PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 16
John Owen · 342,880 words · 351 reading sections
Section 181
unto, though unsearchable, not only all that hatli been received must be rejected, but also the whole dependence of the creature on God be dissolved, or rendered only dreadful, terrible, and destructive to nature itself Such are the doctrines of the Trinity, of the incarna- tion of the Son of God, of the resurrection o…
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Our actual participation of the fmits of this grace is by the Holy Ghost. We cannot ourselves seize on them, nor bring them home to om- own souls. The impossibility hereof I cannot now stay to manifest. Now, whence is this Holy Ghost ? Is he not sent from the Father by the Son? Can we entertain any thought of his effec…
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As these considerations are far from being the bottom and foun- dation of our faith, in our assenting to the authority pf God in the Word, so, on the supposition of what is so, they have a usefulness, as to support in trials and temptations, and the like seasons of diffi- culty: but of these things so far. OF THE INTE…
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2. As to Hebrew punctuation, Owen held the points to be pai't of Scripture, and as sacred and ancient as the other elements of the text. Here he may have erred, but it was in honourable company,— with the Buxtorfs, Gerard, Glass, Voet, Flacius Illyricus, ■ Lightfoot, Leusden, and others. Cappell, in 1624, though wrong …
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348 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. tlie certainty of divine truth, as continued unto us, tlirough the provi- dence of God, in the originals of the Scripture. What use hath been made, and is as yet made, in the world, of this supposition, that corruptions have befallen the originals of the Scrip- t…
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But my present considerations being not to be extended beyond The concernment of the truth which in the foregoing discourse I have pleaded for, I shall first propose a brief abstract thereof, as to that pai't of it which seems to be especially concerned, and then lay down what to me appears in its prejudice in the volu…
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(2.) The whole credit of our reading and interpretation of the Scripture, as far as regulated by the present punctuation, depends solely on the faithfulness and skill of those Jews whose invention this work is asserted to be. 2. The 3"'n|^ ■•")?, of which sort are above eight hundred in the Hebrew Bibles, are various …
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Having given an account of the occasion of this discourse, and mentioned the particulars that are, all or some of them, to be taken into further consideration, l^efore I proceed to their discussion, I shall, by way of addition and ex2:)lanation to what hath been delivered in the former treatise^ give a brief account of…
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The Jews have a common saying among them, — that to alter one letter of the laio is no less sin than to set the whole woidd on fire; and shall we think that in writing it they took no more care than a man would do in writing out Aristotle or Plato, who for a very little portion of the world would willingly have done hi…
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The various arguments giving evidence to this truth that might be produced are ,too many for me now to insist upon, and would take up more room than is allotted to the whole discourse, should I Proleg. 7, sect. 12. 358 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. I handle them at large, and according to the mer…
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As to Jews, besides the mad and senseless clamour in general for S60 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT., corrupting the Scriptures, three things are with most pretence of reason objected against them: — The D''"iS1D ppn, tikkun sopherim, or " correctio scribarum," by which means it is confessed by EHa…
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S62 INTEGRITY AND PUEITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. same manner it is Ezra x. 44), in the third person plural, the pre- terperfect tense of kal is ''")^3, " perfoderunt," " they digged," or " pierced through my hands and my feet." But to what purjDose is this gleaning after the vintage of Mr Pococke to this purpose…
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As, then, I shall not speak any thing to derogate from the worth of their labour who have gathered all these various readings into one 364 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. body or volume, so I presume I may take liberty without offence to say, I should more esteem of theirs who would endeavour to se…
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I am not, then, upon the whole matter, out of hopes but that, upon 366 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. a diligent review of all these various lections, tliey may be reduced to a less offensive and less formidable number. Let it be remembered that the vulgar copy we use was the public possession of …
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To speak somewhat of them in general, I must crave leave to say, ■ — and it being but the representation of men's avowed judgments, I hope I may say without offence, — that together with many high and honourable expressions concerning the originals, setting aside the incredible figment of the Jews corrupting the Bible …
