titudes of things which were in the Greek and
Hebrew Bibles. I will give you an instance or two. Their creed taught
that God once died, or laid down his life. There was nothing in the
Greek or Hebrew Bibles to uphold this doctrine, so in translating the
Bible they so altered a passage as to make it to teach the doctrine.
You may find the passage in 1 John, iii. 16. It is as follows:--'Hereby
perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.' Now
the word 'God' is not in the Greek; it was put into the passage by the
translators. In one place in the Old Testament it is said that Elhanan
slew Goliath the Gittite. The translators have altered the passage so as
to make it say that it was the _brother_ of Goliath that Elhanan slew.
See 2 Samuel xxi. 19.... Before a man can give a perfect translation of
the Bible, he must have a perfect knowledge of both the Greek and Hebrew
Bible, and of the language into which he would translate it. But no man
has that knowledge. The Greek and Hebrew languages, from which the Bible
has to be translated, are dead languages--languages which are no longer
spoken or written by any people--languages which exist only in ancient
writings. The meaning of many of the words of those languages is, in
consequence, lost. The writings of the Old Testament are the only books
remaining in the Hebrew language. There are no Hebrew books to throw
light on dark passages, or to settle the meaning of doubtful words and
phrases. True, we have Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and grammars, but
these dictionaries and grammars are the work of imperfect and erring
men, who had no other means oi understanding the meaning of the Greek
and Hebrew languages than ourselves. These dictionaries and grammars
differ from each other. None of them are perfect. The best abound with
errors. We have better means of obtaining a knowledge of the Greek
language than of the Hebrew--but the Greek of the New Testament is a
peculiar dialect, not to be found in any other book. It is, therefore,
as difficult to translate the New Testament as the Old. If, herefore, we
would find a Bible that does _not_ bear the marks of human imperfection
and error, we must look for it in what are called the original Greek and
Hebrew. But there is no such Bible. The Greek and Hebrew Bibles are
as really imperfect as the English translations. The Greek and Hebrew
Bibles are as really the work of imperfect and erring men as the English
translations