We find that this volume of little pamphlets is called the “Authorized Version” of the New Testament. We inquire who _authorized_ this version, and find that it was gotten up by certain men, mainly Englishmen, in the year 1603 by the “special command” of James, who is called “king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,” and who was addressed by these gentlemen, mostly clergymen, as “the Most High and Mighty Prince, Defender of the Faith,” etc. It now becomes a matter of superlative importance to determine the basis upon which this version of the New Testament was made. It is well known that in 1881 a New Version was published, and Rev. Alexander Roberts, D. D., a member of the committee of revisers, issued a little book entitled _Companion to the Revised Version_, to be circulated with it. This is the latest and highest authority by which to settle the question of the _basis or standard_ of our “Authorized Version” of the New Testament. It is stated on its title-page that it is “Translated out of the Original Greek;” and it is safe and fair to let Dr. Roberts, the mouthpiece of the New Version Committee, tell us upon what Greek manuscripts this version of King James was based. After giving a history of the different Greek editions of the New Testament (the _first_ of which was completed in 1514, and its publication formally sanctioned by Pope Leo X. in 1520), he inquires, “Which of the foregoing Greek texts formed the _original_ from which our common English translation was derived?” “To this question the answer is, that Beza’s edition of 1589 was the one usually followed.” Beza’s edition was based on Stevens’ edition of 1550, and that was derived from the fourth edition of Erasmus, published in 1527. Beza, Stevens, Erasmus! In reference to the edition of Erasmus he said himself, “It was rather tumbled headlong into the world than edited.” But the question now comes up, What was the basis of the edition of Erasmus? Dr. Roberts shall answer: “In the Gospels he principally used a cursive MS. of the fifteenth or sixteenth century,”... “admitted by all to be of a very _inferior character._”... “He procured another MS. of the twelfth century or earlier, but Erasmus was ignorant of its value and made little use of it.”... “In the Acts and Epistles he chiefly followed a cursive MS. of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, with occasional reference to another of the fifteenth century.”... “For the Apocalypse he had only one mutilated MS.” Dr. Roberts adds: “He had _no_ documentary materials for publishing a complete edition of the Greek Testament.” The point we here raise is, that it is an admission made by the best orthodox authority that our “_Authorized_ New Testament” was formed out of MSS. dating no farther back than the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, and that even these were hastily and unskilfully used or not used at all.