Sun Apr 28 13:14:38 1996

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From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Re: Waite just a minute
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On Sat, 27 Apr 1996, Dave Washburn wrote:

> I used to read a newsletter put out by Waite, back when I first got 
> into textual criticism while in college.  The newsletter was called 
> "The Dean Burgon News" and it was published by what was essentially a 
> one-man organization called "The Dean Burgon Society."  

Please allow me to correct any false or misleading notions about Dr. 
Waite.  Even though I obviously disagree and differ from him in virtually 
everything related to textual criticism, I would want to make certain 
that the facts are presented accurately and honesty.  I do personally 
know Waite and have even dined with him on occasion, so I can offer some 
data in this regard.

The so-called "Dean Burgon Society" was created around 1978 by a group of 
KJV-Only partisans lead by Waite and David Otis Fuller (who has since 
died). The group is not merely a one-man organization, but probably has 
at least 50-60 regular members who pay dues, plus a number of others who 
receive either the "Dean Burgon News" (which may well be now defunct) or 
the "BFT Newsreport" (BFT = Bible For Today), which is still being 
printed monthly or quarterly by Waite.  Although it may appear like a 
one-man organization, since Waite controls the publication end of it all 
and is almost exclusively the only writer in his bulletin except for his 
wife's column), the "Dean Burgon Society" still exists and has "annual 
conferences" usually attended by about 25-30 people (mostly those who 
present pseudo-"scholarly" papers criticizing everyone who does not use 
the KJV or the TR underlying such.  James White is far more familiar with 
their inner machinations than am I, having written his "KJV-Only 
Controversy" book which deals with this phenomenon.

> He would 
> write multi-part articles with headers such as "Part 1 of 27 parts," 
> which was irritating enough; but then  every line in the 
> newspaper-column format was punctuated with bold print, words in all 
> caps, underlining, and other various ways of shouting.  

This still continues in the BFT Newsreport as well as in all his 
publications. I suppose he somehow thinks that putting words in all caps, 
italicizing them, and then underlining or double underlining them carries 
some weight among his constituency, but with his Ph.D. in English from 
Purdue, he most definitely should know better. *;-)

> No evidence, no scholarship, 
> no examination of the materials, just ranting and raving about how 
> great the King James is and how evil Westcott and Hort were.  Every 
> other word was emphasized in some way

Quite typical of most everything which emanates from the KJV-Only camp, 
and really not surprising in the least.

> Oh, yes, about the "Dr." part: something he doesn't advertise in his 
> writings or his interviews is that his doctorate has nothing to do 
> with textual criticism, Greek or anything else related to the 
> biblical materials; it's in speech.

This is only half correct -- while he did get the Ph.D. in English/Speech 
at Purdue as a second doctorate, he does have a quite legitimate Th.D. 
from Dallas Theological Seminary in Greek exegesis (his dissertation 
concerned the exegesis of Titus, and was written in proper formal style, 
with none of the wild caps and underlining typical of his current work).

In fact, I for one know that Dr. Waite knows better in regard to textual 
criticism than he allows to be put into print -- he admitted as much to 
me on one occasion, but because of his "constituency", he cannot espouse 
any position which would alter either the text of the KJV (even a "you" 
for "ye") nor the text of the TR which underlies the KJV as published by 
the Trinitarian Bible Society in England.  Obviously, this does not much 
commend his position or "scholarship" to any but those within his 
constituency, which by and large are all ultra-fundamentalist Baptists.

I hope that this will help clarify the matter somewhat.

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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