THE OLD MSS. (Continued)
II. The influence of Origen.
A. The theology of Origen.
1. �One of the most notable of Origen�s ideas was his Logos Doctrine. This idea had been expressed in John 1:1-5 and in other Christian writings but Origen gave it the fullest treatment. In Greek philosophy Logos was the name of the divine principle of creation and rational world order. Origen applied the principle to Christ the Logos (created by God) who brings reason to the world. In this he neglected the figure of Jesus Christ as a man who lived and taught on earth. This doctrine provided the foundation for the fourth century Arian Doctrine.� (Let�s Weigh the Evidence [Quoted from The New Standard Encyclopedia, vol. 9, pp.154-155] p. 64)
2. Quoting from Dick Cimino�s The Book, about Origen: He taught salvation via the sacraments, a form of purgatory, that �...priests and bishops participated in the forgiveness of sins in case of grievous faults..., that �...many verses in both Testaments were ABSURD AND UNREASONABLE...� [As an example] �He [Origen] took the word �carpenter� out of Mark 6:3, simply because HE did not think that it should be there.�, that Peter was the head of the church [as well as the writer of a gospel], that everyone had a second chance for salvation after death, that Jesus was a �created god,� that Jesus did not bodily raise from the dead, that Jesus was not returning, and that everyone would be saved! Further, he did not accept Adam and Eve as historical, nor did he believe in a physical resurrection. (Why? The King James Version pp. 8-11)
3. Origen taught �...that the soul existed from eternity before it inhabited the body, and that after death it migrated to a higher or lower form of life according to the deeds done in the body; and finally all would return to the state of pure intelligence, only to begin again the same cycle as before. He believed that the devils would be saved and that the stars and planets had souls, and were, like men, on trial to learn perfection.� (Which Bible? pp. 192-193)
B. Origen as a textual critic.
1. �Origen, being a textual critic, is supposed to have corrected numerous portions of the sacred manuscripts. Evidence to the contrary shows he changed them to agree with his own human philosophy of mystical and allegorical ideas. Thus, through deceptive scholarship of this kind, certain manuscripts became corrupt. Evidently from this source our modern revised version Bibles and paraphrases have come.� (God Wrote Only One Bible p. 34)
2. Origen was a tremendous intellect. He was �A prodigious reader as well as a prodigious writer, his words would have been of incalculable value, but he seems to have been so saturated with the strange speculations of the early heretics, that he sometimes adopts their wild method; and in fact has not been reckoned among the orthodox Father of the Church.� (Which Bible? P. 149)
3. �Hear also Bishop Marsh on the same subject (Lecture 11, edition 1838, page 482) �Whenever therefore grammatical interpretation produced a sense which in Origen�s opinion was irrational or impossible, in other words irrational or impossible according to the philosophy which Origen had learnt at Alexandria, he then departed form the literal sense.� This sums up many other matters connected with Origen�s treatment of textual matters, so that we do not necessarily recover Origen�s manuscripts when we are inclined to follow Aleph and B, but very likely only Origen himself.� (Which Bible? P. 140)
4. �Many of the important variations in the modern versions may be traced to the influence of Eusebius and Origen - �the father of Arianism.�� (Which Bible ? P. 2)
5. �You can thank Origen for the corruption of the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, and you can thank the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus for the corruption of the modern versions.� (Let�s Weigh the Evidence p. 65)
6. �The fact is that B and Aleph were the products of the school of philosophy and teaching which found its vent in Semi-Arian or Homoean opinions. It is a circumstance that cannot fail to give rise to suspicion that the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts (B and Aleph) had their origin under a predominant influence of such evil fame.� (Which Bible? P. 130)
III. Intentional errors were introduced into the text.
A. �The evidence [is] that during the earliest history of the church both heretics and the orthodox (to a lesser degree), made deliberate changes to scripture. ... It follows, then, that the text of a manuscript is not �good� simply because of the age of the writing material and ink.� (The Corruption of the Word p. 13)
B. Error was sometimes introduced to support a belief which the pure Scriptures would not allow.
1. In Aleph, B and some of he other ancient manuscripts, some see the heresy of Gnosticism and suppose that these copies have only survived because the early church knew that they were untrustworthy copies and did not use them. �Had they, after they had been made, been used to any extent, they would have become worn-out and perished long ago, as has been the fate of hundreds, if not thousands of others Their age, considered in conjunction with the aforementioned other factors, witnesses rather to their corruption than to any special purity of text.� (The Providential Preservation of the Greek Text of the New Testament p. 40)
2. ��Adoptionism,� the Gnostic belief that Jesus assumed the Christ �Spirit� and was �adopted� into the God-Head, was centered in Alexandria, Egypt.� (The Battle for the Doctrinal Heart [tape]) Note that here both B and Aleph are of the Alexandrian Text-type.
3. An example of this type of tampering with the inspired record is available today. I have around forty translations in my study; all but one of them will translate John 1:1 in the same general manner: �In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.� That one aberration is The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - the official Bible of the Jehovah�s Witness cult. They do not accept the Trinity or the full Divinity of Christ. Their translation: �In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.�
C. Individuals sometimes introduced error.
1. �This rising flood [of heretics], as we shall see, has multiplied in abundance copies of the Scriptures with bewildering changes in verses and passages within one hundred years after the death of John (100 A. D.) As Irenaeus said concerning Marcion, the Gnostic: �Wherefore also Marcion and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the Scriptures, not acknowledging some books at all; and curtailing the Gospel according to Luke, and the epistles of Paul, they assert that these alone are authentic, which they have themselves shortened.�� (Which Bible? P. 187) It is
interesting to note here that one of the main criteria of Westcott and Hort was that the shorter reading was always to be preferred.
