To New Subscribers for $3.00. Last winter we gave a Bible with the SIGNS to new subscribers only, but we received so many requests from old subscribers for a Bible that we have decided to include them also in our offer for the next few months. We will therefore send this Bible to Old Subscribers Who Renew for One Year, for the same price as to new, and if your present subscription does not expire for several months, and you wish to obtain the Bible, renew during the time of the offer, sending us $3.00, and we will extend your subscription one year from the present date of expiration.
Extravagant words are really unnecessary in describing this book, as we make no representations not in accordance with the facts. Those competent to judge, who have examined this Bible, say that we are making a
REMARKABLE OFFER
and that subscribers who get this book will get a splendid Bible for the money. If you are not satisfied we will refund your money; but we have no fears. We are positive that you will wonder that we can give such a good book and the paper for the price. The Bible is an
S. S. TEACHERS’ EDITION
minion type (the style most used), with references, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, size of page 5½ × 8 inches, cover leather lined to edges—an important adjunct to the substantial nature of the binding. It contains over
650 Pages of Valuable Bible Helps
Including the immense
New Illustrated Bible Treasury
Containing sections on the Old and New Testaments, History and Chronology of the Bible; Geography and Astronomy of the Bible; Birds, Animals, Plants, Fishes, Calendars, Weights, Measures, etc., in short, a
Specimen Page of the Illustrated Bible Treasury
Copyrighted by Thomas Nelson & Sons
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
complete and exhaustive collation, but most of them deserve a more careful study than they have hitherto received. It is also readily to be admitted that they are, relatively to the Uncial MSS. and the versions, of much less value in the determination of the text. But we must bear in mind that the texts of Cursive MSS. are merely the descendants of lost Uncial MSS., and that the maxim that “all various readings are early” applies to them as well as to the more imposing Uncial MSS. Where a number of Cursive MSS. can be proved to come from a common lost original, it is often possible to restore the lost (Uncial) ancestor by a critical comparison of the texts that are descended from it.
LECTIONARIES.—A word must be said in passing of Lectionaries, or copies of the Gospels, or the Acts and Epistles, arranged for reading in churches. They are very numerous, and almost unknown as to text; but enough is known to enable us to affirm with certainty that they often contain fragments of very early texts. When the lectionary is made up out of lessons from the Gospels, it is commonly called an Evangelistarium; when the lessons are taken from the Acts and Epistles, it is known as an Apostolos or Praxapostolos.
VERSIONS.—We come now to versions, a class of witnesses to which greater weight is continually being assigned in the determination of the text. The great value of the versions lies in the evidence which they furnish as to the state of the New Testament text at the time when it was translated. Many of the versions are of the highest antiquity—in fact, three of them are commonly credited to the second century—and this means that, if their evidence had come down to us unchanged from the time of the first translation, we should have the equivalent of three Greek MSS. which would be at least 150 years older than any existing copies. Unfortunately versions are only copies in a different language, and are subject to the same tendencies to revision and textual change as are ordinary Greek MSS. It becomes, therefore, of the first importance to edit the versions as nearly as possible in the forms in which they stood when first made. A polished Vulgate must be carried back to the rough and probably barbaric ancestor from which it is derived, and the evidence of the ancestral translation will be of the highest value. It is, for textual purposes, the evidence of the version.
PORTION OF MANUSCRIPT IN SYRIAC (Luke 7. 44-47).
(From a Photograph taken by Mrs. LEWIS.)
We may divide the earliest versions into the following groups:—
SYRIAC VERSIONS.
LATIN VERSIONS.
EGYPTIAN VERSIONS.
Each of these versions is believed to go back in some form to the second century; and this may be taken as proved for the first two groups. The third group has not yet been adequately studied.
1. SYRIAC VERSIONS.—The Syriac New Testament is known to us in the following forms:—
(1.) Old Syriac (Lewis Syriac) from Mount Sinai, discovered in palimpsest in 1892 by Mrs. Lewis. The washed-out text which has been covered by legenda sanctorum (or rather sanctarum, for the stories are tales of good women), was probably written in the fifth century. The text is a very remarkable one, and is often in close agreement with that of the Codex Bezae and Old Latin versions. It often, by a slight change of order of the words or sentences, adds greatly to the meaning (e.g., Mark 16. 3, “And they said one to another, ‘Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?’ for it was very great;” an arrangement which is also found in the Apocryphal Gospel of Peter in the second century; John 16. 30, “And needest not that thou shouldest ask any one,” &c.).
The following account of the history of this MS. has been furnished by Mrs. Lewis:—
BIBLE DICTIONARY
with over 350 Illustrations, the larger part being fine half-tones, clearly and beautifully printed. An entirely new and exceedingly fine feature of this Bible is the
COMBINED BIBLE CONCORDANCE
which includes, in one alphabetical list, a Concordance, Subject Index, and Dictionary of Proper Names. This must be seen to be appreciated. Besides the above is a set of
TWELVE COLORED MAPS
with complete index. All told, this is a rare chance to get the SIGNS’ and a fine, substantial Bible at an exceedingly low figure.
OUR OFFER
The SIGNS OF THE TIMES one year and the BIBLE to a new name, postpaid,
The Same Price to Old Subscribers who Renew for One Year
$3.00
FREE
By securing for us a few subscribers to the SIGNS you can get the Bible FREE as follows:—
We will send a Bible free, postpaid, to any one sending us Seven New Subscriptions at one time, for one year each, and $7.00.
You can get the Bible at a merely nominal cost, as follows:—
1. We will send the Bible postpaid to any one sending us $3.75 for two new subscribers to the SIGNS, or for one new name and one renewal, for one year each, all sent at one time.
2. We will send the Bible postpaid to any one sending us $4.50 for three new subscribers to the SIGNS, or for two new names and one renewal, for one year each, all sent at one time.
3. We will send the Bible postpaid to any one sending us $5.00 for four new subscribers to the SIGNS, or for three new names and one renewal, for one year each, all sent at one time.
If any subscribers under any of these offers desire Bibles, add $2.00 for each one wishing a Bible.
Note.—The Bibles and papers will be sent to different addresses if desired.
Note.—We can not sell the Bible separate from the above offers.
Address,
Signs of the Times
Oakland, Gal.
(We will stamp your name in neat gilt letters on Bible Cover for 25 cents extra, if desired.)
