. Moberly, afterwards
Bishop of Salisbury; Rev. Henry Alford, afterwards Dean of Canterbury;
Rev. W. G. Humphry, Vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields; and lastly, the
writer of this charge. Mr. Ernest Hawkins, busy as he was, acted to a
great extent as our secretary, superintended arrangements, and encouraged
and assisted us in every possible manner. Our place of meeting was the
library of our hospitable colleague Mr. Humphry. We worked in the
greatest possible harmony, and happily and hopefully concluded our
Revision of the Authorised Version of the Gospel of St. John in the month
of March, 1857.

Our labours were introduced by a wise and attractive preface, written
mainly by Dr. Moberly, in the lucid, reverent, and dignified language
that marked everything that came from the pen of the late Bishop of
Salisbury.

The effect produced by this _tentamen_ was indisputably great. The work
itself was of course widely criticized, but for the most part favourably
{13}. The principles laid down in the preface were generally considered
reasonable, and the possibilities of an authoritative revision distinctly
increased. The work in fact became a kind of object lesson.

It showed plainly that there _were_ errors in the Authorised Version that
needed correction. It further showed that their removal and the
introduction of improvements in regard of accuracy did not involve,
either in quantity or quality, the changes that were generally
apprehended. And lastly, it showed in its results that _scholars_ of
different habits of thought could combine in the execution of such a work
without friction or difficulty.

In regard of the Greek text but little change was introduced. The basis
of our translation was the third edition of Stephens, from which we only
departed when the amount of external evidence in favour of a different
reading was plainly overwhelming. As we ourselves state in the preface,
"our object was to revise a version, not to frame a text." We should
have obscured this one purpose if we had entered into textual criticism.

Such was the tentative version which prepared the way for authoritative
revision.

More need not be said on this early effort. The version of the Gospel of
St. John passed through three editions. The Epistles to the Romans and
Corinthians appeared in 1858, and the first three of the remaining
Epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians) in 1861. The third
edition of the Revision of