p. 132 | Acts viii, 37 by J. H. Waggoner

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 27, 1866

By J. H. Waggoner

"And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

This verse, containing the confession of the Eunuch who was baptized by Philip, has long been the sole basis of personal obedience to baptism among the Disciples. I say sole basis, because I have often heard Disciple ministers ask this question to those who "came forward" in the congregation, and proceed to baptize them on the "good confession" found in the above text. But of late they have been taken aback somewhat, on their standing practice, by learning that the passage is spurious. Not that this fact was not known till lately, but their attention has not long been called to it. A few evidences on this point may be interesting.

Dr. Clarke says: "This whole verse is omitted by ABCG, several others of the first authority, Espin's edit. of the Arabic, the Syriac, the Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, and some of the Slavonic; almost all the critics declare against it. Griesbach has left it out of the text, and Professor White in his Κρισεις says 'Hic versus certissime delendus,' this verse, most assuredly, should be blotted out. It is found in E, several others of minor importance, and in the Vulgate and Arabic. In those MSS. where it is extant it exists in a variety of forms, though the sense is the same."—Comment.

Dr. Barnes says: "It is not easy to conceive why it has been omitted in almost all the Greek MSS. unless it is spurious."—Notes.

Dr. Bloomfield says: "There has been no little debate as to the authenticity of this verse, which is not found in many of the best MSS. and most of the ancient Versions, including the Pesch. Syriac, and is omitted in several citations of the Fathers, as also in the Edit. Princ. It is, therefore, cancelled or rejected by Grot., Mill, Wets., Pearce, Matth., Newc., Griesb., Titm., Knapp, Kuin., Gratz, and Vat. It was indeed defended by Whitby and Wolf—strenuously, but not, I think, successfully."—Gr. Test. with Notes.

In Sawyer's Translation it is omitted.

In Whiting's Translation it is placed in brackets.

It is put in brackets by Murdock, in his Trans. from the Syriac, with the following note: "This 37th verse is not in any of the earlier editions, and is excluded from the text of the London editions of 1816 and 1826."

It is omitted from the text of Campbell's N. Test., and placed in the Appendix with other "Spurious Readings."

H. T. Anderson, author of a Translation in high repute among the Disciples, says: "The 37th verse of Acts viii is not in the best Greek Texts." He omits it.

Another highly esteemed Disciple author says: "By the almost universal consent of recent critics, the whole of this verse is excluded from the original text, and should be from all versions. For the reasons on which this decision is based, we refer the reader to Bloomfield's Com. on the passage, 'Tregelles's History of the Printed Text,' and other critical works."—J. W. McGarvey, Rev. Vers. and Com. on Acts.

Greenfield marks it in the Greek as "a reading entirely rejected as spurious."

Olshausen says: "At a later period, however, offense was taken at the precipitation with which the baptism appears to have been administered, and therefore an ample clause was added, embracing a kind of confession of faith of the treasurer. But the different shapes in which this clause appears are of themselves sufficient to raise doubts of its genuineness, which are carried to certainty by the agreement of the best codices, A. C. G. and others, in omitting it."—Com. on N. Testament.

Testimonies like the above might be given to much greater length; but these are sufficient, I think, to show that this verse is no part of God's word to us.

J. H. WAGGONER.

Battle Creek, Mich.

Acts viii, 37.