2. Justin Martyr continued to wear the robes of a pagan philosopher even though he claimed Christianity. One of his pupils was Tatian. �After the death of Justin Martyr in Rome, Tatian returned to Palestine and embraced the Gnostic heresy. This same Tatian wrote a Harmony of the Gospels which was called the Diatessaron, meaning four in one. The Gospels were so notoriously corrupted by his hand that in later years a bishop of Syria, because of the errors, was obliged to throw out of his churches no less than two hundred copies of this Diatessaron since church members were mistaking it for the true Gospel.� (Which Bible? P. 191)
3. There were, of course, errors made by copyists. A tired or careless scribe may have made errors. Heretics made intentional errors to make the text conform to their heresy. �There were also men with good intentions who attempted to supply conjectural emendations instead of correcting defects by comparing readings with other manuscripts.� (Counterfeit or Genuine p. 201)
4. Sometimes even true Christians would make additions or deletions to �strengthen� the text or to combat the errors of heretics.
D. �Heretical readings were invented and did circulate for a time, but they were rejected by the universal priesthood of believers under the guidance of God.� (The King James Version Defended p. 109)
IV. The influence of Constantine.
A. The conversion of Constantine.
1. Constantine was told, �In this sign conquer.� �That is interesting for we believers are told, �In the NAME CONQUER.� He was told by a voice from heaven, �In this SIGN conquer.�� (Why? The King James Version p. 11)
2. �That cross [which Constantine saw] had a vertical piece with a cross bar on top of that, and above the cross bar was a circle. ...it is not the cross, but rather is the �ankh� - the Egyptian symbol of life, ... the Egyptian sun god. That was the sign that Constantine conquered in - not in the name of the Lord Jesus nor in the sign of the genuine cross, but rather in the sign of
the sun god of Egypt!� (Why? The King James Version pp. 11-12)
B. The Christianity of Constantine.
1. In order for Constantine to rule, politically, the people, he sought to bring them all under a common religious system. As there were many pagans in the Roman world, Constantine needed a way for them to incorporate their doctrines into his political-religious system. He commissioned Eusebius to prepare 50 Bibles (remember that these were all hand-written!) for his cadre to use to teach the people. These Bibles were to be prepared in Greek. (Why? The King James Version p. 12)
2. Constantine�s �...predilection was for a type of Bible whose reading would give him a basis for his imperialistic ideas of the great state church with ritualistic ostentation and unlimited central power.� (Which Bible? P. 195)
a. �As the Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, it became necessary for him to choose which of the Bibles (the Costantinoplian from which comes our Received Text, or the Palestinian of Eusebius and Origen, or the Egyptian) he would sanction. Quite naturally he preferred the one edited by Eusebius and written by Origen, the outstanding intellectual figure that had combined Christianity with Gnosticism in his philosophy, even as Constantine himself was the political genius that was seeking to unite Christianity with pagan Rome.� (Which Bible pp. 194-195)
b. �The type of Bible selected by Constantine has held dominating influence at all times in the history of the [Roman] Catholic Church. This Bible was different from the Bible of the Waldenses, and as a result of that difference, the Waldenses were the object of hatred and cruel persecution.� (Which Bible? 195)
3. When Constantine commissioned Eusebius to make 50 copies of Scripture, Eusebius found that many copies had been corrupted by those who felt they were correcting Scripture. �When the warring sects had been consolidated under the iron hand of Constantine, this heretical potentate adopted the Bible which combined the contradictory versions into one, and so blended the various corruptions with the bulk of pure teachings as to give sanction to the great apostasy now seated on the throne of power.� (Which Bible? Pp. 190-191)
a. Eusebius, who was a great admirer of Origen, used the Hexapla of Origen to prepare these Bibles. J. J. Ray, in God Wrote Only One Bible, makes note that �Several textual authorities believe that the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts are two extant copies of the 50 Greek scriptures copied for Constantine by Eusebius in 331 A. D.� (Why? The King James Version p. 13)
b. �The late Dr. Edward Vining of Cambridge, Mass., has gone thoroughly into this [that B and Aleph both derived from a common, corrupt source], and has produced evidence tending to show that they were copies (and carelessly made) of an original brought by Origen out of Egypt, where, as is well known, the Scriptures were corrupted almost from the beginning...� (True or False p. 89)
4. The Alexandrian �...text went no further than southern Italy where the Roman Church found its unstable character perfect for overthrowing the true Word of God...� (An Understandable History of the Bible p. 79)
C. The consequence of Constantine.
1. As political Rome was overthrown by the invaders from the North, these same invaders gave great reverence to the Church of Rome. They had been taught to submit to their pagan gods and, as they �...one by one ... Substituted the saints, the martyrs, and the images of Rome for their former forest gods ,,, the Papacy [knew it] must offer, as a record of revelation, a Bible in Latin which would be as Origenistic as the Bible in Greek adopted by Constantine. Therefore, the Pope turned to Jerome to bring forth a new version in Latin.� (Which Bible? Pp. 217-218)
2. Jerome, in his translation, consulted the works of Origen. �These manuscripts of Origen influenced Jerome more in the New Testament than in the Old, since finally he used the Hebrew text in translating the Old Testament. ...the Hebrew Bible did not have the Apocrypha... Jerome admitted that these seven books ... Did not belong with the other writings of the Bible. Nevertheless, the Papacy endorsed them, and they are found in the Latin Vulgate... The existence of those books in Origen�s Bible is sufficient evidence to reveal that tradition and the Scripture were on equal footing in the mind of Origen.� (Which Bible p. 218)
