Question
What is the ‘Catholic Antiquity’ that John Burgon keeps referring to as his benchmark for truth?
Response
He is using the word “catholic” not in reference to the Roman Catholic Church, but for what the word means; that is, universal, general, in particular something that is universally accepted, etc. What he is referring to, in essence, is the generally accepted understanding regarding the antiquity of manuscripts and the testimony of the majority of them, which belonged to the science of textual criticism as it operated during the years of the Protestant Reformation. The Westcott and Hort theory, of course, directly challenged that understanding and replaced it with the tenets of their own theory. Now, unfortunately, it is the Westcott and Hort theory, along with its modern counterparts, that is the “catholic” understanding in the field of textual criticism.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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