I beg my readers who may not know Greek not to suppose that I have any thought of unsettling their minds as to the plain English words in Scripture. My object is just the contrary.
In the English Bible there are, no doubt, defects as in every human work. I have found passages which I think might be more exactly translated, and have taken the pains to translate for myself the whole of the New Testament, except a few chapters. But I am sure of this, that the more intimately a person is familiar with what the learned call the usus loquendi (that is, the customary forms of speech), the more they will see how thoroughly well acquainted the translators were with the language they were dealing with. I can confidently affirm this to be the case in the New Testament.
And as far as I can pretend to judge of the Old Testament, I can bear the same testimony. So on the whole, while admitting some human defects, the readers who know neither Hebrew nor Greek may be assured they have the sense of the original. Taken as a whole, it is the most perfect translation of any book I have ever read. I am told the Dutch translation is very good. I cannot compare them, but of those which I can, the English Bible is by far the best.
Forty-six or forty-eight of the most learned and capable men were long engaged in it—divided into classes of six, who did the part they were most competent for. Then it was passed to the others and revised by all, and compared with translations in other languages.
My object, then, is not to lead you away from your English Bible, but back to it with confidence. When persons object to a doctrine, that the original word has not the force ascribed to it in English, I am obliged to inquire what is its force in the original. But my object in this is that the humble English readers may be assured they have God's mind in what they read.
J.N. Darby