V. The mindset of the revisers.
A. A history of the Age of Enlightenment skepticism regarding the text of the New Testament preceded Westcott and Hort. Even before Aleph and B were available, some critics argued that the text was corrupted by the copyist to serve sectarian aims. (The King James Version Defended pp. 62-65)
B. �...in the production of the �New Greek Text� of the Revisors [of 1881, they] had departed from the Textus Receptus nearly 6,000 times.� (True or False p. 95)
C. �...on what grounds [have] scholars ... Set aside this large majority of manuscripts which contain a Greek text very much like that used by the translators of the A. V. in 1611? Why do they prefer other manuscripts with differing texts? What arguments do they advance for their views?� (Which Bible? P. 27)
1. �The number of manuscripts of the New Testament which are extant is staggering. There is no ancient document of secular origin which enjoys such overwhelming attestation. The problem is not whether or not we have the general teaching of the Scriptures but whether or not we have the very words.� (Counterfeit or Genuine pp. 212-213)
a. �...all of our most ancient manuscripts derive basically from Egypt. This is due mainly to the circumstance that the climate of Egypt favors the preservation of ancient texts. ... It is, therefore, most likely that the text on which our modern translations rest is simply a very early Egyptian form of the text whose nearness to the original is open to debate.� (Which Bible? pp. 28-29)
b. �The oldest manuscripts do not �prove� anything unless they come directly from and are in line with the original writings.� (Why? The King James Version p. 17)
(1) �It is generally known that the text was corrupted in the earliest centuries, sometimes deliberately by heretics. Students should be on their guard against considering as infallible any manuscript, no matter how old it may be.� (Which Bible? P. 164)
(2) �Using the analogy of a stream, it is argued that the closer one gets to the spring or source the purer the water will be. This is normally true, no doubt, but what if a sewer pipe empties into the stream a few yards below the spring? Then the process is reversed - as the polluted water is
exposed to the purifying action of the sun and ground, the further it runs the purer it becomes (unless it passes more pipes.).� (True or False p. 284)
2. �This principle adopted by Lachman, and followed with well-nigh calamitous results by his successors, including Drs. Westcott and Hort ... Is based upon the tacit assumption that there existed in the fourth century a Greek Text which was generally accepted, and which was also virtually pure. But it is now recognized that the very worst corruptions of the original writings are those which occurred prior to this time.� (True or False pp. 66-67)
3. �...if we are right in our view that the principle we are discussing [the reliance upon B and Aleph] is utterly unsound, is contrary to the rules of evidence, and is certain to lead astray those who submit to its guidance, we have taken the foundation completely from under the Revised Version of 1881 and of every other Version that rests upon the same corrupt Greek Text, or one constructed upon the same principles. (True or False pp. 89-90)
a. �These two Mss. [Aleph and B] and a few others containing a similar text, present in a weakened form, many of the passages of Holy Scripture which speak most plainly of the deity of the Son of God. The trend of Biblical scholarship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been towards a �humanitarian� view of the person of Christ. It does not surprise us that many modern scholars should welcome the support of these two ancient documents, but it saddens us to see so many earnest evangelical Christians ready to accept without question a theory so destructive to the faith once delivered to the saints.� (The Providential Preservation of the Greek Text of the New Testament p. 17)
b. �...the Author of Scripture is discovered to have furnished His household, the Church, with (roughly speaking) 1000 copies of the Gospels with twenty versions, two of which go back to the beginning of Christianity, and with the writings of a host of ancient Fathers. Why out of this 1000 mss. two should be singled out by Drs. Westcott and Hort for special favor, to the practical disregard of the rest, why versions and Fathers should by them be similarly dealt with, should be practically set aside in fact as a whole, we fail to discover.� (True or False p. 211)
D. �God will preserve the text against permanent or destructive error, although He does not guarantee the accuracy of any one manuscript. It means also that Satan will do everything in his power to corrupt the text...� (Which Bible? P. 158)
VI. A look at the Westcott and Hort �revision.�
A. Although few modern scholars support a Lucian revision of the Greek Text, most do see the Traditional Text as an official revision, possibly of the 4th century. �History provides no support for the above conjecture. No document from any century even hints that an official revision of the Greek New Testament ever took place. We do know the history of the revision of the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac versions, and the Georgian and American version. But the evidence for a church wide Greek revision is non-existent.� (The Corruption of the Word p. 36)
1. Dr. Hort �...invites us to believe that the mistaken textual judgement pronounced at Antioch in A. D. 350 had an immediate effect on the text of Scripture throughout the world. We are requested to suppose that it resulted in the instantaneous extinction of all codices like B [and] Aleph, wherever found; and caused codices of the A type to spring up like mushrooms in their place...� (True or False pp. 192-193)
2. �If the Traditional Text was late and inferior, how could it have so completely displaced earlier and better texts in the usage of the Church. ... Naturalistic textual critics will never be able to answer this question until they are ready to think �unthinkable thoughts.� They must be willing to lay aside their prejudices and consider seriously the evidence which points to the Traditional (Byzantine) Text as the True Text of the New Testament.� (The King James Version Defended p. 183)
3. �Is it possible to believe that a text actually fabricated in the fourth century rapidly became so dominant that practically no copies were made any longer of exemplars which contained the type of text found in B and Aleph, also of the fourth century?� (Which Bible? P. 171)
4. To gain some idea of how hard it would be for an �official� text produced by the �leading religious professionals� of the day to overtake the established text, consider the current outcry over the �official� text which our �leading religious professionals� have produced in an effort to overthrow the text underlying the King James Version.
