# About a proof text of WCF 18:3



## lumenite (Jun 17, 2019)

I have a question about a proof text of an article of Westminster Confession of Faith. The first proof texts of WCF 18:3 include 1 John 5:13, Psalm 77:1-12, Psalm 88, Mark 9:24, and Isaiah 50:10. However, some texts have Isaiah 1:10 rather than 50:10. Which one is the original? Is this a typo or an intentional modification? Are there some variations among the ancient copies? ARP, RPCNA, Ligonier, and Free Church of Scotland Continuing have 50:10, while Monergism site, Robert Shaw, and Morton H. Smith have 1:10. Interestingly, OPC has 1 John 5:13 alone in its PDF file.

*WCF 18:3.* This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it; (k)...
Is 1:10, Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
Is 50:10, Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

The corresponding Larger Catechism #81 has Isaiah 50:10. Some old PDFs at archive.org have 50:10. Where does Isaiah 1:10 come from?


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## iainduguid (Jun 17, 2019)

I have no knowledge of the history, but approaching this from a text critical perspective, Isaiah 50:10 seems a far more likely proof text. In terms of how that becomes Isaiah 1:10, I would note that older sources sometimes wrote the chapter number as a roman numeral, i.e. John iii.16. In that case, Isaiah 50:10 would be Isa. l.10 (with a lowercase "L"), which could easily be misread.

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## NaphtaliPress (Jun 17, 2019)

This sounds familiar but I can't remember anything about the error. Dr. Duguid I think is correct in how the mistake would have come about. Carruthers notes no historical error in his 1937 critical text. My entire collection of editions and any work on the WCF text is now at PCA Historical Center so I can't check the RP editions or ARP editions, but given the two others I suspect it is recent. Some errors I had traced to reformed.org's text as far as re introducing errors that had been corrected over time, but on this reads correctly. 


lumenite said:


> I have a question about a proof text of an article of Westminster Confession of Faith. The first proof texts of WCF 18:3 include 1 John 5:13, Psalm 77:1-12, Psalm 88, Mark 9:24, and Isaiah 50:10. However, some texts have Isaiah 1:10 rather than 50:10. Which one is the original? Is this a typo or an intentional modification? Are there some variations among the ancient copies? ARP, RPCNA, Ligonier, and Free Church of Scotland Continuing have 50:10, while Monergism site, Robert Shaw, and Morton H. Smith have 1:10. Interestingly, OPC has 1 John 5:13 alone in its PDF file.
> 
> *WCF 18:3.* This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it; (k)...
> Is 1:10, Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
> ...

Reactions: Like 1


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## lumenite (Jun 17, 2019)

iainduguid said:


> I have no knowledge of the history, but approaching this from a text critical perspective, Isaiah 50:10 seems a far more likely proof text. In terms of how that becomes Isaiah 1:10, I would note that older sources sometimes wrote the chapter number as a roman numeral, i.e. John iii.16. In that case, Isaiah 50:10 would be Isa. l.10 (with a lowercase "L"), which could easily be misread.


Great! It makes sense. I appreciate your insight.


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