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books . The style , too ? exhibits occasional marks of negligence ; and the lecturer , in sketching a history of interpretation , finds it somewhat difficult to repress his feelings as a Protestant controversialist . His Appendix is by far the more curious and excellent part of his
pamphlet . In these concluding pages he aims at vindicating the opinion which he formerly expressed concerning the Received Version of the Bible ; and his success is complete . He does not inform us in reply to what work of periodical criticism his observations are made : we believe that it is the Quarterly Review .
The M . Professor shews , with great historical exactness , and by an ample induction , that in the Public Version a considerable regard was paid to preceding English translations , one of which , in particular , [ Tyndal ' s , ] was taken in some degree from Luther ' s . Of King James ' s Translation he thinks that it was as faithful a representation of the original Scriptures as could have been formed at that period ; and that it is most unjust to accuse him of representing this version as a compilation of second-hand translations : its revision he strenuously recommends .
We cannot , by any abridgment of his remarks , place before our readers with sufficient clearness his proof of the fact that Tyndal adopted Germanisms , some of which are still retained in our authorized version . An extract will be preferable : * " It cannot appear extraordinary , if an English translator , who followed Luther so closely as Tyndal did , should occasionally adopt a German idiom . Now there is nothing which more distinguishes the structure of the German from that of the English language than the position of the nominative case
and verb in affirmative sentences . To make this intelligible to an English reader , and at the same time to contrast the English with the German idiom , let us take some familiar English example : for instance , I rode yesterday from Cambridge to Huntingdon / which might be expressed in German by * Ich ritt gestern von Cambridge nach Huntingdon / But if Gestern be placed at the beginning of the sentence , the German idiom requires that the
nominative be put after the verb , though the sentence is not interrogatory , but affirmative . A German , therefore , would say , Gestern ritt ich von Cambridge nach Huntingdon , though an Englishman , if he began the sentence with yesterday , would still say , Yesterday I rode / &c . And if he said , ' Yesterday rode I from Cambridge to Huntingdon , * he would use a Germanism .
" Now there are many such Germanisms in our English Bible , though their deviation from the common English style is generally overlooked , because we are accustomed to them from our childhood . ^ " Examples which originated in Tyndal's Translation ^ and were transferred to the King ' s are , 1 Cor . ix . 22 , To the weak became I ; xii . 31 , and yet shew I ; 2 Cor . vii . 13 , exceedingly the more joyed we . " §
Happy shall we be , if , continuing to deliver and to publish his lectures , Bishop Marsh affords us an early opportunity of again expressing our respect for him , in his character of Lady Margaret ' s Professor . N .
* Pp . 58 , 59 . f For ourselves we can truly say that our attention has been now called for the first time to this peculiarity . Newcome , indeed , iu his Hist . View of Eng . Bibl . Translations , p . 328 , notices many " unpleasiug collocations of words , " but does not seem to be aware of their source and nature . X It will be a useful employment ( we speak from experience ) to compare together such examples , i . e . Luther ' s and Cranmer ' s and the Received Version . § Among the instances not pointed out by the M . Professor are , Acts . xi . 16 , 25 , xiii . , 44 .
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Bishop Marsh ' * Lectures > 253
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/29/
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