ART. III. MR. FOLSOM'S TRANSLATION OF THE

GOSPELS.

The Four Gospels: translated from the Greek Text of Tischendorf, with the Various Readings of Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Meyer, Alford, and others; and with critical and explanatory Notes. By NATHANIEL S. FOLSOM. Boston: A. Williams & Company. 1869. 12mo, pp. 476.

THE appearance of this work, simultaneously with that of Dr. Noyes, is encouraging to those who retain the old-fashioned regard for scriptural criticism. We had feared that the class of studies from which these books originated, was passing into neglect. The tendency of recent thought has not, on the whole, been favorable to their pursuit. The search for the exact meaning of texts in the Bible, which was so earnestly undertaken when those texts were thought to be the very utterance of the Holy Spirit, engages less interest when they are regarded as the language of human writers. Doctrinal discussions, too, have lost, with the majority, that charm which they possessed even a third of a century since; and where they are still carried on, it is less by the weighing and measuring of proof-texts, than by appeal to reasoning of a more general character. It is but natural that the change in modes of thought thus indicated, should affect injuriously for a time that branch of theological study which is concerned with the minutiæ of words and sentences; and as the ancient Fathers have been less read since Protestants learned to appeal from their authority to that of Scripture, that Scripture itself should be less critically studied, now that the appeal is so often taken from its decisions to the tribunal of reason.

But if Biblical criticism has no longer the high claim which it formerly advanced, as the interpreter of the very words of God, it is still worthy of attention as explaining the utterances of holy men, and by the aid it affords in the solution of questions which have been only of late prominently brought for

sess.

ward. If it seem of less importance now than it once did, to determine what Moses meant by the command, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk," criticism is now called to give her testimony on the deeper question, whether Moses gave any commandments at all, of those which we now posIf we care not now, as much as in former years, about the construction to be put upon the proem to John's Gospel, we have still to look at texts not less carefully than of old, to determine whether, and in what sense, we have a Gospel according to John. Learning still has its claims, though their ground may vary. It is not yet time for the Christian world to disown its obligations to the great scholars, the Mills and Griesbachs of former days, and the Tischendorfs and Alfords of our own, through whom we know what it was that evangelists and apostles wrote of old; nor to be indifferent to the labors of those who, like Noyes and Folsom, give us the faithful interpretation of those sacred writings.

The work before us is the result of many years' arduous study by one who has brought to his task qualifications of a very high order Mr. Folsom is known to the Unitarian community as having filled for many years, with success, the position of Professor of Sacred Literature in our Western Divinity School. To the Orthodox Congregationalists he is also known, as having held among them positions of importance, both as instructor and as preacher. Change of theolog ical position has had with him, less than is usually the case, the result of producing alienation among those he left; for none who knew him have doubted of his sincerity and conscientious earnestness to know the truth. Being by the result of his studies, aided by his natural temperament, on the very boundary line between Orthodoxy and Unitarianism, averse to all extremes of opinion, and scrupulous not to profess either less or more than he actually believed, the views which he regarded as true seemed to him at one time to lie on one side. of that dividing line, and at another time beyond it; and whatever was his conscientious judgment, he did not shrink from declaring. But neither party could gain from him, had they desired it, a denunciation of those with whom he had

before agreed. Valuing apparently very little the appearance of consistency, he has been, amid all changes of denomination, consistent to the principles of freedom, of reverence, and of charity. The present age can yield him less sympathy than he would have found from such men as Dr. Pierce and Dr. Lowell, who lamented the breaking up of the Congregational brotherhood, and who, while not Trinitarians, would never consent to bear the Unitarian name.

Such a mind is not fitted for the task of the reformer, whose trumpet must give no uncertain sound. But it has a peculiar adaptation to the pursuits of scholarship, and especially of criticism. Careful in weighing the claims of opposite interpretations, seeking only to know and to state the truth, indifferent how it may affect the success of either party, one possessed of such a mind gains that confidence as a judge which he could never have claimed as a leader. Luther might censure Melancthon for too easy compliance in the matter of the "Interim,” but he must look with respect to his judgment of the Greek text.

