Heresies of Westcott and Hort - Softcover

Waite, D. A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568480148 ISBN 13: 9781568480145

Publisher: Old Paths Publications, Inc, 2008

Synopsis

This book reveals the unorthodox beliefs of Westcott and Hort who are the men most responsible for the 'new' Greek text that underlies the 'new' bible versions. Their heterodoxy blinded their intellects, and prejudiced them adversely and unfairly in their textual theories of the Greek New Testament. This book contains 125 direct quotations of Westcott and Hort from 1,291 pages as contained in five books by both men.

About this title

About the Author

The author of this book, Dr. D. A. Waite, received a B.A. degree in classical Greek and Latin from the University of Michigan in 1948, a Th.M. degree, with high honors, in New Testament Greek Literature and Exegesis from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1952, an M.A. degree in Speech from Southern Methodist University in 1953, a Th.D., with honors, in Bible Exposition from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1955, and a Ph.D. in Speech from Purdue University in 1961. He holds both New Jersey and Pennsylvania teacher certificates in Greek and Language Arts.

He has been a teacher in the areas of Greek, Hebrew, Bible, Speech, and English for over thirty-five years in nine schools, including one junior high, one senior high, three Bible institutes, two colleges, two universities, and one seminary. He served his two churches; was chairman and director of the Radio and Audio-Film Commission of the American Council of Christian Churches; since 1971, has been founder, president, and director of The Bible for Today; since 1978, has been president of the Dean Burgon Society; has produced over 700 other studies, books, cassettes, or video cassettes on various topics; and is heard on both a five-minute daily and thirty-minute weekly radio program In Defense of Traditional Bible Texts, presently on 25 stations.

Dr. and Mrs. Waite have been married since 1948; they have four sons, one daughter, and, at present, eight grandchildren.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

[This selection is from Chapter 1-Background Information.] Before beginning the analysis of the THEOLOGICAL HERESIES OF WESTCOTT AND HORT, I want to cover a few introductory matters which form a part of the background information for this study.

A. WHY STUDY WESTCOTT AND HORT'S THEOLOGICAL HERESIES? You might be asking the question, "Why should we study the theological heresies of Westcott and Hort" This is a good question. First of all, it must be understood that Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott and Professor Fenton John Anthony Hort were the prime movers in the construction of an elaborate, yet fictitious, system of New Testament Greek TEXTUAL CRITICISM leading to an abandonment of the RECEIVED NEW TESTAMENT GREEK TEXT in favor of a REVISED NEW TESTAMENT GREEK TEXT. This text, in turn, formed the basis for the 1881 ENGLISH REVISED VERSION (E.R.V.).

If these two Anglican Churchmen are found to have espoused various and sundry THEOLOGICAL HERESIES, then, most assuredly, those fundamen- talists and even neo-evangelicals today should know about it, especially those who have accepted all or part of the WESTCOTT and HORT system of manuscript authority. This system is a worship of two documents, the Vatican ("B") and the Sinai ("Aleph.") It is makes use of an introspective subjectivism in dealing with the verbally and plenarily inspired and hence inerrant and infallible Word of God. If, however, it can be shown that WESTCOTT and HORT were fundamentalists and Bible-believers without so much as a taint of HERESY or of APOSTASY, then this is a different matter. If a FUNDAMENTALIST is following a HERETIC, he should know about it, should he not? So, there is an INFORMATIONAL REASON for such a study at the very least.

B. WHAT IF WESTCOTT AND HORT HAD THEOLOGICAL HERESIES, SO WHAT? Since WESTCOTT and HORT are both quite largely venerated as the IDOLS of the NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM WORLD, and since these two men (principally HORT, however) were the inventors of a doctored Greek Text made up largely from their worship of the Vatican ("B") and the Sinai ("Aleph") Manuscripts, this gives these two men great prominence in the New Testament Greek field. Now it is to be recognized that many N. T. textual critics today have discarded some of the WESTCOTT-HORT fabric of error. This does NOT, however, take away the importance historically of these men in building enough of a fire under the Received Text (Textus Receptus) on which the King James Version was built to the extent of seeking to REPLACE that text with their own MINORITY GREEK TEXT. The MOTIVES of men who handle the Word of God are most important--especially, when they have taken the "scholarly" world practically by storm since their 1881 Greek New Testament was published both in Greek, and in the E.R.V. form. If they believed doctrines which the Bible does not teach, and hence if they have held HERESIES in their theology, then their MOTIVES must be taken into consideration. Westcott and Hort threw out over 99% (over 5,210) of the extant Greek Manuscripts and evidence for the Greek New Testament in favor of retaining less than 1% (about 45 manuscripts) of that extant evidence. They had a major stress on two manuscripts, the Vatican ("B") and the Sinai ("Aleph"). Whenever these two are in conflict, as they are in over 3,000 places in the Gospels alone, Westcott and Hort always exalted the Vatican ("B"). This has been documented in Herman Hoskier's Codex B and its Allies (BFT #1643 for a gift of $46.00 +S&H). Though it is impossible to examine MOTIVES in a definitive manner, one thing is certain: if a man is a HERETIC in his views of theology, he is not particularly interested in handing a Bible-believing theological FUNDAMENTALIST a Bible that backs up that fundamentalist theology. In fact, he is not even interested in promulgating a text which is the closest to the original autographs. He doesn't really care about the EXACT WORDING, SPELLING, AND PHRASING OF THE BIBLE, because he denies that the Bible was VERBALLY INSPIRED and INERRANT AND INFALLIBLE in the original writings. A man's theology determines how he deals with God's Word.

C. WESTCOTT AND HORT'S HERESIES CONTRAST WITH JOHN BURGON'S SOUNDNESS. There is a marked contrast with the theological HERESIES of Westcott and Hort and the theological soundness of Dean John William Burgon--the great Anglican author, scholar, and champion of the Traditional Text, or Received Text, and opponent of the phony Westcott and Hort Text of the Greek New Testament. A picture of Dean Burgon, a conservative Anglican minister, is found on page ii with the dates of his life. By way of contrast, the pictures of Bishop Westcott and Professor Hort, two liberal Anglican ministers, are found on page iii.

Edition details

• Publisher: Old Paths Publications, Inc
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568480148
• ISBN 13: 9781568480145
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 84