Compiled with some added comments
FROM THE BOOK "OUR AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED" by
Benjamin Wilkinson, PhD.
Written 1930.
All CAPITAL letters are mine, for emphasis (Keith Hunt).
QUOTE
WALDENSIAN BIBLES
FOUR Bibles produced under Waldensian INFLUENCE touched the
history of CALVIN: namely, a GREEK, a WALDENSIAN vernacular, a
FRENCH, and an ITALIAN.
Calvin himself was led to his great work by OLIVETAN, a
Waldensian. Thus was the Reformation brought to Calvin.......
FAREL, also a Waldensian, besought him to come to Geneva and
open up a work there. Calvin felt that he should labor in Paris.
According to LEGER, Calvin recognized a relationship to the
Calvins of the valley of St. Martin, one of the Waldensian Valley
(Allix, Churches of Piedmont, pp. 288, 11).
Finally, PERSECUTION in Paris and the solicitation of Farel
caused Calvin to settle at GENEVA, where, with, BEZA, he brought
out an edition of the Textus Receptus, - the one the author now
uses in his college class rooms, as edited by Scrivener (this is
Wilkinson talking about himself - Keith Hunt).
Of BEZA, Dr. EDGAR says that he "astonished and confounded
the world" with the Greek MSS he unearthed. This later edition of
the Received Text is in REALITY a Greek NT brought OUT UNDER
Waldensian INFLUENCE.
UNQUESTIONABLY, the LEADERS of the Reformation, GERMAN,
FRENCH, and ENGLISH, were CONVINCED that the Received Text was
the GENUINE NT, not ONLY by its OWN irresistible history and
INTERNAL evidence, but ALSO because it MATCHED with the Received
text which the Waldensian form came down from in the days of the
apostles.
The other THREE Bibles of Waldensian connection were due to
THREE men who were at Geneva WITH Calvin, or, when he died, with
BEZA, his successor, namely: OLIVETAN, LEGER, and DIODATI. How
readily the TWO STREAMS of DESCENT of the Received Text, through
the GREEK EAST and the WALDENSIAN WEST, ran TOGETHER, is
illustrated by the meeting of the OLIVETAN Bible and the RECEIVED
TEXT.
Olivetan, ONE of the most ILLUSTRIOUS pastors of the
Waldensian Valleys, a RELATIVE of Calvin, according to Leger
((Leger, History of the Vauldois, p. 167), and a SPLENDID
student, translated the NT into FRENCH. Leger bore testimony that
the Olivetan Bible, which ACCORDED WITH the Textus Receptus, was
UNLIKE the OLD MSS of the Papists, because they were FULL of
FALSIFICATION. Later, Calvin edited a SECOND edition of the
Olivetan Bible. The Olivetan in turn BECAME the BASIS of the
GENEVA Bible in English, which was the LEADING version in England
in 1611 when the King James appeared.
DIODATI, who succeeded BEZA in the chair of Theology at
Geneva, translated the Received Text into ITALIAN. This version
was adopted by the Waldenses, although there was in use at that
time a Waldensian Bible in their OWN PECULIAR language. This we
KNOW because SIR SAMUEL MORLAND, under the PROTECTION of Oliver
Cromwell, RECEIVED from Leger the Waldensian NT which NOW LIES in
the CAMBRIDGE University library (remember Wilkinson is writing
this in 1930 - Keith Hunt).
AFTER the devastating MASSACRE of the Waldenses in 1655,
Leger felt that he should COLLECT and GIVE into the hands of Sir
Samuel Morland as MANY pieces of the ANCIENT Waldensian
LITERATURE as were AVAILABLE.
It is interesting to TRACE back the Waldensian Bible which
LUTHER had BEFORE him when he translated the NT. Luther USED the
TEPL Bible, named from Tepl, BOHEMIA. This Tepl MS represented a
TRANSLATION of the Waldensian Bible into the GERMAN which was
spoken BEFORE the days of the Reformation (Comba, The Waldenses
of Italy, p. 191).
Of this REMARKABLE MS, Comba says:
"When the MS of Tepl appeared, the attention of the LEARNED
was aroused by the fact that the text it presents CORRESPONDS
WORD FOR WORD with that of the FIRST THREE editions of the
ANCIENT GERMAN Bible. Then Louis Keller, an original writer, with
the decided, opinions of a layman and versed in the history of
the sects of the Middle Ages, DECLARED the Tepl MS to be
Waldensian. Another writer, Hermon Haupt, who belongs to the OLD
CATHOLIC party, SUPPORTED his opinion VIGOROUSLY (Idem, p. 190),
From COMBA we also learn that the Tepl MS has an ORIGIN
DIFFERENT from the version adopted by the Church of Rome; that it
seems to agree rather with the LATIN versions ANTERIOR to Jerome,
the author of the Vulgate; and that Luther FOLLOWED it in his
translation, which is probably the reason why the Catholic Church
REPROVED Luther for following the Waldenses (Idem, p. 192).
Another peculiarity is its SMALL SIZE, which seems to single
it out as one of those little books which the Waldensian
evangelists carried with them under their rough cloaks (Idem, p.
191, note 679).
We have, therefore, an indication of how much the
Reformation under Luther as well as Luther's Bible owed to the
Waldenses.
Waldensian INFLUENCE, both from the Waldensian Bibles and
from Waldensian RELATIONSHIPS, ENTERED INTO the King James
translation of 1611. Referring to the King James translation, one
author speaks thus of a Waldensian Bible they used:
"It is KNOWN that among modern versions they CONSULTED with
an ITALIAN, and though no name is mentioned, there CANNOT be room
for DOUBT that it was the ELEGANT translation made with GREAT
ABILITY from the ORIGINAL Scriptures by Giovanni DIODATI, which
has only RECENTLY (1607) appeared at Geneva" (Dr. Benjamin
Warfield of Princeton University, Collections of Opinions and
Reviews, Vol. 1, p. 99).
It is therefore evident that the translators of 1611 had
before them FOUR Bible which had come under Waldensian influence:
the DIODATI in ITALIAN, the OLIVETAN in FRENCH, the LUTHERAN in
GERMAN, and the GENEVA in ENGLISH.
We have EVERY REASON to believe that they had access to at
least SIX Waldensian Bibles written in the OLD Waldensian
vernacular.
Dr. NOLAN, who had already acquired fame for his Greek and
Latin scholarship and researches into Egyptian chronology, and
was a lecturer of note, SPENT TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS to TRACE BACK
the Received Text to its APOSTOLIC origin. He was
POWERFULLY IMPRESSED to examine the history of the Waldensian
Bible. He felt CERTAIN that researches in this DIRECTION WOULD
demonstrate that the ITALIC NT, or the NT of those PRIMITIVE
Christians of NORTHERN Italy whose lineal descenders the
Waldenses were, would turn out to be the Received Text. He says:
"The author perceived, without any labor of inquiry, that it
derived its name from that diocese, which has been termed the
ITALICK, as CONTRADISTINGUISHED from the Roman. This is a
SUPPOSITION, which receives a SUFFICIENT CONFIRMATION from the
FACTS, - that the PRINCIPAL copies of that version have been
PRESERVED in that diocese, the metropolitan church of which was
situated in Milan. The circumstances is at present mentioned, as
the AUTHOR (speaking of himself...Dr. Nolan - Keith Hunt) thence
formed a hope, that some remains of the PRIMITIVE ITALICK
version might be found in the EARLY translations made by the
Waldenses; who were the LINEAL DESCENDANTS of the ITALICK Church;
and who have asserted their INDEPENDENCE against the USURPATIONS
of the Church of Rome, and have EVER enjoyed the FREE use of the
Scriptures.
In the search to which these considerations have led the
author, his FONDEST EXPECTATIONS HAVE BEEN FULLY REALIZED. It has
furnished him with ABUNDANT PROOF on that point to which his
INQUIRY was CHIEFLY directed; as it has supplied him with the
UNEQUIVOCAL TESTIMONY of a truly APOSTOLIC branch of the
PRIMITIVE church, that the CELEBRATED text of the heavenly
witnesses was adopted in the version which prevailed in the LATIN
Church, PREVIOUSLY to the introduction of the modern VULGATE"
(Dr. Frederick Nolan, Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, pp. 17,
18).
HOW THE BIBLE ADOPTED BY CONSTANTINE
WAS SET ASIDE
Where did the VAUDOIS Church amid the rugged peaks of the
Alps SECURE these UN-corrupted MSS?
In the silent watches of the night, along the lonely paths
of ASIA Minor where robbers and wild beasts lurked, might have
been seen the NOBLE missionaries CARRYING MSS, and verifying
documents from the churches in JUDEA to ENCOURAGE
their struggling brethren under the IRON HELL of the Papacy.
The sacrificing labors of the apostle Paul were bearing
fruit. His wise plan to anchor the GENTILE Churches of EUROPE to
the Churches of JUDEA, provided the CHANNEL of COMMUNICATION
which DEFEATED continually and finally the BEWILDERING PRESSURE
of the Papacy. Or, as the learned Scrivener has beautifully
put it:
"Wide as in the region which separates SYRIA from GAUL,
there must have been in very early time SOME remote COMMUNICATION
by which the STREAM of EASTERN testimony, or tradition, like
another ALPHEUS, rose up again with FRESH STRENGTH to IRRIGATE
the regions of the DISTANT WEST" (Scrivener, Introduction, Vol 2,
pp. 299, 300).
We have it NOW REVEALED how Constantine's HEXAPLA Bible was
SUCCESSFULLY met. A POWERFUL CHAIN of churches, few in number
compared to the manifold congregations of an APOSTATE
Christianity, but enriched with the ETERNAL conviction of TRUTH
and with able scholars, STRETCHED from Palestine to SCOTLAND. If
Rome in her own land was UNABLE to beat down the testimony of
apostolic Scriptures, how could she hope, in the Greek speaking
world of the distant and HOSTILE EAST, to maintain her supremacy
of her Greek Bible?
The Scriptures of the apostle JOHN and his associates, the
traditional text, - the Textus Receptus, if you please, - arose
from the place of humiliation forced on it by Origen's Bible in
the hands of Constantine and became the Received Text of Greek
Christianity. And when the Greek East for ONE THOUSAND YEARS was
completely SHUT OFF from Latin West, the noble Waldenses in
NORTHERN ITALY STILL POSSESSED in LATIN the Received Text........
It is NOT true, as the Roman Church claims, that she gave
the Bible to the world. What she gave was an IMPURE TEXT, a text
with THOUSANDS of VERSES so CHANGED as to make way for her
UNscriptural DOCTRINES.
