The King James Version
Defended
By Dr.
Edward F. Hills
INTRODUCTION
TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND CHRISTIAN
FAITH
Old books
have sometimes been likened to little ships which have
sailed across the tides of time, bearing within
themselves their precious freight of ancient knowledge
and culture. None of these books, however, has enjoyed
an uninterrupted voyage over the century stretching
seas. The vessels which commenced the journey have
perished, and their cargoes have been subject to
frequent re-shipment in the course of their perilous
passage. The original manuscripts of these ancient works
have long since been lost, and they have come down to us
only in copies and copies of copies, which were produced
by the pens of scribes during the progress of the
intervening ages. And just as cargoes of merchandise are
likely to incur damage whenever they are transferred
from one vessel to another, so the copying and recopying
of manuscripts has resulted in some damage to their
cargoes of words, which are commonly called their texts.
Textual criticism, therefore, is
the attempt to estimate this damage and, if possible, to
repair it.
Has the text of
the New Testament, like those of other ancient books,
been damaged during its voyage over the seas of time?
Ought the same methods of textual criticism to be
applied to it that are applied to the texts of other
ancient books? These are questions which the following
pages will endeavor to answer. An earnest effort will be
made to convince the Christian reader that this is a
matter to which he must attend. For in the realm of New
Testament textual criticism as well as in other fields
the presuppositions of modern thought are hostile to the
historic Christian faith and will destroy it if their
fatal operation is not checked. If faithful Christians,
therefore, would defend their sacred religion against
this danger, they must forsake the foundations of
unbelieving thought and build upon their faith, a faith
that rests entirely on the solid rock of holy Scripture.
And when they do this in the sphere of New Testament
textual criticism, they will find themselves led back
step by step (perhaps, at first, against their wills) to
the text of the Protestant Reformation, namely, that
form of New Testament text which underlies the King
James Version and the other early Protestant
translations.
1. The Importance
Of Doctrine
The
Christian Church has long confessed that the books of
the New
Testament, as well as those of the Old,
are divine Scriptures, written
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. "We have
learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than
from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us,
which they did at one time proclaim in public, and at a
later period by the will of God, handed down to us in
the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our
faith.
The Scriptures are
perfect, inasmuch as they were uttered by the Word of
God and His Spirit." So wrote Irenaeus (1) in the second
century, and such has always been the attitude of all
branches of the Christian Church toward the New
Testament.
Since the
doctrine of the divine inspiration
of the New Testament has in all ages stimulated the
copying of these sacred books, it is evident that this
doctrine is important for the history of the New
Testament text, no matter whether it be a true doctrine
or only a belief of the Christian Church. But what if it
be a true doctrine? What if the original New Testament
manuscripts actually were inspired of God? If the
doctrine of the divine inspiration
of the New Testament is a true
doctrine, then New Testament textual criticism is
different from the textual criticism of ordinary
books.
If the
doctrine of the divine inspiration
of the Old and New Testament Scriptures is a true
doctrine, the doctrine of the providential
preservation of the Scriptures
must also be a true doctrine. It must be that down
through the centuries God has exercised a special,
providential control over the copying of the Scriptures
and the preservation and use of the copies, so that
trustworthy representatives of the original text have
been available to God's people in every age. God must
have done this, for if He gave the Scriptures to His
Church by inspiration as the perfect and final
revelation of His will, then it is obvious that He would
not allow this revelation to disappear or undergo any
alteration of its fundamental
character.
Although
this doctrine of the providential
preservation of the Old and New Testament Scriptures
has sometimes been misused, nevertheless, it also has
always been held, either implicitly or explicitly, by
all branches of the Christian Church as a necessary
consequence of the divine inspiration
of these Scriptures. Thus Origen
in the third century was expressing the faith of all
when he exclaimed to Africanus, "Are we to suppose that
that Providence which in the sacred Scriptures has
ministered to the edification of all the churches of
Christ, had no thought for those bought with a price,
for whom Christ died!" (2)
If, now, the
Christian Church has been correct down through the ages
in her fundamental attitude toward the Old and New
Testaments, if the doctrines of the divine inspiration
and providential
preservation of these Scriptures
are true doctrines, then the textual criticism of the
New Testament is different from that of the uninspired
writings of antiquity. The textual criticism of any book
must take into account the conditions under which the
original manuscripts were written and also those under
which the copies of these manuscripts were made and
preserved. But if the doctrines of the divine
inspiration and providential preservation of the
Scriptures are true, then THE ORIGINAL NEW TESTAMENT
MANUSCRIPTS WERE WRITTEN UNDER SPECIAL CONDITIONS, UNDER
THE INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND THE COPIES WERE MADE AND
PRESERVED UNDER SPECIAL CONDITIONS, UNDER THE SINGULAR
CARE AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD.
2. Two Methods Of
New Testament Textual Criticism
The New
Testament textual criticism of the man who believes the
doctrines of the divine inspiration and providential
preservation of the Scriptures to be true ought to
differ from that of the man who does not so believe. The
man who regards these doctrines as merely the mistaken
beliefs of the Christian Church is consistent if he
gives them only a minor place in his treatment of the
New Testament text, a place so minor as to leave his New
Testament textual criticism essentially the same as that
of any other ancient book. But the man who
holds these doctrines to be true is inconsistent unless
he gives them a prominent place in his treatment of
the New Testament text, a place so prominent as to make
his New Testament textual criticism different
from that of other ancient
books, for if these doctrines are true, they demand such
a place.
Thus there
are two methods of New Testament textual criticism, the
consistently
Christian method and the naturalistic
method. These two methods deal
with the same materials, the same Greek manuscripts, and
the same translations and biblical quotations, but they
interpret these materials differently. The consistently
Christian method interprets the materials of New
Testament textual criticism in accordance with the
doctrines of the divine inspiration and providential
preservation of the Scriptures. The naturalistic method
interprets these same materials in accordance with its
own doctrine that the New Testament is nothing more than
a human book.
Sad to say, modern
Bible-believing scholars have taken very little interest
in the concept of consistently Christian New Testament
textual criticism. For more than a century most of them
have been quite content to follow in this area the
naturalistic methods of Tischendorf, Tregelles, and
Westcott and Hort. And the result of this equivocation
has been truly disastrous. Just as in Pharaoh's dream
the thin cows ate up the fat cows, so the principles and
procedures of naturalistic New Testament textual
criticism have spread into every department of Christian
thought and produced a spiritual famine. The purpose of
this book, therefore, is to show that in the King James
(Authorized) Version we still have the bread of life and
in demonstrating this to defend the historic Christian
faith.
In the
world, which He has created, and in the holy Scriptures
which He has given God reveals Himself,
not merely information about
Himself, but HIMSELF. Hence the thinking of a Christian
who receives this divine revelation must differ
fundamentally from the thinking of naturalistic scholars
who ignore or deny it. In this book we shall endeavor to
prove that this is so, first in the field of science
second in the realm of philosophy, and third in the
sphere of Bible study, and especially in New Testament
textual criticism.
