The Lord Has Preserved His Word
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The doctrine of Holy Scripture, its providential preservation and its faithful translation The Lord has preserved His Word: The doctrine of Holy Scripture, its providential preservation and its faithful translation Dr J. Cammenga Editorial Consultant of the Trinitarian Bible Society 1 The Lord has preserved His Word cover image: beginning of the Gospel according to Mark in Codex Boreelianus The Lord has preserved His Word: The doctrine of Holy Scripture, its providential preservation and its faithful translation This article has been approved for publication by the General Committee of the Trinitarian Bible Society. The author, who has been given liberty to use his own style and methodology in the presentation of the subject, is one of the Society’s Editorial Consultants and a schoolmaster. Dr Cammenga is resident in The Netherlands. ©2014 Trinitarian Bible Society Tyndale House, Dorset Road London SW19 3NN UK 2 The doctrine of Holy Scripture, its providential preservation and its faithful translation The Lord has preserved His Word: The doctrine of Holy Scripture, its providential preservation and its faithful translation 1. Introduction: What difference does belief in Providential preservation make? ........................................................... 4 2. One Bible or many? The message and the words ................................................................................................................. 4 Different versions; Different theories of translation; Different underlying texts; A message and the words expressing it; Preservation of the Scripture message and the words expressing it; The preservation of Scripture rejected by modern critics; The text of Scripture only 130 years old? The Critical Text rejected by the Reformers; The Critical Text view has resulted in revised Bible texts and Bible versions; A major reason for undertaking this study. 3. An important choice: Knowing which Bible to choose ..................................................................................................... 6 4. The Word of Truth our grounds for selection: The Bible’s evidence regarding the best Bible .................................. 6 The Lord Jesus Christ’s view of Holy Scripture; Scripture is the Word of God; God is the LORD God of Truth; The immutability of Truth; Scripture is Truth; Scripture defined; Romanist and Reformed views of the Scripture text and canon; The Scriptural view of Scripture; A supposed contrast between the reliability and the truth of Scripture rejected. 5. A good translation: Preserving the message ....................................................................................................................... 8 6. Criteria of reliability: Philosophy behind the differences ................................................................................................ 8 Underlying philosophy; Source text; Faithful translation and its relation to underlying philosophy; The primacy of Truth and our use of Scripture; Summary and conclusions. 7. The Biblical doctrine of Scripture: The Divinity of the Author ....................................................................................... 12 Knowledge, existence, and their relation; The doctrines of God and Scripture; The doctrine of Scripture summarised. 8. Divine inspiration and providential preservation: Connection between the Author and the book ....................... 16 Inspiration and preservation of Scripture through divine providence; Divine providence; Providential preservation of Scripture; The immutable connection between divine inspiration and preservation; Motives and aims of divine inspiration and preservation; Providence and divine immutability, omniscience, omnipotence, and eternal love; The connection between faith, thought, and practice; Providential preservation and the Church; Conclusion. 9. Further implications of Biblical doctrine for our view of Scripture: The words and the Word ............................... 23 The Word of God spoken and written; Meanings of ‘Scripture’; The words and doctrine of God; All of Scripture alone is the Word of God; Conclusion. 10. Arrangement of the rest of this study ................................................................................................................................. 24 11. Critical theory: Westcott and Hort, and their philosophical descendents ................................................................. 25 Westcott and Hort; The Critical Text view; A brief outline of the Critical Text and Traditional Text views; Discussion of the Critical Text view. 12. The Traditional Text view: Burgon and his philosophical children ............................................................................. 30 Burgon; Burgon against changing the Received Text and the Authorised Version; The Traditional Text view and its contrast with the critical view. 13. First-century attacks on the New Testament text: The problems are nothing new ................................................... 45 Early attacks as argued by Burgon; First-century attacks forewarned of by the Lord Jesus Christ; First-century attacks attested in Acts; First-century attacks attested in the New Testament letters; First-century attacks on the Apostles’ words and doctrine; First century attacks on the Apostles’ writings; Significance and importance of the witness of Scripture. 14. Distinctions and conclusions: The necessity of choice .................................................................................................... 52 Distinctions; Conclusions; Some further inferences. 15. Postscript: Forever settled in heaven…and on earth ...................................................................................................... 54 Select Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................................... 56 3 The Lord has preserved His Word 1. Introduction The main focus of the present study is the doctrine of Holy Scripture or, more specifically, what Scripture has to say about its own nature. Its divine inspiration will be discussed, and its providential preservation will be shown to ensue logically and naturally from its inspiration, as well as from particular promises the Bible itself contains about its preservation (sections 1-4, 7-9). As part of this discussion, the translation of Scripture will be considered (sections 5-6), notably its faithful and accurate translation. The discussion will continue with an evaluation of the two major positions on the New Testament text (sections 10-12) and show how these positions impact on our understanding of the doctrine of Scripture. The underlying conviction of this study, as will be shown throughout, is that the Lord God of Truth has preserved His Word, as much as He originally inspired it, and that this has implications for how we deal with His Word. For the possible benefit of edifying those who might denounce this approach as Scripturalist and thus biased, and whose interest might therefore be lost at the outset, two questions are posed. First, if it is reprehensible to operate on fully Christian presuppositions, is it any less reprehensible to operate on other, perhaps non-Christian, presuppositions? Second, are not all systems of thought and belief based on underlying premises or axioms? A first principle—precisely because it is first—does not need to be and cannot be demonstrated. It is the basis of all argument and demonstration. If it turns out not to be a first principle after all, then some other principle will of necessity take its place. (For a brief but pertinent discussion and definition of first principles, or axioms, see G. H. Clark, Logic, 2nd edition [Unicoi, TN, USA: Trinity Foundation, 1988], pages 2 and 134.) It should be noted that, when we speak of versions or translations of the Scriptures, unless otherwise stated we mean versions or translations in English. 2. One Bible or many? One does not have to be a churchgoer to realise that there are numerous different Bibles in circulation today, particularly in English: a visit to any well-stocked Christian bookshop or the religion section of secular bookshops would quickly demonstrate as much. But what is meant by ‘different Bibles’? And how does one choose from among them? To answer the first question, by ‘different Bibles’ in this article we mean different English Bible versions, that is, different translations in English. It will be readily apparent to anyone who picks up a few of them, selects a passage or two and compares the readings, that these translations differ. Some seem a little old-fashioned, some more contemporary. Some even read like our daily newspaper. But are they just different translations? That translations available on the market differ is clear enough. What may not be so clear is that some of them are the result of different theories of translation. Nor does everyone realise that some of these theories differ so radically that they cannot but produce radically different translations, even if the underlying Biblical-language text is the same. This is not surprising, as theory always determines practice. Our beliefs determine our philosophy, our philosophy determines our theories, and our theories—particularly regarding translation—determine our translation practice. Why is this important? It is because a great deal may depend upon translation theory, especially one of a text as important as Scripture. One outcome of the different theories