Hi Can you please have someone explain to me what is the difference between the 1888 and 1911 versions of the Great Controversey Books thanks ___________
Dear ___________,
Thank you for contacting the Ellen G. White Estate. The major differences between the two editions both have to do with making the book more effective for non Seventh-day Adventists. Mrs. White asked her helpers to search out statements she had used in the 1888 edition that had been written by other writers but had not been attributed or which were difficult for people to locate. She asked that the references be given and, in cases where equivalent statements were available from books that were more commonly available than those she had originally quoted, these be substituted. The purpose here was to make it easier for the person who might be encountering these things for the first time to satisfy himself that they were true. Not all such materials were given attribution, as Mrs. White indicates in the preface of the book (see the last three paragraphs of it or so). But one purpose of the revision was to make such things more noticeable and accessible.
Another purpose was to remove legitimate cause for complaint by others, especially by Roman Catholics. Certain expressions, while broadly true, could be challenged on narrow grounds. These she determined to change, so that there would be less cause for nitpicking. For example, in the 1888 edition, she had written regarding the pope, "He styles himself, 'Lord God the Pope.'" Evidently Catholics challenged her on this on the grounds that there is no direct papal statement to that effect, though the expression appears in the writings of one or more well-placed Catholic writers. In the 1911 edition, the point was retained but was put in the passive voice: "He has been styled, 'Lord God the Pope.'" With this no one could argue.
She also removed other cause for argument which would only deflect attention from her point. For instance, instead of identifying the bell which tolled to signal the start of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris (just which bell it was had been the subject of some scholarly disagreement), she changed the wording from saying that the signal was "the great bell of the palace, tolling at dead of night" to say merely that "a bell, tolling at the dead of night" had been the signal.
So we find her working to make the book more effective, more powerful, and less subject to "red herring" issues serving as a distraction from its message.
I hope this is useful to you. Let me know if I can be of further service. Thank you for writing, and God bless!
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William Fagal, Director
Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1400 USA
Phone: 616 471-3209
FAX: 616 471-2646
Website: www.WhiteEstate.org or www.egwestate.andrews.edu
E-mail: egw@aubranch.egwestate.andrews.edu
