Transcribed from the 1856 John Farquhar Shaw edition by DavidPrice.
CONSIDERATIONS
IN FAVOUR OFA
REVISED TRANSLATION
OF
Holy Scripture.
ByEDWARD SLATER.
[The Authorized Version] is far from beingimmaculate. It is not sufficiently close and uniform inrendering the original . . . is not calculated to convey preciseand critical information in difficult and mysterious passages ofthe Prophecies, &c.
Dr. WilliamHales. New Analysis of Chronology, Vol. II.p. ix.
LONDON:
JOHN FARQUHAR SHAW,
36, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 27, SOUTHAMPTONROW, RUSSELL SQUARE.
1856.
Price One Shilling.
p.2MY DOCTRINE SHALL DROP AS THERAIN,
MY SPEECH SHALL DISTIL AS THEDEW,
AS THE SMALL RAIN UPON THE TENDERHERB,
AND AS THE SHOWERS UPON THEGRASS.Deut.xxxii. 2.
AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, SET YOUR HEARTSUNTO ALL THE WORDS WHICH I TESTIFY AMONG YOU THIS DAY, WHICH YESHALL COMMAND YOUR CHILDREN TO OBSERVE TO DO, ALL THE WORDS OFTHIS LAW. FOR IT IS NOT A VAIN THING FOR YOU; BECAUSE IT ISYOUR LIFE.
Deut.xxxii. 46, 47.
Among the characteristics of an Agereplete with new and unlooked-for events, perhaps not the leastsingular and impressive is the desire, now extensively evinced,for an improved translation of Holy Scripture.
A solitary voice, [3] it is true, has been raised to the sameeffect, from time to time; but it has gradually died away in thenoise of worldly bustle, or been summarily stifled by Prejudiceor Fear.
A more fitting time has arrived for renewing the cry; for wehave become more reflective with the progress of events, and adesire for improvement—not limited to mere materialgood—has sprung up, that is irrepressible, and all butuniversal.
But, encouraging as is the Temper of the Times for prosecutingthe task that we have undertaken, we need to make our waycautiously. The subject is confessedly a delicate one, andis, moreover, in not a few quarters, entrenched in prejudicesunder the seeming sanction of religion itself.
p.4“Were the Bible,” pleads Dr. Knox, [4] “corrected and modernized, itwould probably become more showy, and perhaps quite exact, but itwould lose that air of sanctity which enables it to make animpression which no accuracy could produce. We havereceived the Bible,” he goes on to say, “in the verywords in which it now stands, from our fathers; we have learntmany passages from it by heart in our infancy; . . .