Compiled with some added comments
From the book "Our Authorized Bible Vindicated" by Benjamin
Wilkinson, PhD.
Written 1930.
All CAPITAL letters are mine, for emphasis (Keith Hunt)
QUOTE:
A CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHURCHES IN JUDEA.......
Attentive observers have repeatedly been astonished at the
unusual phenomenon in the meteoric history of the Bible adopted
by Constantine. Written in Greek, it was disseminated at a time
when Bibles were scarce......We should naturally think that it
would therefore continue LONG. Such was NOT the case......
One would naturally suppose that the Bible which had
received the promotion of Constantine, especially when
disseminated by the emperor, who was the FIRST to show
FAVOR to the religion of Jesus, would RAPIDLY have spread
EVERYWHERE in those days when imperial favor meant everything.
The TRUTH is, the OPPOSITE was the outcome. It flourished for a
SHORT space......We turn with amazement to discover the
REASON for this phenomenon.
This chapter (and the next few, as I will divide it all -
Keith Hunt) will show that the Textus Receptus was the Bible in
possession and use in the Greek Empire, in the countries of
SYRIAN Christianity, in Northern ITALY, in Southern FRANCE, and
in the BRITISH ISLES, in the SECOND century. This was a FULL
century and MORE before the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus saw the
light of day (Burgon, Revision Revised, p. 27).
When the apostles of the Roman Catholic Church entered these
countries in LATER centuries they found the people using the
Textus Receptus; and it was not WITHOUT DIFFICULTY and a STRUGGLE
that they were able to DISPLACE it and to SUBSTITUTE their Latin
VULGATE. This chapter will likewise show that the Textus
Receptus belongs to the type of these EARLY apostolic MSS that
were BROUGHT FROM JUDEA, and its claim to PRIORITY over the
Vaticanus and Sinaiticus will be ESTABLISHED.
EARLY GREEK CHRISTIANITY - WHICH BIBLE?
First of all, the Textus Receptus was the Bible of EARLY
EASTERN Christianity. Later it was adopted as the OFFICIAL text
of the Greek CATHOLIC Church......in fact that the Received Text
had authority enough to become, either in itself or by its
translation, the Bible of the great SYRIAN Church; of the
WALDENSIAN Church of Northern Italy; of the GALIC Church in
Southern France; and of the CELTIC Church in Scotland and
Ireland; as well as the OFFICIAL Bible of the GREEK CATHOLIC
Church.
ALL these churches, some earlier, some later, were in
opposition to the Church of Rome and at a TIME when the Received
Text and these Bibles of the Constantine type were RIVALS.
They, as REPRESENTED in their DESCENDANTS, are RIVALS to
this day (70 plus years later, from when Wilkinson wrote, his
statement still hold very true - Keith Hunt).
The Church of Rome built on the Eusebio-Origen type of the
Bible; these others built on the Received Text. Therefore,
because they, themselves, believed that the Received Text was the
TRUE apostolic Bible, and further, because the Church of Rome
arrogated to itself the POWER to CHOOSE a Bible which bore the
marks of SYSTEMATIC DEPRAVATION, we have the TESTIMONY of these
FIVE Churches to the authenticity and the apostolicity of the
Received Text.
The following quotation from Dr. HORT is to PROVE that the
Received Text was the Greek New Testament of the EAST. Note that
Dr. Hort always calls it the Constantinopolitan or Antioch text:
"It is no wonder that the TRADITIONAL Constantinopolitan
text, whether FORMALLY official or not, WAS the Antiochian text
of the FOURTH century. It was equally natural that the text
recognized at Constantinople should eventually become in
PRACTICE the STANDARD New Testament of the EAST" (Hort's
Introduction, p. 143. See also Burgon Revision Revised, p. 134).
EARLY SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY - WHICH BIBLE?
It was at ANTIOCH, capital of Syria, that the BELIEVERS were
FIRST called Christian. And as time rolled on, the
Syrian-speaking Christians could be numbered by the THOUSANDS. It
is GENERALLY admitted, that the Bible was TRANSLATED from the
ORIGINAL languages INTO Syrian about 150 A.D (Burgon, Revision
Revised, p. 27. Note.).
One authority tells us that, -
"The PESHITTO in our days is found in use amongst the
Nestorians, who have ALWAYS kept it, by the Monophysites on the
plains of Syria, the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar, and by
the Maronites, on the mountain terraces of Lebanon" (Burgon and
Miller, The Traditional Text, p. 128). (Remember, Wilkinson was
writing in 1930 - Keith Hunt).
Having presented the fact, that the Bible of EARLY Greek
Christianity and EARLY Syrian Christianity was NOT of the
Eusebius-Origen or Vaticanus type, but the Received Text, we
shall NOW SHOW that the EARLY Bible of Northern ITALY, of
Southern FRANCE, and of GREAT BRITAIN, was ALSO the Received
Text.
