Again, one half of those on the
conservative side to-day--scholars like Weiss, Beyschlag, Sanday,
and Reynolds--admit the existence of a dogmatic intent and an ideal
element in this Gospel, so that we do not have Jesus's thought in
his exact words, but only in substance."[[386]]
In 1881 came an event of great importance as regards the
development of a more frank and open dealing with scriptural
criticism. In that year appeared the Revised Version of the New
Testament. It was exceedingly cautious and conservative; but it had
the vast merit of being absolutely conscientious. One thing showed,
in a striking way, ethical progress in theological methods.
Although all but one of the English revisers represented
Trinitarian bodies, they rejected the two great proof texts which
had so long been accounted essential bulwarks of Trinitarian
doctrine. Thus disappeared at last from the Epistle of St. John the
text of the Three Witnesses, which had for centuries held its place
in spite of its absence from all the earlier important manuscripts,
and of its rejection in later times by Erasmus, Luther, Isaac
Newton, Porson, and a long line of the greatest biblical scholars.
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