THE REVISION REVISED - a refutation and answer to Wescott and Hort’s New Testament Greek
by Dean John William Burgon, who lived at the same time as Wescott and Hort.
Foreword
The Publishers. This book, The Revision Revised, is published by the Dean Burgon Society, Incorporated (DBS). The Society takes its name from Dean John William Burgon (1813-1888), a conservative Anglican clergyman. The DBS is recognized by the I.R.S. as a non-profit, tax exempt organization. All contributions are tax deductible. The Society's main purpose is stated in its slogan, "IN DEFENSE OF TRADITIONAL BIBLE TEXTS." The DBS was founded in 1978, and, since then, has held its annual two-day conference in the United States and Canada. During this time, many excellent messages on textual issues are presented. The messages are available in three forms: (1) video cassettes; (2) audio cassettes, and (3) the printed message book. For information on receiving any of the above, plus a copy of the "THE ARTICLES OF FAITH, AND ORGANIZATION" of the Dean Burgon Society, please write or phone its office at 609-854-4452. You may use your CREDIT CARD if you wish, and send your order by FAX at 609-854-2464 or by E-Mail at DBSN@Juno.Com.
The Dean Burgon News. The Society has a paper called The Dean Burgon News. Within its pages the Society proclaims:
"The DEAN BURGON SOCIETY, INCORPORATED proudly takes its name in honor of John William Burgon (1813-1888), the Dean of Chichester in England, whose tireless and accurate scholarship and contribution in the area of New Testament Textual Criticism; whose defense of the Traditional Greek Text against its many enemies; and whose firm belief in the verbal inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, we believe, have all been unsurpassed either before or since his time!"
The Present Reprint. The DEAN BURGON SOCIETY, INCORPORATED is pleased to present, in this form, one of Dean John William Burgon's most convincing books, The Revision Revised. This is the second reprint of one of Dean Burgon's books, the first one being The Last Twelve Verses of Mark. [It is available as #1139 for a GIFT of $15 + $3 for postage and handling] This edition of The Revision Revised is page for page like the original book written in 1883 by Dean Burgon. In the APPENDIX you will find a 36-page summarization of the main points brought out in the book. You might want to begin by reading the APPENDIX first.
The Importance of The Revision Revised. There is no one book that exposes Westcott and Hort's false Greek text and false Greek theory behind that text any more thoroughly and convincingly than The Revision Revised. Dean Burgon defends the traditional text of the New Testament. He also shows clearly the defects in both manuscript "B" (Vatican) and manuscript "Aleph" (Sinai). It is very important to see the arguments contained in this historic volume because virtually the same Greek text of Westcott and Hort (1881) forms the basis of almost all of the modern versions and perversions. As proof of this, you can turn to APPENDIX pages 2-3 for seven quotes that tie the Westcott and Hort's Greek text to the Greek texts of Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Society.
The Reason Modern Revised Greek Texts Are Like Westeott and Hort's Text It is very easy to understand why the 1881 Greek Text of Westcott and Hort is almost the same as that of the modem revised Greek texts such as Nestle-Aland, United Bible Society and others. Both groups (Westcott and Hort and modem textual revisers) draw largely, if not exclusively, on the false readings of manuscripts "B" (Vatican) and "Aleph" (Sinai). It is axiomatic that "things equal to the same thing are equal to each other."
Other Books by Dean Burgon. For those wanting to read four other excellent reprints (all but #1 are presently in xeroxed format), the following can be ordered from THE DEAN BURGON SOCIETY:
The Last Twelve Verses of Mark, 400 pages for a gift of $15.00.
The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels, 350 pages for a gift of $15.00..
Causes of Corruption of the Holy Gospels, 316 pages for a gift of $14.00..
Inspiration and Interpretation, 567 pages for a gift of $25.00.
Please add $5.00 for postage and handling when you order.
Future Reprints. As funds permit, the DEAN BURGON SOCIETY hopes to bring into reprint form in the same way as this present book many, if not all of the above titles.
Sincerely for God's Written Words,
Rev. D. A. Waite, Th.D., Ph.D.
President, THE DEAN BURGON SOCIETY •
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From John W. Burgon
ALL EMPHASIS IS BY KEITH HUNT
TO THE
RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT CRANBROOK, G.C.S.I.,
&c, &c, &c.
Mr dear Lord Cranbrook,
Allow me the gratification of dedicating the present Volume to yourself; but for whom—(I reserve the explanation for another day)—it would never have been written.
This is not, (as you will perceive at a glance,) the Treatise which a few years ago I told you I had in hand; and which, but for the present hindrance, might by this lime have been, completed. It has however grown out of that other work in the manner explained at the beginning of my Preface. Moreover it contains not a few specimens of the argumentation of which the work in question, when at last it sees the light, will be discovered to be full.
