Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 81:1 (Spring 2019)
Article: "Ad Fontes!"—The Concept Of The “Originals” Of Scripture In Seventeenth-Century Reformed Orthodoxy
Author: Richard F. Brash

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WTJ 81:1 (Spring 2019) p. 123

Ad Fontes!—The Concept Of The “Originals”
Of Scripture In Seventeenth-Century
Reformed Orthodoxy

Richard F. Brash

Richard F. Brash is a Mission Partner of St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford, and is currently a PhD candidate in Systematic Theology at New College in the University of Edinburgh.

Present-day evangelical discussions of the “originals” of Scripture typically focus on the autographa. But it is increasingly recognized that in seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox theology, reference to the “originals” of Scripture meant something more than just the autographa.

This article substantiates the claim that, while some of the Reformed orthodox made the conceptual distinction between the autographa and the apographa, they typically posited a practical univocity between these two. This univocity, and the doctrine of the providential preservation of Scripture that underlay it, came under increasing pressure during the seventeenth century, and so it underwent some refinement. But ultimately most Reformed orthodox of this period maintained the belief that Scripture had been preserved in the extant copies, which were as far as they were concerned “original.” This belief distinguished their position from Rome’s, and also made them much less willing than their successors to allow conjectural emendation of the biblical text.

Methodologically, this article follows the diachronic development of Reformed discussion of the “original” biblical texts through the century 1588–1687. Theologians considered include William Whitaker (1548–1595), William Ames (1576–1633), John Owen (1616–1683), and Francis Turretin (1623–1687). There is also discussion of the relevant sections of the Leiden Synopsis, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) and the Helvetic Consensus Formula (1675).

Present-day evangelical discussions of the “originals” of Scripture typically focus on the autographa, in other words, the texts as written by the first author(s) (or, in certain cases, redactors) of each biblical book.1 The influence of Old Princeton in this regard, and particularly the doctrine of

WTJ 81:1 (Spring 2019) p. 124

Scripture as articulated by B. B. Warfield and A. A. Hodge, is well-known.2 But it is also now increasingly recognized that in seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox theology, the “originals” of Scripture had a different meaning.

As Richard Muller has argued, “the scholastics argue positively that the apographa [in other words, the manuscripts of Scripture presentl...

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