And we are willing to admit, that, in translating the Holy
Scriptures, the greatest degree of strictness in literal rendering,
compatible with the full and correct expression of the thought, is and
should be a first consideration; the translator should take no liberties
with the text, by way either of omission, alteration, or compromise; he
must in no way vitiate the thought; and if he keep within this rule,
he will have escaped just criticism, and may claim the merit of
faithfulness to his task. Has Mr. Sawyer, then, in his New Testament,
given a strictly literal rendering? and is it an improvement on
the common version? We have space for only a few specimens of his
translation, and we have taken some of the first that attracted our
notice; it will be observed that they are none of them abstruse or
disputed passages.
COMMON VERSION.
_Matt_. ii. 16.
"Then Herod, when he saw that he was _mocked_ of the _wise men_, was
exceeding wroth, and sent forth and _slew_ all the children that were in
Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under,
according to the time which he _had diligently inquired_ of the _wise
men_.
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