Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1910-11-26

T&#*&& &@#Hg MfkHH lbE dlh Vi 1Vif
r the precious oint
ment which God
has supplied Ger
L tain flies false
HRASIQR ku5SelLg hoods crept into il
during the Dark
Ages, which are now causing a loath-
ing and reputation on the part Of
many of the best and wisest people in
the world. All will admit that 1t is
sinful to tamper with the Word Of God
Ito either ado to or take from IL or to
wrest or twist or peryert It's meaning
Why is 1t, then. that ministers of the
Gospel, who know that certain pas.
sages of the Scriptures are not TO be
found IN the older manuscripts, fail to
show to the people the truth on this
subject? And IL these ministers are
not fully Informed, whose fault is that
Would 1t not be preferable that they
should absent themselves from some
of the fairs and festivals and social
functions, In order to inform them
selves?
On what pretext are the clergy
a specially privileged class. except
for the purpose of giving their floeks
reliable information along religious
lines? And what is their commission
from the Lord, except that they should
feed the flock of God, which he pur
chased with the blood of his own dear
Som" If the flock have been feeding
spou aartain Gcrinturas srnpocad to Ia
genuine, and If they have been made
sick thereby, and If their shepherds
TO- know that these Scriptures are not
a part of the Diyinely inspired Word,
why should not Gods people be in
formed of the facts and be stopped
from eating poisonous elements intro
duced by the Adversary
: ssas~ Poison in Our Bibles.
The more others are silent, the more
see must speak. We canno see Gods
sheep spiritually sick without warning
them respecting their spiritual food
Not only have we received many mis-
interpretations of the parallels and
symbols of the Bible, but into our
plDltS lltllStlh CO AtlldAh LaASC SA'At
ments have been injected-long cen
turtles ago. All well informed mini
tiers of the Gospel know that our New
Testament was not translated from
the writings of the Apostles. but from
copies thereof. These. copied over and
over again. no matter how carefully,
were liable to errors. And in addition,
as we might expect, occasionally, a
bold transcriber would add a few
words to make the record conform
the better 10 his conception of what
it ought TO he. This went on for cen
turtles before the art of printing came
into use.
The New Testament was translated
from the Greek. into the Latin language,
and was known as the Vulgate. From
that Latin translation sprang u va
rious English translations-the Douay
or Catholic edition, published in 1909
A. D.. and the King James Bible. or
Common Version, published in 1911 A.
ID. The latter was merely a revised
translation. to assist in which re
vision other previous TRANSACTIONS were
used. and we are assured that the text
was diligently compared with the
Greek text But until lately there
were no ancient Greek manuscripts
with which to compare It. The Greek
manuscripts with which it was com
pared numbered only eight, none of
which dated earlier than the Tenth
Century. Today. however, we have
three very old Greek manuscripts OF
the New Testament. namely, the Alex
andrian MS. the Vatican MS. and the
Sinaitlc Ms. OF these. the Vatican
MS. was the first TO come to the at
tention of modern scholarship. 1t is
in the Vatican Library. appearing on
Ats catalogue as far back as 1475 4. D.,
which manuscript scholarship accred-
its with having been written in the
fourth century. Next came the Alex
andrian MS. which is supposed TO
have been written about the middle OF
the fifth century, II Is now on ex-
hibitiOn In the British Museum. Final
ly. We have the Sinaitic MS, which is
in possession Of the Russian Govern
AAFhA' II was AQulu ny 1OlSldiltlHe
Tischendorf in a Mt. Sinai Convent.
from which it takes its name. 1t is
accredited with a date Of about $50
A. ID. OF these three oldest MSS. of
the New Testament known In the
world, the Vatican and Sinaitic are
the older.
Assuredly nothing should be consid-
cred as part Of the original Scriptures
that is not found in any of these three
Oldest MSS. Why should we not tell
this to the people? Why should we
not inform them that some Of the
most confusing texts of the Bible are
not found in these old manuscripts?
Is Ii not a sin 70 preach doctrines as
from God which have no part in these
early MSS? This is our thought.
From time 10 time it will be our pleas
ure, as well as u duty. TO teach the
common people what the clergy al
ready know on this subject. More
over. the Bible Students Association