OHAPTER III.

RESULTS OF THE DISCREPANCIES.

the effect of the discrepancies, in to the

and to the moral ",-.UCLec'<U'A'

impair its
degree.
reached by eminent critics, after
protrueted investigation, sacred text
has been transmitted to us virtually unaltered.
Says Isaac Taylor,l "The evidence of the genuineness and
authenticity of the Jewish and Christian scriptures has, for no
other reason than a thought of the consequences that are in-
volved in an admission of their truth, been treated with an
unwarrantable disregard of logical equity, and even of the
dictates sense. The poems
dies of plays of Terence,
from the imputation
f'n,p","cntinn; and yet evidence

its and force, supports

poems of Isaiah, and the epistles of Paul."
Bishop Butler: 2 "There may be mistakes of transcribers;
there may be other real or seeming mistakes, not easy to be
particularly accounted for j but there are certainly no more
things of this kind in the scripture, than what were to have been
expected books of such antiquity; and any wise
sufficient the general narrative,
That the Old Testament transmitted to
Transmission of Ancient 110.
2SS (Malcom's edition).
4'"
42 DISCREP.ANCIES OF THE BIBLE.

us substantially intact, is a conceded point. In all but a few

unimportant cases, the genuine reading is settled beyond dispute.
The candid and scholarly Bleek 1 as~erts that "the Hebrew
manuscripts have been preserved unaltered generally,. and this
in a measure of which we find no second example in other
works which have ~en multiplied and circulated by numerous
manuscripts."
Keil : 2 "The Old Testament, like all the other books of
antiquity, has been propagated by transcription. And thus it
has happened, even in spite of the great care with which the
Jews, who were filled with unbounded reverence for the holy
scriptures, watched over their preservation and transmission
without injury, that they could not escape the common lot of
all ancient books. In the course of repeated copying many
small errors crept into the text, and various readings came into
existence, which lie before us in the text as it is attested in the
records belonging to the various centuries.... The copyists
have committed these errors by seeing or hearing wrongly, by
faithlessness of memory, and by other misunderstandings; yet
not arbitrarily or intentionally. And by none of them have
the essential contents of scripture been endangered."
Even De Wette,S comparing the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and
Phoenicians· with the Hebrews, observes, "From the former,
either all the monuments of their literature have perished to
the last fragment, or only single melancholy ruins survive,
which in nothing diminish the loss of the rest; while, on the
contrary, from the latter there is still extant a whole library of
authors, so valuable and ancient that the writings of the Greeks
are in comparison extremely young." This is a very sih'TIif-
icant concession from one of the leaders of modern rationalism.
Gesenius 4 says, " To state here in few words my creed, as to
the condition of the Hebrew text in a critical respect. It can-

1 1nll'oc1. to Old Test., ii. 365. • Introd. to Old Test., ii. 2940, 295.
3 Introcl. to Old Test., i. 23 (Parker's edition).
4 Biblical RepositOl"y, iii. 401.

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 RESULTS OF THE DISCREPANCIES. 43

not be denied, that. through the anxio~s care of the Jewish

critics, the text has been in general very well preserved.
"In the Hebrew manuscripts," says Prof. Stuart,l" that have
been examined, some eight hundred thousand various readings
actually occur, as to the Hebrew consonants. How many as
to the vowel-points and accents, no man knows. And the like
to this is true of the New Testament. But, at the same time,
it is equally true, that all these taken together do not change
or materially affect any important point of doctrine, precept, or
even history. A great proportion, indeed the mass, of varia-
tions in Hebrew manuscripts, when minutely scanned, amount
to nothing more than the difference in spelling a multitude of
English words. What matters it as. to the meaning, whether
one writes honour or honor, whether he writes centre or center?"
Such scholars as Buxtorf, Bleek, Havernick, Keil, and others,
affirm that the Jews took such extraordinary care in copying
their sacred books, " that it was a practice to count not only the
number of verses, but also that of t.he words, and even of the
letters of the various books, in order to ascertain the middle
verse, the middle word, aud the middle letter of each book." £
Keil 8 remarks that the Masora, a rabbinic critical work
upon the Old Testament, contains an "enumeration of the
verses, words, and letters of each book; information as to the
middle word and middle letter of each book; enumeration of
verses which contain the whole consonants of the alphabet, or
only so many of them; and also of words which occur so many
times in the Bible with this or that meaning, and of words
written' plene,' or ' defective.' "
Parker/ in De Wette, gives, from Bishop Walton, a list of
the number of times which each Hebrew letter occurs in the
Old Tastament. The same list may be found in Menasseh ben
Israel's Conciliator.5
1 HiRtol'Y of Old Test. Canon, p. 192. Revised ed. p. 118.
• Bleek's Intl'Oduetion to Olll Test., ii. 451, 452.
• Introd. to Old Test., ii. 316.
• Introduction to Old Test., i. 851. 5 Vol. i. p. 250.

