Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society

Name: Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society
Author: Borrow, George

Borrow, George

Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; British and Foreign Bible Society; English letters

Now to that point.  This Christian ecclesiastic calls with a loud voice
upon his brethren to prove by pamphlets and writing the divinity of the
books of Tobit, Judith, etc.  Yea, let them accomplish that--let them
bring sufficient evidence that these apocryphal writings were held in
veneration by the Jews, that they enjoyed a place in the sanctuary along
with the inspired writings, let them show that they were penned by
Prophets, above all _let them produce the originals_--and the Bible
Society will immediately admit them into its editions.  Why not?  I am
not aware that one point of doctrine, either Protestant or Roman, depends
upon their reception or rejection.

In conclusion.  What struck me most on the perusal of this singular
epistle, all the main points of which I believe I have tolerably well
answered, and without much trouble, was the ignorance more than childish,
the extraordinary, unaccountable ignorance, which the author displays on
the subject on which he has written, and all which relates to it,
notwithstanding that subject is a religious one, and he, an ecclesiastic
as he gives the world to know, standing forward as champion of the Church
of Rome.  He is evidently as well acquainted with Scripture and the works
of the Fathers as with the Talmud and Zend-avesta, and with the ideas and
dogmas of those whom he calls heretics, as with the religious opinions of
the Mongols and the followers of the Lama of the Himalayan hills.  The
miserable attack which, in his rancorous feebleness, he has just
committed on the Bible Society will redound merely to his own shame and
ridicule, and the disgrace of the sect to which he belongs.  What could
persuade him to speak of the Vulgate?  What could induce him to grasp
that two-edged sword?  Does it not cut off his own hands?  Does the
Vulgate allude to the Bible Society, or to him and his fellows, when it
cries:--

    Vae vobis legisperitis, quia tulistis clavem scientiae, ipsi non
    introistis: et eos, qui introibant, prohibuistis.--Lucae, cap. xi.
    vers. 52.

    'Ay de vosotros, Doctores de la Ley que os alzasteis con la llave de
    la ciencia! vosotros no entrasteis, y habeis prohibido a los que
    entraban.'

And again:--

    Qui ex Deo est, verba Dei audit.  Propterea vos non auditis, quia ex
    Deo non estis.--Joan. cap. viii. vers. 47.

    'El que es de Dios, oye las palabras de Dios.  Por eso vosotros no
    las ois, porque no sois de Dios.'

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible SocietyBorrow, George

Religion

Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society

Borrow, George

Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; British and Foreign Bible Society; English letters

Now to that point.  This Christian ecclesiastic calls with a loud voice
upon his brethren to prove by pamphlets and writing the divinity of the
books of Tobit, Judith, etc.  Yea, let them accomplish that--let them
bring sufficient evidence that these apocryphal writings were held in
veneration by the Jews, that they enjoyed a place in the sanctuary along
with the inspired writings, let them show that they were penned by
Prophets, above all _let them produce the originals_--and the Bible
Society will immediately admit them into its editions.  Why not?  I am
not aware that one point of doctrine, either Protestant or Roman, depends
upon their reception or rejection.

In conclusion.  What struck me most on the perusal of this singular
epistle, all the main points of which I believe I have tolerably well
answered, and without much trouble, was the ignorance more than childish,
the extraordinary, unaccountable ignorance, which the author displays on
the subject on which he has written, and all which relates to it,
notwithstanding that subject is a religious one, and he, an ecclesiastic
as he gives the world to know, standing forward as champion of the Church
of Rome.  He is evidently as well acquainted with Scripture and the works
of the Fathers as with the Talmud and Zend-avesta, and with the ideas and
dogmas of those whom he calls heretics, as with the religious opinions of
the Mongols and the followers of the Lama of the Himalayan hills.  The
miserable attack which, in his rancorous feebleness, he has just
committed on the Bible Society will redound merely to his own shame and
ridicule, and the disgrace of the sect to which he belongs.  What could
persuade him to speak of the Vulgate?  What could induce him to grasp
that two-edged sword?  Does it not cut off his own hands?  Does the
Vulgate allude to the Bible Society, or to him and his fellows, when it
cries:--

    Vae vobis legisperitis, quia tulistis clavem scientiae, ipsi non
    introistis: et eos, qui introibant, prohibuistis.--Lucae, cap. xi.
    vers. 52.

    'Ay de vosotros, Doctores de la Ley que os alzasteis con la llave de
    la ciencia! vosotros no entrasteis, y habeis prohibido a los que
    entraban.'

And again:--

    Qui ex Deo est, verba Dei audit.  Propterea vos non auditis, quia ex
    Deo non estis.--Joan. cap. viii. vers. 47.

    'El que es de Dios, oye las palabras de Dios.  Por eso vosotros no
    las ois, porque no sois de Dios.'

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society

Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society

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