A REPLY to the QUARTERLY REVIEW on the New Trans- PAGE Oxford Prize Essay :-On the Utility of Classical Learning in subserviency to Theological Studies. By A. D. HENDY 320 Of the IGNORANCE of the most celebrated MODERNS, relative to the PHILOSOPHY of ARISTOTLE -333 MISCELLA CRITICA in aliquot Loca Scriptorum Græcorum 344 Letter of M. GAIL to Mr. E. H. BARKER, on a passage in PORSONI Notæ ineditæ in APOLL. RHODIUM, ed. BRUNCK 370 On the GREEK SAPPHIC ODE, of Sir WM. BROWNE'S Institution Observations on Professor HERMANN'S REVIEW of the New Edition of STEPHENS'S GREEK THESAURUS Oxford Prize Poem:-Globus Aërostaticus Literary Intelligence 375 INDEX to Vols. XVII. and XVIII. 410 Notes to Correspondents THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. NO. XXXVI. DECEMBER, 1818. A REPLY To the Quarterly Review on the New Translation of the Bible from the Original Hebrew. By J. BELLAMY ALTHOUGH I was in hopes I should have been suffered to pursue my course unmolested during my labors, which, under the blessing of God, will, I humbly trust, tend to promote the glory of my native country, and the stability of her Establishment; yet I am obliged, very reluctantly, in the midst of these labors, to answer, and I hope to defeat, the virulent attacks of a concealed writer, who is reported to be a member of the established church, engaged in the publication of a new edition of the Holy Bible. If this be true, I cannot but lament that any one who officiates in the sacred department, should be so wanting in that charity, which is the perfection and ornament of the Christian religion.' Having devoted upwards of twenty-one years to the laborious work of a New Translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew ONLY, the design of which is to aid the cause of religion by removing the ground of those objections which have hitherto been advanced against the Scriptures, principally for political purposes; surely I have not deserved this abuse. I have been told by many of our liberal and learned clergy, that, if there were a thousand contradictions in the common version, and it should be shown that five hundred have no authority from the Hebrew; the great body of the clergy would feel themselves obliged to any person, who should thus reduce the number. And, since the publication of the first part, I have received the most flattering testimonials from many distinguished clergy, who, from what they have seen, are anxious to have the other parts of the work as speedily as possible; VOL. XVIII. Cl. Jl. 1 NO. XXXVI. and with a liberality that does them the greatest credit, and shows their love of truth, hesitate not to declare that, if the remaining parts should be executed equal to the first, no clergyman will be without it. Even some of our liberal and learned prelates have approved, and one who is himself a host, was so satisfied, that he said before one of his prebendaries, "Magna est veritas, et prævalebit." It is much to be lamented that the state of periodical Reviews in this country is such, that their editors and scribes, who are hired to write in them, assume the privilege of stabbing the literary and even the moral character of any man, while they themselves remain unknown. Shame burns not the cheek of the anonymous writer, if he be wrong; nobody knows him, and it generally turns out that he is nobody, when known. Such a return shall never come from my pen; for if he who spake as never man spake, who came to bless all nations with divine wisdom, was by the enemies of his Gospel, the Pharisaical critics of the time, charged with being beside himself-of having a devil, &c., because he told them that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, i. e. the false interpretations of the sacred original, and on this account was persecuted by the bigots of that day,-one humble as myself may expect to be abused by men of this description; one of whom wrote to a learned prelate a short time since, and on the subject of a New Translation said, "The very errors, my Lord, are con secrated!" t The writer of this article in the Quarterly Review comes forward under an imputation no less serious, and, if true, no less disgraceful, than that of having a personal interest to serve; the success of his own publication depending in some measure on the condemnation of my new translation. I shall therefore in the following pages, as he pleads for the continuance of the common version, with its errors, frequently address him as the ADVOCATE for the errors in the common version. It is rather singular that some person having no interest to defend, was not chosen to write against me. I have often been told that all the parties interested in publishing Bibles will be my enemies; I did not however think that the love of truth, particularly biblical truth, had been at so low an ebb; but truly I have found it so; this is the fourth Bible publisher by whom my new translation has been assailed. If however I do not prove, that the remarks made on my translation are false and groundless, and made in the most profound ignorance of those branches of the Hebrew language with which the reviewer pretends to be familiarly acquainted; then I will be the first to acknowledge that the new translation does not deserve the support of the public. |
