The New Testament

Preface to the Ninth Edition

The Translator believes he can claim for his Version of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testaments, that it is the only one ever made into our language absolutely direct from the original Hebrew and Greek of the sacred writers without any intermediate translation, whether ancient or modern, intervening between the English and the original languages used by the Biblical writers. To attain this end, for nearly forty years he never read the New Testament except in the Greek, and for several years the Old in the Hebrew and Chaldee, so as to arrive at their meaning from the ancient writers themselves alone. He also has had before him no theological or historic theories to assail or support; his one aim having been to show the import of the Scriptures, for the following reasons.

In early manhood, about 1852, he became convinced, after a study of the then called German School of Biblical Criticism, but now the Higher Critics, that unless the Sacred Scriptures were translated afresh into current spoken English, a belief in the Christian Religion as a Faith would perish, for that by the unavoidable ignorance of the Old Translators, and the obsolete dialect of the A.V. and subsequently the Revised Version, its documentary basis had become unintelligible to us.

In 1883 the Pauline Episltes were issued, and met with the direct approval of the late Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, and the heartiest appreciation of the general public, Christians, literary and illiterate, British and foreign, alike.

This portion of the work, however, together with the other books comprised in the New Testament, has been translated afresh from the excellent Greek text of Drs. Westcott and Hort. To these eminent scholars the Translator desires to express his indebtedness; as also the late Bishops Wordsworth and Bloomfield, Professor Alford, and others. And for invaluable assisstance received from many friends--both clerical and lay--in the revision of the work, the heartiest thanks are hereby tendered. Special mention must be made of the critical examination made by an accimplished Finnish gentleman, who has compared the whole with the Original Texts of Professor Tischendorf and others, besides personally assisting in the English composition.

The present issue thus constitutes a fresh translation entirely founded upon Drs. Westcott and Hort's critically accurate Greek Text, and with all weak or faulty renderings corrected. To it the Translator has added critical notes, to passages seeming to require them, and he hopes they may be of use to his readers.

During its progress this work has been approved by Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Cantebury; Dr. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury; Prof. J. S. Blackie, of Edinburgh University; Prof. Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Boston, U.S.A.; Prof. C. A. L. Totten, of Yale University, U.S.A; The Very Rev. E. Plumptre, D.D., Dean of Wells; The Rev. H. S. Champneys, Rector of Epperstone; The Rev. J. Bowen, B.D., Rector of St. Lawrence, Pembroke; Keshub Chunder Sen, Calcutta, India; The Rev. H. Stretton, Vicar of Eastville, Lincs; The Rev. Charles Garrett, Ex-President of the Wesleyan Conferences; The Rev. J. Davis, D.D., Ontario, Canada; and numerous others, who urged the Translator to complete his work by a version of the whole Bible on the same plan, which he has now accomplished, by the help of God.

Ferrar Fenton.

London, 1905.