The Holy Spirit Simply the Power and Influence of God

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The Holy Spirit, The Power, Influence, or Gifts of God by John Wilson

He that will carefully observe the language of the Holy Ghost shall find that this word “Spirit,” or “Holy Ghost,” is most usually, in the New Testament, taken for the extraordinary gifts of that age. — RICHARD BAXTER: Unreasonableness of Infidelity; in Practical Works, vol. xx. p. 7.

For the better understanding of these words [viz. “full of the Holy Ghost,” in Luke iv. 1.], it is to be observed, that by the term “Holy Ghost” is to be understood the prophetic gifts wherewithal Christ was filled for the preaching and publishing of the gospel, as the revealing of the will of God, and working miracles. The Jews, by the phrase “Holy Ghost,” continually intend prophetic gifts, wherewith men and women were endued; and in this sense is the expression most constantly to be taken in the New Testament, when it speaketh not of the third person in the Trinity itself; as, Luke i. 15, 41, 67. John vii. 39. Acts ii. 4; viii. 18; x. 44; xiii. 52; xix. 2; and in very many other places. To work miracles, to expound difficulties, to heal diseases, to teach divinity, to foretell things to come, and the like, were not so properly the fruit of the union of the human nature to the Godhead; for even mere men had been enabled to do the same. — Abridged from DR. JoHN LIGHTFOOT: Harmony of the Four Evangelists; in Works, vol. iv. pp. 351–3.

“Spirit” signifies wind or breath; and in the Old Testament it stands frequently in that sense. The “Spirit of God,” or “wind of God,” stands sometimes for a high and strong wind; but more frequently it signifies a secret impression made by God on the mind of a prophet. In the New Testament, this word “Holy Ghost” stands most commonly for that wonderful effusion of those miraculous virtues that was poured out at Pentecost on the apostles; by which their spirits were not only exalted with extraordinary degrees of zeal and courage, of authority and utterance, but they were furnished with the gifts of tongues and of miracles. And, besides that first and great effusion, several Christians received particular talents and inspirations, which are most commonly expressed by the word “Spirit” or inspiration. Those inward assistances by which the frame and temper of men's minds are changed and renewed are likewise called “the Spirit,” or the “Holy Spirit,” or “Holy Ghost.” So Christ said to Nicodemus, that, “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and that his “heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to every one that asked him.” By these it is plain that extraordinary or miraculous inspirations are not meant; for these are not every Christian's portion. — BISHOP BURNET: Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Art. V. p. 84.

There are many passages in which “the Spirit of God” means gifts or powers communicated to men, and from which we are not warranted to infer that there is a person who is the fountain and distributer of these gifts. So we read often in the Old Testament, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him,” when nothing more is necessarily implied under the expression than that the person spoken of was endowed with an extraordinary degree of skill or might or wisdom. So the promises of the Old Testament, “I will pour out my spirit upon you,” were fulfilled under the New Testament by what are there called “the gifts of the Holy Ghost;” in reference to which we read, “that Christians received the Holy Ghost,” “that the Holy Ghost was given to them,” “that they were filled with the Spirit.” Neither the words of the promise, nor the words that relate to the fulfilment of it, suggest the personality of the Spirit. —DR. GEORGE HILL: Lectures in Divinity, vol. i. p. 439.

It is agreed, on all sides, that the word “spirit,” originally signifying air in motion, and breath, was applied in some more remote significations, and particularly to mind and its affections, to intelligent creatures superior to man, and to any species of powerful influence, the cause of which was imperfectly or not at all known; but more especially to the immediate energy of the Deity; and, in a still more restricted sense, to the Deity himself. It is further admitted, that, in many places, the phrase “spirit of God” and its synonyms are used to denote any especial influence or energy of God, whether exercised in a miraculous manner, or according to the ordinary laws of nature. But an accurate examination will, I conceive, satisfactorily show that, &c. — DR. J. P. SMITH: Script. Testimony to the Messiah, vol. ii. p. 446.

