V "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."-Heb. 2: 1 T HE text today is Heb. 2:1, and for reasons that will be evident I shall give it in the seven most important English versions, beginning with the Revised Version and passing backwards to Wicliffe's translation of 1380. Heb. 2: 1, Revised Version.-"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things. that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them." The Common or Authorized Version of 1611. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Rheims Bible of 1582.-"Therefore more abundantly ought we to observe those things which we have heard, lest perchance we run out." The Genevan Bible of 1557.—“Therefore we ought to diligently give heed to the things that we have heard, lest at any time we should not keep them." Cranmer's Translation of 1539.—“Therefore we ought to give the more heed to the things that are spoken unto us, lest at any time we perish." Tyndale, 1534-"Wherefore we ought to give the more heed to the things we have heard, lest we perish." Wicliffe, 1380.-"Therefore more plenteuousli it bihoueth us to keep tho thingis that we have herd, leest paroueventure we fleten aweie." It is evident from the variety of renderings of the last part of this text that the original must be either figurative or ambiguous, and in fact, it is both. Notice again, as I repeat the clause in question, “Drift away from them" was the best light that the revisers could give. "Let them slip," of the Common Version, may be the same meaning, but the form is quite different and the figure is the exact opposite. One says, "Letting them slip from us," and the other, that we are "drifting away from them." The Rheims Bible, which was the third quoted, translates the same term as "Lest we run out," the figure being of the loss of water from a leaky vessel. We ought to be careful of what we have heard, lest it leak out, or we leak out. This reading you will find in the margin of your King James' Bible. The Genevan translation, "Lest we should not keep them," is evidently an interpretation; the difficulty of giving an accurate rendering of the Greek word is avoided by making an interpretation rather than a translation. Both Cranmer and Tyndale give an entirely different meaning when they say, "Lest we perish." Last of all, we have the translation of Wicliffe, "Lest we flee away." This you observe is very like the Revised Version, "Lest we drift away from them." The Greek word is certainly capable of several meanings. It may mean stumble or fall, hence Cranmer and Tyndale say: "Lest we perish." It may also mean to run out of the mind, as liquid from a leaky vessel-hence to forget. It may also mean slip or flow or drift. like I do not profess to be a scholar in English, much less in Greek, and I will not venture a translation; but will suggest that the author may have had in mind something this, which of course is not a translation, unless the mind and life be held closely to the words which God had spoken, we will drift away from them and from the salvation which they promise. Thus the thought in |