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Irish Version of the Scriptures

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The Irish or Erse language is now little known except as the vernacular of an illiterate population, but it was once the language of literature and science. The Roman letters are often used in Erse compositions, but the Irish have an ancient alphabet of their own, for which they feel a truly national predilection. The origin of this alphabet is very uncertain; it bears some resemblance to the Anglo-Saxon, and it has been questioned whether the Saxons derived their alphabetical system from the Irish, or vice versa. In the dedication of the Irish Prayer Book of 1608, it is confidently asserted that the Saxons borrowed their letters from Ireland.

The first printed New Test., in the Irish characters, was published in 1602. When bishop Bedell was appointed to the see of Kilmore and Ardagh, in 1629, he undertook the translation of the Old Test. Not being acquainted with the language, he commenced to study the same at the age of fifty- seven. His next measure was to secure the services of native Irish scholars, and with their help the version of the Old Test. was completed in 1640, to remain in MS. till 1681. After due examination and revision it was published in London in 1686, together with the New Test. More than a century was suffered to roll away before any efficient measures were taken to reprint the Scriptures in Irish, until, in 1809, an edition of 2000 New Tests., conformable to the accredited version: of bishop Bedell, was published in Roman characters by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Other editions followed in 1813, 1816, and 1817. In the latter year also a complete Irish Bible was issued, the version of Bedell being employed as the text of the Old Test. In the course of the following year 3000 copies of the New Test., in the Irish character, were published, and in 1828 the entire Irish Bible appeared in the vernacular. From the report of the British and Foreign Bible Society for the year 1881 we learn that a revised edition of the New Test. is to be published. In order to bring about such a revision, twenty-five interleaved New Tests. are to be placed in the hands. of competent Irish scholars, and their corrections of archaisms, obsolete words, and orthographical errors will be examined by the chief reviser and editor, the Reverend James Goodman, Canon of Ross, and professor of Irish in the University of Dublin. As the first installment of this revision the Gospel of Luke was published in 1884. See Bible of Every Land, page 160. (B.P.)