Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881.djvu/62

 \\v INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

��of the great wealth of our documentary resources; it is a testimony to the immense importance of the New Testa- ment ; it docs not affect, but rather insures, the integrity of tlifi text; and it is a useful stimulus to study.

Only about 400 of the 100,000 or 150,000 variations materially affect the sense. Of these, again, not more than about fifty are really important for some reason or other ; and even of these fifty not one affects an article of faith or precept of duty which is not abundantly sustained by oth- er and undoubted passages, or by the whole tenour of Script- ure teaching. The Textus Receptus of Stephens, Beza, and Elzevir, and of our English version, teach precisely the same Christianity as the uncial text of the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS., the oldest versions, and the Anglo-American revision. Richard Bcntley, the ablest and boldest of clas- sical critics of England, affirms that even the worst of MSS. does not pervert Or set aside " one article of faith or moral precept." Dr. Ezra Abbot, who ranks among the first text- ual critics, and is not hampered by orthodox bias (being a Unitarian), asserts that "ho Christian .doctrine or duty rests on those portions of the text which are affected by differences in the manuscripts ; still less is anything essen- tial in Christianity touched by the various readings. They do, to be sure, affect the bearing of a few passages on the doctrine of the Trinity; but the truth or falsity of the doctrine by no means depends upon the reading of those passages.'**

��* Anglo- American Bible Revision, p. 92. In a later article (Sun- day Sdtool Times, Phila,, May 28, 1881) he makes a similar as- sertion with special reference to the English revision: "This host of various readings may startle one who is not acquainted with the subject, and he mny imagine that the whole text of

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