[“Holy Spirit"] frequently signifies the divine nature, or God himself; but it also denotes the divine power, as displayed both in the material and spiritual world; also the divine understanding and knowledge, and the communication of it to men. . . . All who oppose the truth of God, or persecute the prophets who teach it, even those who put hindrances in the way of the influence of religion over themselves or others, are said to resist the Holy Spirit, to afflict, to grieve it, &c., Isa. lxiii. 10; Eph. iv. 30; Acts vii. 51. Since, now, the sacred writers, like all others, make use of the figure prosopopeia*, and personify these divine influences, – speaking of them as the “Holy Spirit,” as they often do of the wisdom and other attributes of God, – we should be cautious in the selection of texts from which the personality of the Holy Spirit is to be proved. We should rest content with those which are most clear and explicit; for nothing is gained by collecting a large number. — GEO. C. KNAPP: Christian Theology, sect. xxxix. I.

For proof of the personality of the Holy Ghost, as different from that of the Father, Dr. KNAPP rests chiefly on John xiv. 16, 17; xv.26; and on a few other passages, which represent the Spirit of God as willing, searching, speaking, sending, &c. But those to which he refers in the Gospel of John teach, according to the acknowledgment of our author, that the Spirit was commissioned by and dependent on the Father and the Son; and therefore, unhappily for the Trinitarian cause, prove too much. The other passages may easily be brought under KNAPP's own principles of interpretation; that is, the Holy Spirit may either signify God himself, without having any reference to hypostatical distinctions, or, by the figure prosopopeia*, be spoken of as having personal attributes, without implying a real personal consciousness.

*prosopopeia: personification, as of inanimate things

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Contents (created on a Windows computer):

Books condemned to be burnt by James A Farrer 1892

The Roman Index of Forbidden Books by Francis S Betten 1912

The Enemies of Books by William Blades 1880

A Commentary on the Present Index Legislation by Timothy Hurley 1907

The Censorship of the Church of Rome, Volume 1 by George H Putnam 1906

The Censorship of the Church of Rome, Volume 2 by George H Putnam 1906\

The Literary Policy of the Church of Rome exhibited in an account of her Damnatory Catalogues or indexes by Joseph Mendham 1830

"The following list contains a number of titles which it might be practical for English Catholics to know. Nearly all those put on the Index during the last few years have been mentioned, because they contain the palmary heresy of our times, namely - Modernism, and among its various errors especially the unChristian treatment of the Bible" FRANCIS S. BETTEN, S.J.:

Philosophical Works of David Hume, Volume 1 1854

Philosophical Works of David Hume, Volume 2 1854

Philosophical Works of David Hume, Volume 3 1854

Philosophical Works of David Hume, Volume 4 1854 ("The influence of Hume was mainly destructive...his skepticism, the ultimate conclusion of a movement initiated by Descartes, ended in a sort of desperate nihilism." ~Etienne Gilson)

Happiness in Hell by St George Mivart 1900 ("Professor Mivart perceives, like the Bishop of Chester, that Christianity must alter its teaching with respect to Hell, or lose its hold on the educated, the thoughtful, and the humane. 'Not a few persons,' he says, 'have abandoned Christianity on account of this dogma.'") ~GW Foote

The Works of Honore De Balzac, Volume 1 1896

A Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ by William Stroud 1847

Deontology - The Science of Morality, Volume 1 by Jeremy Bentham 1834

Deontology - The Science of Morality, Volume 2 by Jeremy Bentham 1834 (Bentham advocated individual and economic freedom, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and the decriminalising of homosexual acts.)

Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs by John James Blunt 1823

Hippolytus and his Age - The doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus; and ancient and modern Christianity and divinity compared, Volume 1 by Christian Bunsen 1852

Hippolytus and his Age - The doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus; and ancient and modern Christianity and divinity compared, Volume 2 by Christian Bunsen 1852

Hippolytus and his Age - The doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus; and ancient and modern Christianity and divinity compared, Volume 3 by Christian Bunsen 1852

Hippolytus and his Age - The doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus; and ancient and modern Christianity and divinity compared, Volume 4 by Christian Bunsen 1852

Lectures on the Insufficiency of Unrevealed Religion, and on the succeeding influence of Christianity by Richard Burgess 1832

The True Intellectual System of the Universe, Volume 1 by Ralph Cudworth 1845

The True Intellectual System of the Universe, Volume 2 by Ralph Cudworth 1845

The True Intellectual System of the Universe, Volume 3 by Ralph Cudworth 1845

Zoonomia - The laws of organic life by Erasmus Darwin Volume 1 1818

Zoonomia - The laws of organic life by Erasmus Darwin Volume 2 1818

The Method, Meditations, and Philosophy of Descartes 1901 (Descartes was accused of harboring secret deist or atheist beliefs.)

