nt, though by
no means to any large extent, by the Semitic element which, from time to
time, discloses itself in the language of the inspired writers. This
last-written epithet, which I wittingly introduce, must not be lost sight
of by the Christian student.

Dr. Blass quite admits that the language of the Greek Testament may be
rightly treated in connexion with the discoveries in Egypt furnished by
the Papyri; but he has also properly maintained elsewhere {111} that the
books of the New Testament form a special group _to be primarily
explained by itself_. Greatly as we are indebted to Dr. Deissmann for
his illustrations, especially in regard of vocabulary, we must read with
serious caution, and watch all attempts to make Inscriptions or Papyri do
the work of an interpretation of the inner meaning of God's Holy Word
which belongs to another realm, and to the self-explanations which are
vouchsafed to us in the reverent study of the Book--not of Humanity (as
Deissmann speaks of the New Testament) {112} but of--Life.

I have now probably dealt sufficiently with the second of the three
questions which I have put forward for our consideration. I have stated
the general substance of the knowledge which has been permitted to come
to us since the revision was completed. I now pass onward to the third
and most difficult question equitably to answer, "To what extent does
this newly-acquired knowledge affect the correctness and fidelity of the
revision of the Authorised Version of the New Testament?" It is easy
enough to speak of "ignorance" on the part of the Revisers, especially
after what I have specified in the answer to the question on which we
have just been meditating; but the real and practical question is this,
"If the Revisers had all this knowledge when they were engaged on their
work, would it have materially affected their revision?"

To this more limited form of the question I feel no difficulty in
replying, that I am fully and firmly persuaded that it would _not_ have
materially affected the revision; and my grounds for returning this
answer depend on these two considerations: first, that the full knowledge
which some of us had of Winer's Grammar, and the general knowledge that
was possessed of it by the majority, certainly enabled us to realize that
the Greek on which we were engaged, while retaining very many elements of
what was classical, had in it also not only many signs of post-classical
Greek, but eve