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44 DISC REP ANCIES OF THE BIBLE.

carried accuracy that bordered

reason to believe, that no work of antiquity has descended to
the present age so free from alteration, as the Hebrew Bible."
The erudite translator 2 of Outram says, "There are not
wanting proofs of the most scrupulous care of the Hebrew text
on the part of the Jews." " No evidence has been adduced of
their alteration of any part text." It
bC;l UU'lUlJLl~ and minute

sacred books from variation or

C[12:erI3jXU1C'les and "v~ri­

better estab-
than that of any other ancient book. No one of the
so-called" classics," not Homer nor Herodotus, compares favor-
ably, in this respect, with the New Testament. Says Prof.
Stowe/ "Of the manuscript copies of the Greek Testament,
from seven hundred to one thousand of all kinds have been
by critics, and of ilfty are more
0W,m,'''HU years old, and
least years old;
reach the antiquity ]mmll"(0C[ years, and

is very small with those

of the Greek Testament."
Among the Greek classical writers, Herodotus and Plato are
of the first importance. The earliest manuscripts of Herodotus
extant are, one in the Imperial library at Paris," executed in
the twelfth century"; one in the Florentine library, which
l\'Iontfaucon assigns to the tenth century, and one in the library
of Cambridge, may possibly

Criticism and Interpretation,

Modern Judaism, edition).
IIlstory of Books of
 RESULTS OF THE 45
the earliest
Oxford, and

manuscripts of the New

Alexandrian, written about A.D. 350; the Vatican, written about
A.D. 325; the Sinaitic, of date equally early; the Ephraim
manuscript, "probably somewhat later than the Alexandrian,
but of great critical value"; and, the Beza manuscript, dating
about A.D. 490. 2 Other scholars substantially concur in these
AIJord 3 and Scrivener Alexandrian
fifth century; that 4,00-500.
find five
youngest of which hundred
yeaTs (If which may have '1WC1J,xr"a by persons
wllO had stwl£ed tile original manuscripts written by the apos-
tles themselves.
So far, therefore, as an authenticated and settled text is
concerned, the classics are very far behind the New Testament:;
" There is not," says Tregelles,G " such a mass of transmissional
evidence in favor of any classical work. The existing manu-
LH'HJu\I'Lll~ and Thucyc1ic1es enough when
of those of the "
Transmission of 276-278; COll-

Sec, also, Alford, rn)lCgo'l1lena Gl'eek Four Gos-

pels, pp. Scrivener, Criticism pp.76-103.
3 Prolegomena to Four Gospels, p.107.

4 Criticism of New Test., p. 82.

• Dr. Bentley, in his annihilating reply to Collins, speaking of the man-

nscript copies of Terence, the oldest and best of which, now in the Vatican
library, has" hnndreds of errors," observes, "I myself have collated sev-
eral, and do affirm that I have seen twenty thousand varions lections in 'that
little so big as the New morally sum,
that Tel'ence with that
many for the

yet Terence is one

B.cmarks Upou a late Discourse,
Historic Evidence, p.
46 DISCREPA.NCIES OF THE BIBLE.

