primary aim; for my desire has been not to produce a version to supersede the Prayer-Book Psalter, but to produce a version which may be read beside it and explain it. Although my translation is intended in the first instance for the use of readers not conversant with Hebrew, those acquainted with Hebrew may, I trust, in some instances find it serviceable; for as they read the Prayer-Book Version beside it, the principles of translation which I have followed will, I hope, enable them to recall more readily than they could do without its assistance, the expressions and phraseology of the original. In the case of uncertain and difficult passages, where it seemed to me desirable to notice alternative renderings or readings, this has been done in the foot-notes, which also include a minimum of explanation on passages, or expressions, the sense of which might not be apparent to all readers. The Introduction contains some account of the origin and history of the Prayer-Book Psalter, and an explanation, in greater detail than can be stated in a Preface, of the principles of translation which I have adopted. Of the Glossaries, the first contains a select list of words and phrases of frequent occurrence in the Psalter, with explanations (in certain cases) of their import and meaning, which I hope may be found useful by students of the Psalms; the second is intended to illustrate and elucidate the principal Archaisms occurring in the Prayer-Book Version, especially those of a kind liable to mislead the reader. CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, S. R. D. INTRODUCTION THE Prayer-Book Version of the Psalms is, with insignificant variations, that which is contained in the so-called 'Great Bible' of 1539-1541. The sixteenth century was the age of Bible-translation. Certainly, to John Wycliffe must belong the honour of having been the first to give the English nation, in its own vernacular, a complete translation of the Old and New Testaments (A. D. 1382); but Wycliffe's version was not made directly from the original texts, but based upon the Vulgate, and it was not disseminated by the agency of the printing-press1. The invention of the printing-press, and the revival of learning, which had marked the preceding century, caused a new interest to be directed towards the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament; and a strong desire began to be manifested both to study them more closely in their original languages, and also to publish them, for the benefit of the Church at large, in translations worthier and more exact than any which existed hitherto. The 1 Wycliffe's version was revised by John Purvey in 1388. Both texts were published in full, in parallel columns, by Forshall and Madden in 4 vols. quarto, 1850. Convenient reprints of Purvey's revision of the N. T., and of the Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, were edited by Dr. Skeat in 1879 and 1881 respectively. limits of an introduction do not permit me to describe in detail the long and chequered story of the opposition with which the ecclesiastical authorities of the day met the endeavour to impart to the laity the new light which the age had provided, or of the means by which, not without much bodily hardship and peril, it was ultimately overcome1: I must confine myself to the literary aspects of the subject. The first part of the Hebrew Bible which was printed was the Psalter, with the annotations of the celebrated grammarian and commentator David Kimchi (thirteenth century) in 1477 (probably at Bologna): the entire Hebrew Bible was first printed at Soncino in 1488. In 1516-17 and 1524-25 there were published by Daniel Bomberg at Venice the two great 'Rabbinical' Bibles, containing in the middle of the page, in parallel columns, the Hebrew text and the Targum, and exhibiting around them a selection of the Commentaries of the most distinguished Jewish teachers, in particular those of Rashi (eleventh century), Ibn Ezra (twelfth century), and David Kimchi2. The first edition of the Greek New Testament, accompanied by a new Latin version, was published by Erasmus in 1516: other editions by the same scholar followed in 1519 and 1522. The celebrated Complutensian Polyglott appeared at Alcala, in Spain, in 1520. Luther published the New Testament in German in 1522; the Pentateuch in 1523; the historical and poetical books in 1524; and the complete Old Testament in 1534. The 1 See particulars in Westcott's History of the English Bible (ed. 2, 1872); Eadie's The English Bible (2 vols., 1876); Mombert's English Versions of the Bible (preface dated 1883); in a more popular form, in Stoughton's Our English Bible (no date: probably 1878 or 1879). 2 See, more fully, on early editions of the Hebrew Bible, Dr. Ginsburg's valuable Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, 1897, esp. p. 779 ff. |