B. �...if it be allowable to assume (with Dr. Hort) that for 1532 years, (vis. from 350 to A. D. 1882) the Antiochian standard has been faithfully retained and
transmitted, it will be impossible to assign any valid reason why the inspired original itself, the apostolic standard, should not have been so faithfully transmitted and retained from the apostolic age to the Antiochian, i.e. throughout an interval of less than 250 years...� (True or False pp. 196-197)
C. �The main objection to be raised against the Westcott - Hort hypothesis of the Syrian recessions is that there is no record whatsoever in history of such occurrences.� (Which Bible? p. 161)
VII. The testimony of the versions (early translations).
A. �...we possess �versions� (or translations) which are older than any known MSS; and the writings of the early Fathers abound in quotation from the New Testament.� These also agree with the Received Text. (Which Bible? P. 120)
B. The Peshitta. (Entire section from a tract reviewing the book, God Wrote Only One Bible, by J. J. Ray.)
1. �...the Peshitta was translated from the Greek vulgate into Syrian about 150 A. D.�
2. �...the Peshitta, even today generally follows the Received Text... This is another proof that the foundation for the King James Version is older and more reliable than the Codex Vaticanus which was elevated to the chair of authority by Westcott and Hort.�
C. The Old Latin texts.
1. �The Old Latin texts, like the other versions, are of two kinds; both the Traditional Text and the forms of corruption find a place in them. Augustine wrote, �In the earliest days of the faith whenever any Greek codex fell into the hands of anyone who thought that he had a slight familiarity with Greek and Latin, he was bold enough to attempt to make a translation.� The Old Latin evidence varies so much that it seems almost certain that several separate ancient translations from different Greek codices are represented by it. Much, but by no means all, of the Old Latin evidence is favorable to the Traditional Texts.� There is also small testimony �...of a very few manuscripts...� which favor the Vaticanus, the Sinaitic, the Vulgate (of Jerome), the Douay, and many of the modern versions. �So the present controversy between the King James Bible in English and the modern version is the same old contest fought out between the early church and rival sects...� (Which Bible? p. 188)
2. �Since Italy, France, and Great Britain were once provinces of the Roman Empire, the first translations of the Bible by the early Christians in those parts were made into Latin. ... Latin Bibles were well established before these churches came into conflict with Rome. ...such translation [were] in existence long before the Vulgate was adopted by the Papacy.� These Latin Bible�s followed the Syrian Text which we call the Textus Receptus. (Which Bible? pp. 199-200)
D. The Waldenses. (Entire section: Which Bible? Pp. 201-205)
1. �...at the famous Council of Toulouse, 1299 A. D., the Pope gave orders for the most terrible crusade to be waged against the simple Christians of Southern France and Northern Italy who would not bow to his power. Cruel, relentless, devastating, this war was waged, destroying the Bible books, and every vestige of documents telling the story of the Waldenses and Albigenses.�
2. Gilly [Waldensian Researches] says, ��...the opinions of the Waldenses were not new to Europe in the eleventh or twelfth centuries, and there is nothing improbable in the tradition, that the Subalpine Church preserved in its integrity in an uninterrupted course from the first preaching of the Gospel in the valleys.� There are many earlier historians who agree with this view (Allix, Leger, Gilly Combra, Nolan). It is held that the pre-Waldensian Christians of northern Italy could not have had doctrines purer than Rome unless their Bible was purer than Rome�s...�
3. �The Waldenses of northern Italy ... Were successful in retaining the torch of truth until the Reformation took it from their hands and held it aloft to the world.�
VIII. The faithful witnesses to God�s Word.
A. There are copies of the autographs in Minuscules (Small letters used only. They are the most numerous and may be in scrolls [papyrus the more cheaply made, vellum the more valuably made] or codex [book type with pages]) or Majuscules (Also called Uncials. They used the large letters. They appear in the 4th century and are less readily available.). (An Understandable History of the Bible pp. 61-62)
B. The lack of publishing houses with their wide distribution would cause deviations from the text to not circulate widely. �The copying of manuscripts was a private affair and any great deviations could be detected.� (The Corruption of the Word
p. 13)
C. The early church �Fathers.�
1. The early church �Fathers� left us a �...record of their early sermons, books, and commentaries. They will be able to provide us with much information on disputed passages. Many may have seen the original autographs.� (An Understandable History of the Bible pp 63-64)
2. The early church Fathers quoted �...extensively from every part of the New Testament. In this way also a vast amount of evidence of the highest credibility, as to the true reading of disputed passages, has been accumulated...� (True or False p. 84)
D. Lectionaries are available. �These are equivalent to the �responsive readings� found in the back of today�s hymnals. Due to the shortage of copies of Scripture, lectionaries were used to put key verses into the hands of the people. In many cases their readings are very early, i.e., closer to the originals.� (An Understandable History of the Bible pp. 62-63)
