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To: kosta50
Speaking of retro-fitting, here are Augustine's own words from the City of God:

"For the same Spirit who was in the prophets when they spoke these things was also in the seventy men when they translated them, so that assuredly they could also say something else, just as if the prophet himself had said both, because it would be the same Spirit who said both; and could say the same thing differently, so that, although the words were not the same, yet the same meaning should shine forth to those of good understanding; and could omit or add something, so that even by this it might be shown that there was in that work not human bondage, which the translator owed to the words, but rather divine power, which filled and ruled the mind of the translator. [Augustine:City of God;Book XX;Chapter 43]

If that is one's attitude regarding the work of a translator, then it is not far-fetched to believe that Origen, the notoriuous master of forgeries, who was never bound by any text, and owed nothing to its words, would have simply made the words of his fifth column conform to the New Testament manuscripts which we all know he was also inspired to creatively emend as the spirit moved him.

11,248 posted on 03/06/2007 4:01:02 AM PST by Uncle Chip (TRUTH : Ignore it. Deride it. Allegorize it. Interpret it. But you can't ESCAPE it.)
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To: Uncle Chip
Thanks for the link to +Augustine. Indeed, his words reflect the attitude of the Church with respect to the Scripture. As it is obvious from +Chrysostom's homily in my reply to fortheDeclaration, the unreliability of various versions and the existences of forgeries made the Church not adopt a sola-scirptura stance but rely on the inner knowledge that those who are "pure in spirit" shall know God's truth regardless of the words that are written.

The Chruch can preserve the truth only through those who are specially blessed, who see the truth and hear the truth. The same goes for Judaism, for nothing written exists before 500 BC. We simply trust that whatever was preserved orally and in fragments was carried from generation to generation of the saints, beginning with Moses. Those who are pure in heart did not receive the written Word. Thus, the faith delivered by Christ was never incumbent on the word written and copied by the uninspired.

11,250 posted on 03/06/2007 4:32:46 AM PST by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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