William Whiston—Heretic or Honest Scholar?
WOULD you sacrifice your career for the sake of your beliefs? William Whiston did.
He became a figure of religious controversy in the early 18th century, when he took issue with the Church of England over the Bible’s teachings. As a result, he was eventually branded a heretic. His course thus brought him ridicule but also earned him respect.
Who was William Whiston? And what did he accomplish?
A Bible Scholar
William Whiston was a brilliant Cambridge University colleague of Sir Isaac Newton. If you consult the English edition of the writings of the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, you will likely be reading the translation made by Whiston in 1736. Although other translations exist, his scholarly rendering, along with his notes and essays, has yet to be surpassed and is still in print. Many consider this work to be the pinnacle of Whiston’s achievements.
Not to be overlooked, however, is the Primitive New Testament, Whiston’s translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. It was published in 1745, in his 78th year. Whiston translated the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles from the Codex Bezae, Paul’s letters from the Clermont Codex, and the remaining portion, including Revelation, from the Alexandrine Manuscript. He carefully omitted the spurious part of 1 John 5:7. Whiston chose these three ancient Greek sources as the best available at the time.
Love for the Bible was the apparent motivation for what Whiston did. Prevalent in his day was deism, the teaching that reason alone is an adequate basis for belief in God. According to the book William Whiston—Honest Newtonian, he strongly upheld “the traditionalist view that the Bible is the one infallible source of ancient history.” The term “Newtonian” here is a reference to Isaac Newton, best known for his Principia, in which he expounded the law of universal gravitation. Newton’s thinking had a profound effect on William Whiston. How?
Contrasting Personalities
William Whiston was born in 1667, the son of a Church of England clergyman. After being ordained in 1693, he returned to Cambridge University to study mathematics and become an assistant to Newton. A close bond developed between them. When Newton relinquished his position as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics about three years later, he made sure that Whiston was appointed in his stead. Pursuing his career, Whiston lectured on astronomy and mathematics, but Newton’s influence also spurred him to take a deeper interest in Biblical chronology and doctrine.
Newton was a religious man. As a committed believer in the Biblical Millennium, he wrote extensively on the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. However, hardly any of these writings were published during his lifetime. He rejected the Trinity doctrine. But when it came to publishing his evidence against the Trinity, “Newton withdrew in fear that his anti-Trinitarian views would become known,” observes The New Encyclopædia Britannica. F. E. Manuel puts it this way in Isaac Newton, Historian: “Newton’s group either kept their opinions secret or restrained their enthusiasm. . . . Where Newton was covert Whiston shrieked in the marketplace.” The two men thus had contrasting personalities.
Ostracism
In July 1708, Whiston wrote to the archbishops of both Canterbury and York, urging reform of Church of England doctrine in view of the false teaching of the Trinity as reflected in the Athanasian Creed. Understandably, he was counseled to be cautious. Yet Whiston persisted. “I have studied these points to the bottom,” he said, “and am thoroughly satisfied the christian church has been long and grossly cheated in them; and, by God’s blessing, if it be in my power, it shall be cheated no longer.”
Newton feared for his social and academic position. Whiston, on the other hand, did not. Having crystallized his anti-Trinitarian beliefs, he wrote a pamphlet presenting his views. But in August 1708, Cambridge University refused to grant Whiston a license to print this material, as it was deemed to be unorthodox.
In 1710, Whiston was charged with teaching doctrine contrary to Church of England belief. He was found guilty, deprived of his professorship, and banished from Cambridge. However, despite legal proceedings against him, which continued nearly five more years, Whiston was never convicted of heresy.
Although his anti-Trinitarian views were akin to Whiston’s, Newton did not speak out for his friend and eventually ostracized him. In 1754, Newton’s Biblical scholarship exposing the Trinity was finally published—27 years after his death. But that was too late to be of any help to Whiston, who had died two years earlier.
Newton is also considered responsible for debarring Whiston from the prestigious Royal Society. But Whiston was not discouraged. He and his family moved to London, where he founded a Society for Promoting Primitive Christianity. He put all his energies into writing, his most important work to that time being the four volumes of Primitive Christianity Revived.
Controversial to the End
As a scientist, Whiston worked on different ways for mariners to determine longitude at sea. Even though his ideas were not taken up, his persistence eventually led to the development of the marine chronometer. Though many of Whiston’s views on Bible prophecy, like those of his contemporaries, have proved to be inaccurate, he left no stone unturned in his search for truth. His tracts on the orbit of comets and his postulations on the effects of the Deluge of Noah’s day are among the many he wrote to defend both scientific and Biblical truth. Transcending his other writings, however, are those exposing the Trinity doctrine as unscriptural.
True to form, Whiston left the Church of England in 1747. He did so, both literally and figuratively, when he walked out of church as a clergyman began to read the Athanasian Creed. A Religious Encyclopædia says of Whiston: “One must admire the manly openness and truthfulness of his character, the consistency of his life, and the straight-forwardness of his conduct.”
For William Whiston, truth could not be compromised, and personal convictions were more precious than the plaudits and accolades of men. Although controversial, Whiston was an honest scholar who fearlessly championed the Bible as the Word of God.—2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
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