Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-11-22

,S*% the precious ONT
ment which God
has supplied Ger
ssk 80 tain flies false
akASI4sk hgSSsSLs hoods) crept into it
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 it is
sinful to tamper with the Word of God
to either add to or take from it or to
wrest or twist or pervert its meaning.
Why is it, 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 if these ministers are
not fully Informed, whose fault is that?
Would it 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 CldSS, except
for the purpose Of giving their fiocks
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
upon certain Scriptures supposed to be
genuine, and if they have been made
sick thereby, and if their shepherds
now know that these Scriptures are not
a part of the Divinely 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?
Poison In Our Bibles.
The more others are silent, the more
ace must speak. We cannot 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
Bibles themselves certain false state
turtles ago. All well-informed minis
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,
We're liable to errors. And in addition,
as we might expect, occasionally, a
bold transeriber would add a few
words to make the record conform
the better to his conception of what
it ought to be. 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 our 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.
d. The latter was merely a revised
translation, to assist in which re-
vision other previous translations 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
Sinaitic 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
its catalogue as far back as 1475 A. 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. 1t is now on ex-
hibition in the British Museum. Final
ly, we have the Sinaitic MS, which is
in possession of the Russian Govern
ment. 1t was found by Constantine
Tischendorf in a Mt. Sinai Convent,
from which it takes its name. 1t is
accredited with a date of about $50
A. d. 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 it not a sin to preach doctrines as
from God which have no part in these
early MSS? This is our thought
| From time to time it will be our pleas
ure. as well as our duty. to teach the
common people what the clergy al
ready know on this subject More
over, the Bible Students Association
of Brooklyn has arranged for the i'm
portation of copies of the New Tesla
ment bound In cloth showing the vari-
atoms between the readings of these
old Greek MSS. and our Common YER
sion. The usual price of these is 81 90:
but. importing them in large quanti-