Do We Need the Old Testament?

“The Old Testament is the cradle in which the Christ child is laid.” – Martin Luther

Do We Need the Old Testament? The Benefits of the Old Testament, as seen in Romans 15:1-13.

The Old Testament provides the historical and theological foundation of New Testament Christianity. Most Christian denominations at least tacitly accept the Old Testament as part of their sacred writings. Searching, I did not find any who explicitly deny the Old Testament, other than the revived Marcionite Christian Church. Their website states, “The Hebrew bible (Old Testament) and the carnal deity portrayed within it, is antithetical to the words and teachings of Jesus Christ...It represents an alien culture and religion diametrically opposed to the God revealed to us through Jesus Christ...”

Marcion of Sinope[i] (ca. AD 95-160) rejected the entire Old Testament and some of the New Testament, focusing on the writings of Paul.  His Bible contained a truncated Gospel of Luke, 10 epistles of Paul—and no Old Testament. Most other Christians rejected him and his views as heretical, and he started his own church circa AD 144.

Though I have not found reference to another Christian denomination that officially rejects the Old Testament, many modernists and liberals view the religion and morals of the Old Testament as primitive. They have no qualms rejecting any parts of the Old Testament they find personally offensive.[ii] Other Christians may find it dull, boring, and hard to read. Still others see it as confusing or irrelevant. Due to these various considerations, many who do not outright reject the Old Testament as part of their sacred scripture nevertheless do not read and study it.

However, the unity of the Old and New Testament Scriptures is an important and edifying truth. Paul illustrates this unity in 1 Timothy 5:18, quoting both the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 25:4) and New Testament (Luke 10:7) as scripture. (See also Galatians 3:24-25, the law as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.) In Romans 15:1-13, Paul refers to the Old Testament five times in these 13 verses. He directly lauds and demonstrates its utility.

1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. 3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. 4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. 8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. 10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. 11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. 12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. 13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

The Old Testament instructs and admonishes the believers and their churches, verse 4. Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:11. The things written in the Old Testament were not for them alone, but were written and preserved for the learning of those who some come afterward (2 Timothy 2:2). If God had them written and preserved for our instruction and admonition, then the apparent conclusion is that the words should and must be read and studied.

The Old Testament testifies of Christ, verse 3. Cf. Luke 24:25-27; 44-45. Paul refers to Psalm 69:9, as it prophesies and speaks of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament provides an example (vs. 1-3), supporting Paul’s point to the Roman believers that they should care for others, as did our Lord. It promotes unity (vs. 6-7). It confirms promises made to the fathers (v. 8). It shows the promises were not for Abraham’s seed alone, the circumcision, but also foretells the inclusion of the Gentiles (vs. 9-12). In rapid succession draws out this conclusion from Psalm 18:49, Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm 117:1, and Isaiah 11:10 (in the law, in the prophets, and in the psalms).

The Old Testament teaches us patience, comfort, hope, and unity, verses 4-7, 13. The Old Testament encourages the people of God through his promises and their fulfillment (for example, Matthew 1:22 with Isaiah 7:14). We learn from its record the creation of the world; the origin of sin; the work of God in his providence, his miracles, and his judgements; and the promise of a Saviour (e.g., Genesis 3:15). We see that he is “the God of patience and consolation,” as well as “the God of hope.” We can be fully persuaded that, what God has promised, he is able also to perform.

Yes, the Old Testament is the cradle in which the Christ child is laid, so to speak, promising us a Saviour and promoting our faith, hope, and love. Read it for instruction. Read it for admonition. Read it in unison with the New Testament.

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[i] Sinope was a Greek colony in Pontus.
[ii] Apparently, unlike modern liberals, Marcion accepted the historicity of the Old Testament. For example, he believed “the carnal deity portrayed within it” created the world, as taught in Genesis.

I’ll be home for Christmas

6 links containing arguments for and against Christmas for the Christian: 

• Disputing the Pagan Roots of Christmas -- “Regardless of the actual date of Christ’s birth, what really counts is that the fact of it.”
• Is Christmas a Pagan Rip-off? -- “That’s the story, and everyone from liberal Christians to conservative Christians to non-Christians seem to agree that it’s true. Except that it isn’t.”
• Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? -- “As with all of these doubtful things, each family needs to make up their own minds. In my opinion parents...”
• Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? -- “While many see Christmas as a holy day it is not seen as such by God. The day appointed by God to be kept holy is the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath.”
• What a Christian Jew has to say about Christmas... -- “It’s not because I’m a Jew that I don’t celebrate Christmas now. That has nothing to do with it. Let me tell you the real reasons why...”
• Why I Cannot Put Christ Back into Christmas -- “Modern churchgoers seem to be content to pay lip service to His first advent and their participation in an event supposedly in remembrance of that advent appeals to their sense of ‘Christian propriety.’”

The central miracle

“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation. There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about. It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion—an invasion which intends complete conquest and ‘occupation.’ The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depends on their relation to the Grand Miracle; all discussion of them in isolation from it is futile.”

