Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 19:73 (Jan 1862)
Article: Remarks On Renderings Of The Common Version (In The Epistle To The Galatians)
Author: Horatio B. Hackett

BSac 19:73 (Jan 1862) p. 211

Remarks On Renderings Of The Common Version (In The Epistle To The Galatians)

H. B. Hackett

The object in the following remarks is not to revise the translation of this epistle, in course or minutely; but to point out some of the more obvious changes, which are regarded by interpreters as due to the sense, or to a clearer representation of the sense, of the original text. It may not be out of place to take occasion, in a few instances, to uphold the received rendering against a different view of the meaning from that adopted in our English version.. Some of the changes, in the corrected translation, it will be seen, are required by the progress in textual criticism which has taken place during the two hundred and fifty years since the earlier English versions were wrought over by the revisers of a.d. 1611. An attempt has been made, in the corrections suggested, to disturb the familiar phraseology of the English scriptures as little as possible. In what follows, the current translation of the passages to be examined is presented first; and the altered form is then given, with brief explanations. The Greek has been cited, to some extent; but the force of the remarks may not always be understood without referring to the Greek Testament.

CHAPTER 1.

Verse 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel (οὕτω ταχέως μετατίθεσδε ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον). ‘I marvel that ye are so soon removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ, unto a different gospel.’ In this passage μετατίθεσδε means are removing, turning aside (lit. transfer oneself); and implies, first, that the change was voluntary on their part; and,

BSac 19:73 (Jan 1862) p. 212

secondly, that the defection was not yet complete, but in progress, and might be arrested. This form, as middle, was in common use to denote the act of renouncing one set of views and feelings for another, or of passing from one political party or philosophical sect to another party or sect. For this usage, see Wetstein, Nov. Test. vol. II., p. 216, and Kypke, Obs., vol. II., p. 273. The examples are abundant, and need not be adduced here. Hence the greater familiarity of Greek readers with this sense of the expression, and the manifest pertinence of the thought, require that we so understand it in this instance. The passive form, are turned aside, or removed, implies that they acted not so much from their own choice a...