CHAPTER I
THE SCRIPTURES

apo blefouV ta iera grammata oidaV

Many Allusions to Scripture

‘In the year 1729,’ wrote John Wesley, ‘I began not only to read but to study the Bible.’ The results of that devoted study of the Word of God are to be seen in every page that he wrote. Both the brothers must have had a most profound, exact, and extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures. Indeed, it is only a close study of the Bible on our own part that can reveal to us the extent of their intimacy with it. There can hardly be a single paragraph anywhere in the Scriptures that is not somewhere reflected in the writings of the Wesleys. The hymns, in many cases, are a mere mosaic of biblical allusions. Here is a stanza--and many others would have served equally well--where there is a distinct quotation of Scripture in every line:

These six lines recall the following six passages in the Authorized Version:

‘And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord’ (Luke 1:38).

‘I will guide thee with Mine eye’ (Ps. 32:8).

‘If a man love Me he will keep My words’ (John 14:23).

‘That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ (Rom. 12:2).

‘For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His’ (Heb. 4:10).

‘For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness’ (Matt. 3:15).

The Prayer-Book Psalter

But the most interesting points with regard to the Wesleys and the Authorized Version are naturally their many divergencies from it. They often used, and sometimes deliberately preferred to use, the older version of the Psalms (substantially Coverdale's) which is retained in the Book of Common Prayer. As devout Churchmen they had been familiar with this from childhood, and in many cases their use of it was doubtless merely casual. But there are other instances in which they remembered both versions, and combined or contrasted them.

Much of Charles Wesley's language and thought was colored by renderings in this version. Thus the words of Ps. 27:16 ‘O tarry thou 18 the Lord's leisure,’ are recalled in many of his verses:

And the language of Ps. 45:4, ‘Gird Thee with Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou most Mighty, according to Thy worship and renown,’ is closely paraphrased in another hymn:

In a poetical paraphrase of Ps. 84, both versions of the eleventh verse are utilized, ‘For the Lord God is a light and a defence’ (P.B.V.), ‘For the Lord God is a sun and shield’ (A.V.):

The earlier version of Ps. 99:1, ‘The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient,’ is remembered in the opening verse of a hymn--

So a clause from Ps. 139:23, ‘Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart,’ is remembered in another hymn--

Many other examples might be quoted. There is one, however, of unusual interest. In Ps. 74:12, where the Authorized Version with the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Vulgate, has ‘For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth,’ the Prayer-Book Version renders ‘For God is my King of old; the help that is done upon earth, He doeth it Himself.’ This is following Luther, ‘der alle Hilfe thut, so auf Er den geschieht,’ and the Zurich Bible, ‘du der alles heyl und hilff (das in der gantzen welt geschieht) allein thust.’

It is reproduced in one of the hymns:

John Wesley emphatically preferred this rendering. He wrote in his Journal, under the date October 14, 1785, ‘I preached in the evening in the old Temple Church, on Ps. 74:12. In the old translation it runs, “The help that is done upon earth, God doeth it Himself.” A 20 glorious and important truth! In the new, “Working salvation in the midst of the earth.” What a wonderful emendation! Many such emendations there are in this translation; one would think King James had made them himself.’ In another passage in the Journal, a year and a half later, April 22, 1787, he refers to the text and translation again: ‘I opened and applied that glorious text, “The help that is done upon earth, He doeth it Himself.” Is it not strange that this text, Ps. 74:12, is vanished out of the new translation of the Psalms?’

Notwithstanding Wesley's uncritical scorn of the ‘emendation,’ it is the only correct rendering. He was very old, and very busy, or a glance at his Hebrew Bible would have shown him that the Authorized Version was unquestionably right.

John Wesley's Revision of the New Testament

In the Notes on the New Testament Wesley freely revised the Authorized Version. And it has never yet been sufficiently recognized that in this (as in so much else) he was wonderfully ahead of his age. Wesley's version, issued in 1754, was a marvellous anticipation of the Revised Version of a hundred and thirty years later. We have tested three chapters, chosen haphazard, and find that in these chapters Wesley introduced sixty-one changes into the text. Out of these sixty-one 21 changes he anticipated the reading of the Revised Version in thirty-two cases. Moreover, it is nearly always in the more serious alterations that the Revisers agree with him. There must be in the whole New Testament, say, 3,000 changes in the text of the Authorized Version, in which Wesley anticipated the Revisers of 1881. And he anticipated them in the arrangement of the text into paragraphs.