C. S. Lewis, Miracles

O God, from heaven look down

Martin Luther, the 16th-century monk, reformer, and theologian wrote “Look down, O Lord, from heaven behold” (German, “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein”). He was born November 10, 1483 at Eisleben, Saxony, Germany. It is said that his religious service stemmed from his fearing for his life in a terrible thunderstorm. He cried out “Save me, St. Anne, and I’ll become a monk!” His life was spared and he fulfilled this vow.[i] Luther’s father saw to it that Martin received a good education. Later, after he had become a monk, he studied at the University of Wittenberg. He received a doctorate and became a professor of theology there.
 
Luther experienced disillusionment with the Roman Catholic Church. He came to understand it as a religion based on fear, and further that immorality and corruption filled the priesthood. He questioned the basic tenets of Roman Catholicism, and began to rest in the Scripture promise “The just shall live by faith.” Pope Leo X’s indulgences (sold to absolve one’s sins) were another source of irritation. On October 31, 1517, Luther incited the Protestant Reformation when he nailed a paper with his “95 Theses” on the door of the University of Wittenberg’s chapel.
 
In 1521, Luther was declared a heretic and his writings banned. During this period as a fugitive, he translated the New Testament into the German language and organized a church dissenting from or protesting Rome. He married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, in 1525. Luther suffered a stroke and died February 18, 1546. He is buried at Castle Church (Schlosskirche Wittenberg) (aka All Saints’ Church) in Wittenberg.
 
Luther influenced German hymnody greatly. He wrote a number of hymns and compiled several hymn books. “A Mighty Fortress is our God” and “Away in a Manger” are exceptionally well-known. Frances Elizabeth Cox translated the hymns “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein” into English. She was born May 10, 1812, at Oxford, England, the daughter of George Valentine Cox. This hymn appeared in her 1841 publication of Sacred Hymns from the German (London: William Pickering, 1841).[ii] This work contained nearly 50 English translations, as well as the original words in German. Cox died September 23, 1897, at Headington, England. Her burial location is currently unknown to this author.
 
Related to the preservation of the Bible (a topic oft raised here at “Seeking the Old Paths”) Peter Van Kleeck, Sr. points out that Luther’s hymn elegantly reflects his interpretation of Psalm 12. Doubtless, he aimed at the Roman Catholic clergy as those who had “taken away the key of knowledge” and “lead thy people to and fro, in error’s maze astounded.”
 
Hymn For the Reformation.
Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth. Psa. xii. 1.
Ye have taken away the key of knowledge. St. Luke xi. 52.
 
1. Look down, O Lord, from heaven behold,
And let thy pity waken!
How few the flock within thy fold,
Neglected and forsaken!
Almost thou’lt seek for faith in vain,
And those who should thy truth maintain
Thy word from us have taken.
 
2. With frauds which they themselves invent
Thy truth they have confounded;
Their hearts are not with one consent
On thy pure doctrine grounded;
And, whilst they gleam with outward show,
They lead thy people to and fro,
In error’s maze astounded.
 
3. God surely will uproot all those
With vain deceits who store us;
With haughty tongue who God oppose,
And say, “Who stands before us?
By right or might we shall prevail;
What we determine cannot fail,
For who can lord it o’er us?”
 
4. For this, saith God, I will arise,
These wolves my flock are rending;
I’ve heard my people’s bitter sighs
To heaven, my throne, ascending:
Now will I up, and set at rest
Each weary soul by fraud opprest,
The poor with might defending.
 
5. The silver seven times tried is pure
From all adulteration;
So, through God’s word, shall men endure
Each trial and temptation:
Its worth gleams brighter through the cross,
And, purified from human dross,
It shines through every nation.
 
6. Thy truth thou wilt preserve, O Lord,
Pure from their artful glozing;
Oh! make us lean upon thy word,
With hearts unmoved reposing.
Though bad men triumph and their crew
Are gathered round, the faithful few
With crafty toils enclosing.
 
The above seems to be the original sixth stanza, while the following may be more commonly used in hymnals:

6. Thy truth thou wilt preserve, O Lord,
From this vile generation;
Oh! make us lean upon thy word,
With calm anticipation.
The wicked walk on every side
When, ’mid thy flock, the vile abide
In power and exaltation.
 

The Church Weekly, (London, England) October 15, 1897, p. 833

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[i] St. Anne was the patron saint of miners. Martin Luther’s father was a miner.
[ii] This was apparently republished in 1864 as a second edition called Hymns from the German. 