My one object has been to defeat the mischievous attempt which was made in 1881 to thrust upon this Church and Realm a Revision of the Sacred Text, which—-recommended though it be by eminent names—I am thoroughly convinced, and am able to prove, is untrustworthy from beginning to end.
The reason is plain. It has been constructed throughout on an utterly erroneous hypothesis. And I inscribe this Volume to you, my friend, as a conspicuous member of that body of faithful and learned Laity by whose deliberate verdict, when the whole of the evidence has been produced and the case has been fully argued out, I shall be quite willing that my contention may stand or fall.
The English (as well as the Greek) of the newly "Revised Version" is hopelessly at fault. It is to me simply unintelligible how a company of Scholars can have spent ten years in elaborating such a very unsatisfactory production.
Their uncouth phraseology and their jerky sentences, their pedantic obscurity and their unidiomatic English, contrast painfully with "the happy turns of expression, the music of the cadences, the felicities of the rhythm" of our Authorized Version. The transition from one to the other, as the Bishop of Lincoln remarks, is like exchanging a well-built carriage for a vehicle without springs, in which you get jolted to death on a newly-mended and rarely-traversed road. But the "Revised Version" is inaccurate as well; exhibits defective scholarship, I mean, in countless places.
It is, however, the systematic depravation of the underlying Greek which does so grievously offend me: for this is nothing else but a poisoning of the River of Life at its sacred source. Our Revisers, (with the best and purest intentions, no doubt,) stand convicted of having deliberately rejected the words of Inspiration in every page, and of having substituted for them fabricated Readings which the Church has long since refused to acknowledge, or else has rejected with abhorrence; and which only survive at this time in a little handful of documents of the most depraved type.
As Critics they have had abundant warning.
Twelve years ago (1871) a volume appeared on 'the last Twelve Verses of the Gospel according to S. Mark’—of which the declared object was to vindicate those Verses against certain critical objectors, and to establish them by an exhaustive argumentative process. Up to this hour, for a very obvious reason, no answer to that volume has been attempted. And yet, at the end of ten years (1881),—not only in the Revised English but also in the volume which professes to exhibit the underlying Greek, (which at least is indefensible,)—the Revisers are observed to separate off those Twelve precious Verses from their context, in token that they are no part of the genuine Gospel. Such a deliberate preference of ‘mumpsimus' to 'sumpsimus' is by no means calculated to conciliate favour, or even to win respect.
The Revisers have in fact been the dupes of an ingenious Theorist, concerning whose extraordinary views you are invited to read what Dr. Scrivener has recently put forth. The words of the last-named writer (who is facile princeps in Textual Criticism) will be found facing the beginning of the present Dedication.
If, therefore, any do complain that I have sometimes hit my opponents rather hard, I take leave to point out that " to every-thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun": "a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing": a time for speaking smoothly, and a time for speaking sharply. And that when the words of Inspiration are seriously imperilled, as now they are, it is scarcely possible for one who is determined effectually to preserve the Deposit in its integrity, to hit either too straight or too hard. In handling certain recent utterances of Bishop Ellicott, I considered throughout that it was the ‘Textual Critic’—not the Successor of the Apostles,—with whom I had to do.
And thus I commend my Volume, the fruit of many years of incessant anxious toil, to your indulgence: requesting that you will receive it as a token of my sincere respect and admiration; and desiring to be remembered, my dear Lord Cranbrook, as your grateful and affectionate Friend and Servant,
JOHNW. BURGON. Deanery. Chichester, All Saints' Day. 1883.
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CERTAINLY ALL MINISTERS SHOULD HAVE THIS BOOK. IT IS NOT DESIGNED TO BE EASY READING; IT IS TECHNICAL AS WE ARE CONCERNED WITH A TECHNICAL SUBJECT…..THE CORRECT GREEEK MSS FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT.
THE SINAITICUS MSS WAS DISCOVERED IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MONASTERY AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT SANAI - IN THE WASTE BASKET TO BE BURNED UP…..IT REALLY IS TOO BAD IT HAD NOT GOT TO THE FIRE, AS OBVIOUSLY THE SCHOLARS AT THE CATHOLIC MONASTERY THOUGHT OF IT AS RUBISH FOR THE FIRE.
THE VATICANUS WAS FOUND ON A DUSTY OLD SHELf AT THE BACK OF ROME’S LIBRARY; THOUGHT AGAIN TO BE WORTHLESS - SHAME IT DID NOT REMAIN THERE AND ROT AWAY INTO A HEAP OF DUST.
MOST MODERN NEW TESTAMENT TRANSLATION ARE BASED ON THESE TWO FAULTY CORRUP MSS, SAD TO SAY; BUT AS MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING CALLED AND CHOSEN AT THIS TIME, IT SERVES A PURPOSE IN KEEPING PEOPLE IN SPIRITUAL DECEPTION. Keith Hunt