Show genuineness OF THE BIBLE we believe the billie to be the nord ord of god as far as it 1 is a translated correctly articles Article 8 of faith faigh the church of jesus christ of latter day saints in common with all christians christiana unhesitatingly acknowledges the divine authority of the books of the bible accept accepting in them as containing the word of god to mankind but this applies of necessity only to the books as they were written by the authors who were under the direct guidance of the spirit while writing As these men wrote their books they contain the word of god and if there be a copy that in every part corresponds with the original this copy too unquestionably contains the word of god in every part the same can be said of the various translations that exist if they in i n every particular give the precise meaning of the original nothing more and nothing less but the full meaning then they also in every part contain the word of god it need however scarcely be pointed out that no na such perfect perfect copies nor any such in infallible translations exist erist anywhere when the church was compelled to flee into the wilderness wildern e m the original writings of the apostles apos ti es were lost too the perfect was golle with the restoration of learning in later ages much faithful labor has been expended upon the work vork of restoring the books of the bible to their original reading in every particular fragments of copies have been gathered and compared to each other and to various paraphrases and quotations innumerable the result of all this labor being that the scriptures we now possess can be proved to be genuine with nearly as much certainty as if the original copies were still extant on entering upon an inquiry into this subject we may at onee once go back to the time when bibles were first printed there are still extant for example printed copies of the old testament in hebrew dated soncino concino 1488 and 1494 the latter from which luther made his german translation is kept in the royal library at berlin and the other is found in the library of exeter college oxford copies of the new testament in greek were printed basel 1516 and in greek and ud latin 1514 on comparing these editions with each other and with modern editions it is found that they very nearly agree no material changes and of such only can be the question have been introduced these years the writings were committed to the immortal custody of the press making eions impossible at the time of the printing of these volumes written copies of the bible were found in most of the public libraries of europe indeed they formed a considerable part of such libraries as has been ascertained from catalogues cataloguer catal belonging to that time one thousand three hundred and sixty four manuscripts containing the old testament have been collated by dr kennicott and de rossi boesl and six hundred manuscripts have been collated for later editions of the new testament here it must be remembered that in determining the text of greek and latin classics twenty or even ten manuscripts are deemed sufficient of herodotus fifteen manuscripts are known to critics and these belong mostly to the tenth century yet no one would question genuineness the of that text in the case of the books of the bible the manuscripts are as already seen much more numerous giving to the biblical student vast advantages in determining the text the books of the bible are also much more ancient than the classical manuscripts A virgil in the vatican rome borne claims to date from the ath century but generally the manuscripts of the classics belong to the period between the letb and the centuries the manuscripts of the hebrew scriptures now extant were mostly written between the years 1000 and 1457 but there are some that belong to the esth and ath centuries manuscripts of the new testaments and of a greek translation of the old the fhe septuagint are old older erstill still the so called codex Alex andrius now in the british museum comprises rises in four volumes small folio ath both the old and the new testament and must have been written before the close of the fifth century the vatican manaseri manu manuscript seri t reserved preserved in the library of tte the vatican vatican rome borne belongs to the fourth as also do probably the codex Cotton ianus lanus in the british museum and codex discovered and published by tischendorf ch codex regius or eph belongs to the sixth and codex beam given by the reformer of that name to the university of cambridge belongs also to the sixth or in the opinion of to tio the fifth century on comparing all these manuscripts with each other it is ascertained that not one single copy exists wb which ich is altogether perfect having preserved in every letter the original reading but it is also ascertained certa ined that no material change in the books of the bible have been made these 1500 years for the manuscripts take us as far back as the ath century after christ As we reach abb time of the earliest manuscripts we must search for evidence from the ecclesiastical writers whose works are still extant such authors have quoted largely from the scriptures