Are Versions Necessary, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Are Versions Necessary? -- “The gospel is preached in all languages; therefore it can and ought to be translated into them.”
• AOC’s Attempt to Attack Supreme Court Over Abortion Case Crashes and Burns When Biden Accuser Steps In -- “...a tweet smearing Kavanaugh once again probably looked like an easy line of attack...Instead, she just left herself open to be proven a dishonest fool. And every one of her supporters, too.”
• BiblIndex: Index of Biblical Quotations in Early Christian Literature -- “BiblIndex is an index of biblical references found in early Christian literature, both Western and Eastern texts, so far covering the first three centuries, along with part of the following centuries.”
• Domino Effect -- “How Bob Phillips has spent nearly 50 years bringing regular folks into Texas homes as the Texas Country Reporter.”
• Even renowned atheist Richard Dawkins recognizes the abomination of gender ideology -- “Dawkins joined J.K. Rowling and other liberals in signing the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, which is clearly aimed at the transgender movement.”
• Matt Walsh releases children’s book explaining absurdity of transgenderism -- “Johnny’s ‘progressive’ mother is very ‘confused’ and tries to ‘raise her child as a walrus, as a sort of transwalrus, respecting his self-identity.’”
• Normally Moderate Roberts Savages Roe v Wade, Becomes Hero for Saying What Everyone Else Is Thinking -- “During Wednesday’s oral arguments, Roberts noted that viability is a pretty low and arbitrary standard that the court had created in the Roe decision.”
• “Outside-The-Church” Counseling -- “The question now becomes, “Do good Biblical teachings filter into the church?’, or rather, “Should good Biblical teachings be flowing out of the church?’...We have gotten it all backwards!”
• Post-critical Theological Schizophrenia -- “Only a return to a pre-critical, exegetically based foundation and interpretation of Scripture will save the Church and Academy from becoming increasingly feckless and irrelevant to the contemporary culture.”
• Psalm 12:7 and Bible Preservation -- “This essay will show the diversity of the textual and exegetical tradition of Psalm 12:6-7...By so doing, the inadequacy of modern renditions of Psalm 12:7 will be exposed...”
• Sarco suicide pod aims to take assisted dying out of doctors’ hands with AI and 3D printing -- “A coffin-shaped capsule that allows occupants to kill themselves has passed legal review in Switzerland, according to its creators.”
• Sola Scriptura: Implications and Application, Part 4 of 4 -- “The classical Reformed doctrine of sola scriptura meant that Scripture is the sole, final and infallible authority. It does not mean that the lone individual is the one to determine what that Scripture means.”
• Stay (1 Timothy 1:3) -- “Unless you are absolutely certain that Christ has bid you otherwise, STAY.”
• The Holy Bible, Newly Translated, Imprinted by Robert Barker -- “An online printing of the Bible commonly known as the King James Version, first printed in 1611.”
• The Philadelphia Baptist Association and the Question of Authority -- “...these Baptists believed they could and indeed had achieved a balance between the power of the association and the freedom of the local church. Harmony prevailed, discipline was enforced, and doctrine was maintained.”
• This Textus Receptus: A Response to Mark Ward’s Critique of Confessional Bibliology -- “As recently as September 6, 2021 Ward declared that the journal article currently under examination has not been answered.
• What is a False Friend? -- “Perhaps the Bible can help us with the false friends dilemma. The Scripture teaches us that if a man wants to have friends, he must himself be friendly.”
• World leaders are still running afoul of their own covid restrictions -- “Among the most infamous U.S. cases, there was California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attendance at a dinner at the lavish French Laundry in November of last year.”
• Yes and Then No, the Bible with Mark Ward (Part One) -- “In his criticism, Ward distinguished between using the Bible for what a man wants to say and preaching what the Bible does say.”

Providentially Preserved

…a brief explanation.

When I write about the preservation of the Bible, I regularly use the term “providential preservation,” such as in the article “A Fundamental Problem for Fundamentalism.” I use it to cover all of God’s provisions in keeping his word intact from its beginning with inspiration and continuing to all generations throughout history – whether by normal, out of the ordinary, or miraculous ways. It is true that we often use “providence” to describe God’s governing all things through secondary causes. However, it is also true that we might not be so competent to always know the difference – such as the precise timing of events that led Joseph to exactly the right place at exactly the right time in history. (Was this normal/ordinary, unusual/out of the ordinary, miraculous?)

When many modern “non-preservationists” write about the preservation of the Bible, even using the word providential, they only intend “natural” or “ordinary” means – “...the preservation of Scripture is not different in method from any other ancient book God has determined to preserve...” (W. W. Combs, “The Preservation of Scripture,” pp. 9-10). (Same means for the Bible as how Mein Kampf and the Koran are preserved.)

Jon Rehurek wrote “Preservation of the Bible: Providential or Miraculous,” immediately poisoning the well with a false dilemma, Providential or Miraculous. Why must it be Providential or Miraculous (referring to his view of providential)? Why can it not be Providential and Miraculous? And who might write an article titled “Preservation of Israel in the Wilderness: Providential or Miraculous? The Biblical View”? There is more going on that either/or.

Anyway, I want to make the point that I mean what I mean when I use “providential preservation,” not what someone else means.

What’s the Standard?

Standard, as a noun usually carries the idea of something that is established by authority or general consent as a model or rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, quality, etc.; as an adjective usually carries the idea of conforming to an accepted or established rule, well-established, accepted as normal.

I had never thought much about this, until I heard Peter Van Kleeck, Jr. mention it in interview with Jeff Riddle at Stylos blog. Though modern textual critics work overtime trying to convince us that the original text of scripture has not been preserved and that we therefore have no standard – Bible translators using their products “work overtime” trying to convince us they have created a standard. There are at least ten modern translations that include “Standard” in the name of their Bible.

