Gospel in Hebrew; as Paul (Acts xxi. 40) stood on the stairs of the castle, and spake unto the people of Jerusalem "in the Hebrew tongue." The pure Greek of the old Grecians is called Classic Greek. The Greek of the New Testament has been called the "Greek of the Synagogue." And every man, who is both a classical and a Biblical student, knows full well that a good lexicon (or dictionary) of the Greek of the synagogue must be a peculiar lexicon of the New Testament Greek. Such we have: elaborate and excellent lexicons. And in cases of doubt as to the meaning of a word, the New Testament use, where it can be shown to be peculiar, determines the meaning in defiance of all the classic Greek writers and lexicons in exist ence. Let me give an illustration or two of the effect of arguing the New Testament meaning from the original and from the classic use of a word. Some years since, I met with a man, who was liberally educated, a thorough scholar, an able lawyer, and possessed of splendid natural abilities, but sceptical in his views of religion. With this man I undertook to reason of the necessity of being born of the Holy Ghost. Now, the word in the Greek Testament for Ghost, or spirit, is Pneuma (VEUμa) which originally, and in the classic Greek, most commonly meant WIND. This inan would have me argue by book. He turned me to the Greek Testament (John iii. 5)., "See here," says he," it reads, and you know it reads, 'Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of WIND, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' What right," said he, "have you to change the original classic meaning of 'Pneuma' (лvεvua), 'wind,' here, any more than you have of Hudatos' (vdatos) water?' And see, further," said he, "there is the same word in the 8th verse,— letter for letter, and there you do not say, the Spirit bloweth where it listeth;' you say, 'the WIND bloweth where it listeth."" He was right in the original and ordinary classic use of the word. And if I had argued on the principles on which (I shall show) our Baptist brethren have argued, I should have been obliged to allow, that the renewing by the "Spirit of God," or even the personal existence of such a Spirit, is not taught or referred to in this pas sage. With all due respect for our Baptist brethren, I humbly conceive that, in this matter, they have fallen into an egregious error in their attempted corrections of our common translation. To the Bibles and Testaments issued by their society, they prefix a glossary, containing, among others, the following words, thus ; "Meaning of the words used in this translation." It is maintained that these words, and some others, are improperly, if not dishonestly, left untranslated,* and that the words which are given in the third column as "The mass of readers do not understand the original, and translators of the Bible, by adopting, not translating, have hidden the meaning from the multitude." JEWETT on Baptism, p. 31. the meaning ought to be substituted for the words adopted in our translation. Thus: where we read " Church," we ought to read " Congregation," where we read " Angel" in our version, we ought to read "Messenger;" where we read" Baptize," we ought to read " Immerse ;” and where we read " Baptism," we ought to read " Immersion." Now it appears to me that this is falling into a worse error than that of the unbelieving scholar concerning the word Pneuma or Spirit. Thus "Angel" is a word of Greek original adopted into the English language, and used in our translation.† Our Baptist brethren insist that this adoption is wrong: that the word ought to be translated by the word " Messenger." Now it is certainly true that, in the classic Greek, the word ANGEL (ayyelos) means Messenger; and means nothing like the idea which we attribute to it: viz., of a *The word "Church" begins to be nearly as troublesome as the word "Baptize." While the word " Baptize" remains in the Bible, it is difficult to persuade people that it means exclusively "to immerse;" and while the word "Church" remains, people will somehow follow it out to a covenant which embraces infants. † Nothing is more common than such adoption of words from the Greek. The process is going on to this day; particularly our terms of science and of art are almost wholly adopted (and compounded) from the Greek. Strike all such adopted words from our language, and scarcely could two people, even in the ordinary walks of life, hold a conversation for a single hour. "Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si "Licuit SEMPERQUE LICEBIT Signatum præsente nota procudere nomen." Q. HORAT. Ars Poetica. ', spiritual being of an order superior to man and inferior to God. The Greeks even had another word to signify such a spiritual being, "Demon" (Saiμwr), and Angelos (ayyelos) meant nothing but "messenger." But mark how the classic Greek was modified when adapted to Jewish ideas. The Jews used the word "Demon" (Saιuar) to express only an evil spirit; a fallen angel: and "angel" they appropriated to the good spirits. And to translate the word in all cases as the Baptist Bible Society would teach us, instead of adopting it into English, untranslated, would make the most arrant nonsense. For example: take Acts xxiii. 8, and translate it according to the instructions and on the principles of the Baptist Bible Society. In our common version the passage reads thus: "For the Sadducees say, there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both." The word resurrection here falls under the same rule, if you take its meaning from the classic Greek. The Greeks had no such idea as that of the resurrection of the body: and of course no word for it, but their avaσtaois (anastasis) was a simple "rising up."* In our translation the pas * My good friend, "Transmontanus," finds fault with me here. He maintains that pneuma sometimes means spirit in the classic Greek. Perhaps he did not observe how carefully I had provided for that, by saying that it "originally" and "most commonly" meant wind. It is rarely that it means otherwise. Donnegan notices that it is sometimes otherwise used "by later writers." "Transmontanus," also, insists that anastasis means the same in the sacred as in the classic writers. He brings no proof. His examples refer to the verb, “to raise up again.” The resurrection (anastasis) of the New Testament is altogether peculiar. It is sage reads thus: "For the Sadducees say there is no esurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both." According to the principles on which our translation is branded as inadequate and unfaithful, we must read it thus: For the Sadducees say there is no used absolutely; as in Matt. xxii. 23, "The Sadducees say there is no resurrection," and Acts xvii. 18, "He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods; because he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection." The Stoics and Epicureans would have been quite as likely to think the Resurrection (anastasis) a God (when used absolutely and alone, as it is in the New Testament), as to imagine that it was intended to signify a raising of the dead. Donnegan notices the peculiar meaning of this word in “ Ecclesiastical writers." "Transmontanus" insists, also, that the New Testament Angelos (angel) means a simple messenger, as it does in the classic Greek; and that it does not refer to a class of Heavenly creatures, like our English word angel. According to him and to the Baptist Bible Society, we must expunge the word angel from our Bibles, and, where it occurs, read thus :-John v. 4, must be read, "For a messenger went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water." In Acts xi. 13, we must read, "And showed us how he had seen a messenger in his house:" Acts xii. 15, "Then said they, it is his" (Peter's) "messenger:" Matt. iv. 11, "Then the devil leaveth him, and behold messengers came and ministered to him :" Matt. xviii. 10, "Their messengers do always behold the face of my Father in Heaven:" 1 Cor. vi. 3, "Know ye not, that we shall judge messengers ?" Heb. i. 4, 'Being made so much better than the messengers :" Heb. ii. 16, "He took not on him the nature of messengers :" and Heb. xiii. 2, "For some have entertained messengers unawares." I confess that there is quite as good reason for making Angel read messenger, as there is for making Baptize read immerse. The word Church, too, must express no more than the heathen idea of a town-meeting, or assembly. But clearly the New Testament ecclesia does mean something which it never could mean in classic Greek. Thus in 1 Cor. xii. 28, "And God hath set |