The Pope and the Council by Johann Dollinger 1869

History of the Conflict between Religion and Science By John William Draper 1875

Steps Toward Reunion by James Duggan 1897

The Spiritual Body by John Charles Earle 1876

Christendom's divisions by Edmund Ffoulkes 1865

The Saint by Antonio Fogazzaro 1906

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 1, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 2, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 3, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 4, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 5, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 6, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 7, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 8, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 9, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 10, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 11, 1900

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 12, 1900

Abridgment of Goldsmith's History of England by Oliver Goldsmith 1829

The Life of Jesus Critically Examined by David Friedrich Strauss, Volume 1, 1860

The Life of Jesus Critically Examined by David Friedrich Strauss, Volume 2, 1860

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 1 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 2 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 3 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 4 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 4 Part 2 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 5 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 5 Part 2 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 6 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 6 Part 2 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 7 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 7 Part 2 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 8 1894

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius, Volume 8 Part 2 1894 (According to Jesuit Father John Hardon, S.J. Gregorovius was "a bitter enemy of the popes."}

The Tombs of the Popes by Ferdinand Gregorovius 1903

Constitutional History of England by Henry Hallam Volume 1 1832

Constitutional History of England by Henry Hallam Volume 2 1832

View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages by Henry Hallam 1857

Elements of Logic by Richard Whateley 1855

The Metaphysical System of Hobbes by Thomas Hobbes 1913 (Hobbes held views on religion deemed controversial by the Church)

Hobbes's Leviathan 1909

Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant 1855 ("Kant's contention that the existence of God can neither be confirmed or denied...caused the book to be placed in the Roman Index of Forbidden Books" ~Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds By Margaret Bald)

Myth, Ritual and Religion by Andrew Lang, Volume 1 1899

Myth, Ritual and Religion by Andrew Lang, Volume 2 1899

Letters to His Holiness, Pope Pius X by William L Sullivan 1910
("The Inquisitors were forbidden to inflict torture more than once upon the same man for the extortion of confession. Did the Inquisitors quietly accept such a limitation of their august office, their "Holy Office," as their institution is canonically styled? Far from it. They were too clever in theology
not to know how to keep and break a law at the same time. So they inflicted _each species_ of torture once. Whosoever cannot see that this is torturing a man only once, need but consult any seminarian fresh from his Roman text-books. Or they inflicted torture once for each distinct complaint."

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke 1829

Locke's essay concerning Human Understanding 1905 (Locke argued that atheists and Catholics should not be tolerated)

The Reasonableness of Christianity by John Locke 1824

The Gospel and the Church by Alfred Loisy 1903 (Loisy was a critic of traditional views of the biblical creation, and argued that biblical criticism could be applied to interpreting Sacred Scripture. His theological positions brought him into conflict with the leading Catholics of his era, including Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius X. In 1893, he was dismissed as a professor from the Institut Catholique de Paris. His books were condemned by the Vatican, and in 1908 he was excommunicated.)

The Religion of Israel by Alfred Loisy 1910

Theological Essays by Frederick Denison Maurice, 1871 (the opinions it expressed were viewed by R. W. Jelf, principal of King's College, as being of unsound theology. He had previously been called on to clear himself from charges of heterodoxy brought against him in the Quarterly Review (1851) and had been acquitted by a committee of inquiry.)

Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill 1884

The Church of Armenia - her history, doctrine, rule, discipline, liturgy, literature, and existing condition by Malachia Ormanian 1910

History of the Popes by Leopold Ranke 1901

Renan's Life of Jesus 1897

Lectures on the Influence of the Institutions, Thought, and Culture of Rome, on Christianity and the development of the Catholic Church by Ernest Renan 1898

The Future of Science by Ernest Renan 1891

Studies in Religious History by Ernest Renan 1886

Saint Paul by Ernest Renan 1868

The History of the Origins of Christianity (Gospels) by Ernest Renan 1866

Pamela, or, Virtue rewarded by Samuel Richardson 1873

The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, Volume 1 by William Robertson 1884

The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Volume 2 by William Robertson 1884

The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, Volume 3 by William Robertson 1884

Rousseau's Emile 1892

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1893

Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier 1922 (considered an unreliable retelling of the saint's story)

A Pilgrimage to Rome - containing some account of the high ceremonies, the monastic institutions, the religious services, the sacred relics, the miraculous pictures, and the general state of religion in that city by Michael H Seymour 1849

The Brass Bell - A Tale of Caesar's Gallic Invasion by Eugene Sue 1907

The Iron Pincers - a tale of the Albigensian Crusades 1909 by Eugene Sue

The Gold Sickle - a Tale of Druid Gaul by Eugene Sue 1904

The Wandering Jew, Volume 1 by Eugene Sue 1889

The Wandering Jew, Volume 2 by Eugene Sue 1889

The Wandering Jew, Volume 3 by Eugene Sue 1889 (Eugène Sue, who in this best-seller depicted the Jesuits as a "secret society bent on world domination by all available means". Sue's heroine, Adrienne de Cardoville, said that she could not think about Jesuits "without ideas of darkness, of venom and of nasty black reptiles being involuntarily aroused in me"

History of English Literature, Volume 1 by Hippolyte Taine 1889

History of English Literature, Volume 2 by Hippolyte Taine 1889

History of English Literature, Volume 3 by Hippolyte Taine 1889

History of English Literature, Volume 4 by Hippolyte Taine 1889

The Priest, a Tale of modernism in New England by William Sullivan 1911

The Works of Voltaire, 1901 (you get 43 volumes [books])

For a list of all of my books, with links, click here

The First Council of Nicaea on This Day in History

This Kindle book, The Dark History of the Trinity, is now available on Amazon by clicking here...and it is only 99 cents

This Day in History: The First Council of Nicaea started on this day in 325 A.D. One of the main arguments to settle was whether Christ was God, or subordinate to God. Athanasius argued that Christ was God, and Arius argued that he wasn't. The "Arian Controversy" often led to bloody battles in the streets. Athanasius would win this round and Arius would be exiled. Three years later, Constantine recalled Arius from exile. In 335 Constantine now sided with Arius and exiled Athanasius. Two years after that, the new emperor recalled Athanasius. In 341 two councils are held to produce a formal doctrine of faith to oppose the Nicene Creed. In 351 a second anti-Nicene council was held in Sirmium. In 353 a council was held at Aries that was directed against Athanasius. This would keep happening until 381 when the First Council of Constantinople was held to review the controversy since Nicaea. Emperor Theodosius the Great establishes the creed of Nicaea as the standard of the realm. The Nicene Creed was re-evaluated and accepted with the addition of clauses on the Holy Spirit and other matters.

However, through the ages there were always people who sided with the Arian "heresy" that denied that Christ was co-equal with the Father, men such as Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, Milton, Locke, Priestley, and many others who paid for this belief with their lives, like Michael Servetus, Giordano Bruno etc.

Download: When Jesus Became God by Ridhard E. Rubenstein
https://archive.org/details/pdfy-fVoMnUsaDlQlaRnI

Download: How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman
https://archive.org/details/HowJesusBecameGodTheExaltBartD

Download: How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus by Larry W. Hurtado
https://tinyurl.com/ty6n6ot

See also The Terrible Death of Michael Servetus
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-terrible-death-of-michael-servetus.html

Unitarian History by John Hayward 1860
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2019/03/unitarian-history-by-by-john-hayward.html

Giordano Bruno, Martyr for the Trinity
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2019/02/giordano-bruno-martyr-for-trinity.html

Johann Sylvan - Unitarian Martyr
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/12/johann-sylvan-unitarian-martyr.html