• American Standard Version
• Christian Standard Bible
• English Standard Version
• Holman Christian Standard Bible
• International Standard Version
• Legacy Standard Bible
• Literal Standard Version
• New American Standard Bible
• New Revised Standard Version
• Revised Standard Version

Nevertheless and regardless of what people think of the King James Version translation of the Bible, it is the “English Standard” Bible. It has been around and in use for 410 years and is what every Bible aspires to be or desires to replace.

The church has lost its way

The church is losing its way, says Rob Sellers. No. The church has already lost its way. Two churches. The cold dead orthodox evangelical church and the compromising humanistic progressive church.

Shockingly, Sellers says that cold dead orthodox evangelical church “acts as if the most important part of God’s mission in the world is to preach the gospel, then baptize and teach converts (Matthew 28) instead of to take care of God’s little ones (John 21).” He would apparently set one against the other and have the compromising humanistic progressive church forget the gospel (as we know it) and engage in humanitarian aid. The church that has not lost its way might figure out how to balance both.

The compromising humanistic church accepts the woman caught in adultery but will not tell her to go and sin no more. The cold dead evangelical church ignores the adultery of the woman if she supports the tithe-and-offering drives, women’s missionary unions, and such like. 

Interestingly, Sellers cites Jesus listening “to the anxious Syro-Phoenician mother’s protestations and rescued her daughter from life-threatening illness.” He does not bother to let anyone in on the fact that his own progressive paper (Neither Baptist nor Global, and more opinion than News) has already told us that Jesus was a racist for the way he treated the Syrophenician woman. So much for following Jesus!

We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Dean Burgon replies to Ellicott about the Revision

In The Revision Revised (1883, here I excerpt from page 398-400), John William Burgon analyzes the contents of C. J. Ellicott’s pamphlet about the “Proposed Revision of the Scriptures.” He also shows that the revisers exceeded the instructions of the Convocation of Canterbury, even using Ellicott’s own words against him. Ellicott attempted to deflect this objection in his Addresses on the Revised Version of Holy Scripture.
…
all this, my lord Bishop, I frankly avow, to me, looks very much indeed like what, in the language of lawyers, is called “Conspiracy.” It appears then that instead of presiding over the deliberations of the Revisionists as an impartial arbiter, you have been throughout, heart and soul, an eager partizan. You have learned to employ freely Drs. Westcott and Hort’s peculiar terminology. You adopt their scarcely-intelligible phrases: their wild hypotheses: their arbitrary notions about ‘Intrinsic’ and ‘Transcriptional Probability:’ their baseless theory of ‘Conflation:’ their shallow ‘Method of Genealogy.’ You have, in short, evidently swallowed their novel invention whole. I can no longer wonder at the result arrived at by the body of Revisionists.
...
The ‘fundamental Resolutions adopted by the Convocation of Canterbury’ (3rd and 5th May, 1870), five in number, contain no authorization whatever for making changes in the Greek Text. They have reference only to the work of revising ‘the Authorized Version:’ an undertaking which the first Resolution declares to be ‘desirable.’ In order to ascertain what were the Revisers’ ‘Instructions with regard to the Greek Text,’ we must refer to the original Resolution of Feb. 10th, 1870: in which the removal of ‘plain and clear errors, whether in the Greek Text originally adopted by the Translators, or in the Translation made from the same,’—is for the first and last time mentioned. That you yourself accepted this as the limit of your authority, is proved by your Speech in Convocation. “We may be satisfied” (you said) “with the attempt to correct plain and clear errors: but there, it is our duty to stop.”[i]
 
Now I venture to assert that not one in a hundred of the alterations you have actually made, ‘whether in the Greek Text originally adopted by the Translators, or in the Translation made from the same,’ are corrections of ‘plain and clear errors.’ Rather,—(to adopt the words of the learned Bishop of Lincoln,)—“I fear we must say in candour that in the Revised Version we meet in every page with changes which seem almost to be made for the sake of change.” May I trouble you to refer back to p. 112 of the present volume for a few words more on this subject from the pen of the same judicious Prelate?
 
From page 112:
“To pass from the one to the other, is, as it were, to alight from a well-built and well-hung carriage which glides easily over a macadamized road,—and to get into one which has bad springs or none at all, and in which you are jolted in ruts with aching bones over the stones of a newly-mended and rarely traversed road, like some of the roads in our North Lincolnshire villages.”—Bishop Wordsworth.[ii]

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[i] Chronicle of Convocation, Feb. 1870, p. 83.
[ii] Address at Lincoln Diocesan Conference,—p. 16. Christopher Wordsworth (1807–1885), Bishop of Lincoln, was a nephew of the poet William Wordsworth. According to Isaac H. Hall in The Revised New Testament and History of Revision, pp. 83-84, Wordsworth served on and then resigned from the Old Testament company.

