An Infallible Bible Impossible Without an Infallible Text.

It is, of course, important to remember that the original writings are all lost, and that the only manuscripts now in existence are copies. These are of various ages and different values. As to the Hebrew Scriptures, existing manuscripts in the Hebrew language do not carry us beyond the tenth century; though there are in existence copies of the Greek translation of a very much earlier day. Copies of the Christian Scriptures are much older; but some of these contain only portions of what we call the New Testament: only a few are complete, and none carry us nearer to the originals than the fourth century. We are therefore separated from the original writings by an apparently impassable gulf. The gravity of this circumstance is increased by the fact that most of the ancient manuscripts are either imperfect or differ one from the other, or include books which we do not now reckon to be canonical. But it is only when we turn to the English Bible in our hands that we see the serious position we are in. That Bible, it is said, is infallible; but what is really meant is that the ordinary printed Hebrew Old Testament and the ordinary printed Greek New Testament are infallible. But we must go farther back than printed books. The great question is; whence came the Hebrew manuscript for the one, and the Greek manuscript for the other? The answer is, that in neither case have we one manuscript at all. The standard Hebrew Old Testament only came into its final form about 170 years ago, and the standard Greek New Testament received its last touches in 1550; and, in cases, various Hebrew and Greek manuscripts were used in the compilation of the standard versions. And so the page 9 startling fact comes out that the English Bible, as we have it, is not a translation of one independent Hebrew and one independent Greek manuscript, but of compilations which were put together less than 400 years ago, by fallible men in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and France. Since their day, manuscripts of very much higher value than any they had have come to light; and, as a matter of fact, we have now in existence Hebrew and Greek texts immeasurably superior to those which lay before the producers of the authorised translation. But these better texts are themselves only compilations. Is it not perfectly plain, then, that unless we can get an infallible compiler we shall never get an infallible Bible?