Defense of the Translations of the Scriptures into the English Tongue, Treatise · Chapter 1 · Martins comments 36
MART. 36. For example S Peter saith Heauen mustforeign. receiue Christ. He translateth, Christ must be contained in heauen, which Caluine him selfe misliketh, the Geneua English Bible is afrayed to follow, Illyricus the Lutheran reprehendeth:Pag. 43. & yet M. Whitakers taketh the aduantage of this translation, to proue that Christes naturall bodie is so cont…ned in heauen, that it can not be vponupon the alt…r. For he knew that this was his maisters purpose and intent in so translating. This it is, when the blinde followe the blinde, yea rather, when they see and will bee blinde: for certaine it is (and I appeale to their greatest Graecians) that howsoeuer it be taken for good in their diuinitie, it will be esteemed most false in their Greeke scholes both of Oxford and Cambridge: and howsoeuer they may presume to translate the holy Scriptures after this sort, surely no man, no not them selues, would so translate Demosthenes, for sauing their credit and estimation in the Greeke tongue. See chap. 17. numb. 7. 8. 9.
FVLK. 36. Beza translateth quem oportet caelo capi. Act. 3. v. 21. You say, Heauen must receiue Christ. Beza sayth, Christ must be receiued of heauen. Call you this turning of actiues into passiues, and passiues into actiues? Or will you deny vsus the resolution of passiues into actiues, or actiues into passiues? What difference is there in sense, betwene these propositions? Your purse containeth money, and money is contained in your purse. The Church must receiue all Christians, or all Christians must be receiued of the Church. But Caluine, you say, misliketh this translation, and the Geneua Bible is afrayed to followe it. Yet neither of them both misliketh this sense, nor can, for it is all one with that which you translate, whome heauen must receiue. Caluine only saith, the Greeke is ambiguous, whether heauen must receiue Christ, or Christ must receiue heauen. But when you graunt that heauen must receiue Christ, you can not deny for shame of the worlde, but Christ must bee receiued of heauen: wherefore you vnderstande neither Caluine, nor Illyricus, who speake of the other sense, that Christ must receiue heauen. And Maister Whitaker, not of Bezaes translation, but of the text, and euen of your owne translation, may proue, that Christes naturall bodie is contayned in heauen. And as for your appeale to the greatest Graecians, and the Greeke schooles, both of Oxforde and Cambridge, is vaine and friuolous, for the least Grammarians that be in any countrie schooles, are able to determine this question, whether these propositions be not all one in sense, and signification. Ego amo te, and Tu amaris à me, I louelove thee, or thou art loued of me. But it is straunge Diuinitie, that Christ shoulde bee contayned in heauen. Verily howe straunge so euer it seemeth to Gregorie Martine, it was not vnknowen to Gregorie Nazianzen, as good a Graecian, and as great a Diuine as he is. For in his seconde Sermon foreign, not farre from the beginning, he writeth thus of our Sauiour Christ foreign. For he must raigne vntill then, and bee receiued or contayned of heauen vntill the times of restitution. Here you see Nazianzen citing this verie place of Sainct Peter Actes. 3. For the meane verbe of actiue signification, doubteth not freely to vse the passiue verbe in the same sense, that Beza translateth the place, against which you declaime so tragically. And if you thinke it to bee suche an haynous offence, to render passiuely in the same sense, that which is vttered actiuely in the text, so that no man for his credite woulde so translate Demosthenes, as Beza doeth Sainct Luke: I pray you what regarde had you of your credit and estimation? When Matth. the 4. you translate out of Latine, Qui daemonia habebant, suche as were possest: and Luke the seconde, Vt profiterentur, to bee enrolled. Belike you hauehave a priuiledge to doe what you list, when other men may not doe that which is lawfull.