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Besides, it is not known whither this inconvenience will grow. Origen, in his Octapla, as was declared, fixed the Hebrew original as the rule and measure of all translations. In the reviving of that kind of work by Ximenes in the Complutensian Bibles, its station is left unto it. Arias Montanus, who followed in their s…
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In this man's judgment (which also is my own), it is evident to all how obnoxious to the opinion now opposed the truth is that I am contendine: for. S72 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. To these also may be added the great Buxtorfs, father^ and son," Gerard/ Glassius/ Voetius/ Flacius lUyricus,® Pol…
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' De Verbo Dei, lib. ii. ^ In Ps. xxi. ' Biblioth. lib; viii. ITaeres. 13. * Prtefat ad Bib. Interlin. « Rcspons. ad Lindan. « De rebus Solom. cap. iv. sect. 1. ' Prsefat. ad Josu. 8 Proleg. Biblica. S7J< INTEGRITY AND PUIHTY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. atheistical wits and spirits of these days, who are bold upo…
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S7G INTEGRITY AND PUllITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. withstanding any entanglements tliat men by their conjectures may put upon the persuasion of the antiquity of the points, I can as soon believe the most incredible figment in the whole Talmud as this fable. But this is not my business. Let it be granted that such…
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378 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT, loss by them that he began not his letter to the senate in the wonted manner, E/ avroi zai o'l rraTdsg u/aSi' uyiahiTi, £u av 'i-/or sju xai ra ffrpa- Ti-j/jjaTa uyiaho/u^sv he could not assure them that it was well with him and his army. By this second desolatio…
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380 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. Nahardea, Sora, and Pumbeditlia, whfere the Jews bad their syna- gogues and schools, was finished about the year 506 or 510. In this greater work was the mystery of their iniquity finished, and the en- gine of their own invention for their further obduration perfe…
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Let us, then, a little, without prejudice or passion, consider who or what these men were, who are the supposed authors of this work : — 1. Men they were (if any such were) who had not the word of God committed to them in a peculiar manner, as their forefathers had of old, being no part of his church or people, but we…
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o81 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. Rubba, R. Chaija Bar Ba, R Jochanan, and tlie rest of the great doctors among the Tiberians, do behave themselves ; how seriously they do nothing; how childish they are in serious things; how much deceitfulness, froth, venom, smoke, nothing, in their disputations:…
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VOL. XVI. 25 SS6 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. It is not my design to give in arguments for the divine original of the present Hebrew pmictuation; neither do I judge it necessary for any one so to do whilst the learned Buxtorfius' discourse, " De Origine et Antiquitate Punctoruni," lies unanswere…
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888 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT. evidenced, since the Socinians^ as well as the Jews have driven the dispute about the satisfaction of Christ to the utmost scrutiny and examination of every word in that 53d of Isaiah. But yet, as the text stands now pointed and accented, neither Jews nor Socinian…
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Samaritan Pentateuch, which was presented in 1G20 to the library of the Oratory at Paris, by Harlaeus dc Sancy. It excited considerable sensation among the learned, was reputed of great antiquity, and held to be derived from some copy antecedent to the Babylonish captivity. It contained no vowel points, and hence the a…
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Now, let any man judge whether, from this heap of uncertainties, any thing can arise with the face of a witness, to be admitted to give testimony in the cause in hand. He that will part with his posses- sion on such easy terms never found much benefit in it. 2. The constant practice of the Jews in preserving in their …
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5. Of the ^T'?'! ''li?, which are pleaded in the next place to this purpose, I shall speak afterward. The difference in them is in the consonants, not in the vowels; which yet argues not that there were no vowels when they were collected or disposed as now we find them. Yea, that there were no vowels in the copies from…
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day; which he did accordingly. Now, because his discourse seems evidently to discover the vanity of this pretence, that the Hebrew vowels are an arbitrary invention from their number, I have here inserted it: — . . J •,, (Simple. Vowels. Apert sounds are either -St^ Vi -rv- i i (Double. Diphthongs. 1. Apei't sim…
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ARGUMENTS FOR THE NOVELTY OF HEBREW POINTS REFUTED. 897 the original that it is beyond all conjecture what should occasion it. I wish some would try their skill upon some part of Job, the Psalms, and the Prophets, to see if, by all their inquiries of extracting various lections, they can find out how they read in thei…