While upon those who possessed the veritable Word of God,
she poured out through long centuries, her stream of CRUEL
PERSECUTION. Or, in the words of another writer:
"The Waldenses were among the FIRST of the people of Europe
to obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures. Hundreds of years
BEFORE the Reformation, they possessed the Bible in MSS in their
native tongue. They had the truth unadulterated, and this
rendered them the special objects of hatred and
persecution.....Here for a thousand years, witness for the truth
maintained the ancient faith.....In a most wonderful manner
it (the Word of Truth) was preserved UNCORRUPTED through all the
ages of darkness" (E.G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 65, 66,
69).
The struggle against the Bible adopted by Constantine was
won. But ANOTHER warfare, another PLAN to deluge the Latin west
with a CORRUPT Latin Bible was preparing. We hasten to see how
the world was SAVED from Jerome and his Origenism.
NOTE
The TWO GREAT families of the GREEK Bibles are well
illustrated in the work of that outstanding scholar, ERASMUS.
Before he gave to the Reformation the NT in Greek, he DIVIDED ALL
GREEK MSS, into TWO classes: those which AGREE with the Received
Text and those which agree with the VATICANUS MS (Nolan, Inquiry,
p. 418).
THE TWO PARALLEL STREAMS OF BIBLES
1. APOSTLES (Original)
A. postates (Corrupted Originals)
2 RECEIVED TEXT (Greek)
B.Sinaiticus and Vaticanus Bible (Greek)
3.WALDENSIAN BIBLE (Italic)
C.Vulgate (Latin - Church of Rome's Bible)
4.ERASMUS (Received Text restored)
D.Vanticanus (Greek)
5.LUTHER'S BIBLE, DUTCH,
FRENCH, ITALIAN, etc.
(Received Text)
E.French, Spanish, Italian etc.
from the Vulgate
6.TYNDALE (English) 1535
(Received Text)
F.Rheims (English) from Vulgate (1582)
7.KING JAMES, 1611
(from Received Text)
G.Wescott and Hort (B and Alph - English, 1881)
H.Dr. Philip Schaff (B and Alph - American, 1901)
..............................
END QUOTE
The next chapter is all about how and why the Reformers REJECTED
the Bible of the Papacy.
Compiled 2003
The New Testament Translation - A History #7The Reformers Reject the Bible of the Papacy Compiled with added comments
FROM THE BOOK "OUR AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED" by
Benjamin Wilkinson, PhD.
Written 1930.
All CAPITAL letter are mine, for emphasis (Keith Hunt)
QUOTE
THE REFORMERS REJECT THE BIBLE OF THE PAPACY
The Papacy, DEFEATED in her hope to CONTROL the version of
the Bible in the Greek WORLD when the Greek NT favored by
Constantine was driven into retirement, ADOPTED TWO measures
which kept Europe under ITS DOMINATION.
FIRST, the Papacy was AGAINST the flow of GREEK language and
literature to Western Europe. All the treasures of the classical
part were held back in the Eastern Roman Empire, whose capital
was Constantinople. For NEAR ONE THOUSAND YEARS, the Western part
of Europe was a stranger to the Greek tongue. As Doctor HORT
says:
"The West became EXCLUSIVELY LATIN, as well as ESTRANGED
from the East; with LOCAL exceptions, interesting in themselves
and valuable to us but DEVOID of ALL extensive influence, the use
and knowledge of the Greek language DIED OUT in Western Europe"
(Hort's Introduction, p. 142).
When the use and knowledge of Greek died out in Western
Europe, all the VALUABLE records, history, archaeology,
literature, and science and remained UNTRANSLATED and UNAVAILABLE
to Western energies. No wonder, then, that this opposition to
using the ACHIEVEMENTS of the past BROUGHT on the DARK AGES
(447 A.D. to 1453 A.D.)
(Yes, we now know that in the East, not just the Greek East,
but further East still, MUCH was INVENTED, KNOWN, used as part of
everyday life and education, but Western Europe on the whole was
SHUT OFF from all that KNOWLEDGE and SCIENCE and EDUCATION that
the Eastern world was FULL of.....it truly was and has been named
correctly.....the DARK AGES - Keith Hunt).
The DARKNESS prevailed UNTIL the half-century preceding 1453
A. D. when REFUGEES, fleeing from the Greek world threatened by
the TURKS, came WEST introducing Greek language and literature.
AFTER Constantinople fell in 1453, THOUSANDS of VALUABLE MSS were
secured by the cities and centers of learning in Europe.
Europe AWOKE as from the DEAD, sprang forth to NEWNESS of
life. Columbus discovered America. Erasmus printed the GREEK NT.
Luther assailed the corruptions of the Latin Church. REVIVAL of
LEARNING and the REFORMATION followed swiftly.
(Ah yes, remember, Galileo - 1564-1642 - was rejected by
the Roman Catholic Church for many of his "discoveries" and
"views" and under threat of TORTURE from the INQUISITION he
publicly recanted his so-called "heretical" views. That is taken
from my New Canadian Dictionary, under the word "Galileo." Yes,
the "dark ages" really continued longer than Wilkinson states. It
took Europe, under the dark mystery teachings, and suppression of
the Roman Catholic Church, a long and painful time to break free
into much enlightenment BOTH in "religion" and in "science" -
Keith Hunt).
The SECOND measure adopted by the Pope which HELD the Latin
West in his power was to stretch out his hands to JEROME (about
400 A.D.), the monk of Bethlehem, reputed the GREATEST scholar of
his age, and APPEAL to him to COMPOSE a Bible in Latin SIMILAR to
the Bible adopted by Constantine in Greek. Jerome, the hermit of
Palestine.....was furnished with ALL the FUNDS that he needed and
was assisted by MANY scribes and copyists......
Jerome repaired to the famous library of Eusebius and
Pamphilus at Caesarea, where the voluminous MS of Origen had been
preserved. among these was the Greek Bible of the Vaticanus and
Sinaiticus type (Price, Ancestry, pp. 69, 70)......
Doctor Adam Clarke indicates Origen as the first teacher of
PURGATORY.
THE VULGATE OF JEROME
The Latin Bible of Jerome, commonly known as the VULGATE,
had AUTHORITATIVE sway for ONE THOUSAND YEARS......Jerome in his
early years had been brought up with an ENMITY to the Received
Text, then universally known as the GREEK Vulgate (Hort's
Introduction, p. 138).
The word Vulgate mean, "commonly used," or "current"......
Nevertheless, so POWERFUL was the Received Text that even until
Jerome's day (383 A.D.) it was called the Vulgate (Swete's
Introduction, pp. 85, 86).
The HOSTILITY of Jerome to the Received Text made him
NECESSARY to the Papacy. The Papacy in the Latin world OPPOSED
the authority of the Greek Vulgate......For this reason it sort
the great reputation Jerome enjoyed as a scholar.......
In preparing the Latin Bible, Jerome would gladly have gone
all the way in translating to us the CORRUPTIONS in the text of
Eusebius, but he did not dare. Great scholars of the West were
already EXPOSING him and the CORRUPT Greek MSS (W. H. Green, The
Text of O.T., p. 116 - Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 338)......
Although ENDORSED and supported by the power of the Papacy,
the Vulgate - which name we will no call Jerome's translation -
did NOT gain EVERYWHERE immediate acceptance. It took NINE
HUNDRED YEARS to bring that about (Jacobus, p. 4).......
As Father Simon, that monk who exercised so powerful an
influence on the textual criticism of the last century, says:
(remember the last century for Wilkinson, when writing was 1730
to 1830 - Keith Hunt)
"The LATINS have had so great esteem for the father (Jerome)
that for a THOUSAND years they used NO OTHER version" (Quoted in
Nolan, Inquiry, p. 33).
(Wilkinson has stated the Vulgate of Jerome did not gain
favor EVERYWHERE immediately - it gained favor within the Latin
world ruled over by the Roman Catholic Church - Keith Hunt).
Therefore, a millennium later, when GREEK MSS and Greek
learning was AGAIN general, the CORRUPT readings of the Vulgate
were NOTED. Even CATHOLIC scholars of REPUTE, BEFORE
Protestantism was fully under way, pointed out its THOUSANDS
of ERRORS. As Doctor FULKE in 1583 writing to a Catholic scholar,
a Jesuit, says:
"Great friends of it and your doctrine, Lindanus, bishop of
Ruremond, and Isidorus Clarius, monk of Casine, and bishop
Fulginatenis: of which the former writeth a WHOLE book,
discussing how he would have the ERRORS, VICES, CORRUPTIONS,
ADDITIONS, DETRACTIONS, BARBARISMS, and SOLECISMS of the VULAR
LATIN translation CORRECTED and REFORMED; bringing MANY examples
of EVERY KIND, in several chapters and sections: the other,
Isidorus Clarius, giving a reason of his purpose, in CASTIGATION
of the said vulgar Latin translation, confesseth that it was
FULL OF ERRORS ALMOST INNUMERABLE; which if he should have
reformed all according to the Hebrew verity, he could not have
set forth the vulgar edition, as his purpose was. Therefore in
MANY places he RETAINED the accustomed translation, but in his
ANNOTATIONS admonished the reader, how it is in the Hebrew. And,
notwithstanding this moderation, he acknowldgeth that about EIGHT
THOUSAND PLACES are by him so NOTED and CORRECTED" (Fulke,
Defence of Translation of the Bible (1583), p. 62).
(Strange is it not, that most higher critics of the Textual
Criticism of today, would never think of Jerome's Vulgate in
translating the Bible. Of course they would say we have "gone
passed such, and have moved on to newer light that has come our
way." Some call it "progressive theology." Then those who now in
the Christian Church approve of "homosexuality and lesbianism" as
okay and as alternative life style - for the membership and/or
the priests and ministers - would also say they have been
enlightened more and have moved on with a progressive theology.
The modern Textual Critics would mean they have moved on to TWO
other Roman Catholic MSS that they rely on and "run with" - the
Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus, not brought froth until the late
1800s. The fact is friends, the new modern translations that
embrace this theology of MSS adoption and reasoning, DO have MANY
DIFFERENCES from the old KJV or the NewKJV - Keith Hunt).
EVEN WYCLIFFE'S TRANSLATION WAS FROM THE VULGATE
Wycliffe, that GREAT hero of God, is universally called "the
morning star of the Reformation." He did what he could and God
greatly blessed.
Wycliff's translation of the Bible into English.....It was
taken from the VULGATE and like its model, contained MANY
ERRORS.....Wycliffe, himself, nominally a Catholic (please note -
Wilkinson knew that some he was writing about with great ability
in certain ways, were STILL Roman Catholic. Some today try to
claim Wilkinson was not willing to admit they were Roman
Catholic, we shall see this again when he writes about Erasmus
- Keith Hunt) was to the last, had hoped that the needed reform
would COME WITHIN the Catholic Church. Darkness still enshrouded
Western Europe....the Reformation lingered. THEN appeared the
translation into ENGLISH of TYNDALE from the pure Greek text of
Erasmus.