E. The use of Scripture by individual Christians guarded the purity of the text.
1. Unlike the Dispensation of the Law, every believer under Grace is a priest under the Great High Priest, Jesus. The New Testament Text is preserved by its use by the true Christians throughout history. (The King James Version Defended p. 111)
2. Bible reading, both of the Old Testament and the New, was extensive in the early Church �...from the first century onwards. ... Books were not unduly expensive, in terms of the spending power of the well-to-do, and no doubt the houses of such Christians, where the brethren at first gathered, would contain, in a cupboard or chest, at least a few scrolls.� (The Bible in the Making pp. 86-87)
3. �The Traditional Text, found in the vast majority of the Greek New Testament manuscripts, is the True Text because it represents the God-guided usage of this universal priesthood of believers.� (The King James Version Defended p. 111)
IX. The trail of the true text.
A. The true text was preserved by much copying.
1. �The manuscript tradition of an ancient book will, under any but the most exceptional conditions, multiply in a reasonably regular fashion with the result that the copies nearest the autograph will normally have the largest number of descendants.� (Which Bible p. 37)
a. �Any corruption to the New Testament text would obviously have to begin after the original autographs were completed, or there would be no originals to corrupt! If the originals and the first corruption of those originals multiplied at the same rate, the correct text would always be found in the majority of MSS.� (An Understandable History of the Bible p. 66)
b. �Herein lies the greatest weakness of contemporary textural criticism. Denying to the Majority text any claim to represent the actual form of the original text, it is nevertheless unable to explain its rise, its comparative uniformity, and its dominance in any satisfactory manner. All these factors can be rationally accounted for, however, if the Majority text represents simply the continuous transmission of the original text from the very first.� (Which Bible? pp. 33-34)
(1) �No one has yet explained how a long, slow process spread out over many centuries as well as over a wide geographical area, and involving a multitude of copyists, who often knew nothing of the state of the text outside of their own monasteries or scriptoria, could achieve this wide-spread uniformity out of the diversity presented by the earlier forms of text.� (Which Bible pp. 33-34)
(2) The Divine safeguard for the Text. The �...great and steadily increasing multiplication of copies; for this provides automatically the most effectual security imaginable against corruption of the Text.� (True or False p. 83)
2. �When an error crept into a copy, or was purposely introduced, it would naturally be perpetuated in copies made from that one; and thus variations from the original would tend to multiplication. There was, however, a check upon this tendency. For such was the reverence paid to the sacred Text, and such the desire that copies used in the churches should be pure, that every opportunity would be embraced for comparing one Text with another; and where differences were observed there would be naturally an
investigation for the purpose of establishing the true reading. Thus, by examination and comparison of a moderate number - say ten or twenty- comparatively late manuscripts from widely separated points, it would be possible to establish, almost to a certainty, the original reading of any disputed passages, or, if it were a passage whose authenticity was as a whole questioned, to decide whether it were genuine Scripture or not.� (True or False pp. 65-66)
3. It is important to note that the autographs were written in Greek.
a. �We may well suppose ... that because most of the New Testament books were either written in Asia Minor or sent to churches of that region, the New Testament text was copied more carefully there. In other words, it was there that the Traditional text was preserved.� (Believing Bible Study pp. 61-62)
b. Burgon also noted that, �...Greek being the mother tongue of Greece and because of the close distance and ties to Asia Minor, the Greek language continued in common use her much longer than in other areas such as Italy and Egypt. This factor is relevant because the continuing demand, therefore, would enforce a continuing supply of [Greek] copies.� (True or False p. 299)
B. The true text is preserved by the true Christian.
1. The Western Text became the text of Rome, while the Alexandrian Text became the text of the Scribe and Scholar of Alexandria. These were the prestige texts. �The True Text, on the other hand, continued in use among the poor and less learned Christian brethren. These humble believers would be less sensitive to matters of prestige and would no doubt prefer the familiar wordings of the True Text to the changes introduced by the new prestige-texts. ... And since they were poor, they would be unable to buy new manuscripts containing these prestige-texts.� (The King James Version Defended p. 184)
2. �We shall need to Lord Jesus in the hour of death, we shall need Him in the morning of the resurrection. We should recognize our need of Him now. We partake of Him, not through some ceremony, wherein a mysterious life takes hold of us. When we receive by faith the written Word of God, the good pleasure of the Lord is upon us...� (Which Bible? p. 318)
