years before by certain proceedings at a meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Burntisland, at which he was present. On that occasion a similar proposal "for a new translation of the Bible, and the correcting of the Psalms in meeter" was thrown out, and the historian Spottiswood has told us that "his majesty did urge it earnestly, and with many reasons did persuade the undertaking of the work, showing the necessity and the profit of it.... Speaking of the necessity, he did mention certain escapes in the common translation, and when he came to speak of the Psalms, did recite whole verses of the same, showing both the faults of the metre and the discrepance from the text. It was the joy of all that were present to hear it, and bred not little admiration in the whole Assembly." And though nothing further came of this at the time, the idea of revision was certainly suggested to James's mind, and we can understand the eagerness with which at Hampton Court he fell in with Reynolds' suggestion, and expressed the wish that "some especial pains should be taken in that behalf for one uniform translation; professing that he could never yet see a Bible well translated in English, but the worst of all his Majesty thought the Geneva to be." Nor was this all, but James showed an active interest in the work by proposing that the new translation should be undertaken by "the best learned in both the universities, after them to be reviewed by the bishops and the chief learned of the Church; from them to be presented to the Privy Council; and lastly to be ratified by his royal authority; and so this whole Church to be bound unto it and none other."

Notwithstanding, however, the Royal favour bestowed upon it, the actual work was not commenced until 1607, and it was 1611 before the new version was published with the title: "The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament and the New. Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues : & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised by his Maiesties speciall Cōmandement. Appointed to be read in Churches." (No. 43.) Other editions followed rapidly, and particulars regarding a few of these will be found in the Catalogue.

It will be noticed that the word Authorized, by which the new version has come to be known, is not here applied to it, and, as a matter of fact, there is no evidence that it was ever publicly

sanctioned by Convocation, or by Parliament, or by the King. Only slowly, and by the force of superior merit, did King James's version attain its commanding position. It became the authorized” version simply because it was the best.

Nor indeed was it, strictly speaking, a new translation, but rather a revision of the principal versions that had preceded it. None indeed have shown themselves more ready than King James's translators to acknowledge their indebtedness to their predecessors. Truly, good Christian reader," they write in their Preface, we never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one... but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against; that hath been our endeavour, that our mark."

To the success which attended their efforts, the testimony of English-speaking Christendom during a period of upwards of three hundred years has borne decisive testimony. But that does not shut our eyes to how much we owe to the solitary worker, who, a hundred years earlier, had laid down the lines and created the religious vocabulary which alone made the Authorized Version possible. In the eloquent words of Mr. Froude: "The peculiar genius-if such a word may be permitted-which breathes through it-the mingled tenderness and majesty the Saxon simplicity-the preternatural grandeur-unequalled, unapproached in the attempted improvements of modern scholarsall are here, and bear the impress of the mind of one man, William Tyndal."

SECTION I

1. Synagogue Roll of the Pentateuch, opened at Exod. xv.

2. An original papyrus-leaf from Oxyrhynchus, containing a property-return of A.D. 90, to illustrate the outward appearance of the New Testament autographs.

2a. A papyrus-leaf, showing parts of two columns containing verses from St. John's Gospel, xv., xvi.

This is one of the earliest MS. fragments of the New Testament in existence, dating from the late third century.

3. Bibliorum Sacrorum Graecus Codex Vaticanus.

Romae, typis et impensis S. Congregationis de Propaganda
Fide. 1868-1881. 4°.

A facsimile edition of the famous Codex Vaticanus, belonging to the middle of the fourth century, now preserved in the Vatican Library. Pope Pius IX, in his letter of congratulations to the editors Vercellone and Cozza, with justice describes the MS. as nobilitatis et vetustatis fama celeberrimus.

4. Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus.

Petropoli. 1862. 4°.

A typographic imitation, the most accurate of the pre-photographic period, of the Codex Sinaiticus, belonging to the middle of the fourth century, which was discovered by Tischendorf in the Convent of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai in 1859. In his own words ex tenebris protraxit, in Europam transtulit. The MS. was deposited in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg.

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