The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-11-22

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3;isS sSzsl1k FIHN tain flies false
tSASIQR BgSSksLB hoods) crept into 1t
during the Dark
Ages. which are now causing 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
to either ado to or take from 1t 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 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
specially privileged class. except
!or the purpose of giving their 6ocks
reliable information along religious
llnesf 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 he
genuine. and If they have been made
sick thereby, and If their shepherds
now know that these Scriptures are not
a part Of the Diyno'y 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
zoe 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
ments have been injected-long CEN
turtles ago. All well-informed minis
ters 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, n
bold transcrlber would add few
words to make the record conform
the better TO his conception of what
1t 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 transations--the Douay
or Catholic edition. published in 1903
A. D., and the King James Bible, OF
Common Version, published in 1911 A.
d, The latter was merely revised
translation, to assist In which re
vision other previous trnnslatlons were
used. and we are assured that the text
was diligently compared with the
Greek text. But until lately there
were no ancient Greek manuscript.
with which to compare It. The Greel
manuscripts with which II was com
pared numbered only eight none o.
which dated earlier than the Tentl
Century. Today, however, we hav,
three very old Greek manuscripts o
the New Testament. namely. the Alex
andrian MS, the Vatican MS. and tn,
Slnaitic MS. or these. the Vatican
MS. was the first to come to the at
tention of modern scholarship. 1t Il
in the Vatican Library, appearing OF
its catalogue as far back as l4T5 A. D.
which manuscript scholarship accred
its with having been written in tn
fourth century Next came the Alex
andrlan MS, which Is supposed L
have been written about the middle o
the fifth century. II Is now on eX
hibitiOn In the British Museum. Final
ly. We have the Slnaitic MS. which |
In possession of the Russian Govern
ment 1t was found by Constantin
Tlschendorf in Mt. Sinai Convent
from which It takes its name. 1t |
accredited with date of about 80
A. ID. or these three oldest MSS. o
the New Testament known In tn
world, the Vatican and Sinaitlc al
the older.
Assuredly nothing should be consld
cred as part of the original Scripture
that Is not found In any of these thre
oldest MSS. Why should we not te
this to the people? Why should W
not inform them that some of tn
most confusing texts of the Bible ar
not found In these old manuscripts
Is II not Il sin to preach doctrines a
from God which have no part in thes
early MSS? This IL our though
From time to time 1t will be our plea.
ure, as well as our duty. to teach tn
common people what the clergy a
ready know on this subject. Nor,
over. the Rible Students Associatio
of Brooklyn has arranged for the In
portatlon of copies Of the New Test,
pent bound In cloth showing the var
a.ions between the readings of thes
old Greek MSS. and our Common We
sion. The usua. price of these is 81 .0I
hut itnnortlnQ them In InrOe ma nj