiry into the internal history of our Authorised Version has yet been made, and still no problem can offer greater scope for fruitful research. To solve such a problem completely would be a work of enormous labour, and I have been forced to content myself with indicating some salient points in the solution, in the hope that others may correct and supplement the conclusions which I have obtained. It is at least something to know generally to what extent Tyndale and Coverdale made use of earlier versions, and to be able to refer to their sources most of the characteristic readings of Matthew's New Testament and of the Great Bibles1. 1 Perhaps I may be allowed to mention one or two collations which would certainly furnish some valuable results. (1) A collation of the Grenville Fragment with the smaller Tyndale's Testament of 1525. *→ 6833 3 |