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sential testimony. Back of the first printed Bible in Tyndale’s time, and the earliest English manuscripts, we find an unbroken chain of literary evidence extending back as far as the fourth cen tury. The committee of distinguished scholars who prepared the revised ver sion some forty years ago had access to no less than five thousand of these man uscripts, two thousand of which com prised portions or all of the Old Testa ment and three thousand, of the New. It is interesting to note that the three oldest Greek manuscripts in existence, dating about thè fourth century, are in possession of the three great branches of the Christian Church: one in the Vatican at Rome, another in the posses sion of the Greek Church at Petrograd, and a third in the British Museum in London. These manuscripts agree in every essential particular and all poipt to one original source. This is power ful evidence and immeasurably stronger than that adduced to establish the au thenticity of any of the ancient classics, both in the number of documents and in their proximity to the original source. But the chain of evidence does not end here. There are in existence numerous translations of the New Testament in other languages, which were in use as early as the third century, and also the extensive literature, chiefly writings of the early church fathers, dating back to the second century. These writings of the Church fathers contain such volumi nous Scripture quotations that by actual experiment it has been possible to re produce from them practically the en tire contents of the New Testament. It is thus established that in the second century, at least, Christian believers were drinking at the same spiritual fountain as we of the present day. The final link in the chain of evidence brings us to the apostolic period itself. The last of the apostolic writers, John, prob ably lived as late as 96 A. D., while his disciples, Polycarp and others, carried
44: These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must he fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” It is well known that even to this day the Jews adhere to the ancient three-fold division of Scripture: Moses—-the historic books, the Proph ets— the prophetic books, and the Psalms— comprehending the poetic and miscellaneous literature. Thus in a single statement Christ places His. seal upon the entire content of the Old Tes tament, each of these writings being certified as of the same authority as the words which fell from the lips of the Son of God. 3. We have found the Bible litera ture can be traced back to its actual source. An attempt has been made to surround the historic development of the Bible with an atmosphere of mys tery, but the facts in the case may be readily ascertained. Since our familiar King James Version was issued some three centuries ago there have been many translations of the New Testa ment and of the Bible as a whole. The ostensible object in each case has been to reproduce with greater accuracy the intent and meaning of the original writers, and many students of the Bible have r e c e i v e d unquestioned help through this channel. As one, however, who has compared with considerable care a large number of these transla tions, I venture to offer the opinion that they have added very little to the store of spiritual knowledge drawn by our fathers from the authorized version. The main contribution has been in the accommodation of the language of three centuries ago to our own modern speech. Again taking up the thread, however, we remember that there were other ver sions. such as those of Tyndale and Wy- cliffe preceding the King James Ver sion, and these, too, bear the same es
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