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    ourselves , remains therefore to be considered : does his translation conform to the rules that have just been proposed and illustrated ? We cheerfully acknowledge that his deviations from them are far less numerous and

    striking than those which some of his predecessors have exhibited . I « 1727 4 C An Essay for a new translation of the Bible * ' was puiblshed , which should rather have been styled , •« An Essay towards an exposition of

    the Scriptures ; " * the author having almost uniformly confounded the provinces of the translator and the commentator . Versions of the N . T ., which are extremely offensive to the eye of piety and taste , have proceeded

    from men who appear to have studied in this school . Philalethts * however , is a translator of a different spirit and a higher order—not undeserving , indeed , of being : compared with the very respectable writers by whose aid we have endeavoured sometimes

    to justify and sometimes to impugn his renderings . He must pardon us if we think that he would more nearly have resembled the ablest of them had he been less inclined to the use of paraphrase .

    It is commonly , perhaps , we mi ^ ht say , universally , admitted that italics occur too often in the R . V . In the following passages of the translation before us we deem them unnecessary

    and inexpedient : I Thess . ii . 7 , ig , iv . 2 , 14 , 16 , v . I ; 2 Thess . iii . 1 £ ; Col . i . 6 , 0 , 27 » i » - ' 3 , 21 , 22 , iii 21 , 24 , iv . 4 , 6 , 11 ; 1 Tim . i . 1 , 4 , 6 , 7 ,

    ii . < 2 , v . 1 , vi . 4 , 5 , 10 , 18 , 21 ; 2 Tim . ii . 1 , 4 , 24 , iii . 5 , iv . 8 . These iue the principal examples of a habit which ought , we presume , to be very cautiously indulged * Let it next be considered , whether

    the figurative expressions which present themselves , in the Christian Scriptures should be lost sight of in an tnglish version , and Ci the sense" be given " rather than the words" ? We do not mean to intimate that this is

    the frequent practice of Philalethes : still * however , we wish that the instances of it which we shall now point out had not taken place . Why , we * See a notice of this work which was not original ) in Geddes * Prospectusy &c . pp . 85 , 86 . -

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    would ask , in Col , iii . 6 , ctoe& Ije ren der the phrase , raq vies ' t ^ K flAr « & " " the disobedient , " instead of *< n children of disobedience , " as in tfc R . V . ? This translation may be met with , it is true , in Castalio and in the

    F . Genev . Vers . - but we objec t to it upon principle . As a comment it is unexceptionable : yet Philalethes does not profess to appear before the world in the character of an Anno tutor . Is the English reader furnished in this case with ' ' a just idea of the ori ^ L case With a just idea of the

    original" ? Are " the peculiar language and manner 1 ' of Paul " faithfully represented" } Can any man unacquainted with ** the original text * argue with justness from Philalethe ? translation ? Has such an individual an advantage , in any degree , " equal " to that of scholars ? ' The same questions , we conceive , may fairly be put with reference to our author ' s version of Col . iii . 12— " merciful dispositions" [ e-TcXctyxva , oiKTipuov ] : in R . V .,

    •* bowels of mercy . " Here ag-ain we must pronounce that Philalethes has judged rightly as a Commentator , but erroneously as a Translator . The expression is , no doubt , a Hebraism , Gen . xliii . SO , &x \ &c . And can it

    be undesirable that , the reader not skilled in the oriental dialects have an opportunity of familiarizing himself "with peculiarities of this class ? Will he not be thus enabled * to discern with greater clearness the phraseotpgy of Scripture , and to reason from it with more effect ? Another of

    Philalethes * renderings now calls for our animadversion , Col . iv , 6 , " Let ^ our discourse be always graceful , aud seasoned with wisdom : " in R . V ., ' with 1

    salt * [< xA < % t /] : in which passage our author has destroyed the integrity of the beautiful figure employed by the apostle- Grice more 3 we have seen that , in 1 Thess . iv . IS , Philalethes ^' substitutes the words , * ' the dead ,

    for those who are asleep" [ tceMi ^ r fjievoov ] : and we find him rendering a clause in 2 Tim . i- 16 , as follows : "he hath not been ashamed of my bonds , ' [ tyjv glXjctiv [ aqv qvk € Tvif ) ar % vv 6 yi \ * All the latter example , the use of the general

    term and of the plural number i * particularly to be lamented . Wakefield is correct and emphatic " this chain of mine / ' Lardner , too , ( W ^ f I . 23 % ) has made it highly probabl e that Paul allude * to the specific ***

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    760 Review . —A new Version of the Epistles of Paul .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1819, page 760, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1779/page/44/