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I Words seemingly conclusive in favour of Owen's view, if Jerome understood by " vacates " what we understand by "vowels." The former, however, in the language of Jerome denotes "gutturals." See Havernick's " Introduction to the Old Testa- ment," sect. 5-3, and Hupfeld, s. 580. — Ea ARGUMENTS FOR THE NOVELTY OF HEBREW…
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OF THE KERI AND KETIB. 401 the tradition they had received. What weight is to be laid upon such a tradition for near a thousand years (above, according to Mo- rinus) is easily to be imagined. Nor let men please themselves with the pretended facility of learning the Hebrew language without points and accents ; and not …
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He speaks not at all of the ^''npl '^')\>^ but merely of the anomalous OF THE KERI AND KETIB. 403 pointing of words, in a various way from the genius of the tongue, as they are observed and reckoned up in the Masora: of other varieties lie speaks afterward, giving a particular account of the Keri and Ketib ; which wh…
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We have them in the Appendix represented unto us in their own order, according as they are found in the books of the Scriptures; and then over again in the order and under the heads that they are drawn and driven unto by Cappellus; — a task that learned man took upon himself, that he might in the perfonnance of it give…
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Because it is the judgment of some, that yet other objections may be raised against the thesis pleaded for, from what is affirmed in the Prolegomena about gathering various lections by the help of trans- lations, and the instances of that good work given us in the Appen- dix, I shall close this discourse with the consi…
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1. It is well known that the translation of the LXX., if it have the original pretended, and which alone makes it considerable, was made and finished three hundred years, or near thereabout, before the incarnation of our Saviour. It was in that time and season wherein the oracles of God were committed to the Jews, whil…
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Let us, then, take a view of some of the chiefest of them, without observing any order, seeing there is no more reason for that which is laid down in this Appendix than for any other that may be fixed on. I shall begin with the Arabic, for the honour I bear to the renownedly learned publisher^ of it and the various lec…
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Now, though I confess this translation to be very useful in many things, and to follow the original for the most part, yet being made as yet I know neither when nor by whom, in sundry places evidently following another corrupt translation, and having passed through the hands of men ignorant and suspicious, against whos…
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But we are in a way and business wherein all things are carried to and fro by conjectures; and it were no hard task to manifest the utter uncertainty of what is fixed on as the original of this Penta- teuch by the author of the Prolegomena, or to re-enforce those con- jectures which he opposeth; but that is not my pres…
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The Septuagint is that which must bear the weight of the whole. And good reason there is, indeed, that it should answer for the most of the rest, they being evidently taken out of it, and so they are often- times worse; yet they are now better than that is. But here again all things are exceedingly uncertain ; nothing …
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corrupt and vitiated that it plainly appears to be another, lib. ii. De Verbo Dei, cap. vi. He that shall read and consider what Jerome hath written of this translation, even then when he was excusing himself, and conde- scending to the utmost to waive the envy that was coming on him upon his new translation, in the s…
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On the subject of New Testament versions he observes, " No benefit has accinied from extending the range of investigation in this quarter. Rather has there been dis- advantage The Arabic versions of the Now Testament ought to be neglected. They are useless. The same may be said of the Persian." The versions which he r…
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ANALYSIS. I. The first dissertation relates to the question, whether sacred Scripture actually is, and may be properly termed. The Word of God. Two points are involved in this question, — the character and the name of Scripture. In regard to the former, our author contents himself with asserting the divine origin of …
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These positions are supported, 1. by an appeal to Scripture ; and under this head are cited (1.) passages asserting the perfection of the Word, (2.) prohibitions against all ad- ditions to it, (3.) references to the practice of the apostles, and (4.) passages in which the Scriptures are commended to us for all the purp…
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Sect. 2. De prima qua3Stionis parte innumera extant virorum doctissimorum scripta, quibus veritatem, quam astruendam hac dis- putatione duximus, et dilucide exposuerint, atque adversus insultus Atheorum ex una parte, Pontificionim ex altera, ita muniverint, ut omnino nihil opus sit ea hie repetere, quae aliunde nullo n…
