THE HOLY SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD COVENANT, IN A REVISED TRANSLATION BY THE LATE REV. CHARLES WELLBELOVED, THE REV. GEORGE VANCE SMITH, B.A., THE REV. JOHN SCOTT PORTER. VOLUME I. CONTAINING THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES, WITH THE BOOKS OF BY THE LATE REV. CHARLES WELLBELOVED. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS, PATERNOSTER ROW. M.DCCC.LIX. 100. t. 111. PREFACE. THE necessity for a revision of the Common Version of the Holy Scriptures is so generally recognised, that it would be superfluous here to repeat the arguments in its favour. At the same time, the obstacles to a revision by authority are so numerous, that there is little prospect of its being speedily accomplished. It cannot be thought presumptuous, therefore, if individuals take upon themselves an office, which seems to be declined by those public bodies.to which it more properly belongs; and endeavour to offer to readers of the Scriptures a more faithful representation of their text and meaning, than they can obtain from the Common Version. The Authors of this revision have not, however, undertaken either the establishment of a new text or the production of a new translation of the Scriptures. They have assumed the Common Version as a basis, and have departed from it only where, in their judgment, the text was clearly corrupt, the rendering inaccurate, or the phraseology obsolete or obscure. In the part now published, the Masoretic text of the original, as exhibited in the edition of Van der Hooght, has been followed, with such occasional variations as appeared to be at once important and adequately supported by the authority of manuscripts and versions. The truth is, that little aid towards the establishment of a new text is to be derived from the Hebrew |