The Trinity NO PART of Primitive Christianity, by James Forrest A.M. 1836
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-trinity-no-part-of-primitive.html

The Interrogation of Unitarian Anabaptist Martyr Herman van Vlekwijk
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-interrogation-of-unitarian.html

Peter Gunther, Unitarian Martyr
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/09/peter-gunther-unitarian-martyr.html

A Catholic Priest Declares the Trinity Doctrine "Opposed to Human Reason."
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-catholic-priest-declares-trinity.html

Edward Wightman (Unitarian Martyr)
https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/07/edward-wightman-unitarian-martyr.html

The Word was a god and John 1:1

I discovered the above image on posted on Facebook. John 1:18 actually has QEOS without the article which refers to Jesus. Like John 1:1 has two mentions of "god." John 1:18 also differentiates between the two gods mentioned there. The first mention is of a god that "no one has ever seen." Since Jesus has been seen, he cannot be that god. The second mention of god here is MONOGENHS QEOS (an only-begotten god). All the other mentions of an anarthrous QEOS in the prologue are in the genitive case. What does make John 1:1c different is that it is a (pre-verbal) predicate nominative without the definite article. There are many examples in the Gospel of John of similar constructions where English Bible added the "a," such as John 4:19: PROFHTHS EI SU which translates to: "you are a prophet."

See also Getting it Wrong Again on John 1:1

A Sloppy Criticism of John 1:1 in the New World Translation

This Kindle book, And the Word was a god: Conversations on the Most Disputed Text in the New Testament - John 1:1 is available on Amazon by clicking here

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Hell: Its Pagan Origin

By Judge Parish B. Ladd, as posted in the Humanitarian Review, January 1907

THE belief in a hell, like all else in Christianity except its bloody persecutions, had its source in paganism. This belief dates far back in the night of savagery. It was held by the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Hindus, Scandinavians, Etruscans, Phoenicians, Carthagenians, Grecians and Romans. Although the Hebrews did not believe in a future life, they took this belief by inheritance from Babylon, and held it as an heirloom, with no use for it other than to force the worship of Adonai, the principal god of Phoenicia, under the name of Jhvh (Jehovah), who threatened punishment in this life for disobedience.

The hell of the pagans was located somewhere in the earth; the Hades and Tartarus of Greece, in the center of it. With the pagans, it was a tireless, dark abode—a place of punishment for evil deeds, shut out from the light of the sun-god, who, from the remotest antiquity to the present, has held the first place in the world's vast pantheons under the different names of the numerous religious systems. The Christian of today is praying to this divinity, under the proper name of Jehovah, for light and guidance along the pathway of life, and for salvation from the firey Hinnom of the Jews.

With the Egyptians and, if I mistake not, most other pagans, at death the good and evil deeds were supposed to be weighed, and a preponderance one way or the other determined whether the soul was to be sent to hell or to heaven; that is, whether it was to dwell in the light of the sun-god, or be consigned to the dark abode in the hell of earth. By a close observance, one will see that this is just the position of the Christian belief at this time. With the pagans salvation from hell depended on good deeds; in this respect the Christians totally ignore good works and substitute mere belief—a belief in the unbelievable—as a means of salvation. A mere glimpse of of this difference must convince any but a stupid Christian of the superiority of paganism over Christianity, even though both are at variance with all known human experience and an insult to our reasoning faculties.

The conception of a hell necessarily carried with it that of a presiding official, a wicked spirit, the Prince of Darkness, whose business is to torment the damned; his emblem is a serpent of the most deadly kind; an animal, because of its deadly poison, more dreaded than all others. This emblem has come down through all the pagan nations and was the most subtle creature in the Babylonian legends of creation, and from which the Hebrews engrafted this symbol into their religion, and gave it to the Christian Fathers who have used it to terrify the ignorant.

The Hebrews having borrowed this hell from the pagans and not believing in a future life, were at a loss to find a use for it. But the Levite rabbis found use for hell as a means of punishment for refusal to worship Jhvh. Only with the Scandinavians was hell a cold place, filled with icebergs, while with the Christians it is a firey furnace which is never quenched. This cruel device has been the source of an endless amount of mental suffering.

