An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture
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''An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture'' is a dissertation by the English mathematician and scholar
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
. This was sent in a letter to
John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
on 14 November 1690. In fact, Newton may have been in dialogue with Locke about this issue much earlier. While living in France, Locke made a journal entry, dated 20 December 1679, where he indicates that while visiting the library at
Saint-Germain-des-Prés Saint-Germain-des-Prés () is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the no ...
he saw: Newton's work also built upon the textual work of Richard Simon and his own research. The text was first published in English in 1754, 27 years after his death. The account claimed to review all the textual evidence available from ancient sources on two disputed Bible passages: 1 John 5:7 and 1 Timothy 3:16. Newton describes this letter as "an account of what the reading has been in all ages, and what steps it has been changed, as far as I can hitherto determine by records",''An Historical Account'', p. 1 and "a criticism concerning a text of Scripture".''An Historical Account'', p. 2 He blames "the Roman church" for many abuses in the world and accuses it of "
pious fraud Pious fraud is used to describe fraud in religion or medicine. A pious fraud can be counterfeiting a miracle or falsely attributing a sacred text to a biblical figure due to the belief that the " end justifies the means", in this case the end of in ...
s". He adds that "the more learned and quick-sighted men, as
Luther Luther may refer to: People * Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation * Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement * Luther (give ...
,
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
,
Bullinger Heinrich Bullinger (18 July 1504 – 17 September 1575) was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a pastor at the Grossmünster. One of the most important leaders of the Swiss R ...
,
Grotius Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...
, and some others, would not dissemble their knowledge". Newton's work on this issue was part of a larger effort of scholars studying the Bible and finding that, for example, the opinion that Trinity is not found in the original manuscripts in explicit view. Such scholarship was suppressed, and Newton kept his discoveries private.


1 John 5:7

In the
King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
of the
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
, 1 John 5:7 reads: Using the writings of the early
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
, the
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and
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manuscripts and the testimony of the earliest extant manuscripts of the Bible, of the Bible, Newton claims to have demonstrated that the words "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one", that support the
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
doctrine, did not appear in the original Greek Scriptures. He then attempts to demonstrate that the purportedly spurious reading crept into the Latin versions, first as a
marginal note Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margin (typography), margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, gloss (annotation), glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminated manuscript, ...
, and later into the text itself. He noted that "the Æthiopic,
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,
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,
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,
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and Slavonic versions, still in use in the several Eastern nations, Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Eastern European
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,
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,
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, and some others, are strangers to this reading". He argued that it was first taken into a Greek text in 1515 by
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. Finally, Newton considered the sense and context of the verse, concluding that removing the
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makes "the sense plain and natural, and the argument full and strong; but if you insert the testimony of 'the Three in Heaven' you interrupt and spoil it." Today most versions of the Bible are from the Critical Text and omit this verse, or retain it as only a marginal reading. However, some argue that the verse is not a later corruption.


1 Timothy 3:16

The shorter portion of Newton's dissertation was concerned with 1 Timothy 3:16, which reads (in the
King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
): Newton argued that, by a small alteration in the Greek text, the word "God" was substituted to make the phrase read "God was manifest in the flesh" instead of "which was manifested in the flesh". He attempted to demonstrate that early Church writers in referring to the verse knew nothing of such an alteration. This change increases textual support for
trinitarianism The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...
, a doctrine to which Newton did not subscribe. There is evidence that the original Greek read but was modified by the addition of a strikethrough to become (see the excerpt from the Codex Sinaiticus, above). was then assumed to be a contraction of . The biblical scholar Metzger explains, "no uncial (in the first hand) earlier than the eighth or ninth century ..supports ; all ancient versions presuppose or ; and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading of ." In other words, Bible manuscripts closest to the said 'who' and not 'God' in verse 16.


