7. The Bible in America (Cont.)

As for the external and internal peculiarities of the new translation, they are too numerous to include in this brief sketch. The translators and editors not only changed and corrected words and expressions of the previous translation but made corrections in the text itself. In some places they completely altered the accepted text and omitted many texts that had become intertwined with the religious consciousness of the people. Thus in the narrative of the apostle Paul about the Last Supper in 1 Cor 11:24 are omitted the words: “Take, eat” as if not justified by the best manuscripts. On the same ground, as a later interpolation, the well-known verse 1 John 7:8 is omitted: “Three are they that bear record in heaven.” These and similar changes produced strong confusion in a society accustomed to these texts. But the confusion turned almost into indignation over the fact that the translators, on the basis of learned research, came to the conclusion that a certain doxology concluding the Lord’s Prayer: “For yours is the kingdom” is also a later interpolation, and on this basis omitted it also in the new text. In view of such radical changes, it is supposed that despite its undeniable learned merits, the new translation will never receive the people’s sanction. Americans are an extremely conservative people, and the most popular and widely circulated newspaper states that it was not advisable to make any changes at all to the present Bible, since even the most archaic words in it have acquired a special sacred meaning and tone in the consciousness of the people. All the more inappropriate are such changes as the omission of entire and particularly popular texts. Many preachers from church pulpits have also openly and strongly spoken against the new translation, so that in all probability it will remain only as a learned edition and will not penetrate into the sanctuary of the temple. Nevertheless, by its appearance it has aroused unprecedented interest in God’s word, and on this account, notes one newspaper, the sacred book has been and will be read again by whole hundreds of thousands of such persons to whom it had previously been closed. And the benefit of this reading, even if it were to flow from mere curiosity, is beyond any doubt.

In conclusion of our discourse on the book of books, a few words about the newspaper of newspapers – the New York “Herald.” Its Easter issue for the present year was, as the editors themselves declare, an epoch in the history of journalism. It was a gigantic issue of 24 pages, regarding the quantity of printed material in which one can judge by the following reasoning of the editors: “The New Testament is a book which people study throughout their entire lives, never reaching the depth of its sacred mysteries. The Easter issue of the “Herald” is almost twice as large as the New Testament. The Bible is the embodiment of centuries of faith, instruction, history, and revelation, and the devout reader, turning its pages morning and evening, thinks – how great is this book. Today’s “Herald” in the number of words equals more than half the Bible. We could print the greater part of Shakespeare, Byron, Macaulay, the best parts of any classical author – on the paper occupied by today’s “Herald” and sold for five cents. In current literature there is no such thick journal that gives as many words as today’s “Herald.” It is more than three times larger than the monthly magazine “Harper’s Magazine,” and almost three times larger than the famous trimonthly “Edinburgh Review.” – In a word, the “Herald” should be published not in New York, but in white-stoned Moscow, and should be called the tsar of newspapers.”