THE SEPTUAGINT THE MAIN SOURCE OF NEW TESTAMENT QUOTATIONS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J
Sin,—I thank you for your condensed but singularly clear conception of the meaning and scope of my letter, in the Spectator of June 21st. Oh that one might say of all editors, "Such an honest chronicler is Griffiths "!
Mr. Howorth is under misapprehension. I did not write ex cathedrci, nor mention his "statement," which I did not remember. I wrote simply, as you state, of our Lord's "own quotations "—all that was before me in the passage I ventured to discuss. The larger question, as to all the quotations in the New Testament from the Old, was not before me. These were not directly our Lord's. May I ask Mr. Howorth first to disprove my careful examination of the Gospel quotations ? If he cannot do this, then we are not—as he infers— bound to "treat the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew text as inspired ;" nor is Dr. Liddon "put in a dilemma" at all ; nor is his "contention absolutely suicidal," so far as our Lord is concerned, which was the central point of his thought, if I remember rightly. If Mr. Howorth will critically discuss this point first, of his own knowledge, and not by a mere unverified reference to Mr. Grinfield, I will gladly go with him into his three hundred and fifty further texts outside the Gospels ; but let us first know if our Lord may be alleged as favouring his inference about the Septuagint being inspired. Does he not remember that his one quoted " authority " (Grinfield) actually contends for the inspiration of the Septuagint ? I assure Mr. Howorth that I wrote with familiar knowledge of Grinfield's able book, and of the "pro- found investigation" of the subject "for many years ;" and all the texts which he has copied from his "authority," or other- wise, were before me, and were the very texts which I carefully examined. May I suggest that Grinfield, having an extreme theory to sustain, is not always reliable for the whole truth? —I am, Sir, &c., Temple Ewell, Dover, June 21st. W. F. HOBSON.
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