WHO WAS WESTCOTT?
Brooke
Foss Westcott (1825-1901) is primarily know as the co-founder of what was
called “The New Testament in the Original Greek” which was published in 1881.
Westcott
was a professor at Cambridge University in England where he met one of his
students, Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892). These two men had similar spiritual thoughts about Biblical
matters, not to mention that they both apparently did not believe that the Holy
Bible was translated accurately. The
Bible at that time was called the “Holy Bible”. After about 1900 when later versions were printed, the Holy Bible
was then named the “King James Version” or KJV.
Westcott
and Hort introduced their New Greek to a committee in England who was planning
the writing of a new Bible. The committee received Westcott and Hort’s New
Greek to be used for a new translation apparently without serious consideration
of its source.
Although
there were thousands of manuscript fragments which were in nearly complete
agreement, Westcott and Hort had selected just two manuscripts for their new
Greek. These two manuscripts disagreed with the manuscript sources of the KJV
and a later investigation revealed that these two manuscripts were in considerable
disagreement among themselves.
The
KJV scholars had already previously labeled these type of manuscripts as being
from a family of forgeries however in short order, the committee released the
new Bible version and called it the “Revised Version”. This new version received little initial
interest by evangels however some twenty years later, America responded with a
similar translation, also using Westcott and Hort’s New Greek as the translation source. America’s new version was called “The
American Standard” and it was released in 1901.
Numerous
other versions began to spring up around the world that were primarily
translated from Westcott and Hort’s New Greek. This new Greek became known as “The Greek”, “Westcott’s Greek”
or “Westcott and Hort’s New Greek Testament”.
Nearly all new versions today are translated from a various mixture of sources
however the primary New Testament source continues to be Westcott and Hort’s Greek.
Later
studies of the manuscripts used by Westcott and Hort revealed that they were
very old and of Alexandrian origination, that is they were written in
Alexandria Egypt, a place well known for its widespread paganism and much
immorality.
There
is considerable evidence that Westcott was a member of an occultist club
however as a preacher, his words apparently seemed spiritual, scripturally
accurate and over the heads of his congregations, that is until they could be
more thoroughly scrutinized.
The
interest in corrupt manuscripts and the occult has been going on for thousands
of years particularly during times of spiritual decline, however by some
marvelous miracle of the Lord, the receptus text source of the KJV continues to
rebound with God’s people, most particularly at the times of spiritual
awakening.
“But the word
of God grew and multiplied.”
(Acts 12:24)
Can
you spot some of the Biblical discrepancies in Westcott’s speech?
Concerning Genesis and Creationism: “No one now, I
suppose, holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a
literal history - I could never understand how any one reading them with open
eyes could think they did - yet they disclose to us a Gospel.” (Westcott’s New
Bibles, James H. Sightler, M.D.; Page 14; Westcott, A., op.cit.,Vol. II,p.89)
Concerning the bodily resurrection of Jesus: “It may
indeed be said that the Church was founded upon the belief in the Resurrection
and not upon the Resurrection itself; and that the testimony must therefore be
limited to the attestation of the belief, and cannot reach to the attestation
of the fact.” (Westcott’s 1867
pamphlet, The Resurrection as a Fact and as a Revelation, page 13)
“The Revelation (of the Resurrection) was a
Revelation to believers…That which is of the earth can perceive only that which
is of the earth. Our senses can only grasp
that which is kindred to themselves…the world
could not see Christ, and Christ could not-there is a Divine
impossiblility-shew Himself to the world.