The biblical hell is variously called Sheol, Hades, Gehenna and Tartarus. The term Sheol occurs in the Old Testament 65 times, hell 31 times, grave 31 times, and pit 3 times; all having the one meaning, a dark abode in the earth—often used by the Hebrews to mean grave. In the Septuagint the equivalent for Sheol is Hades, occurring in the New Testament 11 times; in ten of them it is rendered hell. So hell renders Gehenna 12 times.

The Hebrews often used this word to signify the valley of Hinnom, a place desecrated by sacrifices to Moloch, and because used as a depository for garbage and the dead, which were there consumed by fire: hence the firey Hinnom or hell. The word Tophet occurs 9 times in the O.T., and originally meant the grave in Hinnom defiled by idolatries.

The Christians in their zeal for piety and their love of power at an early date adopted and engrafted onto their own system this relic of barbarism, lighted fire therein, using brimstone for fuel, and have kept the fire going since the days of Constantine as a fit place for punishing unbelievers.

See also 200 PDF Books on DVDROM about Satan the Devil & His Minions

Rudolph Etzenhouser on How Bible Scholars View the Bible 1899

For more go to 175 Books on New Testament Textual Criticism on DVDrom 

and Bible Difficulties and Scripture Contradictions - 130 Books on DVDrom 

At the Methodist Book Concern, No. 150 Fifth Ave., New York City, in I897, 300 Methodist clergymen met to discuss the question, "Is the Bible Infallible?" After the discussion, the vote being called, only Dr. Shaffer voted affirmatively. Dr. Buckley, editor of the Christian Herald, was prominent on the negative.

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Dr. Chas. H. Eaton said of the proceedings: "The denial of the infallibility of the Bible is nothing new. There are very few clergymen who believe in the absolute inerrancy of the Bible. Dr. Buckley has only stated a truism, and taken the position of an intelligent scholar and critic. Any other position is absolutely indefensible. Today the heretic is not the man who takes Dr. Buckley's position, but the man who opposes it."

Dr. Lyman Abbott said: "The action of the Methodist ministers in disavowing belief in the infallibility of the Bible as it stands in the English version, does not surprise me."

Bishop John H. Vincent, D.D., LL.D., in a lecture during the Methodist conference held at Marion, Iowa, and which adjourned October 10, I898, said: "The sun is not without spots, and these have
their advantages; so with the Bible, it will be revised again and again, but will be more precious in a thousand years than now. We have the book, and we must recognize the possibilities of human errors."

Dupin, in his "Complete History of the Canon and Writers of the Books of the Old and New Testament," Vol. 2, page 108, says of Jerome's work: "When we translated the Hebrew words into Latin we are sometimes guided by conjecture."

Again:
"In short we must confess that there are many differences betwixt the Hebrew text and the version of the Septuagint which arise from the corruption and confusion that are in the Greek version we now have. It is certain that it hath been revised divers times, and that several authors have taken liberty to add thereunto, to retrench and correct divers things."

A statement from "The Corruptions of the New Testament," by H. L. Hastings, reproduced in the Herald and Presbyter of October 16, 1865, is:

"The word of God as it came from him is pure and uncorrupted. But in the long process of years there have come in, by the mistakes of copyists and translators, lapses from this word."

A. Campbell in debate with Owen, page 141, says:

"There are a thousand historic facts narrated in the Bible which it would be absurd to regard as immediate and direct revelation from the Almighty."

The editor of the Christian Evangelist, in Vol. 29, page 802, says: "That there are historical and chronological errors in our present Bible no intelligent and candid person will deny. That some of these errors are the result of copying, is probably true; but that they all so resulted, and that the original autographs were absolutely free from error in all minor details is what no man on earth knows or can prove, as the manuscripts are not in existence."

A. Campbell, in preface to his translation, says: "But some are so wedded to the common version that the very defects in it have become sacred; and an effort, however well intended, to put them in possession of one incomparably superior in propriety, perspicuity and elegance, is viewed very much in the light of making 'a new Bible,' or of 'altering and amending the very word of God.'"

