On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (3)
-
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE.
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Miscellaneous Correspondence.
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE .
Untitled Article
On the Logos . To the Editor . Sir , The respectful letter of your correspondent $ , in the Number for November last , on the Introduction to St . John ' s Gospel , demands from me an attentive reply . Since his letter
appeared , I have carefully reviewed the interpretation which appears to me generally correct ; and I now submit the following paper in the full belief that it will be received candidly by your correspondent , having no higher wish , than , that whether by the adoption or rejection of this interpretation , the proposal of it may serve to promote the interests of truth .
The Reviewer of Upham on the Logos . The introduction to the Gospel of John appears to me one of those portions of Holy Scripture in which we have escaped the truth by attempting to dive too deep . I apprehend that the principal word , about which so much difficulty has been felt , or so much
mystery been imagined , is one which , from the frequency of its occurrence in the New Testament , and our consequent familiarity with its usage , might have been expected to be plain and obvious . Many attempts have been made to explain this remarkable passage of Scripture from foreign sources . We cannot have forgotten the admission of Austin , and of Horsley in modern times , that an acquaintance with the philosophy of
Plato is necessary to tlie right understanding of this part of St . John's Gospel : " 1 never understood the Proem tiJl 1 read Plato . " Others , among' whom is Michaelis , * have conceived that certain erroneous notions of contemporaries were referred to by the Evangelist with a view to refutation ; on which I repeat the sentiment of Lardner , that it would have beeu beneath our Evangelist to have incorporated a refutation of such
* Introduction to the N . T ., Vol . III . 286 . "Ah soon as this dissertation was published ( viz . a Dissertation on the Opinions of the Sect which took its name from John the Baptist ) the obscurity in which St . John ' s Gospel had been involved , was at once dissipated "!
Untitled Article
opinions in a life of his Master ; and I think there is much greater probability in the idea expressed by Dr . Carpenter , ( Unitarianisrn , &c , 3 d ed ., p . 58 , note , ) that the Gnostics , whose opinions are referred to , derived some of their peculiar terms from the apostle himself ; and according to the interpretation
prevalent among Trinitarians , we are obliged , at the outset , to assign to the most important term in the passage , ( upon which the sense of the whole depends , ) a meaning for which , I believe , there is no sufficient authority , aud of which usage no good example can be found throughout the Bible . Now this is obviously a forcible objection to any theory of interpretation . That which I am
about to propose has this great advantage , I believe peculiar to itself , that it adopts that sense of the word Aoyoq which is the seuse that it commonly bears in the scriptural writers . If we can make good sense , then , of the whole passage by this analogical use of the principal term , we seem to be restrained by every rule of common sense and just interpretation from travelling beyond the records of divine revelation to borrow
aid and illustration from other quarters . Now , upon au examination of the term Aoyoq , in a Lexicon to the N . T ., we find the word explained by several terms , such as the following : word , speech , narrative , report , precept , testimony , oracle , promise , threatening , doctrine ,
&c , m which variety of expression , however , it is observable , that one general idea pervades the whole ; and that that one idea comes as near as may be to the idea conveyed by our term word ; an indication of which may be found in the fact , that whereas Schleusuer gives
all these senses to Aoyoq , and more than these , our English Version attempts to express the whole by the one term word . This may shew the propriety of retaining a term in the English translation , the extensive signification of which seems well to correspond with the original .
Hut it is obvious that the circumstances in which this term Aoyoq is very frequently employed , will greatly limit its signification : e . g . when our Saviour says , in his parable of the Sower , Matt , xiii ., " When tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word , by and by
Untitled Article
( 120 )
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 120, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/48/
-