p. 5 | Ancient Manuscript Confirms Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1912

Ancient Manuscript Confirms Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy

By GEO. M. BROWN

GEO. M. BROWN

THE incident of Christ’s dealing with the woman taken in adultery, as recorded in John 8: 3-11, is commented upon in “Spirit of Prophecy,” Vol. II (edition of 1877), pages 349-358. John does not tell us what Jesus wrote upon the sand, but it is here stated that he traced upon the ground “in legible characters, the sins of which the woman’s accusers were guilty, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest.”

How perfectly and naturally this accounts for the action of these hypocritical accusers of the woman as related in verse nine, where we are told that they “went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.”

In a recent lecture in Kansas City, Prof. Caspar Rene Gregory, professor of theology in the University of Leipzig, related how he had found among the many ancient manuscripts preserved in the monasteries on Mt. Athos, Turkey, one which recorded this incident of which John speaks. Said Professor Gregory: “Now this version had it that Jesus wrote upon the ground the sins of every man in the audience, and that they when they read it, convicted by their consciences, went out one by one.”

What this learned professor of theology has recently discovered, as a result of laborious research and the study of musty old manuscripts in an isolated monastery, was given to God’s people years ago through the spirit of prophecy, and has been published to the world for more than thirty-five years.

The books “Patriarchs and Prophets,” “Great Controversy,” “Desire of Ages,” and “Acts of the Apostles” contain thousands of interesting facts and comments which serve to throw light upon the records of the Bible, and make clearer and plainer God’s wonderful dealings with men.

Undoubtedly men and women paid for the privilege of listening to Professor Gregory and learning from him what he had found out in a long life devoted to study and research. Why did they do this?—Because they attached a value

to the knowledge he had acquired. If we properly appreciated the knowledge of divine things given this people through the spirit of prophecy, would we not all gladly spend the small amount necessary to purchase the books containing this light, and then prayerfully read them?

Were all to do this, it would help in bringing a genuine revival into our churches, and give an impetus to the work which would result in rapidly extending the knowledge of present truth to earth’s dark corners, and in making ready a people to hail the Saviour when he comes in the clouds to gather his own from the four corners of the earth.

Greensboro, N. C.