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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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* % pi < rro $ 0 $ EtpavBpwQvj . The same writer also adds—Ov % srzpov ro rtjg"sVfTE ^ si OLg { JL tKrryjfnQv , y j avtog y } u , wv o sx roo Oeov TtctTpos ^ ° y °$ 9 0 ? £ < pxv £ pwQy } m Those ancient authors then , with absolute certainty , read 8 eo $ ; and the variety and high antiquity of their copies , set at nought all subsequent copies that may read otherwise . —I have taken the above passages from Griesbach ' s own note , I shall next take a final review of the arguments which justify the common text in Acts xx . 28 . It is usual in all ancient authors
to omit the principal subject of discourse . Or the nominative case , when the action expressed by the verb , or the frequent recurrence of the agent , sufficiently explains who that agent is . Of this I shall insert two instances : Ye kriow that he appeared that he might take away our sins / ' 1 John iii . 5 . In the original the nominative case expressed by the English he is omitted , nor does it occur in any of the preceding verses , and yet no one can be for a moment at a loss that Jesus Christ i& meant . Thus again iii , 16 ; cc In this we have knowji his love , that he laid down his life for us . " Here , again , he is with , out a reference , and yet the subject of the discourse is most evu dent . In the same manner we
are to understand the language of Paul : " -Feed the church of God , which he secured with his blood . " A reader of Greek , unacquainted with modern languages , would , if there were no nominative case
immediately , or at a distance , look to the drift of tbe writer , and more particularly to the meaning and termination of the
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verb . He would know that a noun obliquely and accidentally introduced to define the object of a verb in a preceding , has no necessary connection with a verb in the subsequent clause . But a reader of English or any other modern language is betrayed to think otherwise . For he is aU ways a substitute for some person preceding it , and consequently his attention is withdrawn from
the meaning of the verb as the means of sugg ^^ ag the agent , and directed backwards to a noun going before .- Thus he in the above verse is taken to refer to God ; whereas in the original , ? ov * beov has no more relation to t 7 repL 6 iroirja'ocro than if it recurred only in the beginning of Genesis . If such relation in any passage of any author can be pointed out * it is only accidental , and by no
means rendered necessary by tlie rules of grammar . This is one striking instance , in which tlic genius of modern languages is -a latent source of error in criticising Greek authors . The two following passages shew that modern a $$ » r ciations in this respect are to be
entirely disregarded ; and they are cases exactly in point with the disputed verse , 1 John ii . 5 , Qi Whosoever shall keep his wordj in him truly the love of God \ p > made perfect . By this we koowf that we are in him . He who say ? that he continues in him ough £ to walk as he also walked . " Here according to strict construction he refers to God . But it is certain
that it relates to Christ , who is not mentioned by name excepting m the beginning of the chapter . Again , iii . 2 . Ci BeloyecJ noyr we are sons of God , it bath not yet appeared what we shall bv ^
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Mr . John Jones on the Controversy on Acts xx . 28 . 123
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1814, page 123, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2437/page/51/
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