in other words, that system which, especially for convenience in reading aloud, suggests such pauses as will best ensure a clear and intelligent setting forth of the true meaning of the words. This course has rendered necessary, especially in the Epistles, a larger use of colons and semicolons than is customary in modern English printing. (e) We may in the last place notice one particular to which we were not expressly directed to extend our revision, namely, the titles of the Books of the New Testament. These titles are no part of the original text; and the titles found in the most ancient manuscripts are of too short a form to be convenient for use. Under these circumstances, we have deemed it best to leave unchanged the titles which are given in the Authorised Version as printed in 1611. We now conclude, humbly commending our labours to Almighty God, and praying that his favour and blessing may be vouchsafed to that which has been done in his name. We recognised from the first the responsibility of the undertaking; and through our manifold experience of its abounding difficulties we have felt more and more, as we went onward, that such a work can never be accomplished by organised efforts of scholarship and criticism, unless assisted by Divine help. We know full well that defects must have their place in a work so long and so arduous as this which has now come to an end. Blemishes and imperfections there are in the noble Translation which we have been called upon to revise; blemishes and imperfections will assuredly be found in our own Revision. All endeavours to translate the Holy Scriptures into another tongue must fall short of their aim, when the obligation is imposed of producing a version that shall be alike literal and idiomatic, faithful to each thought of the original, and yet, in the expression of it, harmonious and free. While we dare to hope that in places not a few of the New Testament the introduction of slight changes has cast a new light upon much that was difficult and obscure, we cannot forget how often we have failed in expressing some finer shade of meaning which we recognised in the original, how often idiom has stood in the way of a perfect rendering, and how often the attempt to preserve a familiar form of words, or even a familiar cadence, has only added another perplexity to those which already beset us. Thus, in the review of the work which we have been permitted to complete, our closing words must be words of mingled thanksgiving, humility, and prayer. Of thanksgiving, for the many blessings vouchsafed to us throughout the unbroken progress of our corporate labours; of humility, for our failings and imperfections in the fulfilment of our task; and of prayer to Almighty God, that the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be more clearly and more freshly shewn forth to all who shall be readers of this Book. JERUSALEM CHAMBER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. A SUMMARY AUTHENTICITY, AUTHORSHIP, AND CONTENTS, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST AUTHORITIES. BY THE REV. STANLEY LEATHES, M. A., PROFESSOR OF HEBREW IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; BAMPTON LECTURER, ETC., ETC. THE word Bible (Gr. Biblia - Books) is not very unlike our term Library. The Bible is the Library of Divine Revelation, the collection of Books in which the history of that revelation is recorded, and the literature thereof preserved. It consists of two parts totally uncon- nected, as far as human design is concerned: the former of these, the Old Testament or Covenant, is written in Hebrew and Aramaic―i. e. in the older and the more modern language of the ancient Jews. It consists of three parts: (1) the Law, (2) the Prophets, and (3) the Psalms (Luke xxiv. 44), which together comprise what is meant by "the Scriptures" in the New Testament. The first of these is known as the Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses:-the second was divided by the Jews into two parts, (a) the former and (b) the latter Prophets; or (a) Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, and (b) Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets; while the third embraced all the other books not yet enumerated, and began with the Psalms (from whence its name). The Law and the Prophets (but not the Psalms) were divided into Lessons by the Jews. Thus our Lord "stood up to read" the appointed lesson (Luke iv. 16). The writings of the Old Testament extend over a period of at least 1000 years. The writings of the New Testament are of four kinds: (1) the Gospels, (2) the Acts, (3) the Epistles of S. Paul, S. James, S. Peter, S. John, S. Jude, and (4) the Revelation. These, commencing with 1 Thessalonians and ending with Revelation, extend over a period of about 50 years: they may be assigned to eight (or at the most to nine) writers, all of whom wrote in Greek, which was then the language of the civilized world. There is probably no writing of the New Testament of so late The interdependence of the Old Testament and the New, at once undesigned and impossible as the result of connivance or collusionseparated as they are by an interval of 450 years, and both the ccmbined result of various minds in various ages-the Old Testament containing as it does the germ and nucleus of the New, and the New containing the realization and fulfilment of the Old, not as a matter of contrivance, but as a matter of broad and patent history-is one of the most convincing proofs of their essential unity (the two parts corresponding like "a cloven tally"), and it must ever remain an irrefragable proof of the divine origin of Christianity. At all events, the phenomenon is unique in the history and literature of the world. THE NEW TESTAMENT, OR "THE GOSPEL.” S. MATTHEW.