Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: Preface and Introductions | Page 3

that far grander edifice.
10. THE GREEK TEXT here followed is that given in the Translator's
Resultant Greek Testament.
11. Of the VARIOUS READINGS only those are here given which
seem the most important, and which affect the rendering into English.
They are in the footnotes, with V.L. (varia lectio) prefixed. As to the
chief modern critical editions full details will be found in the Resultant
Greek Testament, while for the original authorities--MSS., Versions,
Patristic quotations--the reader must of necessity consult the great
works of Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others, or the
numerous monographs on separate Books. /3 In the margin of the R.V.
a distinction is made between readings supported by "a few ancient
authorities," "some ancient authorities," "many ancient authorities," and
so on. Such valuation is not attempted in this work.
12. Considerable pains have been bestowed on the exact rendering of
the tenses of the Greek verb; for by inexactness in this detail the true
sense cannot but be missed. That the Greek tenses do not coincide, and
cannot be expected to coincide with those of the English verb;
that--except in narrative--the aorist as a rule is more exactly represented

in English by our perfect with "have" than by our simple past tense; and
that in this particular the A.V. is in scores of instances more correct
than the R.V.; the present Translator has contended (with arguments
which some of the best scholars in Britain and in America hold to be
"unanswerable" and "indisputable") in a pamphlet On the Rendering
into English of the Greek Aorist and Perfect. Even an outline of the
argument cannot be given in a Preface such as this.
13. But he who would make a truly English translation of a foreign
book must not only select the right nouns, adjectives, and verbs, insert
the suitable prepositions and auxiliaries, and triumph (if he can) over
the seductions and blandishments of idioms with which he has been
familiar from his infancy, but which, though forcible or beautiful with
other surroundings, are for all that part and parcel of that other
language rather than of English: he has also to beware of connecting his
sentences in an un-English fashion.
Now a careful examination of a number of authors (including Scottish,
Irish, and American) yields some interesting results. Taking at
haphazard a passage from each of fifty-six authors, and counting on
after some full stop till fifty finite verbs--i. e. verbs in the indicative,
imperative, or subjunctive mood--have been reached (each finite verb,
as every schoolboy knows, being the nucleus of one sentence or clause),
it has been found that the connecting links of the fifty-six times fifty
sentences are about one-third conjunctions, about one-third adverbs or
relative and interrogative pronouns, while in the case of the remaining
third there is what the grammarians call an asyndeton--no formal
grammatical connexion at all. But in the writers of the N.T. nearly
two-thirds of the connecting links are conjunctions. It follows that in
order to make the style of a translation true idiomatic English many of
these conjunctions must be omitted, and for others adverbs, &c., must
be substituted.
The two conjunctions for and therefore are discussed at some length in
two Appendices to the above-mentioned pamphlet on the Aorist, to
which the reader is referred.
14. The NOTES, with but few exceptions, are not of the nature of a

general commentary. Some, as already intimated, refer to the readings
here followed, but the great majority are in vindication or explanation
of the renderings given. Since the completion of this new version
nearly two years ago, ill-health has incapacitated the Translator from
undertaking even the lightest work. He has therefore been obliged to
entrust to other hands the labour of critically examining and revising
the manuscript and of seeing it through the press. This arduous task has
been undertaken by Rev. Ernest Hampden-Cook, M.A., St. John's
College, Cambridge, of Sandhach, Cheshire, with some co-operation
from one of the Translator's sons; and the Translator is under deep
obligations to these two gentlemen for their kindness in the matter. He
has also most cordially to thank Mr. Hampden-Cook for making the
existence of the work known to various members of the OLD
MILLHILIANS' CLUB and other former pupils of the Translator, who
in a truly substantial manner have manifested a generous determination
to enable the volume to see the light. Very grateful does the Translator
feel to them for this signal mark of their friendship.
Mr. Hampden-Cook is responsible for the headings of the paragraphs,
and at my express desire has inserted some additional notes.
I have further to express my gratitude to Rev. Frank Baliard, M.A.,
B.Sc., Lond., at present of Sharrow, Sheffield, for some very valuable
assistance which he has most kindly given in connexion with the
Introductions to the