I. King J ames’s Version. The italicized words are the Translators’.
.23 “ Oh that my words were now written I oh that they were printed [sic / ] in a hook !
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever I ■
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
The marginal reading, authority unknown, substitutes—“ Or, After 1 shall awake, though
this body he destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see God.” In the authorized version, by the
interpolation of “ worms,” Job is made a believer in the resurrection of the body: in the
margin, he believes that he shall behold God “ out of the flesh : ” that is, in the spirit!
What did he believe ?
II. N oyes, New Translation of the Book of Job; Boston, 1838; p. 37.
23 “ 0 that my words were now Written !
0 that they were inscribed in a register!
24 That with an iron pen, and with lead,
They were engraven upon the rock for ever !
25 Yet I know my Vindicator liveth,
And will stand up at length on the earth ;
26 And though with my skin this body he wasted away,
Yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
Noyes (Notes, pp. 144-6) says—“ Or we may render, Yet without flesh 1 shall see God ”—
and enumerates cogënt “ objections to the supposition that Job here expresses his confident
expectation of a resurrection.”
III. Cahen, “ Job;” La Bible, Traduction Nouvelle, avec l’Hébreu en regard; Paris,
1851 ; pp. 86-7. We render the French literally into English.
23 f| Would to God that my words were written ! Would to God that they were traced in a book
24 ' With a burin of iron and with lead! that they were engraved for ever in the rock!
25 But I, I know .that my ‘redemptor’ is living, and will remain the last upon th'e earth :
26 And after that my skin shall have been destroyed, this delivered from the flesh, I shall" see God.”
In the foot-note, Cahen explains that the Hebrew word 'hifà, GALI, which he renders
“ mon rédempteur,” proceeds from the verb GAL, “ to deliver;” meaning likewise “ revendiquer;”
which corresponds to the Vindicator of Noyes. The idea of Job’s hope of a resurrection,
itself a mythological anachronism, is popularly derived from the LXX and the
Greek Fathers, with ideas developed in the Latin Church after St. Jerome.
Thus the reader has now before him three specimens, amid the wilderness of Translations,
wherein are involved theological dogmas of “ resurrection of the body,” “ redemption of
the soul,” and the antiquity of “ Messianic préfigurations ”— questions of no slight religious
importance ; and yet, withal, unless he be profound in Hebrew, his opinion upon the
merits of either rendering is alike worthless to himself and to others ; nor can he conscientiously
distinguish which is veritably the “ word of God” among these triple contradictions.
The ridiculous anachronism perpetrated in king James’s version \ v . 23) that
makes Job wish that his words were “ printed” (probably 2500 years before the art was
invented !) (30) has long ago been pointed out ; and is alone sufficient to destroy the alleged
inspiration of that “ authorized” verse. For ourselves we mourn that want of space compels
the suppression of some archaeological remarks on the “ book of Job” (%IUB —
meaning “ L’uomo iracondo che rientra con rossore in se stesso ”). We derive them from
studies at Paris, under our honored preceptor Michel-angelo Lanci, to whom we here
renew the warmest tribute of respect and admiration.
To Anglo-Saxon Protestantism the biblical profundities of the “ Professor of Sacred and
Interpreter of Oriental Tongues at the Vatican ” (31) since the year 1820, are entirely un-
(30) N ott: Biblical and Physical History o f Man; 1849; pp. 136, 137.
(31) G a e t a n o D em in ic is : Biografia del Cavaliere J>. Michelrangelo Land, Fermo, 1840; p. 10.
known. Written in the purest Italian exclusively for the lettered—restricted to one edition
of 125 copies for each work, at a cost of 125 francs ($25”) per copy—and, for manifold reasons,
artistically fashioned upon a plan not easily comprehended without an oral key —
Lanci’s enormous labors upon Semitic palaeography, to the “ profanum vulgus” of theology,
must long remain sealed books. In 1848-9, no ’copy of the Paralipomeni,\32) nor of the
Seconda Opera Cufica, (33) both published during 1845-7, at Paris (the latter at the expense
of Nicholas, Czar of Muscovy), existed within the Library of the British Museum: not-.
