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But , notwithstanding these remarks , our common Version has its defects . It contains vulgarisms , mis-translations , and a few interpolations . As to the first , which are to be met with chiefly in the Old Testament , it may
be observed , that that may be a vulgarism in English , which is not so in Greek or Hebrew , owing to the difference in languages , customs and manners . Perhaps , in some parts of the Levitical law , which was
necessarily precise and determinate , it was not possible to avoid such renderings , consistently with the faithfulness of a translation ; but , in other parts where there is nothing but an idiom or a popular manner of speech , the simple term might have been changed , without any injury to the sense . Dr . Watts mentions some of these , in his
Treatise on Logic , To name only one instance , " The Lord taketh not plea « sure in the legs of a man : " this is both uru-outh and unintelligible : it is an Hebraism , and might have been
rendered thus—** He delighteth not in the strength of the horse , he taketh not pleasure in the power of a man : " that is , mere human advantages or accomplishments do not recommend us to God . Of the mistranslations ,
two only shall be mentioned . We often meet in the Epistles of St . Paul , with this phrase , " God forbid \ " And , perhaps , the mere English reader may startle to be told , that there is no such expression in the Bible : for a
pious Jew , or a primitive Christian , would have been shocked to employ such language . In the Greek , it is what is ' called a negation ; and is properly changed by the moderns into the phrase , ** by no means , " or , " that cannot be . " In this case , therefore
our old translators have , unawares , encouraged profaneness , under the seeming authority of Scripture . The other instance is in Philipp . ii ., where the apostle speaking of our Saviour , says of him , ' * Who being in the form of God , thought it not robbery to be equal with God : " the iirst clause is a fissure , the last , a
mistranslation , which every plain man who reads his Bible with understanding may be certain of , without the help of the learned ^ , fur how can any being , how glorious and excellent soever , be * ' equal with God" ? " To whom will ye liken me , or shall I be equal ,
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paith the Holy One ? " But the words in the Greek are , " Isa Thean , " ^ like unto God - " a mode of speech common with the heathen writers , in \ h ®
celebration of . their heroes ; and peculiarly applicable to our Divide Mas - ter , on account of the high offices and character which he sustained in
the great work of human redemption ; and the sense of the whole passage appears to be this—that we shoiUd endeavour to acquire and exercise the most profound humility from the
example of our Lord , " who being In the form of God , " that is , invested with God-like capacities and powers , in accomplishing , under God , the salvation of mankind ; \ v $ s not anxious
pr solicitous , to display his peculiar character and extraordinary gifts , at all seasons , and upon all occasions ^ as a weak or ambitious mind would have been disposed to do ; but on the contrary , u made Mnaself of np reptt-r tation , ?> abased himself to the lowest
condition of humanity , even 1 q ** the form of a servant , " to a state , of sufv fering , and " to the death of the cross , " to fulfil the purposes of the Divine benevolence : ** ^ yherefore ^ God hath highly exalted him : " and we may form some idea of this exalted
character of Christ , and of the beauty and propriety of the Apostle ' s illustration of it in this place , if we consider how difficult it is , in common life , for persons of extraordinary qualifications and endowments , to restrain the exercise of them within due limits-,
and to apply them only to their proper uses . Health and strength , beauty , wit , learning , eloquence , riches ,, power , these gifts of God in the world of nature ; instead of promoting the happiness of their possessors , and the benefit of the world around them , are too often perverted to the injury of
both : nay , even virtue itself , by passing into extremes , may degenerate into vice . ( Eccles , vii . 16 . ) But here , our Lord came off completely victorious : though . " tempted in all points as we are , he was yet without sin , " Though , invested with prodigious power , he never misapplied it : though constituted " Lord of all " he became " the
servant of all ; " and has now " ^ name given him , above every name , to the glory of God the Father . " Of the interpolations in our common IJiblc , which are but f&w , and
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214 On an Improved Version of the Scriptures *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/22/
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