60. Q. What vital and necessary principle did Christ lay at the foundation of the Christian system? A. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned”—saved in accordance with the moral constitution of the universe, and damned from the absolute necessities existing in the nature of things. CHAUTAUQUA NORMAL CLASS. Season of 1884. LESSON III.—BIBLE SECTION. _The Bible an English Book._ By REV. J. L. HURLBUT, D.D., AND R. S. HOLMES, A.M. The Divine Revelation, whether spoken or written, has ever been made to any people in their own language. But as languages change their form and cease to be spoken, that which is plain to one generation becomes an unknown tongue to another. Hence arises the need of versions or translations. In the stages whereby the Bible became an English book, we notice: 1. The ancient versions; 2. The mediæval versions; 3. The modern versions. The student will observe concerning each version: 1. The Scripture included; 2. Language; 3. Date; 4. Place; 5. Authorship; 6. Historical notes. I. _The Ancient Versions._—Out of many, we select the five most important: 1. _The Septuagint._—The Old Testament; from the Hebrew into the Greek, begun at an uncertain date, but completed about 385 B. C., at Alexandria, the metropolis of the Mediterranean, where a third of the population were Jews; by unknown writers, said to have numbered seventy, hence its name Septuagint, “Greek, seventy.” This translation, though strongly opposed by the Jews of Palestine, became the Bible of all the Jews of the Dispersion throughout the eastern lands. 2. _The Samaritan._—Containing the Pentateuch only, in a dialect, the mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, spoken by the Samaritans, who worshiped on Mt. Gerizim; perhaps made as early as 100 B. C., perhaps later; traditionally said to have been translated by the Samaritan high-priest, Nathanael. For many centuries the existence of this version was questioned, until a copy was brought to Europe in 1616. 3. _The Peshito._—The whole Bible, in the Aramaic language, the common dialect (Peshito means “simple” or “common”) of the Syrians, perhaps that spoken by Jesus and the Apostles, of unknown authorship and date, perhaps about 175 A. D.; the first translation made under Christian auspices. 4. _The Targums._—A Hebrew word meaning “interpretations;” a series of Jewish translations of various parts of the Old Testament; ten in number, several covering the same books; in the Chaldaic dialect of Hebrew, dating from Onkelos, A. D. 250 to 1000; arising from the oral translations handed down in the synagogues, written after the destruction of Jerusalem. 5. _The Vulgate._—Word meaning “common;” whole Bible, in Latin language; completed about A. D. 400, at Bethlehem in Judea, by Jerome; made by revising older Latin translations; at first opposed, but finally the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.