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 | | From: | admin | | Subject: | The Greek Text of Westcott & Hort #1 | | Date: | Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:04:29 GMT |
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 | The following is a continuing post from the book "Which Version is The bible
Chapter 5, pages 59, 60 & 61
Which Version is the Bible?
Copyright 1995 · Floyd Jones Ministries, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. This book may be freely reproduced in any form as long
as it is not distributed for any material gain or profit; however, this book
may not be published without written permission.
V. THE GREEK TEXT OF WESTCOTT AND HORT THE MEN WHO CONTROLLED THE 1881
REVISION Let us return to the 1881 Revision Committee and examine the lives
(and the the text which they produced) of two of its leading members -
Westcott and Hort. These two men had been working in secret prior to the
revision for over twenty years putting together a theretofore unpublished
Greek text of the New Testament which was based almost exclusively upon one
manuscript, Vaticanus B. Their New Testament altered the 140,521 word text
of the Textus Receptus at 5,604 places involving 9,970 Greek words.
Representing 7 percent of the total word count, these 9,970 included Greek
words that were either added, subtracted, or changed.
When the Committee initiated its revision process in 1870, W-H succeeded in
getting it to agree to a secrecy pledge concerning the actual product of the
revision. On this committee was Vance Smith, a Unitarian scholar who did not
believe in the deity of Jesus Christ and had so stated in writing. At the
initial meeting, Westcott and Hort insisted that Smith be included in the
inaugural communion service. This speaks loudly as to the true commitment to
the Lord Jesus Christ that these two "professors" of the faith actually held
forth.
In 185l, Mr. Hort wrote:
"I had no idea until the last few weeks of the importance of texts having
read so little Greek Testament and dragged on with the villainous Textus
Receptus. Think of that vile Textus Receptus leaning entirely on late
manuscripts."
Thus at only age twenty-three and having admitted he had almost no
preparatory background, Hort concluded that the Textus Receptus was "vile"
and "villainous". At that time he dedicated his life to its overthrow,
intending to supplant it with another text. The text he eventually replaced
the TR with was Codex Vaticanus B.
At the time of this decision, young Hort had been schooled in Classical
Greek and was unaware that the New Testament had not been written in that
form of the Greek language. Since the Greek of the New Testament as recorded
in the Textus Receptus did not rigidly follow the syntax of the Greek of the
classics, Hort deemed it as an inferior quality of Greek. This misconception
was responsible for his having rashly termed the TR as "vile" and
"villanious". Indeed, the Egyptian papyri which proved that the N.T. had
been written in Koine (common) Greek rather than Classical Greek had not yet
been discovered.
Vaticanus B had been "discovered" in 1481 on the library shelf of the
Vatican. To understand Vaticanus B, we have to go back to approximately 200
A.D. to an early so-called "Father" of the church named Origen. If the
student researches encyclopedias and other reference materials, he will find
Origen, Westcott, and Hort spoken of as having been great men of God - men
of faith. They will state how much the Church is indebted to them, that
Origen was the first scientific textual exegete of the Scriptures, etc.
However, such is not what one finds upon close examination of the facts.
ORIGEN ADAMANTIUS - THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF THE PROBLEM Origen compiled an Old
Testament called the Hexapla (c.245 A.D.). It was, in effect, a parallel
Bible which had six columns. The first column was the Hebrew Old Testament.
Three other columns portrayed Greek translations by men who were Ebionites.
They believed in the ethical teachings of Jesus but did not believe in
Paul's doctrines of grace. Indeed, they called Paul an apostate and wholly
rejected all his epistles. They did not believe Jesus was Deity - that He
was God with a capital "G", and taught that Joseph was the father of Jesus.
Several of the Ebionites whose translations were included in these columns
later apostatized, returning to Judaism. One of them (Aquila of Sinope,
80-135 A.D.) was excommunicated from the Christian community for steadfastly
refusing to give up astrology and for practicing necromancy. During the
reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), he supervised the building of a pagan
temple to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Solomon and placed a statue
of the Emperor where the Holy of Holies had been. Aquila produced a new
translation of the Old Testament into Greek wherein he deliberately
translated many sections of Scripture concerning the Messiah in such a way
as to make it impossible to apply these passages to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He conjectured that the Greek word "parthenos" of Matthew 1:23 was not the
virgin Mary but represented a corruption in the original text. According to
Aquila, the correct understanding was that Jesus was the bastard son of Mary
and a blond Roman soldier of German extraction named "pantheras" (Eng. =
panther). Origen considered the works of these Ebionites to be "inspired"
and thus included them in his "Bible".
The fifth column (written in classical Greek) supposedly is Origen's
revision of an older pre A.D. Greek Old Testament translation. Today, this
5th column is referred to by text critics (though they are loathe to admit
this) as the "LXX" or the "Septuagint".
Origen also worked with the New Testament. Whereas he mainly translated the
Old, he edited the New. Origen traveled extensively and everywhere he found
a Greek New Testament, it was altered to fit his doctrine. He, of course,
felt that he was merely "correcting" the manuscripts. However, men of God do
not change original manuscript readings. If one does not agree with the text
of a manuscript, the place for change is at translation; but to alter the
original document - never! Origen had a wealthy patron who supplied seven
stenographers and seven copyists to accompany and assist him as he
systematically altered Scripture.
Origen was the third head master of a school in Alexandria, Egypt, which had
been founded in 180 A.D. by the Greek philosopher Pantaenus. Pantaenus was
succeeded in 202 A.D. by Clement of Alexandria (not to be confused with
Clement of Rome) who taught that Plato's work was also inspired in the same
sense as Scripture. Their writings indicate they were lost, albeit
"religious", Greek philosophers. Neither professed a new birth apart from
water baptism; indeed, it was on the basis of their having been so baptized
that they declared themselves "Christian".
However, the New Testament repeatedly declares that this is not how one
becomes a Christian as water neither saves nor redeems. Rather, the Bible
teaches that in order to be a Savior you must live a sinless life, die on a
cross and come back to life on the third day. As Mary, the Roman Catholic
church, the Baptist church, Calvin, Wesley, or any present day churchmen
etc. did not die on the cross and come back to life on the third day, they
cannot be the savior of men's souls. Since water did not die on the cross
and come back to life on the third day, it also cannot save the soul.
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