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REVIEW.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Art . I . —Dr . Carpenter ' s Examination of Bishop Magee . ( Concluded from p . 304 . ) t B ^ HE Improved Version of the New JL Testament published by the Unitarian Society naturally falls under Bishop Magee ' s angry censure . Dr . Carpenter defends this work with ability , though he candidly states some points on which he differs in judgment from the Editors . The readers of the
Monthly Repository have already seen in a letter of Mr . Belsham ' s , ( XV . 212—214 , ) that he pronounces somewhat too broadly that Mr . Belsham alone is responsible for the character of the Version .
It is a novelty in the history of biblical literature amongst Protestants , at least , that an attempt to improve the translation of the Scriptures should be treated as an offence against religion . All other sects have made the attempt without reproach : the Unitarians alone
are stigmatized for not resting contented with King James ' s translation . There is scarcely a pulpit in the kingdom from which improvements in the rendering of holy writ have not been suggested , and there is no denomination of Christians that does not welcome
die in when they are favourable to its own peculiarities . What is the loudlyvaunted argument of Granville Sharp and Bishop Middleton in favour of the Deity of Christ , but a new and supposed improved version of certain passages of the New Testament ? Worse than idle , then , is the cry against the
Unitarians on account of the Improved Version , as if they had fabricated a new Bible . * The only fair question is , whether this work answer to its title , and the Unitarians are as eager as any of their opponents to bring it to the test of criticism . Our early Volumes , especially the Jllrd , IVth and Vth , testify a sufficient
unwilling-* We observe a new translation of the Hebrew Scriptures by Boothroyd is comi nended by some of the reputed Evangelical publications , although it bears the formidable title of an Improved Version .
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ness to receive it without examination , and , in fact , Dr . Carpenter ' s Review of it in Volume IV . pointed out most of the errors and deviations from tfre title upon which Bishop Magee and others have fastened with so much rancour . This topic is so familiar to our readers , that we need not dwell upon it . The severest criticism has established the character of the Version as being substantially Archbishop Newcome ' s , and agreeable in every important particular to Griesbach ' s amended text . No attack upon it can succeed that shall not overthrow the authority of those
two eminent biblical scholars . They are not infallible , nor is the Improved Version perfect ; but by their aid the Editors have furnished the English reader with a better guide than before existed to the knowledge of the pure Christian Scriptures . And , notwithstanding the clamour that has been raised against them , they have reason to be satisfied with their success and
have encouragement to expect a still further portion of the Divine blessing upon their labours . Dr . Carpenter points out certain deviations by Newcome from the Public Version which he thinks needless " : One of these , which necessarily
strikes the attention , is the chance of strikes the attention , is the change of Messed ({ A , ctytapio <;) in Matt . v . and elsewhere , into happy . Blessed , when used in reference to human beings , seems always to convey the idea of happiness as resulting from the ordination of Providence : and in some instances the use of
happy appears improper , as , perhaps necessarily , implying a present state of mind , which blessed does not . A person may be blessed when he is in deep
distress ; but he is not happy : and afflictions may be blessings , but they are not happiness . That blessed 9 in a different sense , is used as the translation of EvkoyrjToc , is no sufficient reason for employing a word which does not convey the force
required . "—P . 293 , Note . " There is one word of frequent occurrence in the Epistles , which is , 1 think , unhappily rendered by Newcome , whom the Improved Version in ihia case follows
Review.
REVIEW .
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** Still pleased to praise , yet not afraid to blame . "—Pope
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1821, page 359, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2501/page/35/
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