The type of Christianity which FIRST was favored, then
raised to LEADERSHIP by Constantine, was that of ROMAN PAPACY.
But this was NOT the type of Christianity that FIRST penetrated
SYRIA, Northern ITALY, Southern FRANCE, and GREAT BRITAIN
(Dr. T.V. Moore, The Culdee Church, Chapter 3 and 4).
The ANCIENT RECORDS of the FIRST believers in Christ in
THOSE parts, DISCLOSE a Christianity which is NOT Roman but
APOSTOLIC. These lands were FIRST penetrated by MISSIONARIES, NOT
from Rome but from PALESTINE and ASIA MINOR. And the Greek NT,
the Received Text they brought with them, or its translation,
was of the type from which the Protestant Bibles, as the King
James in English, and the Lutheran in German, were translated. We
shall presently see that it DIFFERED GREATLY from the
Eusebius-Origen Greek NT.
EARLY ENGLAND - WHICH BIBLE?
Onward then pushed those heroic bands of evangelists to
England, to Southern France, and Northern Italy. The
Mediterranean was like the TRUNK of a TREE, with BRANCHES RUNNING
out to these parts, the roots of the tree being in JUDEA or ASIA
MINOR, from whence the sap flowed WESTWARD to fertilize the
distant lands......
The first believers of ancient BRITAIN nobly held their
ground when the PAGAN Anglo-Saxons descended on the land like a
flood. DEAN STANLEY holds it against AUGUSTINE, the missionary
sent by the Pope in 596 A.D. to convert England, that he
treated with CONTEMPT the early Christian Britons (Dean Stanley,
Historic Memorials of Canterbury, pp. 33, 34. Quoted in Cathcart,
Ancient British and Irish Churches, p. 12).
Yes, more, he CONNIVED with the Anglo-Saxons in their
frightful EXTERMINATION of that pious people. And after
Augustine's death, when those same pagan Anglo-Saxons so
TERRIFIED the PAPAL leaders in England that they fled back to
Rome, it was the British Christians in SCOTLAND who occupied the
forsaken fields.
It is evident from this that BRITISH Christianity did NOT
come from Rome. Furthermore, Dr. Adam Clarke (his Bible
Commentary is somewhat famous - Keith Hunt) claims that the
EXAMINATION of Irish CUSTOMS, REVEAL that they have elements
which were IMPORTED into Ireland FROM Asia Minor by EARLY
Christians (Dr. Clarke, Commentaries. Comments on Matt. 1: 18).
(The truth of early Christianity reaching the British nation
is documented in many historical records, and was admitted to by
the Roman Church at different early synods. It has also been
recorded by the well known so-called "Venerable BEDE" in his
famous work called "A History of the English Church and People" -
a copy of which I have in my library. A book that is still in
print and most Bible Book Stores should be able to obtain it for
you. A fascinating book indeed, and it plainly and clearly
verifies what Wilkinson has just brought forth, as to the early
Christianity in Britain and its fight against the Roman
Catholic Papacy, for a number of hundreds of years, before the
Papacy was victorious.
She truly has made all nations drunk with the wine of her
fornication as the book of Revelation tells us.
Another eye opening book by Wilkinson is called "Truth
Triumphant - the Church in the Wilderness" and it brings out
historical records of how the true church spread further than
most have ever imagines and how it survived the Roman Apostasy
for hundreds of years. It is published by TEACH Services, Inc.
Route 1, Box 182, Brushton, NY 12916.
Yet another eye opening book is "The Celtic Church in
Britain" by Leslie Hardinge. It is also published by the
above...TEACH Services - Keith Hunt).
Since Italy, France, and Great Britain were once
provinces of the Roman Empire, the first translations of the
Bible by the early Christians in those parts were made into
Latin. The early Latin translations were VERY DEAR to the hearts
of these primitive churches, and as Rome did not send any
missionaries towards the WEST before 250 A.D., the EARLY Latin
Bibles were WELL established BEFORE these churches came into
CONFLICT with Rome. Not only were such translations in existence
LONG BEFORE the Vugate was adopted by the Papacy, and well
established, but the people for CENTURIES REFUSED to SUPPLANT
their OLD Latin Bibles by the Vulgate.
"The old Latin versions were used LONGEST by the WESTERN
Christians who would NOT bow to the authority of Rome - e.g. the
Donatists; the Irish in Ireland, Britain, and the Continent; the
Albigenses, etc." (Jacobus, Catholic and Protestant Bibles
Compared, p. 200, Note 15).
END OF QUOTE
Ah, the fascinating story of early Christianity in Britain
we shall continue in, as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now you know
the rest of the story" - in the next chapter. Wilkinson only
very briefly expounds this truth. He and others have done
it in much greater detail, in other books, a couple I have
mentioned above.
..........................
Compiled 2003
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