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Sect. 11. Ut igitur hoc latibulum, quo perpetub sibi de refugio prospiciunt fanatici, ab iis abripiamus, varise vocis hujus in Scrip- turis Sacris significationes prsemittendse sunt. Sect. 12. Aoyog itaque tov Qsov triplex est, — vrroSTUTixCg, lvdiui)sTog, '7rpo<popix6g. Sect. 13. Acyog 'ovoaTarixog, qui et ovffiudri…
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Hsec ille; digna sc. quee Dei Filio unigenito ascriberentur. Vul- gus autem Christianorum dogma Trinitatis, verbis Scriptures sacrae magis consentaneis, neque figmentis philosophorum interpolatura 432 PRO SACRIS SCMPTURIS communiter et palam exposuisse, testis etiam est Lucianus in Philo- patride, seu bihaoKoiJjhu, u…
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Sect. 28. Secundb, respectu suhjectcB materim, seu divinse veri- tatis in ea revelatse, sacra Scriptura est verbum Dei; quatenus nempe est revelatio voluntatis divinse ab ipso Deo profecta. Hoc sensu locis psene innumeris verbum Dei dicitur. Job. xvii. 1 7. Ita ubi verbum Dei, pt^cedicar-i, promulgari, 7)iultiplicari, …
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Sect. 38. Ob. 4. Verbum Dei non potest disci ex libris, nam est ab ipso Deo. Resp. Hoc falsissiraum atque blasphemum est; ideo enim scriptum est verbum Dei utex libris id discamus, 2 Tim. iii. 16. Hue perpetuo a Deo ipso mittimur, ad verbum et voluntatem ipsius discendam, Deut. xvii. 19 ; Esa. viii. 20; Job. v. 39 ; un…
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Sect. 5. Porro autem si ita se res habeat, quam facilis futura sit totius inter nos litis sestimatio, quivis nullo negotio perspiciat; si enim sacra Scriptura, quae apud uos unica est omnes controversias dirimendi norma et medium, in eum finem interjoretari debeat, ut de vero ejus sensu constare possit, atque ipsi, aut…
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EXERCITATIONES ADVERSUS FANATICOS. 441 privati quamvis sint, iitriim illos, quorum bono omni jure invigilare tenentur, ixrpsZsiv h -raideia xal vouhaia Kupiov, et per Scripturarum in- terpretationem assiduam erudire debeaiit necne, nemo, nisi qui non tantiim officiorum moralium, sed et naturalium de bono et malo -ffpo…
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solum qui ad munus ministerii in ecclesia aliqua Christi solenniter vocati sunt, postquam ordinationem, quam vocant, obtinuerint: imo ut donis hisce aliquis ditatus sit, antequam ad ^eiporovlav accedat ne- cesse est, etiam nonnulli iis probe sunt instructi, qui ad opus minis- terii tamen in ecclesia obeundum nunquam ac…
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Sect. 22. Primo ideo, ulli hominij sacras Scripturas interpretari, vel ullam earum partem, vel sensum ejus exponere, vel quae sit mens Spiritus Sancti in verbis quse scripta legimus, aliis verbis enarrare, fas esse negant. 2db. Una cum interpretatione Scripturoe, ejusdem media, nempe diversorum locorum collationem, an…
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Sect. 28. Quid verb cum iis agamus, qui ciim revera sint adeo in- feliciter stupidi, ut nulla neque ratione, neque experientia erudiri possint, quasi tamen ipsi soli saperent vana persuasione siderati, in contemptu eorum, quae non intelhguut, audaciter persistunt, atque 418 PRO SACRIS SCRIPTURIS cum comico illo clama…
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Sect. 33. Imo, tam certum est quam quod certissimum, Deum in infinita sua sapientia, eam voluntatis sua? declarationem quae in verbo scripto continetur, ita temperasse, atque totam ejusdem revelandi methodum eo ordine disposuisse, ut necessitatem inter pretationis in ecclesia continuandce, quamdiu ipsum verbum continue…
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EXEKCITATIONES ADVERSUS FANATICOS. 453 religionis amicos atque inimicos onuies, nimis trita est notitia. At de thesi proposita nulla ptene est varietas; quamvis enim ex justo Dei judicio, sermo eis non est unicus, — imo ita sint inter se confusi, ut vix intelligant alter sermonem alterius; tamen sedificandse turri, e …
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Sect. 1 6. Fanaticos nostrates, qui prsemium strenuae contra Scrip- turarum perfectionem oppositioni debitum, a nullo mortalium sibi prsereptum vellent, imprsesentiarum nos aggredimur; et sane qubd Deo gratiose placuerit, provinciam hanc, adversus verbi sui hostes dimicandi nobis indignis delegare, uti nobis est honori…
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458 PRO SACRIS SCRIPTURIS Hoc ideo sensu Scripturam regulam esse perfectissimam totius cultus divini, atque obedientise nostrae, asseriraus. Sect. 25. Sententia itaque nostra de sacrarum Scripturarum per- fectione, in relatione ad finem suum, quam contra pontificios, fana- ticos, aliosque, accurate defendimus, hisce …
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Sect. 29. Secundum nostrum argumentum a perfecta operatione, seu effectii ScriptiiraruTYi, sumitur, quod sic se habet: Si Scriptura sacra ea omnia efficiat, suo genere operationis ac efficacias, moralis scilicet, quse per ullam revel ationem voluntatis divinse effici possint, quo debito ac sincere cultu Deum adoremus, …
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2. Aprwstigiis Satanae. Hospes est in omni religion e, qui non in- telligit, patrem hunc mendaciorum, a jactis mundi fundamentis, sub larva hac revelationum ac afflatus interni, rationes suas ita callide composuisse, ut homines in fraudem impelleret, et una secum in exitium traheret. Imo ob banc prsecipue causam, uti v…
925 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1850–1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.