A late work, "The Twentieth Century New Testament," by twenty scholars, the result of toil, is in existence, the purpose in its production being to put into modern or current English the New Testament. Not to translate or revise, but say the same thing in present terms. It is rated by various journals all the way from "just the thing" to a "desecration." One statement of comment characterizing it "almost an insult," and referring to the Revised Version as an utter failure. See Literary Digest, March 25, 1899, page 346.

Agitation proposing editing the Bible is now the order, in order to eliminate such features as Red Sea being divided; the burning bush; water from the rock; Joshua's sun and moon story; that of the fiery furnace; also of the lion's den and all similar narratives.

The Ram's Horn recently presented this in cartoon: A man "removing the supernatural from the Bible." All about his feet lay everything from Genesis to Revelation, the binding remained in his hand. What shall we have next to improve the Bible?
R. ETZENHOUSER.
July 5, 1899.

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Griesbach on Interpolated Texts in the New Testament

This Kindle book, And the Word was a god: Conversations on the Most Disputed Text in the New Testament - John 1:1 is available on Amazon by clicking here

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Griesbach on Interpolated Texts in the New Testament

"It has always struck us with astonishment, that many of those who maintain the most rigid notions of inspiration, and exclaim most vehemently against the glosses, evasions, and forced interpretations of hereticks, should have discovered so little solicitude to ascertain the true text even of the New Testament, and have felt no more dread, than they seem to have done, of adding to the word of God. To what is it to be attributed that even at the present day, 1 John 5:7 is quoted in proof of the doctrine of the Trinity, and even taken as a text of discourses; when it ought to be known, that it has not more authority in its favour than the famous reading of the seventh commandment in one of the editions of King James' Bible; thou shalt commit adultery. The same may be said of Acts 20:28. and 1 Tim. 3:16 which ought to be no more quoted in their present form as proof passages, by any honest and well instructed theologian."

As Quoted in The Monthly Anthology, and Boston Review, June 1811

The Interpolated Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses (1 John 5:7)

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The Interpolated Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses

From the Friends' Intelligencer 1875

The interpolated Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses, has stood for just one thousand years one of the strongest bulwarks of the doctrine of the Trinity. And now that the sentence of deposition is pronounced against it, and it seems to be decided that it shall have no place in the next Authorized English Bible [the company of New Testament revisers...when they came to the celebrated passage called the Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses, 1 John v, 7, 8, the spurious words were thrown aside without an opposing voice] we naturally stop to ponder upon it.

It is impossible that it should have kept its footing in our Bibles so long a time without gaining a hold on the minds of some part of the community.

The condemned words, as they are to be found in King James's version, 1 John, chap, 5, stand as the latter part of the seventh verse, and the beginning of the eighth verse, thus: ["In heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth."} Taken by themselves they form but a broken sentence, and it will be seen that the sense reads on, and reads more consistently without them.

The words are not to be found in any of the early manuscripts or versions of the Bible. We find them, possibly for the first time, in three Latin works of doubtful date, from which Mr. Scott Porter gives extracts in the concluding chapter of his "Textual Criticism." These are three different works, on different subjects, and going under the name of different writers, but all three works pronounced to be forgeries made between the sixth and the eighth century. We are therefore much in the dark about the parentage and the exact date of this celebrated passage.

The first certain knowledge that we get on the subject is in the time of Charlemagne, Emperor of the French, in whose reign it was adopted into the Latin Bible. There is, we are assured, now existing in the British Museum, a very early MS. of the Latin Vulgate, known by the name of Codex Caroli. Concerning this manuscript, the tale runs that it was prepared for the Emperor's own use, by his preceptor, Alcuin. But if this tradition is of little value, it is allowed by critics to be of his date, namely, about the year 800. This manuscript, and one, or perhaps two more Latin Vulgates of the same age — all, in fact, that we have of so early a date —do not contain the spurious words, but make the sense of the passage complete without them, as it was originally written. After this date all Latin Bibles contain the inserted text. Thus the words, which may have been intended, in the first instance, for a harmless gloss or comment upon the passage, have now, by the zeal of the transcribers, made their way into the Bible itself. At least, we should say, into the Latin Bible, into that Bible which was to be used throughout Christendom during the next seven centuries. Happily, the Greek MSS. remained yet untouched.

