cessity, one may reasonably decline to make acquain-
tance. Even a Presbyterian writer, not easily of-
fended by anytliing proceeding from sucli a source,
complains of it as 'most ludicrous, and altogether
inconsistent with, that decorous and seemly garb in
which the word of God should be presented to the
public' " *

Mr. Jowett, in his report to the Malta Bible So-
ciety, says that "the Bishop of Scio, a truly learned
man, regrets in behalf of his own nation the vulgar-
ity of that version which has been printed for the
Greeks." f

It would be easy to multiply testimonies as to the
inaccuracy of many of the Protestant translations.
It really comes to this : that where the Bible Societies
have been circulating editions with important errors,
they have been distributing something else in place
of the inspired word. In this connection we may
add that even their own missionaries bear witness
to the correctness of the Catholic versions, agatast
which no accusations have been made. Dr. Wolff,
one of their agents, admits that "the best transla-
tions of foreign Bibles issued by our Bible Society
are reprints from those made by the Propaganda at
Rome." X

* Marshall, I, 36. f " Asiatic Journal, VI. 503."

t Wolff, "Travels," p 182.
History of the Protestant Bible. \%1

In 1818 the Britisli and Foreign Society purchased
1,500 copies of the ancient Armenian Testament from
the Armenian Catholic College on the Island of St.
Lazarus, Venice, and subsequently procured a larger
number for distribution in Turkey. The Arabic ver-
sion which the society formerly circulated in Syria
was the Propaganda edition printed at Rome in 1671.
