correcting misinformation about Helena Blavatsky and Brooke Foss Westcott

[Steven Avery]

Over the years, I have had to correct some misinformation that came through Gail Riplinger and Brian Sorios. Here is an example post.

Facebook - We are not as many
https://www.facebook.com/groups/777...=1295095203969165&comment_tracking={"tn":"R"}

None of the information given in the posts by Brian and various copies of the claims is reliable without careful checking, especially in regard to Helena Blavatsky. e.g. If Blavatsky has any quote connecting Westcott with channeling, it is a different Westcott:

William Wynne Westcott
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wynn_Westcott

Yes, the Westcott and Hort who worked on the Bible did have some occult connections over the years, but the information in that post is simply jambalaya.

And I did not have any comment capability on that thread:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...37596.2024276.1056404279&type=3&theater&ifg=1

So I do it here.

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Another example, Westcott is mentioned a few times in Isis Unvelied Vol 2, on p. 159, 161, 189, 243, 370, but none of the quotes are anything close to what is given in that post.
https://books.google.com/books?id=WSSmcfz3_LEC&pg=PA159

Two of the five references are on the Clementine Homilies, one on Hermas, one on Marcion and one on Christ performing miracles, nothing is like the quote given.

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In The Secret Doctrine, Vol 1, there is an interesting quote that has a bit of resemblance to one of the quotes:

Cosmogenesis (1888)
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
https://books.google.com/books?id=EBIaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA570

† Now that the revised version of the gospels has been published and the most glaring mistranslations of the old versions are corrected, one will understand better the words in St. John v., vi., and vii.: “It is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is the truth.” The words that follow in the mistranslated version about the “three witnesses,” — hitherto supposed to stand for “the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost” — show the real meaning of the writer (St. John) very clearly, thus still more forcibly identifying his teaching in this respect with that of Sankaracharya. For what can the sentence, “there are three who bear witness: the Spirit and the Water and the Blood” — mean, if they bear no relation to, or connection with, the more philosophical statement of the great Vedanta teacher, who, speaking of the sheaths (the principles in man) Jiva, Vignanamaya, etc., which are, in their physical manifestation, “water and blood” or life, adds that atma (spirit) alone is what remains after the subtraction of the sheaths and that it is the only witness, or synthesized unity. The less spiritual and philosophical school, solely with an eye to a trinity made three witnesses out of “one,” thus connecting it more with earth than with heaven.

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Steven

As to the history of how this information got so mangled, that is another story.

And I had begun correcting this back in 2013-14:

King James Bible Debate
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212...d=10152579265796693&offset=0&total_comments=2

Some of those quotes apparently come from Brian Sirois, they are on the DoRightChristians website. I asked Brian about it and he says they come from the original edition of Blavatsky writings, like Isis Unvieled, information he got from Les Garrett. And I am quite ekeptical, since we have early editions of Isis Unveiled online, without the quotes in question. And I am attempting to contact Les Garrett (who had a W&H book out at one time).

(I had originally looked into this about a year ago.)

Unless there is photographic confirmation of these quotes, I suggest this only be used as an example of AV defenders running with unsubstantiated misinformation.

Since there really is important information about the background of W&H vis a vis the occult (e.g. the Hort seance in the Bible years, the "communion of the saints" writings of Westcott):

*** any embellished and fabricated attempts should be discarded. ***

And any unsubstantiated attempts should be left for private discussion while seeking to determine accuracy.

Steven Avery

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There is an interesting Blavatsky quote about Sinaiticus authenticity that you can read here:

Blavatsky report - "such a Codex never existed in the library"
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.88/post-288

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Another related thread:

occultism in textual writers - Hoskier, Ginsburg, Westcott-Hort - also Mark in Latin
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.439/post-878

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I may find a bit more in my email correspondence.
Will Kinney was especially concerned that this be accurate, and updated his posts.

Steven Avery