It has formed no part of my purpose either to exhibit or to justify the changes which have been made in the revision in which I have had the honour and the responsibility of sharing. The former will best be learnt from the perusal of the Revised Version itself; the latter it would be unbecoming in me to undertake. The ultimate decision respecting them must rest upon the concurrent judgment of the wisest and most learned; and they who are the most competent to judge will be the least hasty in giving judgment, for they best know how difficult and delicate is the translator’s task, and how manifold, and sometimes how subtle, are the various considerations which determine his rendering. Nor indeed would any such attempt be possible within the limits I have here assigned to myself. To be properly done it would require an appeal to special learning which I have no right to assume in my readers, and to habits of scholarly investigation which I may not presuppose. To the bulk of my readers the one justification for the changes they will discover in the Revised New Testament must practically rest in the fact that those who have for more than ten years conscientiously and diligently laboured in this matter, and who have with such anxious care revised and re-revised their work, have been constrained to the conclusion that in this way they would most faithfully and clearly present the sense of the sacred Word. May He whose word it is graciously accept their service, and deign to use it for His glory. NEW COLLEGE, _April 26, 1881_. CONTENTS. Page LECTURE I. SUBSTANCE AND FORM 1 LECTURE II. THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 11 LECTURE III. THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 25 LECTURE IV. THE REVISION OF 1611. THE SO-CALLED AUTHORIZED VERSION 39 LECTURE V. REVISION A RECURRING NECESSITY 51 LECTURE VI. ON THE IMPERFECT RENDERINGS INTRODUCED OR RETAINED IN THE REVISION OF 1611 61 LECTURE VII. ON THE ORIGINAL TEXTS AS KNOWN IN 1611, AND AS NOW KNOWN 79 LECTURE VIII. THE PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER REVISION MADE DURING THE PAST TWO CENTURIES 91 LECTURE IX. THE REVISION OF 1881 105 APPENDIX. (A.) PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE. CH. XV. 129 (B.) TYNDALE’S PROLOGUES 137 (C.) COVERDALE’S PROLOGUE TO HIS BIBLE OF 1535 160 (D.) PREFACE TO THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 1560 172 (E.) PREFACE TO THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 1568 177 (F.) PREFACE TO THE REVISION OF 1611 199