This version, therefore, of ancient date, but uncertain authenticity, favours the personal sense by the use of the word, "the very wicked." As & version it is not highly esteemed by the Mahommedans to whom it may be known, because of the vulgarity and inelegance of its Arabic.-Bagster's Bible of All Lands, p. 51.

"The Arabic versions are many, though of the slightest possible critical importance."-Scrivener, "Introduction," p. 281, 1st ed.

An edition of the entire New Testament was printed in Leyden by Espinus, in 1616, and it is translated by the Rev. S. C. Malan, "Deliver us from the evil." Again another edition, said to be from the Greek and Egyptian (Coptic) versions (Walton's Polyglot, 1657), is translated by Malan "from the evil."

SLAVONIC, tenth century, translated from the Greek by St. Cyril and St. Methodus, Greek missionaries in Russia. This is often said to be the most literal translation known. It is still the only one used by authority in the public services in the Russian churches, although the language is so obsolete as to be unintelligible to many Russians at the present day. This Slavonic version unquestionably supports the personal interpretation of the petition. It was made by two Greek missionaries in the tenth century, and it doubtless reproduces faithfully the interpretation that was traditional in the Greek Church at that time.

OLD SLAVONIC. "Ot lukavago" is translated "from the deceiver" (a word for the devil), by R. R. Martineau, Esq., Librarian British Museum.

MODERN RUSSIAN. "No izbair nos ob lukavago." Mascu

line. "But deliver us from the evil one."-Mrs. Orchar, an English lady, for twenty years resident in Russia; the translation confirmed by the late Rev. A. Whishaw, a native of Russia, who adds"from evil" would be "ot lonkavstoo."

MODERN VERSIONS AND CATECHISMS.

All post-Reformation except*. Some of these modern versions, are made from the Vulgate, and reflect the indefinite or neutral character of that version. Others, like our own Authorised Version, were made from the Greek; and it is not without interest in this question to observe how other scholars, as well as the Revisers, have understood and translated the words in dispute. The absence of uniformity in the translations shows that there has been no slavish traditional interpretation on one side only, while the general consensus in favour of "from evil" is not without weight.

English Church Catechism :-"Defend us in all dangers,

ghostly and bodily; from all sin and wickedness; from
our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death."

Lutheran Catechism.-" From all evil of body and soul, and
in our dying hour grant us a happy end, and take us to
himself in heaven."

Dutch Catechism." Deliver us not only from the devil, but

evil in general."-§ Rev. H. Pierson, Zetten, Holland.

The text and the translations were kindly given by the Rev. Dr. Mourier, per Dr. Giersing, of Copenhagen; the "origin" of the versions was obtained from The Bible of All Lands, Bagster.

The internal evidence seems strongly to favour "evil" generally, for all the petitions are general and impersonal:

Our Father, thy name be hallowed,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

our trespasses forgive us.
into temptation (trial) lead us not.
(πειρασμον)

our daily bread give us, from evil deliver us.

But if the petition is read, "deliver us from the devil (“the evil one"), it is at variance with the character of the rest of the prayer in its personal and limited application: for while "evil" includes the author of evil as well as his works, there are many "evils," such as sickness, accidents, and the like, from which we are taught to pray for deliverance, that cannot be considered as being the works of the devil.

If, then, the Jews who originally heard the "could prayer not think for a moment of the devil" when told to pray for deliverance from evil; if the Greek itself is indefinite, and the nearest approach to the original language (the Syriac) is indefinite also; if one Egyptian version is definitely masculine while the other is claimed as definitely neuter, or is acknowledged to be indefinite; and if all the ancient versions favour evil generally or are indefinite, except the Arabic, which "is of the slightest possible critical value," and the Slavonic, which is of the tenth century; if all the authoritative catechetical explanations, both eastern and western, ancient and modern, teach that the prayer means deliverance from evil of all kinds; and the modern versions, with scarcely an exception, translate the Greek into "evil" or "the evil," but not "the evil one"; and if the translation of this petition into the limited, personal "evil one" is at variance with the whole character of the rest of the prayer, the evidence seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of the original translation, "evil" generally, and against "the