C. The evidence of the Majority Text to the true text.
1. The preserved Greek Text.
a. Wilber Norman Pickering observed [in Contribution of John William Burgon to the New Testament Textual Criticism], �The use of such terms as �Syrian,� �Antiochian,� and �Byzantine� to refer to the Traditional Text are indications of the general identification of this Text with that geographical area. It is precisely the area of Greece and Asia Minor that one would logically expect to have maintained the purest transmission of the New Testament.� (True or False p. 299)
b. Hills noted that Burgon maintained, �This area [Asia Minor] started out with original copies of John�s writings, almost all of Paul�s and probably a number of the books as well. Because of the great success of the Gospel in the area, it became the center of gravity of the Christian Church in the post-apostolic period. Thus all seven of the churches directly addressed in the book of Revelation are in this area.� (True or False p. 299)
c. �There is reason to trust that the Traditional (Byzantine) Text was best preserved. Since of the 27 books of the New Testament, 17 were �...written in or sent to the churches of this area [Asia Minor].�, they began with the original autographs rather than copies. Since this is true, it is likely that they were the first to �...assemble them into one single New Testament canon and to accord them full recognition...� This would, in turn, lead to more careful copying. �Here it was preserved all through the Middle Ages and brought to Western Europe by learned Greek refugees after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.� Believing Bible Study pp. 45-46)
d. The Byzantine Empire had been the strongest power on earth, �...especially during the reign of Justinian I (527-565)...� But, �In 1453 Constantinople was invaded by ... Moslems and fell prey to its hordes.� The Christian and the Greek scholars fled �...into Europe with their Greek New Testament manuscripts.� They took with them the grammars based on the work of Dionysius Thrax. These, produced 15 centuries before, were, as Hill notes (The King James Version Defended), the �...same grammars which were first used by the men who produced the first Greek New Testaments.�
(Counterfeit or Genuine p. 202)
2. The preeminent Greek text.
a. �These surviving witnesses of the Greek New Testament text which we now possess are found to generally fall into two groups, or �texts.� ... We find that these two texts disagree consistently concerning the major doctrines of the Bible. They are found to disagree on readings concerning the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the blood atonement, Christ�s second coming, the deity of Christ, and many other fundamental Christian doctrines.� (An understandable History of the Bible p. 64)
(1) The texts, generally, are the True Text which underlies the King James Version and comprise the vast majority of available texts, and those few (Western, Alexandrian, etc.) which disagree.
(2) �...most of the extant copies of the Greek New Testament date from the 10th to the 14th century. ...[That] the concurrence of a large majority of them would correctly decide disputed reading, no reasonable person should ever doubt.� (True or False p. 84)
(3) �When the Chester Beatty Papyri were published (1933-37), it was found that these early 3rd century fragments agree surprisingly often with the Traditional (Byzantine) Text against all other types of text.� (The King James Version Defended p. 171)
b. �The Majority Text has been known throughout history by several names. It has been known as the Byzantine Text, the Imperial Text, the Traditional Text, and the Reformation Text, as well as the Majority Text. This text culminates in the Textus Receptus or �Received Text� which is the basis for the King James Bible, which we know also as the Authorized Version.� (An Understandable History of the Bible p. 65)
(1) �The vast majority of the Greek New Testament manuscripts belong to this family... The Peshitta Syriac version and the Gothic version ... [as well as] quotations of Chrysostom and other fathers of Antioch and Asia Minor
seem generally to agree with the Traditional text.� (Believing Bible Study p. 44)
(2) �The Traditional Text was prominent in the second and third centuries and had become dominant in the Greek-speaking churches by the end of the fourth century. By now scribes were on guard for defective copies. When copies were found which had been corrupted, they were taken out of circulation or destroyed. This may have been the case with Codex B and Aleph. Perhaps scribes detected their impurity and took them out of circulation. This enabled them to be preserved for a great number of years without much deterioration.� (Counterfeit or Genuine p. 201)
(3) �A newer group of New Testament scholars is persuaded that the best guide to a precise Greek text is the close consensus of the majority of Greek manuscripts. The Greek Text obtained by using this rule is called the Majority Text, which is similar to the Received Text.� (The Prophecy Bible p. xi)
c. �The true text ... was preserved during the 2nd and 3rd centuries mainly by the poorer, less educated Christians, mostly perhaps in the smaller towns of Asia Minor and Syria. These humbler brethren, being less skillful in the use of the pen, would tend to avoid making notes in the margins of their New Testaments and thus would keep their copies free from intentional alterations. Later, as the result of the doctrinal controversies of the 4th century, the Holy Spirit led the Church into an ever growing appreciation of the doctrinal soundness of this true text. More and more copies were made of it until it finally became the Traditional text found in the vast majority of Greek New Testament manuscripts. Then, after the invention of printing Erasmus, and the others, were guided providentially by the common faith to commit this Traditional text to the press. Thus, the printed Textus Receptus came into being, and from it the King James Version and the other classic Protestant translations were made.� (Believing Bible Study p. 50)
d. �What happened to the manuscripts from the first century...? They were probably worn out from being read!� (How Are New Bible
Translations Alike? Pages not numbered)
3. The perverted Greek text.
a. �The vast majority of these extant Greek New Testament manuscripts agree together very closely, so closely, indeed that they may fairly be said to contain the same New Testament Text. This Majority Text is usually called the Byzantine Text by modern textual critics. This is because all modern critics acknowledge that this was the Greek New Testament in general use throughout the greater part of the Byzantine Period (312 - 1453).� (Which Bible? p. 89)
(1) �...it should be pointed out that a very large number of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament survive today. A recent list gives these figures, papyrus manuscripts, 81; majuscules (manuscripts written in capital letters), 267; minuscules (manuscripts written in smaller script), 2,764 ... (according to Prof. Kurt Aland). ... Also according to Prof. Aland a large majority of this huge mass of manuscripts - somewhere between 80 - 90% - contains a Greek text which in most respects closely resembles the kind of text which was the basis of our King James Version.� (Which Bible? P. 26)
(2) �The large number of conflicting readings which higher critics have gathered must come from only a few manuscripts, since the overwhelming mass of manuscripts is identical. ... There are numerous small variations, but the great majority of the documents give support to the Traditional Text and may thus be identified with it. It would be difficult to find even two �identical� manuscripts.� (Which Bible? P. 264)
b. �There are 5,309 surviving Greek manuscripts that contain all or part of the New Testament. These manuscripts agree together 95% of the time. The other 5% accounts for the differences between the King James and the modern versions.� (Let�s Weigh the Evidence p. 58)
(1) Westcott and Hort �...chose Roman Catholic Alexandrian manuscripts against 5,226 Koine Greek manuscripts which
were available. They chose these two because they were the �oldest,� and therefore they had to be the �most accurate.�� (Why? The King James Version p. 17)
(2) �Does the truth of the text of Scripture dwell with the vast multitude of copies, uncial and cursive, concerning which nothing is more remarkable than the marvelous agreement which subsists between them? Or is it rather to be supposed that truth abides exclusively with a very little handful of manuscripts, which at once differ from the great bulk of the witnesses, and - strange to say - also amongst themselves?� (Which Bible? pp. 124-1125)
(3) It is important that we have the true text. For example, in Galatians 3:15 Paul bases his entire argument on the Old Testament use of the singular rather than the plural use of the word �seed.� (Counterfeit or Genuine pp. 185-186)