In A. D. 1516, very shortly after the invention of printing, a Greek Testament was for the first time printed, by Erasmus, at Basle, in Switzerland, and was so eagerly sought after, that in three years' time he brought out his second edition, and prepared for a third, carefully printing from the best manuscripts he was able to get hold of. While he was about this task, the splendid edition of the Complutensian Polyglot was being printed at Alcala in Spain, under the direction of the Cardinal Zimenes. But some delay was caused in its publication, through the altercation and angry controversy that arose between its editors and Erasmus.

It would seem that in this royal volume, where the Greek and Latin text stand handsomely printed side by side, the editors fell into the temptation of altering the Greek in several passages, to make it more nearly agree with the orthodox Latin Vulgate; and while they lay under the charge of Latinizing, as it was called, they were on their side angry with Erasmus for the more independent path he had taken. The important Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses was the great point of dispute. The editor of the Polyglot put forth a book reproaching Erasmus in the bitterest terms, with having omitted this passage, and Erasmus, with equal vehemence, challenged his rival to produce one single Greek MS. that contained it; but not one was forthcoming, and the only answers he received were arguments founded on the authority of the Latin. Presently, however, a manuscript was said to be discovered in England, containing the disputed text, and Erasmus's third edition appeared with the words inserted, together with an explanation of his conduct. We may add that there are now extant about three manuscripts bearing marks of their not being older than this date, which contain the text, and were probably the tools employed in this transaction.

Stephens and the succeeding editors of the Greek Testament followed Erasmus's example, and inserted the text as a matter of course. There it stood for a century and a half, until John James Griesbach, the German professor, brought up again the long neglected study of the ancient manuscripts, and in 1777 published his critical edition of the Greek Testament, formed with great labor and judgment, by weighing each single word, and computing the number of ancient authorities that can be found to support it. In this work he necessarily abandoned this passage, which rests upon no foundation.

After the time of Griesbach, no new critical editor of the Greek Testament could venture to insert it any longer. But it is still reprinted in the edition sanctioned by the Church of England, and known by the name of the Received Text of the Greek Testament The various translations of the New Testament, made in England and abroad, one after the other, in quick succession, soon after the Reformation, were chiefly founded upon the Vulgate, and probably the most that the bravest of them could venture upon, was to mark out the Text of the Three Heavenly Witnesses by putting it between brackets!

We rejoice to learn that it is now at last to be expunged from the Bible of Protestant England, and that it will not be seen in the revised edition that is presently to be issued from the press.—London Inquirer, May 9th.

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The King James Version on This Day in History

This Day in History: The King James Bible was published on this day in 1611. Also known as the Authourized Version or the Common Bible, it has cemented its place as a monument in English literature. It was based on the best available Hebrew and Greek texts at the time, though about 100 years later it was discovered (by John Mill) that recently found older manuscripts had discrepancies...about 30,000 of them. This caused quite a stir at the time and eventually this has led to many revisions (official and unofficial). The first major revision was in 1881 with the English Revised Version and a few years later with the American Standard Version. Though these were great efforts, the public largely snubbed them. Another major revision, the Revised Standard Version was released in the early 1950's. The initial reception was harsh, in fact, in 1952 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina people congregated to burn copies of the RSV. However, the RSV was better received elsewhere, especially with Catholics many of whom still regard it higher than their own Catholic Bibles. This was updated in 1989 as the New Revised Standard Version and conservative Christians who were uneasy with some readings in the Revised Standard Version came out with the English Standard Version in 2001.

One of the textual differences (discrepancies) can be seen even in the Lord's Prayer. In the King James Version it ends with "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Other Bibles that are based on older Greek Testament texts do not have this verse.

See also Rare Olde English Bibles on DVDrom (Tyndale, Matthews, Coverdale, AV1611 ) and The King James Version Bible Companion: 100 Books on DVD and The History of the English Bible - 125 Books on DVDrom - For a list of all of my ebooks (DVD and Amazon) click here

See also Over 60 Different Editions of the King James Bible on DVDROM