Summary of both passages

Newton concludes: "If the ancient churches in debating and deciding the greatest mysteries of religion, knew nothing of these two texts, I understand not, why we should be so fond of them now the debates are over." With minor exceptions, it was only in the nineteenth century that Bible translations appeared changing these passages. Modern versions of the Bible from the Critical Text usually omit the addition to 1 John 5:7, but some place it in a footnote, with a comment indicating that "it is not found in the earliest manuscripts". Modern translations of 1 Timothy 3:16 following the Critical Text now typically replace "God" with "He" or "He who", while the literal Emphasized has "who". A number of papers in the years following responded to Newton, notably John Berriman in 1741, who had seen at least some of Newton's text prior to publication. Later, Frederick Nolan in 1815, Ebenezer Henderson in 1830 and John William Burgon in the Revision Revised in 1883 all contributed substantially to the verse discussion.


Historical background

Newton did not publish these findings during his lifetime, likely due to the political climate. Those who wrote against the doctrine of the
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
were subject to persecution in England. The
Blasphemy Act 1697 The Blasphemy Act 1697 (9 Will 3 c 35) was an Act of the Parliament of England. It made it an offence for any person, educated in or having made profession of the Christian religion, by writing, preaching, teaching or advised speaking, to deny ...
made it an offence to deny one of the persons of the Trinity to be God, punishable with loss of office and employment on the first occasion, further legal ramifications on the second occasion, and imprisonment without hope for bail on the third occasion. Newton's friend
William Whiston William Whiston (9 December 166722 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to inst ...
(translator of the works of
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
) lost his professorship at
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for this reason in 1711. In 1693 a pamphlet attacking the Trinity was burned by order of the
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, and the next year its printer and author were prosecuted. In 1697
Thomas Aikenhead Thomas Aikenhead ( bapt. 28 March 1676 – 8 January 1697) was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy under the Act against Blasphemy 1661 and Act against Blasphemy 1695. ...
, an eighteen-year-old student charged with denying the Trinity, was
hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
at
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, Scotland. The dissertation was published in 1754.John Locke Manuscripts – Chronological Listing: 1690
/ref>


See also

*
Isaac Newton's religious views Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) was considered an insightful and erudite theologian by his Protestant contemporaries. NGLISH & LATINTrinitarianism in the Church Fathers Debate exists as to whether the earliest Church Fathers in Christian history believed in the doctrine of the Trinity – the Christian doctrine that God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons sharing ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* John Berrima
Theos ephanerōthē en sarki (romanized form) or A critical dissertation upon 1 Tim. iii. 16:
wherein rules are laid down to distinguish in various readings which is genuine : an account is given of above a hundred Greek manuscripts of St. Paul's Epistles (many of them not heretofore collated) : the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers and the ancient versions are examin'd and the common reading of that text, God was manifest in the flesh, is prov'd to be the true one : being the substance of eight sermons preach'd at the Lady Moyer's lecture in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London, in the years 1737 and 1738
''The History of the Works of the Learned''
1741 p. 29–144 (A very readable review of the John Berriman book that goes chapter by chapter.) * Ebenezer Henderso
''The Great Mystery of Godliness Incontrovertible;''
''or, Sir Isaac Newton and the Socinians foiled in the attempt to prove a corruption in the text, 1 Tim. III. 16, heòs ephanerōthē en sarki containing a review of the charges brought against the passage; an examination of the various readings; and a confirmation of that in the received text on principles of general and biblical criticism '', 1830 * John William Burgo
''Revision Revised''
"GOD was manifested in the flesh" Shown to be the true reading of 1 Timothy III.16 A Dissertation, 1883 p. 424–501


External links


''An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture: in A Letter To A Friend''
Google Books (digitised from
Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...
's copy of John Green's 1841 printing of the 1785 publication by
Samuel Horsley Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal So ...
)
Various drafts and copies of the ''Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture'' and related material
The Newton Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture Biblical criticism 17th-century Christian texts Works by Isaac Newton 1690 books 1754 books Books published posthumously