In the fitting words of Scrivener,! "As the New Testament

far surpasses all other remains of antiquity in value and inter-
est, so are the copies of it yet existing in manuscript, and
dating from the fourth century of our era downwards, far
more numerous than those of the most celebrated writers of
Greece or Rome. Such as have been already discovered and
set down. in catalogues ·are hardly fewer than two thousand;
and many more must still linger unknown in the monastic
libraries of the East. On the other hand, manuscripts Of the
most illustrious classic poets and philosophers are far rarer and
comparatively modern. We have no complete copy of Homer
himself prior to the thirteenth century, though some considera-
ble fragments have been recently brought to light which may
plausibly be assigned to the fifth century; while more than one
work of high and deserved repute has been preserved to our
times only in a single copy. Now the experience we gain, from
a critical examination of the few classical manuscripts that
survive, should make us thankful for the quality and abundance
of those of the New Testament. These last present us with a
vast and almost inexhaustible supply of materials·for tracing the
history, and upholding (at least within certain limits) the purity
of the sacred text; every copy, if used diligently and with judg-
ment, will contribute somewhat to these ends. So far is the
copiousness of our stores from causing doubt or perplexity to
the genuine student of holy scripture, that it leads him to rec-
ognize the more fully its general integrity in the midst of
partial variation."
With equal felicity and truthfu41ess, Isaac Taylor,2 on the
proof of the genuineness of the scriptures, observes: "And as
the facts on which tIns proof depends are precisely of the same
kind in profane, as in sacred literature, and as the same princi-
ples of evidence are applicable to all questions relating to the
genuineness of ancient books, it is highly desirable that the proof
1 Criticism of New Test., pp. 8,4.
• History of Transmission of A.ncient Books, p. ~.

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 RESULTS OF THE DISCREPANCIES. 47

of the gCXlUlllCll.ess the sacred writings

part only of a
antiquity.
For it is strength
and completeness of the proof which belongs to this particular
case, can be duly estimated. When exhibited in this light, it
will be seen that the integrity of the records of the Christian
faith is substantiated by evidence in a tenfold proportion more
various, copious, and conclusive 1 than that which can be adduced
in support of other ancient writings. If, therefore, the
question importance than what
may attach literary inquiry, the strict
justice of regarded, the """,,mC>H.H,Lv.y
, and Christian could never
till the
spurious." .
Nor does the Bible suffer by comparison with books of later
date. For the text of Shakespeare, which has been in existence
less than two hundred and fifty years, is "far more ullcertain
and corrupt than that of the New Testament, now over eighteen
centuries nearly fifteen of only in
manuscript. of collators m-
deed has formidable array , in
the Greek scriptures, but
which have el.aim to be received,
ously affect the sense, is so small that
counted upon the fingers. With perhaps a dozen or twenty'
exceptions, the text of every verse in the New Testament may
be said to be so far settled by the general consent of scholars,
that any dispute as to its meaning must relate rather to the in-
terpretation of the words, than to any doubts respecting the
words in everyone of thirty-
seven probably a hundred still in

'l;he italics are ourown.

48 DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE.

dispute, a large proportion of which materially affect the mean-

ing of the passages in which they occur."l
The probability that trivial variations would be found in
considerable· numbers will be seen when we reflect that, ac-
cording to Prof. Norton's2 estimate, there were, at the end of
the second century, as many as s'ixty thousand manuscript copies
of tlle Gospels in existence. That these variations are of slight
importance we have already seen; so that in spite of the "fifty
thousand various readings"8 of which we are often told, he
must be very ignorant or very mendacious who represents the
text of the New Testament as in a dubious and unsettled state.
Its antiquity and all other circumstances being taken into the
account, there is no other book which compares with it in
possessing a settled and authenticated text.
The famous Bentley,. one of the ablest critics England has
ever seen, observes: "The real text of the sacred writers does
not now (since the originals have been so long lost) lie in any
£lingle manuscript or edition, but is dispersed in them all. 'Tis
competently exact indeed, even in the worst manuscript now
extant; nor is one article of faitll or moral precept either per-
verted or lost in them, choose as awkardly as you can, choose
the worst by design, out of the whole lump of readings." Again
he adds, "Make your thirty thousand (variations) as many
more, if numbers of copies can ever reach that sum; all the
better to a knowing and serious reader, who is thereby more
richly furnished to select what he sees genuine. But even put
them into the hands of a ,knave or a fool, and yet with the
most sinistrous and absurd choice, he shall not extinguish the
light of anyone chapter, nor disguise Christianity but that
every feature of it will be the same."

