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12 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, ETC. (Continued from Page Four) Alford, Baumgarten, Crucius, Neander, DeWette, Ewald, Bleek, Holtzman, Weiss, Godet, Westcott, Hort, and others. The last two mentioned above, Westcott and Hort, are among the most eminent Greek critics in the world. Their edition of the Greek Testament is the standard Greek Text used by all the Protestant theo logical seminaries, 1 believe, all over the world. The words, “For Thine Is the Power, Etc.,’’ are omitted from this Testament. In 1870 the Convocation of Canterbury appointed a committee to revise the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. This committee held 407 meet ings, distributed over more than 1 0 years, and finally presented to the Convocation in 1881 the Revised Version,” which omits the ending, “For Thine Is the Kingdom, Etc.,” to the Lord’s Prayer. An examina tion of almost any modern critical Protestant com mentary on the New Testament will show that the view that this ending of the Lord’s Prayer is an in terpolation, is practically uniform among scholars. In “The Expositor’s Greek Testament” (Vol. 1, p. 122), this ending is called “a liturgical ending, which is no part of the original prayer.” Canon Gore (of the Church of England), in his book, “The Sermon on the Mount” (p. 129), says, “The familiar Doxology, ‘for Thine, etc.,’ was not in the original Lord’s Prayer. It was used in the early Church as a Doxology at the end of many different prayers, and in very early times came to be attached to the Lord s Prayer in some of the MSS. It was thus given a place which it can not rightly claim.” In “The Bible Commentary” (Vol. 1, p. 34), it is said: ‘The Doxology is omitted by the majority of modern edi tors of the Greek Text, who regard it as an interpola tion.” The Syriac version, referred to in the letter to you as being of as early date as the Old Latin, must be the “Diatesseron” of Tatian; but that does not pur port to be a literal translation of the four Gospels of the New Testament, but is a continuous narrative of the principal events in the life of our Lord. More over, Tatian’s ending up as a Gnostic of the Encratite sect reflects some discredit on his work, and while it was widely used in Syria in the third century, Rab- bula, Bishop of Edessa, condemned it, and Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, early in the fifth century, ordered it removed from the churches. The Thebaic version mentioned by your correspondent has not the stand ing among the Coptic versions that the Memphitic version has, for the reason that the former exists only in fragments, while the latter is entirely extant. The Memphitic, otherwise known as the Bohairic ver sion, corresponds to the Catholic Bible, and since the eleventh or twelfth century has been the standard of the Church in Egypt. The reference to versions written for the Jews made by your correspondent is not clear to me, as I know of no early versions of the Scriptures written expressly for the Jews. If this reference is to the versions made during the sixteenth century and after by Tillet, Herbest, Giona, and others, it seems they are not in that case alluded to as primary evidence. There are some MS versions of the Scriptures in He brew as old as the eighth century (none older), but most, if not all, of these of any standing are of the Old Testament. Finally, in the early Christian document kiiown as the Didache, the only ancient MS of authoritative value which contains this ending of the Lord s Prayer, it is clearly an interpolation, because it is found at tached to other prayers also, thus proving it to be, as said by the Protestant authorities quoted above, “a liturgical ending, which is no part of the original prayer,” “used in the early Church as a Doxology at the end of many different prayers,” “thus given a place which it can not rightly claim.” As to the reason for basing the Douay translation on the Latin and Vulgate versions, your question im plies that the Latin and Vulgate versions are on a par, but this is not correct. The Vulgate is a re vision of the Latin version, and the only version that ever received the authoritative sanction of the Church. Pope Damasus in 385 commissioned St. Jerome to revise the Latin version, and after spending many years in the work, St. Jerome presented the com pleted work to the Council of Carthage in 397, and it was then that the Bible took the form in which we have it today. The work of the Council of Carthage was approved by the Pope, and not a book, chapter or verse has since been added or taken away. Very truly, YOUR HOME. Make your home a Sanctuary. In it let no harsh word, no angry, indelicate or profane word, be ut tered. If not always feasible in the morning, at least every evening, at a fixed hour, let the entire family be assembled for night prayers. Let the adornments of your home be chaste and holy pictures, sound and profitable books. No in delicate representation should ever be permitted in a Christian home. No child ought to be subjected to temptation by its own parents and in its own home. Let the walls of your home be beautified with suggestions of Our Divine Lord, of His Blessed Mother, and the Saints; with such pictures of the great and good as will be incentives to civic and religious virtue. The immoral, vulgar, sensational novel, the inde cently illustrated newspaper, and publications tend ing to weaken faith in religion and Jesus Christ should be rigidly excluded from every home. Have in your home, your sitting room, your bed room, no matter how small or cheap, a blessed Crucifix. Have at the head of your bed, a small vessel containing Holy Water. If you can not set apart a room “for God,” at least have some corner of a room for him. Let it be your oratory.