In presenting instances of Mr. Folsom's renderings, we shall express freely our opinion, whether favorable or unfavorable. And it happens that our first comment is of the latter kind. We do not like the translation of the first words of Matthew's Gospel, "A Record of [the] birth of Jesus Christ." That which follows immediately is not a record of the birth of Jesus, but of his ancestry; and the word yevέoews is evidently a translation of niin "generations," as used in Genesis ii. 4, v. 1, vi. 9. The proper rendering, then, is that of Norton and Noyes, "The Genealogy of Jesus Christ."

Matt. i. 23: "IMMANUEL, which being interpreted is GOD [IS] WITH US.' Dr. Noyes's translation differs only by omitting the brackets around Is. The introduction of this word, which is fully justified by the Greek idiom, guards the text from being perverted to prove the divinity of Christ. Mr. Folsom's mode of expressing it does more exact justice to the original.

Id. ii. 4, 5, 7: "He inquired of them where the Christ is born." "It stands written through the prophet." "Time of

the appearing star." These renderings are very literal, except "stands written" for yέyoanza; but the Greek idiom has been retained, instead of being exchanged for the English. 16: "Slew all the boys.' Dr. Noyes has it "male children." Either rendering is a great improvement on the common version "children," for there is no justice in exaggerating the cruelty even of a Herod. "Boys" is a more literal and a stronger rendering than "male children."

Id. iii. 15: "Permit just now." The word just seems to us to introduce a wrong idea, that of there being any especial cause for the permission at that moment more than at another. It does, however, express the usual meaning of the Greek particle; but we suggest, on Schleusner's authority, that ἄρτι, ❝ori, "now" takes the place of the Hebrew, a particle expressing entreaty, rather than time.

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17: "In whom I became well pleased," v o evdóxηoα. Mr. Folsom, in his preface, justifies this rendering, by reference to the fundamental idea of the aorist tense, that of " momentary action, and generally past, though sometimes very recent action." He considers this rendering equivalent to that of Winer, whom I took into favor, "expressing to our human conception the reason in the spirit and life, in the mind and character of Jesus, why he was now sent forth with power from on high to teach and to save." (p. 8.)

Id. iv. 6: "Cast thyself down below." necessary addition.

Below seems an un

Id. v. 14: To hide a lamp under a "measure 99 seems better than the "bushel" of the common version. So verse 17th, "I have not come to destroy, but to complete," gives a better meaning than "to fulfil." But "not one smallest letter nor tip [of one]" in the next verse, seems rather a paraphrase than a translation. In the 20th verse is an expression which occurs also afterwards, "Unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you should in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." This use of the potential mood in English, for the second aorist indicative in Greek, may perhaps be well defended; but, surely, the auxiliary ought not to be such as to imply that entrance into the king

dom of heaven was possible to such persons, though not proper.

41. "And whoever shall impress thee one mile, go with him two." "Impress" gives accurately the meaning of

ἀγγαρεύσει.

Id. xiv. 2. "This is John the Baptist: he himself had risen from the dead, and on this account the mighty deeds are at work in him." The rendering of the aorist by the English pluperfect in this case is harsh; and if ¿vegpoñow ¿v ávrô be here rightly translated, Svvάuis must mean, not "mighty deeds," but the "powers" by which those deeds were performed.

Id. xviii. 6. "It is for his advantage that a millstone of the largest size be hung about his neck, and he be sunk in the open sea." Here, in the endeavor at accurate rendering of the individual words, the sentence is weakened. Dr. Noyes's translation is here preferable, "a great millstone." Múλos ovixòs means a millstone so large as to be turned by an ass, instead of by the hand.

In Luke ix. 55, both our translators are compelled, by the decision of Tischendorf, to reject from the text that beautiful reproof of intolerance, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." With this decision, the best manuscripts and the best critics agree. Whoever inserted them had the mind of Jesus, if not his very words. Mr. Folsom suggests in his notes the probability that the words were "really uttered by him, and if not originally in the text of Luke, afterwards put in the margin."

Besides the Translation, Mr. Folsom gives an account of the various Readings with the authorities in support of each ; whether by the testimony of critical editions, manuscripts, or quotations by the early Fathers. This portion of the book must have required unwearied labor in its preparation. It presents more than forty pages of double columns, of great value to the critical student for purposes of reference; but chiefly interesting to the general reader, as showing how little these various readings affect the sense of scripture, while, in the few instances which are of great importance, he has thus before him the authorities on either side. As a speci