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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .
sir , London , Oct . 20 , 1808 . I proceed now , in support of the doctrine of the pre-existence of Jefcus Christ , and in my remarks on what Mr . Belsham has
advanced in support of the contrary opinion , to take notice of 2 Cor . viii . p . For * ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christy that though he was richy yet for your sakes he became poor , that ye through his poverty might be rich .
This passage if correctly translated , will I apprehend , be admitted to affirm as a fact , known to the Corinthians at the time this Epistle was written , that Jesus
Christ had been rich , but was divested of those riches ^ and became poor , that through his
poverty they might be made rich ; and it is argued that , as no such change of circumstances appears to have taken place in him while he was here upon earth , the words must refer to a former state of
existence , and consequently are a proof of such a prior state . But in answer to this , Mr . Belsham confidently affirms * , that 4 € The public version docs not give a correct translation of the apostle ' s words . " He then proceeds further to affirm 4 , " That the
words of the apostle express two states , not successive , but simultaneous , not that Christ was Jirst rich cind afterwards became poor but that his riches were contemporary with his poverty . A more extraordinary position than
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this scarcely ever came from the pen of an intelligent writer , involving in it a natural absurdity and an absolute contradiction
i . e . that Jesus Christ was at the same time , in two states so directly opposite each other , that the existence of the one must necessarily exclude that of the other ; that he was rich and not rich , the same time !
In support of the above , Mr . Belsham appeals to the meaning of the original words , " TlXovo-iog a / v , E 7 fl < juKev < rs , literally , " he says " being rich he led a life of poverty . " Could the English reader
possibly imagiiie , and will he not feel the utmost surprise to find , that the sentence , " He led a life of poverty " is here affirmed to be a literal translation of a single Greek verb ? Yet this is the facf .
There is nothing in the original to answer to the words he lived a life of And as to the word poverty we may ask , Can an English noun be a correct translation of a Greek verb ? If it can , there is tin end
to the analogy of languages , and it will be impossible to give the meaning of one language in another . There is nut then any thing in the original to warrant any one word in this literal translation *
except the pronoun . Nor is the rendering of " The Improved Version of the New Testament / ' less foreign to the meaning of the original : While he was rich 9 he lived in poverty . In a m te On the verb ( probably
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( 718 )
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MR . MARSOM S DEFENCE OF THE PRE-EXISTENCF OF CHRIST , IN REPIY TO MR , BELSHAM . LETTER V .
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* Mow Rep . vohii . p . $ % <} . f Ibid .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1808, page 718, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1706/page/26/
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