To have proved by incontestable evidence that Christ rose again as
Lazarus rose again, would have been not to confirm our faith but to destroy it
irretrievably”
“The Resurrection, to set the matter in another
light, was not an isolated event. It
was and is an abiding fact. It was the
beginning of a new and living relation between the Lord and His People.” (The
Gospel of Life, New York; Macmillan & Co., 1892, p.35, Heresies of Westcott
and Hort 1979, pp 32-33)
Concerning Darwinism: “A celebrated author and divine
has written to me that ‘he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble
a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms
capable of self development into other needful forms, as to believe that He
required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the actions of
his laws.” (Second edition of Darwin’s
Origin, January 1860 quoting from Wescott’s letter)
Concerning the Second Coming of Christ: “In my
Father’s house-the spiritual and eternal antitype of the visible temple-are
many mansions-many resting places…The assurance stands in the grand simplicity,
and we must not attempt to define further what at present we have no faculties
to understand. Heaven is where God is
known as our Father…The ‘mansions’ are not, as it seems, simply fixed abodes in
some spiritual city, but rather stations along the highways of some vast
realm. Even in the father’s presence
life is still portrayed under the image of a journey, such that the idea of
repose is combined with that of progress…If I go and prepare a place for you, I
come again…The ‘coming’ is the strength of life, the ‘receiving’ is the crown
of life. Christ comes to us through His
Spirit from hour to hour in the blessing and sanctifying of every circumstance
and change.” (Westcott’s commentary on John 14:1-3)
Concerning Eternal Life: Kirsopp Lake said that physical resurrection is an incredibility
but that the Society for Psychical Research might be able to demonstrate the
survival of personality by psychic methods.
Demonstration of the survival of personal identity by spiritualistic
methods was the object of the Society for Psychical Research, which Westcott
helped to launch. Thus it came to pass
that the Society for Psychical Research, an engine set in motion by Westcott
and other professors of Divinity at Cambridge, replaced the bible among
liberals as the source of authority on future life.
Further on this subject of life
after death we may quote a statement by Westcott’s pupil, Dean Inge, to
illustrate Westcott’s thinking: “but it
is notorious that even at the present day most people still believe that
Christianity asserts the existence of a geographical heaven and hell. Here the we have a plain case in which
traditional teaching is flatly contradictory to the facts of science which have
been known for centuries, and also ethically revolting”
He then quotes Westcott’s
commentary on John 17:3 in support: “In
considering these phrases we must guard against all conclusions which rest upon
the notions of succession and duration.
Eternal life is not an endless succession of being in time, but being of
which time is not a measure. We have no
powers to grasp the idea except through forms and images of sense. But we must not transfer them as realities
to another order (of existence) (Lake,
Kirsopp, Immortality and the Modern Mind, Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1922 pp. 38-40; Westcott’s commentary on John 17:3; Westcott’s New Bibles,
James H. Sightler, M.D.)
Concerning Incarnation: “The essence of the idea of
the Incarnation lies not in the recognition of a distinct divine person, but in
the personal and final union of the Godhead and humanity… The Divine counsel of
the union of God with man realized in the Incarnation is the foundation of
Revelation” (The Gospel of the
Resurrection of 1866)
“The Incarnation if commonly made to depend on the
Fall…the conceivableness of the Incarnation lies in the thought of what man was
originally made, and not in what he became through his self-assertion…Man did
not lose the image of God by the Fall.
