It was soon found, however, that the ancient Armenian, the language of all the manuscripts of the Bible and rituals of the Old Church and also of the Bibles and Testaments recently printed, was not understood by the common, uneducated people. As the educated were few, the number of intelligent readers was greatly limited. This number was confined practically to the higher clergy, a few priests and vartabeds, and the teachers in the schools. In order to reach the common people, the Russian Bible Society issued in 1822 and 1823 a New Testament translated into Turkish and printed with the Armenian character. As a large proportion of the Armenians understood Turkish this version brought to them the Word of God. Hitherto the Armenian ecclesiastics had made little or no opposition to the circulation of the Bible among the people, while some of the most prominent seemed to favor the work. In 1823 the agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society at Constantinople endeavored to secure the sanction of the Armenian patriarch for the printing and circulation of the New Testament in the modern, spoken Armenian tongue, the home language of most of the Armenians in Turkey. They were met with the severest opposition, and with threats of prohibiting the reading of the book if it should be issued. Without attempting to follow the course of Bible publication, upon which depended the plan of reform for both the Armenian and Greek churches as well as for all the other races dwelling in the empire, suffice it to say that the hostility of the Armenian clergy, called forth by the publication of the modern Armenian version of the Scriptures, started a conflict, which waged throughout the country for more than a generation, as to whether that version was the true Word of God. The ancient Armenian Scriptures were translated from the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate while the modern versions were made from the Hebrew and Greek. For this reason there were many discrepancies between the two versions which were discussed everywhere. This drove the people to a careful study of the Bible. If it could be once established that the modern version was also the “Word of God,” there could be no hesitation upon the part of the Armenians in accepting it as such. This phase of the controversy passed fully forty years ago, and throughout the country this version is now accepted as _Astvadsashoonch_ or the _veritable Word of God_. It was, however, for many years a vital question which commanded the attention and energy of the strongest men of the race.