The Wesleys and the Greek Testament

Behind all this there was, of course, an intimate knowledge of the Greek Testament. John Wesley was Greek Lecturer at Lincoln College, and that did not mean that he had to do with Hellenic studies (as some who have written about it have assumed), but that he lectured on the Greek Testament. One of the early Methodist preachers recorded that Wesley could always remember the Greek of a passage in the New Testament, even when he was at a loss for the exact language of the Authorized Version. And Charles Wesley, like his brother, had a devout scholar's knowledge of the New Testament in the original.⁷⁷Dr. Adam Clarke says that John Wesley used the O mirificam edition of the Greek Testament, printed by Stephens, at Paris, in 1546.

This intimacy with the Greek Testament appears in many delightful ways in their writings, as well as in the revised text given in the Notes on the New Testament. Naturally it is most 22 easily discerned where the Authorized Version is defective. Many scores of examples might be quoted.

Mistranslations in the Authorized Version

There are a few absolute mistranslations in the Authorized Version. One of the worst is in Philip. 2:7, where ‘made Himself of no reputation’ represents the Greek eauton ekenwte ‘emptied Himself.’ The translators of 1611 were apparently afraid of the Apostle's bold and simple word. Wesley removed the futile circumlocution of the Authorized Version and gave the only possible rendering, as the Revised Version did later. Wherever the passage is referred to in the hymns, the proper equivalent of the Greek is given--

There is another passage in Philippians where the translation, inadequate to begin with, became still more unsatisfactory through the change in meaning of an English word. The Authorized Version of Philip. 3:20 is ‘For our conversation is in heaven.’ The Greek is politeuma, ‘citizenship,’ and the Revised Version reads accordingly, ‘For 23 our citizenship is in heaven.’ The poet evidently had the original in mind when he wrote--

The Greek Article

Again, one of the striking defects of the Authorized Version is its strange indifference as to the presence or absence of the Greek article -- a characteristic largely due to the influence of the Vulgate. The Authorized Version of 2 Tim. 4:7 is, ‘I have fought a good fight,’ but the Textus Receptus is, ton agwna ton kalon ‘the good fight.’ So Wesley rendered it in the Notes, and the force of the article is remembered in more than one hymn--

There is only one ‘good fight’--what the Apostle calls elsewhere ‘the good fight of faith.’

The very next verse, of Scripture furnishes another example of the same thing. The Authorized Version translates ‘Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.’ But the Greek is o ths dikaiosunhV stefanoV ‘the crown of righteousness.’ So Wesley renders it in the Notes. And so constantly in the hymns:

Different Words in the Original

Again the Authorized Version frequently ignores that important canon of translation which ordains that different words in the original shall be rendered by different words in the version. It is well known that there are two words in the Greek Testament, both of which the Authorized Version renders ‘crown,’ diadhma and stefanoV. The former is the kingly ornament, the royal crown. The word only occurs thrice, in the whole of the New Testament, and all the three instances are in the Apocalypse--the ‘seven diadems’ of the dragon (Rev. 12:3), the ‘ten diadems’ of the beast (Rev. 13:1), and the ‘many diadems’ of Christ (Rev. 19:12). In each case Wesley, in the Notes, retained the original word, as the Revisers did in 1881. One of the hymns, too, remembers the word--

The other word, stefanoV, is much more frequent, and it is poorly represented by the English ‘crown,’ since it never means the badge of royalty, as the English word generally does. The significance of the word has been beautifully 25 defined by Archbishop Trench, in his Synonyms of the New Testament. ‘It is the crown of victory in the games, of civic worth, of military valor, of nuptial joy, of festal gladness--woven of oak, of ivy, of parsley, of myrtle, of olive--or imitating in gold these leaves or others--of flowers, as of violets or roses, the “wreath,” in fact, or the “garland,” the German “Kranz” as distinguished from “Krone.”’ This is the word consistently used in the New Testament of the rewards of the faithful; the stefanoV of life, of glory, of righteousness. It is this which is used in Rev. 2:10, ‘Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life,’ ton stefanoV thV zohV. The passage is quoted in many of the hymns, and the proper significance of the word is brought out in nearly every case.

