 |  |
body of Manuscripts, uncial and cursive, the great bulk of the Versions, and the mighty
array (upwards of fifty) of Fathers exhibited above?"
All this may sound at first hearing very unsettling, but it is only so with regard to the
attempts of the Revisionists--and Drs. Westcott and Hort in particular--to uphold the
readings of one or two MSS in spite of overwhelming evidence to the integrity of the text
of the A.V. We would still urge the reader to use the R.V. as an aid, but he should be
extremely careful not to build any doctrine upon its many and serious alterations of the
Greek Text, without the most thorough investigation.
#35.
The R.V. and its treatment of two important passages.
"God manifest in the flesh" (I Tim. 3: 16).
"Who is over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom. 9: 5).
pp. 93 - 97
It is not our intention to pursue the question of textual criticism, and its bearing upon
the Greek Text of the Revised Version, to any great length. We are, however, deeply
concerned with regard to the integrity of the Word of God, and it is in order that the
reader may be alive to the issues in this connection, that we have said so much already,
and say a little more here.
One of the most serious alterations made by the Revisers is that found in I Tim. 3: 16.
The A.V. reads:
"Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh."
The R.V. reads:
"Great is the mystery of godliness, He Who was manifested in the flesh."
According to the conditions under which the Revisers worked, none but "plain and
clear errors" were to be allowed to justify any alteration in the text, and any such
alteration was only to be permitted upon "decidedly preponderating evidence". It is not
easy, without the use of Greek type, to show the English reader how the two words
"God" and "Who" can come to be mistaken for one another. In the manuscripts the
names and titles of God are always abbreviated--rather as though we used the letters
"Gd" to represent "God". Now the Greek word for "God" is THEOS, while the Greek
word for "Who" is OS. The Greek letter for "Th" is a capital "O", having a horizontal
stroke through the centre. If, therefore, the central stroke is removed, the word then reads
"Who", instead of "God". To indicate that any particular word was abbreviated, the
scribe placed a very thin line over it, but, with the lapse of centuries, these thin lines have
disappeared in many places owing to the fading of the ink.