ACLU Supports Conservative Christian Group, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• ACLU Supports Speech Rights of Conservative Christian Group to Display Flag in Front of Boston’s City Hall -- “The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Massachusetts filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a conservative Christian group’s claim that the city of Boston violated its First Amendment rights...”
• Editions of the TR Argument and Excellent Preservation Versus Perfect Preservation -- “Mark Ward says he ‘won’t argue textual criticism with those who insist on the exclusive use of the King James Version,’ but he really is arguing with them, against what he says he won’t do.”
• First American to contract omicron COVID variant was ‘fully vaccinated,’ Fauci admits -- “‘The virus is behaving just how viruses behave,’ says Dr. Paul Elias Alexander...‘we expect this to be milder and milder mutations and not more lethal ones given the pathogen seeks to infect the host and not arrive at an evolutionary dead-end.’”
• Federal Judge Blocks Biden Vaccine Mandate Nationwide, Protects Health Care Workers Across America -- “If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands.”
• George William Lasher—Baptist Proto-Fundamentalist -- “Given that the title fundamentalist was not self-applied to individuals before 1920, it seems inappropriate to call anyone before 1920 by that designation, despite the fact that their life and ministry were characterized by the esprit de corps of post-1920 fundamentalism.”
• New Hampshire ‘Moms for Liberty’ chapter to offer $500 to anyone who can catch teachers ‘discriminating’ -- “Earlier in the week, the New Hampshire Department of Education created a new website for parents and students to file complaints against teachers...”
• Nonresistance vs. Pacifism -- “At first glance, one could suggest that these two terms might be synonymous...as the English language continues its forward march of change, it has since become necessary to define these terms separately.”
• Order In The Church -- “Godly order requires submission to the order, both by those who must submit to the burden of leadership as well as those who must submit to the leaders.”
• Reminder: Trump Only Flew Once on Epstein’s Plane from FL to NYC, Later Banned Him from Mar-a-Lago -- “If you’re following this trial as closely as so many of us are, make sure to keep your eyes on the ball and don’t fall for the cheap media distractions, more of which are certainly likely to come.”
• Science proves Roe v. Wade wrong. Humanity doesn’t start at 20 weeks: Lila Rose -- “Baby Olivia depicts the moment life begins and beyond to show the humanity of the preborn throughout each stage of development, complete with beating heart, brainwaves, fingers and toes.”
• ‘This is my body:’ Embracing the feminine genius -- “Interview with Samantha Stephenson discussing the roots of the confusion and distortions of truth in our culture when it comes to femininity and motherhood.”
• Watch: Police Release Body Cam Footage of MSNBC Journalist Who Followed Rittenhouse Jury -- “An NBC freelancer, operating under instructions from the home office, trailed a bus full of jurors in the Rittenhouse case to find out information a mainstream media outlet has no business knowing.”
• 17th Century Textual Apparatus in the Commentaries of Andrew Willet (1562-1621) -- “Here Willet addresses both textual critical and alternative readings specifically as they address the Hebrew, Latin, Syriac, Greek and cognate languages.”

Proposed Revision of the Scriptures, York, 1870

The York Herald (February 26, 1870) carries a report of the (Church of England) Convocation of the Province of York, held Tuesday, February 22-24, 1870.

On Wednesday, February 23, 1870, the Convocation debated the “Proposed Revision of the Scriptures.” “The Rev. Canon Hey moved the appointment of a committee to confer “with the committee which had been appointed by the Southern province” (Convocation of Canterbury). “Ven. Archdeacon Cust” seconded the motion. In his discussion of the motion, Canon Hey stated “any sort of tampering unnecessarily with the venerable version of the English Bible—any sort of tinkering, if he might use the expression, would be almost like pulling the tracery of the windows in the magnificent building in which they were assembled, and replacing them with sash windows.” He, however, did not believe that such tinkering was the intent of the Southern province and though it desirable to meet with them in committee. The Bishop of Carlisle moved an amendment, below.

 

The York Herald, Saturday, February 26, 1870, p. 9

The President (of the Convocation, the Archbishop of York William Thomson ) stated that “The Bible was a bond which linked them not only to Nonconformists in our own country—from whom they were too much estranged—but to people under other skies, and living under other governments, and it was not to be expected that that which was common property to be disposed of otherwise than by all those to whom it belonged.” He thought there was no necessity to alter and modify the Bible, and that “to attempt at this particular time to translate the New Testament from any sources would be to select the worst occasion that could be selected for a work which required caution and prudence.” He was surprised “by the movement on this question in the Southern Convocation,” and “urged that there was no reason for it, and that the public were not pressing for it. He strongly supported the amendment, and asked them to keep the Bible, which notwithstanding all that had been said, was a good and excellent translation, was full of nerve, and bone, and sinew...”

The amendment against appointing a committee on the revision of the Bible “carried by a large majority, six voting against it.”

Proposed Revision of the Scriptures, Canterbury, 1870

I have had trouble readily finding information about the background of the English Revised translation of the Scriptures (1870-1896, beginning to conclusion of the Apocrypha). (Maybe it was just me.) One of its leaders, Bishop Charles John Ellicott, reported on it in Addresses on the Revised Version of Holy Scripture (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1901). (Also found in another format HERE.) For your information, I present the following excerpts from that work.
 
The initial step was taken on February 10, 1870, in the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury. The Bishop of Oxford, seconded by the Bishop of Gloucester, proposed the subjoined resolution, which it may be desirable to give in the exact words in which it was presented to the House, as indicating the caution with which it was framed, and also the indirectly expressed hope (unfortunately not realized) of the concurrence of the Northern Convocation. The resolution was as follows:

“That a committee of both Houses be appointed, with power to confer with any committee that may be appointed by the Convocation of the Northern Province, to report upon the desirableness of a revision of the Authorised Version of the New Testament, whether by marginal notes or otherwise, in those passages where plain and clear errors, whether in the Hebrew or Greek text originally adopted by the translators, or in the translations made from the same, shall on due investigation be found to exist.”

In the course of the debate that followed the resolution was amended by the insertion of the words “Old and,” so as to include both Testaments, and, so amended, was unanimously accepted by the Upper House, and at once sent down to the Lower House. After debate it was accepted by them, and, having been thus accepted by both Houses, formed the basis of all the arrangements, rules, and regulations which speedily followed.[i]  
 
Before, however, this committee reported, at the next meeting of Convocation in May, and on May 3 and May 5, the following five resolutions, which have the whole authority of Convocation behind them, were accepted unanimously by the Upper House, and by large majorities in the Lower House:

“1. That it is desirable that a revision of the Authorised Version of the Holy Scriptures be undertaken.
2. That the revision be so conducted as to comprise both marginal renderings and such emendations as it may be found necessary to insert in the text of the Authorised Version.
3. That in the above resolutions we do not contemplate any new translation of the Bible, nor any alteration of the language, except where, in the judgement of the most competent scholars, such change is necessary.
4. That in such necessary changes, the style of the language employed in the existing version be closely followed.
5. That it is desirable that Convocation should nominate a body of its own members to undertake the work of revision, who shall be at liberty to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to whatever nation or religious body they may belong.”

These are the fundamental rules of Convocation, as formally expressed by the Upper and Lower Houses of this venerable body.[ii]
 
A responsible and deeply respected writer, the late Bishop of Wakefield, only a few years ago plainly stated in a well-known periodical[iii] that the revisers “largely exceeded their instructions, and did not adhere to the principles they were commissioned to follow.”[iv]
 
Ellicott states a communication from the Convocation of York was received “to the effect that”...“The Authorised Version of the English Bible is accepted, not only by the Established Church, but also by the Dissenters and by the whole of the English-speaking people of the world, as their standard of faith; and that although blemishes existed in its text such as had, from time to time, been pointed out, yet they would deplore any recasting of its text. That Convocation accordingly did not think it necessary to appoint a committee to co-operate with the committee appointed by the Convocation of Canterbury, though favourable to the errors being rectified.”[v]
 
Those invited to join the Old Testament were as follows: -- Dr. W. L. Alexander, Professor Chenery, Canon Cook, Professor A. B. Davidson, Dr. B. Davies, Professor Fairbairn, Rev. F. Field, Dr. Gensburg, Dr. Gotch, Archdeacon Harrison, Professor Leathes, Professor McGill, Canon Payne Smith, Professor J. J. S. Perowne, Professor Plumptre, Canon Pusey, Dr. Wright (British Museum), Mr. W. A. Wright of Cambridge, the active and valuable secretary of the Company.
 
Of these Dr. Pusey and Canon Cook declined the invitation.
 
Those invited to join the New Testament Company were as follows: -- Dr. Angus, Dr. David Brown, the Archbishop of Dublin (Trench), Dr. Eadie, Rev. F. J. A. Hort, Rev. W. G. Humphry, Canon Kennedy, Archdeacon Lee, Dr. Lightfoot, Professor Milligan, Professor Moulton, Dr. J. H. Newman, Professor Newth, Dr. A. Roberts, Rev. G. Vance Smith, Dr. Scott (Balliol College), Rev. F. H. Scrivener, the Bishop of St. Andrews (Wordsworth), Dr. Tregelles, Dr. Vaughan, Canon Westcott.
 
Of these Dr. J. H. Newman declined, and Dr. Tregelles, from feeble health and preoccupation on his great work, the critical edition of the New Testament, was unable to attend.[vi]
 
They adopted what Ellicott calls subsidiary and necessary amplifications of the rules passed by the Convention of Canterbury [rlv]:
 
1. To introduce as few alterations as possible in the text of the Authorised Version consistently with faithfulness.
2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the language of the Authorised and earlier English versions.
3. Each Company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once provisionally, the second time finally, and on principles of voting as hereinafter is provided.
4. That the text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is decidedly preponderating; and that when the text so adopted differs from that from which the Authorised Version was made, the alteration be indicated in the margin.
5. To make or retain no change in the text on the second final revision by the Company except two-thirds of those present approve of the same, but on the first revision to decide by simple majorities.
6. In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to discussion, to defer the voting thereupon till the next meeting, whensoever the same shall be required by one-third of those present at the meeting, such intended vote to be announced in the notice for the next meeting.
7. To revise the headings of chapters and pages, paragraphs, italics, and punctuation.
8. To refer, on the part of each Company, when considered desirable, to divines, scholars, and literary men, whether at home or abroad, for their opinions.
9. That the work of each Company be communicated to the other, as it is completed, in order that there may be as little deviation from uniformity in language as possible.[vii]