and their quotations are always made with great care preserving the words and sentences as they found them in the copies of the inspired books before them their quotations are very numerous dr bentley has proved that from the ecclesiastical sias authors who nourished flourished before the ath century the whole text of the new testament could be recovered although the originals are all lost in not less than ecclesiastical sias writers all belonging to the early age of the church and whose worm works are still extant these quotations are found theodoret of cyrus in syria has written on the epistles of paul and on most of the old testament he flourished in the ath century before him cyril of alexandria wrote on the pr Prep heta and on john chrysostom in ie tiie the ath century wrote his commentaries on the whole of the new testa ment in the 2nd and and ard 3rd centuries we meet with the writings of origen and only fragments of these writings however now remain irenaeus Iren ceus Beus and clement of alexandria Alexandri aure are also noted writers of the 2nd and century we can thus trace the books of the new testament as far back as years after cli christ rist and ascertain that their contents then were materially the same as now the old testament we can trace still farther back the of On kelos translates the pentateuch into hebrew of the purest order about sixty years before christ the of jonathan on the prophets and historical books is supposed to have been written about the commencement of our era ancient versions of the scriptures corroborate the evidence of the genuineness of the new testament and carry that of the old still farther back A version of the bible of great critical value was published in the jtb century in the slavonic or russian tongue in the ath century a version of f the whole bible in georgian was completed in the fifth century mies rot the inventor of the armenian alphabet superintended super intended a publication of the bible into armenian A gothic version a copy of which though defective is found in the library of the university of upsala kupsala and which was made by bishop Ul philas also belongs to the fifth century in the third and fourth centuries the whole of the new testament and parts of the old were translated into coptic the language of lower egypt for the use of egyptian also in the language of upper egypt in the fourth century we find a traD translation in the language then spoken in the modern abyssinia none of these translations lat lations iono however are known to have been made from the original writ pings ings of the inspired authors several were made from the septuagint some from the Syria cand and a few from the latin vulgate this vulgate is a translation of the bible into latin made by jerome about the year A D part of it including the new testament is taken from an older latin version known as the old italic which is quoted by but the greater part jerome translated from the hebrew it is the first book ever printed and although its present text is very corrupt it is considered by the catholic church superior to the greek and hebrew versions now extant the or literal syriac version of the hebrew and greek sc lp ip tures is thought to belong to the first century it was in general use among the syrian churches in the year this version is as its name implies deiy literal and as such is of great critical value other ancient versions were made by Symma aquila and the seventy origen possessed the whole of these A D he copied them all in his so called or six columned bible and wrote the hebrew text in both he brew and greek letters this gi gantic work of origen formed altogether fifty volumes volum ep but was un luckily lost probably at the sacking of cesarea by the saracens saracena Sara cens A B D fortunately eusebius had copied the colum coluin which contained the septuagint together with the corrections made by origen this Euse eusebius blus copy was published by montfaucon Mont faucon at paris 1714 the version of the seventy the septuagint is the most ancient cfall of all it was from the first generally received both by jews and christians and is frequently quoted by writers odthe of the new testament as authentic even where its reading varies from the hebrew it is thought to have been completed years before christ a writer who represents himself as a friend of the egyptian king ptolemy ius says that this version was made by seventy two jews six of each tribe they are said to have completed their work in seventy two days miraculous interposition ter position and infallibility are also claimed for this version by the early writers here our traces are lost we can go no further back with historical certainty in the case of the new testament we have gone as far back as years after christ and in that of the old testament as far as years before christ that at that time many hebrew and greek manuscripts were extant of a much morean more ancient clent date no scholar will deny only they have been destroyed or otherwise made inaccessible to us our bibles therefore are not the ilen identical copies penned by the inspired authors nor are they second hand copied immediately from the first manuscripts