His essential nature still remained capable of union with God, but it
was burdened and hampered. And
further: “We believe that the
Incarnation would have been necessary for the fulfillment of man’s destiny even
if he had perfectly followed the divine law” (Westcott,B.F. op.cit.,History
Faith, p.250-51, Christus Consummator, p.104,116,118., Historic Faith,p.66)
SAMPLE GREEK SOURCE COMPARISIONS AND SOME RESULTING ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
OF MARK 9:44-47
MAJORITY GREEK SOURCES
KJV
Source Textus Receptus/Original Tongues (more than 90-95% manuscript agreement)
Majority Text
additions
Mk 9:44: οπου
ο σκωληξ αυτων
ου τελευτα και
το πυρ ου σβεννυται
Mk 9:45: και εαν ο
πους σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
αποκοψον αυτον
καλον εστιν σοι εισελθειν
εις την ζωην
χωλον η τους
δυο ποδας εχοντα
βληθηναι εις
την γεενναν εις το πυρ
το ασβεστον
Mk 9:46: οπου
ο σκωληξ αυτων
ου τελευτα και
το πυρ ου σβεννυται
Mk 9:47: και εαν ο
οφθαλμος σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
εκβαλε αυτον
καλον σοι εστιν
μονοφθαλμον
εισελθειν εις
την βασιλειαν
του θεου η δυο
οφθαλμους
εχοντα
βληθηναι εις την γεενναν
του πυρος
(1991 Byzantine/Majority
Text)
Mk 9:44: οπου ο
σκωληξ αυτων
ου τελευτα και
το πυρ ου σβεννυται
Mk 9:45: και εαν ο
πους σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
αποκοψον αυτον
καλον εστιν σοι εισελθειν
εις την ζωην
χωλον η τους
δυο ποδας εχοντα
βληθηναι εις
την γεενναν εις το πυρ
το ασβεστον
Mk 9:46: οπου
ο σκωληξ αυτων
ου τελευτα και
το πυρ ου σβεννυται
Mk 9:47: και εαν ο
οφθαλμος σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
εκβαλε αυτον
καλον σοι εστιν
μονοφθαλμον
εισελθειν εις
την βασιλειαν
του θεου η δυο
οφθαλμους
εχοντα
βληθηναι εις την γεενναν
του πυρος
(1894 Scrivner Textus
Receptus)
Mk 9:44: οπου ο
σκωληξ αυτων
ου τελευτα και
το πυρ ου σβεννυται
Mk 9:45: και εαν ο
πους σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
αποκοψον αυτον
καλον εστιν σοι εισελθειν
εις την ζωην
χωλον η τους
δυο ποδας εχοντα
βληθηναι εις
την γεενναν εις το πυρ
το ασβεστον
Mk 9:46: οπου
ο σκωληξ αυτων
ου τελευτα και
το πυρ ου σβεννυται
Mk 9:47: και εαν ο
οφθαλμος σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
εκβαλε αυτον
καλον σοι εστιν
μονοφθαλμον
εισελθειν εις
την βασιλειαν
του θεου η δυο
οφθαλμους
εχοντα
βληθηναι εις την γεενναν
του πυρος
(1550 Stephanus Textus
Receptus)
Mark 9:44-47
KJV (KING JAMES VERSION) ENGLISH TRANSLATION
(“Received Majority Text”, Textus Receptus)
[44] Where their worm
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
[45] And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter
halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that
never shall be quenched:
[46] Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
[47] And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire:
NIV
Source Westcott and Hort (less than 5% total manuscript agreement) Minority Text words additions
Mk 9:44: (omitted)
Mk 9:45: και εαν ο
πους σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
αποκοψον αυτον
καλον εστιν σε
εισελθειν εις
την ζωην χωλον
η τους δυο
ποδας εχοντα
βληθηναι εις
την γεενναν
Mk 9:46: (omitted)
Mk 9:47: και εαν ο
οφθαλμος σου
σκανδαλιζη σε
εκβαλε αυτον
καλον σε εστιν
μονοφθαλμον
εισελθειν εις
την βασιλειαν
του θεου η δυο
οφθαλμους
εχοντα
βληθηναι εις
γεενναν
(1881 Westcott and Hort)
Mark 9:44-47 NIV (NEW INTERNATION VERSION) ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
(Notice verses 44 and 46 are omitted as with Westcott and
Hort’s Greek)
[44] (omitted)
[45] And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It
is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown
into hell.[1]
[46] (omitted)
[47]And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It
is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two
eyes and be thrown into hell,
NIV Footnote [45] Some manuscripts hell, [46] where "`their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” (2 PETER 2: 1-3)
“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (REVELATION 22: 16-20)
A Sample of 300+ Changes in Modern Texts: http://www.wtlministry.org/articles/Doctrinechanges.htm
“HOW BAD CAN IT GET?”: http://www.wtlministry.org/articles/howbadcanitget.htm
Source: Way Truth
Life Ministry http://www.wtlministry.org/articles