Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-07-02

because we think a passage to bt
beautiful or strong support d
some doctrine, any more than VIZ
would desire to take away from the
Word because it contains doctrines
that are painful and mysterious.
"Still another objection is drawn
from the admission that the changes
made in the revision do not affect
any doctrine or precept. It is ar
gued that if the changes are so un-
important there is no need fol
them. This argument is rather a
play on the word unimportant. II
is true that when we survey the
whole book no doctrine or duty is
affected, and therefore as regards
any formulated truth the changes
are not important; but it is also
true that the teaching of particu-
lar paragraphs or parts Of para
graphs is modified or entirely chang
ed and, therefore, the changes are
of great Importance on the suppo-
sition that we wish all the truth.
81 pass now tothe objection which
no doubt has great weight with a
large number of people. 1T is af-
firmed that the introduction of an
other version shakes the faith of
many Christians, strengthens doubts
of skeptics and puts a new weap-
on into the hands of the infidel.
For nur present purpose, this objec-
ton might be parried by the state
ment that the same damage is done,
though not TO the same extent, by
the frequent references by ministers
to the correct translation of the
original, thereby producing the inn
preston that the version of the
people is not trustworthy. Further,
the damage is already done; it has
been noised abroad to the four winds
of heaven that this work has been
done, and it is too late to remedy
the evil, if evil there be, by suppress
sing examination and criticism.
"There is Il complete answer, how
ever, in the fact that the revisers
have not created any new condition
of things; they have simply recog-
nized and made public facts which
were open TO the knowledge of all.
/ cannot believe that any great in
jury can be done by the truth or by
honest efforts to discover it and
teach it. One of the advantages of
the revision lies in the necessity it
imposes on the people of examining
the basis on which the Bible rests.
And inasmuch as some are troubled,
and have vague fear that the
foundations are undermined, and
that the whole structure of the
Bible is about to fall, shall say a
few things which, trust, will re-
move any doubt, and illustrate the
assertion that the word of the
Lord endureth forever Whence
comes, then, the Greek text of the
New Testament from which our
translatiOns are made? We can
easily follow its history to the in-
vention of printing. Beyond that
time, we find that it was written by
hand, and we trace manuscript
copies of this book back into the
fourth century, but there the trace
is lost. We have no manuscript
older than the first half OF the fourth
century. The original copies writ
ten by the inspired authors, or under
their supervision, are all lost, but
by comparison of the copies we
have, we can arrive with certainty,
except in few instances, at the eX-
act words of the authors. The vast
number of these manuscripts, ex-
tending through the centuries, and
found in different countries, but in
the main, presenting the same text,
would alone guarantee us an almost
accurate transcript of the original
writings. But this is not all. From
the second century onward transla-
tions into various languages were
made, such as the several Syriac |
versions, the Latin, Gothic and |
others; and these, by furnishing us
approximately the text current ut
the time of the translations, afford |
fresh evidence by which we may
the original text. But
there is still another source of help. |
From the second century onward |
we have the writings of Christians,
which are filed with quotations of |
the New Testament, and these give
Us knowledge of the text in use in
the days of these authors. From
these three sources, the manuscripts,
the versions in other languages and
the quotations in early Christian
writers, we have abundant material
from which to construct text,
which we can confidently affirm to
be, with the exception OF Il few
readings, exactly what
was written by the authors of the
New Testament. / need not say
that there are instances in which
these sources disagree. There was
great CONSERVATION when, after the
first serious comparison of these
it was announced that
the number of differences, or Vari-
Gus readings as they are called,
to thousands. But no
body acquainted with the subject
now feels any alarm when told that
these various readings go beyond
thousand. 1t displays in
a remarkable way the providential
oversight of the New Testament
when we are assured by trust
worthy critic that nineteen-twen-
tieths of these one hundred thous-
and differences are of no more
than the palpable mis-
takes in the first proof of modern
printer; they have so little authori-
tv or are 40 manifeStly false that |