The Word, Thought by Dr. Trench, Dean of Westminster.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 16, 1858

The Word, Thought.

By Dr. Trench, Dean of Westminster.

“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.” Matt. vi, 25.

This “take no thought,” is certainly an inadequate translation, in our present English, of the Greek original. The words seem to exclude and to condemn that just forward-looking care which belongs to man, and differences him from the beasts, which live only in the present; and most English critics have lamented the inadvertence of our authorized version, which in bidding us “take no thought” for the necessaries of life, prescribes to us what is impracticable in itself, and would be a breach of christian duty, even were it possible. But there is no “inadvertence” here. When our translation was made, “take no thought” was a perfectly correct rendering of the original. “Thought” was then constantly used as an equivalent to anxiety or solicitous care; as let us witness this passage from Bacon: “Harris an alderman in London, was put to trouble, and died with thought and anxiety before his business came to an end.” Or, still better, this from one of the “Somers Tracts:” (its date is that of the reign of Queen Elizabeth:) “In five hundred years, only two queens have died in childbirth; queen Catherine Parr died rather of thought.” A better example than either of these, is that occurring in Shakespeare’s “Julius Cæsar,” (“take thought and die for Cæsar”) where “to take thought” is to take a matter so seriously to heart that death ensues.—Dr. Trench, Dean of Westminster.