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Untitled Article
This language seemed to make some impression , and he undertook to convince me of my error , by running over a great quantity of texts of scripture , which ,, I observed , was a thing very
easily done , and however it might take with a congregation , could not weigh at all with real lovers of truth . \ Ve went then more deliberately to the work , taking one at a time : he beginning with the first , namely ; There are three that bear
record in heaven , the Father , the Word , and the Holy Ghost , and these tlm-je are one . You know Sir , be said , that these are the words of scripture . Indeed Sir , I do not . Not know it ! you surprise me ; it is a verse in St . John ' s third epistle . I know , [ replied , that such a verse is said to be in John ' s third eoistle , but I do not believe that John ever wrote it . Then
said he , you might as well say that John did not write the other verses , and we shall , by going on this way , have no scriptures at all . Not so , 1 replied , because you have a bad guinea , it does not follow that there are no good guineas ; but , if there are bad p-uineas abroad , you will take care to know the
good from the bad . St . John , I repeat it ^ never wrote that verse . But how came it in the bible then ? he said . Many learned men believe John to have written that verse , and I never saw a Testament , whether Greek or English , without that verse in it . That may be I replied , but I have seen many Testaments without it , and I have a Greek Testament myself , in which it is not . In the British Museum is a famous
manuscript witholit it , and in fact there is not one Greek manuscript which has it , unless the manuscript was written lately . The newspapers also inform us of a strong' fact , to corroborate the truth of what I assert . Mr . Buchanan , a Trinitarian clenjvman , has lately visited the Hindoo Christians , on the coast of Malabar , who have manuscripts of the New Testament in the Svriac language of a very old date , and in
none of these manuscripts is this pretended verse to be found . He did not know how this might be , said my companion ^ but he could not believe , that the men who translated the bible into En <> lish , would have suffered it to be m , unless thev were cer ~ tain , that it ought to be printed , for they were men of great learning , and we had no one of greater learning in these times . I did not assent to the latter proposition , and was asked , what
man alive had so much learning ? I replied , Professor Porson , the Creek professor of Cambridge , has ' more learning than all the translators put together . He has investigated the authority of this verse , he declares it to be spurious . So did Sir Lsaao Newton . So did Mr . Emlyn . Griesbach has struck it out ok
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5 83 A Theological Conversation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1807, page 582, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2386/page/18/
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