---

[i] Addresses on the Revised Version, pp. 17-18
[ii] Addresses on the Revised Version, pp. 19-20
[iii] “The Expositor for October, 1892, pp. 241-255. The article was answered by me in the same periodical two months later.”
[iv] Addresses on the Revised Version, p. 21. In answering this objection, Ellicott emphasized that whatever “the most competent scholars” felt necessary was what was meant by the instructions (i.e., actually very little limitation, though many observers thought it was supposed to be quite limiting).
[v] Addresses on the Revised Version, pp. 22-23
[vi] Addresses on the Revised Version, pp. 26-27. Ellicott later mentions (p. 33) that some were added to the Old Testament Company – “Principal Douglas, Professor Geden, Dr. Weir, and, I think, Mr. Bensley.”
[vii] The above is found in the text of Addresses on the Revised Version on pages 28 through 32 (rather than as a list as I present it). Note: Charles John Ellicott served on the New Testament committee, as chairman. Though he does not mention himself by name, the permanent committee over the New Testament included the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, which was Ellicott. See page 26.

New Testament Use of The Old Testament, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• A Brief Look At The New Testament Use of The Old Testament -- “When writing inspired Scripture the NT writers did not miss anything about the OT texts, but we may very well be missing much.”
• A Statement from Dr. J. P. Blurry, Ph.D. -- “A listener sends in his frank response to my last podcast episode.” (Warning: satire ahead; a master stroke)
• Conspiracy Theory: Biblical Methods of Evaluation -- “Before discussing the specific arguments for a conspiracy, we need to agree on what Scripture teaches about how to decide if something is true or not.”
• Elite Evangelicalism’s Allergy to Complementarianism -- “What he describes is nothing other than the age-old temptation of theological liberalism, which in many ways was simply an attempt to make Christianity acceptable to cultural elites.”
• Jeremiah Bell Jeter and the “Blighting Withering Curse” -- “This essay will discuss the middle group—reluctant slave owners—individuals who owned slaves but expressed a resistance to the practice, yet seemed to be caught in an era where they thought they had few options but to retain slaves.”
• Minister and Army Captain Unlawfully Put In Jail By School District While Board Members And Superintendent Continue Coverup Tonight -- “Residents of Round Rock, TX, an Austin suburb, are calling for the resignation of 5 school board district Trustees and the Superintendent after they influenced an unprecedented and calculated arrest of 2 parents...”
• NFL Wisconsin Native to Cover All Funeral Costs of Waukesha Victims -- “Six people have died as a result of Sunday’s attack at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.”
• Pew Research: Few Americans Blame God or Say Faith Has Been Shaken Amid Pandemic, Other Tragedies -- “For centuries, philosophers and theologians have attempted to answer a vexing question: If there is a good and all-powerful God, then why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?”
• Researchers Review COVID Database, Make a Huge Discovery When They Exclude Vaccinated People -- “The researchers, who reported their results last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, examined 353,326 COVID-19 patients in the Arabian Peninsula nation of Qatar...”
• School Cancels ISIS Survivor Event Over Fear of Offending Muslims -- “A Toronto school board has withdrawn its students from participation in a book club event over fears of offending Muslims by spotlighting Nadia Murad’s autobiographical account of her experiences as an ISIS sex slave.”
• Text Note: John 5:3b-4 -- “The modern critical text, and translations based on it, omits the account of the angel stirring the water in John 5:3b-4. The traditional text, and translations based on it, includes this passage.”
• The Perspicuity of Scripture -- “Scripture affirms that it is able to be understood but not without the help of the Holy Spirit.”
• The Shell Game Played With Words About the Bible -- “I can agree to an ambiguous, hypothetical inerrancy, and then agree that the Bible is inerrant...When I say the Bible is without error, I mean that it is without error. ”
• The Story Of The RMS Olympic, The Titanic Sister Ship That Narrowly Escaped Tragedy Twice -- “White Star’s answer to Cunard’s Lusitania and Mauretania was a triumvirate of luxury ships: in order of construction, the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic.”
• Too many religious institutions failed the COVID test -- “In the past, during plagues and wars, priests and rabbis ministered to the frightened, the sick, and the dying.”
• Why No Confederate Supreme Court? -- “As a component of that Government they realized that the Court had a natural tendency to increase its authority.”
• 12 Signs and Symbols You Should Know -- “Here’s a guide to twelve common signs, including how they developed and in which contexts they are used or avoided.”

