AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED #19
CHAPTER XIII
Catholics Rejoice That the Revised Version
Vindicates Their Bible
PREVIOUSLY we have shown how Catholics were elated over the
readings in the Revised Version that undermined Protestantism,
and criticized the Revisers for wanton omissions. We shall now
show how they rejoiced that Catholic readings rejected by the
Reformers have been restored by the Revisers, and their Catholic
Bible vindicated.
A Catholic bishop says that the Revisers were not as
Protestant as the translators of 1611:
"It must be admitted that either the Revisers wished to withdraw
several important passages of the Holy Scripture from
Protestants, or that the latter, in their simplicity, have all
along been imposed upon by King James' translators, who, either
through ignorance or malice, have inserted in the Authorized
Version a number of paragraphs which were never written by an
apostle or other inspired author."
Cardinal Wiseman exults that the Revision Movement
vindicates the Catholic Bible:
"When we consider the scorn cast by the Reformers upon the
Vulgate, and their recurrence, in consequence, to the Greek, as
the only accurate standard, we cannot but rejoice at the silent
triumph which truth has at length gained over clamorous error.
For, in fact, the principal writers who have avenged the Vulgate,
and obtained for it its critical preeminence, are Protestants."
A Catholic Magazine claims Revision for Higher Criticism and
Catholicism:
"How bitter to them must be the sight of their Anglican bishops
sitting with Methodists, Baptists, and Unitarians to improve the
English Bible according to modern ideas of progressive Biblical
Criticism! Who gave these men authority over the written Word of
God? It was not Parliament or Privy Council, but the Church of
England acting through Convocation. To whom do they look for the
necessary sanction and approval of their work, but to public
opinion? One thing at least is certain, the Catholic Church will
gain by the new Revision both directly and indirectly."
A Catholic priest indicates that the changes agree with the
Latin Vulgate:
"It is very pleasant to read the commendation given by the
learned reviewer, the Very Rev.James A.Corcoran, D.D., in the
American Catholic Quarterly Review, of the new Revision. He
devotes a considerable space to proving that the earlier English
translations corrupted the text, for the purpose of attacking the
Roman Catholic faith, and that even King James' Version retained
many of these odious mistranslations. Of the Revision he says
'One of the greatest benefits conferred by the Revision on the
English Protestant world, though very few or none seem to realize
it, is that all the wicked translations, whether by falsification
of meaning, or by interpolation, or by foisting of glosses into
the text, have been ruthlessly swept away by the besom of the
Revisers. And why? Solely on the ground that they were
corruptions. They do not explicitly say that they were sectarian
corruptions, nor need we insist on their saying it; but they
recognized them as such, and every honest man, every friend of
religious truth must be thankful that they have with unsparing
hand driven these unholy abominations out of the book of God's
revelation. This proves that their honesty was wholesome, not
partial or interested.'"
The above quotation shows the hostile attitude of Romanists
to the King James Version, and their endorsement of the Revision.
A Catholic Bishop says that Protestants have prayed the
Lord's prayer wrong for 300 years:
"This writer (Dr.Alexander Roberts) notifies his readers in one
place, that, because the Revisers made use of an amended Greek
text, 'a vast multitude of changes will be found in the Revised
English Version' of the New Testament. Next he reminds them of
'the entire omission of the doxology of the Lord's prayer of
Matt.6:13,' so that all English speaking Protestants have been
all along adding to that prayer words which the Lord never
dictated. Indeed, they are likely to continue the practice, as
the Revision of the Authorized Version will probably never be
generally adopted by them."
A Catholic priest says that the Revised Version confirms
readings of the Catholic Version:
"From the Very Rev.Thomas S.Preston, of St.Ann's (R.C.) Church of
New York,--'The brief examination which I have been able to make
of the Revised Version of the New Testament has convinced me that
the Committee have labored with great sincerity and diligence,
and that they have produced a translation much more correct than
that generally received among Protestants. It is to us a
gratification to find that in very many instances they have
adopted the reading of the Catholic Version, and have thus by
their scholarship confirmed the correctness of, our Bible."
A Catholic Magazine says that the Revised readings do
justice to Catholics:
"We have next to examine the new Version in detail to see how it
will affect Catholic truth. In the first place, there are several
important corrections and improved renderings. The Revisers have
done an act of justice to Catholics by restoring the true reading
of 1 Cor.11:27."
A Catholic Bishop considers that the Revised Version is like
the Douay Bible:
"And there is no reason to doubt that, had King James'
translators generally followed the Douay Version, the convocation
of Canterbury would have been saved the trouble of inaugurating a
movement for the purpose of expurgating the English Protestant
Bible of the errors and corruptions by which its pages are
defiled."
French and German Catholic authorities approve the critical
features of the Greek text which underlies the Revised Version:
"In the Bulletin Critique of Paris for Jan.15, 1881, the learned
Louis Duchesne opens the review of Westcott and Hort with these
words: 'Voici un livre destine a faire epoque dans la critique du
Nouveau-Testament.' (Here is a book destined to create a new
epoch in New Testament criticism.) To this Catholic testimony
from France may be added German Catholic approval, since Dr.
Hundhausen, of Mainz, in the 'Literarischer Handweiser,' 1882,
No.19, col.590, declares: 'Unter allen bisher auf dem Gebiete der
neu-testamentlichen Textkritik erschienenen Werken gebuhrt dem
Westcott-Hort schen unstreitig die Palme.'" (Among all printed
works which have appeared in the field of New Testament textual
criticism, the palm belongs unquestionably to the Westcott-Hort
Text.)
A Catholic magazine claims that the Revised Version is the
death knell of Protestantism:
"On the 17th of May the English speaking world awoke to find that
its Revised Bible had banished the Heavenly Witnesses and put the
devil in the Lord's Prayer. Protests loud and deep went forth
against the insertion; against the omission none. It is well,
then, that the Heavenly Witnesses should depart whence their
testimony is no longer received. The Jews have a legend that
shortly before the destruction of their Temple, the Shechinah
departed from the Holy of Holies; and the Sacred Voices were
heard saying, 'Let us go hence.' So perhaps it is to be with the
English Bible, the Temple of Protestantism. The going forth of
the Heavenly Witnesses is the sign of the beginning of the end.
Lord Panmure's prediction may yet prove true - the New Version
will be the death knell of Protestantism."
.......................
Note:
Well Protestantism is not dead by any means, but it certainly has
been drawn back some into her Mother, by many of the modern NT
versions based upon the Catholic Greek MSS that Wescott and Hort
bowed before.
Keith Hunt
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