1 North American Review, quoted in Stowe's Origin and History of Books

of Bible, p. 82.
9 Genuineness of the Gospels, i. 50-53. '
8 See as to the probable number, Scrivener's Criticism of New Test., p.8
,I Remarks upon a late Discourse of Free Thinking, Part i. Sec. 8~

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 RESULTS OF THE DISCREPANCIES. 49

When men seek to impugn the credibility of the Bible, by

alleging" discrepancies" and" various readings," we may safely
answer, with Prof. Stuart,! that they are so easily accounted
for, and of so little importance, that "they make nothing of
serious import against the claims which the matter, the manner,
and the character of the scriptures prefer as the stable ground
of our belief and confidence aud obedience."
Very pertinently says Dr. Hodge,2 "These apparent discrep-
ancies, although numerous, are for the most part trivial; relat-
ing in most cases to numbers or dates. The great majority of
them are only apparent, and yield to careful examination.
Many of them may be fairly ascribed to errors of transcribers.
The marvel and the miracle is, that there are so few of any
real importance. Considering that the different books of the
Bible were written not only by different authors, but by men
of all degrees of culture, living in the course of fifteen hunch'ed
or two thousand years, it is altogether unaccountable that they
should agree perfectly, on any other hypothesis than that the
writers were under the guidance of the Spirit of God. In this
respect, as in all others, the Bible stands alone..... The errors
in matters of fa_<tt which sceptics search out bear no proportion
to the whole. (No sane man would deny that the Parthenon
was built of marble, even if here and there a speck of sandstone
should be detected in its structure."_J
" The subject of various readings," observes President Hop-
kins,S" was at one time so presented as to alarm and disquiet
those not acquainted with the facts. When a person hears it
stated that, in the collation of the manuscripts for Griesbach's
ec1itiqn of the New Testament, as many as one hundred and
fifty thousand various readings were discovered~ he is ready to
suppose that everything must be in a state of uncertainty. A
statement of the facts relieves every difficulty. The truth is,

1 History of Old Test. Canon, p. 194. Revised edition, p. 180.

2 Theology, i. 169, 170.
8 Evidences of Christia.nity,p. 289.
5

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50 mSCREP ANCIES OF

or at least

transposition of in grammar,
in the use of one wOTCl for another of a similar meaning, and
in changing the position of worc1s in a sentence. But by all
the omissions, and all the additions, contained in all the manu-
scripts, no fact, no doctl'ine, no duty prescribed, in om' author-
ized version, is rendered either obscure or doubtful."
2, the text of

discoverec1,
in it. Prof. Bush 1
felicitously remarks, nnmllC'I'c"Tc contrariety

shows at least with what confidence the book of God appeal::!

to our reason on the ground of the general evidence of its ori-
gin, exhibiting, as it does, such cxamples of literal self-conflict
in particular passages. A work of imposture could not afford
to be thus seemingly indifferent to appearances."
vVe thus see how the mighty moral prestige of the Bible
objections presumptions in
its truth of our proposition obvious when
the influence both upon in-
upon mankind.
f'nlI1l11mll'litclT furnishes,

inst:fnces of men once dishonest, turbulent, profane, sensual, or

drunken, who, under the influence of the Bible, have thoroughly
reformed their conduct and life, and become as remarkable for
meekness, benevolence, purity, and self-control as they had
previously been llotoriolls for the opposite traits.
who have recognized Hl" UG'"~v of the Bible,

to its many of the

most powerful
I,HI10"H"',l, and scholars

Notes on Exodus,
 OF THE DISC REP ANCIES. 51
whom the e"er seen. to
; Bacon, Newton,
Locke, Hale and Grotius
Washington and 'Vilberforce.
Had the Bible been, as some assert, full of irreconcilable
discrepancies and insoluble difficulties, it could scarcely have
commanded the homage of such minds and hearts as these.
For, it is not extravagant to say that these men were as acute
in detecting imposture, and as competent to discriminate between
truth and are, in our own Bishop of
Somerset.
of the Bible renovate
and to the
of India and need but
allude to the marked difference between nations which have
received the Bible and those which have rejected it, - between
Prussia and France, between England and Spain. On a candid
survey of the field, we see the correctness of Chancellor Kent's
saying: "The general diffusion of the Bible is the most effectual
way to humanize mankind; and exalt the
general the just
precepts
temperance,
relations of social and
by John Locke, scrip-
tures are one of the greatest blessings which God bestows upon
the sons of men, is generally acknowledged by all who know
anything of the value and worth of them."
vVe, therefore, deem the position an impregnable one, that
all the discrepancies and objections which the teeming brain
and infidelity have conjure up
not in any essentIul dctract from
volume, nor wonderful
power.
Illjjdcl]ty furnish any substitute Bible. It
52 DISCREPANCIES OF TEE BIBLE.

