WE cannot publish the second edition of this translation of the New Testament without praising the Lord that He has impressed the seal of His approval on the first. We have good hope that this work is the fruit of His will and of His grace, and that it has been useful and welcome to many believing souls. We have little to add to the preface of the first edition, for all things essential have remained unaltered in this second. Yet we have carefully revised it, strictly re-examined the translation, and corrected the style in various places, always remaining true to our principle, viz., to give the word of God as exactly as possible in a language in which it was not written. The most essential alteration we have made, is the change of a number of participles, as the too frequent use of them is not common in the German language. The word " saying," for instance, occurs continually in the Greek Testament, and we have almost everywhere changed it to, " and said," or "as he said," etc. We have done the same with many other participles, where the sense would not be lost, always keeping the object before us of giving the meaning of the words exactly. In some passages where the exactness and force of the rendering seemed to be endangered by this change, we have given the Greek form literally in a note. But there are sentences where euphony cannot be satisfied without losing the true meaning as, for example 2 Cor. 5:19: " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." In such cases we have sacrificed the style to the true meaning. We hope that the translation in general is somewhat clearer, and in some minor things more exact; otherwise, except the changing of the participles it remains the same. We have still a few short observations to make.
We had translated Rev. 2:20, by "thy wife," following the majority of the manuscripts and editions; but as the very old Sinäitic manuscript, published since our first edition, has " the woman," we have returned to the old reading. The same reason has led us to translate chap. 22: 14, by, " who have washed their clothes."
With regard to the words pleonexia, and pleonektees, which all have translated by "covetousness," and covetous man," we have also retained this meaning. We are however convinced that this word, indicating an unbridled inclination (or affection) for that which does not belong of right to the one filled with pleonexia, signifies "fleshly lust," as well as "covetousness." See Eph. 5:3,5; Col. 3:5; 2 Peter 2:3,14; 1 They. 4. 6; 1 Cor. 5:10,11; Eph. 4:19. This last passage explains the general use of the word. Some of the passages quoted are not so distinct, but they may help the reader.
Another word is hupeeretees translated by "servant." Besides this word there are two others, doulos and diakonos, which are translated in the same way. Doulos is a slave; diakonos an ordinary servant, at table, etc.; but hupeeretees is more official. The first meaning of the word is a "rower," and it therefore in general denotes some one who has a distinct service. As we could only translate this word by "servant," we give the passages in which it occurs: Matt. 5:25; Mark 14:54 Luke 1:2;4. 20; John 7:32,45,46;18: 3, 12, 18, 22, 36; six. 6; Acts 5:22,26;13: 5; 26: 16; 1 Cor. 4:1.
Finally one more short observation on the little word "so," houto, in John 3:16. It is possible that this word relates to the preceding, "have eternal life," and then the following clause expresses a consequence, and the "so" denotes more the object, the kind of love, than its strength, so that we might say, "for' God has loved the word in such a manner," etc.
Heartily thanking the Lord that He has caused His blessing to rest on our work, it having been received by many Christians, and read, as we hope, with profit, we now place this second edition in His hand, and entreat Him to crown with His rich blessing our effort to place His word before souls as exactly as possible.
Notes of the translators into English.
1. Was not Mill's edition in 1707; Bengel's in 1734?
2. The notes are at the foot of the page in the first edition; at the end in the second edition.
3. The paragraph on Baptism cannot be presented in English; the German and English prepositions not corresponding.
4. The word Demon does not exist in German.