'Through Many Trials' David Brown - XXX.

The latter part of the 19th century was marked by change, by at least attempts to replace that which was old with that which was new. Among these attempts was the Revised Version of the Bible.
It was recognised that the Authorised Version of 1611, while one of the finest works ever produced in the English language, was now somewhat archaic in language. While spelling had been regularized to get rid of such spellings as 'beleeve', there were still expressions such as 'he that letteth will let' that were quite unintelligible to the average man on the street ('let' in this passage meaning practically the reverse of what he would have thought it meant). Thus, in 1870, the Convocation of the Church of England proposed that a Revised Version of the Bible be produced. Although the motion came from the Church of England, the actual revisers came from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians. From 1870 to 1880, David Brown sat on the New Testament revision committee that produced what was called the Revised Version.
The idea of the Convocation had been an updating of the English of the Authorised Version, somewhat like the New King James Bible of today. In fact what was produced was a new translation from a different underlying Greek text, the text itself being informed by the principles of Westcott and Hort.
Despite his heavy workload, and the Robertson Smith case, David Brown was present at 209 of the 407 meetings of the New Testament Revision company (as it was called). He recorded in correspondence with his Anglican friend, Principal Moule, some of the difficulties of the work. To give one example, there was a discussion about the word 'stinketh' in relation to Lazarus' body. Some balked at the directness of the word, and Brown said, with his Scottish humour, "What would you say to an American Baptist translation, 'By this time he is offensive.'" The company collapsed in laughter.
In Roman 6.1 one of the company, Dr. Kennedy, argued for the translation 'God who is over asll be blessed for ever,' declaring that the only reason anyone disagreed with him was theology. Dean Scott (of the Liddell Scott Lexicon), replied, "No, sir, we stand upon Greek. The verse weon't translate but, as in the Authorised Version, according to the Septuagint and New Testament Greek." Thus the R.V. DOES describe Christ as 'God over all, blessed for ever.' All users of Liddell and Scott's lexicon should know this fact!
David Brown, like all the Scottish members of the Revision Committee (including Dr. Eadie of the United Presbyterian Church), tended to the conservative side. In fact, he practically agreed with Dean Burgon's position in 'The Revision Revised'. He had been called upon to participate in an updating of the A.V., not the production of an entirely new translation with a new Greek text. The remit of the revisers had been limited to updating the A.V., and to Brown and others, it seemed that Westcott and Hort had taken over the Company to produce a new Bible version based on their textual theories. Brown disagreed with these theories anyway, and contemplated writing a book opposing them. That task, however, he finally left to others.
He pointed out several places where Westcott and Hort had adopted readings that were obviously mistakes, for example in Revelation 15.6, where the A.V. says the angels were 'clothed in pure and white linen'. The Revision there read 'arrayed witrh precious stone pure and bright.' The difference in the Greek is one letter, the letter nu (n) in the T.R. being replaced with the letter theta (th) in the Westcott and Hort text. Brown noted that the possibility of a scribal error here is great, and the very fact that the R.V. had to supply 'precious' indicated a high probability that Westcott and Hort had a bad reading here. Modern scholars agree, and all modern Bible versions we consulted read 'linen' here. He pointed up a number of other changes which were based on two or three old manuscripts, but opposed by the great weight of manuscript evidence. In summary, David Brown supported the IDEA of Revision, but not the R.V., which he felt had, in the New Testament, been hi-jacked by Westcott and Hort as a vehicle for proting their text.

We give a list of the scholars on the New Testament Company in 1879:

The Right Rev. Charles John Ellicott, D. D., Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (Chairman), Palace, Gloucester.
The Right Rev. George Moberly, D. C. L., Bishop of Salisbury, Palace, Salisbury.
The Very Rev. Edward Henry Bickersteth, D. D., Prolocutor, Dean of Lichfield, Deanery, Lichfield.
The Very Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., Dean of Westminster, Deanery, Westminster.
The Very Rev. Robert Scott, D. D., Dean of Rochester, Deanery, Rochester.
The Very Rev. Joseph Williams Blakesley, B. D., Dean of Lincoln, Deanery, Lincoln.
The Most Rev. Richard Chenevix Trench, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin, Palace, Dublin.
The Right Rev. Joseph Lightfoot, D. D., LL.D., Bishop of Durham.
The Right Rev. Charles Wordsworth, D. C. L., Bishop of St. Andrew's, Bishopshall, St. Andrew's.
The Rev. Joseph Angus, D. D., President of the Baptist College, Regent's Park, London.
The Rev. David Brown, D. D., Principal of the Free Church College, Aberdeen.
The Rev. Fenton John Anthony Hort, D. D., Fellow of Emmanual College, Cambridge.
The Rev. William Gilson Humphry, Vicarage, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, W. C.
The Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D. D., Canon of Ely and Regius Professor of Greek, The Elms, Cambridge.
The Ven. William Lee, D. D., Archdeacon of Dublin, Dublin.
The Rev. William Milligan, D. D., Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism, Aberdeen.
The Rev. William F. Moulton, D. D., Master of the Leys School, Cambridge.
The Rev. Samuel Newth, D. D., Principal of New College, Hampstead, London.
The Ven. Edwin Palmer, D. D., Archdeacon of Oxford, Christ Church, Oxford.
The Rev. Alexander Roberts, D. D., Professor of Humanity, St. Andrew's.
The Rev. Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, LL.D., Prebendary, Hendon Vicarage, London, N. W.
The Rev. George Vance. Smith, D. D., Parade, Carmarthen.
The Rev. Charles John Vaughan, D. D., Master of the Temple, The Temple, London, E. C.
The Rev. Brooke Foss Westcott, D. D., Canon of Peterborough and Regius Professor of Divinity, Trinity College, Cambridge.
The Rev. J. Troutbeck (Secretary), Dean's Yard, Westminster.

The English New Testament Company lost, by death, the Right Rev. Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester; the Very Rev. Dr. Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury; the Rev. Dr. John Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature in the United Presbyterian Church, Glasgow; and Mr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, LL. D.; and they lost, by resignation, the Rev. Dr. Charles Merivale, Dean of Ely.

God willing, next time we shall have something to say about David Brown in controversy with Roman Catholics and Unitarians!