And so in references to 2 Tim. 4:8--

In John 13:10 the Authorized Version is, ‘He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.’ This fails to distinguish between the two Greek verbs upon 26 which the whole meaning of the passage turns, and which should be rendered as in the Revised Version, ‘He that is bathed (o leloumenoV) needeth not save to wash (niyasqai) his feet.’ The point is remembered in a hymn--

There is a remarkable example of this in regard to Heb. 4:9, ‘There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God’ (A.V.). The word here translated ‘rest,’ sabbatismoV, is one which means ‘a keeping of the Sabbath,’ and it stands in deliberate contrast to the ordinary word ‘rest,’ katapausiV, which occurs eight times in the immediate context. The only satisfactory translation, of course, is one which marks the difference, like that of the Revised Version, ‘A promise being left of entering into His rest . . . For we which have believed do enter into rest . . . As I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest . . . There remaineth therefore a sabbath-rest for the people of God.’ Now recall the lines:

In 1 Peter 5:7 two different Greek words are used where the Authorized Version would suggest the same word: ‘Casting all your care (merimnan) upon Him, for He careth (melei) for you.’ The first word should, of course, be rendered ‘anxiety,’ or ‘trouble.’ The point is remembered in a hymn based upon the passage--

Vivid or Unusual Words

Again, the Authorized Version did not always do justice to the vivid or unusual character of a word in the text. It rendered Philip. 4:7, ‘The peace of God shall keep your hearts.’ The Revised Version ‘guard’ is much better, but the Apostle's word, frourhsei, means ‘to keep with a military guard.’ It is the same word that he uses in 2 Cor. 11:32. ‘In Damascus the Governor under Aretas the King kept-with-a-garrison (efrourei) the city of the Damascenes, desirous to apprehend me.’ Wesley remembered 28 this in dealing with Philip. 4:7 in the Notes. His comment is ‘Shall guard, as a garrison does a city.’ Again the point was recollected in a hymn--

The Authorized Version of Matt. 28:9 is, ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,’ but the word does not here represent the usual Greek verb (which occurs in the next sentence, ‘teaching (didaskonteV) them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you’), but maqheusate ‘make-ye-disciples-of.’ This is remembered in a hymn ‘At the Baptism of Adults’--

The Authorized Version of a phrase in Col. 1:13 is ‘His dear Son,’ but the Greek is literally translated by the Revised Version, ‘the Son of His love.’⁸⁸‘We are the sons of God's grace, He alone is the Son of His love.’ (Dr. Forsyth, Positive Preaching, p. 254.) John Wesley was clearly thinking of the exact language of the Apostle when he wrote--

It is well known that the word in John 14:18, 29 rendered ‘comfortless’ in the Authorized Version, and ‘desolate’ in the Revised Version, is orfanouV, literally, orphans. This is remembered in a hymn for Whit-Sunday--

The Authorized Version renders John 16:33, ‘But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world,’ and the Revised Version retains the reading. But the exact and vivid sense of alla qarseute, ‘But take-courage!’ is conveyed in the line--

In the lines--

there are two references to Scripture, the first to Matt. 5:8, the second to 2 Cor. 3:18, where the Authorized Version translates ‘With open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.’ The Greek is, however, anakekalummenw proswpw ‘with unveiled face.’ So it is rendered by the Revisers, and by Wesley in the Notes on the New Testament.

Obviously the proper sense of anakekalummenoV was in the mind of the writer of the line ‘To see 30 without a veil His face.’ The rendering is specially important, because the Apostle was referring to his own words throughout the previous paragraph about the veil (kalumma) of Moses. There is a subtle illustration of the intimate knowledge of the Greek Testament possessed by the Wesleys in the lines--

A Suggestive Word

The hymn is based upon Lev. 6:13, ‘Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually: it shall not go out.’ The text is prefaced to the hymn in the Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures. This thought of a perpetual flame pervades the verses, and it was this which suggested the quotation of Paul's words to Timothy, ‘Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee.’ There is no apparent connection to the English reader, but there is to a student of the Greek Testament. For the word rendered ‘stir up,’ anazwpurein--it only occurs this once in the whole of the New Testament--is a word that means (as is apparent in the very structure of it) ‘to stir up a fire, to rekindle.’ ‘Literally, blowing up the coals into a flame,’ as Wesley remarks in the Notes on the New Testament. Unquestionably, it was this remembrance 31 of the original sense of anazwpurein which suggested the particular form of the lines--

Some Important Words

The important word diaqhkh is always rendered ‘covenant’ by John Wesley in the Notes on the New Testament, despite the authority of Bengel, who prefers testamentum. Wesley was right, for, as Farrar has said, ‘diaqhkh always means “covenant”--except that in Heb. 9:17 by a play upon words it has the meaning “will.”’⁹⁹History of Interpretation, p. 30. So constantly in the hymns--

Then there is the obvious preference for ‘new creation’ rather than ‘new creature’ as a rendering of the Apostle's phrase kainh ktisiV in 2 Cor. 5:17, and Gal. 6:18, which is evidenced by several hymns--

And there is the constant use of ‘bears away’ for the feebler (though legitimate) ‘taketh away,’ in allusions to John 1:29--

Such are some of the cases in which the Wesleys anticipated later scholarship in the exact and sensitive rendering of important phrases of Scripture.

