Apr 05 2011
Inexact Quotations vs. Inerrancy
Do inexact quotations of Old Testament texts in the New Testament show that Scripture is not inerrant? Here is a excerpt of an article by A.A. Hodges and B.B. Warfield in defense of inerrancy.
Nor is quotation to be confounded with translation. It does not, like it, profess to give as exact a representation of the original, in all its aspects and on every side, as possible; but only to give a true account of its teaching in one of its bearings. There is thus always an element of application in quotation; and it is, therefore, proper in quotation to so alter the form of the original as to bring out clearly its bearing on the one subject in hand, thus throwing the stress on the element in it for which it is cited. This would be improper in a translation. The laws which ought to govern quotation seem, indeed, to have been very inadequately investigated by those who please the New Testament methods of quotation against inspiration.
(A.A. Hodge and B.B. Warfield, “Inspiration,” The Presbyterian Review 2/6 (April 1881) 256, emphasis in the original.)
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