Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 297, 8 October 1891 — Three Crities Critieised. [ARTICLE]

Three Crities Critieised.

| <l Although the ' k various readir»g8 n l in the MSS. and printed editions of the Hebrew Bible are very numeioua, being estimated at 30,000, and even by some scholars at 200,000, these are very unimportant. The Hebrew Bime of the present the recension made by Ezra and others, whieh was the "Textus R-e--ceptus" of our Lord's time. In it* however, the old phraseology has been occasionally iaodemised, obscure expressions explained by glōsses, and the chronologies and genealogies have sufiered, especially through the errors of transcribers. Thus there are*many alterations, in the y£tr none in the meaning> ofthe original writers. We have no autographs and no perfeot MSS. of eicher Hebrew or Grfeek Scriptures, neither have we of any Greek or Latin classic author; on the contrary, tbere is no aneient book (sacredor secular) of whieh the text is not more or less imperfect. In this respect the Hebrew Scriptures stand ih the same position as all other writings of antiquity, Dr. Bentley states the case truly: — "It is a fact undeniable, that the sacred books have suffered no more altera£ions than eommon or classic authors, and have no variations than what must necessarily have happened from the nature of things; ānd it has been the eommon sense of men of letters, that numbers of MSS. do not make a text precarious, but are useful, nay necessary, to its estabiishment and certainty." u The Talmudists undertook a highly critical collatioft of many ditferent texts, whieh, howev£r, they interpreted by a great masg of traditional commentary: but they together all that wae known and approved of (both written a«d oral) respecting the sacred books, rejecting wfeat was not supported by* a considerable weight of testimony. In the eixth century A. X)., a eehooi of, Jewish Doctors at Tiberias, known as the uMasoretes,:' extracted from the Talmud the Iraditional comments (Masorah) of criticism an4 grammatical emendatiojjs, in order to establish the genuine text of the Hebrew Scriptures. The text, as so fixed by them, became the standard« -from whieh others were multiplied. In the eleventb century a collation was made of the Masoretic text of Tibf;riaß, known as the Palestine Godex, with the Babylonian text. and between the two there were found to be eight hundred differences* of rcading, uone of them, liowever, in any way affecting the sense of tbe But>j£Ct ; inattcr. "The S>' nuritun Pentateuch rnust belong a date earlier than the Captivity of J«dah, as the Samaritans had no intercourse with the Jews subsequently; it is highly probnble it was prior to the separation of the tivo kingdoms. A careful compariso», in mo«Wii tinics, of its text wjth that or the HefcreW ("Textnf> has show n that they agrt»e ia eyery materia! point, thfj> difforc;soes b;'ing rnerelv verbrJ. v — C<mc<tr(lauee. I Thero h,ivo heen dowbtcrs. of thej g<muinene£s of the Scripiureb ironi time immeniorinl, hut when a rneiulx j r of a Chrifc:tian Chureh doubte Christ's testiniooy, who repe:itcdly quoted the Oid Tost.iir.ent wrjtcrs. as. the S< ripturv, i*nd teaches his followers to studv it well, it is time for those wht> have a sincere regard and belief in tho Wtmn of God to eall the attention of the <leluded or faithlesa ehuPoKmen to a cloiier etudy qf the &cripture and be guided le» by the thearh<

ing of theologians as in thepast few centurieß.

The scripturs were read in Che synBgogues, in.the first years of the Christian era, and then explained; atthe present iime, only a short verse is takeu as a text ; and then the distorted imagination or deluded ; fancies of some preacher, who has ' his mind more upon pleasiug his, hearOTs than in expounding the Truth, is diehed out to the audienee, until as in the case of uLayman" he becomes a disbeliever without actually knowing it, stead ol growing in lano. The misapprehension in the genuinenēss of the Scripture is fostered by the Belfish preachinc; of to-day. Instead of the unseifish preaehi«g for the salvation of souls» as in the early years of the Church, the preacher now is obliged to dole out religion to suit the perverted religioue tastes of the present.age. There are ample evidences throughout the Bible to satisfy the honest seeker after the truth of its claims as the word of God. It is the only work extant that gives the most reasonable and saue idea, of an Almighty and Overruling Power, a Creator, who created man,. and'how all things were created. No seientific work of man ean exeel the exp!anations of the Bible in all things; rtor no other work gives a knowledge of all things as briefly. "Man was created from the earth, and the vital spark that transformed him into a living soul. *is there given in oiw or two verses. Volumes have been ' written to explain and account for man's existanee, and when puny man's efforts in that direction are all gathered together, it does not begin to give the and the knowledge that one verse 1?ells us of man and how h» was īrōated. Scientists say he was evolved from an atom and so on until he became a and the world, Chnstian and disbelievers, believe §cience. But when man dieSj he fulfills thescriptural truth, of how he was ma de. by resolving back to that from whenee he was taken,—he does not go through a backward evolution, from man to a and so on ,to an atom, as the world are sa ;ready to believe men made theories. Where ean anv man be fouuil, or any writing existmg at the vresent time since the creation ofthe world, that has given, or eaia give its history as was gj. yen by DanieJ through inepiration in eight short verses, commeucing from theßabylonian Kingdom and thence forcasting the future history of th< world to its end ? There is no. | writing existing, and no man ever known to possess that knowledge. The history of the world for a period ol twp thousand three liundred years, is briofly foretold, and .ūhon that i>eridii should bogin. We quote tb-.* .langu!»jre of a Mr. Smith, a ProfeSsor of Biblical Exein Orcek Ct>llege,.. ini h* to f>an.; i "Xow ope one of the subliiuestj chapters of hnmaiv historv. Eight short verses of the inspired reoord U>ll the whole storv; yet that storv etnbraces the historv of the world's poiup andpower, A few x moments will sufiioe to commit it to memorv; yet the j>eiiod whieh it covers, comqiencing more than twenty-*five ceut»iiries ago, reacfees on from that fajsdtetaut pointpast tho riaean£ falJ Jtingdoms, ihe seUang np oveithrow of eōjpiree, • •. a - •