Excerpt from Catalogue of an Exhibition of Manuscripts and Printed Copies of the Scriptures: Illustrating the History of the Transmission of the Bible, Shown in the Main Library From March to December 1911; Tercentenary of the "Authorised Version" Of the English Bible, A. D. 1611-1911 HE text of the Bible rests for its primary authorities in the case of the Old Testament on manuscripts written in the Hebrew language, and for the New Testament on manuscripts in the Greek tongue. It is a point worthy of notice that, whilst the Hebrew idiom was always restricted to the use of the Jewish people, the Greek language was the common medium of com munication throughout the eastern portion of the Roman Empire at the time of the New Testament history. As the exclusiveness of religion, life, and language, which was the distinguishing character istic of the Jews fitted them in a peculiar way to be the guardians of the Sacred Scriptures during the period Of the formation of the Old Testament canon, so the prevalence of the Greek language at the commencement of the present era provided one of the condi tions necessary for the rapid spread of Christianity in accordance with the different intention of the new dispensation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.