"We still live in the world of Westcott and Hort with our conception of different recensions and text-types although this conception has lost its raison d' ętre, or, it needs at least to be newly and convincingly demonstrated. For the increase of the documentary evidence and the entirely new areas of research which were opened to us on the discovery of the papyri, mean the end of Westcott and Hort's conception."1

Still, these same liberals always begin their own investigations with the acceptance of most of the basic W-H tenants. Sadly, most conservative scholars have accepted the W-H theory of textual history – largely because most Christian scholars fear scholastic and intellectual ridicule. To stand against the tide carries with it the stigma of appearing uninformed and non-progressive, resulting in the loss of credibility and status among one's peers. The man of God should never allow his faith to be intimidated by so-called "scholarship" – for God promised to preserve His Word. From published letters written by Westcott and Hort, either to each other or to family members, the following has been gleaned. On one occasion, Mr. Westcott was near a monastery and, upon going into the chapel, found a pieta.1 In writing from France to his fiancee in 1847 concerning the event he wrote: "Had I been alone, I could have knelt there for hours." As he was not alone, he had to refrain for to have so done would have revealed just how Roman his beliefs actually were. On November 17, 1865 he wrote to Archbishop Benson remarking, "I wish I could see to what forgotten truth Mariolatry bears witness."2 He stated that the fall of man was an allegory covering a long succession of evolutions. He rejected Genesis 1-3 as a literal history and also denied the fall of man. Westcott felt all women should be named "Mary" so that his wife Sarah, at his request, added "Mary" to her name and he ever so addressed her.3 Does that sound like a Protestant?

With regard to spiritual authority in general and especially the Bible's being the final authority, Mr. Hort said: "Evangelicals seem to me perverted rather than untrue."4 On October 17, 1865 Hort wrote "I have been persuaded for many years that Mary-worship and 'Jesus-worship' have very much in common in their causes and their results".5 Hort praised his "prayer boxes" which he carried about with him. These contained statues (idols) to which he prayed.⁶ Confessing in a 26 October, 1867 letter to Dr. Lightfoot that he was a staunch sacerdotalist,⁷ Hort wrote to Westcott regarding the Protestant's teaching of the "priesthood of the believer" as being a "crazy horror"!⁸ He

2 Arthur Westcott, Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, (London: Macmillian, 1903) Vol. I, p. 81. The Pieta was a life sized statue of Mary holding Jesus' dead body. For a detailed documentation of all the following regarding W-H's beliefs see: George H. Coy, The Inside Story of the Anglo-American Revised New Testament (Dallas, OR: Itemizer- Observer, 1973), pp. 79-88.

3 Ibid., Vol.I, p. 251. Mariolatry is the Catholic doctrines concerning Mary and her veneration. 4 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 8, cp. 81.

5 A.F. Hort, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, 2 Vols. (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1896), Vol. I, p. 400. This is from an October 21, 1858 correspondence to Rev. Rowland Williams.

6 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 50.

7 Ruckman, The Christian's Handbook of Manuscript Evidence, op.cit., p. 39. On page 186 in his footnotes, Dr. Ruckman cites Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 50; yet the material is not on that page. He adds that he is referencing that which he heard from Dr. Edward F. Hills in March of 1969. Although this author considers the above statement attributed to Hort by Ruckman as accurate, I have thus far been unable to locate and thereby independently confirm the citation in any of Hort's work at my disposal.

8 A.F. Hort, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 86. Belief that by virtue of ordination into the priesthood, one is given supernatural powers.

9 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 51.

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