points us all in vain to Confucius, Zoroaster, and the Vedas, to

the cold and arrogant teachings of positivism, to the barren
negations and ever-discordant utterances of rationalism. Never
book spake like the Bible. .No other comes home to the heart·
and conscience, with light and power and healing as does this.
It teaches man how to live and how to clie.
;A celebrated infidel is said to have exclaimed in his last
moments, " I am about to take a leap in the dark." Cast the
Bible aside, and every man at death takes a "leap in the dark."
In the language of an eminent writer,! " Weary human nature
lays its head on this bosom, or it has nowhere to lay its head.
Tremblers on the verge of the dark and terrible valley which
parts the land of the living from the untried hereafter, take
this hand of human tenderness, yet godlike strength, or they
totter into the gloom without prop or stay. They who look
their last on the beloved dead listen to this voice of soothing
and peace, else death is no uplifting of everlasting doors, and no
enfolding in everlasting arms, but an enemy as appalling to
the .reason as to the senses, the usher to a charnel-house where
highest faculties and noblest feelings lie crushed with the ani-
mal wreck; an infinite tragedy, maddening, soul-sickening-a
'blackness of darkness forever.' "
" Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my
path." 2
We cannot but agree with Lord Chief Justice Hale, that
"there is no book like the Bible for excellent learning, wisdom,
and use"; we must, with Sir Isaac Newton, " account the scrip-
tures of God to be the most sublime philosophy," and to exhibit
"more sure marks of authenticity than any profane history
whatsoever."

In considering the solutions hereafter proposed, the legiti-

mate force of a hypothesis should be kept in mind. If a

1 Dr. Rorison, in ~plies to Essays and ReYiew~ pp. 8411, 8U(2d edition.)•
• Pe. cxi~. 105. .

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 RESULTS OF THE DISCREPANCIES. 53
certain hypothesis meets. the exigencies of a given case, then,
unless it can be proven false or absurd, its logical value is to set
aside any and all objections, and to secure a strong presumption
in its own favor. 1 . For instance, it is said: "Here is a case in
which the Bible contradicts itself." We reply: "Here is a
hypothesis which serves to explain and reconcile the disagree-
ment." Now, unless our hypothesis can be proven untrue or
irrational, it stands, and the objection is effectually met. In
such cases, the burden of proof devolves upon the objector.
The solutions proposed in the following pages are hypothetical;
though, in the majority of cases, the probability amounts to
almost absolute certainty. In offering these solutions, we
neither assert nor undertake to prove that they are the only,
or even the actual solutions; we merely affirm that they are
reasonable explanations of each case respectively, and, for
"aught that can be shown to the contrary, they may be the real
ones. Therefore, according to the principles of logic and
common sense, they countervail and neutralize the discrepancies
which are adduced, and leave the unity and integrity and divine
authority of the sacred volume unimpaired.
The Discrepancies of Scripture may, perhaps, be most suit-
ably arranged under three heads: 2 the Doctrinal, including
1 Prof. Henry Rogers well says, "The objector is always apt to take it
for granted that the diserepancy is real; though it may be easy to suppose
a (,ase (and a possible case is quite sufficient for the purpose) which would
neutralize the objection. Of this perverseness (we can call it by no other
name) the examples are perpetual ...... It may be objected, perhaps,
that the gratuitous supposition of some unmentioned fact - which, if
mentioned, would harmonize the apparently counter-statements of two
historians - cannot be admitted, and is, in fact, a surrender of the argu-
ment. But to say so, is only to betray an utter ignorance of what the
argnment is. If an objection he founded on the aUeged absolute contra-
diction of two statements, it is quite sufficient to show any (not the real,
but only a hypothetical and possible) medium of reconciling them; and
the objection is iu all fairness dissolved; ancl this would be felt by the
honest logician, even if we did not know of any such instances in point
of fact. 'We do know, however, of many." -Reason and Faith, pp. 401-
403 (Boston edition).
2 For other methods of classification, see Davidson's Sacred Hermeneu-
tics, p. 520.

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54 DISCREPANCIES OF

; the Ethical,
numbers,

a vast and incongruous mass of materials as has

accumulated during the investigation, it has seemed well nigh
impossible to make a rigorously exact and clearly-defined
classification. Obviously, many of the following cases might,
from their complex or feebly marked character, fall equally
well in some other, or in more than one, of the divisions. In
such arrangement has which seemed
most obvious. The or important
difftenlt passage has class to which
be referred.
been lost in and nicety,
it is believed that much has been gained in simplicity, con-
venience, and practical utility, by abandoning the attempt at a
complex, logical classification, and grouping the discrepancies
under it few characteristic heads.