A. Hort (1828-1892), the towering pioneers of the textual criticism of the Greek New Testament. Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! In 1851 Westcott was ordained an Anglican "priest" and Hort in 1856: their careers were spent mostly in academic positions rather than pastorates. Things we do not want copied and distributed freely are items like the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library, print editions of our books, electronic editions of the books that we sell, the videos that we sell, etc. They determined to replace the King James Bible and the Greek Textus Receptus. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. has caused great harm to the Christian Church; it confuses people. To start with a doctrine and then correct or prefer a Bible translation because of it is, frankly, the wrong way around!! It is not surprising, therefore, that modern version proponents today often disassociate themselves from Westcott-Hort and claim that they merely use an eclectic Greek text. Aland reports that, while NA25 text shows, for example, 2,047 differences from von Soden, 1,996 from Vogels, 1,268 from Tischendorf, 1,161 from Bover, and 770 from Merk, it contains only 558 differences from WH text.[10]. The NABRE is the latest official English Catholic Bible translation released. There are, I fear, still more serious differences between us on the subject of authority, especially the authority of the Bible. Riplinger, pg 621, Hort [T]his may be cowardice I have sort of a craving that our text should be cast upon the world before we deal with matters likely to brand us with suspicion. It goes without saying that no Bible-believing Christian who is willing to extend the implications of his faith to textual matters can have the slightest grounds for confidence in contemporary critical texts (emphasis added) (Zane C. Hodges, Rationalism and Contemporary New Testament Textual Criticism, Bibliotheca Sacra, January 1971, p. 35).Zane Hodges is not a fundamental Baptist, but I believe he is more honest about the influence of Westcott and Hort upon modern textual scholarship than James White. The NASB, the NIV, the Jehovah's Witness bible ("New World Translation"), and most modern translations and paraphrases use the Westcott and Hort Greek Text, which is supported by only a small portion (5% or less) of existing manuscripts, including Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Alexandrian Codex, Parisian Codex, and Codex Bezae. THE DEAD HAND OF FENTON JOHN ANTHONY HORT LIES HEAVY UPON US. He clearly infers that he had occasion to investigate spiritualistic phenomena with some care, which would indicate that much earlier in his life he had some fascination with spiritualism and the occult. Thus, the idea of true believers wearing out manuscripts is ludicrous. But HORT DID NOT FAIL TO REACH HIS MAJOR GOAL. No Christian truth is affected by any of the variations of translation due to textual differences. Now take your Bibles and look at Mark 16:9-20. What did Westcott and Hort have to do with the text of the Bible? Who It pays his bills and buys his books!! Westcott and the Ghostly Guild. Westcott & Hort in their day, and others from that period, as well as scholars today, serve us and God well in what they provide. You have entered an incorrect email address! When Westcott and Hort did their work, they found very little change had occurred to scriptures over the centuries. I urge you not to do this. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward" (1 Timothy 5:18). (3) How many textual errors (differences) are in the handful of Byzantine manuscripts used to make the Textus Receptus, which is behind the KJV? They believed that the true work of God in English had been held back by an inferior Bible. In 1853 these two Cambridge professors, Westcott and Hort, began to prepare a Greek Text based primarily on the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts. You could say that Over five thousand witnesses agree, this New Testament is Gods holy Word. Codex Vaticanus (according to the introduction in the reprint edition by S. F. Pells) of the Septuagint (but excluding the Apocrypha) and of the New Testament, Masoretic Text (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 1983), Nestle-Aland Greek text, Masoretic Text, the 27th Nestle-AlandNovum Testamentum Graece. Tregelles, Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort). Even a brief comparison of passages between the NIV and KJV will yield useful information. Masoretic Text, the GreekNew Testament of Erasmus, Vulgate, and German and Swiss-German Bibles (Luther Bible,Zrich BibleandLeo Juds Bible), First complete Bible printed in English (Early Modern English). 118:8 Putting our confidence in God and not man, it seems apparent our Lord has kept His promise and that His Word is faithfully preserved in over 5000 witnesses! In the court room they tell it to the judge as it is, yet when the judge hears each of their stories, the witnesses do not agree. Any man who discounts the continuing significance of Westcott-Hort in the field of Bible texts and versions is probably trying to throw up a smoke screen to hide something. I observe, then, that while spiritual ministries are constantly recorded in the Bible, there is not the faintest encouragement to seek them. Much of our material is available for free, such as the hundreds of articles at the Way of Life web site. And the 1611 KJV translators said in the 1611 PREFACE that a new revision should be made upon such circumstances. (6) The TRIST and the KJVOIST argue that the New Testament original is found in the majority of the manuscripts, which is the Byzantine. Revision of theChalloner Revisionof theDouay-Rheims Bible. There have been thousands of manuscripts discovered since 1611, and we now have 5,898 Greek NT manuscripts and numerous ones dating within decades of the originals. This requires us to reach back in history to the days of the apostles, when the New Testament was written in the original Greek language sometime between 33-100 AD. All editions of Nestle-Aland remain close in textual character to the text WH. Westcott & Hort's The New Testament in the Original Greek 2009 Literal Translation of the Original Greek New Testament Greek-English Interlinear with Strong's Concordance Numbering System Color-Coded, Exhaustive Lexical Number Map with Grammatical Notes Dr. Strong's Original Greek Dictionary & Abridged Thayer's Greek Lexicon All Text Carefully Proofread and Coded into Quick-Loading, Simple HTML, The Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament, Drs. For much unlike the 5000+, these five manuscripts are radically different. The reading is to be preferred that makes the best sense, that is, that best conforms to the grammar and is most congruous with the purport of the rest of the sentence and of the larger context. Much has happened since then, including the discovery of 5000+ Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls! By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. [5] In this they followed one of the primary principles of their fledgling textual criticism, lectio brevior, sometimes taken to an extreme, as in the theory of Western non-interpolations, which has since been rejected. Today, for instance, we have in excess of 5600 manuscripts we can consult. Otherwise, they would have worn out and disappeared through much reading.. What is the Textus Receptus? | GotQuestions.org This is the version of the Jehovahs Witnesses published by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. The final conclusion here is simple, Westcott and Hort had some missteps spiritually as young men, they were not perfect as to their beliefs as young men, and they are under attack because they were the producers of the text that undermined the Textus Receptus that had been worshipped for centuries. The KJV was a superb translation for its day. SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW. Translations are not based on the previous translation and revised, which is the claim of Mormons for instance, they are based on the manuscripts available, this is an important point to understand. 44262. The KJV is a straight translation from the Majority text. Vol. This is consistent with Riplingers claim; however, it had no bearing on his ability or skills as a textual scholar to produce and publish The New Testament in the Original Greek, a Greek-language version of the New Testament, which, again, published in 1881. It is generally believed that these were from the 50 that Eusebius prepared for Constantine. [1] Philip Comfort,Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography& Textual Criticism, (Nashville, 2005), p. 100. The same principles apply to groups of manuscripts (2.260-61). The difference with Westcott and Hort is, they had an interest and the subject of the called that they investigated and then rejected later in life, which we would call repentance and turning away from the wrongdoing, while John Calvin held onto his radical beliefs up until the time of his death. A reading combining two simple, alternative readings is later than the two readings comprising the conflation, and manuscripts rarely or never supporting conflate reading are text antecedent to mixture and are of special value. The only exception in the NASB and . Shows (by hyphenated groups) the English meaning applying to each Greek word. In like manner, if a scientist is also an evolutionist and aetheist, do we need to hear his science before we know his verdict? Burgon, Miller, and Scrivener in their second argument maintained that the Byzantine text was used by the church for far more centuries, which proved its integrity, as God would never allow the church to use a corrupt text. Why do KJ Only types believe the Westcott and Hort - The Puritan Board Which Bible do you think is more reliable? Greenlee writes, The fallacy in this argument was that the antiquity of a Syrian (i.e., Byzantine) reading could be shown only when the Byzantine text was supported by one of the pre-Byzantine texts, which proved nothing in favor of the Byzantine, since WH maintained that Syrian readings were largely derived from the pre-Syrian texts. (weak textual evidence). Hort did not believe in the complete blood atonement of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, calling such doctrine heresy. (13) What do you do with the fact that the KJV has 1,000 different words that do not mean today what they meant in 1611, even having the opposite meaning? The King James Bible translation is based on the Greek text found in the Textus Receptus. But HORT DID NOT FAIL TO REACH HIS MAJOR GOAL. Westcott & Hort: Translator's Beliefs The Old Testament translation is based on the Hebrew Masoretic text. The items have taken years to produce at enormous expense in time and money, and we use the income from sales to help fund the ministry. Certainly nothing could be more unscriptural than the modern limiting of Christs bearing our sins and sufferings to his death; but indeed that is only one aspect of an almost universal heresy. 4) Hort wrote, I have been persuaded for many years that Mary-worship and Jesus worship have very much in common in their causes and their results. Westcott found a statue of Mary and a crucified Christ in a remote chapel and wrote, Had I been alone, I could have knelt there for hours.. Translators of the Bible over the years have used these agreeing manuscripts to make what is called the MAJORITY TEXT. 2:16, Col. 2:9). However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.