Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Westcott's Spiritual Life
Some of Westcott's contemporaries thought he had turned from the faith. His son Arthur claimed that he hadn't. Which is correct? Once the dates of his letters are figured out and put in chronological order, the truth begins to reveal itself.
Chapter 2 - From Faith to Faith? Or Doubt to Faith?
It matters where we start from when we approach the Bible. Empirical science starts with doubt. But God insists we take a different approach.
Chapter 3 - A Mature 19-Year-Old
Westcott begins college with strong discipline and clear faith in the Bible and its systems. But the trust he lays in one man is shattered by a single event that severely affects his faith and reverberates through the rest of his life. This is when a subtle seduction toward Catholicism begins.
Chapter 4 - Doubt Makes a Lousy Starting Point.
Westcott, with no firm root in the Bible of his youth, quickly trusts his professors, who say the Greek Received Text behind the King James could not be trusted. He trusts that science would bring all the answers. They are all deceived by a treatise on Vaticanus by a Catholic priest named Hug. Soon the scholarly world is searching for a second text like Vaticanus. But none of the "science" is able to erase Westcott's "gloomy skepticism and doubts."
Chapter 5 - Westcott's Diary (January-March 1846)
Westcott's diary reveals struggles that he doesn't state in his letters, even to his beloved "Louey." Here he confided thoughts of retiring to a monastery and his first thoughts of creating a new New Testament.
Chapter 6 - Trying to Find the Truth? (1846)
Westcott's life is divided between encouraging his sweetheart to trust the Bible and his own deep doubts about its words. His critical Greek New Testament doesn't help his doubts. He is told Catholicism isn't such a grave danger. The scholar Westcott is falling into a Jesuit trap.
Chapter 7 - The Struggle Continues (1846-48)
Westcott still reads Bible with his sweetheart but is wavering in his own faith. His diary reveals he's abandoning his goal of being a preacher for being a teacher. He questions basic articles of his denomination's statement of faith while being seduced by Roman Catholic images. He trusts other men to create faith by appeals to nature or "redeemed reason." His doubts and confusion grow.
Chapter 8 - Cambridge: Graduate Life (1848-1851)
Westcott takes on 12 disciples (pupils). Some become lifelong friends. Despite these, Westcott feels alone. He justifies his doubts and wants to teach them to others. He starts retranslating King James words. He meets John Newman and is unimpressed. His ordination doesn't fill the void he feels. He's an "obedient servant," but misses the point of a relationship with God.
Chapter 9 - Harrow School (1852)
As Westcott begins his job as headmaster at Harrow school, his attitude shifts to scolding his now fiancée, "Mary," over his reading Newman again and lifting up Origen and his own Greek knowledge. But Harrow has a dark underbelly that makes us question Westcott's integrity. He begins married life, while Newman's writings begin to affect his disciple, Hort.
Chapter 10 - One of the 12: FJA Hort (1849-50s)
Hort, a hard-working man, begins his life as a diligent, Bible believing, highly intelligent boy. As he graduates from school to school, he latches on to certain teachers who shape his beliefs. When he enters university, he is greatly pulled from everything his intelligent, godly mother had taught him. Purchasing Scholz's Greek text, he soon hates the Greek Received Text, though he has no actual experience with the Greek New Testament.
Chapter 11 - A New Greek Text (1853)
While Hort recovers from a sickness, Westcott proposes them creating a new Greek Text that has words they could "accept with reasonable satisfaction." Westcott meets Tischendorf and is not impressed. Together with Lightfoot they attempt to make a New Testament with commentary and Greek text. For 6 years they cannot agree on a Greek text. They consider the King James "falsified" Holy Scripture. They decide to plant doubt of both the text and the meaning of the text. They see themselves as the final judges of the meaning of the Greek.
Chapter 12 - A Quiet Conspiracy (1859)
Jesuit Arnold Damen spreads lies about errors in the King James Bible. Protestants repeat similar lies. Cutting loose the anchor of the scriptures leaves people open to many deceptions in movements of the day. Baptists get caught up in wanting to change the Bible, both before and after Westcott and Hort. Baptists push to change the Bible because of one word: Baptize! The result is openness to secularism and doubt.
Chapter 13 - The Gathering Storm
Westcott and Hort are ripe for the deceptions of Darwin and evolutionary theory. As a result, they try to fit evolution into Genesis and no longer believe its literal words.
Chapter 14 - The 1870 Revision Committee
Westcott and Hort hand-pick mostly Yes men for their committees. They include a Christ's deity-denying Unitarian, both in England and USA committees. Unitarian doctrine affects the ERV and ASV Bibles, which in turn influence many Bibles used today. Other friends of Westcott and Hort are invited, including Catholics, visible and secret, a supporter of the fake Sinaiticus, one popular conservative, a pedophile and a pope-pleasing ecumenical. Why Tischendorf was logically excluded.
Chapter 15 - How They Finally Did It (1870-1881)
One change leaves one open to bigger changes. A few broken rules allow a totally different text to be put in place of the Greek Received Text. Proof that Westcott and Hort's text was secretly substituted. How they influence the British committee to vote their way on changes.
Chapter 16 - Adrift in a Sea of Change
The havoc wreaked by the English Revised Version. Trusting teachers over scriptures. Hiding the changed Greek text from the public till the last minute. The massive spread of the false text with the rise of inexpensive printing presses. The drift from faith that results from false Bibles.
Chapter 17 - Shipwreck!
The devastating results of the massive shift from just one to a flood of Bibles. Bible illiteracy. Sharp decline in Bible use. Changing "standard" Bibles. The advent of study Bibles, instead of studying the Bible. Doubtful notes even in King James Bibles. Confusion, doubt, disbelief and rebellion as their results. The waste of the Bible-changers and Bible-doubters lives. What shall we do?
Chapter 18 - Anchoring Your Ship
The truth is worth a little inconvenience: the example of Paul. The Bible as the one anchor we've been looking for.
Appendix A - English Translation of De Antiquitate Codicis Vaticani Commentatio
"A Commentary on the Antiquity of the Vatican Codex" -This is the 1810 Latin document that changed the paleographic and scholarly world. It claims to prove that the Codex Vaticanus was actually created before 350 AD, a teaching that has persisted to the present day, despite the lack of evidence. The Latin text is thoroughly translated, including its footnotes. Commentary is added, along with complete illustrations from Vaticanus, including illustrations mentioned from rare books. Hug's arguments are refuted, step by step. These are the same arguments used today, making this book just as important now as it was in the 19th century. Bracketed [ ] sections are my own words.
Appendix B - The Latin Text of De Antiquitate
The original Latin text of De Antiquitate Codicis Vaticani Commentatio, as presented in Granville Penn's 1837 book, Annotations to the Book of the New Covenant, on pages 93-112.