withstanding that Lanci’s volumes were for sale at two leading booksellers’ in London; and
that their absence at the Museum-Library had been formally notified to its unnational
“ Powers that be.” (34) The Vie Simboliche della Bibbia (known to us in its author’s manuscript)
will not be published for a period incalculable, because dependent upon human
longevity. Our mutual friend, Mr. R. K. Haight of New York, is, in the United States,
the sole possessor of Lanci’s works that we know of. (35)
History records that it was in consequence of the discrepancies, notorious among such
translations into English as existed at the beginning of the seventeenth century, that, in the
reign of king James, a new version of the Scriptures was published: which duly received
the royal, ecclesiastical, parliamentary, and national sanction, and is now consecrated
amongst us Anglo-Saxons as the unique and immaculate “ Word of God”—the standard of
faith among Protestant communities of our race throughout the world. It is, and ought
to be, in the hands of every one; so that no obstacles to the verification of such quotations,
as we shall have occasion to make, exist at the present day among readers of English. As
the document we are in quest of, Xth Genesis, is contained within this volume, we are
compelled by the rules of archaeology first to examine the book itse lf; in order to obtain
some preliminary insight into its history, its literary merits a s , a Translation, and the
repute in which the latter point is held by those most qualified to judge.
To avoid mistakes arising from confusion of editions, we quote the title-page of the copy
before us.—“ THE HOLY BIBLE, containing the Old and New Testaments: translated out
of the original Tongues; and with the former Translations diligently compared and
revised, by His Majesty’s Special Gommand. Appointed to be read in Churches. London:
(32) Paralipomeni all’ ItLusbrazione della Sagra Scrittura; Paris, qto. 2 vols.; 1845.
(33) Seconda Opera Cufica — Trattato détte simboliche rappresentanze Arabiche e détta varia generazione de’ Musulmani
caratteri sopra differenti materie operati; Parigi, 1846-’47 ; qto. 2 vols.
(34) Gl id d o n : Otia AEgyptiaca; 'London, 1849; p. 17, note; see also p. 110.
(35) Through the Chevalier’s epistolary kindness, I am enabled to correct a former mistake, into which other
authority had led me; and I gladly seize occasion to quote from one of numerous Italian autographs in my
possession.: —
« ~ . . . < ‘ ’ « R « Car™ Amico! o m a , 18 Ottobre. 1851.
“ You say, in Otia AEgyptiaca (p. 31), that ‘pyramid’ is derived from p i and haram; the former being a Coptic
article, the latter an Arabic word, combined even nowadays among the Arabs in [their name, EL-HaRaM, for]
pyramid. This is not according to grammatical exactness; because haram is not altogether radical. The
demonstrative [letter H] he is prefixed to it, which serves in lieu of the Coptic p i. Ram [Arabicè], RM, is the
root (altitude). Haram, HRM, says, therefore, the-attitude; and it is a synonyme of the Copticpi-ram, in which
the he, II, that you have yoked to it, plays no part. The word ram, besides being a Semitic, is also a Coptic
word, with the sense of height.. . But very huge seems to me the error of Ewald, in Bunsen, who presumes to
explain a. text of Job (iii. 14) by changing a b into m, and making a HaraMòt of his own out of the biblical
HaraHdt I transcribe for you the complete article of mine, which on some occasion may be of aid to you :
« Article taken from the ‘ Vie Simboliche dét Vecchio e Nuovo Testamento’ regarding a passage in Job.. . . [We
have not two pages to spare, and therefore are compelled to omit the acute philological reasonings of our valued
preceptor.—-G. R. G.] The sààd two verses, most entangled in the versions of others, through my inquiries
now read | Now should I have quiet with the kings and mighty-ones of the earth who already repose in their
subterranean habitations; or with the princes who had gold and (who) caused their sepulchres to be filled
with silver.’ [Comp. Cahen , x v . p. 1 2 .] . . . I will not leave this argument without first giving you an illustration
of that arduous verse 6 of Psalm ix.; in which, it appears to me, interpreters have strayed away from truth.
Here recurs that charabdt which I explained. Now, if philologers are wise enough, to accept my discovery,
they will see that this sentence of the Psalm, in the place above-named, speaks with vibratory locution__
They closed to the enemy the*subterranean abode in perpetuity : thou'destroyedst the cities, and with these
the memorial of those perished.’ ” [Compare King James?s Version /] . . . ,
“ Affmo vostro, Michel-angelo L anci.”