D. The Text underlying the King James Version.
1. �...in the setting of [the text underlying the A. V.], due weight was given to the concurrent testimony of the numerous MSS. in actual use in different churches, widely separated from one another and also to the corroborating testimony of the most ancient Versions and of the patristic writings...� (True or False p. 87)
2. �The King James version is based upon the mainstream traditional wording found in a large percentage of the 5,000 + surviving copies of the New Testament that our ancestors handed down to us. The modern versions are based upon a small handful of copies that are very old but oppose the mainstream tradition at thousands of places.� (The Corruption of the Word p. v)
3. �Only the King James Version, itself, is based on and translated wholly from the Masoretic Text and the Textus Receptus... Almost all other modern English translations of the Bible are based on the corrupt Westcott and Hort Text, which can be traced back to the corrupt Eusebius and possibly to Origen the infidel.� (Why? The King James Version p. 21)
4. �It is true that thousands of manuscripts have been brought to life since 1611, but it must be emphasized that the great majority of these are in substantial agreement with the Traditional Text underlying the Reformers�
Bibles and the King James Version.� (Which Bible? P. 250)
5. �...that confidence in modern critical Greek texts depends ultimately on one�s confidence in contemporary scholarly judgement. It should be clear, however, that when the whole problem of textual criticism is reduced to a series of arguments about the relative merits of this reading over against that reading, we have entered an area where personal opinion - and even personal bias - can easily determine one�s decision.� (Which Bible? p. 35)
E. The Textus Receptus.
1. �A version is that which is translated, or rendered from one language to another. The Textus Receptus is NOT a version. It is composed of basic manuscript copies from which the King James Version was made.� (From a tract reviewing God Wrote Only One Bible, p. 3)
2. �The Textus Receptus or Majority Text is based on 5,226 manuscripts which agree magnificently among themselves even though those 5,.000 + plus manuscripts were found in different parts of the world.� (Why? The King James Version pp. 2-3)
a. The manuscript family from which came the Received Text �...was adopted as the official text of the Greek Catholic Church. There were local reasons which contributed to this result, but, probably, far greater reasons will be found in the fact that the Received Text had authority to become, either in itself or by its translation, the Bible of the great Syrian Church; of the Waldensian Church of northern Italy; of the Gallic Church of southern France; and of the Celtic Church in Scotland and Ireland; as well as the official Bible of the Greek Catholic Church.� (Which Bible? pp. 196-197)
b. The Received Text �...is identical with the Text of every extant lectionary of the Greek Church, and may, therefore, reasonably claim to be spoken of as the Traditional Text...� (True or False p. 179)
c. �Westcott and Hort opposed the Textus Receptus because it was based on the Byzantine text form. Most scholars agreed with their contention, and the Textus Receptus fell into disrepute. However, Westcott and Hort made their assumption before the Greek papyri
were discovered, and in recent years some scholars have come to the defense of the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus. They have learned that some of the readings in the Byzantine text are the same as those found in the earliest papyri, dated about A. D. 200 and even earlier (p45, p45, and p66, for example). This seems to take the Byzantine text back at least as far as the Egyptian.� (The Complete Biblical Library [John] p. 10)
d. While the oldest manuscripts are not always the best, the oldest wording is the best. The oldest wording is, simply, the original words. (The Corruption of the Word p. 21)
3. �...even though the name �Textus Receptus� was coined twenty-two years after the Authorized Version was translated, it has become synonymous with the true Greek Text originating in Antioch.� (Let�s Weigh the Evidence p. 133)
a. �The Received Text was put for centuries in its position of leadership by Divine Providence, just as truly as the Star of Bethlehem was set in the heavens to guide the wise men.� (Which Bible? p. 301)
b. �The Textus Receptus is the starting-point for future research, because it embodies substantially and in convenient form the traditional text.� (Which Bible? p. 172)
c. �One cannot say that the Textus Receptus ... is ... verbally inspired. ... But it embodies substantially the text which even Westcott and Hort admit was dominant in the church from the middle of the fourth century on. The text used by the Church Fathers from Chrysostom�s time on was not materially different from the text of Erasmus and Stephanus.� (Which Bible? p, 149)
4. The term �Textus Receptus� has come to stand for any one (or all) of several Greek editions edited about the time of the Protestant Reformation.