-The author of the first of the Gospels has always been believed to be the apostle Matthew, also called Levi and "the publican" (tax-gatherer), the son of Alphæus (Mark ii. 14), and so the brother of James the Less. He is supposed by some to have written his Gospel in Hebrew originally, but this is highly doubtful, as Hebrew was no longer the spoken language of Palestine. He probably wrote for the use of Jewish Christians; thus he is very careful to show that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews, and that certain events in His life had been foretold by the prophets. Gentile readers, however, were also contemplated (chaps. i. 23; xxvii. 8, 33, 46). The kingly office of Christ is portrayed in it. This Gospel was probably the first in time as well as position. To this evangelist we owe the Sermon on the Mount (chaps. v., vi., vii.), the charge to the apostles (chap. x.), many of the parables in chap. xiii., that of the unmerciful servant (chap. xviii.), and some of those in chaps. xxi.-xxv. S. MARK.-Mark, the traditional author of the second Gospel, is supposed to be the "John surnamed Mark" of Acts xii. 12, 25; xiii. 5, 13; xv. 37, 39; Col. iv. 10; 2 Tim. iv. 11; Philem. 24. His mother's name was Mary (Acts ii. 12); she was sister to Barnabas (Col. iv. 10), and lived in Jerusalem (Acts xii. 12). Mark was the disciple of Peter (1 Pet. v. 13), the companion of Paul, and of Barnabas after his dissension with Paul about Mark's defection (Acts xii. 25; xiii. 13; xv. 37-40). He seems later to have become reconciled to Paul (Col. iv. 10; 2 Tim. iv. 10; Philem. 24). The influence of Peter is supposed to prevail in this Gospel (chap. xvi. 7). It was written for Gentile Christians (chaps. v. 41; vii. 11, 34; xi. 17). The Gospels of S. Matthew and S. Mark were probably written before the destruction of Jerusalem. S. Mark relates but few discourses; minuteness of detail is a characteristic of his Gospel, and the human nature of our Lord is strongly illustrated-e. g. chap. iii. 5. The discourse (chap. ix. 38-50) is peculiar to S. Mark; so is the narrative (chap. vii. 31, etc.). S. LUKE.-Luke is the traditional author of the third Gospel. He is mentioned in Col. iv. 14; Philem. 24; 2 Tim. iv. 11. He was a physician, and apparently not born a Jew (Col. iv. 11). He seems to have joined S. Paul in his second journey at Troas (Acts xvi. 10), and again (Acts xx. 5) he went with him to Jerusalem and to Rome (Acts xxvii. 1; xxviii. 16), and was with him till the date of 2 Tim. iv. 11. S. Luke was not an eye-witness of our Lord's life, nor a minister of the word from the beginning, but wrote his Gospel from the testimony of those who were both. To S. Luke we owe our knowledge of the chief events recorded in chaps. i.-iii., the discourses of ix. 51-xviii. 15, the events of xxiv., etc., and especially of our Lord's ascension. His Gospel is characterized by its universality, and was designed specially for Gentile use; thus our Lord's genealogy is traced to Adam, etc. S. Luke's Gospel was clearly written before the Acts of the Apostles (Acts i. 1); and if the Acts were written shortly after Paul's imprisonment at Rome (Acts xxviii. 30), the Gospel must have been written a few years earlier, perhaps in 58-60 A. D. It is the most complete of the four Gospels. S. JOHN.-John was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and probably the younger brother of James. He was a Galilean and a fisherman on the lake, and a man apparently of some substance (Mark i. 20). His mother was one of those who ministered to our Lord of their substance (Luke viii. 3; xxiii. 55; Mark xvi. 1; John xix. 27). He was apparently a disciple of John the Baptist (chap. i. 41), but followed Jesus from the first; so we have in chaps. ii.-v. events which happened before the records of the other evangelists begin. From chap. xviii. 15 and other indications he seems to have been familiar with the high priest Caiaphas, and a tradition describes him as of a priestly family. He was the disciple "whom Jesus loved" (chaps. xiii. 23; xix. 26; xx. 2; xxi. 7, 20, 24), and as such was favored with a peculiar closeness of intimacy with our Lord (Mark v. 37; Matt. xvii. 1; xxvi. 37; John xix. 17). S. John is further mentioned in the Acts iii., viii. 14-25, in Gal. ii. 9, and Rev. i. 9. St. John's object in writing his Gospel is set forth in the preface (chaps. i. 1-14, and xx. 30, 31); it is the Incarnation of the Word and the glorification of the Word Incarnate. This is shown by the testimony of John himself, recorded in chaps. i.iii.; by the miracles of Christ, in chaps. ii.-ix.; by His conflict with the Jews, in chaps. v.-xii.; by His own discourses, in chaps. xiii.-xviii. ; by his sufferings, death, and resurrection, in chaps. xviii.-xxi. There are many indications of the writer having been an eye-witness of what he records. We discern who the writer was from the last chapter, where it is plain that he is one of the seven enumerated in ver. 2 (comp vers. 20, 24, and no one of them but the younger son of Zebedee fulfils all the conditions requisite. It was probably the latest of the Gospels, and written perhaps between 75–85 a. d. THE ACTS.-The Acts of the Apostles is the natural link between the Gospels, which record our Lord's life, and the Epistles, which show the result of that life. It was clearly written by the author of the third |