94 



THE REV. JOHN SHAEP, ON THE LAST 



really means that it has been a matter of revelation and not of 

 evolution. We have been been told that the inspiration of prophets 

 and apostles was similar to the intuitions of the man of genius in 

 science or letters. Even if that were so, which I for one do not 

 admit, yet when the genius of the astronomer Adams led to the 

 discovery of the planet Neptune there was an objective reality 

 which was revealed to him. Similarly, whatever may have been 

 the state of the inspired man's faculties you cannot evade the fact 

 that objective truths were revealed through them. 



Thus, Mr. Chairman, I cannot but think that whatever the attacks 

 made upon the Bible in the past or yet to be made upon it in the 

 future, it will ultimately emerge from them all victorious and more 

 assured to the unprejudiced mind than ever as " The word of God 

 which liveth and abideth for ever." 



The Eev. J. Sharp, in reply, said that in the few minutes 

 remaining he would not attempt to deal with more than some of the 

 smaller points that had been brought forward. Most of the rest 

 had been disposed of by other speakers, and the general sense of the 

 meeting. He thought that some of his critics had not sufficiently 

 noticed the exact wording of the passages to which they referred. 



As regards the Jews, he was not aware of any facts showing that 

 they had translated and circulated their Scriptures to effect tlte 

 spiritual good of other nations. The Septuagint version of the 

 Pentateuch was really produced for the Jews in Egypt and Greek- 

 speaking lands. The copy required by Ptolemy was only for his 

 library. Such proselytes as they made were never allowed to 

 consider themselves on the same footing as genuine Hebrews. The 

 versions of Aquila and Theodotion were produced for the purpose 

 of counteracting the appeals made by Christians to the Septuagint 

 in support of the claims of Christ by giving a Greek rendering 

 more closely in accord with strictly Jewish interpretations. 



Had their veneration for the Koran been strong enough to draw 

 Sunni and Shiah together in a united society for its multiplication 

 and circulation ? That was his point. And similarly with respect 

 to Saivites and Yaishnavites in India. Up to the parting of the 

 ways, through the unfortunate decree of the Council of Trent (1546) 

 in the sixteenth century, the Church of Eome had like the other 

 Churches of Christendom its share in circulating the Scriptures. 

 The great Complutensian Polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes was issued 