a. �One need not believe in the infallibility of Erasmus, or his sanctity, or even his honesty, because he merely followed the type of text which was dominant...� (Which Bible? P. 150)
b. Erasmus �...opposed Jerome�s translation [the Roman Catholic
Vulgate] in two vital areas.� (Entire section: Let�s Weigh the Evidence p. 151)
(1) �He detected that the Greek text had been corrupted as early as the fourth century.�
(2) �He also differed with Jerome on the translation of certain passages which were vital to the claimed authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Jerome rendered Matthew 4:17 thus: �Do penance, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.� Erasmus differed with: �Be penitent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.�
(3) �Erasmus was also a staunch defender of both Mark 16:9-20 and John 8:1-12,�
c. �...persecution at Paris and solicitation of Farel caused Calvin to settle at Geneva, where with Beza, he brought out an edition of the Textus Receptus...� (Which Bible? p. 210)
5. Most modern versions do not rely on the Textus Receptus.
a. �The modern versions had to use the Textus Receptus, since it contains the majority of surviving Greek manuscripts. The problem is that when the Textus Receptus disagreed with the Vaticanus or the Sinaiticus, they preferred these corrupted manuscripts over the Textus Receptus.� (Let�s Weigh the Evidence p. 58)
b. �As said of the two false witnesses that came to testify against Christ, so it may be said of these witnesses [B and Aleph] who are brought forward at this late day to testify against the Received Text, �But neither so did their witness agree together.�� (True or False p. 78)
(1) Because of this these modern translations have omissions and footnote readings when tend to cast doubt upon their testimony to the Truth of God in His (purported) Word. They claim to tell the Gospel message but wound it in the telling.
(2) The chief agreement among these newer translations is that
they stand against the true text and lead into doubt those who would trust them.
F. Hostile witnesses to the truth of the Traditional Text.
1. According to Hort, one of the Greek manuscripts which Jerome used was closely related to Codex A, which is of the Traditional text-type. (The King James Version Defended p. 187)
2. The voice of Origen.
a. Some have argued that Origen never makes use of the Traditional readings where they are in disagreement with the Western and Alexandrian text types. However, Origen did use the uniquely Traditional �vinegar� (Matt. 27:34) in his reply to the pagan philosopher Celsus. (The King James Version Defended p. 171)
b. �...contrary to the assertions of the naturalistic critics, the distinctive readings of the Traditional (Byzantine) Text were known to Origen, who sometimes adopted them though perhaps not usually. Anyone can verify this by scanning the apparatus of Tischendorf. For instance, in the first 14 chapters of the Gospel of John (that is, in the area covered by Papyrus 66 and Papyrus 75) out of 52 instances in which the Traditional Text stands alone, Origen agrees with the Traditional Text 20 times and disagrees with it 32 times. These results make the position of the critics that Origen knew nothing of the Traditional Text difficult indeed to maintain.� (The King James Version Defended pp. 171-172)
c. Some critics argue that the agreement of Origen with the Traditional Text are not his own but are the changes of later copyists�. �Certainly it seems a very unsatisfactory way to account for the phenomena which appear in the first 14 chapters of John. In these chapters 7 out of 20 �distinctly� Traditional readings which occur in Origen occur also in Papyrus 66 and / or in Papyrus 75. These 7 readings at least must have been Origen�s own readings, not those of the scribes who copied Origen�s works, and what is true of these 7 readings is probably true of the other 13, or at least most of them. Thus it can hardly be denied that the Traditional Text was known to Origen and that it influenced the wording of his New Testament quotations.� (The King James Version Defended p. 172)
3. The voice of antiquity (the modern critics would tell us that this voice is hostile to the Traditional Text.
a. �In the fourth century, Helvidius, a great scholar of northern Italy, accused Jerome, whom the pope had empowered to form a Bible in Latin for [Roman] Catholicism, with using corrupt Greek manuscripts. How could Helvidius have accused Jerome of employing corrupt Greek manuscripts if Helvidius had not had the pure Greek manuscripts.� (Which Bible? pp. 205-206)
b. There are few copies of the Traditional Text from before the 10th century. Lake [Harvard Theological Review] argued that the copyist destroyed the manuscripts from which they copied, it follows that copies of these would be the most destroyed. That is why they are not available, from that time period, today. �By the same token, the survival of the old uncial manuscripts of the Alexandrian and Western type, such as Aleph, B, and D, was due to the fact that they were rejected by the Church and ... allowed to rest relatively undisturbed on the library shelves of ancient monasteries.� (The King James Version Defended pp. 185-186)
4. �How can you tell if your Bible relies upon the two ... Manuscripts that disagree with 95% of the evidence? One easy way is to look at Mark 1:2-3. There are quotations from two prophets there, Malachi and Isaiah. If your Bible says they both came from Isaiah, it is simply wrong.� (Did Jesus Have a Beginning p. 6)
G. The Reformation speaks.
1. �...the Protestant Reformation was thoroughly established. The great contributing factor to this spiritual upheaval was the translation by Luther of the Greek New Testament of Erasmus into German.� (Which Bible? P. 232)
2. �The Protestant reformation, all the great revivals and all the men God has chosen to use greatly since 1516 preached the Bible which contains the Textus Receptus.� (Correcting the King James Bible p. 41)
3. It is �...the Traditional Text ... Which was adopted by Protestants at the time of the Reformation and used by them universally for more than three hundred years, and which forms the basis of the King James Version and other early Protestant translations.� (Which Bible? p. 88)