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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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t game terra of blessing * , adopts the same ellipsis , 2 Cor . i . 3 : « Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . ' And Peter , 1 Pet i . 3 : < Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . **
From the circumstance of blessed being the first word in these sentences , it is urg * ed that the passage under consideration cannot be a doxology to the Father . But there , are two obvious reasons for the different positions of the words * God is here accompanied with an epithet , and blessed with a term of endless duration .
Now He who is over all , God > has more of titular emphasis , when placed first in the sentence , than if the words ran 6 blessed be God , he , who is over all ; * and as the term blessed cannot be disjoined from the words for ever , which most emphatically
close the sentence , it is of necessity placed * towards the ead . The propriety of this arrangement will appear evident , if the words be read in the sequence for which the objectors contend : ' Blessed for ever be God , who is over all . Arnen . *
" The passage , then , restored to its just coherence , will run thus : 6 Whose are the Fathers , and of whom was the Christ according * to the flesh ; he who is over all , Qod , or God who is over all , be blessed for ever . Amen . * This * troublesome
passage for Unitarians' was thus understood by Bttcer & . nd Erasmus , who were both Trinitarians : '—Pp . 22—25 . On John viii . 58 , where , say the Trinitarians , Jesus asserts himself to be Jehovah , the Author has these sensible and satisfactory observations :
** It is affirmed that Christ here expressly declares himself ' the I am : * because , in Exod . iii . 14 , Gpn said unto Moses I am that I am : and he said , thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel , I am hath sent me unto you . ' '
u expression of John occurs twice before in the same chapter , and in each instance is rendered , according to the received version , * I ain he : ver . 24 , If ye believe not that I am he [ I am ] , ye shall die in your sins : ' ver . 28 , * When ye have lifted up the Son of Many then shall ye know that I mn he [ I am ] .
u translators therefore should , in consistency , hav < e rendered the words in the verse quoted , * Before Abraham was , I am he ? for it is plain they were well ttware that the argument , which runs
throug-h tibe whole chapter , is the tine Messiahskip of Jksus ; that the verse in question is closely end logically connected with all the preceding verses ; and thai , on esrery principle of criticism , the three * ffcws should he rendered alike . The canseioustiess of 6 hi& inevitable conclusion
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has led some Trinitarians to correct the two former English reading's by tlie latter , instead olFthe latter by the former ; and to render the words , with verbal literality , 4 ye believe not that / am ye shall die , ' and * ye shall know that I am : $ a thfjfr the whole dialogue , instead of
being-occupied with the declarations of Jesus respecting- his being the Christ that should come , is made to tarn on the fact of his being the very Jehovah who spoke to Moses . Unfortunately for this hypothesis , Je # pg speaks of himself , in this discourse , as c proceeding * forth from'' that God , which God it is said that he announces himself
to be , and that he styles himself < the Son . * This will , indeed , be evaded by the common Trinitarian subterfuge , that the Father includes in himself all the three persons , by which he is made to be his own Son ; but it is only necessary to read the chapter , in order to be satisfied that
such a declaration was not the purpose of Jesus , and has nothing whatever to do with his argument , which is strictly confined to his being * * He that should come . The verbal trifling * of this famous argument for the supreme deity of the Son of God is almost below criticism ; for had Jesus meant to have declared himself
Jehovah ) he would have used the words , * I AM THE I AM . ' u Thus far the question has been agitated an the evidence of the translated text : it is to this , in fact , that the Trinitarians usually make their appeal ; and it is this which gives them an advantag-e with
the people , whom they are in the habit of persuading , that nonfe can question the infallibility of the Bible translation without a mischievous design ; and that no text must be touched , even if it be
acknowledged spurious . On referring * to the orig-inal text in the Septuagint ^ find the version accurate as to its spirit ; but we discover that the supporters of the above argument , in contending" that Jehovah uses the same literal words as those
used by Jesus , have stooped to deceive the multitude by a wilful misrepresentation . The words in Exodus are , I am the One that is : ' eyco et /> u 6 cov . c Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel ^ he that is hath sent me unto you . '
" The words I am , in the Greek as well as in the Latin , have often the force of the past time . The expressions of Jesus might properly bo rendered , ' Before Abraham was , I was , * or * I was he / and so in the two other instances : c if ye believe not . 4 . 1— - ^ A . ~ m Yvr a o * I Ik j-v 1 w . r- ^ v « - * !« * t I I * \ a ^ "& ' m mr d ^ £ > m \ « x ¦ m that ( he ) shall die * c shall
I was , ye ; ye know that I was ( he ) j' referring not to a state of existence , which would have no more connexion with the subject of the chapter than a declaration of his supreme divinity , but to his >< eternal appointment as 'the Christ of God . * The version of / am .
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Review—Appeal to Scripture and Tradition * 433
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Vol .. xiv . 3 m
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 433, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/33/
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