The Very Words of the Apostles

There are also several striking instances in which, while no question of accurate translation arises, the ipsissima verba of the New Testament writers are recalled. Such is the allusion in one of the hymns to Titus 3:4, ‘the kindness of God our Savior, and His love toward man’ (R.V.), where the latter phrase is a translation of one Greek word, filanqrwpia our word philanthropy. The original text of the passage is remembered in the lines--

In Eph. 4:11,13--‘the whole armor of God’--the two words represent one Greek word, panoplia, which we have in English as panoply. The splendid word is remembered and used in the lines--

The ‘Wisdom of Solomon’

One of the books of the Apocrypha--the finest 33 of them all--has considerably influenced the hymns. There are numerous allusions in the verse of the Wesleys to the language of the Wisdom of Solomon. One of John Wesley's translations, the fine version of Scheffler's Du unvergleichlich Gut, combines two recollections of this book in two lines--

This recalls both, ‘But Thou hast ordered all things in number, and measure, and weight’ (Wisdom 11:20), and ‘Wisdom reacheth from one end to another, and mightily and sweetly doth she order all things (Wisdom 8:1). Neither reference is in the German--

One of the most affecting titles given to our Lord in the hymns is from the same source. ‘But Thou sparest all, for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou Lover of Souls’ (Wisdom 11:26). This is used again and again:

The fine rhapsody in Wisdom 3:1-4: ‘But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. . . . For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality,’ is remembered in the verse--

And the noble passage in Wisdom 11:24, ‘For Thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which Thou hast made, for never wouldest Thou have made anything if Thou hadst hated it,’ is behind the stanza--

Luther's ‘Galatians’

The first allusion to any book other than the Bible in the hymns of Charles Wesley is a reminiscence, often repeated, of Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians--a reference rather to the Reformer's emphasis than to his language. There is a manuscript of 1738 in the archives of the Brethren from the hand of 35 William Holland, one of the earliest of the English Moravians, in which he writes: ‘Being providentially directed to Martin Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, I carried it round to Mr. Charles Wesley, who was then sick at Mr. Bray's, as a very precious treasure that I had found.’ Charles Wesley writes in his Journal, under the date Wednesday, May 17, 1738: ‘Today I first saw Luther on the Galatians, which Mr. Holland had accidentally lit upon. We began, and found him nobly full of faith.’ On the evening of the same day he writes: ‘I spent some hours this evening in private with Martin Luther, who was greatly blessed to me, especially his conclusion of the second chapter. I labored, waited, and prayed to feel “Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”’ Luther spends some beautiful pages over these words of the Apostle, ‘words full of great and mighty comfort.’ He writes: ‘Therefore thou shouldest so read these little words me and for me, as to meditate well upon them, and deem that they have much in them. Use thyself to lay hold of this little word me with a sure faith, and apply it to thyself, and do not doubt that thou art of the number named in this little word me.’

Three days after Charles Wesley had first read these words, on Sunday, May 21, he found the peace of God. Luther's loving insistence upon the Apostle's words is remembered and 36 reflected in more than one hymn written at the time.

And throughout a hymn written exactly a year later, in May, 1739, and entitled ‘For the Anniversary Day of one's Conversion’:

Bengel's Exposition of the Apocalypse

John Wesley's Notes on the New Testament were largely indebted to the Gnomon of Bengel--‘that great light of the Christian world (lately gone to his reward) Bengelius,’ as he is called in the preface. It is a striking proof of Wesley's scholarship and shrewdness that he should have selected as the basis of his exposition a work 37 which, in the language of Dr. Sanday, ‘stands out among the exegetical literature not only of the eighteenth century, but of all centuries, for its masterly terseness and precision, and for its combination of spiritual insight with the best scholarship of the time.’ In his notes on the Apocalypse Wesley used in addition to the Gnomon Bengel's German exposition of the book, the Erklärte Offenbarung Johannis, und vielmehr Jesu Christi, as it is quaintly entitled.

On Rev. 2:17 Bengel has this beautiful note: ‘A new name. So Jacob after his victory received the new name of Israel. The word new is very characteristic of the Revelation (ein recht apocalyptisches Wort): a new name, a new song, a new heaven, a new earth, new Jerusalem, all things new. Which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. Jesus Himself had a new name, known only to Himself. Would'st thou know what the new name shall be? Overcome! Before that thou askest in vain: thereafter thou wilt soon read it, written on the white stone.’ Charles Wesley assisted in compiling the Notes, and this comment, the last two sentences of which were translated by the elder brother, evidently impressed him; for eight years later, in the Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, he published a hymn which paraphrases Bengel's note: