Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man!
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The title above has no doubt been reasonably applied to many individuals down the centuries.
John William Burgon, I believe, was such a man. John Burgon was Dean of Chichester and died in the late 1880s. He was an Anglican and, although somewhat high church, his commentaries on the Gospels lead me to believe that he was a saved man.
But the thing for which many will remember Burgon was his powerful defence of the King James Bible. He was a contemporary of Westcott and Hort and took them both to the woodshed repeatedly and in fine fashion.
When those two scoundrels published their corrupt New Testament, Burgon responded with a number of articles published in the Quarterly Review; presumably an Anglican publication. These were later published together in Burgon's book, The revision Revised.
I first read The Revision Revised about twenty-five years ago and it remains for me one of the most masterful and delightful defences of the Textus Receptus I have ever picked up. It helps if the reader has some acquaintance with Koine Greek, though it may not be essential.
The delight of the work for me is Burgon's extraordinary clarity of mind, his powerful use of the English language, and his devastating demolition of the nonsense of Westcott and Hort. Although Burgon did not believe in the perfection of the KJV and occasionally corrects it, such corrections are rare and, for me, do not invalidate what is otherwise a devastating critique of the WH text and theory.
Anyone preparing for a preaching ministry would find Burgon's works a very helpful foundation. He was certainly the man of the hour.
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