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Unholy Hands on the Bible: An Introduction to Textual Criticism

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This volume was edited by Jay P. Green, and he has added some of his own material. But the bulk of the book is taken from the writings of Burgon (1813-1888).

Burgon was a stanch defender of the Textus Receptus (TR) against the then new text of Westcott and Hort (WH). Today's Majority Text (MT) is very similar to the TR and today's Critical Text (CT) to the WH text.

This volume actually contains several books by Burgon. The first book defends "The Traditional Text of the New Testament" against the new WH text.

The following quote summarizes his argument: "Does the truth of the Text of Scripture dwell with the vast multitude of copies, uncial and cursive, concerning which nothing is more remarkable than the MARVELOUS AGREEMENT which subsists between them? Or is it rather to be supposed that the truth abides exclusively with a very little handful of manuscripts, which at once differ from the great bulk of the manuscripts, and also differ widely among themselves?" (p.9).

He then lists and explains his "Seven Notes of Truth." They are: 1. Antiquity, or Primitiveness. 2. Consent of Witnesses, or Number. 3. Variety of Evidence, or Catholicity [i.e. geographical distribution]. 4. Respectability of Witnesses, or Weight. 5. Continuity, or Unbroken Tradition. 6. Evidence of the Entire passage, or Context. 7. Internal Considerations, or Reasonableness (UnHoly, Vol. I, p.15).

These Seven Notes of Truth are still followed today by MT scholars, such as Robinson and Pierpont, the producers of the Byzantine Majority Text. This writer used this Greek text when producing my Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament. So indirectly, Burgon had an influence on my translation work.

The second book looks at "The Cause of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Gospels." He then goes into detail on various accidental and intentional causes of corruption. He demonstrates why it is manuscripts like Aleph and Beta, which WH favored, which are more likely to have these corruptions than the Byzantine manuscripts underlining the TR.

Next he looks at "The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to Mark." He explains why a few manuscripts more likely omitted this passage than that it was added to the bulk of manuscripts. He does the same with the story of "The Woman Taken in Adultery" (John 7:53-8:11).

He also looks at "The Revision Revised." This is "A Critique of the English Revised Version of 1881." Although the RV is no longer popular, most new versions still follow the ideas underlining it. So this book is still relevant today.

Then Burgon demonstrates the "Proof of the Genuineness of God Manifested on the Flesh." This is a detailed defense of the reading of "God" in the TR in 1Timonthy 3:16 rather than the WH text reading of "who." This variant is important as with "God" the verse demonstrates the deity of Christ, but with "who" this proof-text is lost.

Then comes a book on "The Secret Spanking of Westcott and Hort." This book demonstrates fallacies in the reasoning of WH. The volume then closes with a short book on "Conflation and the `Neutral' Text." In this book Burgon critiques Hort's textual transmission theory.

Overall, Burgon's writings are very in-depth. The amount of information in this book can be overwhelming, and it is rather difficult reading. So this volume is not for the person new to the subject. For such a person I would suggest my book Differences Between Bible Versions. It has an entire section on Greek text types, starting with a chapter titled "Introduction to Textual Criticism." So my book would be the place to begin, and Burgon's books in this volume would be the place to go for much greater detail.

After reading both volumes I and II i have a much better understanding of how we have arived at all of the current translations. In these volumes you will find very well documented material that supports the Majority Text as opposed to the Nestle Arend or UBS Manuscripts. Also for those of use who truly believe that the bible is the inspired word of God you will find in volume II excelent illustrations of how the various translations treat the Cardinal tenents of the christian faith. If you are serious about learning Gods word you nead to read this book before you select a translation of the Holy Bible to read from. The only reason that i didn't give the books a 5 star review was because some of the material gets very technical and may not be readily absorbable by all readers. However it is quite worth going through the material despite its highly technical approach.

This is an excellent, comprehensive, scholarly, yet understandable study of the textual criticism issue of the Bible in general and the King James Version in
particular. This will greatly enhance your appreciation and respect for the Authorized Version and will make you realize that the so-called scholarly arguements against it are not scholarly at all. Read it if you dare.

In the past generation, every possible version of the Bible has surfaced....walking into a Christian book "store" (gift shop) has become an embarrassment...This series shows that there are still men who refuse to bow to the modern critics, and hold, as the Westminster says, that Providence has always kept His Word safe. Get all three volumes from Mr. Green!

This is an amazing book. I am still reading it and for the simple reason to check all the scriptures and and verify everything that is being said is a chor in itself. Is is beyond a primer in textual criticism and is probably graduate work material. I have read a lot of books on textual criticism but this is probably the seminal work in this area. Green has added his stamp on the book which brings it into the 21st century. Anyone who laughs at this shows their ignorance since the discoveries regarding the incompetence of the critical text are clearly delineated. That's why it takes so long to read, comparing all the errors listed in the critical text takes time to check and verify. There are many differences between the traditional text and the critical text and this book doesnt address them all but it does the lions share. By the time im done reading it i will have covered a lot of areas of the field of textual criticism. Since Green is an editor you may want to read his kj3. If you read spanish the reina valera are also good texts for reading the traditional text out side the king james which critical text advocates like to brand readers as king james only. We probably need a book on the NIV only readers since they seemed to have reached critical mass. well i will be glad when i finish reading this book because i will have learned a lot about textual criticism