Every writer is to be presumed to mean what he says, unless there is evidence that he misapprehended the meaning of his own words. In such a case the known meaning of words may be set aside, and other meanings substituted conformable to the known intention of the writer. Many errors of interpretation are traditionary, many are dogmatic, many arise from interpreting one part of the Scriptures by another, as if, in different stages of the development of religious ideas, men could not be allowed to think differently. The New Testament is not to be interpreted by the Old, nor the Old by the New, except with great allowances for differences of opinion on many subjects. Many of the quotations of the New Testament are applied to express senses the farthest possible from those which they express in the Old Testament. As in Matt. 2: 15. And he was there till the death of Herod, that the word might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt I called my son. This is here applied to the infant Saviour. In Hosea 11 : 1, the prophet says, in the name of Jehovah, When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. [As] men called to them, so they went from before them, they sacrificed to Baals, they burned incense to carved images. Here is no allusion whatever to the infant Saviour, but a reference to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. So in the same chapter, at verses 17, 18. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great lamenting, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they were not. A reference to the original passage in Jer. 31: 15, 16, shows that the persons referred to, were the descendants of Rachel who died in Palestine, or went into exile to Babylon. Similar instances might be multiplied, showing that the application of passages in the New Testament is no rule for their interpretation in the Old. No man can undertsand the common Bible without Commentaries. The reader requires them incessantly, sometimes on account of obscurity, and sometimes on account of errors in the text or translation. He can not depend on the common Bible either for the true text or the true translation. Every man of sense and information knows that some passages are spurious, and some translations erroneous; to learn which they are, he looks to his Commentary. His Commentary, therefore, and not his Bible, is his real authority in respect to the text of the New Testament and its meaning. The common Bible has already lost its authority as a standard, because it is known to be incorrect; and the Commentary supplies its deficiency and supplements it. I propose my version as another supply and another supplement for this purpose, and have endeavored to make it as perfect as possible. If any imagine that they can much longer sustain the common Bible in credit without admitting the very corrections and improvements which I am making, they are much mistaken. Truth will come to light; it ought to come to light, and men ought to know, and will know, that the studies and labors of seven generations throughout all Christendom, directed to the improvement and interpretation of the sacred text, have not resulted in nothing. They have yielded a rich harvest, and one worth gathering up and appropriating to the benefit of the masses, and of coming ages. Some imagine that it is not a new translation that is wanted, but a slight revision of the old one. This is a mistake. King James's Bible can not be altered with propriety any more than you can alter Shakspeare or Paradise Lost. It is a great historical monument, representing the knowledge of the times which produced it, and of the times which have adhered to it. It will be the wonder of future ages that it had the sole occupancy of the field so long, not that it was finally obliged to admit a later and more accurate version to be used with it. But when it shall be superseded entirely as the Bible of common use, as it must be; even then it will have a great historical value. I am laboring for the benefit of no single religious order, to the detriment of others, but for the common good of all. I am thankful to obtain a generous friendship and hearty coöperation from good men in many different connections, and trust, as my work becomes better understood, the number of its friends will be proportionably increased. All is for God, for his truth, for the good of his creatures, and for the hastening on of those golden ages of bliss, long ago predicted as at hand, by the Hebrew seers, but yet deferred and distanced by human impiety and wickedness. How long, O how long, ere the happy vision will become a glorious reality, and all tears be wiped away from the eyes of the sorrowing by the hand of the Infinite ? 1. JONAH. JONAH'S MISSION TO NINEVEH ; THE REFORMATION OF THE NINEVITES, ETC. 1 AND the word of Jehovah came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Then Jonah arose to flee from the presence of Jehovah to Tarshish. And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship there going to Tarshish, and paid his fare, and went down into it, to go with them from the presence of Jehovah to Tarshish. 2 But Jehovah raised up a great wind on the sea, and there was a great tempest on the sea, and the ship was thought to be breaking to pieces. Then the seamen were afraid, and cried every man to his god, and cast the implements which were in the ship into the sea to lighten it; but Jonah went down into the sides of the vessel, and lay down and slept. Then the captain of the ship came to him, and said to him, What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps God will think of us, that we perish not. 3 Then they said one to another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil is on us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us, we pray you, for what this evil is on us; what is your business? whence do you come? what is your land? and from what people are you? Then he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were greatly afraid, and said to him, What is this which you have done? for the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Jehovah, for he told them. 4 Then they said to him, What shall be done to you, that the sea may subside from over us? for the sea raged, and was tempestuous. Then he said, Take me up, and cast me into the and the sea sea; VOL. II. 2 (13) |