John Burgon

April 15, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The author of The Revision Revised, John William Burgon (1813-1888), was one of the greatest British Bible scholars of the 19th century. He was Gresham Professor of Divinity at Oxford, Fellow of Oriel College, vicar of St. Mary’s (the university church); and during the last 12 years of his life, he was Dean of Chichester. In the latter half of the 1800s, Burgon defended the Bible as the infallible and inerrant Word of God, inspired to its very jots and tittles, and he fought a manly battle against the encroachment of theological modernism. The series of messages on biblical inspiration that Burgon preached at Oxford University in 1860 are apologetic masterpieces. Burgon observed: "At the root of the whole mischief of these last days lies disbelief in the Bible as the Word of God. This is the fundamental error." Burgon defended the historicity and Mosaic authorship of Genesis and rejected any scientific theory which is contrary to Divine Revelation. He wisely stated, "Destroy my confidence in the Bible as an historical record, and you destroy my confidence in it altogether; for by far the largest part of the Bible is an historical record." His position was: "Either, with the best and wisest of all ages, you must believe the whole of Holy Scripture; or, with the narrow-minded infidel, you must disbelieve the whole. There is no middle course open to you. . . . He who surrenders the first page of his Bible, surrenders all. . . . No, Sirs! The Bible (be persuaded) is the very utterance of the Eternal; as much God’s Word, as if high heaven were open, and we heard God speaking to us with human voice. . . . The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the throne! Every book of it,--every chapter of it,--every verse of it,--every word of it,--every syllable of it,--(where are we to stop?),--every letter of it,--is the direct utterance of the most High! . . . The Bible is none other than the Word of God: not some part of it, more, some part of it, less; but all alike, the utterance of Him who sitteth upon the Throne; absolute,--faultless,--unerring,--supreme!" We say to that, Amen and Amen and Amen! It is certain that such an unhesitating and glorious defense of the Bible has not been heard at Oxford University in the last one hundred years!

Observing the blossoming of modern textual criticism in his day, Burgon saw a direct connection between it and the modernistic higher criticism which was proceeding from Germany. Both textual criticism and higher criticism were being championed in the 19th century by enemies of Christianity, particularly Unitarians and Theological Modernists. (I have documented this extensively in my 1999 book Myths about the King James Bible.) Burgon rose to the challenge of textual criticism. He was a first-rate textual scholar, the equal to any man alive at the time. He made several tours of European libraries, examining and collating New Testament manuscripts wherever he went. He visited the Vatican Library in 1860 to examine the Vaticanus. In 1862 he traveled to Mt. Sinai to inspect manuscripts at St. Catherine’s monastery (where Tischendorf found the Sinaiticus manuscript). Dr. Edward Hills notes the purpose of Burgon’s travels: "Being driven by the desire to get to the bottom of the false statements being made by the reigning Critics of his day, Burgon devoted the last 30 years of his life to disprove them. Believing firmly that God had providentially preserved the true text of the New Testament, he set out to discover how the depraved and corrupt readings developed. This required him to travel widely" (E.F. Hills, "A Biographical Sketch of the Life of Burgon," Unholy Hands on the Bible: Vol. 1, Jay Green, ed., p. xix). After all of this diligent research into the text and history of the Scripture, Burgon was convinced that the Received Text underlying the King James Bible is the preserved Word of God. When the Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament was published, together with the English Revised Version, in 1881, Burgon exposed its errors in a series of articles that appeared in the Quarterly Review. These were later incorporated into the book The Revision Revised, which appeared in 1883.

Though John Burgon did not believe the KJV is perfect in every point, he did exalt the King James Bible above all other English versions, calling it a "priceless treasure which was bequeathed to us by the piety and wisdom of our fathers," and he maintained that the Received Greek New Testament is, apart from minor improvements he felt could be made, the preserved Word of God. He soundly defended the Received Text over the critical text introduced by Westcott and Hort (and which is basically the same Greek text underlying all of the modern English versions).

Burgon’s research into the text of Scripture through church history has, in some ways, never been equaled. This is particularly true of his research into the quotations from the Scriptures of church leaders of antiquity. To discover what Scripture text the ancient church leaders were using, Burgon laboriously dug out 86,489 quotations from ancient Christian writings and compiled these into sixteen thick manuscript volumes, which are located today in the British Museum. More than 4,000 of the quotations are from writers who lived before 400 A.D. By this peerless research, Burgon was convinced that the Received Text underlying the Reformation Bibles is the very text which has been used by God’s people through the centuries and is thus the preserved Word of God. He concluded: "Call this text Erasmian or Complutensian, the text of Stephens, or of Beza, or of the Elzevirs, call it the Received or the Traditional, or by whatever name you please--the fact remains that a text has come down to us which is attested by a general consensus of ancient Copies, ancient Fathers, and ancient Versions." 640 p. 5X8. Hardcover. Available from Bible for Today, 900 Park Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108. 800-564-6109 (orders), 609-854-4452 (voice), 609-854-2464 (fax), BFT@BibleForToday.org (e-mail).

For a more complete biography of John Burgon’s life see the book For Love of the Bible: The Battle for the Received Text and the King James Bible from 1800 to Present, 500 pages, hardcover, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org.