The Chief Article of Christianity, according to Herman Otten, is text criticism.
Many have heard the term Higher Criticism, which involves deciding whether Jesus ever said what the New Testament claims. The short answer is - No!
Needless to say, Higher Criticism, Form Criticism, and the Historical-Critical Method are devious ways to deny the authenticity of the Bible, and these tricks have been effective.
Lower Criticism is deciding on the text of the Bible. Not much is said about the Old Testament, because the rabbinic tradition was so careful and precise, counting the words and the letters in a copy. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that variation in 800 years was almost zero - from the Qumran period to the next oldest example of Isaiah, about 800 AD.
Lower Criticism of the New Testament was giving a great boost by Count Tischendorf, a fabulist of great imagination. He kept the monks from burning up the greatest NT find ever, dubbed Codex Sinaiticus. A codex is more like a book. He found the other great manuscript at the Vatican Library: Codex Vaticanus. Both of his finds have more mystery in them than biography, like the Shroud of Turin. Boop - there it is.
There is nothing like a good story, so an antiquarian who makes his reputation by finding something and declaring it priceless is a rare talent. They crop up every few years, but most people see through the scam and move it to the fraud and curiosity websites.
Kloha
I began to read about Kloha and found an article by LMMS Pastor Martin Noland. Kloha's lecture was "published without his permission." Nice deflection. If he lectured, it was already public.
I noticed from this issue that Kloha is already being touchy about his opinions.
When Kloha wrote that the Nestle-Aland is "The Church's text," I thought - "Oh brother."
Here is the quotation - Is my Nestle text authoritative? Yes it is, because it is the church’s text, Christ her Lord is preached in that text, and the church recognizes that the Lord works through that text as the Lord of creation unfolds history. . . .
Noland, who seems to be Kloha's bulldog -
These are the same positions about Scripture and its texts that I heard over thirty years ago from my own professors—the biblically-conservative and doctrinally-orthodox faculty at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne when Dr. Robert Preus was the president there. If Dr. Kloha is in error in these statements, then they were wrong too.
That is the logical fallacy called the Appeal to Authority. Besides that, it is hearsay. He claims that was their position. Maybe it was.
Ft. Wayne was very mixed in those days, actively supporting Church Growth - voting as a faculty for "Church Growth Principles" and being absolutely ridiculous about UOJ. Some of those students have never recovered from that - a combination of UOJ and Church Growth and Rome plus ecumenical delights. Their support of UOJ and Church Growth in those years made them anti-Christian and anti-Lutheran.
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| This bowl of hash is straight out of Pietism, learned by Stephan at Halle University, regurgitated by Walther and all his unfortunate followers. They call themselves Lutheran but rage against justification by faith. |
Let us just assume that a Christian, Greek-speaking empire preserved the New Testament text quite well. This Lower Criticism has invented an industry for itself which is full of professors, editions, books, and journals.
All these fine fellows have their publications, their degrees, their academic honors and awards, but they do not agree with the Scriptures. They are no different than the rabble of Romanists who argued with Luther while storing up kindling for a nice roast. They cannot claim to be Lutheran when they hate Luther's doctrine.
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| One baby Ichabod reader is JBFA. The other is UOJ. |
