Bible. Gospels -- Evidences, authority, etc.; Tischendorf, Constantin von, 1815-1874. Wann wurden unsere Evangelien verfasst? English
Such, then, are the weapons, say the Religious Tract Society, by their
champion, "which we employ against unbelieving criticism." And what are
these weapons? We have shown in the preceding pages, the _suppressio
veri_ and the _suggestio falsi_ are amongst the weapons used. The
Religious Tract Society directors are parties to fabrication of
evidence, and they permit a learned charlatan to forward the cause of
Christ with craft and chicane. But even this is not enough; they need,
according to their pamphlet, "a new weapon;" they want "to find out the
very words the Apostles used." True believers have been in a state
of delusion; they were credulous enough to fancy that the authorised
version of the Scriptures tolerably faithfully represented God's
revelation to humankind. But no, says Dr. Tischendorf, it has been so
seriously modified in the copying and re-copying that it ought to be set
aside altogether, and a fresh text constructed. Glorious news this for
the Bible Society. Listen to it, Exeter Hall! Glad tidings to be issued
by the Paternoster Row saints! After spending hundreds of thousands of
pounds in giving away Bibles to soldiers, in placing them in hotels and
lodging-houses, and shipping them off to negroes and savages, it appears
that the wrong text has been sent through the world, the true version
being all the time in a waste-paper heap at Mount Sinai, watched over
by an "invisible eye." But, adds Dr. Tischendorf, "if you ask me whether
any popular version contains the original text, my answer is Yes and No.
I say Yes as far as concerns your soul's salvation." If these are enough
for the soul's salvation, why try to improve the matter? If we really
need the "full and clear light" of the Sinaitic Bible to show us "what
is the Word written by God," then most certainly our present Bible is
not believed by the Religious Tract Society to be the Word written by
God. The Christian advocates are in this dilemma: either the received,
text is insufficient, or the proposed improvement is unnecessary.
Dr. Tischendorf says that "The Gospels, like the only begotten of the
Father, will endure as long as human nature itself," yet he says "there
is a great diversity among the texts," and that the Gospel in use
amongst the Ebionites and that used amongst the Nazarenes have been
"disfigured here and there with certain arbitrary changes." He admits,
moreover, that "in early times, when the Church was not so critical in
distinguishing the true from the false," spurious Gospels obtained a
credit which they did not deserve. And while arguing for the enduring
character of the Gospel, he requests you to set aside the received text
altogether, and to try to construct a new revelation by the aid of Dr.
Tischendorf's patent Sinaitic invention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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