A guide to the textual criticism of the New Testament - Holy Bible ...

INTRODUCTION.
ment. Enough is shown to establish beyond doubt that
it is the duty of all Christians, who take an intelligent interest
in the controversies of their day, not to sit still when
such concerns are in jeopardy.
Yet at the present time there are comparatively few persons,
clerical or lay, who have an intelligent acquaintance
with the grounds on which this important question rests.
The subject at first sight presents a forbidding aspect to
most minds :—the exceedingly valuable treatises on it are
too full of learning, and too long for such as are not really
students to master :—and the hurry and haste of modern
life demand a simpler mode of treatment.
It is therefore with the hope of presenting the chief
features of Textual Criticism, or such elementary considerations
as are immediately involved in determining
the Greek Text of the New Testament, to readers in a
clear and not uninteresting way, that in deference to the
urgent solicitations of some who enter deeply into the
controversy, the composition of this little treatise has been
undertaken. Inexpressibly dear to all true Christians,
whether they range themselves on the one side or the other,
must be the very expressions,—the sentences, the phrases,
the words, and even the rhythm and the accents,—of the
genuine utterance of the Holy Spirit of God. The general
sentiment of Christianity has applied with
plenary enlargement
the warning given at
the close of the last Book in the
'
Bible against addition or omission.' Let no man add to
the words of the Holy Scriptures or detract anything from
them,' said one of the most renowned of the Fathers.' ' Let
^
Rev. xxii. i8, 19.
' Athanasius, "Ex Festali Epistola," xxxix. (t. ii. p. 39, Eil, Colon).