Speaking of Tyndale, DEMAUS says:
"He was of course aware of the existence of Wycliffe's
Version; but this, as a bald translation from the Vulgate into
obsolete English, could NOT be of ANY assistance (even
if he had possessed a copy) to one who was ENDEAVORING, 'simply
and faithfully, so far forth as God had given him the gift of
knowledge and understanding" to render the NT from its original
Greek into 'proper English' " (Demaus, William Tyndale, p. 105).
Again:
"For, as became an accomplished Greek scholar, Tyndale was
resolved to translate the NT from the original language, and NOT
as Wycliffe had done, from the Latin Vulgate; and the ONLY
edition of the Greek text which had yet appeared, the only one at
least likely to be in Tyndale's possession, was that issued by
Erasmus at Basle" (Idem, p. 73).
THE REFORMERS OBLIGED TO REJECT JEROME'S VULGATE
The Reformation did not make great progress until after the
Received Text had been RESTORED to the world. The Reformers were
NOT satisfied with the Latin Vulgate.....
Cartwright, the famous Puritan scholar, described the Vugate
as follows:
" As to the Version adopted by the Rhemists (Cartwright's
word for the Jesuits), Mr. Cartwright observed that all the SOAP
and NITRE they could collect would be insufficient to CLEANSE the
Vulgate from the FILTH of BLOOD in which it was ORIGINALLY
conceived and had since collected in passing so long through the
hands of UNLEARNED monks, from which the Greek copies had
ALTOGETHER ESCAPED" (Brook's Memoir of Life of Cartwright, p.
276)......
Such was the DARKNESS and so MANY were the ERRORS which the
Reformers had to encounter as they started on their way. They
welcomed the rising spirit of intelligence.....but the priests
LOUDLY DENOUNCED it. They declared that the study of the Greek
was of the DEVIL and prepared to destroy all who promoted it
(Foude, Life and Letters of Erasmus, pp. 232, 233).
How intrentched was the situation may be seen in the
following quotation of a letter written by Erasmus:
"Obedience (writes Erasmus) it so taught as to hide that
there is any obedience due to God (wow, where have we heard this
today, in our modern Christianity....lots of it, have whatever
modern translation that is based mainly on the Vaticanus and
Sinaiticus MSS...and just do your own things, as whatever pleases
or is suited for you in your chosen way of life at the
time....but do not teach that God still has His word out there,
and He still expects you to live by every word of it - Mat.4: 4 -
Keith Hunt). Kings are to obey the Pope. Priests are to obey
their bishops. Monks are to obey their abbots. Oaths are exacted,
that want of submission may be punished as perjury. It may
happen, it often does happen, that an abbot is a fool or
drunkard. He issues an order to the brotherhood in the name of
holy obedience. and what will such order do? An order to observe
chastity? An order to be sober? An order to tell no lies? NOT ONE
of these things. It will be that brother is not ot learn Greek:
he is not to seek to instruct himself. He may be a sot. He may go
with prostitutes. He may be full of hatred and malice. He may
never look inside the Scriptures. No matter. He has not broken
any oath. He is an excellent member of the community. While if he
disobeys such a command as this from an insolent superior
there is stake or dungeon for him instantly" (Idem, p. 64).
(Today it seems, people by and large cannot see that they
have thrown away one biting snake in the one hand only to replace
the biting snake with the other hand. They have gone over to the
Greek alright, run off with basically two MSS they rely on for
their NT translation - and not found and used to any degee until
the late 1800s - so claiming God did not preserve His word of the
NT, hence "progressive theology" that means God's word is
"relative" in its text to what "finds" come along and to how man
wants to exploit them claiming this is now closer to what it was
originally, but who knows another "find" may make it closer to
what it was than what is was before the other "find" was found.
Do you get the picture of the mind-set they have? Basically
teaching that just about anything goes with whatever NT
translation you want to come up with, at whatever time in history
and at the same time you make up your religion for yourself, as
to fit your plans, wishes, desires. Believe that God did not
preserve His word, down through the ages, that it's just man,
with all kinds of mixed up messes in it all, so choose which mix
up pleases you, for this stage of your life, change the mix as
you go along. If the next mix is better for you at some time,
then run with that mix....just anything goes as long as you do
not run a mess with the laws of the land and end up in prison or
on death row.
It's true folks......that is what popular Christianity is
coming to, already there in fact. Going to be very easy for the
end time Beast power to take back its control of humanity,
when God says it's time for the prophecies of Revelation to come
to pass - Keith Hunt).
It was impossible, however, to hold back the ripening
harvest. Throughout the centuries, the Waldenses and other
faithful evangelicals had sown the seed. The fog was rolling away
from the plains and hills of Europe.......
When the one thousand years had gone by, strains of new
gladness were heard.....Erasmus threw his first Greek NT at the
feet of Europe. Then followed a full century of the greatest
scholars of language and literature the world ever saw. Among
them were Stephens and Beza, each contributing his part to
establishing and fortifying the Received Text.......
.............................
Compiled 2003. We shall see the work of Erasmus and the Greek
text, in the next chapter. And we shall see that Wilkinson KNEW
Erasmus was a Roman Catholic to boot.
The New Testament Translation #8 - the Rise of the JesuitsTyndale translates Erasmus' Greek NT and the Roman Catholic Church counter-attacks Compiled with added comments
FROM THE BOOK "OUR AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED" by
Benjamin Wilkinson, PhD.
Written 1930.
All CAPITAL letters are mine, for emphasis (Keith Hunt)
QUOTE
ERASMUS RESTORES THE RECEIVED TEXT
The revival of Learning produced the giant intellect and
scholar, Erasmus. It is a common proverb that "Erasmus laid the
egg and Luther hatched it."......
Erasmus, during his mature years.....was ever at work,
visiting libraries, searching in every nook and corner for the
profitable. He was ever collecting, comparing, writing and
publishing. Europe was ROCKED from end to end by his books which
EXPOSED the IGNORANCE of the MONKS, the SUPERSTITIONS of the
priesthood, the BIGOTRY, and the CHILDISH and COARSE religion of
the day. He classified the Greek MSS and read the Fathers......
Yet while he lived Europe was at his feet. Several times the
King of England offered him any position in the kingdom, at his
own price; the Emperor of Germany did the same. The POPE offered
to make him CARDINAL. This he steadfastly REFUSED, as he would
NOT compromise his conscience. In fact, had he been so minded, he
PERHAPS could have made himself POPE......(These last two
sentences prove without question, but some indeed do question
Wilkinson on the matter, that Wilkinson KNEW Erasmus was a ROMAN
CATHOLIC. You do not write about someone who could have been a
"cardinal" and maybe indeed very Pope, without knowing full well
that that person is a Roman Catholic by religion - Keith Hunt).
Book after book came from his hand....but his CROWNING work
was the NT in GREEK......the effect was MARVELLOUS....Translation
after translation has been taken from it, such as the German, and
the English, and others. Critics have tried to BELITTLE the Greek
MSS he used, but the enemies of Erasmus, or rather the enemies of
the Received Text, have found insuperable difficulties
withstanding their attacks. Writing to Peter Baberius, August 13,
1521, Erasmus says:
"I did my best with the NT, but it PROVOKED endless
quarrels. Edward Lee pretended to have discovered 300 errors.
They appointed a commission, which professed to have found
bushels of them. Every dinner-table rang with the blunders of
Erasmus. I required particulars, AND COULD NOT HAVE THEM"
(Froude, Erasmus, p. 267)......
There were HUNDREDS OF MSS.....but he used only a FEW. What
matter? The VAST BULK of MSS in GREEK are practically all the
Received Text. If the few that Erasmus used were TYPICAL.....did
he not, with all the problems before him, ARRIVE at PRACTICALLY
the same result which only could be arrived at today by a fair
and comprehensive investigation? Moreover, the text he chose had
such an outstanding history in the Greek, the Syrian, and the
Waldensian Churches, that it constituted an IRRESISTIBLE ARGUMENT
of God's providence.......In other words, the Greek NT of
Erasmus, known as the Received Text, is none other than the Greek
NT which successfully met the RAGE if its PAGAN and PAPAL
enemies.
We are told the TESTIMONY from the RANKS of our ENEMIES
constitutes the highest kind of EVIDENCE. The following statement
which I now submit, is taken from the DEFENSE of their doings by
TWO members of that body so HOSTILE to the Greek NT of Erasmus -
the Revisers of 1870-1881. This quotation shows that the MSS of
Erasmus coincide with the GREAT BULK of MSS.
"The MSS which Erasmus used, DIFFER, for the MOST part, ONLY
in small and insignificant details from the BULK of the cursive
MSS - that is to say, the MSS which are written in RUNNING hand
and not in CAPITAL or (as they are technically called UNCIAL
letters). The general character of their text is the SAME. By
this observation the PEDIGREE of the Received Text is carried up
to a GREAT BODY of MSS of which the earliest are assigned to the
ninth century."
Then after quoting Doctor HORT, they drew this conclusion on
his statement:
"This remarkable statement completes the PEDIGREE of the
Received Text. The pedigree STRETCHES BACK to a REMOTE antiquity.
The first ancestor of the Received Text was, as Dr. Hort is
CAREFUL to remind us, at LEAST contemporary with the oldest
of our extant MSS, IF NOT OLDER than any one of them" (Two
Members of the NT Company on the Received Text and the Greek
Text, pp. 11, 12).
TYNDALE'S TOWING GENIUS IS USED TO TRANSLATE
ERASMUS INTO ENGLISH
God who foresaw the coming GREATNESS of the English speaking
world, prepared in advance the agent who early would give
direction to the course of its thinking. One man stands out
silhouetted against the horizon above all others, as having
stamped his genius upon English thought and upon the English
language. That man was WILLIAM TYNDALE.
The Received Text in Greek, having through Erasmus reassumed
its ascendancy in the West of Europe as it had always maintained
it in the East, bequeathed its indispensable heritage to the
English......
The Spirit of God presided over Tyndale's calling and
training. He early passed through Oxford to Cambridge to learn
Greek under Erasmus, who was teaching there from 1510 to 1514.
Even after Erasmus returned to the Continent, Tyndale kept
informed on the revolutionizing productions which fell from the
master's pen......
Herman Buschius, a friend of Erasmus and one of the leaders
in the revival of letters, spoke of Tyndale as "so skilled in
SEVEN languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English,
French, that whichever he spake you would suppose it his native
tongue" (Demaus, Life of Tyndale, p. 130)......