“tive” words, and other words

• authoritative, adjective. Able to be trusted as being accurate or true; reliable; commanding and self-confident.
• cozenage, noun. The practice of cozening (cheating, deceiving); the condition of being cozened.
• dative, adjective. (Grammar; in Latin, Greek, and other languages) Denoting a case of nouns and pronouns, and words in grammatical agreement with them, indicating an indirect object or recipient.
• ergative, adjective. Of or relating to a language in which the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are expressed by one grammatical case, and the subject of a transitive verb is expressed by another.
• esprit de corps, noun. A feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty shared by the members of a particular group (From the French: spirit of body/group).
• infodemic, noun. A proliferation of diverse, often unsubstantiated information relating to a crisis, controversy, or event, which disseminates rapidly and uncontrollably through news, online, and social media.
• intrepidacious, adjective. Feeling intrepid; fearless.
• invective, noun. Vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach; a railing accusation; vituperation.
• iterative, adjective. Repeating; making repetition; repetitious.
• manty, noun. (dialect, archaic, rare Scottish, British) A kind of loose gown or mantle.
• meliorism, noun. The doctrine that the world tends to become better or may be made better by human effort.
• palliative, adjective. Serving to palliate (i.e., relieve or lessen without curing).
• parapraxis, noun. (Psychology) A slip of the tongue or pen, forgetfulness, misplacement of objects, or other error thought to reveal unconscious wishes or attitudes.
• pilaster, noun. A shallow rectangular feature projecting from a wall, having a capital and base and usually imitating the form of a column.
• proprioceptive, noun. A sensory receptor, found chiefly in muscles, tendons, joints, and the inner ear, that detects the motion or position of the body or a limb by responding to stimuli arising within the organism.
• putative, adjective. Commonly regarded as such; reputed; supposed.
• rampageous, adjective. Violently or boisterously uncontrollable; unruly, running wild; given to or characterized by rampaging.
• trepidatious, adjective. Feeling trepidation; apprehensive.
• tu quoque, noun. A retort charging an adversary with being or doing what the adversary criticizes in others; also, a tu quoque argument (Latin, you too).
• vituperative, adjective. Characterized by or of the nature of vituperation (i.e., verbal abuse, castigation, or violent denunciation).
• votive, adjective. Offered or consecrated in fulfillment of a vow.

Save us from ourselves

By thy Word we fain would steer,

Fain thy Spirit’s dictates hear;

Save us from the rocks and shelves,

Save us chiefly from ourselves!

John Berridge

Come Down, O Love Divine

1. Come down, O Love divine,
Seek thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardor glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

2. O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

3. Let holy charity
Mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart,
Which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

4. And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far surpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till love create a place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

Bianco da Siena of Anciolina composed these words. He was an Italian poet of whom little is known. He was born circa 1350, and died in Venice, Italy, circa 1434. Wikipedia describes him as a “mystic poet” and a member of the poor Jesuates religious order.

Richard Frederick Littledale translated the hymn into English. He was born September 14, 1833 in Dublin, Ireland. He attended Trinity College in Dublin. An avid writer, Littledale wrote much about Anglican liturgy and theology – defending it against Romanists and Protestants alike. He died in London, January 11, 1890.

The hymn with a somewhat distinct meter (6.6.11.D. or 12s.11s) appears most often under the title “Come Down, O Love Divine,” paired almost exclusively with the tune Down Ampney by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). It appears in The Riverdale Hymn Book (Dodd & Longacre, editors, Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1912, No. 171, p. 173) with the tune Warren by Lindsay Bartholomew Longacre.

In the news

• Stunning: Facebook court filing admits ‘fact checks’ are just a matter of opinion -- “Such ‘fact checks’ are now shown to be simply an agenda to suppress free speech and the open discussion of science by disguising liberal media activism as something supposedly factual, noble, neutral, trustworthy, and based on science.”
• Christmas Display Featuring ‘Gender Queer’ Alongside Bible Removed by VA Library After Outcry -- “They’re mocking parents who object to pedophilia and pornographic material inside our school libraries.”
• Bob Dole Planned a Mischievous Surprise for Dems at His Memorial, Cameras Were Rolling When They Caught On -- “I also confess that I’m a bit curious to learn if I am correct in thinking that heaven will look a lot like Kansas and to see, like others who have gone before me, if I will still be able to vote in Chicago.”
• ALL of These Prominent Democrats Had a Hand in Pushing Jussie Smollett’s Hoax -- “As it turned out, the story was too good to be true for the left. Smollett orchestrated the attack himself, and he has been convicted of lying to the police as a result.”

Thanks are the highest form of thought, and other quotes

The posting of quotes by human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources. (I try to confirm the sources that I give, but may miss on occasion; please verify if possible.)

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” -- G. K. Chesterton

“Satan has as many translators as there are frivolous and impudent minds that handle the Scriptures.” -- Unknown

“Biblical illiteracy in the American churches is astonishing, bewildering, staggering, appalling.” -- Peter Van Kleeck Jr.

“A mind directed entirely by its own reasoning will never be sure of anything.” -- Tzvi Freeman

“Every generation has to reinvent the wheel and then demonize the previous generation’s wheel in order to vindicate their new rendition.” -- Unknown

“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” -- Golda Meir

“The politicization of evil is worse than privately held stupid ideas like racism or economic collectivism.” -- Elyssa Lloyd

“If you want to protect your child, teach them respect.”

“We believe what we believe about the Bible because the Bible compels us to believe it.” -- Peter Van Kleeck Jr.

“When you get to the viability standard, we share that standard with the People’s Republic of China and North Korea.” -- Chief Justice John Roberts, on abortion

“Happy is the man who possesses the Bible! Happier still is he who reads it! Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it and makes it the rule of his faith and practice.” -- J. C. Ryle

“I urge you let Scripture interpret Scripture. Do not let ideas come outside of that book, and then tempt you to change its meaning.” -- John Robinson, 1620, to the Pilgrims departing for the Americas