On Old English Bibles.

its distribution , and the king licenced it , " to be sold ancl read of every person without danger of any act , proclamation , or ordinance , heretofore granted to the contrary . " Thus the title " Authorised Version , " commonly given to the book of 1611 without any reason ( for no authorisation was ever conferred on our present Bible by Church , King , or Parliament ) , would be with more propriety applied to Matthew ' s version .

Grafton also presented Cromwell with six copies , and begged to be protected from the competition of German printers residing in England , as he knew it would be difficult to dispose of the 1500 copies of which the edition consisted . This version abounds in interesting readings . We should like to give several examples , but to avoid taking up too much space , two or three must suffice . In the fifth chapter of the first of Kingsafter speaking of

Adoniram—, " At the commandernente of the king , they brought great stones , ancl that fre stones , and hewed thereto , to laye in the foundacyon of the house . And Solomon ' s masons , and the masons of Hiram , dyd hew them , with them of the borders . "

In the second chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles , the message sent by Hiram , king of Tyre , to King Solomon , is thus given : — " And now I have sent a wyse man , ancl a man of understandynge , called Hiram Abi , ancl is the sonne of a woman of the daughters of Dan ( how be it hys father was a Tirian ) ; and he can skyll to worcke in goulde , syluer , hrasse , yron , stone , tymbre , Scarlett , jacinct , bysse , and cremosin ; and graue al nianer of grauinges , and to find out al maner of sotle worcke sett before hym . "

In the fourth chapter our Grand Master is again mentioned : — "And al theyr vessels dyd Hiram Abi make for King Solomon for the house of the Lord of bright hrasse : In the playne of Jorda d yd the king cast them , in the thicke earth , betwene Socoth and Zaredatha . " Abi , or Abif , as Coverdale ' s Bible of 1535 has it , is a title of honour , meaning fatherbut the rendering in our present version " Hiram father ' s "

, my does not convey the original idea as accurately as the term Hiram Abif does . We have on the authority of a learned Rabbi , the chaplain of one of our West Yorkshire Lodges , ancl who also is a Companion of the Royal Arch , that the Craft has retained the correct word . At the request of the writer , our Hebrew brother carefull y examined the passage in its ori ginal language , and the conclusion he arrived at was , that the rendering in the old

English Bibles is a better one than that of our present version . We hope that in the new version now in preparation , the old term Abif will be restored . We have examined early printed German Bibles , ancl old versions in many other languages , and excepting the Vulgate , which has " Hiram pater , " the title " Abif " is retained in every one of them . Another word in use amongst Masons , which has been omitted from our

present Bible , occurs in the ninth chapter of Ezechiel , which in Matthew ' s version reads as follows : — " Go thy waye throw the cytye of Jerusalem , and and set this marke Thau upon the f oreheades of them that mourn and are sorry for the abbomynacyons that be done therein . " " But for those that haue this mark Thau : se that ye touch them not . " There is a valuable note respecting the Tau in another early English version , explaining wh y " Tau " is the sign of life , which we hope to quote later on .

It is interesting to notice that the descri ption given in Exodus of Bezaleel , corresponds in every particular with that given in Chronicles of Hiram Abif . We are told Bezaleel was "filled with wysdome , understandyng , and knowled ge , to worke in gold , sillier , and brasse , ancl with grauinge of stones to sett , and keruynge in wood , and to worke al maner of sotle workes . " " And Ahaliab of the tribe of Dan , hathe he fylled with wysdome of hearte , to worke al maner of granen worke , in jacinct , scarlett , purple and bysse . " Four hundred and seventy-five years after , we find it recorded that Hiram F 2