When he left Cambridge, he accepted a position as tutor in
the home of an influential landowner. Here his attack upon the
SUPERSTITIONS of Popery threw him into SHARP discussions with a
STAGNANT clergy, and brought down upon his head the WRATH of the
reactionaries. It was then that in disputing with a learned man
who put the Pope's laws ABOVE God's laws, that he made his FAMOUS
VOW, "If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a BOY
that driveth a plough shall KNOW MORE of the Scriptures that
though doest."
From that moment UNTIL he was BURNT AT THE STAKE, his life
was one of continual sacrifice and persecution......
As Luther took the Greek NT of Erasmus and made the German
language, so Tyndale took the same immortal gift of God and made
the English language. Across the sea, he translated the NT and a
large part of the Old. Two-thirds of the Bible was translated
into the English by Tyndale, and what he did not translate was
finished by those who worked with him and were under the spell of
his genius. The Authorized Bible of the English language is
Tyndale's, after his work passed through two or three revisions.
So instant and so powerful was the influence of Tyndale's
gift upon England, that Catholicism, through those newly formed
papal invincible, called the JESUITS, sprang to its feet, and
brought forth, in the form of a Jesuit NT, the most effective
instrument of learning the Papacy, up to that time, had produced
in the English language. This newly invented rival version
advanced to the attack, and we are now called to consider how a
crisis in the world's history was met when the Jesuit Bible
became a CHALLENGE to Tyndale's translation.
THE JESUITS AND THE JESUIT BIBLE OF 1582
I have before my eyes on a shelf in my library, a book
entitled "The Black Pope," There are two Popes, the White Pope
and the Black Pope. The world little realizes how much that fact
means. The White Pope is the one we generally know and speak of
as the Pope, but the REAL POWER is in the hands of that body
directed by the Black Pope. The Black Pope, which name does NOT
refer to color, is the head of the JESUITS - an organization
which, outside of God's people, is the MIGHTIEST that history as
ever known. On the other hand it is the most SUBTLE and
INTOLERANT. It was FORMED AFTER the Reformation began and for the
CHIEF PURPOSE of DESTROYING the Reformation.
(My New Canadian Dictionary says under "Jesuit" - "a member of
the society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order founded by St.
Ignatius Loyola and others in 1534 - French Jesuite or modern
latin Jesuits from Jesus: see Jesus." When living in the Toronto
area in the 80s an ex-Jesuit priest would frequently come and
lecture on the ins and outs of the Jesuit Order....it was truly
an eye opener as to what he had to say about this Catholic order
that most even today know nothing about. A book called "The
Secret Life of the Jesuits" by Edmond Paris is still available
through Chick Publications, see them on the Internet. Chick
publications also has many other books on the Roman Catholic
Church. This religious organization is still determined to
conquer the world for Jesus, and they are marching on with over a
BILLION members in just about every country on earth.
The old Protestant Bible Commentaries, most of them (four of the
most well-known ones I have in my Library, all understood the
"woman" that rides the "beast" - the "woman drunk with the blood
of the saints" - "the woman who has deceived all nations with the
wine of her fornications" to be the Papacy, with its Pope,
priests, and many Catholic "orders" that are out to conquer the
world - Keith Hunt).
The Catholic Church has 69 organizations of men (remember
Wilkinson was writing in 1930, they may have more or less today -
Keith Hunt), some of which have been in existence for over one
thousand years. Of these we might name the "Augustinians" - the
"Benedictines" - the "Capuchins" - the "Dominicans" and so on.
The Benedictines were founded about 540 A.D. Each order has many
members, often reaching into the thousands, and tens of
thousands. The Augustinians, for example (to which Martin Luther
belonged), numbered 35,000 in his day.....
They overrun all countries and constitute the army militant
of the Papacy.....
Let us see why the Jesuits stand predominantly ABOVE ALL
these, so that the general has a GREAT AUTHORITY WITHIN the VAST
ranks of the Catholic clergy, regular and secular.
Within 35 years after Luther had nailed his thesis upon the
door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg, and launched his attacks
upon the errors and corrupt practices of Rome, the Protestant
reformation was thoroughly established. The great contributing
factor of this spiritual upheaval was the translation by Luther
of the Greek NT of Erasmus into German.
The MEDIEVAL Papacy AWAKENED from its SUPERSTITIOUS LETHARGY
to see that in a THIRD of a century, the Reformation had carried
away TWO-THIRDS of Europe. Germany, England, the Scandinavian
countries, Holland, Switzerland had become PROTESTANT. France,
Poland, Bavaria, Austria and Belgium, were swinging that way.
In CONSTERNATION, the Papacy looked around in every
direction for HELP. If the JESUITS had not come forward and
offered to save the situation, today, there might not be a
Catholic church. What was the offer, and what were these weapons,
the like of which man never before had forged?
The founder of the Jesuit was a Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola,
whom the Catholic Church has canonized and made Saint
Ignatius......
How well the Jesuits have SUCCEEDED, let the following pages
tell. Soon the BRAINS of the Catholic Church were to be found in
that order. ABOUT 1582, when the Jesuit Bible was launched to
DESTROY Tyndale's English Version, the Jesuits DOMINATED 287
Colleges and Universities in Europe.
Their complete system of education and of drilling was
likened, in the CONSTITUTION of the order itself, to the reducing
of all its members to the placidity of a CORPSE, whereby the
WHOLE could be TURNED and RETURNED at the WILL of the superior.
We quote from their CONSTITUTION:
"As for holy OBEDIENCE, this virtue must be PERFECT in every
point - in execution, in will, in intellect - doing what is
enjoined with all celerity, spiritual joy, and perseverance;
persuading ourselves that EVERYTHING is JUST; suppressing every
repugnant thought and judgment of one's own, in a certain
obedience.....and let every one persuade himself that he who
lived under OBEDIENCE should be amoved AND DIRECTED under Divine
Providence, by his SUPERIOR, just as if he were a corpse
(perinde ac si cadaver esset), which allows itself to be MOVED
and LED in ANY direction" (R. W. Thompson, Ex-Secretary of Navy,
U.S.A., The Footprints of the Jesuits, p. 51)......
Of the results achieved by means of this policy and methods,
Macaulay says:
"It was in the ears of the Jesuit that the powerful, the
noble, and the beautiful, breathed the secret history of their
lives. It was at the feet of the Jesuit that the youth of
the higher and middle classes were brought up from childhood to
manhood, from the first rudiments to the courses of rhetoric and
philosophy. Literature and science, lately associated with
infidelity or with heresy, now became the allies of orthodoxy.
Dominant in the south of France, the great order soon went
forth conquering and to conquer. In spite of oceans and deserts,
of hunger and pestilence, of spies and penal laws, of dungeons
and racks, or gibbets and quartering-blocks, Jesuits were to be
found UNDER EVERY DISGUISE, and in every country; scholars,
physicians, merchants, serving men; in the hostile court of
Sweden, in the old manor-house of Cheshire, among hovels of
Connaught; arguing, instructing, consoling, stealing away the
hearts of the young, animating the courage of the timid, holding
up the crucifix before the eyes of the dying. Nor was it less
their office to plot against the thrones and lives of the
apostate kings, to spread evil rumors, to raise tumults, to
inflame evil wars, to arm the hand of the assassin. Inflexible in
nothing but in their fidelity to the Church, they were equally
ready to appeal in her case to the spirit of loyalty and to the
spirit of freedom. Extreme doctrines of obedience and extreme
doctrines of liberty, the right of rulers to misgovern the
people, the right of every one of the people to plunge his knife
in the heart of a bad ruler, were inculcated by the same man,
according as he addressed himself to the subject of Philip
or to the subject of Elizabeth" (Macaulay, Essays, pp. 480, 481).
And again:
"If Protestantism, or the semblance of Protestantism, showed
itself in any quarter, it was instantly met, not by petty,
teasing persecution, but by persecution of that sort which bows
down and crushes all but a very few select spirits. Whoever was
suspected of heresy, whatever his rank, his learning, his
reputation, knew that he must purge himself to the satisfaction
of a severe and vigilant tribunal, or die by fire. Heretical
books were sought out and destroyed with similar rigor" (Idem,
pp. 482, 483).
(If you think all this is far-fetched and make-believe, that it
is just made up or even lies from the lips of those who dislike
or have animosity against the Roman Catholic Church, for whatever
reason, then you need to purchase and read some of the books
written by Avro Manhattan on the Roman Catholic Church of the
20th century, perhaps the greatest expert writer on Roman
Catholicism. Or the eye opening and block-buster book of its day
called "The Final Conclave." There is the ex-Jesuit Alberto
Rivera, the man I personally saw a number of times, lecturing in
Toronto in the 80s. Most of the writings of Manhattan and Rivera
are probably obtainable through the Website: www.chick.com -
Keith Hunt).
THE CATHOLIC COUNCIL OF TRENT (1545-1563) CALLED
TO DEFEAT THE REFORMATION.....
"The Society came to exercise a marked influence to which
their presence in the Council of Trent, as the Pope's
THEOLOGIANS, gave signal testimony. It was a WISE stroke of
POLICY for the Pope to ENTRUST its cause in the Council so
largely to the Jesuits" (Hulme, Renaissance and Reformation, p.
428).
The Council of Trent was DOMINATED by the Jesuits (my New
Canadian Dictionary says this on the Council of Trent: "...an
ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held in three
sessions between 1545 and 1563 in Trent, northern Italy.
Prompted by the opposition of the Reformation, the council
clarified and redefined the Church's position on certain issues,
abolished many of the abuses that had been prevalent, and
strengthened the authority of the papacy. The overall effect was
to provide the Church with a solid foundation for the
Counter-Reformation" - Keith Hunt).
It is the leading characteristic of that assembly.
"The great Convention dreaded by every Pope" was called by
Paul 3 when he saw that such a council was imperative if the
Reformation was to be checked. And when it did
assemble, he so contrived the manipulation of the program and the
attendance of the delegates, that the Jesuitical conception of a
theocratic Papacy should be incorporated into the canons of the
church.
So prominent had been the Reformer's denunciation of the
abuses of the church, against her exactions, and against her
shocking immoralities (and we recently have heard in the first
years of this 21st century, many more shocking revelations of
sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, the cover-ups and
deceptions - Keith Hunt), that we would naturally expect that
this Council, which marks so great a turning point in church
history, would have promptly met the charges. But this it did not
do. The very FIST propositions to be discussed at length and with
intense interest, was those relating to the Scriptures. This show
how fundamental to all reform, as well as to the great
Reformation, is the determining power over Christian order and
faith, of the DISPUTED readings and the DISPUTED BOOKS of the
Bible. Moreover, propositions denounced by the Council, which
we give below, the Council did not draw up itself. They were
taken from the writings of Luther. We thus see how fundamental to
the faith of Protestants is their acceptance; while their
REJECTION constitutes the KEYSTONE to the SUPERSTITIONS and to
the TYRANNICAL theology of the Papacy. These FOUR propositions
which first engaged the attention of the Council, and which the
Council CONDEMNED, are:
They CONDEMNED: 1 - "That Holy Scriptures contained ALL
things necessary for salvation, and that it was impious to place
apostolic TRADITION on a LEVEL with Scripture."
