Page 75 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

BIBLE VERSIONS

LATIN ARE LACKING IN THE OLD MSS OF THE Alexandria under editorial care…” (The Text of the Greek
PALESTINIAN AND EGYPTIAN. The disputed texts Bible, pp. 151, 208).
were designed to condemn and refute the errors of the The Codex Sinaiticus was corrected in the Old
Ebionites and Gnostics, Corinthians and Nicolaitanes. Testament according to Origen’s work (Alexander
It is not surprising that the influence of Origen should
result in the suppression of some of these authentic Souter, The Text and Canon of the New Testament, p. 23).
testimonies in the Greek copies, while the old Latin Eusebius (270-340 A.D.) was another influential
which circulated in areas not much affected by name in Alexandria. He collected the writings of Origen
Origen’s influence, should preserve such a reading as and promoted his false teachings. “Eusebius worshiped
that found in 1 John 5:7” (Robert Dabney, “The at the altar of Origen’s teachings. He claims to have
Doctrinal Various Readings of the New Testament collected eight hundred of Origen’s letters, to have used
Greek,” Southern Presbyterian Review, April 1871). Origen’s six-column Bible, the Hexapla, in his Biblical
Of Origen’s textual efforts, Frederick Nolan makes labours. Assisted by Pamphilus, he restored and
the following important observation: “… HE preserved Origen’s library” (Jack Moorman, Forever
CONTRIBUTED TO WEAKEN THE AUTHORITY OF THE Settled, p. 130). Eusebius “founded at Caesarea a library
RECEIVED TEXT OF THE NEW [TESTAMENT]. In the of biblical and patristic writings on papyrus rolls, the
course of his Commentaries, he cited the versions of nucleus of which consisted of Origen’s voluminous
Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, on the former part writings, especially his editions and interpretations of
of the Canon, he appealed to the authority of Valentinus biblical books” (Alexander Souter, The Text and Canon of
and Heracleon on the latter. WHILE HE THUS RAISED the New Testament, p. 23).
THE CREDIT OF THOSE REVISALS, WHICH HAD BEEN Eusebius produced 50 Greek Bibles for Constantine,
MADE BY THE HERETICKS, HE DETRACTED FROM father of the church state. These copies were to “be
THE AUTHORITY OF THAT TEXT WHICH HAD BEEN written on prepared parchment in a legible
RECEIVED BY THE ORTHODOX. Some difficulties which manner” (Geisler and Nix, A General Introduction to the
he found himself unable to solve in the Evangelists, he Bible, p. 181). It is possible that Vaticanus and Sinaiticus
undertook to remove, BY EXPRESSING HIS DOUBTS OF are two of these Bibles. This was believed by
THE INTEGRITY OF THE TEXT. In some instances he Constantine Tischendorf, F.J.A. Hort, Alexander Souter,
ventured to impeach the reading of the New Testament Edward Miller, Caspar Gregory, and A.T. Robertson,
on the testimony of the Old, and to convict the copies of among others. T.C. Skeat of the British Museum believed
one Gospel on the evidence of another: thus giving loose that Vaticanus was a “reject” among the 50 copies
to his fancy, and indulging in many wild conjectures, HE (Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, p. 48).
CONSIDERABLY IMPAIRED THE CREDIT OF THE VULGAR
OR COMMON EDITION, as well in the New as in the Old Frederick Nolan and other authorities have charged
Testament” (emphasis added) (Nolan, Inquiry into the Eusebius with making many changes in the text of
Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, 1815, pp. 432-34). Scripture. Nolan charged Eusebius with removing Mark
Origen’s textual work is used to support the 16:9-20 and John 8:1-11, among other things.
Alexandrian text preferred by modern textual critics. He “As it is thus apparent that Eusebius wanted [lacked]
is treated by them with great respect. He is mentioned not the power, so it may be shewn that he wanted not
the will, to make those alterations in the sacred text,
repeatedly and favorably by modern textual critics. For with which I have ventured to accuse him. ... The
example, he is mentioned on 12 pages of Kurt and works of those early writers lie under the positive
Barbara Aland’s The Text of the New Testament and on imputation of being corrupted. The copies of Clement
four pages of Bruce Metzger’s The Text of the New and Origen were corrupted in their life time; the
Testament: Its Transmission, corruption, and Restoration. manuscripts from which Tertullian’s works have been
These prominent textual critics see Origen in a positive printed are notoriously faulty; and the copies of
light rather than as a corruptor of God’s Word. Kurt and Cyprian demonstrate their own corruption, by their
Barbara Aland call him “the most significant and widely disagreement among themselves, and their agreement
influential Greek theologian of the early Church...” (The with different texts and revisals of Scripture. It is
Text of the New Testament, p. 181). They call Origen’s likewise indisputable, that these fathers not only
followed each other, adopting the arguments and
Alexandrian School “most impressive” (p. 200). Metzger quotations of one another; but that they quoted from
calls him “one of the most assiduous and erudite the heterodox as well as the orthodox. They were thus
scholars of his age” (The Text of the New Testament, p. likely to transmit from one to another erroneous
151). Frederic Kenyon testified that the Alexandrian quotations, originally adopted from sources not more
family of manuscripts “makes it first appearance in the pure than heretical revisals of Scripture. ... New
writings of Origen” and that it “is now generally revisals of Scripture were thus formed, which were
regarded as a text produced in Egypt and probably at interpolated with the peculiar readings of scholiasts
and fathers. NOR DID THIS SYSTEMATIC

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