These were the precursors of modern critical editions. Bengel (Tubingen, 1734), Wetstein (Amsterdam, 1751), and Griesbach (Halle, 1744 and 1806) made great advances in critical perfection. The editions of Knapp, Tittmann, Hahn, and Theile are chiefly based on Griesbach's. Greenfield followed Mill, but gave Griesbach's principal variations. Scholz (Leipzig, 1830-'36) made a wide collation of MSS., and Lachmann a very critical study of a few MSS. The late Dean Alford and Dr. Tregelles in England, and Tischendorf in Germany, are among the most eminent laborers in our own day. Tischendorf's first edition (Leipzig, 1841) followed Griesbach and Lachmann, but subsequently he carried out a most elaborate plan of travel and investigation, and published its results in his second edition (Leipzig, 1849). Other editions have followed in 1850, 1854, and 1855-'9, the last giving valuable accounts of his- critical labors, and presenting the best text hitherto published. A new edition begun in 1864 is nearly completed (1873). Tregelles has published (1855-'70) an edition from collation and comparison of MSS. of all the Greek fathers down to the Nicene council. His edition is incomplete, being interrupted by the state of his health.
The various critical editions of the New Testament bear conclusive witness to the genuineness of the text in every matter of importance. There has been no material corruption in the sacred record. - The ancient translations of the Old and New Testaments are in some respects of great value. The oldest of these and the most celebrated is the Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint (LXX.) from its 72 translators, or perhaps from the 72 members of the Sanhedrim who sanctioned it. It was commenced by Jews of Alexandria about 280 B. C, and was finished in the course of years evidently by different hands. The Pentateuch is pronounced by scholars the best portion of the work; other portions are unequal; here and there it is considered to betray an imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew language. It contains most of the books called the Apocrypha. The Greek Jews, in the declining state of the Hebrew tongue, made great use of the Septuagint, and even the Jews of Palestine held it in high esteem until the Christians in the second century quoted it against them. They then denied its agreement with the Hebrew, and it became odious to them.
In Jerome's day there were three differing yet authorized editions of the Septuagint in use: one in Palestine, one at Alexandria, and one in Constantinople. Hence the corruptions that mar the MSS. in our possession. The Septuagint was the parent of many translations in Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and Arabic. Many oriental versions were made from the Hebrew, of uncertain date; among them the Targums in Chaldee, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac translation called the Peshito or "simple," one of the oldest translations of the Bible, several in Arabic, and one in Persian. There were also other Greek versions, of which the most celebrated was that of Aquila, made about A. D. 135, and valuable on account of its anxious literalness.
Fragments of it are preserved in Origen's Hexapla. But after the Septuagint the most famous version from the Hebrew was the Latin version of Jerome, the basis of the present Vulgate. Jerome, who had previously undertaken a revision of the old Latin translation of the New Testament, called the Itala, revised the Psalter also from the Septuagint about 383. About 389 he began a new version from the Hebrew, and completed the work about 405. The work, though in parts hastily, was on the whole well done. The translator made use of the Greek versions that were before him, as well as of the Arabic and the Syriac, always, however, comparing them with the Hebrew. The translation, having to contend with a superstitious reverence for the Septuagint, met with a doubtful reception, and made its way slowly into favor, but in the course of 200 or 300 years it was highly regarded at Rome and in other places, but not so highly as to escape corruption from careless copyists, indiscreet revisers, ambitious critics, and reckless theologians. The old Vulgate (the Itala) and the new injured each other. Alcuin, early in the 9th century, bidden, and as some think aided by Charlemagne, revised and corrected Jerome's version by the Hebrew and Greek originals.
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th century, revised it again. The council of Trent (1546), having received a report from a commission that the text was very corrupt, so that only the pope could restore it, declared that "the old and Vulgate edition . . . shall be held as authentic, . . . and that no one, on any pretext whatever, may dare or presume to reject it." The council also decreed that the edition " should be printed as accurately as possible." As it had become necessary to prepare an authentic edition of the authorized version, two popes, Pius IV. and V., addressed themselves to this task; learned men were assembled, a printing press was erected in the Vatican, a pontiff looked over the printed sheets, and the work was published in 1590; but it proved to be so imperfect that Gregory XIV. called another assembly of scholars to make another revision. This time the duty was more thoroughly discharged, and the Biblia Sacra Vulg. Ed. Test. V. Pont. Max. jussu recog., etc, the basis of every subsequent edition, was issued in 1592. The famous Bellarmin, one of the translators, wrote the preface. - Translations of the New Testament were made very early into all the tongues then spoken by Christians. A few words upon some of the more modern versions will be in place here.
In Germany, Martin Luther spent ten laborious years, from 1522 to 1532, in executing that wonderful translation which has done so much for the Bible and for the language into which it was rendered. Several portions of the Scriptures he had translated into German before, for the use of the people, viz., the penitential and other Psalms, the Lord's prayer, the Ten Commandments, and other pottages, which were often printed. It was I not till toward the close of 1521 that he conceived the plan of translating the whole; but having commenced, the work proceeded rap-Idly. The New Testament was finished first; in a year came the Pentateuch; another year completed the historical hooks and the Hagiographa; two years more brought Jonah and Habakkuk; and the prophets were finished in 1582. It was all Luther's work. As the foundation he used the Brescia edition of 1494 (his copy is still preserved at Berlin), and with this the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and other Latin versions, while for the New Testament he took the text of Erasmus, 1511). Many versions have been made since Luther's in Germany, but for vigor and simplicity his has not been surpassed, not even by that of Augusti and De Wette.
Portions of the Bible were translated into Saxon by Aldhehn, Egbert, Bede, and others, between the 8th and 10th centuries. An English version of the Psalms is supposed to haw- been made in 1290. Wyclilfe finished his translation of the New Testament about 1380. That of the Old Testament, begun by his coadjutor Nicholas de Hereford about 1382, was completed probably by Wycliffe before 1384. The revision made by John Purvey and others about 1888 nearly displaced Wycliffe's, and was widely circulated in MS. among all classes, until superseded by the printed versions of the 16th century. The first volume printed by Gutenberg (1450-'55) was the Latin Bible, and hardly was it completed when versions began to multiply. In 1524, William Tyndale, "finding no place to do it in all England," went to the continent, and there, at Worms, in 1526, printed his version of the New Testament from the original Greek. Coverdale, his fellow laborer, finished his translation of the Old Testament in 1585, and this was followed by several editions of "Matthew's Bible," called also the "Great" Bible, or "Cranmer's," according to its editors.
This was the authorized version under Edward VI. The "Genevan Bible,'" the first English Bible with Roman type, verses, and no Apocrypha, was a new and careful revision from the original tongues by the English refugees at Geneva (1500, and London, 1576). Bishop Parker undertook another version by the help Of eminent scholars, which was called the "Bishop's Bible," published in 1568, with preface, and notes. Its basis was the "Great Bible," and the "Genevan." A little later appeared the Roman Catholic version known as the Douay Bible, the New Testament in 1682, at Rheims, the Old Testament m 1609 'Hi, at Douay, upon the