They CONDEMNED: 2 - "That certain books accepted as
CANONICAL in the Vulgate were APOCRYPHAL and NOT canonical."
They CONDEMNED: 3 - "That Scripture MUST be studied in the
ORIGINAL languages, and that there were ERRORS in the Vulgate."
They CONDEMNED: 4 - "That the MEANING of Scripture is PLAIN,
and that it can be understood WITHOUT commentary with the help of
Christ's Spirit" (Froude, The Council of Trent, pp. 174, 175).
For 18 long years the Council deliberated. The Papal
scholars DETERMINED what was the Catholic FAITH. During these 18
years, the Papacy gathered up to itself what survived of Catholic
territory. The church of Rome consolidated her remaining forces
and took her stand SOLIDLY on the grounds that TRADITION was of
EQUAL value with the Scriptures; that the SEVEN apocryphal books
of the Vulgate were as much Scripture as the other books; that
those readings of the Vulgate in the accepted books, which
DIFFERED from the Greek, were NOT errors, as Luther and the
Reformers had said, but were AUTHENTIC; and finally, that LAY
MEMBERS of the church had NO RIGHT to interpret the Scriptures
APART from the clergy.
END QUOTE
(Well of course anyone can look in the Catholic Encyclopedia,
Church History books etc. and see for themselves what was decided
by the Council of Trent during those years of 1545 to 1563 -
Keith Hunt).
..............................
Compiled 2003
The New Testament Translation #9Jesuits counterattack Bible THE NEW TESTAMENT
TRANSLATION - A HISTORY
The Jesuit Bible of 1582
Compiled with added comments
FROM THE BOOK "OUR AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED" by Benjamin
Wilkinson, PhD.
Written 1930.
All CAPITAL letters are mine, for emphasis (Keith Hunt)
QUOTE
The opening decrees of the Council of Trent had set the pace
for centuries to come. They pointed out the line of battle which
the Catholic REACTION would wage AGAINST the Reformation......If
we include the time spent in studying these questions before the
opening session of the Council in 1545, until the Jesuit Bible
made its first appearance in 1582, FULLY FORTY years were passed
in the preparation of Jesuit students who were being drilled in
these departments of learning.....
It was CLEARLY seen, as it is now, that if CONFUSION on the
ORIGIN and AUTHENTICITY of the Scriptures could be spread abroad
in the world, the amazing certainty of the Reformers on these
points, which had astonished and confounded the Papacy, could be
BROKEN down.....The LEADERSHIP in the battle for the Reformation
was passing over from Germany to England (A. T. Innes, Church and
State, p. 156).....
Therefore, Jesuitical scholarship, with at least forty years
of training, MUST bring forth in English a Jesuit Version capable
of superseding the Bible of Tyndale. Could it be done?
Sixty years elapsed from the close of the Council of Trent
(1563) to the landing of the Pilgrims in America. During those 60
years, England had been CHANGING from a CATHOLIC nation to a
Bible-loving people. Since 1525, when Tyndale's Bible appeared,
the Scriptures had obtained a wide circulation.....
(My New Canadian Dictionary has this to say under "Tyndale" -
"William....1495-1536. English translator and Protestant martyr.
Faced with ecclesiastical opposition to his project of
translating the Bible into English, he went abroad in 1524, and
translated the New Testament (1525-6), the Pentateuch (1530), and
Jonah (1531); in 1535 he was arrested, charged with heresy, and
subsequently strangled and burned at the stake" - Keith Hunt).
Spain at the time, was not only the greatest nation in the
world, but was also FANATICALLY Catholic. All the NEW WORLD
BELONGED to Spain; she ruled the seas and dominated Europe. The
Spanish sovereign and the Papacy UNITED in their efforts
to send into England bands of HIGHLY trained Jesuits......
At the same time, the Jesuits were acting to turn the
English people from the Bible, back to Romanism. As a means to
this end, they brought forth in English a Bible of their
own.....If England could be RETAINED in the Catholic column,
Spain and England together would see to it that all AMERICA,
north and south, would be Catholic......
THE GREAT STIR OVER THE JESUIT BIBLE OF 1582
So powerful was the swing towards Protestantism during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, and so STRONG the LOVE for Tyndale's
Version, that there was neither place nor Catholic scholarship
enough in England to bring forth a Catholic Bible in strength.
Priests were in prison for their plotting, and many had fled to
the Continent. There they founded schools to train English youth
and send them back to England as priests.....The most prominent
of these colleges, called seminaries, was at RHEIMS, France. Here
the Jesuits assembled a company of learned scholars.....and from
here they directed the movements of Philip 2 of Spain as he
prepared a GREAT FLEET to CRUSH England and bring it back to the
FEET of the POPE.
The burning DESIRE to give the COMMON people the Holy Word
of God, was the reason why Tyndale had translated it into
English. No such reason impelled the Jesuits of Rheims. In the
preface to their Rheims New Testament, they state that it was not
translated into English because it was necessary that the Bible
should be in the mother tongue, or that God had appointed the
Scriptures to be read by all; BUT from the SPECIAL considerations
of the state of their mother country.
This translation was indeed to do on the INSIDE of England,
what the great navy of Philip 2 was to do on the OUTSIDE. One was
to be used as a MORAL attack, the other as a PHYSICAL attack;
both to RECLAIM England.....
"The principal object of the Rheims translators was not ONLY
to circulate their doctrines through the country, but ALSO to
DEPRECIATE as much as possible the English translations"
(Brooke's Cartwright, p. 256).
The appearance of the Jesuit New Testament in 1582 produced
CONSTERNATION in England.....It was to serve as a WEDGE between
Protestants and Catholics. It was the product of UNUSUAL ABILITY
and YEARS of LEARNING. Immediately the scholarship of England was
astir. Queen Elizabeth sent forth the call for a DAVID to meet
this GOLIATH. Finding no one in her kingdom satisfactory to her,
she sent to Geneva, where Calvin was building up his great work,
and besought BEZA, the co-worker of Calvin, to undertake the task
of answering all the objectionable matter contained in this
Jesuit Version.....to the astonishment of the Queen, Beza
modestly replied that her majesty had within her own realm, a
scholar more able to undertake the task than he. He referred to
Thomas Cartwright, the great Puritan divine. Beza said, "The
sun does not shine on a greater scholar than Cartwright."
Cartwright was a Puritan, and Elizabeth DISLIKED the
Puritans as much as she did the Catholics. She wanted an
Episcopalian or a Presbyterian to undertake the answer.
Cartwright was IGNORED. But time was passing and the English
Protestantism wanted Cartwright. The universities of Cambridge
and Oxford, Episcopalian though they were, sent to Cartwright a
request signed by their outstanding scholars (Brooke's
Cartwright, p. 260).
Cartwright decided to undertake it. He reached out one arm
and grasped all the power of the LATIN MSS and testimony. He
reached out his other arm and in it he embraced all the VAST
stores of GREEK and HEBREW literature. With inescapable logic,
he marshalled the FACTS of his vast learning and levelled blow
after blow against this latest and most dangerous product of
Catholic theology (English Hexapla, pp. 98, 99; F.J. Firth, The
Holy Gospel, pp. 17, 18).
Meanwhile, 136 GREAT Spanish GALLEONS, some armed with 50
Cannons were slowly sailing up the English Channel to make
England Catholic. England had no ships. Elizabeth asked
Parliament for 15 men-of-war, they voted 30. With these, assisted
by harbour tugs under DRAKE, England sailed forth to meet the
GREATEST FLEET the world had ever seen. All England teemed with
excitement. God helped: the ARMADA was CRUSHED, and England
became a GREAT sea power.
(My New Canadian Dictionary under "Drake" has this to say:
"Drake, Sir Francis, 1540-96. English sailor and explorer. He was
the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, 1577-80, and as
vice-admiral he payed an important part in the defeat of the
Spanish Armada." The last clause is very underestimating the
position and fame of Drake, as any school-boy in English history
class will attest to, as I was at one time - Keith Hunt).
AFTER THE EXPOSURE BY CARTWRIGHT AND FULKE, THE
CATHOLICS DOCTORED AND REDOCTORED THE JESUIT
BIBLE OF 1582, UNTIL TODAY THE NAME DOUAY IS A
MISNOMER
The Rheims-Douay and the King James Version were published
LESS than THIRTY years apart.....The Rheims-Douay has been
REPEATEDLY changed to APPROXIMATE the King James. So that the
Douay of 1600 and that of 1900 are NOT the same in MANY ways.
The NT was published at Rheims in 1582. The university was
moved back to Douai in 1593, where the OT was published in
1609-1610. This completed what is known as the original Douay
Bible.
There is said to have been two revisions of the douay OT and
eight of the Douay NT, representing such an extent of verbal
ALTERATIONS, and modernized spelling that a Roman Catholic
authority says, "The version now in use has been so SERIOUSLY
ALTERED that it can be scarcely considered identical with that
which first went by the name of the Douay Bible," and further,
"it never had any episcopal imprimatur, much less any papal
approbation."
"Although the Bibles in use at the present day (remember
this was in 1930 when Wilkinson was looking at the Catholic
Encyclopedia for this quote - Keith Hunt) by the Catholics of
England and Ireland are POPULARLY styled the Douay Version, they
are most IMPROPERLY called; they are founded, with more or less
ALTERATIONS, on a series of REVISIONS undertaken by Bishop
Challoner in 1749-52. His object was to meet the practical want
felt by the Catholics of his day of a Bible moderate in size and
price, in readable English, and with notes more suitable to the
time....The changes introduced by him were so CONSIDERABLE that,
according to Cardinal Newman, they 'almost amounted to a new
translation.' So also, Cardinal Wiseman wrote, 'To call it any
longer the Douay or Rheims Version is an abuse of terms. It has
been ALTERED and MODIFIED until scarcely ANY verse REMAINS as it
was ORIGINALLY published. In nearly every case, Challoner's
change took the form APPROXIMATING to the Authorized Version' " (
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Art., 'Douay Bible.' )
THE NEW PLAN OF THE JESUITS TO
DESTROY PROTESTANTISM
A thousand years had passed before time permitted the trial
of strength between the Greek Bible and the Latin......The
Vulgate yielded before the Received Text. The Latin was
vanquished before the Greek.....The Jesuits were obliged to SHIFT
their line of battle. They saw, that armed ONLY with the Latin,
they could fight no longer. They therefore resolved to enter the
field of the GREEK and become superb MASTERS OF THE GREEK. They
knew that MSS in Greek, of the type from which the Bible adopted
by Constantine had been taken, were awaiting them - manuscripts,
moreover, which involved the OT as well as the New. To use them
to overthrow the Received Text would demand GREAT TRAINING and
almost HERCULEAN labors; for the Received Text was apparently
INVINCIBLE.
