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bookslover · #14 (**permalink**) 05-25-2008, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JOwen

This is the doctrine of providential preservation, and contends that the copies in posession today (in the Received Text family) are kept pure in all ages. We would not say this per se is the case with translations nessisarily, but would hold that the Recieved Text is both inspired and infallible.

Here's an interesting quote from Francis R. Beattie in this regard:

Infallible truth as to contents, divine accuracy as to form, and supreme authority as to their claim are the qualities of the sacred Scriptures as of no other writings. It is proper to add that these qualities belong, in an absolute sense, to the original writings of the inspired authors. Subsequent copies have been kept pure and authentic by divine providence in a most remarkable way. It is in this field that the work of the textual critic renders such a useful service, but the question of the correct text should never be confounded with that of the inspiration of the text, no matter how closely they may be related.

From: The Presbyterian Standards: An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms by the Rev. Francis R. Beattie; reprint (Greenville: Southern Presbyterian Press, 1997 [1896]), p. 47.

On the doctrine of providential preservation: is this an assumption, or can it be objectively proved?