the text of our present bible is the result of a comparison between hundreds of from each other slightly varying manuscripts versions and quotations learned men have carefully on strictly scientific principles rejected all that could be proved to be spurious and filled in all that could be proved to be genuine as far as this possibly could be ascertained our bible translations today are very faithful translations of this purified greek or hebrew scripture text it has already been stated that thousands of manuscripts have been examined in order to form a correct text these manuscript are all more or less erroneous although the errors very seldom affect the sense materially it may help to form a correct idea of the nature of the discrepancies if a few examples are submitted in genesis 14 5 some MSS read with them behem instead of in ham becham in kings 1 I 18 the english version has and now ve veatta delatta latta but marly many manuscripts read and thou veatta in jonah 1 9 1 I 1 am aill a is the reading of most MSS mso but others have 1 I ana am the antof jehovah ival J 1 ephesians iv 19 some MSS have past hope instead of past feeling I 1 peter 1 ii 3 1 if so be ye have tasted that the lord is gracious should according to some be that the lord is christ chrestos gracious has been adopted instead of the greek Chrls christos tos sometimes a misspelling made in a MS 96 seems to have been purposely re r bained throughout thustle thus the hebrew hebreo word for a boyna boy na for a gi na ar twenty one times in the tb f pentateuch and sometimes co copyist have added to the text in order to make it conform to a parallel paa sage as seemed good to the copyist the expression to heal the broke brokenhearted 2 hear teti 11 luke iv 18 is probable taken from isaiah axi bans land inse inser inserter teu into the gospel by someone abo w wished to improve the text some passages have been wilfully abter altered to serve party purposes in deuter onomy nomy 4 the hebrew bo a ebal I 1 but the samaritan c change arleed this into gerasim Geri Gerl sim no doubt in ot or der to find a ground for erecting erecting tem temple ae on the mount gerasim Geri sim jug judges g 8 30 manasseh Ma naseeb of 10 s written in many MSS instead moses the idea being barea 1110 to save the honor of moses and v family isaiah iriv 4 has be been enVery v much changed and is as it 00 reads admitted to be 9 it is quoted in 1 corinthians ii if in matthew 1 18 before they ca aj together and the have been omitted in many mi and versions in order to to rid the tn pa P sage of anything that might not faor vor the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of mary 1 john johll v 7 for there are aft three that bear record in heaven the father the word and the he holy ghost and these three are one is found in no DO MSS earlier than ban the fifteenth century and is wanting in all the ancient versions except the latin and is therefore now omitted by all the best critics except mill and bengel the passage ge was evidently forged in favor of i the athanasian tri unity doctrine various readings of these kinds amount rat to many thousands in all it t will be seen that they are as a tule rule very slight and easily accounted tor for the worst manuscript ever written leaves the great fundament tad w truths as aliey were taught by inspired men yet perfection as to the letter there is not and no skill no research no faithfulness can ever restore the identical handwritings that hat have been lost it is true that BU all evidence obtained proves that our ur bibles are very nearly nearly identical with the originals but nearer than that at we cannot come there are passages PBs sages which will probably never be e restored to their original reading others hers have the evidence so nearly equal ual on both sides that it will alays be at the option of the reader to decide which in his judgment is the true one if these indisputable facts be considered well the necessity of a direct ct revelation from god as the begil tuning aning cf f the millennial dis 9 bation will at once appear we oe dve come to the period in our age that unless god himself again has evoked no absolute certainty in i abay important im orting points can be reached ched think think of the situation what can a world without inspired prophets peets and without even the original ginal documents from god do towards awards the ushering in of the egdom of god Is it not self evident to every honest thinking nd that the world today is as helpless pless in its ow own u resources as were the eJe jews ws at the time of the coming of christ when they had been left without out prophets although not without out copies of the ancient sacred writings or a space of about four undred years Is there any other remedy daedy for such a helpless condi n than revelation let the onest answer Onet ne more nore remark when all the f here ere pointed out have been rt y considered I 1 trust it will appear perfectly clear that the words with ith which this paper 0 opens ens we believe geve the bible to be tae the word of ca as far as it is translated cor feuy ng yare are dictated by the spirit of ruth and penned by one who was filled with that spirit J M S |