But still more.....Flushed with their glorious victory over
the Jesuit Bible of 1582, and over the Spanish Armada of
1588.....English Protestantism.....They have to the world
what has been considered by a host of scholars, the greatest
version ever produced in any language - the King James Bible,
called "the MIRACLE of English PROSE.".......
The Jesuits had before them a DOUBLE task - both to SUPPLANT
the authority of the Greek of the Received Text by another Greek
New Testament, and then upon this mutilated foundation, to bring
forth a new English version which might retire into the
background, the King James.......
In other words, the Jesuits had put forth one Bible in
English, that of 1582, as we have seen; of course they could get
out another.
......................
Compiled 2003
The New Testament Translation #10 KJV born in TribulationStruggles over the Jesuit version Compiled with added comments as felt needed
FROM THE BOOK "OUR AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED" by Benjamin
Wilkins PhD - written 1930.
All CAPITAL letters are mine unless otherwise stated (Keith Hunt)
Quote:
THE hour had arrived, and from the human point of view,
conditions were perfect, for God to bring forth a translation of
the Bible which would sum up in itself the best of the ages.
The heavenly Father foresaw the opportunity of giving His
Word to the inhabitants of earth by the coming of the British
Empire with its dominions scattered throughout the world, and by
the great American Republic, both speaking the English language.
Not only was the English language by 1611 in a more
opportune condition than it had ever been before or ever would be
again, but the Hebrew and the Greek likewise had been brought up
with the accumulated treasures of their materials to a splendid
working point. The age was not distracted by the rush of
mechanical and industrial achievements. Moreover linguistic
scholarship was at its peak. Men of giant minds, supported by
excellent physical health, had possessed in a splendid state of
perfection a knowledge of the languages and literature necessary
for the ripest Biblical scholarship.
One hundred and fifty years of printing had permitted the
Jewish rabbis to place at the disposal of scholars all the
treasures in the Hebrew tongue which they had been accumulating
for over two thousand years. In the words of the learned
Professor E.C.Bissell:
"There ought to be no doubt that in the text which we inherit
from the Massoretes, and they from the Talmudists, and they in
turn from a period when versions and paraphases of the Scriptures
in other languages now accessible to us were in common use - the
same text being transmitted to this period from the time of Ezra
under the peculiarly sacred seal of the Jewish canon - we have a
substantially correct copy of the original documents, and one
worthy of all confidence." 1
We are told that the revival of Massoretle studies in more
recent times was the result of the vast learning and energy of
Buxtorf, of Basle.2 He had given the benefits of his Hebrew
accomplishments in time to be used by the translators of the King
James Version. And we have the word of a leading Revisionist,
highly recommended by Bishop Ellicott, that it is not to the
credit of Christian scholarship that so little has been done in
Hebrew researches during the past 300 years.3
What is true of the Hebrew is equally true of the Greek. The
Unitarian scholar who sat on the English New Testament Revision
Committee, acknowledged that the Greek New Testament of erasmus
(1516) is as good as any.4 It should here be pointed out that
stephens (A.D. 1550), then Beza (1598), and Elzevir (1624), all,
subsequently printed editions of the SAME Greek New Testament.
Since the days of Elzevir it has been called the RECEIVED TEXT,
or from the Latin, TEXUS RECEPTUS. Of it Dr. A.T. Robertson also
says:
"It should be stated at once that the Textus Recept is not a bad
text. It is not an heretical text. It is substantially correct.'5
Again:
"Erasmus seemed to feel that he had published the orginal Greek
New Testament as it was written. The third edition of Erasmus
(1522) became the foundation of the Textus Receptus for Britain
since it was followed by Stephens. There were 3300 copies of the
first two editions of the Greek New Testament of Erasmus
circulated. His work became the standard for three hundred
years."6
This text is and has been for 300 years the best known and
most widely used. It has behind it all the Protestant scholarship
of nearly three centuries. It ought to be pointed out that those
who seem eager to attack the King James and the Greek behind it,
when the enormous difficulties of the Revised Greek Testament are
pointed out, will claim the Revised Text is all right because it
is like the Greek New Testament from which the King James was
translated: on the other hand, when they are not called to
account, they will say belittling things about the Received Text
and the scholars who translated the King James Bible.
.......
1. Chambers, Comp. to Revised O.T., pp. 63, 64
2. A New Testament by Bishop Gore and Others, Part 1, p.651
3. Chambers Comp. To Revised, p. 66
4. Rev. G.Vance Smith, Nineteeth Century, July, 1881
5. Robertson, Introduction, p.21
6. Idem, pp.18,19
A BETTER CONDITION ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN 1611
We now come, however, to a very striking situation which is
little observed and rarely mentioned by those who discuss the
merits of the King James Bible. The English language in 1611 was
in the very best condition to receive into its bosom the Old and
New Testaments. Each word was broad, simple, and generic. That is
to say, words were capable of containing in themselves not only
their central thoughts, but also all the different shades of
meaning which were attached to that central thought. Since then,
words have lost that living, pliable breadth. Vast additions have
been made to the English vocabulary during the past 300 years,
so, that several words are now necessary to convey the same
meaning which formerly was conveyed by one. It will then be
readily seen that while the English vocabulary has increased in
quantity, nevertheless, single words have lost their many shades,
combinations of words have become fixed, capable of only one
meaning, and therefore less adaptable to receiving into English
the thoughts of the Hebrew which likewise is a simple, broad,
generic language.
New Testament Greek, is, in this respect, like the Hebrew.
When our English Bible was revised, the Revisers labored
under the impression that the sacred writers of the Greek New
Testament did NOT write in the everyday language of the common
people. Since then the accumulated stores of
archaeological findings have demonstrated that the language of
the Greek New Testament WAS the language of the simple, ordinary
people, rather than the language of scholars; and is flexible,
broad, generic, like the English of 1611. Or in the words of
another:
"It is sometimes regretted that our modern English has lost, or
very nearly lost, its power of inflection; but whatever may have
been thus lost to the ear has been more than compensated to the
sense, by our wealth of finely shaded auxiliary words.
There is no differentiation of wish, will, condition,
supposition, potentiality, or possibility representable in
syllables of human speech, or conceivable to the mind of man,
which cannot be precisely put in some form of our English verb.
But here, again, our power of precision has been purchased at a
certain cost. For every form of our verbal combinations has now
come to have its own peculiar and appropriate sense, and no
other; so that, when we use any one of those forms, it is
understood by the hearer or reader that we intend the special
sense of that form, and of that alone. In this respect, as in the
specific values of our synonyms, we encounter a self-evident
difficulty in the literal translation of the Scriptures into
modern English. For there is no such refinement of tense and mood
in the Hebrew language; and, although the classical Greek was
undoubtedly perfect in its inflections, the writers of the New
Testament were either ignorant of its powers, or were not capable
of using them correctly."7
The above writer then points out that the authors of the New
Testament did not always use that tense of the Greek verb, called
the aorist in the same rigid, specific sense, in which the
Revisers claimed they had done. Undoubtedly, in a general way,
the sacred writers understood the meaning of the aorist as
distinguished from the perfect and imperfect; but they did not
always use it so specifically as the Revisers claim. I continue
from the same writer:
"The self-imposed rule of the Revisers required them invariably
to translate the aoristic forms by their closest English
equivalents; but the vast number of cases in which they have
forsaken their own rule shows that it could not be followed
without in effect changing the meaning of the original; and we
may add that to whatever extent that rule has been slavishly
followed, to that extent the broad sense of the original has been
marred. The sacred writers wrote with a broad brush; the pen of
the Revisers was a finely pointed stylus. (Not so at all - the NT
writers wrote with exactness of the Greek tense - they said what
they meant and meant what they said - Keith Hunt). The living
pictures of the former furnish a grand panorama of providential
history; the drawing of the latter is the cunning work of fine
engravers, wrought in hair lines, and on polished plates of
steel. The Westminster Version is not, and, as its purpose was
conceived by the Revisers, could not be made, anything like a
photograph of the originals. The best of photographs lacks life
and color, but it does produce the broad effects of light and
shade. It has no resemblance to the portrait of the Chinese
artist, who measures each several feature with the compass, and
then draws it by the scale. The work of the Revisers is a purely
Chinese work of art, in which the scale and compass are applied
to microscopic niceties, with no regard whatever to light and
shade, or to the life and color of their subject. It follows that
the more conscientiously their plan was followed, the more
certainly must they fail to produce a lifelike rendering of the
living word of the original."8 (Hence today works are available
in the Greek/English Interlinear that give you the :tense" used
in the Greek - the tense is VERY important to the correct
understanding of what the writers of the NT were telling us as to
the time of events. A basic Greek NT teaching book will give you
the importances of the Greek NT tenses - Keith Hunt).
.......
7. John Fulton, Forum, June, 1117,
8. Idem.
ORIGIN OF THE KING JAMES VERSION
After the life and death struggles with Spain, and the hard
fought battle to save the English people from the Jesuit Bible of
1582, victorious Protestantism took stock of its situation and
organized for the new era which had evidently dawned. A thousand
ministers, it is said, sent in a petition, called the Millenary
Petition, to King James who had now succeeded Elizabeth as
sovereign. One author describes the petition as follows:
"The petition craved reformation of sundry abuses in the worship,
ministry, revenues, and discipline of the national Church ....
Among other of their demands, Dr.Reynolds, who was the chief
speaker in their behalf, requested that there might he a new
translation of the Bible, without note or comment."9
The strictest element of Protestantism, the Puritan, we
conclude, was at the bottom of this request for a new and
accurate translation, and the Puritan element on the committee
appointed was strong."10
The language of the Jesuit Bible had stung the sensibilities
and the scholarship of Protestants. In the preface of that book
it had criticized and belittled the Bible of the Protestants. The
Puritans felt that the corrupted version of the Rheimists was
spreading poison among the people, even as formerly by
withholding the Bible, Rome had starved the people."11
THE UNRIVALED SCHOLARSHIP OF THE REFORMERS
The first three hundred years of the Reformation produced a
grand array of scholars, who have never since been surpassed, if
indeed they have been equaled. Melanchthon the coworker of
Luther, was of so great scholarship that Erasmus expressed
admiration for his attainments. By his organization of schools
throughout Germany and by his valuable textbooks, he exercised
for many years a more powerful influence than any other teacher.
