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cious men who hold me forth as faithtess and a perverter of the Sacred Writings . But in such an undertaking' I neither dread the malice of rivals , nor shall I withhold the truth of the Holy Scriptures from those . who demand it . "
The adversaries of the verse were aware that , if this preface were allowed to be genuine , they could not well dispute the genuineness of John ' s text . They therefore suppose it to
be spurious , the production of a later age , though it carries in itself unequivocal marks of authenticity beyond any document to be found in ancient records . It is brief indeed and
summary , but it is full of solid matter , which , like the aged oak , the monarch of the forest , strikes its roots deep and strong into the circumstances of Jerome ' s life . The attacks of Griesbach and Porson have , it is true , stripped it of its reputation ; but it still stands and will for ever stand :
and its branches , though now shattered and rendered bare by their unhallowed blasts , will again recover their integrity and firmness , and descend to future ages , covered with the imperishable verdure of truth .
Griesbach , in his diatribe , quoted the prologue , but has omitted the words I have put in italics , though they supply some important facts which place the authenticity of the
piece beyond all reasonable doubt . This omission is a stain upon his memory , as it shews that he was either careless or ignorant , or capable of dealing unfairly with his readers . The Greek Professor has not cited
the original prologue , but favours us only with the following flourishing comment upon it : " Ac the request or command of Damasus , Jerome revised the Latin translation , and
corrected it upon the faith of the Greek manuscripts Did he , therefore , replace the three Heavenly Witnesses at this revision or not ? If he did , why did he not then write his preface to inform the world of his recovered
reading ? But after Damasus was dead , Eustochium , it seems , a younglady at once devout , handsome and learned , requests him once more to revise the Catholic epistles and correct them from the Greek , Jerome undertakes the task ; and having completed it , advertises her in this pro-
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logue , that other inaccurate translators had omitted the testimony of the three Heavenly Witnesses , the strongest proof of the Catholic faith . Such
a story carries its own condemnation upon its forehead . " P . 289 . In reply to this I beg the readers of the Repository to weigh well the following facts .
1 . Here Mr . Porson was betrayed into a gross error by a state of mind which evidently disqualified him to come at the truth . He takes it for granted that Jerome had finished his task before the death of his patron , and that the restoration of the three
Heavenly Witnesses was the consequence of another revision required by Eustochium ; whereas Damasus had been dead some years before the critic took in hand the Catholic Epistles .
The story therefore , instead of carrying its own condemnation upon its forehead , carries in it the assurance of its genuineness , because it arises from circumstances peculiar to the author which the Professor had not
the sagacity to discover . The piece being addressed to Eustochium , I grant , gives it , at first view , the appearance of fiction . But when it is considered , that this " Virgin of
Christ" was a lady of rank as well as of piety and learning ; that she is mentioned by Jerome in scores of places ; that the history of her life is interwoven with his writings ; that it is even to her he addresses his
Treatise De Virgmitate , the appearance of fiction , which a forger would be careful to avoid , must give way to the reality of truth , which usually forces itself , unsought , on the attention of every genuine writer , though it might occasion some suspicion of forgery in a reader unacquainted with all the circumstances of the case .
2 . The indefatigable zeal of Jerome in the noblest and the most useful of all causes , namely , the comparing the best original MISS ., and correcting by them the various versions of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures , brought down upon him the envy and opposition of his rivals . Rufinus asks him ,
" Who of all the great and wise men that preceded thee , dared to put his hand to this undertaking ? Wilt thou presume to change the books of the Holy Scriptures which the Apostles delivered to tke churches of ChrUt
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Ben David on 1 John v * 7 . 215
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 215, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/27/
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