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juent pf the argument fc ^ eueral * an 4 of its bearing on this particular passage ; but ttye conclusion at wbieh I have arrived wiU , I tbini , be strengthened , by adverting for a moment to the other paasag ^ s . % p which its advocates extend * tf According to the received text , there are seven of tbese > but Griesbach reduces them to five : but is it not somewhat
extraordinary , that out of the very small number of instances in which it can be pretended that the title God , is attributed } o Christ in the New Testament , so large a proportion , more than half of the whole , should be dependent on this particular construction ? Why do we not also meet unambiguous phrases , such as " our God Jesus Christ , " or *• the great God Jesus Christ * ' ? But such never
occur . Four out of the five instances occur in Paul ' s acknowledged Epistles j In the whole course of which only one other instance of Christ being called God is even pretended , namely , that in the § th of Romans . Surely there is much
weight in this antecedent presumption against such a usage in these instances , Moreover , in . no less than two out of these four instances Middleton himself is disposed to allow that the position is U ntenable ; viz ., in 2 Thess . h 12 , ycara
tyy % ct $ w tS fys yy . av Kca Kvpta Irjaa Xip / crr £ , and I Tim . v . 21 , wuyiriQv ra 0 £ ff * cu Kjypttt Iti < r 8 Xpiorrff . Aud that he is Tight in waving at least this latter case , ia confirmed by comparing the parallel and unambiguous passage in 2 Tim . iv . 1 , where we have , according to Griesbach ,
CMOttnoy t » t-Mtf xai lycra Xpurr 8 . He allows that these passages are exempted from his rule , on account of the phrase Kuptoi ; l-yrBq XpurThs having become faroiMar , and ran into a sort of proper name ; but the term < rom ) p he thinks has not acquired any such peculiar privileges . This may be very right , but surely amidst such nice distinctions we must fee ! that
we are treading on very slippery ground . In the remaining Pauline instance , namely , in Ephes . v . 5 , iv t 5 j $ a . < rihziq , t 2 ? X fl'r ** * *<*> @ « S * there is something so ap £ U {^ and awkward in the proposed interpretation Referring both titles to Christ , that it ^ appears to me to confute Usqlf , ; ai ) d if so , it becomes another inof the of rule
^ Viuce uncertainty t ^ aa applied * to the ^ Q casea . The last , and ce ^ tajnly in i ^ seljj the , strongest passage , i ^ that iu 2 Pet . i . \; but a ^ it is a pais-^ age ve ^ ed with v arious read ings , and occurs in a book of disputed authority , it has been less insisted ou ^ a , od m ^ y be allowed to stand or fall with its betters .
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Oa t ^ e whole , the iufiuj&ciency of Middle to d ' s argument seems to lie in this , that the terms God and Christ are not like commou assumable attributives , predicable of different subjects , but partat ^ largely of the nature of proper names , belonging almost as exclusively
to certain persoas familiarly knowu as any proper names cojild do . Hence the oniissiou of the article was not felt to give ri . se to ambiguity in cases whqre , had common attributives been used , it undoubtedly would have doue so ; and he ace , iu these cases , the sacred writers appear to have been Negligent of that
accuracy which would otherwise have been requisite , Let us consider well what manner of doctriae it is that la attempted to be built on these subtle criticisms' —nothing less than the deity of one who was born of woman ; a doctrine which sets up an equal and , a rival to the
Eternal Father of the universe , which deprives of all intelligible meaning the capital and fundamental verity of all theology , the Divine Unity , and by direct consequence involves us iu practices which cannot be distinguished from polytheism and idolatry .
It is surely wiser and more innocent to risk an error in a critical nicety , while we adhere to the broad principles of religious truth , than to endanger our stability in these by relying too implicitly on our judgment in things of that nature .
The translators of our commou version appear to have been guided by this feeling in their rendering of these passages ; and I sincerely believe that judicious and impartial students of scripture will long continue to follow the same course . * FILABET .
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414 MUctllunewu Correspondence .
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On the Prophecies of Universal Peace . l ^ ETTKJR III . To the Editor . Sir , It is a fact deeply to be lamented , that ignorance and religion , or rather
ignorance and superstition , have , for a long series of ages , been closely associated . The consequence of this association is , as predicted , tl ? at " darkness hath covered the earthy and gross darkness the people . " But a niore delightful era is in reserve , when men not obly ** shall run to and fro , and knowledge shall be increased , " as is at present the ea » e ; but
• The doctrine of the Greek articlo luay be found compendiously treated in Barham ' s Greek Grammar .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 414, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/54/
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