Hallam said that far above all others he was the founder of
general learning throughout Europe. His Latin grammar was "almost
universally adopted in Europe, running through fifty-one editions
and continuing until 1734," that is, for two hundred years it
continued to be the textbook even in the Roman Catholic schools
of Saxony. Here the names might be added of Beza, the great
scholar and coworker with Calvin, of Bucer, of Cartwright, of the
Swiss scholars of the Reformation, of a host of others who were
unsurpassed in learning in their day and have never been
surpassed since.
......
9. McClure. The Translators Revived. pp, 57,58
10.Idem. pp. 130,13I.
11.Brooke's Cartwright, p. 274.
It was said of one of the translators of the King James that
"such was his skill in all languages, especially the Oriental,
that had he been present at the confusion of tongues at Babel, he
might have served as Interpreter General."12
In view of the vast stores of material which were available
to verify the certainty of the Bible at the time of the
Reformation, and the prodigious labors of the Reformers in this
material for a century, it is very erroneous to think that they
had not been sufficiently overhauled by 1611.
It is an exaggerated idea, much exploited by those who are
attacking the Received Text, that we of the present have greater
sources of information, as well as more valuable, than had the
translators of 1611. The Reformers themselves considerede their
sources of information perfect. Doctor Fulke says:
"But as for the Hebrew and Greek that now is, (it) may be proved
to be the same that always hath been; neither is there any
diversity in sentence, howsoever some copies, either through
negligence of the writer, or by any other occasion, do vary from
that which is commonly received in some letters, syllables, or
words." 13
We cannot censure the Reformers for considering their
sources of information sufficient and authentic enough to settle
in their minds the infallible inspiration of the Holy Scriptures,
since we have a scholar of repute today rating their material as
high as the material of the present. Doctor Jacobus thus
indicates the relative value of the King James, and to the
Revisers of 1900:
" On the whole, the differences in the matter of the sources
available in 390, 1590, and 1890 are not very serious." 14
......
12. McClure, p. 87
13. Fulke's defense, 1583, p.73
14. Jacobus, cath. and Prot. Bibles, p.41
ALEXANDRINUS, VATICANUS, AND SINAITICUS
So much has been said about the Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and
Sinaitic Manuscripts being made available since 1611, that a
candid examination ought to be given to see if it is all really
as we have repeatedly been told.
The Alexandrinus Manuscript arrived in London in 1627, we
are informed, just sixteen years too late for use by the
translators of the King James.
We would humbly inquire if a manuscript must dwell in the
home town of scholars in order for them to have the use of its
information? If so, then the Revisers of 1881 and 1901 were in a
bad way. Who donated the Alexandrines Manuscript to the British
Government? It was Cyril Lucar, the head of the Greek Catholic
Church. Why did he do it? What was the history of the document
before he did it? An answer to these inquiries opens up a very
interesting chapter of history.
Cyril Lucar (1568-1638) born in the east, early embraced the
principles of the Reformation, and for it, was pursued all his
life by the Jesuits. He spent some time at Geneva with Beza and
Calvin. When holding an important position in Lithuania, he
opposed the union of the Greek Church there and in Poland with
Rome. In 1602 he was elected Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt,
where the Alexandrinus MS. had been kept for years. It seems
almost certain that this great Biblical scholar would have been
acquainted with it. Thus he was in touch with this manuscript
before the King James translators began work. Later he was
elected the head of the Greek Catholic Church. He wrote a
confession of faith which distinguished between the canonical and
apocryphal books. He was thoroughly awake to the issues of
textual criticism. These had been discussed repeatedly and to the
smallest details at Geneva, where Cyril Lucar had passed some
time. Of him one encyclopedia states:
"In 1602 Cyril succeeded Meletius as patriarch of Alexandria.
While holding this position, he carried on an active
correspondence with David le Leu, de Wilelm, and the Remonstrant
Uytenbogaert of Holland, Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, Leger,
professor of Geneva, the republic of Venice, the Swedish King,
Gustavus Adolphus, and his chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. Many of
these letters, written in different languages, are still extant.
They show that Cyril was an earnest opponent of Rome, and a great
admirer of the Protestant Rotormotion. He sent for all the
important works, Protestant and Roman Catholic, published in the
Western countries, and sent several young men to England to get a
thorough theological education. The friends of Cyril in
Constantinople, and among them the English, Dutch, and Swedish
ambassadors, endeavored to elevate Cyril to the patriarchal see
of Constantinople ...
"The Jesuits, in union with the agents of France, several times
procured his banishment, while his friends, supported by the
ambassadors of the Protestant powers in Constantinople, obtained,
by means of large sums of money, his recall. During all these
troubles, Cyril, with remarkable energy, pursued the great task
of his life. In 1627 he obtained a printing press from England,
and at once began to print his Confession of Faith and several
catechisms. But, before these documents were ready for
publication, the printing establishment was destroyed by the
Turkish Government at the instigation of the Jesuits. Cyril then
sent his Confession of Faith to Geneva, where it appeared, in
1629, in the Latin language, under the true name of the author,
and with a dedication to Cornelius de Haga. It created throughout
Europe a profound sensation." 15
.......
15. MaClintock and Strong, Encyl., Vol.2, p. 635
We think enough has been given to show that the scholars of
europe and England, in particular, had ample opportunity to
become FULLY AQUAINTED by 1611 with the problems involved in the
Alexandrinus Manuscript.
Let us pursue the matter a little further
..................
To be continued
The New Testament Translation #11Continued from previous study KJV BORN IN TRIBULATION
Continued from the previous study
Let us pursue the matter a little further. The Catholic
Encyclopaedia does no omit to tell us that the New Testament from
Acts on, in Codex A (the Alexandrinus), agrees with the Vatican
Manuscript. If the problems presented by the Alexandrinus
Manuscript, and consequently by the Vaticanus, were so serious,
why were we obliged to wait till 1881-1901 to learn of the
glaring mistakes of the translators of the King James, when the
manuscripts arrived in England in 1627? FORUM informs us that 250
different versions of the Bible were tried in England between
1611 and now, but they all fell flat before the majesty of the
King James. Were not the Alexandrinus and the Vaticanus able to
aid these 250 versions, and overthrow the other Bible, resting,
as the critics explain, on an insecure foundation?
The case with the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus is no better.
The problems presented by these two manuscripts were well known,
not only to the translators of the King James, but also to
Erasmus. We are told that the Old Testament portion of the
Vaticanus has been printed since 1587.
"The third great edition is that commonly known as the
'Sixtine,' published at Rome in 1587 under Pope Sixtus V. . .
Substantially, the 'Sixtine' edition gives the text of B.... The
'Sixtine' served as the basis for most of the ordinary editions
of the LXX for just three centuries." (Ottley, Handbook of the
Septuagint, p.64)
We are informed by another author that, if Erasmus had
desired, he could have secured a translation of this manuscript
(Bissell, Historic Origin of Bible, p. 84).
There was no necessity, however, for Erasmus to obtain a
transcript because he was in correspondence with Professor Paulus
Bombasius at Rome, who sent him such variant readings as he
wished (S.P. Tregelles, On the printed Text of the Greek Test.,
p.22).
"A correspondent of Erasmus in 1533 sent that scholar a
number of selected readings from it (Codex B), as proof of its
superiority to the Received Greek Text" (Kenyon, Our Bible, p.
133).
Erasmus, however, rejected these varying readings of the
Vatican MS. because he considered from the massive evidence of
his day that the Received Text was correct.
The story of the finding of the Sinaitic MS. by Tischendorf
in a monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai, illustrates the history
of some of these later manuscripts. Tischendorf was visiting this
monastery in 1844 to look for these documents. He discovered in a
basket, over forty pages of a Greek MS. of the Bible. He was
told that two other basket loads had been used for kindling.
Later, in 1859, he again visited this monastery to search for
other MSS. He was about to give up in despair and depart when he
was told of a bundle of additional leaves of a reek MS. When he
examined the contents of this bundle, he saw them to be a
reproduction of part of the Bible in Greek. He could not sleep
that night. Great as the joy of those who were agitating for a
revision of the Bible when they learned that the new find was
similar to the Vaticanus, but differed greatly from the King
James. Dr. Riddle informs us that the discovery of the Sinaiticus
settled in its favor the agitation for revision.
Just a word on the two styles of manuscripts before we go
further. Manuscripts are of two kinds - uncial and cursive.
Uncials are written in large square letters much like our capital
letters; cureless are of a free running hand.
We have already given authorities to show that the
Sinaiticus MS. is a brother of the Vaticanus. Practically all of
the problems of any serious nature which are presented by the
Sinaitic, are the problems of the Vaticanus. Therefore the
translators of 1611 had available all the variant readings of
these manuscripts and rejected them.
The following words from Dr.Kenrick, Catholic Bishop of
Philadelphia, will support the conclusion that the translators of
the King James knew the readings of Codices, A, B, C, D, where
they differed from the Received Text and denounced them. Bishop
Kenrick published an English translation of the Catholic Bible in
1849. I quote from the preface:
"Since the famous manuscripts of Rome, Alexandria, Cambridge,
Paris, and Dublin, were examined . . . a verdict has been
obtained in favor of the Vulgate.
At the Reformation, the Greek text, as it then stood, was taken
as a standard, in conformity to which the versions of the
Reformers were generally made; whilst the Latin Vulgate was
depreciated, or despised, as a mere version" (Quoted in Rheims
and Douay, by Dr. H. cotton, p. 155)
In other words, the readings of these much boasted
manuscripts, recently made available are those of the Vulgate.
The Reformers knew of these readings and rejected them, as well
as the Vulgate.
MEN OF 1611 HAD ALL THE MATERIAL NECESSARY
Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the
translators of 1611 did not have access to the problems of the
Alexandrinus, the Sinaiticus, and the Vaticanus by direct contact
with these uncials. It mattered little. They had other
manuscripts accessible which presented all the same problems. We
are indebted for the following information to Dr.F.C.Cook, editor
of the "Speaker's Commentary," chaplain to the Queen of England,
who was invited to sit on the Revision Commit but refused:
"That Textus Receptus was taken in the first instance, from late
cursive manuscripts; but its readings are maintained only so far
as they agree with the best ancient versions, with the earliest
and best Greek and Latin Fathers, and with the vast majority of
uncial and cursive manuscripts" (F.C. Cook, Revised Version of
the First Three Gospels, p.226).
It is then clear that among the great body of cursive and
uncial manuscripts which the Reformers possessed, the majority
agreed with the Received Text; there were a few, however, among
these documents which belonged to the counterfeit family. These
dissenting few presented all the problems which can be found in
the Alexandrian, Vaticanus, and the Sinaiticus.
In other words, the translators of the King James came to a
diametrically opposite conclusion from that arrived at by the
Revisers of 1881, although the men of 1611, as well as those
of 1881, had before them the same problems and the same evidence.
