Francis Turretin (1623-1687) Codifier of theological orthodoxy.
“By the original texts, we do not mean the autographs written by the hand of Moses, or of the prophets and of the apostles, which certainly do not know exist. We mean their apographs which are so called because they set forth to us the word of God in the very words of those who wrote under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 106.
“the autographs and also the accurate and faithful copies may be the standard of all other copies of the same writing and of it translations. If anything is found in them different from the authentic writings, either autographs or apographs, it is unworthy of the name authentic and should be discarded as spurious and adulterated, the discordance itself being a sufficient reason for its rejection.” Turretin, Institutes, 113.
William Whitaker (1548-1595) Whitaker is the theological link to John Calvin and most quoted theologian by the Westminster Divines.
“We proceeded to break the force of this portion also of Bellarmine’s defense, and to show that the Greek original (apografh) in the New Testament is purer than the Latin edition.” William Whitaker, A Disputation of Holy Scripture Against the papists especially Bellarmine and Stapleton, 193.
Whitaker held that the Greek edition in his possession “is no other than the inspired archetypical [the original pattern] Scripture of the New Testament, commended by the apostles and evangelists to the Christian church.” Whitaker, Disputation, 142.
“The state of the controversy, therefore is this: Whether we should believe that these Scriptures which we now have are sacred and canonical merely on account of the church’s testimony or rather on account of the internal persuasion of the Holy Spirit, which, as it makes the Scripture canonical and authentic in itself, make is also to appear such to us, and without which the testimony of the church is dumb and inefficacious.” Whitaker, Disputation, 280.
Of the Hebrew text Whitaker wrote, “We must hold, therefore, that we have now those very ancient Scriptures which Moses, and the other prophets published, although we have not perhaps, precisely the same forms and shapes of the letters.” Whitaker, Disputation, 117.
Andrew Willet (1562-1621) Prolific Hebrew exegete
“so that it appeareth to be an unreasonable opinion to prefer a translation (Latin) full of corruptions before the pure Originals (apographa).” Andrew Willet, Hexapla in Leviticum, that is, a six-fold commentary upon the third book of Moses, called Leviticus, 1631, 101
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