THE NEW TESTAMENT REVISION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 29 December 1876, Page 15

THE NEW TESTAMENT REVISION.

iI , j The last number of the ' Churchman' announces that the New lestament revision committee have struck out as spurious the last seven verses of the last chapter of St. Mark. 14. Afterwards He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen. 15. And He said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature. 16. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned. 17. And these signs shall follow them that believe : In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. 18, They shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. 19. So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into Heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. 20. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following. It was also stated that the committee struck out, as bein«- a false interpolation, a verse in one of the epistles, which is frequently q S j jas a proof of the exist ence of the Trinity. The verse alluded to is supposed to be the seventh verse of the fifth chapter of the nrst epistle general of St. John, viz.: " For there are three that bear record in Heaven— the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three arc one." We presume that when the inspired committee has finished its labours, their edition will be uniformly introduced iuto the public schools, the guaranteed word of God. Meanwhile, if another inspired committee, and still another should again revise the New lestament— and the operation of revision should be accompanied panpassu by the inspiration of mutilation in successive committees : in the course of human events not far distant, there would be a subhme ending to Protestantism— the Bible would have disappeared by a Kilkenny-cat act of faith; the last committee wUI devour the last of the Bible, and the last of the Bible will devour the last ot the Committees. Euthanasia! St. Paul asks us to believe the Gospel: "For "neither did I receive it from man, nor did I learn it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. But whence did the revising committee receive the Gospel, and by what revelation do they discern the true from the talse t m ".they have the power of attorney to act, it must proceed trom inspiration; and Barnum had better secure this -junta of revisionary infalhbists, whose pretensions assuredly out-measure the authority claimed by tho Church of Christ, which can neither pervert nor expunge the text of the inspired writings c aft l^ w ? w , iU acee P fc the " Seven verses of the last chapter of St. Mark, and the " Seventh verse of the fifth chapter of the first epistle general of St. John"; fortifying our position with a text from Paul to the Romans, verse fourth, chapter third • " But God is true and every man a liar "—which Biblical exegetists render in a sense obviously applicable to this precise " New Testament Revision Committee." — American Paper.