We shall present testimony on this from another authority:
"The popular notion seems to be, that we are indebted for our
knowledge of the true texts of Scripture to the existing uncials
entirely; and that the essence of the secret dwells exclusively
with the four or five oldest of those uncials. By consequence, it
is popularly supposed hat since we are possessed of such uncial
copies, we could afford to dispense with the testimony of the
cursives altogether. A more complete misconception of the facts
of the case can hardly be imagined. For the plain truth is THAT
ALL THE PHENOMENA EXHIBITED BY THE UNCIAL MANUSCRIPTS are
reproduced by the cursive copies" (caps. Mine) (Burgon and
Miller, The Traditional Text., p. 202).
We give a further testimony from another eminent authority:
"Our experience among the Greek cursives proves to us that
transmission has not been careless, and they do represent a
wholesome traditional text in the passages involving doctrine and
so forth" (Dr. H.C. Hoskier, Concerning the Genesis of the
Versions, p.416).
As to the large number of manuscripts in existence, we have
every reason to believe that the Reformers were far better
acquainted with them than later scholars. Doctor Jacobus in
speaking of textual critics of 1582, says:
"The present writer has been struck with the critical acumen
shown at that date (1582), and the grasp of the relative value of
the common Greek manuscripts and the Latin version" (Dr. Jacobus,
Cath and Prot. Bibles, p. 212).
On the other hand, if more manuscripts have been made
accessible since 1611, little use has been made of what we had
before and of the majority of those available since. The Revisers
systematically ignored the whole world of manuscripts and relied
practically on only three or four. As Dean Burgon says, But
nineteen-twentieths of those documents, for any use which has
been made of them, might just as well be still lying in the
monastic libraries from which they were obtained."
We feel, therefore, that a mistaken picture of the case has
bean presented with reference to the material at the disposition
of the translators of 1611 and concerning their ability to use
that material.
PLANS OF WORK FOLLOWED BY THE KING JAMES TRANSLATORS
The forty-seven learned men appointed by King James to
accomplish this important task were divided first into three
companies: one worked at Cambridge, another at Oxford, and the
third at Westminster. Each of these companies again split up into
two. Thus, there were six companies working on six allotted
portions of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. Each member of each
company worked individually on his task, then brought to each
member of his committee the work he had accomplished. The
committee all together went over that portion of the work
translated. Thus, when one company had come together and had
agreed on what should stand, after having compared their work, as
soon as they had completed any one of the sacred books, they sent
it to each of the other companies to be critically reviewed. If a
later company, upon reviewing the book, found anything doubtful
or unsatisfactory, they noted such places, with their reasons and
sent it back to the company whence it came. If there should be a
disagreement, the matter was finally arranged at a general
meeting of the chief persons of all the companies at the end of
the work. It can be seen by this method that each part of the
work was carefully gone over at least fourteen times.It was
further understood that if there was any special difficulty or
obscurity, all the learned men of the land could be called upon
by letter for their judgment. And finally each bishop kept the
clergy of his diocese notified concerning the progress of the
work, so that if any one felt constrained to send any particular
observations, he was notified to do so.
How astonishingly different is this from the method employed
by the Revisers of 1881! The Old Testament Committee met together
and sat as one body secretly for ten years. The New Testament
Committee did the same. This arrangement left the committee at
the mercy of a determined triumvirate to lead the weak and to
dominate the rest. All reports indicate that an iron rule of
silence was imposed upon these Revisers during the ten years. The
public was kept in suspense all the long, weary ten years. And
only after elaborate plans had been laid to throw the Revised
Version all at once upon the market to effect a tremendous sale,
did the world know what had gone on.
THE GIANTS OF LEARNING
No one can study the lives of those men who gave us the King
James Bible without being impressed with their profound and
varied learning.
"It is confidently expected," says McClure, "that the reader of
these pages will yield to the conviction that all the colleges of
Great Britain and America, even in this proud day of boastings,
could not bring together the same number of divines equally
qualified by learning and piety for the great undertaking. Few
indeed are the living names worthy to be enrolled with those
mighty men. It would be impossible to convene out of any one
Christian denomination, or out of all, a body of translators, on
whom the whole Christian community would bestow such confidence
as is reposed upon that illustrious company, or who would prove
themselves as deserving of such confidence. Very many self-styled
'improved versions' of the Bible, or of parts of it, have been
paraded before the world, but the religious public has doomed
them all, without exception, to utter neglect" (McClure, p. 64).
The translators of the King James, moreover, had something
beyond great scholarship and unusual skill. They had gone through
a period of great suffering. They had offered their lives that
the truths which they loved might live. As the biographer of
William Tyndale has aptly said:
"So Tyndale thought; but God had ordained that not in the learned
leisure of a palace, but amid the dangers and privations of exile
should the English Bible be produced. Other qualifications were
necessary to make him a worthy translator of Holy Scripture than
mere grammatical scholarship.... At the time he bitterly felt
what seemed to be the total disappointment of all his hopes; but
he afterwards learned to trace in what appeared a misfortune the
fatherly guidance of God; and this very disappointment, which
compelled him to seek his whole comfort in the Word of God,
tended to qualify him for the worthy performance of his great
work" (Demaus, William Tyndale, pp. 81,85).
Doctor Cheyne in giving his history of the founders of
higher criticism, while extolling highly the mental brilliancy of
the celebrated Hebrew scholar, Gesenius, expresses his regrets
for the frivolity of that scholar" (Dr. Cheyne, Founders of O.T.
Criticism, pp. 58,59).
No such weakness was manifested in the scholarship of the
Reformers.
"Reverence," says Doctor Chambers, "it is this more than any
other one trait that gave to Luther and Tyndale, their matchless
skill and enduring preeminence as translators of the Bible"
(Chambers, Companion, p. 53).
It is difficult for us in this present prosperous age to
understand how deeply the heroes of Protestantism in those days
were forced to lean upon the arm of God. We find them speaking
and exhorting one another by the promises of the Lord, that He
would appear in judgment against their enemies. For that reason
they gave full credit to the doctrine of the Second Coming of
Christ as taught in the Holy Scriptures. Passages of notable
value which refer to this glorious hope were not wrenched from
their forceful setting as we find them in the Revised Versions
and some modern Bibles, but were set forth with a fullness of
clearness and hope.
THE KING JAMES BIBLE A MASTERPIECE
The birth of the King Jams Bible was a death stroke to the
supremacy of Roman Catholicism. The translators little foresaw
the wide extent of circulation and the tremendous influence to be
won by their book. They little dreamed that for three hundred
years it would form the bond of English Protestantism in all
parts of the world. One of the brilliant minds of the last
generation, Faber, who as a clergyman in the Church of England,
labored to Romanize that body, and finally abandoned it for the
Church of Rome, cried out:
"Who will say that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of
the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of
heresy in this country?"(Eadie, The English Bible, Vol.2, p.158).
Yes, more, it has not only been the stronghold of
Protestantism in Great Britain, but it has built a gigantic wall
as a barrier against the spread of Romanism.
"The printing of the English Bible has proved to be by far the
mightiest barrier ever reared to repel the advance of Popery, and
to damage all the resources of the Papacy" (McClure, p.71).
Small wonder then that for three hundred years incessant
warfare has been waged upon this instrument created by God to
mold all constitutions and laws of the British Empire, and of the
great American Republic, while at the same time comforting,
blessing, and instructing the lives of the millions who inhabit
these territories.
Behold what it has given to the world! The machinery of the
Catholic Church can never begin to compare with the splendid
machinery of Protestantism. The Sabbath School, the Bible
printing houses, the foreign missionary societies, the Y.M.C.A.,
the Y.W.C.A., the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the
Protestant denominational organizations, these all were the
offspring of Protestantism. Their benefits have gone to all lands
and been adopted by practically all nations. Shall we throw away
the Bible from which such splendid organizations have sprung?
Something other than an acquaintanceship, more or less, with
a crushing mass of intricate details in the Hebrew and the Greek,
is necessary to be a successful translator of God's Holy Word.
God's Holy Spirit must assist. There must exist that which
enables the workman at this task to have not only a conception of
the whole but also a balanced conception, so that there will be
no conflicts created through lack of skill on the part of the
translator. That the giants of 1611 produced this effect and
injured no doctrine of the Lord by their labors, may be seen in
these few words from Sir Edmund Beckett, as, according to
Gladstone (Lathbury, Ecclesiastical and Religious Correspondence
of Gladstone, Vol.2, p. 320) he convincingly reveals the failure
of the Revised Version:
"Not their least service, is their showing us how very seldom the
Authorized Version is materially wrong, and that no doctrine has
been misrepresented there" (Sir Edmund Beckett, revised New
Testament, p.16).
To show the unrivalled English language of the King James
Bible, I quote from Doctor William Lyon Phelps, Professor of
English Literature in Yale University:
"Priests, atheists, sceptics, devotees, agnostics, and
evangelists, are generally agreed that the Authorized Version of
the English Bible is the best example of English literature that
the world has ever seen ....
"Every one who has a thorough knowledge of the Bible may truly be
called educated; and no other learning or culture, no matter how
extensive or elegant, can, among Europeans and Americans, form a
proper substitute. Western civilization is founded upon the Bible
.... I thoroughly believe in a university education for both men
and women; but I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a
college course is more valuable than a college course without the
Bible .... The Elizabethan period - a term loosely applied to the
years between 1558 and 1642 - is generally regarded as the most
important era in English literature. Shakespeare and his mighty
contemporaries brought the drama to the highest point in the
world's history; lyrical poetry found supreme expression;
Spencer's Faerie Queen was an unique performance; Bacon's Essays
have never been surpassed. But the crowning achievement of those
spacious days was the Authorised Translation of the Bible, which
appeared in 1611. Three centuries of English literature followed;
but, although they have been crowded with poets and novelists and
essayists, and although the teaching of the English language and
literature now gives employment to many earnest men and women,
the art of English composition reached its climax in the pages of
the Bible .... Now, as the English speaking people have the best
Bible in the world, and as it is the most beautiful monument
erected with the English alphabet, we ought to make the most of
it, for it is an incomparably rich inheritance, free to all who
can read. This means that we ought invariably in the church and
on public occasions to use the Authorized Version; all others are
inferior" (Ladies Home Journal, Nov., 1921
This statement was made twenty years after the American Revised
Version appeared.
...........................
Personal note:
I do have a number of "modern" translations (based mainly on the
corrupt Vaticanus and Sinaiticus MSS) in my library, and use them
from time to time, but my basic English Bible is the KJV and the
NEW KJV Study Bible. The reader is pointed to the studies of the
INTRODUCTIONS to the New KJV Study Bible and to Green's
Introduction to his Greek/English Interlinear, on this BLOG.
(Keith HunT)
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